Five Thoughts on a Friday – The “What the What?!?!” Edition

Hello friends it’s your friendly neighborhood PB bringing you this week’s Five Thoughts on a Friday. This week was a lot of fun with it being Halloween and all. Hope yours was not as soggy as ours. If you are wondering where Beer is well that is hard to say. Something about work and actually doing it to get paid or some damn thing like that, so here I am. Just like Huey Lewis and the News say working for a living right?

Let’s check out what we have going this week shall we?

1. Like the title says this week is “What the What” and boy is this a doozy. If you wear a costume that says you are one thing, please don’t get arrested for doing it to someone else like let’s say your boyfriend. Just another example that alcohol can lead stupid people to do even more stupid things.
2. Once in a while even in sports you can make a “What the What” moment. I have played various sports in my days and watched plenty more with friends but this one was truly a “OH HELL!!” moment. If you are a professional soccer player you know the rules buddy.
3. This one is also from the ranks of too much alcohol can get you into places and situations that when you wake up you say “What the What?!?!?” I know that would be my reaction if I found myself being arrested as I woke up on the back of a horse. 
4. This one is a story and non-story at the same time. The man at the center of this story has passed on. Good thing is they didn’t do to him like what he did to a dead whale back in 1970. How does this tie into the theme today you ask? He did what to what to a whale and it did what?!?! Thank you George for this moment most will never forget! 
5. This is what you don’t want to find when you are hunting ever. If you are in a tree stand and you shoot a deer wait a little longer to come down and check out your prize. If there is another buck hanging around and won’t leave when you come down, I would stay back and do not mess with that buck for sure!! Good thing these guys are quick.

Well folks that’s the Five Thoughts for this week. Hope you had a wonderful Halloween and received lots of treats and no tricks, unless you’re into that kinda thing. In honor of a ground breaking artist that passed this week we say thank you Lou Reed and see you on the Wild side.

 

Five Thoughts on a Friday – The “Weird, Gross, Painful, and Freekin’ Cool “Edition

Hello Folks! You guessed right it’s time for Five Thoughts on a Friday the PB edition. As you can tell from the title it will be the start of the annual October festivities of Halloween soon! I hope to entertain you and not in a scary way……..I hope. The bin is full of thrilling items so as Vincent Price said in a great 80’s song “It’s time for, the THRILLER!!!”

1. This one is from the “Weird” file. I think we all at one time said I wish I could just disappear for a little while. There are even those times when in a fit of anger you may have said “DROP DEAD!” to someone you like or don’t like. But this guy takes it to a whole new level by wanting to come back from the dead? How does one handle it when a judge says “your dead honey.”  
2. This one is from the file marked “Cool”. For all of those kids that play with Hot Wheels cars love how they change colors this one is right in your wheel house. Sounds like they finally have it down to have your paint job change colors depending on the weather. TOO COOL!!
3. This one comes from the file marked “Painful”. People tend to make mistakes when messing with drunk people. With that said doesn’t mess with a drunken lady with a hand grip like a vice especially when she is pissed off! Also don’t let her get a hold of the man parts because that will hurt! We all know how it ends when you start messing with Sasquatch
4. From the files of “Gross” comes this dandy one. I don’t know what possesses people to do such things like not replacing the toilet paper roll when empty or let your pet stick its tongue in your mouth after knowing it uses it to lick parts on themselves. I still shake my head with at the thought of this. If you see something on the floor that resembles food and did not see someone put it there, why would you pick it up and eat it? I guess you can ask this TV weather guy and also enquire how the cat puke tasted. Yep you guess it he ate cat puke on LIVE TV?!?!
5. Finally this is from the “FREEKIN’ COOL!!!!” file. Only in New York do they get such fun things happening. This one needs no introduction so ladies and gentleman………I give you………………..Sir Paul McCartney!!!!!!

Well all that’s that for this edition of Five Thoughts the PB edition. It is a wonderful sunny day here in Michigan so please get out and enjoy yourself. I feel a little old school Black Sabbath coming on. So in honor of the army getting closer to making this a reality, I know Ironman would be proud!

