This post is inspired by a Facebook note that has been going around. I thought it would be fun to throw out some stupid facts about myself and see who else can come back with some stupid yet interesting facts about yourselves. I welcome and look forward to your comments.

1. I am superstitious. It pretty much goes against most of what I stand for (logic, fact, etc...). It's mostly with sports. For instance, if I'm going to play basketball, I can't warm up too much or I won't have a good game. I have to work myself into it.

2. I'm not a spiritual person, but I do believe in Karma. I do think the universe tends to balance itself out by rewarding the positive and squashing the negative.

3. In 2006 I took 8 months off work. I was going through a life transition. The state of my company was up in the air. I wasn't sure if I was going to stay in the Phoenix area or move out of state and start over. Plus I was getting a bit burnt out from work. It just felt right. It was quite expensive and on paper it was a terrible decision (mostly financially); but it did wonders for my mental health and I felt rejuvinated when I eventually did go back to work. I highly recommend it to anyone who can get away with it!

4. I am a total metalhead. I love heavy metal. Hard core speed metal, angry thrash metal, it's all good. Some of my favorite bands are Metallica (mostly old Metallica - first three albums), Pantera, Godsmack, Slipknot and Coal Chamber. I've seen all of them. I've lost track of how many times I've seen Metallica. I want to say about 25 times.

5. I'm a huge Packer fan. Most people who know me are quite aware of this.

6. I absolutely hate talking on the phone. If it were a viable option I would never speak on the phone again. Text, email, carrier pidgin, anything other than a phone conversation. Unfortunately with so many friends/family out of state I need to make the periodic phone call to keep in touch.

7. I am claustrophobic. I figured this out when I was in the military. One time while in the field I freaked out when we got gassed. I had to dawn my gas mask and I couldn't take it off for some time. Just the feeling of knowing that my face had to be surrounded by this device wigged me out. This extends to generally being in small, cramped spaces. I deal with it better than I once did; but it still freaks me out.

8. I'm completely ticklish. I can't let anyone touch my feet. If I get a massage the first thing I note is that they will not be touching my feet. They always want to but I insist that they don't. I hate it.

9. I have a ridiculous mastery of 80's music. I can go toe to toe with anyone. I'm a product of the 80's.

10. I am a huge animal lover. I like animals more than people.

I'd like to hear yours...

