Day 2 – 7/24: Part 3

(If you want to read it in order, start from the bottom.)

We have hit the home stretch. If I can just mince my words a bit and stop being so long-winded, this will be my final update on Comic Con weekend.

When we last left your heroes, they had just entered Hall H to watch Kevin Smith talk. Well, all of us except for Mike Lopez, who decided to leave the line at the last minute. He gambled and he lost. But we’ll get to him later.

Edson and I are pretty big Kevin Smith fans. We both listen to Smodcast, which is Smith’s podcast that he does with his buddy Scott Mosier. Ed has become one of the bigger Smodcast fans of all time, listening to episodes more than once and some probably more than twice.

Blake is also a big fan, but more so of Smith’s films. The rest of the crew knew his work, but weren’t huge fans. I was worried that both HJ and Tawni would be offended by Smith’s blue humor. I was wrong. I think they liked it best out of all of us. He’s really good live and a gem of a story teller.

A goofball dude proposed to his nerdy girlfriend at the beginning and during the Q & A there were some of the worst questions ever asked by humans in the world, but Kev gets his audience and rolls with the punches while making fun of them without them knowing. He told some new stories such as how he got Michael Parks from From Dusk Till Dawn to be in his new movie Red State. This story involved the police coming to his house and investigating a possible hostage situation.
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JJ calls his shot.

As promised, we’re back to talk NBA basketball.

This time Albert, JJ Mags, and Young Randall couldn’t make it, so who was to join Eddy Zucko and me? Well, none other than the editor of Warriorsworld.net, my man Rasheed.

Sheed came on to discuss the latest in the NBA trades before the trade deadline such as Antawn Jamison to the Cavs, the Warriors in detail (specifically Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry), and who the best bets are come playoff time.

It was a fun 3-man weave.

Listen below.

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Follow Sheed @warriorsworld and Ed @HoachX on Twitter.

Photo of Monta Ellis shared by Wikipedia and through Creative Commons

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Oh we had a dandy last night. I had issues with the service we use to record our show, so it was delayed a bit. That meant that Albert and Young Randall weren’t on the show. However, Eddy Z and JJ (not my JJ) filled in as we talked about the NBA Finals.

Brent from Orlando called into the show and discussed his thoughts on why the NBA was better in the 80s and 90s.

We then talked a little bit about the draft from the Warriors’ fan’s perspective.

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Celmatic (Albert), Eddy Zucko, Young Randall and I are back to discuss the NBA Finals, which starts tonight.

The conversation goes in another direction at about the 1 hour mark and we discuss Albert’s trip to the E3 Video Game Convention. And then right before we sign off, Albert and I go at it about whether or not LeBron James is over-hyped.

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I talk to the guys about the NBA Playoffs and we all pretty much reach the same conclusion. Well, except Albert. For some reason, he still likes Orlando.

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You can find Eddy Zucko on Twitter as HoachX and Young Randall as Young Randall.

Also, check out Decklin and the Darkness which is a short film that won the mini-masterpiece award at the 2nd Babelgum Online Film Festival. Albert did the cinematography for his buddy Lance’s film.

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The last time I was in Houston, Texas was on a business trip in 2001 during 9/11. I did get to spend some time with my buddy Cactus Jim, so there was something positive that came out of that time. But we were also stuck there a few more days than necessary because no flights were allowed to leave until the weekend and at the time, Brian was just two and JJ wasn’t yet a year old. I was very frustrated being away from them and Carol for so long.

We can just say that Houston and I didn’t get off to a great start.

But Houston redeemed itself this past weekend.

My trip didn’t start in Houston, but it ended in Houston. On Friday morning, I picked up Eddy Zucko and dropped my car off at my parents’ house. My dad took us to the airport, but before he did, he was surprised to see us at his house so early because my mom told him that we weren’t coming over until much later. It’s ok. He just threw on a hat and we were ready to go.

