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I’ve decided that it’s time to venture into the Land of More-Than-One-Blog, and while I maintain that I still won’t do this blog justice, I plan on putting some thought and effort into the new one I’ve started up which will be entitled “VentureTone”, cleverly located at venturetone.com.

The point of this website will be to promote the entertainment side of me…things like music, games, movies, books, etc. I’ll throw up thoughts on all these things on a regular basis in hopes that my own trials and tribulations will assist those in the process of purchasing or obtaining of these things.

And so I hope you’ll all stop by and check out venturetone.com when it’s up and running. I plan on using RapidWeaver on my Mac to build the site, so I’m excited about how (allegedly) easy it will be to do.

I posed a question to the folks at 9rules today…here it is:

Here’s something I think should be interesting discussion.

If you could choose one skill or talent that you don’t currently have and it could be given to you by snapping your fingers, what would it be?

The one caveat is that it can’t be superhero-power related (like being able to fly, see through walls, super-human strength, etc.)

Mine would be being able to play the piano or guitar flawlessly without having to look at sheet music at all.

Yours?

And here are some of the replies:

• Bar none… draw like Todd McFarlane.
• I sat and really don’t know. Sure, I’d like to be able to play piano better but I guess with time I could be better on my own. If I don’t have the time to develop it, is it worth it? Maybe a journey v. destination thing. Or maybe I haven’t got much sleep and am talking crazy talk.
• How about being extremely persuasive? This would make all aspects of life easier.
• Jedi mind powers came IMMEDIATELY to mind but then I came across the caveat.

So what about you?

So Justin and I did another episode of Cheap Seats Radio last night from the plush studios of WVSU-FM on the campus of Samford University in Birmingham, AL.  Show #38 to be exact and Justin and I had the pleasure of welcoming Dana Jacobson to the show during our “Big Interview” segment.  She was absolutely outstanding to have on the show, very knowledgeable and easy to talk to.  And on top of it all, she’s a very cool lady for coming on a little podcast like ours.

The show should be up sometime today so I’ll post when it’s up and you can all go check out the interview, which in and of itself went great as well.  30 minutes of great stuff, talking Tigers/Cardinals, what it’s like to work on Cold Pizza, Cory Lidle, and a little college football banter as well!  So check it out when you get time.

That’s about it…work is going well…just can’t talk about it.

So I’ve spent the last few days at work preparing documents for when I hit the phones next week and actually start working.  My training hasn’t been very structured, so it’s allowed for some time for me to get acquainted with all our programs and stuff, I’ve enjoyed it, but I know the actual job will be a lot different than what I’m currently doing.  But in the end, I feel like I’m really ready.

We had dinner with Rusty and Gina last night.  We brought over CPK and they opened up 3 bottles of the wine they got on their recent trip to Napa Valley.  It was big fun, as it always is with them.  They’re going down to Sandestin with us in November for a few days as well, and we talked about that and everything else going on.

This weather is changing so fast, half our office has been out sick at one time or another in the last 2 weeks…I don’t think there’s any amount of vitamin C that can keep you from getting sick this time of year…one example:  today’s high temp is supposed to be around 85 degrees…the low on Friday (just two days from now) is supposed to be around 42 degrees.  No body is meant to adjust to temps that varied that quickly!

We’re inching closer to our yard sale on Saturday.  I’m sort of looking forward to it and sort of not…it’ll be a lot of work, and it’ll mean a late night Friday and an early morning Saturday, plus the Alabama/UT game this Saturday is at 2:30pm at Ashley and Kyle’s house…long weekend!

Oh, and Dana Jacobson of ESPN2’s Cold Pizza will be in the Cheap Seats this Monday…so tune into the website to hear it.

So Christy set her alarm to go off at 8:30am so we could get up and go to church this morning, only we snoozed for like an hour, and typically we would need to leave for church around 10:15am or so, and so I didn’t think we could make it.  Christy decided she was going to go regardless, and when I told her I didn’t want to go, it didn’t go well…so now I’m home alone on a Sunday.

I have a bit of a headache (don’t know what from) and a sore throat, and I didn’t feel like rushing to get ready and go.  I wanted a relaxing Sunday morning…anyway, so I’m here.

It was another day of pretty good football yesterday.  Alabama ended up beating Ole Miss in overtime, and Auburn came back to beat Florida in a pretty big upset.  So for a week at least, things are okay in the state of Alabama with regards to football.

Get this…on a whim, I decided to email Dana Jacobson of ESPN2’s Cold Pizza (their daily morning talk show) to see if she would come on our podcast Cheap Seats Radio…and after some back and forth, Dana is set to join us tomorrow night!  I’m pretty pumped about it, and so is Justin.  We won’t have a ton of time to do a show tomorrow (Justin can only give me an hour) but that’ll be enough to do a good interview with Dana and then talk baseball for a bit.  It’ll probably go longer than hour (if you consider time before and after to save it all, etc.), but still, it’ll probably be our shortest show to date.

It’s my dad’s birthday today, so we’re heading to Up The Creek for dinner tonight.  I’m going to get something with shrimp in it.

And now I have to sit and wonder how bad it’s going to be for me deciding not to go to church.

Watching and reading various sports outlets yesterday, I felt like I needed to comment on a few sports stories.

