ro50

My awful blog was hacked!

14 May 2009 | Tech | Comments Off

Haha! I love it. Back with more once I lock a few things down. Maybe I should check up on it more than once every six months? Stay thirsty comrades!

Tough Love, 5 tracks, NCAA, Etc.

24 March 2009 | Sports, Music, Random | No Comments

Some Commercials I Hate…

9 January 2009 | Random | 1 Comment

Idiotic commercials are slowly making me insane. A few deluxe examples:

Saved by Zeeeeroh! The thoughtful creator of this youtube clip looped it a ton of times. You get the same effect any time you watch one NFL game on fox or cbs.

“Girl you’ve gotta ten piece please dont be stinjaaaayy!” Wow is that bad. Someone got paid for making that… wowsers.

The new trend of truck makes putting their vehicles through dangerous obstacle courses is stupid and often duplicated. Dodge has devouted a whole “webisode” series (kudos to the hip guy in Dodge’s marketing dept for the buzzword there.) to them driving the trucks through burning barns or a demolition course of old cars swinging from chains like pendulums. Toyota has the truck towing something that nearly rolls off the cliff. If you want my attention, show the bloopers from when you filmed these lame spots.

See if you can spot the self promoting CEO in this ad. Can you tell that he is really smug for knowing what facebook is? Can you believe you can send text messages from your cell phone? What? No one told me!

There are millions more that I hate but unfortunately today I’m short on time. Leave me a comment if there is one that makes you looney and I will add it to this post.

So bad…

23 December 2008 | Music, Random, Links | No Comments

Nice blog I’ve got here huh? I might as well host this thing at Geocities or something. It has really gotten that bad. Well for the haters out there, I will say that I have re-upped my domain registration for FIVE MORE YEARS so the 3 people that still read this (hey mom!) will probably get at least 7 or 8 more posts between now and 2013 when the internet will have likely evolved into a living, breathing creature. Anyway, I plan to bring the pain on this post since it has been a little while. I feel like I owe it to you.

First of all: YESSSS… this is exactly why youtube exists. Bad assed track, bad assed band, excellent cover song and I’ve got the fucker on repeat. Ya dig?

Bon Iver’s new EP “Blood Bank” is worth checking out.

Possible new favorite website: http://clubtrillion.blogspot.com/ It is pretty much daily viewing for yours truly and I envision it becoming slightly more popular than facebook. Great shit…

Until now, there hasn’t been a lot to get 49ers fans excited. I see that changing.

This site has me conflicted beyond words. I am staunchly “anti 50 dollar tshirts” but drawn to some of these designs in what could be described as an unhealthy way. Could I justify spending 50 dollars on a shirt as kick ass as this one is during these times of economic crisis?

Not quite 50 dollars but definitely cool are these old school sports team designs. Where is the love for my Bucs though? Nothing looks more vintage than the creamsicle palette. Even with no bucco bruce, i like where this site’s head is at.

Who doesn’t love Bruce?

I am very ready for the autotuner/vocoder phase in rap music to come to an end. I realize that without an autotuner people like TPain become mere mortals just like you and I but lets be honest… it wasn’t cool when cher used it and it still isn’t that cool when Kanye puts out an album that uses it on every vocal.

Things I wish I could wager on:
1. Which car companies and airlines will be out of business within the next 2 years.
2. Number of mass “Merry Christmas” texts I will get on the 25th. Right now the over/under is set at 16 and I am taking the over.
3. The android powered G1 (google’s new cell phone in non-nerd speak) will prove to be way way better than the iphone.
4. Number of bottles of wine consumed at my parents place over the next 2 days. +/- 13 and I don’t even drink wine.

I am curious about this… for many reasons. It could be epic.

Kudos to xbox live and netflix for turning my xbox into an on-demand movie player. If I can get better picture quality and slightly increased selection, i am hooked and done buying or renting dvds. If you wanna do this without buying an xbox and paying for xbox live, you can pick up one of these devices which do essentially the same thing.

