Ngewo's World

Clint Eastwood SNL Sketches

2012-02-14T11:15:00.001-05:00

These almost made me pee myself...especially the second one.

Seriously, please have Clint Eastwood do a Little Caesar's commercial...

Sports Greatness: Baseball Edition Part One

2012-02-12T20:08:00.000-05:00

The other day I was listening to the radio and heard the sports guys talking about Kobe Bryant surpassing Magic Johnson as the greatest Laker of all time. This got me to thinking about who the greatest players are from each team. Then it got me thinking about something else. When you think of a sports team, what is the first thing that pops into your head?

That is what this list is, so please do not comment that Player X is the greatest for that team or that I am forgetting some other moment, blah blah blah. If you want to list your own, do so in the comments.

Today, we shall do the National League of baseball...

Pittsburgh Pirates
This is my favorite team. So obviously plenty of things stick out for me. When I think about the Pirates though, there is one player that will always stand out: Andy Van Slyke. He was my favorite player as a kid. I had all of his cards, I even had every magazine I could find with interviews with him.

Atlanta Braves
Pure hatred. When I think of them, I see Sid Bream sliding home. I remember being upset about the Pirates losing and my dad telling me not to worry that we would get 'em next year. Ugh. How wrong those words were...

Philadelphia Phillies
Mike Schmidt. That dude had a great mustache. A close second for me is Lenny Dykstra. My cousin always argued that he was better than Van Slyke.

New York Mets

My friend James. I never know what is worse, the Pirates ridiculous long losing streak or being a fan of a team that comes close, but never actually wins. I will always associate the Mets with watching Carlos Beltran strike out against the Cardinals and also seeing James' face as it happened. Dude was heartbroken.

Chicago Cubs
Ryne Sandberg. Not only was he a great second baseman, but his son had probably one of the funniest interviews during an All Star game. The kid is there to watch his dad and they ask him the usual questions, then the interviewer notices the kid has a gold necklace with a number 23 on it. He asks "oh, do you wear that for your dad?" The kid responds "no, my favorite player is Michael Jordan."

St. Louis Cardinals
Bob Gibson. One of the most dominant and downright nasty pitchers of all time. Hell, MLB had to change the rules after his 1968 season. Actually, that always reminds me of how MLB will fiddle with rules in order to help attendance. They raised the mound in the early 1960s which led to pitcher dominance, then had to shrink the strike zone to help hitters out. Read about the rule changes sometime, it is quite funny.

Houston Astros
The look on Brad Lidge's face when Albert Pujols decided to hit a ball that is somewhere in space right now.

Cincinnati Reds
The 1990 World Series when the mighty Oakland A's got swept by the Reds. I remember this series because I thought the A's would easily win it. This taught me a valuable lesson: anything can happen in baseball.

San Francisco Giants
Speaking of World Series'...I will always remember what I told my dad when he asked me who I thought would win game three. I said something like "no one, the game is going to be cancelled due to an earthquake." Yep, I predicted that one...and no that does not make me at all special.

Los Angeles Dodgers
Jackie Robinson. I do not think I need to really explain this one.

San Diego Padres
The first game I ever went to was at Three Rivers Stadium against the Padres. I was five years old. My entire family went as a large group and if I remember correctly, we were there for the entire series. We used to do that a few different times during my youth. Anyways, my mom and aunts went to the Padres dugout and bugged the players until they tossed them some balls (haha that is funny sounding). I had a ball from the Padres, which I lost a few years later because I was an idiot and used it during a pickup game of baseball. Exactly like The Sandlot!

Colorado Rockies
Dante Bichette. Mainly because of that awesome name, but also because he is embodiment of someone who benefited from playing in Denver.

Florida Marlins
Winning the 1997 World Series was pretty impressive, but winning a second one in 2003 was craziness. Especially since they did it against the mighty Yankees and their endless payroll. Also, the first time they did it by building a team with cash, this time they did it with their young players acquired during the previous firesale.

Arizona Diamondbacks
Luis Gonzalez single during game seven of the 2001 World Series. As I have stated many times before, I stopped watching baseball in 1994 because of the strike. The McGwire/Sosa home run chase brought me back a little bit, then the Subway Series brought me mostly back. '01 was pretty much the first year that I really got back into baseball. This was a fantastic series to watch.

Washington Nationals
Adam Dunn crushing a ball against the Pirates. Yep, I went to see the Pirates/Nationals the night after Stephen Strasburg made his debut. Whatever, I saw his debut in Altoona.

Milwaukee Brewers
Screw them. I try to block them out.

Stay tuned for the American League.

Weigh-In Wednesday

2012-02-08T12:39:00.001-05:00

Last week when I started this, I weighed 187.6, today I way 180.8. I have lost 6.8 pounds by just giving up Mountain Dew. And yes, I have not had one. I will be honest though, it is extremely difficult.

I have had worse withdrawals with this than with giving up smoking. At work has been the hardest. I go to grab a drink and my immediate reaction is to go for the soda, but then I stop myself and have water.

I posted the question on facebook, asking everyone what I could drink instead. Apparently the only drink out there aside from soda is some form of tea. I am not a huge tea fan. I will keep searching though.

I knew this would not be easy, but seeing the results so quickly has helped encourage me. I will keep this up.

Justified: Devil You Know

2012-02-08T02:28:00.002-05:00

This episode of Justified was supposed to be a simple one where Raylan tracks down two escaped fugitives. Oddly though, this episode was anything, but simple. In actuality, the escaped fugitives were Dicky and Dewey, the two biggest idiots on the show.

They are actually broken out by the guard and the prison doctor, the guard wants Dicky's money. Now, while all this is happening, Quarles makes an offer to Devil. We never hear it out loud, but we all know what they want: Boyd dead.

Naturally, Raylan pays a visit to Boyd to see if he knows where the fugitives are hiding. Raylan reminds Boyd that he can keep better tabs on Dicky if he is in prison. Anyways, in the end Raylan captures Dicky, who survived with some help from Mr. Limehouse. He then learns that the good doctor has Dewey. The doctor is about to take out Dewey's kidney...

Favorite part of the episode? Raylan hitting the prison guard with his car, and then seeing him get up and deciding to back into him. Best way to avoid using a gun. Also, telling him that his spleen could rupture was also pretty good.

The episode ends with Devil and Johnny confronting Boyd. We all knew that Boyd would see it coming and that Johnny would not betray Boyd, but what made this great: Boyd does not offer a choice or say a whole, he just shoots Devil and then asks him if he wants him to take the pain away. He then puts the gun to his head, we hear Devil whimper and as the screen goes black, we hear the gunshot.

So, that sets up a few things for next week. Dewey doing Deweyesque things, like robbing strip clubs or something. He needs money, I think for his kidney. Boyd versus Quarles. Limehouse continuing to be a badass. And Raylan in the center of it all. I mean, if not for him, so much of this shit would not be happening. Pretty crazy when you think about it.

And thanks to Warming Glow for this:

Amazing Spider-Man Preview

2012-02-07T12:59:00.001-05:00

I have not posted about this movie yet. I still think rebooting the franchise is rather stupid, I think you could continue with different actors, but whatever. It does not look terrible, is that a compliment?

Pope Vader

2012-02-05T16:18:00.001-05:00

2012: Chevy Super Bowl Ad

2012-02-03T20:48:00.001-05:00

I actually enjoyed this commercial for the most part. I just wish they would have omitted the Mayan Apocalypse newspaper headline at the beginning. Why not just use "End of the World" as the headline? Instead, Chevy continues to push this idiotic idea on people.

NFL Pick 'Em: Super Bowl Version

2012-02-02T19:29:00.004-05:00

I was 2-0, which brings me to 5-5 for the playoffs, which means my total record for the year is 128-128. I need to get the Super Bowl right to have a winning record. Pretty crazy.

New York Giants vs. New England Patriots (-3.0): Giants
I do not have a lot of reasoning behind this one. It just seems to me that the Giants are going to win the game. Plus, you should not come to me for in-depth analysis, go to ESPN or any other channel covering such things.

Instead though, let us look at some of the fun prop bets:

Coin Toss: Heads

Kelly Clarkson Bets
-Will she forget words?--No
-Will she wear a jersey?--No
-How long to sing the anthem?--Under 1:34
-Show her bare belly?--Yes

Other People Mentions:
-Number of times Peyton Manning shown?--Over 3.5 (I would say five times)
-Number of times they show Giselle?--Over .5 (I would say at least two times)
-How many times will Andrew Luck be mentioned?--Over 1.0 (I say three times)

Random:
-Color of Gatorade on winning coach: Blue (it's a 10:1 long-shot)
-Super Bowl MVP Thank First? God

And that is all I am doing, I will not even mention any of the stupid Madonna stuff.

Groundhog Day

2012-02-02T07:48:00.000-05:00

I just discovered that I have never posted anything about this idiotic holiday. And, since everyone in the universe is posting videos from one of my favorite movies, I figured I better jump in...but instead of the same clips as everyone else, I went with one of my favorite scenes:

Cha-Cha-Changes

2012-02-01T08:39:00.001-05:00

I have a confession to make. I lied to you. Remember a long time ago when I said I quit smoking? Well, it only really last about a month (if that really). I kept buying a pack whenever I would go out drinking. And then it just happened that I kept smoking. I felt pretty crappy about it and I actually hid it (or at least tried to) from most of my family. Sorry everyone. I let you down.

Well, I have some good news. No, this is not another I am going to quit smoking announcement. I actually already quit. My last cigar was back on 9 October 2011. The day I wrote this post. I went to work on the 10th and have not had one since. Now before someone jumps on my nuts, yes, on a few occasions I have had a cigarette at a bar (not that many though). See, the big thing I learned (I did this online quit smoking thing through work) was that you have to stay focused on quitting, you might slip up, but that is not cause to just give up.

The great thing has been that the last bunch of times I have went out for a beer, I have not really wanted to smoke (minus that night with Lindsey and Jason, where I got really drunk and tried to get one off the people as we were leaving, but Lindsey stopped me--yelled at me). The biggest thing has been having Lindsey here to keep me motivated. And maybe to reward me for going a month without one. She bought me Thor on blu-ray after one month.

It has now been 114 days (I think my math is right) and I am quite proud of this achievement. Unfortunately, I am not ready to stop there. I have come to realize that I live an unhealthy lifestyle. A few months ago I wanted to make changes, but I realized that I tried that before. I was in the quitting smoking/working out/change diet phase. Unfortunately, I failed at all of them.

Now that I am convinced that smoking is beat, I am moving on to phase two of my new plan: quit drinking Mountain Dew. Everyone tells me I will lose weight if I quit drinking it. Some of you have no clue how much I drink in a single day. It is a pretty scary sight.

My last Mountain Dew was on Sunday (30 January 2012). I weighed myself today, I am at 187.6 pounds. Yes, I am a fat bastard. I plan on checking each and every Wednesday (Weigh-In Wednesday...how does that sound?) and let you folks know where I am weight-wise, and how I am doing so far without my favorite drink. This is actually going to be harder than quitting smoking. If I can do this, then it is time for phase three...

Greatest Website Ever

2012-01-31T16:25:00.002-05:00

Jason decided to give me the greatest thing ever. Apparently there is some guy in Altoona, who sends out these crazy newsletters to people. Jason gave me one and I discovered that the dude has the entire thing online.

Clipped from: www.americanrecoveryproject.com (share this clip)

I highly recommend you head over to his site and just read some of these things. Okay, I know most of you will not, so allow me to point out my favorite parts.

