Looks like tv.com is turning the screws on your pal mp34mp. I've recently received more TOS violations and another suspension with the threat of a possible (but most likely banning) to prevent me from using the site. I have to say I've been modded more times in the past few months than the other 3 years combined, including some stuff that was wrongly reported by a user (saying I was a 'troll' in a Hell's Kitchen forum which I am a big fan of the show) and other things as old as 2 years old now being reported completely out of context. Including stuff labled off-topic that got reported being off-topic, or SNL references reported as off-topic.

I have to say, this place has become a lot less enjoyable the past few months, and having almost 5,300 posts it seems to really not matter. I've seen lots of things modded but other likewise stuff completely ignored, and I've noticed a double standard in reporting, things that I found offensive & violated TOS & reported, were actually approved as alright.

I guess tv.com doesn't want people talking about bands or celebrities when it comes to shows like SNL, which is the very thing that the show is about. it's not like I was starting flame wars or dropping F-bomb after F-bomb. I guess it doesn't matter, and still, all of my emails & PMs to the site have been ignored by the Mods. I ask and I get nothing. I just don't understand it.

Abraham Lincon's bicentennial birthday is coming up. He was born February 12th, 1809. He's a big deal in Illinois, after all our license plates have "Land of Lincoln" on them & his head portrait since its ugly 2001 redesign. I suppose there would be a huge celebration, tho there probably shouldn't be when I heard on the AP radio news that the state could be up to $9 billion in debt due to Blagojevich's secret bookkeeping. One moment in my life, I was working with my dad on an electrical job at Bellevue Place in Batavia, Illinois, which is where Mary Lincoln was committed to a mental institution in 1875. I also got to see the building's basement, attic and high upstairs rooms that where small and cramped rooms where the staff would sleep. Tho however, due to my tragic upbringing, every time I see Abraham Lincoln, all I think is of him saying, "Party onnnnn, duuuuuudes!!" from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

Today I connected to the Internet and what do I see? "A-Rod tested positive for steroids in 2003" while playing for the Texas Rangers & won the A.L. MVP award. Turns out Jose Canseco right about him. Just when I thought A-Fraud couldn't get any lamer, he just did. He was supposed to be "the clean guy" that was going to break that cheater Bond's 762 HR record. I knew A-Roid's stats were too good to be true. So the hell with him. Albert Pujols is who I'm rooting for to get 763 HR. And as far as we know, he hasn't juiced.

I was going to do a blog about my Top 10 or 20 favorite food dishes. But then I concluded it'd probably be a stupid elementary list, since I've had no access to gourmet food or fine dining, and probably wouldn't impress even the most simpleton of minds like Rachael Ray, that chicken stock whore. Who the hell makes macaroni & cheese with chicken stock??! Awe hell, I may up doing a list anyway in the future. It'll give me a chance to tell people what the hell "Bitok 'o Beef" is.

On Wednesday night on PBS, I watched the 90-minute tribute special to George Carlin. Soon I concluded what eventually a screaming Lewis "the louder I yell the funnier I am" Black ranted about: they were censoring the profanity in Carlin's footage, at an adult event for no reason. I basically found it sacrilegious, because Carlin analyzed the hell out of the English language. One shocking thing was how clean cut & unoffensive his early stuff was, the very dated 1980s material about "stuff", and singing & playing a Doo Wop song on Arsenio Hall, whom I called "Arse-o Hall" back in the day.

Well here's something I didn't expect: I actually like the new show "Howie Do It". If you haven't seen it, it's a hidden camera prank / fake interview show that's basically as close to being R-Rated that you can get on TV. I got to see Howie Mandel drop F-Bombs, confront strangers that his family doesn't shake hands because there's germs everywhere, and I finally got to see Howie do his "Bobby's World" voice. This show reminds me of the prank I pulled on a friend while in high school. See, I was the driver in my group, and of course, I concentrated on the road while they farted in my car, listening to music and such. One of my friends who is a big Jimmy Buffet fan, kept playing that damn "Cheeseburger in Paradise" song over and over, which annoyed the snot out of me. So what I did one night, this being the mid 1990s and all, is I took an AOL Internet CD that offered like 2 free hours of Internet, scratched the hell out of it with a pocket knife, and in permanent marker, I wrote some really profane stuff on the non-label side, pretty much "**** YOU ******* *******!!!" in big letters, and then one afternoon I got to my car first, put that CD with the label side down in the Jimmy Buffet case, eventually my friend showed up for the ride home, proceeded to open his beloved CD case to play his beloved CD. The look on his face was total shock, while me and another buddy in on this were laughing our asses off. There was no more song abusing in my drives, and most importantly, a lesson learned: message received. :twisted:

I am pissed at Obama & the Gov't for pushing back the date for digital TV conversion to June 12th. I rely on free broadcast for my TV. I got my coupon & got my digital converter box last Summer, well ahead of the date. And yet, moving the date made all that February 17th advertising worthless in the end. Quoted from a NY Times article, "the valuable analog spectrum will be used by wireless companies and public safety agencies. Verizon and AT&T, for instance, paid billions for access to the spectrum and are waiting to introduce new products using it," which I heard would trickle down to a fast & cheap Internet. And the biggest perk I'm going to miss? CBS's NCAA basketball 2009 tournament, which was going to broadcast every single game in full length, and show it on CBS-1, CBS-2, CBS-3 and CBS-4. That would had been a treat. But no. They have to go and punish us, the ones who have been paying attention and did our part because some stupid idiot people have been living under a freakin' rock for the past 2 years not to know about the switchover. It's stupid. Knowing this stupid country, they'll probably keep pushing the date back again and again, they've already done it a few times.

3 incredibly random pet peeves: people calling dinner "supper", calling soda "pop", and spelling Super Bowl as "superbowl".

Big day in the history of Illinois. at 4:52pm, the Senate removed ex-Governor Rod R. Blagojevich on a unanimous 59-0 vote, then immediately (tho apparently not necessary) voted on a notion to have him disqualified from every holding another public office in Illinois ever again. That too was a 59-0 unanimous vote. I've been watching this on TV all afternoon and evening, and I'm still shocked and out of breath. I guess I'm also relieved, because in the back of my mind, I was worried he wouldn't get impeached, and the idea of disqualification seemed like overkill. But given his history of arrogance, delusional acts which some health experts discussed that he's duped himself into believing his own lies and that he might be mentally ill, the East Coast media tour he went on this week to paint himself as a victim, which really angered a lot of the Senators here. And then there's was Blagojevich's 11th hour speech today that was deemed "vintage Blagojevich": an extraordinary speech maker, whom today sputtering complete lies and rhetoric.

I'm just still amazed at how somebody so crooked got to one of the highest offices in the state, yet got re-elected in 2006 for a second term, when there was clearly stuff going on. Blagojevich was a big city Chicago politician before he became Governor in 2002, which already has its own reputation of corruption and keeping seats in the family & family on the payroll. Blagojevich is an example of the worst kind of politician that exists, and according to the speeches the Senators made, he personally "hurt families, hurt Illinois".

The second Blagojevich was removed, his security detail left. He no longer gets a salary, but keeps his pension. He gets removed in disgrace as the 40th Illinois Governor and the first ever impeached. 2-and-out, private citizen Blago. We're finally spared of your corrupt "pay to play politics", selling a Senate seat to the highest bidder for own personal financial gain, all of your shakedowns one including a $50,000 shakedown that include depriving a Children's Memorial Hospital of $8 million of state funds. Regardless of your political affiliation, I know I'm going to sleep a bit better tonight knowing that crook can't poison the Gov't anymore.

Oh, and here are two great pics, first of ex-Governor's wife Patty Blagojevich and a little article about her rather colorful language , and of course Rod sporting the cap of his beloved favorite sports team . Looking sharp, Blago's! Rod also wanted to get his wife on state payroll and get her as a lobbyist, a sure first step in their scheme to get her in higher power. At least I know they won't get it in Illinois.

2008 was certainly a different year. I don't think I became as disinterested in television as I've ever been, and the Writer's Strike certainly played a large role in that. 2008 was also the year that Hell's Kitchen really sucked. I also finally got a digital TV converter box in the Summer, finally seeing TV clear for the 1st time since December of '00 when I last had cable. 2008 I never got around to declaring "Year of the Food". 2005 was soft tacos (basically an unheard of concept at the time for me), 2006 was the year of the Burrito, 2007 was the year of the Torta , and 2008 still never got a pick. One in the running was trenzas , which is a Mexican version of freshly baked and braided Hot Pockets filled with meats, vegetables, sauces and cheeses. Tho I guess one restaurant purchased thing I ate more of in anything of '08, it was Wendy's double stack with cheese .

