Finishing What I Started

At the beginning of the year I wanted to read 10 books this year. As I have said in the past, this is task for me is harder than most. I am a slow reader, it's not that I can't comprehend what I'm reading, it's just I read about 15 pages a half hour, I just read slow. So when I made this goal, I kept it realistic, I wanted to do 12, but I thought it might be a little ambitious so I gave my self a little grace room because I knew I'd start a book and put it down and not read for two or three weeks.

Last week, I finally reached my goal of 10 books, some were really good, some OK and a couple I didn't like and here is my book report on all ten books.

Eight Men Out- As a baseball fan I am ashamed to say that I never read this book prior to this year. I've watch the movie, but never read it. For those that do not know, this is the story of the 1919 Chicago White Sox. They were considered one of the best teams of that era, but the players of that time were poorly paid and were pretty much indentured servants. There was no such thing as free agency, who ever signed you, you were forced to play for them till they traded you or let you go. A lot of the key players on that team were approached by gamblers who offered them money in order to throw the World Series. Obviously, they were found out and over the next year they were thrown out of baseball.

The biggest thing I got out of this was how similar the Black Soxs and the current steroid controversy has developed. They always say history repeats itself and from reading Eight Men Out, it does not look good for baseball.

The Old Ball Game- Went back-to-back baseball books to start the year. This is the story of one of the first starts of baseball Christy Mathewson and his coach and also great player John McGraw. The two men were complete opposites, Christy was a college educated Christian, who did not drink nor swear. McGraw was a son of Irish immigrants, and was feared for his tactics on and off the field. He would do just about anything to win. Yet, these two opposites where best friends and helped create baseball as a national past time. The most interesting thing is how dominate Christy was and yet he has become a footnote in baseball and mostly known for figuring out that the 1919 Black Sox were throwing games. His stats as a pitcher were amazing and yet, because he played a hundred years ago, no one knows of him. I have a lot more respect of Christy, McGraw and the New York Giants.

Testament: A Soldiers Story of the Civil War- I already did a post on this book back in May so I won't rehash that, but if you want to click on the title to read what I said back then. This was a great book that gave me insight to how the average soldier when through the Civil War.

If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor- BRUUUUUUUUCE! One of my favorite actors is Bruce Campbell, if you don't know of Bruce, you probably have seen him, yet you never knew it. I learned of him through the great horror/comedy/cult film Bruce Campbell vs the Army of Darkness and from the TV show Brisco County Jr. He has flown under the radar of Hollywood his whole career, yet he has made a living out of it. Chins is his autobiography about his life growing up in Michigan, how he and Sam Ramni (Director of SpiderMan) use to make films as kids and his accent to B movie stardom.

I learn a lot about making movies on a shoe string budget and how hard it is to break into Hollywood. Mr Campbell did a superb job writing this book, I'd say it was the best book of the year. It was entertaining, informative and made me laugh out loud in public at least 4 times. A must read for any horror movie fans or anyone who likes movies.

Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way- I loved Chins, yet I was not as much of a fan of his next book. The biggest part for me was, I missed one key word on the cover.... novel. I was reading this book like it was non-fiction and when he started talking about Sandusky, Ohio I kept thinking, "Wait, I don't remember Sandusky having a Beef Carver Steakhouse?" Then things got absurd and that's when I saw that little word... novel.

It's a fictional story of Bruce Campbell trying to make it in an "A" movie starring Rene Zellweger and Richard Greer. Bruce plays Richard's sage butler, who give him advice on love. Bruce travels the country to find out about what "makes love." By the end of the book he is breaking onto the studio lot, getting arrested and is now a national security threat. I'm not saying this is a bad book, I was just in the mood for learning more about Ole Brucey.

Shadows of Ashland- The Wife and I were in a used book store when I found this one.. and yet again I missed one small word... novel. This is the story of a man who's dying mother is to find her long lost brother who left Toronto during the Great Depression to find work in America. After the mother dies a letter arrives from the brother, dated back in the 30s from Ashland, Kentucky.

I thought great a story that's from the Tri-State. I started reading and it was rally good, until the main character travels back in time to the 30s. That's when I figured out it was a novel. I trudged through this short book and I kind of wished I didn't. This book is not that good, it is some what accurate about Ashland, Ky, it's just to far fetched. I only paid four bucks so I can't complain too much.

