On the 8th Day, the Rollie returned...

Ok... things have been really quiet on my blog the past 7 days or so because of some very big developments in my personal life.

I put in my official 2 week notice at my current place of employment so that I can persue an exciting new job opportunity in San Antonio.

There's lots of little details I'll blog about at a later date. I have muncho to talk about. In the meantime. I'm still in the middle of moving my domain from one server farm to an other... that should be up and rocking by next week.

hugz,
.Alamo City Rollie.

Server Migration

Posts this week are going to be very slow because of server migration....

Stay tuned for a wrap up in a couple of days.

.rCr.

Ekobase : A New Hope

After a great deal of collaborative work by James, Ted and I, the first Ekobase Podcast is officially up at Ekobase.net.

There's a number of ways to subscribe to it. You can go to the site and download it directly or subscribe to the podcast by hooking it up through the options we have at the Ekobase website. (note: We should be "searchable" from the iTunes music store in a day or so)

We've received some good reactions from friends who've taken the time to listen to the first show. Highly recommend to anyone who digs the show LOST or is a closet Star Wars nut.

- rollie -

Nacho

After spending a good chunk of the day celebrating father's day with my family, I checked out Nacho Libre at the theater. The film was pretty good... but I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it to anyone who may be developing a short fuse for Jack Black.

I grew up watching an abnormal amount of Lucha Libre as a kid so the film brought back a lot of warm memories of my days in Mexico City.

Game 7

Highly doubt anyone cares... but the Edmonton Oilers have roared back from a 3 games to 1 deficit to force a Game 7 tomorrow night on NBC.

Go Oilers

Clash Of The Titans: Remake

So... while watching the first episode of Entourage on OnDemand the other day. It occurred to me that Adrian Grenier needs to seriously pursue the role of Perseus in a Clash of the Titans remake.

Just something to think about.

6 - Nil

Very ecstatic to report this morning that my beloved Argentina dropped a 6-0 cock imprint on Serbia-Montenegro this morning.

Admittedly, I missed a good bit of this game because of work duties at the newsroom, but look incredibly forward to catching the replay at some point this afternoon.

Our next mach will be against a very talented Netherlands team… I've yet to catch them play, but home to watch some of their match during my lunch break.

Mexico squares off against Angola this afternoon so I think the office will be a buzz… more World Cup nonsense throughout the weekend.

Viva Maradona!

Podcasting 101

Just wrapped up with my first night of Podcast tests...

My responsibilities were minimal. I was pretty much asked to talk over Skype while our producer (in Detroit) got all the mic's and levels figured out... Jaime (our producer) was kind enough to cut two beta podcasts tonight, both of which were very interesting to.

voice over IP is a very strange medium because when you hear the playbacks, the pauses between conversation seem longer than they should be but thats mainly because I we have to wait for the feed to come through.

Tomorrow Ted is scheduled to be at Jaime's place for the recording. I should be the only person working remotely so I think it's going to go over a lot better.


My set up here is very minimal. I'm using a Logitech USB headset/microphone to do all of my recording. I'm going to cross my fingers and hope for minimal distractions at Chez Agado's but I highly doubt that will happen.

Anyhoo... we'll be going live next week.

Be a doll and sign up for our forum board @ http://www.ekobase.net/post

both snipits are down... peep http://www.ekobase.net for our first podcast
Beta Test 1 - Ted sounds like shit on this recording but we figured out why. In this instance he was also Skyped in but we called into his telephone line to see what it would sound like.
A New Hope
Beta Test 2 - there's a strange stereo sound thing going on with this recording... we figured it out and it should be gone for the 1st Podcast. (fingers crossed)
Empire Strikes Back

Sports

Baseball: We may only be 65 or so games into the 2006 season, but my New York Mets are on a 8 game winning streak, with a commanding 9.5 game lead over the Phillies (whom we swept in Philly today) and more importantly a 12.5 game lead over the defending AL EAST champs (14 consecutive years), Atlanta Braves.

I think it’s about time to seriously consider this Mets team a serious World Series contender!

I’d feel better if we could snag one more arm before the trading deadline… but it may be hard to swing with a lot of teams opting to not make any deals with us…

Stanley Cup: Almost missed the dramatic win by the Oilers last night after spending 5 mintues trying to find OLN on my cable box… once I found OLN, I remembered that they were on NBC. Tuned in as the 17:00 mark passed in the 1st Overtime. Little did I know that I would only watch a few more seconds before Fernando Pisani got one in, top shelf. Go Oilers.
World Cup: World Cup fever hit the newsroom this week… much to my surprise people sneak peeks at games regardless of whom is playing. I've caught a few games during lunchtime, but I've pretty much stayed away from the tourney unless Argentina, Mexico or the USA is playing.

