Top 10 TV Themes

Little did I know when I posted a tweet about what people's Top TV Themes were it would blow up to the discussion I just had, especially on a Friday night.  I'm posting my list, and really it's just mine.  People will disagree or agree and that's fine with me.  Make your own list if you want, this should be fun not who is right or wrong. 

10. The Addams Family and The Munsters. - I just couldn't separate these two.  So many times I remember sitting down with my dad and watching both of these so these two really have a lot of meaning.

9. Hawaii Five-0 - No not the horrible new version (people watch that?). I'm talking about the old school version, the one that started it all.  Honestly I loved that show and I still watch it on Netflix, the theme is just badass.

8. Star Trek: The Next Generation - I could have put any of the Star Trek shows here really, but TNG was the one I watched the most as a kid.  I remember my dad even watching it and thinking it was cool so that was always awesome.  I'm still much a Geeky guy so this fits in pretty well.

7. Dukes of Hazzard - Who doesn't like those Duke boys?  Seriously, Dodge Charger flying through the air, heck yes!  I loved Dukes of Hazzard as a kid.  I'm sure Daisy had nothing to do with it at all, nope, not a bit.

6. Cheers - This theme everyone seems to know.  I'm still more than a little pissed off that State Farm is using it for their commercials now.  Not cool State Farm, not cool at all.

5. Magnum P.I - Helicopters, Ferrari, Guns, Tom Selleck being a badass.....need I say more?

4. Airwolf - Helicopters and a badass theme song.  Really that's all it takes to keep my attention apparently when I was a kid, and I guess now that I'm an adult too.

3. The Muppets - Part of my childhood had to make the list and I remember, so do my parents, hearing these theme song anywhere I was in the house and running as fast as I could to watch the Muppets on TV. 

2. Knight Rider - Hey, Don't Hassel the Hoff.  This almost made it to my number one by the theme song alone but it just couldn't top the number one TV Theme on my list.

1. The A-Team - I just finished watching all the shows and there was no way this could be beat in my mind. It was a great show and theme.  And again.....helicopters.

Honorable Mentions:

The IT Crowd - Yes I'm an IT guy so this show is high on my list of funny things to watch, seriously though it has an amazing intro and really everyone should watch it. 

The Wild Wild West - This is another one me and my dad watched a lot when I was a kid, there were lots of shows I could include here but I'll leave the honorable mentions at two.  I'm including this one because a lot of shows get publicity but I think the only thing people think of about the Wild Wild West is the terrible movie that came out.  This was a pretty cool show back in the day. 



Yet another 25 things about Me.

This is my Third installment of Things about Me. Read the First here, and Second here.  This may be the last installment, although I would love to get to 100, I just have a really hard time writing these.

51. I gave a eulogy at my Grandfather's (Dad's Dad) funeral off the cuff and cried like a little girl during it.

52. When I was born I was blue (or so I'm told) due to the umbilical cord wrapped around my throat.

53. I quit the Cub Scouts when I was a kid because I was bored with it.

54. I did a lot of intellectual/nerdy activities while in high school (Mock Trial, Stock Club, and yes Chess Club)

55. My Grandfather(Mom's Dad) flew in the Enola Gay as a Marine Corp photographer.

56. I was in a bowling league as a kid and I was pretty good, but I suck at Wii Bowling.

57. I love doing home improvement projects no matter how big or small as long as I have the knowledge and tools to do so.

58. I tend to over think everything and try to plan for everything that might come up.

59. I love working on computers and I do it regularly for friends and family, but working on my computers at home is frustrating and annoying. 

60. My second job out of college was doing metal work for a small company. I did work for the HSBC Atrium, St. Bonaventure, Dulles Airport, and the Hauptman-Woodward Building.

61. I spent all my First Communion money on an original Nintendo.

62. When I'm doing tedious work involving numbers, I always correlate Bills or Sabres numbers to help me remember.

63. I can't play any instruments at all.

64. When I was in 4th grade I was the lead character in a play. My parents have the embarrassing video evidence somewhere.

