Hockey Talk

Meh, Sorry for not keeping up my end of this blog.

Anyway what do people think about the Williams for Markov trade?
I think Clarkie certainly was held over a barrell for it. I never really saw why people had a hard on for Markov. Although Clarkie has been right various times about young talent that has been delt only to do nothing or fade out like Eaton (minors), Delmore (a few good years but now up and down in the minors), Zuburus (nothing special), Murray (struggling to stay in the canes lineup), Pelliter (awful), Forbes (I think he works at Wendys).

On the other hand the Flyers have far more d-man in the system than forwards. Looking at the way more than half the team is going to be retired in 5 years. There are not many young players in the system that look like they will make it as a forward in the league. I have always been big on Patrick Sharp ( I dont see Lapointe coming back anytime soon) since I saw him practice at the SkateZone. Meanwhile Radven Somik might be one of the worst propsects I have ever seen. He is quick, but thats it he never does anything and is utterly worthless. I would take Marty Murray over him anyday at least he could acutally do stuff with the puck. Hell give Manderville his job back and make him a winger, or call up Berube they suck far less. Meanwhile Clarkie is clearly trying to move Handzus. He IMHO is better than Comrie and reminds me of Brindy in is prime because he does so much on the ice to make up for his weak spots.

Williams was just a hard trade to shallow given the fact that him and Gagne were supposed to be the cornerstones of the Flyers future. They have both played awful this season, and I cant buy the excuse that the are just maturing anymore though. Gagne might go too.


Meanwile Jagr for Carter. Just a sad trade to show what shape the NHL is in. Not to mention the fact that the Rangers are just laughable because they actually think putting talent on ice wins a cup. It helps if you have some sort of system in tact, or actually get players that remotely compliment each other. So many different styles on the team no wonder they seem like choatic when you watch them.

Theater Excursions: The Butterfly Effect

Starring Ashton Kutcher, Amy Smart, William Lee Scott, and Eric Stoltz
Written and Directed by J. Mackye Gruber & Eric Bress

The Butterfly Effect of the movie's title is the idea that some small, insignificant event can cause, through some unknowable chain of causality, huge consequences somewhere else. You know, a butterfly flaps its wings and there's a hurricane thousands of miles away. To the naked eye, these two events seem totally unconnected, but somehow, that are linked. We just can't see how.

This movie is not about that in any way shape or form. Fact is, it would be pretty difficult to make a movie like that. Oh, there have been lots of time-travel movies where changing something in the past as fire effects on the future. Look at the Back to the Future trilogy, for example. But there's no Butterfly Effect there. All of the changes have very clear causal links. The same is true here in The Butterfly Effect, hence the complete inapprpriateness of the title.

Not only do the fairly drastic changes made by the time-travelling Evan Treborn (Kutcher) have influence only among his direct acquaintences, but all of the causal linkages are quite clear. Also, implication of the Butterfly Effect is that any kind of tme-travel at all would be most likely disastrous, directly contradicting the premise of this film, which is that time-travel can create a more perfect world by allowing you to correct past mistakes.

But, leaving all of that aside, this movie actually isn't as awful as it's made out to be. Oh, don't get me wrong, it's not good, either. It's all hopelessly contrived, and the acting is, um, not up to a very high standard. But it's not awful.

So, here's the basic story. Evan has always had these strange blackouts ever since he was a kid. Sometimes, he would black out some seriously horrible stuff. Sometimes he woud just blackout for no apparent reason. Later, when he's in college, and hasn't had a blackout for a long time, he decides that he'd kind of like to know what happened during those blackouts. So, he consults his journals, which he had been keeping since the blackouts first began, and tries to remember what he blacked out. He discovers, incredibly enough, that by reading his journal entries, he can psychically travel back in time and possess his younger self.

So, first he's just trying to gather information, find out what's hidden in those blackouts. But then, he discovers some nasty things, and he talks about them with his old friend Kayleigh. Apparently, she isn't as eager to relive the old days as he was, so she kills herself. Cue the grief music, with the crying and the sobbing and all the rest of the nonsense. Because, you see, Kayleigh is the love of Evan's life, despite the fact that he's seen her precisely once in the last, like, ten years or so. Whatever.

So now he's got to to travel back in time to fix the things that he messed up by travelling back in time in the first place. And, sometimes it gets pretty hairy. The thing is, most of the unplanned negative consequences of his time-travelling are caused not by the inherent dangers of time-travelling, but by Evan's own stupidity. So he keeps having to go back again and again and fix all the other things that his blundering stupidity managed to fuck up.

Then, he finally gets it right and everybody lives appily ever after.

So, yeah, it's not a great film. But if do like I did, and go in expecting to see the worst movie ever, and have a good time laughing at everything stupid that happens, you may actually enjoy yourself. I did.

I Hate Rutgers

Would it kill them to give us a snow day? Would it?

It's not that I hate school so much. I really enjoy it, actually. It's just that I hate snow. The one redeeming feature of snow is that, sometimes, it gives you day completely free of all obligation. On those days, I do something utterly unproductive and enjoy every minute of it. My latest tradition (established last year, so not technically a tradition until it's repeated) is to spend the first snow day of every year watching Doctor Zhivago, which is a wonderful (and snow-filled) film.

But when you get snow and yet still have to meet all of the regular obligations of the day, then snow has failed to serve its only purpose. Rather than a jolly friend who joyfully announces the extended weekend, snow becomes a bitter enemy standing in your way at every step. Driving becomes a nightmare, not only because the roads are bad, but because the other drivers are awful. Getting anywhere takes you twice as long. And you can't go anywhere without getting your feet wet, which means the law school lobby is going to be a total swamp by the time I arrive.

Having snow without a snow day is like smoking marijuana without getting high. What's the fucking point?

MOVIES ON TV

I do not know how all of you guys feel about watching movies on TV but I am just about through with it. When I say TV, I mean broadcast TV, not HBO or any other movie station. No, I am talking about NBC, CBS, TNT, TBS etc. Watching movies on these stations is all but a waste of time. You get half of the action that is in the movie. Forget about seeing sex, drugs, cursing, violence or anything vaguely suggestive. It is really frustrating. Just the other night I was trying to watch Desperado (not much on) on TNT and I was fine with the bad dubbing where the mouth says fuck and the TV says funk (or fudge or whatever lameass word they substitute) but I noticed that something else was different. They were editing out basically all violence whatsoever. I have seen Desperado numerous times and it is a fairly violent movie but nothing profane, TNT was editing out people getting punched or even fake shot. It was a joke. SO thus from now on I vow to stop watching movies on broadcast television. Ahhh, who the fuck am I kidding the next time some shitty movie comes on when I am flipping around I will stop and watch the damn thing, I am addicted. I really need to get out more...somebody please help me...

Ringu

I will preface this with the admission that I know very well that you all think my taste in movies is crap. I'm willing to accept this and move on.

Yesterday I bought and watched the movie "Ringu," the original Japanese movie that the Hollywood movie "The Ring" was based on. This in itself is a pretty remarkable thing. I can tolerate about 1% of the movies I've seen, but I really enjoyed "The Ring" and I read that "Ringu" was even more intense and that it avoided what at least one reviewer considered affectation and commonplaces that plague Hollywood's usual offerings. For what it's worth, "The Ring" is the better movie. The performances are better, the additions to the plot really filled in the glaring gaps in the plot of "Ringu"; maybe these things were in the novel, I haven't read that, but probably will now.

But I thought about "Ringu" and wondered why I didn't find it stranger than "The Ring." I expected to be impressed by cultural and aesthetic differences represented by a culture, a nation that has a history so different from our own, that the difference between Japanese and modern American culture might combine somehow with the strangeness of the narrative and produce a truly different experience for me. This didn't happen.

Much of the movie could have occurred anywhere in urban America. There were a few incidents that utilized traditional dress/settings/themes, but not enough, and from my perspective, keeping in mind that I am no expert in Japanese culture, the moments where traditional Japanese culture and modern Japanese culture (post-WWII, post-Hiroshima/Nagasaki, post-Coca Cola) met were not really handled as features of the movie. The clashes between rural and urban, tradition and modernity, personal fulfillment and social position, were all suggested but not presented explicitely or at length in "Ringu." None of that mattered in "The Ring." There it's just a bunch of Americans dealing with their problems. But as a cultural document, "Ringu" is really troubling. For most of "Ringu," it might as well be a bunch of Americans. The modern Japanese culture presented in "Ringu" makes strange visual claims, and the movie would have benefitted from making the collision between traditional culture and modern culture explicit. What kind of movies will they be making in Iraq and Afghanistan 60 years from now? Will they fail to consider that somewhere in the unique aesthetic claims they present, there is a cultural component that was set in motion 60 years before and contributes to whatever unity we see in these movies? I'd like to think that these sorts of concerns are the true content of "Ringu." I'll watch it again and read the book. I'll post again if I come up with anything new. Rock and roll.

Worst weblog ever

FOR DREW....FUCKING FASCIST

Anyway I was up late the other night and vegging in front of the TV when I came across some shitty movie on HBO. This should be no surprise, it being HBO and late night, but I was pleasantly surprised to see Traci Lords on the screen and it looked like she was getting ready for a sex scene. For those of you who do not know Traci Lords was a porn star in the '80s, she was also underage, although she did make one movie after she turned 18 and got "discovered". Anyway I stopped hoping to see some soft core sex action. Well to my surprise THERE WAS NONE. That irked me a little bit but the thing about it was the scene lasted a good five minutes and she got completely naked but went way out of her way to cover up the nudity, ridiculously out of the way. These two people were having sex and she is covering up her tits, or turned to the side or a clever camera angle was used, it was highly frustrating. Now with most sex scenes in movies this kind of thing can be expected, it is ridiculous and stupid but that is just the way movies are. I just do not understand how you can make a movie, call it realistic, and then film a sex scene where the characters walk around the room covering themselves up like they are hiding something, YOU JUST HAD SEX PEOPLE, THE TIME FOR MODESTY HAS PASSED. Back to the reason for this post. Traci Lords has done all kind of nasty things on screen, anyone can see them and they are for the most part good, all of them ending with at least one guy dumping his load somewhere on her body, usually her face. My question is, what the fuck is she hiding? Everyone has seen her do EVERYTHING, it is not like this was some art house masterpiece she was in, it was some straight to video piece of shit that people watch because it has Traci Lords in it and they might get a spank out of it. Whatever. I apologize in advance for this awful, rambling post, but this is what happens when people are threatened. You can all thank Drew for that.

