Get in where you fit in

I have to tell you interwebs, the last few months have been complete insanity. Just to recap: Hot Mary and myself bought a house, had to maintain said house, Mary's been dealing with both taking masters courses and teaching at SU, I've gone through the most grueling work schedule of my life as we switch over to a new accounting system, we got married, Mary was maid of honor in a wedding, i was best man in a wedding, Mary was also involved in 2 other weddings, and our families have had hosts of birthdays, events, and goings-ons.



It has been crazy.



However, with my good friend, mutual best man, and life-partner, Casey, having his wedding last weekend, Mary and I are now able to forget about wedding-stuff and get back to regular life. Sure, the holidays are right around the corner and work is still extremely demanding, but we've successfully made it through the gauntlet.



That being said, I can honestly say that weddings are a blast. There is the downside of having to put on pants and ties and all that shit but I don't know if there are too many things much more fun than seeing people you rarely get the chance to hang with, getting drunk with complete strangers, dancing with a special lady, and just generally having a celebration. And the food is typically awesome as well.



So just this past weekend I had the honor of being the best man for my good buddy Casey and I had a terrific time. Some good people that I haven't seen in forever came in from out-of-town which was cool. The rehearsal dinner was at DBQ where I ate a stupid amount of pork. I understand that Dinosaur gets a lot of hype and the food is definitely worth it, but I really hate going there. You typically have to wait for an hour and a half and there is usually no waiting room. You either stand outside and freeze or go inside and have some dudes nuts on your hip while you wait. Good times. However, for this occasion they had the banquet room rented out and it took away all of that bad nonsense. Open bar: good, no waiting: good, bbq meats: good, not stuffy and crowded: good.



The wedding itself was short and sweet and it was a definite relief to not be the nervous groom. A quick photo session followed and then the limo whisked us away for a quick trip to Colemans for a bridal party shot of Jameson and more pictures.



I have to tell you, leading up to this event I was nervous as hell over having to give a best man speech. I do not do well talking. I do especially not well when talking in front of large groups of people. All the advice I saw online was not to get too drunk or I'd end up making an ass of myself. So, quite honestly, I tried my best not to. However, it was obvious that I was sneakily getting drunk: 2 beers before the ceremony, beer and champagne on the way to Colemans, shot of Jameson at the bar, more champagne on the way to the reception spot. At that point I was arriving at a location with a fantastic open bar with a belly full of liquid heaven and riding high.



Long story short I got drunk.



Beers, scotches, whiskeys, and tequillas (blah) were all going down the hatch. And you know what? The speech went great. People laughed at just about everything (except the one joke I thought would be the winner, go figure) and I was getting congratulated all night long. I really did not like the experience though. I'm definitely not the type of guy who enjoys ripping on people and to do so with a microphone in my hand makes me feel even more guilty. I don't think Casey was mad so that's good. However, he shouldn't be considering his speech for me consisted of blasting me for being a "short, sweaty, italian". Hehe, it's funny because it's true.



So, from that point on the night got fuzzy. It became a whirlwind of dancing with Mary, throwing down scotch, and eating chicken. I'm pretty sure I booed at fellow groomsman and brother of groom, Cory, more than was necessary but that's just one of the many obnoxious things that I do.



And that's how the wedding season came to an end. It's kind of funny, that whole wedding story was not at all what this post was supposed to be about. The real story is how I will now have a little more time on my hands and Fallout New Vegas comes out today and I am now completely perplexed with how to prioritize my video game playing.



Here is my current video game situation:

Fallout New Vegas-Did I mention that it came out today? I got it through Steam yesterday and preloaded it last night so that I could play it before work this morning. My thoughts so far? Well, so far it is very similar to Fallout 3. That is both good and bad. It's good because Fallout 3 is in my top 10 for games. It's bad because it doesn't quite bring that "wow" factor that I got from playing 3. Either way, it's mine and I plan on playing it as much as I can because I still have not caught up on games that I've been working on for years.

Fallout 3-Well... I beat the game, so why am I still playing it? A better question is: I originally obtained the game and all of its downloadable content and completed all of it for... umm... free, so why did I then go and buy it all again only a couple weeks ago? Well, it was on sale through Steam while they were promoting New Vegas, and I really liked it. That's the joy of a lot of the games that I dig. They're highly replayable. So now I have two Fallout games on my comp and both are huge games with much room to explore and alot of mods from the community.

