House Stark

Here is another A Game of Thrones preview.  Actually this is more of a behind the scenes kind of thing.  It gives a nice look at some of the Starks and the actors portraying them.  Also, we can see some scenes that have not been in any of the previews yet.

House Stark Feature

Can you tell that I am excited?

More Crazy Religious People

I had an amusing encounter with a crazy religious person yesterday.  Sadly it was at work and I could not answer him truthfully without getting into trouble.  Also, he was about 80 years old and had a bit of a slobbering problem.  Here is our conversation:

Me:  How was everything today?
Nutjob:  Good, now can I ask you a question?
Me:  Sure.
Nutjob:  Where will you go when you die?
Me:  Umm, most likely in the ground.  (At this point, I know where this is going.)
Nutjob:  The choices are heaven and hell.
Me:  Hmm, well I don't know sir.
Nutjob:  Do you accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior?
Me:  Uhhh, I don't know.  I'll do my best to try.
Nutjob:  Your best is not good enough and you cannot try.  Jesus died for yours and my sins.  Only when we repent completely can we enter the kingdom of heaven.
Me:  Well that sounds nice.  Ummmmm, well have a nice day sir.

Honestly, the whole thing was quite awkward.  I really wanted to tell him I was an atheist, but I thought it might cause him to have a heart attack.  Also, I could picture him calling our corporate headquarters and complaining about them having an evil atheist manager working for them.  My luck I would get fired over it.  At least he was not nearly as bad as the guy from two years ago...

Why is it that Christians (and other religions) can get away with saying things like this?  I hope that when Zombie Jesus returns, he eats these assholes first.

Fantasy Baseball Draft Results: Pitchers

Unlike the hitters, this one is not really as fair.  Some teams drafted more hitters, so I had to take the average team's number of pitchers.  It worked out to nine pitchers for each team.  Those that only had eight were at a slight disadvantage.  Also, none of the project sites had holds, so I just took the last year numbers.  I do not plan on showing you every team, but I will show mine.

The Projected Stats

Wow, Shelly is rocking the pitching.  Same with Imler (maybe they had similar strategies...)  I am shocked with how low Offord and Ryan rank through the projections.  I think the pitchers were projected very low.  Offord has a very good pitching staff, so his could be the one to shock us all.

My Pitchers

I like my team.  I really thought they would have ended up being ranked much higher.  Apparently I was wrong.  Brandon Webb kills my projections.  Three wins?  If he goes on the DL, I will pick up wins from someone else.  Also, I already dropped a few guys and picked up Carl Pavano and Bronson Arroyo.  Not the greatest pitchers, but at least can get me some wins.

Anyways, I added up the totals (you could do the same thing as well if you want to look at the other post and add the scores together)...and here are the results.

I will be money that neither James nor Shelly win the league this year.  James will probably stop paying attention in about two weeks.  Shelly is a girl, what does she know about baseball...(yes, I am just being a jerk since she is the feminist that criticized my comments about boobs).

My initial response after the draft was that Ryan had the best team.  Odd that in the end we have the same numbers. 

The draft is only phase one of a successful season.  Now the season starts and most of us will make idiotic decisions (or great decisions).  Someone will drop a guy like Mark Texeira who starts out hitting .185 and decides to pick up Lyle Overbay because he hit two homers in three games...

Plus there are injuries all season to deal with.  There are rookies who come into the league and give everyone a hard-on and then hit .227 for the rest of the year (I am looking at you Jay Bruce...)

Good luck to every team!  Let us have a fun and competitive season!

Myspace Blogposts Part Six

I am about to delete my myspace account, but I figured I would share with you some of blog posts I wrote on there.  Do not judge me.

Problem of Immortality

One of the hardest things about being immortal:  the constant planning.  You always have to be on your toes, especially nowadays.  Scientists would love to get ahold of an individual like me and figure out why I cannot die.

I create fake identities all over the world, in case I am discovered, I can just disappear for a few years.  If that fails, I have built an underground tomb which I can seal myself in with a timed lock for one hundred years.

That idea came to me from back in the 1500s.  A village discovered that I could not die and instead of doing the normal thing, like burn me as a witch (which takes forever to heal from), they instead bricked me inside an old tomb.  I was trapped in there for like ninety years.  Luckily some grave robbers happened to come by and well let me say they got quite the surprise.  The only negative to that situation was that my mental state was somewhat deteriorated, and I spent the next few years wondering around Europe.