Over 2000 yrs ago wealthy Arabs began calling themselves Jews to gain entrance to all nations. In the late 1800s they created The American Bar Association to take over our nation. In 100 years they built our government & educational systems. This letter tells you how the school systems sort out the profound followers with the least common sense who rise to the top, become attorneys, judges & others to pose as leaders while doing what the Arabs running the Bar tell them to do. They make laws & police practice selective law enforcement to build The Kingdom of Hell on Earth. We are being forced by law to practice Satanism; money worship / Judas Iscariotism, Judaism, the betrayal of all that is right for the money. To recover we must change everything starting with taking out the trash that’s running a crime ring of espionage out of our courthouses.

So, allow me to get this straight: 2000 years ago, wealthy Arabs started to call themselves Jews. What did they do with the actual Jewish people? I just cannot imagine what the plan was, since the Jewish people during that time were not all that popular/powerful. Plus, they were having some of their own in-house fighting, some guy named Jesus was really trying to shake things up...

This evil group of Arabs came to America in the 1800s and they did something horrible. They decided to help build our government and education system. Seems like a pretty mean thing to do.

Satanism=money worship=Judas Iscariotism=Judaism....umm, what? Something tells me this guy might be a little antisemitic.

There was a trial by jury, which I won because there was no case against me only lies put together to stop me from organizing the protection of American owned small businesses & their consumers. I lost $600,000.00 in law suits I’d filed against my attackers due to bad legal advice given to me by Skip Maddis & John Woodcock of the public defenders office. Since we know that the crime was Espionage for the Arabs involved who called themselves Jews, & treason for the Americans who helped; Judge Cambell, Skip Maddis, & John Woodcock because all the businesses I’d have protected are out of business or in other nations now, I’m owed the $600,000.00 plus damages for false arrest & false imprisonment, with 36 yrs of interest, you the people of the state of Pennsylvania owe me that. Since you know I’d use it on the recovery there’s no loss to you if I should get it. If I don’t get it I simply walk away while you pay my King.

He lost $600,000 in lawsuits? And we owe him this money back, with damages and 36 years of interest? I think I am going to have to agree with the evil Arabs (who call themselves Jews) and rule in favor of not giving this guy money. I think he says that this trial happened in 1975. How much would that come to nowadays?

Oh and the king he is referring to is his son. He has plenty to say about his son. I will not post that stuff though. He claims his son has been sexually abused by the boy's mother (which is not funny, if true), but I get the sense that everything this guy says is batshit crazy, like this:

Matthew was Kidnapped on May 2, 2000 when he was 3 months old by Blair County Sheriff’s Deputies, with the aid of State Police & the co-operation of the Freedom Township Police. I haven’t seen him since October of 2010. The court is currently holding him hostage as I refuse to practice Satanism in order to attain visitation & I think they’d throw me in jail & kill me to stop me from publishing this truth if I enter the courthouse. Matt started learning to type when he was in 2nd grade. He can type 90 words per minute. He was typing a story every time he visited with me, he called it “The Case of them all”. I chose to call our Recovery Project by the same name. Judge Hiram Carpenter violated the law by signing an order May 1, 2000 giving Rebecca Fink legal & physical custody of Matt based on lies she wrote on a court document called a petition for emergency relief. Judge Carpenter was just following orders he got from the Arab Bar Association, which was treason. We should put him in jail for life & confiscate all wealth his family has acquired in Treason. The same should be done to all who have served the enemy as described in this letter.

I honestly doubt this guy knows the meaning of treason.

Also, check out some of his karma stories. Mostly about smoking pot and maybe sleeping with some lady. I am not 100% sure. Anyways, if you would like to kill some time and laugh hysterically at an idiot, then please check out his site.

After Big Whiskey...

2012-01-30T09:00:00.000-05:00

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

Unforgiven
One of my all-time favorite movies. I think most of you know the premise, well I was wondering what happened after that night at Greely's Bar. Time for some hard-hitting investigative journalism...or a bunch of made-up stuff.

William Munny
He moved his kids out to San Francisco, where they did very well in dried goods. Whatever the hell that means. He actually ran into Wyatt Earp in 1902. Earp knew exactly who Munny was, but unfortunately, the two men were way too old to get into anything. Earp just let Munny go and they spoke about the fates of a bunch of lawmen and villains they both knew.

Munny died in 1905, at the age of 92. After that night in Big Whiskey, he never touched alcohol again and he never killed anyone again.

Schoefield Kid
He got those spectacles and never had to worry about not being able to see. The funny thing was that with those glasses, he was actually a remarkable shot, but he became a devout Catholic and never even raised his hand against another man.

Remember Little Sue? Well after everything happened, she left Big Whiskey and on her way east, she actually ran into the Schoefield Kid. They traveled together and eventually got married. They moved to Boston, where the Kid (going by Trevor Darrow) practiced law for nearly fifty years.

Trevor and Sue had three kids and lived happily ever after.

English Bob
Things did not go so well for English Bob. After the beating he took from Little Bill, he decided to return to England.

Unfortunately, he was not well liked in England either. In fact, the whole reason he was in America to begin with: he was wanted for murder. Yeah, he shot a guy in the back when he was 17 years old and fled to America.

Needless to say, someone recognized him and turned him over to Scotland Yard (it is rumored that the man who arrested him was Inspector Lestrade with help from someone in the private sector). English Bob was then executed after a very quick trial. The family of the murdered man was quite pleased.

Delilah Fitzgerald
The whore who was cut up. She actually was inspired by the kind words of William Munny and decided to step-up and do something with her life. With Little Bill dead, there was a void in the county's power structure.

She decided to fill that void. No, she did not become the new sheriff. Instead she ran for mayor of Big Whiskey and actually won. People feared that Munny would return if they went against her. She was the first female mayor in Wyoming history.

She was also a major player in the Women's Suffrage Movement.

Charley Hecker
He was the only deputy to survive Will's rampage. After the whole thing ended, he was the new sheriff of Big Whiskey. Until the following election in November.

Oddly enough though, he won the election. He did things differently than Little Bill. He and newly elected mayor Delilah decided to outlaw prostitution, which helped reduce crime. Also, it helped to reduce the population, since the 12 prostitutes decided to move elsewhere.

He died in a gunfight about eight years later.

W.W. Beauchamp
He continued his travels looking for folks to interview. He made his way up to South Dakota and ended up finding a place that kept him frozen in time. He was later thawed out and given a job at a warehouse.

William Munny Jr.
Will sent both of his children to school in San Francisco. Will Jr. eventually went to school back east and received a degree from Yale. He returned to San Francisco and took over his father's business. Within a few years he turned into the largest import/export companies on the west coast.

He eventually became the third richest man in America. His company became one of the first multinational conglomerates. He ended up having a falling out with some of his Skull & Bones friends and decided to stop giving money to Yale.

He helped fund a new school in the west coast: Stanford. That is why, to this day, the Stanford library is known as the Billy Munny Library.

One of the things he did purchase was a giant pig farm, where he visited once a year and rumor has it, delighted in watching those damned pigs get slaughtered...

Game of Thrones Season Two Preview

2012-01-29T22:01:00.002-05:00

Okay, I know I just posted something about Game of Thrones, but then I saw the preview for season two (not the teaser or making of video) and had to post it. Just deal with it. I make the rules around here.

Season 2: Preview - You Win or You Die

Game of Thrones Banners

2012-01-29T20:53:00.000-05:00

I saw these and just had to make them my desktop background (I would love to have a few of these as shirts). After the jump you can see all of them.

Oscar Pool

2012-01-29T20:28:00.000-05:00

I am little irritated that Yahoo does not have an Oscar pool that you can make into a private group.

So, if you want to compete against me this year, just head here. The group name is Ngewo's World and the password is joshcroyle. Should be easy enough, right? The winner will get my undying respect.

Another Religious Video

2012-01-29T09:30:00.000-05:00

I love these videos.

10,000 Hours Later

2012-01-25T17:51:00.001-05:00

During this week's episode of Alcatraz, Sam Neill's character mentions to Dr. Soto (Hurley) that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert on something. This is not the first time I have heard this statement. Is it true? Where did it come from? Is this another one of those "humans only use 10% of their brain's" myths?

Anyways, I decided to do ~~some research~~ type "10,000 hour rule" into Google. Apparently the idea comes from some psychologist (naturally he is Swedish, and this where you ask yourself "what does Josh have against the Swedes?") and I am guessing that if you read his original work on the matter, he is very specific and probably even says what I am about to say...but, who cares about that, this seems like something that I should mock.

The reason that it is a popular idea is because of Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers, where he talks about people who have become super great because of putting the time and effort into their field. He uses Bill Gates as an example. That one makes sense to me. The one that does not make sense is The Beatles. I honestly do not believe it was the fact that they practiced for over 10,000 hours in Germany is what made them huge music stars.

Look, hard work is a huge part of success. And the idea that if you put 10,000 hours of working in your own field, you will become an expert at it is probably true (especially if you break it down to something simple): for example, if you are a barista (spell-check says this is not a word) at a coffee shop and you work there long enough to achieve the 10,000 hours (at 40 hours a week, at 50 weeks per year it would take 5 years), then you will most likely have mastered the art of making a soy latte.

Does this apply to everything in life though? I want to become a master in the field of bench-pressing a car. I will spend 10,000 hours trying to lift a car and at the end of all that hard work, still will not be able to lift a fucking car! Hell, I could go about it two different ways: I could go to a gym and work out everyday, just doing different bench-press exercises. And at the end of the time, I could still not bench 2000 pounds. Or what if I lay underneath my car everyday for 8 hours, pushing as hard as I can on my car...will it ever actually move? Absolutely not. I do not recommend trying this.

I have decided that I am going to practice for 10,000 years on trying to win the slam-dunk contest...well, I think you get the point.

Okay, maybe physical things do not actually work. What about the piano? I bet I could be pretty damn good at playing the piano if I practiced for 10,000 hours. Yeah, I could play the piano, but could I actually compose a great piece of music? Doubtful.

So these are the things that Alcatraz causes me to spend time thinking about? Definitely a keeper...

The Decision 2012

2012-01-23T21:20:00.001-05:00

As some of you know, I made the decision that I talked about a few days ago. It was not an easy decision, but I do want to thank everyone who commented and gave me advice, or in some cases just pointed out a different way of thinking about the issue.

I decided to stay with The Place That Shall Not Be Named. I am just not willing to give up my vacation time, nor does it sound very fun to work more than 60 hours each week. There were a few other factors as well, mostly concerning specific tasks about the job that I would rather not discuss.

Allow me to respond to the comments from the last post:

Greg: Haha, I think you are like three years older than me (I may have made that up). I honestly believe if I had this offer before I met Lindsey, I would have taken the job. I cannot imagine spending less time together.

Sean: I have discussed it with my supervisors and like most things, they tend to be a little vague. However, I do know that I am on a very short list of promotable people. Working fewer third shifts will happen with a promotion (none at all). Actually, I should not complain about third shift. I was grumpy about them last week, but most of the time I do not mind them. And I do not usually get that many of them.

Jason.: We definitely need to meet up in Richland at some point and see a movie. And thank you for sharing your story. One of my biggest fears is that I will absolutely hate it and not be able to come back.

Honestly, one of the reasons I have been with TPTSNBN for so long is that I actually believe in the product (I know that a few of you will mock me for this), but when I thought back on it, I realized that I had actually had many negative experiences at TNP.

Jason's Sense of: We actually spoke at the bar.

Kern: I would not burn the bridge, but I cannot say that bosses might not be vengeful. And if I would decide to switch back, they could be jerks and forfeit my accumulated vacation time.

