Settled

Katie and I got the "okay" on the deal to rent this place in Minnesota. What really sucks is that we have to pay an extra $350 security deposit, just for the cats! It may seem like we're getting ripped off, but it's pretty standard with pets.

We're probably going to pick up the keys in the next couple of weekends, then slowly start hauling things over until my parents can get the a big trailer to carry some of the bigger stuff.

I'm fired up -- ready to go and start "The Career." Katie can also finally go to school.

Cinematech

I'm watching the G4 television station last Saturday and usually they have this sweet show on called "Cinematech," which all it does is that it previews (or reviews) videogames without any opinions from anybody. Just straight up scenes from videogames.

Well, what caught my eye on this particular show on Saturday was a video of somebody playing the old 8-bit classic, Super Mario Bros. on the NES. This particular video was a start-to-finish domination (with warps), as lil' Mario mopped up everybody and everything, including World 8 Bowser at the end -- in 5 minutes, 11 seconds.

It was just insane to watch this. There was no point in the whole game in which Mario stopped running. He leaped over pirahna plants in a single bound. The guy just never stopped! There were points in the game in which you thought Mario should have died, but he didn't.

This could all be faked, though, through the editing process. Mario could have died, replayed the level over again, but that part just edited out before viewing. But, hell, it was impressive enough!

Same To You! -- Schrupp's Wedding Dance

One of my personal favorites (photo by Tony)

You can tell that everybody is having a good time when people start flippin' off the camera. This picture not only catches Shane (at left) -- but check out the happy-freaky couple off to the right side.

What in the hell is she doing?!

A LONG Night -- Schrupp's Wedding Dance

Mike, Andy, and Katie (photo by Tony)

Everybody's having a good time, just as long the drinks are full. Mike's getting down there, as is Andy (Lacey's brother), who's seems to find the time to spill a little on his shirt.

Hug! -- Schrupp's Wedding Dance

Givin' Sean Some Love (photo by Tony)

As you can see, Sean is very photogenic -- especially when it comes to other ladies giving him hugs. Good Lord! Lacey and Katie give it up for a willing boy!

Taking 'Er Easy -- Schrupp's Wedding Dance

The Happy Couple (photo by Tony)

Sean and Tami -- good ol' couple! Sean's been a great friend of mine for years and just a few years ago, he married Tami. Right now, Tami's 4-5 months along in pregnancy. Sean thinks it'll be a girl, Tami a boy. We'll see!

In the Bag -- Schrupp's Wedding Dance

Wow! Katie, Mike, and Lacey (photo by Tony)

Katie held it against me that this wedding dance should be something kick-ass, since we were missing out on an "all-important" wedding dance in South Dakota. Like I said before, when Katie and I arrived, not only Schrupp was in the bag, but Mike and his fiance Lacey was as well -- as you can tell by the picture.

My Shirt -- June 11-12

"Oh, Baby!" (photo by Tony)

Schrupp and I had one thing in common -- mucho lipstick on the ol' tux shirt. Although I didn't get as many kisses from the bridesmaids, I sure got some great dialog on the shirt.

Mike -- watch out for those ladies in September!

Pictures -- Schrupp's Wedding

Schrupp -- Bombed and Kissed (photo by Tony)

Here is a sampling of a few pictures from last weekend in Minnesota. One of my good friends, "Schrupp", got married last Saturday. When Katie and I arrived at the dance, he was already in the bag. As you can see in this above picture -- he's got a considerable amount of lipstick all over his shirt. It's like mine, as you will see above in another post.

Transformers: The Movie (Again?!)

Give "Bone" the credit on this head's up.

On July 4, 2007, Dreamworks is coming out with a new Transformers movie -- yes, the morphing-robots that turn into vehicles, guns, or dinosaurs, for that matter -- for the first time since its cartoon movie release "The Transformers: The Movie" back in 1986 (which I'm a proud owner of on DVD).

