A Little About the Future

Hey there!  This is Josh from the future.  Actually from the year 2130.  Seriously, no bullshit.  I know what you are thinking, how the hell can you be from the future?  Well scientists figured out time travel a few years back and they also figured out that you can go as far back as you want.  Do not ask too many questions, do I look like a scientist?

I realize your next question is probably "how are you still alive, you are 150 years old???"  Yeah, I am pretty old, but that is not too significant anymore.  Scientists figured out how to extend the lifespan of people, the average person now lives to about 200 years old.  Again, I am no scientist, so do not bother asking how this happened.

Now that we have all that kind of crap out of the way, you probably want to know what has been happening in the world.  Well that is what I am here to tell you.

Politics
Things turned to shit in this country in the 2030s.  The economy sucked, the rest of the world surpassed us, we had serious problems.  It did not help that people were living to over 120 on average, yet the retirement was still 70.  Yeah, no one could figure out what the hell was wrong in the world.

Then the people elected Juan Rodriguez, our first Latino president (hey, in this entire time, we have still not had a woman president, haha, suck it feminists--just kidding).  He had radical ideas, one of them was raising the retirement age to 120.  He also decided to legalize marijuana and then tax the shit out of it.  He then decided to force Mexico to be part of the United States, divided it up into eight states.  Pretty much made the place a giant resort.  The rest of the place was used to cultivate weed (which was basically all they did down there to begin with).

All those fears about drugs ruining the country turned out to be false, people pretty much only smoked dope on special occasions.  Especially when the laws for other drugs became insane.  Caught with a little cocaine?  50 years in prison.  Tested positive for heroin?  Penal colony in Mexico.  People began studying and focusing more on becoming intelligent.  This became our greatest export:  knowledge.  Medical, computer, technological, whatever advancement you can think of pretty much happened here.

Technology
Speaking of tech, you are undoubtedly wondering what the world is like in the future.  It took me about ten minutes to remember how to type.  We do everything with our minds now.  So much easier.  I do have some bad news though, still no flying cars.  No land-speeders, none of that cool shit.  Cars are cool now and they use an alternative fuel source.  I cannot mention what though, it would blow your mind, I will give you a hint:  you put it in your coffee.

Sports
I do not want to spoil anything, but the Pirates eventually win the World Series.  I am not even kidding.  I will not say what year, but when they do win it, cherish the hell out of it.  You will not see another one.  Depressing, I know. 

The Steelers win a bunch of Super Bowls.  After Ben retires, they draft a QB who is 6'7, 280, runs a 4.1 40 and can throw the ball 90 yards (some people believe he may be the first genetically engineered athlete, we fans say stop being jealous).  The Pens also win a bunch of Stanley Cups, so you will always have those two to make you happy.

The Yankees sign the first player to a $1,000,000,000 contract.  He is a short-stop from Ireland and ends up breaking the HR record.  He hits over 900.  They win a shit ton of World Series with him, most consider it a good investment.

People in America still do not give a shit about soccer.

Random Stuff
-George R.R. Martin finally finishes A Song of Ice and Fire in 2056.  You were right, Jon is Rhaegar's son.  He and Daenarys rule the entire world.  Hope that does not ruin it for ya.

-Movie franchises start combining and become absolutely ridiculous, such as Fast and the Furious 21:  The Rise of the Raging Transformers.  Or Saw 87:  Jigsaw vs. James Bond. 

Oh and the most important thing is about your own future Josh:  You will end up
OH SHIT!  HERE COMES THE TIME-COP, I NEED TO RUN FOR IT!

Fantasy Baseball Week Twelve

Well, Gideon and I had a pretty good battle.  We tied 6-6.  That did not help me gain any ground in the standings.  I also continue to lose the same categories every week:  HRs, AVE, OBP, ERA, WHIP.  I need to make a trade to change that, I need someone elite.  I have the pitching if anyone wants it.

My most dominant player was Verlander again, but since I posted a picture of him last week and I do not like to double post pictures.  Sabathia was pretty good as well, getting a win, 9 Ks, and a 1.13 ERA.  My big hitter was, wait for it...Erick Aybar.  He hit a HR with 6 Runs scored, 3 RBIs, 1 SB, .391/.417.  Not bad for a light hitting shortstop. 

