Growing roots

I gotta find something to do on weekends. Sitting around the house is killing me. Even just a coupla hours away would make me feel less pathetic. The trouble is I'm trying to not spend too much money, since I'll be on vacation after working this week and would like some spending money.

So how did I while away the hours here at the house? Well I played some Halo Reach, which is good. I think my total love affair with the Halo series has waned, but it's still good. Especially enjoyed playing Infection online. It's kind of a zombie game type. I won't get into specifics, but it's cool.

I then ground out the final few episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender and I have to say, that's a good series. I thought it'd be too kiddy or too anime, but it's enjoyable. It's got more depth and character development than half the adult shows on today. So check it out if you're interested.

After finishing up that, I listened to some Warhammer podcasts while playing Plants vs. Zombies on XBLA. I'm a total junkie for this game. I've bought it twice, played it for over 100 hours on my PC and probably over 20 on the Xbox.

So yeah, that's my day. Tomorrow I'll watch tons of football, but I think I'm gonna head outside at some point. We'll see.

Everyone has hope at the start of the season. Let me remedy that.

Once again we return to the gridiron, or in actuality the computer screen that tracks the stats from the gridiron. To be completely honest, I'm having to work harder to get excited for this season. The whole Roethlisberger rape thing really put a taint on the season for me. But I'm fighting through it and will probably be fine once the actual season starts.

But anyway, the only reason anyone reads this blog is for my Techmo Lucky Breaks League rankings and those are inbounds. This year has started with another draft where all the teams are razor close. I'm ranking purely on my own intuition, so don't get pissy. Clearly I don't know what I'm talking about last season I ranked the champion in last place and the worst team first.

This season I feel like there are two drafts I like a lot, two I don't like so much and the other six are crammed in together. So here we go, my 2010 draft rankings. Enjoy bitches.

1. LEESBURG LEGHOUNDS - Despite recent presidential leg humping duties the Leghounds clearly found time to put in some research for this season's draft. He's solid top to bottom, with some lesser known talent that could blow up big on the bench. But fear not TLB'ers all it will take is one bad week and he'll make a crippling trade that he will bemoan for all willing to listen.
2. Heaven's Own - Kevin approached this season with an obsessive compulsive need to mock draft and all his practice did not go unrewarded. The only questions are will Frank Gore stay healthy, can Kolb make Maclin worthwhile and is C.J. Spiller as overhyped as I think he is. But those are pretty thin complaints all in all.
3. Evil Penguin - I thought I did pretty well. My starters seem pretty solid all told, although i need Mendenhall to be a full time back and not split carries. I am concerned that my bench is maybe a little more hope than talent. So I need my guys to stay healthy, but who doesn't? Also I'm hoping to be on the good end of Adam's crippling trade, so I got that going for me.
4. F.S.U. WARCHANT - Our resident Seminoles fan had another solid draft. The only thing that scares me about this team is his QB situation. Can Favre recreate the year he had last season? Can he even last all season on that ankle? He has McNabb on the bench, but his fantasy value with the Skins is still in question. Other than that, Warchant is not someone I look forward to playing this season.
5. DALLAS DANGLERS - Hard to shoot holes in this draft too. As someone who took Roddy White in the 3rd round last year and was disappointed, I say good luck on that one. He never lived up to expectations. Still his starters look solid, good bench. Not many flaws discernible before the season starts.
6. GAC NATION - My brother's inaugural draft in the league and it's a good one. His starting RBs are impressive, although Brandon Jacobs is maybe into the downward side of his career. Some pretty decent WRs, with a lot of potential upside. Clearly the GAC Nation did it's research and put together a formidable squad.
7. Va Sixpack - The autodraft did not seem to hurt our defending champ too much overall, although he has several guys with question marks. Over half of his starters are injury risks heading into the season (MJD, Knowshon, Boldin) or have lost some key component to the offense that could cause trouble (Rivers, Fitzgerald). He has some solid depth and clearly has shown a propensity to find a way to win.
8. Team Vipperman - Found Nick's draft a little puzzling. I predicted his first two picks would be Drew Brees and Reggie Wayne. Got Wayne right, but then he went with Ryan Grant. Seemed like a reach to me and I owned Grant last season. Jury is still out on Cutler too, although Mike Martz could turn him into a powerhouse... maybe. Solid depth on the bench, that has to be taken into account.
9. Innsmouth Fisheyes - Kenneth Darby. 11th round. Hate that pick man. We coulda extended our draft two more rounds and no one else is gonna pick Darby at any point. I think that's the whole reason for my low ranking. I dig your WRs a lot, your starting RBs are good, excellent QB in Schaub (if he stays healthy). So maybe I'm being petty. It's not outside the realm of possibilities.
10. East River Rats - I can't really put my finger on why I don't like this draft. I look at his individual players and they seem reasonable, but as a team they add up to iffy for me. Ohh, well except Montario Hardesty. Feel free to start him against me. There is also the factor of a former champion changing his team's name. The fantasy gods do not look favorably on that kind of move.

