Borderline Fantastic

The following is a recap of Friday, June 22.

For this trip the only plans were for the two baseball games. Both were at night so we just had to plan when to leave to get to our destinations. This meant that we would be getting back somewhat late. It also meant we had no early morning plans. Getting to sleep in is not something I get to do, ever. On weekends I ’sleep in’. That means getting up two hours later than usual. So I get to sleep until 7:30am.

Friday Plan: Miami, Twins vs. Marlins @ Dolphin Stadium (more…)

Wednesday marked the 100th Daily Pick on Ice Cream Helmet. Quite a momentous event, at least in my mind. I’m just impressed that I was able to keep up and do it for 100 days in a row.

My record thus far is 60-36. There were 4 games that were canceled for rain or snow, which is why my record doesn’t add up to 100.

The standings on reflect each person’s performance over the past few weeks. This was designed so that people could easily start picking and have a chance of competing with people who had been picking from the beginning. Instead it has made it so that it is clearly visible that only a handful of people have made a pick recently.

Post a comment with any suggestions that might make you want to make the Daily Pick and keep coming back.

Go to Ice Cream Helmet’s Daily Pick.

Its taken me some time to settle back in at home and gather my notes from my trip to Florida. The following is a recap of Thursday, June 21.

I took the day off from work to adequately prepare for the trip down to Florida. Since going in to work involves getting up at 5:20am I thought the sleeping in would help get the trip off to a good start. I needed to accomplish a few things: hair cut to fend off the hair tan, trip to the bank, and to get some gas.

No one in the family was able to take me to the airport. I decided to take a shuttle from the Best Western. It wasn’t too expensive. I figured not having to drive down and leave my car for a few days was worth it. When I return on Sunday someone will be able to pick me up, no problem.

The shuttle trip wasn’t bad. My sister was able to take me to the hotel where it stops. One guy was in the van already and we had to stop on the way to pick up another and do a transfer. The one guy got on at a little after 1pm. He asked the driver how long it would take to get there. Seeing as it was just after 1pm and his flight left at 2pm, the driver was somewhat concerned. We were still about a half hour away and waiting for another van to transfer a passenger. The guy had no worries when the driver expressed his concerns. All the guy said was, “Its ok, I’m flying Southwest.” This needs to be their next commercial. (more…)

Get it at The Format’s site. To celebrate the 1 Year Anniversary of the release of Dog Problems the album is being offered for free. Well, you do have to give an email address that signs you up for their newsletter, they say you can opt out. I had been looking to get this album but at Best Buy it was about $14, way more than I’m willing to spend on any CD. I took advantage of this offer yesterday. I’d heard two of the tracks on Sirius over the past few months and love them both: The Compromise and She Doesn’t Get It. The tracks are mp3s encoded at 256k VBR. Very solid and very cool of The Format. The download is free until July 16th, so get over there.

I thought this little widget was pretty cool. Its still way to early to start election talk around here. Next year, expect a lot on that topic on here.

Group Page – If you are logged in you can join the group right on that page. If not, login or create an account then go back to join.

I started Baseball Picks on Ice Cream Helmet this year. Its been great so far. To let me people get in on it I’ve created a group for the 2nd half of the year. The scoring will start right after the All-Star Break, on July 12th.

Its pretty simple to play. Just pick who will win each series each week. To win a series a team just has to win a majority of the games.

In my group from the start of the season I’m leading so far. Even though its my site I did forget to finish making picks one week. I was able to bounce back and retake the lead.

Feel free to invite anyone to join this group and if you want to have one with your friends, create your own group. There are additional options to customize your group when you create your own.

Group Page – If you are logged in you can join the group right on that page. If not, login or create an account then go back to join.

DVD
Animaniacs Volume 3 and Pinky & the Brain Volume 3 – Animaniacs is my favorite cartoon ever. It was the show I would watch every day when I got home from school. Pinky & the Brain were so good they got their own spin-off. I still think of them all together as one big ball of greatness. A few years ago Toon Disney (I’m pretty sure that was the channel) started showing Animaniacs at 6pm. I caught a few shows and it was as great as I remembered. A lot of the shows I loved when I was younger are horrible to watch now. Saved By the Bell and Alf come to mind first. Animaniacs stands up to time unbelievably well. Freakazoid!, my 2nd favorite cartoon ever, might actually be better. Its been a few years since I’ve seen Freakazoid! In college we were able to track down the show online and it was fantastic. I haven’t had a chance to pick up the first two volumes of these shows, but I might have to grab at least one volume this week.
Reno 911: Miami – I have yet to watch the show. The movie trailer looked funny so I will be checking out the movie. If I like it, then I will start getting the seasons on DVD. If you think I will like it, you can try and persuade me to move it up in the Netflix queue.

Music
Some albums I will be checking out, not necessarily buying but a lot of them have free streams this week.
Lifehouse – Who We Are
Straylight Run – The Needles The Space – I listened to this one and its very slow, which is too be expected. I heard the new single, Soon We’ll be Living in the Future, on Sirius and really like it. With Straylight Run I find that there are handful of songs that I love but the rest of the album I don’t care for.
The Junior Varsity – Cinematographic

Games
SimCity DS – If I was in a position to play my DS a lot this would be a perfect game. I have loved every SimCity game.
Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition – I didn’t play this one on GameCube but it got such high praise. This version sounding even better, plus its only $30.

Headlines of the Day
Hiccup girl returns home after running away
Squirrel goes on rampage, injures 3

Comedy
John Mulaney

Music
Check out these bands:
E for Explosion
Sick Puppies
Royal Bliss

Cartel – Lose It – The new single.
Kelly Clarkson – Sober – She canceled the tour so all we’ll have for the summer is the new album. That is likely to be a problem. At least if the rumors are true.
Mae – Brink of Disaster – I like Mae. A lot. They are usually a little to happy for me.
Brand New – Brothers – A B-Side.
Straylight Run – Stream the new album. It comes out this Tuesday.

Videos
Kimmel segment on Jake Byrd following Paris Hilton.
Triumph at the Tony’s.

Games
Crossword – No clues, just some of the letters, you do the rest.

Other Links
Zooomr – A possible free alternative to flickr. I’m curious if anyone has had any experience with this.
Article about the company that made The Oregon Trail game.
Alumni buried on the Florida campus?

Another new commercial that I’m hooked on. This time its just a single one, not a whole campaign. I’m just trying to branch out in my commercial coverage. I sure do talk about them a lot for someone who spends a lot of energy trying to avoid them.

I’m talking about the new American Express one. There are a bunch of stars in it: Shawn White, Ellen Degeneres, Andre Agassi, Sheryl Crow, and Norah Jones. None of them matter. I would be just as big a fan of the commercial if none of them were in it. Its all about Martin Scorsese.

The stars are saying what causes they are interested in supported. Some random guy walks into the shot. Scorsese flips out. Who is this guy? Why is he in the scene? What is this lake he is talking about? He’s brilliant. Why isn’t he doing more acting instead of directing. I think he should do both.

I got to thinking that I think watching Scorsese direct his films might actually be more entertaining than his films. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy his films. The Departed was excellent. I think I’d have even more enjoyment though if the camera was behind him directing the entire movie. I’d get all of The Departed with some Scorsese flip outs in between. Awesome, right. Plus, you’d get all the actors in The Departed possibly fighting back. Or just taking whatever he thew at them. I’d be curious to see the on set dynamic.

The commercial can be seen if you (more…)