2008 was also a year where I completely ignored any new music and movies, so I couldn't tell you anything about the state of those. 2008 in sports, it started off pretty good. On March 3rd, Brett Favre had supposedly retired but returned (meh) and that day awful ex-Sox radio announcer Chris Singleton was let go and the baseball guru Steve Stone made it to the radio booth, and then for 2009 the TV booth with that jackass hick Hawk Harrelson and replacing Darrin Jackson , who goes to the radio booth with Ed Farmer . 2008 also saw the end of the worst sportswriter to ever disgrace Chicagoland, Jay Mariotti , former of the Sun-Times. We won't miss your hate-rhetoric spewing columns of garbage, dirtbag . 2008 also saw both Chicago baseball teams in the playoffs for the 1st time since 1906 , and the Cubs did another wonderful winless 1st round exit , while nobody picked the White Sox to finish higher than 3rd, ended forcing a 163rd playoff game against the Twins and won 4 elimination games (including a record 3 in a row vs. 3 different teams) but lost in the 5th. We also saw Yankee Stadium close and host the longest All Star Game in history of 15 innings , with the A.L. winning once again, but it didn't help the Rays in the World Series and we saw the Yankees over-pay 3 of the 4 Top Free Agents before Christmas. We saw a resurgence in Chicago Blackhawks Hockey for the 1st time in over a decade; as well as long-time announcer Pat Foley returning to the Hawks as well. And of course, another playoff-less Bears team . 2008 was also the year of my first Fighting Illini football and hockey home games and first attended basketball games.

2008 was the year I finally got my long-sought item (tho it wasn't exactly the same, it's close enough) which was an authentic original & clean 1980-84 San Diego Padres New Era fitted size 7 3/8ths cap (actual auction pic). Trying to find an original 1973-79 all brown & Old Athletic Gold version proved to be too difficult and too expensive; reproductions are awful , which is the same problem with the brown, Old Athletic Gold & orange 1980-84 version , and to land an authentic/never-reproduced-correctly one of those, let alone in my size and clean and under $25, was some feat. As a birthday present, I also snatched up a 1990's game-used Minor League Cla$$-A Kane County Cougars baseball home pinstriped jersey (actual auction pic), in a wearable size as well. Where to take my sports memorabilia collection from here, I don't know. Maybe a red 1991-92 Jeremy Roenick #27 Blackhawks jersey or a 1987 home White Sox Carlton Fisk #72 White Sox jersey . Tho these aren't high priority purchases, and are most likely to build my sports literature collection via cheaply using Amazon with gift cards.

Oh man, I'm so angry I can barely breathe. The Yankees signed the #1 hitting free agent Mark Teixeira for 8 years at $180 million today. That's $423 million committed to 3 players this month alone. It's just... just.. terrible. I am extremely angry at MLB right now, for letting the Yankees have a monopoly on free agents and idiot Bud Selig for not having the balls in putting a salary cap in place. This simply cannot continue to go on. And what's even worse, is the Yankees could STILL get Manny and give him the ridiculous contract and years that no sane club would. The whole Yankees organization makes me sick. And even the sweetness of them missing the playoffs or early playoff exits won't help, because these contracts affect all other teams in their future deals. I'd go to every Yankees / White Sox game at the Cell to boo my ass off at every single Yankee, but I can't afford the tickets or the parking anymore. How's that for irony.

It's been snowing a lot here lately. No big deal. I can handle the cold a lot better than the heat. Cold? Just throw on another blanket or put on another layer & sip some coffee or tea. Hot? Cold water & drinks only last so long and fans only do so much. And to think, my stupid wuss-self in the Winter of '04 got so sick of the cold, I was going to move down to New Orleans to 'get away from this awful bitter Midwestern cold'. I was seriously considering it. Thought I could handle the heat better than the cold. And people, don't be a wuss and use a snow blower, use a shovel. And if you have an over-whelming snow, just do it in 15 minute periods. And I don't care who you are, if there's a sidewalk on your property, it is your duty as a citizen to shovel it and salt it. How many sidewalks have I slipped on and almost broke my neck because people didn't do it? Too many.

