My Inner Letterman

Who doesn't love top 10 lists? Especially ones about the coming end of the decade! Well with the help of Wikipedia, I've made some top 10 lists of the decade!

Favorite TV Shows:

1. Arrested Development (03-06)
2. Scrubs (01-present)
3. Psych (06-present)
4. The Office (05-present)
5. Futurama (99-03)
6. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart (99-present)/The Colbert Report (05-present)
7. Freaks and Geeks (99-2000)
8. South Park (97-present)
9. Undeclared (01-02)
10. How I Met Your Mother (05-present)

• Just Missed: My Name is Earl, Monk, Band of Brothers, Weeds
• Not on Long Enough Yet: Mad Men, Big Bang Theory, Community, Modern Family, Breaking Bad

Favorite Albums:

1. "How It Goes" by Big D & the Kids Table
2. "Everything Goes Numb" by Streetlight Manifesto
3. "Somewhere In the Between" by Streetlight Manifesto
4. "The '59 Sound" by The Gaslight Anthem
5. "Keasbey Nights" by Streetlight Manifesto
6. "And the Battle Begun" by Rx Bandits
7. "Three Cheers of Disappointment" by The Arrogant Sons of Bitches
8. "The Sufferer and the Witness" by Rise Against
9. "Scrambles" by Bomb the Music Industry!
10. "Get Warmer" by Bomb the Music Industry!

Favorite New Bands (Formed Since 2000)

1. Streetlight Manifesto
2. The Gaslight Anthem
3. The Aggrolites
4. Whole Wheat Bread
5. Westbound Train
6. Bomb the Music Industry!
7. Hub City Stompers
8. Bedouin Soundclash
9. The Flatliners
10. Street Dogs

Favorite Movies:

1. Knocked Up
2. Lord of War
3. Super Troopers
4. Superbad
5. Shaun of the Dead
6. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
7. Catch Me if You Can
8. Role Models
9. Matchstick Men
10. The 40 Year Old Virgin

Favorite Yankee Moments

1. Game 7, 2003 ALCS (Aaron Boone Game)
2. Yankees Win 2009 World Series
3. Games 4/5 2001 World Series: Tino ties it in the 9th with 2 outs, Jeter Walk-Off, Brosius Ties it in the 9th with 2 outs the next night.
4. Jeter's Defense: 2001 ALDS flip to get Giambi at home, 2004 dives into the stands against Boston
5. August 2006: Yankees complete 5-game sweep in Boston
6. 2009 World Series: "Damon's Mad Dash"
7. May 09: A-Rod homers on his first pitch of the season in Baltimore (seen in person)
8. 2000 World Series: Yankees beat Mets in 5 in Subway Series
9. 2009: Jeter passes Henry Louis Gehrig as the Yankees all time hits leader
10. August 2007: A-Rod hits his 500th home run

5 Moves by the Yankees I did not like at the time:

1. Trading for Randy Johnson
2. Signing Johnny Damon (I was wrong)
3. Signing Damaso Marte for a 3 year deal after he SUCKED in 08
4. Letting Andy Pettitte go in 2003
5. Trading for Bobby Abreu in 2006 (I was wrong)

2009 Music Awards

This is something I've wanted to do for a while now. I've kept track of what music was new to my collection since last Christmas and I'd like to see what I've enjoyed most and least from the year.

Just some general guidelines before I get into it.

• All music in play has to be new to my iTunes beginning last Christmas
• "New" implies new to my iTunes this year, never being featured before
• "of 09" implies new for 2009, as opposed to new to my iTunes in general

Best New Artist: The Gaslight Anthem
Runner ups: A Billion Ernies, Murphy's Kids

Best Album of 09: "Scrambles" by Bomb the Music Industry!
Runner ups: "IV" by the Aggrolites, "Hearts of Hoodlums" by Whole Wheat Bread, "Pin Points and Gin Joints" by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

Best New Song: "Great Expectations" by The Gaslight Anthem
Runner ups: "The 59 Sound" by the Gastlight Anthem, "So Let's Go! Nowhere" by The Arrogant Sons of Bitches, "Erin's Runaway Imagination" by Fatter Than Albert

