NCAA College Baseball Tournament Predictions (v1)

So I'm going to talk about something that most people find incredibly boring - college baseball. Why? Because I love baseball, and love my Yellow Jackets. I used to work in a lab that was mere feet from Russ Chandler Stadium at GT, so I'd frequently head over to the stadium to watch my boys after I finished working on a Friday. It was a nice way to start the weekend - watch some top-ranked Yellow Jacket baseball, game would end around 7p or so, then go out for the night afterwards. Oh, and living next door to four GT baseball players and becoming friends with two of them - Phillies' prospect Victor Menocal and current Rangers' 1B Mark Teixeira. Great guys, and a lot of fun to hang with...but I digress. Today, the NCAA Baseball Tournament's field of 64 was announced, and I'm gonna see how much I do/don't know by predicting the winners. Somebody prepare that crow sandwich, because I'm sure I'll get a couple really big bites of it by the time this thing is over.

[EDIT: Replaced lots of text with jpeg of bracket]

Here's my bracket:


[Click to enlarge]  

THE COLLEGE WORLD SERIES
Predicted seeding:
1. Texas
2. South Carolina
3. Miami
4. Georgia Tech
5. Stanford
6. Arizona State
7. Louisiana State
8. Wichita State

Predicted final standings:
1. South Carolina
2. Georgia Tech
3. Stanford
4. Texas
5. Arizona State
6. Miami
7. Louisiana State
8. Wichita State

...we'll know how wrong I was on June 28th. I'll revise after the Regionals are done.

Geek Chic, Heartbreak, and a Clarification

I am what people call "a consumer whore". I like stuff. I enjoy having stuff. Though I'll be the first to admit that I've made some AWFUL purchases in the past. Examples are not limited to: A pocket PC [Compaq Aero 2110 - $450 in 1999], buying 40 Gamecube games in the timespan of February 2003-February 2004, a Sega Saturn over a N64 or PlayStation, and probably some others. But there are some things that I'm prouder than hell for picking up: my Creative Nomad Zen Xtra [40gb of mp3 goodness for $200, not as sexy or good as an iPod, but cheaper and 2x battery life], my Aiwa in-dash car MP3 CD player [hot shit in 2001, but the AM doesn't work anymore], TiVo, and most recently, the modded-to-hell Xbox.

So what's the point? I like cool, new shit. And one such thing that tickles both my "consumer whore" and my techno-geek sides is the OQO Personal Computer. This thing is hot. A handheld with the power of an actual PC. And it's running XP, not some shitty specialized OS like WindowsCE or PocketOS. You can actually run normal apps on it. Only thing from looking at the OQO specs is the choice to use USB 1.1 over USB 2.0 and 802.11b instead of 802.11g. Oh, and a 1GHz Transmeta? Boo. But why lie, I'd love to have one of these, a 80GB Apple iPod, a Sony PSP, and a Nintendo DS. And a hot cell phone. But damn, throw in car keys and that'd be one crowded set of pockets.

Another hell of a lot more useful new product is the cell phone dock that connects to your wired land-line and allows you to make cell calls on any of your home phones. I plan on getting one of these promptly upon getting a place of my own. Two examples are PhoneLabs' Dock-N-Talk and the Motorola CellSocket. Cool stuff, though neither works with my current phone, the LG VX2000. But since my current phone is a piece of shit, giving it up will be no problem. And I'll be damned if I ever sign a 2 year contract again. Fuck that.

Sad realization: the computer I stream my media files off of to play on the Xbox has a slower processor speed than the Xbox [450 vs. 733]. And one cost $2400 in 1999, the other cost $129 in 2004. That makes my wallet cry. So does the goddamned gas pump. Best I saw today was $2.02 - my car is getting used to that orange light that comes on when the gas needle points to "E". Next job interview: Tuesday, June 9th in Albany, GA with these guys for a Process Engineering job. Sounds interesting, but I wont know more until I see it.

I was in Wal-Mart today picking up some things when I saw something that broke my heart. While in the electonics section, looking over wireless Xbox controllers [I bought this one], I was standing next to the wall-o-TVs when I heard one of my favorite songs of all time, "Golden Brown" by The Stranglers. I immediately turned to see what it was, only to see something that saddened and horrified me. On the TV screen were two hands, each holding an Ore-Ida french fry. French fries. Possibly my favorite song was defiled by a goddamned fried potato commercial. I'll never buy Ore-Ida again. Melodramatic? Yes. But justified. This is very similar to the case where the late Johnny Cash's family wouldn't let his song "Ring of Fire" be used in a Preparation-H commercial. Kudos to them. Selling out is fine, but leave that to shitty bands like Smashmouth.