No real surprise to see muxtape, mixwit, and every other “create an online mix cd” website go under. While it is an ok idea, who pays for all that bandwidth? And is it really even that cool in the first place?

Coming soon to ro50.com: Advertisements! My 11 page views per month should DEFINITELY be working to fund my retirement. There will be no pop-ups but if you can even find a blog post amongst the banner ads, overlays, sponsored links, and other bile then you must have a very keen eye. 11 years later, I am going to jump into this whole “dot com” thing with both feet! Wish me luck!

Happy Holidays… be back pretty soon. (June-ish maybe?)

This is eagerly anticipated…

14 August 2008 | Music | 1 Comment

Radiohead will provide the music for the movie “Choke” coming out next month. This excites and encourages me greatly.

via You Aint No Picasso…

Van She - Sharp Knife

12 August 2008 | Music | No Comments

Check out this track…

Van She - Sharp Knife

Digging this track…

22 July 2008 | Music | No Comments

Graves - Tokyo Police Club

Stream of Consciousness Blog Posting Volume One:

15 July 2008 | Random | No Comments

Wow it has been a long time since I have updated this blog and while it makes practically no sense to make my first update in weeks one long run on sentence type of post where i just type whatever weird thoughts are going through my brain but honestly who cares because of the six people that might read this I probably know four of them and the other two ended up here by accident trying to find pictures Stockton posted of Jenn Sterger on the old nflwrapup.com blog so even if there are no good pictures here i should say that for the most part I think of things to write about on here all the time but because my computer at home got shocked by lightning and because my workday consists of me doing things besides blogging well you get the idea but it isnt exactly fun for readers so I will try to do better with that for instance I should start posting more about music stuff because the new Beck album is really good and I dont agree 100% with all the ~~bloggers~~ haters who say that he and Danger Mouse ripped off Caribou’s sound with the new songs because I get what they are going for or at least I like to tell myself I do unlike the No Age album which I think whips ass but I am not sure I fully get these guys yet after only a few spins not that I expect to have some grand relevation and completely understand them but from what I have read and heard so far they are one to watch speaking of watching the Will Forte - Will Arnett movie “the Brothers Soloman” is amazing on so many levels but I really dig it and have no idea why it never got more pub so I am glad to go out on a limb here and recommend it to you to add to your netflix queue or your bit torrent client or whichever way you use to attain and consume movies.

Moving on I sometimes wonder why people sit outside the apple store for days to get an iphone or why baked pretzels are so delicious and sometimes it really bugs me how usually with food the better something tastes the more unhealthy it is or why the movie DeathProof didn’t get more attention because I have watched it twice recently and it is pretty damn good or why it took them so long to make a Simpsons movie or if people even care about most movies anymore since we are dealing with shit like Hellboy 2 or Batman 7 or whatever other recycled crap they come up with to try to shove down everyones throats with 12 million commercials and movie product placements in every thing you could ever imagine seriously how lame are those dominos pizza commercials where the evil clowns are trying to steal the pizza from the dominos delivery girl because the pizza is presumably so delicious that they have to take a moment from wreaking mayhem around the city to steal this pie and if you were that delivery girl and you were being harrassed by these clowns wouldn’t you just say fuck it and give them the pizza since they dont exactly pay you to risk your life or anything and why dont these clowns just go to the dominos store and steal like 30 pizzas and all the money from the register instead of harrassing some poor delivery girl who is just trying to make a few extra dollars there is so much wrong with that commercial that I could go on about it for a solid hour and say all the reasons that Dominos pizza and the makers of Batman 7: prequel 3 have no business teaming up together to do anything and that is not just because I dont like the taste of dominos pizza.

