Vans Triple Crown 2004

pink shirt guy
Originally uploaded by russdogg.

Had to take my new camera, the Canon 20D, for a spin at the surf contest this weekend. Finally the waves are back. It's been flat ocean for a while then, boom, waves. It seems like the girls come out when there are waves, too. I borrowed the 300 mm lens from my work and took action shots of the surfers from the beach. the good thing about an 8 megapixel camera, is even if it looks tiny, you can crop it and it will still be great quality.

Basket-brawl in Detroit

Artest beats down a Detroit fan
found by russdogg.

So I'm at work, watching basketball. I know, I know, I wasn't really working in a literal sense, but I digress. Pacers were playing the Piston in Detroit. Now I happen to be anti-Detroit, since they won the championship last year, so I was cheering for Indiana's Pacers the whole time. In the last 45 seconds of the game, all hell breaks loose. I'm talkin players fighting players, players fighting fans, kids crying, fans rioting, objects thrown at players including beer bottles, ice, popcorn, and even a freakin chair! This went on for like five minutes. The game was called, - whens the last time that happened? - and people were left in a daze having witnessed the craziest scene ever in NBA history, I'd bet. Basically, it went down like this: Artest fouls Ben Wallace hard, intentionally, but not too hard. Wallace gets crazy and slams both hands in Artest's face, throwing him backwards hard. Artest, who is always somehow in the thick of this stuff, realizes its a no win, and backs off. To prove he's doin nothing, he lays down and chills on the scorer's table. Everyone else is holding back ben wallace who is still goin crazy. Then, a fan nails Artest in the face with a cup full of beer. Artest jumps up, runs 5 rows up to this lil punk, and starts beating him down. Then it went crazy. Detroit fans are insane. Crazier than Fresno State fans, even.The coolest was Jermaine O'Neil, who punched this one crazy dude so hard in the face that the guy went sailing. Did I mention some fan threw a chair??? This is up there with, if not the, all time craziest NBA scenes ever. If i had my DVR set up I would have clips, but for now go to ESPN.com.

Steelers beat Browns like a red-headed step child

Steelers stomp
found by russdogg.

Dang. Pittsburgh wins again! Getting sick of hearing that? Because I'm not. They're now 8 and 1. This game was a great win because of the huge rivalry between the two teams. There was even a fight before the game even started! And once again, our defense kept the others from scoring, while rookie QB Ben Roethlisberger cleaned house, all while lookin like he barely broke a sweat. Even with lead rusher Duce Staley out on injury ( I'd be hurting too if I rushed over 100 yards 4 games in a row) Last year, the Steelers weren't even considered as contenders for the playoffs. This year, one could easily argue they have the best record of the season. I'm predicting a superbowl win at this point. Mark my words. It'll be interesting to see who jumps on the fan bandwagon when they get to the playoffs.

ODB, R.I.P.

ODB, R.I.P.
Originally uploaded by russdogg.

ODB, The Wu-Tang Rapper (Ol Dirty Bastard for those not into berevity) died a few hours ago. What a trip. He was in the studio had chest pains and died. This dude had been in trouble with the law and in and out of jail for some time now. I remember when he tried to change his name to Big Baby Jesus. That one didn't last. RIP, homie. I'll be sure to pour one out on the curb for ya. P.S. can I have those gold teeth with the diamonds in em?

New camera. It's sooooo sweet.

BYUH dominated Tahiti
by russdogg.

Well, I got my new digital SLR. Its a Canon 20D. I've been savin cash forever for this badboy. Took it for a test run at my school basketball game. One disappointment about BYU-H; There isn't much student body support for the teams. I had a good time takin pictures all night. Our team played the Tahiti national team, and stomped them by 70 points! Tommorrow they play Fiji's team for the final game of this kinda weak tournament. Saw my ex girlfriend AND my stalker. Yay! I didnt talk to either of them. Wasn't in the mood. Lovin my 8 megapixel camera. Now I gotta do some work to make ll that money back.

my new pc, baby.

my new pc
Originally uploaded by russdogg.

I've been building this mini pc (using this case) to serve as a dvd burner. Its turned into a project to build the ultimate media center pc. I'm using it to host all my iTunes music and burn dvds, when I get a little more cash I'm gonna put in a video card that can pause and rewind live tv, TiVo style, and record it to burn to dvd. Its pretty pimp... for a computer that is.

Bush is an idiot but I'm voting for him anyway...