Oh, and a quick clarification for non-Tallahasseans. When I use the phrase "I'm sleeping with Mickey" I'm referring to my dog. Here's some pictures of the little guy from last Halloween:


Mickey inside the pumpkin I used to Trick-or-Treat with.  


Hey, dogs can look stupid too.  

Last Night, U[sic]GA?, and ACC Beesball

So last night was fun. Good turnout, and somehow 32 hotdogs and 10 bratwurst got eaten. I'm proud of you guys. Mickey [my dog] escaped from the ordeal only as a tired little dog, but that's fair because he was up way past his normal "bedtime". Drew decided to recreate the awful face-shaking picture bit again, and boy, it was awful. Awfully great. Basically, you let your lips and cheeks go limp, then you shake your head from side to side, allowing air to get in and puff your face up. And you take a picture in mid-shake, and it almost always looks absolutely rediculous. Exhibit A:


Hooray for Drew. 

And of course, we decided to "pose" and make the most rediculous picture that we could. The results are Exhibit B:


I'd say we did pretty well. 

In other news that only I care about, you might not be able to make fun of the University [sic] of Georgia because those boneheads went and lost the trademark and all naming rights OF THE FREAKING SCHOOL. Pathetic. Can I submit my vote to rename it "Clarke County Community College" yet?

Oh, and the rampage continues on. For those counting at home, that's 20 wins in a row for GT's baseball team, which as of this posting, is sitting in the ACC tournament's championship game, waiting for an opponent who would have to beat GT twice to win it. The Yellow Jackets are in the driver's seat, and I like it.

Speaking of ACC sports, I was in a Borders yesterday with Alexandria, and while we were talking I flipped through The Sporting News' ACC Football preview. As usual, GT was picked to flounder this season. Here's the schedule and TSN's predictions:

09/04/04 Samford (W)
09/11/04 @ Clemson (L)
09/18/04 @ North Carolina (W)
10/02/04 Miami (L)
10/09/04 @ Maryland (L)
10/16/04 Duke (W)
10/28/04 Virginia Tech (W)
11/06/04 @ NC State (W)
11/13/04 Connecticut (W)
11/20/04 Virginia (L)
11/27/04 @ Georgia (L)

6-5, 4th place in our division [behind Miami, UVA, and VT], and 8th overall in the ACC. Tech should definitely win against Samford, UNC, Duke, and UConn, though UNC might be tough. Tech will probably lose to Miami, Clemson, and [ugh] Georgia. The games against VT, UVA, and Maryland are up for grabs though - GT and VT square off on Tech's home-turf - ESPN's Thursday night football from Bobby Dodd Stadium - where GT has played more Thursday night games than I'd bet anybody else in the country. That game will be good.

Friday Night's Shindig

Okay, here's the deal.

What: Grillin' and Drinkin' at my place this Friday [Edit: Thanks 'Mander]
Why: Because.
When: Friday evening, cookout starting around 8p [just show up whenever, but I fire up the grill at 8p]
What Not To Bring: Hotdogs and hotdog buns. I've got those covered. Just let me know if you're coming so I know how many to buy. There will be hunch-punch if you guys have an interest in it. And absolutely no drugs, guys.
What To Bring: Any other stuff you'd want grilled [veggie burgers, real burgers, brats] and BYOB.
Where: [directions snipped]

Only thing I ask is that we keep all of our noise inside the house. Shouldn't be a problem as we actually have a functioning AC. Try to park as many cars in the grass in front of the house and in the driveway as you can - and if you can, carpool. Space is limited. This is a neighborhood with young children in a lot of the neighboring houses, so I'd like to keep the outside-noise low. Inside though, go ape-shit. Just don't break shit. And there's plenty of room for people to pass out here. So bring a pillow and a blanket or something if that's what you're gonna do.

Xlink, Some Movie Reviews

First off, as an Xbox and Gamecube owner, I was thrilled to see Xlink finally put out the final version of their game console tunnelling software. What does this mean? It means you can fool your Xbox/GC/PS2 into thinking that Internet games are LAN games. It means Mario Kart: Double Dash online. It means that I don't need to pay for Xbox Live, because I can play many of the games online FOR FREE. It's hot. Now I just need to get that stinking Gamecube broadband adapter and an internet connection that doesn't suck. DSL blows. Oh, and if you see "pimpbot5k" online, that's me. So add me to your friends list. Or something.