Even when I try to write in a stream of consciousness format it always comes back around to me complaining about things which sort of sucks because I dont want to be one of those people who is always complaining about the cost of gas or how bad a particular sports team is doing unless I am willing to do something about it but even though I get annoyed by people who complain I also complain so maybe I hate myself or at least I hate people like me but truthfully I am not such a bad guy once you get to know me wow this is really making no sense and has taken a serious turn for the worse not only because I have stopped typing whatever pops into my mind and have gone all self reflective but there comes a time when you have a blog where you have to ask yourself who in the hell would even spend the time to read this when there is so much other (better) shit going on but the other part about blogging that I never even really thought about is that at least for me when I go back and read all the old shit it is kind of cool because I forgot I wrote something or made a joke that I wouldnt have thought of now but somehow I did then and I start to wonder (I am no Hemmingway… the only similarity between he and I is that we both type words and both like fishing and both drink a lot and like to go to the keys OK… shit I guess there are a few similiarities but he is a way way way way better writer than I will ever be and that is for a lot of reasons but mostly because i could never see him writing 500 word sentences as a way to pass the time and so he wouldn’t feel guilty for not updating his cyberspace journal because he is too cool to even have one in the first place… end sub-tangent) what if Hemmingway were to go back after a few years and read some passages from his own books do you think he would recognize the words and sentences as his own or would he think it was shit or would he even care and my guess is that he wouldnt care since he spent most of his time being an all around bad ass and either hunting wild game or romancing some woman or drinking himself silly and since I never intended to make this whole thing about my admiration for EH or my admiration of anyone except maybe my parents and the people of the world who do nice things without wanting any credit for it I think my original intent was this and bear with me because chances are it wont make much sense but half the time I will start writing a post based on an idea but because I am not a great writer it may take me some time to get my sentence structure right or have the paragraphs flow correctly in which I spend a good deal of time formatting and editing before deciding that the idea was basically horse shit in the first place and people would rather just go watch funny youtube videos than read my mindless drivel so for one, I wanted to avoid that and just get a bunch of stuff down on paper without a clear pre-defined subject in mind and see what I came up with and see if it would inspire me to start updating this blog more frequently and not just doing stuff like looking at Matt Holliday’s home/away split stats or checking to see if Nic posted any more pictures of hot girls on thedirty.com so I wont know for a while if it worked or not but at least i have something up here and at least anyone who has ro50 in their RSS reader will not have to be reminded anytime they open it up that the jackass hasn’t updated his website in seven weeks. So I’ve got that going for me.

I guess it is time to wrap up this little experiment because I am going to head home and duke it out with the people at the alienware tech support desk and since it is the all star break they let us get out of here a little early today which is cool and nice of them even though pretty much every other team did the same thing and we will probably watch the game somewhere tonight even though I couldn’t care less about it but at least it is a decent excuse to drink some jack daniels on a tuesday and brag to every one I meet at the bar about how awesome my blog is and how they should totally check it out the next chance they get.

So to recap for those people who cannot understand writing without good punctuation:

Paragraph one: Beck good, No Age good, The Brothers Soloman good
Paragraph two: iphones dumb, pretzels good, DeathProof good, Simpsons good, Sequels bad, Dominos bad, Product placement dumb.
Paragraph three: Purpose of this post - stupid, Ernest Hemmingway good, Matt Holiday at home good, Matt Holiday on the road bad, thedirty.com good.

Wes

3 June 2008 | Random | 1 Comment

I miss you brother.