-Jim

Well, firstly I must say that even up to and including game day for this years Super Bowl I was asking my buddies, "is it just me, or are the Cardinals in the Super Bowl??". It was one of those surreal occurrences where it just doesn't seem possible. I live in the Phoenix area, and that has always been the one constant not only here in the valley but sports in general - the Arizona Cardinals will never succeed; they will always fail... it's just a matter of when. Oh, sometimes they disappoint you in dramatic fashion, but they will always disappoint. I'm not a Cardinal fan. I'm a Packer fan (anybody who who knows me is painfully aware of this). But I do live here in Arizona so I've kind of adopted the Cardinals as my auxiliary team to pull for after the Packers. I've never had a strong conviction for the franchise; and I'm not going to tell you that I've jumped on the Cardinal bandwagon as many have done this season (I have no respect or tolerance for 'bandwagoners'). But I can tell you that it's made the NFL season much more interesting since I live in AZ. And I have definitely made a point to watch more Cardinal games this season than I normally do. I must say that I honestly hadn't watched too many Cardinal games in the past, mainly because they usually suck ;) But since they were making some noise in the NFC I was curious to see if they were the real deal. And they DID look like the real deal for the first 2/3 of the season. Then after they clinched their division they seemed to have taken a 6 game nap. I figured, oh, here come the old Cardinals that I'm used to. Let the meltdown begin! Many people jumped on the bandwagon for the first half of the season, then promptly jumped right back off that very wagon when the Cards proceeded with their losing streak to end the season. It wasn't looking good... the so called 'experts' were calling Arizona the worst playoff team in the history of the NFL. Like, ever. Ever, ever. Granted, they benefited from being in the worst division in the NFL; and they got to play each crappy divisional team twice (St. Louis, SF, Seattle) which is pretty much a given 6-0 record right there for any decent team; and yes, they had a colossal slide after they clinched the division for the last several games of the season. So in a way they did limp ass backwards into the playoffs. And nobody gave them a chance... including me. I figured the first round against Atlanta would be close. I definitely thought that there was a good chance that the Cards would lay an egg and lose that game and get bounced out of the playoffs in typical disappointing Cardinal fashion that we've all become accustomed to. But I didn't fully count them out in the first round. Of course they ended up winning fairly decisively. Most experts picked them to lose that game. In the second round they against the Panthers, in their house, and there was absolutely nobody who gave the Cards a chance to win that game (including me again). The Panthers ended the season strong, the Cardinals ended their season very poorly, momentum was going Carolina's way, it was at Carolina, and AZ had an absolutely miserable record on the east coast this season. So the odds were definitely against them. And of course they just boatraced the Panthers. That was pretty cool. As fate would have it the Eagles beat the Giants which set up the NFC championship game here in Phoenix. Again, few gave the Cards a chance to step up and handle their business. But they did handle their business and for the third week in a row they shocked the world by playing at a high level, balanced attack of running, passing and solid defense. Holy crap, could it be?? Arizona Cardinals in the Super Bowl?? No way. Yes way! And they almost won that damn thing. They played like ass for the most part, but their offense came together late in the game. I can't recall in the Super Bowls that I've watched such a dramatic set of game-changing plays both ways. The game really could have gone either way. Although I'm not a big Cardinal fan, I do like to see different teams win championships - in all sports. To me it's boring to see the same teams win over and over again. Yes, fun if it's your team. But I was definitely pulling for the Cardinals just to see them complete their Cinderella season and turn the NFL universe upside down. But they came up short. Just short. There were so many plays that you can point to that screwed them up (100-yd run back right before the half, Antron Rolle getting in Fitzgeralds way to make a potentially game saving tackle, dropped interception opportunities, absolutely horrible tackling on several key plays, etc....). Disappointing outcome. But I want to say congratulations to the Cardinals on a great playoff run and finally making a Super Bowl appearance. It's been exciting to watch the playoff run; although quite disappointing to see them lose the big game in such dramatic fashion. I don't know too many die hard Cardinal fans (you know who you are) - but I think I feel the worst for them. But hey, in typical Cardinal fashion you know the AZ warcry, "There's always next year!"...

-Jim

Jim-A-Palooza 3: The Trilogy happened this past weekend. For those who are not familiar with Jim-A-Palooza, this is a party I invented three years ago after I got divorced and bought my current bachelor pad. The name of the party was inspired by the movie Old School with Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, and Luke Wilson. Wilson's character (Mitch) was cheated on by his live-in girlfriend (Juliette Lewis). Mitch moves into a house on campus near a local university which inspires Vaughn and Ferrell to throw Mitch a party to 're-release him into the wild'. The name of the party: Mitch-A-Palooza. Of course this turned into a huge, wild party with the likes of Snoop-Dog entertaining the crowd promptly followed by a beer-bong induced streaking Will Ferrell. The movie is one of my all time favorites, and it seemed fitting that my first solo party should be named 'Jim-A-Palooza'. It was a blast and everyone had great time. So this became an annual tradition. This year in light of the state of the economy and trying to watch my budget I wasn't going to host Jim-A-Palooza. But by popular demand it seemed even more necessary this year. So this past Saturday was the big party... deemed The Trilogy. It was a blast! Everyone had a great time. As always there was pool in the game room, a fire pit in the back yard, spirited games of beer pong going on in the back yard, a limbo contenst (congratulations Chan the man), and Rock Band for musically inclined. Wow. Good times. Lot's of people. I'm guessing around 60 people or so. I was pleased that the cops never came. It was a really beautiful night as far as weather. It was very conducive for hanging out in the back yard. There was much beer, wine, martini's and Tequila consumed. We ran out of beer about midnight or 12:30 so I figured people would start to leave. I was wrong. Instead people made beer runs and got more firewood (good work Crump). So about 1:30 or 2:00 there must have still been 30 or 40 people rocking out. It seemed to gain momentum as the night moved on. I want to say the last people left around 3:30ish. I must say people partied pretty hard and had a good great time! The Trilogy was a huge success. The aftermath the next morning was out of control. No major damage, just a lot of dead soldiers. I mean a LOT. I didn't count, but I'm guessing there were 20 empty bottles of wine, 15 empty cases of beer, 1/2 empty big bottle of Kettle One vodka and 3 empty bottles of Tequila. Tequila was definitely the shot of choice. It took Kelly and I about 4 hours to clean everything to get the house back to it's original state. Like I say, fortunately no major damage. But overall Jim-A-Palooza 3 was huge success!