Offord: Honestly, I believe staying where I am at could be better in the long run. I have no clue if there were any opportunities to get promoted with TNP. I have started to realize that TPTSNBN still have some opportunities to move up higher levels, especially if I ever went to another division of the company.

So anyways, I thank everyone for the help and advice. And I am glad to be staying at TPTSNBN so that I can continue using that cool acroynm.

Hey, TV Shows are Back!

2012-01-21T18:21:00.000-05:00

Now that the holidays are over and our lives are finally back to normal, television shows can resume (or premiere...or start a new season, whatever). I will now tell you about everything I watched this week.

Alcatraz
It has Hurley and Sam Neill. Obviously I am going to check it out. After the premiere, I can only say that I will need a few more episodes before I decide if I like it or not. I mean, the story is pretty interesting, but will it take forever to receive answers?

Basically, all the inmates from Alcatraz disappeared (it was all covered up) and now they are starting to return. Neill's character (Hauser) is now hunting the convicts as they return, along with a hot cop and Hurley. It seems that Hauser's assistant was a doctor back then who did experiments on the prisoners and has not aged since...hmm. Very weird.

There are some silly things though. I mean, Rebecca Madsen (played by Sarah Jones, who was Polly Zobelle on Sons of Anarchy and the pregnant fugitive on Justified and is smoking hot) dresses in super-tight pants (I am not complaining), but would a cop really want to wear pants like that while working? Especially when she constantly ends up chasing people?

Second, Hurley (I will not even bother looking up his character's name) has a PhD in criminal justice and is some kind of expert on Alcatraz. For some reason he is perfect to work as Madsen's partner. Even though Hauser seems to have spent his entire life studying and preparing for the moment these guys start returning.

Being Human
Seriously, why do I watch this show? I might have to stop. What happened? Who honestly cares. Hell, that show that came on after it was actually better (Lost Girl).

Justified
Now this is an awesome show. Everything was pretty much perfect. Without going into too much detail, let me tell you about the awesome stuff:
-Raylan pulling the table cloth on Fletcher Nix (who is an awesome villain and better be back at some point). I knew Raylan would come up with something, but I did not imagine it would be that simple and then still shoot him in the arm.
-Boyd fighting Raylan in the U.S. Marshalls office, which seemed a little odd at first, but then you realize that Boyd is now locked up with Dicky Bennett. I love when Boyd has a plan (he always has a plan).
-Ava hitting a dude with a frying pan. Seriously, the funniest thing I have seen in like a month.

White Collar
Neil and Peter save Elizabeth and catch the bad guy. The big thing that happened though was that Neil had to decide whether he wanted to stay in NYC or run away with the treasure. Obviously, he chose staying in the city and continuing his job with Peter.

The thing that interested me though, was where did Neil learn to shoot like that? Is there anything he is actually bad at?

Royal Pains
This is one that Lindsey and I enjoy watching together. It is basically like House, but a tad more upbeat. The season picks up where we ended last time, with Hank's patient accidentally receiving the wrong medication from Divya (who was also working at the hospital without telling Hank).

Evan finally receives the General's permission to marry his daughter, but then has it taken away when Evan stands up to him. Naturally by the end things were pretty much resolved. Also, Divya tells Hank that she gave the patient the wrong meds, which will probably cause Hank to not trust her.

Also, I am tired of the whole Jill/Hank story. Get her to Uruguay already. I think Hank should just go on a rampage banging his patients. It seems like all of them end up being attractive women, who flirt with him.

Person of Interest
I expected a little more from this show. I hope next season they shift gears a little bit and focus more on the machine. I am more interested in watching Reese investigate Harold than each week's victim (which ends up being about the same as an episode of Human Target).

Archer
Burt Reynolds and Archer together, yeah it was pretty much as awesome as expected. There were so many funny parts, but my absolute favorite was the elevator joke. A super-slow elevator and then a discussion about putting in a bat-pole.

NFL Pick 'Em: Playoff Version Week Three

2012-01-19T16:35:00.000-05:00

Last week I did a little better by going 2-2, which puts me at 3-5 for the playoffs.

Baltimore at New England (-7.0): Baltimore
New England has pretty much been on fire since losing back-to-back games to the Steelers and Giants. I honestly do not see them losing to the Ravens, but I think Baltimore will keep it pretty close. Actually, if the Ravens can keep the Patriots from scoring over 24, I would say they have a pretty good shot at winning.

New York at San Francisco (-2.5): New York
Last time these teams met, the 49ers won 27-20, which then caused the Giants to lose the next three games. Seriously, did the Giants have the toughest schedule in the NFL this year? This is who they played in a row: New England, San Francisco, Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Green Bay. I made the mistake of underestimating this team too many times, well now I am done. GO GIANTS!

It looks like, if I am right, it could be a rematch of 2008 (remember, I still think the Patriots win the game against the Ravens), which would be a helluva lot better than a rematch of the Harbaugh Bowl. It was bad enough having to put up with that crap during the regular season, can you imagine what we would have to endure for two weeks if it were the 49ers/Ravens?

Stupid shit like this...

I would rather spend the entire two weeks hearing about Tom Brady's hair and how Eli Manning could be a better QB than Peyton if he wins that second ring. I will take all of that shit over stupid jokes about it being a Civil War, Brother vs. Brother, a Family Thing, or any of the other idiotic things the media will shove down our throats.

Change

2012-01-17T13:06:00.001-05:00

I need some help. I have a decision to make. Recently, I have had an offer from another company and I am considering taking the job. Unfortunately, this is not an easy choice to make. Allow me to list the Pros/Cons for each place.

The Place That Shall Not Be Named
Pros:
-Vacation Time: As of now, I get three weeks of paid vacation per year, plus the option to purchase a week (which, I did this year, and it only comes to $27 each pay.)
-I have plenty of friends there and that is where I met Lindsey.
-I am on a path to being promoted.
-From where we live, I have more options of places I can go to work. TPTSNBN has at least eight different places I can work at from here.
-Comfortable and knowledgeable.

Cons:
-I have to work third shift.
-I cannot have a beard.
-Lower pay.
-Opportunities to move past GM.

The New Place
Pros:
-Higher base pay, bigger bonus.
-More locations across the country.
-No third shift.
-Fresh start.
-Allows a beard.

Cons:
-No vacation for a year, after that I only get one week after my first year, then two weeks after two years. I will be 36 by the time I get back to three weeks.
-Longer hours. No one would say this to me, but it seems that the managers work longer hours than we do. Will I see Lindsey less?
-Fear of the unknown. I have to learn everything again, I have to be the bottom guy. I worked hard to move past that, do I really want to go back to the beginning?
-More locations around the country, but less in this area. I would only have two options.

What would you folks do if you were me?

Community Season 2

2012-01-15T17:21:00.000-05:00

As some of you know (those of you that read this post), I am a fan of Community, but I am about a year behind. I missed season one, so I got it for Christmas and well, you get the point. Anyways, I finished season two the other day and I must say that it was also pretty damn awesome. Fortunately, I was smart enough to DVR season three, so I can start watching ASAP.

The great thing about the show, I said this before, but I will say it again: it can be many things all at once. It can be hilarious, with traditional jokes, slapstick style humor, or insane situations. It can also be pretty emotional when it wants to. Here are some of my favorite moments:

-Abed delivering a baby in the background and then referencing it during Shirley's delivery.
-The two-part paintball episode. So much awesome stuff in that one. Especially since Sawyer showed up as a badass paintball mercenary.
-The zombie plague and how it ended up with Chang sleeping with Shirley.
-The trampoline. That was such a silly thing, yet it really helped cement the idea of Pierce as the villain for the rest of the season. It seemed to me that this was the moment that we saw being excluded truly bothered him.
-The number of moments where we thought maybe Jeff and Annie might get together, but then it gets made fun of during the fake flashback episode.
-Troy's 21st birthday, which ended up with Britta and Jeff realizing that they both were talking about the same bar. Troy never orders a drink and ends up driving everyone home.
-Abed and Annie kissing, while Abed is in his Han Solo role.
-The Christmas special, which was kind of sad and yet very funny.
-The Valentine's Day episode was pretty awesome. Starting with the fight about the Barenaked Ladies, Troy and Abed going for the same girl (but instead of doing the typical sitcom thing, they do not compete over her), Britta trying to teach Annie about being homophobic (although, the lesbian turned out to be straight, who thought Britta was a lesbian), Pierce's drug addiction, and Jeff eventually sending the group a very sweet text. Pretty awesome.

There were more moments, but I cannot think of anything else. I bet we can all agree though that Alison Brie is still hot...

Funny Football Videos

2012-01-14T20:48:00.003-05:00

My brother sent me this on facebook, and I know it is pretty much everywhere, but I will still share it with you.

Also, I got this one from Rumbunter, which is also pretty funny.

NFL Pick 'Em: Playoff Version Week Two (and a letter to Steelers fans)

2012-01-13T13:59:00.000-05:00

Last week I went 1-3, Jason went 3-1. Whatever, means nothing.

New Orleans (-3.5) at San Francisco: New Orleans
I am not picking against them this week. Sorry 49er fans, but the Saints are too hot right not. Also, if this does turn into a high-scoring game, I cannot imagine Alex Smith not throwing one (or 12) interceptions.

Denver at New England (-13.5): Denver
I am pretty sure I picked Denver a few weeks ago in this game and looked like an idiot, but this week...well I have a feeling. I am actually rooting for Denver and Tebow this week because I really hate Tom Brady and the Patriots.

Houston at Baltimore (-7.5): Houston
I think this game will probably be the closest one. I cannot see the Ravens scoring enough points to actually win by eight. It will probably be something like 9-3. People keep doubting Tyler Yates...

New York at Green Bay (-7.5): New York
Not at all believing that the Giants are going to beat the Packers because of the 2008 game. I believe the Giants will cover the spread because Green Bay's defense loves to give up points. This one will probably end up like most Packers games: 42-38, but not at all close if you watch.

Now after the jump I want to address something that has been driving me crazy all week:

Dear Steelers Fans,
Just accept the fact that the Broncos won the game. It was not the refs, injuries, the mob, or even God that caused Tebow to lead the Broncos against our beloved Steelers. Seriously, this week I have heard all of these things blamed.

The refs did not cause Tebow to keep hoisting bombs and making Ike Taylor look silly. Luckily, Ike took it like a man and said he played the worst game of his life. It happens.

Every team deals with injuries, you cannot use that as an excuse. The Texans beat Andy Dalton without their starting QB (and from what I can figure, most people consider Dalton to be a better quarterback than Tebow).

I have heard that the mob had a stake in the game and that is why Mike Tomlin would not kick a 67-yard field goal at the end of regulation. Or maybe he did not want it to get blocked and then ran back for a touchdown. Also, if you kick a field goal and it does not reach the goal post, the opposing team can try to catch it and run it back, right? Or did I hallucinate that one?

There is no God, deal with it.

But, speaking of Tebow; I know I have made fun of him in the past, but after that performance, I will not sit here and say that he is terrible and a joke. He made the best pass defense in the NFL look pretty damn silly on Sunday. I get that people hate the way the media has to talk about him every 12 seconds, but that is not his fault. Hell, when you see him during interviews, he is a pretty humble and probably likeable guy (minus the religious bullshit, but I know plenty of people who think that stuff is true, so I will not hold that against them or him).

Honestly, if you are a parent, who would you rather your child emulate? Tim Tebow or James Harrison? Harrison is a scary linebacker, but one has to question whether or not he is all-together sane.

So anyways, just give the Broncos and Tebow their credit and watch this week's playoffs and hope that the magical imaginary man in the sky can help them defeat someone that we can all agree to hate: Tom Brady and the Hoodie.

