I'm not really a resolutions kind of guy, but I will make a list of things for 2008.

1. Play more tennis. Around July I was at the point were I was in top shape but abruptly stopped playing due to outside circumstances. My serve has dramatically improved to the point where I get at least 3 Aces per set. I'm finally starting to have more confidence in my forehand since like in ping pong, I rely on my backhand as my bread and butter, which for me is a lefty playing like a righty.
2. Continue with improving on cooking & keeping a journal. For whatever reason, my interest in cooking is growing, with expansion on soups, burgers, pizzas & Mexican dishes.
3. Continue to get better acquainted with Photoshop to make more logo and sports uniform design concepts.
4. More of leaning away from pop music & into Jazz.
5. Find a food to declare for 2008. 2005 was soft tacos, 2006 was burritos and 2007 was tortas. And these are Mexican restaurant versions, not Taco Hell.
6. To keep up the current writing pace so I don't burn out like I did last Fall-Winter-Spring.
7. Continue the Purification Diet to stay away from most unhealthy foods & keep the weight off.
8. Possibly take up weight lifting again (it's such a pain in the ass, tho).
9. Finally break 200 in bowling.
10. Continue to not watch Jaw Leno.

My Favorite Shows of 2007.

I have to say, my TV viewing is down this Fall. I really didn't invest any time for new shows, other than the very few. Might as well go about this per night.

Sunday. King of the Hill, surprisingly having a solid 13th season. Family Guy. Could this show get anymore offensive? Somebody give Seth a good talking to, because his vengeful attacks towards Fox are seriously ruining the show. American Dad. Still steady with its laugh-out-loud moments.

Monday. It's all CBS. How I Met Your Mother. I have to say, when "the Doog" came out of the closet this year, I find it really difficult to be convinced of him being "Barney the Womanizer" on the show. Lite Comedy, it has a few funny moments. The Big Bang Theory with the 4 nerds is actually pretty funny, especially the tall nerd being a total jerk. It's always nice to see "Roseanne" alumni on TV. Two and a Half Men: terrible. Rules of Engagement, nothing really blows me away about this show, and of course it has David Spade basically playing himself, and "David Puddy" playing a passive not-as-stupid-as-Doug Heffernan in another show where the married couple schools the young couple with another annoying moody-controlling young female.

Tuesday. Bones: ridiculous. House: pointless and Gregory House doesn't snarl any more.

Wednesday. Back To You. Sorry Patty & Kelsey, but it comes off as a weak "Murphy Brown" rip-off. 'Til Death. Again, weak and "Rules of Engagement" basically ripped off the plot but they have better actors. 'Til Death reminds me of a weak "Everybody Loves Raymond" where it's the Brad Garrett vehicle and the husband & wife are constantly fighting. Kitchen Nightmares: yeah. YEAH!!! Chef Gordon Ramsay: "Green burgers KILL PEOPLE!!". Very entertaining 10 episodes. Rage and food, gotta love it. And there's another thing I learned: don't ever eat in a New York restaurant. "Dillons" had roaches and bugs all over their freezer and storage, and yet the NYHD gave them a 95 out of 100. It's also amazing to see the stubborn arrogance of some chefs, refusing to take advice even in the face of bankruptcy. And of course, in some cases the situations were just too dire and the restaurants had to close. And you could tell all the ladies had the hots for Ramsay. And I saw some of the most disgusting kitchens of my life.

Thursday. NBC Must See TV. My Name is Earl: this show was getting redundant and the flashback episodes were clever, and another old favorite of Craig T. Nelson as the incompetent warden was pretty good. And if you haven't seen the last episode yet, skip over this. Earl is finally free, damn it! About time they wrapped that up. PBS "Chicago Tonight" for 7:30pm. The Office at 8pm, still my favorite show with gut-choking moments (i.e. during "Cure for Rabies" Dwight kicks off the "Fun Run" with looked something like a .44 Magnum with real bullets used in an Industrial Park. Stanley's reaction killed me). As for the Jim / Pam plot, I don't care for mushy crap like that. Tho I will say, second, third and fourth viewings of these episodes aren't aging as well. 8:30pm is Scrubs, which feels like old episodes again but is clearly out of gas. Oh well, at least it was nice to see Dan get his life together.

