James Carville's rage...

I recommend reading James Carville's Rage by Ruben Navarrette. I also recommend watching what Carville said on Good Morning America since it's referenced as a part of the article:

Xbox versus Sega

My youngest daughter's boyfriend has been staying with us since before Christmas since his living situation with his mother was not one that was working out. One of the things he brought with him was his xbox 360. It's pretty interesting how advanced gaming has gotten but the other day when he and my daughter were bored they discovered our old Sega game system in the garage. They've been playing Sonic for a few days now, it's funny to watch them entertained a game that to them is simple but at the time? Seemed pretty amazing as far as game technology...

Apparently she did not inherit my luck...

I am not a lucky person when it comes to contests and drawings, my biggest "win" goes all the way back to when I was five years old and I won a coloring contest in the local newspaper where the prize was a Koolaid tent...My middle child appears to not have inherited my lack of a winning streak. Recently she won a 52 inch television set from a drawing held at her job, which not only created discussion which plasma mounts she should use for the brick wall they wanted to place it on, but some moments of envy. Though I did suggest to her that a 52 inch television set would be a heck of a gift...She didn't buy that.

:-)

Another funny thing about Mafia Wars

You'd think that most of those who play Mafia wars are men, right? Yet I've been surprised by the large number of women who play. The game design, including even the collections that you have to seek out are male inspired, to the point where I see an ad for Davidoff cigars and think about the game since that's a common prize and a collection.

There even appears to be a mafia family or two that's made up completely of women, I experienced this first hand last night when I killed one, and then was attacked by a hoard of female mafia members, a few of which took issue with me "icing" them and put out a few mafia hits on me. Which I always find funny since the whole point of the game is to make money and build points. But? If they want to waste their money on paying someone to kill my online character? Someone will definitely take advantage of it. My longest survival time on a hit list has been 4 minutes and 30 seconds.

:-)

Sometimes I get tired of politics...

Last week I was fighting this virus/cold/flu whatever it is bug that's gone through some of my family and friends, I also was going through one of those periods where I was really tired of politics. It seems as if it's a never ending circle at times where so little is accomplished and so much is unnecessary. So, I could have focused on the latest hot discussion in my house as to where to buy weight loss pills, which considering I had little appetite, wasn't appetizing...Or? I could have let myself get lured into Facebook games, something I had avoided.

It started out so simply, one of my daughter's telling me she needed my help in Sorority Life because she didn't have enough "house members" and was constantly getting beaten up by other sorority houses. All I had to do was join she said, I didn't have to play. So, after being harassed/begged/pleaded with I joined and named my character "ErinForcedMe" -- then I started playing. The downside is not that it's not fun, it is fun, but the energy given is really low, personally I think it's designed to make you either pay for more energy to complete the levels, or to do those silly click ad things where you have to go through 25 pages of junk clicking "no" "No" "NO" as well as to promote you playing other games while you are waiting so you can be tempted to buy more energy points or click on the silly click ads...

I have however discovered that it is fun to "ice" or "whack" people in Mafia Wars, much to the surprise of some of my family and friends...

DTV or no DTV that is the question...

So, the House changes their minds and they vote to delay the digitial transition until June 12th, which ends up meaning basically zilch because tv stations can switch in February anyway. Which doesn't address the coupon or the money aspect of that which was supposedly the problem.

Which all was created because the federal government wanted to make money by selling the analog frequencies to cell phone providers and they don't care if millions of Americans have no access to public television or the Emergency Broacast system. Which means that whole "in case of an emergency please tune to" is not a valid system. Imagine if tomorrow all radio stations had to be satellite and the only way you could hear a radio station was to have to buy a new car radio.

That's probably next, and this will force people into either buying new tv's with digital tuners which will add to our growing landfills as we through away perfectly good televisions, or be faced with crappy converters that don't provide as good of a picture as was out there before even with the new "digital" or you'll be forced to get cable or satellite tv, and if you live in a rural area? Sorry about your luck...

I still haven't heard on my "appeal" on the whole expired coupon deal, perhaps by the time they finally figure that one out, they'll have more money for coupons.