So there we go, my 2010 rankings. Here's to another good season and me getting all the lucky breaks.

Scrolling back to the first track

So I am still around. I've just been keeping it low key, because... well why not? I'm not that interesting anyway. But I write now more out of my boredom than for worry over yours. I am bored. Even on my days off I'm bored. Just not a lot going on. I spend four days watching tv for money and then spend the next three watching tv for free. I'm on repeat.

Just watched Precious, so you'll understand why my mood isn't particularly cheery. It's such a well made movie, Powerful. Well-acted. But it's so brutal. Everything that could go wrong for that girl did. So harsh. I'm now watching The Messenger to continue to mood. I'm about halfway into that and it's intense.

I guess that's it. Not much to say, really. I'm dull.

Menomena

Pixels

Awesome

Realization

You ever stop and think about how screwed up you are? By you, I mean me, so don't get all defensive, ok? I realized how entirely damaged a was a month or so ago. It was during one of the interminable snows that forced me and one of my coworkers to sleep at the office. He works days and so when he got up at around 3am we'd hang out and talk for a while.

He mentioned that he wanted to write an sports blog. You know, spend some money on it to make it professional and try his luck with it. Maybe let it turn into his real job. That's his dream. Why this is significant is that when he said this I realized that there was no way I could believe that could ever work out. Not even a little bit.

To add to this cynicism, I have a much more reason to believe I could make that work. I mean I got six years of sports writing experience under my belt. I have written sports related articles that I know to be good about a wide variety of topics. Still, it would never even occur to me that I would ever succeed in a venture like that.

Which brings me back to the irrevocable damage my psyche has sustained through my life. No only do I not have anything beside a history of failure in my life, in all areas of my life. I can't even begin to imagine a scenario where anything else is the case. So why even attempt it?

My coworker has a dream. All mine are dead. How do you get them back? I have no idea. I'm broken.

Dogfuckingly nerdy

I'm indulging my nerd tendencies and watching tons of animation lately. I watched Superman/Batman Public Enemies and it was enjoyable, but not great. I also watch Justice League Crisis on Two Earths which I liked a lot. I'm trying to catch up on my DC comic knowledge, since I was a total Marvel nerd as a kid. At the moment I'm watching some episodes of The Tick, which never fails to please.

Speaking of comics I read Kickass, the graphic novel which the upcoming movie is based on. It's pretty damn hardcore and I liked it quite a bit. Hope the movie lives up to it's promise. I'm also anticipating the How to Train Your Dragon, which looks pretty cool.

Yes, I'm in a total state of regression. If you want psychoanalysis I'd say my regular life sucks so much I seek any way to escape from it. And what better way than the kinda stuff that I loved as a kid. But whatever, who wants to hear me whine? Even I'm sick of it. I'm hoping spring brings some respite with the return of greenery and sunshine, but who can say.

I beat Borderlands, which was good. I really enjoyed the post-apocalyptic theme and art style. That said, the ending left me quite cold. Very blah. I've also been playing God of War, the first one and find it quite violent and fun. Looking forward to beating it and moving on to GOW2 (I got the PS3 collection) and perhaps even picking up the third one.

That's all for now. Til the next time I'm bored and decide to spray the internet with nerdery.

Pummel you with a manhole cover

So I'm snowed in again, but at least I'm at home for a change. That's a plus. Went to see Cop Out on Monday and that was not something I can really recommend. Tracy Morgan was funny, but all in all it wasn't great. I also had hot wings, which I now regret for reasons I will not go into, you'll thank me.

I'm watching some It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia and it's hilarious. There is guaranteed pandemonium in every episode. Wonderful.