League of Legends-Oh I am hooked on this little piece of work. So this game is a free-to-play online game that is built off of some online map thing that was popular with World of Warcraft III. The gist is this: you and a few other anonymous souls get online, choose from a roster of about 60 "champions" and battle on a map against a few other anonymous enemies. It's a little RPG, a little RTS, and a lot of fun. I've been playing a couple rounds of that per day for about a month now. Can't say that I pwn n00bs the way some hardcore gamers may do, but I hold my own. You can spend actual money to purchase champions that you can have access to every week (they rotate 10 champions each week that everyone can choose from) or to gain skins or buffs but you also earn points through your matches to do the same thing. At this point I have picked up a couple favorites. My most favorite at this point and the one guy I purchased is a guy named Heimerdinger. He is a bit different from most of the other champions in that his main power lies in using turrets that he can construct. Not an overly offensive unit but you can often catch overextended guys and make 'em pay. My next favorite is probably this little minx named Morgana who is excellent at bringing down waves of minions and has some terrific abilities that can gank opposing champions. I haven't bought her yet because she seems to be free every other week so far. We'll see. So anyway, this stupid game has sucked away a big chunk of my life lately.

Company of Heroes-Well I used to play this game a lot a few years ago and it was easily one of my favorites. There's a certain point in the campaign where I stopped having fun so I stopped playing it. However, it was recently on sale on Steam (Steam is the devil by the way) so I picked it up and started playing it again. All I can say is that the graphics are really dated. Still a very good game, I just probably shouldn't have bought it considering I am not a big RTS guy.

So those are the four games I have been playing lately. Sitting in the back of my mind at almost all times though would be the RPGs that I need to get to:Oblivion, Neverwinter Nights 2, and Dragon Age. All 3 of these are considered some of the best RPGs to ever exist and Id hate to just have them sit there and collect dust.

Now the obligatory list of games that I am in the middle of: Torchlight, Team Fortress 2, Civ 4 (Civ 5 is out too!!!), Crysis, Halo 2, FEAR, Kings Bounty, Battlefield Heroes....

Sigh...

I don't even want to think about what will happen when I have a kid.

So that's it for now. I have a bunch of stuff bouncing around my brain that I have neglected to talk about in this blog. You poor people (haha) have been denied the oppurtunity to hear about all the crap that I think about. Stuff like: how awful my fantasy baseball team was and what I should have done to fix it, the already-in-progress fantasy football and hockey seasons which i will win, my own wedding, my trip to colombia to propose, our honeymoon in Maui, other weddings, sandwiches, the Redskins, the Yankees (boo to cliff lee), stupid shit that has been said by idiots (Rush/Beck/O'Reilly/Hannity) who inspire bigger idiots, the absolute hilarity of the candidates taking over the GOP and how retarded Republican voters are for thinking they are viable (Christine O'Donnell? Really?), the failures and successes of Democrats, and the fact that I am going to try to grow a beard. Oh yeah, and my personal favorite, the shrill rantings of Sarah Palin.

Keep it real kids.

Easter surprise in DC

This weekend was certainly an interesting one. A wave of record breaking temperatures (so, for those keeping score, on Friday and Saturday global warming was true) led the city of Syracuse to launch in to full-on celebration mode. This involved a lot of people leaving work early on Friday and, most importantly, going outside to drink rather than inside. There's a big difference there. The Hot Mary had a couple of out-of-town ladyfriends come to visit and so a visit to the local over-hyped watering hole was in order. The following day, while still recovering from the previous evening's menu of PBR and jagerbombs, good buddy Matt had some people over for some grillin' , drinkin', and horseshoin'. Good times were had by all! Things started to slow down until Matt suggested beer pong. I don't think I won. At all. Whatever.

On to Easter. The Hot Mary and I decided to try and cram in the double Easter family dinner combo and managed to pull it off well enough. There's not too many things quite as difficult as finding the inner resolve to restrain yourself when mashed potatoes are in abundance. Even more difficult is having to do so twice. But it was good seeing various family members and eating food. All i knew is that I had to be back in time for the opening day match up of Yanks vs Sawx.

The game was meh. Even when the Yankees were winning. What I hate the most about these two teams meeting up is the length of the game. I remember at one point that it was only the 6th friggin inning and it was about 11:00. That's right, three hours to play two-thirds of a game. That's insane.

Anywho, here we have opening day featuring my favorite team locked in a prime time match up in perhaps the greatest sports rivalry ever and we also have the day that Jesus came back to life after dying for our sins and all of it was overshadowed by the prima donas of the entire sports world: the Washington Redskins.

It first came up as I was perusing Facebook and I saw a post by someone saying that Donovan McNabb had been traded. I knew this was coming. On saturday I was asking some Eagles fans what they thought of the rumors that their team was shopping the face of the franchise after years of being under appreciated despite the fact that he has had turds lining up at wide receiver year after year. I had no idea that the 'Skins were in the running.

So I hopped on over to ESPN to read that McNabb had been traded to the Redskins.