:-)

Someone wants to hire Rod Blagojevich

This in today from my newswire that I subscribe to:



NASHVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- TNA Wrestling is offering the newly created position of Chairman for its Main Event Mafia faction -- and the opportunity to openly sell chairs, steel chairs -- to ousted Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich.

TNA officials confirmed today that Blagojevich, who was impeached by the Illinois Senate on January 29, is being offered the "Chairman" job within its Main Event Mafia faction, an elite unit which includes U.S. Olympic Gold Medal winner Kurt Angle, former World Heavyweight Champions Kevin Nash, Booker T., and Scott Steiner, and reigning TNA Wrestling World Heavyweight Champion Sting.

Blagojevich was arrested on criminal charges on December 9, 2008, for conspiring to sell the senate seat vacated by then-President Elect Barack Obama to the highest bidder, but Angle truly believes in the American justice system.

"He's innocent until proven guilty," Angle said. "As the leader of the Main Event Mafia, I am a huge fan of the Illinois style of politics. As such, Governor Blagojevich is welcome to join me and the entire Main Event Mafia at any and all TNA events in the future, and certainly is welcome to sell his seat with us should he choose not to accept our generous offer."

Blagojevich is a former amateur boxer, so Angle is convinced Blagojevich, "easily will be able to handle the transition to pro wrestling," Angle said.

The Illinois House of Representatives voted in favor of impeachment by an astounding margin of 114-1. The Illinois Senate voted 59-0 to remove him as governor, and passed legislation to prevent him from returning to office in the future.

Cross The Line to TNA Wrestling, the most innovative experience in professional wrestling. The superstars of "TNA iMPACT!" can be seen every Thursday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Spike TV and more than 110 countries worldwide.

TNA Entertainment, LLC is a privately-held company headquartered in Nashville, Tenn.

Spike TV is available in over 96 million homes and is a division of Viacom International Inc.

Cross The Line at www.tnawrestling.com.

New games equal need for more computer memory...

I cringe inwardly when one of my bunch finds a new computer game they want to try, because I know chances are my computer is going to be the "only" one that this game will play well on since I have the newer computer. Now that I have a laptop it's not as bad as it was before to have to attempt to kick my youngest daughter off of my computer to be able to finish work. Though, I'd much rather work on my pc than the laptop.

Unfortunately her older computer, can't be upgraded anymore without going into buying a new video card and other upgrades. In other cases though, sometimes you can buy computer memory and that will create the ability to play some of the newer games out there. The opposite can also happen, as in the case of some of their older games that are favorites, they can only play them on the computer that still has XP, the ones that have Vista don't cooperate with the game no matter how many "fixes" are attempted.

I always recommend doing some research on what the basic computer requirements are to play a game before you purchase it. If whatever computer is going to be used is the minimum? Chances are you will have a less than satisfactory game experience, the more above the minimum requirements you have, the better the game play.

We don't live in our living room...

I wondered where the name "living room" came from, supposedly it stems from the Latin word "Lounge" and in some countries it's called a "lounge" as opposed to a living room, which would actually make more sense since very few of us actually "live" in our "living rooms." Ironically in our house we use the living room less than any other room, in part because my husband has his surround sound system in our bedroom so that's where most of the movies are typically watched. At times by our daughters and at times by all of us, some on the bed, some at the computer chairs in the room.

Our living room is small in this house, but I have wondered at times what it would be like to have a larger one, where you could have some type of a home theater seating arrangement. What made me start pondering this so late at night? Trying to get into bed earlier and having to brush crumbs from my side of the bed left by my youngest who evidently enjoyed some chips while she was watching movies earlier...

Is it too early to start thinking roller coasters and water parks?

Living here in NWO we are lucky to have some places where we can go for water park and roller coaster fun. Since we did not get to make the whole family trip out to the East Coast this year, and the summer season is pretty much almost over, when I started looking at some of the New Jersey water parks it looked like that might be a fun thing to plan on the way back from New London next year. As long as there are no more bear versus car encounters...

Since I know a few of you who read here, live in or not far from New Jersey, there would be plenty of time to be able to see if you have taken a family beach vacation like the ones offered on Morey's Piers. Some of the hotels look almost as if they could belong in the Bahamas and it looks like Morey's Piers would be a great place for a New Jersey vacation.