What really impresses me is that Michael Bay (Pearl Harbor, The Rock, Bad Boys II) is going to direct this new movie, with Steven Spielberg as the executive producer.

Not a lot of details yet on this movie on who is going to "voice" the characters.

But F 'n' sweet!

Toured The Town

Katie drove back to Minnesota a few days ago to look for houses to rent for our up-and-coming careers. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of houses for rent right now -- like two -- but we found the perfect one.

How is it perfect? It's got central air!

Katie was so taken by the place that she dragged me along with her back to Minnesota yesterday to check out the two rentals, which happened to be own by the same person. We filled out an application, dropped a partial security deposit, and all is well.

We're expecting a phone call later today to confirm the deal.

What really sucks is that I'm going to have to pay rent for two places at once. We've decided to put in our 30-days notice on the 1st of August, at which rent is due here. At the same time, the rest of the security deposit and rent is due in Minnesota. On top of that, I'm probably going to have to put down other deposits on utilities for the town.

It's going to be a rough couple of months, since I've already put in my last day of work (August 12) and I won't be getting paid from my teaching job until the 20th of October.

Is the Bank of Mom and Dad open?

There Goes The Shoulder

A few years back, I dislocated my left shoulder when I slid head-first into home plate back at Centennial Park. I caught the catcher's foot/ankle right underneath my left armpit, and due to my momentum, my shoulder pulled out to the back. Luckily, it popped right back in, although I was in pain.

I thought that it would okay since the shoulder popped back in its place -- and boy, was I wrong. Afterwards, I knew it wasn't the same. Everytime when I would move my left arm around -- especially when playing softball -- I'd hear the snaps and pops. Even when I roll over in bed -- snaps and pops.

Just this last Sunday when I was in Minnesota, I was unplugging my computer from its recharge when I placed my left hand on the wall to bend over to pull the plug. Then, schlorp.

That damn thing popped out again. And it friggin' hurt. I'm jumpin' around while my mom and Katie are laughing.

I did have a doctor take a look at it this past January, prior to my student teaching semester. She thinks that I do have some torn cartiladge in the shoulder, and most likely I will have to have surgery to prevent arthitis in the future.

Wonderful!

NCAA Football 06 Released Today

NCAA Football 06 -- EA Sports

IGN.com gave it a 9.2, plus the Editor's Choice Award.

Gamespot gave it an 8.8.

Michigan, again, will win several national championships.

How about Troy State? Re-livin' those old Dreamcast days?

Timmy-A: A New Father

If you knew Tim back in the day as well as we did, you would have never had thought that he'd get married one day and actually start raising a family.

Well, we've all got to grow up sometime!

Tim was one of my groomsmen at my wedding and he was under the gun a little bit -- his wife Jen was about to have their baby.

As I found out last weekend, Jen gave birth to a baby boy: Alexander David, born on June 25.

That a boy!

Signed and Sealed

Just yesterday, I drove back to Minnesota to sign my contract to serve as an instructor for te 2005-2006 school year.

Now, my attention turns to getting my Minnesota licensure to become a licensed teacher in Minnesota. Hooray -- more money to chalk up and more tests to take.

I'm free to roam around this school as I please. I got the keys to the building, including the weight room and the men's locker room. Overall, this school is state-of-the-art. They actually hire a full-time police officer to secure the school during the day, plus a total of 40 cameras to watch every student's move throughout the school.

But overall, what a relief. I'm finally getting health insurance, something that I haven't had in a couple of years. Kate's already been on the phone about hooking us up with a place to live and hopefully move into by mid-August.

The Last Day at "The Land of Suck"

August 12.

Again, upper management amazes me. After the week off work, the company decides to give a few random employees a drug test. Yes, the company has the right to do this, but right after a week long holiday vacation?

It almost seems like entrapment. You would think that some of the employees were having a little fun, doing their thing -- and if they choose to use illegal drugs, that's their life. But the day of work right after the vacation? They just might be getting rid of the "bad eggs" out there, but in my opinion, it seems like a cheap shot.