On behalf of Beer, The King and me PB, have a great weekend everyone!!

Five Thoughts on a Friday – The “off on break” Edition

Howdy folks, and welcome to what’s likely the last post of the year on this blog. It’s certainly the last Five Thoughts of the year. We’re out of Fridays. Anyhow, I’m feeling rather lazy today, so let’s get started, shall we?

1. I’ve been out of the office since Christmas and I’m amazed at how fast the time can still go by. And even more amazed at how you don’t realize it.
2. While it’s great to unplug from the grind and recharge the batteries it can make keeping up with what’s going on in the world around you a bit tough. Especially when you through in all the holiday obligations and such. Like college football bowl games!
3. Just once before I go back to work I *would* like to get a good night’s sleep though. It’s amazing how efficient a small dog can be at hogging a huge bed and the covers.
4. Been getting in some gaming time playing the new Star Wars MMO. I really like it. And the way it ties back into the old Knights of the Old Republic games is a fun bonus.
5. Lastly, as a quick and easy out to this week’s post… Happy New Year everyone. Next up, 2012. Hopefully everyone will have a great one, and we won’t see the end of the world. Although we’re sure to hear about it. Again.

Okay folks, that’s five and I’ll see you next year!

Have a great weekend and a Happy New Year folks!
-Beer

Five Thoughts on a Friday – “The Christmas Eve, Eve” Edition

Howdy folks and welcome to the last Five thoughts before Christmas. It’s pretty quiet here today, so I’m just going to jump right in.

1. Off on break for the holidays, and since it’s the night before the night before Christmas. I think I’m going to keep this one short this week.
2. It’s the holidays, and we’re all eating too much, aren’t we? I know I am. It always seems like the office has a magic tub of Christmas cookies this time of year. No matter how many cookies people eat, it’s still got cookies in it!
3. I still need to finish up Christmas shopping for one person. Other than that, I’m done. And I’ll be heading out to finish that bit of shopping here shortly. Hope everyone else is in good shape too.
4. I always wonder on a day like today. Knowing that you’ll be overeating tomorrow…. Do you try to go light today, and save room or do you go big, and try to get “warmed up” for the next day? Decisions, decisions….
5. Lastly, but certainly not least I want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. And if you don’t celebrate Christmas? Have a Merry Christmas anyways. Why? Because if you do, you’ll at least have a nice day. And everyone deserves one of those every now and then, especially this time of year. I think so, at least.

Okay, that’s five and I’m off to start the holidays and finish my shopping! Now, if only we could do something about the fact that’s I’m still looking at my lawn and not the white stuff that’s supposed to be on the ground this time of year.

Merry Christmas folks!
-Beer

Five thoughts on a Friday – The Early Access Edtion

Good morning folks, and welcome to another edition of Five Thoughts. So, what are we thinking today? Why don’t we find out….

1. First thought of the day.. LAST FRIDAY IN THE OFFICE OF THE YEAR!!  Sorry for shouting. Had to get that out of my system though. Yep, as of this time next week it’ll be Christmas Vacation. Works for me! A fun thought for the season though, I tried it out last weekend. Everyone gets caught up with the “Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays” debate. Try this instead.. Don’t say Merry Christmas. Don’t say Happy Holidays. Say “Mele Kalikimaka”. They’ll be stunned. And confused. And then they’ll smile. Hey, it worked for Bing Crosby!
   
