Monday, March 30, 2009

Fantasy Baseball Draft!

So I don’t know all that much about baseball. That’s why I thought it would be a great idea to join a fantasy baseball league where the entry fee is $100 per team! This is for two reasons: 1 – fantasy sport research gives me something to do during downtime at work, and 2 – I have a weird gambling problem despite the fact that I have no disposable income to feed it with. The chances of me winning this league are 1 in 10 (because there are 10 teams), but really all I am hoping for is not to embarrass myself and end up in last place.

Last night we had the draft for this league. I was really nervous and excited all at the same time! I had the fifth overall pick, not too shabby… There were so many dudes I wanted on my team, and I got some of them! I also made some picks that were questionable, based on the reaction from the guys. But its okay, I am a girl after all. And I really did just pick Mark Buehrle because his name sounds ridiculously similar to mine. But whatever.

Anyways, here is my squad I hand picked round-by-round (because everyone cares SO MUCH):

1- Jose Reyes, SS
2 – Evan Longoria, 3B
3 – Matt Holliday, OF
4 – Roy Oswalt, SP
5 – Vlad Guerrero, OF
6- A.J. Burnett, SP
7 – Derrek Lee, 1B
8 – Ryan Doumit, C
9 – Francisco Rodriguez, RP
10 – Jose Valverde, RP
11 – Dan Ugga, 2B
12 – Jhonny Peralta, SS
13 – Mark Buehrle (my guy!!!), SP
14- Xavier Nady, OF
15, Heath Bell, RP
16 – Adrian Beltre, 3B
17 – Gil Meche, SP
18 – Mike Cameron, OF
19 – Huston Street, RP
20 – Milton Bradley – OF
21 - Hiroki Kuroda, SP
22 – Joel Hanrahan, SP, RP
23 – Rickie Weeks, 2B
24 – Jose Guillen, OF
25 – Latroy Hawkins, RP (this pick was mocked and I understand why. Whatever, I can drop him…)

And there you have it! A team of winners. With a little luck and a lot of baseball playing, this could turn out to be our year.

Now I’m just countin’ down the hours til opening day!!!

Feel free to post your comments about my awesome (or crappy) draft picks. But since my mom is usually the only person to post, I don’t think there will be many comments. Ha.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

five movies

I saw this thing on Facebook where people pick the 5 movies they could watch over and over and over again… I decided I would try to pick mine. A few were easy… I had to think harder about the rest –

1. A League of Their Own
“Gracefully, and grandfully…”

If you’ve read my other posts about this movie, you’ll see I’m a big fan. This is the only movie I’ll ever quote and then say, “What movie is that from?” (hint for anyone who hangs out with me). I mean, it’s got it all – humor, sports, war, romance, family, death, life, a tragic ending… I cannot get enough of this movie. But you probably never want to watch it with me, it might get irritating when I’m saying all the lines along with the characters…

2. Get Over It
“Down here we call it pocketful of ass”
One of the dumbest movies ever. And no one really knows about it, I don’t even remember how we stumbled upon it in high school, but what a find it was. And boy did we watch it a lot… haha. Gotta love Martin Short as Dr. Desmond Forest-Oats, Fine Arts CHAIR, and all that hoopla…And you can’t hate any movie that features Sisqo as a high school student named Dennis who is on stage crew. If you haven’t seen it, do it now. But just a heads up – don’t be expecting an Academy Award winner. Sometimes you just need a silly movie to get some laughs in.

3. The Notebook
“If you’re a bird, I’m a bird”
Oh man, first time I saw this movie was freshman year of college and it was a CRYFEST! People can say it’s corny or whatever they want to say, but it makes me feel something when I watch it, and it GETS ME EVERY TIME. It’s heartwarming and heartbreaking all at the same time. And that scene where Allie visits Noah and they go on the boat, then it starts raining and they KISS and DO IT is so steamy.

Love it.

4. Love and Basketball
“All's fair in love and basketball.”
This is another sappy one, but I love it. It’s like if me and Joey Catalano were black, and fell in love in high school, then went to the same college and then dated but broke up and then he hurt his knee and then I played in the WNBA and he came to watch with our kid. Except not at all. This movie is great though, also always gets me with the sad part. Especially when she challenges him to ball for his heart. Oh man, tear factory… Maybe I’m biased because I’m a sport lover, but I think this movie’s great – also some pretty sexy scenes (strip basketball, anyone?). I’m proud to have it on my list of 5.

5. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
“You don’t need to put your P in a V right now.”
“No, I need to B my L on some T’s”


I had to throw a more recent movie onto my list, and what better one than Sarah Marshall? I think it’s so funny, and I’ve enjoyed watching it like 5 times already. And I still could go for more. It’s like your standard romantic comedy, but weirder, dirtier and in a tropical location! How much better could it get? Plus I have a weird awkward non-crush on Jason Segel, which started with this movie. Hopefully I Love You, Man will solidify this crush when I see it.

So that’s it. My five movies. Most people would look at this list and say, WORST LIST EVER. But not me. These movies could keep me entertained for many hours and many years to come…

And FYI, if the list were 6 instead of 5 – I’d throw some Wayne’s World on that fire!'

Feel free to post your fav five movies to comments...

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Where the Wild Things Are - Trailer



This movie looks like its gonna be awesome!

News of the Day!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

world war 2 historian

It’s time for some Madness…

The brackets are out! The brackets are out! That means one thing – lots of pools, predictions and people who know nothing about college basketball choosing random schools based on familiarity (Duke), the coolness of their name (Gonzaga), or their pretty uniforms (UNC).

I for one love choosing teams for the tournament… even though I don’t follow college basketball really throughout the season. But it’s easy right? The high seeds usually go farther for the most part, pick a couple upsets for the first few rounds and pick one Cinderella to get to the Sweet 16. Then keep it simple, stupid. Top seeds, top seeds. I mean that’s just one way of doing it. Let’s look at a few more…

The Crazy Fan Approach
Your team’s going all the way, no matter what. It’s like the kid at Binghamton picking them to go all the way, even with a first round matchup with Duke. Or the diehard Dukey picking them all the way every year just to have them lose early each time, even though they have a good squad.
The flaw to this way of picking teams – just because you love a team doesn’t mean they will go all the way. You need to throw allegiances aside when betting. I know this from being a Bills fan.

The Girl Approach
Famed throughout all the land, the girl approach to picking tournament winners is based on things that obviously only women can appreciate – attractiveness of players on certain teams, colors of uniforms or cuteness of mascots. Usually favors UNC’s baby blue uniforms, or any furry animal mascot. (***note –mascots should never be taken lightly.
The flaw to this way of picking teams – although there are various flaws to this system, like the fact that the criteria picks are based on have absolutely nothing to do with quality of basketball teams, this method is a tried and true approach and works a lot of the time. Much to the dismay of men and sports fans everywhere.

The Statistics Approach
Those who favor this approach don’t like luck. They like good, hard facts. So they won’t base their picks on anything but statistics. For instance, if a number 12 seed scores 77 points per game, usually beats opponents by more than 7 points, and has a coach that has been to the tournament at least once before, they are more likely to upset a team in the first round. So on and so forth.
The flaw to this way of picking teams - this may give you the best percentage chance of winning, but the Tournament is CRAZY and anything can happen. And you don’t get the same rush of being right when you just based all your picks on numbers…

Top Seeds, all the way to the Final Four
There are other teams that aren’t the highest seeds? Who cares… There’s a reason these teams are ranked at the top – they are better than everyone else. And there’s no way Chattanooga has a chance against UCONN. I’ll stick with the big guns, thanks.
The flaw with this system of picking teams – it’s March Madness Baby! Anything can happen, and nothing’s better than a nice Cinderella story…

Random Tandem

There is no rhyme or reason to how you pick teams, it’s all about what you feel in your bones. You’re a gambler by nature and you love the rush of writing down upsets and putting all sorts of money down on your bracket. You have an addictive personality and gamble far too much for the amount of disposable income you earn. You are me.
The flaw to this way of picking teams: you spend too much money and usually lose… but when you win – IT’S AWESOME BABY!

Good luck with your brackets, and enjoy watching some of the best basketball you’ll see all year (these college teams actually play defense! – take note, NBA)

Monday, March 09, 2009

Twitter me this?

