Roland G's Blog

2003-11-28T15:59:00.000-08:00

The Time Is Now

You May Now Go To Salty Ham By Clicking This Link.

It has everything you could ever want. Music, Movies, Wrestling, Life, Sports, Games - all for your enjoyment. Go there - make it your home page. It is also MY website - meaning, I own it. Enjoy. Go, and see what I mean.

Roland

2003-11-15T21:27:00.000-08:00

What's That Now???

Yeah, yeah - I know. Not exactly updating this thing like I used to. But I want you to know that it isn't because I don't like my readers. I do. I just have been working extremely hard on something that will benefit all of you in a big way. Expect a big announcement in the coming week. Check back often - you won't want to miss this.

Roland

2003-11-06T06:47:00.000-08:00

I Hate Best Buy

Those are words I never wanted to write.

Listen, I have always been a big fan of Best Buy. It's kind of a man-heaven for me. Electronics, CD's, Games, Movies - all there in one place. And good prices to boot.

So, when it was time for me to buy a 32 inch, flat screen television, naturally, I went to the land of blue shirts. And, I was getting a wicked employee discount, since my friend was visiting from North Carolina and he is a manager for Best Buy out there. So, I got a Sony - a good brand - not cheap like a Toksoma (I just made that name up) or something like that. The thing is huge - it weighs like over 200 pounds.

So, everything is going along smoothly - I'm watching my new TV - I'm loving the greatness of going from a 17 inch to a 32 inch - when the nightmare strikes. Only a month and a half after I bought the thing, it goes out. My wife is up late one night, watching it while I slept soundly, not knowing the darkness that was coming. She fell asleep watching McGyver or some such - when she is awoke by an audible POP. Thinking she simply rolled over on the remote and turned the TV off, she came to bed, thinking nothing of it. Meanwhile, a small part of me died. The next morning, she woke me up and told me the horrible news: The TV died last night.

Okay, no problem. I bought the service warranty AND the thing is only a month and a half old. They probably will send a new one over, right? Wrong. I made the call and was told that because it had been more than 30 days since I bought the television - they can't give me a new one. But, not to worry - they'll send over the repair guy and he'll fix it, good as new. So, I figured I would only have to be out of my wonderful television for only a weekend. The date I first called them is important. It was October 3rd.

So, Monday comes and so does the repair guy. He takes off the back of the TV and fiddles around for an hour and a half. He makes some calls on his cell phone and looks at me and says, "We're going to have to order some parts." My mood changed. He went on, "I'm not exactly sure what the problem is. So, we'll order these two parts and hopefully they will fix it. If not, then I'll know more. You should receive those parts around the 16th."

"What?" I ask, figuring I didn't hear that last part right.

"The 16th. We have to send off for them."

"Maybe you can explain something to me," I say, trying not to let my anger and disappointment show. "I don't understand why if you can't fix it, Best Buy can't just send me a new TV."

The explanation is the whole 30 day rule. He gives me a number to call when the parts come in and I try not to let this annoyance get to me. I move the useless television and bring in the old, 17 incher that was in the bedroom. It looks so small on the new stand we got. Kinda like a kid trying on his dad's shirt - the stand engulfs the baby-boob tube.

So, I get the parts in the mail, call the repairman back and he will be at the house on the 23rd. Okay - not too happy about having to wait that long - but if the television gets fixed, I'll be happy. So, the day arrives, the repairman comes. More fiddling and phone calls. He gets the sound to come up, but not the picture.

"I need one more part," his words like a dagger to my heart.

Now, I am a very "slow to anger" kind of person. It's not that I'm guttless or afraid to be mad - I just don't like being upset over small things. So when I actually do get mad, it's not pretty because something had to draw it out of me. And I can feel it build. First, I'm annoyed and I let it go. Then I get irritated and I complain. After that stage, I get to the "Grit Teeth" stage - where, if I speak while in this state, I can only talk through gritted teeth. After that, comes the "Icy Stare" where I can say nothing and just give the "I will kill you if you say anything more" look. Finally, the "Blow Up" happens and I go off my rocker. I don't get to that point often in my life - and the last time I can really remember it happening was at AT&T Digital Cable because their repairman didn't show up for his appointment for two months. It was at that time that the woman on the phone was told that she could come pick up her cable box in the middle of the road because that is where it would land after I threw it out there. She was catty with me on the phone and I got her fired. I also got the repairman fired and the blow up lasted for over three days. In the end, I got the cable fixed and got free Showtime and Cinimax.

