Ryan Fields

ENGOBI’s Guitar Hero video contest

ENGOBI, the company that produces snacks that combined flavored chips with caffeine has announced a cool contest called “Don’t Be a Piano Hero” showdown.  The contestants compete to win a variety of prizes, including an Xbox 360™-enabled, customized Fender® Stratocaster, ENGOBI gear and other prizes.

The contestants have to make an energy-packed video of themselves and their friends “rocking out” and then upload the video ENGOBI.com. 

As part of the launch promotion, the ENGOBI van will be touring the east coast and southern cities with the ENOGBI girls, who will be handing out ENGOBI gear, bringing samples of the snacks, and giving people the opportunity to play the Guitar Hero game van-side with their friends.

Going on safari

My friend Tom loves to play golf.  But he really loves to go hunting!  He told me just the other day he was planning on signing up for one of those African hunting safari trips he had been reading about in magazines and on the Internet.  He asked me if I wanted to go with him!  I told him that I would really like to go to Australia, so he proceeded to try to talk me into going to Africa with him instead.  He told me about all the nice trophy animals that he could get (or we could get) and how easy it was to sign up for one of the trips.  And the company would do everything else.  He told me about how nice the places are that you stay in, and how knowledgeable the guides are and they knew just where to take us to get whatever animal we wanted to bring home.  He said that all of the fees were included in the cost of the trip, including transportation to/from the airport, accommodations, trophy fees, and daily laundry!   I told him I’d think about it, because I really like to hunt, too!  (I can’t stand golf!)

Tom’s got a new gun

Yesterday I stopped over to see my buddy Tom.  When I walked in the house I asked her where Tom was.  She says “oh, you mean the big game hunter?”  I said “yeah, whatever.”  He came out around the corner, wearing a big fancy hunting hat and a carrying a new elephant gun.  I about fell over backwards, laughing!  As soon as I gained my composure, I asked him “what the heck are you doing?”  He said “I bought a new gun!”  I said “I guess you did!”

My friend’s Camaro

My friend has an ‘89 Camaro.  He basically restored it - all he really needed was to pull a few dents, paint it, and replace the chrome that was worn out.  But he went a little overboard - it had a small block 350 in it and an automatic transmission - when he was done (with the new paint and chrome) he added a big block 454 with a 5 speed standard.  The car is gloss black, but it is still hard to see at night.   You ought to see it go!

For some reason, he can’t seem to keep rear tires on the car, it doesn’t matter which size.  He has a problem leaving the remnants of the tire in the road where ever he leaves from!  Last week he told me the State Police were getting tired of getting complaints about the noise that this car made.  I said “which noise, from the tires, or from the exhaust?”  He laughed and said “both!”  He said that now he has to go down back roads and play with it when he wants to, and we all know what I mean by “play with” - screech screech vroom vroom!  He gave me a ride in it, he’s a real good driver, but I don’t want to ride in it again!

Identity theft

Bryce was quite shocked to discover that when he was buying his new 4-wheeler that someone had tried to open a loan in his name!  He was almost the victim of identity theft.  Fortunately it was caught in time and his credit is ok for now.  But it has upset him enough that he has decided to look into buying the lifelock service that we have been seeing advertised on television every day!  Using the lifelock service will protect him from any future attempts at identity theft being successful.  This was one close call he does not want to experience again!

Big Brother and almostgolf

I have a friend, Bill, who signed up for the “Big Brother” program a few months ago.  His “little brother” Tim is interested in playing golf, so Bill has been taking Tim to the driving range when he has the chance, to practice his swing.  Tim wants to participate in junior golf, so Bill plans to work with Tim as much as possible to get him ready for it.

Bill found out about a new type of practice golf ball called the the Point3 ball.  That Point3 ball is a CO2 pressurized ball that delivers real ball flight and performance.  This ball is neighborhood safe.  Although it performs like a real golf ball in terms of how it acts when hit by a club, it only goes 1/3 of the distance of a regular “real” golf ball.  And it doesn’t break windows or dent cars!

The Point3 ball is sold by a company called “Almost Golf.”  I was checking out their website and was reading about their new golf ball and saw that they were suggesting ways to incorporate their new ball into a variety of games that they were calling “Almost Golf games.”  The games sounded like they could be a lot of fun to play for either kids or adults who want to practice their golf swings without having to go to the golf course or to the driving range.  They called the games a variety of names, such as target golf, traditional golf, travelling target golf, and almostgolf catch.  The site talks about setting up your own urban course and setting up your own almostgolf events.

I’ve never really been interested in playing “real” golf, I thought that it took way too much time and I don’t  want to luga bag full of golf clubs around a golf course.  But this “almostgolf” suggests using only one or two clubs, and since the balls only fly about 1/3 of the distance, the courses would much shorter.  It sounds like I would enjoy this a lot more than traditional golf.  Maybe I’ll tag along and participate!

New motorcycle

One of my friends just bought a Honda motorcycle - a 900RR.  It’s bright red, black and white graphics.  Just sitting still it looks like it’s going 100 mph!  It’s registered for 170 mph and he says it will do every bit of it!  Better him than me!  He just got done changing the exhaust over because it wasn’t loud enough.  There again, he was questioned by “the authorities” but he produced a legal sticker and they told him to “cool it” and let him go.  That’s a joke!  But still, what a nice bike!

Patriot’s Mini Camp

The New England Patriots had their first rookie minicamp today for their seven draft picks and 11 undrafted free agents. The team invited 9 unsigned players to the minicamp, too.  Coach Bill Belichick watched the workouts with team Vice President of Personnel, Scott Piolo.

After this first week’s minicamp, the draft picks and selected free agents will return to Foxborough in mid-May for the team’s conditioning program. I’ll be watching the draft pick, Jerod Mayo to see if he was worth the first round spot.

NFL Draft

Had the TV set on ESPN all day so I could watch or hear the NFL draft today. I’ve been following a couple of college players the past two years and was curious to see where they would end up. It’s not just about my favorite team, the New England Patriots, it is also about the players and the way they can fit in with the veteran players and help shape the new team.

The Patriots first-round draft pick was Jerod Mayo, a linebacker. I’m looking forward to see if he can be a play maker and help this team keep their winning record.

New Browser

Some of my buddies were talking about using a browser different from Internet Explorer. I’ve never given it that much thought, but the way they were raving about it, I thought I should check it out. They gave me the link to download Mozilla’s Firefox. It has a lot of add-ons that you can pick and choose to make the browser work best for your own needs instead of the cookie cutter IE.

I want to learn more about the features before removing the Explorer browser, but maybe I can run both for a few weeks and see which one I like better.