Preliminary Pictures

-Jim

Summerfest is an annual music festival held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. But it's not just a music festival. It is 'The' Music festival. In fact, it is officially the world's largest music festival according to Guiness World Records (1999). Summerfest takes place on a 75 acre park along the Lake Michigan lakefront always during the 4th of July timeframe. This is an 11 day music festival which attracts about 1 million people each year. This has been a Milwaukee tradition that has been going on since the 70's. It's a bit difficult to describe for someone who hasn't been there. But I am going to give it a shot here.

Summerfest takes place on a huge festival park (Henry Maier Festival Park) which is similar to a State Fair park. There are 11 music stages which includes a 23,000 seat Amphitheater and a Rock Stage (for all of us metalheads - yeah!). The Amphitheater includes some general lawn seating in the back and you can actually purchase tickets in advance for the reserved seats. But for the most part all of the other stages are open to anyone who is on the Summerfest grounds. The Rock Stage has bench seating, The Miller Oasis has a bunch of picnic tables and standing room, and the other stages include a combination of tables, benches and standing room. Every show other the main act in the Amphitheater for reserved seating is included in the price of admission. So you are free to roam and explore all of the bands on the various stages. They open the gates at noon and run until midnight each day for eleven days. Bands play all day long on each of the stages for all eleven days. So the festival goes on for 11 days, there are 11 stages and there are over 700 bands. Historically Summerfest will draw many big acts (they usually play the Amphitheater) and a variety of up and coming bands spanning many different musical genres. Over the years I have seen Pearl Jam, Metallica and Bon Jovi at the Amphitheater. In more recent years the Amphitheater seems to draw more of a mixed bag of genres including country. Last year the bigger acts included Tom Petty, Stone Temple Pilots, John Mayer, Tim McGraw, Taylor Swift and Rascal Flatts. But my favorite stage is the Rock Stage. This is more Rock / Heavy Metal oriented. Here I have seen many of my favorites bands including Sevendust, Candlebox, Creed and Tesla. This is more of an intimate setting so really there is not a bad seat in the house.

But wait, there is more to Summerfest than the music. It's in Milwaukee so of course there is one important dimension to Summerfest that enhances the experience: BEER! One really cool thing about 'The Fest' is that once you're in, you can grab a brew and freely roam the entire Summerfest grounds. Of course there is no shortage of beer tents scattered throughout the grounds. Also, there is a really assortment of food available including Saz's - a Milwaukee staple for 32 years. Uh, I should mention that if you are on a diet or are health conscious you should know that most of the food is fried and covered in fat, stuffed in a refried pancake and covered in chocolate fudge, then drizzled with a layer of oil and fat topped off with BBQ sauce and Nacho cheese. Wash that down with a beer. Hell, this is Wisconsin people! No avocado and sprout sandwiches here (wuss).

Overall, I would say that there is no doubt that Summerfest is the coolest thing about Milwaukee. It's the one thing that I miss here in Phoenix. I tell all my friends about it, and they usually just nod their heads politely and I get a collective 'uh-huh'. Translation: whatever dude. But I would recommend that everyone should experience Summerfest at one point in your lifetime. Live tunes, alcohol flowing freely and tasty food. What more could you possibly want!

-Jim

Not much explanation needed here. Although I will remark that this seems to be more of a stupid man-thing than something girls care about. I am a huge movie lover, and I (like most dudes) latch on to any stupid catch phrase that cracks us up. Men refuse to talk about relationships, feelings or gossip, but we will have a 2 hour quotefest spouting out random movie quotes and ridiculing the other guys if they don't happen to know which movie it's from. Anyway, I'm sure there will be much spirited debate on this topic. I'm listing what I consider the most quotable movies ever (in no particular order).

Caddyshack
Pulp Fiction
Top Gun
40 Year Old Virgin
Ferris Bueller's Day off
Breakfast Club
Happy Gilmore
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Swingers

.... and of course: Office Space

I want to know YOUR opinion!

