The Quantum of Solace of Turning 40!

Hello Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea!

Welcome to another blog that is butt-loaded with completely useless, geek filled, Sci-Fi lovin', Fantasy driven, information. We get to start off this blog with how I celebrated my 40th birthday recently. And, NO, it did not involve me, by myself, at this computer, on-line porn, weeping, having a tea party with action figures, blow up dolls I've named Christina or any lotions of any sort.

In my last blog I mentioned how friends and family were treating me to a high end steak dinner at a well established steak eatery. Dinning with me was my sister (Dizzy Lizzie), my brother-in-law, my mom, my friends Iris Von Beaverhousen and Roberto DelAmorte. And I have to tell you, after a couple of Bloody Mary's and a few Heineken's, I had the best medium rare Fillet Minionge (I don't know how to spell this thing. And spell check is being to stupid to figure it out for me) that I have ever consumed in my entire lifetime! It was a very nice, relaxing, formal dinner in a very classy, tasteful and relaxing atmosphere.

However, that wasn't the end of the evening by any means. As they were paying the bill, the waitress came up to me and placed a secret agent dossier in front of me and said "I'm supposed to give this to you".

I knew immediately that something was afoot, as my Mom, sister and Iris made a B-Line out of the restaurant, and I was left with the dossier, my bro-in-law and Roberto. I opened the dossier and there were instructions for me to go with the two agents (Roberto and my Bro-in-law). But first I had to solve a puzzle they had for me. It was explained in the dossier that neither Roberto or my Bro-in-law (who shall be hence forth called B.I.L.) would be able to communicate since they were "silent agents who didn't speak English", thus couldn't give me clues to the puzzle. The three of us went to the SUV and whilst in the back seat I went over the puzzle as well as a box of clues and instruments that were provided for me by "M" to find out where I needed to go.

After stumbling around in the back seat of the car to figure out the address to have Roberto and B.I.L. take me (remember, I had 2 Bloody Mary's and a couple of Heineken's in me), I barely figured out the address and gave it to Roberto, my chauffeur, and we sped through downtown Milwaukee to a bridal suite of a high class club. Once there, I found the suite we needed to be at, knocked on the door and was greeted by the unmistakable voice of my friend, Spanky, asking me for "the password".

Evidently, Spanky was going off script, 'cause there was never any password given to me (his improvisational skills suck ass, but he means well), I just spoke out the first thing to come to mind ("I'm looking for a safe house"), at which time he opened the door and I was lead into the suite with Spanky holding a toy gun on me.

He went through this shtick that I was supposed to get on this metal table (there was none) with a laser pointing at me (there was none) and recite a famous James Bond line of, "So Goldfinger, do you expect me to talk?" at which point he replied, "No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!"(his improvisational skills suck ass, but he means well). After this point my family and more of my friends walked out of the bedroom of the suite and yelled "Surprise!!!"

I honestly was quite flabbergasted! I had all different groups of friendships represented there. It was cool to see worlds collide!!! There was even a private stock of beer for me to consume throughout the evening. I did my share of imbibing.

I got surprise calls from other friends of mine in the hotel room throughout the night, as well as more puzzles for me to solve. Since I was feeling no pain at this point, I couldn't solve a puzzle in Highlights magazine at this point. So "M" (Iris) was lenient on me. I still got my prizes/presents.

Also featured that evening was a huge cake that had scenes from various Bond movies decorated on it (special thanks to Spanky). Also, there were various James Bond posters about the suite that had my face superimposed on the Bond images. There was also a huge banner with my festering face on it hanging over the room's TV.

Mad Mario and his lovely wife, Hope even showed up as well as a few other special guests. The whole evening was something incredibly special and just darn spectacular! At the end of the evening, Roberto, Iris, Mad Mario and Hope were the last to close down the suite @ 2:30am.

Apparently, Iris Von Beaverhousen, was the main conspirator with Roberto and Spanky and Dizzy Lizzie in the frey of it all!

It was a incredible evening that I won't soon forget! A major shout out has to go to Iris and her planning and plotting with many different people to get this thing off the ground.

The fact that people actually put this much time into planning, financing and executing this whole shinding for me, really blows my mind!!!!!!

Thanks to all who attended and took part!!! I am forever grateful!!


So, they officially announced the name of the next James Bond opus, "Quantum of Solace" (read announcement here). It doesn't have quite the same ring to it as past Bond movies, but it is the name of a Ian Flemming short story, so I guess it has a bit of flair to it. Supposedly it is to take place, literary one hour after the end of Casino Royale. It will also have lots more action that Casino did with more answers to who this secret organization is that Bond is after. I can't wait until November '08!!!!

I'm getting going now as I have to shuffle my ass into work tomorrow (Saturday) to get a special project out tomorrow.

Until the next exciting installment, Happy Birthday to Me!!

Zangz.

P.S. Rest in peace, Heath Ledger, star of TV series, Roar... which everyone has forgotten, but should not.