Both Mexico and my beloved Argentina are doing well at the moment. Mexico's head coach, Ricardo Lavolpe, was highlighted on Pardon the Interruption yesterday for his awkward coaching attire (sports coat, tie & jeans) and his chain smoking on the sidelines.

If all goes well… Argentina will advance from the first group tomorrow with a win.

Fathers Day

With Fathers day around the corner… I've begun to worry a little bit about what I should reward my 72 year old daddy this Sunday. At 72, my Father goes about life with very few requests… He mentioned a need for a new lawn mower over the winter, but opted to talk down the need for one in April when his birthday rolled around.

If I had to guess what he'd really like for Fathers Day, I think he'd ask that my Sister and Mom around the house so that the four of us could do lunch or dinner... I think he'd also like to have Tiger Woods in the hunt for the US Open on Sunday so that he and I could watch together at home.

I wish I could be celebrated on Sunday… a few items I'd throw out there.
Vibram's Five Fingers Sandals - I don't know what it is about these
sandal/shoes… but I'd love to slip these on so that I could walk the dog in the morning. Its really scary to walk anywhere these days barefoot, but these san-dals would allow me to have my cake and eat it too.

Gnome-Be-Gone - for about as long as I can remember… I've always wanted to have a Gnome in my garden. I've resisted any attempts to purchase one because I think it would be more appropriate to liberate one from someone's yard. This product seems ideal to purchase because the Gnome is being whisked away by metal monsters.

Record Bowl / Coasters - if there's one thing I totally go bananas for it's anything record/rock-n-roll related. I'm an unapologetic creature of habit and one thing I've never been able to grow out of is designating favorite glasses to drink out of, plates to eat out of, forks & spoons to eat with… Ran across these bowls & casters today that I think I need to get immediately.

Screech

Dustin Diamond showed up at the Howard Stern show today...

While this wouldn't normally be blog worthy... He's seeking people to help him out with the purchase of a T-Shirt so that he doesn't loose his house to foreclosure. He's hoping to unload 30 thousand shirts at $15 a pop in the next 30 days.

The shirt will read: "I gave 15 dollars to help Screech save his house"

After asking satellite listeners for help, Dustin confirmed that he had an enormous schlong. Artie Lange (of the Howard Stern show) then advised Dustin to not bring up his 10-inch penis when asking people for money.

Classic.

Unproductive Tuesday...

The last thing I need these days is a video game to completely obsess about. Said game is the New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo DS. I sorta put this game away few weeks ago but I dug it up after having an email exchange with a friend in Detroit about its DS sharing capabilities.
Found out that there's a number of fun Mario mini games that you can broadcast to others... I can pretty much guarantee I'll loose a few hours tomorrow when my sister shows up with her DS tomorrow....

Speaking of video games that I need to completely stay away from... I need to seriously stay away from the new Big Brain Academy that dropped a week or so ago. I'm pretty much committed to picking it up the next time I swing by a store that sells it... I've just haven't had any need to swing by Target or Walmart in recent weeks.

In other news... I managed to talk myself into starting up a Podcast with some friends from Detroit over the weekend. The three of us were online and we began to discuss the need for yet another LOST podcast. After an hour or so of brainstorming names... we've decided to go with "the EkoBase Podcast".

I'm 99% sure that we've secured www.ekobase.net for show...

I was put in charge of coming up with a logo for the podcast. I submitted the following.
The name is an obvious play on the Star Wars Rebel base (on Hoth)... Reasons for this will be explained when we launch Episode 1 over the weekend.

I've been thinking about doing a podcast for quite some time... this project I hope will give me the focus I need to get off my ass and do one up for this website.

Anyhoo... it was an unproductive Tuesday.

.rCr.

Me and You and Everyone We Know

Me and You and Everyone We know may possibly be the best film I've seen in recent memory. The film is a bit difficult to describe... but its a heart-wrenching commentary on the 21st century....

I don't know why I found it so moving... perhaps I found it to be very Todd Solondesque but shot differently... told a at a different pace...

Anyhoo.... drop everything and make it a point to watch this.

))><((

the Aristocrats

After many months of finding excuses to put this off... I got the Aristocrats in the mail today from Netflix.

After seeing it... I gotta say that it was a struggle to sit through the first hour or so... I drifted in and out of it while shredding junk mail and pay bills online. I think the first time I perked up was when Bob Saget began to tell the blue joke on screen. I don't know what it is about Bob Saget working blue, but I find myself stuck to the screen when he begins cursing.