Friday night is all PBS stuff for me.

Saturday. Saturday Night Live. That whole Maya Rudolph thing was nauseating, and they seriously need to get the old out and get some fresh blood in there. At this point, the only people I would keep would be Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis, Andy Samberg, Kenan Thompson and Kristen Wiig. Why? Why bring Chevy Chase back? Why?

Sunday-Friday nights 9pm-10pm: Frasier repeats. Still one of the best shows ever made. Daphne wonders why Niles has celery in the house if he hates it:
Niles: Maris liked to have it in case she felt like bingeing.

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Things That Bugged The Hell Out Of Me in 2007.

Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton. My god, Newbie, what in the hell is this country's obsession with these two broads??! Who cares what they do! And if Lindsay was my daughter, I'd be absolutely ashamed of her (not to mention some X-rated pic I accidentally stumbled upon). Two words: shaved beaver.

White Sox GM Kenny Williams. Is there any more pathetic GM in baseball? He never gets his man; he whines about how "unfair the American League is", and basically tied up $107 million on a bunch of one-dimensional players. Too busy micro-managing everything for the future, plus the fans are pissed off. The best I can hope for is a 3rd place finish, but they will probably finish last, and they are now officially the Baltimore Orioles of the Midwest.

Roger Clemens lying about his steroids and HGH use. You big fat arrogant pig! It's so obvious he was taking designer steroids, because nobody improves that much in their late 30s / early 40s. I condemn you to Loser Cheater Hell!

Rachael Ray. I really don't care for annoying, loud, weezie chain-smoking Marlboro Reds - Dunkin Donuts coffee-whore French-Italian American midgets with sausage fingers and chipmunk cheeks where her show acts like a Short People / Midget Party Convention. Seriously, Executive Producer Oprah: "Why?". The thing that really bugs me about Rachael Ray, is she has never taken a cla$$ of culinary school in her life, her cookbooks have been criticized to death for their inaccurate info, usings of chicken and beef stock as a crutch and is in almost every recipe, and holds ironic contests to send amateur cooks to culinary school. Plus she's EVERYWHERE. Hell when I went to the Jewel to get some booze, when I heard her voice over the PA system, I damn well almost popped open that hooch right there on the spot.

The canceling of Andy Parker P.I. Come on, NBC, what the hell is wrong with you?!

NBC announcing Conan O'Brien moving to L.A. Sad. Very sad. And pale-skinned Conan is gonna get burned into a beet under that Sun.

Tina Fey. Oh why oh why is she getting plastered everywhere?? Grrrrrr. Now it's time for my Tina Fey impression: "Hello, my name is Tina Fey and I'm not funny."

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What I Rediscovered.

"Afternoon, ev'rybody." "NORM!" A childhood cla$$ic of mine. I hadn't watched Cheers since it went off the air 14 years ago. In retrospect, I thought Ted Danson was animated on "Becker", but he was really using his wheels on "Cheers". No wonder he was the highest paid actor at $71,000 per episode. I also noticed that some of my sense of humor I apparently got it from "Cheers". That was a little known fact that came to me.

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What I Discovered.

"Two and a Half Men": not funny! Watching 2 episodes in repeats every night, Charlie Sheen doesn't strike me as a comedian, especially with that one expression; that one tone of voice. This show came off to me as a modern twist of "The Odd Couple", which Alan Harper reminds me of Felix Unger and Charlie Sheen as a suave Oscar Madison. And that fat kid Jake... he needs a smacking in the worst way.

Well, try and have a Happy New Years.

Well this has been one sucky-ass Christmas Eve.

1. The Bulls fired Coach Scott Skiles today, even tho they should have fired GM John Paxon instead for putting together such a crummy team and over-paying an old Ben Wallace and drafting high a guy who can't shoot. Skiles was a disciplinary coach who was well-respected and it's not his fault the idiots aren't making their shots.

2. My favorite Jazz musician died, Oscar Peterson. I'm still pretty new to the Jazz world, but I found myself finding his stuff my favorite.

