Aces and Eights (Jason Marsell): Blog

Spring in NYC

Wed, 14 May 2008 23:13:04 GMT

This past week, I was fortunate enough to journey to the big city for a SQL Server 2008 lab, and ended up flying Ami out for the weekend.

People keep asking us what we did, and I really don't have much of an answer other than eating a lot of great food and staying out of Times-Square. Oh, and we took a ton of pictures.

Here is my photo journal of our weekend in New York City.

We stayed at the Hilton Times Square, which aside from being in Times Square (yuk), it was a really nice hotel. We had a corner room on the 41st floor. It was super quiet and the views were amazing.

We ate at Grimaldi's Pizzeria, directly under the Brooklyn Bridge. Wicked good pizza. Similar to Lombardi's, with the Naples fresh-mozzarella style. I won't say that it was better than Lombardi's, but it was definitely as good.

We got some great pictures of the skyline, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Grand Central Station, Chrysler Tower, and a handful of other places.

Before Ami arrived, I went to Peanut Butter & Company and got "The Elvis".

"The Elvis" is a grilled peanut Butter sandwich, stuffed with bananas and honey - topped with bacon slices. It sounds nasty, but it was absolutely delicious.

Oh, also, I went to Hello Deli one day and was served by Rupert. Rupert is always on the David Letterman show.

On Mother's Day, we went into Madison Square Park to try the Shake Shack. Seriously, this place's burgers were better than In 'N Out Burger. (which, if you know me, you know is my favorite)

I went by the Today Show taping, one morning and saw Al Roker and the rest of the gang, out in the courtyard area.

Then, Ami and I went to the Chelsea Market and saw the Food Network studios as well as a ton of great stores and bakeries. Amazing building full of tons of hidden treasures.

All in all, it was a great trip. The weather was terrible, but we were so happy to be in New York that we made the best of it. We ate like little piggies and had a blast!

Dominick Joseph Sciortino III

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 02:26:09 GMT

Most of you know that my sister Jen (best sissy in the whole world) is pregnant. She was scheduled for her c-section, last Thursday, so my mom flew down to Baton Rouge and my dad and Deb drove down from Atlanta. Last Monday, I was able to book tickets, and decided to not tell any of them. (I like surprises -- ask Tiff & Trev)

Unfortunately, Aim had to stay in Denver, since her sister Jen was just arriving in town to visit for the weekend. :(

I took plenty of pictures, and called with a ton of updates.

I arrived in Baton Rouge Thursday afternoon, and after shocking my dad and Dominick, they secretly rushed me back to the prep room, and we popped the big surprise on my sister, who was about 5 minutes from being wheeled into the operating room. She, my mom, and Deb nearly died when I walked in the door. Everybody was crying - it was awesome. Perfectly executed surprise.

Four hours later, all 20 of us Marsells, Sciortinos, Hirschfelds, Bellangers, McQuiddys, etc..rushed in to meet the beautiful Dominick Joseph Sciortino III. We call him "Nick". He was born Thursday February 28th at 4:56pm, tipping the scales at 7lbs. 11ozs. and he is perfect. My godson is absolutely perfect...I was a gushing uncle, and still am. I was jumping at the opportunity to change dirty diapers, and hold him.

Jen is doing great, as is Dominick. They are so happy. We are all so happy, and we're so excited that we got to meet and spend time with what will most certainly end up the most loved baby boy in Baton Rouge.

Congratulations, Jen Bear, and thank you for allowing me to be part of three of the greatest days of my life. You and Dominick are the perfect couple, and now have a perfect addition to the family.

p.s. - for those of you who thought I'd come back to Denver immediately ready to have a baby, you're wroooong. I knew my will power would win out.

And, here's some video I shot on Friday night:

Now (Officially) A Celebrity

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 04:27:25 GMT

I was on TV, tonight! I know...pretty cool, huh?

Our neighborhood (San Rafael) has been fighting to protect our zoning against big buildings and apartment complexes for just over a year. I enthusiastically joined the march last year, and after rounds of meetings, petition signings and yard signs everywhere, our City Council Meeting was finally tonight. Over 50 neighbors attended the meeting, and 26 agreed to get up in front of the city council and talk about our neighborhood needed to be protected. I volunteered, jotted down a few notes, and jumped up and spoke. It was totally fun!

The bill passed unanimously, and the wonderfully historic neighborhood of San Rafael is now protected by the OD-9 Overlay. Yay, us!