2 other worthwhile moments in the documentary... Gilbert Gottfried performing the joke at the Hefner roast of 2001... the other is the (and I can't believe I'm going to say this... is the characters of South Park performing the joke in their animated form.


Highly recommend this to people who love stand up comedy... but recommend to stay away from it if you're not all that into absurd documentaries.

Pixar's CARS

Got around to catching Pixar's latest animated offering Cars over the weekend...

It was possibly the first time since Finding Nemo that I wasn't too enthused about catching a Pixar production... but with little out there until Nacho Libre next week I decided to catch it in San Antonio rather than seeing it here in South Texas.

Let me first say that the film surpassed all of my expectations... I didn't go into the theater expecting to dislike the movie. I'm an unapologetic Apple/Pixar fan boy... I'm just not exactly the type of demographic that Pixar/Disney (i think) were hoping to really "entertain" or address.

It's really amazing to see how far ahead Pixar is from other production companies that are currently making Digital Animated Cartoons. It's going to make buckets of money for em... they raked in 68M+ think 62.8M this weekend.

All in all... I'm glad I caught it in the Theater but I can safely say that it won't be a film I'll pick up on DVD.

Goalminder

Fairly certain that I'm the only person watching the Stanley Cup Finals, west of the Mississippi …

The team I'm cheering for (the Oilers), were given a nasty stet back on Monday when their goalie, Dwayne Roloson, was knocked out of the finals after getting checked into goal frame.

The Oilers have 12:00 minutes or so before the end of the 3rd period and they're down 5 goals to nada.

I think it's safe to say that the series is in deep doubt unless they can really get something going in Canada. I think they've played pretty good at home... so hopefully they can get something going.



Edmonton Oilers goalie Dwayne Roloson makes a pad save during the Game 1 of the NHL Stanley Cup finals hockey against the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh, NC., Monday, June 5, 2006. (AP PHOTO/CP, Paul Chiasson)

Billy Preston: RIP

The very cool Billy Preston passed away today.

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia

Or the fear of 666 has to be one of silliest things to be worthy of news inches since I began working for a newspaper…

I haven't decided what I'll be doing for 06/06/06. It's simply a day like any other.

My sister asked if I had any interest in checking out the remake of the Omen tomorrow night… Admittedly I can't think of any good reasons to say "no". Well, except that I'll have to attend the movie with throngs of people I typically try to avoid at all costs.

One thing I will be doing (and urge anyone who reads this) tomorrow is listening Iron Maiden's Number of the Beast at Guantanamo prison level volumes.

.Up the Irons.

Resaca City Rollie @ the Movies

Spent a considerable amount of my time over the weekend watching movies @ the Theater and on DVD… below are some of my thoughts on the movies I sat down to watch.

X-Men III: The Final Stand
I very little about comics & comic book heroes… but I find myself returning to the silver screen every time Marvel or DC Comics churns out another comic book movie. In recent years… I've really enjoyed the Spiderman movies and the latest Batman offering. I wasn't too thrilled with the Fantastic 4, but I dug the 2nd X Men more than the first…

I was going to skip the X Men movie all together because I didn't know anyone interested in the movie who hadn't seen it opening weekend. Thankfully my good friend El Diablo Donald Delulxxx hadn't seen it yet… so we made a drunken promise on Friday night to catch it the following day.

The film starts out like the last X-Men movies… in a unclear local and a unclear time… All I know is that it takes place in a very implausible present tense.

The movie (the third X-Men installment) did a few things that took me by surprise… they killed off some major characters, perhaps signaling the end of the franchise… yet they propped the movie for yet another sequel.

Leaving the theater… I felt really glad that I didn't pay more than $5.50 to watch it. When asked what I thought about the film by Donald, I felt like I really had to comment on my annoyance with the unapologetic product placements throughout the movie.

I don't know why they stood out so much… I think it was the poor dialogue.

All in all I give it a : B-

The Breakup
Prior to leaving for the X-Men movie… my sister asked what I was going to watch and rolled her eyes when I said I was going to spend some money on a comic book movie. In return… I asked if she caught the "the Breakup" yet, and she replied with a "No, but I'd like to"…

Offered to check it out with her Saturday night if interested and she took me up on it.

I got back from Brownsville around 6:00PM and I was really dreading the idea of spending 4 to 5 of my Saturday hours in a Movieplex. My sister was pretty amped up to check it out… so I didn't put up much of a fuss before we headed out.

