Random Thoughts, Sights and Sounds - A Potpourri of Knowledge

With my Risk Management class ending at 1 a.m. this morning (as that's when I finished my final exam), I can now turn my attention to the more important things in life, first and foremost my fantasy baseball draft that's this Sunday.

It will be like cramming for an exam over the next two days, as I haven't done much research doing who I'll want to draft and who'll want to stay away from, but here's a few observations based on the first two Boston-Oakland games of the season.

I've had Rich Harden on my fantasy team, 'Chicks Dig The Long Ball', the past two years and he showed me why my expectations of him in the past have been so high. His performance against the Red Sox on Wednesday was dominating. The problem with Harden the past two years has been health, and he's screwed my team over the past two years because of it. But it will be hard, based on the strength of his performance against Boston, to not draft him again this year, with the caveat, "If he can only stay healthy, he'll have a great season"

I know it's only two games, but the beginnings of doubt have begun to slowly creep into my mind regarding my offseason trade of Hanley Ramirez for David Ortiz (off to an 0-for-7 start, 8 LOB's). Not looking good so far.

I said the other day that Manny Ramirez was due for a monster season, and he's gotten off to a great start with a homer, two doubles and 5 RBI in the first two games. If he keeps this up, I won't wait until the end of the season to get my copy of 'The Secret' and a pink highlighter.

It's near impossible to get off to a worse start than Ortiz' o'fer in Japan, but Jason Varitek tried his best to top it, with six strikeouts in his first eight at-bats.

Quote of the Week: You always ask for Forgiveness, not Permission.

It's the QotW because over a five-day period it was said to me by two different people in regards to two entirely different situations. One was in response to me thinking that I should get a building permit from my town, as I'm looking to finish my basement. The other was in response to some types of advertising we were looking to get up on our corporate website.

In thinking about the quote a little more, it's amazing how you can use it to get you out of a number of tough situations that you might get yourself into.

Oh, honey I'm sorry I didn't call you to tell you I was going to be out late with the guys tonight. It must have slipped my mind. I figured it would be okay.

See, it's perfect.

Song Note of Week: The first album from Filter in six years, Anthems for the Damned, will be released on May 13. If you go the Filter website www.officialfilter.com you can listen to the first single, Soldier of Misfortune. I heard this song for the first time last week and liked it instantly. It's got a nice, edgy guitar/vocal vibe going on.

Beautiful Girls

The website popcrunch.com has gone through the pain-stakingly tough task of breaking down the Top 50 Colleges and Universities based on the looks of the female student body.

While they concluded that the ladies Arizona State were the creme de la creme, there are no real losers here. The ladies from all 50 schools are winners in my book (with the list starting off strong at #50 Illinois and ending with a bang at #1 with the Sun Devils), and we're all winners because of them.

Some of the highlights:

#50 Illinois, the girls of engineering calendar

#41 Washington State, whose female alumni will forever be known as 'Cougars'. Though it's wrong to think of the Girls of Arkansas (at #13) as 'Hogs'

#29 Utah - The Utes' girls are cold. It's that whole Mormon thing.

#27 Michigan St. Another school with their own Eye-Candy calendar

#26 UNLV - Strippers in Training

#11 Oregon - Whose females taunt their instate rivals Oregon State Beavers (also on the list at # 46) with shirts that say "Get your Beavers Waxed Here". At least the Oregon guys didn't go around with shirts that said, "Get Your Beavers stuffed here".

#4 Florida - Has cornered the market on attractive female sideline reporters/TV sports personalities with Suzy Kolber, Jill Arrington, Erin Andrews and Julie Donaldson

#1 Arizona St. - One of the girls had a Red Sox shirt on - NICE!!! Red Sox Nation is truly everywhere

To my surprise, my alma mater, Northeastern University was not on the list. In taking a look at the list, I saw schools represented from the Mid-Atlantic states, the Southeast, the Midwest, the South, the West and the Pacific Northwest, but not a single school from the Northeast. Penn State was the school set the farthest North (and east).

I think the editors at popcrunch.com have missed the boat on this one. It's totally hot when Boston college girls want to head over to Fenway Park, wearing their pink Red Sox hats, get drunk on $6 watered down draft beers and try to talk their way into the Cask and Flagon, though they can barely stand. What guy isn't turned on by that? How come those girls (and there are plenty of them out there from NU, BU, BC, et al....) didn't make the list.