Brian Piccolo: A Short Season-I've actually had this book for a few years, but it just sat on my shelf. This was a great book, about a man struggles yet he never lets it get to him. Brian Piccolo was a football player for the Chicago Bears who was diagnosed with cancer just as his career was starting to take off. The biggest thing I took from this was his resilience through his football career. Nobody ever wanted him, in high school he had to show his coaches he could play. After become one of the top high school running backs in Florida, nobody who give him a scholarship till Wake Forest had to. They wanted one of his good friends and he would not sign until they signed Brian. His Senior year he lead the nation in rushing and yet again, nobody wanted him. He went undrafted and was finally signed bu the Bears. He struggles on the prep squad and when he finally got a chance to play the Bears drafted Gayle Sayers. Once Sayers became injured, in comes Piccolo, yet something was wrong, come to find out... it was cancer.

With everything he went through, it never got to him. He never quit, he persevered and did it was a smile. If I could be half the man Brian Piccolo was I would consider myself lucky.

The Minors- This was another used book find and maybe I should stop looking for used books. This was a history of minor league baseball. It was very informative, but it felt like it was writ en as a college text book. I learn alot about how the minors were at times just as good as the majors, but the majors had a stronger base and forced the minors to a lower stature. The biggest problem was that the book was released in 1990 and some of his concept for the minors were off and well, now outdated. At the time Miami, Tampa, Denver and Phoenix did not have major league teams and a lot of his theories about what the minor leagues needed to do to survive revolved around those cities. I just felt like Neil Sullivan just hates the majors and used his book to vent those frustrations.

Grant and Sherman: The Friendship That Won the Civil War- If you can't tell I like sports and Civil War history. When I bought Testament I almost bought Grand and Sherman instead, but I am glad I bought them both. I learned a lot about both men and how the north screwed things up and could have lost the war. For some reason nobody in the army really wanted Grant nor Sherman in command, some of that came from their past (Grant being drummed out for being drunk and Sherman for being crazy), yet they persisted and fought their way through the south and up the ranks till Grant was put in command of all the armies.

The biggest thing I learned was that Sherman was freaking crazy. He had a family history of crazy. In the beginnings of the war Sherman kept thinking the entire Confederate army was in front of him and finally he was relieved of duty and was sent home for 60 days. If it was not for his family connections he may never of had a chance to become the leader he was.

Grant through out the war wasn't to worried about promotions, yet he was driven and knew what had to be done to win the war. Once he was placed in charge of the Army of the Potomac, the men were marching after a victorious win and there was a crossroad ahead, left was to go back north, which the men had taken many a times and feared that was the road they would take again, then there was the road south and once the men headed south they cheered. No longer would they sit and wait, they were taking action. From that point till the battle of Richmond, the Army of the Potomac was always moving.

It was also interesting to learn more about Sherman's march to the see and then through the Carolinas. I did not realize this, but Sherman marched through Raleigh, I kept thinking I live here, he marched through this town, I've driven down the street where he paraded his men.

Biggest Brother-I love the mini-series Band of Brothers and this is the story of their leader Dick Winters. The book mirrors a lot of the book and series but with a little more in site to the man who started out as a lieutenant and ended up a major. Also you learn about what happened to him after the war. I thought it was interesting after he came home, he sat around his parents house for months trying to get use to normal life again. If you have watched the series or read the book Band of Brothers, you need to read Biggest Brother.


I have not stopped reading, I'm hopping to get another book in before January, but it's close to a 600 pages and it maybe the first one finished for next year.

Baby Names

While eating lunch today we were trying to come up with baby names. We have the girl named set, but we are having massive problems just trying to think of a good boy name. Nothing sounds right or The Wife just hates my names, so here is a few rejected/could reconsider names;

• Isaac
• Alex
• Gandolf
• Robert
• Lando
• Nieman
• Dillon
• Jim
• Awesome
• John
• Hambone McGee
• Gibbs
• Dwight
• Micheal

A decent list, but then I came up with a name that currently leads the pack Logan. To be honest it technically breaks one of my rules for a name, can't name a child after a place. I'll make an exception on this one. Then The Wife out smarted me and figured out where I got the name Logan, or should I say WOLVERINE!!!!! Still she is OK with it, till I came up with a middle name, Bruce.

At this moment I know Wilson just spewed Coke Zero all over his monitor and keyboard, because there is only one Bruce. Ole Bruce Campbell and yet The Wife kind of likes the name. I could be in geek heaven here. I even mentioned if it's a girl we could have the middle name be Ashley. She gave me a look of confusion, yet she could tell it was going somewhere. Ashley is Bruce Campbell's character name in Army of Darkness... get it Ash is really Ashley. That didn't fly over as well, but I think I can wear her out.

Then again I am asking for help, I have the feeling once the family reads this that those names will go out the window like Satchel. I am asking for names, leave them in the comments and if you can tell us where the name came from. Remember the front runners are currently Dillion and Logan.