I was at the "Icy Stare" when the "Repair Specialist" from Best Buy said that. He must have sensed his danger because he quickly added, "But I'll have the part overnighted. You should get it tomorrow and I'll come back and get it fixed."

That was October 23rd. It is now November 6th. I still don't have the part. I've called - but they said that maybe the part couldn't be overnighted and that I should wait a week or so and call back if I didn't get it. That got me to "Grit Teeth" with the guy over the phone. But I waited. Still no part. I just called them this morning and the gal who answered looked on her computer to see that she doesn't show the part was ever ordered. She told me that she is going to have the "Parts Department" call me today to see if the part was ever ordered...

Blow-Up stage has begun.

I pity Best Buy today. Really, I do.

2003-11-05T06:26:00.000-08:00

Nothing to Say But I Got to Say Something

Good night, this thing is becoming Jay's blog. I really need to write more but I've been consumed with something big that I'm working on. I've been trying to work out the kinks and get things organized. I'm not saying anything now - but just as soon as I can, I will. Hopefully, it will effect us all.

Good to see that we are getting hits here. I haven't done much to really promote the blog other than mention it in my RAW and Smackdown Rages on TBL and getting a link trade with vomit comet. Those guys are real nice, so definitely check them out. You can get the link over off to the side. And they update like crazy, so you can keep going back and back and back. Anyway, if you want to see the kind of hits we are getting - click that little box at the top with the dark ball and the lightening going through it or whatever. That gives you a pretty detailed account of how we've been doing. Not bad for no real promotion to speak of.

Okay, I'm going to go now - but I will try and think of something other than my big project and write it up here. Hopefully you'll hear from me or Jay soon. There were supposed to be other people to write for this blog, but they are lazy. Oh well, Jay is good for some writin' and so am I. Keep checking back, yo.

Roland

2003-11-04T07:41:00.000-08:00

Fantasy Trouble, Fear, Rasslin'.

Well it's that day again. TUESDAY. I'm in trouble. Big Trouble. I have no fantasy football QB! It's terrible. I'm in keeper leaque with the following options at QB; Ramsey, Harrington, Brees and Vick. I was counting on Vick this year only to have him break his friggin' leg. Ramsey has been ok, but he's taking a beating this year. I needed Clinton Portis to score about 50 points last night to win my game. Needless to say, that didn't happen.

Fear Factor. My girlfriend loves this show. She's one of those girls who hates snakes, freaks out if there is one even on TV. Yet she watches this show religiously and there are snakes on almost every episode. I don't get it. I can't stand to watch it, I get grossed out. If anyone caught last night's show, they had 50 plates of cow brains, guts, and other gross stuff on a conveyor belt that they had to transfer to a bowl while it was moving with only using your mouth.

I'm a big WWE fan, and sat through a horrible RAW show. The show was boring, had no main event, had no humor (a lot of time when shows are bad they have some kind of amusing segment), and was pretty much a waste of time. A two hour MiniDust vs Mini Booker T ironman match would have been more entertaining.

-Jay

2003-11-03T08:02:00.000-08:00

Make it a Blockbuster Weekend.

Hope everyone had a good Halloween. Zero trick-or-treaters was nice. Nothing is more annoying then waiting on kids to knock on your door to take your snacks. It's hard to watch TV or do anything without a bunch of interruptions. Everyone knows about that high quality TV programming on Friday nights.

So as usual, with nothing to watch and on a limited budget, my girlfriend drove me to Blockbuster. Since her blockbuster card has like $20 in late fees, we used my card. I'm not sure why but using my card in her town (which is about 20 miles away) with no car and no way to return them if we have some kind of issue. I sack up and we do our usual, I pick one and she picks one. It was Halloween and I wanted something scary, so I picked out "28 Days Later", my girlfriend picked out "The Recruit".

My thoughts on these 2 pretty decent movies:

28 Days Later. I had heard a lot of negative things about this movie, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The only thing that was annoying was the beginning knob shots. Like the guy couldn't put something to cover up his junk. Also the movie being set in England is always annoying, something about British accents that I find annoying. This movie was kind of like Reign of Fire mixed with Return of the Living Dead(instead of dragons, zombies). Pretty solid movie I rank it 7 out of 10 on the Jay Scale.