Your friend,
Ngewo

Chronicle Preview

2012-01-11T11:00:00.000-05:00

HAHAHAHAHA...Aliens

2012-01-11T07:42:00.000-05:00

I love these...

2012: Taking Advantage of the Idiots

2012-01-09T12:50:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, there is much I want to discuss concerning the end of the world. Today we will look at the companies that take advantage of these people who believe in this sort of thing. At first I thought these companies were terrible for preying on a person's fear over the uncertainty.

Then as I started to think about it, I came to another conclusion: good for these companies. If someone is idiotic enough to believe the world will end in December, then you deserve to lose some money to a smart businessperson.

Home Security
The first company I heard about was Hardened Structures, which seems pretty cool when you start to look at some of their products. Seriously, head over to the site and explore for a second.

Clipped from: www.hardenedstructures.com (share this clip)

If you go to the 2012 section, you will see that they offer plenty of protection for when the inevitable happens. They discuss what might possibly happen and how they plan to protect you from it. These are the things this amazing structure will protect you from:

3 Bar blast overpressure protection
Multiple Seismic Events
100% waterproof
Blast doors
Fully Protected against EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) and HEMP (High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse). Fiberglass shelters cannot offer EMP/HEMP protection, see more at the bottom of the page.
100% rust resistance (zinc anodes)
The best military grade NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) air filtration system available in the world (Temet)
Integrated emergency escape hatch

I mean, just look at one of these things. They look pretty damn awesome. I might actually live in one myself. Especially for those of you that know about my insane fear of windows.

They are developing these pods into full-size communities across the world, I have no idea if people have actually purchased them, but I would be willing to bet that a few have been purchased. Also, the report that I saw also stated that Hardened Structures had been contracted to build arks, costing around $20 million dollars each for groups of very rich people. These things can apparently survive at sea for like 5-10 years and can even submerge. Pretty insane, right?

Now, why do I think this is such a brilliant idea? Well how could you prove that your shelter did not work. I mean, if you pay this company millions of dollars for a house or an ark, how do you know if it will survive any of these things? I mean, if the end of the world does come and your house actually does not protect you, it is not like you can sue the guy. If the end of the world does not come, you will never know if your house works that way. This company does not claim the end of the world is coming. So smart...

Personal Protection
Again, at first I thought this one was pretty ridiculous. This lady started a company that offers basic survival skills and weapons training for the upcoming apocalypse.

Clipped from: safeorsorry.net (share this clip)

They charge $250, which seems pretty steep. I mean, how hard is it to go to a gun range and practice shooting. Or buy some books about survival and going out camping? Granted this stuff would cost money, but you can usually find a way around that stuff.

You can go around the site and see all sorts of interesting things. I feel like she is taking advantage of people. Then as I was looking at the founders page, I noticed something interesting.

" I want all to know how grateful I am, for all those seeking training from SafeorSorry.net... It is a very important to me that you learn and practice our training, as well as other training. I want everyone to be able to protect themselves, especially women, mothers and children.... If you feel you can NOT afford my course please email me personally ( r.peterson@safeorsorry.net) with your story and I will give you the course for free, no problem, no questions asked."

So she is willing to offer the course for free to women who cannot afford it? Yeah, that makes her a pretty decent person. And to be honest, it is not like these are terrible skills to have.

Pet Service
This one is aimed at the Rapture folks, but I am sure there will be a similar thing focused at the 2012 folks.

Clipped from: eternal-earthbound-pets.com (share this clip)

If you go to the FAQ, you see that these people are atheists and that for $135, once the Rapture happens, they will pick up your pets and take care of them. This one just cracks me up and like I said, I am sure they could retool this page or at least offer a 2012 End of the World deal. Maybe people could upgrade their service for another $150 because obviously, if the world comes to an end and shit gets crazy, it will take a little more money for one of these care providers to reach your pet...

I need to think of my own smart business idea to scam these believers out of their hard-earned cash.

Interceptions and My Idiotic Perception

2012-01-09T02:26:00.000-05:00

The other night I was out with Jason and we were having a discussion about quarterbacks. I made a comment about how I think defensive backs will eventually benefit from this new passing heavy league. My idea was that if there more passes being thrown, then it should make sense that there will be more interceptions. Jason argued with me and feels that it is a horrible time for defensive backs.

I figured (and I think towards the end of a very long rant that Jason agreed with me) that if QBs are throwing way more passes and the rate of interceptions stays relatively the same over time, that there should be more total interceptions. My reasoning was that if you looked back at the old days, there were less passes thrown, but aside from a few outliers, interception numbers would probably be pretty low as well.

I was completely wrong. I am actually shocked by what I found. Here is the data: INT is interceptions, the next column is interceptions per team per game, the next one is pass attempts, after that we have pass attempts per team per game, and last we have the percentage of passes thrown for interception (or interception per attempt).

Year	INT	INT/Tm/Gm	Pass Attempts	PA/Tm/Gm	Int/Attempt
2011	506	0.9882	17410	34.0039	2.9064%
2010	511	0.9980	17269	33.7285	2.9591%
2009	525	1.0254	17033	33.2676	3.0823%
2008	465	0.9082	16526	32.2773	2.8137%
2007	720	1.4063	17045	33.2910	4.2241%
2006	520	1.0156	16389	32.0098	3.1729%
2005	506	0.9883	16464	32.1563	3.0734%
2004	524	1.0234	16354	31.9414	3.2041%
2003	538	1.0508	16493	32.2129	3.2620%
2002	528	1.0313	17292	33.7734	3.0534%
2001	545	1.0988	16181	32.6230	3.3681%
2000	634	1.2782	16322	32.9073	3.8843%
1999	562	1.1331	16760	33.7903	3.3532%
1998	509	1.0604	15489	32.2688	3.2862%
1997	479	0.9979	15729	32.7688	3.0453%
1996	542	1.1292	15966	33.2625	3.3947%
1995	512	1.0667	16699	34.7896	3.0661%
1994	474	1.0580	15056	33.6071	3.1482%
1993	469	1.0469	14414	32.1741	3.2538%
1992	519	1.1585	13408	29.9286	3.8708%
1991	488	1.0893	13950	31.1384	3.4982%
1990	480	1.0714	13516	30.1696	3.5513%
1989	559	1.2478	14338	32.0045	3.8987%
1988	553	1.2344	14131	31.5424	3.9134%
1987	540	1.2054	13491	30.1138	4.0027%
1986	581	1.2969	14469	32.2969	4.0155%
1985	602	1.3438	14423	32.1942	4.1739%
1984	584	1.3036	14325	31.9754	4.0768%
1983	620	1.3839	14047	31.3549	4.4138%
1982	349	1.3849	7933	31.4802	4.3993%
1981	609	1.3594	14180	31.6518	4.2948%
1980	627	1.3996	13705	30.5915	4.5750%
1979	597	1.3326	12979	28.9710	4.5997%
1978	639	1.4263	11829	26.4040	5.4020%
1977	562	1.4337	9786	24.9643	5.7429%
1976	497	1.2679	10260	26.1735	4.8441%
1975	533	1.4643	9973	27.3984	5.3444%
1974	500	1.3736	9609	26.3984	5.2035%
1973	470	1.2912	8845	24.2995	5.3137%
1972	480	1.3187	9011	24.7555	5.3268%
1971	544	1.4945	9412	25.8571	5.7799%
1970	510	1.4011	9796	26.9121	5.2062%
1969	544	1.4945	10377	28.5082	5.2424%
1968	554	1.5220	10034	27.5659	5.5212%
1967	593	1.6943	10329	29.5114	5.7411%
1966	535	1.5923	10090	30.0298	5.3023%
1965	480	1.5584	9059	29.4123	5.2986%
1964	501	1.6266	9187	29.8279	5.4534%
1963	514	1.6688	8954	29.0714	5.7405%
1962	567	1.8409	8812	28.6104	6.4344%
1961	564	1.8312	8922	28.9675	6.3215%
1960	493	1.8396	7813	29.1530	6.3100%
1959	221	1.5347	3714	25.7917	5.9505%
1958	243	1.6874	3951	27.4375	6.1503%
1957	231	1.6042	3339	23.1875	6.9182%
1956	240	1.6667	3282	22.7917	7.3126%
1955	258	1.7917	3820	26.5278	6.7539%
1954	294	2.0417	4232	29.3889	6.9471%
1953	306	2.1250	4267	29.6319	7.1713%
1952	297	2.0625	4024	27.9444	7.3807%
1951	288	2.0000	3881	26.9514	7.4208%
1950	343	2.1987	4307	27.6090	7.9638%

I realize it looks like a lot to digest, so I was nice and made some graphs.

A few quick notes: 1982 was a shortened season, only nine games were played. From 2011-2002 there were 32 teams that played 16 games. From 2001-1999 there were 31 teams. 1998-1995 30 teams. 1994-1978 28 teams. 1977-1976 28 teams playing 14 games. 1975-1970 26 teams playing 14 games. 1969-1960 was the AFL-NFL times (I had to combine the numbers, the majority of the time they both played 14 games, except in 1960 when the NFL only played 12 games). From 1959-1951 there were 12 teams playing 12 games and in 1950 there were 13 teams that played 12 games.

Here is the interesting thing, the number interceptions has stayed pretty steady since the 1960s. In fact, as the number of attempts increases over time, the rate of interceptions decreases. To me that seems pretty crazy, but I guess it should make sense if you take into consideration that coaches must know what they are doing. I mean, if all these QBs were pretty crappy, they probably would want them to continuing throwing less. Also, there are the rule changes to take into consideration. I am not about to go that deep into this.

I am shocked that coaches passed at all in the 1950s, teams were averaging two interceptions per game and there was almost an 8% chance of an attempt being picked off.

I guess being a defensive back in this era must really suck.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

2012-01-08T15:42:00.001-05:00

Lindsey and I went to see this the other night (she only fell asleep for like a minute, so proud of her!) and I must say that I was quite pleased with it. All the good things about the first one were in this one.

I love the deduction process he uses during fight scenes. I especially loved it at the end when he fought Professor Moriarty, when both characters are laying out the way the fight will go.

I feel like this plot (Professor Moriarty trying to start a massive world war) was the plot for League of Extraordinary Gentleman. Any Holmes fans out there know if that was something Moriarty planned to do in the book? From what I can tell that was never really what he was up to.

Also, I have one complaint: the scene where Holmes tosses Mary out of the train. I am pretty sure someone would be severely hurt if they got thrown out of a train into a body of water. I guess that is not too bad though if that is my only complaint.

I recommend going to see it if you have not already done so.

NFL Pick 'Em: Playoff Version Week One

2012-01-05T21:47:00.001-05:00

Even though my season of picks ended, I have decided to keep it up. It is actually something fun to do. I finished the regular season in 9th place, with a 123-123 record.

Cincinnati at Houston (-3): Cincinnati
I have not decided if I am taking the underdog because I think it will be close or because I think the Bengals will pull it out.

Detroit at New Orleans (-10.5): Detroit
I think New Orleans will win the game, but I think that it will be somewhat closer than ten points. I think it comes down to a field goal.

Atlanta at New York (-3): Atlanta
I just do not feel that confident in the Giants. Sorry Gideon and James, but I think the Giants are going to lose. Deal with it.

Pittsburgh (-8.5) at Denver: Denver
I think the Steelers will win this one, but it will be low scoring and pretty close, probably 10-3 or something.

2012: The End is Here

2012-01-04T16:16:00.002-05:00

As some of you are probably aware, this is pretty much the end of the world. Yes, 2012 is here and with this year marks the end. Obviously if you watch anything on television they have told you about all this stuff, right?

