Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Now batting for the Knights, #15, MADJAI! (listening to: "Cleveland Rocks" by the Presidents of the United States of America.. unfortunately)

What a weekend of sports. Sunday saw the first Callboard Knights game of the Season, as well as the second. (D-league softball plays doubleheaders every day) The Knights are currently 1-0-1 on the year. I had a chance to play first base for the season opener, and it was easily the most fun I've had outside in a very long time. For you statheads out there, Madjai is currently batting .500 (1 for 2) on the season with a double and a run. More updates on that to come.

And, the beloved Twins lost a heartbreaker in extra innings, despite Natalie's prediction to the contrary. Cleveland came out strong with 3 runs in the 5th, and the Twins answered back with 3 solid in the 6th. It took until the 12th, but then Cleveland scored 4 big runs and put the nail in our coffin. However, it wasn't all tears as much ice cream was shared, and oh yeah.. cuteness:



Myself, Natalie, Vince and Alyson were all on the jumbotron for the first time in my baseball-going career as well, so that was damn awesome. A good night, if a late one.

PS- ANYONE who hasn't seen Major League yet... I need to know. We're going to watch it. At my place. Sometime this week. Seriously, people. Seriously.

EDIT: How come nobody told me I have a giant nose?

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Lightning Strikes Twice

Coming soon to a theatre near you. (listening to: "Spare Me" on the Lightning Strikes Twice Motion Picture Soudtrack)



He was a man born into priviledge, only to have it taken away by the ruthless cartels of the underground bowling scene.

He was a hustler who grew up on the mean streets of St. Paul. Bowling his only escape, his only means of peace.

Brought together by the death of their bowling mentor, these two hotshots team up to bring down the evil that corrupts their beloved sport.

Madjai is Chip "Strikes" Leiberman.

Vince is "Lightning" Calhoun.

Together, they're going to clean up bowling, or die trying in........

LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE

Picture courtesy of KittyCat, Story by Grantregan. COMING SOON.

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Web of Lies

"Oh, what a tangled web we weave..." (listening to "Chain of Fools" by Aretha Franklin)

So, Natalie has blogged about an... incident.. that occured at my place a couple of nights ago. I'm going to set the record straight about the goings on of that evening, but first.. her side. Please keep in mind that names have been changed to pseudonyms, and that this is from her point of view.

"After that, I headed back to [Madjai]'s, and proceeded to BEAT HIM AND [SPIKE] in cribbage. It was the most dramatic ending to a game, ever.

Let me see if I can get it right. (This is going to be really fun to read if you play cribbage, and really, REALLY lame if you don't.)
I had 14 points left to win, and [Madjai] had 8 points left. [Spike] was behind. He was dealing. I was to his left.
I had 4,6,6,9 after discarding.
[Madjai] said to me, 'I have the points, so, you have to peg in to win.'
I said, 'It isn't going to happen.'

He said, 'Well, that was anti-climactic.'

The first counting round, I believe, ended with [Spike] getting 1 or 2 points. The next round started with me playing my 4, [Madjai] playing...I think...like, a 2 or something, and then [Spike] playing a 7, to take it up to 13. I then played a 6 for 19. [Madjai], being the cool guy that he is, played a 6 as well for 25, and took his 2 points. He then looked to [Spike] to play...anything. Anything 6 or lower. [Spike] looked up and said...'Go'.
I looked up, and I suddenly realized that I had...another 6. That's right, folks, 3 6's in a row, and a 31. Which gave me 8 POINTS AT ONCE FROM COUNTING. Which took me within 6 points to win, and I had 3 15's and a pair...so...um...yeah.
It was incredible. [Madjai] couldn't believe it...and it made my heart smile."

Ok. Here's what really happened...

Going into the final hand of the game, I did indeed need 8 points to win. I got my hand and had six points. An Ace was turned up, which completed a run in my hand giving me more than enough to win. At which point, I did indeed look up at Natalie and say that I had enough to win, and that since she counted first, she would need to peg a good number and get the rest from her hand. At this point, my memory of the events differs slightly. Natalie looked up at me and her lips formed the words, "It isn't going to happen," but her voice said "You will sleep now..." And her voice sounded strange, as if from a far away distance, but located in the front of my head. The next thing I know, I turn to Spike, and his glasses melt off his face and the walls of my apartment begin to slowly crush in on me. Just before they reach the table we're sitting at, they fall away, outwards, revealing a desert scene at night. The sky was bright purple and I looked over at Natalie who was now wearing a princess Leia slave bikini, and had a chain going from her neck to Spike's arm. Spike grew to the size of a mountain and his voice boomed across the desert sands: "SEEK OUT THE DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH..."
I turned on my heel and ran, but as I ran the sands became loose under my feet and I stumbled across the dunes never gaining ground from the monstrous sight behind me. I remember reaching out for Natalie who only laughed at my misfortune, and as I was swallowed up in the sands beneath me, I heard the same faint voice say, "fifteen-two-four-six, and a pair is eiiiiighhtt...."