The Recruit. SPOILER ALERT! Read on at your own risk. I was surprised my girlfriend picked this one out. It doesn't make a lot of sense in the plot at times, but this movie is a brain buster. Twist after Twist make you think about what's really going on several times. It was a little long for my tastes, at 2 and a half hours, but it was pretty good. Pretty good movie I would also rate it 7/10 on the scale of Jay.

Lates.

2003-10-31T07:28:00.000-08:00

Southpark, Halloween, and a Riot.

Oh my god, southpark was hilarious this week. Cartman started a christian rock band, insanity ensues. My girlfriend drives me nuts sometimes. She got all offended at the end of that show when Cartman was cursing using the lords name (f jesus is what he said). She completely ignored the fact that everybody that was around in the show, then went on to be utterly shocked at his comments and then proceeded to pound Cartman into the ground. These are the same sort of people who don't actually watch these "garbage shows" but when they are flipping around the TV and glance at Cartman telling jesus to f himself, or Vince McMahon telling Paul Heyman to torch the Undertaker's house. Just because something is stated not to your liking, give the show a break, maybe it was the right thing to say and is justified in taking place.

Today is halloween, and luckily I live in a giant apartment building where I won't have to put up with any trick or treaters. I'm at work and so far I haven't seen a single person dress up. Oddly enough it seems that the dressing up as dwindled through the years. My company has a costume contest, and out of a few hundred people at our office 10 people dressed up. Maybe it's business, maybe part of it is the limitations. Due to recent events in the world, you cannot wear a full mask, can't carry any types of weapon accessories. A devil just isn't a devil without a plastic pitchfork. It makes sense, but it does take a lot of fun out of the day.

Last night our Local Rock station held an event. It was called Freaker's Ball and featured marilyn manson, seether and some others. No big deal, I didn't go but to each his own. Well a riot started after some fans kept bushing through a barricade and manson stopped playing after 3 songs. Cops were called in to try and control the crowd of 12,000+ people. Maybe I'm getting old, and maybe this is why I don't go to any concerts. I prefer rock music over most others, I like rap too. Oh and Roland, Manson is heading to dallas tonight, have fun!

Have a happy halloween and a safe weekend!

Jay

2003-10-31T06:10:00.000-08:00

Halloween

Remember when Trick or Treating was the greatest thing ever? Remember when you would go out and there would be thousands of kids running around and nearly every house was waiting to hand out candy? Now, I don't know where you live, but here in Dallas, the custom is nearly dead. In the last four years - I've had ONE come to my door. Granted, I lived in an apartment so maybe that's a little more dicey - but tonight will be the first night I've had a house to hand out candy in. We shall see how many I get.

But the fact that the custom is dying is such a black mark on us as a society that it makes me sad. The fact that we can't even get it together enough to hand out candy to innocent children makes me wonder what life will be like in 10 years. But the truth is, most of us can get it together - it's the fact that we have become a completely paranoid society that ruins good fun on a night like this. Most of us don't even know our own neighbor's names - how are we going to trust them to not poison our kids?

Do you really know that someone ever put a razor blade in an apple? Or rat poison in the candy? And if it has happened - how many times has it happened? Is one time enough to rob our nation of such an innocent thing? I guess so. I know you can't regain your innocence once it's lost - but it just seems so pointless that we allowed it to be lost. But I really do hope that I get some kids to come to the door tonight. The candy will be waiting.

Roland

2003-10-29T06:08:00.000-08:00

Feelin' Fine, Except it's Tuesday, and Toons

Nothing cures the blues like the Monopoly game at McDonalds. It's really weird that a chance at a free order of fries gets me excited. The chance at winning any of their big prizes is small but for some reason I hang onto my Marvin Gardens game piece like it was some family heirloom. I even supersize my meal so I could get the best buy pieces. Yay I have a whole dollar to spend any way I want at best buy. The things I could buy.

Tuesday's are so lame. At least on Monday I have rasslin and Monday Night Football to look forward too. On Mondays people have interesting stories to tell about their weekends, on Tuesdays they don't. Tuesday is Taco Day at our cafeteria. I hate their tacos. I ended up watching the opening night of the NBA on TNT. Nothing is more riveting then watching the first of 82 pretty pointless games. The NBA season is a lot like the NHL season, way to long and barely watchable.

Thank god today is Wednesday. No raunchy tacos to eat, only 2 more days of work, and I have a brand new episode of South Park to look forward too.