65. My parents still video tape my sister and I opening presents on Christmas day.

66. I'm terrible at reading people, especially women.

67. If I had money I would probably travel for months on end, just because.


68. The direct approach always works better with me rather than hinting.

69. Driving over bridges freaks me out. 

70. When I was a kid, my dad and I would sit on the front porch and guess the make, model and year of cars driving by.

71. When I had my wisdom teeth out I was awake for it, I just had novacaine.

72. I only scored one goal in soccer as a kid. I usually played defense, that game I was a forward.


73. As much as I love my job, I know a change of scenery is needed sooner rather than later. 


74. I can't dance....at all. Well slow dancing is easy, I just feel stupid dancing. I don't know what to do with my arms at all.


75. I'd rather go to a quiet bar and watch a hockey game and talk with a friend than go to a club or loud popular bar.

The fog has lifted...for now.

I don't know what it is about me but I get in these funks, a technical term of course, and I never seem to get my way out of them easily. Well I'm out of my latest one. I guess I should explain. For whatever reason, I get in these funks where I can't think clearly at all. It's like there is a fog or haze over my brain and it just clouds my judgement. Now my judgement isn't all that awesome on a regular basis, but these funks seem to just make it worse.
This latest one seems to have manifested itself after some personal issues came up then running myself into the ground with work (getting a new building wired, computers moved and setup, server room setup) plus my consulting gigs have really drained my energy lately. So much that all I was doing was working and going home to rest. I don't know if the rest really helped at all, it honestly seemed to make the situation worse. I'm an introvert, in case anyone didn't know that, but I do like to go out and have fun with my friends. With being so tired and staying in so much I was so isolated it didn't let me clear my head at all. I was in the same stale routine day after day. I tried to force myself to do stuff, hey I did get out to Swannie house one night, but that didn't work. Going to a Sabres game with a friend somewhat helped, of course the good food, company, and drinks before also did.
I really don't know what one thing helped me out of this. Quite a few things helped so I'll make a list and maybe it can help anyone else going through this.

• Talking to an old friend helped some. Of course when you've known the person most of your life, from 6th grade to now, that usually helps. I'm stoked he'll be home for Thanksgiving because it will give us some time to hangout, we don't get much of a chance since I live here and he lives in Virginia. A few beers and a few hours and we'll be all caught up on what we have been up to.
• Alcohol, in moderation. I can't stress the moderation part enough actually. I'm not a huge drinker, in fact I go weeks where I don't drink. The few drinks I do have did help relieve some stress, at least in the short term. It's not recommended for everyone, but if it helps you, then go for it. Don't be ashamed about it, that's for damn sure.
• New friends have helped a lot! Now I mentioned my old friend helped some, just hearing from him usually does, but new friends are a big part. Thanks to Twitter, oh the savior of Twitter, I've met some awesome new people. It's nice knowing I can just post something and have long conversations with people about a random topic, or talk to a few people about whatever. Also, Direct Messages are a godsend. I'm glad you can't all read those :) If Direct Messages aren't factored into your tweet total, you can probably add another 10k+ onto my total.
• Music was a huge help. I've got a ton of music, and I listen to it all pretty regularly, but even that by its self wasn't helping me. I decided if I wanted to get out of whatever crappy mood I was in I had to change things up so I only listened to upbeat music, something with a good tune and no depressing lyrics. I honestly can't tell you what might work for someone else, but this worked for me. 
• Another odd thing that helped me was video games. I have a Wii, I think I've said that before, and I love the games on it. Most of the games I have are just games, no real thinking or strategy needed, I can just zone out of my life and play a game. That's what I liked best about it. I could forget all about everything going on and watch a little go kart go around the track and the scenery go by. Try it sometime, it really is a nice escape. I recommend Mario games because they seem to be the easiest for that. Mario Kart Wii is pretty amazing.
• Force yourself to go out. It's easy enough to stay in and say you need to rest, most times you probably do, but make an effort to go out at least once a week. I didn't do this at all, I stayed in the whole time, going quite a while before doing anything fun. Even going for coffee seemed like a chore rather than just going somewhere nice and sitting and relaxing. I really need to take this one to heart more. I've always been a homebody, introvert, whatever you want to call it. I need to make myself go out some more so I can get some human contact.