Another Slow Weekend

Slow -- meaning that I got drunk one night and the next morning I was a pile.

Deciding late on a humid Saturday afternoon, Katie and I decided to pass up the all-popular Chester street dance to drive to Minnesota for the weekend. At home, was a cabinent that my mother picked up for Katie (as a house-warming gift for our new place, as soon as we get it), but I really wanted to head back for a wedding dance for one my long time friends, "Schrupp-ie."

Although Katie and I sat around and rested for a while, we made our way to the wedding dance later on in the evening, just as things were picking up. Running into old friends like Mike, Sean, and Shane, I basically had lots of catching up to do.

Schrupp, on the other hand, was Tony just a month ago. He had the lipstick all over his tuxedo shirt, completely oblivious to his surroundings. Although I didn't see him the next day, I'm sure he didn't remember much from that night.

I got a lot of good pictures, but unfortunately, I cannot post them all on here. After the dance, Mike and his fiance Lacey and us drove to Woody's, a bar in another town close to home which surprisingly stays open until 2:00 a.m. (remember, this is Minnesota). Things were kind of a blur there, while it gave me some time to sober up a little bit. I didn't find out until Sunday that Mike, our driver, had no recollection whatsoever about how we got there, which roads we took, and how we got back home. Yeah -- that made me feel REAL good.

On Sunday, Katie and I didn't roll out of bed until 12:30 in the afternoon, after my dad was hollering that lunch was about ready. Later on that afternoon, we headed into town for the annual co-ed softball tournament. Robb was quitely sitting next to a large cooler of "Jungle Juice," at which he poured me a glass of the potent stuff. Not too bad, I might say!

Overall, a slow weekend in Minnesota. I'm not exactly sure when I'm going to be back around the area, probably most likely during the Threshing Show.

"The Career"

Since the days are numbered at "The Land of Suck," TonyTimes takes a new venture into "The Career."

But man, what a relief! I've finally got hooked up with a career that applies to my degree. I was getting pretty pissed off at the world after I sent out numerous applications to other school districts throughout South Dakota and Minnesota -- and not even getting a reply. I had one interview just that one time back in April, and that turned out nothing.

It just happened to be luck that day that I spotted a classified advertisement in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader for a teaching opportunity at a school in Minnesota. I sent my credential files right away and I got the call a few days later that they wished to interview me.

Right away, I thought "Man, this is going to be perfect." Katie wants to finish her schooling at a technical school there in town -- all the time planning on heading there in the first place. After the initial excitement of just getting called, I started to prepare.

Since I already had been through one interview before, I knew what the interviewers were going to look for. Besides looking good (I had to borrow a sport jacket from my brother-in-law) to create a good first impression, I had to know my answers to some tough questions.

When I got there for the interview, right away I was pretty nervous. This was a brand-new school building, probably 3 years old, so it was pretty intimidating. This was the big leagues. But after I sat down with the two interviewers: the high school and middle school principals, everything flowed. I was snappy with my answers, told them what they wanted to hear, basically, I sold myself. What I really enjoyed was that they actually gave me feedback also, something a little different from my previous interview experience when they showed no real emotion at all. This time, I was more comfortable and I played off the interviewers. In the end, I called my brother to thank him for his advice. He just recently got hooked up with a job teaching music in South Dakota after a strenuous year and a half in Minnesota.

He asked me how I did. I replied, "I kicked ass."

That night I returned home in South Dakota to go to work. A few hours later, Katie comes in and tells me that the interviewers need my references. Right away, I'm confused. I had already contacted the university through their career and placement services office to send them my credential file that included my three references. Later on, that confusion turned to anger -- thinking that if this school district doesn't have my references, I might just get passed up. I called the high school principal and left her a message saying that I would straighten things out.

That next morning, I woke up early to drive to the college and find out what was going on. I was hoping to give them a piece of my mind, until just when I pulled into town, I received a call on my cell phone from the principal. She had received my credential file. It was on somebody else's desk, mixed up in the mail. Man, what a relief.