Best Song of 09: "(Shut Up) The Punx" by Bomb the Music Industry!
Runner ups: "Cheers! The World's Almost Over" by Westbound Train, "Stuff That I Like" by Bomb the Music Industry!, "Staying True" by Whole Wheat Bread

Best New Cover Song: "Little Boxes" by Rise Against
Runner ups: "Fake Plastic Trees" by The Arrogant Sons of Bitches, "Veronica Sawyer" by Reel Big Fish

Worth The Wait (Previous release was in 2006 or earlier): "Hearts of Hoodlums" by Whole Wheat Bread
Runner ups: "Come and Get It" by Westbound Train, "Ursa Major" by Third Eye Blind

Most Disappointing Album of 2009: "Fluent In Stroll" by Big D & the Kids Table
Runner ups: "Mandala" by Rx Bandits

Best Live Performance of 2009: The Mighty Mighty Bosstones (Dec 09 in Boston)
Runner ups: Streetlight Manifesto (Jan 09 in DC), Less Than Jake (July 09 in Jersey), The English Beat (Jan 09 in Baltimore)

Best New Album: "The 59 Sound" by The Gaslight Anthem
Runner ups: "Three Cheers for Disappointment" by The Arrogant Sons of Bitches, "Scrambles" by Bomb the Music Industry!, "IV" by the Aggrolites, "The Clash" by The Clash, "Sink or Swim" by The Gaslight Anthem

Happy Festivus for the Rest of Us!

"The tradition of Festivus begins with the Airing of Grievances. I got a lot of problems with you people! And now, you're gonna hear about it. You, Kruger. My son tells me your company STINKS!"
-Frank Costanza

As with every December 23rd, it is time for the Airing of Grievances. Granted this is what I do most on this thing, but now for a collection of rants:

New York Yankees: Damaso Marte sucks, why don't you see that? Granderson better be worth it because he doesn't have the best resume either.

Loyola: Your Shuttle Service Sucks

Big D & the Kids Table: "Fluent in Stroll" SUCKS, and you've been horrible live.

Rx Bandits: "Mandala" sucked too, such a terrible drop off from the past 3 albums

Mad Caddies/Against All Authority/The Planet Smashers: Is it that hard to tour on the east coast?

Scrubs: It's time, let's wrap things up already

TV Viewers: Watch "Better Off Ted", it is better than whatever you think is a funny show

"Funny People": Too much people, not enough funny

NBC: You cancelled "My Name is Earl" right in the middle of a cliff hanger....

The Greyhound: Who ever reviewed the Zach Galifianakis show should have been fired for even submitting that thing

Moe's Southwest Grill: Damn you for introducing Billy Barou on me.

Barack Obama: This isn't exactly what I voted for

Johnny Damon: Just take the Yankee's offer, you won't get anything better than that.

Streetlight Manifesto: "New album fall 09" my ass.

TD Bank: Gotta love resorting to quitting because I was basically fired.

Toshiba: God I hate this Laptop

Professor Skeen: Bull shit, I got an A and you know it.

That's all I got for now, but I'm sure more will come soon enough. Still, Happy Festivus!

MLB All-Decade Team

As most sports media outlets are making their all-decade teams, so I figured I'd weigh in on the MLB one. MLB.Com is doing a vote come February, but they're doing one for both the AL and the NL. While that'd be nice, I'd have to say that Cano would be the AL second baseman and 5 years doesn't completely cut it for me.

I took a look at stats from 2000-2009, and did my best to leave out pre-2000 stats and awards. Pitchers are too inconsistent, so I'll just thrown them into the honorable mention part. Here is my team:

Catcher: Ivan Rodriguez (.298, 161 HR, 643 RBI, 5 Gold Gloves)
1B: Todd Helton (.331, 260 HR, 981 RBI)
2B: Jeff Kent (.300, 216, 850 RBI, 2000 MVP)
3B: Alex Rodriguez [3B stats only] (.300, 238, 716, 3 MVP's)
SS: Derek Jeter (.317, 161, 727)
OF: Manny Ramirez (.317, 348, 1106)
OF: Ichiro Suzuki (.333, 84, 515, 341 SB, 2001 MVP and Rookie of the Year, 9 Gold Gloves)
OF: Lance Berkman (.300, 309, 1026)
DH: Albert Pujols (.334, 366, 1112, 3 MVPs, 2001 Rookie of the Year)


