Great news for The Shield fans in Canada. The show is broadcast on FX in the states, but this season we are getting the new episodes broadcast on Showcase and Showcase HD. The final season is scheduled to start on September 2nd on FX, and the following week on Showcase. Not sure what the one week delay is, but whatever, I’m still pumped that this will be broadcast in HD and I won’t have to wait for the DVD release!
I don’t remember how I came across this artist, but I find Mike Jacobsen’s little cartoons to be quite amusing. I’m not sure if the one I posted above here is his absolute funniest, but it definitely made me laugh on this drizzly Thursday morning.
Some of his others include making fun of Chewbaca taking a crap, The Hamburgler actually robbing a McDonalds, and Batman being on the wrong end of a hazing. Anyone want to get in on a tshirt order from Mike’s store?
This is Harley, our new Himalayan Kitten. He is only 10 weeks old, but is quite agile for his age. He was a birthday present for the girlfriend, and also as a gift to our other cat who has been our lone pet for quite a while now.
I was a bit worried if the two cats would get along or not, but they were pretty much instant best friends. Everyone is getting along great, and the older cat comes to Harley’s rescue whenever he starts crying or gets himself into trouble.
Anyway, this video shows the first few minutes after we put his bell collar on… he didn’t like it at first, but now he is fine with it.
After being pretty much spam free since starting this back in April, the last few days have seen an absolute onslaught of spam comments. I had been manually marking them as spam, but I just realized that there is something called Akismet that is included with Wordpress, that supposedly crushes spam before you have to deal with it. I’ve activated it now, and I’ll see how well it works.
Its only Tuesday, but so far this week I’ve had to kill 233 spam comments after they disturbed my inbox. Lucky for me that I realize that the electrician that keeps spamming, and all of those sites from Russia saying “You really should think about your comment” are just trying to get past “must have one comment approved before automatic approval” in the spam filter… oh I’m so smart… and now that I have a plugin doing the dirty work for me, I’m sooooooooooo much smarter! Good luck thwarting me now, spammers!
I’ve always wanted to go on a Harley road trip in a place much different than my own, and I took that opportunity last week while I was down in Las Vegas celebrating my 30th birthday. I contacted Las Vegas Harley Davidson the week before heading down there, and reserved a Fat Boy for 24 hours. I really wanted the Street Glide, but they didn’t have any available, so I took the next biggest thing they had available.
Upon arrival at LVHD I found they they had a black pearl street glide available, and I quickly made the switch to this baby. I wanted this bike in particular because I’m thinking of buying one, and also because I wanted to rock out to some tunes with its stereo. After finishing off the rental contract I pulled out of the dealership to the sound of Guns N’ Roses Welcome To The Jungle at pretty much full volume. The guy at the rentals saw me pull away and had a look on his face probably thinking to himself that this guy is going to have a blast… man was he right!
I carried my Garmin eTrex H hand held GPS with me in my pocket, and tracked my ride as I left the Burger King near LVHD, headed south through Boulder City and Laughlin Nevada, and east towards Kingman Arizona. From Kingman I headed North East along Historic Route 66 until Indian Service Road 18, and then turned around and continued along Route 66 to Oatman, AZ. Oatman was an old abandoned mining town that has been rejuvenated again as of late, but still keeps its charm as something out of the old west. The road winding up to Oatman was unreal as there was no shoulder or barricade, which was so sharp and rocky that a lot of the places had you slow down to 5 miles per hour.
From Oatman I headed back to Kingman, and then North on the 93 back towards Vegas and the Hoover Dam. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I got to the Hoover Damn, but have to say that I was only slightly impressed. Yes its quite the structure, but I really don’t see how people could enjoy a 4 hour bus tour from Vegas to see this thing. I took a few pictures and was outta there in less than 10 minutes.
I took my camera with me, but unfortunately or fortunately I was having too much fun riding and I didn’t take very many pictures at all. Here are some of the few that I took:
Street View of Downtown Oatman Arizona
Tiny little town along the way south to Laughlin
The Hoover Dam From The South / East Side
The Harley Davidson Street Glide Overlooking the Mountains and Valleys in Arizona
According to my GPS the total distance that I rode was 689km and travel time was just over 8 hours. Highlights of the trip for me (broken down by the song on Komp 92.3 Las Vegas on the radio) were:
Metallica - Nothing Else Matters, as I wound through the mountains approaching Oatman, AZ.
GNR - Welcome To The Jungle, as I pulled out of the LVHD lot.
Motley Crue - Kickstart My Heart, as I headed south on the 95 without another car or bike in sight.
Godsmack - Whatever, as I opened the bike up to 100mph as I headed west on the 66.
Metallica - The Day That Never Comes, nothing better than hearing a brand new Metallica song as you are riding through the desert back to Las Vegas.
All and all this trip was totally awesome. I had a lot of fun in Vegas, but I have to say that the bike rental definitely took the cake as being the best part of my vacation. Maybe this ride was an omen for me to move somewhere hot like Arizona or Texas so that I can ride year round… now THAT would be awesome!!!
My friend Masanori Nakayama just recently opened up a restaurant right in the heart of Tokyo, called Kassai. The restaurant features a variety of vegetable centric dishes, and a wide selection of Japanese Sake and Shochu. The restaurant has only been open for a few weeks now, and it has already been quite popular with both the locals, and also the foreign crowd as there have been a few visitors from Australia slide by! For those of you that want to hit up a unique Japanese restaurant, and be greeted by English and Japanese speaking staff, this is the place to go.