About six hours after that ordeal, I received another phone call and got offered the job. Damn right!

I've been in a three-week notice at work and told them I could possibly be done working at "The Land of Suck" at the end of the month. It would all depend whether or not that I had enough money to live for a while without a job and Katie and I could find a new place to live. Already, she drove to Minnesota a couple of days ago to look. She wants to buy, I want to rent for a year. That'll come in time.

Overall, they're looking for somebody to teach middle school keyboarding, high school web page design and some MS Office applications. Maybe some social studies, but who knows. I'm really hoping to get some coaching in to help the salary out a little bit. The curriculum is up to me -- I have free range in what I want to do in the classroom. Talk about a dream come true!

I'm signing my contract on July 11, so I'll get some more details on what "The Career" is all about.

New Computer?

I'm up in arms over this laptop. Handy, as it might be -- but it's basically a business tool. I also like to have my fun!

Trying to play games on this is a challenge and a half. The hardware specs on this thing are impressive -- maybe like compared to a desktop 4-5 years ago -- so when I playing newer PC games like Sim City 4 or NASCAR SimRacing -- eh. I need more juice. So far, I content with playing older PC strategy games like Age of Empires II and Civ 3 Complete.

I want a kick-ass desktop system that will truly impress me. I want something that will make games like Sim City and NASCAR perform without a hitch -- and with that, I need some kick-ass hardware.

I could build my own, but I'm lazy. I'm already scoping the markets to pick something up in September or October. Sony Vaio-brand computers are impressive, although they are expensive. What I like about Sony is their compatibility with other Sony peripherals, although other brand names, like HP, Dell, or even lowly Gateway are also compatible through Plug-n-Play. I'm loyal to Sony and I consider myself a Sony Man -- so we'll see.

Also, how bad-ass do I want my computer to be? Obviously, I want a pretty good motherboard. Pentium 4's are the standard, and now they've got Pentium D's. They can go either way in my book, I could are less -- it just depends how "multitask-able" I can be. Other Sony systems offers your regular Windows XP OS, otherwise there's the Windows Media Center OS. I, too, am a big "create your own media-guy", so we'll see.

Just give me a fancy video card and 2 gigs of RAM. I think I'll be fine.

Any suggestions? Leave a comment. Oh, and I do not want to go over $1,900!

Just Finished: God of War

God of War (PS2) (image from IGN.com)

This is quite the most beautiful and more action-based game that I have ever played on the PS2.

God of War, being set in Greek Mythology, simply kicks-ass. I finally finished it last night, taking me no more than 10 hours to complete the game. The game features challenging puzzles to solve to move your way through the ancient Greek landscape, but it's the sheer action that really gets a person going.

You control a mean mo-fo called Kratos -- who's got it out for the God of War, Ares. Kratos has these "Blades of Chaos" attached to his arms, and he basically can create some kind of massive damage to his enemies with these things (look at picture above).

IGN.com, including my brother Dan who actually introduced me to the game, are shitting themselves over it. I highly recommend picking this one up!

The Lost Post -- A Wedding Recap

I've finally decided to summarize the whole wedding -- it's been nearly a month now -- but all-in-all, I really do not remember a whole lot.

Basically, the whole day was a breeze -- pretty surreal. Everything was great, until we hit the limo ride. That's when the alcohol started to flow.

In the early stages of the reception, and apart from Dan's embarrassing "best man" speech and the gay-ass speech I made, everything went downhill from there -- memory-wise. Everybody and their mothers were buying me drinks, then the bridesmaids decided to take me out on a run on the town.

Shot after shot. I still have no recollection of how I got back to the reception. Supposedly I sang some karaoke, took Katie's garter off with my teeth, sang "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", and did some kind of dance. Nope -- I remember nothing. Kate wasn't too happy with me. Oh, well.