I’m the type of person who likes to get to the airport early because I hate the rushed feeling of having to get through security and make the flight. Thus, we were way early. The flight from San Jose to Austin was fine, and Eddy fell asleep and didn’t get to watch an Episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 with me. I tried to show him, but he wouldn’t look over. I think he would’ve liked the episode too. Dylan didn’t believe he could become hypnotized, and Willie’s nephew told the racist band to “squash it”!
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I recognized something today. Now, I always knew this something about myself, but I couldn’t really put it into context until today. Some of you will say that you knew this about me already. And I will say, I did too, but I guess I didn’t know why. Let me tell you a story.

When I was first dating Carol, I was going to college and also working part time at Blockbuster Video. Albert was actually the assistant manager at the time. I don’t remember if Eddy Zucko was working there at the time or not. I will keep this next person nameless, but he was in one relationship and also talking to one of the girls in the store. This girl was a piece of work. She had issues at home, had two kids of her own, and was in a terrible relationship. One night while I was working with Albert, she called asking for Mr. Nameless but he wasn’t there. I might’ve been actually covering his shift. She said that if I saw him, to pass on the message that she needed him to call her. I finally saw him later that night and passed on the message. He told me what the issue was and he couldn’t bother with her on this night. Basically, she was abandoned by her baby daddy and she didn’t have a ride. Her boyfriend/baby daddy literally kicked her out of the car while driving somewhere 20 minutes away from her house. Mr. Nameless left her hanging and she called back again and asked if I could come get her. I couldn’t leave her hanging, so I went to pick her up. That bastard Albert even made me clock out.

When we came back to the store, this girl was very disheveled and emotional. She said she had no place to go. I had a bright idea. Why not ask Carol if she could sleep on her couch? Carol had just moved into a house with two of her girlfriends. Perfect right? Of course not. Carol basically told me that it was a terrible idea and who did I think I was, trying to save that girl. I didn’t think I was anyone. I just didn’t want to leave her on the street. And then Carol said, “Who are you? Captain Save ‘Em?”

(She didn’t actually say Captain Save ‘Em. She used the phrase that everyone knows.)

I was at odds with what I did. Wasn’t I supposed to help people? Didn’t I do the good deed? Didn’t I help this girl when the guy who was crushin’ on her left her out in the cold? Well, what stayed with me from that experience is what Carol called me. It has stayed with me ever since.

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It is Sunday night at roughly 10PM as I start to write this. My eyes are very tired, my body feels week, and I’m not all that excited to go to work tomorrow simply because I didn’t get much sleep this weekend and I know it will be a busy day. But I imagine that Young Randall feels quite differently. I imagine that his eyes are awake and are dancing at the memories of the weekend that was. I imagine that he smiles even when he’s not trying to simply because he’s so happy. If I could go back in time and become one person in history, I would want to become Young Randall on Saturday night. But let’s not skip over some of the other details. Let’s start at the beginning.

I am going to try to retrace my steps and remember what actually happened as it was quite the blur. I’m sure Eddy Zucko will add the details that I forget as he’s wont to do.

Saturday Night – Honor And Integrity
Saturday night was to be the night where all the debauchery happened. It was the evening where all the guys were to meet up at the strip club and help Young Randall have the time of his life. It’s usually the last ditch effort for the fellas to get together and celebrate bachelorhood just one more time. And I’m here to give you all of the inside details as to what happened.

The girls had the mindset that us guys were going to have naked flesh in our faces all night. And I could see why they would think that. That’s what a strip club is. But it didn’t happen that way. It didn’t happen that way because of one man and one man only. That man was Young Randall. Young Randall decided that he wanted his last days of bachelorhood to be full of integrity. When we got to the strip club, he set the tone. If integrity and honor was what he wanted, we had to follow his lead.

Integrity

When we arrived, Young Randall actually asked the first stripper he saw to put her clothes back on. Only until she let him know that she’d get fired if she actually did that, did Young Randall agree that she could keep her clothes off. He didn’t want her to lose her job. He knew that she had to make an honest living. It was only then when she told him that this job carried her through college, did Young Randall decide to give her his money. As we did as our leader did. We carried ourselves with integrity.

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