Anyways, throughout the year I plan on writing as much as I can about the idiocy of these people who believe in this crap. I know, I should not give it any attention, but the way people misconstrue things to fit this idea cracks me up. Neither here nor there though.

The sad thing about the whole 2012 thing is the way gullible people just buy into it. This kid at work argued with me up and down about how it was going to happen because scientists said so on the History Channel. He thinks it will be massive earthquakes and all of civilization will collapse.

I tried to explain to him that the Mayans did not really predict the end of the world, just the end of the cycle, like when your calendar runs out and you need a new one. He did not get it. Also, he thinks aliens are constantly attacking the planet, so he is more or less a moron. But hey, at least he is stocking up on bottled water...

Here is another scary thought: how many people are taking this sort of thing into consideration when they vote for president? Maybe people think Mitt Romney looks like the kind of guy who could lead during the end of the world.

Happy New Years!

2012-01-01T12:56:00.000-05:00

Most of you assumed that I went out last night to celebrate the new year. Actually, I stayed at home with Lindsey because she was not feeling well. I know, I am an awesome boyfriend.

So, instead of being out at a bar, drinking too much and making a fool of myself, I was at home watching Archer and then Planet Earth. Seriously, I could watch Planet Earth every time it comes on. I am pretty sure it is the reason that HDTV was invented.

Something you may not know about me: if something piques my curiosity, then I will spend way too much time reading about it and then reading tons of other stuff as well. Allow me to give you an example. Last night on PE they mentioned the kodkod and showed this video of one.

I wanted to know more about the different kinds of small cats, so I went to wikipedia and started reading about the kodkod and other species. The great thing about wikipedia (and yes, I realize that it is not always all that accurate) is that you can just keep clicking on things and at minute you are reading about kodkods and the next thing you know you are now reading about Hispania (I will give points to whoever can figure out how I got there...)

This is a picture of the margay, another tiny cat from South America. These little cats are adorable, but the margay has a trait like the clouded leopard: it can climb down trees and (if I understand this correctly) climb a tree upside down.

Seriously, I want one of these two cats as a pet. And it has nothing to do with this Archer clip...

Christmas Time

2011-12-30T12:51:00.001-05:00

I realize that most of you are dying to know what Lindsey and I did for Christmas (I am guessing the majority of you saw us at some point). Also, I am sure you are all eager to hear about the awesome gifts I received. So, here it goes.

These are some pictures of our tree. Pretty obvious actually, unless you are blind, but then if you are blind, how would you be reading this?

You cannot see it, but I bought myself a pretty sweet Thor ornament. It is hanging somewhere on the tree.

The interesting thing is that we do not have all that many ornaments. Looking at our parent's trees, I realized that ornaments come from children, which could be problematic. Soooo, I am going to make it my goal to buy random ornaments throughout the year.

Also, you cannot see one of Lindsey's presents hiding in the tree. I am shocked that she did not find it.

Anyways, let me tell you about a gift I bought for Lindsey. She kept saying (since about October) that she wanted jewelry. In fact, about 837 of her friends had to tell me at some point that I should buy her jewelry. When I went shopping, I told her that I could not get her anything from a jewelry store because it was too crowded and the places pissed me off.

I then went to Kohls and bought her a necklace for $13. I allowed her to open that first, and I could tell that she was slightly disappointed. Then, after she opened everything, I told her to get the box out of the tree. She was quite pleased with the actual necklace.

We also did plenty of traveling from the holiday. On the 23rd we left here and went to Philipsburg (65 miles), to visit my Pap, Gram, and Aunt Sandy. Then we stayed at my Mom's house. The next day we woke up and went up to my Dad's house with my brother, Lora, and Aubrey.

That is my Dad with Aubrey (in case you were wondering, she is Lora's daughter, and if you were wondering who Lora was, well that is Adam's girlfriend). The guy wearing pajama pants (at noon) is my Dad.

We left Dad's house and went back to my Mom's and exchanged gifts there and watched the Steeler game. Then we left and went to Lindsey's dad's girlfriend's house, where we ate dinner and played some games. She lives in Westmont, which is 90 miles from Philipsburg.

The next morning we went to Lindsey's mom's house and exchanged gifts there. Then we left there and went to my Pap and Gram's house in Spring Valley (another 90 miles). We played poker and enjoyed great company, then came back home. Pretty much drove almost 350 miles in those two days.

So what did I get for Christmas? These are in no particular order and if I miss anything, that does not mean I did not like it, just that I cannot see it from where I am sitting.

This is the stuff I bought with those giftcards

-Quesadilla Maker
-Socks, boxers, undershirts
-My coat and scarf
-Steelers and Pens pictures (3 total)
-Dartboard
-Macy's giftcards
-Star Wars spatulas
-Beard trimmer
-Community season 2
-Beerfest
-Batman hoodie
-Pirate hat and a gray Clemente jersey
-Penn State shirt
-Money
-GPS
-Tie and a sweater
-Wallet
-Phase 10
-Sheetz giftcards and other assorted things

I am trying to convince Lindsey to write her own damn post about what I got her...

Anyways, it was a great Christmas and I want to thank everyone for the wonderful gifts. And the good times.

Fantasy Football Week Sixteen/NFL Pick 'Em Week 17

2011-12-28T21:38:00.000-05:00

I lost. How depressing. Say it again: I lost. Normally I would be okay with finishing in second place in fantasy football, but I lost because of a stupid decision, which is a pretty idiotic way to lose. Before I explain, the final score ended up 150.26-124.42. Congratulations Hurricane Arians on a great season!

The first irritating thing was that I set my lineup early in the week and never really checked it again. Turns out that Mario Manningham did not play. That hurt, but not all that much, since this is a pretty deep league and there is pretty much no one available. Hell, from my bench, the best player to plug in was Jacoby Jones and his stellar 4.20 points.

Unfortunately, that was not the part that upset me. Before I set my lineup, I considered starting the Bills defense against Tebow and the Broncos, but then I decided to stick with Green Bay. They have not been lighting up points-wise for me most of the season, but they have been pretty consistent.

The Bills scored 30 points, whereas the Packers only scored 4. How does that make me feel? 26 more points if I used the Bills. You do the math...

Anyways, my best player was Matthew Stafford, but since I already his picture before, I will use Frank Gore, who had a pretty good season. Actually, I lied, I never used Stafford, but I really like this picture.

NFL Pick 'Em Week 17
113-118 and in 11th place. Last week I was 7-9. I need to go 11-5 in order to finish above .500.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T07:30:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all have a great day!

The Dark Knight Rises Trailer

2011-12-24T10:07:00.001-05:00

I know this has been around everywhere, but c'mon, did you really think I was going to fail to post it for your enjoyment?

Complex Code

2011-12-23T02:59:00.000-05:00

Well James, you did it. You solved the Christmas code. Unfortunately, you have forced me to get a little ridiculous here. This next cipher is a little more complex than the previous one. Good luck...also, the keyword is somewhere in this paragraph.

c aoc nnaynrioot aecoZapouoty oi e et s mh.seiif tlzu nh fdnwt t hutr rgetiewggnodynuiis p snrituimer og.

All this talk of ciphers and codes made me think of spies...and honestly, are there any better spies than Archer and Lana?

The Hobbit Trailer

2011-12-22T13:37:00.002-05:00

"What is a Bagginses? My precious" Gave me fuckin' chills man...

Fantasy Football Week Fifteen/NFL Pick 'Em Week 16

2011-12-22T13:23:00.001-05:00

Steel City League

Well I lost in Kevin's league, so I ended up in sixth place...whatever. In the SCL, I beat the #1 seed, Mean Machine, and moved into the finals. It was actually a pretty close match, 142.54-129.58, although 12.50 of those points came on Monday from Frank Gore. Mean Machine did not have anyone playing Monday, so I knew I had already won.

My best player was Matthew Stafford, who put up 31.14 points, but my biggest surprise came from Reggie Bush. He scored 25.90 points, he is always so damn up and down (actually he has been playing pretty well the last few weeks).

This week I take on Hurricane Arians, who I lost to back in week three. I feel pretty confident that I can win this league.

NFL Pick 'Em Week 16
Last week I was 5-10. I am now 106-109 on the year and in 11th place.

Inheritance Review

2011-12-20T22:15:00.002-05:00

Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle series came to it's conclusion with the fourth book: Inheritance. Where does he go from here? Something tells me that he is not done with this world. I imagine he will write a few short stories about other things, but his next novel will return to this land.

Anyways, on to the book. It was decent. That is really about all I can say. It had a few great moments, a few terrible moments, but the majority of it was pretty bland. At least he tied up the majority of the earlier loose ends, but most of them seemed pretty weak.

The major one was the Vault of Souls. I honestly expected whatever weapon be there to be something completely different, but instead it was just a bunch of the Eldunari that were hidden away from the world after Galbatorix went crazy. My question is that if the dragons are that powerful that they could make everyone forget about these Elunari, how come they could not do more against Galbatorix?

Also, the more I think about it, I feel like the Eldunari and Paolini's magic system come like a video game. You can gain and absorb power, I almost expect to see a health bar near Eragon's head during battles. "You have discovered the Vault of Souls! Unlimited magic power!"

Second thing that bothered me was the way he portrayed Galbatorix. At first, he seems to be very much not insane. He has grand plans for the use of magic throughout the land. He wants to make it fair and pretty much put everyone on equal footing. Remember how Murtaugh said that Galbatorix had grand designs for the world? Well, it seemed like he was not lying.

I just wish that Paolini had continued with this idea. In fact, he should have taken it to an extreme. Make Galbatorix the good guy, who represents change in the world. Eragon and the rest are fighting to keep things the way they are. This would have been an interesting idea, something to help ponder. But, in the end, it turns out that Galbatorix is just batshit crazy and wants to rule the world. Lame.

Although, I did enjoy that the secret to Galbatorix ended up being that he discovered the name of the ancient language. Unfortunately, I did not like that the way he is defeated. Murtaugh falls in love with Nasuada and this causes his true name to change, meaning all of the binding spells by Galbatorix are null and void. He reveals this by stripping Galbatorix's wards with the new magic word. Eragon then uses a spell without words to make Galbatorix feel pain or something. Galbatorix then pulls an Emperor (or Sauron) and explodes, almost killing everyone.

Speaking of love...ugh. Murtaugh and the Nasuada love story was pretty much the most predictable thing ever. If someone could not see it coming, then they must have been mildly retarded. Another thing I could do without: the stupid contemplations about murder during war that Roran and Eragon both go through. If I wanted to read about soldiers thoughts on the horrors of war, I would read biographies from actual soldiers...the reason Tolkien could write about these things is that he actually fought in World War I.

Wow, so it probably seems like I did not like anything at all. Which is not true, allow me to mention the things I enjoyed:

-Angela. I would love to see a short story, or maybe even a featured novel about her history/adventures. Also, I loved the Monty Python reference. She tells a story to the Urgals about a killer bunny and it ends with "and there was much rejoicing."

-Roran. Again, if there was another book about his adventures in securing Carvahall or something. I would be most pleased.

-I actually enjoyed the ending with Eragon going away and not ending up with Arya. Especially now that she has her own dragon. I was a little upset that we never really saw anything from Vanir until the end. I thought for sure he would lead an elf battalion or something. Or at least become friends with Roran...oh well. I also liked the way Eragon handled the Urgal situation. He created the Olympics AND allowed an Urgal (and dwarf) to be a Rider.