-Jim

Last night I saw the new Clint Eastwood movie "Gran Torino". Eastwood both directed and starred in this movie which is rumored to be the 78 year old's last film. He plays the leading role of Walt Kowalski - a grizzled war Veteran who is a product of the Korean war. I typically enjoy Eastwood's movies including The Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby. I would say this movie is as good or better than either of those moves. It was truly outstanding. After a year full of action packed movies enhanced by CGI (Batman, Ironman, Wanted) it is really refreshing to see a movie that simply relies on a good story and good acting. Eastwood gives a spectacular performance. I will give one warning, this movie has strong racial tones. If that type of thing offends you, I wouldn't recommend it. I could see where this movie would offend some people who are hyper-sensitive to racial slurs. I am guessing that accounts for the few negative criticisms that the movie has received. Gran Torino is a social commentary on modern racial issues. It addresses several very real urban struggles including diversity, tolerance and gang problems. I should note that typical of Eastwoods other moives don't expect to be blown away from the first scene. There is some time taken to develop the characters which is key to the plot. Some people could percieve chunks of this movie as slow; but every scene and set of dialogue has a purpose. Make no mistake, if you take Eastwood out of this movie, you don't have a movie. If this is indeed Eastwood's last performance, I'd say he coulnd't go out on a higher note. I would be surprised if this movie didn't win at least a couple of academy awards including best actor. I would highly recommend this movie. 9.5 out of 10.

-Jim

What ever happened to Sportscenter on ESPN? About a half year ago they changed formats and I must say, it really sucks now. I have Sportscenter on every morning while I am getting ready for work. I always thought that show was groundbreaking and innovative in the delivery of sports news and format and style in which they deliver it. But they went and changed it up. They used to have sports anchors like Stuart Scott, John Anderson, Kenny Mayne, Craig Kilborn, Dan Patrick, Chris Berman (I could go on) dispensing the daily sports news. They always came up with Witty comments and catchphrases. And there was bantor between the anchors. It just looked like those were a bunch of sports fans just having fun over there. I always identified with those guys... this could be me and a few buddies just shootin' the breeze about the latest sporting news. And the catchphrases they came up with were classics: Cooler than the other side of the pillow, And he could... go... all... the... way!, he's running like large men are chasing him, etc... always made me laugh. It was an every man's sports show. This was the gold standard of sporting news. This show was brilliant. Then for some strange reason they decided to change formats. Now there's some man and a woman standing up giving the news in front of the camera. This looks more like Dateline or 20/20 than a sports show. There's not witty bantor; there's no clever catchphrases; there's no trying to make the other guy laugh during his portion; bottom line, there's no fun any more. I don't know who's bright idea this was but they should be sent back down to the minor leagues. They ruined my beloved Sportscenter. One of the simple joys in my world for years. Am I alone on this one??

-Jim

Modern inventions that we use today is something that I actually think about on a regular basis. Think about the conveniences that we have today and what life would be like without them. Sometimes we take things for granted until we don't have them, even for just a short period of time. Life was a bit different back when I was 12 years old. This inspired me to post what I consider the best inventions in the last 25 years. This was an interesting exercise. It really made me think about what affects our world. Most of my entries are electronics so maybe I have a skewed view on things (he he). I'm curious to see if you agree with my list. I'm also curious to see if anyone has better suggestions that I'm just not thinking of. Here is my list:

10. Energy Drinks I bet a lot of people would disagree with me on this one. Maybe it's because I'm a computer programmer and we have a reputation for downing mass amounts of caffiene. Red Bull's are quite a pick-me-up when you are in a pinch. And how popular are RBV (Reb Bull Vodka's) at the bars?? Yum. Energy AND a buzz, what more could you want?

9. Instant Messaging Not only a great way to keep in touch with friends, but I know I use IM at work for business purposes almost as much as emailing (definitely more than the phone).

8. Viagra Yes, boner pills. Go ahead a laugh! But think about it - what did guys with ED do before Viagra?? Tell me that is not huge (no pun intended).

