Friday, April 08, 2005

It's Friday

No, I'm not going to go into one of those "TGIF!! Life is worth living again! I hate Monday through Thursday!!" tangents. No, I'm not one of those people. At least, I don't think I am. I mean, I do enjoy Fridays, but not nearly as much when I have to work on the weekend. When that happens, my Friday typically is Sunday since I'm usually off on Mondays following a weekend that I work.

Therefore, I propose that Friday, as it is treated in our culture, is relative. The term "weekend", or more accurately, the feeling of "the weekend", is directly related to the current schedule of one entering said weekend. But I digress. I think... I wasn't actually getting at anything. I just felt like filling an empty space. Sorry. What a let down this must be for you! My apologies.

One last thing: I don't know if you ever read any of the stories at The Onion but I find some of their stuff hilarious. But be warned, I've also found some stuff can get pretty raunchy so surf with care. Anyway, you can skip all that and read their horoscope from last week. Some pretty funny stuff. Check it out right here.

My Lost Post

I wrote this long essay on what happened with my cell phone trade in. It was all quite boring but I did spend about 10 minutes typing it. So, why is that when I click "Publish Post" I get the error message: "Document Contains No Data" in Firefox. It's been working fine in Firefox but now I'm having to use crappy old Internet Explorer. Yuck. Oh well. Just know that I am sticking with Cingular and I will not have to keep my cruddy phone. Later. (If this post goes through)

Thursday, April 07, 2005


This is Abe Vigoda. Say hello to Abe. They say it will bring you good luck... Posted by Hello

Wednesday, April 06, 2005


My kids saw me shaving and they were just dying to try some shaving cream. Yes, I used my razor to remove it. They did pretty well, although they both are growing some serious stubble now. They grow up so fast, don't they?

I was mainly interested tonight in adding a picture to my blog. It took me quite a while to figure out how to get my ugly mug in my profile but, believe it or not, posting pictures to your blog with Picasa is very easy! Don't I sound like an advertisement?

One last thing: I'm going to reveal something right now that will officially make me a HUGE nerd. I downloaded the third book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series to my PDA instead of buying the paperback version. That's right, not only am I reading a science fiction novel, I am reading it on a PDA. Nerd Alert! (If you haven't read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, you should. Hilarious stuff!) Oh, and don't worry about the little symbol at the end of my post. It's just the Picasa icon showing that I'm not cool enough to post pictures using regular HTML on my own. Well... BYE!Posted by Hello

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

I Fell.

I fell at work today. Outside. In a parking lot. It hurt. Does this mean that I'm getting old? Will most of my conversation starters be: "Well, I had a fall yesterday. Not too serious, but now I have some disgusting looking purplish bruises mixed with age spots to show off to people. Here, see? Doesn't that make you want to vomit?" I've always known that someday, all my wife and I would talk about would be our health, doctors' appointments, etc. But I had no idea that it would start so soon. Sad.

Why Is Swiper So Mean?

Dora and Boots were minding their business walking down the path by the forest. Those boots belong to Boots, Swiper! Luckily, Swiper's music started, alerting the innocent travelers to the fox's presence. Dora and Boots were able to dissuade Swiper from his nefarious plan of thievery simply by commanding him not to steal. Crushed, Swiper trudged back into the shadowy forest. Phew! That was a close one.

Sunday, April 03, 2005

Let Me Explain

The previous post that went on and on about zombie prevention at a cemetery should not cause you to have any presumptions about me. I'm not a big horror movie fan, it's just that I've had this idea about a commercial for a cemetery whose main attraction is its anti-zombie capabilities. For some reason, I think that when extrordinary things are dealt with in ordinary ways, it is hilarious. If you don't feel the same way, I understand. Sort of. Have a great night!

A Message from Meadowlark Memorial Gardens (advertisement)

Meadowlark memorial gardens knows that the final resting place for you & your loved ones is a very important decision. We would just like you to know that we are very proud of our tradition of caretaking. The Memorial Gardens lay over a sprawling meadow surrounded by a beautiful forest. Our staff is very conscientious and highly professional.

In addition to all of this, we also boast the area's first, fully realized Zombie Containment System, or ZCS. Our security team is highly trained in the art of stopping the slow, steady march of the Army of Darkness. In the unlikely event of someone summoning a legion of the undead, whether intentionally -such as someone who foolishly believes that in doing so he or she will be able to bend the zombies' collective will with the promise of being able to feast on the brains of the living after world domination- or unintentionally- such as curious school children that stumble upon a mysterious ancient book and make the mistake of reading it aloud- our security team will swing into action.