The restaurant is located right in the heart of Tokyo in the Akasaka district, which isn’t far from sights such as the Tokyo Tower, Roppongi Hills, Imperial Palace, and popular places such as Ark Hills, The Akasaka Ana Hotel, and Shiba and Hibiya Parks. Whatever the reason for your Tokyo visit, you should be within close proximity to Kassai! If not, here are some simple directions as to how to get there:
How to get there
Depending on where you are staying you may be able to walk, but first I’ll cover off access by train:
If you are walking, you can hit up google maps and get your directions from there. Here is a Google map with Kassai already highlighted for you:
And lastly, if you are walking around Tokyo with a hand held GPS unit, here are the coordinates for the restaurant: North: 35.672812 East: 139.738605
If you decide to check out Kassai, be sure to find Masanori and say hi to him!
Japanese Restaurant Kanshaba Kassai
Basement Level 1
2-13-3 Akasaka
Minato-ku
Tokyo Japan
Phone: 03-5114-6044
After an incredible 46 hours, 28 minutes, and 08 seconds, I finally completed GTA4 on the XBOX 360. I bought this game on release night, and have been playing the snot out of it. Why did it take me so long to finish the game? Well, I didn’t just blow through the main story in a few hours, but instead explored everything I could, and took part in as many of the side missions that I could as well. Sometimes I find those to be a little more fun than the actual story missions.
Anyway, I’m still completely blown away that I played that game for more than 46 hours. That is definitely the most time that I’ve poured into any video game, and I hope that I never do that again. Yes the game was fun, and if I had to re-live this summer all over again, I wouldn’t skip GTA4.
Did anyone else feel shocked when they looked at their play time at the end of the game?
And to explain the image above… do you see any correlation between the 46 hours and the unlockable achievement? 
Today was spent on Okanagan Lake on a Party Barge and a couple of sea-doos. It wasn’t quite as hot as yesterday, but still checked in at an overcast 30. Perfect for me as its warm, and not having to worry about getting a massive sunburn.
Anyway, when I first heard about and saw this Party Barge, I thought that it was going to be a joke, and basically a few planks attached to a few pontoons, but it turned out to be quite a beauty. The thing had enough power to pull a few tubes, and we smashed around on the thing from 10:30 am till about 7pm when it started getting a little rocky out there on the lake.
So today = no new sunburn, and a good day on the lake. I also got an early birthday present in a bottle of Merlot from a local winery (the name escapes me now). Tomorrow its time for some golf… Okanagan Springs I think.
Oh its a hot one out here… Yesterday as we drove down to Kelowna we roasted in the heat as temperatures rose to 38 during some parts of the drive. The air conditioner in my car was overheating or something though as it would occasionally crap out, and I’d have to open the windows until it came back to life… I thought the whole idea of an air conditioner was to cool you down when its hot, not crap out and force you to go 70s style and open the windows.
The 900+ kilometer drive down to Kelowna wasn’t that bad, except for a few traffic snafus along the way. The first being a truck that decided that he had to slow down to 30 to go throug the tunnels near Rogers Pass, but I was soon able to blow past that clown. The second was a guy teaching his woman how to drive a motorcycle through the windy parts just south of Sicamous. Of course she was very uncomfortable riding her little bike through the curves, and in turn slowed down to about 40km/h on every turn… As I went out to pass, I had to slide back in between the two bikes, and had the male ride right up onto my ass and greet me in my rearview mirror with numerous swears… Funny how he could disrupt traffic for the other 30 cars stuck behind him, but when someone got in HIS way, oh look out. I was able to pass her after the next bend, and from that point we didn’t see a single car behind us for about 45 minutes. Teaching someone to ride is a good idea, but pick a better spot!
Anyway, Kelowna is awesome, and it is absolutely beautiful here today. Had a great time lounging by the pool at a nice 36 degrees. Tonight we’re off to a winery for a family dinner on the outlaw (inlaws) side, and then tomorrow we’re heading out on some kind of party barge from early morning to late evening. Just about blew all my sunscrean today at the pool, but luckily I brought another can of the spray stuff (which I like WAY better than that glue that I’ve had to use since I was a kid).
Oh yeah, I also had a beer down by the pool today so there goes the no more drinking thing. I think that its really going to be hard this month as we are down here for 6 days, and then I’m off to Las Vegas for my birthday in a few weeks… Maybe I’ll have to wait till September before I take on such a task..?
So after watching the season finale of “I survived a Japanese game show,” where Justin Wood from Trussville Alabama won and walked away with $250,000, I started to wonder, “Who actually paid for this show?”
At first I thought it was simply a new idea for a show from ABC, but after putting more thought into it, I think that it was paid for by the Japan National Tourist Organization or a similar group over in Japan. Possibly even the government itself, considering a minister made an appearance in the final episode.
I discussed it with the girlfriend who was doubtful at first, but after asking her if she now wanted to go to Japan after watching the show and seeing the sights, she responded, “Hell Yah!”
Kudos to whoever paid for this show over in Japan… I’m sure its going to pay off bigtime.
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