Thats All Folks

Well, it is now friday, the last weekday before my move to Chicago. This week has really flown by quickly. I am amazed, as always, how short summer vacation has been, but in reality it has been a longer than usual vacation. I will be off from school an unprecedented 17 weeks! Thats 4 full months plus a week. I guess the old adge is true: Time flies when you are having fun.

When I get to Chicago on sunday, I will be staying in a motel room. I will begin to look for an apartment on monday morning. This means that I will be away from an internet connection for about a week. I am hoping to have an aprtment by say Tuesday and then get the internet connection in by Friday. Plus I will have to get a lot of useful things for the apartment. School actually starts the day after labor day and I need to attend orientation before that day. So as you can see I will be a bit busy for the next few days.

The last thing I want to say to yall is thank you. I know that there are a lot of people that read this blog and I get a lot of feedback on this blog. Whether you agree with some of my opinions or you dont, you have always responded in a postive manner. It has been a pleasure to write this blog and I look forward to continuing in Chicago.

Thank you.

Dentist

So I had the joy of going to the dentist today. Honestly I have no problem going to the dentist. My dentist is pretty entertaining. We discuss sports while he is checking out my teeth. In case you are wondering, my teeth are fine and have no cavities this time!

So the packing is continuing this afternoon. I actually packed up a decent amount yesterday, and have done the major stuff. Now I need to pack minor stuff like my jacket,suit, tie, nice shoes, sandles etc. Small stuff like that. I think the majority of my packing will be complete by today's end. That means I can lounge and relax my last couple of days in town.

I will be leaving on sunday, which means the last blog update for awhile will be tomorrow. After that, I will not update until I am settled in my new apartment. I will start looking for an apartment on monday and hope to have one within a couple of days. Also, I need to setup internet, so that will take a few days as well. So, do not expect an update until around labor day perhaps. But when I do, I will have a lot to say...

Quick Quotes

Ok Simpson fans place the follwong quotes:

I cant drive 55 becuase it only goes 38!

I dance, I dance, I dance, around a Mexican hat, I dance, I dance, I dance, and that is the end of that. Or is it? I guess I'll keep singing, my cell phone appears to be ringing...


See if you can place it. Answer in the comments section by identfying the speaker as well as the episode in which it occured. Have fun!

Boring

At this point most of my friends have gone back to school or are working so there isn't too much for me to do. The highlight of today will be getting a haircut! Let me say that again: The highlight of my day will be getting a haircut. But that is ok becuase I still have to pack and get ready for Chicago. Usually in the last week before I head to school, i feel ready to go.

Aside from that, I decided to get The Usual Suspects and The Godfather as my Best Buy combo. It should be a good combo as both of these movies are classics and can be sold for 17-21 dollars each. But yeah, aside from that I really dont have too much to do today. Tomorrow I make a big trip to the Dentist! Woot Woot!

Packing

I hate packing. I really do. I am not sure if it is the folding of clothes(which i hate doing), or the actual activity of putting clothes into the bag, but i hate doing it. It is a chore I will wait as long as I can to do, and this year I have waited as late as I really could. Yesterday I somewhat organzised which clothes I would take, and today's job is to put them into the bags.

Aside from that wonderful activity, I am going to head down to Blockbuster to see of they have any good, used, cheap DVDs for sale. If I can pick up some good ones, I will. I am not sure if there are any movies I particularly want, I just want to see what is available. But yeah, aside from that I dont have too much to do today. It is kind of nice to have very little that absolutly needs to be done the rest of the week. I know once I get to Chicago, I will have a lot to do and very little time to do it...

Less then a week

It is now less then a week until I head up to Chicago. I still have a fair amount of stuff to do before I leave so I will be busy this week. Aside from just packing, I need to figure out what I really need. I have also purchased a few textbooks for classes and am waiting for them to arrive here.

I also have spent some time scouring for a few good "inexpensive DVDs" to take up there with me. If you have any good ideas of good dvds to pick up, email or comment on them. One title I need to pick up is The Usual Suspects. That is easily one of my favorite movies and Best Buy is having a sale on it. It is part of a package where I can pick up 2 DVDs for 20 bucks! Not a bad deal in my eyes!

I am not sure which other movie to pick up in that deal. The choices are:http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=pcmcat39100050028&type=category.

Yeah I didnt feel like actually typing all those out!
Aside from that I am not up to too much this week. I might go out and see a movie or i maight not. I have not decided. My week is in many ways semi busy, but anticpation is clearly building...

Olympics

I was watching a sports commentary show last night and some pf the people were wondering why the olympics were not sold out. In fact, according to numerous sources, most of the events are fairly empty! While I will admit that safty issues are a concern, i dismiss the theory that safty is the only reaosn people are not attending. Quite frankly, going to the olmpics is expensive.