And now, for some quick movie reviews. [Any review I ever put up, be it for games or movies, will be spoiler free - I hate the assholes who ruin movies and games for me]:

Shrek 2: Good follow-up to the original, but don't believe the "it's better than the original" hype. Shrek 2 is a great movie, but the original just seemed better. Though I will admit, Shrek 2 has more pop-culture references and puns than any movie I've ever seen in my life. An entertaining flick, so 8/10.

Envy: Wow, even with a pretty decent cast [Stiller, Black, Weisz, and Poehler] this movie blew ass. Do not watch this movie. Or if you do, do what I did: watch the first 30 minutes, then when it gets excruciatingly painfully predictable, skip to the end to see the resolution. I never thought there could be a script so bad to make Jack Black unfunny. Well, unfunny isn't fair enough - you end up hating his damned character. 2/10, because the beginning isn't that bad.

Hellboy: I like comic book movies, and this one was pretty entertaining. Good action/hero flick, with a decent enough story. Not quite Spider-Man or X2 material, but worth seeing - a solid 8/10.

Eurotrip: On par with 2000's Road Trip, this movie falls into the mindless teen comedy genre. It's good for a laugh, but lacks comedic genius that other movies like Super Troopers or How High had. But worth it if you can get your hands on it, so 6.5/10.

Mystic River: I heard lots of hype about this movie, and I guess I felt let down, just like I did when I first saw A Beautiful Mind or American Beauty. All three are good films, as their multiple Oscar nominations speak for themselves, but I felt that all three weren't the type of movie that I really enjoyed. Like the others, Mystic River left me wanting more. I knew that plot twists were coming, but when they came I felt underwhelmed. I don't think the film lived up to the hype, but I did enjoy it to an extent, so I'll slap it with a 7.5/10.

Dawn of the Dead: Wow. This movie was as my friend Drew put it, is "100 minutes of people getting their shit wrecked." Zombie movies usually blow, but in the last few years both Resident Evil and 28 Days Later have resurrected the genre and given it some credibility again [and shut up about them not being Zombies in 28 Days Later. They're close enough]. But you know what? Dawn is better than both of them. Maddox's review of it is hilarious, and while I didn't like it as much as he did, I have to admit that it was a great movie. Scary, funny, and genuinely worth seeing - it's a solid 8.5/10.

Spartacus: I TiVo'd this off AMC, and I have to admit that along with Ben Hur and The Ten Commandments this is one of my favorite older movies ever [and in fairness, these three movies would probably be in my top 25 of movies all time - maybe I should do an post on that list sometime]. But clocking in at just short of 3.5 hours, this true epic got the horrible taste of Troy out of my mouth. Simply put, Spartacus is genius, and Kubrick's tale is brilliantly told. Being a sucker for Roman history, I have to give this film credit where credit is due, so 9.5/10.

Platoon: I had never seen this movie, but after watching it, I have to say I'd been cheating myself for not having seen it before. This movie is a great, great flick. The best Vietnam War movie, topping even Kubrick's great Full Metal Jacket and the pseudo-Vietnam basis of Apocalypse Now. [And no, Robin Williams' Good Morning, Vietnam! was not in the mix.] Though both Jacket and Apocalypse are better movies, in due fairness, Platoon is purely about the Vietnam War, and gave you more insight as to life of a soldier during that war. Apocalypse Now is a phenomenal movie, but as it's just a brilliant adaptation of a brilliant book to set [at the time] contemporary settings, I rule it out from the "Vietnam War Movie" set. Though it's still the greatest War movie ever made. Right up there with Patton. But back to Platoon - brilliant movie, great story, and it's a necessity to see - 9/10.

I'll do another movie round-up after the next 5 or 6 movies I watch. Let me know how worthless my opinions are in the comments, or by IM. [And use the comments people, it's your chance to air out your trash-talking for the world - and it's anonymous].

Beulah, 5-6pm, XBMC, Baseball, Beesball

The Beulah concert last night in Gainesville was great. Though it was hotter than all hell inside the place [a kid in front of me passed out and fell on me], the show was great. The second band, Dios, was pretty good. I shoulda picked up one of their discs, but that's what filesharing is for. And before you bitch, I still buy a lot of CDs. I'll throw up some short reviews later. Much love to Alexandria, Zoe, Nathan, and Zack for showing up last night at the show - it was great. The ride home was good too, even though we got back a lot later than I planned at 4am.