If you're looking for an autograph, contact my publicist at: baron_the_wonderdog@marsell.com.

iPhone Fanboy

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 04:01:45 GMT

As you may or may not know, the iPhone is was only available in an 8GB model. I waited until Christmas, hoping that Apple would announce a 16GB model. No go. That's fair - I'll wait until MacWorld in January 2008. I'm sure they'll announce a 16GB iPhone, then. Still no go. Hmmm, okay, it looks like it's gonna be a while. My T-Mobile contract is up, my Blackberry is dying, maybe I'll just suck it up and get an 8GB iPhone to hold me over until Fall, when they unleash a 16GB model.

So last Tuesday I suck it up and buy an 8GB iPhone.

This morning, Apple makes the announcement that a 16GB iPhone is available to the public.

So, after a $100 upgrade and a $40 restocking fee, I'm the proud owner of a 16GB iPhone. If there's any technology that you're wanting to come out, and don't want to wait any longer for, just give me the money to buy it's previous version. That'll guarantee you that the new version will be released one week later.

Okay, back to the point. Having played with an 8GB for just under a week, I absolutely love this electronic piece of heaven. I ride the light rail to work in the mornings, and all of a sudden, I'm wishing my ride was longer than 7 minutes. Why didn't I have one of these when I lived 35 minutes from work.

On one single device, in a span of about 10 minutes, I can do all of the following:

- Send a text message to Ami and tell her I love her

- Take a picture of the bum passed out in the seat across from me

- Email that picture to ten friends (or at least Tiff)

- GPS my exact location on Google Maps, so I know exactly how close I live to my office

- Watch 1.5 minutes of an episode of The Office Season Three

- Listen to 30 seconds of my favorite Hillary Duff song

- Check the weather of Denver, Big Canoe, Playa Del Carmen, and Paris

- View my calendar items for the day so I know how many pointless meetings I have to attend

- Watch a YouTube video of Baron tearing through my living room

- Browse to ANY website on the internet and view their (non-mobile) version of the page

Yeah, it's that great. I love this thing. Is it the best gadget I've ever bought? I'm gonna say that it's right up there with my first MP3 Player and my Xbox 360, so pretty close. If you haven't played with one yet, stop by the Apple store and get addicted.

HD DVD vs. Blu-ray War

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 20:33:51 GMT

Happy Thursday! If you are considering selling an HD DVD player on eBay, you'd better get it listed today.

Universal HD DVD contract expires
HBO Hops on Blu Bandwagon

(and most importantly, from last week)
Warner Bros. Picks Blu-ray

Honestly, I'm not sure how HD DVD could rebound from this chain of losses. It's not an official victory, yet, but I'd consider this one a foregone conclusion.

As an owner of both Blu-ray and HD DVD, I really didn't care which one won the war, so long as the war ended. Looks like we're getting close.

The Amazing Baron

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 04:56:18 GMT

Our newest addition to the family has arrived! Check out Ami's blog for the details.

Avalanche vs. Red Wings 12/27/07

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 06:23:30 GMT

I got Dave and I tickets to the 12/27 Avalanche vs. Red Wings game, for Christmas. It was a tough loss. The Avs stuck right with them, for most of the game. The big red wheel just outplayed us.

The seats were some of the best in the arena - Section 124, Row 2, Seats 1 and 2. As you can see from the pictures, we were probably 5ft. from the players.

Oh yeah, and will somebody tell me when so many Red Wings fans arrived in Denver. I go to almost one Wings game a season, and I've never seen that many fans in red before.

Ami Reacts to 2 Girls, 1 Cup

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 18:56:03 GMT

Disclaimer: If you go and find the video, you're on your own. Good luck and may God have mercy on your soul.

Flogging Molly Live

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 18:26:43 GMT

Saturday night was one of those nights where if we'd still lived in Highlands Ranch, we'd have just stayed home. It was dumping snow, and the streets had accumulated over 4 inches, so driving was an emergency-only proposition.

Fortunately, we live downtown now. The Flogging Molly concert started at 8pm, and there were two opening acts. So, at 9:00, we threw on our parkas and the boots and trudged out into the silent, empty streets with one destination in mind. The Fillmore Auditorium at Colfax and Clarkson. We live on 23rd and Emerson, which is one block over and eight blocks up. Piece of cake. We walked two blocks and flagged down a fishtailing, smoke-ridden cab. :)

We arrived, and the second opening band was just finishing up. We hit the bar for two MGDs and two shots of Jager, and just hung out and talked until the sound check was over. We moved up to the first 1/3 of the hall, and squeezed our way into a pack of kids, right in front of the soundboard. When the band came out, the sound and view was perfect - not too close, to mistakenly end up in the mosh pit and not too far, to not be able to see their faces.

