A 'lil HooHaa

Last night with a rare Sunday off, me and a couple of friends got the annual WWE Pay-Per-View, The Royal Rumble. I’m not as big of a wrestling fan as I once was, but I do still like it. I record RAW every week, attempt to watch the major WWE pay-per-views and the occassional RAW PPV. I ignore Smackdown and their pay-per-views and usually when they are on the dual PPVs, I have no clue who some of their guys are.

I used to be so into it where I read the sheets and the websites looking for what was going to happen etc. Not any more as I take it more like a male soap opera and actually like to be surprised at what is going on.

I know most people on this board aren’t wrestling fans or those that somewhat like wrestling, were former fans back when Hogan was king and the superstars larger-than-life.

As for me, personally, I like the new stuff. I like that there is more emphasis on good, solid promos, interviews, acts, etc. I like to laugh, I like the drama and I like that they don’t force it down your throat that it is indeed real.

But of the WWE “majors,” The Royal Rumble was always one of my favorites. I saw it live in 1992 when “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair (Woooooooooooo) won the Rumble and the WWE title. I remember the original on USA (the one the WWE doesn’t count) when “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan (Hoooooooooooo!) won it.

Last night, however, was irritating. Seeing someone like Rey Misterio, who weighs like 175 soaking wet, win the damn thing was frustrating. The word is they’ll end up putting one of the heavyweight titles on him, which is outright stupid.

The Rumble itself was solid, I thought. Decent other matches, a couple good endings (including Cena winning the WWE title back) and it wasn’t a bad watch. Still annoys me with Misterio, however.

But while I was talking to one friend about the Rumble, I realize I’ve seen, over time, some pretty cool things in regard to wrestling (live that is). As well as had some pretty cool experiences. I don’t see wrestling as much live as we used to (we used to travel to Binghamton, Albany, Utica and all to watch it when it came around). When we went to the WWE PPV in Albany three weeks ago, it was the first time I’ve been in probably three years.

So I decided I was going to put together a list of 10 or so cool things I remember off the top of my head from being at a live wrestling event. These are in no particular order.

— WWE Superstars taping in Delhi, 1993: The whole day was sweet. I was a student at the college, knew the guy bringing them, so got to watch. On that day, I chatted with Shawn Michaels, chatted in depth with Ray Rougeau and Bob Backlund, was suplexed in the ring by a friend, and got to shake hands and meet Vince McMahon. Pretty solid overall day. We also had front-row seats and got on TV a bunch. And made Tatanka nearly stop his dance when we chanting against him.

— At the first WWE event in Delhi (I think 87 or so), we got to see Owen Hart’s second match in the WWF (then the Blue Angel before Blue Blazer) and also got a flag from one of the Rougeau’s during their “All-American Boys” persona.

— One TV taping in Binghamton, I grabbed one of those frisbees “Leaping” Lanny Poffo used to fire out into the crowd. Also in Binghamton when I was a senior in high school, we took the foreign exchange student from Denmark to see Hogan. That was a trip.

— At one RAW taping in Albany, we noticed they didn’t have the ramp set up. Didn’t know why. Eventually we found out. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin drove a beer truck out and sprayed McMahon. Good times.

— Another RAW in Albany, X-Pac shockingly returned to the WWE (day after Wrestlemania) and had some pretty candid comments for the WCW people he just left. Crowd was going nuts.

— Royal Rumble ’92. Flair wins the Rumble and belt, Sid crosses Hogan and Roddy Piper wins the intercontinental title. Good times. And got stuck drinking PBR on the way home. Blech.

— At several ECW shows I attended, we saw some cool things. We saw the tag belts change hands once or twice, saw Tommy Dreamer take a fall down a large set of bleachers and witnessed an anything goes match that spilled OUTSIDE the arena and then back in. With most of the crowd following them.

— At A RAW we went to in State College when I went to school in Pennsylvania, we saw the first RAW/Smackdown draft, which was pretty cool.

That’s all I can remember right now. I’m sure there’s one or two more decent items. And for most of you, I doubt you care if you’re not a wrestling fans. But still some pretty neat times. If I think of anything else, I may add them.

I’ve never claimed to be a computer guru — not by any means.

But I’d love to have some extra confidence when doing some bigger things with my website. Namely, the portal I’m looking to use.