And by the way the more I see the Howard Dean speech, the funnier it gets. I highly recommend it to everyone.

blah

So, I'm sitting here in Seattle, on my free high speed internet, wearing my free bathrobe in my hotel room that is bigger than my apartment. It's absolutely wild, I could get used to this. Too bad I'm pretty sure that my interviews tomorrow will be rather unspectacular. There's this really old guy who's half insane who is going to ask me 1000 questions about random things I don't know.

Anyway, I'd like to hear Drew's long and winded analysis of the first season Buffy, which is easily the worst of the 5 (yes 5), that I own. The 2nd and 3rd are much much better. Also, Drew has to remember that that season was made in, oh 1996(?), so a lot of unused/infrequently used things in that season are more readily used, make them inherently worse watching them now.

Well, I'm going to go take a shower using my free rosemary mint shampoo, and then watch my free HBO in my king sized bed. Maybe I'll set the digital display-ed thermostat to around 67. I should set my alarm for 6:30 am so I will have time to get my free coffee and breakfast. Actually I need to iron my suit shirt now. Oh yeah, anyone have any idea how much I'm supposed to tip the guy who brought my bags up to my room? I tipped $3, which is probably too much.

I will take some pictures of this place.

Uncle Traveling Mosco

Dead Air

For Christ's sake, people, there are now officially eight of us. You'd think that someone would have something to post. It's 10:45pm on the East Coast, the day is almost done, and we've had nothing. We've now had John's State of the Union Drinking Game Follow-Up post in the lead off position for over 34 hours. That is simply unacceptable.

Now, of course, I will take my own share of the blame in this regard. I just haven't had anything much to say lately. I'm sure that's true of all of us, but I'm also sure that all of us can and must do better.

So, here's a challenge, and a warning. The next time I notice a serious lack of content during the week, I'm going to jump in with a long and tiresome analysis of the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Now, I know that you don't want that. [Well, maybe John does.] So shape up, or it's coming.

Clear?

Days since quitting: 9
Total money saved: $45

The Tally

For those wondering, the State of the Union drinking game tally is unofficially 190 drinks. No, I did not figure this out, some website did. Even if you consider 10 drinks to be 1 beer, that's still 19 beers in 54 minutes. I hope all my fellow crew members did this and are now currently in detox. or dead from alcohol poisoning.

Thank you.

Thinner

No, don't worry, I haven't been cursed by any Gypsies or anything. No, I've actually started to watch my wieght. Not for the first time, I should add.

Anyway, since today is the one-week anniversary of my attempt to quit smoking (and so far, so good), I figure it would be as good a time as any to start going to the gym. Yeah, I'm just doing cardio stuff and starting slow (today I did the bike for 30 min), but I have high hopes. I've already lost between 10 and 15 pounds in the last month (depending on which scale you believe). Keith was kind enough to notice I was losing weight (which provided tremendous encouragement at just the right time). So, I'm going to keep tabs on my weight (hopefully, descending) in the coming weeks.

Weight: 253-4 lbs.
Days since quitting: 7
Total money saved: $35

All Is Right in Philly

Growing up everyone has heard stories from their parents about how much rougher they had it when they were children. We hear how they used to have to walk 5 miles in two feet of snow all the time in the winter. That they could buy a comic book, baseball cards and a candy bar for a dollar. Such things seemed like a far off distant time that could never understand. I think we can officially group Philadelphia sports championships with this folklore. Sure technically championship by a Philly team in my life time, but that last one I was three. So it doesn’t count. I don’t know anything about the Sixers tourney to greatness nor could I ever tell my nephew Noah about it when he is older, so as far as I am concerned it doesn’t count.

This past Sunday the Eagles bit the dust in typical Philly fashion. You see Philly teams don’t only like to go out, but they like to go with a thud. Despite thousands of people wearing team colors and having their faces painted liked idiots when the time comes the Philly team rolls over and dies. They usually look as if they are new to the sport and often times are blown out of the water before the midpoint of the game. This past Sunday those Eagles made it possible to tack on at least several more months to the drought of championships.

Sure the Wings and Phantoms have championships in the past years, but it has to be the big 4 for it to count or else its like winning a Golden Globe totally meaningless. I am not even sure if anyone other than those teams immediate families showed up for the celebration. In fact I am some what relieved that the Eagles got bounced, because I think my head would explode if a Philly team actually won the ultimate prize.

I don’t even know what it feels like for my team to win a championship. Obviously my team is the Flyers, and since I have seen the grainy footage of the Broad Street Bullies parading down Broad Street, and Gene Hart in his skin tight Flyers sweatshirt with the Flyers Emblem all stretched out. I try to comprehend in my mind what it must be like to whiteness a team you root for from your city to actually be the champions. What happens in the area? Would I have been given the day off? Would the Flyers hoisting the cup bring me to tears? Would South Jersey and Philly just going to total madness for a few days?


Well thank goodness my routine life won’t be rattled by and Philly glory. All is right in Delware Valley, are team watches the champions celebrate from their own Superbowl parties. Oh once in awhile a team makes it to the finals, but its rarely close. We always end up having to watch the other guys jump with joy. Sports wise in this area failure is a much of our culture as the mummers, cheese steaks and 24- hours diners. Being competitive but not winners is just a fact of life. Winning championships here is not for me and my peers. It is just something that my parents experienced like Disco and bellbottoms. Victory parades are for the people with goofy hair and pork-chop sideburns not me and my friends. The only way to see a Philly team win anything is to watching the classic sports network until they show the worn out footage of our past. Almost literally an entire generation has to ask their parents or guridans what is was like and live through their memories.

Honestly I can’t possibly think of and City that has a franchise in all 4 major sports that has gone this long coming up short. It seems almost statically impossible. Its what 21 years? Our little failure demon can legally drink this year. Hmm.. ..Perhaps someone can look up his actual birthdate.

It is just the same old, same old. The athletes are all soft spoken to the media and we just have to keep saying wait until next year! Every single one of our sports has a player that says that after being bounced its part of pathetic tradition. I think that having the sentence “Just Wait Until Next Year!” should be mounted just below the arena-vision at the Linc. In a few weeks some other city will get to party in celebration of actually winning something. Meanwhile we are damned to our endless marathon of failure with no signs of a parade in sight. Thinking about the over-paid athletes just shaking their heads and making idiotic excuses for constant failure will make me sleep better at night; because that’s the way it is and always will be here in our generation’s local sports world. All is right in Philly.

Oh maybe one day the Flyers will win a cup, but knowing my luck it will be right around the time that Dan K predicts that machines will rise. Before I get to go to the parade the blood thirsty robots will be out to use their Artificial intelligence to pulverize our human flesh with their iron firsts of death in the murderous slaying of innocent life and ultimate eradication of humanity.

State of the Union Drinking Game

From some webpage:

The general rules of this game are no different from any other drinking game. A drink is either a shot or a good gulp from a beer (or cider). Different events call for different numbers of drinks and all you do is watch the speech and play along. If all goes well, you'll be unconscious by the time they show the other party's response.

GAME TIME
This year, President Bush's State of the Union address is scheduled for January 20, 2004 at 9pm (Eastern). It should be broadcast on all major networks and cable news/political networks.

EVENT (# of Drinks)

Every time he says....
“The state of our union is strong…” (1)
“men and women in/of our armed forces” (1, +1 if phrase begins with “brave”)
Iraq (small 1)
Terror (small 1)
Libya or Qaddafi (2)
Saddam Hussein or Saddam (1)
Weapons of Mass Destruction (2)
“nukular” (1)
Afghanistan or Hamid Karzai (or Pres. Karzai) (1)
Loya Jirga (3)
multilateral or multilateralism (Group shot)
unilateral or unilateralism (Choose one person to drink)
Any United Nations reference (United Nations, Security Council, resolution, etc.) (1)
Any reference to the stock market (1)
Any reference to the average family of 4 (2)
accountability or accountable (1)
Any _______ Security (i.e. Homeland, Social, Economic, Job, etc.) (1)
immigration (1)
aliens (as reference to immigrants) (1)
aliens (as reference to extraterrestrials) (Look wistfully towards the heavens; then finish your drink)
Anything in Spanish -- Cualquier cosa en español (1 Tequila shot or 1 Cerveza)
bipartisan or bipartisanship (2)
“Republicans and Democrats” (1)
Any mention of the deficit (3)
seniors or senior citizens (1)
Medicare (1)
reform, in the context of health care (1)
prescription drugs (2)
*bipartisan or bipartisanship, in the context of the prescription drug bill (+2)
Announces a new program (2)
* If the program will be massively expensive (+2)
“Leave no child behind” (3)
college or university or higher education (1)
Mars or space (1)
“foreign oil” (1)
he uses a Bushism (i.e. says something that's not really a word, other than “nukular”) (2)
**Any word of 5 syllables or more (2, +1 if he stumbles through it)

Every time....
Applause last more than 10 seconds (excluding the first and last minutes) (1)
he introduces a special guest (1)
he praises a Democrat by name (2)
they show the First Lady (1)
they show either Bush daughter (2)
they show an announced Democratic presidential candidate (1)
they show a former member of the Bush Administration (i.e. Paul O’Neill, etc.) (3)
he gets a standing ovation from HALF of Congress (2)
they show a military official in uniform who looks asleep (2)

Other
if he wears a blue tie (he has for the past two years) (1)

DEMOCRATIC RESPONSE BONUS GAME
"unilateral" (1)
Iraq (1)
some reference to something the President hasn’t found (i.e. WMD, Osama, etc.) (2)
“alienating our allies” (2)
if you’ve never heard of the Democrats delivering the response (1)

That's it

Ron Silver

Did anyone watch the season premiere of Real Time with Bill Maher? Let me tell you, I really like Ron Silver as an actor. He had a recurring role on The West Wing a while back, and he was great. But damn is that guy an asshole. I mean, shit.

Plus, for some odd reason, you never hear his name mentioned by the people who are constantly harping about how celebrities should just shut up about politics. By some incredible stroke of luck, Ron Silver is spared the kind of savage attacks routinely levelled against Barbra Steisand, Alec Baldwin, Susan Sarandon, and Tim Robbins. Along with Ronald Reagan, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ron Silver is able to hold very strong political opinions, speak out in public, and yet not get hit by a firestorm of shit. I can't figure out why.

Sarcasm: Does anyone have any idea why the rules don't seem to apply to him? Because I'm at a loss.

Days since quitting: 5
Total money saved: $25

BOLD PREDICTIONS

I am going to make a few bold predictions about the four local sports teams. Some of them are way the hell out there, some of them have a real shot of happening. But you never know they could all be right and I could be the next Nostradamus.