I am going through Olympic withdrawals now. There's no curling on! Dammit, how am I expected to exist without curling on all night. Also Olympic hockey rocks. Sure the U.S. lost the gold in OT, but at least it was Canadian wunderkind and Pittsburgh Penguin Sidney Crosby who scored the final goal.

Not much else to report, my life continues to be a dull, shell of a real existence. What else would you expect?

tarpit

Here's something no one will expect, a blog from me. I haven't really felt like blogging lately, because not much in my life is worth reliving at the moment. And I kinda get tired of writing this blog like a list of media that I've partaken of, even tho that's the easiest thing. So yeah, Valentine's Day sucks. My 35 year streak continues.

See I feel guilty for not writing anything, but when I sit down to actually type something up it's horribly depressing and dull. My advice, follow my twitter feed. It's much less annoying, although I'm just as likely to be bitching.

I may try to bang out something readable again soon, but no promises.

Nearly a month

Wow, I've been neglecting this place something fierce. This will even be a short post as I am tired and need sleep. But I thought I'd put up a little something for my faithful readers... if there are any. I'll try to put up a real post this weekend, not that I have anything particularly edifying to say. More just to say I did really. Off to bed.

There's been a mix up somewhere deep inside

With visions of sugar plums dancing in my head I'll drag my lame ass to work through the holidays once again. My patience with this sort of thing is flagging. But whatever, who wants to hear me bitch about work. I bore myself with it sometimes. Can't help it tho, it's hard to get over it when you keep getting dicked over. I mean I stayed at the office for 50+ hours last weekend thanks to snow, sleeping on the couch. Now it's Xmas and New Year's and I get to work through both. It's even supposed to freezing rain on Xmas Day so I may have another day sleeping on the couch, which will suck.

Moving on, I watched a ton of movies this weekend. Tyson, the documentary on the former heavyweight champ, which was fantastic. Mike Tyson doing some reflection and introspection punctuated by his fights, foibles and foul mouth. Good viewing. Also watched Barton Fink, which was good. Not my fav. Coen Brothers movie, think The Big Lebowski holds that title (although Raising Arizona is in the running.)

I watched a ton of other stuff too, but I think it's bed time so I can get started on my grueling finish to 2009. I'll be glad to see this year end. Aside from the Steelers and Penguins winning championships it's been a fucking dreadful year.

Stay tuned, I've been working my way through some of the 2009 albums I missed and am prepping my best of list. I know you've all been waiting to see a list of bands you don't know or care about.

One last day of freedom

Wow, so my vacation is nearly over. How did that happen? I did have a good time. Actually did some socializing. It was nice to be out on a weekend night interacting with friends. I could get used to that, although I'd better not since I won't be doing it again for months, probably.

Spent way too much money, did a bunch of Xmas shopping, watched a ton of movies (I'll get to some of those later), played some games, read a book (less than I wanted, but I still got one more night) and watched some sporting events.

The book was called Hater by David Moody and had an excellent twist that I did not really expect. Recommended for anyone who loves zombie-esque books (more 28 Days Later than Living Dead.) I'm also reading Julia Child's My Life In France and is wonderfully warm and interesting memoir. I'm reading that because I watched Julie and Julia, which was also warm, like so many of Nora Ephron's movies.

I also rewatched Star Trek (beautiful) and Sunshine (still more beautiful.) Both are awesome. Fahrenheit 451 directed by Francois Truffant, which was good. Not great, but captured the book and I liked the ending. Also watched The Host, a Korean movie about a monster. Strange, but interesting.

I just watched World's Greatest Dad, the new movie by Bobcat Goldthwait starring Robin Williams. Very dark humor... very. So good, if you are into twisted tales about suicide.

Sportswise it's been a rough week. The Steelers lost their fourth in a row to Cleveland, which is just sad. I know I'm not allowed to complain, since they won the Super Bowl last season, but it's hard to watch a my team tank like this. Especially since I know they have the talent to be good. On top of that The Evil Penguin has lost four in a row as well and removed all hope of a playoff berth in fantasy football. This last week's loss was particularly straining since I put up a huge number and would have beaten anyone else I played, except the guy I played. Lucky Breaks strike again.

One positive note is that the Pittsburgh Penguins blasted Philadelphia 6-1 last night and are on top of their division and a mere 1 point back from the top of the conference. I'm feeling the hockey love now. Here's hoping they can keep it up.

