Kent Falls State Park, CT

The other day my boss came to me and said “Rich, I’m going to say something that might be offensive to your wife.” I immediately started thinking about what he could possibly say to offend my wife (who wasn’t there).

He said “Rich, I think Bulgarian Feta is better than Greek Feta. Knowing my wife well, I told him the first thing she would say is that Bulgarian Feta doesn’t even deserve to be called Feta cheese. I told him “Hey, let’s call her”.

I dialed her up on speaker phone and just said to her “My boss says he likes Bulgarian Feta more than Greek Feta.” Immediately she proclaimed that Bulgarian Feta barely deserves to qualify as Feta cheese, etc., etc.

My boss couldn’t contain his laughter, so my wife then realized that she was on speaker phone. It was funny as she got annoyed at me for putting her on speaker phone and not telling her, and not telling her that my boss was there. Well, my take is that if she knew it wouldn’t have turned out nearly as funny for me and my boss.

I’ve never tried Bulgarian Feta and my wife says it will never touch her lips. So I leave it up to you, readers (if there are any of you), to tell me which is the superior Feta cheese.

This post is for my friend Dianne, who always complains that I don’t update my blog often enough.

I think she’s the only one who actually reads it, so this is for her.

I’m a huge PC game fan and these are the games I’m currently playing.

Titan Quest - Website
Titan Quest is Diablo meets Greek mythology. There is no new ground covered gaming wise, but this game is loads of fun to play. The graphics engine is quite nice, displaying colorful environments and smooth animations. Sound effects are fine and the use of competent voice acting helps a lot. Growing up in Astoria, I’ve heard many Greek accents, and the accents in this game are spot on. A nice touch would be the ability to listen to Greek speech with English subtitles.

There are plenty of character development options to keep things interesting. The game also features thousands of pieces of equipment, so there’s a lot of neat loot to pick up along the way. Recent patches appear to squash various bugs that plagued the release version, so be sure to download those before you start your adventure.

Flatout 2 - Website
Flatout 2 is an arcadey, smash ‘em up racing game. The emphasis here is on destroying scenery and your opponents cars. I haven’t put a lot of time into this one yet, but career, single race and mini games ensure that there is a lot to do. In career mode you start off with the “derby” class, basically a bunch of junkers. You can buy cars and upgrades with the winnings you earn in the races you win.

Visually the game looks very good with your standard racing game sound effects. A nice visual effect is the “motion blur” of your surroundings when you use nitro to boost the speed of your car. The biggest negative about this game so far is the soundtrack, which includes horrible bands such as Fallout Boy and Nickelback. There’s really no reason for a PC game to not allow for customized soundtracks, but that is a minor quibble.

For fans of arcade type racing with cool damage and physics effects, Flatout 2 is definitely worth a spin.

Civilization IV: Warlords Website
The Warlords expansion adds a bunch of new features to Civ IV: new leaders, new traits, scenarios, wonders, warlords, vassal states, and more. There’s not a lot to say about this except that it takes Civ IV and makes it better. A huge new feature is the “warlord” which is best described as a “great general”. The warlord can be used to provide you with military advantages, similar to how the great artist/engineer/etc in the original game provide benefits to culture, research, etc. Warlords adds new depth to the game, and the scenarios add a bunch of specific units and buildings to the game (for use in those scenarios only, to keep game balance intact).

It’s not a total re-hash of the game, but if you are looking for that you would be better served by the mod community.

Also playing: Heros of Might and Magic V, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
Just finished with: Half Life 2: Episode One, Hitman: Blood Money

Wow, what a great weekend. The Yankees beat the Red Sox 4 games in row, scoring 47 runs in the process.

Theo Epstein didn’t do enough to bolster his pitching and the Sox are paying for that now and will continue to pay for it. The Red Sox won’t make the playoffs this season.

David Ortiz has done as much as he can to carry the team, but one man can only do so much.

Bobby Abreu has been fantastic since coming over from the Phillies. To paraphrase what a buddy of mine said, he is a disciple of the church of Mattingly.

Wow this post is really random and all over the place.

I should probably start off with full disclosure. I know most of the people in these bands, but if I thought they were awful I wouldn’t go about recommending them. They might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but they are talented people putting their hearts into their music.

The Steinways
This summer The Steinways released their first full length on Cold Feet Records entitled Missed the Boat. It features 20 tracks of awesomeness that everyone should hear. Standout tracks include all 20 of them. You can check out The Steinways at their MySpace Page. Be their friend, they like friends.

The Leftovers
Hailing from Maine, The Leftovers will rock your party with “high energy, no bullshit punk influenced rock n’ roll with plenty of pop goodness.” Cheapskate Records recently released the band’s first full length album, aptly titled Party Tonight!. This is a great group of guys and as a band, continue to get better and better. You can hear some more of The Leftovers on their MySpace Page.

I was going to do more, but I think I’ll save some more for next time.

I took this photo in Cape May, NJ on Sunset Beach. A friend of mine commented that he loves the airborne droplets, so I’ve named it as such.

Denim on denim was acceptable in the 80’s.

Mixing of denim should never be done, even if the colors are different or you live in the south.

If you are a man, flip-flops should be worn only to the beach.
An exception can be made if you are taking out the garbage.

In the same vein, high tops should be worn only for playing sports (specifically basketball).

On May 25, 2006, Desmond Dekker died of a heart attack at age 64. Known for his songs “The Isreaelites” and “007 (Shanty Town)”, Dekker was a pioneer of the Jamaican sound, paving the way for artists like Bob Marley to achieve international recognition.

According to most news reports, Dekker was not ill and in top physical form in preparation for his tour Europe this summer. This makes Dekker’s death somewhat of a surprise. Unfortunately, I had never taken the opportunity to see Dekker live always assuming that “there would be another chance”.

If anyone is interested in checking out Dekker, here are my top picks of his songs. This isn’t a comprehensive list by any means, but these are some of my favorites.

• Get Up Edina
• 007 (Shanty Town)
• Israelites
• It Mek
• Pickney Gal
• You Can Get It If You Really Want
• Hippopotamus
• Young Generation
• Carry Go Bring Come
• Rudie Got Soul