2. If you’re like me you still have anywhere from a little to all of your Christmas shopping to get finished up. Well, if you’re like me that also means you have pretty much one week to get it done. So, you have been warned, folks. (Luckily, I’m on the “one more thing” side of the coin this year). And for the record? As I write this SantaClaus.com says you have 8 days. But remember folks, that’s for the start of December 25th. So if you need to have them wrapped and under the tree before then….
3. I am now playing the release version of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Yep, I got my early access email. I’m still creating/deleting characters though, trying to figure out what to play. Eventually I’ll probably try one of each I think – just to see the stories. Things are slightly different from the beta. I could probably do a whole review post on it. We’ll see. What really struck me though, wasn’t anything directly related to the game. No, it happened when I had finished creating a character and hit play. A cinematic starts with the famous Star Wars “scroll” and the music. That music. It blows my mind how this many years later, all you need is the first note, maybe two and you instantly recognize it.
4. I think I may have to bring Red back for this one. Seriously, you’re a professional athlete. And while I know that doesn’t set you up for life by default, it sure can if you’re smart about it. But if the story about Sam Hurd of the Chicago Bears being arrested is true, well… Red?
   
5. And after that last one, well… I have absolutely nothing mean to say about this story. As we get closer and closer to Christmas (And other assorted holidays), I think it’s nice to hear about something like this every now and then. Maybe there is a little hope after all, you know?

Okay, that’s five and I’m ready to head into the weekend. The holidays are bearing down fast now, so we’ll keep with the theme of running another holiday themed song.  I don’t think this one will draw a rebuttal from my co-blogger though. Apparently, he just really doesn’t like that song I linked to last week. This week? Vince Guaraldi. Enjoy!

Have a great weekend folks!
-Beer

Five Thoughts on a Friday – The “There’s beer in here” Edition

Howdy folks, and happy December to you all. Did you get enough to eat last weekend? Still eating leftovers? Did you survive shopping on black Friday if you went?  Personally, I think I’m just now starting to come out of the food coma I put myself into. Anyhow, let’s get cracking and see what five things we can think up and mock today, shall we?

1. It’s now December 2011. That means we’re now less than a month from 2012. You know, the year the Mayans got to when they were making their calendar and stopped. Prompting theories that 2012 will prove to be the end of the world. And now, we have undeniable proof that may well be the case.
   Remember the band Hanson from the 90’s? They sang that MmmmBop song? Well, now they’re coming out with an “MmmHop” Beer. Yeah, if that isn’t a sign of the apocalypse I don’t know what is.
2. Staying on drinks here for a bit, now that we’re heading into the holidays it’s time to start planning this year’s egg nog hunt. No, I’m not talking about that stuff from the supermarket. No, I’m not going to make my own. I go out and hunt down some from a local dairy. It’s the type that’s so damned thick it defies any attempt to mix in a nice dark rum or bourbon into it. Unless you do it right. THAT’S the kind of egg nog I’m going hunting for.
3. This one is a bit of a buzzkill. It’s not holiday related at all. It’s about how our smartphones are logging our data. All of it. Without an opt-out function. Bah, Humbug indeed. Not cool folks, not cool.
4. Back into a more jolly mode for this one. In an effort to become a more helpful blog, we’ve decided pass along a link to guide for ‘Gifting the gamer in your life‘ from CNN. It’s far from the only list out there, but there are some decent suggestions to be had if you need help finding a game for someone.
5. And once you’re done with all that shopping (Hopefully well before December 23rd or 24th), it’s time to kick back and relax. One of my favorite choices is, of course, beer! So with that in mind, Imbibe has a listing of their “Best Holiday Beers“. Be warned though, as some of the beers on that list have a kick of their own, with some hitting 14% alcohol by volume. Ho Ho Ho!

Okay folks, that’s Five and I’m ready to start the weekend. And on the way out, just because we like the song around here…. It’s a Marshmallow World!

Have a great weekend folks!
-Beer

Five Thoughts on a Friday – The “Day Off” Edition

Howdy folks and welcome to this week’s Five Thoughts. We’re sort of giving ourselves the day off here today. Being lazy and all. Let’s get at it, shall we?