First…Albert Haynesworth.  Well, if you don’t know, this guy plays football for the Tennessee Titans.  Yesterday, during the Titans/Cowboys game, while an opposing player was on the ground with his helmet off, Haynesworth stepped one the guys head not once but twice with his cleated foot, causing gashes on the guy’s head that required 35 stitches to close.  Haynesworth was suspended for 5 games without pay by the league and fined an undisclosed amount of money.

IMO, Haynesworth should’ve been suspended for the rest of the regular season.  To me, this is akin to what happened in hockey a few years ago when that guy slammed the other guy’s head into the ice and got suspended for the rest of the year.  If Haynesworth had done something like that in the real world, he’d have been arrested for assault and battery and charged with a felony.  Why should the punishment be less because he’s a football player?  If anything, it should be more.

And secondly…Joe Girardi is getting the rawest of deals in Florida…in his first year as a major league manager with his first club, he’s handed a team basically stripped of all his veteran talent (outside of one pitcher and one position player) and handed a team with more rookies on it than any other team in baseball.  Not only do they overachieve (in most everyone’s opinion) by playing around .500 baseball for the entire year, because of the state of the National League, they were in the Wild Card chase for most of the 2nd half of the year.  They had a payroll of 25 players that was combined less than what 5 different Yankee players make by themselves, and they were nearly in the playoffs.  If things are right about this, Girardi should (and probably will) get NL Manager of the Year…instead, he’ll be looking for another job.

Yep, apparently Florida management didn’t like the direction the club was going in, so they are looking to hire a new manager for the 2007 season, apparently Braves 3rd base coach Fredi (pronounced Freddie) Gonzalez.  Now I’m happy for Fredi who is a good guy and a great up and coming managerial talent, but this is really wrong of the Marlins to get rid of Girardi like this.  My first thought is that Girardi will probably be a little bitter, but then again, probably not because he won’t be unemployed for more than a week tops.  He’ll have his pick of jobs to choose from, probably the Cubs, Giants and Seattle will all line up for his services, and perhaps even more before it’s all said and done.

The baseball playoffs start today and since I don’t start my new gig for a few more days, I’m looking forward to sitting back and catching some baseball in HDTV on ESPN today.  Hopefully Justin will be able to get together and do another edition of CSR this week, with the playoffs here, it’s time to look back and see who was right and who was wrong…I’m probably wrong.

Okay so I’ve been trying to find a full time job, and in the meantime, I had a friend of mine find me a temp job working at Compass Bank here in town doing some clerical work in the Data Security department. Sure, it sounds glamourous, but it’s really, really boring. But it’s work, and it’s $12/hour, so I’ll take it.

On the flip side, there’s a new CSR out, so check that out. Also, I’ve decided that it’s time this blog be about more than just me and my life. So, it’s time to announce that onematt.com is now the home of what I think about everything, specifically reviews on everything from music to games to restaurants to movies to broadway shows to tv shows. Anything that I experience that I feel I can comment on to the betterment of the public good, I shall do this!

So look for my review of the album Set Yourself On Fire by Stars…coming soon. (the reason it’s not here now is because I was typing it in the Wordpress editor, and right when I went to save it and my website went all wonky on me…figures…)

Jude Law = General Zod?

This I’m down with…Law is a gifted actor who is similar to the original Terrence Stamp who played Zod in Superman 2.  By far, Superman 2 is my favorite Superman movie.  I still get chills when watching the end sequence when Superman steps into the chamber, and the bad guys on the outside get fried of their powers while Superman was protected.

Anyway, I was very happy to see this move by Singer and the rest behind the Superman revival.  I enjoyed Superman Returns and thought it was well done, albeit a bit slow at times.  I think they’ll be able to correct that for this sequel.

CSR32 is up.  Check ‘er out.

So I’m back on the phones today.  I’m over this place…I really am.  I’ve got two options floating around out there and when I land one for sure, this blog will be the…like….4th place to know.

I’m burned out on MMORPGs right now…all of ‘em…suggestions welcome.

The new Valleyschwag, edition 4, should be arriving by the end of this week or start of next week.

CSR31 is up.

That is all.

I’m over it.

If you know what THAT means (without Google-ing it, Jenni!), then you get the prize.

Weekend wrapup…

• Friday night was cool…went over to Elise’s townhouse, hung out with her, Connie, Rusty and Gina.  Then we went down to Speakeasy for more beverages and darts, where I proved once again that the more I drink, the better dart player I become.
• Saturday was a whole lot of nothin’…since I got in around 2:30am on Saturday morning, I slept in, woke up around 11am, and completely vegged…no shower, PJs on all day, read my book and played WoW.
• Sunday was more of the same from Saturday…I did manage to shower (not shave) and go do the show with Justin in the afternoon, then Christy got home and we grilled out steaks and corn…very good.  A little more WoW playing and then it was off to bed.

So there ya go…tonight, Home Run Derby, then the All-Star Game tomorrow, and then the Day I Hate The Most…the Wednesday after the All-Star Game, where there are literally NO SPORTS ON TV.  Seriously, it’s the one day of the year that has absolutely nothing going on with any of the four major sports in the US.

More WoW in my future, I’m certain of it.

I’ve also pre-ordered CONTINUUM.  Pretty pumped about that.