Don't believe me? Think about this: What expenses do you need to figure out before you can go? Well first you need airfare to Greece. THAT is not going to be particularly cheap. Figure 1000 bucks a person or so. Now the next thing you will need are tickets. Now if you want to watch something like women's judo be prepared to plunk down 25 euros(thats 31 bucks) and thats for the preliminary round! Do you have seawater in your veins? How about viewing the sailing races at a mere 90 euros(111 dollars!) Enjoy swimming? Of course you do! How about the men's 50 meter semifinals for a mere 200 euros! Thats just 250 dollars a person you cheapskate! Ok, how about 300 euros for the gold medal basketball game. If you wont pay the 370 dollar price tage what kind of a person are you? Want to be ridiculous? Ok how about 750 euros for the closing ceramonies. Thats a deal at only 930 bucks a head!

That is the trouble the olmpics are having. They have placed events out of the reach of the normal fan. What normal fan can spend as much as 370 dollars for a basketball game? Plus throw in food, hotel, and misc expenses and the olmpics turn into a very expensive vacation idea. Here is a thought: next time, how about lowering prices so that more people can attend. If not, the olympic games will continue to lose live attendence and may go the way of the Pan AM games. The What games? EXACTLY.

18-0

I went to see the Texans first preseason game of the year. I would like to publically thank Halo for inviting me to the event! The Texans beat the Cowboys 18-0. While it may not seem that this is an important victory allow me to explain why i think it is.

Though the first string only played a little over a quarter, it was clear that the Texans first string dominated the cowboys first string. David Carr was only in the game for two series, but the Texans got points on each. The Texans managed a field goal on the first and a touchdown on the second. What I think is more important though was the play of the offensive line and Carr. The offensive line protected Carr and gave him plenty of time to throw. Carr, with protection, completed all but one pass in a terrific preseaon outing. He also was careful in the red zone and sought out Jabar Gafney in the endzone at the begining of the second quarter. I was also impressed the Offensive line opened holes for the second running back: Tony Hollings. The passing, the protection, and the running made me feel good about the offense.

The Defense played magnificently as well. The intercepted Drew Henson in the endzone and even got a saftey at the end of the game. In fact they pitched a shutout to both Dallas Qbs: Testerverde and Henson. While the D could still use some work(they need to work a little on their run d), they still managed to shut down Eddie George. I was encouraged by the D that gave away games to Indianapolis, Tennessee, and Evil England last year.

Overall a good start. I am hoping the Texans are a playoff contender this year and if they can play well they just might be.

Football Season is Here!

Well, football season is not quite here yet but for this Texan it hasn't come soon enough. With the utter collapse of the Astros, I have been counting down the days till football season starts. This sunday the Texans play their first preseason game of the year against the Cowboys, and this Texan will be at the game! I know that the starters will likly not play more than a series or two, but I do not care. Football is football afterall and the best sport in my opinion. Baseball may be considered "America's pastime" and thats fine, but football is America's life.

For those interested the Chum(dog)salmon made its way into Htown a couple of days ago and he is sitting in the freezer as you read this. He came frozen in a styrofoam box and smells fresh. I think he will last for a good four months or so, ie no real rush to finish it. In fact it might even be better if we let him sit there a little while.

In movie news, I saw Collateral, The Manchurian Candidate, and Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. They are all very different movies and I would say I enjoyed all of them. I will not put up any commentary on them, unless there is a groundswell to do so. I also would like to see the Bernie Mac movie Mr. 3000 as well as the Metallica documentary before summer ends. If you are interested, let me know.

Sorry

I have had problems signing into this account for some reason and had been pretty busy last week. I am putting together a fantasy football league. If you are interested email or call me!

Jim Fights a Polar Bear

During my trip up North I had a chance encounter with a polar bear. I was walking down the street, I turned around and there he was. This particular bear looked to be about 12 feet tall and 1500-2000 pounds. I remember watching Animal Planet and hearing what to do in case of a bear attack. They claim you should stand up to a black bear, calmly talk while slowly backing away from a Grizzly bear, and pray if you are near a polar bear.

I saw the bear and he opened his mouth and stood up on his hind legs. I stood on mine and growled at him. Interestingly enough his expression did not change. I then ran at the bear and started hitting him in his abdomen. I never realized how strong a polar bear was as he took my best shots and didnt move a muscle. I even tried kicking him, but he still did not go down. See anything wrong with this story? You should.

First of all, the line about walking down the street and seeing a polar bear should have tipped you off. Polar bears live North of the Arctic circle where there are no roads to walk down. Second of all, how did i fight a po.ar bear if polar bears were not in the area where i was? Simple. I fought a stuffed polar bear. The polar bear was real. He was shot in 1975 and had he not been attached to the wall, i would have knocked him down. As it were, the people who were taking care of the bear were not thrilled at me fighting him, but they said that many people do that.

So there you go, Jim fights a polar bear.