EAGLES: The Eagles will win the Super Bowl. In the off-season they will sign Terell Owens and repeat as Super Bowl Champs the next year.

PHILLIES: The Phillies will end the Braves eleven year run as NL East champs. They will also make a significant trade at the trading deadline that will greatly improve the team. I do not know if they will win it all next year but they will make a splash in the playoffs and win it all within five years.

FLYERS: The Flyers will once again do nothing in the playoffs this year. But due to a glut of young stud centermen they will trade Jeremy Roenick. Hitchcock cannot stand him and he is getting old, so he will be traded while he still has value. The Flyers will also acquire a bona fide goalie, perhaps in the Roenick deal but perhaps not.

SIXERS: THe Sixers will not make the playoffs this year but in doing so they will enter the NBA draft lottery. In said lottery they will get the number one pick and within five years will be back in the finals with a real possibillity of winning. The West's domination is coming to an end, next year.

Theater Excursions: The Cooler

Starring William H. Macy, Maria Bello, and Alec Baldwin
Written by Frank Hannah and Wayne Kramer
Directed by Wayne Kramer

William H. Macy is on familiar ground in this film, playing a good-natured, likeable loser. He is employed by a casino in Las Vegas as a "cooler", who wanders the floor, looking for winners, and infects them with his own bad luck, just by hanging around. All until he begins an improbable romance with one of the waitresses at the casino, played by Maria Bello. Suddenly, his luck changes, and the people around him start to win. The sets up the central conflict of the film (though there are others) between Macy's character and the casino boss, played by Alec Baldwin.

One of the great strengths of the film is that it does create entirely separate conflicts. While it doesn't weave those conflicts together, per se, they do overlap and begin to influence each other in interesting ways. Shelly Kaplow, the casino boss, is resistant to change. He's been running the casino for sixteen years, and its becoming old-fashioned. His own boss is starting to agitate for major changes, including bringing in a young MBA-type (Ron Livingston) to modernize the place. The film devotes a good chunk of time to Shelly's business problems. This plot never fully connects with the main plot involving Bernie Lootz (Macy) and Natalie Belisario (Bello), but it establishes the context within which Shelly's actions throughout the film find meaning. It elevates Shelly from the simple role of villain to a character in his own right. I'm reminded, for some reason, of the film Confidence, where Dustin Hoffman (a far superior actor) utterly failed to give his character the level of depth with which Baldwin portrays Shelly. The script deserves much credit.

But the film is far from flawless. The script does contain a great many cliches, but the director (a first-timer, no less) is able to play them honestly in such a way that they don't interfere. The effect of Bernie's luck is a difficult concept to convey credibly. The film asks the audience to believe that Bernie's luck infects everything around him, for good or bad (depending, basically, on whether or not Bernie thinks of himself as a loser). This is a very dicey concept to put over on cynical, modern audiences. It drifts dangerously close to pure fantasy. But somehow the director is able to give it free and expansive reign without ever straying too far from plausibility. The only problem is the ultimate conclusion of the film, which works in terms of the premise, but somehow plays false. One small misstep is no capital crime, but the fact that it comes right at the end means that the film winds up taking a heavy hit from it.

The performances are strong all around. Even Estella Warren, who made such an inauspicious debut in Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes, does well in a small role. But Alec Baldwin is a revelation. I've always liked Alec Baldwin, but he's rarely been very impressive on screen. But here, he shines. As effective as Macy's performance is, it's nothing we haven't seen before. Bello's part is underwritten (as most female roles tend to be), and she isn't able to give the character a great deal of nuance. But Baldwin's Shelly is a complicated man of contradiction, and also a magnetic screen presence. Without him, the film we be a quirky little curiosity. Baldwin gives the film a certain weight and credibility that it really needs. He doesn't exactly carry the film, but he lifts it onto a whole new level.

All in all, this is a very encouraging debut for director and co-writer Wayne Kramer. I'm going to keep my eye on him. He's responsible for the script and story of Renny Harlin's upcoming Mindhunters, with Val Kilmer (due out Friday), which is less than encouraging. But you never know... we could be witnessing the birth of a bright new career in film-making.

Days since quitting: 4
Total money saved: $20

Comments Upgrade Complete

I've just finished upgrading the comments system. Unfortunately, recent comments have been wiped. I'm afraid there was nothing I could do about that. But the comments should be, on the whole, more reliable.

Days since quitting: 3
Total money saved: $15

The start of the end

It's bad when i start inserting stupid quizzes:

Good. You know your music. You should be able to
work at Championship Vinyl with Rob, Dick and
Barry


Do You Know Your Music (Sorry MTV Generation I Doubt You Can Handle This One)
brought to you by Quizilla

Parenthood

Okay, so since Jay and I are the only two people in the crew with a baby I figured it would be a good idea to give you all a little idea about parenthood. I realize that Brant and Jenn will be the next two to pop out a little ankle biter (sooner rather than later, seeing as Jenn wants a little one right away and is probably using Brant’s condoms for pin cushions) but anywho I would like to everyone a little taste of what it is like…and it isn’t all that bad.

So the labor part, all the guy does is sit there and tell her how good she’s doing when she is pushing but he is really just worrying about the next 18 or so years of his life and watching his childhood flash before his eyes. So all the actual work for the first nine months is on her. Then, like magic, you have this perfect little person that is all your responsibility. You have to teach him to do all the right things and raise him and feed him the right foods and make sure that he is good and not beating other kids up. Of course I would rather have my son beat up other children than get beat up himself. But I am getting ahead of myself, seeing as Hunter is only 3 ½ months old. You see, this tiny little baby changes your entire life in a single instant and there is nothing you can do about it. And to some peoples’ surprise, it is for the better. You are suddenly more responsible about pretty much everything. You think twice before spending money on that $50 pair of Sketchers that you want so much; you don’t go out nearly as often, you go to bed earlier (mainly because you get absolutely no sleep at all, unless you are Jay and can stay up until all hours for no reason what-so-ever). You aren’t a completely different person, you’re just different.

At first you worry about if the baby is eating enough. Doctors and books say that if the baby is asleep for a while, wake him up to feed him. So in the middle of the night you are worried that it has been too long and you wake him so he can eat. And he does…sometimes for 1 ½ hours. You are so tired that you start to cry (only if you are the mommy because your hormones are all screwed up that you cry for no reason at all). Well since you are crying the guy has to console you and he loses more sleep as well is because he has to tell you that everything is ok at 3:00 in the morning even though he shitting his pants still because he isn’t sure of that at all. Now after the hormones are back to normal, you can function a lot better so you don’t cry during the 3am feedings anymore…if you are talented enough you can sleep while he is eating. Oh, let’s not forget the peepee and poopie diapers in the middle of the night. Now this isn’t all that bad. You take one off, wipe him down and slap on a clean one. It really isn’t bad, but if it has poopie in it, you never know how it might smell. One thing for sure, baby poo should have its own crayon. It is rather interesting.

As the months fly by, you realize how foolish you were for waking him up at night. You both needed your sleep and you ruined it. Oh well, what’s done is done. Then he gets older and more fun to play with. He is still breakable but his neck doesn’t snap in half if you don’t support it…he is more like a bobble head doll. He gains a little personality and you know what will make him smile or cry, sleep or stay awake. And for you guys, you get to start putting together some of the toys. Ask Jay for details, but if a lot of screws are involved you might need a professional. All his little quirks come out and he starts to talk. Now I am not saying that you can understand him but he sure knows how to talk. He will have a complete conversation with you in absolute gibberish. You have no clue as to what either of you are saying but he understands every word. This is when you realize that you no longer speak as an adult, find yourself babbling like an idiot ‘abat addada dooboo’ is now part of your vocabulary. You type your blog with one hand because the other is filled with a babbling baby. He grabs the mouse to your computer and makes you type you blog several times because some how he keeps hitting ‘edit-clear’. Things are a little crazy but fun. You play with toys again, and trust me those little stackers we used to play with, the donuts we stuck on a stick, are now shaped like stars, light up and play music. This generation has plenty of brain stimulation.

Now poopie diapers can be hilarious. You usually know when it is coming because you hear a growling sound coming from your child. He strains and strains until you hear Mt. St. Helen’s erupt out of his ass. The pungent aroma pierces your nostrils but for some reason Jay still sniffs the butt to see how bad it really is. Sometimes the smell is gagging but every time it happens you laugh because you can’t fathom how that came out of him!

But in all honesty parenthood isn’t at all horrible, the first time you see his angelic smile, hear that cute giggle, or say something to him in gibberish and he answers back, each moment is priceless and you realize that you would do anything for him. You could never imagine loving anything as much as you love him. The frivolities that you cherished before take a back seat and he is you whole world and you couldn’t even imagine life without him. Life changes and though times may be hard, it is worth every second because now you know you have a purpose, to make sure that this innocent, little person grows up safe, that he gets everything he needs to be the best that he can be. You want for him everything you never had and then some.

Getting Pumped for the Big Game

I don't really follow football as much as I follow the Eagles. This is partly because I don't have time, and partly because I don't think the game of football is terribly interesting in and of itself. I just love the Eagles.

So anyway, leaving partisan comments aside, I'd like to know what my fellow CrewBloggers think of Sunday's games. I want to know how you think the teams match up, what you think the results will be, and what you think happens when those teams meet in the Super Bowl.

For myself, I'll discuss only the NFC game, because I know nothing about either the Colts or the Patriots. I only know that I want the Patriots to lose because they still haven't paid for that bullshit Super Bowl appearance a couple of years ago when, by rights, they should have lost the AFC championship game. But leaving that aside.

I like the Eagles on Sunday. With Troy Vincent back, their defense gets a lift. On offense, it really comes down to whether or not they show up. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. On the other hand, last week they didn't and they managed to win anyway against a pretty tough opponent. I'll never count these guys out. They find ways to win even when they suck.

But I'm a little unnerved by the triumphalism around Philadelphia lately. Everyone expected that if the Eagles beat the Packers, they'd have to face the Rams. That didn't happen. They face a team that everyone presumes to be significantly weaker than the Rams. A team that the Eagles beat previously in the season. [What they often fail to mention is that, on what must have been a fluke day, Carolina's place kicker missed three field goals and an extra point... enough to turn a 1-point Panthers win into a 9-point loss. I don't expect that to happen again.]

Interestingly, the Panthers also clearly got outplayed last week against the Rams, but still won. Just like the Packers and the Eagles. Two teams overachieving, or two teams that know how to win? I don't know. But either way I find the matchup fascinating.

