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G-Manicus

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  1. G-Manicus

    Bring out yer dead!

    By G-Manicus,

    I'm in a celebrity dead pool and I need your help!
     
    For those who are unfamiliar with the concept, a celebrity dead pool is a pool whereby you pay a $20 entry fee and select a roster of celebrities (20 in our case). If one of them "goes" during the year, you subtract their age from 100 and that's how many points you get. Person with the most points at the end of the year wins the pot.
     
    Go ahead. Get it out of the way. Feign your moral outrage. Your righteous indignation. Everyone does. I don't mind. But before long, they also start throwing out names too. They always do. You can't help yourself. So I'll give you a couple of minutes to go through all the emotions and then we'll continue.
     
    (pauses)
     
    All set? Good!
     
    I ended up in 3rd place for the 2007 season, as my one and only score last year proved to be a big one in the form of 39 year old Anna Nicole Smith (good for 61 points!). I had jumped out to an early, sizable lead, only to see it get chipped away at throughout the year as other entrants scored with the likes of Pavarotti, Evil Knievel, Boris Yeltsin, Lady Bird Johnson, Jerry Falwell, and Tammy Fay Messner. My 3rd place finish was good enough to win my $40 though, so I'll take it.
     
    That leads us to the purpose of my post. The 2008 "season" will begin as of 2/1/08 and I'd like some help finalizing my roster. Here are the 20 celebrities I've got so far:
     
    Amy Winehouse
    Ariel Sharon
    Artie Lange
    Ayman Al Zawahiri
    Betty Ford
    Billy Graham
    Britney Spears
    Dick Clark
    Diego Maradona
    Dom Deluise
    Elizabeth Taylor
    Fidel Castro
    Pervez Musharraf
    Kirk Douglas
    Nancy Reagan
    Osama Bin Laden
    Pete Doherty
    Ruth Bader Ginsberg
    Steve-O
    Suzanne Pleshette
     
    I usually try to balance it with a number of aging actors, child stars gone bad, drug addicts, and those whom others are actively seeking their demise.
     
    If you have any suggestions for fine tuning my roster, I'd love to hear them!
     
    Thanks in advance.
     
    G
  2. G-Manicus
    So, my wife and I have owned a Chevy Suburban for the last several years. With 3 kids and the need to make several trips from Cincinnati to the Northeast each year, we need a larger vehicle to cart all our gear, the dog, etc. Yeah, I know ... the fuel bill on that thing is a monster. Supposedly, they're very reliable vehicles however. Key word being "supposedly." Ours wasn't. It's caused us nothing but problems for the last several years and proved to be a money pit (aside from the gas issue) so we finally dumped it a week ago.
     
    We opted to go the minvan route instead of another SUV. Less expensive and suits our needs better. I did all the research on the different models and the various rebates and the like being offered and we ended up going with a Kia Sedona. It's fairly highly rated and as Kia (a Korean firm) is still trying to gain market penetration here in the States, their prices are substantially less than the competition. I drive a Kia Optima and have had nothing but great results with it. Plus, Kia was offering almost $3,000 in rebates on their 2007 Sedonas, so we figured we couldn't go wrong.
     
    ENNNNHHH!!!!
     
    With 400 miles on it, the thing died on Sunday while my wife and daughter were out shopping. In the rain. In the middle of the Giants game. Grrrr ... !
     
    Turns out it was the computer. Also turns out that's not an item they readily keep in stock and have to have one shipped from the manufacturer. We're now on our 3rd day of being down to one vehicle and it's not fun. I had recently started taking the bus to work, and so you'd figure "Oh, okay ... that's not too inconvenient then only having the 1 vehicle." Except that my wife needs to get up in the morning to drive me to the bus stop at 6am. So, that's going over real well. Plus, my kids are involved in all sorts of extra-curricular activities/sports that frequently cause us to be in multiple places at once. So, long story short ... this has been "Hell Week" thus far.
     
    (As an aside, taking the bus totally rocks. Forget the $120 or so a month I save in gas, or the wear and tear on my vehicle, I get to READ for 60 minutes each day! I love to read, but just don't have the time for it. By the time I'm finally able to sit down at night after dealing with the kids, etc., the minute I crack open a book my eye lids immediately gain about 50 lbs. So it's kind of refreshing getting a little reading time.)
     