7. Digital Camera Remember taking pictures with an old school camera? Remember that first time you snapped a photo with a digital camera and you were able to preview the picture on the spot? How cool was that! Remember having to run to Walgreens to get your pictures developed and then some of them didn't come out anyway? That was quite a process. Not to mention the fact that you can easily transer pictures digitally to your PC and upload them to the web.

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In the past few years, I have tried out a few different ColdFusion hosting services. I thought I would share my experience and hopefully somebody may find it useful in their research and decision making process for hosting their ColdFusion application. I've tried GoDaddy, GearHost, xtreme-host, and Hostek. Before that I was always writing applications and running them locally on my work laptop. Of course they were work applications so they would get deployed on our own servers. I guess I was pretty spoiled and didn't realize how nice it is to have access to the ColdFusion server itself and ColdFusion Administrator to set up mapping, datasources, debugging, etc... not to mention direct access to the database back-end such as MS SQL Server. I quickly realized how subjective the deployment and management of your live application is to the hosting service that you choose. If I could recommend one thing, it would be to thoroughly research your hosting service options before you commit to anything. It seems like most services will offer you some kind of trial period with no long-term obligation. Interestingly enough, it also seems that some hosting services are also willing to 'price-match'. Where am I, Best Buy?? I find that funny. I guess not only in this topic but in life, the older I get the more I realize that most everything is negotiable. Especially if there is a product or service involved and you are the consumer. And especially in this economy. Companies are more willing to be flexible to keep your business. But I digress. I am listing The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of what I've noticed of the hosting services that I have tried.

Go Daddy
My recommendation, if you have a very basic site that is pure html or maybe if you are using some very simple ColdFusion scripting, then I say go for it. However, if you are putting together a real ColdFusion web application, then I say forget about it. They disable a lot of functions and tags that virtually render this service unusable for anything real world. Sean Corfield has a post with about a gazillion comments (yes, I know gazillion is not an actualy number) on GoDaddy's ColdFusion hosting service that cover much more detail than I want to get into here. But I can tell you that GoDaddy disables the cfobject tag and the CreateObject() function. Which pretty much means eliminates a lot of real-world code right there (including Ray Camden's BlogCFC which this Blog is built on top of). Other ColdFusion features disabled include much Java support (JSP, Java servlets, and Java Objects), CFExecute and CFRegistry. What is the upside?? It's cheap. You can actually get basic service for less than $10/month, and then actually purchase the ColdFusion add on for an extra couple of dollars. The other nice thing about GoDaddy is that they are well known, so they will not dissappear overnight (keep reading, and you'll see why that is important - lol). As far as their administrative panel and database management, whoa. Their interface is really way too busy and cluttered. I am a Senior Web Engineer and it took me some time to figure out how to navigate through their site just to perform basic tasks.

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Tonight I went to see the new movie Four Christmases starring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon. My fiancee and I were really excited to catch this flick because we both love that style of goofy, immature humor. And we are both huge fans of Vince Vaughn (Swingers, Wedding Crashers, The Break Up). I have two words that best describe this movie - Chick Flick. Kelly liked the movie more than I did, and at first I didn't put it together because usually we are on the same page with comedies. But then I quickly put two and two together. There was definitely a 'chick flick' element to this movie. Which is fine; I actually like some movies that are quasi-chick-flickish. But it was too much estrogen and not enough funny. There were certainly funny moments. It just needed more of them. Vaughn's long time partner in crime Jon Favreau was hilarious. He had a small part, but made the most of it. But I question the casting of Reese Witherspoon. I just don't see funny coming out of her. I thought she was excellent in Walk the Line as June Carter. But I don't think she can carry a funny role. She obviously did not have the on screen chemistry with Vaughn that Jennifer Aniston did in The Break Up. I laughed semi loud a couple of times and had several hearty chuckles. But overall I was dissapointed. I would say this is my least favorite Vince Vaughn movie. I think this movie suffers from a weak script and too much dialogue that didn't hold my attention. I would say wait and put in your Netflix or Blockbuster queue when it comes out on video. I'd give it a 6 out of 10.

Now if you want to laugh till you pee your pants, go see Role Models (review coming soon). That is pure funny right there. I would go as far as to say the Stiffler is funnier in this than American Pie. (I know that's not his name, but he'll always be Stiffler to me).

-Jim