Next week, I plan on taking a look at how my season totals are doing in comparison to my actual head-to-head stats.

The Return of True Blood

Tonight was the premiere of True Blood, but before I get into that, I want to point out how I am an idiot.  Last week I wrote about the season finale of Treme.  Well it was not really the finale...I am shocked that no one pointed that out to me (probably because only two people I know watch it).  Anyways...

The new season of True Blood started out with Sookie in the land of fairy.  Turns out her grandfather was there for the last twenty years.  Also, the fairies are not good guys.  They are harvesting humans and all that pretty stuff was just an illusion.  Everyone should know that if they ever read Sandman.  Yeah, the story was pretty lame, as were the special effects. 

Sookie then comes back to our world, her grandpa dies and she heads home only to find workers there remodeling.  Turns out she has been gone for more than a year and everyone thought she was dead.  Jason sold her home.  Oops.  Here are the things that have happened:

-Jason is a cop now and he seems to be good at it.  Andy is a V addict.  Jason ends up being locked in a deep freezer by someone in that meth town.  Turns out Crystal left.

-Sam has anger problems.  His brother is a Jesus freak and lives with Hoyt's mom.  Sam gets drunk with some shape-shifters now and probably has orgies.  Weird.

-Bill is now the King of Louisianna.  Are they ever going to explain how that shit works?  If he is the king, why doesn't Eric just kill him and take over?  Does being the king give you super powers?

-Eric is the one who bought Sookie's house and he gives it back to her and then says he owns her.  It was pretty obvious that he was the one who bought it, but I have no clue where this thing is going.

-The fight between Jessica and Hoyt was so lame.  Probably the worst acting I have seen on this show and that is saying something.  At least Pam was funny when they were at Fangtasia.

-So, Tara is a lesbian named Toni now?  She and her girlfriend are cage-fighters?  This was probably the first time there was a girl-on-girl scene on TV that I had absolutely no interest in.

-Lafayette and Jesus...um whatever, this storyline already sucks a major cock.

-Am I forgetting anything?  Probably not, the show was pretty dumb.  I will keep watching though.  At least there will be plenty of boobs.

Beating the Red Sox and Being There to See It

I think most of you know that I hate the Red Sox.  My hatred started years ago, the exact moment was probably during the whole A-Rod trade stuff.  The Sox acted like it was so unfair that the Yankees traded for A-Rod.  They cried up and down about how the Yankees were creating a monopoly and all sorts of other bullshit.  They failed to mention that they were in the running for A-Rod, they were going to send Manny to Texas.

From that moment on, I started to really dislike Red Sox fans and it only got worse.  Anyways, the Pirates played them this weekend and there was a lot of talk about this being the most attended series in history.  I contacted my place of work to see if they had tickets and sure enough they sent me four tickets in section 120.  I decided to see if my mom and step-dad wanted to go to the game.  They said hell yeah.

She looks so cute...

Unfortunately, it was a pain in the ass to find a hotel room.  Everything in the city was booked (there were two conventions and the game), but I lucked out by finding two single rooms up near the airport.  We took a cab to the game (it cost $32) and decided to go to the casino to kill some time.

Me and Harmon (my step-dad) played three card poker, which I tried playing before on the cruise, but did not really enjoy it.  I figured I would play a few hands, if I did not like it, I would go to the blackjack table.  I lost my first $60 after a bunch of hands of getting crap.  I put another $60 in and figured if I lost this, I would go to the ATM and get money for the game and call it quits.

I think this is Youkilis swinging and missing.

I hit a straight, which put me up a good amount, but still not back to even.  It was funny because I was down to my last $20 and Harmon had to spot me the $10 so I could bet on the straight.  I then went on a pretty decent hot streak and I had a nice chip stack going.  Unfortunately, like most streaks, it came to an end and I started going back down, I was down to about $80 when I hit a straight flush, which paid me almost $400.  Lindsey and mom came over to see how we were doing, they did not believe that I just hit a straight flush, until the dealer started counting out my chips.

Lindsey then took $200 of the money and cashed it in.  I played for a little bit longer and ended up cashing out with $235.  We went to dinner at the buffet upstairs and I was a good son and paid for the meal.  We then headed over to the game.