Honorable Mentions
Catcher: Jorge Posada (just missed), Joe Mauer
First Base: Mark Teixeira, Prince Fielder, Ryan Howard, Derek Lee, Carlos Delgado
Second Base: Chase Utley, Robinson Cano, Dustin Pedroia
Third Base: Chipper Jones (just missed), Scott Rolen, David Wright, Mike Lowell, Miguel Cabrera
Short Stop: Miguel Tejada, Michael Young, Jimmy Rollins, Jose Reyes, Hanley Ramirez
Outfield: Alfonso Soriano, Carlos Lee, Magglio Ordonez, Johnny Damon, Carlos Beltran, Carl Crawford, Jermaine Dye, Torii Hunter, Bobby Abreu, Ken Griffey Jr, Barry Bonds
Starting Pitchers: Roy Halladay, Johan Santana, Chris Carpenter, Andy Pettitte, CC Sabathia, Josh Beckett, Mark Buehrle
Relievers: Mariano Rivera, Trever Hoffman, Billy Wagner

Tribute to Bomb the Music Industry! and the End of the Fall Semester

How do I pay tribute to both those things at once? Well don't, but I do pay tribute to each with a good segway. Let's start with the fall semester.

This semester had many highs and lows. The lows mainly include my schedule (no free time in the afternoons), my finals, and Financial Management.

Highs on the other hand, there were many more of. Gotta love bulleted lists!:

• Going to Pub Dog, that place is really nice
• Being done with accounting and Spanish finally
• The Gaslight Anthem in DC
• Westbound Train in DC
• 21st birthday videos from Chaci, Romo, Dylan and Rich via facebook
• Keystone (not ice, not light, just normal Keystone)
• SLAPPING THE SHIT OUT OF CHACI FROM WINNING OUR SLAP BET. (Video to come soon)

Now for that segway. While I often love the social life at Loyola, I often hate it too. Specifically certain "bars". They suck. They're not fun, and yet people for some reason think the are. Well, Bomb the Music Industry! has a song "Stuff That I Like", and much of that song reminds me of those bars, and what sucks about them. So, why not show off the awesome lyrics of that song, and highlight the parts that I can relate to.

You can download the song, and amazing album, "Scrambles", and all of the BTMI! albums for free right here

The city subway stations never glisten.
The gates rise up like they belong in prison.
And my balance is low. I better pick a good place, I got one ride to go.
Your fucking cocaine party fucking freaks me out.
When did Scott Weiland show up? How long’s he stickin’ around?
I guess this new fare hike means that I’ll ride my bike,
play video games and do other stuff that I like.

And in the morning cleaning up, we found these plastic bags
with a little bit of party left and started to laugh,
“Man, I’m glad I passed out from the booze and the weed
‘cause the house stayed up ‘til 6 AM doing speed.”
But now it’s 1 AM and I’m quite a few in
and I can barely make out where the bathroom line begins
and it’s been moving five inches every fucking five minutes.

I wanna ask the over privileged kids if they would fucking mind?
I gotta take a piss in the cocaine room.
What is this? The line for lines? It’s a long line for lines.
I’m getting claustrophobia from the twenty-something set with bleary eyes.
What is this? The line for lines? It’s a long line for lines.
I, I, I don’t wanna be part of this Friday night or Saturday night.
I, I, I don’t wanna be part of this line for lines, long line for lines.
I, I, I don’t wanna be part of this night.

When I’m out these days I do is complain about the booming bass
and the shitty DJ because if I wanted to go to a dance club,
I’d own a bottle of Brut, a closet full of Christian Dior, and I’d be in a different room.
Cause we can dance to Otis Redding, P.O.S, and M.I.A
and if you’re on Serato Scratch don’t call yourself a DJ.
Beat detecting’s got no attitude, your tempo maps can’t feel and room,
but lemmings all have dancing shoes and I’m just freaking out.