Feeling Old

I know the saying "You are only as old as you feel," but certain things will make you feel old. While working with the reporter who shall be named Hyperactive Pop Culture Loving Reporter or HyPCLoR I mention somethings that made us feel old. These things are items that everyone around our age group knows about here is a small list.

U2's The Joshua Tree was released in 1987... take that in. Where the Streets Have No Name was released 20 years ago! It's almost able to drink!

Pulp Fiction and Forest Gump were released in 1994... making them 13 years old.

Nirvana's Nevermind is 16 years old and has it's driver's licence.

House of Pain's angry white guy rap anthem Jump Around is turning 15.

The sketch comedy show Kids in the Hall was created 19 years ago.

Cult classic and pivotal movie for Bruce Campbell, Bruce Campbell Vs The Army of Darkness is 15. (how does that feel Wilson)

Micah this is for you, Super Mario Brothers was released in 1985... 22 years ago!

That's just the stuff from around high school and earlier. What about things I remember from college.

The movie Se7en is 12 years old.

What about Adam Sandler's movies? The Waterboy is one year away from a decade, Happy Gilmore is 11 (and loves That's So Raven), and Billy Madison is also 12 years old.

The we are women hear us sing Lilith Fair was started 10 years ago.

I wasn't a fan, but Garth Brook's No Fences was released in 1990 making it 17 years old. According to Wikipedia his last gasp of glory was a free concert in Central Park happened almost 10 years ago.

Kevin Smith's black and white art film that was I believe is the lynch pin for most of the post Gen-Xers Clerks is now a teenager at 13, Mallrats is 12 and one of the last times Ben Affleck was considered "talented," Chasing Amy is 10.

I know I am 31 and I am no longer "cool" and the music I like is considered lame by most of the kids today. I remember when my sister Julie would listen to something and I would think, wow that sucks, when I get older I will never listen to crap... I'm going to be cool FOREVER! Well, just like Homer Simpson I am not longer cool. Fortunately, I do not have Color Me Badd rulz tattoo to remind me of my past... I'm looking at you Wilson.

A final stomach punch is Britney Spears' Hit Me Baby One More Time is eight years old. Damn I feel old. If you can think of something that will make me or anyone else feel old post it.

Free Stuff

I was over at the kingdom of King Tom and he had an interesting post. Someone wanted him to review their product. In other words, he was about to get free stuff! I want free stuff! King Tom had written about a turkey cannon and you know what, I'll freaking review it. It's almost Thanksgiving and we might be buying a turkey.

I know the King is wildly more success than this blog, but still come one Aquafina, I've had people coming to my site wondering about your stock. Freaking sponsor me, The Wife loves to buy bottled water, why not give it too us. Mmmm Aquafina is delicious. Hey, I'm not above whoring myself out to the highest Internet bidder that wants to send me stuff. I'm looking at you snuggie and you too Old Spice ad that keeps popping up on facebook. Hey Bruce Campbell, I'll hawk Burn Notice for you, it's not like I've written about you or named my child's middle name after one of your characters. Come on people, send me free stuff so that I can support my child. Huggies, I have your new promotions guy right here. Who am I kidding the King will get that sweet sweet Huggies swag.

Somewhere Levy is Salavating

Today started out like any other day. I feel to lazy to do anything and The Wife has the day off so she feels the same. Then out of the blue I hear "I'm hungry, you know what I want for lunch? It begins with a C." The Wife was wanting Chipotle, if you are not familiar with Chipotle, it is a Mexican Burrito joint that is in one word... AWESOME. In Ohio you could not throw a rock without hitting a Chipotle. In Raleigh, not so much. There is only one and it is a 35 minute drive, and I'm sorry that is 5 minutes too far for a burrito. As fate would have it a new store opened up, and it is only 15 minutes away!

We head that way and upon arriving we see a line out the door. No big deal it is lunch time and Chioptle lines move fast. As we enter we see a manager, "Have you been to Chipotle before." We exclaim that we have and love the place. "We great, you won't need a menu and enjoy your free burrito." DID HE SAY FREE BURRITO? We ask the guy in front of us and it's their grand opening and everything is free. HELL YEAH! I'M GETTING MY BURRITO ON! We get to the front I order my usual burrito, and The Wife gets her burrito bol, that's when my favorite moment happens, well after finding out that the burritos are free. "I'm guessing the Guac is free?" Ask The Wife. "Yes it is, would you like some?" I thought The Wife was going to jump up and down and scream. I'm surprised she didn't ask for a second bowl of nothing but guacamole.