Kinda Buzzed…

9 April 2008 | Random | 2 Comments

Have you ever been out at a bar with someone who says “Oh, I cant drink tequila… it makes me crazy”? Um… Isn’t that the point? I have had heard many times that different types of alcohol make people drunk in different ways though I can’t say that I have ever experienced that firsthand. I will admit that I am not the average drinker because my body mass allows me to consume at a very dubious and advanced rate. But I have always had a sneaky suspicion that statements like “I cant drink liquor X because it makes me ….” are complete horse shit. Now I completely understand the lasting effects of overindulgance to the point of sickness turning a person off to a particular brand’s taste or scent but that is different. The 2004 Super Bowl night might be the last time I ever willingly consume Drambuie but truthfully, I never liked it much in the first place. So now I’m done with it. But whether I drink gin, sake, vodka, tequila, rum, beer, or whatever else I dont find myself getting into situations I wouldn’t have had I stuck with trusty Old No. 7. Being drunk is the same experience regardless of what you consume and I plan to stand by that statement unless someone can convince me otherwise.
Hangovers are another animal altogether. I tend to get the worst hangovers from dark beers even though I readily enjoy drinking them. But the sad truth is that I would feel 100 times worse from 6 black and tans than I would if I drank an entire liter of Jack Daniels. The weird part to me is that if I only drink whiskey or whiskey and cokes, I wont wake up with a hangover at all. Tired maybe but I’m not nauseous and have no head ache. Most liquor I can tolerate pretty easily but should I drink vodka - redbull or some other energy drink concoction, I usually wake up feeling like shit because of the caffeine… but not because of the vodka. (I guess it is kind of tough to get good sleep when your heart is beating 425 times per minute.) And everything else is lumped into the hazy category of “not my favorite but I will have what you’re having to make things simple”. I have no stories of knife fights after having too much gin or waking up naked in someone’s shrubs after drinking too much cognac. Wine makes me giggle but I feel that is because I can recognize the absurdity of a 300 pound man sipping from a glass with a stem. But it is not because I am a different type of buzzed. So I ask you, my loyal minions, what are your experiences with drinking? Do you prohibit yourself from consuming a certain type of alcohol? And are you sure the exact same thing wouldn’t have happened had you had something else?

Recent Annoyances

6 April 2008 | Random | 1 Comment

I hate that everytime I call an automated phone system it asks me to listen carefully to all the choices as “our menu options have recently changed”. How is it these systems are always in a state of flux? It would be nice to hear one say: Dont worry, the options are the same as they were last time you called. This get human database is a good way to get a human on the phone quickly.

Email forwards that have “You gotta see this!”, “Best (insert noun here) Ever”, or “LOL” in the subject line.

Online articles that make you click through 5 pages to read. CNN-SI is notorious for this.

This seriously drives me nuts: Channel surfing on directv. The way it typically works is that I hunt around for 10 minutes trying to find something to watch and will find something I deem suitable. But when I select it, I get the “Channel Not Purchased” message and a black screen. Now, what would make sense to me is this: If I havent purchased a channel, then dont show it to me on the menu. They have some channels that look grayed out and I believe the purpose of that is to tell me it is not available in my area. But other channels that I have not purchased apparently show the best stuff because I see that message all the time.

I am so cranky and bitter… I shouldn’t let these things get to me… but they always do.

April

3 April 2008 | Random | 4 Comments

Hello blog readers. Long time no talk. I figured now is as good a time as any to sit down and spew out a bit of my typical nonsense. Things have been a little hectic at here at ro50 headquarters but rather than piss and moan about having things to do or a busy social calendar, I would rather bounce a few ideas off of you.

So I have this friend who, for now, will remain nameless who has a theory about modern automobiles. You could even call it a conspiracy theory. Anyhoo, he feels that modern advancements in automobiles have actually made car accidents more frequent because cars are too easy to drive. He is all for the safety shit like airbags but his theory states that since modern cars practically drive themselves (some even park themselves…) it allows people to be distracted and not pay the required attention to controlling the car. He goes on to say that insurance companies are somehow involved in this and that everyone is getting all these kickbacks and raking in the dough. I tell him he has a screw loose and the reason for the increase in accidents is more and more cars on crowded roadways. But the whole point of me even bringing this up is that one thing I love is a fresh perspective on things… even if it may or may not be based on reality. He is very passionate about this theory and while I frequently tell him that he is an idiot, he is probably at work right now collecting data for his “research” and will ultimately film a low-grade documentary destined for other nutjobs to post youtube comments about. What would we do without the internet?

