buttonmashing

Mashing buttons since 1984

Archives for 2007

You don’t know me!

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I love blog-memes, even though they’re almost universally hated. I’ve been tagged by Michael with one, asking for “Five Things” you probably don’t know about me. This was actually harder than it would seem. I’m a pretty reserved guy and don’t really talk much about myself. Anyway, on with the self-deprecation:

1. I cried during Schindler’s List. I can count the number of times I’ve cried in the past 15 years on one hand. I’m not a very emotional guy, especially about something like a movie, but Schindler’s List struck me to the core. I was 18 at the time and it really moved me.

2. I still collect baseball (and football and basketball) cards. I used to collect cards as a kid and I never really stopped. I have thousands of them. I’m not as dedicated as I used to be, but any time I’m at the grocery store and there’s a box of cards in the rack of my aisle, I’ll grab a couple packs and throw them in the cart.

3. I’m a huge Erasure fan. I like all sorts of music, but there’s something about synthesized Euro-pop that does it for me. My wife calls it “girlie music.” So be it. “Chains of Love” is secretly one of my favorite songs.

4. I once ate 28 cups of yogurt in less than an hour. When I was living in Spain, we had contest we called “the Yogurt Challenge.” You had to eat 24 cups of yogurt in 45 minutes without, uhm, visiting the bathroom, for another 15. I did all 24 of my yogurts, plus 4 that my buddy couldn’t finish. I held it down, too. I couldn’t eat yogurt for months, but I had the Yogurt Challenge record. Kobayashi has nothing on me!

5. I’m afraid of needles. Yep, I’m the big tough guy who is afraid of an itty-bitty prick. I hate getting shots and hate having my blood drawn even more. Thing is, I have to watch it go in. I can’t help myself. I can’t look away. I have to see it happen even though I’m dreading it the whole time. I can’t take it.

So that’s a little about me. That was actually a lot of fun. And now the best part, I get to tag a few people. I’m tagging the Monkey, Nat, Josh and Brinstar. You know, if you guys don’t hate blog memes and stuff.

Happy New Year!

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I’m back and I’m ready to take on 2007 with renewed gusto. I hope everyone is having a good holiday weekend and that everyone’s New Year’s Day is going good.

I had a pretty good, albeit hectic, Christmas Holiday. It was nice to see the extended family. We had family from out-of-town, so the little buttonMashers got to see their cousin and aunts and uncles. We spent most of the week with them, at Mrs. buttonMasher’s parent’s house. The brother-in-law is a gamer and we spent most of the week playing Fight Night 3 (a great game with easy Achievement Points, BTW). It was painful playing it on a 21″ TV, but it beats no gaming at all. We also saw some movies. The new Bond movie was excellent and the new Rocky movie was suprisingly good.

Santa was good to me, bringing everything I asked for (except for the sound system, still looking for that). I haven’t had a chance to play any of my new games yet, as I’ve been busy with other things.

Like I mentioned earlier, my new TV arrived just as we were getting ready to head out of town for the holidays. We came home on Saturday, picked up a nice TV stand and set up my new Samsung TV. (I’ll be posting some pictures later). I picked up some HDTV rabbit ears, since my cable package is the basic, non-digital package. For some reason, however, I’m picking up a few of the broadcast HD signals over the cable. It’s weird. Anyway, my current cable provider, Time Warner, doesn’t offer all the broadcast channels in high-def. The two channels they don’t offer are the ones I actually want so I’m switching companies to WOW! Cable. I’m getting their Digital Package, with all their HD offerings. It comes on Wednesday, I can’t wait. Even though I’m only getting a few channels in HD right now, I can already see 2007 is going to be a High Definition year for me. I’m currently watching a Bowl game (WVU vs. GT) instead of the other games, because it’s coming in HD and the others aren’t. I can’t believe how good it looks on this TV.

And the 360? Wow. That’s all I can say right now. WOW! I played some Dead Rising and Burnout Revenge so far in HD and it took me a few minutes to pick my jaw up off the floor. It’s that good.

So I hope everyone’s having a good holiday season. I’m back in the saddle with lots of plans for blogging this year. I appreciate everyone who’s been reading and commenting. I hope 2007 is another great year for everyone. I’m going to play some games in HD.