1. Happy Black Friday. This stuff has really gotten out of control, hasn’t it? Let’s start at midnight, let’s start camping out for Friday on Monday..  Sheesh. Not my thing, that’s for sure. I have the day off, the last thing I really want to do is get up early and shop. Besides, I’m still fighting off the food coma from yesterday.
2. Today is the day after Thanksgiving. While I still think it’s a bit early due to the way the calendar fell this year, it is now acceptable to start playing Christmas music and turning on your lights.
3. I’m looking out the window and the sun is shining. I have to admit, I was kind of hoping for some combination of cold/rainy today that would support staying inside instead of going and working on the things that need to get done in the yard. Can’t win them all I guess.
4. I’m back into the SWTOR test this weekend. I wonder if that had anything to do with me wanting the weather outside to me miserable? Ah well.
5. I have to admit I was really getting sick of some of the “Do you know how much sodium/how many calories/ how much fat” stories all the news channels were running last week. And will no doubt continue to work in as we move towards Christmas. It’s the holidays people. Celebrating and over eating is part of the deal. If it was a normal pattern of behavior I agree it would be a problem. But if you don’t make a habit of eating 4500 calories at every meal, doing it once a year on Thanksgiving isn’t a big deal. So have some fun already!

Okay, that’s a very quick Five Thoughts for the day. I now return myself to my regularly scheduled day off. And since I know my co-blogger is off to see a certain movie. And we talked about playing the music, and lighting the lights….

Have a great weekend folks!
-Beer

Five Thoughts on a Friday – The “End of the Year” Edition

“Um.. Beer? You know it’s not even Thanksgiving yet, right? It isn’t the end of the year, it’s not really even all that close to it.”

Hush, and let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

Anyways, it’s the last Friday before Thanksgiving in the United States. Next week is Black Friday. With that, the holiday season is off and running and there’s no stopping it. By the time you blink it will be Christmas and then the year will be over. So everyone, take a deep breath and say goodbye to 2011. Because after this weekend, you aren’t going to have time. Anyways, on to today’s post! (I had actually intended to go a bit video game centric in today’s post. What with doing the Star Wars: The Old Republic weekend test last weekend and all. Then the reviews from the LA Auto show started to show up online. And my inner gear-head got all cranked up again. So, let’s start with cars.)

1.  News from Bizzaro Land, um Los Angeles. The old rules of the known automotive universe no longer apply. Nissan now has a production car (The 2013 GT-R) that will do 0-60mph in 2.7 seconds. I’m gussing it will also get you a speeding ticket in roughly the same amount of time. Not to be outdone (But a completely different type of vehicle), Ford Motor company whipped up some sort of alternate universe Shelby GT500 that has 650 horsepower, will push the 200mph barrier, and… doesn’t get hit with the gas guzzler tax!!??!?!?!! How is that even possible (Don’t get me wrong though, I highly encourage this type of thing!)?
   (Both links are worth following, just for the pictures of the cars)
2. From the land of “Apparently Hollywood is never going to learn, or admit they have no new ideas”…  NBC has not only accepted a script…but has ordered the production of a pilot. Of the Munsters. Listen, I liked the original Munsters a lot. I love the Munstermobile (Both of them actually, don’t forget Grandpa’s ride!).
   
   But Hollywood, let it go, folks. Frankly, I’m shocked that they aren’t doing a reality TV show for the casting of the pilot. Oh crap, I hope I didn’t just give them an idea.
3. Doing the segue… Speaking of pilots (Of a different type). A bit of a scary moment turned comical the other day when the truth finally got out. The captain went to the restroom, where he got stuck due to a faulty door latch. The poor co-pilot, who got left alone to wonder why the captain wasn’t coming back got a message from a passenger. Frankly, I can see some people getting upset when they hear the audio, and I can understand it. But I can also see the co-pilot’s point of view. He opens that door, and control of the plane is at risk. The captain though, I feel for him. How would you like to be known from now on as “The pilot who caused an emergency landing by getting stuck in the bathroom”. He’s going to have to own that one, because there’s no avoiding it. But hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go.
4. Switching back over to gaming, as I tweeted earlier in the week, I had a blast testing out the Star Wars game last weekend. And I see there are tons of giveaways for beta keys for the next test weekend now. I think it’s going to be a very good game. Will it threaten Warcraft? I don’t know. WoW has it’s own big content patch coming soon (4.3). Looks like there may be some gaming to be done here in the near future. I’ve also stumbled across The Godfather: Five Families and will give that a look, but I’m expecting to see something akin to mafia wars on Facebook. We’ll see if I’m right or wrong.
5. Back to television for a moment. I miss “That 70’s Show”. Why do I miss it? I miss it because I miss Red. He got it. He understood that if you’re going to host a pornographic website, as a teacher you probably shouldn’t use your SCHOOL DISTRICT ISSUED LAPTOP to work on it. If you do, that makes you, as Red would say… A Dumbass.
   