This may sound sad, but I think this will have to go down as one of the greatest 5 moments in my life:

1. Getting married (had to say that)
2. Getting 25 free burritos for The Network
3. Having Coco Crisp interview me as if I was a ball player for the Indians
4. Defeating the Deadites.*
5. Getting a free burrito

It may be sad that I have two things from Chipotle in my top 5, but it's FREE BURRITOS! On our way our we hear the manager say they will be giving away free burritos from 5-7 tonight. Well there does all the hard work I've done on loosing weight... It's a free burrito, so it's worth it. Also I have a feeling Levy is jumping on a plane to Raleigh right now so I may see him in a few hours.

*May have happened in Bruce Campbell verses The Army of Darkness.

What's In A Name

As The Wife and I are now in the second trimester we have been thinking names. As I have mentioned in an earlier post we came up with a girls name, drum roll please, Isabella. That was the easy part, the hard part has been boy names. We have gone over this many times and we have a list;

• Logan
• Dylan
• Brylan
• Satchel

Of course you know what that means... BABY NAME POLL! The last one was a pretty big hit and you know what lets try it again and this is how we came up with each name.

Logan- The Wife mentioned it first and I liked it for completely different reason than hers. WOLVERINE! Now if I can convince the doctor to add adamantium claws we would be set.

Dylan- This was from The Wife, I'm OK with this one, not my fave, but it would be OK.

Brylan- All I know is The Wife came home and was all giddy over the name. I am not a fan, but that's why we are doing this post.

Satchel- This is after the baseball player Satchel Paige. I like baseball and I think it would be a great name.

We have the middle name all picked out... Ash

Ash- I am shocked that The Wife has allowed this one to fly. Let me remind you of the two reasons for this name. First is an homage to the greatest B level actor of all times Bruce Campbell. One of my favorite movies starring Ole Brucey was Army of Darkness and his character name was Ash. Then second is my favorite band happens to be named Ash. It's a powerful name and it is awesome!

That's the list, then of course you have the joke name Englebert. Vote and vote often people.... ROCK THE VOTE!

Random Thoughts

I've not really posted this month and it's not from lack of substance, it's has been a case of bad timing. We went on vacation, had house guests, crazy at work. So to get caught up here are some random thoughts:

VACATION

We had a good six day vacation. It started with The In-laws visiting. To be honest with The In-laws it's a role of the dice. Either it can be a nice visit or we feel worse after they leave. Fortunately for us the dice fell our way and it was a good visit. They were surprised about how nice Fried Chicken Dr was, it almost got the the point I started to wonder if they had thought we had bought a trailer and the the Honda would be on blocks in the front yard and trash and cats would be all over the place. I take The Father-in-law golfing and we had a decent time. I started off with my usual crappy play and he started off well, but somewhere around hole 7 I started to get relaxed and as usual my game improved to a near respectable level. I started to slide back down around hole 15. I had not played 18 holes this year so I was getting a little tired. We talked about life, sports, OSU, family, and our future... the normal stuff. He finished up with an 83 and I whacked a 124... the best this year. We all met up went out to eat and had a good time.

On Thursday we head to Ironton for more golf and shopping. We stayed with my parents till Saturday afternoon and it was much needed. We got some good eats with my dad's spaghetti and it was a good relaxing time. I went to the Ironton Country Club with my dad and he helped fix my golf game. Seems I was about a foot and a half to far from the ball. Of course this one little adjustment lead to me being nearly kicked out of the family. The one family rule about golf is you don't out drive dad (It's not a real rule, but a fun joke rule). Well on the 3rd hole his goal is to get past a mound in the fairway and the past a pine tree if it's a good day... I went beyond that pine and I hit the ball at least 220. I get a nasty look and an X over that hole. By the time we finished I had 8 Xs and two of those had circles meaning my fairway shot was good. I think on the 5th hole it took Dad 3 shots to get past my towering tee shot. Dad finished with an 98 (with two pars and a birdie) and I hit a 113 (two bogeys)! All was forgiven and I was allowed back into the family.

A trip to Ironton would not be complete without a trip to the Government housing of one Wilson. We met up for some wings at the new Buffalo Wild Wings and then head out to the ranger station for a beer and a camp fire in his back yard. If notice he's holding a poster of Smokey the Bear, we used that to start the fire. Irony at it's best!

We spent most of Saturday in the car. We went to Dayton via Columbus. We met up with King Tom, DCZ and Micah at the Cop O' Joe at the Lennox. We had a good time talking about the new Transformer movie and then that lead into Gobots, G.I. Joe, Thunder Cats, He-Man,Star Wars action figures, Which toys we had and the ones we could not have. The worst was the Star Wars rip offs of Battlestar Galactica. I liked the show, but I wanted Luke and Darth Vader not a Starbuck and a Cylon. During the middle of the geek fest The Wife left to go to Target... it was too much for her, but she knew I was having a good time.