Anyways, I hope this helps any of you.  If not, you are probably not immortal.  This definitely does not apply to vampires, you may not age, but you can most certainly be killed.  Plus, you cannot enjoy the sunlight, which life is not worth living without seeing a great sunrise every once in awhile.  Remember vampires, leave me alone, and I will not go back to my early 18th century ways of being a renowned vampire hunter...

I Am Not Dead

I know you were all quite worried about why there was no GOTW on Friday.  Well allow me to explain what happened.  It is a pretty long story...my boss got sick and asked me to work Friday.  I worked until 11 p.m. on Thursday and then got a call at 5:40 a.m.  I made it to work around 7:00.  I was pretty much running on two hours of sleep.  Needless to say, I did not do much Friday night except for sleep.  The rest of the weekend was spent working 6:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.  I hate waking up early.  So what else has been going on?

P90X
Yes, I decided to start P90X.  It is pretty damn hardcore.  The first day I did the chest/back disc and I made it the whole way through.  Granted, I toned it down and set low goals.  I have a small chest, I figured I would not be able to do the same thing as my buddy Tony Horton.  Also, I do not have a pull-up bar, so I had to improvise with weights...

The next day was plyometrics.  Lindsey did it with me and she was able to go a little more hardcore than me.  I had to stop about 3/4 of the way through because I thought I might have a heart attack.  I will keep at it though.  I did shoulders and arms by myself, and it was actually the easiest one for me.  I should probably buy a heavier set of weights though (I used Lindsey's 8 lb. weights, but did more reps). 

After that was yoga.  For the love of god that shit was hard.  We made it about 30 minutes into it.  I think I need to buy a yoga mat and maybe do that one upstairs from now one.  I made it through the next one which was legs/back.  Again, without a pull-up bar it was a little difficult.  The leg workouts were killer though, I could barely walk after.

Morris' Tavern
Lindsey and I went to this place to eat on Saturday.  They had decent food, but that was not the main attraction.  The entire place is decked out with stuffed animals.  Apparently the owner is a huge hunter.  I want to go back and check out the upstairs, it apparently has animals he shot in Africa.  Pretty cool.

NCAA Tournament
Wow, what a great tournament.  What a terrible bracket for me though...Congratulations to Ryan.  And no, you do not win a yard gnome.  In fact, you win the right to be known as a true basketball fan...way to go.  Anyways, I am pulling for Butler to win it.  I will be watching the game at a bar the night before a seminar.

Conclusion
Sorry, but I am tired and going to bed.  I will try to write up the pitching results for our fantasy league.  I will also leave you with a late, half-ass GOTW.

 
She is missing a leg...get it?  Half-assed...whatever, I need to hire a new joke writer.

Myspace Blogposts Part Five

I am about to delete my myspace account, but I figured I would share with you some of blog posts I wrote on there.  Do not judge me.

Eating The Souls of Small South American Monkeys

Yesterday I woke up to find my apartment completely gone.  Not destroyed mind you, just missing, disappeared.  A figment of my imagination.  At that point I did the only thing one can do in said situation.  I walked away.

I decided to walk south.  Why south you ask?  Well, why not?  Along the way, I met many interesting people, and soon they began to join my ranks and followed me to my destination:  Corpus Christi, Texas.

Outside of the city we camped, preparing our weapons for the assault.  My army numbered around 20,000.  The cities walls and defenses would easily be overrun.  I am sure you are wondering where the weapons came from and the only answer I have is that this is my story and stop asking so many damn questions.

The battle did not last very long, and soon the city was left in ruins.  The people of Corpus Christi would have been better served remembering their history:  invaders always come from the North.  Let this be a warning to everyone out there.

Fantasy Baseball Draft Results: Hitters

As I said before, I would go through each team and discuss their lineups.  I will use their projected stats to see how each team stacks up against each other.  The projections I used come from fangraphs (Rotochamp's projections). 

Here are the totals after I punched in everyone's current starting lineups:

I then decided to assign a 12 to 1 point scale for each category.  This is how each team finished.

My Team

 I really thought my team would be a little bit higher than this.  I am very strong in the power department, but bad at the rate categories.

I also thought I did a good job of drafting for stolen bases, but I guess I was wrong.  I could probably trade someone for a high average/OBP guy.









James

 Considering that James autodrafted his team, pretty impressive that his is projected number one.

He counters a low average power-hitter, with a high average SB guy.  Very lucky how that worked out.  I honestly do not believe that Mark Reynolds will hit .230 as they projected.  I also could see Aubrey Huff having a bit of a regression from last season.