You’re assaulting me with thrusts like I’m an asshole.
You’re sweating to the sounds of Billboard’s Hot 100 like a total yeah bro dick.
Man, I thought that we all lived here ‘cause we’re different
I guess I was wrong this time, and time after time
I, I, I don’t wanna be part of this
Friday night or Saturday night.
I, I, I don’t wanna be part of these cokey times
and eight dollar wines.
I, I, I don’t wanna be part of this night.

The city subway station never glistens. The gates rise up like “What’s up?
You’re in prison, confined by alcoholism and lack of better decisions
for having fun on the weekends.” But this shitty atmosphere keeps bumming me out.
Don’t want my Club MTV. I hate Downtown Julie Brown.
I guess these new prices hikes will make me grab my light
and climb the fire escape to the roof for a book that I like

Studying Procrastination

Rather than studying for the 3 finals I have in the next 47 hours, I've decided to weigh in on some of my highlights in TV this year.

New Shows to Watch

• Modern Family (ABC, Wednesdays)
• Better Off Ted (ABC, Tuesdays)
• Community (NBC, Thursdays)
• The Middle (ABC, Wednesday)

General TV highlights

• All of Season 3 of "Mad Men"
• Scrubs: "My Finale" (oh wait)
• Cold openings on "The Office". Specifically "Recyclops", The Halloween opening, Kevin trying to answer the phones in Season 5, and Dwight's fire drill in the episode after the Super Bowl
• "Racial Sensitivity" on Better Off Ted. Trust me on this one

Really to sum this up, watch those shows, especially Better Off Ted

Damaso Marte...

...is still not good. I like Coke more, but he had a bad one inning and Marte had a good two batters. Oh well, GRANDERSON is going to be a great fit, hopefully he's worth the price paid.

On a more important note...new Scrubs and BETTER OF TED TONIGHT

Monk and Snow, One thing I like and one I hate

I'll start this one off happy. Well, bitter-sweet. Monk aired its series finale last night, and I felt it was a very good episode. It provided closure with Monk and the Trudy case, as well as Sherona and Discher, a very nice touch. Plus Monk got to be a badass in it. That was so cool. He punched, he threatened with guns...shit went down and it was great.

I started watching Monk when it first premiered (in 2002?) and was immediately drawn in. I watched the first 3 seasons or so on a regular basis, but then slowly started to fade out as it went on. Certainly, over the past 3 seasons I've only watched on the occasional basis, but I still liked the show very much. During this season I made it a point to watch the episode with Sherona's return, and also the 2 part finale over the past 2 weeks.

Monk also paved the way for me to watch Psych, which usually aired after Monk on Fridays. Psych is now one of my favorite shows ever, and it wouldn't be able to exist without Monk. I went to Best Buy to buy the Monk season one DVD, and ended up getting the Psych one as well, even after only seeing about two episodes.

Now for the angry ranting.

I hate snow. Hate, hate, hate it. Why? Well for starters I'm not 7 anymore. Snow is wet. Snow is cold. Snow makes it difficult to drive. Snow makes it difficult to see and walk. But it's so pretty!!! Bullshit, it's grey after 2 days on the ground.

Plus, it only snows a little now. It snows enough to serve no purpose. When I was younger, I remember making forts on my front lawn with the neighbors. Forts with tunnels, and taking up huge chunks of the yard. Now we get 3 inches at once, and if you build a snowman, half your lawn is green and the other is white....well, grey. Snow sucks. It never cancelled school in high school and now when it does it's pretty inconvenient. Snow sucks, and if you like it, you are wrong.

Scrubs [Med]

Scrubs returned tonight, and I'm not yet sure how I feel about it. I liked it for the most part, but I am without question biased. While the first two episodes were quite funny at times (whenever the Todd or Dr. Kelso spoke, for example), they seemed mostly uncomfortable. I'm giving them a pass, as the show does have the very difficult task of making the transition.