If you've never been to The Fillmore Auditorium in Denver, you really have to see it to believe it. It was my first ever concert there, and the place was massive. I'm used to going to shows at The Gothic and The Ogden and The Aztlan, where everyone is crammed into about 2,000 square feet. The Fillmore holds thousands of people and used to be an indoor sports facility. It's standing room only, and the standing area rests beneath giant glass chandeliers, bathed in purple light. It's an amazing venue.

The concert was amazing. They played every one of our favorite songs, which never seems to happen at concerts anymore. They played "Seven Deadly Sins" as the encore song, which was the first Flogging Molly song I had ever heard and one of my very favorite songs. The sound was tight and every chord was legible - every beat on the accordion was clean. They played a total of about 20 songs, and they were all hits. It was like listening to a live album.

I've been to alot of concerts over the years, from Rush to Ice Cube to Nirvana to George Benson to The Exploited to Wu Tang Clan to Jimmy Eat World to Circle Jerks to Outkast to Earl Klugh to Boyz II Men to Fugazi and on and on and on. The Flogging Molly show was definitely in the top five.

A Fallen Friend

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 20:48:42 GMT

I had a bad feeling, yesterday, when my boss Linc grabbed my arm and asked me if I could come into the board room for a minute. The first thing that popped into my mind was that someone on the team had given their notice. I wish it had been that.

Aaron P., one of my friends, and one of our team of developers had committed suicide. He hadn't been to work in a few days, and a good friend (and other co-worker) went to check on him and found him.

I was just starting to get to know Aaron, as our paths really just started to cross from some workgroups that we were in together. At first, I (admittedly) didn't get along with him because we were both strong personalities and in my experience, cocky guys don't always get along well with other cocky guys. Aaron was cocky, but that was cool because Aaron was smart and could back it up. He was young, so we all just kind of knew that he was proving himself, and he did. He was the kind of developer that always knew the cutting edge tools, way before you did. And you'd just sit in a meeting with him and nod, as though you'd heard of this killer app too, while secretly writing down it's name so you could research it when you got back to your desk. Believe me, I was guilty of doing this more than once.

So, now he's gone. And my heart hurts for the pain he must've felt that drove him to this. Those of you who know me well know that I've not had a favorable history with loved ones and suicide. I hate it. I hate it's essence and I hate that good people are so tortured inside that they fall by it.

My thoughts are with Aaron's family and his closest of friends. Especially his four-year-old son. His dad was a good man.

Mission TV Mount Accomplished

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 16:29:41 GMT

This is kind of cool. I got a wall mount for our new TV and my good friend Austin helped me mount it last night. It's articulating, so we can turn the TV towards the kitchen when we're cooking. It also lies flat against the wall, when you're sitting in front of it.

It took us about 2 hours total to mount it. I think both of our hearts nearly stopped when we hung the TV and about thirty seconds later, one of the wall bolts pulled out of the wall. Yikes. Apparently, we had sunk the bolt into the edge of a stud, and it didn't have a full grip. Thank God we found it when we did, or Ami and I would've had a rude awakening at about midnight.

Our New House!

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 01:30:32 GMT

We bought a house! Our closing is this coming Wednesday and we'll move in next weekend.

It is less than a mile from Lodo ("Lower Downtown Denver"), and walking distance to all of the buildings, restaurants, sports arenas and bars.

Here's a map, showing it's proximity -- the location is absolutely amazing.

We were very fortunate to buy in this terrible real estate market, because we got a brand new 3,000 square foot home in downtown. It was a headache selling our Highlands Ranch house, but it was SO worth it.

By the way, when you look at the exterior picture, below, we're on the right-hand side. The next door unit is owned by the builder, and from what I hear, it's a beast, at just over 4,000 square feet!

Come see us, we can walk to a Broncos game! Or Six Flags Elitch Gardens. Or an Avalanche game. Or the Denver Pavillions. Or the Art Museum. Or a Rockies game. Or the Zoo.

You get the point. :)

Goodbye Willowick House

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 00:12:41 GMT

After five years, we are officially moved out of our Willowick house, in Highlands Ranch. A team of eight of us loaded up all of our belongings into a POD unit, did a final cleaning, and moved out at roughly 4pm.

