I’ve been in a piss poor mood lately for a lot of reasons I won’t go into here. Let’s just say any little thing can and has set me off lately.

Anyway, today I went to Philly to see my friend Jen, who I haven’t seen in months. We kept trying to plan something, but it never happened. Plus she had a baby back in December, so obviously that made things a tad more difficult. We finally made firm plans and met today.

We went out to lunch in the city. It’s been awhile since I have bothered to go into Philly (what with all the shooting and crime rate lately who wants to!). Several new restaurants have opened up, as well as shops, so it was nice to see some neighborhoods doing there best to present a good front.

Later we went back to her place and hung out. She had the Mario Kart game for Wii so that’s what we played. I have two of the previous versions, but hadn’t got the new one yet. It was on my list to get eventually. It was so much fun, especially the online options. You can play from people all over the world. Very cool.

Anyway, we are invited to her “Fifth of July Party” as that is when the riverfront in Philly is doing the fireworks. Given her vantage point to them in the city, she’s throwing a little party on her rooftop deck. So we’ll be going to that for sure. We also realized we have to be better about hanging out more often. She expressed interest in going out one night, so maybe we’ll make plans for a dancing night. That could be fun, though honestly neither of us knows where to go in Philly anymore! It’s probably been over a year since I’ve gone dancing in Philly.

This was a big week in videogame releases. Not only did the Wii Fit come out, but so did Singstar for the PS3. Now I have never played these games, but I was always curious. There are 4 of them on the PS2, and they are basically karaoke games. They are also huge hits.

However for the PS3, thanks to the hard drive, they really up’d the ante from what I’ve read. You can save all your performances, and if you have the webcam for the system then you can save the videos and photos of your performances. It doesn’t end there, you have an online section of the game where you can upload your performances and photos and whatever to your own Singstar Profile (think Myspace, Facebook, etc). Oh and it gets even better, there is an online store to purchase new songs as they are released. Given Sony has a huge music division, this should lead to tons of songs to expand the game . . . forever? Alas, right now there is no Madonna! I hope they’ll work something out to add her as she’s on an opposing label, along with Alanis dammit!

Well I decided to take the plunge and get this game. I know I can’t sing, but I like to sing in the comfort and privacy of my own home. Let me tell you it is the most fun I’ve had in a long time! It’s really not so much a game, but a karaoke machine and online social network. If you fancy yourself a singer, get this game! If you know you can’t sing, do it anyway and don’t care, get it! Seriously, this game is fun fun fun. Alone it is fun, I cannot yet imagine how much fun it would be to play with friends!

As of yet I have not uploaded anything to my profile, I’m not brave enough yet! If you get the game, leave a contact or contact me about adding each others as friends.

So today was the day, the Wii Fit came out! I headed out this morning to pick mine up, brought the sucker home and got on it. Not only did it tell me I’m fat, but I’m old! My Wii Fit age is way older than me! This s based on your weight, BMI as well as your sense of balance. All of mine suck, therefore I am old.

I found myself a tad shocked at how hard some of the exercises are! Now granted I had gone to the gym this morning and done some cardio, so I could have been a little pooped. But nevertheless, the exercises aren’t all a piece of cake so it will give you a workout. The balance games that come with it are cute and a tad tough as well.

One thing I can recommend is that you are getting or planning to get this, and you have hardwood floors, spend the money to get the exercise mat or any non-slip yoga mat from an exercise store. My feet are sore as is!

Switching gears, tomorrow is the day that “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” comes out. I’m so excited! I bought my ticket for the 11am show tomorrow. I actually for a split second considered going tonight at midnight, but figured it might be insane. They are showing it on 5 screens, so clearly they are expecting people!

After the movie gets out tomorrow I’m considering going to see “Prince Caspian right” after. I am not sure, it will depend if the weather is crummy or not. Otherwise I plan to do Caspian on Friday I hope. There is a big holiday weekend coming up, so I don’t want to try and even go to the movies then!

So today was the day, the Wii Fit came out! I was so looking forward to this. I put a 5 dollar down payment on it at Best Buy to reserve it, and they gave me a little flier to explain when and how to pick it up. In big letters on the flier it says “Available May 19th!” That’s today of course. I must admit at first I found this odd, because videogames normally ship on Tuesdays and come out on Wednesdays. But Best Buy did spend money printing all these reserve card flier things so they can’t be wrong right? WRONG! I get there today and am told “Yeah they don’t actually come out till Wednesday. I don’t know when these cards were printed or why the date was wrong, sorry.”

