Tow Wheeze

06.19.2008

Not too long ago, Lord Ford asked if I had any pics of my wrestling figures accessable via the itnerweb. When I told him I didn't he seemed a bit put off. I had tried to fake a panoramic pic to get all the figs into 1 picture, but the results were always... off. Well, professionality be damned, I don't want to dissapoint Lord Ford!

As best as I can tell, I have around 300 figures. I'm not bored enough to count them all, but they average 5 figures deep and I counted roughly 60 on the front row. I thought I would have 120, maybe 150, but 300?!?!?

The figures go back years and years, and cover more than just Vince's WWF/E. There's some WCW figures, some TNA, even some of the original ECW figures. The worse of the lot, quality wise, were the early WCW figures. Chris "erased from the history books" Benoit had a horrible figure. In fact, it has the same body as Dean Malenko.

I still pick up the odd figure now and then, but I try not to duplicate wrestlers I already have. That's hard enough, and taken to limiting most of what I look at to the WWE Legends figures. That's probably good as I'm running out of shelf space.

Permalink action figures/toys

WWE HD

06.16.2008

Last Monday I attended the inaugural viewing of Monday Night Raw in HD at Evil Mathias' house. It was nice. It was pretty. The colors were oh so vibrant and colorful. To make it even better, Charlie Haas, master of the Haasenfeffer, was on during one of Vince's skits. I was so excited I knocked over a glass of root beer and made a huge freakin' mess.

This Monday, I'm sick with a sinus cold I picked up over the weekend. As such, I'm staying home where I can be pitiful without anyone watching while blowing my nose in the most disgusting of ways. Unfortunately, this means my WWE watching will be in standard definition this week.

I may have to make some phone calls to rectify that. Single Guy Power Engage!

Note to Jason: Sorry about the lack of new pics, but sick and nose blowing doesn't lend itself to pleasing imagery :) Here's a pic of Candace dancing with a friend I've never actually met to help make up for it. You know, you work with those guys all the time, you should be sending ME some pics!

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Monday Night Addendum
Vinnie Mac is giving away one million dollars (total) on Mondays, split amongst various people that have registered on the WWE website. Thinking "eh, why not" and "maybe Jason can pull a string", I registered. When I registered, I used my cell phone number on the one in a million (heh heh) chance that if I won, I'd be at Matt's and the cell phone would be the only way to reach me. I watched each time as Vince dialed, and the numbers were nowhere close to mine. But at 9:00 he dialed, and I wasn't sure. On TV I heard the ringing of a phone, and at that exact same instant my cell phone began to ring. Holy Crap, Vince is calling me! I looked at the number on the caller id - no name popped up so it wasn't anyone I had saved in the address book. Holy Crap, Vince is calling me! I hit the answer button and nervously said "Hello?" while I looked at the tv. Vince's phone still rang as a voice on my cell phone distinctly non-Vince-like talked back to me. I looked at the phone number and noticed the 256 prefix. Vince was in Salt Lake City. That wouldn't be coming in as an Alabama phone number.

Vince didn't call me, but I had an adrenaline rush going like he did.

Permalink wrestling

Behold The Nipple Salad

06.05.2008

Just to show that not all of my salads end up on the floor, here's a successful attempt from Wednesday. People at Westar remark on how pretty my salads are, and Jose says I put just the right portion of each ingredient in the salad. It wasn't until looking at this picture that I noticed the dollop of bacon bits in the sea of shredded cheese looks a little nipple-ish. I'll have to put 2 salads side by side and see if it looks any different. I may end up sliding a dollar between the bowls if I do that.

Tuesday ended up being errand day. A trip to the eye doctor (new glasses coming in next week!). Returned a book I already had at Books One Million. The air conditioner guy came by to tell me not to worry about the hum I was hearing from the outside unit. Dropped of the red-ringed 360 at the UPS drop off emporium. I managed to spend close to $500, yet all I've got is a stack of papers to show for it. To balance it out, I deposited my economic stimulus check in the bank while I was running around (new glasses coming in next week!).

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By Request!