It was a little bit emotional, doing our final walkthrough and seeing "our home" completely empty. Those of you who have been through it before will surely understand. When you finally close the door and shut the garage door for the very last time, the lump in the throat wells up. Maybe it's just because it was our first home...maybe it was because we were thoroughly exhausted, but driving away was certainly harder than I think either of us imagined.

But we did it. And we're moved in to our temporary home base, which is a Lodo condo, off of 27th and Blake. We are a stone's throw from Coors Field, and directly across the street from Ami's work. It's kind of cool being directly in the heart of the city. I've always lived in the 'burbs, so this is an entirely new experience for me. I'm excited - it's a taste of what's to come.

So, where does that leave us, now? Well the computer is up and running, the condo is fully furnished, and I'm about to hook up my Xbox 360, so life can go completely back to normal.

Come visit us. The location is fantastic!

Europe, Part II

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 03:21:18 GMT

Paris was beautiful!

We arrived on a bright and sunny evening, only to find out that sunset in Paris is around 10:30pm. Ami looks over at me, while we're eating crepes, and says, "What time do you think it is?" I guessed 7pm, only to find out it was nearly 10:15pm...not a big deal, just really weird, when you're used to an 8:30 sunset.

Our hotel was really close to the subway station, the Champs Elysees (say it with me - shawz elizay) and the Arc de Triomphe. We went up the Arc de Triomphe our first night, and the view of Paris was spectacular. We took tons of pictures of the Eiffel Tower, and just watched the city sparkle underneath us.

The next day, we took a boat ride down the Seine, visited the Eiffel Tower, and went on a hunt for what was supposedly the most amazing coconut ice cream on earth. We found it, a block from Notre Dame, and it truly was the richest, coconuttiest ice cream we'd ever eaten. There was shredded coconut blended right into the ice cream.

Oh, time out. I have to tell you about the Eiffel Tower. If you've never been there, as I hadn't, you probably have an image in your mind of how big it is. And, until you actually stand directly under it, you have no idea. It is absolutely massive. I must've snapped about 20 shots from underneath the tower, simply because I was in such awe of the size. (see pics, below)

Next day, we spent about an hour in the Louvre. It was amazingly busy, and we were somewhat "arted-out", from all of the museums we visited in London. We hit five major sites at the Louvre:

1.) Mona Lisa (overrated, in my opinion)

2.) Venus de Milo

3.) Winged Victory of Samothrace

4.) Death of Socrates

5.) Mezzanine Bathrooms

After that, we blazed, for a lunch of baguettes with meat and cheese and crepes. Okay, while I'm talking about food, here's my story of crepes in Paris. Most of the busier areas have crepe stands, with fresh hot crepes. These are the only way to go - line or not, it's worth the wait. You can get a variety of toppings, from sweets to meats to just sugar. Ami's favorite was the lemon and sugar crepe, or sucre' aux limon. My favorite was the chocolate hazelnut crepe, or crepe nutella. Honest-to-God, we ate a crepe after every meal except one, in Paris.

Day four was spent at Disneyland Paris. As a thirty year Disneyphile, it was one of my favorite days of the trip. Stay tuned for a posting devoted just to this. It was a blast.

Finally, we took a leisurely stroll day, at the end of the trip. We happened upon a cemetery in the center of town. It was cool, but somewhat small and cluttered. I remembered hearing that Jim Morrison was buried in Paris, so I hit my trusty Blackberry, and we were off to the Pere' Lachaise cemetery. Buried within are Oscar Wilde, Frederik Chopin, Georges Seurat, Jim Morrison and many other famous Europeans. It was unbelievable. As you'll see, in the pictures below, the architecture was unbelievable and the entire cemetery was a photographer's heaven. I think Ami must've snapped 20 or 30 pictures within just one row of mausoleums.

All in all, we ate like pigs, walked like dogs, and really enjoyed each other's company in this wonderful city. I know I've missed some highlights that I'll just have to tell you about in person. Paris was a beautiful city full of friendly people that were eager to help a couple of Americans who were trying to speak their language and enjoy their customs. The city of lights was a great ending to a wonderful trip to Europe!

Europe, Part I

Mon, 28 May 2007 21:09:49 GMT

We're alive and well in Europe!