3. What was my Christmas present today? I got not only my credit card bill, but my car insurance bill as well! This is like my companies saying "we sure hope you didn't spend all your money on gifts for loved ones, because you need to pay us large sums of money, so you better screw them over and pay us! Baw-hahaha!" Well up yours, companies, 'cause I don't Christmas shop or give / receive gifts.

I will tell you a short story of how my parents helped killed Christmas for me. In 1990, I was doing my Christmas list as usual, and for some reason, my parents decided to teach me a lesson about Greed. My parents put this present under the tree two weeks before Christmas, and they kept pointing to it, saying how much "I'm absolutely going to love it, and how it'll be the greatest gift I have ever gotten", so being the idiot gullible un-suspecting 12-year old I was, I started getting excited. So fast-forward to Christmas morning, and I open up my presents; same usual crap: some books, a few T-shirts, a piece of sports equipment, and then finally.... "the present". I was handed it while sitting on the couch, and it was pretty heavy. I open it, parent with camera in hand, opened, *flash* and then laughter. What was it? It was a rock.. a big, oval shaped melon-sized beige rock with "Merry Christmas Mark 1990" painted on in yellow paint. Lacking in teenage hormones, I was unable to hurl the rock at my parents with extreme anger but sat there in utter shock. And from that moment on, I started caring less and less about Christmas. And also, Christmas doesn't really mean much to teenage guys, and by the time I reached adulthood, I was so sick of everything related and completely stopped celebrating. Family? Lunatics aren't family.

So tomorrow will just be like any other day in the day; just like my birthday; and just go about my business as usual. And I've said it before and I'll say it again: "Scrooge had the right idea and George Bailey should have jumped off that bridge". Bah humbug!

White Sox GM Kenny Williams should be fired. He is one of the worst GMs in baseball. He's too busy organizing every detail, nickel-diming minute-seconds the team. He cares more about 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 than the present. 2007's 90-loss season was proof of this. I predicted Kenny already wrote off that season with terrible acquisitions, and so far he's doesn't done squat, and traded away one of our healthy inning-eating starters. I didn't want Torii Hunter, but Fukudome or Rowand would had been ideal. And they both signed elsewhere yesterday & today - even worse that Fukudome ended up on the stupid Cubs. And I'm sure it happened because the stupid White Sox wouldn't give another year, or another mil or two a year. I don't give a rat's ass if you over-pay him, it's not my job to worry about that, it's Kenny's.

Kenny is going to get booed and possibly physically attacked at Soxfest, because White Sox fans are not happy right now. How can a team with a $102 million payroll be half stuffed with rookies and so many question marks??? Kenny's reputation has been ruined in baseball. Of course he is delusional, has proven he can't draft worth a crap, his sons are in trouble with the law (figures can't control his own kids, can't control a baseball team). If you want to win, you have to spend. And if you won't do that, then you need to draft well. And if you can't do that either, then you need to trade well. Good 'ol Kenny has shown that all 3 are weaknesses to him. I don't care if the market is broken and the talent is considered "weak". You have holes to fill, you fill them with someone. And for the fact that shortstop Juan Uribe was re-signed for $4.5 million to hit .220 in the 9th spot is ludicrous. If you're going to have the bastard DH rule in A.L., you might as well use it for more than the pitcher. Juan Uribe has no business hitting and somebody should hit for him. Kenny is so busy planning, and yet, his ass will be fired before those years ever come up.

And as Stu would probably say, "Good. They're getting what they deserve". Well I'm already predicting a last-place 2008 White Sox finish. And The Cell will be bare by June.

Oh man, I don't ever remember ice pissing me off this much before. I have errands to do, and the fricking ice is making it that much harder. It was here all weekend, and apparently for most of the week, too. Amongst a list of errands, I had to finally get the dreaded haircut. First off, I hate getting haircuts, yet I doom myself in life by preferring short hair. Basically, I don't like waiting, so I go right when the place opens. Also, since I'm a cheap bastard, I always get haircuts with coupons (Frank Barone: You throw out coupons? That's money!). And then there's the explanation of what I want done, I sit there, make small talk, and keep my eyes where they should be, and go through the exact same process since 1989. Well immediately, this busty lady barber starts talking about the Writer's Guild of America strike! Well let's see, apparently tall long-haired Swedish mutts wearing blue jeans and white Benjamin Moore paint T-shirts look like the type that would be all about the Writer's Guild and the late night TV scene. She even laughed at my Jay Leno mullet reference.