Birthday of the Living Dead....

Here we are at the start of another weekend. A well deserved reprieve from the stress of the weekday grind. There are a couple of things that make this weekend stand out a bit.

First and foremost, I'm turning the big 4-0. Not exactly a shinning moment in most peoples' lives. But, for some odd reason it doesn't bother me quite as much as I thought it would. Sure, I realize that's it's all down hill from here on in. But, I have good family and friends. I'm working. I also have butt loads of video games. So I guess I'm all set for now.

Zangz's 40th anniversary plans include a trip to a very nice, high class steak house, a visit to a museum display that features the dead, Body Worlds. This display was also featured in the James Bond movie, Casino Royale. Though, when I mention that fact to people, they don't seem to remember that scene. It's where Bond leaves that insanely beautiful Latino woman at the villa, just before things would have gotten all hot and bothered, so he can follow her corrupt boyfriend. He ends up tailing this guy to a museum where he finds that said sleazeball is meeting a terrorist who will blow up a Virgin Airlines flight at a Miami airport. Bond comes face to face with the sleazeball boyfriend and ends up sticking a knife in his gut, right in the middle of Body Worlds. Pretty cool.

Then of course there's the big game. Packers vs. the Giants for the division title. I'm hoping to god that the Packers don't fall behind early on in the game and then let that freak them out and then lose. They've done that before and I think that that's the only way they could really blow this game.


In my last blog I forgot to review a video game I rented a while back, The Darkness. In the end I found it good, but not something I would pick up. It was fine as a rental, but even though there's a ton of stuff to do and unlock, it didn't keep my interest. I found that there's was a lot of back and forth, tons of load times, and a lot of the same settings. There was also some pretty cool ideas that were input into the game. There is a cool feature where your character was able to use a remote "appendage" to swing around corners and travel ahead of the rest of your body to do away with unsuspecting opposition. I took out an entire army of crooked S.W.A.T. members when I was cornered in building in one portion of the game. Pretty cool. If it just wasn't so frickin' repetitive with so many load times and more settings to investigate, I might have really liked this game.


What book am I reading right now? Well, amongst the other three I've been trudging through for the last year and a half, I picked up "My Boring-Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith" Fans of the director will get a huge kick out of this book as it chronicles the highs and lows of the time period during the production of Clerks II. If you're not a fan of Kevin Smith's movies then I would say to you... A) you were born without any soul and B) you'll probably be bored with it. Since I'm a fan, I'm eating the dren up! A good and fun read... since I have a soul.

You know, I'm getting out of here and having a good, cold birthday brewski to hail in the weekend. So go Pack!

Zangz.

Welcome to 2008... suckas!

Here we are on our way into 2008. Let's hope these shatstorms of awful weather and bad flu bugs don't plague us into the new year.

I had a great time bringing in '08 on New Years Eve. Went out for a nice steak with good friends, then went to see Walk Hard: the Dewey Cox Story (very funny!!!!) with same good friends, and then spent the entire rest of the evening trying to play Rock Band with the same group of friends. I did pretty good as lead singer, was marginally well on drums and blew big time on guitar. But a great time was had and before we even knew it, it was 2 am in the morning!

Sadly, the next day I got hit with a bad flu bug. I still made it out to go see National Treasure: Book of Secrets (If you liked the first, you'll like the second!). After the movie I went home and passed out on the couch for the next 6 hours coughing non-stop with a huge-assed headache. I still went into work the next day. Happy New Year, Zangz, ya big sucker!


In other news, I've delved into he world of Mass Effect and have found it quite engrossing. This RPG has so many sub missions and a great story line that I think I'll be sticking with it for a while. I'm also entrenched in BioShock, another addictive game.


Speaking of addictive, have you taken a gander at Celebrity Rehab on VH1. Holy Crap! This is the greatest train wreck of a reality show I've ever seen. Now, I'm not usually the sort of guy who finds people with real problems a form of entertainment. But, don't tell me that your jaw doesn't drop a little as you see Kinickie quasi-passed out in a wheelchair mumbling and crying about how he's hallucinating about drugs chasing him. I might be here, by myself, on my Friday night, drinking beer, pants down around my legs and blogging about video games, but I'm not floundering around in a wheel chair imagining that a giant pile of cocaine is chasing me around my apartment. Staci Flood chasing me around my apartment is whole other ball of wax, altogether.


The winter months usually mark family birthdays. Today is my mom's. Mid February is my sister's and next weekend is my big one. The one where it all goes straight down hill afterward. I won't let out the actual number, but there might be a"0" and a "4" in it somewhere. I'm being taken out to dinner with family and friends in tow, to a really nice steak joint. So that's something to look forward to.


What am I jamming to as I type this out? Why, a band called King's X. They were bigger during the late 80's and early 90's, but their music still stands the test of time. If you like prog rock with a bit of a soulful crunch, be sure to check them out!


Until next time, go Packers! Don't choke!

Zangz.