I didn't throw up at all, but I sure wish I did. The next day, I just wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Man, I felt like ass. The most memorable moment was seeing some pictures and some short videos of some of my South Dakotan friends. They had it worse than I did -- "teabags", Wilbur throwing up something fierce -- it was great.

But from what I could remember, the moment was really great and really special. I would like to thank everybody again for showing up to help celebrate the occasion, especially those who participated in the wedding itself. We've already gotten our pictures back from the outfit we got them from in Sioux Falls, and they're great.

Oh, and note to Fro -- thanks for that kick-ass "Star Wars" Target gift card. Push the button, and Darth Vader's lightsaber lights up, complete with Vader's signature breathing. To keep it within the Star Wars taste of things, I wanted to buy some more "Revenge of the Sith" action figures. Instead, Kate had a fit that I even thought of that. We got dishes among some other great things at Target.

Shit!

Release Dates

NCAA Football 2006 -- "The Game." (photo from EA Sports.com)

NCAA Football 2006: July 12. Available only on PS2 and Xbox (what -- no love for the GameCube?).

Madden 2006: August 9. Available on all consoles including PC.

NCAA is a must in my book. In my opinion, it's a hell of a lot better than Madden. This time, you can start your own players in high school, searching for scholarships while you keep an eye on them during the course of a season.

With Madden 2006, even though it's only going to be the TRUE NFL-licensed game out there on shelves this year, I just might pass this one up. Lately, these past couple of years I've been growing bored of the NFL games, especially Madden (and this could include the ESPN 2K series also). Basically, the only real reason why I bought Madden was to see how well my college players could perform in the NFL. Now, it's just not worth it.

NCAA just offers more depth. My choice for 2005.

But the more interesting story will be Mike and Co. They were bashing Madden left and right ever since ESPN 2K5 came out. But now that Madden 2006 has exclusive rights to the NFL -- will they bend and break and finally cave in to the Madden dynasty? We'll see!

For some great past posts regarding the Madden/ESPN war of 2005, click here:

• August 16, 2005 (read the comments!)
• August 18, 2005

MVP '05 Update -- Who's The Champ?

Torii Hunter -- MVP Baseball 2005 (photo from IGN.com)

The 2005 MLB season has come to a close, with the Minnesota Twins winning it all, undoubtably.

Riding an impressive 108-game winning streak into the post-season, there was no way that I could be stopped.

The Twins took down the New York Yankees in the Divisional Series, then the Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series. Finally, The Team of Destiny swept the San Francisco Giants 4 games to nothing in the World Series. Celebration. Champagne. Ladies!

My winning streak darn-near came to an end during the ALCS against the Red Sox. One of my created players who plays for the Red Sox, Mike, hit a home run off my pitcher in Game 4 in the first inning. The Red Sox held a 1-0 lead until the top of the ninth when Torii Hunter led off the inning with a base hit to right field, followed by two-run shot over the Green Monster from Justin Morneau.

Overall, the stats from my guys were impressive. Johan Santana and Brad Radke both went 30-0 over the season, with Santana chalking up 285 K's. Santana ended up getting every major award there is, including the AL Cy Young, AL MVP, All-Star Game MVP, and World Series MVP.

A call-up from Triple-A, Matt Guerrier (after Joe Mays went out with an injury for the rest of the season), went 12-0 in his stretch to nab the AL Rookie of the Year award.

Justin Morneau went on to win the AL Triple Crown award, with a .367 batting average, 58 home runs, and 147 RBI's.

But the fun part was the off-season. I had a bunch of guys whose contracts were up at the end of the year, including Santana, Morneau, and other clutch guys like Michael Cuddyer, Lew Ford, Carlos Silva, and Kyle Lohse. It was going to get interesting.

I ended up resigning most of the guys that I had before, but I lost a few guys like Luis Rivas and Joe Mays. Santana ended up getting the biggest raise on the team (no doubt), in which he went from making 1.5M/season to 6.5M/season for 2 years. Salary cap issues? Damn right!