    In any event, I'm hoping to leverage this Kia fiasco into something tangible from these folks. Free oil changes for life or some other such consideration to make up for it would be nice. When we bought the thing, the sales person and the office manager both made a big deal of how we're going to be getting a customer satisfaction survey from Kia in a few weeks and that Kia considers anything below a "10" as a failure and that I was to call them first before sending anything back with a 9 or below on it. Well, from my vantage point they've got a lot of kissing to do to my backside between now and then if they want to see anything close to a "10".
     
    There. I'm done venting.
  3. G-Manicus
    Yesterday I indicated that the following are the greatest inventions / discoveries in the history of the world:

    1) Fire
    2) The Wheel
    3) Football
    4) TiVo
    5) The NFL Sunday Ticket
    I also mentioned the fact that my neighbor is able to use a projector so that we can now watch live TV on the side of his house on a 500 SF screen is also right there on my list now as well. All of this got me thinking of the phrase "the greatest thing since sliced bread" and I said to myself "Self, what IS the greatest thing since sliced bread??" I decided to find out.
     
    Well, for starters, it occurred to me that it would probably help if I knew when the whole Sliced Bread Era (SBE) began, so I consulted the always handy Wikipedia which indicated the following:
     
     
    For purposes of trying to devise a list of things that would constitute the greatest thing(s) since the SBE began, I've decided to use the year 1928 as the beginning of the SBE, which I think is a fair starting point. This effectively knocks Fire, Wheel, and Football off the list however. In any event, after careful consideration I now submit to you "The 15 Greatest Things of the SBE":
    Television remote
    The Internets (Thanks, Al!)
    TiVo
    NFL Sunday Ticket
    My neighbor doing that projector thingy
    Skybus Airlines ($20 round trip flights out of Columbus!)
    The NCAA Basketball Tournament
    Drive Thru Liquor Stores (BRILLIANT!)
    Seinfeld
    Ipods
    The Godfather (and no, that doesn't include that stupid 3rd movie)
    Right turn on red (of left turn for all the Brits in the crowd)
    That yellow first down line they digitally put on your screen during football games
    Radar detectors
    Three Musketeers bar (created year 3 of the SBE)
    Some may quibble with this list I'm sure. For instance, the inclusion of the Three Musketeers bar could possibly be construed as simply a matter of taste (as if!). Whatever. The bottom line is that this list demonstrates that the SBE has seen some brilliant innovations which have helped to make the world a better place to live. Where would we be without the ability to make a right turn at a red light? Think of the traffic! The lost man hours! Yes, we have much to be thankful for in the SBE.
     
    As reasonable people can disagree, by all means, if you have a suggestion for something that you feel should crack the list of Top 15 greatest things of the SBE, submit it here and it will be reviewed accordingly. Until then ...
     
    Best regards,
     
    G
  4. G-Manicus
    I'm looking forward to watching my beloved NY Giants this evening who are in Atlanta to take on the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football. The Giants are riding high atop a 3 game winning streak while the Falcons are spiraling out of control faster than Britney Spears at an open bar. And as if the Falcons weren't having enough problems, what with noted dog lover Michael Vick and all, both of their offensive tackles are hurt and will be replaced by guys making their first ever career starts this evening. The last time a team put an inexperienced offensive tackle out there against us, Osi Umenyiora got 6 sacks against him and the Giants tied the NFL record for most sacks in a game. Yes, the planets are seemingly aligned in our favor this evening. All of which probably means that the Falcons will probably pull off the upset as Lady Luck conspires against me once again in true Charlie Brown / Lucy Van Pelt fashion.
     

    Lady Luck (R, holding football) pulls a
    fast one on yours truly (airborne at Left)
     
    Other random stuff, mostly of a football nature:
     
    Speaking of football, I will be making my first ever trip to South Bend, In this Saturday to see the USC Trojans take on my Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Going with my next door neighbor and two of his friends. Approximately a 5 hour drive. Should be fun. I suspect I may have a beer or 2 while I'm there. Just a hunch.
     
    My oldest boy turns 11 today. We're all going out to dinner this evening to the restaurant of his choice, followed by cake and presents back home. We decided to make a contribution to his X-Box 360 fund he's got going on. We also got him tickets for the Cincinnati Bearcats / West Virginia game at UC next month.
     
