It's that time again...

It's time for random thoughts

One of my classmates gave the perfect description of my current Computer Science professor.

Our professor's name is Igor. He can't speak English and he looks like he smells.

Hahaha, it's funny because it's true.

I drove down to Maryland this week and further confirmed Maryland's spot at #3 on my list of top 5 worst drivers by state. They actually made a convincing arguement for the #2 spot. Congrats Maryland, you really suck at driving.

Is there a reason I have more respect for Ashlee Simpson than I do for Linsay Lohan? Yes. Am I going to write about it now? No, not in this post. Should I be thinking about teenage girl pop-stars this much? Definitely not. Do I like asking myself questions and then answering them right away. Yes, yes I do.

Shows I'm currently addicted to directly because of TiVO: Boston Legal, Scrubs, Lost, The OC, and Curb your Enthusiasm reruns. Without TiVO I would probably only watch Scrubs. This is why TiVO rules. It truly makes the whole TV experience so much better... except for the "me getting addicted to The OC" part. I'm actually pretty pissed about that one.

My music review blog is dead. I am way too lazy to keep up with 3 blogs at once so I'm putting it out of it's misery. If I ever feel like reviewing any albums, I'll post them here.

Speaking of reviewing albums... wait for it... wait....

"Hopes & Fears" by Keane is a great album. I bought it for my recent trip to crazy driver land (Maryland). I had to listen to it a couple of times, but it really started to grow on me and now half the songs are stuck in my head. The 4th track "We Might as Well Be Strangers" is probably my favorite, but the whole album is wonderful. If you like Coldplay/Radiohead type music, do yourself a favor and buy this album.

Ok, time for me to go sit in class for 3 hours and try to understand what my professor is talking about.

Why Ashlee Simpson is a genius

Ok, genius is definitely not the right word... maybe lucky is better. She has become an obsession of the American public. Messing up on SNL was probably the best thing to ever happen to her. It got people all rialed up because visions of Milli Vanilli came rushing back. Her name was all over the news for a month.

Then there was the Orange Bowl mishap (which I'm glad I TiVO'd), which put her back in the headlines. You could actually hear the tape playing in the background because Simpson wasn't even close to singing along with it. And then of course came the 70,000 boos from the crowd.

I know what you're thinking, these are not good things. You're wrong and here's why: XM radio has a channel (20 on 20) that is basically a 24/7 TRL where people call in and vote for their favorite songs and they get played over and over again (and if you listen to it long enough, I believe you will go insane). Simpson has at least two songs that get played all the time. This means that the public (at least the XM crowd) still likes her. Nobody cares that she can't actually sing. It's just making her more famous.

So maybe Ashlee Simpson isn't a genius. Maybe she's not even that smart. Maybe she can't sing. Maybe the next time we hear from her again will be when she stars in "The Surreal Life: Season 27." Maybe... ok, I'll stop.

Why am I writing about this you may ask? I don't know. I guess it just makes me happy to see that people without a lot of talent can become successful. It gives me hope and makes me feel a lot better about myself.

No Wilco for me

Well, number 6 from my "Top 10 in 2005" list can be scratched. I didn't get tickets to the Wilco concert. I was online right when they went on sale and by the time I got through, I could no longer get 2 seats together.

On one hand, I'm glad to see that Wilco is selling out 2 shows in DC at a time, but on the other hand I'm pissed because I won't be there. Oh well, I'm sure I'll go see someone else at some point this year.

Anyway, the Pats kicked some serious ass last night. It was awesome. How great would it be for the Sox and the Pats to win it all in the same season... and guess what... It's not impossible for the Celtics to make the playoffs. I know, I know, I'll stop now.

Soon to come: My favorite 10 songs from 2004, My favorite 10 DMB songs, something about why TiVO rules, Top 5 reasons my blog sucks... wow, I need to get a life.

Top 10 in 2005

It’s the beginning of the year and I’m bored as hell. So I decided to come up with my list of my top ten things to look forward to this year.


10. More Snow – What the hell? It’s the middle of January and the forcast for the next couple of days is low 50’s and rain. How can I go snowboarding in this? Plus I haven’t been ice fishing once. The first tournament is 2 weeks away and there’s no ice on the lakes! More snow is coming right? Right?

9. Summer Blockbusters - I’m a sucker for over produced, over acted, over directed action movies. I have this great ability to suspend my disbelief even in the most far fetched movie plots. Star Wars III, War of the Worlds, Batman Begins, and Indiana Jones 4 to name a few that come out this year.

8. DMB new album – Spring time. Dave was playing some new songs during his tour last year and they sounded pretty good. Ok, truthfully Dave could play the worst songs ever and I would still probably love it.

7. Horse shoes and Home brew – We just finished our professional horseshoe pits at the end of last summer and didn’t really get to test them out. Plus I started brewing my own beer so that will only increase the enjoyment. Nothing like throwing a couple of shoes and tossing back a few brews.

6. Wilco in DC – This will be my third Wilco concert and they keep getting better every time. I hope Tweedy is supporting the Zach Galifianakis beard.

