Duke’s on Sunday

On the Hawaiian Island of Oahu in down town Waikiki you will find my Mecca.  On the lower level  of the Outrigger hotel you walk through the lobby and you can see a big blue neon sign that comforts you the minute it catches your eye.  “Duke’s” The sign screams and as you walk by it you are greeted by two beautiful waitress’ and you tell them, “We’re sitting at the bar.”  With the live island music band playing lead by Henry Kapono, who wrote “Dukes on Sunday” a famous Jimmy Buffet song, you order the perfect Bloody Mary and its on.

The bar over looks one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.  Waikiki beach has a sand bar that stretches out 100′s of meters making it like a  big pool with crystal clear water.   As you look out and see an amazing view of a famous peak called diamond head, its time to take a booz cruise that takes you out on a pontoon boat for an hour so you can view the island from over a mile out at sea.  Bob Marley’s on the mike as you float around drinking Mai Tia’s and look in the eye’s of giant see turtles.   The hour and half couldn’t go fast enough.

You find your self back at the shore and its time for a dip in the pool. The pool temp. is sobering after being in the warm Hawaiian water.  Its back to the bar for some crab walnut wontons and a sharp wasabi dipping sauce.  Being a popular tourist spot there’s always a fresh crowd and everybody’s there to have a good time.  The only way to fully experience this bliss is to make there way to a little place called Waikiki, and get down yourself

Will Ferrell – Your Welcome America

Will Ferrell did a Mock farewell speech pretending to be former President George W. Bush.  whether you like or dislike the former president, you can’t help but laugh at the way comical genius Will Ferrell impersonates him.  He makes you laugh at some of the most sensitive issues of Bush’s  8 yrs as President.  One of my favorite parts was when he was talking about The war in Iraq and whether he had mad the right choice and right when you thought he was gonna say something serious he simply says, “oh well, it’s that Tiger Woods fella’s problem now.”  Obviously talking about President Obama.  If you can’t laugh at the redneck impression of our former president addressing the race of our current President, you’re too serious.

One part of the the show were he got very serious and it was almost like he was speaking for the former President, saying what the American public wanted to hear.  There’s been a lot of scrutiny of George W.  in the fact that he didn’t attend many if any military funerals.  So Will took it upon himself as the President to say some words of respect and have a moment of silence.  It was almost refreshing to hear and you almost forgot you were watching a comedy performance until The red phone rang and he acted scared like a little kid and brought you right back to laughter.

It’s crazy that in our society you can just publicly bash our former president.  It was aired right after Obama took office.  In a country like North Korea, that would be put to a halt pretty quick.  People just know better to not attempt something like that, because it would put themselves and their families in danger.  I’m Glad its acceptable here, because it had me nearly pee myself

Wife Swap

I’m not ashamed to admit it, i would have to say my favorite show on T.V. is Wife Swap on Lifetime.  It’s obvious not a show directed towards men considering it’s on Lifetime.  Let alone the commercials.  All women’s products.  Not just women’s products, but more personal than anything.  It’s almost like they don’t just expect women to watch it, but they expect them to watch it alone.  What ever their target audience is, they got me hooked.

“Each week across America, two families are chosen.”  That’s how each show starts.  They pick the two most extreme opposite families they can find and have the wives switch house holds.  The first week the wives have to live by their new families rules.  The second week the wives get to call the shots, putting up a list of rule changes that the family has to abide by.  That is, if they want to get paid.  Many times the producer’s have to convince people to finish out the show because the people can’t take the dramatic changes to there normal daily life.

The perfect example of the show is one of my favorite episodes.  The wife of a former Army Drill Sergeant that runs a fitness boot camp with her husband, swaps with an extremely over weight wife who has an even more obese husband.  The wife continually made excuses to be lazy and watch soap operas all day and sat there lying about it, while us the viewers knew she was just worthless.  The whole time the beast of  Drill Sergeant was just tearing her apart verbally and she couldn’t take it.  As entertaining it is to watch the spouses, you have to feel bad for the kids.  These crazy people treat there kids like trash and they don’t know any better.  It’s always easy to judge looking from the outside, but some of these people are nuts.

Plaxico Vows to Return

Plaxico Burress is a former Giants Pro Bowl reciever.  Originally drafted by the Steelers, Plaxico’s Lengthy frame and ability to find the ball in clutch situations had made him one of the most well known receivers in football.  That is of course, until in week four of the 2008 season.  On Nov. 28, 2008  Plaxico decided to go into a New York night club with a loaded pistol in his waist.  If you can believe it, the gun went off and he shot himself in the leg inside the club.  On Monday, August 3, 2009, prosecutors announced that Burress had been indicted by the grand jury on two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, and a single count of reckless endangerment  in the second degree, both felonies. Burress took a plea and was sentenced to two years in prison.