Uhg, it was like having Christmas ruined! Okay not that bad, but I wasn’t happy. I had such a crummy weekend. I was in a bad mood the whole weekend and spent too much time cleaning the house (which seems to have helped my allergies on the up side). Princess not only felt bad, she had explosive diarrhea, which i woke up to all over the floor this morning! So all I really wanted was to play Wii Fit, and I’ve been denied!

On the upside, since finally taking getting into shape and losing weight seriously about 2-3 weeks ago, I’ve been finally seeing results. I saw a number on the scale today I haven’t seen in about 2 years, and I’m hoping tomorrow it will be even lower. I also noticed today my face actually was looking a little thinner than usual. Woohoo! For my cruise next year I intend to finally be in the shape I’ve wanted to for years Now if only my Wii Fit would get here!

It’s that time of year again! Time to get serious about trying to lose some weight and shape up. Of course this is brought on by the fact that we booked out cruise for next January. We are once again going on Royal Caribbean because we had such a good time on the last one. It’s 8 nights on the Independence of the Seas. Before the cruise this year we’ll be doing Universal Studios in Orlando. I’m so excited and I can’t wait, though obviously I have to. This is going to be my first real cruise, even though it’s my 7th (I think). I’ll have no soaps to watch, no pages I feel I have to get updated and God as I my witness I WILL be done with school! I am expecting a carefree vacation damnit!

Back to the topic at hand. Every time I book a cruise I get on the “get fit” kick, which usually I try to kick up in November (the worst time of the year because of holidays). I’ve actually been doing fairly good about food and getting to the gym, but I have to get a bit more serious and stop cheating with what I’m eating. To help I plopped down a down-payment to reserve a Nintendo Wii Fit. It comes out later this month and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. It does strength training, yoga and aerobics as well as “balance games.” I know it can’t replace the gym, but it’s been getting good marks. Plus I know first hand that playing “Dance Dance Revolution” for 30 minutes gives you a damn good workout. So I’m expecting this to be as good if not better. I also know Yoga can be but kicking, but it’s not something I would want to do at the gym in front of others

First up, I know it’s been a few days since I posted. After Vegas I needed some down time, plus I got hit with kidney stones . . . always fun! Anyway I’m back to normal and getting back to work and the daily grind. Just a few updates on what other stuff has been going on.

Madonna’s “Hard Candy” album dropped this week. Unlike “Confessions,” which I instantly fell in love with, this is more of a “have to listen to it a few times” to get the feel for it. There are definitely some great songs on it with an 80s electro-pop dance feel as well as a 70s disco-soul groove. “Give It 2 Me, ” “Incredible,” “She’s Not Me” and “Devil Wouldn’t Recognize You” are my favorites on the album. Other songs are okay, some I could have done without. Some just don’t feel like Madonna should be singing them to me, and she really needs to stay away from rapping.

Last night I watched “The Orphanage.” Watching this around 3am was a mistake, because it was a subtly creepy movie. Nothing overwhelming, jump out of your seat scary. Just creepy. It’s from producer Guillermo del Toro, who is probably best known for writing/directing “The Devil’s Backbone” and “Pan’s Labyrinth.” Both of these are set during the Spanish Civil War, but “The Orphanage” (which he just produced) is in modern times. It’s the story of a woman who buys the home/orphanage she grew up in to return to with her husband and son. However it seems the children she played with as a child might still be around! Very good movie, very creepy. One of the better in the horror genre to come out these past few years in my opinion. Warning though, it’s subtitled for those who don’t like reading during a movie

Also out this week is “GTAIV” better known as “Grand Theft Auto 4.” Yes this is the controversial game said to warp children’s minds and make them go out and shoot up people and stuff. It’s rated M for mature, there is a reason, kids shouldn’t be playing it! If you wouldn’t let your kids go to an ultra-violent movie, don’t let them play these types of games either, it’s that simple. I picked it up because it’s a fun stress reliever honestly. I know the difference between right and wrong and real and imaginary, so I’m pretty confident I won’t be carjacking anyone tonight or running people over on the street

Finally I ordered the “His Dark Materials” trilogy, the first book being “The Golden Compass.” It’s been awhile, since the last Harry Potter, since I read something for fun. I decided I liked the movie enough to give the books ago. Plus I want to see what the “controversy” is about.