Offord

High average and high RBIs. I do believe his team has the most favorable projections.  It almost seems like rotochamp does not show much regression for some of the older players.

I could also see some health issues working against Offord.  Manny/Pedroia/Konerko...can they all stay healthy?

In all honesty though, I like his lineup.








Ryan

I would almost guarantee that Ryan believes his team is the best in the land.  It is funny when you look at his team and Offord's.  Ryan has a few great categories and then some very mediocre categories.  Offord is a nice steady 7 except for two dominating categories.  Interesting.

I honestly think he could afford to make a trade to try and pick up a power-hitter who will drive in some runs.  Aside from Pujols, he has no one that is a candidate for 100 RBIs.  Also, he has three guys projecting for an OBP over .400. 






Sean

Another auto-drafted team.  He fared pretty well.  Maybe I should do this from now on...














Gideon

I really think Gideon's team is pretty underrated.  A bunch of these guys are projected a little lower than I expected.

Since this is a head-to-head league, I could see Gideon's team just stomping people in three categories each week and then squeaking out stolen bases and another one.










I am going to keep going, but I may not comment on every team.

Dear Bradley Cooper

Over the weekend the movie Limitless was the number one movie at the box office.  Is it just me or does this movie look extremely stupid?  It got me thinking about all the actors who have went down this path that Bradley Cooper is starting to venture.  So Mr. Cooper, I am writing this for you.  Look at these actors who started out in a cool movie and then did a bunch of crappy movies.
There seems to be a pattern to these actors:  do a movie that earns you points, then some crappy action movies, then some kind of sports movie.  After that, it can either go way downhill or you can rebound...

Josh Lucas

 He started out with some pretty good supporting roles in Hulk, Wonderland, and A Beautiful Mind.  I am guessing that his big role where people really liked him was Sweet Home Alabama.  I never saw that one, but I know some folks who said it was not so bad for what it was.

Then it seemed like he was everywhere or at least being mentioned in every potential movie.  Then came the crappy action movies:  Stealth and Poseidon.  Then he played a basketball coach in Glory Road.

Where the hell did he go after that?  I am sure he has done some very worthwhile projects, but nothing that I remember.  I have heard he was in that new lawyer movie, and it was not awful.

Matthew McConaughey

He was so cool in Dazed and Confused (I do not believe he was actually acting in that movie though), and then he was really good in A Time to Kill.  Then he was in Contact, Amistad, and The Newton Boys (I enjoyed that movie, sue me).

Then it happened...Sahara, Failure to Launch, Reign of Fire, The Wedding Planner, How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days.  Hell I could probably keep going.  He also did a sports movie:  We Are Marshall.   Sometimes I think he just says screw it and let me not act and just be myself.

I think that was why he was so amusing in Tropic Thunder.  Speaking of The Lincoln Lawyer, he stars in it.  Is that a weird coincidence.  Also, Bradley Cooper was in Failure to Launch.  That was one of the movies that kind of launched him.  He was hilarious in that movie.

Adrien Brody
What a sad case.  He rises up with The Pianist, then rocks it in The Jacket.  He was also good in King Kong and Hollywoodland.  Then he was in Splice and Predators.  I will say this though, he was definitely pretty ripped in Predators.  Now he is singing in some beer commercials.  What is next?  Will he be doing crappy local television ads for some law firm?

I actually have faith that he could turn it around...

I think you people get the idea of where this is going.  Let us take a look at a few other actors who seemed so promising, then do a bunch of crappy movies:

Gerard Butler and Clive Owen
These two will turn it around.  They are both filthy rich, so I imagine they will start being a little more picky about their roles.

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon

They were cool in the Kevin Smith movies, then they hit it big with Good Will Hunting.  After that it seemed like Matt Damon did some pretty awesome movies (minus All the Pretty Horses).  He seemed to be going down a more comedic path and then he did the Bourne movies and people realized he could be an action star.

Ben was in some big time movies, but he was in so many shitty action films.  Hey Bradley, look at some of Ben Affleck's roles:  Paycheck, Reindeer Games...do those sound like Limitless.  Ben was at least smart and decided to start directing.  Maybe you can do that at some point Brad.

In fact, Matt Damon has said before that he almost ended up being in Daredevil and at that point in his career he would have taken just about any role offered to him.  Do not fall into that path.

Cuba Gooding Jr.
At one point, I thought he was going to be some great actor.  He won an Oscar for Jerry Maguire.  He was good in Boyz n the Hood and Judgement Night.  He was pretty cool in As Good as it Gets.  He was touching in Men of Honor.