As mentioned in my earlier post, we spent the first five days in London. The flight was a piece of cake, as we left Denver at 9pm and flew straight through the night. We slept most of the flight, and arrived into Heathrow at noon on Wednesday.

London was fantastic. After mastering the London Underground (the tube), we were able to move effortlessly around the city, visiting almost every museum and art gallery in the greater London region.

We went to Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, The London Eye, London Bridge, and just about every other big name attraction in London. The only thing we didn't do was visit the Tower of London. I refused to pay $32US (!!) to see the "beefeaters", ravens, and the crown jewels. I think that's close to what we paid for a full day at Disneyland.

Oh yeah, for those of you Harry Potter fans, we went to King's Cross station, which is where they filmed the scenes where the kids boarded the Hogwart's Express, in the movies. They actually had a Platform 9 3/4's, with a baggage cart disappearing into the wall! (See the picture, below)

Overall, we liked London. The british pound is valued notably higher than the US dollar. In essence, the cost to us Americans is roughly DOUBLE. For instance, when you walk into a restaurant and order a coke that costs two pounds, you are basically paying four dollars for that coke. Yikes. London is expensive. Oh yeah, and people in London are in such a hurry. Even New York has never seemed as fast paced (to me) as London. People nearly run on and off the subways to get where they're going.

We are now safely in Paris. A bit exhausted, but still having fun. It's been rainy since we arrived, but beautiful nonetheless. Stay tuned for Part II, with a summary of the Paris portion of the trip.

Au revoir!

Off To Europe!!

Tue, 22 May 2007 04:27:59 GMT

Ten fabulous days and nights in London and Paris!

We leave tomorrow night, at 8:15 (Denver time) on a nonstop flight to London. We'll be in London Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Sunday morning, we take the chunnel train to Paris. We'll be in Paris Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We then head back to London, and fly home Friday afternoon.

All in all, we'll be gone from 5/22 to 6/1. The house is on the market, and hopefully there'll be a handful of showings, while we're gone.

We'll take plenty of pictures...See you in 11 days!

Cabo San Lucas

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 19:11:44 GMT

Cabo was interesting. First off, I have to say, a vacation is a vacation. Regardless of the location, it's always great to get away, and be by the ocean for a few days.

That being said, I don't think I'd ever choose to be by the ocean in Cabo San Lucas, ever again. It is REALLY, really touristy and the local peddlers are over-the-top obnoxious. You can't walk five steps without being harassed by someone selling trinkets, gum, hats, taxi rides, silver, fishing trips, sunset cruises, decorative dinnerware, wooden snakes, braids, meals, or one of a million other things that apparently Americans think they can only find in Mexico.

There's nothing quite like eating breakfast, with a chain of peddlers standing at the foot of your table, shoving silver bracelets in your face.

Other than the constant barrage of harrassment from the local "merchants", it was pretty fun. We did an ATV tour along the oceanside that was totally awesome. Ami and I decided to get separate ATVs, and we had a blast, tearing up and down the beach. You should have seen her flying around on that bike, like a motocross pro...I was totally impressed.

Oh yeah, I ended up pulling an "Evil Kneivel at Caesars" maneuver and flipping my ATV, while being thrown about 10 feet onto the beach. I didn't get knocked out, so fortunately all that was damaged was my pride. That, and the clutch on the bike was a little hosed after I tipped it back over. Glad I bought the insurance! It was a riot, although a little painful.

The food was awesome, too. We ate fish, shrimp, lobster, ceviche, and about every other seafood available for really cheap prices. Most places had beers for $2 and tacos for $2, so we'd sample a whole bunch of different local favorites, and decide which ones were our favorite. If you've never had the chance to try chilaquiles, I highly recommend them. All in all, our eating excursions ended up to be one of the highlights of the trip.

More high-res photos at our Flickr account.

Surpriiiiiise

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 19:54:11 GMT

Back, last November (as I'm told), Tiffany and Ami joined forces to plan a surprise trip to Denver for my birthday. This past Friday, they sprung the surprise on me, and it was perfectly executed.

My office-mate Tony was in on the surprise, and took me to lunch at a Thai restaurant about 10 minutes from the airport. At that same time, Ami picked up Tiffany and Trevor at the airport, and showed up at the Thai restaurant to surprise me. I was completely shocked. In fact, it took me about an hour to just put it all together and make sense of what was going on.

To complete the surprise, Ami notified me that my boss was in on the surprise, and I had been excused from work the rest of Friday and all day Monday. NIIIIICE...three-day weekend with our best friends in the whole world. Again, life is good.