I'm a pretty big fan of animated shows. I'll take an episode of the simpsons, futurama, family guy, aqua teen hunger force over everybody loves ray, csi, survivor etc. If you haven't checked out Cartoon Network's Adult swim, do so, it's pretty good stuff.

Jay

2003-10-29T05:40:00.000-08:00

I Love Netflix

The tyranny of Blockbuster has ended.

Well, I guess it's not like I couldn't go over to Hollywood Video - but they aren't as big and it's a bit of a drive to get there. And, lets face it, I feel kinda second rate going in there.

"Welcome to Not As Important As Blockbuster," the clerk should say when I walk in there. At least when you go into some Mom & Pop Video place, you can at least feel cool that you are standing up for the little guys as you paw through crappy movies you don't really want to see because the good stuff is all gone. And don't even start with those small, dirty "Video" places inside the local grocery store.

Blockbuster was the monopoly on renting movies. With their overpriced rentals and Gestapo return policies - we were all slaves to them. Hey, I lead a busy life. I work two full time jobs, I'm married, and I write on the internet as a hobby. I don't know if I can get that stupid DVD back to you by the allotted time. And the problem is, because my wife and I are so busy, we never went to the video store with great frequency - so when we did go - we felt like we had to bring home six movies because we wouldn't be going back for a while. Is this Blockbuster's fault? No - but I'm not going to let that stop me from hating them anyway.

So, my boy Masman told me about Netflix. This was a while ago and I'm Republican, so I don't deal well with progression or change right off the bat. That also makes me a champion of big business normally - but I was starting to get frustrated that every time we went to rent somewhere - we would never watch all of the movies because we didn't have time before they had to be back. I rented Gangs of New York three times and never watched the thing (stupid movie is an ETERNITY to finish). So, at first, I was skeptical. But finally, Rush Limbaugh admitted he was addicted to pain pills (junky) and my conservative foundation was rocked a bit and I logged on to Netflix and found change. Blessed change.

For roughly $20.00 a month, I can watch as many movies as I want and as the post office allows. I go to the web site, netflix.com, I pick as many movies as I can find - pay my money like a good American should, and they send me my first three picks. I watch one - I send it back - they send me another. I can watch all three at the same time, mail them all back (postage PAID BY THEM! Liberals rule right now!), and they will send me three more. I will always have three sitting in my house, no matter what. And there are NO LATE FEES. I can watch them whenever I want! If something comes out that I really want to see - I put it on my rental list and make it the number 1 choice. It will be the next one sent out. BLISS!

Look, I don't know who thought up Netflix - but that person is a genius. This is the way to rent movies for the new millennium. I hope Lackluster Video goes down in flames.

Roland

2003-10-28T06:33:00.000-08:00

Patheticism.

One word on how I'm feeling right now. Patheticism. I don't even know where I heard that word, but that's what is going on. Every once in a blue moon you get that feeling that your life is pointless, last night was that night.

I'm still fairly young, 24, and I don't live at home, but I might as well. I live in apartment that is smaller than my old room at my parents house. I slept on my couch until it fell apart, now I use the mattress from the couch, it was a sofa sleeper, it's paper thin and probably why my back hurts every morning. My car was stolen and destroyed, meaning I get to take the bus to work, which in turn means I get to work about an hour early, due to the bus schedule. My girlfriend drives me to work sometimes but she has to be at work before me which means I get to work an hour and a half early. It's nice not to ride the bus, but the extra time to sit at work and do nothing, is just so much fun.

I'm a college dropout with about 10 years left to pay on my student loans, my parents paid for none of it. In fact right now I'm really hating my parents. I was in a unique situation in that they moved to another state(virginia exactly) while I was on my way too school(I committed to this college and really wanted to go there), so I don't see them very much as I chose to stay here. That's not really an issue though. It's that, as the oldest, I didn't get crap from them. I was in college with no real mode of transportation and was getting rides from my roommates. I was trying to get financed for a car but as a kid with no credit I couldn't get one. My parents had bad credit and so I had to buy an old used car(imagine eminem's car from 8mile). That didn't work so well as I was a poor college kid working about 30 hours a week and going to school full time. The car finally was to the point where it was going to take a $1000 dollars to fix. I didn't have it and my parents gave me this great gift. 100 bucks to buy a bike. Well I know a lot of college kids ride bikes to their classes but at this particular institute the housing was a good 10 miles or so from the school. So anyways between paying people to give me a ride to school, home, and work and riding the bike and bus on occasion getting anywhere was a big deal.