Then wow.  Seriously.  Do you really want to be known as the guy who was in Boat Trip, Rat Race, Snow Dogs, or Radio?  Nowadays he can be seen in any number of Direct-to-DVD films such as...oh screw it, who has even cares.

So Mr. Cooper, please heed this warning.  If you go out and do some kind of true story movie next, such as playing a sports coach or maybe a handicapped individual from the military, then you might as well hang it up.

I hope the best for you.

Fantasy Baseball Draft Results

We had our fantasy draft on Friday night.  I was pretty happy with my draft.  I am going to show the rounds and mention some of my strategy and whatnot.  This week I will also be posting about how each team in the league projects.  As usual, the draft was fun and I think we probably had the most people actually attend the draft, which made it go faster and provide some more interesting picks.

Ryan had the first pick and before he logged in, Offord and I joked about trying to change the draft order.  He won this league two years in a row, he should not have the first pick.  Anyways, he took Pujols first (I actually thought he might take Carlos Gonzalez--he has been going first in a lot of drafts).  I took Troy Tulowitzki with the third pick.  This was a tough decision for me.  I was going to take a first basemen (Votto or Cabrera), but I figured I might as well take one of the extremely rare elite shortstops.

  This was also my thinking in the second round.  Third base is a pretty shallow pool, so Zimmerman was someone I did not want to pass up and end up with someone in that third tier.  I believe that my strategy paid off because I was able to get Adam Dunn in the third round.

Offord took Buster Posey with the final pick of the third round.  I mentioned before that catchers are pretty much all the same.  It is always weird when people way overdraft for one.  I have seen Posey taken in the early second round in some drafts, so Offord getting him in that spot was pretty good.  He and Mauer are the elite catchers, so I can understand why you might want to reach for them.  After that though, wait until a later round.

I decided to take Lester and Sabathia with my next two picks.  I figured I would get two of the better starters.  My next pick was a little out there.  Drew Stubbs could be a solid 25 HR/30 SB guy, hopefully his average goes up. 

I think Kendrys Morales is a pretty good pick from Dave in this round.  If he stays healthy and hits 35 HRs/100 RBIs with a .300 AVE, that would be a fantastic round five pick.  I think some people are shocked that Jose Bautista is going this high in so many drafts (or low, depending on how you look at it).  I do not see him hitting 50 HRs, but I do think he will hit over 30.

This is also the round where closers start going.  In every draft, as soon as one closer goes, people panic and it just goes crazy after that.  Best way to screw up everyone's draft strategy:  draft a closer in the third round.  Carlos Marmol and Rivera in the sixth round? 

And do not fear, I am not immune to the panic.  I immediately spent the seventh round pick on Brian Wilson.  Bell and Soria also go in that round.  I really liked Ryan's pick of Pedro Alvarez.  If I did not get one of the top tier guys, I was going for Pedro in round six.  I decided to take Mike Stanton with my next pick.  Every projection I have seen has him hitting over 30 HRs.

I thought Offord had a great pick of Chris Carpenter.  I like Nick Markakis, but I was very unsure about whether I should take him here or not.  I think I could have waited and got him later.  Honestly, Matt Wieters this early?  Also, Neftali Feliz was a very good pick.  I thought about taking him, but I was not sure since he might be starting.  I think I might end up regretting that one.

I decided to take a risk on Aaron Hill, can he really hit around .205 again this year?  I am hoping to see him bounce back up to .250 or so.  Trevor Cahill is another risky pick in my opinion.  He is not the best fantasy option, but he seems to win games.  Remember when David Ortiz used to be a guy you took in the first few rounds?  Not anymore, but hey, he can still hit some HRs, right?  

I liked Imler's pick of Starlin Castro.  He could very well become one of best shortstops out there.  I also liked the Pablo Sandoval pick.  He apparently slimmed down this off-season and could regain some of that 2009 form.

Mike Aviles?  I am sorry Shelly, but you could have skipped him and probably pulled him from the waiver wire.  I grabbed him from the scrap heap last year while Troy was injured.  He sucked for the few weeks I had him.  Also, is he even going to be a full-time player this season?  

I realize we use holds in this league, but is Rafael Soriano really worth an 11th round pick?  Or was Dave not present and on auto-draft?  I believe that Pat was absent as well, but it seemed that he pre-ranked his players.  Maybe I am wrong.

I picked up two more closers here.  Round 14 was where I picked up Jose Tabata, who I think will have a pretty good year.  He apparently bulked up and could hit a lot more doubles (or maybe he will start crushing HRs and live up to the idea that he could be the next Manny).

