Now that watching soccer is somewhat over — we might watch the World Cup finale — we're back to watching tennis with our favorite Kim Clijsters beating her big rival, Justine Henin. Too bad these matches are at 5am, so we'll have to adjust our wacky sleep schedule a little bit.

Since we were rocking out with Danzig last night, we had to record the season premiere of Entourage. We watched it tonight, and Ari Gold is still the man!

We just got back home from the Danzig concert. The opening bands were Toxic Holocaust and All Shall Perish, and it was a great show. Lead singer Glenn Danzig is starting to show his age (55), but the charisma and powerful voice are still present. Oddly enough, we were not allowed to bring in any cameras on the strict request from the band that absolutely NO pictures or video could be taken. Security was all over the place, and a few shutterbugs were immediately escorted out and not allowed to return. Damn ...

I wore my earplugs this time around, and I'm glad to say my hearing is almost completely intact, almost ... Next gig, Queensryche!

The USA vs. Ghana World Cup match did not go as we had hoped, but it still a good game. Quite surprised about how well Ghana played, to be honest. It was most impressive.

We also watched some Burn Notice and Whip It, produced and directed by Drew Barrymore herself. While it's not going to break any records or win any awards, it was quite fun and entertaining.

Later today, we're going to go see Danzig. Depending on how loud it'll be, I might actually wear my earplugs because after last week's Iron Maiden concert, I couldn't hear for two days.

In several hours, a few friends may show up to watch the USA vs. Ghana game on TV, depending on whether or not they decide that going to the pub at 11am is morally justifiable.

Wimbledon is also in full swing these days, but we'll be checking out our favorite (Kim Clijsters ftw!) later on. Did you hear about the 11-hour match that went on in the men's side of the tournament? Talk about epic!

On a positive site note, the WorthDownloading page is back up & running, so I'll be catching up on some trailers, demos and patches over the next few days. While we were tinkering with the WD configuration, we added a few http optimizations here as well and managed to cut the load time of the site in half. All Hail Ricky!

I'm not quite sure why, but ever since we came back from E3, I've been more sleepy than usual. Hopefully it's just a matter of getting back into the rhythm, but I'm not liking it thus far. Passing out for nine hours is probably a good thing, but now I have to play catch-up for the rest of the day, which only makes me grumpy.

On a positive note, we finally have the WorthDownloading issues fixed, after two HD switches and lots of pointless back-and-forth conversations. This only adds more work to my plate, as more catching up will need to be done. A hard drive crashing during E3! How dare you?!

Nothing too exciting happened yesterday. We worked, played some CrimeCraft, watched some Burn Notice and Hell's Kitchen, and that was about it. The only real "highlight" of the day was that we went running again. Now that E3 is over and  summer has arrived, we decided to take advantage of the good weather to get our asses out of our chairs and exercise. Over the past 3 weeks, I've packed on 6-7 pounds, so they have got to go. I'd prefer to lose a few extra pounds if we get into the rhythm.

Too bad there isn't an open field in the immediate area, or we could strap on the good ol' soccer cleats and break out the old soccer ball.

My hearing is slowly coming back after last night's Iron Maiden sonic fest, probably right on time for next weekend's Danzig concert. Poor eardrums!

We finally got all caught up with 24 and watched the final episode of the series last night. We enjoyed it greatly. It was very powerful stuff and a perfect ending to wrap up everything — well, until the movie comes out. One last hurrah for Jack Bauer!

This week will probably be a bit slower than usual, with people recovering from E3 and all, so maybe I'll find some time to catch up on Smallville and Criminal Minds.

We just got home from the Iron Maiden concert, and it was quite good. The Maiden lads are getting quite old, but they still rock hard. The place was packed, and even Eddie made a cameo, although I remember him being more impressive back in the day. They played plenty of tracks from the early albums, a bunch from the more recent stuff, and even the title track, El Dorado, from the upcoming album The Final Frontier, which Bruce Dickinson mentioned several times is coming out Aug. 17.

Apart from rocking out, we watched some 24 yesterday, and we're in the final hour. Excellent stuff!

Home sweet home! E3 is officially over, as we have returned from LA and can finally sleep in our own bed again!

Seems like somebody decided to not pay attention to our hold mail request since there was a bag full of stuff that arrived while we were gone. Oh well, we'll consider it a welcome home present.

Nothing planned for today but some grocery shopping, press kits, watching some DVR shows and seeing Iron Maiden! \m/

Yesterday was a pretty relaxing day. We wound down from the E3 craze, went out to lunch with the in-laws, watched some Netflix (Spartan and Swing Vote), caught up on a few press kits, and that was pretty much it.

Later today, we are flying back to our homestead, chitchatting with our neighbor, doing some DVR watching, and wrapping up a few more press kits.

Yesterday, the Lakers won the NBA Championship vs. the Celtics, and while it looked for the longest time that they would lose, they came out on top in the last quarter. Good thing they did because the ensuing "celebration" (*cough*riots*cough*) was only a few blocks away from our hotel. Go figure how bad it would have been if they had actually lost!