Okay so since I’ve got a lot of incoming links to the blog because of the soap site stuff, I figured I’d use this post to talk about myself. It will let people who might be new to the blog get to know a little about the guy who ran that page, but they may not have really known aside from his name and that he watched soaps.

First off, let’s just talk about the elephant in the room shall we? I am a 32 year old man who for 14-some years ran a website dedicated to soap operas. In case you never figured it out, yes I’m gay. It wasn’t something never outright addressed by me on the soap page, but if someone really wanted to know the answer they could have easily found out with some exploring. I tried to, but a few times failed, to keep anything political in nature off the page and keep it a neutral place, with only soaps being the issue.

So yes, I’m gay. Now contrary to what some might believe, I’m not here to molest your kids, statistically your straight relatives are more likely to do that. I’m not here to ruin your holy sanctity of marriage, statistically you along with Britney Spears are doing a damn good job of that on your own. I was not molested, I was not abused, I did not chose to be this way anymore than you chose to be straight. If you want to argue whether or not it’s a choice, please go down to your local zoo and argue with the animals there, as some of them seem to make the choices too.

If your still with me, I’ve been in a monogamous relationship with my boyfriend for over 6 years now. We live in New Jersey and in our very own haunted house! Yup, I’ve made several postings about it, you can read about it on the blog in the paranormal section. I’ve seen, heard, felt and yes been touched by the ghosts. I’ve always loved ghosts and the learning about views of and beliefs in the afterlife. I never expected to actually end up living in my very own haunted house. Growing up I always wanted to be either a parapsychologist or an archaeologist, because I also enjoyed learning about how different people buried their dead, which by the way IS what I’m studying now. Seeing a theme here?

We share our house with two dogs and five, yes five cats. I know, it’s a virtual zoo here. The dogs are my terriers Princess Bumbles and Nikko. Princess is a westie and I got the Bumbles part from “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.” Nikko is a cairn and is named after the captain of the flying monkeys from “The Wizard of Oz.” The cats are Lance(alot), Galahad, Moo Kitty (real name Gawain), Percy (Percival, also called Orange Kitty) and Grim (short for Pilgrim, finally breaking away from frickin Arthurian names!).

Many people might who might have read my pages always noticed I went on my vacations in January. Yes an odd month to go. That is because it’s when my boyfriend was off work. He works on a farm, yes a farm. It’s a family business, so they are closed in the winter months and it’s his only chance to get away. So for the past six years we had our vacations then, which were always cruises. Oh and yes, I kept running the page as much as I could while I was on a cruise ship. Talk about obsession!

Seriously though, I made some amazing friends through the page, people I know I’ll be friends for with life. One of my oldest internet friends Ive probably known for ten plus years and we till try to see each other at least once a year when her job brings her anywhere nearby. Other friends are a few years old, but they are whom I would take weekends to see in New Orleans or what not the past few years. Two also just came to stay with me, they are who I went to New York back in February with. We all talk almost every night online.

A little other fun facts about me. I love horror films, I have since I was a kid and rented out the local video store’s selection the summer between 4th and 5th grade. I’m more into the old school slashers and anything supernatural. The new horror flicks I find to either be really bad remakes of 80s stuff, Japanese movies or basically just a guts and gore fest that is too much for me to take. Growing old, and advances in film make-up, has made me a bit squeamish.

I also love videogames and have since a little kid. The first videogame system I ever had was the Intellivsion, followed by various Sega systems. Once upon a time I used to run a fairly popular Sega fan page, but gave it up a long time ago. I still love videogames and have pretty much every system out there. I’m just now finding the extra time to start playing games again regularly. I have been trying to stay away from on-line gaming until school is done, that’s just another distraction for me!

I also love Broadway shows, something I really didn’t get into until more recently and thanks to various friends. The odd thing is, growing up I was in the band and orchestra and we always, I mean always, did an Andrew Lloyd Weber show at least once a year. Well we played a medley of the music from one show. So I don’t know why I didn’t get into them earlier. I’ve seen Mamma Mia, Phantom, Hairspray, Xanadu, Wicked, Evita, Scrooge, La Cage, Aida and . . . umm . . . I think that may be it? I am sure I’m missing some.