What do the rest of you think?

Days since quitting: 2
Total money saved: $10

Trying to Quit

Well, thanks to the inspiration and encouragement from my friends Jamie and Monica, I've decided to try to quit smoking using the patch. I smoked my last cigarette on Monday (well, early Tuesday morning). Yesterday was rough. I felt irritable and jittery all day. I figure that's gotta be mostly mental. A) The patch gives me a constant low-dose of nicotine, which should reduce the impact of withdrawal symptoms (that's the whole rationale of the patch). B) The first day is a little early for hardcore withdrawal symptoms anyhow.

[Note: I used the word "hardcore" in an effort to pick up Google hits from people searching for, say, "hardcore pornography" or somesuch. I recommend my fellow bloggers try to work in words like "pussy", "dick", "santorum", "sex", "anal", and every conceivable variation of "fuck" as often as possible, to help increase traffic. Also, I've learned from my other blog that references to "Ron Kovic" and "Patricia Keneally" pay off for months, for some reason.]

So, it's kinda of humbling to realize that a fucking plant has so adversely affected one's mental health, to the extent that quitting for less than a day renders one a feeble, jittery pussy. What's worse, nicotine withdrawal often results in irritability, which means I've been acting like a dick. What gets you is those situations where you habitually smoke. For some people, it's after sex. For me, it's while driving, or between classes. The good news is that the patch is a great way to help, and much more comfortable then, say, an anal suppository. The best thing about quitting, though, is that smoking is simply gross. Apparently, a few days after you quit, your lungs start kicking out all the shit you've deposited there. Having this gunk in your mouth is about as appealing as having santorum in your mouth. Some people (including me a couple of years ago) think quitting is easy, and they just stop. But for me, it's pretty hardcore.

And then, of course, there's the money. I used to smoke a pack a day. Yesterday, I didn't smoke any cigarettes, and I didn't buy any. So, I saved $5. I'm going to use this blog as a way to keep myself encouraged. Every day that I post something, I will end my first post of the day with this:

Days since quitting: 1
Total money saved: $5

Wish me luck!

A QUICKIE

The following is my favorite quote about the Eagles last win over the Packers. It is from Freddie Mitchell (MITCHELL!)

"We don't need faith, we've got five."

Oh yeah, eat it John.

What are we doing?

That's the question. We got the crewblog up and running, and that's great. But what are we doing?

First of all, when it comes down to member selection, we need to have some type of voting system. I have no problem with the inclusion of Brant, which I communicated to the members, but we never had a consensus agreement on who we should throw out an invite to. I wrote an email about this all and got no response, so now, I post it. We should decide as a GROUP who gets in an who doesn't. Does that make us fascists or elitists? Maybe, but the key of this blog is that it has to be updated frequently (which I haven't been good about lately) entertaining, and have a group that interacts well together. Just a large example, we probably wouldn't want Dan K to join the crew as we hate each other.

Secondly, we should actually write bios, so people know who the hell we are. I'm sure none of my friends know who any of you are, and so and and so on.

That's it.

LET'S GO TRAPPING

I am surprised that no one has done it yet so I will do it, I will post about last Friday's Trap performance. As previously stated it was held at the Speakeasy Cafe in Upper Darby PA. It really was not that far away and just outside of Philly. The only problem with the ride out there was the fact that there were NO FUCKING STREET SIGNS. No, I am sorry, I got that wrong there are street signs only they were not any on the way to the streets, you had to go past the street, realize that you were going the wrong way, turn around and come back to find the very important street signs that you were looking for. My next complaint was about the weather. Holy fucking shit was it cold! It was so cold that in the one block walk between my car and the bar the condensation in my facial hair started to freeze. I also had to leave my coat in the car. I did this because it is a brand new suede coat that I got for Christmas that I did not want to bring in to a bar and get the stench of smoke on it, or possibly have beer spilled on it, plus I did not want to hang it up or leave it somewhere and have some dirtball steal it while I went to the bathroom, so I left it in the car and suffered.

Now on to the bar itself. This bar was a dive, not a total dive like some other places I have gone to see various friends' bands but certainly not the best. My only real complaint about the bar was the shady dealings that were going on in the bar. I walked into the bathroom once and saw some black guy (one of only two in the entire joint)fiddling with a ziploc bag. I could not see what was in the bag but I assumed that it was a drug of some kind. So throughout the night we would watch as various people (including previously stated shady black gentleman) would run in and out of both bathrooms (guys into the girls room and vice versa) multiple times and not really hide that they were doing it. So I just assumed that they were dealing drugs and the employees of the bar really did not car that it was going on.

On to the music. When I first heard about the gig, The Trap was supposed to on at 10:00. I got a call at like 7:00 that night from Rich saying that they got pushed back an hour to 11:00. When we got to the bar, I found out again that they got pushed back another hour to 12:00. They did not play a single not of music until one in the morning. Well before the only reason I went to this shithole went on stage I had to sit through two other bands. This was good because it gave me an opportunity to hang out with everybody for a while and have some drinks, including Ryan a man who I have not heard from in a REALLY LONG TIME and just assumed he was dead. This was bad because I had to sit through two other bands. First off, I do not know what the deal is with bars but when they have bands play they feel that it is necessary to make them so loud that your ears ring for two weeks. I really and truly hate this it just ruins the experience of going out to listen to music. The first band was really loud (a recurring theme of the night) and tried to sound like Staind, a truly awful band. They did not do a good job of sounding like a truly awful band, so thus they sucked...big time. The second band was surprisingly worse. They too were loud, and they intended to be so. They too sucked..royally. I mean they were just plain awful, I hope they die. Next, or should I say eventually, came The Trap. They were loud, and this time it was not on purpose. They were so loud that I could not really hear the intricacies of the music. It all started to sound like one jumbled wall of noise, it was truly an uncomfortable experience. I could barely hear Rich's singing, let alone make out what he was actually saying. And forget about what the backup singers were singing, they might as well have been silent. If you really want to get the best Trap experience just go over to the music room one night and sit in on a practice, then you will realize what they are supposed to sound like.

It sounds like I had a bad night but I did not, it was fun to get out and see the guys on stage again, I am just a miserable human being who hates everything. I should be removed from this Earth. On that note, good night and have a pleasant tomorrow. Thank You.

Price's Party

-Okay my friend Price is getting a quickie marriage this Saturday and that means we have to celebrate Friday. Its cool one of my closest friends is getting married, but it all seems like it happened so quick to me that it doesn’t seem real. He has only known the girl since July 4th of this past year.

So anyway, this dude Ron is putting together the festivies which is good, and bad. First its good because Price gave me like 6 days warning that he wanted to do something. I have hard enough time to get people together for anything let alone the last minute something of this size. However when I told people all my friends loyal to their friend said they would be there.

The dude Ron calls me up and informs me that they are getting a party bus, which is basically a big limo type thing that you drive around in for 5 hours. He kept stressing that there are going to be cup holders for some reason. Anyway things get weirder. First off I have to decide what 6 people will fill the slots for Price. But one consideration is the fact that at this point it looks to be costing everyone 50 bucks. So 10 bucks per hour for everyone.

I can swing this for one of my best friends( although I think a party could make the money go farther) , but I fear it might be to steep for people that should go to this party. Certainly at this last minute it might be too much for people. Oh you might be asking why is it going to cost so much? Well there are going to be two strippers there. Okay that’s good and normal.

However, at this point Price’s fiancé and the dude Ron’s wife are going along for the ride. I guess I am old fashioned but I to be me that seems a little creepy and bizarre. But Ron says that Ilene is cool with it. They are what would call alternate life style people I guess. I have never heard of having your bride to be for the obligatory bachelor party before. I this sounds like something that you might see on HBO late at night. I don’t know why this dude’s wife is going.

Anyway I don’t want to be all negative, because I think we should do something big for Price. I am using this blog to get people who want to talk about it a chance to have some communication to make it easier on me. I just feel strange because I am afraid some of my friends who are either unemployed or under employed might not be able to swing this. It is short notice too which will make it harder for people to put money away for it. But hopefully he will only have on bachelor party. It certainly won’t be the same if I can’t fill the 6 spots with crew members. Heck I wouldn’t be comfortable being the only one representing. Please comment on this one guys. It could be a really fun unique night. Of course if it doesnt fall through.



Right now it is 9-2 on Friday Night and we leave from the coast line. OH and I am going to the casinos tomorrow so hopefully I will win big and it wont be a problem.

Hope this blog wasnt too long for you Brant.

Oh yeah and there will be cups to hold our drinks.

The Paucity of Political Debate

Everyone who knows me knows pretty clearly where I stand on politics. I'm not shy about it (and that willingness to expound my views cuts both ways), but I do want my posts here on the CrewBlog to be different from my normal political advocacy on Terminus. On the other hand, politics makes up a good deal of my personal life. What I mean is: I think and talk about politics frequently. I want my participation on CrewBlog to reflect, moreso than even Terminus, who I am as a person. So I can't ignore politics completely and still accurately represent myself. On the other hand, I don't want to bring in the sort of rancorous, sometimes controversial, political advocacy that I use on the other blog. So, a compromise.

I will, from time to time, discuss certain political issues in general terms. I will not, on this blog, advocate for particular candidates or parties. But I might write in to voice an opinion on particular legislation, or particular political issues.

So, today, I'd like to highlight a great point made by one of my favorite political bloggers, DailyKos. From this post, we have this great point:

We're at war. People are dying. That war was sold with lies. North Korea has nukes. The entire country created a measly 1,000 jobs in December. Blue- AND white-collar Jobs are being exported at alarming rates. We're facing record deficits and a runaway debt. The dollar is sinking. Our civil liberties are being stripped away. Millions lack basic health insurance.

But wait -- stop the frickin' presses! -- Wesley Clark wore a sweater!

Uh oh -- stop the frickin' presses! -- a Republican heckled a Democratic presidential candidate.

Sadly enough, our national media in politics is incapable of covering a principled debate of serious issues of public policy. There's a kind of gravitational pull in political media which brings the conversation back, again and again, to trivial matters of no import or relevance whatsoever. Occasionally, some enterprising journalist will produce something of real worth. This happens, and indeed, it happens with some regularity, and it's invaluable. But all too often, we becoome obsessed with trivialities.

My position is that this failing of the media hurts all of us by degrading our public discourse, utterly failing to inform the public about public policy issues, and contributing to the epidemic levels of voter apathy in this country. Sadly, I can offer no solution, but just shake my head in disgust.