Man, Bush looks pathetic on T.V. He stammers, gives people the runaround when they ask him sensitive questions, and sometimes has that gulity kid look like he just got busted for eating cookies before dinnertime. All that aside, I'm still voting for him tommorrow. Kerry's even worse though. He's got that smug I'm-guilty-but-you're-too-dumb-to-notice look. Like that OJ Simpson guilty look. I don't know if OJ did it or not, but damn, he looked guilty! That whole mean stare down look Kerry gets sometimes is enough to swing my Democratic butt towards Dubya. MTV is making me sick. It's so partisan, and so pointedly democratic, but they try n act like they are giving a balanced view of the election. They interviewed Kerry but couldnt get Bush to come on so they kept repeating that after every point Kerry made. Gideon Yago's like "Kerry thinks this should be so-and so. But when we tried to ask BUSH how he felt on this, we couldn't get an appointment with him! So, we'll play some audio clip of what he said 4 years ago as his rebuttal." SO lame. And they always hype up Moore's "Farenheit" movie, which was so boring and seriously stretching to make any semblance of a point. Gideon Yago looked like a dog about to pee with excitement when he interviewed Kerry. If he was a dog he'd be sniffing Kerry's butt right now, or humping his leg. Oh, and Kerry keeps sayin how if he's elected he'll save our job economy, but our economy is finally on the upswing before him and if Kerry's elected he'll totally take credit. Both Kerry ans Bush just need to step aside let Schwartzanegger run for office. He'll crush those girliemen.

Steelers showed Patriots their "O" face. O, O, O....

steelers stomp patriots
Originally uploaded by russdogg.

Could it get any better? Not only did the Steelers STOMP the New England Patriots, but in doing so Pittsburgh broke the Patriots 16 game winning streak (including last year's superbowl) AND rookie QB Ben Roethlisburger is now 5 and 0. What a perfect way to end a great Sunday.

Ashlee Simpson, Mili Vanilli; seperated at birth?

I got home last night, in time for a little Saturday Night Live. You know, its not as funny as it used to be. The funniest part however was unintentional. Ashlee Simpson was the musical guest, definately the ugliest least talented of the two sisters. On her second song, she came out, swayed around and... started singing the SAME SONG. BUT, the mic was at her waist, and her lips weren't even moving! Either this was a B kung-fu movie, or she was fakin it. Her recorded voice faded out in an echo, and her band just kept jamming. So what did she do? She did a jig. Thats right, she broke out in a good ol' fashioned hoe-down before she stumbled off stage embarressed. Good for her. You know, in the old days, rockers had to slave away in smokey hole in the wall clubs for years before they got the recognition. Rappers sold crack (well, maybe not Ja-Rule, but he sucks) till they got onto BET. Ashlee Simpson's daddy got her a deal. At the end of SNL she tried to blame it on her band playing the wrong song. Oh well. Only time will tell if this was the end of her 15 minutes of fame.

Steelers baby, we get ours!

Pittsburgh baby, what!!!!! We back in this. 5 and 1. I'll admit I was skeptical about Ben Roethlisberger, the Steeler's new QB. Of course, thats cause I'm a huge Kordell Stewart fan (still!!) and still bitter about coach Cower's makin him be strictly QB. Anyways, ancient history. So I was hopin, but not expectin much from Ben, but he came through. 5 and 1 so far for my team. They even slammed the cowboys in their own house. Be expectin big things baby!

In the army now (minus Paulie Shore)

my golf cart
Originally uploaded by russdogg.

The golf cart is alive! I hadn't driven my golf cart since the batteries went bad a few months ago. Since they're so expensive, I almost gave up on it. However, I decided to chance it and take the batteries back to Costco where I bought them. Costco seriously rocks. They didnt even look at them. They just gave me store credit and I got new ones! With my cart excitement renewed, I decided to "pimp" my golf cart (I'm using that term loosely) by painting it army green, to match the camo seat cover I made. I also bought some speakers and hooked em up to an old car amp. Now I roll to class with my iPod blasting, hehe. Tons of people want to buy my cart of me now, especially since its so perfect for a small community like Laie.

Engadget & my 2 seconds of web fame

engadget.com
Originally uploaded by Me.

Well, my humble blog felt what it was like to be a real website for a few days. My previous post on Snoop dogg's iPod got linked to Engadget.com. usually my blog gets 10 to 20 hits a day from friends, family, and randoms. After the Engadget post on Monday, I got 700 hits! Crazy, huh? Around noon here in Hawaii i couldn't even log on to my own blog. Now I need to step up my game and write some stuff actually worth reading, or at least funny. Or maybe vica versa.