Warning: this is a sports-heavy post.

Bullets beat Rockets 100-98
Only good thing on TV. MJ orders the Arby's (5-for-5 FG) to kickstart overtime to stick it to the Rockets. I can't believe a 40-yr-old guy played 50 minutes. They had some dude named Joaquin Hawkins guarding him in OT. Gimme a break, Joaquin Hawkins can't guard no Black Jesus. And as soon as the Rockets give the ball to Yao more, the more they'll win and move up from 9th place in the West.

Song I keep listening to: John Coltrane's "Blue Train." Also this catchy little ditty my brother sent to me called "Brimful of Ahsa" by Cornershop.

I was talking to one of my friends about his Cubs, and I kept on saying stuff like "oh that guy is overrated" or "throwing out baserunners is overrated." Which of course made him say, you think everything is overrated. There's a lot of things that are overrated, especially in a stats-heavy sport like baseball, but I tried to think of underrated things. I feel a list coming on....

9 underrated things about baseball (no order)
1) On-base percentage
2) Pitch counts(!)
3) Double plays
4) "Performance" over "tools"
5) Middle relievers
6) Minor league development
7) Organizational philosophy. A Plan. Surprising how many teams don't have one.
8) Knowing where to find cheap, replaceable skills
9) Supplemental draft picks gained as part of free agent compensation. The Oakland A's have been making hay on this rule for years.

What does this all mean? That I am a gigantic, smelly, unkempt loser.

Probably everyone by now knows that Mr. Rogers has passed away. Truly a man everyone respected. Anyway, here's a few links:
-Mr. Rogers Dead of Cancer at 74 - Reuters official write-up.
-Family Communications, Inc. - dedicated to providing resources to help educators and parents.
-Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood - PBS site

No matter what my views on politics or American evangelical culture, I can certainly agree to fast for the President and my country.

Deadly Viper Venom Used To Make New Vodka
I don't blame them. I blame the ones who told them, oh Sergei, of course, that is a good idea, make vodka out of poisonous snakes. "Regular snake vodka usually involves stuffing a dead snake into a bottle of vodka." For the love of everything good, why.

Hmm. Brad Pitt fart in a jar for sale.

Got some friends coming into town this weekend, along with my brother. Should be fun. Oooh, and my first fantasy baseball draft is Saturday. Another nerdy sports post in the works.

Ananova - FBI investigates spoof 'bonsai kitten' website
Reminds me of when at my old job, some lady emailed us about the possible evil of Harry Potter (when those books were first coming out) and could she point out some sources for her to read up on? Because apparently some neighbor of hers had told her that Harry Potter was bad, and one of the sources she'd cited was a headline from The Onion. I forwarded it onto the editors at The Onion, figured they deserved a pat on the back for a job well done.

Available Light is a site maintained by some photographer guy. It has some cool photos on it, and a photoblog, altho that seems to be down for the moment.

Work work today. Pretty straightforward. Gotta get paid. Same thing for Thursday. My brother's coming up this weekend, so that'll be good. Had a really good conversation with one of my old friends about a CT editorial I read about Bono. A really good conversation about American evangelical culture and its slow grasp of Bono and U2 and most forms of art that are not completely, headsmackingly obvious about being Christian. I think it's really easy for me to get angry about the narrow-minded perspectives of people like evangelicals, and I might even be justified in my anger, but in the end I must realize that just being angry doesn't fix anything. So. I will try and be better, and more hopeful that the American church, heck Christians everywhere, can better understand this world, so we can better be Christ to it.

For those of you who are looking for little shortcuts to make your work on a computer more efficient (this means you, Clay Anderson), then try out The Wonderful Icon. Sort of a jack of all trades program that can create hotkeys or macros for simple functions.

New gauze promotes natural healing
Seriously? This is cool. All natural, too.

They unveiled the new plans for the WTC site.

Nous Rendons
A brief history of French military surrenders.

Oldest American Man Dies at 113
"He lived a great life. Obviously, he was well put together. He smoked cigars, drank beer and ate greasy food. He was an amazing man." Looks like I'm on the right track, especially with the gigantic bacon burger I ate last night.