Phase one of our defense is our Automatic Grave Blockade, or AGB, which is basically a gate made of reinforced steel. Individual AGB's will deploy and cover every grave in the Gardens when the first undead hand shoots out of the ground. However, due to the uncertain behavior of the undead, it is remotely possible that some, or even all, of the rising dead could pull apart the gates with their otherworldly strength. In such a case, the Meadowlark Memorial Gardens Zombie Task Force will spring into action with a higly inventive solution.

Let's face it: Zombies, despite their supposed super-strength and hunger for human brains, are extremely clumsy. According to our research (which involved countless hours poring over every zombie movie ever made), zombies are prone to tripping. This is the precise reason that, during phase two of zombie containment, a large moat-like trench (known here at the Gardens as the "Ditch of the Undead") that is normally safely covered by underground metal shutters and encircles the entire Memorial Gardens, will open up, trapping the entire stumbling, brainthirsty army within the belly of the earth.

The third and final phase of our Zombie Containment System is one that we do not honestly believe we will ever have to use. It is possible, however unlikely, that your undead loved ones could breach the AGB's. As mentioned above, however they would shortly thereafter fall like ragdolls into our Ditch of the Undead. If, in the highly unlikely event, the zombie throng pulls itself, scratching and moaning out of the Ditch, our Zombie Security Assault Taskforce will be lining the entire perimeter of the Memorial Gardens. Each of the Taskforce members will be spaced exactly nine feet apart and will be armed with shotguns and grenades (also chainsaws will be within arms length in the event that the zombies get too close). As mentioned above, our Taskforce members are trained in the art of stopping the undead.

We are very aware that the prospect of your undead loved ones being decapitated and/or dismembered by shotgun blasts or gruesome flesh grinding chainsaw slashes is very upsetting. Just be reminded that this final defense form is very, very unlikely. But, just consider the alternative. Your loved ones, in zombie form, trudging the streets at night seeking to satiate their uncrollable hunger for human brains. Wouldn't you rather remember your late grandmother, uncle, or brother for their wonderful lives instead of a rotting, puppetlike monster?

So, if you're searching for the right final earthly resting place for you and your family, please consider the Meadowlark Memorial Gardens where resting in peace is strictly enforced.

Saturday, April 02, 2005

Quick Review

Tonight I played a little bit of the Splinter Cell:Chaos Theory co-op component. Co-op is basically two people moving through campaign style missions. I'd never done it before tonight. Anyway, I joined a game session with a guy on my XBL friends list. Lucky for me, he was very patient. He was very understanding, even when I walked my spy right in front of a camera a couple of times, setting the alarms off. It was still pretty fun. Especially seeing the moves that were created specifically for the co-op mode. I can't think of what those names are right now, since I'm too sleepy to try to even describe them.

The only downside to this is that while playing a co-op game on Xbox Live, I feel compelled to stick it out with the other person since there's only two of us. On the upside, you can save at any point and restart later on with the same person. I'm not too sure if the guy I played with tonight will want to continue or not, since I basically suck. But that's okay. I'm sure I'll find some other person that is at least as bad as me or maybe even marginally better.

I'm rambling. This really turned out to be less of a review and more of a huge mistake. I knew that I shouldn't have posted anything tonight since it's way too late. I'm sorry that I wasted your time. I must go to bed. Sleeping would be a very good thing right now. Hmmm. I think that's where I'll go. To bed.

Thursday, March 31, 2005

Lame Post

I'm just going through the motions tonight. I'm really tired. I put together two small shelf things (one for each of my children) into which we intend to cram most of our kids' crap. It took a little longer than I thought, but that's not really the reason I'm tired. I'm not sure why. It's either the mono I've contracted from drinking after total strangers or the valium that I have illegally obtained. Please let me know which one you think it is. The person that comes up with the right answer will receive a week's supply of valium (prescription required). Runners-up will receive mono directly from me; method of contraction is up to you with one exception. No kissing.

Sorry about all that. Like I said, I'm tired. But in case you're wondering, I do not have mono, nor am I under the influence of any narcotic. Have a great night and I promise to put more effort into this tomorrow.

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Why is it...?

I hope most of my posts don't simply boil down to me whining about work, but here you go anyway: I was sitting at work today and one of our workers came in and started talking to me about how he needed some form of verification from my corporate office. He went on to talk about how the Democrats and Republicans are responsible for blah blah blah. Now, that's probably annoying enough, but here's the best part: this worker has a horrible stuttering problem. I've known this guy at work for some time so I've grown quite accustomed to his speech impediment. This time however, it gave me a big headache. I think it was mainly due to the fact that I almost completely tuned out everything he was saying (but I still managed the occasional "uh-huh" or "I know" to seem like I was paying attention). So basically, I wasn't actually listening to him, but I did constantly hear him struggling to get some words out.