I HATE COPPOLA AND SCORSESE

No, I really do not hate those two movie making geniuses, although Francis Ford has not really done anything of distinction in a long while. I hate the genre of movies that they have helped launch. I am talking about the mafia movie. Movies like The Godfather Trilogy, Goodfellas, Casino, A Bronx Tale and the Sopranos TV series, and many other great works that I neglect to mention. These are all great great movies (and TV series) and I love them, so I really do not hate the mafia movie genre. What I reall hate are the fans of that genre. The fans that do not really see the movie as demonizing these criminals but sees them as heroes. In every one of the these films the bad guys all basically get their comeuppance in the end, usually a violent death or a long jail term but mostly the violent death thing. I just do not see how anybody can see these movies, see the lowlife scum in it, see the horrible acts that they pull off and then turn to their friends when the credits roll and say damn I like that guy.

I hate that every half assed goumba who sees the movie thinks that they are the second coming of Michael Corleone. I hate every gold chain wearing, velour jump suit having, pasta eating, Z28 driving, stupid city accent speaking hardass with even 1% Italian somewhere in their lineage thinks that they walk around like they have some kind of connection to Jon Gotti. Half of these jackasses would wet themselves even in the slightest hairy kind of situation. I hope that they all die.

The other group of mafia movie fan I loathe is the kind that arte not Italian but then after watching a mafia movie miraculously turn into Mr. South Philly. They watch a movie then their voice changes, you start to notice a little bit of an accent that was not there before. You cannot really place it but it kind of vaguely sounds like some form of a bad generic European accent. Then the guy wants to have some red wine, and some gabbagoul, then some linguinin in white gravy (sauce?), then finish it off with come priscout and some cannoli. You do not know what the fuck any of those things are but you presume that the are Italian foods, mainly because they all end in vowels. Then you realize that this guy, this friend you once knew, has exactly zero Italian in is heritage, in fact he is a completely different nationality, say Polish. We all have a friend that fits into this second category, I won't say his name but his initials are Jamie michael Dutkiewicz.

The last and most mind-boggling category of mafia fans are blacks. This one I just do not get. Everytime I watch cribs or something involving a rap star, they have all of these mob movies and paraphenalia all over their lavish houses. They have albums called the Doggfather, they pose in suits and recreate scenes from movies, they do whatever they see in these mob movies. All this is fine but the ironic thing is how much the mafia HATE blacks. The Godfather deals with moving into the drug business. They do not want to sell it to their own people so they sell it to black communities because "those animals do not have a soul anyway". Whenever a couple of goumbas get into a fight you hear some man of power break it up and tell them to stop "acting like niggers". The mafia just has a general disdain for black people and black people just lap it up like they can't get enough. I just do not get it.

Anyway that is the end of my latest hate filled rant, stay tuned because I am sure that it will be followed by others. I am thinking about next blogging about drivers that I hate. Well until next time. My name is Jason and she said that she was 18.

1 Word

Gross

I Love Sheldon Souray

Ever heard of Sheldon Souray? He's a defenseman for the Montreal Canadiens. Last night against the Pittsburgh Penguins he scored a goal and notched five assists, grabbing himself a team-record for most points by a defenseman in a single game. He also had four points on the power play. The Canadiens beat the Penguins by a score of 8-0.

The only reason I care is because my fantasy hockey team has been ailing lately, and Sheldon's performance last night was a big step in the right direction. Added to that was Martin Rucinsky's game-winning goal for the New York Rangers, which means that Ranger's goalie Mike Dunham also picked up the win. Combined, those players pushed me from fifth to fourth in my twelve-team league.

So, I'm in a pretty good mood so far today. Let's just see what the Eagles do. Go Birds!

Wing Bowl XXII

Anyone down this year? Anyone got some great Wing Bowl Stories to share?

Theater Excursions: Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

I never had anything against the Lord of the Rings movies, but I never really loved them either as much as mainstream society does. In fact I didn’t go out of my way to see them at all either. In fact I didn’t see either of the first two installments till this past year. Of course I will always check out the low-budget independent films, but let’s face it this kind of movie is why theaters were built in the first place. Inside the movie theater you can be carried away to worlds that never existed, or whiteness things you could never see in your natural life.

The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, is a unique film, because unlike most sequels it is just a continuation of the story that began in the original film. Many film franchises the money and cast are inked before any sort of logical story is created. Luckily director Peter Jackson had the books to work from, and had the sense to film it in New Zealand, likely the only place in the world a film like this could be shot. Clearly way to big for any Hollywood back lot. Hollywood has wanted to make a movie like this since the start of the industry.

In the evolution of films every important director that comes along tries to take movie making to the next level. It was easier to do such things back in the start of the industry because all it would take would be a simple shot, or actually moving the camera, to writing believable dialogue when the talkies came along, but more and more the can you top this game became more challenging. I don’t claim to be an expert on these films, since my knowledge in the mythology of the story is limited, heck I still get Mary and Pippin (sp?) mixed up. However since movies in the early days were confined by what could actually be done they either would embarrass themselves with horrible effects, or write the script to accommodate what could not be done visually. Every so often films dealing with fantasy or futuristic visions came along which required the director to challenge himself and the industry to make some sort of advancement on the screen.

Films like Metropolis and from A Trip to the Moon (actually a short silent film) were amebas on the evolution chain of film production, and along the way ever trick in the book was added. Alfred Hitchcock, and Orson Welles taught the industry how to set up camera angles in order to elevate emotion in the viewer. George Lucas although inferior to the prior mentioned along with Steve Spielberg kicked the effects industry into high gear. Ironically Lucas’s dip into CGI seemed almost like a back step compared to what he has achieved various effects in both prequels would have been impressive for PS2 game or a cartoon, but cinematically for me it didn’t live up to the Future is now hype that was around it. In people have gone buck wild with CGI thinking not only that it doesn’t limit them, but that they should over use it whether the plot calls for it or not, until the money runs out I guess. I usually just shake my head because it resulted in using it for explosions and extras, a money saver, but far less convincing if not laughable in films.


Jackson however was pleased because of his filming locations, and his effects team has to be the best in the business. The character of Gollum is pulled off through both this and the Two Towers with believability but in this final installment he is required to do much more. A few flaws here and there, but I think it might be CGI its peak. Each film more computer images seeped into production. Certainly the fight scenes were another challenge, with the amount of them it could become redundant and cliché like the Star Wars films have become, but for the most Jackson makes them come to life, and seem like a new concept.

The story wraps up the trilogy so during the whole time you are feeling a sense of closure coming, and wondering who is going to make it out alive. I could quibble with the low causality rate of the heroes of the film, but I don’t how you could kill off the core characters here, nor do I know their fates in the books. The film’s achievements I guess you have to see on the big screen to fully appreciate. Even standing alone Return of the King is landmark film flickering on the movie screen near you is everything a movie could possibly be it’s easily a landmark film in cinematically, epically, and culturally. I am not saying it is the best film ever made, but it captivates the audience and shows up how far film making has come and generally all that has been learned.

The film will likely stand the test of time because it is simply timeless. If you have to look at them a 3 separate films either Return of the King or Fellowship of the Ring will always be included in film historians most important and historic pictures list. Not that Two Towers was bad, but at least it will likely fall victim to being a bridge movie. Peter Jackson had an incredibly hard job filming these movies at the same time something likely to not be tried again for a long time. So much could have gone wrong with this films, but Jackson came out on top, and hopefully he receives an Oscar for his work with this landmark film. I don’t see Jackson topping this film ever although he is slated to remake King Kong, I wonder if Jackson is spent after this and will suffer form interpersonal pressure to recreate lightening in a bottle. The project was certainly blessed with movie magic, and seeing it on the small screen doesn’t do it much justice even the best HDTV televisions can’t contain a film like this. Hopefully the academy will realize that although a huge commercial film, it is still a landmark movie and if not best picture, best director for Jackson should be a no brainier.

Wisconsin Pride

From some random source in New Zealand of all places:

A Wisconsin man is threatening to sue his cable television company for conspiring to turn his entire family into couch potatoes, local newspapers reported yesterday.

In a complaint filed with local police, Timothy Dumouchel said the Charter Communications cable firm was responsible for his own TV addiction, his wife's 23kg weight gain and his children being "lazy channel surfers".

"I believe that the reason I smoke and drink every day and my wife is overweight is because we watched TV every day for the last four years," Dumouchel said in his written complaint.

He said he would be willing to forgo his small claims suit in exchange for $5 000, or three computers, or even a lifetime supply of free internet service from Charter.

Butte, MT

Last night at 8:30 pm I got a call from some lady representing this company Resodyn. They're a start up company in Butte, MT. Yeah! That booming metropolis Butte. Anyway, after talking to her for 30 minutes, I have zero idea why they are interested in me, or what job they are interested in bringing me in for. All I know is that their company has 26 people in it, and they have a guy who people call FX.

Anyway, the owner of this company is going to call me on Sunday. I swear, if he calls during the Eagles/Packers game, I'm not answering. I have zero interest in this job and I have no idea why I agreed to talk to this guy. I'm wagering that the job will pay about $25,000 a year less than the average Ph.D. chem. engin. salary. You will be kept informed.

I GOT NUTTIN'

Seriously I do not have a god damned thing to post about. Somebody already hit on the Pete Rose thing, I commented but I do not think that it went through. I agree with Drew anyway if it did not. I do not want to do another sports post, I am going to wait a little bit before I start Bush bashing and I do not do anything but sit at home and watch Hunter, and let me tell you that is really really boring. While I was sitting in bed the other night I had this epiphany, I had a great, insightful thought-and-comment producing idea but of course I went to sleep and woke up with an empty brain. Hopefully I can think of something soon because I am really not holding up my end of the posting deal. God I suck. Please comment below on how much I suck.

First Ever Trap Performance

I'm very pleased to announce the first ever public performance of my band, The Trap, on Friday, January 9, at The Speakeasy Cafe in Upper Darby, PA. We will be playing from 10:00pm to 11:00pm, and our blistering set of powerful, alcohol-fueled, guitar-driven rock contains such brilliant gems as "Big Girls", "All the Creatures", and "Alcoholiday". And, of course, several other tunes which are similarly brilliant. [Note: two of the above-mentioned songs are available for free download at The Trap website.]