Most people will think I'm probably nuts for writing this, but it's a healthy escape for me. If it helps someone, then that's awesome, if not then at least it helped me. It feels great to be thinking clearly again, I just hope this keeps up. At least with this written I can look back and hopefully help myself out of future funks more easily. For now I'm back to my fun self, the one I strive to be, and the one I'd like to keep around for quite a while.

It's Been a While

It's been forever since I wrote a blog post, mostly because I get really bad writers block so I'm going to try to revive this for probably the 10th time. Along the way I was posting about my struggles with weight loss and I was doing well losing weight then something happened (Insert random excuse here) and I stopped working out and gained all the weight back.  (Insert your laughter here) Yea I suck.  I don't know what is wrong with me and why I always do this.  I've never been a tiny guy, being taller and a having a bigger frame will do that, well probably not but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  This time I'm doing a few things differently though and trying some tips from friends.

1. I'm weighing myself everyday.  Well I'm two days behind on that already.  Damn my Wii fit balance board needing batteries.  I will be doing this soon.

2. I'm working out every day and I even printed a calendar so I can see my failures if I don't.  If the calendar is starring me in the face every time I sit down at my computer I'll hopefully be more motivated.

That's really all I got so far, but I'm trying.  I need to do this for myself. I need to get healthy. I have so many reasons to do it and I won't get into them here, most are just personal, but I need to do this.  I can't live my life the way I have been so I'm going to try, yet again.  I'm still refusing to go to the gym, I really think I can do it without it.  I mostly don't want to go to the gym because I think I'll look like an idiot with in shape people there and fatty me trying to workout.  So far I've been working out two days and I'm sore, and what I can do is limited by what I own.  I really need to get some more weights and bench for lifting so that may be a Christmas time present.  I'll leave this here since I sound like I'm rambling, hopefully I can keep up working out though.  I need this more than almost anything right now.

My NHL Realignment - Well my version that makes sense to me.

Prince of Wales Conference aka The East


Boston, Buffalo, Columbus, Montreal, NY Islanders, NY Rangers, Ottawa, and Toronto


- To me this division makes the most sense.  If you wanted to swap Columbus with New Jersey I wouldn't fight you on it. Columbus makes the most sense with Buffalo but if you wanted to keep all the NY/NJ teams in one division that's cool too.


- If you keep the division like it is, the farthest anyone would have to travel would be Columbus to Boston which is 644 miles.


Carolina, Florida, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, Washington


- Farthest Distance traveled within the division would be Pittsburgh to Tampa Bay which is 872 miles.


- The farthest a team would travel in conference would be Montreal to Florida (Panthers) which is ~1383 miles.


Clarence Campbell Conference aka The West


Detroit, Nash, Chicago, St. Louis, Winnipeg, Dallas, Minnesota


- This division may be the hardest, I know Detroit wants to move to the East, however that would take 5 of the Original 6 in the East also you lose the Chicago/Detroit rivalry. Also the 16 East team vs 14 West team conference idea sounds stupid to me, the playoff formatting would be too messed up.  Detroit has to stay here and I'll explain why it isn't so bad.


- The farthest travelled in the division would be Winnipeg to Dallas at 1,180 miles.


Anaheim, Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Jose, Vancouver


- Colorado still has to travel but honestly, sorry.  They are in no man's land really so they should expect to travel, besides shouldn't they have that Mile High boost from playing there all the time? 


- The farthest travelled in the division would be Edmonton to Phoenix at 1389 miles


- The farthest a team would travel in conference would be Vancouver to Dallas which is ~1769 miles. 


- Yes the West has to fly farther, but there is no way to fix that.  The Eastern Seaboard has their teams much more compact. Also Chicago doesn't have it that bad when travelling. Winnipeg has to travel a lot farther to games than they do.

I was nerdy and geeky before it was cool.