The idea of a portal, for those that don’t know, is a front page of my website which will allow me to integrate the forum, gallery and blog. Therefore, some of my friends or family who don’t want to say, register and post for the gallery, would be able to register at the portal and use the gallery and/or blog.

The bottom line is my website is a personal site, so I may as well build it up a little differently. There’s no need to have all the photos on the main site when I’m putting them in my gallery. Truthfully, there’s not a ton of other things on my main site that aren’t intermingled with my gallery/forum/blog — so I might as well have things become integrated.

I’ve found a portal I like quite a bit. But, my nerves are up high enough where I am scared of something bad happening. I have a full backup that I did last night, so if something DID go wrong, I could just restore that backup and only lose a couple of posts from the message board — as well as this blog. However, I might just do a quick backup now and then attempt this.

Gotta have some balls at some point, right?

The thing I’ve really figured out about websites is that they are pretty damn confusing to keep up and current. So I might as well have a system like a portal where I can have things integrate with one another and make it a little better and easier.

I tried the one that comes with the Invision Board, but it isn’t working out well for me. Kind of annoying more than anything. The one I downloaded is a little more intense and I like the look and feel of it.

If, by chance, I get this done tonight and make it work, I’ll have y’all take a peek. Then maybe I can get things rolling a little differently.

All I know is through several support boards I’ve been going through today, my head is spinning. Hopefully this will work out!

Sitting in front of me is a Dell Axim PDA. I really enjoy it, think it could be extremely useful to me in my job and life.

And why in the world do I need to do all this?

Because although I have been turning things around recently with a diet, my health and things like that, I have yet to turn everything else around. I sit on the computer on my free time, I don’t plan my time well, making it hard for me to accomplish some of my other goals. Time I could be spending riding on my exercise bike, I’m doing something online even if there’s nothing to do.

I do want to do other things. I’d like to write a little. Do some more photography. Read a bit more. Maybe even play a little more PS2. The computer isn’t that big of a deal. I still like to mess around on it. Whether it be with my website, or the blog, gallery, a couple other boards etc. , I enjoy it. And I don’t plan on cutting it out of my daily routine, no matter what. I’ve never claimed I’ll do that and don’t plan on doing it.

And there sits my Axim.

It’s a lightweight item and does wonders, if used. Datebook, contacts, a way to carry files — all sorts of good stuff. But it sits in the charger staring at me, as if to say “Yo, idiot, use me!”

Yet I let it sit there and hurt its feelings.

I want to become better organized and utilize my time a lot better. In college, I was mildly organized and had decent time management. Now? pfiff. My time management sucks balls.

I work 4-12. I come home and stay up playing online until 3 a.m. or later. I sleep until like noon. I wake up, check email and message boards, shower and go to work. Also working at a six-day, I rarely get two days off back-to-back. So it seems my days off are spent: sleeping in and playing around online. Sometimes I’ll go watch a movie or run some errands. Outside of that, notta.

Becoming organized and having some time management would be fantastic.

Now I just have to find a way to do it.

Something tells me Axim has some answers. If I listen.

But hell, who has time to listen??

This isn’t some sort of rant from a health-food nut. Believe me, I like my junk food just as much as anyone else. That being said, with this diet I’m on and actually having to watch some health-related things, I’ve started looking at things differently.

I look at labels and actually understand what I am looking for.

I don’t eat a ton of sugar or crappy candy. I also don’t eat a lot of salt (never really have anyway) and I’ve pretty much knocked refined carbs out of the diet. I cheat here and there, but I’m pretty solid with it. If I have candy anymore, it’s usually hard candy and even then, it’s sugar free.

I miss some things — such as french fries, cheese whenever I want it and potato chips. Still, I deal and I’ve dealt pretty well, actually.

The thing that really irks me, however, is that the rest of the people out there in the food industry don’t seem to give a shit that people do eat healthy.

Take for example the break room at my paper. I eat there basically every night because I always bring a dinner to work (easier to make it and know what I’m eating). Sometimes I don’t always pack enough to fulfill my hunger at that time and could use a little something extra.

Scan through the vending machines in our break room and it downright sucks.

One is loaded with candy and chips — not much more. Sometimes you can get lucky and there will be peanuts or a trail mix, but basically it’s candy, pastries, chips and the like.