I awoke from my hallucination to see Natalie's peg firmly ensconced in the "Finish" hole and Spike looking at me as if he himself didn't know what happened. Natalie was hopping around my apartment like a bunny on speed, and all I could think about was "Where the hell was I while all this was happening??"

Now, for those of you who know Natalie, her psychic powers are not a thing of mystery. She claims to have fallen in league with forces not of this earth, and clearly used them in this situation to curry favor with the cribbage gods. Well, this is a tactic that shall not go unnoticed. I cannot be held accountable for losses while under the effects of some black magick spell. Therefore, I declare her victory null and void until such time as she can be proven to beat me without skills against which I could only prevail if Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy could keep a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor from dying or being turned into something unspeakable for longer than a year. Seriously.

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Sha Na Na Na Na Na Na

You get to be happy. (listening to: "The Schmuel Song" by Jason Robert Brown)

You know what's nice? Being ASKED to audition. Last night, a director for a theatre company saw a staged reading of a show I was in and asked Natalie to tell me to audition for her show. That's NICE. That's how things SHOULD be. And when you get to go out to dinner after that... well... icing. (Even if we did nearly get kicked out of the restaurant for destruction of property)

I was reviewed at work today. I won't be getting my promotion until July/August. This was somewhat expected, but... I told myself that if it didn't happen in April, I'd be looking elsewhere for work. Maybe I need to do that. I won't, because I'm a coward, but I think that I should. Maybe it's time. I don't know.

Oh. Here's something I want to talk to you all about. Look, I don't own any grown-up clothes. I don't have a suit, and I own two ties. One of which, I hate. I own lots of clothes, but none of them would work if I wanted to go "somewhere nice." I have ONE outfit that I can wear that's like that, and I wear it all the time. Someone should tell me how to be a grown-up. I'm 25 now. It's time to start acting like it.

So, I have a bone to pick with EA. The PS3 is set up such that when you turn it on, you have to choose a user ID to "log in" with. Each user ID can have its own parental settings and stuff, so this makes it really good for a family or like a dorm. Specifically this is nice because each user ID has its own save game data. Orion or NCSz or Biggy can't jump into my save games and lead my characters into certain demise. Nor can they play through a particularly entertaining part of the game while I'm gone. (Kingdom Hearts, Biggy?) Every user ID is on their own.
However, this becomes problematic when users want to play AGAINST each other. Tiger Woods 2007, for example, earns the Madjai Raspberry award for stupidity. I've set up my own golfer in my user ID. NCSz sets up HIS own golfer under his user ID. We go to play against each other (Or rather, we start a game wherein he will be embarrassed and humiliated for 18 holes), and guess what. We can't see my golfer, 'cause we're logged in under HIS user ID. No problem. We'll just log into mine, copy the data into his, and we're off and running.
Menu, Menu, Menu, Copy.
"Error: File will not be copied. There is already a file with that name in the target folder." ... Thefuckyousay?
EA sports, in their brilliance, has decided to name their user data "User Data." No, I'm not kidding. The title of the data file is "User Data." You dumb shits. No one tested this before you shipped this game, did they? NCSz had to start all over again.
I'd launch into a rant about unique file names right now, but that would make this blog even MORE boring. Seriously, please get your shit together before you ship a game. That's all. Moving on.

EDIT: I just found out that I'm playing a Comedy Sportz show for the Minnesota Timberwolves. The professional basketball team. They've hired CSz to do a show for their fundraiser or some such, and I'm playing it. :) KG and I are going to become BFF, and we're going to have sleepovers and shave each other's heads and talk about boys. It's going to be awesome, and you're all jealous. Ah HA!

What else do I have? Week 1 is over, and I passed the test. But just barely.

Sports Night is awesome.

My cat plays fetch.

I hate my job.

I have a big smile on my face despite all of the above.

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Madjai : Jerkface :: Weather : Storm

It happens sometimes. (listening to: "One Of My Turns" by Pink Floyd)

So, apparently, I was a jackass on Saturday night. Jabas was supposed to stop me from being Mr. Starfish, but either I missed the signal or he was busy orchestrating some other complex play in the field. (Metaphors.. mixing...) In any event, my apologies to "IM", "JB", JB's roommate K, "Natalie" and "Dana." (as usual, all names changed to protect the innocent) I'm not that guy.

All My Sons is now all done. Thanks to all who came. It turned out to be a really good show, and I have the privilege of working with one of my fellow actors in that show again very soon, so that's only good times.

I was out last night with Natalie, and we were talking about old flame horror stories, and I told her the story of the Vu. When I got home last night, I had an e-mail from that girl. Which is TERRIBLY F-ING ODD, because I haven't talked to her in a few years. And there's an e-mail. Same night I talked about her. She's no longer doing illicit substances I assume, and she's found herself a serious boyfriend. So, chapter closed. Closure is nice. (Though, in this case... very strange.)

This is a rambling post with little information in it, and for that I apologize. I'm at work, which is busy and crappy today, and I'm looking forward to playing Virtua Tennis 3 when I get home tonight. Oh, and I had a fantastic night last night.

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