Okay folks. That’s Five and I’m ready to get the weekend (and the end of the year) started. By this time next week we’ll all be in holiday mode. Or a food coma, which is kind of the same thing. Anyways, no music this week. Instead we’re going to let William Shatner make sure you all stay safe if you’re looking to fry a turkey this year. There was no way I wasn’t using this video.

Have a great weekend folks!
-Beer

 

Five Thoughts on a Friday – The “This goes to eleven” Edition

Howdy folks, and happy Spinal Tap Day (And yes, it’s Veteran’s Day, too. A far more important remembrance. Just having a little fun here folks). That’s right, it’s 11-11-2011. Or, 11-11-11. Let’s be honest here for a second. If you get the reference, then you knew there was no way it wasn’t going to get mentioned somehow, somewhere in this post. If you have no clue what I’m going on about, well… go check out “This is Spinal Tap“. It’s a comedy classic. It goes to eleven.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way… On with today’s post!

1. On the what can break next front.. Beer’s found out that the answer is… the furnace! That’s right! On the day we get the first snowfall of the season (And temps dropping down to freezing), the furnace quit working! Fortunately, we have a very effective fireplace and space heaters (And someone on the way to fix the furnace). So it isn’t all bad.
2. On the gaming front, I’ve been getting back into World of Warcraft a bit lately. Just that time of year I guess. More time inside than outside, etc.. That could be threatened here going forward though. I’m restricted from saying too much, but there is a new game coming out this year that I managed to grab a beta invite to. Lets just say it’s set Far Far Away. Will definitely be checking it out this weekend. Hmm… I have a pretty new gaming system, I wonder if I can run them both at the same time?
3. The Black Friday ads are starting to get published. Nothing like getting all those 4am shoppers fired up a bit early, huh? As I wondered last year.. seems like every year these ads seem to “leak” out early. Almost like it’s intentional. Just saying… Speaking of Black Friday, the day preceding it in the States is Football Thursday Thanksgiving. And this year, that Thanksgiving turkey dinner is going to cost you more. Unless you’re like me, and turkey has been banned from your household due to a refrigerator “incident” (aka, Failure!).  Funny how these stories always come out this time of year. It’s like it’s on the calendar of all the news organizations, “Okay, time to do the ‘turkey dinner cost is going up/down’ story for the year”.
4. I have to tread carefully on this one, I know. But as someone who sees things slightly differently in life I can’t help but laugh at this. There’s just a symmetric irony to it. The Office Professional Employees International Union is picketing. No big deal, that’s what unions occasionally do. That’s normal. They’re picketing Solidarity House. Yes, you read that right. The OPEIU is picketing the home office of the United Auto Workers, aka the UAW. So this is a union on union picket. Think about that one for a moment. The thought of it made me laugh.
5. There’s a lot of things that can tip someone off to “This relationship might have some issues”. When I try to think of them though, I usually don’t come up with “Wife causes a bomb scare when she has a GPS tracking device attached to her husband’s car“. I’m thinking that would probably be pretty high on the list though. Maybe just below attempted murder, I’m not sure.

Okay folks, that’s five thoughts for this Friday and it’s time for Beermaker to start the weekend and download a beta client. But, before you go, don’t think for a second you’re getting out of here without at least one more “This goes to eleven” Spinal tap reference. You know you want to listen to it. Enjoy!

