JBox Fridays: Tainted Love - Soft Cell

AHHHHH!!! Large floating head in space!!! Seriously, while some of the previous videos have been pretty bad, this one goes the route of boring. I mean really boring...shoot, I'd rather they redid it with clips from the Coneheads movie just to make it better. If you don't know what i'm talking about, go check out that movie...it will all make sense...still, Soft Cell has a pretty catchy chorus in this song...

YouTube search link

My Awesome Friends - Part II

Jesse's 30th Birthday Party - Part 02 Set, originally uploaded by HandPuppet.


Why have a 30th birthday celebration when you can have 2? Well, as circumstances would have it, I had asked some peeps to hangout on Saturday night to celebrate my birthday. But some had already planned to do something for me on friday, as I mentioned in my previous post. So I got super lucky and in the end had an awesome weekend because of it. Above are some pics that Sung took for Saturday. Enjoy!

My Awesome Friends - Part I

I'm now officially not a 20something anymore. But if this past weekend is any indication, it doesn't matter. My friends came out in a way I never could have imagined. While my birthday did not officially start until midnight Sunday morning, some of my friends had other plans...check out Sung's recap of this past Friday on his blog:

Sung's Not-*that*-Unemployed Life (really)

JBox Fridays: The Human League - Don't You Want Me Baby

If you can make it through the whole video without joining in on the chorus, i'll be impressed. As far as the video goes, I'm still trying to figure out what was with the whole vampire look. hmmm...One more bit about the band, The Human League is still together! whoa! I'll have to go searching around to hear what their latest releases sound like. I can't imagine what they would sound like in a non 80's synthpop kinda way...

YouTube search link

Oh man, it's almost here...

Ok, so this isn't exactly the birthday I'd say I just can't wait for...Actually, I don't mind waiting at all! take your time! I was thinking about it recently...mainly to start the year off. I think I kind of went through a depressed phase thinking about all the personal goals I had setup for myself while growing up. For a while there, I felt pretty sad thinking I failed in some aspects.

Wasn't I supposed to be married with kids by now? Shouldn't I be some big shot in the corporate world? Shouldn't I be gearing up for the next "stage" of my life? Did I screw up somewhere? Did I make a right turn when it should have been left?

It's all BS though. The things I thought were "important milestones" are not things that should define me to this point. They're just things I thought I needed back when I was a kid. What the hell did I know, right? I've done so many things that I never dreamed I would do already and I still have a long life to go (hopefully).

and now for the cheesy bit...

I really do gush over the peeps in my life...my family is really close and even though I'm a good 1700 miles away from them, they have never ever made me feel distant. Anyone who has seen me around them can attest to how happy they make me. I have some pretty awesome friends both here in seattle and around the country too...shoot, they're my extended family...

Each year, I've been able to count on the fact that i'll meet new great people...learn more things at work...explore a little more of the world through my travels...shoot what the hell was I getting depressed about? bring on the big three zero and with that a new great year!

JBox Fridays: Yaz - Don't Go

Now I KNOW you didn't think I was going to forget about today being Friday! Well for the one of you still reading my blog, here's today's music video pic. I don't really have anything interesting to say about the video, but I will point out two things that pop into my head when i watch it:

1. The guy needs a SERIOUS haircut
2. I always thought the lead singer was a guy for some reason

So, on another note, I'm going to start adding links to search for these songs as YouTube has started systematically removing music videos from their site. I'll get into my anger towards that in another post. But, for the meantime, here the link.

Still fuming...

A friend just emailed me this with the subject header: "Warning: Do not read until bitterness subsides". Well, I read it anyway, and I'm kinda glad I did. Check out the new fan club inspired by our famous Chicago QB, Rex Grossman. Apparently, my friend saw this pic in a message board forum *before* yesterday's game. Rex is a dumb dumb and he deserves all the criticism he gets. To bad there isn't a "Can't Handle Snaps Anonymous" club out there for him to join...grrrrr....

Chicago Sports Weekend - Day 3

sigh :(

Chicago Sports Weekend - Day 2

On Saturday, a group of us drove down to Portland to do some shopping and catch the Bulls play in Portland. Well, if I thought Friday night's game was nerve racking, it was nothing compared to what would happen on Saturday night. Our seats were the exact opposite of what we had the night before. We were literally the 4th to last row in the stadium. It was so high that if we looked straight ahead rather than down, we would look at the BACKS of some of the scoreboards. Wow...but to be fair, our tickets were only $10, so what do you expect?

