Tropic Thunder

Tropic Thunder was funny as hell. Robert Downey Jr. was hysterical, as was Tom Cruise. The basic premise is about 5 actors, considered to be “hot shots who don’t listen” by the director, filming a movie about the Vietnam War on set in present day Vietnam. Unable to maintain control over the actors with the movie about to be pulled by the studio, the actors are helicoptered out of Vietnam into a hostile area. They are told it is just a location change and sent off into the jungle where they are told cameras are posted all over the place. From there it is just total chaos, that is funny as all hell. Definitely worth seeing in my opinion, especially if you’re a comedy fan.

Fantasy Football Leagues

Alrighty, all my fantasy football league drafts are done. All keepers have been named. I’m so glad it’s over, even though it’s just beginning. Typically I just do my 3 main keeper leagues and that’s it, but this year went a little overboard with too much free time and just by helping people fill out leagues. I wound up adding 6 more leagues (4 on ESPN, 2 on Yahoo) through 360voice. All of the drafts were fun and I wound up with some good teams, some mediocre teams and others that will probably fail instantly. I tried to mix it up so I wasn’t following the same players all year long and that I’d have a good mixture to follow all season long.

I’m in a lot of leagues with NaiLSONS (Josh) and we’ll have a friendly rivalry all season long, which should keep everything fun.

Starting on Tuesdays, beginning with 9/9, I’ll put a blog entry of my team results from each week. I’ll be sure to add my results from the 2 weekly pick leagues I’m in and the 2 survivor leagues I am in. Hopefully I’ll do well, with my keeper leagues being my highest priority! Hard to believe that one of them is in its 7th year.

Disability & Upcoming Tests

My disability paperwork was finally completed. It took forever and pissed me off and it pissed the insurance company off as well. Honestly, I am so ready to go back to work, I wish I could go back right now…I am very tired of being at home. Of course, I am very tired of feeling like crap, but I think I’d rather feel like crap and do something productive than sit at home.

I have to have a PFT (Pulmonary Function Test) done, as well as a PAT test. One of the tests, the PAT test, will be done from home. A wristwatch-like device worn on the wrist with two probes that attach to your fingers, the Watch-PAT100 measures and records pulse, oxygen saturation, actigraphy (movement), and changes in blood volume that occur when you stop breathing. Hopefully it’ll uncover something.

Big Brother 10’s Double Eviction

Thursday night was a live double eviction on Big Brother 10. They did an eviction night as well as a full week worth of activities in one night (HOH, POV, Eviction). Up for eviction to begin the show were Jerry & Michelle. Not a fan of either one so I wasn’t too sad to see Michelle go, although I would have been happy if it was the other way as well. Keesha beat Jerry in the Head of Household competition with a double tiebreaker. She quickly had to do nominations and chose to nominate Jerry & Ollie. After a quick Power of Veto competition in which the houseguests needed to find 2 POV emblems in a haystack, Dan emerged as the winner. He left the nominations alone and Ollie was sent home by a vote of 3-0. Ollie got up immediately and walked out of the house without saying goodbye to anyone.

I was happy to see Ollie & Michelle evicted in one show, but I watch Big Brother After Dark on Showtime, so I have seen the next set of events that have unfolded. Not happy with who won Head of Household, but I won’t reveal any of that as the show has not aired yet (it will air Sunday evening).

Tapout – Albert Manners

I was already big fans of the Tapout crew, but this weeks episode really put things into a different perspective for me. The lengths that these guys go to not only to promote MMA, but also to give people a chance (or second chance) to live a productive life.

The show this week centered around a fighter out of BJ Penn’s training facility in Hilo, Hawaii by the name of Albert “Always Bad” Manners. Manners, obviously had some issues: not training, not showing up when he was supposed to, not eating right (or at all), no real living arrangements (sleeping wherever he wound up at the end of the night) and some issues with his girlfriend.

Punkass must have really seen something in this kid because he was a hell of a lot more talkative than I have ever seen – perhaps more talkative in one episode than in all of the other episodes put together. Mask decided it would be better to lose the negative nickname and decided that regardless of what happened, he was going to call Albert by the nickname “Respect.” They took Albert back to visit his Dad’s house where he grew up and then they did some snorkeling. They gave him some money so he could eat a proper meal. They took him shopping and basically said “buy him everything that’s his size” – from t-shirts, sweatshirts, shorts, pants, and everything else MMA related. The kicker was that the got him a pretty nice apartment so he had some place to live, some place to always sleep at the end of the night…in other words, some stability in his life. They said they’d do it for 3 months and as long as everything continued (show up for training, etc, etc), they’d do it again for 3 more months and so on and so on. Pretty damned generous if you ask me.

