DaveBarousse.com

Are you feeling me?

Now that the 2007 college football season is over and the writer’s strike has eliminated new episodes of most of my favorite TV shows, I’ve had to find other sources of entertainment on television. I actually get plenty of TV time with my two favorite shows, Celebrity Apprentice and Friday Night Lights (that are still airing new episodes), but I have found another that I will either add to the list or just have my DVR record for when I want to laugh uncontrollably.

Although it has been around for a while and has mostly gone unnoticed to me, Most Extreme Elimination Challenge (MXC) is pure comedy genius. The show comes on the Spike network and is a re-dubbing of the Japanese game show Takeshi’s Castle with American voices. The stunts and antics in the show are wacky and some times just flat out crazy, but the writing for the voice overs is absolutely hilarious. Especially for the two host of the show, Kenny Blankenship and Vic Romano.

If you don’t have Spike, you can get seasons 1-3 on DVD. Just make sure that you are prepared to laugh, hard. Check out the “best of” episode below:

I didn’t stand in line to get an iPhone the first day they were released, but I did purchase one soon after the initial launch. I knew that as an early adopter I was taking a risk on such a new product, but I was pretty shocked when Apple cut the price in half only a few weeks after I paid the original full price for mine. However, Apple made good with me by offering a $100.00 gift certificate to those who purchased an iPhone prior to the price cut. I would have preferred a refund of the difference in cash (not as a gift certificate), but already knowing the risk, I was just glad that Apple did something for us who purchased early.

I have to admit that I love my iPhone. I’ve had it for about seven months now and I still enjoy it as much as I did when I first got it. But about two weeks ago, the screen on my phone started to become unresponsive in certain areas. Basically when I would touch the screen in those areas, nothing would happen. So after a call to AT&T (who then directed me to Apple) and making an appointment via the Apple website, I was all set to see a “Mac Genius” about the problem with my iPhone.

I was fully expecting Apple to ship my phone off to get fixed, leaving me with either no phone at all or having to rent a “loaner” phone. According to stories I read online, that is how some Mac Stores were handling iPhone issues. However, after about a five second demo to the Mac Genius, he was ready to replace my iPhone with a new one. After that, the only foreseeable issue was that I was going to lose all of my contacts and settings from my old phone. Just to be safe, I spent some time jotting down numbers of contacts that I thought I’d have a hard time getting again.

I was pretty happy after leaving the Mac store with a new phone and wasn’t too upset about losing all of my contacts and settings. However, Apple surprised me one more time when I got home and plugged my new iPhone into iTunes to update the software. It instantly asked me if I wanted to restore all of my settings on the new phone. To my surprise, once the restore was done, not only did I have the latest iPhone firmware, the information on my new phone was a complete duplicate of my old phone. That includes pictures, email settings, contact and even old text messages. I have to say, I was very impressed.

So not only do I have a new iPhone, it just got 100 times better with the iPhone January 2008 Software Update. I’m stoked.

Since the beginning of the new year, our favorite mountain (Willamette Pass) has received a ton of new snow. We’ve only been able to make it up there twice so far to enjoy it, but both times have been a lot of fun. The last time we went up with a bunch of friends and enjoyed about a foot or two of new powder that fell the previous night.

Below are some photos that The Barfield’s took while we were riding.

Sum, Tiff, Dave and Dave

Summer hitting the jump

Dave airing it out

I ran across an article today on Yahoo! Sports and got a good laugh. It surfaced due to the LSU vs. Ohio State National Championship Game earlier this week.

Link: http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news?slug=ap-bcs-contentiousgames&prov=ap&type=lgns

Here is a little background info on why I enjoy this story so much. Eric Andolsek became a relative of mine by a marriage between one of my family members and one of his family members. Growing up, he was always a hero of mine, even though he was the biggest person I had ever seen. Eric was also one of the nicest guys you’d ever meet (off the field).

If you read the story all the way through, you’ll see some of the more interesting stuff at the end. After the Andolsek/Spielman coin toss scuffle, they were both drafted by the Detroit Lions after college and became best friends and roommates. Their friendship ended with Spielman giving the eulogy at Eric’s funeral. Eric was only 25 years old when he died.

Congrats to the LSU Tigers, the 2007 National Champions! What a fun and exciting season.

I am writing this roughly three hours prior to kickoff of the 2008 BCS National Championship game and I can hardly stand it anymore. It’s time to get this game started!

Luckily for LSU fans, the game was previously scheduled to be played in New Orleans before the teams were selected. This means that the game is taking place about an hour away from my home town. Unfortunately for me, I am not currently down there and am not able to partake in the game festivities. I wish I was in New Orleans today eating some great food and “Tigerbaiting” some Ohio State fans.

The Dome is going to be rocking tonight and hopefully the Tigers will be leaving with a victory and another BCS National Championship. It should be a great game. Geaux Tigers!

Update:

My Mom and her husband were lucky enough to get tickets to the big game tonight, so they have been having a great weekend down in New Orleans. I got a call from her this morning saying that they were riding around the French Quarter in a fire truck that is sort of a mascot for my step father’s family’s Ford Dealership. Later in the day, I found some images of their crew that some random person took in New Orleans and posted on the internet. Looks like they are having a great time.

According to my mom (who has been to Mardi Gras in New Orleans a ton and many LSU games), New Orleans is CRAZY right now. Man, I wish I was down there!

Update:

30 minutes until pre-game starts! Game time is near.

Update:

One more commercial break before kick off. I’m about to explode! LSU won the coin toss and will kick off.

Update:

Start of the 4th quarter and LSU is winning 31-17. Only a few minutes left and my voice is almost gone.