I'm personally more of a roller coaster person and with the three different amusement parks all in one area, it looks like Adventure Pier would be the one that would most appeal to me. I really enjoyed the interactive tour feature that the website had. I could spend quite a bit of time at the website checking out all of the different options, and I got a chance to see more about the "Great White" roller coaster, that one looks like it would be a must. Another plus? You can turn the music off on the website which I appreciate.

The pricing was reasonable as well, especially when compared to some of the similar theme or water parks out here.

Palin/Clinton SNL

By now you've probably seen it but if you haven't? Here it is:



Though this one is still my favorite:

Cable versus Direct TV ad wars

If you watch any amount of television chances are you are going to see quite a few ads by the various dish companies out there like Direct TV and then some by your local cable company. With the death of the old fashioned "free" television that you could pick up with regular rabbit ears it's going to be interesting to see how this affects the number of subscribers for both cable and satellite television.

There are advantages to directtv over cable, especially if you are a sports fan. Satellite has done a better job in securing exclusives though in some areas cable is trying to compete when it comes to providing more sports coverage. Most of the NFL fans I know have directv due to their additional programming.

The one downside to satellite here in Toledo, is the one local government channel that I use to watch and record City Council meetings is only available on cable. Which I think is unfortunate because it leaves all of those who do have regular antenna or satellite television unable to watch the programming. In theory the City is supposed to stream/save City Council meetings on their website, but until that day happens, a large segment of the population does not have access to what is touted as a "community" channel.

Will it turn out to be bigfoot or a big hoax?

That's the question we are left with when you read Body proves Bigfoot no myth, hunters say. There's a photo but it looks like someone wearing a bad gorilla suit. Yet according to:

Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer, a pair of Bigfoot-hunting hobbyists from north Georgia, say they found the creature's body in a wooded area and spotted several similar creatures that were still alive.

I guess it's creating quite a stir, and according to Fox News the pair are getting death threats from "Sasquatch fanatics" who'd you think would be happy if it is proven true. Unless they are mad because they too see too much resemblance to this Halloween costum.



So let's compare!

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Reserve spokesman Tom Mackenzie told the Associated Press his agency isn't taking the claim seriously and won't investigate.

"It's not on endangered species on any list that we've got," he said.

Hoax or not, Tom Biscardi, a Bigfoot “expert” who has inspected the carcass and claims that it is genuine, has a financial interest in the myth, selling Bigfoot merchandise from his website and it appears he's having a very good few days.

:-)

Of Oddies & Hookahs...

Many of us have seen a hookah and not even known it, that is those of us who have either read or watched Alice in Wonderland, where the catepillar smokes a Hookah.

For those of us who have heard the Jefferson Airplane song, "White Rabbit" the hookah gets a mention there as well:

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you're going to fall
Tell them a hookah smoking caterpillar has given you the call
Call Alice
When she was just small

Many people associate smoking a hookah with smoking a substance that will get them high but the reality is in many places, that's not what smoking a hookah is about, they smoke legal tobacco products. It's felt to be a relaxing experience and there are actually hookah bars out there. One of my daughters owns one, she and her older sisters have talked me into trying it a time or two, and for me while I'm not overly fond of the fruit flavors that they seem to prefer it is different than smoking a cigarette or even from my old days long ago, other smoking devices.

With the internet and websites like International Oddities you can order hookahs and other smoking related items online. Which if you don't happen to have a store selling middle eastern type products chances are finding a hookah could be a bit difficult. Having gone to some of the local places where I live that sell hookahs, the prices that International Oddities has for their hookahs are a good deal.

Games online for Macs

We do have one Mac computer at home and it is not often that there is a site that is specifically created to give information for Mac users to play games online. At least not at the level that Mac Poker provides. Not only is the website very user friendly for users of the Mac (and even those who have those "other" pcs) but the amount of information provided is pretty stellar. From the front page where updates and other information is listed to reviews of places to play Mac Poker that are rated so you know which ones you might like to try first.

Then, there are ways for you to get a Poker Bonus which makes playing even better when you can get an additional bonus. There are also featured games, such as Fulltilt Poker with more reviews, bonuses and this particular game is Windows and Mac friendly which means if you have a household like ours, I could play online downstairs while my husband plays online upstairs. I personally enjoy reading the Poker Strategy Forum, I've learned some really great tips there and I highly recommend it for beginners. It's obvious the creator of this website spent quite a bit of time putting all of these resources in one spot and while the site does cater to Mac users, anyone can make use of some of the great features of the website.

