Before coming to work last Tuesday I stopped by MY toy store Best Buy and picked up a copy of the movie I thought was the best film to come out this year, Inglourious Basterds the new film by Quentin Tarantino.  The cast, the acting and the script are all superb and Brad Pitt is a riot as Lt. Aldo Raine who leads a band of mostly Jewish Americans into Nazi-occupied France to do one thing and one thing only: KILL NAZIS!

Inglourious Basterds  \m/  \m/  \m/  \m/  \m/

I managed to watch the entire film and a few special features that night before going to bed.  I fully intended to watch the rest of the special features when I got home Wednesday night however, upon arriving, I first noticed my doormat was pushed all the way up to the doorway (I always pull it back an inch or so when I leave) and then I noticed that the front casing of my deadbolt had been chiseled off.  Needless to say that the lock was already opened when I slid my key in and, lo and behold, I found someone had jacked my apartment.  My 40″ LCD TV was gone as well as my PS3 and numerous PS3 games and DVD and Blu-ray movies – including Inglourious Basterds!

After the initial shock wore off and a few minutes of kicking and screaming, I called 911 and filed a police report.  An officer soon arrived followed a bit later by a forensics officer who dusted my apartment for fingerprints as one of my maintenance guys replaced the locks.

The next day I had my checks cancelled to be on the safe side and filed a report with my insurance company.  Keep in mind I still have an applicable $500 deductible and my rates may still go up in June even though this was not my fault in the slightest.

Friday night we had both the Rise Guys Big Ass P1 Christmas Party and the Entercom Company Christmas Party both of which I attended considering it’s no fun being a hermit cooped up in my apartment without my TV and PS3.  The Rise Guys Big Ass P1 Christmas Party was being held in my hometown of Simpsonville at the Zone Sports Bar and Grille and the place was packed!  I had fun hanging with the Original P1 Lauren and P1 Big Counsy and had a paper tube fight with Fat Boy which I unanimously won and earned some much needed stress relief.

During the course of the evening, our transmitter, which sits atop of a big ass mountain in North Carolina, went out due to the perilous winter weather in the area.  The conditions were so severe that our engineering team couldn’t even reach the transmitter until Sunday morning managing to keep us off the air for a whopping 41 hours!

The weather was bad enough locally that a tree fell on Roper Mountain Road and knocked out the power up and down the street….which I live on.  So I ran home after the Rise Guys Big Ass P1 Christmas Party to change into something a little nicer and more business casual for the Entercom Company Christmas Party and did so in the dark.  The power was restored by the time I got home later that night but went off for a while longer during the early morning hours.

I had a great time at the company Christmas party hanging with Intern Tyler, Diesel and some of our lovely promotions staff….and the free food and booze helped a lot too!  We basically shut the place down that night and still tried to find a place in downtown to continue the festivities.  When we found nothing else to do, those of us left parted ways and went home.  Some of us had to sober up just a bit first….

Saturday I ventured out to the deadly malls and other stores of holiday frenzy to do what little shopping my broke and burglarized ass could afford.  I also managed to take in a movie in an attemt to boost my own morale and revive any amount of Christmas Spirit I could muster.  I went and saw The Blind Side, the football biopic with Sandra Bullock.  The film was very heartwarming and inspirational which I definitely needed to lift my spirits.

The Blind Side  \m/  \m/  \m/  \m/

Sunday I went to church for the first time in forever (maybe to try and win favor with the Lord – LOL!) and then went to borrow a small TV/DVD combo from my best friend’s parents who’ve been like a second family to me.  Unfortunately I couldn’t get my digital antenna to work on the set so I didn’t get to watch football but at least got to watch some movies and relax a bit.

I got my renters insurance forms in the mail Monday and filled them out first thing yesterday morning and faxed them to my claim representative.  Now I just gotta wait for the check and try to get as much replaced as possible since I will be receiving $500 less than what my stuff was worth because of the deductible.  Sucks.