Anyway I have one more day off and I'm not sure how I'm going to spend it. I'm debating staying in and not doing a damn thing. But I may want to go out, not sure. Gonna play it by ear. I'm hoping Amazon sends me my Inglourious Basterds Blue Ray, but high volume at the post office may slow things down. I also need to wrap some Xmas gifts, which I'm kinda dreading, honestly. But it has to be done. Anyway, one day more of fun, then back to the mind numbing grind.

Bears fans will love this

Super Bowl? Nope, sex offenders.

The vacation dilemma

Soooo, I bought a PS3 the other day. Basically for the Blue Ray player, but the games potential is cool, as well. Still, I guess my 360 got jealous and decided to fuck up my Modern Warfare 2 disc and now, won't read it. I played for like three hours last night and 2.5 hours in it tells me it can't read my disc. I eject and try to play again. No problem. Play a little longer and move on. Go back tonight and, boom, it won't read it at all and I find it has some stress grooves on the inner circle. Total suckjob.

So now I'm faced with a conundrum. Should I go ahead and trade in my current XBox and get a new one or should I hold off on it. Scared it may fuckup my other games, so I can't really see playing my stuff on it. But it's Xmas and I'm not sure I need to drop the cash I'd have to shell out to get a new one. It's frustrating. Also I'm probably not gonna be able to trade in my MW2 disc and a $60 game becomes a coaster. Bummer.

But at least I'm on vacation... where I have nothing major to do and have to decide between staying in and spending little cash or going out and entertaining myself and dropping major funds. If I don't go out I feel like I have no life whatsoever. If I do I feel guilty for spending too much money. It's no win.

Silenced FAMAS to the dome

I'm now hooked on the Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer. I finally beat the single player, which was fun, but such a goofy plot. But tonight the multiplayer roped me in good. Crushing my enemies, seeing them driven before me and hearing the lamentation of thier women was nice. Although I was actually listening to my Ipod and not the lamentation. What can you do.

Now I get to work through the holiday, wooo. My cold has struck again, or maybe I've got a new one. Either way my face is a fountain of mucus. It's unpleasant. Bleh.

Wall of cocks sequence woulda blown peoples minds.

Been quiet here. Between my constant hacking cough and the mind-numbing nature of my life it's been pretty quiet. I've been mostly keeping a low profile, work, sleep, work, sleep. Throw in a couple of movies here and there and that's it. Shit, what the hell have I been doing? I don't even remember. I did speak of the mind-numbing before and here's an illustration.

I did pick up Modern Warfare 2, which is good, so far, but I haven't been much in the mood for shooting things. Video games just haven't been doing it for me lately. Been more in the book mode, of late. I re-read the last couple of Wheel of Time novels and am halfway through the most recent, The Gathering Storm. It's good, although I do have some questions about the way things are going and how they would be different if Robert Jordan were still alive. But all told, it's not too different from what I'd expect from him. Although turning the final novel into the final three novels does still annoy me a little.

I'm watching Californication, season 2, which is good so far. And I've been watching season 2 of My Name is Earl, which I'm enjoying. I am trying to wring the enjoyment out of the DVDs before syndication annoys the fuck out of me at work, which will take less than three months, I promise. Both the first five seasons of Scrubs and Two and A Half Men are really hard to watch these days. It's even worse with shows that I didn't like initially.

I have been listening to a lot of music. Loads of end of decade lists with stuff I hadn't heard of before that I've been exploring, plus a ton of new releases that merit interest. A few notables are:

• Them Crooked Vultures: Such a Trip album. It's good. I enjoy it a lot.
  
• The Avalanches - Since I Left You: Quality electronic album. Loads of samples jammed together into a glorious hodgepodge.
• Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport: The more I listen to it, the more it grows on me, although I still prefer Street Horrrsing.
• Built to Spill - There Is No Enemy: Magnificent. Love the guitar.
• Jay Z - The Blueprint: I'm working my way up to the new album, Blueprint 3.
  
• The Naked Trucker and T-Bones: Love me some Dave Koechner and I decided to download this gem this week on a whim.
• Vivian Girls - Everything Goes Wrong: Might have mentioned this before, but I love this album and the girls who made it.
  

There is more on the way in this vein coming. I got a lot of new music to peruse. So stay tuned for my useless bullshit.