Damn, the place was packed!  It took forever to get a beer and get to our seats.  Our seats were pretty great and there were only a few Red Sox fans in our section.  During the third inning, Lindsey and I went up to meet Offord and his future wife.  On the way back to our seats we stopped for another drink and that was when Overbay hit the three-run homer.  Damn!  I missed it.

The game was pretty intense.  Every moment seemed like the Red Sox could just score a ton of runs.  But then, the Pirates would get the guys out that needed out.  It is hard to imagine Jeff Karstens dominating that lineup, but somehow he did it.  As soon as Gonzalez hit his homer, I said to Harmon that they needed to pull Karstens.  Hurdle allowed him to stay in to give up another one and bring the game to 5-4.  Luckily the Buccos got another run and they went into the 9th inning with a two-run lead.

Hanrahan warming up...

It was great to be there for Hanrahan's entrance.  You see it on TV or watch it on YouTube and it is cool, but at the game it is one million times cooler.  Did everyone else almost have a heart-attack during that inning?  I thought Xavier Paul caught that ball, I was cheering like an idiot (like everyone else).  I seriously thought Gonzalez was going to catch up to one of those fastballs.  The entire place was on it's feet.  This was a game in June and the place was that crazy.  Can you imagine how crazy that city will be if the Buccos make the post-season? 

After the game we went to Mullen's and drank a few beers outside on the corner and then took a taxi back to the hotel.  Once there, Lindsey and I went to the bar and started bullshitting with a couple of Red Sox fans.  They were actually very nice.  The one guy kept saying how great of a city Pittsburgh is and how this is the most beautiful ballpark he had ever seen.

We had a great time and we could not have asked for a better game to be at.  I cannot wait to go back down for another one.

Weird GOTW

Tomorrow we are going to the Pirates/Red Sox game.  In my weird twisted way, I wanted to honor this by making Daisuke Matsuzaka's wife as my GOTW.  For some reason I thought she was really hot and had huge boobs.  I was wrong, she is a journalist in Japan and she is attractive, but not what I was thinking.  Instead, I found a picture of Yoko Matsugane.  I have no clue what she does and I am too lazy to check into it.  Instead I will put a bunch of pictures up of her.  Enjoy!

Fantasy Baseball Week Eleven

I won another week!  7-5 over ShellieShellyShelleyMichelleJason'sGirlfriend Jason's Female Companion (I do not want to say girlfriend because that might be some kind of anti-feminist jargon).  Anyways, the impressive thing to me is that during my preview of the season, I had her team as dominating pitching stats, but I pretty much dominated her.  She beat me in K's and WHIP (her WHIP was .97, hard to beat that, mine was 1.05).  I racked up 8 wins and 4 saves with a 2.77 ERA, very nice!

Hitting was not a strong suit for me.  They hit .235/.285 with four HRs.  Ugh.  I did manage to win RBIs and SBs.  I had some terrible hitting from some guys, especially Stubbs, Brantley, and Stanton.  I did get Ryan Zimmerman back, so that was a positive.  My big hitter was Ryan Braun.

The player I want to focus on though was Justin Verlander.  He was absolutely dominant:  2 Wins, 17 Ks, .50 ERA, .39 WHIP.  He almost threw a no-hitter.  That trade definitely worked out for me.

I am still in 10th place and I need to win a few more weeks by more than two.  Hopefully things can continue to go my way for a bit.  I take on Gideon this week.  I hope I can win.

Season Finales

Last night was the season finale for a few of the better shows on television.  Two were great, one was not so great.  I will start with the one that was not so great.  There are spoilers throughout.

The Killing

Who knew Detective Linden was a hottie?

The first season of the show was pretty good, there were a few things that bothered me, especially how convenient the character twists would happen.  Oh, all the evidence points to Bennett, oh wait, no it does not.  Aside from that, the buildup and story were very good.

The last five minutes of the episode ruined the season.  Linden and Holder realize that Richmond is the killer.  They put together the pieces and finally obtain the last piece of evidence:  a photo from a toll booth showing Richmond in the car at the hour when he was supposed to be with Gwen (she then admits to Linden that Richmond left that night and came back soaking wet).

The show ends with Linden on a plane with her son and she gets a call from the toll booth company saying that their cameras have been down all summer.  We then see Holder get into a car and say that everyone bought the photo.

