One Holiday Season Down

Last weekend was a weekend of weekends ... if I can use that word "weekend" one more time.

We celebrated Christmas with my Dad's side of the family last Saturday near the Twin Cities. Sure, it was your typical Christmas dinner and presents for the younger cousins, but the weekend was heightened in anticpation of the Vikings/NY Giants football game that Sunday. Luckily for us, my uncle from Iowa picked up tickets (upper deck end-zone, 21 rows up ... still not a bad view) and what really made the Vikings fans nervous, they had to win this game to make the playoffs (or if the Vikings lost, the Bears had to lose vs. the Texans).

The game was one for the ages, probably one of the best games I've seen in person at the Metrodome. It was back and forth, and despite Adrian Peterson's constant ball-handling problems, the Giants' running attack, and David Carr's impressive off-the-bench performance, the game came down to a 51-yard field goal attempt from Vikings' kicker, Ryan Longwell.

But before all that went down, it was probably the worst clock management I've ever seen. I'm sure Vikings' head coach Brad Childress had his reasons for playing the clock (and time outs as well), but the 63,000+ crowd at the Metrodome sure didn't like it, as the boo-birds reigned down. It even looked like Vikings' quarterback Tavaris Jackson couldn't figure out what was going on, either.

It was just mass confusion, but in the end, Longwell sailed the 51-yarder through, giving the Vikings' their first NFC North division title since 2000. The place was bedlam, and it see the Vikings win over the Super Bowl-defending Giants, it was pure sweetness.

Sure, the critics can say that the Giants let up (pulling quarterback Eli Manning after the 1st half), but nobody can deny that the Giants defense wanted to lose that game.

As for me, being a Minnesota Viking fan, I can be critical of the play calling, Tavaris' play at quarterback, and Childress himself ... but they pulled one off to make the playoffs. Next week, they've got Philadelphia at the Dome and I can rightfully say that they have a legitamate shot of winning that game!

2008 Fantasy Football Championship

For the second time in three years, the "Banger's Bombers" made it to our Minnesota (this is what I call it to separate the leagues I'm in) fantasy football championship.

Overall, I can rightfully say that the line-ups I create and put up with over the course of the season are a force to be reckoned with. In 2006, I won it all. In 2007, I came up a bit short and finished in 3rd place, and in 2008 ... the Bombers were back in the Big Game, this time taking on the likes of the "Ron Mexico's Puppy Farm," headed by friend, Sean.

Sean finished out with the best regular season record this season at 11-3, and the Bombers' finished at 10-4. Going into the championship game, I had a seven-game winning streak and was pretty confident heading into the match-up against Sean. Leading the helm was Drew Brees at quarterback, with DeAngelo Williams and Brian Westbrook heading the running attack. By far the weakest part of my team were the wide receivers, which I couldn't find a consistent receiver, with the exception of Steve Smith of the Carolina Panthers.

Unfortunately for the Bombers this year, the boys came up short yesterday evening, losing to the "Puppy Farm" 136.08 to 114.1.

Again, the wide receivers didn't seem to show up, and Brian Westbrook didn't have the best game against the Dallas Cowboys. Brees kept me in the game, along with Williams, but if I can't get points via the receivers (or even the kicker, who didn't score 1 point), it was doomed.

I had thought the "Brovold Curse" would reign again this year, but that seems to only haunt Sean's older brother, Troy. But overall, a great season ... but with less trash talk. We can only hope for 2009 that Mike joins the league once again to provide witty insights into the crazy game of American football.

In the other league that I participate in (via the friends from South Dakota), the Bombers finished at a respectable 9-5 regular season record, but unfortunately lost in the first round of the playoffs by 1 point. Myself, and other included, said that my team was probably going to be the team to beat ... but it just wasn't meant to be. I ended up winning the 5th place game the next week (both leagues have 12 teams each).

Now We're Getting Somewhere

After three months of training at work, I finally got an opportunity to work on a project that will actually be "looked" at by my fellow colleagues.

Sure, I've been working with "real data" before, but that was basically for training purposes. For the first time today, I actually am starting to feel a confidence in what I do as a programmer. I still a long ways to go, but it's slow ... but sure.

WHY I'M ANGRY TODAY:

Lack of sleep (HUH) & bad Christmas ham.

Holiday Plans

It all depends on what the weather does...

Last weekend, we were supposed to have the "Jensen"-side come down to our little neck of the woods to hang out with my mother's side of the family. But due to the wonderful blizzard and sub-freezing temperatures, but that cancelled. Instead, it was just the four of us, including Dan -- who tackled a 20 lb. Hillshire ham plus all the fixings.

We even almost convinced Dad to open up gifts, since we just had a big meal and all. But Scrooge himself hadn't finished his own shopping, so we'll just have to wait until Thursday.

The family will probably have to hit church up (I consider myself a "CEO" -- Christmas Easter Only) on Wednesday night and Thursday we will have the opportunity to open our gifts.

But only then, does it get a little exciting.

This upcoming weekend we will drive to Waconia for the "Eye" Family Christmas, complete with our lutefisk and lefse (leave the jello fish). Afterwards, Dan and I are spending the night in the TC area because we're hitting up a crucial Vikings/NY Giants football game. All I can hope for is more better weather, so we can at least make it there.

Earlier this year, an old high school friend and I made the trip to Minneapolis to see the Vikings play the Detroit Lions. Yeesh ... I really cannot tell you much about that game -- take a guess. All I can remember was yelling "Fire Childress!" and had to deal with a flat tire on our way there (with the "pimp van").