Speaking of documentary films, the movie King of Kong - Fistfull of Quarters is definitely worth 90 minutes of your time. The film chronicles video game wizard Billy Mitchell and his quest to retain the high score on the old school arcade game Donkey Kong. It contains some of the strangest characters ever seen and the one quasi-normal person in the movie, Steve Wiebe, is pretty strange in his own right. At several points during the movie, you have to remind yourself “these are real people… they are not actors” and it is pretty eerie. Anyway, you can get a taste on the website here: http://www.billyvssteve.com/ I think if you like the typical stupidity that goes on here, you will enjoy this movie.

I have been spending some xbox time lately and NHL 08 is helping me pass the time until the release of GTA4. It is a fun game to play and the commentary is provided by the old ESPN duo of Gary Thorne and Bill Clement who do a great job. Hockey video games have come a long way since the days of the Sega Genesis.

And since the last two paragraphs could have been written months ago, I will move on to some other more recent notables:

the new Sun Kil Moon album called “April”
Jose Canseco has amused me in making sure everyone in America and beyond knows what an idiot he is.
4 number one seeds in the tourney. First time ever. Some good games coming this weekend.
3:10 to Yuma was good.
Heard the new Outkast single “Royal Flush” with Raekwon. It is pretty catchy.
This is from 2005 but I just saw it… “You’re Gonna Miss Me” which is about Roky Erickson and his band the 13th Floor Elevators.
I havent heard the new Breeders album but I am interested in it.
These retards crack me up.
Another Bjork video this time on Space Ghost Coast to Coast. Radiohead is on later in the clip.
I will close it up with this great list of old school Olan Mills photos. High comedy.

Until next time…

Evil Urges

20 March 2008 | Music | No Comments

I couldn’t be any more gay for My Morning Jacket and their new album “Evil Urges”. It is not set to come out until June but they introduced a lot of the new songs at SXSW last week and I am quite impressed. NPR is streaming the show and you get a taste here. I have listened to the show several dozen times and the new songs have grown on me. The only downside to the NPR stream is some of the encore banter with the NPR hosts where the girl (dont recall her name) goes off on this idiotic tangent about how the band is risky by playing some of their new songs. (Um… Z came out 3 years ago. Is it really that risky?) She then explains how the songs reveal themselves to the band as the songs go into the ether of the audience or something like that and thankfully the band comes back onstage to cut her existential analysis short. But in that awkward, Borat-way it does get funnier the more times you listent to it.

In other MMJ news, at the “You Aint No Picasso” blog this post linking to two huge zip files of cover songs made me happy. The live cover of “A Quick One While He Is Away” by the WHO really wowed me. Check it out as you see fit.

It has been a few years since I attended SXSW and 2008 seems like the year to have done it. Between MMJ and Yo La Tengo at the Austin City Music Hall, Clipse in Austin doing their Re-Up thing, and the Lou Reed tribute, it seems like I would have had a lot to entertain me. Maybe next year.

Other recent music tidbits:

I am not as into Vampire Weekend as the other nerd bloggers. In fact, my indie cred is probably in jeopardy for even typing that.

I love the song “Stupid Now” which is the first single from Bob Mould’s new record “The District Line”.

Ryan Adams has a bizzarro new music blog that I like reading but also feel the need for a translator. Oh… and they just reissued “Stranger’s Almanac” the great Whiskeytown record so get it and feel a little nostalgic if you’ve got the means.

My most anticipated new records that may or may not exist:

1. Evil Urges - MMJ
2. Clipse’s next mixtape or real release
3. Tha Carter III - Lil Wayne
4. Snow Cobra (or whatever the fuck he ends up calling his new one) - Ryan Adams
5. Consolers of the Lonely - Raconteurs
6. Stairs - Death Cab for Cutie
7. Anything by the band Toto

Until next time… Auf Wiedersehen.

