Month: November 2006

Posted inGames / Sports

Red Zone Wrap-Up (Week 12)

by Deck

The Houston Inferno (10-2) earned their tenth win defeating the Petersburg PowerPuff Girls (4-8) by a score of 118-52. The Inferno got 31 points from the Ravens D and 43 points from superstar quarterback Tony Romo. (Donovan McWho? ;-))

I am seriously considering changing the name of my team from the Spooky Boogeymen to the Sucky Boogeymen… I was resoundingly whupped by the Springfield Bullhawks (9-3) by a score of 79-119. Three 0’s didn’t help the cause at all. With three losses in a row and one more week in the regular season, it will take a minor miracle to get into the playoffs.

The Shelbyville Outkasts (7-5) picked up their fourth win in a row beating the Batavia Bulldogs (5-7) 97-83. QB Drew Brees led the way with 30 points. The Outkasts hold their playoff fate in their own hands… A win next week against the PowerPuff Girls gets the Outkasts into the playoffs as a wild-card team.

The P’burg PrairiePride (6-6) snatched victory from the jaws of, uh, a 87-87 tie with the Kentucky Mad Max (5-7). The PrairiePride got the win by way of tiebreaker… The ‘Pride’s bench outscored the Max bench 46 to 43. Next week will decide whether the PrairiePride or the Mad Max come out on top of the Long Division.

The Peoria OrangeCrush (4-8) knocked off the Foreign Bodies (4-8) by a 74-67 score. With the victory, the OrangeCrush have tied the Bodies and the PowerPuff Girls for next season’s #1 draft seed (i.e. last place in the league).

Posted inMovies

You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out…

by Deck

A Christmas Story‘Tis the season… for A Christmas Story. Check out the following sites to get your Christmas Story fix…

A fan named Brian Jones is obsessed enough with the movie that he couldn’t resist paying $150,000 for the Cleveland house that appeared in the film when it came up for sale on eBay. He has restored it to look like it did in the movie, and is opening the house and a related museum with much fanfare this weekend. Visit the A Christmas Story House Website for details.

The house isn’t the only way that Brian Jones is profiting from his obsession with the movie. A few years ago, Brian set up a site to sell reproductions of the infamous “major award” coveted by Ralphie’s father, a lamp in the shape of a shapely glowing leg. It comes in various sizes complete with fringed gallery shade, sexy fishnet stocking, and an elegant stiletto heel. Check out the Red Ryder Leg Lamps site for ordering info on this and other memorabilia.

To find out more about Jean Shepherd, the writer and narrator of the movie, visit the FlickLives site. It includes information, news, events, and memorabilia about “Shep’s” life and career, including lots of interesting trivia about A Christmas Story.

Finally, if you’ve never seen A Christmas Story and have no idea what I’m talking about, enjoy a 30-second version of the movie in Bun-O-Vision (i.e. starring rabbits)…

ACS in 30 seconds

Posted inGames / Sports

Red Zone Wrap-Up (Week 11)

by Deck

The Houston Inferno (9-2) dropped their second game of the season, losing to the Batavia Bulldogs (5-6) by a score of 47-55. The Inferno managed to leave 82 points on the bench, including the week’s leading scorer Lee Evans (46 points). Unfortunately, the Inferno also lost Donovan McNabb, the league’s top-ranked quarterback, for the rest of the season due to injury. Sorry Jeff…

The Springfield Bullhawks (8-3) extended their win streak to four games with a 125-107 victory of the Kentucky Mad Max (5-6). The Bullhawks’ success can be summarized easily in just two letters… L.T. The Bullhawks’ last loss came four weeks ago, which was the last time LaDainian Tomlinson scored less than 40 points. Here’s hoping that the Chargers give L.T. plenty of time to rest during the last few weeks of the season… ;-)

The Petersburg PowerPuff Girls (4-7) outlasted my Spooky Boogeymen (6-5) for a 63-59 win. ESPN screwed me two weeks in a row… Last week, Mike Bell was benched with little or no mention from ESPN prior to gametime. Result: zero points. This week, ESPN still had Bell listed as Out. Result: 22 points sitting on my bench. Frakkers!

The Shelbyville Outkasts (6-5) knocked off the Peoria OrangeCrush (3-8) by a 84-69 score. Drew Brees and Jamal Lewis had big days for the Outkasts, who have now won three games in-a-row and are making a late run for the play-offs.

The Foreign Bodies (4-7) won a 92-71 victory over the P’burg PrairiePride (5-6). The Bodies had five players in double-digits for the win.