-Minus the love story, I did enjoy the fact that Murtaugh decided to leave. Maybe that is what his next book should be: Murtaugh's adventure outside of Alagaesia. Then he can return and explain to Nasuada that her becoming High Queen is idiotic. He could bring democracy to the land...

Like I said, it was an okay book, but nothing amazing.

Calvin's Snowmen

2011-12-18T19:14:00.002-05:00

This is someone's tribute to Calvin's crazy snowmen. Best thing about Christmas...seriously.

Breaking Bad/Simpsons

2011-12-17T11:30:00.000-05:00

Almost perfect...

What I Got Everyone For Christmas...A Secret Code

2011-12-16T20:00:00.003-05:00

I figured this would be a little fun. I am going to write everything I got people for Christmas. Unfortunately it will all be in code, so if you really want to know what you are getting, you will have to try and decipher this code...Good luck!

Bu lbh fvyyl crbcyr. Qb lbh ernyyl guvax V jbhyq or sbbyvfu rabhtu gb gryy lbh jung lbh ner trggvat sebz zr sbe Puevfgznf. V bayl ubcr gung fbzr bs lbh ner ng yrnfg gelvat gb svther guvf bhg. Whfg gb znxr vg vagrerfgvat, V jvyy ng yrnfg tvir lbh fbzr uvagf.

Nqnz: Abg n yhzc bs pbny
Yvaqfrl: Qrsvavgryl abg wrjryel
Zbz: Abg n arj pne, abe n gevc gb Nezravn

Nyfb, whfg gb guebj fbzr bs lbh bss n yvggyr zber, V nz abj tbvat gb yvfg fbzr enaqbz jbeqf:

Tbbtyrcyrk
Arcghar
Dhnaghz
Fhccvyhyvhznf
Qna Olyfzn
Bggnjn
Mreb

Say No to Censorship!

2011-12-14T23:01:00.000-05:00

I've censored the following, in protest of a bill that gives any corporation and the US government the power to censor the internet--a bill that could pass THIS WEEK. To see the uncensored text, and to stop internet censorship, visit: http://americancensorship.org/posts/18374/uncensor

████ is a █████ ████ █████ the █████ ████ ████████ is ██████ to ████ to try and ██████ the ████████. ████ █████ ████████ be ████████ for my ████, █████ I ████ so ████ ██████ and ████████ ████ ███████ ███████.

http://americancensorship.org/posts/18374/uncensor

Anyways, you can watch this video to learn a little bit more. You can sign up and get in contact with your elected officials to let them know you are against these bills. I actually received a reply from one of mine and how he plans to vote against it.

Fantasy Football Week Fourteen/NFL Pick 'Em Week 15

2011-12-14T21:42:00.001-05:00

Kevin's League
Congratulations Offord! You pretty much curb-stomped me. Thanks man! I thought we were friends.

Seriously, he beat me 141-72. I have no excuses. His team is just that good right now. He has scored 140+ the past three weeks. Yeah, his team is doing fine and I am hoping he wins it. I am now playing for fifth place. I could care less how that turns out.

Steel City League
Now this was an awesome battle. I beat Shousetown Steelers 126.58-124.18. That is pretty damn close and a little bit nerve wracking. Next week I take on Mean Machine, who is the first seed, but I think I beat him during our only match up this season.

Unfortunately, I will not have DeMarco Murray since he is out for the rest of the season. At least I will still have Nate Washington, who was my best player last week. Way to go Nate!

NFL Pick 'Em Week 15
Last week I went 8-8, moving my record to 101-99 and to put me in 9th place.

Bathroom Oddities

2011-12-13T22:05:00.000-05:00

I think the title says it all. Let us begin.

Q-Tip
When you use a Q-tip for your ear, do you use one for each ear? You take the one side, clean the ear, and then use the other side to go over again. Ever notice that there is pretty much nothing on the second pass? I notice this all the time.

I have tried to just use one Q-tip, one half for each ear, yet my ears do not feel clean afterward. I really do not have a solution to this problem. Does anyone else?

Fear of Death
I hate when I am in the shower and there is no one else home and I hear a sound. Immediately I think that someone might be breaking in and they are going to try and stab me. Probably from watching horror movies and whatnot.

How do I prepare myself for this inevitable attack? Naturally, I try to keep my eyes open and on the door. That means when I rinse my face off, I end up doing it in an odd way. I keep putting my face in the water and quickly remove it. The funny thing is that it probably takes longer to do it this way. I never said I was smart, and come on, at 5:00 a.m. who can really be rational?

Also, if someone were to break in and try to kill me while I am in the shower, what the hell does it matter if my eyes are closed? What am I going to do, fight them off? I am naked and wet. Not really a good combo for hand-to-hand combat. Yep, I am an idiot. And I know that everyone has done this kind of thing before.

Singing in the Shower
I like to sing in the shower. Who doesn't? Unfortunately there only a few songs that I actually know the majority of the words.
Incubus-Pardon Me
Ekoostik Hookah-Loner
Bob Dylan-The Hurricane
Our Lady Peace-Superman's Dead
The Hellacopters-By the Grace of God

I know...what an odd mix...

Game of Thrones: Season Two Teaser

2011-12-13T11:02:00.002-05:00

Tease - Cold Winds Are Rising

Boardwalk Empire: Sutter Take Note...This is How You End a Season

2011-12-12T18:14:00.000-05:00

Last week was a pretty awesome episode, but I failed to write about it since I watched it on Tuesday and wanted to focus on Sons of Anarchy. We see through a series of flashbacks, how Jimmy ended up with Angela and what caused him to leave Princeton.

Basically his mom got drunk while visiting him at school and when he tried to put her in his bed, she started kissing him. They had sex. Seriously. That one thing that we all suspected, but never wanted to discuss because well, most shows do not do that to a main character.

Needless to say, after banging his mom, he left Princeton and joined the Army and went over to Europe to fight za Germans. And before I any further, I have to say that James Darmody is a real motherfucker.

Anyways, on to the awesomeness of the finale:

-Richard and Jimmy forcing the turncoat to write a confession saying he set Nucky up and that it was all Eli. Then killing him and making it look like a suicide. That is when those two are at their best, being completely badass.

-I was pretty excited to see Nucky reconcile with Jimmy and then with Eli. Jimmy tied everything up nicely for Nucky. Fixing the Chalky White/KKK problem was pretty badass as well.

-The ending was probably the most shocking thing I have seen in awhile. Jimmy goes to meet Nucky because he has Manny for him. Unfortunately, Jimmy walks into a trap. Apparently, Nucky believed Eli over Jimmy about who tried to kill him.

Jimmy gives Nucky a little lecture about what it is like to kill that first man. Then Nucky shoots him in the head and tells him that he is not seeking forgiveness. Most people seem to believe that this is the first person Nucky has ever killed, but I do not think so. The way he said "you do not know me James." Leads me to think that maybe in his younger days he did kill some people for the Commodore, and tried to rise above that...

It was seriously a shocking moment though. I cannot believe they would kill off Jimmy. It was a great move because it was hard to imagine how they could all coexist. I actually thought Nucky was going to shoot Eli and allow Jimmy to kill Manny, but I think I like this ending better.

-Also, how pissed is Nucky going to be when he finds out that Margeret signed the deed of land over to the church? She needs a bullet.

God's a Jerk

2011-12-11T07:30:00.000-05:00

I like option B...

Higgs, Aliens, Sportsmenship, and Being Tough

2011-12-09T00:53:00.001-05:00

I thought about making these into a bunch of small posts, but figured I would combine them into one big one. Be prepared for some fun.

Higgs Boson
I am not going to even pretend to know much about particle physics, but from what I understand, there could be some pretty exciting news coming in the near-future. Here is a BBC article that is much better at explaining things than me.

I will not lie, I love watching programs on Science when they start talking about quantum and particle physics. I understand it a bit, but still find it absolutely fascinating.

Aliens Attacking Mercury
I will bet money that at some point we will see this incorporated into an episode of Ancient Aliens. Wait, you have no clue what I am talking about? Allow me to explain:

Apparently, images from NASA showed something near the planet Mercury. The best thing to do is to jump to a conclusion about what it could possibly be: a cloaked alien spaceship. I shit you not. Listen to this idiot explain his findings (I am guessing he is not a scientist).

As I watched this, I thought the dude must be a little crazy. I decided to do a quick search to see if I could find more about it. Then I found this article and basically scientists already explained what we were seeing. People do not realize just how much work goes into cleaning up pictures from satellites and how tricky it is to take a picture of things that far away.

Bad Call?
I was listening to the radio the other morning and I heard the sports radio guys (I think from 93.7 in Pittsburgh) talking about how this referee made a terrible call during this Massachusetts football game. The QB breaks free and runs it in for a long touchdown. The ref throws a flag and it is called back because he raised a fist during the run.

I guess the call was unnecessary celebration or unsportsmanlike conduct. They were going on about how it is ridiculous and the kid should just be allowed to have fun and enjoy the moment. Oh, and by the way, after the penalty, the QB threw a pick, which led to a TD and the win for the other team.

At first I was on their side until I started thinking about it. They said that the ref warned both teams before the game that any first raising, or pointing to the sky would be penalized. If he warned them, then I am sorry, it was just a stupid thing to do. It is not like the ref waited, as soon as he saw that hand go up, he threw the flag (well more like when the hand goes down).

I have a feeling most people will disagree with me on that one though...

Atheist Sign
I actually have very little to say on this one. Just that I like it.

Big Ben
I hate when people try to make the argument that Ben Roethlisberger fakes these injuries in order to get attention. I mean seriously, why would he leave the game and miss the end of the first half against the Browns unless he was actually in pain.

Or wait, I bet he actually faked that whole appendectomy thing. Or the numerous other injuries we have seen him take over the years. How come he plays with injuries all the time and people question it, yet back in the day people praised Brett Favre for being a warrior.

Seriously, this shit is getting old. Also, people who think the Steelers would be better off with Charlie Batch or Dennis Dixon starting are most likely retarded. They need to stop huffing paint thinner.

Fantasy Football Week Thirteen/NFL Pick 'Em Week 14

2011-12-07T10:51:00.001-05:00

Kevin's League
I got my ass kicked. Mainly because I started Josh Freeman and he was injured. I actually started a few people I would not have, but I was pretty much focused on going to the game. I still would have lost though. My team is falling apart right as we head into the playoffs.

My best player was Percy Harvin, who scored 28 points for me. After that, everyone else was mediocre.

This week I take on Offord in the first round of the playoffs. My team is going down, and his team is just getting super-hot. Should be interesting.

Steel City League
I won 145.12-73.06. You would think this many wins in a row would move me up in the standings, but sadly it has not. The playoffs start this week and I am the fourth seed. I honestly think I have a good chance to win this league.

As an added bonus, I have decided to include my picks this week. Unfortunately, some of these might change.

Last week I went 10-6 and moved up to 7th place with a record of 93-91. Just need another week like that...

SOA: CIA Ex Machina

2011-12-07T00:08:00.001-05:00

The episode started off pretty cool. I had no clue how Sutter was going to get the club out of the RICO mess, but then he reveals that the CIA is working with the cartel. No more RICO case. Nice and easy.

Then, Romeo informs Jax of all this. He says that if the club does not help the cartel get the guns from the Irish, then they will allow the Feds to take SAMCRO down. The Irish only want to deal with Clay, so therefore, Jax has to allow him to live.

Jax does visit with Clay and gives him the lowdown on what will happen. He will step down as president and he will make sure the Irish are happy.

After that, the episode goes downhill. There is a good amount of talking and tidying up of small plot lines. The season ends with Jax sitting at the head of the table, Chibbs as his Sgt. at Arms, and Opie not showing up. Tara shows up to lend her support and Gemma sees them together and thinks of herself and JT.