The good thing is that the rest of my created players were picked up for BIG BUCKS through free agency. My character was picked up by the Yankees (damn!), so now I'm teammates with one of my brothers-in-law. My other brother-in-law is a catcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Other guys, like Robb, he plays for the Colorado Rockies. Tim pitches for the Chicago Cubs, and Sean now plays outfield for the San Francisco Giants (a replacement for the all-powerful "Jim Dowd" [Barry Bonds-like character], who retired after 2005).

The 2006 season should be an interesting one! Stay tuned!

Safe and Sound

Old Main Street, Deadwood (photo by Tony)

Katie and I made back from the Black Hills a couple of days ago. All in all, I think we stayed a day too long.

The last couple of days of our vacation was a little bit of a struggle, trying to figure out what to do. We decided to pass up on Sylvan Lake, which is located in Custer State Park. We would have paid $20 to buy the 2005 South Dakota State Park pass -- and we weren't prepared to part with $20 that could have been used elsewhere.

The Fourth of July was a joke. Katie and I were planning on hitting up Mt. Rushmore near Keystone to watch the fireworks. But get this -- the fireworks were on the 3rd, not the 4th. The place was already packed by noon, according to a local radio station. We still made the drive to Keystone, visiting the Cosmos "Mystery Park" and took a tour of Rushmore Cave near Heyward. People were actually moving faster by taking the 5-mile walk from Keystone to the national monument to watch the fireworks. Instead, we watched them on the TV back at the hotel -- at which the fireworks lasted only about 20 minutes. Thank God we were not there all day long.

But on the 4th, we did visit Mt. Rushmore. Later on that day, we hit Deadwood -- which is just basically bars and casinos now -- a lot different from what I remember about 15 years ago.

The weather was perfect, no rain, but we stayed a day too long.

Live From Rapid City

Here we are -- reporting from Rapid City.

First off, I'm a little disgusted about this blog. I reported big time about the whole wedding on June 11. For some reason, Blogger didn't save it. So for a while, I just decided to leave the blog along for a while. It's a pattern with me -- I get mad at something, I leave it alone for a little bit -- especially with videogames.

As for the present, Katie and I are enjoying a few days in Rapid City. We're planning on hitting up Mt. Rushmore on the 4th of July for the fireworks spectacle -- even though we have to plan on getting there 4 to 5 hours before the actual event, due to heavy traffic.

But wow -- what a drive. 300 and some miles just to get out here. Worth it? Well, the people are little goofy in West River, but the scenery makes up for it. Despite being tired beyond all belief, Katie and I hit up Reptile Gardens. I haven't been near Rapid City and visited the sites since the late '80's, so it was all kind of new to me. R-Gardens, in my opinion -- "rip-off."

Today, we visited Bear Country U.S.A., which was pretty cool. Bears and wolves left and right, crossing the road right in front of us. After that, Katie wanted to do a little shopping at the Rushmore Mall -- but it doesn't hold a candle to The Empire Mall in Sioux Falls. We took small little ganders to Dinosaur Park and Storybook Island, then we retired back to the hotel. For the next couple of days, we're planning on Deadwood (possibly tonight), Keystone, Sylvan Lake, and of course, Mt. Rushmore.

I'm currenly preparing myself the Pepsi 400 at Daytona to watch, while Katie returned to the mall which is only a block away.

A small report on the job -- I've picked up the job as a business/technology teacher in Minnesota. A hint: it's almost exactly halfway between where Katie and I got married and where I'm originally from. I'm signing my contract on July 11. I'll be severing my ties to South Dakota here in a couple of weeks, while Katie and I will look for a place to rent in Minnesota and hopefully we'll be all moved in sometime early August.

More to come -- hopefully I'll be more committed to the blog that I have before, just as long as it doesn't piss me off!

P.S. I'll be back home in Minnesota on July 8 for a co-ed tournament (take some good pictures) and a wedding dance. Boo-yah!