I like how Round 15 was almost all closers and honestly, that is where you should be looking for them.  Axford might be a guy who gets 45 saves this season and Brian Wilson could get hurt and save none.  This happens all the time.

My favorite pick in this grouping was from Offord:  Madison Bumgarner.  I really think he could end up being a huge surprise.  And by that I mean, he could probably win 15 or more games.

I debated between Daniel Hudson and Colby Lewis.  I took Hudson and thought I might get lucky and be able to take Lewis in the next round.  I was wrong.  I finally decided to take a catcher in round 17:  Carlos Ruiz from the Phillies.  At least I did not take Matt Wieters back in round nine...

I also decided to take Domonic Brown.  Actually my last few picks were rookies.  I like taking rookies.  Always nice when one of them ends up becoming a superstar.  I like Ryan's pick of Peavy, especially since Gavin Floyd went before him.  Floyd is always available at some point on the waiver wire.  Use the last few rounds to take a chance.  Great job Ryan.

I also loved Imler's pick of Chapman.  He is such a wildcard.  He could end up being an ace (20-1 record), a closer (50 saves), a set-up guy (40 holds), or he could get hurt like any other guy who throws over 100 mph.  I say he is worth the risk.  Speaking of good picks by Imler, he also took Hellickson, who I really wanted in that round, but instead was left with Hudson.

Another rookie I took was Freddie Freeman.  Probably a stupid pick, but whatever.  Mike Adams is a set-up guy and will help me with holds (or saves if Heath Bell gets traded).  Brandon Webb was a nice risk versus reward pick-up.  

I liked Offord's pick of Manny and Ryan's pick of Zambrano.  Same as Brandon Webb.  Gideon, I would recommend not starting Adam LaRoche until about the end of May.  Just saying...

Last two rounds...I screwed up here.  I took Ackley and Jesus Montero.  I could have just put them on my watch list and picked them up later.

Offord took Johan Santana (remember when he was the second pick overall at one point?) and I think that was a pretty smart pick.  If he starts the season on the DL, fine, Offord gets to pick up someone else.  I also like Ryan's pick of Lackey.

Anyways, that was our draft.  I should have saved some of the comments made during the draft.  Plenty of Ryan being a homosexual jokes.  A good amount of baseball discussion.  Dan mentioned that the Orioles were his sleeper pick (yet he still believes they will finish last in their division...)  Also, Ryan and I defended our none hatred of Lyle Overbay.  Apparently Dan is even more adamant about that signing than Offord. 

If you have stuck around this long, I commend you.

Myspace Blogposts Part Four

I am about to delete my myspace account, but I figured I would share with you some of blog posts I wrote on there.  Do not judge me.

What am i reading?

Marvel's Civil War
Here is the story so far.  The Warriors have a reality TV show in which they capture supervillians, but since they are not powerful heroes, they only go after minor villains.  But, when they come across a house of villians that are extremely powerful, they decide to attack them.  Long story short, the villian known as Nitro emits a blast so powerful that it kills most of the town, about 800 people, including a playground of about 60 kids.  After this happens people want superheroes to register.  The government starts working on the Superhero Registration Act (much like the Mutant Registration Act), which would force superheroes to register with SHIELD and become paid government employees.  Some heroes are all for it, while others are against.  Iron Man goes on TV and shows his support for the project and then unmasks himself to the media, saying he is Tony Stark.  The head of SHIELD asks Captain America if the bill is passed will he be able to take down the heroes who resist.  Cap tells them he will not arrest anyone because he does not agree with the law, he says it is unAmerican.  When they try to arrest him, he escapes and begins recruiting soldiers to his camp.  The heroes he finds on his side, are the ones like Luke Cage, Daredevil, Falcon, the Young Avengers, Cable, and Goliath.  Iron Man has an advantage, he is able to appeal to the scientific heroes, such as Mr. Fantastic, Yellow-Jacket (Hank Pym), or to heroes like Ms. Marvel and Wasp, who are used to taking orders or being public heroes.  At the end of the second issue, we know that Cap and Iron Man have both talked to Spider-Man.  On the final page, Spider-Man comes to a press conference with Iron Man and unmasks himself, admitting to the world that he is Peter Parker.  In the third issue Cap's team is out fighting, not the other good guys, but instead still fighting crime.  When they intercept a distress call about a fire they immediately respond, but they find that it is a trap.  Iron Man offers amnesty if they surrender, he says he just needs 5 minutes to explain everything to Cap.  Cap agrees and shakes his hand, but instead places an object on IM's palm.  The device was designed to shut down IM's suit if he ever went rogue.  While he is down the battle begins, but since IM powers back up and begins kicking Cap's ass.  As Hercules and a few others go to rescue Cap, the commander of SHIELD gives orders to release a secret weapon, we see a bolt of lightning and then the last page shows Thor, who has been dead for over two years.
Okay so that was my quick synopsis of the story so far, haha.  Now my thoughts on it.  I absolutely love it.  There is conflict between friends, even between family.  Wolverine hates the idea of the registration, he doesn't understand why people are not out trying to punish Nitro, he makes it his personal mission to kill Nitro.  Reed Richards is helping Tony develop something crazy, maybe a super prison, who knows, but Sue hates it.  She saw what happened to her brother Johnny after Stamford (the town destroyed).  He was outside a club, and people attacked him for being a hero, called him a babykiller.  Many of the resistance fighters believe the government will start using them as weapons, since they will be employed by SHIELD.  The X-Men want to stay out of it, but eventually something will change (I'm guessing Cyclops would lend support to Cap, since the SHRA is like Mutant Registration Act, and mutants hated that idea.)....McNiven's artwork is fantastic.  This is definitely a book you should check out.
Here is a book you should not even waste your time with.  Squadron Supreme.  This is a remake, or revamp of the original.  The idea is that the superheroes (who resemble the JLA) use their powers to take over the world and create a utopia, but sometimes they go a bit too far.  In the new book, J. Michael Strysynkakdivn (i can't spell it, JMS), basically rewrites Rising Stars, with different characters.  I enjoyed the first part of the book, just called Supreme, but now, eh, it's grown tiresome. I'd delve deeper into it, but just trust me, read Rising Stars, read the original, and then combine them....