Around the Horn and Pardon The Interruption - the greatest hour in sports television? I think so. Statboy isn't nearly as good as Max Kellerman was, and when Tony and Mike are apart, the show suffers - but they're still great shows. I love the Paige vs. Mariotti bouts, but Kornheiser vs. Wilbon in 'Toss Up' is still the best. I praise ESPN for basically taking the best parts of sports radio, the interesting hosts and hot topics, and cutting out the crap, the stupid callers, and putting these talking heads on TV and squaring them against each other.

Xbox Media Center is phenomenal. One of the best purchases I've made in a long time was my Xbox and the modchip so I could use XBMC. Divx, XviD, RM, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, MP3, SVCD...this thing really plays it all. Oh, and it plays games. Hot, hot, hot.

Current Fantasy Baseball Lineup for the week:
C: Paul Lo Duca (LA)
1B: Jim Thome (PHI)
2B: Todd Walker (CHC)
3B: Mark Teixeira (TEX)
SS: Omar Vizquel (CLE)
OF: Steve Finley (ARI), Jose Guillen (ANA), Johnny Damon (BOS)
Util: Chone Figgins (ANA)
SP: Pedro Martinez (BOS), Matt Clement (CHC), Andy Pettite (HOU)
RP: Eric Gagne (LA), Frankie Rodriguez (ANA)
P: Rich Harden (OAK)

I'm curious to see how it'll work. I've got Lowe and Wakefield on the bench, and I hope I don't pay for benching my knuckleballer.

Speaking of baseball, big, big ups to my Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets for going on a goddamned rampage, winning 17 straight games and snatching the ACC regular season title from Virginia while they weren't looking. First on the list is either Maryland, a team which GT destroyed in a 3 game sweep last weekend [10-2, 15-1, 18-6], or Wake Forest, who admittedly for some reason, Tech struggled with earlier in the season [9-8 (10), 4-8, 9-2]. GT hasn't lost a game since losing a series at home versus Washington on April 18th. So good luck in Salem boys, and go destroy somebody.

The City of Sin, Sonic Glory, and Lord Stanley

My recent job interview in Vegas went well - the other guys I'm going up against seemed like pretty stand-up guys, and I can't really root against fellow GT grads. Okay, that's a goddamned lie, but at least these would be acceptable guys to lose a job to. [Not that I want to lose the job, it sounds sweet as hell.] I played some Blackjack [single-deck!!] and Texas Hold'Em at the Stardust, which really had an old swanky feel to it - I was pretty successful, made enough to cover the trip's expenses, and then left while I was still ahead. Whoo for me.

2004 has been a slow year for music so far, but some of the gems have started to poke through. Of note are Air's Talkie Walkie, Bad Religion's The Empire Strikes First [due out June 8th], Twista's Kamikaze, Modest Mouse's Good News for People Who Like Bad News, DJ DangerMouse's The Black Album [a remix of Jay-Z's The Black Album and The Beatles' The White Album], Cee-Lo's Cee-Lo Green is the Soul Machine, The Icarus Line's Penance Soiree, The Living End's Modern Artillery, and this year's current cream of the crop, Kanye West's The College Dropout which might honestly be the best rap/hip-hop CD I've heard in a really damned long time. West combines the "thinking man's rap" usually attributed to Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and the Roots with pop sensibilities and some of the most phenomenal hooks I've ever heard. The CD is amazing, and you should listen to it. Dropout, Empire, Gray, and Talkie Walkie are early favorites for my 2004 album of the year, with the edge given to West at the moment.

And congrats to the Bolts for making the Stanley Cup Finals. I really, really want to go catch a game, and just might if it gets to 5 games. Magee and I are already plotting it.

Beulah concert in Gainesville tonight, 1030p at Common Grounds. Cover's $8. It'll be hot. Even if everybody's crapping out on going. You know who you are, and you know you suck for it.

And the chase is on, officially. I'll let you know how it all turns out, hopefully for the best. It's been a while, I'm admittedly a bit rusty, but I've got a feeling this could be a good one.