We ended Columbus with a trip to see the newest Nephew Carson. I've seen him twice and this was the first time I was allowed to hold him. He's a cute kid and I will have to corrupt him somehow. My goal is to be that cool uncle that lives far away and lets Carson do things mom and dad refuse to let him do.

We end they day and trip with a visit to The Wife's sister's (Kim) house. On Sunday there is a cook out and more family comes and it was a good time. Then we had to head back to the Forest.

WHAT DID I GET MYSELF INTO

A side reason for Dayton was to pick up Kim's kids for a week long trip to Fried Chicken Drive. Two of the kids are 16 and the other is 10. From the picture you can see that we took the Mazda and that my have been a bad move. It was a tight trip that took 4 hours longer than it was suppose to be. We took a side trip to the New River Gorge Bridge and it was not as fun as I hoped. I'll be honest... I am not ready for pre-teens and teenagers. For the majority of the time it was fine, but once they started to annoy one another it was more than I could handle. I never had a time in my life where I looked forward to going to work till this past week. Then Kim came down and the decibel levels jumped off the charts. She is a loud person and gets louder when the kids are around, and if there is a hint of attitude from the kids it gets even louder.

The Wife and I enjoyed the visit, but we are glad to have the house to ourselves again. I actually just sat around one day and did nothing but listen to the silence.

MODERN DAY OF TV NEWS

While I looked forward to work there have been some changes I will not go into the problems, but schedules were changed and the original problem is still sitting there unchanged why three people had their lives rearranged. I've wanted to talk about this multiple times but I always delete the post before I finish.

When did people in news become so soft?

I've only been in news eight years, but it has drastically changed in that time frame. I remember times when I would have a knock down drag out yelling match with producers, reporters or anchors yet at the end of the day it was water under the bridge and you did it all over again the next day. One great example was Reigna, we would fight and argue over stories, but I loved working with her, she even tried to get me to work on The Daily Buzz once she became a producer over there. Now you can't do this and I blame the fact that news has used a business model.

What do I mean? Well instead of worrying about the produce we worry about the bottom line. In the old days before large corporations bought out most of the station in the country it was thought if your product is good then people will watch and you will make money. Now it's make money and worry about the product later. So people are being hired because they are cheap, not talented. Sure they may have enough skill, but they are not ready for that market yet. In the middle markets they are hiring kids right out of college, the problem with that is they are still too raw and don't understand the business, but they are cheap and want to make a name for themselves now instead of earning it. Then you go to the top 40 markets, they higher these kids because they will give them a decent pay raise, but truthfully it's not what a seasoned person is asking for.

Now they think they are on the move and feel like they are entitled to being treated as a big time news person. They have not had to battle there way to get the job and part of me wants to say good for you, but when you get that feeling of entitlement you loose something. The ability to take criticism, most of my complaints are about stories that are being pitched or lack of decision making. Instead of looking at it as the idea is bad it's now, "he doesn't like the idea I pitched so he is not giving me the respect I deserve. I will get him for attacking me." This line of thinking is heavily present in my current and former job. People need to toughen up and realize this.

This is why I think ratings for news is in a downward spiral and no one wants to acknowledge this and once we do, maybe we can get back to worrying about the produce not the money. If you create something people want to see then they will watch it.

GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE

HyCLoR bought a book about dressing like a gentleman and the first thing I thought of was "When do you wear and ascot?" I've always thought ascots were funny and why would you wear one. Well according to the book the only time you can were one is when you are wearing a velvet smoking jacket and embroidered slippers. Also noted in the book was the only time you can wear a velvet smoking jacket is when you entertain a black tie even. Then a side note of if you do wear a velvet smoking jacket your friends may consider you eccentric. Then I got to thinking who would I know that would wear a smoking jacket? If I did know someone I could call them out on it. Unless you are Bruce Campbell and you are in an Old Spice commercial PUT THE VELVET SMOKING JACKET AWAY!

SWEAT
It's still freaking hot out and only getting warmer. This past Thursday I was sent to Durham for a follow up to a shooting. I know Durham... shooting? NEVER! Well there were two and the police called a community walk through to see if they could get a lead. Well it followed a few officers and the next thing you know I am soaked. We wrap up and I get in a cool live truck. We run to our live location and then I have to get out and do it all over again. I do not think I have sweet so much for a story. I'm not looking forward to August.