I still am not quite sure what to think. On the bright side, for a player with the resume that McNabb has, it seems like they got him relatively cheap. On the other hand, it seems like more bad decisions made by the Redskins. I have no idea if this was a Snyder move or Shanahan. It's a shame that Jason Campbell will most likely be spending his Sundays holding a clipboard, but he was given every opportunity to impress the coaching staff.

The Shanahan era is already shaping up to be quite different from anything we've had in the past few years. The biggest change has just occurred with the acquisition of McNabb. They also now have an odd three-headed monster at running back with Portis, Larry Johnson, and Willie Parker. Then there's this business about converting to the 3-4 defense. I'm not quite sure what the new season will bring but it will definitely be different. Sometimes change is good, sometimes it's very very bad.

My stance still remains, however. If the Redskins do not select an offensive lineman in the first round of the upcoming draft, I will boycott them this year. I've said it repeatedly: it does not matter who their quarterback is if he doesn't have blocking. Perhaps this move was in an effort to ensure that they could draft a lineman. That I can get on board. However, despite the fact that there is a new coach in town, it is still Snyders team. I'll need to see proof that it isn't before I believe it.

As for Kolb, the new starting quarterback in Philly, I give him 3 weeks before Philly fans start chucking batteries at him.

Das Boot!

Ever see that movie "Beerfest" where the boys have to learn the secret of drinking beer out of a glass boot? That shit is real. I had the pleasure of hanging out at Wolff's Biergarten this past weekend on my whirlwind tour of I-90.

The Hot Mary and I shot out to Albany for a quickie visit as one of Mary's friends was having her 24th birthday. So, after my first taste of sushi and some pregame beverages at her apartment, we all went to Wolff's establishment for her free birthday boot.

The thing was huge, and it took four of us to polish it off but at one point I took a drink and as I righted the boot I see beer geyser-ing right back at my face. Luckily, it wasn't quite as dramatic as in the movie but it was undoubtedly true that you must employ some sort of twisty technique in order to drink it properly. I spent the rest of my time trying to figure it out but it never really worked.

Pain is only temporary!!!

In light of the fact that I lost none of the weight that I planned on losing in time for neither an old high school friends wedding or my upcoming engagement pictures, I've decided to at least make a solid effort on slimming down in time for my wedding. That gives me about 7 or 8 months to stop being a fat ass. I don't think I'm huge but this body fat calculator tells me I'm obese. What a crock of shit. So here it goes. I've made several firm decisions to stop eating so much and exercise more but I almost always lose focus and help myself to some more cheese. You know why? Because cheese if fucking delicious. Anywho, I thought maybe if I put this in a blog it would help me focus better. Let's see how it goes.

Dos Aguila Por Favor!!!

At some point I want to put up a post detailing the best week of my life. In April 2009 I visited my then-girlfriend/now-fiance in the country of Colombia where she was teaching on a Fulbright scholarship at a university in the city of Medellin. It was my first real time out of the states (Canada and Cancun do not count) and it was amazing.

The country is gorgeous, the people are friendly, I turned 30, and we got engaged. It's a shame that the country suffers from such a bad reputation but, on the other hand, fear of drug lords and murder keep the number of wandering gringo at a minimum. My only wish is that I had taken more pictures. I guess that means I will just have to go back someday...

Idiot!

On another somewhat-related Palin note, I was going through some old magazines and came across the recent Time 100 Most Influential People issue and saw the entry for Sarah Palin, written by Ann Coulter.

I hate Ann Coulter. I don't even know her, but I know I hate her. She might be a delightful human being in person and it's just her on-TV persona which is a vile, nasty, hateful, little troll. Just the titles of her books are enough to make me want to slap her in the dick. There are only a handful of people in this world that I can seriously say would make the world a better place if they would go ahead and die, and she makes it on the short list.

Now that I've set that up properly I can go on. Her entry about Sarah Palin was innocent enough until she decides to take you for a trip down crazy person lane with this one: "Palin is a threat to liberals because she believes in God and country and family- all values liberal pretend to believe in but secretly detest".

What the fuck???

Bear in mind that Ann Coulter is credited with doing things like "exposing liberal hypocrisy" or being "refreshingly politically incorrect". One reviewer of her books says she is "intelligent, thoughtful, and articulate".

I just have a hard time deciding if she is serious or doing all of this as a ploy to get paid. I can't see how anyone who takes politics seriously and considers themselves a somewhat intelligent person can read that statement about Sarah Palin and liberals and think to themselves, "what an intelligent, thoughtful and articulate statement!".

Here's what's wrong with it:

• Argument from fallacy
• Bare assertion fallacy
• Blanket statement
• Argument from repetition
• Generalization

Essentially, I am trying to use terms used in the proper art of debate to refute an asinine comment, which only begs the question:

Who's the bigger idiot, Ann or myself?

Have a good weekend. I'm hoping to get drunk. Slap hands!