Jmoney Rambles

OK first off I’d like to say FUCK YOU PHONE! USELESS PIECE OF SHIT! I blame myself for a lot of my phone problems. I just HAD to get free GPS. I just HAD to find a way to get more out of the battery. So I fucked my phone up real good. I sent it in for repair. I was told it was fixable not only by the service rep on the speakerphone but by multiple people on message boards. I mean if you can’t trust faceless phone nerds then who can you trust? Well my phone came back yesterday (after 19 days away for a 10 minute job) and looked to be working. The firmware was put back to Bell from Verizon. Even my storage card was intact with all my contact info. Things were looking up for me. Let’s check Twitter. Hmm… the Internet seems to be sucking a dick. Well let’s wait a few hours because sometimes there’s that weird activation turnover shit. Nope… the EV-DO network is shot. 3G Smartphone without the 3G. Yeah that’s not going down. So today I called support and we go through a bunch of troubleshooting that I already did myself through trial and error. Oh wait… support’s version wiped my storage card too. WELL FUCK ME! So now my phone is shot and the one thing I was holding onto in my contacts is gone too. Now I’m at an impasse. Do I throw this thing against the wall and buy an Iphone 3GS, Omnia II or Omnia HD next month? Do I send this thing in for repair a second time and hope they don’t fuck it up? The only thing I know for sure is I have to drop another $25 to put my digits back on my Double Flip for the second time in a month.

The trip to Ohio was the typical great time. This was my third Seasons Beatings tournament. The promoters/organizers never cease to amaze me with their ability to keep their event growing. This year they flew in the SFIV World Champion from Japan for an exhibition match with the SFIV North American Champion. The result drew a far bigger attendance that anyone could have figured. They actually had to cap attendance at the venue to avoid fire code infractions. The drive wasn’t so bad (six hours + time for border/stops) and it was an easy 2 days of gaming/drinking/eating. I was very happy with my performance. I put in some real time upgrading my game after months of basically not caring about whether I won or lost. I finished up 17th out of a full 256 person bracket. I can live with that result. I was a round away from placing top 16 but lost to a great player out of Detroit (he beat me in both winners and losers bracket). On an unrelated note, I couldn’t believe the amount of crap that I put in my system over the weekend. The US fast food/restaurant industry is designed to kill you with deliciousness. Everything is priced right out of value town too. After last week where I took pride in dropping 75lbs over the last year, I’m sure I put on 5 – 7 pounds in a weekend. Off the top of my head I would have eaten at McDonalds, Raising Cain’s (menu is entirely based around fried chicken strips), Bob Evans (Godly breakfast place), Taco Bell, Sonic’s, Momo’s (saltiest chicken wings I’ve ever eaten), random Truck Stop Pizza, and The Olive Garden. On top of that I went through 12 beers on Saturday night. This morning was the first time in ages where I’ve actually been too scared to step on a scale. My body is in complete shut down mode as I continue to feel sleepy despite getting tons of sleep on my day off yesterday trying to recover. This is going to take a while to work off.

I had a chance to get caught up on a bit of TV…

GREY’S ANATOMY S6E6
This show continues to hit home run after home run. I was blindsided by Izzy’s firing. What shocked me is the writers went the complete opposite route for her departure than you’d figure. When I heard that Katherine Heigl was leaving I figured she’d get a relapse of her cancer and pass on in a big emotional mess. This was NOTHING like I figured. They basically propped her up as someone who wants to see the best in people. Then over the course of an hour they made her look stupid, then humiliated her, then made sure she knew that her peers thought she wasn’t cut out to work and THEN fired her. I mean… WOW! I’m surprised she wasn’t written to kill herself when it was all said and done. Her leaving in this manner leaves obvious room for her to return in guest roles or resume a permanent role if she wants to. I’m personally not a fan of her character and haven’t been since the Denny story back in Season 2 so it’s no loss for me personally. Good riddance if anything. On a side note, I’m glad they’re injecting new blood into the cast. The sort of fat guy proved to be a world class asshole and I’m always down with that. The other three are too generic for me to care based off one episode. Hopefully they all get fleshed out so I have something new to latch onto. Christina pleading and crying into a sick Meredith completes her total drop from the cloud 9 that was Burke’s girlfriend/right hand woman 3 years ago to hitting the depths of hell that is being robbed of her surgery by her own current boyfriend. I was shocked to hear them mention Burke’s name. I PRAY that they’re bringing back Isaiah Washington now that TR Knight is no longer on the cast. Burke is so Godly and this show needs a cardiac surgeon (OK they don’t but I want Burke back).

HOUSE S6E6
Before I get started I’m forced to ask: What was the point of the Kumar/Jew/13 team? I mean they put the original team on the backburner for TWO YEARS! Was it an experiment to see if they could run 2 crews? Was the original point to fuse the old and new teams? It only hit me yesterday that they’re permanently going back to the original formula they dropped at the start of season 4. The last 2 seasons, while fantastic in its writing, seem completely pointless now. In any case, this was standard House formula stuff from a patient perspective. I’m not sure where they’re going with the Chase vs his concience storyline but I get the feeling Jesse Spencer is not long for this show. Unless they have an absolutely genius method of absolving him of killing James Earl Jones, they’ve put themselves into a creative corner. House’s progression into becoming a normal human being is continuing on its steady heart warming pace. His speaking to his dead father and subsequent yelling at Wilson was touching stuff.

HEROES S6E6
This season has been all kinds of awesome from the get go. They threw out the “shock TV” in favour of season 1′s slow built “it’s all connected” storytelling. It works so much better. It’s a shame they’ve lost so many viewers experimenting with the other style of writing because those viewers would really appreciate what they’re missing now. Robert Knepper plays scummy villain better than anyone on television right now. I love that he carries this aura of being a family leader while fucking with everyone’s head. Sylar’s slow turn into a villain again is progressing nicely. I’m curious to see what happens when he eventually makes the full turn. He’s a power addict in a carnival inhabited by people with powers. There’s no way he just lets all the sheep wander around with no slaughter. If anything what I’m hoping for is Sylar vs The Entire Carnival in an epic showdown to end the first half of the season. Hiro’s slow progress towards death doesn’t look like it’ll have a happy ending. You don’t go through all this “fix all the wrongs” stuff just to keep him going. That being said, I won’t mind if he’s killed off. He was my favourite character at the start of this show’s run and he’s been played for comic relief at every step instead of the bad ass they hinted at during season 1. The rest was throwaway material but nothing that made me roll my eyes.

Tomorrow thoughts on Smallville (which I haven’t watched yet) and a few other random thoughts that have been on my mind of late but haven’t had a chance to write down.