So, in the spirit of my post-Disneyland blog, I'm gonna try and outline the top five moments of the best birthday weekend EVER:

The surprise at Thai Flavor. Tiffany walks up to me, grabs my shoulder, says hi, and I nearly shit my pants .
Dinner at the Melting Pot, including two full glasses of champagne being spilt on Ami and I. (waa waa wee waa)
Sausage-Fest 2007 at Dewey's. Or Dude-ies. Nothing like a parka with the sleeves rolled up.
Superwhite Tuna at John Holly. Told you it was like butta.
The Willowick Circle Wii Bowling Pro-Am Invitational. I think Tiff took the gold in this year's festivities.

Thank you Tiff and Trevor for using your free Southwest ticket to come out and make it an amazing weekend. And, thank you for spending several thousand dollars on meals, this past weekend. "$140 for chicken fried rice!!???"

Also, thank you to my co-workers who played along to preserve the surprise. Thank you to my sister for the giftcard to Melting Pot.

And most importantly, thank you, Ami, for putting together (and keeping) an amazing surprise...I love you!

Big March

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 22:37:19 GMT

It's been a big month, so far, all leading up to my birthday, this coming Tuesday.

Congratulations to my sister, who found out she's pregnant! She's due the last week of October, in what will certainly be a very big surprise from the pumpkin patch. Oh, and thanks to her, for taking some of the heat off of Ami and I to have a kid.

Congratulations to Dave, on finding a great new job. His last company was terrible, so it's great to hear that he's re-energized, and loving his career again.

Congratulations to Ami for having a fantastic yearly review, which promises REALLY BIG things in the coming months.

Finally, congratulations to my company, IP Commerce, for sealing up some huge deals that will lend themselves to big successes for us, down the road. Also, we had HUGE advertising coverage this month, with full page co-Microsoft spreads in US News and World Report, and the inside cover of this week's Newsweek!

The weather was 73 yesterday, and is 76 today, for a beautiful mid-March weekend. Ahhh, life is good. :)

This is Just Wii-diculous

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 21:43:02 GMT

I wanted a Nintendo Wii so bad for Christmas, but I refused to pay a penny of markup. I waited and waited through the holidays, and couldn't seem to get my hands on one. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years -- I searched for one in Atlanta, Denver and Phoenix, with no avail.

Finally, a few weeks ago, Ami and I were at the Del Taco on Broadway and Bellevue and she said, "Let's try the K-Mart next door". So, we trudged into the ghetto-ass-nastier-than-wal-mart Super KMart, and back to the electronics department. Sure enough, they had 5 or 6 of them available, so I picked up one for myself and one for my friend Austin.

So, now that I got my Wii, what do I think?

I'm not a fan. Don't get me wrong, I'm faithfully playing the Zelda game, and it's definitely a fun game. The fact that I have to swing my arms at the screen to use the sword feels and looks super gay. Thankfully, the gameplay is fantastic, or I'd have returned the Wii a week after I got it. Maybe I'm just lazy, or maybe I just hate exercise, but when I'm gaming, the last thing I want to do is break a sweat.

I'm keeping my Wii for now, but I just wish they'd release a controller for it that replaced the "motion-sensitive" Wiimote and Nunchuk. I could see the system being alot of fun in a party setting, where 4 or 5 people are playing Wii bowling, but I don't think I've ever even had 4 or 5 people at my house, sans Christmas.

This Is Bananas

Thu, 25 Jan 2007 02:45:53 GMT

For those of you who aren't in Denver, these are a couple of pictures I forgot about, from Blizzard One, the weekend before Christmas. It took me like three hour-long attempts to get all the snow cleared out.

Then it blizzarded again five days later!

Then it blizzarded again four days later!

Then it blizzarded again five days later!

Then it blizzarded again three days later!

Noticing a pattern, here?

The Joys of Being "Wired"

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 18:38:34 GMT

Wow, it's been a while. My bad.

Anyway, have you ever been so mad at something, you just wanted to cry. Not because of the emotion, but more because crying helps alleviate some of the anger. I was so there, this weekend. I was trying to will myself to cry, but I was too mad to even cry. Swearing seemed to be the only remedy.

A botched Cable Internet installation on Saturday was the culprit.

First off, I have to quickly apologize to Ami and Bubba. I'm sorry I turned into a mushroom cloud and screamed every curse word ever written.