5. Opening day – Ok, I know it’s sad, but I’m already looking forward to the beginning of this year’s Red Sox season. Also, I can’t wait for fantasy baseball, again sad but true. Since I joined a keeper league I can’t wait to see who’s going to hit the market.

4. Pat’s playoffs – The newest NFL dynasty. Super Bowl party at my place!

3. Trip to Jamaica – Family vacation time. Can’t wait to sit in the sun and take my second try at scuba diving. Maybe swim with a Dolphin or two. I guess I shouldn’t have watched the movie “Open Water”.

2. My raise – The only reason I love February.

1. Schilling vs Johnson – Oh yeah, it’s on now. I can’t wait for this match up. Johnson is already making people hate him so he’ll fit in nicely as a Yankee. He’s quickly becoming one of my top players to root against (deserves a blog of its own). Hopefully when I buy tickets to some late season Yankee games I’ll get lucky and see this one.

Top 5 time wasting sites

On a day like today, it can be tough to keep busy in my office. What I mean by that is goverment workers don't like to work on Fridays, so the office is basically empty. So I'm putting this list together as my top 5 favorite web sites to visit when I need to waste some time.

Honorable Mentions
Yahoo Movies - As long as your computer is fast enough, you can watch movie previews all day. Of course when you start watching the previews for Miss Congeniality 2, it's time to stop.
Slick Deals - If you want free stuff, this is the place to go. Check out the forums and you can find all kinds of different useless crap. I've gotten some free tobasco sauce, cheap sunglasses, and some other things too insignificant for me to remember.
Addicting Games - If you like stupid little free games to play, this is your place.

Top 5
5. Boreme.com - This site is the biggest collection of stupid useless things, but is a great source for hilarious emails. I've wasted way too much time seaching through this place.

4. Logan's Mystery of Time and Space Adventure - I know what you're saying, "wow, this kid is a big dork" and yes, you are absolutely correct. Nevertheless, this is still a fun site. There are various puzzles to solve which can waste lots of time on. Also, if you can't figure them out you can aways cheat.

3. Ebay - Not always the best place to buy stuff, but can be hours of fun trying.

2. Any Fantasy Sports Site - You could make the argument that I spend more time at the office working on my fantasy sports teams then I do actual work. I can't get enough of this stuff. Fantasy sports are like a drug and I'm addicted

1. (Tie) ESPN and Sports Guy's World - I'm putting these two together because they are both basically run by ESPN. These two sites are where I spend most of my time when I have no work to do. Which means, this is where I spend the majority of my day. Without ESPN.com I would be lost. It is actually the only site I've ever paid to use (to listen to baseball games over the internet). ESPN.com can be a little slow sometimes, but as far as content goes, I would say it is the best site on the internet.

So when you've got absolutely nothing to do, there are a few good sites to occupy your time. I don't even want to know how much total time I've spend looking at these. It would probably be depressing to know.

Anyway, have fun.

Real smart Frank

Another one of my friends just got engaged. We're dropping like flies!

There is one good thing about all these weddings coming up. Besides the whole happiness thing... Yup, you guessed it. An endless supply of "Old School" jokes.

"Well, alright, let me be the first to congratulate you then. You get one vagina for the rest of your life. Real smart Frank. Way to work it through."

I think I'm going to enjoy this.

Ugly hats

Maybe it's just me, but doesn't it make you mad when you see people wearing those winter hats with the brims in them? What are people thinking? Don't they make people look like complete morons? I swear, people will wear anything if they see Ashton Kutcher wearing it.

Somehow these hats have become a huge snowboarding fad. Everyone on the mountain has one... even the employees. If I was the employer of these people, I think I would have a "No showing up to work looking stupid" policy. That would take care of things.

Am I bored at work today and can't think of anything else to write about? Yes, yes I am.

The 11th wheel

I survived New Years in NYC. It was fairly uneventful, at least what I remember of it. It was super crowded, but still a good time. It was kind of a weird situation since I was playing the role of 11th wheel. By that I mean I went with 5 of my buddies and they each brought their girlfriends. So it was 5 couples and me, the 11th wheel.

So what happens when you're the third (or fifth, seventh, ninth, eleventh) wheel? It just sucks. Everybody feels bad for you because you don't have anyone to talk to, but no one wants to hang out with you because they want to hang out with their girlfriends. Ok, that may not be entirely true, but to some small extent it is.

Anyway, I only mention this because everyone around me has been talking about marriage. To me this is crazy. I'm only 24, and I'm the oldest of my friends (mostly 23 or 24). Two of my buddies are already engaged. Aren't we too young to be talking about this? Shouldn't we still be going out to bars and partying? Should I keep telling myself this?

Last week I went to the bar for Monday night football. My two roommates brought their girlfriends. Guess what, it was the worst night ever. I was sitting between the two ladies (normally this would be cool) but they were talking about relationships, and who invited who to whos party, and can you believe that Jimmy said blah blah blah... all night long. I'm not kidding, it really went on all night long. Not once did I get to cheer or yell at the game. I was so mentally demoralized from the converstation around me, it was almost impossible for me to even enjoy my beer.

I wanted to shoot myself by the end of the night.