Please don't think me as an insensitive jerk. Again, I was very polite to him and I never laugh at him when he stutters. But, come on! That was really some torture today. I kept hoping the phone would ring but, when it did, he patiently waited and continued with his story/monologue. This seemed to go on for a long time. When he finally left, someone else walked in who does not stutter, but talks way too much...

Sorry. I got a little carried away. I had some other ideas I was going to post but I got so preoccupied setting up a wireless card on my home-office PC (i.e. the computer in my daughter's bedroom) that I got a little side tracked. To be honest, it was a lot easier to get a wireless connection setup than I thought it would be.

Finally, you may or may not know that I've been "excited" about this new Splinter Cell game. Well, I picked it up last night and played through the tutorials for the online component and then I went to bed. So far today, my only contact with the game was when I took the instruction manual with me to read in the bathroom. (You'll probably think twice about reading my game manuals now, but not to worry. It's not like I don't wash my hands! What kind of a person do you think I am?) Needless to say, I won't really get to post any sort of review anytime soon, much to the chagrin of my legion of readers. I do plan on getting a review up and running before the next Splinter Cell game comes out, whenever that is.

So, I guess now it's time for me to sign off and eat a cookie. Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Another Day

It's a new day. It's also a day that I have to go back to work. (I was off yesterday since I worked the weekend.) The good news for me: only four days of work until the weekend. The bad news for me: I'll be by myself in the evenings this week since one of my coworkers is on vacation. Also, I have to commute to Norfolk and I'm really getting sick of it.

On to something less annoying, you may be wondering what was up with my last post. Well, I constantly think of stupid stuff like that that I want to write down and, until now, I never did. Believe it or not, I usually only write stuff like that if I honestly think it's funny. To me. On a regular basis, I'll say to my wife while we're watching a movie or TV or something, "Hey wouldn't it be funny if______(insert ridiculous chain of events here)". Usually this elicits a calm "yeah" or a pity laugh.

Thankfully, I have a wife that humors me but strangely enough I'll still sit there and think to myself, "Hmm. That's strange. The statement I just made was the funniest thing ever said. Ever. Why isn't she rolling on the floor laughing uncontrollably?" That's overstating it a bit, but you get the idea. Over the years I've come to realize that just because something is insanely funny to me doesn't mean that it will be funny at all to anyone else. Does that make me insane? I hope not. But wouldn't it be hilarious if it did?!

Monday, March 28, 2005

Hey, Ma! Got any Sunny D in the fridge?

Me and the guys were outside shooting some hoops and could really use something good to drink. C'mon guys! Let's all crowd around the fridge with the door open and dig around inside. Soda? No way, man! Sunny D is the way to go! Mmmm. Deee-licious! Well, it's back outside... and don't worry, we'll be right back here to cool down when it gets too hot outside. Thanks, Ma! And thank you, Sunny D!

Why "Faron Oakes"?

Since you've probably noticed that my blog name is "Faron Oakes" (with the space where it's supposed to be) you might be wondering why I'm using this name. The short answer: it's my gamertag on Xbox Live. Yes, everyone on XBL and over at XMG (more on XMG later) knows me as Faron Oakes. There really is no real meaning behind it. It's simply a fictional name I came up with a long time ago that I thought sounded kind of cool and epic. The first time I remember using it was when I was playing the PC game Starcraft back in early 1999. So, yes, I'm incredibly nerdy.
XMG is a community of gamers called Xbox Mature Gamers. It started out pretty modest, but now we have a nice website which is essentially a message board. On this message board the members discuss gaming events, games, and life in general. The main reason this community exists is so that people who play Xbox Live can enjoy it. If you're not familiar with the service, you can play with anyone pretty much anytime of the day over a high speed internet connection. The downside to this is the fact that playing with the general public can be a pretty crappy experience. Sometimes you encounter the occasional person that just wants to have fun, but undoubtedly you will run into several people who only seem to have fun when they are team killing, screaming into their microphone, or swearing incessantly. So, to summarize, XMG was created so people could get together to play games over XBL just for fun - not at the expense of others.
Wow. Today, I've really bared my soul, gaming-wise. But, like I mentioned in my old Verizon site, I read and talk about games much more than I am able to play them. I'm okay with that. Really. Why are you looking at me like that? Stop laughing!
One last note: After reading this, I'm sure my sister will be even more convinced that I am a "dork". So be it. Until next time...

Back again...

This time around, I'm a little more aware of what's going on. The good news is this is much easier to use than my other site listed above. I hope to start posting pictures and generally spewing out meaningless garbage very shortly. Check back soon for more junk from me!

Sunday, March 27, 2005

First Entry?

So, I've decided to make my wannabe blog with verizon. Hopefully, this will work out. I'm going to continue to update the other page with pictures and the like so I haven't totally disregarded. But if I did, who would really care, really? Until next time....BYE!