06.02.2008

Due to some text messaging with WWE Jason, I found out that I need to post more pictures. So with that in mind...
Pyrex, the less breakable glass

Friday I was getting ready for work, trying to be good and making myself a salad instead of finding an excuse to go get some fast food. I made one of my Westar-heralded salads. Lettuce, cucumber, turkey, cheese, Ranch dressing, a dollop of bacon bits, portabello mushrooms. It takes 8 minutes to make my salad in the morning, I've got it down to a science. After I made my salad I put it on the counter, then went to look under my computer bag to get my little lunch bag into which I would put my salad along with a fork and something to drink. While moving teh computer bag, I noticed that something slid.

That something was the above pictured salad. The Pyrex bowl fell 3 feet to the kitchen floor. I was expecting a thud followed by the bowl bouncing around. Instead I got a thump as the Pyrex shattered and the salad was set free to road the kitchen floor. I stared at floored salad, the 5-second rule quickly running through my head, followed quickly by the thoughts of eating Pyrex. I cursed the broken Pyrex, for not only was my salad ruined, but since there was Ranch dressing on the floor I was forced to clean it up immediately. 8 minutes. Wasted.

As I cleaned, I noticed the way the Pyrex had broken. I've had a lot of broken glass in the house over the past few years, with the last coming from a frame in the hallway I bumped into on my way out one morning; An event I didn't clean up until after I got back from work, since broken glass doesn't stink up the housed. Curse you Ranch dressing! But I digress. The Pyrex had broken into chunks, kind of like safety glass would (I think). In fact, looking at the picture the broken chunks of Pyrex look a lot like ice. The Pyrex, along with the salad, swept up easily. I had to run the Swiffer afterwards to (hopefully) clean up whatever liquid residue the salad may have left. After all the cleaning, I really didn't want to make another salad, so I made the guys at work go to lunch with me to Schlotzsky's. I did not have a sandwich at Schlotzsky's.

I had a sammich. I large sammich. A great big $10 sammich. And it was a goooooood sammich.

We'll see how successful my salad gets made this Friday.

Permalink random

Do You Need A Lobby For Your Hobbies?

05.22.2008

This is a summary of conversations I've had with Jerry over the past year. Or three.

When is a hobby not a hobby? How often have you had a hobby slip to the wayside, yet still consider it a hobby? Do you have to go to a hobby store for something to be considered a hobby? Well I'm here to tell you the Russellmania Rules of Hobbydom that will let you know when your hobby really is a hobby.

For example purposes, I will use my collecting of original comic book art as a test to see if it is a hobby.

Criteria #1 - The majority of people can't do it. Watching TV isn't a hobby. Reading isn't a hobby (in general, there are exceptions). The "majority of people" are considered people within your peer group, not the world population. In my example, I am the only person I know that collects comic art, thus it meets the first criteria.

While "reading" isn't considered a hobby, specialized reading may be. If you only read mysteries or sci-fi, then that could count, too.

Criteria #2 - you have to spend money on it. Mowing the grass isn't a hobby if all your friends live in apartments. These are chores. According to eBay, that comic art is costing me money.

Criteria #3 - you have to actively pursue it for more than a month. Ah, the minimum time requirement. I went out once and bought a lot of miniature gaming pieces for a game that looked interesting. Over the course of a week I spent $100 and got the rules and everything I needed to play it. Then it all sat on a shelf. Instead of a hobby, I had an impulse purchase. The comic art example covered at least 5 years, so the hobby definition is still good!

Criteria #4 - you have to spend money on a regular basis. The regular basis part can be a bit fuzzy. General there will be some type of monthly payment involved (cable bills don't count!). At the very least money should be spent annually. I haven't bought any comic art in over a year, so here I would say that my example no longer qualifies as a hobby, but for 3 years I was actively seeking out and purchasing art work, so at that time it was a hobby.

But what if it's not a hobby? In my example, my hobby has slipped to a pastime. Pastimes are hobbies that are infrequent and/or cost little money. Once you slip to no regular activity and spending no money, it becomes a fond remembrance. But that's a story for another post.

Taking this into account for Jerry:

• R/C planes are a hobby.
• HAM radios are a pastime.
• Raising kids are a chore.

For myself:

• Hobbies: collecting DVDs, comic books, wrestling figures
• Pastimes: collecting comic book art, playing WoW (time spent on that one so far)
• Fond Remembrances: R/C cars, GI Joes
• Chores: not as many as I need to be doing.

There's all kind of loopholes, but this is a work in progress. Hmmm, I bet "work" needs to be in there too. I bet that's where web pages fit! Sometimes.

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