College girls from the Northeast should be outraged. No wonder why Boston College wanted to enter the Atlantic Coast Conference in football and basketball. At the same time they were hoping to improve the quality of the females on campus. Check out all the ACC schools on the list: Maryland, Virgina Tech, NC St., Duke, North Carolina, Miami and Clemson.

It's just another area that colleges in other parts of the country are better at than the higher ed institutions of the Northeast. They have better football teams, they have better basketball teams, they have hotter chicks.

Nuff said.

Cool Things

We are all about Cool Things here at The Chicks Dig Awkward Mornings Blog and the theme of today's You Tube Tuesday, is cool things.

This first video shows what may be the Coolest Thing Ever Invented. Cooler than the remote control, cooler than having friends with benefits, cooler than 100-inch plasma televisions.

This my friends is outstanding.

Picture going to a bar and not having to wait for a waitress or waiter to come over take your drink order and 10 minutes later appearing with your beers. Imagine a world where moments after you sit down at the table, you have a nice cold one in your hands. Then, seconds after you've finished your first beer, you have a second one. And every time your finished a beer, a new one appears within seconds.

This isn't Heaven or Nirvana, this is real life and it exists in the US, specifically in Atlanta.





To read more about Jeff Libby's invention click here. To experience this wonderful creation, I know I'll have to venture out beyond Beantown. Because of Boston's stupid Puritan heritage, taps at tables will never be allowed. The city banned the serving of alcohol during this morning's Red Sox-A's game (though normally the beers would be allowed to flow after 8 a.m.).

You could go to New York City and watch the Sox game at a bar and have a beer, but not in Boston. There is such a stigma in this country regarding alcohol consumption, it's ridiculous. It's no more apparent than going out to a restaurant for lunch with some co-workers, where everyone sitting around the table is waiting to see if someone has the balls to order a beer, which empowers them to order a beer. If not, everyone at the table is drinking Pepsi. Alas, a topic for a different day.

The other cool video of the day comes from this guy, who shows how cool it is to be upfront with his honey in regards to his (and hers) expectations in the bedroom.

Quick Hits

Some quick notes for today's entry:

Unlike Georgetown, Duke, UConn and 46 other teams, I've survived the first weekend of the NCAA Men's Hoop tournament in my Tournament Pick'em pool, with 34 wins in the first 48 games. Though I'm 14th currently in my league standings, I can still win my pool, which is all anyone wants - a chance.

A gentle reminder that there's two weeks left (ends April 8) in my Rally Against Cancer with Dustin Pedroia fundraiser for The Jimmy Fund. To all that have donated so far, thank you very much, it's greatly appreciated. If you haven't donated yet - WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WAITING FOR!!!!!!! - Just kidding, honestly it would be great if you spent a few minutes going through the donation process and becoming a member of the 'Chicks Dig The Long Ball' team. Any amount that you donate will go along way in having an impact on the lives of those who are battling cancer. To sign up click here.

Curt Schilling believes that Manny Ramirez is going to have a great season. I think Manny's due for a big year and so does many other people. If Manny's numbers at the end of the season look like this .325, 45 HR, 140 RBI, here's a reason why - Manny's got A Secret and he's telling everyone about it.

If Manny starts off the regular season strong, I'll speed off to my local Barnes & Noble and pick up a copy of the Secret for myself.

Random Thoughts, Sights and Sounds - A Potpourri of Knowledge

Following in the successful footsteps of the Boston Red Sox, and New England Patriots, the Boston Celtics have quickly (and somewhat under the radar) become a legitimate threat to win the NBA title.

With the additions of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and many others, the thought was that the C's would be much better than last year's 24-win team, but what they've been able to accomplish in a few short months can be categorized as shocking, even to the most avid Celtics supporter.

They have gone from being viewed as a run-of-the-mill playoff team in the Eastern Conference (at the start of the season), to one of the top two teams in the East (with Detroit), to the top team and the East, and now is there anyone out there who would argue that they are not the top team in the league.

A week ago, the biggest question surrounding the team was - How would they fare in handling the daunting task ahead of them - going on the road and playing three games in five nights against the iron of the Western Conference - San Antonio, Houston and Dallas.

Their demolition of the three teams from Texas proved to be an exclamation point.

