Updates are coming

It has been a month since my last post, but I assure you updates are coming in the near future. Life has been a little hectic with college starting back up, work, intenship, and other stuff. Actually it has been the "other stuff" that has taken up much of my free time.

However, you can expect some sort of blog from me tomorrow. I have a couple of ideas floating around now, it should be a good read for you. Stay tuned...

Hot Hot Hot!!!

I am being dared to say that on television, hahaha. I would love too but I couldn't get away with it. As for the purpose of this post, I decided to make a forecast for back home since it is hot and only going to get hotter. Here is the downright disgusting forecast for Cambridge, MD:

Currently listening to: "Play That Funky Music" by Wild Cherry...what an awesome intro!

I was just thinking about the trading deadline approaching in baseball and decided to post a blog on some Orioles that really need to be traded (if they have any trade value). So here it goes, the following players need to go away ASAP:

1. Bruce Chen (no one laughs at his jokes anymore, just him)
2. Todd Williams (gives up as many big hits as the not-so-great Todd Frohwirth...ARGH!)
3. Russ Ortiz (1-16 in his last 17 decisions! quite possibly the biggest piece of crap in MLB)
   
4. LaTroy Hawkins (4 teams in 2 years would be incredible!)
   
5. Rodrigo Lopez (togh call, I have some lingering sentiment for R-Lo, but he may be the only one on this list with significant trade value. some pitching-hungry team will surely overpay for him. heck the phillies even dangled abreu as a possibility.)
   

What a surprise! All five of those guys are pitchers which we lack the depth in. If the Orioles can somehow get rid of all of these guys this year (which we all know will never happen), I may resume rooting for the O's. Most likely that won't happen though because Angelos and his cronies are very good at keeping worthless players around long enough to piss people off.

Dem O's......really suck

It really pains me to do this, but I have to live up to an ultimatum I placed on myself earlier this season. At 12:49AM on June 13, here were my exact words:

On July 4, if the Orioles are below .500 and/or at least 8 games back in the division, I will prematurely throw in the towel for the 2006 season.

So, here were the AL East standings on Independence Day:

Boston.....(50-31, .617, 0 GB)
NY Yankees.....(46-35, .568, 4 GB)
Toronto.....(47-36, .566, 4 GB)
Baltimore.....(39-46, .459, 13 GB)
Tampa Bay.....(37-47, .440, 14.5 GB)

And after tonight's 15-1 arse-kicking by the Silver Spring native Mark Teixeira and his Texas Rangers, here are the current AL East standings:

Boston.....(53-34, .609, 0 GB)
NY Yankees.....(50-36, .581, 2.5 GB)
Toronto.....(49-39, .557, 4.5 GB)
Baltimore.....(41-50, .451, 14 GB)
Tampa Bay.....(39-50, .438, 15 GB)

So unfortunataly, without further ado, I am throwing in the towel and giving up on the O's for 2006. This is a sad day for me and I hate to do this, but I issued an ultimatum and the Orioles could not live up to it. I wasn't asking for much, heck I wasn't even asking for anything better than mediocrity. Once again for the ninth season in a row, that damn Peter Angelos and his cohorts have assured us fans of another miserable, losing season. Not that you give a sh*t Angelos, but you have lost yet another faithful fan. Here's to 2007 and the ongoing hope for a .500 record.

Pearl Jam Setlist

Nearly a month later, here's the setlist from the best concert I have ever seen:

Pearl Jam - Pittsburgh, PA - June 23, 2006

1. Throw Your Arms Around Me (Eddie Vedder solo acoustic pre-opener, Hunters and Collectors Cover)
2. Release (Beginning of Set 1)
3. Life Wasted
4. Severed Hand
5. Corduroy
6. Do The Evolution
7. Dissident
8. Evenflow
9. Marker In The Sand
10. In Hiding
11. Better Man
12. Daughter/With My Own Two Hands (Ben Harper Cover)
    