So, Comcast sends out this chimp, to install the Cable Internet. Turns out he's a subcontractor, driving a van older than myself. They say it's all about first impressions, and my first impression is that this guy is posing as a Comcast subcontractor so he can rob me. Oh, if I'd have only been so lucky.

He's late, he bitches about having to run a new line to my office, he can't get the Cable Internet running on my computer, and he tells me "I've never installed this on a Mac". A Mac?? I don't have a Mac. I have a Sony Vaio PC, with Windows XP, you dipshit. It was at this point that he decides to tell me that he's gotta get going.

For my own benefit, I decide to send him packing, and just install it myself. He gives me the Self-Install kit, and I call Comcast to complain. I failed to realize that he left me a "used" Self-Install kit, and the Installation CD is missing.

So, at this point, my DSL has been disconnected, and the new Cable Internet doesn't work. I'm high and dry, with no options, and no one from tech support can help me.

In fact, the best part was the lady from Comcast telling me not to worry about no having the Installation disk -- I could just go to Comcast.com and download the software. Yeah, if I could go to Comcast.com, do you really think we'd be having this conversation, right now? Ass.

Shame on me, for growing so dependent upon broadband and my home network, that a lack of connectivity turns me into a nasty, cussing, fuming beast. I was finally able to get one of my home machines up on my old DSL connection, until the next Comcast "technician" comes out next Sunday.

There, I feel better. Thanks! My next post will be a happy one, I promise.

Weekend at Disneyland

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 17:11:03 GMT

I consider myself a Walt Disney World "purist". I've been to the WDW parks, in Florida, 20 or more times. It's the ultimate kid benefit having grandparents that lived 10 minutes from WDW. That being said, I've kind of become a Disney park snob, as I've grown up watching new things sprout up (Epcot Center) and old things go away (ticket books for rides). As you probably know, Disneyland in Anaheim is a much smaller park than the Magic Kingdom, so never having been there, I've always thought that it was inferior to WDW. I can now, officially say, that I was very much mistaken.

Tiff and Trevor had been booked for the trip since the summer. Ami and I weren't going to go, being that the trip was scheduled so close to Christmas. Finally, last week, Tiff emailed me, reminding me that they were going. I decided to pull a fast one and secretly book a REALLY quick getaway, for the weekend, leaving Saturday afternoon and coming home Sunday night.

We planned to surprise them by calling them, from inside Disneyland, finding out where they were, and meeting them as they came out of the ride. As our plane out of Denver was delayed, we arrived at the Orange County airport roughly 15 minutes before they did. Our covert operation was about to be cracked. We had only one choice, as they were standing 50 feet away from us...drop the surprise now. I called Tiff's cell phone, and freaked her out by describing her's and Trevor's outfits. You could tell she was starting to put two and two together, when I told her to turn around. Great surprise...they were both thrilled and shocked!

We ended up staying in their hotel, as it was 100 steps from Disneyland's front gates. After a couple of over-boozed hot chocolates, we headed to the Happiest Place on Earth.

As a brief summary, Disneyland, in my unusually humble opinion is a full first-class equivalent to Walt Disney World. It is a smaller park, and that is most definitely a good thing. When we wanted to go from Tomorrowland to Frontierland, it didn't take 30 minutes. We were easily able to hit every single ride (that we wanted to ride) in less than a single full day. The park is beautiful, and it's the roots of it all. As a Disney purist, it was like making the much awaited trip to Mecca.

Instead of giving a play by play of the trip, I'm instead going to outline my five most favoritest rides, from the two Disneyland parks. Here they are:

Matterhorn - Disney's first steel coaster...old school. There was something about riding it at 11pm, in the freezing cold. The atmosphere was just right.

Soarin' Over California - It would take me 10 paragraphs, just to try and describe this thing to you. Think motion simulator meets IMAX. Just click the link...it was incredible! Oh yeah, here's a link to the full video of it.

Space Mountain - Faster, longer and unquestionably darker than the WDW version. Side-by-side seats make it the undisputed champion of the Space Mountains.

California Screamin' - Full size boardwalk-style roller coaster. Really fast launch, smooth curves, and a fat loop inside of Mickey's head.

Mulholland Madness - Who'd have thought a pint-size hyper coaster would make my top five. Fast, sharp turns, steep dips, and short lines made it great fun. Did I mention fast?

We left our friends late Sunday, with a thousand memories and a promise to return. Thank you, Tiff and Trevor, for one of the best weekends, ever!