They rallied from a 22-point deficit against San Antonio. The next night, they crushed a Houston team that had won 22 in-a-row and last night overcame a fourth quarter deficit to beat Dallas. That's a season sweep for Boston (6-0) against teams from the Lone Star State and makes them an astonishing 23-4 against the much tougher teams in the Western Conference.

This is a team that before the season many so-called 'experts' figured would win between 45-50 games. They were right in that the Celtics would get to 50 wins. I'm sure they didn't figure that it would take just 62 games to do it.

We've now reached the point (in terms of fans expectations) that anything less than an appearance in the NBA Finals, Garnett and Company, would be a huge disappointment.

It's made having basketball in Boston a lot of fun again.

Quote of the Week: Comes from my soon to be three-year-old son, Dylan (who's quickly going from three to 30). Keep in mind his quote comes completely unprovoked as we were driving around last weekend shopping for a birthday present for his Mom.

Dylan: I'm going to sell Mommy on eBay.

Me: Buddy, if it was that easy, Daddy would have sold Mommy on eBay a long time ago and gone to a bar with the proceeds.

Music Note of the Week: This week's note isn't going to be about a particular band or new song, but rather a way of getting music.

With all of the concert footage up on YouTube, I've often wondered how great it would be to have the some of these live performance as .mp3 files to play on my iPod. Yesterday, I wondered no more. As with everything else in life, you just have to enter your query into Google and they will give you the answer.

New Google Slogan: Google: We Answer all Life's Questions.

Anyways, go to http://www.vixy.net/ and download their free desktop software. Once you download their software and launch the program, the converter (by default) gives you this part (http://youtube.com/watch?) of the url. You supply the rest of the URL and choose MP3 (audio only) from the 'Converts to' Menu and in a few minutes you'll have your audio file. SWEEETTTT!!!

Finally, Happy Easter to all.

Dance The Night Away

The two least productive work days of the year (aka March Madness) starts at 12:20 this afternoon with Xavier and Georgia. There will be 16 tournament games played over the next two days and seven will occur during work hours (for those on the East Coast).

A tip for those who want to follow the scores while the games are going on (but don't want the boss to find out as they peer over your shoulder), hit alt - tab at the same time and that will open up the TPS report that you have minimized and should be working on.

I admit that I played it very conservative this year with my picks and have all four number one seeds going to the Final Four, with North Carolina beating UCLA in the final. I'm glad that this expert prognosticator agrees with my matchup in the finals and my champion. The Sports Gal has shown to be adept with her football picks for the past two years, so I'm hoping her expertise and knowledge carries over to the hardwood.

Let the Madness begin.

Rally Against Cancer With Dustin Pedoria (and me and thousands of others)

Following the Boston Red Sox and becoming a fan of the team, you quickly understood the wonderful relationship that the Red Sox have enjoyed with The Jimmy Fund for the past 55 years.

As a life long Red Sox fan, I've understood the importance of the work that is being done at The Dana Farber Cancer Institute to fight cancer in children and adults in support of The Jimmy Fund.

It's a charity that my Dad (who passed away due to liver cancer) was a supporter of and a big believer in, and one that I'm a big believer of as well.

When I arrived home from work Tuesday evening, there was a flier in my mailbox promoting a new fundraiser for The Jimmy Fund - Rally Against Cancer with Dustin Pedoria and The Jimmy Fund.

After reading the information and seeing that I could start my own Rally Team, I did just that. I created a Rally Team called, what else, Chicks Dig The Long Ball. I'm looking for readers of this Blog (yes, that means, you, you and you way in the back, along with many others), to join my team.

All it takes to be a member of Chicks Dig is a donation of $5. In addition to helping out a wonderful cause, you are also allowed to, according to the Jimmy Fund, wear your Boston Red Sox gear to work or school on April 8—Opening Day at Fenway Park. Sweeettt!!!! Plus, you'll now have another reason to taunt all of those Yankees fans in your office (which can never be understated).

The kind people at Dana Farber were kind enough to create my own personalized webpage where people can go to donate and become part of the Chicks Dig team. You can find it here.

To learn more information, you can go to the Rally Against Cancer Homepage. From here, you can get to my donation page by clicking on the 'Join a Team' button at the top of the page, which will take you to a second page, where you can choose to join an existing team - 'Chicks Dig The Long Ball' from the drop down menu.

Or a third option, again from the Homepage, is to click on the Support an Individual tab and then enter my name - Anthony Hubbard.