It has come to my attention that this thing has been declared Entertainer of the Year. Is this a joke? Are they trying to make this the worst year of my life? I blame the Republican Party for picking Sarah Palin, otherwise this & awful impression wouldn't have happened, and I blame the Republican Party for picking George W. Bush in 2000 for the nomination. These choices were of two blabbering easy-target characters which made for perfect mockery and seriously, couldn't you have at least checked the history of these people?? Were these two seriously the best candidates possible? Do your research, you idiots. McCain should had been nominated in '00, that was his only real chance. And who in the hell are we gonna nominate in '12? It already feels like Obama has '12 all locked up, and he hasn't even taken office yet. Anyways, I got off-topic here. Tina Fey sucks, the end.

-2 on my thermometer right now. A very, very cold pocket of air from the Arctic tundra is making its way into the United States, and it the Chicagoland area last night around midnight, with a 20 to 30 degree drop in temps, and a sustained wind of 30 m.p.h, gusting to 40, with wind chills going -25 below zero and colder. Definitely not the normal for this time of the year, of 33 degrees. The Jet Stream is in a southern pattern which has dipped down deep into the U.S., bringing a storm pattern that isn't letting up soon. It's been crazy. New Orleans got 4" of snow, Las Vegas got 3.5" of snow, the first time since 1979. And according to Chicago Tribune Meteorologists, it's going to be a wild and snowy Winter.

Recently I read that apparently one of my digital channels, NBC Weather Plus, will be going off the air January 1st, due to NBC Universal buying The Weather Channel and the fact that NBC Weather Plus (5.2 in Chicagoland) wasn't exactly creating profits. I noticed something was amuck when several weeks ago, all on-air Meteorologists completely stopped appearing and the channel became a series of maps and commercials. This also means the end of me seeing the hottest Meteorologist that I've ever seen, the lovely Texan: Britta Merwin. A petite little thing, hot and smart as hell, too. She also has this cute little lisp she does when says words like "nation". I'm sure she'll end up somewhere else (NBC W+ was in New Jersey) and I hope she ends up on the local Fox affiliate, and replace that incompetent Amy Freeze . Her first year here has been marred by constant stuttering, general douchery of mispronouncing the names of Illinois towns. Or Merwin could replace the ever-annoying ABC-7 Tracy Butler , who has an annoying tattle-telling school girl blipping rapid laugh, who you can tell when she was a kid, she was always screaming "I'M TELLING!!!"

On a personal level, on Sunday I met Tv.com member HelloStuart in a local sportscard shop. There was no knife fight . :P

Hello, sportsfans! It's MLB free agency period, and my thoughts and opinions on the matter.

The big free agent getter, depending on who you ask, is Manny Ramirez (37) or Mark Teixeira (29) (I say the latter) next season. I don't know where either of these guys will go, and we may not know for months. Ramirez is a great hitter, but he's also a mental case, and if there was any player that deserved (besides A-Rod) to be put in a coma when not playing on the field, it's him. He's also very old, tho that's by "old baseball standards" and 37 could be the new 32. Tho to teams, the biggest problem with Ramirez is length on contract. Manny being Manny, is one of the biggest crybabies in baseball. No sane team would offer him more than 2 years, which of course he wants double that. I hope in all seriousness, he gets so frustrated that he just flat-out retires. That'd be hilarious. The most dangerous hitter in baseball quits because he couldn't get what he wanted & was completely oblivious to what's going on in the world. As for Teixeira, any chance of him signing in homeland Maryland with the Baltimore Orioles or Washington Nationals is nothing but a pipe dream. Neither team really has a realistic chance to sign him, and it could only happen if Teixeira took an extreme hometown discount, and Baltimore is baseball's wasteland where true incompetence is massively prevalent, it'll never happen.

