Check it Out

Happy Halloween everyone! Have you ever wondered about the traditions of Halloween, and wanted to hear them explained by a bunch of Scottish sock puppets? Today is your lucky day. I found a video featuring the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre. They are actually on tour regularly and have some other videos on YouTube. This certainly is scary but in a different kind of way you are used to being scared on October 31. I am getting my house ready for tonight, expecting quite a few trick or treaters. I am not expecting them to do any tricks for me, but they will be expecting treats anyway. Be safe and enjoy!

Geek Vlogs from Magic Geek has come up with a video all about pumpkin carving. How appropriate for this time of year! Pumpkin carving is definitely an art in itself. I’ve tried to carve pumpkins ever since I was a kid - but it never seems to work out for the best. I have tried making my own design, elaborate ones at first, but I would mess up. I would make the design simple but still mess it up. I tried to buy those pre-made patterns but somehow still couldn’t get it right. Maybe I was using the wrong knife. The pumpkin in this video turned out pretty nice.

At one time, I was a huge fan of Mad TV. I haven’t actually watched it in years, but in the Artie Lange, Orlando Jones, Nicole Sullivan years it was one of my favorite shows on television. I used to watch a lot of different sketch comedy shows, my favorites being SNL, The State, and Mad TV. And one of my favorite characters from that show is Ms. Swan, played by Alex Borstein, whose character’s first name is later revealed to be Bunny. Nobody knows exactly what her deal is, but her character is loosely based on the singer Bjork. This sketch of Ms. Swan going into a video store at Halloween season is a particularly good one. Enjoy!

This is a very busy time of year when it comes to sports. Football is in full swing, and hockey season has begun. Now we are starting to see pro and college basketball games. There are even baseball playoff games this time of year. What better time to show you a compilation of sports bloopers? It always makes you feel good to see athletes falling down or players messing up the simplest of plays. Of course, my favorite is the guy at the basketball game who proposes to his girlfriend. She said no! What a horrible thing to happen, but it’s fun to watch. I hope you enjoy this sporting edition of Check It Out.

I was never a big proponent of dressing up pets, especially in Halloween costumes. I know lots of people do enjoy it. But I’m just not into doing that to my pets. So haven’t you always wanted to see examples of Halloween costumes of dogs in France? Again, let me stress I would not dress up my own dog. But there are some funny ones in here, like the bee, the pumpkin, the french fries, and the firefighters. There is even a dog dressed up as a fire truck! I am not sure why they wear costumes, since the last time I checked, dogs don’t eat candy. I don’t know, maybe these dogs do.

I have no other reason to show this video other than just a laugh. I found it on YouTube, and thought it was pretty funny. A weather man on Fox in Albany messed up his line, and let loose a string of obscenities. The funny thing was the way the words came out. I have probably used all of those words at some point, just not in that order. I will not repeat it here but I will let you watch for yourself. Then at the very end he gave a quick smile after he realized he was on live TV. My guess is he got fired after that incident.

Ken Mink, who at this time last year was a semi-retired 72-year old, made the decision to try out for a college basketball team. It seems that he had some unfinished business from his college team. He was dismissed from his old team back in 1956 and later joined the Air Force and started his career as a journalist. Now he’s ready to get back on the court. So Mink, now 73, tried out and made the team at Roane State, a community college in Tennessee. Check out the video. Mink is twice as old as the school is, which was founded in 1971. Even the coach is only 50 years old. Talk about recapturing your youth, this guy has definitely found a way to do that.

I have been finding a lot of animal videos recently. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a baby panda sneeze. Actually, I have never even wanted to see it. According to YouTube, the video is almost two years old, but hey, it’s new to me. Even if you’ve seen it already, it’s worth another look. First of all, baby pandas are really cute. Also, this is a funny video. Check out the reaction of the big panda when the baby sneezes. Make sure you have the sound turned on when you watch, I was not expecting it to sound quite like that. I thought it would be a fun video to help get your weekend started. Enjoy!

On the show the other day, Anderson Cooper showed a video of a Japanese game show where a chimp was riding on a Segway human transporter for some reason. I thought it was funny first of all that he showed the video and had to make comments about it for nearly a minute. The best part is at the end where the chimp jumps off at the last second before it crashes. It also features those crazy Japanese shows, which are becoming quite popular in the U.S. with the success of Wipeout and other similar shows. And finally, it shows how much fun those Segways can be. I have wanted one for myself for years. Now even chimps can ride them, so why can’t I?

I can hardly contain myself. The new Guns N’ Roses album is almost here at last. Today we got to hear the title track “Chinese Democracy” for the first time, officially that is. Almost all of the new tracks have either been leaked or played live already. Regardless, the build-up for this album is almost laughable at this point because of all the delays. It is their first new material in nine years and Axl Rose has been working on it for 14 (!) years. By the way, I wasn’t too impressed with the song… maybe it is because of all of the hype surrounding it. The response from callers who heard the tune on the local rock station was lukewarm at best. I’m sure it will sell some, but my guess is that the album will be considered a massive flop.