    Said 11 year old plays youth football in a local rec league. For those who are unaware, youth football is one of the most terrible things ever invented. It seems that almost without exclusion every guy who coaches youth football does it so that either:


    1) His kid can be the Quarterback
    or
    2) He knows it's just a matter of time until Ohio State or somebody takes notice of his stellar accomplishments abusing 5th graders and offers him a shot at the big time.
    The Mrs. and I got new cellphones on Friday ... Motorola RAZR's (silver for me, pink for her). Our prior phones were old and crappy. I think I now know how the Neanderthals felt when they discovered fire.
     
    Speaking of the discovery of fire, here's my list of the greatest discoveries / inventions ever:


    1) Fire
    2) The Wheel
    3) Football
    4) TiVo
    5) The NFL Sunday Ticket
    And not necessarily in that order.
     
    It would appear that the word "STOP" on the red octagonal shaped sign in our subdivision is merely a suggestion and not actually a command, judging by the way some of my neighbors just blow right through it.
     
    Speaking of my neighbors, I've got this guy next to me (not the Notre Dame road trip guy) who hasn't the first clue about maintaining a home. No, don't cut your ENTIRE lawn at one time. Just cut the front yard today and maybe in 2 or 3 days cut the sides. And maybe the backyard a day or 2 after that. It looks good that way. No, really.
     
    This same guy I noticed yesterday now keeps the gas can for his infrequently used lawnmower outside. On his patio. Next to his gas grill. Nice move there. Yep. Just a matter of time until NASA calls to offer him that big rocket scientist job I'm sure.
     
    And while we're on the topic of my neighbors, and to bring me full circle back to my whole football theme, one of the guys across the street has a projector that he uses for work for when he has to make a powerpoint presentation or whatever. Occasionally we'd have movie night outside where he'd show a Disney movie or something on the side of his house for the kids and we'd have a firepit going and the parents would have a couple of adult beverages. Well, a few weeks back the guy next to him (and in whose driveway the projector is setup in) ran his cable TV line outside and now we're able to watch actual TV on the side of the house. On, like a 500 SF screen. We've been watching college football out there probably 4 of the past 5 Saturday nights. Let me tell you, that is the coolest thing. Ever. It may even bump "The Wheel" out of the Top 5.
  5. G-Manicus
    Greetings and salutations! I've had access to this thing for a week or so and have been waiting for something really profound to occur to me to say so that I could post it.
     
    Well, welcome to "Plan B."
     
    By way of introduction, I'm G-Manicus. G-Manicus being my lame attempt to Romanize my "non de plume" that I use on other message boards, "G Man." And no, I don't work for the FBI either. My first name begins with "G" and I'm a fan of the New York football Giants, aka "The G Men." Fascinating stuff, ay?
     
    In any event, a little about myself ... I live in the Cincinnati, Ohio area. Been here since 2004. I was born and raised in New Jersey however (hence the whole New York Giants angle). I went to school in Massachusetts and ended up meeting the current Mrs G Man there. And, well, you know ... the whole (makes quote thingy with his fingers) "love thing" happened and I stayed there after graduation. So, 3 kids and multiple pets later here I am.
     
    Speaking of my kids, I have a daughter (13) and 2 sons (10 and 4). I coach baseball, lacrosse, soccer, and basketball. In addition, my 10 year old plays football and my 13 year old plays softball, so I spend most of my free time at this ball field or that ball field.
     
    As you no doubt have witnessed, my command of Roman history is somewhat *cough* ... "lacking" compared to most folks here. It's interesting to read everyone's take on things and add to my meager knowledge of the Roman world. Thanks for having me by the way!
     
    I like to have a few laughs and I try to take advantage of my amateur photo-shopping skills whenever I can as well. In case you hadn't noticed. Wink, wink . I almost always try to keep things light, and it is my vow to you that I will never offer anything of substance to this website! Only fluff! On this, you have my word.
     
    Speaking of which, one thing I'm toying with going forward is creating what I call "The Ides of March Madness" ... an NCAA style field of 64 bracket to determine the (greatest? toughest? strongest? popular? whatever!) Roman of all time. I'd map out a whole bracket (maybe Republic era types on the left, Empire types on the right?) and then post a couple of match ups per day in a poll format, eventually getting down to 2 finalists (Can Cato even get out of the first round???). Let me know if that sounds like something folks would be interested in.
     
    Well, that'll do for today. Just wanted to take this thing out for a spin and kick the tires.
     
    Hasta luego.
     
    G
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