Troy, D-I-D-D-Y, Dropkicks, QD, and A Daring Heist

First thing's first, my thoughts on Troy. Since I am very familiar with The Illiad I think that it's only fair that I look at the movie in two different ways. First, judging it on whether it was an entertaining movie [regardless of storyline] and two, judging it based on that storyline as a ex-Classics nerd. Was the movie entertaining? For the most part, I'd say yes. Was it a classic? Hell no. Troy was an attempt to create an epic that people would love and remember for years, but all it felt like to me was that somebody saw Lord of the Rings, Gladiator, and Braveheart and decided "well shit, let's throw them all in a pan, and loosely base the story on the Trojan War." Pitt was a good Achilles, Bloom a good Paris, and Bana a good Hector, but the entire movie just left me lacking substance. As a ex-classics nerd, this movie gets an "F-". Whatever schmuck decided to write the screenplay from The Illiad left out a lot of important [in my opinion] parts of the story. I was willing to overlook a lot of them coming in to the movie, because I know that's what Hollywood does to these famous stories. I was just hoping that the story would keep its dignity in the way Peter Jackson and company kept Tolkien's books pretty true to form. I hoped it, but I didn't get it. A 10-year war suddenly became at most, 17 days long. 17 days is the goddamned Olympics, not an epic war. And the real kicker for me was Aeneas near the end, but I won't put spoilers in here. I'll just say that I was dissappointed with how his character was involved in the story, and if this same crew decides to make either an Aeneid or Odyssey movie, they'll suck.

Did anybody else catch the series finale of "Making the Band II"? I tell you, watching that show, the respect I have for Sean Combs has just grown and grown. The man's a brilliant businessman, and a funny bastard to boot. I was amazed that he dealt with those six spoiled, whiny little ego-trips of rappers for two years before giving four of them the boot. Funny thing is, the four who got shitcanned didn't seem to realize that by being canned, they were going to lose MILLIONS OF DOLLARS. Just goes to show how dumb they were afterall.

It's apparent to me that the album Sing Loud, Sing Proud! by the Dropkick Murphys is the best drinking music ever. Only, it would be if sang in a big group. But since nobody around here is into them [they all pick shitty emo over punk] it's just gonna have to stay as my favorite alone.

Hey look, it's the new Nokia N-Gage QD! Hey look, it's still a piece of shit! Whoever came up with the vertical screen concept should be shot. Ever tried to play one of these? Lord knows I tried [keyword being "tried"] to at an Electronics Boutique. Shitty interface, shitty games, shitty product. Now if I got one for free or dirt cheap, I'd take it.

And reading about some tools stealing the Metal Gear Solid 3 one-level demo from the E3 floor was sad. Though this picture was great.

DS and PSP at last, the NHL, my sports fanaticism

As an avid video gamer, this year's E3 meant two things: new handheld systems from Nintendo and Sony. The Nintendo DS looks cool, but you have to admit that Sony's PlayStation Portable [PSP] looks quite a bit cooler. I just hope that both systems can live up to the hype because let's face it, I'll more than likely end up owning both. Though I have to say, the prospect of playing multiplayer Mario 64 on a portable with BlueTooth is white hot. Mario 64 was one of the best games ever (best in the Mario franchise, with Super Mario World as a distant 2nd) and an added twist like this could really be fun. The DS and the 2nd 'touchscreen' could really be cool additions, but that PSP looks damned sexy. I wonder if it will actually be small enough to keep in my pockets though - one of the definite advantages of the geek-chic GBA SP.

Pedro Martinez had a typical performance tonight, shaky first inning then utter dominance. 11 Indians got fanned, and the Sox got back in the win column. Now that's what I like to see.

I often get blasted by some of my friends for being such an avid hockey fan. I don't mind it, they honestly don't understand the game at all or any of the inherent strategy, so it's boring to them. A lot of people nowadays feel the same way about Major League Baseball, but come on. Hockey is the fastest of the four major sports, and if you can't understand what's going on, just say so. Bashing it is your prerogative, but don't expect me to bother listening to your rationale. So go Thrashers.