GOTW

About a year ago I saw the comedian Whitney Cummings on TV and I thought she was pretty funny.  I also thought her last name was Cummins.  She was attractive and was tall/skinny, much like a girl I used to work with, Kathleen Cummins.  I thought maybe they were related, but then I realized I was a moron and the last names were different.  Here is Whitney

And the last one is of me and Kathleen at a wedding reception...see how I could be confused?

Wow

Apparently Gilbert Gottfried was fired as the AFLAC duck because he made some insensitive tweets about the Japanese tsunami victims.  This video is pretty funny from filmdrunk.



I guess it is good that I only have like 8 followers on twitter.  Or that I never actually "tweet" (which is a stupid word.)

Anyways, enjoy the rest of your day.

College Basketball Time

Congratulations to Penn State for making it to the NCAA March Madness Tournament.  It seems like just yesterday that they were beating North Carolina and advancing to the Sweet 16.  Sadly, that was 2001.  I can still remember arriving to work (I worked at a little bar outside of Philipsburg) and turning one of the TVs to the basketball game.  I watched as PSU beat #2 UNC, much to the complaints of the patrons.  Most of the comments I heard were things like this "why the hell are we watching basketball?  We are missing the race."  Granted, the race was on many of the other screens and sadly, I do not think it was even an actual race.  I think it was some qualifier.

I am betting that most of you did not know that I was a huge basketball fan.  It started in the late 80s.  My uncle got me into basketball, mainly watching the Bulls.  In 1994, baseball went on strike and it ruined my perception of my favorite sport.  I quit watching baseball and pretty much became a huge basketball fan.  It was around this time that I really started watching college basketball.

I did not have any particular team, I just enjoyed watching good teams play.  When I reached high school, my friends and I would go to the Bryce Jordan Center to watch Penn State.  It was only natural that I would gravitate towards being a fan of the Nittany Lions, since I was a fan of their football program.

The cool thing was that we watched the team that did so well in 2001 come up as freshmen.  Joe Crispin, Titus Ivory, and the rest of the crew amazed us all by beating the Tar Heels.  They then lost to Temple.  After that season, I stopped following college basketball and instead focused on baseball.  Apparently I have troubles following multiple sports.  It also did not help that PSU pretty much sucked during that era.

Anyways, this all leads me to a point:  I have another NCAA Tournament Challenge!  What did you think I was going to say?  I will be cheering for Penn State, especially since they take on Temple in the first round, it seems almost fitting.   This does not mean that I will all of a sudden come back to being a basketball fan.