To learn more about Dana Farber Institute click here. And to see all of the wonderful things that are going on to benefit The Jimmy Fund click here.

Lots of Screaming, Yelling and Buzzers Going Off

The theme for today's You Tube Tuesday on the Chicks Dig Nights with McLovin blog is a continuation of the topic from yesterday's post - the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament.

To get everyone amped up for the games starting this Thursday, here's a look back at some of the greatest games and buzzer-beating finishes of the NCAA tournament over the past 25 years.

I think it's amazing that year after year, the tournament still produces all of these last-second heroics and upsets. That's what makes the tournament so great and unparalleled in the world of sporting events.

It's also great to take a look back at some of the most memorable games and think, 'I was at such and such place and watched the game,' or 'This game had a big impact (either positive or negative) on my tournament pool.'

NCAA Tournament Memories Part I:



NCAA Tournament Memories Part II:

Analyze This....

...Or should we say Analysis Paralysis.

Right now, in offices all across the land, men and women are studying their 2008 NCAA Men's Basketball bracket from every possible angle, looking at it as a riddle in scale to anything that Dan Brown could conjure up in the DaVinci Code.

They are feverishly reading everything they can on ESPN.com and CNNSI.com looking for that one tidbit, one nugget of knowledge that will put their picks over the top. All for an entry fee (for most pools) of between $10-$25.

By the way, who the hell are the Drake Bulldogs and how did they get to be 5 seed in the West Regional?

An interesting note to this year's tournament. Both finals participants from last year (Florida, Ohio State), did not make the this year's tournament. That's the first time that has happened since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

Thoughts such as these are going on in the minds of many as they fill out their brackets:

Do I have too many top seeds advancing?

My first pass at filling out the bracket has all the number 1 seeds going to the Final Four that never happens. I need to redo my bracket.

Which game is the 4-13 upset going to happen this year?

Gonzaga is usually good for an upset in the tournament - can they beat Georgetown in the second round?

Who will this year's Cinderella be?

The answers to the questions above are:

No

No, it's not wrong to have all the 1 seeds going to the Final Four, they were a combined 125-9 in the regular season.

All the 4 seeds will win in the first round this year, though Notre Dame-George Mason and Clemson-Villanova are intriguing potential 5-12 upsets.

Gonzaga will not beat Georgetown in the second round.

As for this year's Cinderella, if we knew how they were going to be before hand, then they wouldn't be a Cinderella.

Also, Happy St. Patrick's Day to all the Irish folks out there. As for their beloved Notre Dame Fighting Irish, they will survive the first two rounds but then lose in the Sweet 16 to North Carolina.

Random Thoughts, Sights, Sounds - A Potpourri of Knowledge

The Randomness comes around the horn style on this Friday.

With the start of the baseball season approaching fast (11 days away), baseball stat geeks all across America are thumbing through the 2008 Bill James Handbook (which came out last November) in preparation for being able to drop this type of knowledge on their other stat geek buddies:

David Ortiz' OPS (1.153) in the second half of the season, while he was battling a knee injury, was 0.67 points higher than the next highest American League player (Carlos Pena, 1.066). And for those who thought Ortiz was having a down season, he was 0.01 points behind AL MVP Alex Rodriguez in OPS for the season (1.130-1.129).

The next time any of these type of guys see a girl at a bar, it will be their first time.

Anyways, James is viewed as the statistical God of the Baseball Universe. With that in mind, I want to take a look at his projections for the upcoming 2008 season, specifically the starting pitchers. Hopefully, James and his band of merry nerdy men are underestimating the success of the starting staff of the Boston Red Sox. If not, the Sox are in trouble this season.

Last season, Boston's top 4 starters, Josh Beckett (20), Tim Wakefield (17), Dice-K (15) and Curt Schilling (9) combined for 61 wins (which was about two-thirds of the number of wins for the team). This year, James has projected that Beckett and Dice-K will tie for the staff lead in wins at 14, then comes Wakefield (11) and Lester (10), combining for 50 wins. If that happens, there is no way the Red Sox will come close to the 96 wins they had as a club a year ago, and they will be hard pressed to make a return trip to the postseason.

I think (and hope) that the number of wins this year for the four starters will be higher than 50. It's a pretty safe bet that Beckett (barring injury) would win more than 14 games. Would it be a surprise if he won 20, or more, for the second consecutive year - not really. I also have a feeling, based on Lester's increased strength and being farther removed from his battle with Cancer, that he will have a very good year, certainly better than what James' predicts (10-10, 4.02 ERA).