Now showing on: The Ocho…

11 March 2008 | Sports, Random | 3 Comments

I am sitting here watching “Showmen: Spectacular Guards of the NBA” on ESPN2. This 30 minute movie was released in 1990 but most of the footage is much older. I watched the VHS tape about 2000 times when I was in high school. A couple of key points:

1. Why doesn’t the NBA make movies like this anymore?
2. Is this the best option to fill the 2-2:30pm slot on the duece? I would like to think there is a spelling bee somewhere they could air.
3. Why is this movie still so watchable?

I think sportscenter might have sort of obsoleted this kind of film. Really, it is basically a 30 minute commercial for the NBA yet they turned a profit selling it to people. But now sportscenter is on this ridiculous quest to find the ultimate highlight or whatever they are calling it. And nearly every worthwhile sports highlight is on youtube somewhere you dont need to go out and buy movies like this one. But I still found it entertaining and maybe that says something about NBA Showmen.

I find it kind of funny that ESPN would air this movie but I guess it is hard to find things to fill these spots with relevant stuff. Truthfully, I would rather have them show this kind of thing than their “original” programming because those shows like Dream Job and Stump the Schab were pretty terrible. I wonder why advertisers would buy space during this movie but then figured it out when I found myself watching the entire thing. But in the grand scheme of things this is probably better suited for ESPN Classic since some of the spectacular guards in this movie aren’t even alive any more.

I think this movie is so watchable because it was filmed during what was probably the apex of the NBA. And being that these were players I idolized during my more formidable basketball years, it is still exciting for me to watch Isiah throw that full court bounce pass or see Maravich cross over anybody who tried to stay in front of him. I found the music in this film hilarious and Dan Patrick’s narraration was good but dated. Overall, I have seen it 2000+ times yet still watch it. That is fascinating in a weird way.

Anyway, I just thought I would drop a little retro on you good readers. Now I am going to head to ebay in search of a Larry Nance “swat team” poster.

Cleanse Update: I made it.

5 March 2008 | Random | 1 Comment

So I successfully completed the cleanse (a few weeks ago) and overall it worked out pretty well. I felt great and had lots of energy, wasnt hungry, popped out of bed in the morning, and overall felt charged even when I resumed eating again. A lot of people have been asking me about this and I am considering filming an informercial about it and selling the secrets of the cleanse in a series of dvd videos with the first one entitled “What you need to know about the contents of your colon”. But seriously it did work pretty well and I will probably make it an annual thing where I do it in February after tying one on at Gasparilla and the Super Bowl. And if I can complete this cleanse, I am positive anyone can.

Here are a few particulars about my 9.5 day test of will. I lost 14 pounds total and have gained 4 back which I believe to be normal. I didn’t jump right back into eating food covered in queso and then deep fried but I was there within a matter of days. I never really felt ill when I started to eat again but I did take it slow eating soup and such. It did reset my tolerances for things like coffee, alcohol, and tobacco but rest assured that it didn’t take long to right my ship and get myself back to normal. I have referred probably 15 people to the book and countless others have asked me tons of questions about it. The one thing that I want to stress about it is this not a diet. Yes you will lose weight because you aren’t eating but the purpose of doing this isnt to shed pounds. I did it because even though I am seated at a desk most of the day, I never had any energy. I never wanted to do anything once I got home from work because I was sluggish and tired. Well this cleanse will fix that. I had a lot of energy and I would sleep very soundly at nights. I didn’t need coffee or anything to get going in the mornings. 10 days isn’t that long but it seems long when you get to day 4. But the good news is that by day 6, I felt like I could go for another week if I needed to. It gets so much easier as you go along.

So thats basically the story of the cleanse. I hope you have enjoyed hearing about what a gluttonous pig I am and how I am a slave to my many vices. I was as skeptical as anyone when I heard about this and I know it sounds like witchcraft but it really worked out well. If you feel like you should wash your guts, then this is a pretty effective way to do it.

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