C.C. Sabathia, the "other" supposed #1 big free agent getter. This pitcher wants at least a 4 year contract, and there's a precedence of signing pitchers to huge long-term deals only to watch them crumble or coast through the seasons. While he can be extremely dominating, he's also a huge postseason choker. When it comes to starting pitchers, the contract situation is some kind of dance. First Milwaukee offered 5 years, $100 million, then the evil Yankees offered a record 6 years, $140 million, which was 3 weeks ago. The Yankees, in all of their arrogance, can't believe Sabathia hasn't swallowed that contract (only the Yankees can afford to add more) and figured the Union was helping them by bullying Sabathia to take the highest offer no matter what, to drive up other free agent contracts. Sabathia wants to play in California, and nobody in their right mind would want to play for that circus freak show that is the New York Yankees. Now Yankees GM Brian Cashman is demanding to have a face-to-face meeting with Sabathia next week, to most likely say "Your union & I are telling you to sign this deal!" If I was a MLB player & in Sabathia's situation, I'd tell both the Union & Cashman to "go **** a fork", because I have earned the right to play for anyone I want, for what I want. It really pisses me off how the Union is more that they don't care about what's going on in the world, and that it's millionaires merely fighting over a few millions or two, while every season almost every team keeps raising ticket prices. Baseball players aren't exactly starving artists, as much as the Union wants the public to believe. A-Rod getting $30 million a year over $25 million a year is not an accomplishment at all. It's merely a farce to drive up the market (higher payouts for agents & all those involved) and only makes the trickle down effect even worse for the fans. Even in the paper today, the Cubs, "so deservingly" after getting swept in the 1st round of the playoffs, decided to raise ticket prices on 67% of tickets, and are concentrating on nickel and diming every single section of the dump er park to death. 11 years ago, a bleachers seat cost those fans $6. Today, it ranges from $25 to $60. Baseball can't keep raising prices on everything, and as much as I hate to say it, the sport has grown too big (in teams and in revenue) and eventually the bubble is going to burst. The first trend of this, is now cities aren't willing to pony up money to build new ballparks anymore, and eventually, demand will decline and season ticket holders will drop. The situation with the Florida Marlins is already in dire shape, and the Nationals had the worst showing of opening a new ballpark in the modern era.

Greg Maddux. Wow, after 23 seasons, he's finally retiring! When he made his debut, I was in the 2nd grade busy learning the names of all U.S. presidents. Baseball to me won't be the same without Maddux, he's been there for as long as I've been following baseball, and I got to watch him locally for 9 years. He retires with 355 wins which is good for 8th all-time. He'd probably have 400 wins if he didn't waste 9 years being on the stupid Cubs. I have to say no pitcher impressed me more than Maddux did in my lifetime... he wasn't a power pitcher and he had outstanding command of his pitches, tho some say the umpires in Atlanta gave him a much larger than average strikezone. His 1995 season of 19-2 with a 1.63 ERA is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen, and he also won his only World Series that season. He threw 5,008 innings with only 999 walks, roughly 1 walk per 5 innings. 4 Cy Youngs, 8 time all-star and he was at his best right when steroids were rampant in baseball, and while he declined in his late 30s (like you're supposed to) nobody ever accused Maddux being a juicer or a dick. So here's to "The Professor", may he get the first ever unanimous Hall of Fame ballot.

Javy Vazquez. Now we come to this newly ex-White Sox starting pitcher. Javy is what I call the "purgatory of pitchers". A career .500 pitcher who eats up a lot of innings, never seems to reach his potential or learn what he's supposed to, and is a big-time choker in big games. White Sox fans were screaming for the head of Vazquez, and thankfully they traded his big salary & ass to Atlanta.

A.J. Burnett. What has this guy done since 2003? Another typical dick like A-Rod who opted out of a contract (2 years, $24 million) to get more money after posting career highs in wins, innings and strikeouts. He also has a history of twice coming off heavy workload seasons followed with two injured seasons. Frustrated by the incompetence of the Toronto Blue Jays front office and lack of playoffs, and to take advantage of a weak starting pitching crop, he decided to take back his word and cash in. As a White Sox fan, I do not expect any big free agent signings like this one, because well, they already have too much money locked on crummy players.

Randy Johnson. He's only 5 wins away from the magic 300, which would lock up automatic Hall of Fame entry. Yes he was dominate, and he does have a ton of strikeouts, 4789 strikeouts but didn't start becoming a great pitcher until he was 29. However, he did have 11 extremely dominating seasons, a 10-time all-star, 5 Cy Youngs, also pitched a perfect game, one of only 17, and is one of 5 pitchers to throw a no-hitter in both leagues. I guess that's settled and he wants to pitch to get to 300. Tho he'd be better off avoiding the Bay Area which is rumored.

Kerry Wood. The former Cub, the former Second Coming of Jesus, the former savior that was supposed to bring the Cubs a championship since 1998 was finally let go, after the Cubs abused and tormented him so for many years. Only the Cubs, could take a young power pitcher kid and turn him into a walking Disabled List. His 20-strikeout game against Houston in 1998 was the worst thing to ever have happen in his career (and it was total b.s. too, it was raining, the batter's box was like quicksand, game shouldn't had been played). And in another case of S&M, former Cubs manager Dusty Baker actually asked Wood to come pitch for his Reds, to see if Wood wanted another go-around of some S&M. The Reds don't have the money for a pitcher like Wood, who was last rumored to go to the Detroit Tigers.