Myspace Blogposts Part Three

I am about to delete my myspace account, but I figured I would share with you some of blog posts I wrote on there.  Do not judge me.

x-men 3

okay, so i know that everyone i know went out and saw the movie x3.   i'm not going to talk about the movie. as i've said, i want to talk about comic books. but, it's obvious that no one is reading this, so i'll just post something about x-men.
if you are one of the people out there who loves the x-men movies, but doesn't read comics, then i have the book for you. ULTIMATE X-MEN. here is the deal with anything you see from marvel with ultimate in front of it. basically a few years ago they realized that young people, and people who were not comic fans were not reading their staple books.  so they released the ultimate line. in the ultimate books, the characters are stripped back to their roots. for examples, in ult. x-men the characters are young, it's the core team, with a few added twists. it's not a retelling of the stories, it's more of what would a modern day story look like with those characters. hard to understand? let me elaborate:
in the first trade paperback, we find a young xavier assembling a team that is going to thwart Magneto, who has a terrorist group. he believes that homo superior will overtake homo sapien sapien, but Xavier believes that both species can live together (integration).  we find the characters young again, we see cyclops as a team leader (star quarterback type character) who is still nervous about asking jean grey out.  we meet wolverine, who the US government created to be the perfect assassin, employed by magneto, who wants him to kill xavier. but wolverine realizes that xaviers ideals are worth fighting for. we get to see character growth.  the stories are great, but you don't have to know who everyone is, because they are all new basically. it's not like if you pick up Uncanny X-men 47X and they say "oh well character Z did this three years ago", which if you are new to comics, you wouldn't know. with the ultimate world you get to experience these characters victories and defeats in a modern setting without the super long backstories.
i would sit here and tell you about great stories in this book, but i don't want to. i want you to either go buy the trade paperbacks, or ask me to borrow the first one. trust me, you'll like it (oh and by the way, movie studios like using things from the ultimate universe, look at spider-man...).....i have no problem with people reading my books, but if you do, i want you to go buy your own, maybe not what i'm reading, but at least something that i can borrow. basically don't be a mooch. if you want to get into comics, then i can help you, but i won't be your freepass because these great writers and artists are not like musicians and actors, they need people to buy the books or they do not get paid....

Weekend Video

Dear Comcast:  Ebensburg Division,
Can you please put Comedy Central and Cartoon Network on HD?  Are these channels even available on HD?  If not, at least put the none HD channels up in the 800s so when I am scrolling through, I can at least see what is on them.  It is too much of a pain in the ass to go all the way down to the 60s and then back up to the 800s.  Thanks.
Josh

GOTW

"Well, my telephone rang it would not stop
It's President Kennedy callin' me up
He said, "My friend, Bob, what do we need to make the country grow" ?
I said, "My friend, John, "Brigitte Bardot,
Anita Ekberg
Sophia Loren"
Country'll grow."
            --Bob Dylan--"I Shall Be Free"

One of my favorite Bob Dylan songs...which leads me to this week's GOTW:  Brigitte Bardot, Anita Ekberg, Sophia Loren

Myspace Blogposts Part Two

I am about to delete my myspace account, but I figured I would share with you some of blog posts I wrote on there.  Do not judge me.

testament and new avengers: illuminati

As i said earlier i would like to tell people about different comics i am reading.  the first one is Testament by Douglas Rushkoff and Liam Sharp.

the story is set in the distant future. the US is still at war and are instituting a draft.  young people are being implanted with RFID tags, which allow the government to keep track, to help against missing children, but it also allows for the draft and will make it much harder to dodge.  The main character is Jake, whose father just happens to be the scientist behind the tags.  Jake does not have a tag and belongs to a group that protests the tags.  Now so far this doesn't sound all that interesting, i know.  The cool part of the book, is it also shows scenes back to biblical times, and the characters from the now are also then. in the first issue we see abraham about to sacrafice jacob (and its the same jake as our main character), jake wakes up and thinks it was a dream.  these flashback scenes also show the goddess astarte and baal manipulating events to go against yahweh. 

here is what i enjoy about the book so far (only on issue 4):  i enjoy seeing the connection between the past and the present, as if all this is happening again, but maybe this time baal/astarte will win.  the downside to the book is that it's sometimes hard to follow, for example, there is a scene where jake and a girl are having sex, and time kinda stands still, we see all kinds of weird things, and each scene is in a bubble around Astarte. but, other than a hard format to follow this book is great.