• I like Lucy so far, but I don't want a new hybrid of young JD and Elliot.
• Elliot is preggerz with JD's baby, all is good in my book.
• So the old hospital is gone and relocated to the med-school campus....I can buy that. Only thing that troubles me is that the med students seem too much like previous interns and residents. I thought I had a general understanding of the medical hierarchy after 8 years of Scrubs, but I guess not.
• Dr. Beardface and Snoop Dogg attending?!?! I think so. We're a Mickhead and Colonel Doctor away from the C-Team reunion
• I hope more of the B-Team is back besides The Todd (though he is my favorite). Specifically, Doug, Ted, and Jordan. I was never crazy about Lloyd (the delivery guy) because he replaced Doug in the Brain Trust

Like I said, looking forward to next week's episode (and the return of Better Off Ted!!!) as I hope it starts to come together more.

I was going to link two of my first posts on this, which were dedicated to the series as a whole then also "My Finale", but I cannot copy and paste on this thing for some reason.

Google "What's Alan Watching" (also linked in the top corner) and read his thoughts on the episode. He gets paid to do this, so go with his feelings over mine

Jim Gaffigan: What Room You Staying In?

Friday night I saw Jim Gaffigan with Romo and Vida and he was great. The concert was at the Baltimore Lyric Opera House, which was a really beautiful opera house. We felt very classy inside. The show was the second of the night and didn't sell out, so we moved up to the front of back balcony, which made a big difference from the last row.

His set was great. I loved all his new material and his older stuff was still great. The last 1/3 of the set was pretty much older jokes from his previous specials on Comedy Central, but within he'd have a couple different punch lines or some more jokes in there that I hadn't heard before, which made the jokes not seem like ones I've heard 10 times before.

Of jokes he repeated, he did Bacon, Fast Food, Waffle House, Christmas/Easter/Halloween, Ketchup, and I cannot remember any other ones. He then came back on stage and did Hot Pockets, also with a good amount of new material making that still great.

If you can find them online, here are general descriptions of what I remember him talking about in his newer material: Subway, Socks, Shoes, Domino's Pasta Bread Bowls, Hotels, Extenze and others.

Random Night

I usually don't like going out on Thursdays, but last week with Al's coming out party restored my faith. However, it's hard to reevaluate things after last night.

I felt like going out, so I went with everyone down to Fed Hill to Stalking Horse. However, while walking down the street we passed the 8x10 club, venue that bands I like play at. Well I heard the sound of familiar reggae, and checked it out. Saw that the Georgia band Passafire was playing, and I like them. So I borrowed 2$ from Chaci and paid my 12$ to get in. Without too much details, there was a chance I was going to get kicked out for being in there (involving starting a tab), but I didn't. The band was once again very good despite me only catching like 6 songs. Check them out here: Myspace.com/Passafire

So afterwards, I took out cash and hit up Stalking Horse with everyone. It pretty much sucked. Dancing at the club was nice and cool compared to how hot it was upstairs at the bar. I had a good time with everyone, but it was just too packed. I left with some friends of mine in a car that would feature 9 people, 3 in front and 6 in the back. I was in the back.

I guess it wasn't too random, just happening to see a band I really like seemed random to me. Oh well.

JIM GAFFIGAN TONIGHT!!!

Two Quick Thoughts About the MLB Awards

1) Everyone who is bitching that Jeter only got the Gold Glove is because of his team and the media's obsession with him here is what I have to say...Call the God Damn WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMBULENCE. Jeter is not the defensive liability all the critics make him out to be, and yes, he won because he is a Yankee. You can make the argument that someone like Yuniesky Betancourt, but since they Mariners/Royals are essentially useless franchises defense there really doesn't matter nearly what it does for the Yankees. Ichiro stands out, and he also has the reputation, that's why he gets it every year and why Jeter getting it is understandable.

2) Who the fuck is Chris Coghlan?????