Every other free agent. I have no opinions of the rest of you, and quite frankly, most of you should retire and have no business still playing baseball.

New York Yankees. All the money in the world, needing free agents and the most expensive non-playoff team in the history of time left the 2008 Yankees looking like the biggest losers in baseball. It's asinine for the Yankees to think that every ballplayer thinks it's a privilege to wear Yankee pinstripes. Well guess what, you're owned by arrogant psychos, the New York media is the worst and it's like a circus there, horribly mismanaged team from top to bottom, and you're not even playing on the sacred field where all the Yankee greats you had / stole from other teams that played on. I know it won't happen, but I think it would be completely hilarious if no big name free agent signed with the Yankees. The Yankees finished in 3rd place last year, lost their 20-game winner to retirement, and they sure don't seem any better. No Yankees, you're not the greatest thing on Earth.

MLB logo / uniforms changes. So far we have the Orioles, a new cursive "Baltimore" road jersey not seen since 1972 (which was removed in 1973 due to the Washington Senators becoming the Texas Rangers and an attempt to regionalize the Orioles) & alternate, with a slightly altered Oriole bird & cap with an orange brim. Washington introduced a new "Washington" cursive road script and two alternate jerseys & caps. Saturday Minnesota Twins home games will wear 1982 $tyle uniforms (tho incorrect striping & jersey elements) to celebrate the 1982 opening of the Metrodome, which is closing after '09 for a new outdoor stadium in downtown Minneapolis. The White Sox playing the Twins in snow in April - I can't wait! The Red Sox introduced a new alternate cap (navy, red button, 'pair of red socks' logo on it). New Tampa Ray Romano's alternate, removal of stupid sky blue & white side panels, introducing sky blue placket & sleeve piping on navy jersey. No word yet on if the Mets are dropping black from their scheme & returning to only royal blue and orange when moving into Citi Field in '09, or the Yankees putting names on the back of jerseys when moving into new Yankee Stadium in '09. And of course, the usual farce of red, white and navy blue caps and jerseys for military U.S. holidays for all teams about 7 times, solely to create merchandise revenue, which I find tacky and rather ugly. As Uni Watch Blog writer Paul Lukas was at the press conference for these new patriotic cap gear ($4 more than regular caps) earlier this season when the topic of portions of the sales would go to charity, he asked "What percentage is it and why isn't it 100%?" Why, indeed.

Well it's Turkey Day, my favorite holiday, tho oddly, I have a hankering for a cheeseburger or tacos. Recently I've made a variety of one of my favorite foods (tho extremely remedial) and that of course, is grilled cheese sandwiches. While grilled cheese & tomato soup is nice, my palette craves a tiny bit more. Put some basil & dried onion chips in the soup, and mix up the grilled cheese. I've made one with cooked bacon on it with some cheddar cheese spread added (yum) and another with freshly sliced Jalapeno peppers with a Mexican cheese blend & American cheese (yum). I've also had on wheat bread, and I'm sure it'd be as good on multigrain bread, and I'm sure it'd be good on Lithuanian rye bread, too. I'm sure there's other things I could add, like sweet onions sauteed with garlic, various green leaf spices, varying cheeses, sauteed mushrooms & peppers, some places suggested slice tomatoes which I find odd. Inspired by Pizza Hut's cheese in the crust pizza, I've been stuffing baked dinner rolls with a little mozzarella cheese and microwaving it for about 30 seconds. Mmmmm, bread and cheese.

Two Sundays ago after watching the Bears play the Packers, I got the urge to pull out the Madden football video, and I frantically searched for the CD, but I couldn't find it. Then it came to me: I trashed / snapped that CD in half 3 years after finally having enough. No video game that I have ever played in my lifetime in my 21 years of gaming (holy ****) has infuriated me more than the Madden(ing) football series. It was impossible to pass, when you ran you didn't go anywhere, even the simplest task of 20-yard field goals were a nightmare, and it was a boring and slow game that would screw you over at every given instance possible. Pop in the Madden game, and watch your blood pressure shoot through the roof. Better wear a hat so you aren't ripping your hair out by the roots. Oh and keep anything breakable, sharp or tip-overable well away too. I don't know how I never stroked out or blew out an ear drum while playing that game. So it was just better to take a hammer to the damn CD and send the game back the hell where it came from. And what's sad is EA Sports has a monopoly on football, baseball, basketball and hockey, so you're SOL. Back in the 1990s & early 00s, at least there was the option of choosing different games within a genre. High Heat Baseball was the best baseball series I ever played with in any genre.