The game was ugly all around. Both teams shot terribly to start the game. The Bulls only scored 12 points in the first quarter and seemed lucky to get that. They went on a tear during the 2nd quarter and it looked like this was going to be a blowout. But, they went cold in the 3rd quarter and back came the Blazers. The 4th quarter was extremely tight. The Bulls ended up getting some key stops on defense and Ben Gordon (33 points) nailed some key free throws to put the game away. In the end, the Bulls walked away with an 88-86 win. Whew!

Chicago Sports Weekend - Day 1

What a way to set off the weekend! We arrived at Key Arena about 25 minutes before game time. We had awesome seats thanks to Harold's girlfriend. She got him tickets to the game for Christmas and he, in turn, let me tag along. Lucky me! :o) Anyway, I showed up wearing a Bulls ballboy shirt. So, when the local staff were handing out game day programs to everyone in the lower seats, they tried their best to pretend they didn't see us. So much that they put the programs on empty seats rather than give them to us:

IMG_2815.JPG, originally uploaded by IlliniJester.

Well we ended up getting their attention and took some programs. But they didn't look happy about it. Whatever! Now, as awesome as our seats were, check out the phat tickets Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer scored:

IMG_2839.JPG, originally uploaded by IlliniJester.

Yep, that's right...those seats are literally on the Bulls team bench. His son was wearing a Ben Wallace jersey from when he was with the Detroit Pistons. Come on Steve, you telling me you couldn't afford to buy him an updated jersey?? Perhaps even a nice shiny jersey like Kirk Hinrich was wearing?

IMG_2862.JPG, originally uploaded by IlliniJester.

Hinrich ended up having a great game. You could just see he was feeling it that night. Final stat line for kirk: 20 points, 9 assists, 4 rebounds, 3 steals. More importantly, he did all that while trying to guard Ray Allen. His backcourt co-starter, Ben Gordon, had a quieter night:

IMG_2872.JPG, originally uploaded by IlliniJester.

Ben would end up saving one of his great performances for another day. But still, it wasn't too bad of a night for him: 12 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, 1 steal. Well, since we're at the halfway point of this post, it's only appropriate to introduce the Sonics' cheerleaders who posed very well for us:

IMG_2886.JPG, originally uploaded by IlliniJester.

Yeah, sadly I have to say that their cheerleaders blow the Bulls' cheeleaders away. Ok, back to the game...the star of the night for the Bulls was Luol Deng (#9):

IMG_2863.JPG, originally uploaded by IlliniJester.

Perhaps getting snubbed about going to the All Star game upset him? Check out this "non-All Star" stat line: 27 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal. Yeah, clearly average stuff. As far as the rookies went, we did get to see some of Tyrus Thomas:

IMG_2877.JPG, originally uploaded by IlliniJester.

He didn't play a whole lot, but there was definitely one play that just had Harold and me shaking our heads. He jumped up from what looked like behind the backboard...contorted his body back around it and tried to lay the ball in. Way too hard to describe but believe me...it was an amazing show of athleticism. And now, on to the best part...the final score:

IMG_2895.JPG, originally uploaded by IlliniJester.

The game was a nail biter but our boys pulled it out. So I go back to what I stated at the start of the post: What a way to start the weekend!

JBox Fridays: Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Relax

Oh boy, where do I start with this one. Well, even if you weren't a child of the 80's, you may still remember this song after it made an appearance on the movie Zoolander. Didn't see it? You should! The movie's hilarious! In the movie, they brainwash Zoolander to the tune of this song:


Anyway, getting back on track here...one of the reasons why I picked this genre of music was to see how truly ridiculous some of the videos could be. Well, this one just left me speechless. Well, no not really since I'm "talking" to you about it right now. Apparently they made two versions of this video. The one I embedded above is the second one. Here's a not so safe for work version. If you want a hint as to the content of the video without clicking on the link, let's just say it wouldn't surprise me if this is still a favorite in gay bars...

Anticipation...

Sigh....I missed it when the Illini went to the Final Four...I missed it when the White Sox won the World Series...and now da Bears are in the Superbowl and again I'm missing "it". That is, the energy that is spilling out of everywhere in Chicago right now. Check out the pic my sister just sent me this morning! Again...sigh...but still....GO BEARS!

UPDATE: Oooooh!! more pics from another sister!! Enjoy (click on any of the pics to see a larger version)!