In case you haven't noticed, I'm what people call an "avid sports fan" - being labelled as fairweather is something I don't tolerate. Changing allegiances of sports teams, to me, is a very difficult thing to do. When the San Jose Sharks were established in the early 90s, I jumped on their bandwagon and was a very avid Sharks fan until early 2002, when I decided to become an Atlanta Thrashers fan. Why? I couldn't identify with the Sharks, the players I grew up liking all got traded or retired, and I was living in Atlanta at the time and after watching Heatley and the boys play on Turner South on a daily basis, I really couldn't help but to root for the youngsters. The shift from Seminole to Yellow Jacket wasn't as tough as I thought it would be, and it's remarkable now to look back and see that in the past 5 years, I've changed my attitude completely towards FSU. I no longer bleed Garnet and Gold, but White and Gold. I'm a die-hard Yellow Jacket, and I love it. I think the last 5 years as a GT boy have felt better than the previous 18 felt as a Criminole. So go Buccaneers, Yellow Jackets, Red Sox, and Thrashers. I'll root for you in good times and bad, because where's the fun in only rooting for winners all the time? Don't you need to suffer some losses to make those victories even more worthwhile and special?

Second Team, Sega's Terrorist, and Software

So I'm watching my beloved Red Sox on ESPN tonight against the Indians, and frankly, it's hard to watch. It seems like Boston decided to put their second-teamers on the field tonight. Brian Daubach in left? McCarty at first? Kim pitching and giving up hits as if it's nothing? No wonder this game feels dead - all the big offensive threats aren't on the field. Trot and Nomar can't get back soon enough.

In other news, I found it hilarious that the government's threat matrix listed a character from a video game recently. Here's a tip to the Department of Defense: I hear that somebody named Vercetti has a stranglehold on the Miami vice trade, might want to look into that.

Much love to Bo for pointing out Adblock to me. If you're still using Internet Explorer, stop. Go download Mozilla Firefox - once you get used to tabbed browsing, the complete lack of popups [and banners with AdBlock], and the sheer speed, you'll leave IE6 behind [and if you use Outlook, give Mozilla Thunderbird a shot while you're at it - brilliant junk mail controls]. I was a Netscape fanatic, but after NS4.7, it became a slow piece of shit. If you've ever used Netscape 6 or 7, you know what I mean. It's nice to see an open source project finally surpass Internet Explorer. Now if OpenOffice.org can just improve their damned interface and surpass Office XP, I might be inclined to give the Penguin another shot on my desktop. Maybe I'll give the next Knoppix LiveCD a shot if they can figure out NTFS compatibility. I love the concept and notion of Free Software [because I'm both a cheap bastard and I think competition is better for all of us], but it's hard for a lot of the OSS apps to match the usability and presentation of Microsoft's software armada.

The best example of open/free software that I can think of is Exact Audio Copy. If you're using something other than EAC and LAME to rip your CDs to MP3, you really should give EAC a look. If you wanna know what settings I use, zip me an IM.

I'm gonna re-rank my 2003 and 2002 albums in iTunes in the next couple days, because I think I gave some albums an unfair share [Ozma] and completely forgot some albums [RHCP's By The Way].

And apparently Blogger just enabled comments on these things, so feel free to trash talk, offer critisms, or respond to these posts.

Best Albums of 2003

2003 was one of the best years for music I can remember, close to 1994 and 2004 in quality. Ten was the magic number for this list but as with any of the other lists, subsequent edits have stretched it out past ten. Oh well, here goes:

12. Chutes Too Narrow - The Shins
Reflections: This album was something I really needed, something fresh and new. There's nothing groundbreaking about the lyrics, but the musical approach that The Shins take with each song is mindblowing. After hearing "Saint Simon" once you know immediately that you need to hear more.
Best tracks: Saint Simon, So Says I, Kissing the Lipless, Gone For Good

11. Yoko - Beulah
Reflections: Sadly this is the last album by California outfit Beulah, as the band parted ways after touring in 2004. A great album from start to finish, this album is the epitome of calm and melodious.
Best tracks: Landslide Baby, You're Only King Once, Me and Jesus Don't Talk Anymore

10. Deloused in the Comatorium - The Mars Volta
Reflections: Smooth and melodious are two things I would not use to describe this album. Chaotic dissonance would be a lot more correct. Though that might sound terrible, the songs actually come together in a curious, amazing way. The harmonies are incredible at times. This is one I recommend you listen to, but download it first. Mars Volta isn't for everyone.
Best tracks: Televators, Cicatriz ESP, Son et Lumiere/Inertiatic ESP

9. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below - Outkast
Reflections: This double album is massive, and has two distinctly different flavors. Big Boi's "Speakerboxxx" half is more conventional Outkast, but it's done extremely well. Andre's "The Love Below" half has a couple blockbuster singles but the rest is just him screwing around on a record, almost unlistenable at times. The set has plenty of up-notes though, and in the end is just more quality Outkast music.
Best tracks: Roses, The Way You Move, Knowing, Flip Flop Rock, Hey Ya, Dracula's Wedding, Bowtie