Belko approaches Richmond as they are taking him away and pulls a gun to kill him.  The show could have easily ended with Richmond being the killer, but no, they had to throw a wrench into it.  Now we see that Holder may be a bad guy, Linden knows something is wrong, so she will want to go back.  Now there is reasonable doubt about whether Richmond killed Rosie and there will be a whole second season of this crap?  Ugh.

Treme
Another very sad ending to this show.  All sorts of stuff happened in the episode, but I want to focus on the last five minutes.  Harley and Annie (Harley is played by the cool Steve Earle) are walking to Davis' gig (Harley being a gentleman turns down his Irish friend's offer of a pint to instead escort Annie across town).

Two guys come up to them and rob them of their instruments and Harley makes the comment that "you are making a big mistake son."  They one guy gets pissed and says he is not Harley's son and shoots him in the face.

It is a horrible moment because Harley has been Annie's mentor all season.  He is the one who informed her that her first song was actually a Bob Dylan song, he forces her to play her original song out in public.

His death also shows the major theme of this season:  random violence of the city and how it is affecting New Orleans.  This season characters dealt with rape, multiple shootings, drugs, and corruption.  We learn that the police are just as bad as the criminals in some cases.  These things are such normal occurrences that when one of Baptiste's friends dies in a shooting, he does not even get emotional, just a little upset.

Game of Thrones

BABY DRAGONS!  So, cute.  I definitely want a baby dragon for a pet.  Sorry for that moment of girlishness.  Aside from the ending scene where we see the dragons, what else happened:

-KING OF THE NORTH!  The Greatjon declares Robb as his king and the rest of the northmen agree.  Oh, Theon bows as well.  He is a dickbag though.

-Jon's friends chase him down and force him to come back by repeating their oath.  Lord Mormont informs Jon that they are going outside the wall.  He wants to face these problems head on instead of waiting meekly behind the Wall. 

-Arya becomes a boy and meets up with Robert's bastard son.  She also glimpses the man that will help set her course towards a new land.

-Tyrion is to go to King's Landing and bring Joffrey and Cersei under control.  Which will be tough, since we are starting to see that Joffrey is a monster.  He forces a singer to repeat a dirty song he made.  He then has the man's tongue cut out.  Oh and then he forces Sansa to look at the heads on spikes, one is her father and another her Septa.  She makes a comment that he does not like after he says that he will give her a gift of Robb's head, she says: "maybe he will give me yours."  Joffrey has Ser Meryn Trant slap her.  She then thinks about pushing Joffrey, but the Hound steps in and gives her a towel to wipe the blood.  This is the beginning of him being nice to her.

-Bran has Osha take him into his family crypt because of a dream.  There they are scared by Shaggy Dog and Rickon, who is down there because he too had a dream of their father in the crypt. 

-The preview for the second season was pretty cool as we see the dangerous green wildfire that Tyrion will use to defend King's Landing.



-Who will play Stannis?  I love that Renly looks like a soft version of Robert.  Also, who will play the Onion Knight?  Will the second season start with a red comet streaking through the sky?  I thought this season would end with the dragons being born and us being able to see the comet start.  I guess I was wrong.

Seriously, season two cannot get here fast enough.

Blake Lively is a Hot GOTW

This week's GOTW is Blake Lively, hence the title of the post.  I have never really seen movies with her (minus The Town) or the stupid show she stars in, but I plan on going to see Green Lantern and she is in it and as usual, she is extremely hot.

Pirates Above .500

The Pirates are above .500 and this is the latest they have been above that mark since 1999.  Remember, there last winning season was 1992.  There are people out there who have never seen the Buccos as anything other than a shitty baseball team.  I am one of those fortunate folks who remember them being great and to see them winning even though they have no offense makes me extremely happy.  So here is a cool video that the many Pirate fans via Twitter have posted multiple times.

I Should Have Made Some Money

When I was a kid, I was attacked by a dog (actually this happened twice) and never once did me or my family ever think to sue the bastards who owned those horrible beasts.  Where the hell was Edgar Snyder back then with his creepy dog commercials?  Yo, Eddie can I still sue them?  I have developed a fear of dogs because of the attacks.

The first dog was a chow and it happened when I was about five or six.  We were at my pap's house helping take apart his swimming pool.  The dog came up to me and I went to pet it.  The damn thing took a bite out of my hip.  Yeah, pretty scary for a small child.