Here are the updated standings after 11 weeks…

NORRIS DIVISION
Houston Inferno (9-2)
Springfield Bullhawks (8-3)
Spooky Boogeymen (6-5)
Shelbyville Outkasts (6-5)
Batavia Bulldogs (5-6)		 LONG DIVISION
Kentucky Mad Max (5-6)
P’burg PrairiePride (5-6)
Petersburg PowerPuff Girls (4-7)
Foreign Bodies (4-7)
Peoria OrangeCrush (3-8)


Two more weeks, and then we start the playoffs! Good luck everyone. (Except Alan, of course.)

Posted inToys

Xbox 360 = 100 Xbucks

by Deck

As part of the Amazon Customer’s Vote program, one-thousand Xbox 360 game consoles will be available for $100 from Amazon.com at precisely 1:00 PM (central time) on Thanksgiving day. The Xbox 360 Core System currently lists for $299.99 on Amazon, so such a limited number of units are going to sell out in seconds at this price.

Good luck!!!

UPDATE: This promotion was too much even for Amazon to handle, according to this BroadbandReports article.

Posted inTechnology

Keybored No Longer

by Deck

Check out the Optimus Keyboard…

qwerty Photoshop Quake

Each key is a tiny LCD display that can be reconfigured and labeled as desired for whatever language or application (or game) is in use. How cool is that?

According to this blog entry from the designer, the Optimus-103 keyboard will be available for pre-order on December 12th. No pricing has been announced yet, except for the cryptic “It will cost less than a good mobile phone.”

UPDATE: According to this article on Engadget, the Optimus-103 keyboard will cost $1,200. And the LCD keys will not be in color. WTF?!? So much for costing “less than a good mobile phone.”

Posted inTelevision

Groundhog Day meets 24!

by Deck

Just got done watching the premier of ABC’s new series called Daybreak. Taye Diggs plays a police detective who discovers he’s being framed for murder. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the bad guys are also going after his loved ones to get him to confess to the crime. Sounds like just about every other cop drama you’ve ever seen, right? The twist in this one is that Diggs’ character wakes up every morning at 6:17 AM to relive the same day and over over again until, presumably, he can right what’s gone wrong.

I can just imagine the producers in a pitch meeting with ABC. “It’s like Groundhog Day meets 24!”

UPDATE: Apparently I should be writing for CNN, which published an article about Daybreak called ‘Groundhog Day’ meets ’24’ — but will it succeed?

Posted inHumorousness / On The Web

The Love-Child of IE and Firefox… What If?

by Deck

Someone did a fabulous job of imagining what the end-result of a Microsoft acquisition of the Mozilla FireFox browser, resulting in the Microsoft Firefox 2007 Professional Edition Website…

Microsoft Firefox 2007 Professional Edition

Better visit the site soon, because I have to wonder how long Microsoft will allow it to stick around. Here are a few choice quotes to illustrate my point…

A robust new Microsoft security architecture known as TakeOver™ helps to protect the Windows Kernel from malicious, damaging and viral software such as Symantec and McAfee products.

And…

At Microsoft, we strive to appear lovable, friendly and helpful…
…because our antitrust ruling conditions force us to do so…

And one more…

Tired of slow image rendering? Microsoft Firefox 2007 can deliver online pornography at blazing fiery speeds. By using a proprietary dynamic algorithm, anything that remotely resembles a tit or a boob will download up to 10 times faster!

Too funny! :-)

UPDATE (11/12/2006): Looks like the site has already been nuked, although www.msfirefox.net still works (sort of).

UPDATE (11/21/2006): And now it’s back…

Posted inGames / Sports

Red Zone Wrap-Up (Week 10)

by Deck

The Houston Inferno (9-1) returned to their winning ways with a 80-75 victory over the Peoria OrangeCrush (3-7). Somehow the Inferno managed to pull out the win despite having one less player in double-digits than the ‘Crush. I believe this win officially brings the magic number to “0” and puts the Inferno into the playoffs.

The Springfield Bullhawks (7-3) ran up the score 157-83 against the Petersburg PowerPuff Girls (3-7) this week. The ‘Hawks have now won three in a row, but I personally think they are peaking too soon, and will be pummeled in the playoffs. ;-)

The Batavia Bulldogs (4-6) picked this week to discover some offense and handed my Spooky Boogeymen (6-4) a 95-64 defeat. Willie Parker and Donald Driver had huge games for the ‘Dogs.

The Shelbyville Outkasts (5-5) knocked off the P’burg PrariePride (5-5) by a score of 76-45. Eli Manning let down the ‘Pride with a -2 total this week.

The Foreign Bodies (3-7) took advantage of a weak outing by the Kentucky Mad Max (5-5) with a 96-57 win. The difference was Chad Johnson’s 46 points, which the Max left on the bench after a disappointing performance last week.