In my opinion, the starting staff needs to be better overall than they were a year ago, as I feel the bullpen (especially Hideki Okajima) will be hard pressed to repeat their success from a year ago.

The Music Note of the Week comes from Alison Krauss and Robert Plant's album - Raising Sand.

Yes, the album is five months old, but it's relatively new to me. Not a bad album, has several good songs that have been getting radio play (Killing the Blues, Gone, Gone, Gone, Please Read the Letter, Fortune Teller). It sucks that Krauss and Plant are going on tour through the end of June, as it's delaying a possible reunion tour for Led Zeppelin.

Too bad, as Led Zeppelin showed how good their live performances will be last December with their performance in London, specifically the song, Kazmir. Jason Bonham nails this song and starts going nuts around the 6:45 mark.




Finally my wife, Lisa, will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of her 25th birthday this coming Sunday (March 16th). So happy birthday, Lisa. She shares her birthday with Wolfgang Van Halen, who'll be 17 on Sunday, so happy birthday to Wolfie as well.

As I told you this past Tuesday, everything in the Universe can be tied back to the mightly Van Halen.

Eye Candy

That sound you just heard was my jaw hitting the floor (ok, so you didn't actually hear it, but work with me here) as I've just seen a picture of Clay Buchholz' girlfriend, Penthouse Pet of the Year Erica Ellyson (top, photo from Penthouse).

All I can say is, well done, sir, well done indeed.

Clay is now challening Tom Brady for the award in the category of 'Which Boston Athlete is Dating the Hottest Chick'. Tom, I see your supermodel and raise you a Penthouse Pet of the Year.

I have no plans of addding a Buchholz photo to this post, so everyone can get a look at him, as it doesn't really matter what he looks like, no one is going to be looking at him anyways. Honestly, it's not fair that an individual person has as much good fortune as Buchholz currently is enjoying.

Buchholz will always have a special place in the hearts of the members of Red Sox Nation, with his no-hitter, thrown in his second big league start, and as a member of a World Series winning team. His image has just grown by leaps and bounds to the male Red Sox fans, as he's gone from dating a Victoria Secret's model to upgrading to Ellyson (I never thought you could upgrade after dating a Vicki's model, but appears that it's possible.

He's battling for the fifth spot in the Red Sox starting rotation, has electric stuff and is seen as a possible Ace in the Red Sox rotation for years to come. He is indeed living a charmed life - a life that begs the questions 'Can it get any better?'

I love the quote from Clay's dad regarding his son's antics, courtesy of the Boston Herald's Inside Track via the Karlson & MacKenzie show on WZLX.

“It doesn’t surprise me any,” said Clay’s dad. “Last year up in Boston he was dating a Victoria’s Secret model, so he’s moving up the ladder . . . . I mean, he’s got pretty good taste.”

Saying that Clay has good taste has to be the understatement of the year. You can check out more of the lovely Erica on her MySpace page, where accoring to the Boston Herald she likes, "being naked and spanking"

Which doesn't sound like a bad way to spend an evening with Erica.

A Political Blues

A few housekeeping notes before we move on to You Tube Tuesday on the McLovin Digs Chicks Awkwardly in the Morning Blog...

A Political Blues (theme for this weeks You Tube videos) was a song originally done by Little Feat and later covered by Van Halen on OU812 (everything in the universe ultimately can be tied back to Van Halen).

Van Halen's version could only be had on the CD release of OU812. It was included as a bonus track on the CD, done to spur on CD sales, as the Compact Disc was still a new format and the cassette tape format ruled. Needing to get the bonus track on the CD scam worked on me, as OU812 was the first CD I ever purchased, despite the fact that two months earlier I bought OU812 on cassette the day it came out.

But I digress. March 11 marks the one-month birthday for the Chicks Dig Awkward Mornings with McLovin blog. A great thanks to all of you who have stopped by during the past 3o days to check out the site. I really appreciate it, I hope you've enjoyed it and that you'll continue coming back.

As I mentioned earlier, the theme for today's You Tube entry is 'A Political Blues' and while we try not to be political on the blog site, I figured we'd take a look at the celebrities stumping for the three remaining political candidates.

First we have Curt Schilling, arguably the best postseason game pitcher of his generation - and potential Hall of Famer, backing John McCain.