So yeah, it's been a while since my last haircut - probably about early March. It got to the point where it was rubbing against my cheeks and poking my back. "You dirty filthy idiot hippie, you," I know. I just tuck my hair under hats all the time anyway. Well it was a pleasant experience and it was quick, which is all I ask for. And the place was empty so there were no brats sneezing their stupid germs or their filthy hands grubbing all over soon-to-be-misplaced merchandise. When I finally got home, I looked in the mirror and was rather shocked: I've lost about 15 pounds since my last haircut, and apparently I've lost more facial fat, and thanks to my new "do", I looked like a dark blonde version of a young David Byrne, or at worst...a pre-rehab Charlie Sheen.

I'm a guy, so naturally I don't really give two sh*ts about my hair, but I will do this: keep it retro & cla$$ic, no matter what. I've seen some pretty bad hair$tyles in my day (including the revival of the mullet in the late 80s) or the bad early 90s hair$tyle where guys looked like button mushroom tops. And I think guys who obsess about their hair, use gels and special shampoos are a bunch of pretentious sissy Marys. Well that's all I have to say today, and that's one ordeal I can put off for another 2 months, or maybe 3 or 4, or whenever the next coupon comes along.

And no mullets!

I neglected the mention that my busty lady barber was going ape-sh!t over this Writer's Guild of America strike, basically salivating at the mouth about missing her beloved Desperate Housewives, of all things. It was actually kind of funny and really pathetic at the same time. :P

Apparently somebody has built a time machine, because apparently I logged in on December 31st, 1969. Quite honestly, I really don't remember that day or year, being that I was still 9 years from being born yet. An obvious site glitch, I notice that after visiting threads and moving forward, it'll still show that the thread has unread entries, or sometimes posts won't show up right away.

After beating my brain to a pulp with loud cla$$ic rock music this past week, I unknowingly bypassed that there was a Baseball Hall of Fame vote by the Veterans Committee. The biggest news of that vote, was again the exclusion of former MLBPA executive director Marvin Miller. Say what you want about all the good Miller brought to the players, he is ultimately the reason why a man can't take his family for an afternoon at the ballpark without it costing an arm and a leg.

Marvin Miller succeeded the free agency clause, which caused ..er allowed players to become free agents after 6 years of service and be subjected to a bidding war with their next contract. All fine and dandy for the player, but it means higher ticket prices for you. It also killed pretty much any hope of a player playing his entire career on one team. This is exactly why I wear team jerseys blank instead of with a player's name & number on the back. I can no longer have a favorite player on the White Sox, 'cause I know he'll end up playing on "The Enemy", whoever that ends up being. Free Agency also ended up with vile results when Orel "Bulldog Dodger Blue" Hershiser, of all people, was someday pitching & making millions while in #1 enemy San Francisco Giants black & orange, team loyalty is basically a dead concept. I don't know why Orel pitched for the Giants in '98 after 3 seasons in Cleveland, but if I was a true Dodger and appreciated what I had done for the team and its history and ten's of millions of dollars the Dodgers paid me over the years, I would never have pitched on the Giants. It's not like he needed the money. Of course, my jaded moment came in baseball came years earlier, after years of gradual salary bumps, when baseball's #1 salary at $4 million a year for Minnesota's Kirby Puckett, to Chicago Cubs Ryne Sandberg's #1 salary at $7 million a year. Sure is great, huh? In 1989, a Wrigley Field right-field bleacher seat cost $4.25. Today? $60. (other bleacher seats go from $30 to $36, and it goes even higher when that depends if it's a "regular" game over a "prime" game).

As I recall, the NFL didn't have free agency until like 1992 or '93, and that sport isn't exactly hurting or dying. And from the pro-Marvin Miller commentary that I've read around the web, Miller was NOT in fact "saving baseball players from levels of slavery". Get some god damn perspective: it's a GAME. "They had to work winter jobs". Oh noes! Let's see, their "work" consisted of dressing up and going outside for 3 hours, most of it where they were either sitting or standing around. The horror! Also, these same people claming blasphemy are saying the Hall of Fame is "poorer" for having omitting Miller. Hmmm, it's a Hall of Fame, not a general baseball museum. They have the right to include or exclude whatever the hell they want.