Anyway fastforward to the present. My parents cleaned up their credit enough to land 4 new cars, 2 for themselves and one each for my brother(22) and sister(20), both of whom still live at home. It's like they are punishing me for leaving. It just so happens that they can't really afford to put another car down in their name.

Am I a little bitter? Of course. Maybe I'm just being a little jealous, maybe I really shouldn't need to rely on them. In the end I can say that I got my tiny apartment, my thin as paper mattress bed, and my bus pass on my own. Yay for me.

Without a car my nights are pretty dull. My girlfriend comes over just about every night, but all she does is jump on the computer and talk to people online, mostly her family that lives a few hours away. No problem with that, leaves me with time to do whatever I want. I only have about 4 hours each night, so I spend it like most normal people; watch TV, walk my dog, work out at the apartment complex weight room. This cycle of events is getting old, watching the same shows every night, doing the same thing everyday.

Who knows what the future holds, maybe I'll catch a new show, maybe my apartment complex will add a new machine, maybe I'll meet a new bum in the park while walking my dog, maybe someone will steal my bus pass. Who knows what great adventures I'll see in the future.

Jay

2003-10-27T14:14:00.000-08:00

KC SPORTS

Ahh football. Here in Kansas City, we are all on a high. This town lives and dies by the chiefs. Even at work and at the water cooler, mondays were horrible days if the chiefs lost the previous day. Even with million dollar wallets and egos in sports this team means so much to this town. With only 2 major sports franchises it takes a passionate fan base to keep this town alive. With events like the Big 12 tourney moving to dallas, damn you ROLAND!, keeping this city alive and proactive is difficult, especially since St. LouisE gets all the state money, and our mayor wants our city to go in the direction of culture and art and crap like that, who knows what is in store for KC sports. I don't like NASCAR but thank god we got that new track built to help out the sports scene.

If I see another KU basketball fan/kstate football fan it won't be soon enough. I hate fairweather fans. Pick a team and stick with em! It's going to be so disgusting to see all these people jump on the Chief Bandwagon. Stay away from my team and go back to rooting for the Yankees, Lakers, Avalanche, Miami Hurricanes and whatever team is hot.

Lates
Jay

2003-10-26T13:08:00.000-08:00

Football

I sit here at my computer right after the Cowboys (my beloved team) lost to Tampa Bay 16-0. This should make all the Cowboy haters happy. I will say this in their defense - five wins in a row is quite an accomplishment for a team that was left for dead before the season even began. I think now Parcells will have something to yell about and we'll see how this young team responds. But I'm still proud of them. Although the offense was dismal today - they were playing the Super Bowl Champs and you have to like that they were able to hold them to only one touchdown. That's what I expect to see from the number 1 defense in the league (or at least they were until today - may still be, but we'll have to see after the rest of the games today). And anyway, as a Cowboy fan, if I would have thought they would be going into the Redskin game next week 5-2 with a pretty good hold on first place in the division before the season started - I would have checked myself into the looney house. I'm still proud of my Boys.

This week we will be updating this site even more as I really start to mold and shape this web site into something. Bookmark us and visit often and you will see that we should have some good stuff in the coming weeks. I don't plan on being the only guy to write for this Blog.

Roland

2003-10-24T04:55:00.000-07:00

Day 2

Well, I'm starting to see who else will join me in this little project. Hopefully you will begin to see this odd website start to take on shape. My only hope is that you will check back often because I am trying to gather a stable of writers that will rival any blog (or any of those good columnist sites you go to). Finally, before I go for now, let me say - Scott Keith aint got nothing on ME!

Roland

2003-10-22T21:11:00.000-07:00

Doing what Everyone Else Does!

Because I don't write near enough - I've started my own blog. What I'm going to do with it - I don't know, but trust me on this - I am only doing this because Scott Keith has a blog too. As a matter of fact, I went right to his website - saw that he had a blog - and said, "That's it. If they're free - I'm getting me one." Have I thought about what I'm going to do with it? No. Have I decided what kind of writing is going to go on it? No. Do I think people will come and read my retarded ranting on a daily basis (if I am so lucky enough to write that much)? Nope.

I'm just doing this because I should be going to sleep right now and I went and got a bug in my undies about SK's blog. So there.

Roland G