My Lesson in Free Market Economics

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 01:18:25 GMT

I was so excited, and had my hopes so high. In fact, I was convinced that I was gonna walk away with at least $2,000 for each of my two Playstations.

Amazingly enough (duh), when 13,000 people put their item up for sale on the same day you do, the market tends to swing in favor of the buyer. What started out Friday morning at $3,000-$5,000 on eBay has since dropped to a tepid $1,200.

Not that I'm complaining, being that I'll (hopefully) still make a couple hundred dollars on these things...it's just not gonna pay for our trip to Europe next year, like I'd hoped. Oh well, I guess there's always Elmo TMX.

Playstation3 = Merry Christmas

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 22:18:47 GMT

How does a joker like me end up with two Playstation3 units on release day? Luck, I guess. (Pre-order, actually)

I picked them up from the GameStop in Five Points, at around 9am. If you're familiar with Denver, you know that Five Points is not the neighborhood you wanna be parading around expensive electronics. Needless to say, I made it to the car safely, while only attracting the attention of a couple of asian kids, in wonder and astonishment.

I put one of the two up on eBay at around 10am. Its only a 1-day auction, so I'm hoping to get someone to Buy It Now sometime tomorrow morning. Depending upon how this one sells, I'll decide when to put up the other one. It might be a Merry Christmas in the Marsell household.

Here's the listing...Don't be shy - it can be yours, in time for Christmas! ;-)

The Most Expensive Pumpkins in the Universe

Sun, 29 Oct 2006 19:41:12 GMT

We were coming home from the mall, yesterday, and we drove by this farm with a huge pumpkin patch. We were planning on picking up a couple of pumpkins from the grocery store, but that's no fun. Pumpkin patches are fun. Plus, the likelihood of seeing a ghost in a pumpkin patch, is like three times higher than seeing one at the grocery store. And I like those odds.

So, we stop, and go in and start looking through the enormous piles of pumpkins, and are finding about as shitty a selection as you find at the grocery store...just on a much larger scale. In other words, 200 mis-shapen, scarred pumpkins, instead of 30. All this time, I'm trying to find prices, so I can decide which pile to choose from. There is no price sign, anywhere, which as I'm beginning to learn, means you're about to get a fiscal-fisting at the register.

In the spirit of the season, we forget about pre-pricing these soon-to-be-realized "balls of gold", and pick out two and move to the checkout. The 16 year old starts to eyeball the pumpkin, and do his own version of freshman mathematics, logically categorizing the pumpkins by the size that they appear in our arms. "Hmmm, two pumpkins, about 11lbs each, a dollar a pound...$22, please." Wait a minute, what? Did you just say twenty two dollars? Like the price of a night out at the movies, including popcorn? Like the price to fill up our old Honda Accord? For two gourds? Let me ask you something, kid...do I have the word asshole written across my forehead? Well, come to find out, I do, because I pay the $22. Why? I don't know. Apparently I wasn't aware that Whole Foods, the most expensive store in the nation, has pumpkins at 2 for $10.

At any rate, we carved them up, and they turned out great, so that made me feel a little bit better. Not a lot better, but the kind of better like when you get in a car accident and a pack of twinkies slides out from under your seat.

Ami did the Gizmo pumpkin, and I did the cow skull from the first Danzig album. Feast your eyes on the twenty two dollar squash.

Slampaign Season

Thu, 19 Oct 2006 03:12:21 GMT

It's been a while since I've gone off on a rant, so I'm overdue.

I love October, and the beginning of fall in Colorado for a million reasons. But there's that one reason that just spoils the month and leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Year in and year out, we are all forced to suffer through television campaign ads where candidates play verbal shotgun on each other. And they're not short ads. They're like 45 second spots, exposing the terrible spending habits, or outrageous paraphrasing, or voting record of the competitor. Here, in Denver, it seems like 5 or 6 times a day, I'm hearing about Angie Paccione's horrible credit record, or Rick O'Donnell's friendship with Dubya. It's become burned into my head.

Granted, I could stop watching the local channels, like I did last year, but you can only watch "Best Damn Sports Show" and "American Chopper" reruns so long, until the slam ads stop sounding so bad.

I want to introduce a bill which outlaws candidates even mentioning their opponents in their advertisements. You may only talk about yourself and your stance on the issues. In fact, that's it, right there...if you're a candidate and you want my vote, just promote my "no-slam" proposal.

I'm just ready for November, so it'll all be over.