The one drink machine has coffee, tea, hot chocolate and things like that. The other is a soda machine.

Finally, the “food machine” has things such as sandwiches, milk, microwavable food (burgers, muffin sandwiches, hot pockets etc) and the big healthy thing — muffins. Problem with those are they are Otis Spunkmeyer. You would think a muffin would be somewhat healthy, no?

Ha!

My boss got a banana nut muffin last week. It was like 350 calories — for HALF OF IT! And a ton of sugar in it. Can you imagine? 700 calories for the whole thing.

I’m on a 1,400 calorie diet right now. The muffin would be half of it. For a friggin’ muffin.

I can’t figure out when you have things like this in a break room, why wouldn’t there be some sort of a healthy choice? I’m not saying fill it with health food or tofu, but help us out. How about a veggie package, fruit or things like that? The machine is usually only half full anyway, so adding another portion or two shouldn’t be too bad. There are people who do like to eat more than what they put in the machines.

I mean hell, I looked at the machine in the hospital here and it’s the same thing. At a hospital!

I realize most people want to eat the other stuff, but adding another line for those who want a different choice shouldn’t be too hard.

————–

I visited the doctor on Tuesday and got some good news. Figured I should post it here, considering I had posted about what I have been going through.

Well, first the bad. His scale blows. According to mine, since I started this diet, I’m down 12 pounds. By his, I’m down five. He also hadn’t weighed me the past two times I had been there. So, who knows with his. I’m losing though.

So, the prognosis was this — my blood sugar is down and only have to check it three times a week now, my blood pressure is doing quite well and when I go back in March, he wants to check my cholesterol (which wasn’t bad, but one of them wasn’t where it was supposed to be).

I think I actually saw him smile a little when he told me things were going well and obviously wants me to keep it up.

I’m still reading the stress management book and hoping by the time I end that, the book on meditation arrives. Then I can read that one and go into the Yoga one. I’m hoping by that point I’ve lost a bunch more weight and am into a good routine.

Becoming healthy is actually a pretty good thing, I’ve decided!

More later. I’m off Thursday and might decide to add another entry today. I have a list of stuff I want to rant about!

I don’t visit many message boards. I have a handful I check out on a regular basis and a couple that I’ll post to on a regular basis. If the ones I’ll post to on a regular basis are: mine, a Phillies one if there’s something to post about and a mod site.

Of the others I visit, I’ll post when I feel I have something to add or when there’s something I think I can add to.

But there’s one thing that has been bothering me lately — the lack of using English when you post (or chat) on the Internet. It’s not even shorthand (as I’ve already covered HERE), as my feelings on that are already known.

But it’s the lack of basic grammar that really fires me up. Or the lack of wanting to use it and make sense. The post that drove me over the edge was the following:

hey there is no mods at all for if i don’t know why this guys crying lol

Care to explain that one?

This was just the one that made me realize I had a good blog entry idea. But this is far from the only time this happens. It’s all the time. I won’t even rip that statement apart because it shatters about every rule that you could.

Look, I understand everyone isn’t a writer and doesn’t look at things as close as I might. Or other writers might. But I also understand people should at least have a basic concept of communication and grammar. If these people are looking to ask a question or get a point across, you have to write so others can actually, I don’t know, understand you.

The thing with the Internet is that people of all ages are using it. When you get to these computer sites — no matter mods, programming, HTML or whatever — there are a lot younger people posting to the sites because they are learning a lot younger.

Funny thing is this — these kids, probably as young as 14 or 15, could program a seriously in-depth mod or computer program, but couldn’t write something to explain what they have, or spell for that matter.

Case in point — the casino mod. It’s a GREAT mod. The person who wrote it had a spelling error easy to the eye. At the top of the main page is shows the top winners and losers. Problem was, “losers” was spelled “loosers.”

Someone had fixed all the spelling errors in the code and posted the file upgrade, so I changed it. Although I have noticed “loosers” is more times than not used for “losers.”

I don’t know if it’s our education system, the age of those posting or just plain ignorance, but it’s rather annoying. I can live with misspellings because you can understand what people are saying. It could be a typo, someone might not be a good speller and truthfully — not many people are going to spellcheck a message board posting. But basic grammar rules should apply and at worst, learn to use a period here and there!