I guess that is enough for now. I was going to try and link to various posts in the blog that I’ve done over the years, but I never got around to searching and choosing the ones I liked. I guess if any fun fact here sparked your interest you can peruse the various categories on the side bar or the linked ones in this post for more info.

-Dustin

I’ve been feeling like a slug lately, literally. This weekend I didn’t want to motivate to do a thing. The weather was no help either. On Saturday we had torrential downpours. When the rain finally stopped, the wind storms took over. A huge pine tree got blown in half next door, seriously. A huge chunk of it cracked off. Fortunately it fell into a field, no damage done.

This weekend I’m hoping I won’t be feeling like this. There is a huge horror/monster film fest/convention that just happens to be taking place in my home town this year. This does have me upbeat and I so plan to go. They will have autograph signings with stars, movies show with Q&A sessions with stars, and of course a showing of “Rocky Horror!”

Nothing much else to comment on right now. I just got Super Smash Bros Brawl for my Wii. I intend to pop it in soon. If anyone has it drop me a comment. We can trade wii# and battle it out online

Lately I have been keeping one of the resolutions I made to myself last year. I think it was last year? I know it was a long time ago for sure. The resolution was to make more me time, especially videogame time. I’ve been pretty good about making time at least every other night to blast the baddies or what not . . . and it feels so good. If I actually had more time I would love to get into online gaming stuff, but I’m afraid I’d just get too addicted and get nothing done. That would be bad!

Meanwhile I’ve also kept up my goal to try and eat better and get back to the gym . . . and the past few I finally started feeling it. The sore muscles! Oh well, no pain no gain!

Finally, I recently indulged in my love for the one and only Wonder Woman and bought a few new figures, as well as this new doll from The Tonner Doll Company. I now have too much Wonder Woman memorabilia to fit on my book shelf in the downstairs guest room lol. I am planning to reorganize it, hanging a lot of the figures up on the walls along with some paintings and pictures I have of Wonder Buns as well. Now if only I could find Wonder Woman bed sheets and a comforter for the bed in there the room would be complete

I was prepared after this weekend to call the doctor about my shoulder, which became so painful today I thought I might cry. It seems though from talking to others, I most likely have a pinched nerve and there is nothing that can be done. *Sigh* The pain has been up there with migraines, but not as bad as the dreaded kidney stones. I’m ready for it to go away.

Let’s see, what else went on this weekend. Once again I never made it to see Harry Potter. It’s still playing this week, but I know this will be the last week it will be in the theaters because of the limited showtimes. I have to make plans to see it one night, otherwise I’m stuck waiting for the DVD for Christmas (not that I won’t buy it anyways).

Keith’s visit next week may be canceled again. He’s having car troubles and may not be able to get up here if he has to fork over a lot of money to have it fixed. Oh well.

In anticipation of Keith’s visit I had cleaned the downstairs guest room. He probably would have stayed upstairs, but it has been a mess forever and needed to be done. It’s all thanks to me dropping stuff off in there, taking DVDs off the shelf and not putting them back, etc. Nobody goes in the room but me, so it easily becomes a mess quickly. It’s all clean! I also had to clean it as this is the room I’m having DirecTV installed in, so I can continue watching “Passions.” I’ve been looking into DirecTV, we can get so much more for so much cheaper than our cable, but we lose our cable internet. We’d have to go to DSL of some kind, and I haven’t done the additions to find out if it ends up being the same amount of money or not. We ditched our phone company for Vonage, so we’d have to go back to the phone company, which I fear would make the phone bill+DSL not that much of a savings in the end.

The only other bit of news is that I picked up this game Rune Factory for my nintendo DS, it’s a fantasy version of the Harvest Moon series. Harvest Moon is a life sim slash farming sim. I have only one other game in the series, but I remember how addictive it was. I picked this one up because it was a fantasy version, plus it was on my DS and I can play it just lounging about the house wherever I want. I like that It’s a cute game and I’m already addicted. If you enjoyed Animal Crossing either on the Gamecube or Nintendo DS, then you’ll probably like this. It’s far more involved than Animal Crossing though. If you have or planning on getting it, hit me up! It has internet features where we can trade crops and other items.