The best part aside from the way Jax threatens Clay, was learning that the girl that Tig ran over, was the daughter of some major player. I am guessing this guy must be the big boss of the Niners. He will be an O.G. I am guessing that will be a major story for next season.

I look forward to next season. Or at least for the start of Justified...

Time For a Quick Life Update

2011-12-06T20:04:00.001-05:00

You do realize that when I write quick in the title, that it will be an insanely long post? Well let us get started.

Thanksgiving
Lindsey and I decided to split up the holidays. Easter we went to my family, Thanksgiving we went to her family. We went to her mom's house for an early dinner, then went to her dad's girlfriend's house for some pie. At both houses we played some board games.

Also, I got to wear my sweater vest that I bought for New Year's Eve like three years ago. Yeah, I get excited over the little things.

Lindsey had to get up early in order to go to work. Since I was up as well, I decided to run over to the Ebensburg Wal-Mart to see what they had left of the Black Friday sales. It was 6:00 a.m. They actually had a good amount of stuff left. I think next year I will try to go over a little earlier. I was able to pick up some movies for pretty cheap. Plus, I finally got Burn Notice seasons two and three for $9 each.

Kayla's Birthday
Saturday night we went out for Kayla's (Lindsey's sister) 21st birthday. We hit up a few of the places in and around Johnstown.

The next day we went down to Pittsburgh in order for Kayla to go to Rivers Casino. We started out at Bar Louie in Station Square. Lindsey and I played a little basketball/football game at the bar, then after dinner we went to the casino.

I went off to play Three-Card Poker. That was not a great idea. I lost $120 in about 9 minutes. After that I went over to the bar and watched the Steeler game and proceeded to get pretty drunk.

Working Third Shift
The majority of the week I worked third shift and in all honesty, nothing much happened. However, on Friday night, my dishwasher comes to me and says "Okay, it's all yours. I quit." I thought at first he was kidding. Then I realized he was not.

The reason he came in and worked for two hours that day? He wanted to make sure he got his vacation pay. Once it went into his account, he quit. Unfortunately, he did not realize that he could have quit anytime in the past week or so. It was pretty much processed through payroll already.

Steelers vs. Bengals
Lindsey and I got each other tickets to the game for our birthdays. We got up early and got down there around 8:00 a.m. Needless to say, I started drinking. We met up with a person Lindsey works with and his wife.

As most of you know, the game was not even close. The Steelers did a good job beating down the Bengals. As you also know, I will not mention much of the event, instead some random things that happened.

On our way into the game, Lindsey dropped her ticket while we were in line. We looked around and started backtracking where we were at. Lindsey was pretty much on the verge of tears (she claims that she was going to cry and hope that the security guards would let her in). Luckily, we found the ticket pretty much right where we were standing.

This is why Lindsey is not allowed to be in charge of things. In fact, she would misplace herself if that was possible.

After the game we went to our hotel and passed out for a little bit. When we woke up it was around 8:00 and none of the restaurants downtown were open. We took a cab up to the McKnight Road Red Lobster and ate some food.

When we left, we called for a cab and well, that is when the fun began. We sat outside for about an hour. I kept calling and they said they would be sending someone out. Finally, I called the hotel and the girl gave me the number for Classy Cab. I called them and they sent someone out in fifteen minutes. Granted, it was a little bit more expensive than Yellow Cab, but it was worth it. Here is the funny thing: Yellow Cab called me around 12:30 to say my cab would be there in a little bit. Almost three hours! How utterly ridiculous. Shitty service.

Beware of Raptor Jesus!

2011-12-04T05:42:00.001-05:00

Something tells me people would have lost a few more limbs trying to put this mo'fo on a cross...

Wheel of Time Casting: Aes Sedai

2011-12-01T17:51:00.001-05:00

Remember the first book? How scary the Aes Sedai seemed? They were all powerful and the most badass ladies in the world. Then we met the Foresaken, and learned about how the Aes Sedai used to be insanely more powerful than these ones now.

Elaida a'Roihan
We first meet Elaida when Rand runs into her at the palace of Andor. She was there as advisor to the queen. She has some power with foretelling. Throughout the first batch of books, you really think she could be one of the Black Ajah. At one point, I was pretty much convinced of it. She helped get rid of Siuan and make herself the Amyrlin Seat.

Unfortunately, it does not seem that she is Black Ajah. She is just a misguided Red Ajah. She hates men who can channel. She does not want to usher in the Dragon Reborn. She wants to control him, and most likely gentle him.

She is described as handsome and with a very fierce look. Most guys would probably find her hot, but probably be very intimidated.

Diane Lane has that kind of look. Hell, she looks pretty damn good in red.

Siuan Sanche
The Amyrlin Seat before Elaida decides to overthrow her. She is helping Moraine with the whole Rand thing. They want to find the Dragon Reborn and help guide him. Eventually Siuan will use the rest of the Tower to help Rand. Unfortunately all these plans fall through.

She is stilled and instead of just rolling over to die, she decides to exact revenge against Elaida. She travels to the rebels and helps them. Later she is healed by Nynaeve, but is not nearly as powerful. My favorite thing about her is the way she embraces her roots as a fisherman's daughter. She always has these great sayings that involve fish.

As Amyrlin, she is attractive, but with an air of power. After she is stilled, her body goes back to being young looking. Most people do not even recognize her. I think Jennifer Connelly would be perfect. With some makeup, they could make her look different, aged. Then afterwards she could go back to being the hottie.

Leane Sharif
Siuan's Keeper, who is stilled during Elaida's coup. She escapes with Siuan and when they arrive at Salidar, they concoct a plan to get into their good graces. They fight with each other and basically annoy everyone with their bickering until they see the good side of one of their arguments.

Before she is stilled, she must have dressed very plain. Follows her job duty. After she is stilled and her youthful looks return, she decides to embrace her Domani heritage. She uses her flirting skills to get what she wants. After she is healed, she becomes a member of the Green Ajah.

I decided that she had to be somewhat exoctic. Bipasha Basu fits that description pretty well. She could pull off the plain look and the extremely hot look.

Verin Mathwin
She is a member of the Brown Ajah, who shows up at odd times to help Rand and the rest of the guys. I have said from the beginning that there is something suspicious about her. She has pretty much encyclopedic knowledge of all things about the Dragon Reborn.

I always get the image of a plump woman, who must look like she has started to age, which takes a very long time for Aes Sedai. In fact, I usually picture Kathy Bates for some reason.

Alanna
She is a member of the Green Ajah, who is traveling with Verin looking for new girls in the Two Rivers region. She helps Perrin when he defends the village.

Later she offers to heal Rand, and decides to bond him as her warder. This pisses off Rand, and Alanna is actually fearful of him because of his threats.

As with most of the Green Ajah, she is pretty frisky. She has a few warders already, but now Rand is able to keep tabs on her. She has dark hair and is known for being a bit shy, but also has a huge temper. Vanessa Marcil is perfect. She can play that whole meek, sweet, quiet girl, who can explode and be ready to make most men pee their pants.

Sheriam
She is the Mistress of Novices. Her job is dole out punishment and whatnot. Later on she heads to Salidar. She becomes the Keeper for Egwene and seems to want to guide her.

She has red hair. Julianne Moore has red hair. Seems to work for me.

Romanda Cassin
One of the Sitters in Salidar who is trying to control Egwene. She has gray hair and she was one of the Yellow Ajah.

I do not know, maybe Sandra Bullock would be a good choice. Just let her dye her hair. I will not lie, her and Lelaine are important, but I have no interest in either of them.

Lelaine Akashi
One of the Blue Ajah and the other Sitter at Salidar that is trying to control Egwene. Apparently, she and Romanda have had animosity towards each other for years.

Rachel Weisz would be perfect. Since she is attractive.
Theodrin Dabei
This is one of the girls I like. She tries to help Nynaeve with her block. Apparently it is her task. She was also a wilder and she broke her block. She could only channel when she was in the presence of a guy she had a thing for. They tricked her by having switching out a guy she liked with his twin sister and when she realized she channeled in front of her, she was able to channel.

Anyways, she later swears fealty to Egwene and is one of these Aes Sedai who might be leading the rest into a new direction. If that makes sense. Instead of Oath Rods and all that, they swear to Egwene and want what is good for the world.

I am guessing that she is very hot. Anne Hathaway is perfect. I have no real reason, just that I think she is hot. Screw you. My rules.

Faolain Orande

She was one of the ones you just hate at the beginning. She is mean to Nynaeve because she is a wilder. Later though, she becomes one of the ones that swears to Egwene. She is described as attractive with curly, dark hair. I think Michelle Trachtenberg is perfect. She could pull off that bitchy, snarky youngster. And she would look good doing it.
Cadsuane Melaidhrin
This lady is like the oldest Aes Sedai around. She is a legend. She has done everything. She brags about having gentled more men than most of the Red Ajah. She turns up now and works her way close to Rand. He even runs into her with the rebels.

I have no clue what to think of her. Anyways, Helen Mirren would probably be perfect for the role.

After the jump, here are some artist renderings of Elaida and Siuan...

Elaida

NFL Week Thirteen Pick 'Em/Why Do You Fire a Coach?

2011-11-30T16:25:00.001-05:00

Last week I went 8-8. I may have to start picking against the Steelers. I am now 83-85 and in 10th place.

Why Fire a Coach?

This week the Jaguars fired Jack Del Rio, which is something I will never understand. I get firing a coach after the first few games of the season. But, why fire someone when your team is 3-8? What good does this do anyone?

It is not like the Jaguars are going to become a playoff contender after this. Why not have Del Rio finish out the season and then part ways? What is the worst thing that can happen? They finish 3-13? Or they win out and finish 8-8.

I understand firing a baseball manager mid-season. Unfortunately, it would not make sense to fire a manager at the beginning of September.

I guess I am just a fan of Jack Del Rio, since he is a beast and he tried hard to fight for coaches wearing suits.

Maybe Penn State should talk to Del Rio. Linebacker U would continue it's tradition with him...

SOA: The Truth About J.T.

2011-11-30T14:30:00.001-05:00

The episode was pretty good. I feel like this has been spread out over too many episodes though. They could have honestly cut this down a little bit. Allow me to explain in a bit. First, what I liked.

The Good
-When Unser is there with Clay, I thought for sure that he was going to kill him somehow. Maybe smother him, or just put another bullet in him.

-Tig. He turned his back on Clay and now blames himself for being shot. His running down LaRoy's girl was pretty badass. I loved the chase scene and then the joining of Jax and the others. I just have on question: when Jax is shooting at them, did no one else call the police and report a biker gang shooting at SUVs?

-Also, Tig at the hospital was pretty cool. I felt bad for him. I wonder how much he knows about JT?

-Gemma finally comes clean with what happened to JT. Needless to say, Jax is not too happy. Tara makes herself useful and provides Jax with a method to kill Clay.

-I also loved Opie's disbelief in Jax's promise to do something once he knows the whole truth. Apparently, Opie is a little tired of these promises.

The Bad
-Gemma's overall plan. What the hell is she doing? At first she does not want Clay killed, then she does, then she wants Jax to know. I get that she had to find the letters and remove the elements that blamed her, but she could have went about everything in a simpler way.

-Tara. Her whole "tell me you love me" thing was pretty damn weird. I will have no problem if she takes a bullet. Also, just like Gemma, what is her plan? Did she hide the letters that implicate Gemma? I was confused during that whole exchange.