Have a great weekend folks!
-Beer

Five Thoughts On a Friday – The “Meandering Mind” Edition

Howdy folks, and welcome to yet another five thoughts post here at The Beerbarrel. It’s been a crazy busy week here. What with the weekend boondoggle to Toronto last weekend, then Halloween on Monday. I feel like I blinked and it was Friday. I have to admit, that’s both a good, and bad thing. It’s great because it means the weekend is about here, but it also feels like I haven’t really accomplished anything of note. Oh well, onto the post!

1. There’s this writing thing going on right now. NaNoWriMo it’s called. It stands for National Novel Writing Month. Yours truly got an email asking if was going to try it. My response? Are you kidding me? I’m good for about one or two posts a week! A novel? Oh HELL NO! Besides, I don’t consider myself a writer. Oh sure, I can write. My grades on research papers in school proved that (So did one research project getting published). There’s a difference though. Just like being a blogger doesn’t make you anything but a blogger (It doesn’t make you a journalist or a novelist). Even if I ever do somehow spit out a book or novel, I’ll still just consider myself “A guy who wrote a book/novel/whatever” Not a Writer/Novelist/Etc. Now, that being said – this NaNoWriMo thing? It seems like a pretty interesting concept. Some people really get into it. And some of them can turn out some pretty interesting stuff. So if you’re surfing around the web a bit looking for something to read – check it out.
2. There’s an excerpt from the new Steve Jobs book that talks about some of his dietary quirks. Apparently he flirted with a diet called “Fruitatarianism”, in other words, only eating fruits (and nuts). “Basically, the reproductive parts of plants that can be consumed without doing any harm to the plant itself,” TODAY nutritionist Joy Bauer explains. It goes on about some of the restrictions and stuff, but really got me was this quote… “Plus, it’s an expensive diet to adhere to for a long period of time, Bauer points out.”  Okay, for every day people, yes. But um… hello? Steve Freakin’ Jobs! Pretty sure he could afford it. Don’t believe me doc? Why don’t you hop on your iPhone or iPad and check out his estimated net worth?
3. One of the greatest videos you’ll ever see hit the internet this week, as a Boeing 767 landed in Poland, WITHOUT IT’S LANDING GEAR DOWN! Now, first off – that pilot is a Stud, First Order, and we’ll get to why in just a moment. Second – again – video, cool as hell. But lastly, and I can only think this is either a massive compliment to the skill of the pilot (And I’m sure that’s a large part of it) or while the plane was burning off fuel for its landing the passengers were raiding the liquor cart. Several passengers were quoted in this article saying they would have thought they landed with the wheels down. What, all the smoke and sparks flying by didn’t give it away??
   
4. Sticking with the plane again for one more thought. I don’t have the knowledge base to say if the plane will likely either be scrapped out, or eventually repaired and returned to service. I am however, willing to bet that the seats in the plane will likely see service again either way. Why do I bring up such a trivial point? What exactly do you think more than a few people did when they heard the announcement “We’re going to be crash landing with no landing gear”? Now then, think about that for a second the next time you’re on a plane and you hear the flight attendant say “Your seat cushion may be used as a floatation device”. Smelly, huh?
5. Mashable has a cool article up – 7 ways to create buzzworthy content. I checked, and we don’t do any of the 7. I think they left the easiest one off of there though. Score scandalous pictures of a celebrity and post them on the site. That seems to get a lot of buzz and web traffic. Unfortunately most of it would probably be coming from said celebrity’s attorneys getting ready to sue you and shut you down, but still.

Okay, that’s five thoughts folks (And no celebrity photos that would get us in trouble… this week). So with that, it’s onto a weekend of home improvement and power tools!
So we should expect to see a guest writer next week then while you recover from injuries?  Shut it, brain!
Okay folks, time to head on out. Now, I was tempted to jump on the “play Christmas Music already” bandwagon just to get a rise out of some people. But frankly, that bugs the heck out of me, too. So… here’s something I doubt will get mixed up with Christmas Music.

Have a great weekend folks!
-Beer