Many things have to go wrong for negligent discharge.  There are 5 rules one should follow when dealing with a loaded weapon that make it impossible for this to happen.  Treat every weapon as if it were loaded,  never point a weapon at anything you do not intend to shoot, keep your finger straight and off the trigger till your ready to fire, keep your weapon on safe till you intend to fire, and know your target and what lies beyond it.   All 5 of these rules had to broken for Plaxico to accomplish this act of genius.  If i had that much money, I’d be paying someone to carry a gun for me.

Well, Plaxico made a statement to Former coach of the Steelers Bill Cower, who originally drafted Plaxico.  He Vowed that he would again be a starting receiver in the NFL.  He mentioned his prison workout routine that consist of mainly calisthenics.  People love to compare this situation to Micheal Vick who went to jail for fighting pit bulls, and was a back up quarterback for the Eagles this year.  There’s a lot of hype of him getting a starting spot some where next year.  This definitely gives someone like Plaxico hope.  However, receivers are a dime a dozen.  Quarterbacks are hard to find.

Marines to be pulled out of Iraq

Having served both in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Marine Corps,  I’m thrilled and weary of this decision at the same time.  I’m happy to see that we are at the point of stability over there where can take our offensive unit out.  The reason it’s a bit unsettling is that when i was in Afghanistan, the army insisted that the Marines pull out ending my deployment a month early.   The reason being that Marines aggressive nature was causing waves since the Army felt they had control.  It didn’t take long for the army to call the marines back in for support.

The reason for this i believe is that these jihad extremist aren’t stupid.  They know that the army operates on a  less aggressive scale.  One good example of this is when i was on a small base in the middle of no where in north east Afghanistan the first week i was there we got mortared.  We immediately sent out a react convoy to find those responsible and go get some.  It happened only  hand full of times more in the 6 months i was there.  When we left that base the army replaced us and that following week were mortared the following 4 days.  They were testing us and we weren’t having it.  The army, from what my buddies that were staying behind to help them learn the area, sent know one out to pursue a possible enemy.  They just sit back and hope know body got hurt.

It must be rough keeping the intensity level up for the army considering they have 12-15 month deployments.  Marines do 7 months.  One major difference though is the Operations Tempo.  We are constantly patrolling.  Sometimes up to four 3-4 hour patrols a day.  Seeing as it got up to 147 degrees, and you have all that gear on, that’s no small task.  I hope the Army can hold it down.  I have 3 more years of inactive service and can get recalled at any time.  As i sit here watching basketball and a Marine Corps ad came on the T.V. it motivates me.  If i do get recalled I wont be happy to leave my current situation, but as my loving Drill Instructor Staff Sergeant Hunter always said, two tears and a bucket.  Pretty much it is what it is.

State of the Union Address

At President Obama’s State of the Union Address last night he definitely didn’t hold back.  I can’t believe how split the audience is in their response to what he’s saying.  The Democrats standing and applauding while the republicans sit there with no response.  At one point the President mentioned that he was put billions into creating more jobs and he stopped to say to the Republican side something along the lines of  he expected a positive response from them.  It drew some laughs from the otherwise silent half of the crowd.

President Obama  also at one point called out  a supreme court judge on a resent decision.  Obama’s ability to ad lib a little softening blow before doing so,  as the democrats cheered there was a slow motion replay of the judge saying, “that’s not true.”  It seemed a little disrespectful to do that towards the president, but i guess he was getting called out.  They said that a Pres has only called out the supreme court on a recent decision two other times in all the past State of the Union’s.

Another issue the President brought up was getting rid of the Military’s don’t ask don’t tell policy, while the country is at war with two country’s.  The Joint chiefs of staff sat there stone faced.  literally expressionless maintaining there military disaplin.  It was almost uncomfortable to watch as the democrats again cheered  Having served In the Marine Corps and served in both combat theater’s, i can say that in my unit it really didn’t matter.  I had a friend who we all knew was gay, it didn’t have to be said.  He was one of the  best Marines i know and will probably be in for life.  I’ve only seen it used as an excuse for people that can’t hack it and want to use it as a loop whole to get out.  In that case, they get no respect.

Breakfast Suprise

You wouldn’t expect it, but i had the most amazing breakfast the other day at a bowling alley.  At Bay Shore Lanes on Pico there’s a little hidden café.  I found my self diving face first into two over easy eggs yokes in tact.  4 thick pieces of bacon.  Hash browns that are crispy on both sides.  And to top it all off two fat pieces of cinnamon french toast that just melts in your mouth.