8. The Coral - The Coral
Reflections: Listening to this album gives one the impression that they're back in the 1960s, listening to songs about the sea while on a drug of some sort. The Coral are unique and brilliant, and the tales they interweave with their music are incredible. "Dreaming of You" is one of the best singles I've heard in my life.
Best tracks: Dreaming of You, I Remember When, Spanish Main, Shadows Fall

7. Give Up - The Postal Service
Reflections: This is brilliantly written pop music, with an electronic twist. Ben Gibbard's light, airy vocals combined with light, airy beats give us an incredible listening experience with some of the catchiest melodies and phrases I can ever remember hearing.
Best tracks: Nothing Better, We Will Become Silhouettes, Such Great Heights, Be Still My Heart (B-Side)

6. Fallen - Evanescence
Reflections: Now, I know I'm going to catch some grief for having this album in my list, but that's no big deal. This album on the other hand is quite a big deal. Combine angelic vocals with hard, driving guitars and you've got me hooked. The album feels almost religious at times, but it's a very tainted sanctity. Very dark, very creepy, but very beautiful.
Best tracks: Whisper, Imaginary, Taking Over Me, Tourniquet, Everybody's Fool, Bring Me To Life

5. Spending Time on the Borderline - Ozma
Reflections: Another "last" album, this pop-emo masterpiece was put together by Ozma before they broke up. Every track is golden, and this album rarely misses a step. If Weezer had continued to improve after Pinkerton, I imagine that this is what they might've sounded like in 2003.
Best tracks: Your Name, Bad Dogs, Spending Time on the Borderline, Restart, Wake Up, Lightyears Will Burn

4. Billy Talent - Billy Talent
Reflections: I didn't get into this Canadian punk band until hearing "Red Flag" on the Burnout Revenge (and Burnout Legends) soundtracks. I found and downloaded this album and after a few listens was absolutely crazy about it. If you're like me and haven't heard anything of this band, go to their website and check 'em out. It's high energy punk, with a fair amount of wailing. Not everybody's cup of tea, but it sure gets me going.
Best tracks: This Is How It Goes, The River Below, Prisoners of Today, Try Honesty

3. Her Majesty - The Decemberists
Reflections: When I first heard The Decemberists, I immediately thought "that's what I've been wanting to hear for years." A distinct sound, this is extremely intelligent folk-indie-rock. The lyrics are brilliant, the songs actually tell stories. The music behind the words is no let-down either.
Best tracks: The Chimbley Sweep, The Soldiering Life, The Batchelor and the Bride, Shanty for the Arethusa, Billy Liar

2. Sing the Sorrow - AFI
Reflections: I was not a fan of AFI's earlier work, and really still am not. But this album was incredibly well put together. It's the most rocking album I've heard in a long time, and AFI found a way to channel the energy of hardcore punk and refine it into something incredible.
Best tracks: Makeshift Wings, This Celluloid Dream, Death of Seasons, Girl's Not Grey, The Leaving Song Pt. II

1. The Ugly Organ - Cursive

Reflections: This album is abrasive yet the most refined work of art I've ever heard. To date, this is my favorite album of all time. The harmonies and phenomenal use of dissonance by Tim Kasher, along with scathing lyrics describing the debauchery and emptiness following a painful divorce give this album a mood and live to itself. It's anguish and regret, and it's beautiful.
Best tracks: The whole disc is a masterpiece, but the combo of "Some Red Handed Sleight of Hand", "Art Is Hard", and "The Recluse" just slay me

Go back to the main page, or on to 2004

TechTV gets the "Foot-in-the-ass" treatment

It's sad to see that the Tech TV staff is getting shitcanned by Comcast, but when you get bought out, that stuff happens. Back at GT, I loved watching TechTV's random filler shows when nothing else was on.

Speaking of filler content, is there anybody better at it than ESPN? They have assembled some of the greatest programming ever to not have a consistent time spot:

1. Street Hoops: The And1 Mixtape Tour
2. World's Strongest Man Competitions
3. Lumberjack Games / Great Outdoor Games

Those three shows are all amazing. Nothing fills the dead sports days like watching those hulking giants tow an airplane or a semi-truck across a field, or seeing Hot Sauce and Tha Professor (a 5'10" white kid) ball it up, or the odd fascination of watching men cut wood as fast as they can.