It's been a while since I've written anything for the blog so I thought I would finally write something that's been bothering me.  I've always been something of a nerd or geek or whatever you want to call me.  I've been taking computers apart for years, spent years of my life online exploring things I may never see in person, and countless other nerdy and geeky endeavors.  Something bothers me though.



Old School Nerdy.

 I'm glad that geeky/nerdy culture is cool and hip now, it's seriously about time a lot of people recognize that geeks/nerds are pretty awesome.  I've covered some of this in past posts about why geeky guys are great to date.  The thing that bothers me though is the number of people who are all of a sudden nerdy or geeky simply because they proclaim themselves to be. 

I've seen so many friends proclaim themselves to be geeky/nerdy in the last few years yet I know these people wouldn't have even thought of being such a thing even 5 years ago.  I have "friends" on Facebook and other places that thought I was a huge nerd, and now that it's the cool thing to do they proclaim themselves to be just what they didn't want to be, that they were laughing at me for being.  I'm proud of my nerdiness and geekiness, it's part of me and it's who I am.  I wouldn't change it for the world.  I happily embrace it. In high school when people would laugh at the geeks and nerds and wanted nothing to do with them I just embraced it and hoped things would get better in college.  In college the laughing got much less, maybe because I was around a bigger group of nerds and geeks, or because I could hide amongst the masses. There was always that stigma though, that people knew you as "that guy that works in the computer lab" or "the guy who can fix your computer for cheap", they didn't want to know you, or know your name, just what they could get from you.



Everyone loves Woz.

 I don't know if it's because I'm older now, well 31 isn't really that old, but I just laugh to myself now about how everyone is nerdy and geeky now.  Congratulations you figured out Twitter and can use a hashtag, or you figured out how to tag people in your status message on Facebook. To me those are just figuring things out, like putting the square block in the square hole as a kid, it doesn't really make you geeky or nerdy.  If you want to be nerdy, rip apart a computer and put it back together, or learn Linux.  Don't proclaim yourself as geeky or nerdy, show the world you are!  Don't do it when it's convenient, or the "hip" thing to do, do it all the time.  Don't hide it in front of your "cool" friends because you are embarrassed to be nerdy or geeky in front of them, just do it.  If they laugh at you or can't understand it then either they aren't worth your time, or maybe you should stop pretending to be something you aren't.

New Phone!

New Phone!

For those of you that know me on Twitter I've been agonizing over what to do when my contract was up and what phone to get.  There really isn't an option with carrier, Verizon is king out where I live.  AT&T is junk out here and Sprint hasn't fully covered the market yet, so Verizon it is for now.  I was thinking of waiting until the rumored Droid 3 was out in possibly June but a bunch of people got the HTC Thunderbolt and it seemed pretty good.  I did my homework, I've been reading a ton of tech blogs which is actually just regular reading for me, and the reviews have been very good.  I went Saturday to get it and it's definitely in the top 5 purchases I've made so far in all areas of my life.  It blows my Blackberry Tour out of the water.  It is wicked fast, applications run amazing on it, and I don't have that super annoying Blackberry Trackball that never seems to work when I wanted it to......stupid trackball.  So that is my highly unprofessional bordering on fanboyism review.  I do love the phone, I worry about the touch screen but I guess we will see.  So far so good.  I'll give it a while before I write any more about it.  It seems like a solid phone though, and I am so glad to be on an Android phone now.

The only other thing I have to say is that my life has been going pretty well lately.  Weight loss challenge continues, slow but sure I can feel myself feeling better.  Getting back to weight lifting has really helped, although I need to get some heaver weights I think and a bench, my ottoman isn't really doing it.  So that is going well.  Work has been super hectic, I wish I could tell you all some of the things going on, but other than our big wiring project at work that's all I can really spill.  My car should be back Wednesday or Thursday, and I do miss my Sonya.  If you don't know someone hit my car and never left a note so a few thousand dollars later it will be fixed.  Leave a note people!  I wouldn't be nearly as mad about it if you had written a note, may karma catch up to whoever it is.  So yea that's been about it.  I've had somewhat of a permasmile on my face lately too for one reason, and I'll get into that another day.  I really need to get back to work :)