Next we have Jack Nicholson, one of the finest actors of his era - a multiple nominee Academy Award nominee and winner, supporting Hillary Clinton using a montage of his finest roles.



That's quite a powerful tandem - Schilling and Nicholson supporting McCain and Clinton. Not to be outdone Barack Obama has - Obama Girl aka Amber Lee Ettinger, whom the E! Network has named the #1 hottest woman on the internet. Check out more (a whole lot more) of Obama girl at obamagirl.com

The big question is this: Is the power of Obama Girl enough to swing Bill Clinton's vote from Hillary to Obama?

Time to Panic? Or at least be a Little Concerned

A little concerned might be the way to look at the Boston Red Sox on March 10. Yes it's early, as there's only been 11 spring training games, but there's been some problems popping up in Camp Tranquility over the past couple of days.

We could look back on this a month from now and look stupid for verbalizing any concern, but a couple of small issues are adding up for the Sox.

The biggest issue of concern is now Josh Beckett's strained lower back muscle. With the season opener two weeks away, it appears to be a long shot for Beckett to pitch in the opener. He's only had two outings this spring, and hasn't faced major league batters yet.

I'm sure the Red Sox will do they can to err on the side of caution with Beckett, including having him miss a 14-hour flight to Japan (not the best thing to be doing when you have a bad back).

Combined with Curt Schilling's shoulder injury and Daisuke Matsuzaka possibly missing the trip, due to the birth of his second child, you're looking at Tim Wakefield and Jon Lester potentially being the starters for the two-game Oakland series in Japan. When the trip to Japan was announced last fall would anyone have thought that Wakefield and Lester would have been the starters in the series?

The signing of Bartolo Colon is looking bigger and bigger everyday (no pun intended).

Add to that injuries that have kept Julio Lugo (lower back tightness) and Coco Crisp (groin) off the field as of late, and the physical ailments are starting to pile up.

A little closer to panic might describe the mood in the executive offices of The New England Patriots.

There are reports saying that Matt Walsh is close to finalizing a deal with the NFL for legal indemnification in return for turning over any video tapes that he may have and telling the league all he knows about the Patriots taping practices.

If he does indeed have tapes of the St. Louis Rams' walk through before Super Bowl 36, the Patriots and Bill Belichick are in a world of trouble. One report I've seen speculates that if those tapes exist, Belichick would be suspended for a year (and is a possible explanation for the hiring of Dom Capers as a secondary coach), in addition to the penalties facing the organization.

Part of me believes that a tape of some magnitude must exist, because the NFL wouldn't have spent the past five weeks trying to work out a legal deal with Walsh for more tape of the Patriots filming defensive signals, which they've already admitted to and been penalized for.

The Patriots have struck the first blow in the PR war against Walsh with today's story in the Boston Globe, pointing out all of the inconsistencies with his resume and that there was no possible way that anyone in the organization authorized him to tape the Rams' walk through.

The next few weeks should be interesting in the Boston Sports Scene and we haven't even mentioned the Celtics yet.

Random Thoughs, Sights and Sounds - A Potpourri of Knowledge

The Quote of the Week comes from my brother, Tim, as a result of him telling me on Thursday that he is getting married for the second time.

Me: "So what made you decide to get married again?"

Him: "I figured what the hell, fuck it. Third time's a charm."

Me: "Ahhh, Tim, good to know that you're already thinking about your third marriage before number 2 begins."

But then again, this comes from a guy who at various times during his first marriage would throw out, "Next time I get married I'm going to do things differently", or say "My next wife..."

My brother's always been a romantic, sentimentel-type guy. He proposed to his first wife at a Chinese food restaurant by tossing a ring box at her and asking "Want to get married?" while they were eating, and her whole family was in attendance.

I admit I was a little surprised that he decided to get married again, I'm just throwing this question out there: If you had been married then got divorced, would you want to get married again? I don't know if I would. But I wish the two of them all of the best.

Following up on Wednesday's post: If you haven't already figured out the trick behind of how David Copperfield knows which card you were thinking of then took it away (or Googled it to find the answer), you can find the answer here, but wait - first a hint: take another look at the cards on slide 1 vs. the cards on slide 3. If you still haven't figured it out click here.

I was supposed to have a longer post on Thursday discussing the movie 'The Prestige', but that was bumped until next Monday as a result of the news of a possible Tom and Gisele tape.