The second attack happened when I was in fifth grade.  Adam and I walked up to our neighbors house to catch the bus.  We were told by some of the other kids that Mary Ann's dog was loose (I thought Mary Ann was the girl who lived up the street and had a tiny dog, instead it was the other people we never really saw who had a mean old mutt that was abused often).

This evil beast had the one neighbor kid cornered so I tried to help by luring it away.  I ran as fast as I could, which allowed the kid to escape, but during my run through the one yard, I slipped on the wet grass and the dog got on top of me.  It started biting my legs and was working it's way up to my more private areas.  Luckily the mother of the kid I saved ran out and kicked the dog in the ribs as hard as she could.  It ran away.  I hopped on the bus after that and my mom came to the school to take me to the hospital.

So now you can see why I hate dogs and why Edgar Snyder should help me sue those bastards for creating this fear.

Hoveround!

This old guy cracks me up.  He is so damn excited, "HOVEROUND!"

Baelor (Spoilers for the Episode)

The thing I worried about most with Game of Thrones was the changes they might possibly make from the book.  When I heard they signed Sean Bean to play Eddard Stark, this compounded my fear.  I mean, there was no way they would kill off their big star during the first season of a show, right? 

Well I was wrong.  So far they have been very faithful and they decided to prove that by having Joffrey announce that Ned should die for being a traitor.  As the sword cut his head off, I felt my heart jump because I realized this was the beginning of some very bad things for the Starks.

Another great moment was the capturing of Jaime Lannister and his challenge to Robb that they should end the war now and fight a duel.  I loved that Rob admits Jaime would beat him, so no, they will not do that.  I also enjoyed how Robb realized the horrors and stupidity of war after sacrificing 2000 of his own men.

As usual, Tyrion stole the show.  He tells the story of his first wife and how his father allowed his guards to have sex with her after he informed Tyrion that she was a whore.  Bronn then says he would have killed the man who did that to him.  Hmmm, foreshadowing.    Then he leads his new tribe into battle, well he starts, but he gets knocked out and then trampled.  He wakes up to find out that the attack was a ruse. 

Fantasy Baseball Week Ten

Holy shit!  I finally won, the first time since week five.  Granted, I only won 7-5, but a win is a win.  I beat Jason/Nick's team.  I realize this does not mean my team is ready to start knocking down the door for first place, but it just feels good.

My hitting was good, 46 Runs, 14 HRs, 45 RBIs, 5 SB.  My AVG/OBP were low though, .263/.348.  I had some very good players this week:  Ryan Braun, Michael Brantley, Drew Stubbs, and the amazing David Ortiz (8 Runs, 4 HRs, 13 RBIs, .320/.414).  This week though, the honor goes out to Mike Moustakas, the newly promoted Kansas City Royal 3B, who also hit his first HR this week.  Oh, and i picked him up.

My pitching was decent, I took wins, saves, and WHIP.  I should have taken ERA, but my weekend was kind of scary.  Drew Storen and Justin Verlander were my pitching studs (okay, Jon Lester was pretty good too).  Storen had 4 saves and a 0.00 ERA/.80 WHIP.  Verlander had 1 Win, 10 Ks, 1.13/.75.

I need two good weeks and I could make my way back to .500.  It is a slow process, but I know this team is good enough to do it.  The bastards just need to get their heads out of their asses.

Josh Harrison's Minor League Song

This was the song Josh Harrison used in the minors.  Apparently his brother recorded it for him.  It was pretty cool to hear when he was at Altoona.  Does he still use this for the Pirates?

After the Darkness

This is something new I plan on doing every so often.  I will take a movie and write about where they are nowadays.  No, not the actual actors, but the characters.  My blog, my idiotic ideas.

The Ghost and the Darkness
This is one of those movies I had not watched in years, I used to own it on VHS, but it never survived the conversion to DVD.  It was on HBO the other night and I had forgotten how good it was.  Let us take a look at what the survivors did after their battle with lions.

Colonel John Patterson
The man who killed the lion that ate his friend.  He finished construction of the bridge and moved back to England.  He ended up having three kids and he took them all over the world on hunting trips.