Albert cut his weight and went out and won his fight*, but acted very childish after doing so. After forcing his opponent, William Armstrong, to tap out, he was so anxious to get up and celebrate that he shoved his opponent away, causing some hard feelings. When BJ screamed “cut that shit out and go shake his hand,” it didn’t go as planned because he just wound up in a verbal battle with his opponent and needed to be restrained. Unfortunately, rather than looking like the “new and improved” Albert Manners, he just looked like a very poor sport. The Tapout crew, who you could tell were very happy for Albert up until the end of the fight looked very disappointed in his behavior. They did say he’d have to work on the “Respect” part of his nickname, but that people don’t change in a day, which is true. I hope that Manners is able to turn himself around because he truly is being given a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Major props to the Tapout crew for their love of MMA.

*Note: the fight took place in March 2008. Manners has not fought since, although in MMA a 5 month absence is not out of the ordinary.

Sick….

Missed two days of posting, haven’t been feeling well at all on Monday or Tuesday. My medication dosage remains the same and I still don’t think it’s where I need to be at with it, so I go from one extreme to the other with being suddenly tired to where I can’t keep my eyes open to being totally wired. I had posted a few weeks back that I was lucky enough to secure an appointment at The Lung Center (which I was told was very hard to get an appointment at). As it turns out, it was canceled the day before and the rescheduling wasn’t until the end of September. That pissed me off. I’m going to try to get a referral to go somewhere just to have some preliminary pulmonary tests done as I’ve had a difficult time breathing as of late.

Win NaiLSONS Games #14 – Updated Standings

Good competition this week in Win NaiLSONS Games #14 (run of course by NaiLSONS) that saw a close race with Bomber37, pulling out the win with little time remaining. Drunkdaddy69 was a close 2nd, with SparkyMP coming in 3rd place. I, myself, did very little in the challenge, although I did finish Golden Axe and Gauntlet for arcade title completions # 9 & 10, so I guess it’s better than nothing.

As we work our way much closer to the Challenge of Champions (COC), these last few challenges should be interesting as competitors will make a mad dash to try to qualify for it.

Updated Standings (as of 8/24/2008):
http://www.domejohnny.com/nailsons/

Updated Qualifiers for the COC (as of 8/24/2008):
http://www.domejohnny.com/nailsons/coc.htm

The Shield: The Final Act

I’m counting down the days to the return of one of my absolute favorite TV shows, The Shield. It will return for its final season and because of last season’s writers strike, we’ve had to wait forever! Can’t wait for more Vic Mackey!

EliteXC: Antonio Silva tests positive for steroids

EliteXC heavyweight champion Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva has tested positive for boldenone following his July 26 championship fight with Justin Eilers, according to the California State Athletic Commission.

The 28-year-old Silva (11-1) won his bout by second-round TKO on the undercard of the second CBS broadcast. He is unbeaten in four fights in EliteXC.

According to the CSAC’s William Douglas, Silva’s “A” and “B” samples were tested by separate laboratories and showed positives for the steroid, which is primarily used in treatment of horses. Boldenone is considered an easily detectable drug due to its lengthy half-life.

Despite that fact, several MMA fighters have tested positive for boldenone in recent years, including the UFC’s Stephan Bonnar, WEC’s Alexandre “Pequeno” Nogueira, and EliteXC’s Phil Baroni.

Douglas told NBCSports.com that levels of the drug are not recorded for boldenone since its mere presence in the body constitutes a violation.

Silva has been suspended for one year and fined $2,500 though he will have the opportunity to appeal the findings. His win over Eilers made him the company’s first-ever heavyweight champ, but if the penalty stands, he will likely be stripped of his title.

*Credit* – Fightsport

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall, the unrated version. Funny movie, although I think I could have done without the three Jason Segel full frontal nudity scenes. Jason Segel wrote the movie and I have to give him credit for writing himself into getting to be with Kristen Bell & Mila Kunis. Now that’s a smart man.

The movie was funny and I enjoyed it, but it’s also a good movie to see with your girlfriend/wife.

Quick synopsis: Devastated Peter (Jason Segel) takes a Hawaii vacation in order to deal with recent break-up with his TV star girlfriend, Sarah (Kristin Bell). Little does he know Sarah’s traveling to the same resort as her ex … and she’s bringing along her new boyfriend (Russell Brand).