Song note of the week: Heard the new R.E.M. song, Supernatural Superserious, this week. They have a new album, Accelerate, coming out April 1. After listening to it a couple of times, I really like it. It's a departure from the first singles that they've had off their last couple of albums (Leaving New York off of Around the Sun and Daysleeper off of Up). Though I like Leaving New York and Daysleeper, Supernatural Superserious is a different type of song, much more guitar-oriented.

Evidentally, iTunes also agrees with my sentiment, saying in the Album Notes for Accelerate, "Fourteen albums in and R.E.M are releasing an album that just might be their finest in more than a decade, if not longer. Accelerate is the group's most guitar-oriented, electric album since 1994's Monster, and the songs prove that there's still plenty of power and inspiration in the band's dynamic."

Hopefully the rest of Accelerate is as good as the first single. They are off to a good start.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Caught in the Act

And on tape no less- NICE!!!!!!!!!

This is the fate that has fallen upon our beloved QB Tom Brady and his supermodel girlfriend Gisele Bundchen (damn!!, she is nice on the eyes), as the two might be mired in their own version of Camera Gate, Spy Gate, Sex on Tape - all of it. It's good to know that those crazy kids still aren't able to keep their hands off each other.


According to The New York Post, Tom and Gisele were allegedly caught on tape enjoying a little more than just dinner and each other's company while in a private wine cellar at the Chinese Eatery - Philippe.

I went to the Philippe website, clicked on their wine menu but didn't see anything, in terms of dollar amounts, about spending some quality alone time in a private wine cellar. I'm curious if the $700 bottle of 1999 Cristal comes with the private room or is it added separately to your tab.

The picture shown above is from the Philippe website and looks like a pic of a wine celluar to me. That's a nice looking room.

If this is true, and actually happened, then it looks like our Golden Boy QB is Golden not only on the football field, but off of it as well. Hopefully his off-the-field activities don't continue to go the way of Joe Namath, and distract him from being Joe Montana on the football field.

The biggest question of all of this is: How long before Tom and Gisele's tape ends up on YouTube or TMZ.com?

Now You See It, Now You Don't

Recently, I watched a movie called 'The Prestige', about two competiting magicians (played by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale) set in 1890's Victorian England.

I enjoyed the movie very much and it showed me how little we really pay attention to things, and how all the details (big and small) can easily be slipped past us.

In anticipation of a longer post on Thursday regarding, 'The Prestige', I leave you with this card trick. Remember, pay attention to all of the details. As the first screen of The Prestige website says, 'Are you watching closely?' I admit, the trick fooled me a few times before I figured it out.

Part I

Part II

Part III

Ohhh!!! The Gate to the Groin

Not something you want to hear a commentator say if you are a male downhill ski racer. French skiier Yannick Bertrand now knows what it's like. And yes, this is a third video of the day that is helping to alleviate the bad mood that I am in.

The audio is even better than watching him whack his Pepe Le Pew's into the gate. While watching the video, make sure you have the volume turned up loud to hear Bertand's scream of agony and the commentator's analysis. As good as the commentator's call is, too bad John Madden wasn't doing play-by-play commentary using a telestrator.

I can hear Madden's call now, "Now watch here, here he comes around the turn and then whack, right into the pole. That's gonna hurt."

Guilty Pleasures

I'm not going to try to sugarcoat or gloss it over, I'm just going to come out and say that I am in a bad mood today. It bugs the hell out of me when you buy a product or service and that product or service fails to deliver what you expected.

I'm not going to get into specifics, but let's just say if your looking to get your car washed stay away from the Lechmere Car Wash on Mass. Ave in Arlington. That is unless you're looking to have the shit scratched out of your car, and little pieces of the paint taken off.

With that in mind, the theme of today's You Tube Tuesday is Guilty Pleasures, things that when watching will either make me laugh or make me feel a whole lot better.

This first video shows what happens to a guy when he tries to dunk a basketball while jumping on a trampoline. I have watched this video at least a dozen times since I first saw in last fall and I laugh hysterically every time. I can justify how much enjoyment I have from it, because the people making the video are laughing as well.



I'm sure everyone out there has had a bad experience with airline travel (I once spent 4.5 hours sitting on a plane, on the runway in Philly, that was a lot of fun), but LynxJet is trying to change all of that. Traveling on LynxJet would definitely make air travel a much more pleasurable, and enjoyable experience.