-Jax's reaction after shooting Opie. He wants Unser to say it was some black guys. He then gets pissed at Tig for going after LaRoy. What the hell did he think would happen?

Predictions
-Lincoln Potter is not kidding when he told Juice that he does not want the club. He will get the Irish and the cartel, but leave SAMCRO out of it. Maybe he has some connection to the club...

-Jax will take over the club, and with the IRA/Cartel out of the way, I think he will decide to stay and help push the club back towards what his father envisioned. Either that, or Tara will die at the end of the season and force Jax to want revenge.

-There will be a war with the Niners. Will that be the big thing for next season?

Fantasy Football Week Twelve

2011-11-29T11:25:00.001-05:00

Kevin's League
I lost to Team Milksteak 105-71. Thanks Mike Wallace for not trying to score points. Also, thanks to Drew Brees for putting up 44 points to almost beat me by himself. What a dickbag...Anyways, this loss dropped me into sixth place with a 6-6 record. Luckily, I have also clinched the final playoff spot. I could move up if I win next week, since everyone is 6-6. I also have scored the lowest amount of points in the league, which is mainly due to the last few weeks.

My best player this week was Percy Harvin, who scored 16 points. That is pretty sad when your best player only gets 16. My quarterback situation is seriously messed up, I may need to pick someone up for Freeman.

Steel City League
My sixth win in a row. I am still in fourth place though. I beat DC Yinzer 94.74-78.78. Way to go me! I really do not have a player that did anything amazing. Pretty much everyone scored what they were supposed to.

I guess I will post a picture of DeMarco Murray. He had a good week. Next week I take on one of the bottom teams, so hopefully I will get that 7th win in a row...

Boardwalk Empire: Wife Murdering 101

2011-11-28T22:41:00.001-05:00

Allow me to explain something: if you owe a Jewish butcher $5000, you should probably just pay him. Jimmy just learned this the hard way. Manny shows up at Jimmy's house and grabs Angela. He is holding her hostage while he waits for Jimmy to come out of the bathroom. As soon as the door opens, Manny shoots, but it is not Jimmy. It is Angela's girlfriend. She begs, but Manny still shoots her.

It will be all out war with Philadelphia, but the real question is this: what will Nucky do when he finds out? Will he help Jimmy, or will he just stay out of it and not care. Maybe this could be the thing that helps reconcile their relationship. Maybe not.

Other awesome things:

-I love the numerous references you can catch if you pay attention. Like Sacco and Vanzetti in this episode.
-It was great how Angela and Jimmy had that great moment before she died. Maybe things were going to get better between them. Probably not now.
-I wish I had a desk drawer full of Ty Cobb autographed baseballs.
-I guess sending in the guys with billy-clubs was probably a dumb move on Eli's part. Also, he is becoming a bit of psychopath. Nucky should probably have killed him awhile ago.

2011 MLB Prediction Results

2011-11-25T08:47:00.001-05:00

Let us look at how well I did this season with my predictions:

NL East
I got the first two correct with the Phillies and Braves. I also knew the Mets would be better than the Marlins. Unfortunately, the Nationals had to screw things up by finishing in third. I was right that Stanton would become an elite power hitter, unfortunately he did not hit 40, so I get no real credit.

NL Central
I did not get one team right. Pretty damn dumb on my part. Let us look at how I did with my Pirates against certain pitchers:
Greinke: 3-1 against the Buccos. So they did at least beat him once.
Halladay: 2-0. Okay, I was a little off on that one.
Lee: 1-0. Not looking good.
Lincecum: Did not even pitch against them.
Zimmerman: Same as Lincecum.
Bailey: Homer beat the Buccos, but he gave up three runs.
Gee: He beat the Pirates twice, and had a great game where he went eight innings of one run ball.
Lohse: He was 2-1 and did not shut them out either.

NL West
I at least got the Dodgers correct! Go me! I do not think anyone predicted Arizona winning this one, so whatever. Mat Latos started the season hurt, but did not get hurt during the season. I also want to point out that the Giants would not have won the division if Posey had been healthy the full year. Just saying.

I got the wildcard wrong, I got the NLDS completely wrong. I will point out that I said the NLCS would be between a division champion and a wildcard from within that division (Phillies/Braves) and instead it was the Brewers/Cardinals.

I did not get any of the awards right, but I did mention Freddie Freeman, who ended up in second place for ROY. I was also a little under on Troy Tulowitzki's stats, he was just .302/30. My bad.

I did predict the Pirates record correctly, which is pretty awesome. I should have entered a contest or something.

AL East
I got three out of the five correct. If the Red Sox would not have had their monumental collapse, I would have nailed the entire division. Way to go Pirates for ruining that one for me (trust me, I am more than happy being wrong, if it means being at PNC to see the Red Sox lose). The Yankees finally brought up Montero, and I am pretty sure people will want to see him more often next year instead of Jorge.

AL Central
I only got the Royals right in this one. Who knew the Indians would be a good team. Or that the Twins would absolutely suck? Not this guy. At least I predicted that Grady Sizemore would get hurt. Still no word whether or not he is doing softcore porn yet.

AL West
I got the Rangers and the Mariners right.

The only things I got right were the Rangers winning the ALDS over a team and the Royals record.

Needless to say, this was a bad year for me.

NFL Week Twelve Pick 'Em

2011-11-24T11:45:00.000-05:00

7-5 last week. 75-77 on the year. In 11th place. I am not thankful for the Bengals and Falcons inability to score another point. Dickheads.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T07:30:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving! What are you thankful for? I am thankful for a great girlfriend, family, and friends. Obviously those are pretty much the same for everyone. So, I ask you, what is something you are thankful for, that is kind of out there?

Judging by this picture, I would guess the Atom is thankful for the great view of Power Girl's boobs...

SOA: Opie's Revenge or Clay's Downfall

2011-11-23T14:41:00.001-05:00

Honestly, the majority of the episode was pretty weak. I think it was pretty silly for them to bring back
Wendy at this point. Does Jax really need something else to worry about? Also, Gemma keeps acting like she has a plan, but what the hell could it be?

The Otto stuff was cool, well played by Sutter, but again, it just felt like filler until we got back to the Opie story. Finally though, we got what we all wanted: Opie's revenge.

Opie confronts Jax to find out if he knew anything about Piney's death. He then shoots out Jax's tire and rides off to confront Clay. Jax believes it should be brought to the table. Oh do not worry Jax, Opie is bringing it to the table...

Jax steals a hearse and then some guy's crotch-rocket. Opie gets to the clubhouse and Clay is waiting for him. I honestly thought Clay was going to shoot him, but Opie is too smart (or just too pissed). He smashes through the door and forces Clay to sit down and does not listen to the lies coming from Clay.

Jax shows up and tells Opie that he does not want to have to shoot him. At this point, I thought that Opie might listen. Then he shoots Clay twice. And judging by the previews for next week, Clay dies.

The club is not in a good place right now. Will Gemma tell Jax the truth about Clay? Probably not.

Fantasy Football Week Eleven

2011-11-23T13:25:00.001-05:00

Kevin's League
Two men enter, both at 5-5, one comes out 6-5 and the other comes out 5-6. I really thought for sure Offord was going to beat me on Monday, but I lucked out. I was winning 80-37 going into Monday, but I had Green-Ellis and he had Brady, Welker, and Gronkowski.

Fortunately BJGE decided to actually show up and put up ten points for me. I beat Offord 90-80. My best player this week was Josh Freeman, who I almost did not start. I figured against the Packers he would not do so well and that maybe I should pick up someone to replace Matt Schaub. Boy, was I wrong. Freeman scored 21 for me.

This week I take on Team Milksteak, who is in first place and has secured himself a playoff spot. I beat him last time 128-114. I hope my team can put up those kind of points again.

Steel City League
I won 124.90-112.14. Still racking up the points, even with Foster on a bye week. My big player this week was Nate Washington or Matthew Stafford. Nate had a few less points, but it was such a nice surprise, since he surpassed his projected stats by 17.

I moved into fourth place and now have a five game winning streak. Not too shabby for a league that I honestly thought I was out of after the first three weeks.

Fencing For Fun

2011-11-20T21:16:00.001-05:00

After the great Penn State win over Ohio State on Saturday, I saw one of my twitter friends from OSU mention that they'd beat us in basketball. I decided to make a joke about us beating them in fencing. Before I did that though, I made sure that PSU was still dominant in fencing. And yeah, they are still the dominant force in the fencing world.

I started looking at the results of fencing matches and had no idea what any of it meant. After a little research, I came to a conclusion: I want to fence. I am being dead serious.

Unfortunately, as I watched some of the fencing matches on YouTube, I came to another conclusion: it is not at all interesting to watch. We need to spice it up.

So here is what I want: form a fencing league. First, I need a place to hold the matches. Second, I need equipment. Third, I need friends. That is it. I do not care what the rules are or how the scoring works. Fuck that noise.

Also, instead of just duking it out in a straight line, I say use a full area. Maybe even battle outside, use the terrain. Obviously, every person in the world wants to sword fight. And we would have to do something about those ridiculous outfits. All white? Absolutely not, customize your helmet/mask thing, kind of like goalies. Plus, each team would have different color uniforms. Once we go big time, maybe get some sponsors.

I know what you are thinking: well Josh, how would we get better if no one has any experience? The answer is easy, trial & error. If you practice enough, you will get better at it. How did the first sword fighters become good: they practiced. Right? I think so.

So who is with me on this one?

Dark Tower Casting: Eddie Dean

2011-11-18T20:18:00.001-05:00

I was watching A Gifted Man, okay not really watching it, but the TV was on and it came on. I never saw the show before, but then this character came on and he reminded me of Eddie Dean from The Dark Tower series.

This got me thinking, I should do a casting for the Dark Tower, especially since the movie/show is still in talks. When I read the books, I always pictured Kevin Corrigan as Eddie. His performance in the crappy show, Grounded for Life made me think of Eddie or vice versa. Sarcastic and silly, always on the verge of driving a serious person insane.

I thought he would be perfect, especially since he was from the Bronx, had the accent and whatnot. Unfortunately, as time went on, he started to look really old. I highly doubt he could pull off a 21 year old.

Anyways, the guy I saw tonight could pull it off. Plus, he is pretty much a no name. Seriously, who the hell has heard of Rhys Coiro? He is not so young either, 32, but I think he would have a better chance to pull it off than someone younger. I do remember him from 24, well vaguely.

For those of you who are fans of the series, let me know what you think. Who should play Eddie? Think about this, do you want Shia Lebouf trying to battle Blaine the Monorail? Do you want Casey Affleck reciting the Gunslingers mantra? Every actor suggested is either some pretty boy, or someone ridiculous. I do like Aaron Paul (Jesse from Breaking Bad), but would he really want to play another addict?

I think this is a pretty good drawing of Eddie...

Jeopardy Was Wrong!

2011-11-17T19:34:00.001-05:00

I wish I could have been on Jeopardy tonight and rang in when this answer came up:

I sat there confused and the guy who answers it also seems to just guess: who are the Huns? Why would this be a bit confusing to those of us who actually studied Ancient History? Well, the Huns invaded the Balkans in 447 A.D. Unless Attila the Hun (the aptly named "Scourge of God") somehow managed to travel back in time to fight the Spartans...

First time I have ever noticed a mistake on the show. I feel so smart.

NFL Week Eleven Pick 'Em

2011-11-17T09:18:00.001-05:00

Last week I decided to go out on a limb on some of my picks. I figured that if I was right, I could gain some major ground, unfortunately, I was wrong on the majority of those picks. I went 5-11 and dropped to 11th place with a 68-72 record. I am trying to play it a little safer this week...