Thursday, October 29, 2009

disheveled brain blast

Random thoughts for this week:

  • This week in sports has a high probability to suck, between the World Series, the Steelers' bye week and all the Favre nonsense, I'm expecting to be exasperated before Sunday.
  • That said, the Penguins are fucking rolling the NHL currently and I'm enjoying it. Crosby dropped some science last night, banging out a hat trick in two periods against Montreal.
  • It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is very good. Watched the first two seasons this weekend and it's awesome.
  • I have to work on Halloween... and every other holiday until the end of this year. My good will at work is eroding and we need to hire someone new or I may snap.
  • Read Jeff Ross' book "I Only Roast the Ones I Love" tonight and it's amusing. A lot of the stuff I've already seen in roasts rehashed, but still enjoyable.
  • Flight of the Living Dead is the most dull zombie film I've ever seen. I figured it was going to be bad, but am compelled to watch any movie with the suffix "...of the Living Dead."
  • Finally all caught up with Lost. Now I'm left feeling lost without more episodes to watch. Yesh, that's a horrible line. Still this show is amazing, I'm both happy and sad I waited this long to watch it. On one hand, woulda been cool to always be in on the zeitgeist. On the other, watching it weekly may have broken me.
  • Met Trip's girlfriend Tamara and she seems cool. They seem to be good together. Definitely a step up from his dating past. Maybe now people will stop thinking we're gay. Although Trip will have to stop blowing me for that to be totally true.
  • The Evil Penguin is ailing, losing two straight. We still have a share a spot at the top of the TLB South Conference, but it is precarious.
  • Here you will find a nice Halloween mixtape to download for free that has a nice creepy edge without being too scary or annoying. It's worth a listen.
  • Bernardo Bertollicci's film The Dreamers is worth a watch. It is a love letter to the cinema (particularly French film), a tale of a brother and sister with a disturbingly close relationship and a lot of Eve Green being naked and looking amazing.
  • I am in love with the NFL and NHL Networks. I always have something to watch now. When we finally get the high def. issue solved it will be heavenly.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Living according to dharma, or maybe just the others

Been a while since I posted, but between work and me being lazy it's been a busy time. Mostly I've been watching a lot of Lost. That show is like crack and I always seem to need another hit. Last week I watched 10 episodes in a row in a single sitting. My tendency toward slothlike behavior is astounding, I know. But yeah, I finally finished Season 4 tonight. Only one more to go and I'm all caught up. Then I'll be in the situation to have to watch the final season week to week, which will be painful, I'm sure.

I discovered tonight that I have Vs., The NHL Network and, most importantly, The NFL Network. This seems like something I should have known, but I didn't. Basically because I can't get the HD feeds and this annoyed me to the point where I stopped looking in frustration. So now I have even more things to waste my time. Woohoo.

I finished this book called The Men Who Stare At Goats, which is about the US governments research into paranormal solutions to military/intelligence problems. It's a very strange account. Lots of things brought up that seem just absurd enough to be true. It's being made into a movie and the trailer interested me and I saw the book and picked it up.

Makes you curious which of the paranormal things in the book actually work. Making goats die with your mind, psychic locating, invisibility, the death touch. Some of the products of this type of research is real. That foam they use to immobilize people, blaring loud music and flashing lights as an interrogation tactic. The idea that the whole Abu Ghraib photo debacle was actually ordered by high level intelligence officers as leverage against detained Arabs. So strange. Who knows what goes on behind closed doors... doors that require serious security clearance.

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Watch hockey you bastards

I'm in the middle of a very long work period and it kinda sucks. Ten out of eleven days... I get Tuesday off. A Place to Bury Strangers is playing in Chapel Hill that night and I want to go, but I don't know if I'll be up for that drive in the midst of all this crap. Also I'd be going alone. Oh and I have another meeting on Wed. so I get to go in early for a 13.5 hour work day. Lovely.

But that bitching is not why I'm here. I've decided to stand up and be heard. I'm going to defend hockey! The NHL season started last Thursday and it's time you took note. That's right all you haters, hockey is a great sport and here's why:

  • First of all, it's a great game. Lots of whiners complain they don't score enough, but that's what makes it exciting. That anticipation when your team gets itself into position to score and you know it may happen.
  • This goes in tandem with that great game argument, but there are some fantastic hits in hockey. These guys drill each other constantly. There's no rule that a burly defenseman can't hammer those dainty forwards, in fact it's a big part of most team's game plan to plow over those guys. Not like the NFL, of late, where you breathe heavy on a QB and it's a flag.
  • Some young players that are in the game now are showing some serious skills. Crosby, Malkin, Ovechkin. Those guys are gonna be legendary names one day and they are playing now. Enjoy it.
  • These are literally big guys with stick and blades strapped to their feet whacking a piece of frozen rubber at one another. How can that be bad?
So there ya go. I admit my enthusiasm is running high after the Penguins' Stanley Cup run last season and all the young talent on the team now. Hard not to love that, especially after so many years of no talent in Pittsburgh. It seems like feast or famine, but maybe Mario Lemieux has finally righted the ship and things will be good there.

One complaint I do have tho, is the TV contract. I hate the fact that Versus has the rights to NHL games. It seems like they'd blow that out, have games on all the time and promote the hell out of it. Do they? Nope, maybe two games a week and fucking rodeo on Saturday. Really? Fuck. The NHL would do better to simply give the rights to a couple of games a week to air on ESPN just to help ticket sales. Bah.

Anyway I'm off to fiddle with my fantasy team and hope for a win over the dreaded Danglers.