Today I wrapped up the 12 Days of Axemas from noon until 2 at First Cash Pawn on Rutherford St in Greenville.  The turnout was great but I had to rush back to the station to be on the air at 2!

Right now I’m trying to wrap up all my work and take the day off tomorrow for Christmas Eve and then come back and do my shift on Christmas Day.

Even though this year has been a rough one for me having had some legal woes, totaling a car, having my new one keyed and then my apartment broken into, I am remaining optimistic that 2010 will be a much better year kicking off a brand new decade.

I want to take a minute to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed and Happy New Year in 2010!

If we get some snow,  I will get into the Christmas Spirit!  I haven’t been excited about the Holidays.  I dread having to do so much between Christmas and New Years  Eve. I haven’t put up one Christmas Decoration.  I have only bought a few presents.  Help I need some Christmas Spirit.

Maybe a White Christmas will help motivate me.

It seems everyone I know who lives out of town came to Greenville for a visit this past weekend!  My cousin Tonya came in from Portland, OR, my best friend Kenny came in from Atlanta to play a show and my ex-girlfriend Rebecca came in from Savannah, GA to pay her respects to a high school friend of hers who passed away in a tragic accident.  Rebecca and I had been on shaky ground for the past couple of weeks due to an incident where she had an ‘episode’ to put it lightly.  She came by and gave me my Christmas presents early and managed to make peace between us although our relationship is still fairly strained.

We did manage to coexist long enough to go pick my cousin up from my aunt and uncle’s house and go to Gumby’s to see Kenny play with his new project KENNY B & THE FRIZZ.  Opening the show was HEART MACHINE who put on a fairly energetic set before Kenny and the boys took the stage.  They played some MARTIANS SEE RED (Kenny’s former band) tunes as well as some new songs plus an acoustic version of the mellow portions of QUEEN’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” where Kenny demonstrated his truly incredible voice.

After their set, some of the members of HEART MACHINE returned to the stage donning Santa outfits and performed under the moniker BAD SANTAS as they ‘punked’ out some Christmas classics such as “Frosty the Snowman” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”.  It was great but I had to take off during their set since I had to work the next morning.

I dropped Tonya off and got Rebecca back to her car just in time for Kenny to show up with his bandmates to crash at my place.  A couple of them had to leave at six so they barely got in a good nap.  Kenny and his drummer Troy (a former roommate of mine) got up and hit the road when I did the next morning.

After getting off the air Saturday, I came home and laid low for the remainder of the weekend watching football and the second season of My Name is Earl which Rebecca got me for Christmas.

You wanna talk about some odd ass stuff!!  Le Van, a 55-year-old man from Quang Nam province, Vietnam, dug up his wife’s body, put clay over the entire body and put it in his bed so he could hug it every night for the past five years.  But wait there’s more!  He had to build up to that level of crazy.  First he started by sleeping at his dead wife’s grave site.  Then he thought it would be easier for him due to rain and cold temps to dig a tunnel and sleep next to his wifes coffin.  However, neighbors and local authorities found out about the practice and persuaded Van to stop. Subsequently in November 2004 Van returned to the grave, dug up his wife’s corpse and brought it home, where it remains today.  But words can’t give you the full picture of the story.  So I had added the real pics of Van, his son, and yes his wife…

Hard to believe football is almost over. I’m proud of my Clemson Tigers first and foremost for a great season. I think its safe to say that the program is heading in the right direction, scoring more points than the past years and finding a way to win those close games in the fourth quarter. I think all the right pieces are in place for a long successful run for Dabo in Clemson. I know there are the haters that say that Dabo isn’t the man, but they are the haters and thats all they will do.
C.J. Spiller should have been a heisman candidate in my opinion, but that is neither here nor there. How could the objective fan even deny his accomplishments. We wait so long for football to get here, and it doesn’t take long for it to happen and be gone again, guess thats why we love it so much. Oh well,thats about it for now, as far as NFL goes, Patriots vs Packers is still my pick so we will see what happens. Rough show today as well but I’ll talk about that later, lol.