Quick predictions/preferences on the upcoming awards
11/17, AL Cy Young: Greinke/Sabathia
11/18, Managers of the Year: Ron Washington/Girardi, Jim Tracy/Joe Torre
11/19, NL Cy Young: Lincicum/Lincicum
11/23, AL MVP: Joe Mauer/Jeter
11/24, NL MVP: Pujols/Pujols

Ska Is Dead (And so are you)

Last night was the Baltimore show of the Ska Is Dead 4 tour. Ska Is Dead started in (I want to say) 2003 by the band Mustard Plug and they've tried to keep it going every so often ever since. I went to Ska is Dead 3 back in 2005 at the Stone Pony and saw SGR, The Planet Smashers, Mustard Plug and The Toasters. Besides SGR, I never listened to the bands much before then, but they're all some of my favorites now.

Last night was at The Ottobar, my favorite Baltimore location to see shows. I mean, they have PBR on tap. First up was The International Jet Set, a local band who was pretty good. I'd seen them before, but never really paid much attention to them.

Second was Eastern Standard Time from DC. I was going to see them once before, but then Boundbrooke NJ flooded and the Hamilton Street Cafe was no more. I only knew one song, "It's Alright", and it was the one they closed with. Despite that, they were really, really good.

Third was Deal's Gone Bad, another band I knew a couple songs but had never seen. They were also great, and also closed with the only song I recognized, "Messin' Around".

Next was the Voodoo Glow Skulls, who were once again amazing. Finally was the Toasters, who after 28 years are still going strong. It was great, but I was pretty beat and left after about 9 songs.

World Series Recap

The New York Yankees are once again World Champions. 27 championships, 40 pennants, no one comes close. And they won this one in a great way.

The Phillies played great, they just couldn't keep up. Utley was on fire. Ibanez seemed to always get a 2 out double. Lee was great on the mound. But it just wasn't enough.

The Yankee's line up lived up to it's potential, especially considering A-Rod and Teixeira, and Cano really struggled. On top of that, the starting staff was as good as anyone could ask for. Sure Sabathia and Burnett had their shaky starts, but Andrew Eugene Pettitte once again made Yankee history.

Then...Matsui made history himself. While I have nothing with him being the MVP, I personally think it should have gone to Rivera or Jeter. But that performance by Matsui simply cannot just be ignored. I'm really curious about what the future of Matsui (and Damon and Nady) will be with free agency coming up and spots up for grabs.

A-Rod got his ring (Jeter got his 5th!!!), Tex got his ring, Matsui got his ring, CC got his ring, AJ got his ring, Cano got his ring. This was a team that came up big, and won.

Once again, I like the Phillies, and it's a shame I had to root against them. They played better than the series showed, and next year should be interesting. I'd love to see a 50's Yanks-Dodgers rivalry to form with these two teams for years to come.

Some quick awards from the series...

The Hero (not to be confused with the MVP): Derek Jeter. Once again he did everything right and got things going. The young/new guys look to him for guidance, and who better to look for than someone who hit the ball well all year.

The Goat: Pedro Martinez. Ran his mouth and the Yanks ran him out of town.

The win was made possible because of...:Mariano Rivera. Plain and simple, he is the reason the Yankees are who they are.

Good luck finding work next year: Brad Lidge and Brian Bruney.

Peace, Love, and World Series Champions

And hopefully for the last time, here are some good ol mug shots of Rob and Liam...

Yankees

Hideki Matsui

A thrilla from Godzilla. The MVP came up huge once again beating up Pedro.

Mariano Rivera

Vintage Mo. 5 outs, one hit, one save, 5 rings. Hard to believe he'll be 40 soon.

Andy Pettitte

While it wasn't the best start, it was good for his 18th post season win, and good for his 5th ring.

Phillies

Ryan Howard

2 run homer was too little, too late.

Pedro Martinez

The only person who can strike fear into Phillies fans by being in New York and not pitching. Really, this was just fitting

Charlie Manuel

It's called a bullpen, try to use it when your starter has nothing on the ball.

At Romo's Request....

It seems that living with Rob for 2 years isn't enough, and Romo needs his fix of online, close-up pictures of Rob. So I'll give in and give some face time for game 5.

Yankees

Alex Rodriguez

Another good game, hopefully he can keep it up

Derek Jeter/Johnny Damon

Top of the order still getting it done

AJ Burnett

Explination not necessary


Phillies

Chase Utley

Once again, he's really really good, and owning this series

Cliff Lee

Wasn't the best start, but got the job done by holding the Yanks for as long as he did.