13. Garden
14. I Got Id
15. State Of Love And Trust
16. Inside Jobe
17. Worldwide Suicide
18. Porch (End of Set 1)
19. Wasted Reprise (Beginning of Encore 1)
20. Man Of The Hour
21. Waiting On A Friend (Rolling Stones Cover, 1st Time Ever Played)
    
22. Elderly Woman Behind A Counter In A Small Town
23. Black
24. Alive (End of Encore 1)
25. Go (Beginning of Encore 2)
26. Why Go
27. Comatose
28. Smile
29. Rockin' In The Free World (Neil Young Cover)
30. Yellow Ledbetter

There is no other band out there that can come close to putting on a show as well as Pearl Jam. By the way, the previous best show I had seen was also Pearl Jam at Bristow, VA. Rock on!

An amazing 10 days

Since I last posted a lot of great things have happened to me. First and foremost, Heather and I went home last weekend to visit la familia. We had a great time, but once again we didn't get too to do quite as much as we wanted to. I doubt we will ever be able to when we are only home for three days at a time. We did manage to make it to Ocean City for a couple of hours and that was really nice. We laid out on the beach, went in the ocean, walked the boardwalk, and enjoyed Thrasher's fries and some caramel corn from Fisher's. The next day we had a cookout and played horseshoes, which I love to do during the summer. Although I was quite sore after playing horseshoes, I think the heat and lack of water made my muscles sore. We then came back late Sunday night in anticipation of a busy and tiresome week.

Monday marked the beginning of my internship at HSTV in Uniontown. Overall it went well but I was rather nervous when it came time to practice in front of the camera. I knew what I wanted to say, but it just wasn't happening once I opened my mouth. In addition, I need to quickly train myself to change my way of speaking which might be difficult. Probably my main problem is that I need to project my voice more. That being said I think I can work out the kinks in a short amount of time...I know I can do this.

I ended up working 10-6 at the bookstore on Tuesday, which made for a long day since we had to bring in 194 or so boxes of textbooks. Needless to say I was really sore. Not much happened on Wednesday other than working at the bookstore and still being sore. But exciting times were about to resume...

On Thursday I went down to Uniontown for my internship again. Kind of a busy day weather-wise as we were closely monitoring severe thunderstorms moving into the region. Because of that I didn't get the chance to practice unfortunately, but I still enjoyed myself...except for the $4.00 can of Mountain Dew! That will be straightened out on Monday though. I was informed that everyone will make sure that I practice next week, and if all goes well I can begin my TV meteorology career on the following Monday (July 3rd).

Friday was a day to remember. After Heather and I came home from work, we left for Pittsburgh to see Pearl Jam!!! They are my favorite current band by far, and second favorite all-time behind Led Zeppelin. I had seen them at Nissan Pavilion a couple years ago and it was by far the best concert I have ever seen. This was Heather's first Pearl Jam concert experience. Of course I was expecting an awesome show, even moreso because I knew they were well refreshed and ready to rock. Their current tour is divided into four segments. After a three-week layoff, the Pittsburgh show was the first show of the second segment of the tour.

From the first note on, they kicked major arse! (Note: I will post the setlist from the show sometime tomorrow) I can not imagine any band that puts on a better show than Pearl Jam. There was just so much adrenaline and excitement in both the band and the crowd. Simply an amazing show that was even better than the previous Pearl Jam show I went to. Heather and I both agreed that it was above and beyond any other concert we had seen. I expected a great show and it was even better than that. Absolutely phenomenal!

The downside to the week was that we didn't get back from the show until 1am and I didn't fall asleep until about 2am. Since I had to work at the bookstore from 8-3 today, I had a very rough morning, but it was well worth it after Friday night's incredible experience.
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It is my hope to post forecasts tomorrow, as well as some baseball stuff, in addition to the setlist from the Pearl Jam show. Talk to you soon.

Heading Home

Just thought I'd let you all know I will be leaving tonight to go home for a few days. I will be back late Sunday night and should probably resume blogging on Monday evening. By the way, I had my job interview today at the TV station and it went great. I start Monday morning! I am really looking forward to this opportunity. I'll be sure to let you know how the first day goes. Catch ya later.