Today, with baseball with all of its A-Rod $27.5 million a year salary, with their little steroids problem, with the Florida Marlins trading Dontrelle Willis & Miguel Cabrera to Detroit and blaming it "on their stadium woes", this is what happens when you let Miller build the world's most powerful union that won after every single labor war, which somehow led to having illegal things legal in baseball. And you bet your ass Miller would have NEVER allowed steroid testing on players, alas it took a public and congress outcry to actually have the players wise up and realize "it's actually for their own good and for the integrity of the sport for the future". Marvin Miller was good for baseball players, bad for the game. I know I feel better, knowing that Tribune writer Phil Rogers would completely disagree with me.

I recently saw a great documentary on WTTW-11: The Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus. The Who played a 7-minute version of "A Quick One While He's Away" on a tiny-ass set, hence the blog title. If you're not familiar, on December 11, 1968, the Rolling Stones produced a 1-hour special with 30 minutes of various acts, and 30 minutes of the 'Stones performing their new material from "Beggars Banquet" with a circus-like atmosphere. Basically, the Who were fresh off touring and the 'Stones were not, which resulted the Who upstaging 'Stones, which prevented this from ever airing back in the day. Basically, it was Mick Jagger: "You f****** bloody 'ell upstaged us, 'Oo! F*ck you, Pete Townshend and the 'Oo!" I have to say, the bloody 'ell 'Oo were awesome on that program, and the 5-minute screaming song from Yoko Ono of "Whole Lotta Yoko" was absolutely one of the worst things I have ever seen in my lifetime. Oh ya, the one-hour special took like 13 hours to film, due to sh*t breaking down and putting together the sets, and by the time the 'Stones performed, ever'body had f****** bloody 'ell fallen asleep! It was hard to watch a now-sober sleep-deprived exhausted Mick Jagger flopping around and crawling on stage like a clubbed seal. Honestly, great time capsule, tho.

Ok, I'm in need of some help. On my Thanksgiving card, I was told that I need to "write a note" to my estranged Grandmother if I *hint hint* want a piece of that Xmas gift money *wink wink*. Honestly, I am not close at all with my Grandmother, I've met her like twice in my life, and I have very little in common with around-90 year old ladies from Upper Michigan with an affection for scratch-off lottery tickets who doesn't drink or smoke. I have to say, basically nothing is going on in my life & there is no Mrs. Mp34mp or little Mp34mp Jr to tout about. "Yeah Screaming Beaver (affectionate name for wife) kicked me out of bed again last night and little Jr. broke my lamp for the 18th god damn time...blah blah blah". I own no pets, I have no women and basically all I watch is sitcoms, news and sports. And honestly, I don't have it in me to squeeze out another "Yeah the weather has been crazy, I've been busy working, blah blah blah".

Ahhhhh-uuuuuuuuugh I got nothing, so I'll try to squeeze out and manufacture a blog post.

That Bears game yesterday... that was a hard loss. Being 6-6 would had been a lot better than 5-7, which basically is the end of the Bears season. Rex pisses me off so much. Even tho he wasn't horrible yesterday, it's obvious he's a terrible QB on 3rd down. 6 sacks, lost of 52 yards because of them, and 10 penalties for 71 yards killed pretty any chance for a win. The Bears actually won the Turnover Game 0-4, and if Professor Palmer saw that game, he'd be rolling in his grave. This old Chicago ABC sportscaster Brad Palmer had this theory that if you win the Turnover Game, you will win the football game. That as it may be, that always isn't the case. But, that's terrible that the defense made a crummy Giants team with a horrendous QB look like Hall of Famers yesterday. I got so angry I actually went to another website and engaged in smack talk on random strangers. I have to say, I did feel a lot better, even if it was short and quick. But there's one thing I've noticed about NFL forums: there are a LOT of idiots on there. I mean, like, beer-chugging candy-eating petty "u th luzer!"-kind of stupid. Like, adrenaline-driven screaming big-and-dumb football fans who view football games as parties. Every time you visit a football site, you feel stupider than you did before.