FB.

How awesome is this going to be if it works!?!  Commercial spaceships! Check the video out!!

First a little background on the couple.  Lisa Brand and Tommy Barnes have together for a pretty good amount of time and have four kids together..  They live in England and they don’t have a lot of cash but they wanted a fairytale wedding in cancun.  So how do they plan on paying for it?  By making porn together!! So far they have raised about $2300 bucks and have make 4 movies together.  Don’t think its some, just lay there for a few mins lazy porn.  No no no its the crazy kind of with threesomes, paddles and all sorts of stuff but just in case your thinkin’ these movies have to be worth a look.  Be sure to check the couple’s pic below before hopping on the internet to se these dirty deeds.

Ok, I didn’t realize it was the anniversary of the Day That Will Live in Infamy until a few minutes ago, but I am honoring the tragedy of Pearl Harbor in my own way….by playing video games!

Alright, just hear me out!  Friday when I got off work I decided to go get a new video game for my PS3 since it’s been a few weeks since I beat Lego Batman.  So I went to my favorite toy store, Best Buy and went through all their PS3 games priced under $30 since I can’t justify spending 60 bucks on a damn video game.  I had been longing to play a good flying fighter game and, lo and behold, I found Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII for just $19.99!  Perfect!

So, needless to say, I spent my entire weekend at home watching TV and playing Blazing Angels.  One of the levels I got to play yesterday was called “Day of Infamy” where you are defending the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor from Japanese dive bombers and fighter planes.  The mission is difficult but exhilarating!  I guess I missed the exact date mentioned when the mission started, but was glad to see I had conquered it the day before the anniversary!  Can you say rematch tonight?!

A Flight attendant for American Airlines took a pic of a really fat passenger who was so big he was spilling into the aisle, almost completely blocking it.  The attendant sent the pic to the airline officials in order to persuade them to take action in making fatties buy two seats when they fly.   What do you think?  Keep in mind what if you had to sit next to the dude after paying however much you had to for the plane ticket.   Here’s the pic below!

Back in April, TRAPT and RED came to town with a then little known band called HALESTORM.  I had the privilege to meet them that day before their show (which was amazing, by the way) and they were so gracious and appreciative of the station and their fans.  Two days ago they returned as a band that is ten times bigger than they were eight months ago but just as gracious and humble as before.

When they got upstairs to soundcheck for the P1 Lounge, Arejay rounded the corner first and immediately upon seeing me yelled “It’s Twisted Todd!”.  Needless to say this really flattered me that he recognized and remembered me after being all over the place with many huge bands the past eight months.  Lzzy was just as humble as anyone could be despite being notorious for being a smokin’ hot leader of a very successful new band.  They were all so kind to not only the staff but to the listeners that came in for their acoustic performance which they did not hold back on as you’ll see on the video:

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After the performance they signed autographs and posed for pictures with all the staff and listeners.

When I got to the show, I found Lzzy and Arejay’s mom and tour manager, Beth to map out the announcing schedule for the evening.  She allowed me to hang out for a few minutes on their RV which was a treat!

Their set was just as amazing as I had remembered it being eight months ago when they were still the up and coming openers.

After the show, fans lined up to meet the band and get pictures and autographs at their merch table.  Eight months ago, the band just hung out outside to meet the handful of people that would recognize the opening band.  It’s amazing to me how far they’ve come in so little time and how their attitudes have not changed a bit.

After the venue cleared out, the band gave me a T-shirt and a pair of wristbands (which I am sporting right now) and let me and a friend hang out on their RV for a little while with members from the other bands ARANDA and SILVERSTONE.

It was a fantastic day that I hope to repeat soon!  I know HALESTORM will continue to succeed yet not forget where they came from and who they met along the way….