At the website, you can also put yourself on our mailing list, which is the single best way available to keep yourself up-to-date on Trap affairs. Specifically, I believe that Rich (guitarist/singer and older brother of CrewBlogger Rob) intends to e-mail directions for the benefit of mailing-list members. If not, I can tell you that The Speakeasy Cafe is located at 55 Garret Rd, Upper Darby, PA, which is located close to Market Street. So, from the Ben Franklin Bridge, which may or may not be the best way to get there from South Jersey (no guarentees from me), you would get on 76 East, take exit 346B, which will dump you onto 38th Street, which will take you to Walnut Street, where you will turn left. Then, after travelling some 20-25 blocks, you will come to a T-junction, make a right, and make a left after one or two blocks onto Market Street. That's where I got lost, so you're on your own.

Just MapQuest the address and that should help.

I hope to see you there on Friday night. It's literally your one and only chance to see the first ever public performance by The Trap.

Confidential

I thought this e-mail I got this morning was about the CrewBlog, but nope. I am going to be really rich! SUCKERS! I am guessing this is Pyramid scam or something. Well if any of you can think of a reason why I SHOULD NOT do this I would like to hear it. I can't wait to meet YERIMAH.....I CAN'T WAIT

Here is the email:

FROM:MRS. M SESE-SEKO

DEAR FRIEND.
I AM MRS. MARIAM SESE-SEKO WIDOW OF LATE PRESIDENT
MOBUTU SESE-SEKO OF ZAIRE? NOW KNOWN AS DEMOCRATIC
REPUBLIC OF CONGO (DRC).I RECEIVED YOUR COMPANY
PROFILE FROM THE CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE IN MOROCCO.

I AM MOVED TO WRITE YOU THIS LETTER, THIS WAS IN
CONFIDENCE CONSIDERING MY PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCE
AND SITUATION. I ESCAPED ALONG WITH MY HUSBAND
AND TWO OF OUR SONS MUKOKO AND YERIMAH OUT OF
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (DRC) TO ABIDJAN,
COTE D'IVOIRE WHERE MY FAMILY AND I SETTLED, WHILE
WE LATER MOVED TO SETTLED IN MOROCCO WHERE MY
HUSBAND LATER DIED OF CANCER DISEASE.

HOWEVER DUE TO THIS SITUATION WE DECIDED TO CHANGED
MOST OF MY HUSBAND'S BILLIONS OF DOLLARS DEPOSITED
IN SWISS BANK AND OTHER COUNTRIES INTO OTHER FORMS OF
MONEY CODED FOR SAFE PURPOSE BECAUSE THE NEW HEAD OF
STATE OF (DRC) MR LAURENT KABILA HAS MADE ARRANGEMENT
WITH THE SWISS GOVERNMENT AND OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES
TO FREEZE ALL MY LATE HUSBAND'S TREASURES DEPOSITED
IN SOME EUROPEAN COUNTRIES. HENCE MY CHILDREN AND I
DECIDED WHEN THINGS GETS BETTER, LIKE NOW THAT
PRESIDENT KABILA IS DEAD AND THE SON TAKING OVER
(JOSEPH KABILA). ONE OF MY LATE HUSBAND'S CHATEAUX
IN SOUTHERN FRANCE WAS CONFISCATED BY THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT,
AND AS SUCH I HAD TO CHANGE MY IDENTITY SO THAT MY
INVESTMENT WILL NOT BE TRACED AND CONFISCATED.
I HAVE DEPOSITED THE SUM OF ONE HUNDRED MILLION UNITED
STATE DOLLARS(US$I00,000,000,00.)
WITH A SECURITY COMPANY , FOR SAFEKEEPING.

THE FUNDS ARE SECURITY CODED TO PREVENT THEM FROM
KNOWING THE CONTENT. WHAT I WANT YOU TO DO IS TO
INDICATE YOUR INTEREST THAT YOU WILL ASSIST US BY
RECEIVING THE MONEY ON OUR BEHALF.

ACKNOWLEDGE THIS MESSAGE, SO THAT I CAN INTRODUCE
YOU TO MY SON (YERIMAH) WHO HAS THE OUT MODALITIES
FOR THE CLAIM OF THE SAID FUNDS. I WANT YOU TO
ASSIST IN INVESTING THIS MONEY, BUT I WILL NOT
WANT MY IDENTITY REVEALED.

I WILL ALSO WANT TO BUY PROPERTIES AND STOCK
IN MULTI-NATIONAL COMPANIES AND TO ENGAGE IN
OTHER SAFE AND NON-SPECULATIVE INVESTMENTS.

MAY I AT THIS POINT EMPHASISE THE HIGH LEVEL
OF CONFIDENTIALITY, WHICH THIS BUSINESS DEMANDS,
AND HOPE YOU WILL NOT BETRAY THE TRUST AND CONFIDENCE,
WHICH I REPOSE IN YOU.IN CONCLUSION, IF YOU WANT
TO ASSIST US , MY SON SHALL PUT YOU IN THE PICTURE
OFTHE BUSINESS, TELL YOU WHERE THE FUNDS ARE CURRENTLY
BEING MAINTAINED AND ALSO DISCUSS OTHER MODALITIES
INCLUDING RENUMERATIONS FOR YOUR SERVICES.

FOR THIS REASON KINDLY FURNISH US YOUR CONTACT
INFORMATION, THAT IS YOUR PERSONAL TELEPHONE
AND FAX NUMBER FOR CONFIDENTIAL PURPOSE AND
ACKNOWLEDGE RECEIPT OF THIS MAIL USING THE
BELOW EMAIL ADDRESS.
BEST REGARDS,

MRS M. SESE SEKO.

More Pete Rose

In Terminus style, an interesting article from Peter Gammons:

The best statement:

Fay Vincent, a very good man who deserves all of baseball's apologies for the way he was treated, refuted that "the fans want Pete in Cooperstown" argument by pointing out that, in 1947, 15 of 16 owners voted not to allow Jackie Robinson into the majors -- and 85 percent of Americans were against such integration, too. Well, what Branch Rickey did against public opinion, seven years before Brown v. Board of Education, is the single most important moment in baseball and sports history, proof that it's not about what the majority wants at one moment. It's about what's right.

This is heart of the story. We know the people want Pete Rose in the Hall of Fame There's also little doubt that people want Pete Rose in baseball. These aren't the questions at all. The question is What is the right thing for baseball?. Just as it was right to allow Jackie Robinson to play, it is wrong to ignore a sacred rule for anyone. The fact that this person shows no remourse for his actions, is still lying to the public and baseball, is trying to make a profit from this, and has no respect for the game at all doesn't help.

Two very important things.

1. Tug McGraw, as I'm sure you all already know, is dead. Moment of silence. Please note: This does not count towards the suit-death. I will not be attending the Tugger's funeral and so we are all still at risk. Beware the death-suit.

2. I find out all sorts of wacky stuff from my job, one of the few up-sides. The proofreader on my team ran across an abstract on Pubmed about "oral meat tenderizer" therapy. The truly amazing thing about it is that it is exactly what she was looking for.

Apparently, a 54-year-old schizophrenic man with a 15-year history of ingesting metal objects, mostly coins. He developed sideroblastic anemia and zinc toxicity among other serious problems. And one of the drup therapy's used: "Adolph's meat tenderizer... thrice a day orally," so that he could shit the metal out. Long story short, he both refused surgery and refused to stop eating metal, as schizophrenics do, I guess, and died of sepsis and multi organ failure. During the autopsy, they found almost 2 kilograms of coins in his stomach and another coin bezoar in his stomach. Thank you, PubMed and Kumar A, Jazieh AR., for enlightening me. Happy New Year.

Quote of the Day

From Bob Hertzel, sports editor of the Morgantown (W.Va.) Dominion Post, who covered Pete Rose for The Cincinnati Enquirer, on whether he'd let Pete Rose manage again:

"I'm not going to let Michael Jackson babysit my kids."

I would like to hear my fellow Crew members view on the Pete Rose thing. If desired, I can write a nice long post on my views.

What a Pair!

I just returned home from an evening at my friend Jamie's apartment. Jamie, by the way, has recently joined the CrewBlog, and I hope he will be posting shortly. But that's not what I came to discuss. Jamie and I, along with his girlfriend Monica (I am the perpetual third wheel; it is my lot in life) watched two movies together. And I venture to guess that never before in the history of the world has anyone watched these two particular movies together on the same day. The movies were: Plan 9 From Outer Space and The Pianist.

The first movie was every bit as awful as you've heard (though I'm not so sure about Worst Movie Ever, as it's commonly described). The second movie was every bit as good as you've heard. Neither film was "enjoyable" in the normal sense. Plan 9... was excruciatingly bad, though very funny, as truly horrid movies frequently are. The Pianist was excruciatingly good. Powerful, affecting, and thoroughly disturbing. The evening as a whole was a lot of fun.

Despite the fact that, as usual, Jamie had some wicked gas.

Herp

When I was living and working in New Brunswick a few years ago, I met a young lady (a college freshman) whom I shall not name. Now, I met her through my friend and then-housemate Wadleigh, who tried, unsuccessfully, to have sex with her. Once his advances were rebuffed, Wadleigh seemed to lose all interest in her, but fortunately for me, she and I became friends. I haven't talked to her in forever, though, because I am a very bad friend.

I'm also a bad friend for having participated, callously and thoughtlessly, in applying to her the nickname "Herp", in light of the fact that she, unluckily, contracted a common and incurable venereal disease known as Herpes. [This occurred after Wadleigh had given up, and she and I never had any sort of romantic or sexual relationship, so no worries there.] I felt twinges of guilt over this unforgiveable behavior whenever I've thought about her, but now, I think, I've found way to make amends.

Henceforth, I propose that the nickname "Herp" be applied to another person entirely. That person: Neil Bush, brother to the President. For more information about Neil's unfortunate bout with Herpes, click either link above and scroll down to "Talking Dirty With Neil Bush".

It really seems a shame to me when I think of my old friend. She got too drunk at a frat party, and, like millions of other young women every year, engaged in some unwise behavior. Just from that one indiscretion, she'll have Herpes for the rest of her life. Herp's case is a lot less sympathetic, as you'll see from following the links. He had sex, on diverse occasions, with prostitutes who simply arrived (without invitation or payment from Herp himself) at his hotel room. That's why I think that the nickname should be placed on Neil Bush, rather than my friend, because he seems to have earned the level of shame that, fairly or unfairly, frequently attaches to people who have Herpes.

Who's with me?

Britney, Britney, Britney

Everyone's heard about Britney getting married, and now having that marriage annulled. This screams of a drunken escapade, but sources are saying no. From USA Today:

George Maloof Jr., owner of the Palms, who is described as a good friend of Spears', confirmed to the Associated Press that the two had wed but denied rumors Spears was drunk and had to be carried out of the hotel's Rain nightclub on New Year's Eve.