The next book is New Avengers: Illuminati by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev.  if you are unfamiliar with their work, stop reading and go pick up their amazing run on Daredevil.  anyways, this story was a nice prelude to the Civil War series thats about to start.  as always Maleev's art is stunning, especially the last page, which is all white, and has iron man sitting in a chair, saddened saying "It sure was."  The story shows the relationship and history of the group in marvel who have been meeting secretly to change the world (Iron Man, Reed Richards, Professor X, Namor, Dr. Strange, Blackbolt)...Iron Man is confronted by SHIELD to find a way to solve the Hulk problem.  the group agrees, well namor is opposed (which is odd since he hates the hulk, and everyone else really), to send the hulk into space, where he can't hurt anyone.  this is not a book full of action, but dialogue, which with bendis is always superb.  the problem with this is, if you are not a big comic fan, or not into superhero books, then this one may not really tickle your pickle.  however, if you want to give something a try and see beautiful artwork and excellent writing, well look no further.

After the Trial

This is something new I plan on doing every so often.  I will take a movie and write about where they are nowadays.  No, not the actual actors, but the characters.  My blog, my idiotic ideas.

Primal Fear
I really like this movie.  I do not think there are many people out there who can say they actually foresaw the ending.  What do you think those characters have been up to since that trial?  Let us take a look.

Martin Vail
Poor Marty:  he realizes too late that there is no multiple personality disorder, and that Aaron is just a psychopath who murdered the Bishop (and Linda, the girl from the video) and will eventually be released from a mental hospital and be free to kill again.

At first things went okay for Martin, he and Janet got together and she eventually became a partner at his firm.  As time went on, he continued to think about Aaron and constantly monitored his whereabouts.  He even went so far as visiting a city where Aaron was living and going to the police off the record about Aaron.  Unfortunately, Aaron found out about it and sued Martin.  This caused Martin to be disbarred.  He now writes crime novels and is an alcoholic.

Janet Venable
Since she lost her job with the District Attorney's office, she ended up going to work with Martin.  They eventually started dating again and he made her a partner in his firm.  Once he became obsessed with Aaron, she dumped him and focused on expanding the firm.  She brought in more attorneys and it quickly became one of the biggest firms in Chicago.

Once Martin was disbarred, she took over the firm completely and eventually brought in two more partners.  She is currently living in Hawaii.  She no longer practices, but is still a senior partner.  Occasionally she pops into the office to basically scare the crap out of everyone.  She is considered a legend in Chicago legal circles.

Aaron Stampler
He spent his time in the mental hospital, getting treated for multiple personality disorder.  He took the drugs they prescribed and after about six months the doctors decided he was getting better and released him.  The court put him on probation for the next three years and said he was not allowed to leave the city without permission.

After his probation ended he decided to move to Boston.  This is the point when Martin started following Aaron because he believed he would kill again.  Aaron quickly realized something was amiss and filed charges against Martin for harassment.  He then learned that Martin disclosed information about him that violated the attorney-client privilege.

Aaron stayed in Boston for a few years, but he knew that he would not be able to kill in the city.  The police kept an eye on him.  Apparently they believed Martin and did not like anyone who could kill a Catholic Bishop, even if he was a sexual deviant.  Hell, Boston is full of pervert priests, does not mean people should go around killing them, right?

Anyways, Aaron decided to move west, out to Seattle.  Martin never knew about the move and the police did not care once he was outside of the city.  He soon began murdering people in the city.  This time though, he did not get caught.  Unfortunately, his reign of terror did not last long.  He died of a brain aneurysm in '09.  Martin Vail does not know this.

Goodman/Naomi

These two decided to quit working for Martin once Janet came into the picture.  They did not like the way she wanted to do things.  They formed a private investigation firm and still did plenty of work for Vail & Venable, but at a much steeper rate.

They started dating and eventually got married.  They are happily married to this day.  They have three kids.  Martin eventually tasked them with keeping tabs on Aaron, which they refused.  Goodman is still friends with Vail, but does not indulge in his fantasies.

Naomi never believed Marty about Aaron and continuously drifted further away from him.  She eventually became friends with Janet and helped her win some very high profile cases.

Shaughnessy

The dickhead District Attorney, who had a little business venture with the Bishop that turned south when the Bishop decided to start caring about inner-city folks losing their homes.  He continued to make shady business deals and finally got caught.  He ended up losing his job and decided to take his own life (instead of being killed by the shady businessmen he owed money to).  Martin peed on his grave once during a drunken night.






Bud Yancy

This guy ended up on a flight from Sydney to Los Angeles...

Here Comes the Sun

Look at these pictures of the Sun, taken by Alan Friedman.  These are not some kind digital representation or CGI, it is the actual sun.  If you want to know more about the process read this article.

So cool...

Seinfeld Stuff

I knew most of these little facts.  I am sure my brother knew all of them.


Via: Online Schools