No Vegas in your future? Well there are online casinos...

Don't have the time or the means to travel to Las Vegas or some other location to gamble? Well you can right from your home and your computer play at an online casino. When you visit a site like 32Vegas the first thing you'll notice is the graphics are done in a way to give you the feel that you are in a real casino. The format is set up to be very user friendly with a variety of casino games like Black Jack, Roulette and even Dice. Something that I immediately noticed is that they give you the option of either downloading the software to play the games on to your computer or select the flash version which does not require a download. I know many people prefer not to download anything on to their computer, so this is a high plus for this particular gaming site.

Video Poker is a popular game whether in a vegas casino or online, and 32Vegas offers video poker with the ability to "bring a buddy" with you. When you have a friend sign up to play too they credit your account a bonus so not only can you both have fun but you'll feel as if you were an instant winner. The site is designed for many different country and languages, and you'll want to make sure you check out their page on promotions. Another nice thing about this particular gaming site is that you can play for fun or for money or if you want to eventually play for money but want to practice a bit first? That's very easy to do. They make their instructions on how to get started very easy to follow and provide pictures as well as text so that even the most novice computer user should be easily able to navigate their website.

Charter's "Win a Wii" Sweepstakes & High-Speed® Internet for Life promotions

If you live in a area of the US where you are eligible for service from Charter Communications they have two neat promotions you might be interested in. If you aren't sure if you are in a Charter Communications service area, it's easy to find out online when you first Click Here for a Chance to Win a Nintendo® Wii™! if you live in a Charter Service area. One lucky winner will get a Nintendo Wii Console, Wii Stand, 1 Remote Controller, 1 Nunchuk Controller, 1 Sensor Bar, 1 Wii AC Adapter, 1 Wii AV Cable. The winner will also get 5 Sports games, so they will be ready to play if they win. The winning entry will be picked on March 31st for this promotional contest, you can submit one email entry per address until March 26th. There is also a mail in entry option for this promotion.

There is also a second Charter promotion where you can bid on getting Charter High-Speed® Internet for Life. The bidding starts at $10 tomorrow with no reserve and the bidding will end on March 26th. That winner will receive the highest level of Charter-High Speed Service in Market for Life, a Gateway Modem and free installation. You do have to be pre-registered to bid, which you can easily do online and as the above promotion, you have to live in a Charter Service area to be able to bid.

You can enter for one or both of these offers online and you can read all of the complete details and rules on both the Auction and the Sweepstakes at connect.charter.com/ForLife.

Movie posters and memories...

I remember when my husband first moved in with us and he was really into collecting rare movie posters, he had this huge poster from the movie "Scarface" that took up almost one whole wall of our bedroom. I felt as if I was living in Al Pacino land...Eventually a more decorative style took over, but if we ever had a den, I'm sure that some of these items would reappear...

Get game cheats and more...

Visiting SpeedyPete is not for the timid or the meek, he tells it like he sees it along with having contests and information on how to get Free Videos Games he sprinkles his website with some colorful and opinionated thoughts on some of the most popular games out there.

I've found his Video Game Review posts at times to be almost as entertaining as the actual games he writes about are. Maybe it's because I'm also a fan of Gold Miner and not into Halo 3. His site, Free Video Game Stuff is also a great place to learn game cheats, hints and walk throughs. From the latest in new xbox 360 video game releases to the popular flash games you can play online, SpeedyPete will tell you exactly what he thinks and you might just end up spending hours of enjoyment or avoiding buying a game and saving yourself a less than enjoyable gaming experience after you've read his website.

Due to jail over crowding Michelle Rodriguez released...

Former "Lost" star Michelle Rodriguez has once again been released early from jail due to over crowding conditions at a women's prison in Los Angeles only serving 18 days of a 180-day sentence for violating probation in a drunken driving case. My husband is a fan of the show and has followed Rodriguez's career from her earlier star days to her drug rehabilitation days and now to her jail days...

I enjoyed her role in "The fast and the furious"...