After the gigantic burger, we went to go watch 24. The Bauer daughter crap is really irritating, along with the President's wife. Does anybody else notice that she talks. really. slow? Like, "David. I only did this. To. Protect. You." Nails on chalkboard. But she seems to be the one remaining evil character out there that can still cause damage, along with the missing 7th Special Forces soldier.

Marty, I heard you haven't seen Almost Famous yet. You of all people. You need to go rent and see that this weekend. I will leave a message with your assistant.

Oh, this is a few days old, but stuff about finding 82 cat carcasses in an old lady's home never gets old. Or reading about dudes who open packages and have deadly venomous snakes popping out of them.

Song Stuck in Your Head? You're Not Alone
The worst case I've had of this is "Total Eclipse of the Heart."

And on that note, song stuck inside my head: Led Zeppelin's "Over the Hills and Far Away"

New S. Korean Leader Roh Faces Tensions
I'm not a huge political guy, especially in a country I don't live in anymore, but it concerns me because I have family back there and I'd rather not see them turn into ashes by some maniac sitting on nukes.

Finally got around to see the Alias that I taped over the weekend. The Rambaldi stuff is my favorite plotline. And gimme some more Evil Francie. I also will say that I like Will more as time passes. It seems I like the character more the less he/she is involved with (irritating) romantic entanglements. I guess that pretty much goes for every show I watch.

Took the day off of work to see to my mom, who sprained her foot over the weekend. So we took Auntie Lydia (who's not really my aunt, but you get it) to go visit this old, beautiful city church my mom had heard about and wanted to visit. The place is called Queen of All Saints Basilica (no pics on the site, tho), near Devon and Cicero. Really beautiful stained glasswork, and a lot of it, with the requisite depictions of the Virgin Mary, saints, and scenes from Scripture. Everyone's seen stained glass but these stood out to me in terms of how much of it there was, along with the ornate detail. Today was a little overcast but the glass still looked spectacular. I should have been smart and brought a camera, which I'll do next time I visit.

New Strong Bad email. And here's the link to the breakfast burrito auction Homestar mentioned, although they'll likely take it down soon. Youw pwobabwy wight.

Raised Middle Finger Is Ancient Gesture
Um, just wondering, how is this "Breaking News"? Sorta timely, as my friends and I were having a conversation involving swearing (and drinking and other smaller, perhaps minor vices) in the context of being a Christian.

Watched the "No Way Out" WWE pay-per-view with Dave. Disappointingly straightforward, with no real plot twists or double-crosses. Good to see the Rock return to the ring as a heel (bad guy). And I am so sick of Hulk Hogan. Almost as sick as I am about Frank Thomas' small girlish whining about how he is so wronged. The worst is the implication about how his $5 million salary is somehow insufficient for his lifestyle, and he needs to take care of his kids. "As far as the money thing, I've got kids to support and a lifestyle to support and I like living my lifestyle." Ooo, how do all those other parents do it without $5 mill. Fricking blasphemous. I can't believe I had that guy's poster on my wall at one point.

I may stay home Monday, partially because my mom sprained her foot and I feel a little uneasy about leaving her alone at home, partially because I'd like to stay home with the crappy weather out. Perhaps the Mother of All Work Excuses page can help me out.

I haven't been to McSweeney's in awhile. I also have a neurotic compulsion about making lists of things, kinda like Jon Cusack's character in High Fidelity who's always making lists of the top 5 best albums or best songs or whatever. So McSweeney's has just a list of weird things, that probably only I find interesting, because I irrationally like looking at lists of things, no matter how useless.

Rented Brazil over the weekend. Quite possibly one of the weirdest, most bizarre things I've ever seen. Definitely not for everyone. In the proud tradition of futuristic doomsday type art, with Aldous Huxley's Brave New World being the most well-known example. Brazil might be the story of a doomed future society where bureacracy ruins everything about life, but it has a winsome, tongue-in-cheek attitude that makes it more comedic than most doomsday type movies/literature. But one of the weirdest movies I've ever seen, along with Mulholland Drive.

Made some headway in transferring this blog's stuff to my own webspace. I hope to get it done by this weekend.