And I am ultra pissed off about OSU being ranked #1. And nobody should become a #1 while being idle AND both #1 and #2 got defeated. It should also be noted that when Illinois beat them, Illinois wasn't ranked. This season has been an absolute disaster for the Rankings System. Time for playoffs.

You'll notice I haven't written a TV show review in about a year. I really don't see what the point is, since basically it's people re-writing the show's summary. I also find it retarded that you can't comment on reviews, because I have seen some REALLY stupid, idiot asinine reviews that would make even a 6th grade English teacher vomit. I also get highly annoyed that so many people disagreed with my reviews: only 4 agrees as to 9 disagrees. All I can say is: YOU'RE the one who doesn't "get it". So the hell with that. Never again.

That's a term that people use when a tornado is coming, and when I woke up at 6am this morning, that's what my computer sounded like. Apparently my computer's a/c power supply was making this really loud blowing noise. I woke up thinking there was a tornado coming at me - freaked the hell out of me. Tired as hell, I thought one of the harddrives collapsed, and I quickly shut the computer down. Went back sleep, woke up and started dealing with this damned thing. Realizing it was the a/c power supply, I unplugged everything, took apart my tower and looked at it - it seemed fine. Then I was rummaging around here for the two other idle old computers, hoping one of those power supplies would work. Damn plugs didn't match up to the motherboard ports, despite being generally the same age as my comp.

So, I put my attention to the original a/c power supply, and for the first time opened that up (which was a b!tch trying to get that cover off). Some plastic sheet cover came out, and I looked at the fan, which seemed to be alright. So I put it all back together, and after 2 hours and dealing with about 20 tiny-ass screws screwed on as tightly as possible, plugged everything back and hoped for the best. Apparently this actually fixed the problem - either the fan was loose or that plastic sheet cover got loose. Either way I'm glad I don't have to get a new computer, or at the very least - put all my drives in an older and slower computer. I haven't ripped this damn thing apart in years, and I'm glad I never got in the business. Those are some tight fits in there and the metal scrapes the hell out of your hands. It was an exhausting ordeal.

Yeah here I go again. Spending my Sunday morning & afternoon... watching Bulls basketball. Why aren't the Bears on at Noon? Is there really a problem? Well, checking my pocket schedule, apparently something is up. Of the first 14 Bears games, only 3 of them ended up being noon games, including 2 against Detroit. The final 2 games are scheduled for noon, but game times are subject to flex scheduling, tho I doubt the lowly Bears noon home games of Packers & Saints will get "promoted" to primetime, unless the Packers are inexplicably 13-1. I await what horrors in today's 3:15pm CBS Broncos / Bears game. How many hundreds of yards will the Bears defense give up? How many incompletions will Rex make? How many plays will ignore Greg Olsen at tight end & Devin Hester as wide receiver? I think the Bears should just abandon the running game, and go to a pass-heavy West Coast offense. I'm also a big fan of throwing to the tight end. With their incoming high draft pick, maybe the Bears will draft a real quarterback for the first time in a century. And I was just thinking how much better the NFL would be if they went to a College-style overtime, because it's more exciting and like 80% of the coin toss winners ended up winning, and widened the hash marks so the Option could be used. And I would also get rid of the Intentional Grounding penalty, 'cause I think it's completely stupid. Let the turd throw it away, it beats a sack.

Don't look now, but after all my NFL Network b!tching, the Bears have a Thursday night game December 6 at Washington on the NFL Network. I don't know what the deal is, but when the Bears games were on ESPN, local ABC picked up the feed so it'd be shown on free TV. Not sure what's gonna happen, but I think we'll all be spared of seeing that game. Then 11 days later, we're "blessed" with a Monday Night game at Minnesota. I have to say, I'm not a fan of Monday Night football with games ending around 11pm. I've even watched ones that went past 1am on the East Coast. Ridiculous.

And speaking of ridiculous, who'd ever thought the Chicago Blackhawks would be the premiere team in town with more wins than the Bears or Bulls combined? With Rocky Writz now running things, suddenly hockey is starting to matter again in this town after it's been really dead for the past decade. I may actually have to start following them again. I figured this would happened if we waited long enough. Owners have to die eventually.