"I was with her the whole night," he told the AP. "None of those reports were accurate. She was just having a good time."

The crack reporting team of myself puts this together as evidence:


The left is the marriage licence, the right is the annullment form.

Sure Britney.....sure.....

By the way, on 3 days on Blogger, I have managed to do more than Keith has done in over 2.years.

High School

One of my favorite Xanga-ites, Amy (her screenname is something odd I don't get) had a nice post about school, procrastination and intelligence. [If it's such a nice post, why not link to it? --ed.] Being intelligent, smart and in high school sucks. Why did I say both intelligent and smart, because in my mind there is a difference. An intelligent person can pick things up easily, learn everything that is trying to be taught. The difference is that dumb intelligent people will studying for 4 hours a night making sure they get straight A's, while a smart intelligent person will doing enough to get where they want to be. The valadictorian of our class went to a crappy in-state college. Of course, he could have achieved that same goal without busting his hump and destroying what high school should be about, finding out who you are socially and physically as well as mentally.

The problem is that high school isn't geared for intelligent people. It's geared for dumb people in most aspects. Yeah, there are AP level classes, so on and so on, but the problem is larger. Most high schools view success as getting people into college. The problem is that I'd wager about 70% of the people in high school (at least mine) aren't college material. Still, the high school's goal is to get everyone into college, meaning that things get dumbed down, exams are easier, and the intelligent people get bored.

I'd like to think I'm smarter than I am intelligent. I got through high school with maybe doing one homework assignment on my own per marking period (basically 2 months). Obviously I was smart enough to work my friends for the homework assignments that I didn't do (and I had enough of them that I didn't abuse each person's kindness too frequently). I read maybe 20% of the books I was required to read for English classes. I never read any text books. I studied for maybe 2 exams a year, including finals. I didn't get straight A's by any means, but I did well enough to get into a top 5 chemical engineering program. This says to me that something is very very wrong. You can see the difference. Right away when I started my undergraduate degree, I started getting better grades than I ever did. It wasn't because I suddenly got smarter, it was because I wasn't bored.

So, how is this fixed? The problem is society. It's all these people going to community or junior colleges who are just wasting their time (and no, I'm not talking about anyone in particular). We have this idea that in order to be happy in life, we all need to have college degrees, an idea that simply isn't true. There's MILLIONS of trades that pay well. Sure you won't be making six figures, but you'll have enough to support yourself and a family. There's all kinds of certifications you can get, be it in computers or repair, or whatever. There's TONS of things people can do besides go to college. The problem is that we don't tell people it's ok to not go to college after high school. It's expected of a lot of people who just aren't interested in higher education.

This is my abrupt ending to my random rant.

Tucker's Films

As you know I am a movie buff. So I have selected some of the movies I have gotten off of Netflix. First up...

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

Frank Capra’s pre-war film actually holds up well and seems as though it could have been written in modern times as far as the story goes. The basic plot involves a group of corrupt politicians who have a plan to purchase cheap land under fake names from the government. Evidentially they will sell the land back for a huge profit. Their scheme hits a snag when one of their participants in the Senate drops dead.

In order to make sure their plan isn’t foiled they pick out Jefferson Smith who runs his own camp for boys serving as a role model for children. He loves American history so much he can easily recite the Gettysburg address or talk in length about any former President. Since he was getting good press for his work he is picked by the politicians to be appointed to the vacant position. They figure he will be not only naïve, but overwhelmed by the all the behind the scenes action that he wouldn’t even be able to put two and two together. Not to mention he was beloved by the public so it makes them look good.

When Mr. Smith gets to Washington DC he's sort of like Tucker when he drinks: aimlessly wonders off. He is just delighted to be in the nation’s capital. He pays a visit to the Lincoln Memorial and various other locations. When he finally resurfaces he tells them how important it is for everyone to visit all the landmarks Washington has to offer. I really loved the one scene when Smith just gets all excited to see the Capital Building at night.

So basically everyone who is in Washington thinks he is a goof ball and annoyingly over patriotic. There is one girl who sympathizes with him, but aside from that the friends he makes in Washington give him no reason to have enemies. The media paints him into being a jackass, and totally distorts stuff he told them and belittles his political abilities.

Smith eventually tries to redeem himself by buying land for his boys’ camp that he has figured would be cheap. Unfortunately it is the same land the politicians needed for the scam. The movie really starts asking political questions at this point in the film, and Smith’s enemies start playing hardball. In one seen he feels betrayed by his mentor. His mentor admits that he has to look the other way quite often when corrupt things go on, or else he wouldn’t be able to get any good policies passed.

The film deals with issues of the media being slanted to favor politicians. aint anyone as villains if someone influences them to do so. It raises the question of being weary about who is controlling the information. Mr. Smith has to now not only prove there is something fishy going on but he has to clear his own name. In the process he must not seem like a nut or anti-American implying that his Government is shady. In a last ditch effort Smith takes the Senate floor and plans to keep it as long as he has a voice, resulting in one of the most famous film climaxes in the classic era.

Ironically when the film was released it was bitterly denounced by Washington insiders angry at its allegations of corruption, yet banned by Fascist states in Europe who were afraid it showed that democracy works. Amazing how people could get two different perspectives. Many people at the time actually thought it was anti-democracy and Capra was trying to sneak in a pro-communism ideal into the Unsuspecting American public. Um, well I don’t think CapraCORN was a WMD against freedom loving people to spread any kind of pro-communist agenda.

I think Capra was just saying democracy is great and all but it doesn’t mean we are immune to having horribly dishonest people manipulating the system for their own personal gain. In fact it is human nature for such things to occur with all the power that is given to elected officials. We can either A. Refuse to let the politicians in power to get away with benefiting financially or B. Take the good with the bad. C. Live in total denial that our government could ever have political insiders get away with more and more while we just wave flags, and talk about Washington chopping down a cherry tree. Capra wanted people to realize that we don’t have to accept corruption as part of the way the system works. We should expose these rats or it will get out of hand and become too easy for them to sweep it all under the rug.

The movie not only well acted but still very topical. A great early performance by James Stewart. A must see for movie buffs. Comment on here if you want to discuss this film anymore.

Nightlife

Being single really bites sometimes. The time in particular when it does bite is every Saturday night. Instead of having the unspoken Saturday night is our night date/time with girlfriend, I have the unspoken Saturday night is our night to try to find someone so I don't have to spend time with you idiots night with my guy friends. Tonight's lucky winners were Tony and Vassu. They were rather stoned. I left my place around 10pm and met with them at some bar in the very hippy part of town. I'm kind of hippie, in the respect that I dance to the beat of my own drummer, but I wasn't dressed in hippie attire. A turtleneck sweater, khakiis, black leather coat, and brown dress shoes doesn't really scream hippy.

Anyway, we were at this one bar called the Wild Iris, or I don't know. Something with a W. Anyway, it was a nice place, decent drinks, good crowd. In the table behind us was 5 girls with one guy. The guy was obviously paired up with one of the girls, but still, that was 4 girls, all of which were attractive. I overheard them having a nice conversation of which Sex in the City character they most resembled. While 99% of the guys in the bar would go for Samantha, the slutty one played by Kim Cattrell, I'm looking for more of a Charlotte (Kirstin Davis) with the eccentricity and quirkyness of Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) I guess. Anyway, after all 4 of them said Carrie and argued over why they best represented Carrie I got bored and lost interest. I guess people always feel the need to be the star. It's a shame that in life we're all stars in our own minds, but when it comes down to it, we're extras in most people's lives, be it the person walking down the street, or the girl across the bar. For everyone in the bar that night, I was just an extra.

Dating isn't easy, and I really don't help myself. I know what I want, but yet I never go for it. I want acceptance (i.e. relationship), but I never try for fear of rejection. In a way it's poetic. But in a bigger way it's pathetic.

New Year's Resolution #1: Get over my fear of rejection.
Plan: I must talk to one new girl every time I go out.

Things I Hate About Sports

Now don't get me wrong I love sports. Next to masturbation it is one of my favorite activities in life. But sometimes there are things that go on that just make you want to scream and stab everyone in the eye, maybe that is just me. This are some of those instances.

1. Those jackasses who sit in the stands on their cellphones and wave to the TV audience. I really really hope these morons get a brain tumor.

2. The new way of giving people nicknames by taking the first initial of the first name and the first syllable of the last name. It started, and was pretty cool, with CWebb (Chris Webber), but now it has gone too far. BMitch (Brian Mitchell[MITCHELL!!!]) BDawk (Brian Dawkins) PBurr (Plaxico Burress) are some of the ones that I have heard recently and they are just plain awful, it does not work with everyone and it needs to stop..now!

3. Stuart Scott, Sportcenter anchor. You're black, I get it, now just read the fucking score and shut up. If I wanted a lesson in hip-hop I would watch fucking BET.

4. People who think that they are athletes and activities that think they are sports. NASCAR, golf and bowling are some recent example of people/games that confuse themselves with athletes/sports. There is nothing athletic about driving a car, or rolling a ball, or hitting a stationary ball and walking, just realize that you people could not cut in the real sports and you excel in your own little world lameness and leave me alone.

5. Women's sports. Alright I am a sexist and I really just loathe them. Women just do not possess the athletic talent to compete with men on any level. I guess that it is okay for girls but just do not pretend that you are better than me and PLEASE do not waste TV time showing your games and highlights, no one cares.

6. College sports. Maybe this is because I went to a small Division III school that had very few real sports, but I just cannot care about college sports. I especially hate it on Saturdays during football season when I am trying to get a hockey score on the bottom line and I have to wait an hour and a half for the Austin Peay-Sam Houston score to scroll by so I can see a score I care about.

7. Expansion. It just kills sports. It waters down the talent and inflates payrolls. Just look at the most recent baseball expansion: the Tampa Bay Devil Rays are an awful team (even by expansion levels) and play in an awful stadium thus nobody goes to see them play. Every league has teams that cannot compete and are just playing out a season with no hope of winning. If each league cut five teams they would be so much better off.

8. New York teams. I just hate them so much, with every fiber of my being. They are so arrogant and they all have so much money to piss away, and I do mean piss away. With the exception of the Yankees they all blow. Christ, both of their football teams play in Jersey.

9. Jackasses. Unfortunately all sports are filled with them. People like Ricky Davis and T.J. Duckett, these are the nimrods that celebrate their own accomplishments like they just won the championship when in reality they are getting their jocks handed to them. People like Terrell Owens and Randy Moss who want the ball on every play and bitch and moan when they do not get it, they are cancers to TEAM sports. People like Rasheed Wallace who complain about being exploited and racism when he is making $17 MILLION a year. Fuck them all.