In other sports news, I applaud MLB for not selling out like little bitches and letting Spider-Man 2 ads appear on the bases, as originally planned. Just proves that if enough people bitch about something, shit gets done.

Ashley Holland told me to listen to the band HIM, a Finnish goth-rock band. So I download a few tracks, and it's an okay listen, but I honestly got tired of it fairly quickly. I'm not a big fan of the goth rock, but AFI's last album blew me away so I figured I'd give the genre a second chance. I think that AFI might just be an anomaly.

I got bored today and rated all my Bad Religion songs in iTunes, and here are the results. Each song was scored from 1 to 5 with 1 being "ass-in-a-bucket" and 5 being "fucking incredible", then the average score was tabulated and scaled. Here they go:

1. No Control [89.3%], 2. The Process of Belief [86.7%], 3. Stranger Than Fiction [84.7%], 4. The Empire Strikes First [84.3%], 5. Against The Grain [83.5%], 6. No Substance [82.5%], 7. Generator [81.8%], 8t. The Gray Race [81.3%], 8t. Suffer [81.3%], 10. The New America [80.0%], 11. Recipe For Hate [74.3%], 12. 1980-85 [36.7%]

Pretty much as expected, though STF and Suffer had suprising rankings. #1 was never really a question though.

Go Pedro, way to dog the Indians, and Boston Rob is a douche for getting rid of Big Tom.

Title?

Somebody think of a good title for this thing. Just IM me whatever you come up with, I'll put results here.

The Breakdown

Before I ever get started on posting things here, let me just get something out:

Online diaries are fucking stupid.

Why in the name of God would you want to publish all your most personal thoughts online for the world to see? What kind of masochistic exhibitionist would want to do that? I personally love it when somebody actually does post all their super-personal thoughts [along with their shitty Goth poetry] and then, when other people go online to this PUBLIC website and actually READ those "personal" thoughs, the original poster gets their panties (yes panties, because it's women or effeminate men 99% of the time) in a goddamned bunch.

This blog (I hate the term 'blog, by the way) will have none of that namby-pamby bullshit. You want to know my innermost thoughts? Then you better learn how to read minds, cause I have always been under the impression that private thoughts should stay that way...private.

Other things you can expect not to see here:
- Retarded IM/Chat speak [e.g. "LOL I wuz tirred so I took a nap! ROFLizzles! How r u ppl 2day?"] Just for the record, this shit is pathetic. How much less effort is it to type Y-O-U as opposed to U? And people wonder why the rest of the world equates Americans with stupidity and laziness. Go to a chatroom with 12-year-olds and your faith in the children of tomorrow will take a serious blow.
- Online quizzes. I don't care what X-Men character I am, or what kind of liquor I am, or what flavor of non-dairy sorbet I most resemble. You wanna do online quizzes? Fine. Me? No.
- Drunken posts. I never understood the popularity of calling people when you're drunk or high. Usually, people do it just to TELL other people they're inebriated. Big. Fucking. Deal. I hate those phone calls, and to me, getting drunken IM's is just a step below that. So naturally, drunken blogging is the lowest form of communication, with the exception of the aforementioned teen chatrooms.
- Overused cliches from pop culture. I'm not Rick James, bitch, and neither are you. Leave the funny business to Dave Chappelle.
- A daily rundown of what I did every single freaking day. Why do people do this? It's not a goddamned PalmPilot, it's a web log. Maybe people just take that "log" bit too literally. Maybe they're on to something. Maybe I'm the one looking at it wrong...So I take it back, I will inform everybody of every single thing I do, right down to taking a shit. And look forward to some Goth poetry about said shits.

I will, however, post links and things I find interesting. And if I see a good movie or hear a good album, I'll write something about it [and no spoilers for movies, I promise. I'm an asshole, but not a douchebag.] But I'll try to keep things interesting. Because if it's not interesting, why post it?

In fact, why post at all? I guess because it's easier than instant messaging all my friends one after another. That, and you people need something to do at work that doesn't involve productivity. Don't worry, anything not safe for work (NSFW) will be marked as such and linked to. I could be an ass and just randomly put some porn in the middle of the posts for your bosses, but again, see above re: 'Asshole'.

Speaking of productivity, Zack, get back to FFXI. Go ride a Chocobo or something.

/mj out

Test?

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