As if this wasn’t enough shortly after devouring each morsel of food, i stepped out of the café into a bowling alley.  Why not roll a few games.  You’d be surprised how many people are bowling before noon, but it was crack’n.  After i kicked my friends butt in two games, we stepped into the bar to play a game of pool.  Where i remained victorious.  Not a bad combination all in one establishment.  Great food,  bowling, and pool.

Favre falls short

The NFC championship was on sunday between the New Orleans Saints and the Minnesota Vikings.  Leading the Vikings was Veteran quarterback Brett Favre.  At 40 years old, this was Favre’s 19th year in the league.  If you watched football in the 90′s, you’d remember his super bowl victory with the packers.  Green Bay being were he spent the majority of his career.

The game was down to the wire.  Both teams high-powered offenses driving up and down the field.   The Saints were lead by Drew Brees and heisman trophy winner out of USC Reggie Bush.  The Vikings struggled with turnovers. Most significantly their fifth of the game when they had a chance to take the lead with a Tie game with seconds to go in the 4th quarter.  With the game tied at 28 on third down and long favre rolled out to his right and possibly could have  run it for field goal range and instead threw across to the middle of the field against his body.  The ball was intercepted and the Saints took it to overtime where they won with a field goal.

It would be a shame to see Favre’s last throw a pick that cost his team the game.  He’s the type of player you want to see go out on top.  I saw Favre take some of the hardest hits i’ve seen him take on Sun. and i doubt he will return to finish his second year in his contract he has with the Vikings, but it seems like we say that every year and he brings everything he has for another year.  I think that ending with 310 yards, 1 TD, 2 interceptions, and almost every quarterback record in football is an ok way to go out.

For the Love of Conan

Its Unfortunate that Jay Leno, after all these years of entertainment, is willing to take a job that ousts his counter late night host Conan O’Brien.  Jay Said on last night’s Tonight Show that since both his and Conan’s ratings were down, NBC felt it had to do something.  They wanted to put Jay on for a half an hour show starting at 11:00 and start Conan at midnight.  apparently Conan was unwilling to be shifted around and was offered $30 million to leave the show.  The final verdict isn’t out yet, and it’s day by day.

I’ve been watching both these shows for a long time, and one thing is obvious.  Conan is superior when it comes to entertainment.  Night after night he has tears coming to your eyes, and Jay show has dulled out.  I can remember watching Johnny Carson’s last show when i was very young.   He knew his time was up and went out on top with class.  I think Jay should have done the same, because i think at this point he is only losing fans, and whether intentional or not, he’s making it look like he has NBC backing him to bully Conan of the Network.

In Jay’s Defense, He mentioned on last nights show, as he frequently does, his show employ’s some 170 people.  I can understand how he would be letting down all his loyal crew if he were to deny a job offered to him by NBC.  It’s unfortunate that there’s so many variables at that level of entertainment.  If only there was a way to sit Jay and Conan down and figure out what they would both agree to that would work for NBC.  As it is, night after night Conan bashes the Network and Jay is on the defense for his good name with the public.  The most important thing to me is that after  17 yrs of Shooting in New York, Conan moved his whole Life and family out to California for The Network and after 7 months is basically fired.  But, if  $30 million doesn’t make you happy,  What does.

Big Mac Spills the Beans

The baseball world takes another blow as yet one more of its big name hitters drops the steroid bomb.   Mark Mcgwire Played for the St. Louis Cardinals, and is the former record holder for most home runs in a season.  If you watched baseball in early 2000′s than you would remember the race between Chicago’s Sammy Sosa and Mark g as they swept by the former record held by Babe Ruth.

Mcgwire  is always passed over when it comes to the Hall of Fame just off the suspision of steroid use.  Because of Players like Jose Conseco being so public with his use and dropping the dime on many others,  everyone who has bulked up is suspect.  One obvious example is Barry Bonds,  the current home run in a season record holder.  If you look at a picture from his rookie year and now, the growth of his head alone should be an admission of guilt.

With all this being said.  Mark Mcgwire Went public with his use of steroids last week.  I don’t know why so many acted shocked with this news.  I felt like we all already knew.  When Mcgwire made a speech in front of his fans in St. Louis he said that he couldn’t take the weight of holding that secret in and needed to get it off his chest.  The question is what should this mean for his statistics in the record books.  There’s so many of these cases popping up, that it looks like they’ll just stay as is.  As far as the Hall of fame goes, it looks like he’ll be on the list of integrity violators with guys like Pete Rose.  I think it is what it is.  If they made the sacrifice to put themselves at risk to up the level of there game,  let it be.