Ryan Madson

Really scared everyone imagineable. But still better than Brad Lidge

World Series Games 4 and 5

OK, so Mr. Jack Daniels is posting this quick one. I'll sum up the past 2 games real quick

Lee: Really good, but Phils depended too much on him
Utley: Really fucking good

Rivera: Also really fucking good
Yanks Pen: too shakey to lump together


All in all, I still have faith the Yanks will win but I am nervous.

World Series, Game Three

Even though I watched the whole thing, and seen plenty of coverage about it, I was just simply too drunk last night to discuss the game. It'd just seem wrong.

Nostalgic Halloween

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. I've always been interested by fear and horror in general, and used to love seeing lawn decorations. I started doing them myself in kinder garden. I continued until my senior year of high school. This was the first year I felt that I reached my potential, and I was really proud of them all. Here are the pictures from that year.














Freddy Krueger: I had the mask and glove for some time, but this was the first year that I had the costume sweater and actual to go along.














This was just some ghoul guy. This mask was always good to use.















Mike Myers: I was him one year for Halloween and I just kept the costume and mask for this.















Coffin was new for this year, The mask I've had for a long time. This was a last minute one as I did not know how to get it to work at first.















This mask was one of the bleeding ones and it was actually my neighbor's old costume. The rob was just generic. He was new for this year.
















Scream Stalker: This was also a costume of mine. I used this every year afterwards.
















Jason Voorhees: I had always had a Jason since the first year. I used to have the plastic mask, but eventually upgraded to the better rubber one. This actual costume was also a new addition. Yes, the one year I had Freddy and Jason next to each other.









These are just 3 random figures. On the left, I used that mask one year as my costume and it is a real good one. The middle guy was a mask I had for a long time, there is a reason why he is in the back. The skeleton used to be a full body plastic one, but that broke. The skull on the body is actually not the one from the original set.
















This was my costume in I think second grade. Since its so small it was always difficult to work with, but I found a way more or less.
















This devil mask was also another that was always difficult to work with. I do think this one came out well for once.










This is the operating table of the surgeon (below). I had the table for a couple years, but the surgeon was new. I had the eyes, brain, snakes, and skull for some time. The hands were new.

The Surgeon: As I said, this was new for this year. He was a last minute addition, and really made on impulse. I knew I wanted to do something like this for a while, but never knew how. Usually I just had Freddy or Mike Myers by the table. That year I bought the surgeon accessory kit for the coat, mask and the mirror thing. I got the butcher knife then as well. I figured I'd use just one of the generic masks with the outfit, but then I saw that mask. It is pretty must just a human head looking a little bit crazy. This is why I was so proud of it this year because I think he came in perfectly and really distinguished this from past years.

Not Pictured: An alien on one of the trees, a ghost in another (both former costumes).

Note: I miss doing this more than anything. I fully look forward to doing it again after college.

World Series, Game Two

Game two was one of the best of the post season, despite all the walk-off/come from behind wins. It was close, it was a great pitchers duel (more so than game one in my mind), and both teams played their best.



Some managerial decisions however are worth addressing:

1) I like Hariston over Swisher for one game, Hariston has hit Pedro and did again last night, Swisher is cold, and Hariston provdies better defense.

2) Molina over Posada when Burnett is starting is fine by me.

3) Don't know how i feel about Rivera for 2 innings. It makes sense with the day off and to give the pen a rest, but I'm sorry, that's a little over confidence in Mo to ask for that 2 games in a row.

Now for a dose of Rob Manning and Liam Cronin


AJ Burnett










Couldn't ask for a better start. Exactly what the Yanks needed.

Mariano Rivera

Two nearly perfect innings, great post season Mo.

Mark Teixeira

Breaking out of his slump with a big homer.

Phillies

Raul Ibanez

Couple big hits and an unbelievable play in left to save a run.

Pedro Martinez

Return to the Bronx was actually a really good start. Oh well......

Matt Stairs

Really? Matt Stairs? Whatever works