Twitter seems to be the new technology of choice that everyone decided to write about this week (and by everyone I mean there are articles in Time Magazine, Entertainment Weekly and my cousin mentioned something about Shaq Twittering. And my mom emailed me to ask if I Twitter. Wow, I guess that is a lot of Twitter buzz for a few days). Anyways, the answer is NO, I do not twitter. I have far too many words to say to just Twitter. I’m a WRITER, with big IDEAS that can’t just be limited to the 145 or something word limit that Twitter makes you succumb to. Though I really enjoyed reading some of the celeb blog snippets that were in the articles I read about Twitter. But really, what’s the point of Twitter? Why do people want to put their random-ass thoughts on the Internets for the world to see?

Wait a minute…I gotta go…

Sunday, March 08, 2009

Getcha Popcorn Ready…


Yesterday I was given a piece of news that stunned me to the core. My beloved Buffalo Bills have signed Terrell Owens, NFL’s notorious bad-boy receiver to their roster? What a weird turn of events. Buffalo isn’t really known for signing flashy, needy superstars. And the last time we housed one, he dissed Buffalo women making us happy to get him the hell out of wingtown, USA (yeah I’m talking about you, McGahee. jerkstore…) So why pick up T.O. now, right after a lengthy list of teams who DID NOT WANT ANYTHING TO DO WITH HIM was published?

At first I was confused, then annoyed and sad. Bills, how can you do this to the fans? We don’t know what to do. And bringing in a receiver that is well known for giving his quarterbacks a hard time probably isn’t going to do wonders for young up-and-comer Trent Edward’s confidence. But the more I think about it, the more I wonder…maybe T.O. and the Bills will be a good fit.

To have a weapon like T.O. lined up across from a lesser appreciated but just as strong weapon like Lee Evans will serve to really help out Edwards with plenty of passing targets. And if Marshawn Lynch keeps up his BEAST MODE running (and stays out of jail), the Bills offense might actually be a force to reckon with this season. And with a pretty consistently strong defensive unit, and consistently amazing special teams, the Bills might really make me wanna SHOUT this season …

When I talked to my dad about the T.O. news, he talked about how the guy’s usually good all season then his attitude/etc will get a team in trouble come playoff time. My reply – the Bills never make the playoffs, so he won’t be able to do that here…but kidding aside, maybe, just maybe, the hardworking attitude of the Buffalo Bills will rub off on one Mr. Terrell Owens and every Bills fans playoff dreams will come true.

It’s still early, and I’m still digesting this crazy news, but I’ll tell you one thing – I’ve got my popcorn ready. And my beer, too.

GO BILLS

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

just some drawings...

From Flip Flop Flyin'. Drawings made using the Brushes application on the iPhone. Pretty cool










subway thoughts.

Sometimes I wish that I could record the thoughts I am having in my head, so I don’t have to write them down later. But that would probably involve weird machinery and privacy issues and all sorts of stuff like that and I would rather just have to write my thoughts down than have all of them saved forever…

But I digress. The reason I wanted to record my thoughts in the first place is so I could remember all the weird stuff that happens to me on subway rides that is either funny, scary, irritating or in some way entertaining enough for me to want to share with the humble readers of this blog.

Like today, on the way to work, this fully grown man was listening to his iPod and BLASTING none other than the Jonas Brothers Band. I’m not sure if he was aware that everyone else on the subway car could clearly hear the song, or if he just didn’t care, but I found it quite amusing.

I also think it’s really funny when large people try to squeeze into small spaces. I’m not discriminating against large people, nor am I expressly speaking of large people, I think it’s funny when anyone tries to fit into spaces that are too small for them. But in particular, when a large person is wearing a bubble jacket, a huge backpack and carrying two big shopping bags, it makes me giggle internally when they try to squeeze into the smallest space of seating left in the subway car. That happened today as well.

…I can’t think of anything else right now! NUTS! Too bad I can’t record my thoughts or this post would be much longer… oh and on a Debbie Downer note, something I HATE when I’m on the subway is when I am standing up and the person sitting down in front of me is getting off at the next stop but they get up as the train is stopping and act like I’m very much in their way instead of just waiting until it stops so I can let go of the handrail without falling over since I’ve been STANDING for the last 20 minutes while you sat on your ass.

Feel free to post your favorite subway moments/mishaps to comments.

Monday, March 02, 2009

back to reality


goodbye florida...


hello new jersey