I was watching "Gary Unmarried" last night. Those of you who don't know, it's Jay Mohr's new family sitcom, where basically it's a show of Gary still hanging around his awful ex-wife Allison, trading barbs, a show basically of 1 million jokes and bare minimal character development. Well it was the Thanksgiving episode, and Gary & Allison agreed to have Thanksgiving at Gary's house; had the turkey and everything. So suddenly Allison, gets it in her head that now out of the blue, she wants to host the Thanksgiving dinner at her (his old) house, despite Gary already cooking. So then Gary's dad shows up, played by Max Gail of "Barney Miller" whose character was apparently stoned, and Allison steals him to go have TG dinner at her house. So Gary goes to Allison's house, where we find her parents there, played by Jane Curtin and Martin Mull, who's on his like 8 millionth performing appearance.

So Curtin's character is this total nag tightass of a wife, and Mull's character just wants to watch football and drink beer, so naturally he wants to go to Gary's house and have dinner (or just beer) so he goes with Gary. So naturally, Allison goes ape****, goes back to Gary's house and demands her father come back, which of course he had no intention of doing. So what does Allison do? She steals Gary's turkey right out of the oven, takes it with her, and threatens blackmail when Gary finds out & calls her on the phone. Not only is this premise really ridiculous, (and it's been done on King of the Hill) but you're wading into Ultra Big Ego On That Completely Despicable Character territory. I actually cursed (and quite lengthy) at the TV after I saw what Allison did. I'm not one to shout at the TV (unless it's to mock a certain hillbilly announcer of a certain local baseball team) and I know it's not good do such things, since I'm the type who doesn't make audible reactions in a movie theatre.

So at the end of Gary Ummarried, Allison ends up having everything blow up in her face, gets injured, salvaged what's left of dinner and brought to Gary's, blah blah blah. Gary's son couldn't help but notice that at the end of dinner, Grampa still seemed to be eating and at quite a rather frantic pace, and that "his shirt smells like my Art Teacher's coat". Someone stoned on a prime time sitcom?? Then I remembered this isn't new, and I remember back in the day there was a big stink about how (ironically here) Jane Curtin's "3rd Rock From The Sun" as Dr. Mary Albright kept a joint in her freezer, and one day she and Dick Solomon (John Lithgow) were gonna smoke it, right there on prime time TV. Well it turned out it was just a frozen French Fry, and as far as I know, there's strict TV rules about this kind of thing, and I think (barring any cop / lawyer / crime show) this was the closest to ever "actually lighting and smoking a joint on TV" that there's been. "That 70s Show" created controversy when it came out, because of the showing of a spinning camera the kids in a basement full of smoke in the Forman basement. And then there was the surreal Season 13 Simpsons episode, where Homer got attack by crows in the eyes and was prescribed medicinal marijuana, and to the horror of the family seeing their father getting high in the master bedroom. TV certainly has changed in my short lifetime.

Apparently last night there was some live NBC Rosie O'Donnell variety special. Did anybody actually watch this? Why would anybody actually watch this, let alone actually broadcast it?? I don't know how, or why she's allowed to walk amongst the rest of us. "I'm Rosie O'Donnell, and hey I know, why don't I get my own talk show, then invite people like Tom Selleck and start fights with them! Then I'll be a totally wicked loud, aggressive, bench-pressing mega bulldyke which only the most heavily medicated people could ever have the nerve to applaud me!". Seriously, Rosie O'Donnell sucks, and I don't know why anyone would ever want to watch or to be associated with that whale.

Well, if you haven't passed out from eating too much food, or vomited from watching really crummy Detroit Lions football, have a Happy Turkey Day! Gobble gobble gobble!

Well I haven't blogged in a while. Hasn't really been much going on. I noticed my Chicago Bears are really stinking it up on the Passing Defense, and now what little defense they had against the Run, is virtually gone now. While over-priced long contracts on players can be terminated, sadly coach and staff contracts can not. Unfortunately Coach Lovie Smith and GM Jerry Angelo are under contract through 2011 & 2013. The situation with the Bears reminds a lot of the White Sox. Coach Smith & White Sox GM Kenny Williams both inherited two teams with lots of upside, and while both made it to their respected sport championships early on, those teams were largely built by previous management, and both have let the team deteriorate, stuck with huge contracts on bad players and incompetent staffs. The Bears this Sunday are in St. Louis against the lowly Rams, but I pick the Rams by 20. EDIT: Well the Bears won 27-3, and it wasn't even close, but a very sloppy game, but the Rams are really god-awful. This is exactly why I leave the game picking to the dice and coin.