That is all for now but if you can think about anything that irks you in sports I encourage you to mention them in the comment section. If I can think of any more I will but them in there. Thank you for your support.

Oh yeah I almost forgot...Keith is an idiot.

The Greedmaster

"The day I found out about the Greedmaster, was the day I started living in fear" - The Fonz 1997

That is your fair warning, once you know about the Greedmaster, he will haunt you.

First of all, I hate the Dallas Cowboys. It is currently 16-3 at halftime, in favor of the Panthers, but the Cowboys will win. Why, because of the Greedmaster.

Who is the Greedmaster? The name is explanatory, he lives on greed. When people say "I never get into car accidents", and wham, accident; that is the work of the Greedmaster. When people say "Haha, look at all those suckers stuck in traffic on the southbound", and wham, traffic on the northbound; that's him again. The Greedmaster lives on this. He lives on nevers and always. The Greedmaster loves stats with zeros. Such as "the Dallas Cowboys are 0-5 when they have trailed by over 7 points" or "the Dallas Cowboys are 0-22 in the last 5 years when trailing at halftime on the road". An example of the Greedmaster at work? In the first half, ABC shows the wonderful stat: Carolina 9 TD on the 9 times they were on the opposing 1 yard time. What happens? Carolina fails to get a touchdown on the 1 yard line, not once, but twice. Thank you Greedmaster. For this reason, the Cowboys will win. All day, ABC has been throwing all these "Cowboys are 0-forever" when trailing statistics.

Knowing this information, you will see his acts on a daily basis. You will go around saying "don't tempt the Greedmaster", or "that's what you get when you tempt the Greedmaster". I am sorry for ruining your life with this knowledge, but I am doing it for a selfish reason you see.

Predicting that the Dallas Cowboys will win, is in a way, tempting the Greedmaster.

The Usefulness of Sports Knowledge

Normally, we don't think about our hobbies in terms of usefulness. Hobbies are just activities which entertain us, and that's all. But yesterday, I was struck by how very useful it can be to have at least a basic conversational knowledge of sports.

My sister had an open-house yesterday to show off some remodelling that she and her husband had done with the house. Well, this isn't exactly my scene, you know? I'm not a terribly outgoing person, and I don't usually hit it off with strangers. And, at least while I was there, this open house was nothing but strangers.

But I was wearing a Philadelphia Eagles jacket. Another guy came in wearing a Sixers jackets. His son was wearing a Michael Vick jersey. These were sports guys, and I could talk to them about sports. These people were perfect strangers to me, and that was fine. I didn't want to make new friends. I didn't want to hear about this guy's job, or his family, or his last vacation. But I did want to be friendly and sociable. So we talked sports.

This is all very new to me. Despite the fact that I've been an Eagles fan for a long, long time, I've never really considered myself a "sports guy". But, over the last couple years, I've managed to progress to the point where I can hold down a basic level sports conversation without too much trouble. I really have to thank Jay, Duke, and Keith for that. And while I follow the sports because I enjoy them, I'm beginning to realize how useful it is. I'm a law student working in a liquor store, after all. There ain't a whole lot I can talk to my co-workers about. But we can, and do, talk sports. Very handy.

Theater Excursions: Paycheck

Starring Ben Affleck, Uma Thurman, Aaron Eckhardt, and Paul Giamatti
Written by Dean Georgaris
Based on a short story by Philip K. Dick
Directed by John Woo

[I’m implementing a new feature here on CrewBlog. Every time I go out and see a movie in theaters, I’m going to come back and write it up here on the blog. I invite my co-bloggers to do the same, if they so choose. Or not. Whatever. I didn’t really expect that this feature would debut today, the very day CrewBlog is debuting, but life’s like that sometimes. I was bored this evening, so I decided to go see a movie.]

The best thing that Paycheck has going for it is an interesting premise. Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck) is an engineer who makes his living by taking new electronic products and reverse engineering them to allow rival companies to put out similar (if not superior) products of their own. For security reasons, his memory is erased after each job, to prevent him from selling the secrets he’s unlocked to any other rival companies. [I wonder if he’s ever reversed engineered any of his own forgotten products.]

When he’s offered a highly lucrative job by his friend Rethrick (Aaron Eckhardt), who also happens to be head honcho for a firm called Allcom, he jumps at the chance. The only catch: it’s a three-year job, rather than the usual month or two. Jennings decides to trade three years of his life for a massive windfall at the other end. But when he goes to collect his money, having no memory of what he did to get it, he discovers that he previously traded his 50,000 high-priced Allcom stocks for 20 worthless, everyday items in a small brown envelope. To make matters worse, he’s being hunted by both the FBI and the security goons from Allcom.

From there we get an interesting sci-fi story told within a conventional Fugitive-type structure. And, since this is John Woo, we get two identical extreme-close-up standoffs. Because one just doesn't cut it, apparently. Unfortunatley, the film is plagued by even more serious problems. The plot contains a couple of serious holes, and has a few rather contrived twists along the way also. It isn't revealing too much, I hope, to mention that the plot involves predicting the future. This element exposes the story to the same logical conundrum that Minority Report ran into, which is the extent to which a prediction changes the very future it was predicting. But other flaws were even more serious.

First of all, Aaron Eckhardt plays an extremely bland villain. His blandness is only matched by the King of Bland, Afflect himself. Not even Uma "Kill Bill" Thurman can inject much life into this business. Only Paul Giamatti, playing the standard comic-relief sidekick role, manages to really do anything with the script.

That having been said, it's at least a minimally enjoyable popcorn movie. The flaws I mention prevent the film from being good, but they don't in and of themselves make it bad. If you're in the mood for a little mindless action-movie fare, John Woo-style, then Paycheck is a good bet. If you're looking for a quality cinema experience, you should know better than to get anywhere near Ben Affleck.

Opinion Time

Here's the situation. Now, I don't play a lot of video games, but I just purchased Final Fantasy X. I live with a roommate. All of the electronic stuff in our living room is mine. So, to play FFX; the TV, the Playstation 2, FFX, and the FFX guide are all mine. Now, I play FFX for about 2 hours a day, at most, and I know it's rather dull to watch someone play a boring video game so I try to play when my roommate is upstairs, which usually means he's asleep. I try to be very courteous to my roommate, and all and all we get along great.

The problem is that my roommate has started to play FFX as well, starting from the beginning. The problem is that plays when I'm around, which means I get to watch him do things I've already done. There is nothing more boring than this, watching someone play a portion of the game that you have already played, and he will play for hours at a time.

What should I do? My room is rather barren, since all of my entertainment stuff is in our living room, so when I am home, I usually like being downstairs and watching something. Previously this hasn't been a problem because my roommate and I watch similar shows and we don't watch many prime time shows. I don't mind him playing when I'm not there, but I don't want to watch him play for hours. He can also say he doesn't like watching me play, although like I said I try to play mostly when he isn't around, but the only reason I play downstairs is that is where all my stuff is. I would move it upstairs into my room, but he would really have nothing at all.

So....advice, give me, give me, give me.

Happy New Year!

2004 already. It seems like only yesterday everyone was predicting the end of the world when the Y2K single-handedly destroyed human civilization forever. Of course, I may not be as old as Mosco305, but I'm starting to feel the changes. Time speeds up the older you get. That means we're not only getting older, we're getting older faster. God, that's depressing.

Nevermind. I hate New Year's Eve. I really hate it. It's a stupid celebration of a completely arbitrary day. But hey, if people want to get drunk, that's cool. I have no problem with people getting drunk. But the whole ball-dropping, champagne-popping, Auld-Lang-Syne singing bullshit is just intolerable. If you want to get drunk, get drunk. Don't pretend it has any sort of greater significance. It's a day on which you don't have to go to work on the following day. Therefore, you drink like a fish. Let's leave the calendar out of it entirely, shall we?

Or, maybe you don't drink like a fish. I didn't. I sold alcohol to lots of other people who did. Let me tell you, you don't ever want to work in a liquor store on New Year's Eve. Not ever. It was dreadful. Once that was done, I drove into Philly to hang out with my friends Jess and Stacy, Stacy's friend Lisa and Lisa's sister Cheryl. Me and four lovely young ladies. Not too bad. It was one of those quiet, chill evenings. No one was really drinking. We dabbled with some sort of party game, but it didn't take. We watched the ball drop (I went to bathroom during the actual moment) and then watched the late night talk shows. Not exactly epic, but I had a good time. I don't get to see Jess very much and I hardly ever get to see Stacy, so I'll take what I can get. Besides, my only other option was to stay home entirely, which isn't much of an option when you still live with your parents.

Anyway, welcome to the new Crewblog.

Age, the final frontier...

God I'm old. Granted I don't have a receding hairline and 26 years of Dr. Who knowledge, but I, and not Drew, am the oldest member of the crew. Call me Polygrip if you want, I don't care.

Being old has some pluses, or so I'm told, but one of the minuses is that you lose your tolerance. I remember New Year's Eve's where I drank bottles of Jack Daniels and then did card tricks to amaze the crowd. Well, that's an exaggeration too. I drank a flask of JD and lifted the card from the bottom of the deck to fool people just as drunk as I was and who had no interest. So here I write, hung over; it's a chore.

Anyway, New Year's Eve historically never was a great day for Mosco305. There's been some really lame ones, ranging from sitting at home studying for qualifying exams to walking up and down State Street at midnight looking for a bar with less than an hour wait to get into them. This year was no different. I had some different options, here were the top 3:

Option A: Luther's Blues, cover fee $25, drinks $5, cab $20, 2 bands, 5 DJs,.
Pluses: Probably a good male to female ratio; probably right age group; lots of room
Minuses: Expensive, I don't like crappy bands, I hate dancing, so the DJs are out, insanely loud

Option B: Coach's, $55, all you can eat, all you can drink
Pluses: I get my fill
Minuses: Still expensive, their usually clientele is 35+, bar is really really lame

Option C: Stay in and hang with the Trooper (my roommate), $0
Pluses: I get my fill, I spend no money
Minuses: I feel insanely lame, don't get to hang with my friends.

I chose option C, if only for the economic ramifications. Yes, sitting around on New Year's Eve. I am lame in my old age. Mock away my friends, mock away. But I'll tell you what, Fast Times at Ridgemont High is great when you're drunk. I think I'd might enjoy more of Cameron Crowe's movies if I was drunk for them.