But this time, I'll stay sober and cheer on the boys on Purple, sportin' the Jared Allen jersey.

As for New Year's ... no plans as of yet. I've already made my contacts in Sioux Falls, but I haven't heard much from them yet. I spent the last New Year's there and it was a blast -- considering that I had forgotten that South Dakota hadn't passed the "no smoking in public places" law and I ended up getting sick. Sure, it's easy to blame it all on the Morgans that evening, but when that cigarette smoke hits my pink and healthy lungs ... yuck.

I'll keep my options open. I've already taken off January 2 (Friday), so I'll have a nice long weekend to recover.

What ... A White Christmas?

I simply cannot remember a time during the Christmas holiday in which we've had such a significant snowfall. Sure, we've gotten dumped on before, but usually it warms up to a certain point and the snow basically melts away.

I can remember periods of cold, wintry weather when I was back in high school. Everybody had a snowmobile (plus the running war of which make was better: Polaris vs. Arctic Cat vs. Ski-Doo) and it was common that some students would drive their sleds into school.

The past five or so years have been dry, but it's nice now that we've got a large amount of snow to make the holidays seem like the holidays. I could care less about the cold and the damned wind chill -- that shit just sucks.

What I am looking forward to is the possibility of four-wheeling down the river this winter, in which it has become a tradition amongst some of the HomeTown residents. My Dad just recently bought a Polaris 500 this year and yee ... going to haul some ass.

I just need to buy a newer helmet...

TonyTimes Goes Public

Ever since the inception of TonyTimes in 2005 (the re-birth of the blog itself), it has been basically kept under wraps. Only a handful of people out there knew about TonyTimes, namely the closest of friends. But now, I've provided a link to this from my Facebook profile.

I just decided, what the hell. A lot of it is just stupid stuff, ranging from my every day life, my career paths, and my gaming. It'll probably not catch on too quickly and I'm not looking for popularity, but I just figured it was time to open up ... just a little bit more.

Also, with Crash Productions, Inc. back in full-swing, I'll be also posting videos on this blog (via YouTube).

Enjoy.

...what next...

I'm not talking about the state of TonyTimes ... I'm talking about the man himself.

I can sit here, watch football, and breathe deeply and think that I'm totally content with my own life. I'm under a roof (thank goodness, especially with the damn -40 degree wind chill), I've got a good career, but all at the same time ... I'm just not happy with life.

As my family and my closest of friends know, my life hasn't gone the way of a fairy tale. I don't want to sit here and feel sorry for myself ... I made my bed, I made my own decisions that have decided the outcome of my life up to this point. But fuck ... I just wish I had made better decisions along the way, including taking risks that I should've taken.

My main point is this: if you see something or someone that comes along ... and it's just plain good ... don't brush it off like it's nothing. No matter what the obstacles are, you grab that and you don't let it go. Only then, you will feel rewarded.

I'm just stuck in a position now that I let something go ... yes, impossible -- to say the least -- but fuck ... it could have been worth it. I've seen so many shitty things in my life that I know when I see something good.

But again ... a mistake was made. Now all I have is the wisdom from that mistake and store it away... an uphill battle ...

CPI Update: Going On-Line

I've finally decided that over a year since it's inital debut: The Owl Garden: A Retrospective will be posted on the Internet.

It was something that I was strongly against, but then I figured, what the hell. Sean actually gave me the idea of just putting one of the more popular musical montages on YouTube, but now, I think I'm going to put the whole thing on there.

I'm going to have to split it up into 10 minute sections, because that's what YouTube will only allow. It's going to be a great undertaking, because I'm going to have to re-record it off the DVD (I never saved or backed-up the production files -- which I regret), so it'll be time consuming. Hopefully by this weekend, I'll have a few parts up and running. From then on, I'll post those videos (via YouTube) on Facebook.

I talked to Mike about it last weekend and he cordially gave me the thumbs up. We're good to go ... going on-line!

Lame -- Death to TonyTimes?

I actually logged back on to see when the last post was: September 24, 2008. Wow, almost 3 months ago.

I had thought I blogged back in October, but whoops ... guess not. Or even gave a report on my new career path. Nope. Nothing. Lame.

Well, to give you the quick 411 on my current life (hopefully there are people out there who actually read this), I'm currently working as a computer programmer for an insurance company. I'm almost three months into the job, and simply put, I love it.

When I started, I had no experience in programming COBOL, but now, I've come a long ways. I still don't know all about programming (and don't pretend to) and I still need to know the insurance business (which I will be taking company-paid courses in the future), but everything slow, but sure.

No more drama of the classroom, no more politics amongst the teachers and the administration, no more backstabbing between the district and its taxpayers.

Now, I have a straight up job. I'm told what to do and I do it. In a couple years, I will do it well.

As far as the death to TonyTimes, it's not quite flat-lining, but it's close. I usually just sit there and reflect on the day and think, "damn, I post something ...", but the motivation is quickly lost. Time constraints and fatigue have contributed to the downfall, but after repeated attempts of bringing it back, I'm just not fulfilling my own promises.

I only know a handful of you actually check this out, but due to its sparse-ness, probably no one even bothers. I don't blame you.

But I have to include the disclaimer: I'm going to keep it alive as long I stay busy. In the meantime, I'm going to watch The Dark Knight on Blu-Ray. Yee.