The other night while going to the store, I noticed something I thought I'd never see again: gasoline was under $2!! As of last night, it's $1.91 locally. I couldn't believe it. The last two times I put gas in my Camry, it was at $4.06 & $2.26. Tho it's not going to increase my driving. 2008 was a brutal year for gasoline, and I hope people have learned their lesson and stick to their '08 conserving habits.

The earlier this week I watched my first episodes of the TV series "Benson" for the first time in about 25 years and I came away with an observation, regarding one of SNL's cast members. Actor Robert Guillaume's Benson DuBois, reminded me a lot of Kenan Thompson's voice and mannerisms. Benson seemed to talk really intense, fast and loud, like in one scene referring to himself for example, "ICAN'TBELIEVEBENSON'SFLYINGTHEPLANEEITHER!" which Benson was helping fly the plane after the pilot died. Tho I recall Guillaume being a lot more calm and laid back on "Sports Night". Following "Benson" on the local TV schedule, is "3rd Rock From the Sun". And after watching a few episodes again for the 1st time since its aired, I say "it was stupid then, and it's still stupid now". And Kristen Johnston is still beastly-scary.

And I would like to close this blog by saying, "I am so ******* sick of those Progressive car insurance commercials."

I'm not going to write about the election, because a lot of people are pissed about it, so instead I'm going to tell a story about Burger King.

Today for lunch after finally deciding to eat something today after abstaining from food, I picked up my Burger King coupons, and settled on a buy-one-get-one-free BK double cheese stacker with paper-thin bacon & Thousand Island dressing (tho a bare hint of it) with a value meal. I usually don't do value meals because I usually bring the food back home & there's always soda here, and I really don't need fries, and would rather have another sandwich item instead. Funny how these coupons not only covered the cost of the medium Dr. Pepper I had & the medium fries, but it also covered part of the two burgers individual cost, which would had been more expensive if I had just bought the two (yeah I'm fully aware of the magic that coupons were invented for). I talk to people across the country, and they've never heard or seen things like Arby's coupons or Burger King coupons. In the Chicagoland / NW Indiana area, we're generally given about $1,000 worth a coupons per Sunday Chicago Tribune paper each week, and basically have to hold them in a pickle barrel.

Burger King is not one of my favorite places to eat. Their fries don't really appeal to me. I remember in the early 1990s when they switched from McDonalds $tyle fries to the current, the chain nearly went bankrupt. Their sesame seed buns have a strange dry foamy texture that just seems to absorb moisture up like a sponge, and they don't taste very good. Their standard burger patties, measure 3" across and 1/4" in thickness, with their black grill marks painted on frozen patties (and only on one side) are fed through a broiler standing up while sprayed with liquid smoke, which is fine. Their cheese reminds me of crappy Kraft singles, like a oily, soft rubber cheese, which dissolves into the meat very quickly in high temperatures.

There's a strange sense that I get from eating Burger King burgers. A lack of satisfaction. I'll eat two cheeseburgers and feel hungry for a 3rd, or of something else. Once I ate 3 double cheeseburgers and I was still hungry and wanted something else. I'm not gonna fill up on fries because well, that's just ridiculous. And what's the deal with these big-ass red straws? Am I supposed to be pounding 6 ounces of soda per gulp?? I'm not drinking Bubble Tea where I have tapioca balls swallow, which I've never had btw. Burger King burgers are not particularly juicy, not consistent at all on the bun, the fries also act like sponges and have little to no flavor (I refuse to dip them in ketchup - I find ketchup completely vile by itself, as any Chicagoan should) and there just lacks something. Yes I'm aware it's cheap fast food, but c'mon, Wendy's is even cheaper, and their cheap burgers are miles better than this. And there's something wrong with a Whopper or Whopper Jr's veggies are more interesting and tasty than the pattie they sit on.

So for my troubles at Burger King, I get a slightly lighter wallet, a greasy brown bag, one less coupon, and still belching liquid smoke flavor 9 hours later. At least their mascot isn't a clown. That's key.