E3 is over! Long live E3! Next year's date has already been announced, so the countdown has begun.

We went out to dinner with the crew to blow off some steam, and tomorrow, most of the guys are flying back to their hometowns.

While we were mostly hiding in the press room doing various updates, we did venture out yesterday afternoon for some meet & greets with various PR people we work with on a daily basis, but we also ran into Steven Seagal and Sam Witwer.

We'll be sticking around in L.A. until Saturday, and then on Sunday, we're off to see Iron Maiden!

Today is the last day of the E3, and while it's been fun all week, we'll be glad when it's over. I'm not quite sure if it's my own perception, but there seems to be less of a crowd on the show floor and in the press room than last year.

Out of all times to crap out, WorthDownloading seems to be having hard drive/corrupted database issues, so downloads might be a bit sketchy until we get that sorted out, but it's being worked on, and then we'll catch up.

In a few hours, E3 really kicks off with the opening of the show floor at noon. Yesterday was quite the busy day with various pre-E3 briefings, topped off by a private press screening of "Toy Story 3."

Before we are unleashed upon the show floor, we have Nintendo's press briefing bright and early. Erik insists on being in line with his DS bright and early at 7:15am, followed by the SCEA briefing at noon.

Yesterday was a little bit of a downer, as Microsoft was broadcasting its briefing in a "smaller" location at the JW Marriott Live hotel and serving breakfast to boot, but all the extra pampering went out the window when at the conclusion of the event, everybody who was actually present at the Wiltern Theater received a brand-new Xbox 360 Slim as they went out the door. The few hundred people who were at the overflow location went quiet and collectively thought, "Damn, we just got screwed."

In all fairness, the Natal press briefing was a bit of a letdown. Apart from the unveiling of the actual name, Kinetic, the Cirque de Soliel acrobatics, and a few unnamed, possible games, nothing was announced that wowed the crowd. Microsoft kept on referring to the device as Project Natal throughout the briefing, and the "demos" all looked like pre-canned fare. There's no release date and no price range (rumored to be at a fairly high $190); the most exciting part was when we met Peter Moore outside of the auditorium.

Half of the WP crew arrived in LA today, some more tomorrow, and then we head off to more press briefings (EA, Microsoft, Ubisoft etc.).

Sorry for the downtime yesterday. We had planned on moving the server to a new location sometime this weekend, but I did not realize it was going to be Friday night! Either way, the move went without a glitch, and we should be seeing some better performance. It's already better on my end, so everybody is happy.

Last night, we went out to celebrate my birthday. A good time was had by all, plenty of food and drinks, laughter and, of course, adult and racist jokes (We even had all the ethnic groups present, which made it even more fun).

Now we're packing and off to Los Angeles for the E3 craziness.

Today is the big day, my birthday, for the 39th time. My mom always said I was so reckless I wouldn't make it to 18 in one piece, and now that I'm more than double that, I'm still rockin'!

I've decided that since it's all about ME today, just like any other day, that I am having a beer as soon as I wake up. Why, you may ask? Well, just 'cause I can ....

Last night we watched Burn Notice, Stargate Universe, and maybe later today some Hell's Kitchen, and we also got 2012 on DVD. Not quite sure what else is in store for me tomorrow, but I'll be sure to let you know. :)

You'd think I would know better by now. Drinking wine = sleepy me.  Yet sure enough, I zonked out hard again. You know what's the worst of it? I don't even feel particularly refreshed after a long night's sleep. I feel better and more alert after only a 3- to 4-hour nap.

Oh well, back to the grind!

Not so sure we should be getting all excited about this stereoscopic 3D gaming just yet. People are barely transitioning to HDTV, and you're already tossing out some new gizmo? No thanks, I'll wait a few more years ....

Had a busy day yesterday. Had to send out my vote for the election, set up some more E3 appointments, watched some more 24 and Glee, all on top of the usual work day. Tonight we're having some friends over for dinner, so time to strap on the apron and do some cooking.

We're making good progress. The E3 schedule for our half-dozen writers is almost full. I've got a few more companies to bother, and we're good to go ....

In order to make room on our DVR for us being out of town all next week, we checked out a few episodes of 24, and we are enjoying it greatly so far. Nice twists, and so far, the writing has been really great this season. We've got a few more hours to go, and we are looking forward to seeing how it all resolves and who else they'll kill off before it wraps up.

I'm a redneck! I really am. We went for a walk on Sunday, and even though I covered myself with sunscreen, my neck got sunburned. Don't ask me how I managed, but oddly enough, it's mainly my left side, while the right part is nicely tanned. Maybe we walked in circles and only my left side was exposed. Who knows?

This weekend is my birthday, and I think my wife is trying to tell me something. She got me a 4GB iPod shuffle, while I have a perfectly good 160GB Nano that fits quite a large portion of my music collection. Apparently the shuffle is best suited for exercising, working out, and running. I'm not sure, but I think this is a sign of things to come ....