I knew absolutely nothing about the Breakup, outside of what the trailer falsely promotes as a hysterical comedy. I'm a big Vince Vaughn fan… so I can pretty much sit through just about anything he's in… but I gotta tell you. This film really tested my patience.

Halfway through the movie… I felt like standing up and leaving the theater. I can't believe that I fed the movie any money to support its #1 Box Office Weekend take in.

I'm going to put the over under on 8 million for next week and I'm going to take the under once word gets around that this is possibly one of the worst summer movies in recent memory.

Grade: F

The God that wasn't there
After taking care of some outdoor chores on Sunday morning… I sat back after my afternoon shower and threw in the documentary "the God that wasn't there". I forget why I put this movie in my Netflix que… but recall running across a banner ad for it at the Talking Points Memo blog. Anyhoo… I get a inexplicable thrill when I get to engage in any "there is no god" dialogue so I threw in the movie in hopes of picking up a nugget of secular ammo.

Sadly… the documentary really let me down. I agreed wholeheartedly with everything the narrator/director was saying/showcasing… but it felt like it came up short.

In the end… it was apologetic enough to not offend someone of faith to leave the room… but at the same time it didn't do enough for me (of not faith) to keep looking at the clock to see how much time was left.

Grade: C

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
If it wasn't for the Breakup… I would have spent my entire morning flaming the CGI bore "the Advent Children".

I really have no one to blame… but myself for even renting this train wreck.

For some strange reason… I convinced myself that the "Advent Children" was an animated movie for the epic video game "Final Fantasy VII.

I can't stress how much I absolutely loved FFVII. It's quite possibly the best RPG I've ever played in my life and easily one of the top 3 games I've ever owned. It took me a little over 56 hours to complete and I recall one lost college weekend where I grazed on a 2 liter of Rocking Rye and 13 consecutive hours of game play in hopes of growing Golden Chocobos.

The game was so incredibly rewarding to play… that there isn't a moment every month that I don't get the crazy idea to possibly seek out a copy of FFVI to rock it again.

The film takes the stars of FFVII and sets them in Midgar 2 years after the conclusion of the game. This is where I pretty much checked out. As much as I love FFVII. I couldn't give a flying rat's ass about what happened to the characters of the game 2 years after…

I sat through the first 1/3 of the movie… then skipped to the end so that I could see "Cloud" & company take down a half dragon/half robot beast.

Somewhere within the movie… there's a strange disease affecting a lot of people (including Cloud) because of MOTHeR. I totally tuned out… and could care less if Cloud died of it.

No recommendation from me to rent this whatsoever : D-

Go Oilers

I could count the minutes of NHL hockey I've seen this year on both my hands… but I have to admit that I'm really excited to see the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup Finals. I don't know what their chances are in defeating the Carolina Hurricanes… but what I do know is, Edmonton is a small market team and a clear underdog with a chance to bring back the Cup since Montreal did it in the early 90's.

Go Oilers.

Spelling Bee: 9:00PM edit

Bit of a slow afternoon here in the newsroom… got word that a local kid from South Texas is participating today in the 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

I think he's currently still alive in the competition…
The Rio Grande Valley Kid has made it to the Finals tonight
Ok... as of this moment The RGV Kid is out....

They're all winners in my book.

=================

ESPN has ranked him #4 this year to take it all this year.

Happy to report that Texas has 2 of the top 5 ranked competitors in today's final rounds. Much to my surprise Texas has had 9 spelling champs in history. This puts us one a head of Ohio in the State with the most Spelling Bee Champs clubhouse…

The favorite to win this year is a kid by the name of Samir Sudhir Patel. Just read his bio and he finished 3rd two years ago and tied for second last year….

He along with seeds 2 & 3 are currently out... putting the RGV Kid as the ESPN favorite.

My interest in this was pretty low until I heard a kid from my zip code had a chance to win it all.

I'm a little bummed about the prizes for this thing.

From Scripps, a $20,000 cash prize and an engraved loving cup.

From Merriam-Webster, a $2,500 U.S. Savings Bond and a reference library.

From LeapFrog, a $5,000 cash prize.

From Franklin Electronic Publishers, the Spelling Ace Award—a $5,000 cash prize.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, over $5,000 in reference works.

* From Sigma Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation, a $5,000 college scholarship.

$ 42,500 isn't chump change by any means… but you'd think a school would offer up a free ride or some-one (like ABC the network that will host the finale tonight at 7:00PM CST.) would throw in a scholarship for all expenses paid @ for an undergraduate degree at the school of choice for the winner.

.resaca city rollie.

*Happy to see my Fraternity throw down 5k.