You may wonder where he got the money he would need to become a world famous hunter.  Well, in 1901 he opened a delicatessen in London, after a few years he had them all over England and even expanded into the United States.  Patterson and Sons Deli.  Even though when he opened it, he only had one infant son, he figured the name sounded like it was more established.


The unfortunate side of owning a deli, is eating all the meat.  John eventually became very fat and died of a heart attack.  His sons later sold the family business.

Robert Beaumont
The jerk who sends Patterson there with the mission to build the bridge.  Beaumont only had one goal:  to be knighted.  Well he never actually achieved that goal.  In fact, he was later murdered in his sleep by his new foreman.

His name was forgotten very quickly.  Men like him need to remember that being assholes does not get you very far.  It usually gets you a nice knife in the back.

Samuel
After the bridge was completed, this man was sent by the British Empire all over the continent of Africa helping complete projects.  He became known as a great man of peace and of always being able to get the job done.

He later retired and became a huge speaker on Africa becoming a unified nation.  Even though he liked his job with the British, he wanted to see his countrymen united and controlling their own destiny.  He looked at the United States as a great example of how powerful a land can become when their people are one.

He never liked any of his wives, even though he took two more.  He died at the age of 94. 

Abdullah
The shifty Arab worker who blamed Patterson for the lions.  He later moved back to Jordan and helped lead a revolt against the British government there.  He helped expel the British troops and he set himself up as the King of Jordan.

He ruled for 22 years before a coup d'etat ousted him from government.  Oddly enough, he was replaced by another Abdullah, whose family still rules the country to this day.

WOT GOTW

Since I finished reading the fourth book in the Wheel of Time and starting the fifth book, I have realized that one of my favorite moments of this entire series has been Perrin and Faile's relationship.  Hell, would you people be shocked if I said that it brought a tear to my eyes when they got married?  So for this week's GOTW, I decided that Zarine "Faile" ni Bashere t'Aybara should be honored.

Fantasy Baseball Week Nine and My Thoughts on Gerrit Cole

I hate fantasy baseball!  Okay, that is not true, but I hate when my team plays better, but still loses badly.  I lost 8-3, but the worst part about that is on Sunday it was 7-5 and I was very close to tying or overtaking in a bunch of categories.  Sadly, my team played crappy on Sunday.  I was winning ERA, and then Drew Storen decided to give up three runs in a 1/3 of an inning.  That did not help my team, nor did Jon Rauch or Wade Davis, bunch of jerks.

Also, I noticed something all week:  Drew Stubbs is very good at starting a game with this line:  1/1, 2 Runs, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 SB and then he will go hitless the rest of the game.  That irritates me.  I can only give credit to one of my players:  David Ortiz.  Everyone else was either a .300 hitter or a .190 hitter, but Ortiz (Hosmer hit .400) hit .545 with 2 HR, 5 Runs, 6 RBIs, and a .583 OBP.  NICE!

In the other league, Offord and I continue to battle for last place.  My team has been plagued by injuries.  I keep offering some of my pitching to guys for some hitting, but no one will respond to a trade.  Actually, that is one of the many things I dislike about this league.  Trades take way too long to process (and the only way people will trade is if it is staggeringly in their favor).  The commissioner says it is three days, but Ryan and I have traded twice and it feels like about a week to process.  It took so long on our last one that one of my players went on the DL, which caused the trade to be canceled.  We did the trade over minus some players and it ended up being over two weeks.  One of those guys I was getting rid of was Adam Dunn, in that time he hit .125 with one HR.  I could have done without that shit.  I honestly doubt I will play in the league next year, which people will think that I am just upset about not doing well, but that is not it.

Gerrit Cole

The Pirates drafted Gerrit Cole from UCLA with first overall pick of the draft.  I know many people wanted Anthony Rendon, but after watching how he dropped, I am guessing teams were weary of his injury problems.

After watching video of Cole pitch for Team USA, I am very happy with this pick.  He apparently used a different delivery and his fastball had some nasty movement.  I am sure the Pirates will work with him to throw more that way (more like Charlie Morton).  I love the idea of having more power pitchers in the system.  We now have Tallion, Allie, Heredia, and Cole (as long as he signs) to work with.  It makes sense to go with the power arm, if something happens to one of the others, you still have someone to work with. 

Also, read Kristy Robinson's article about his chat with media.

Game of Thrones Awesomeness

The last three episodes have been pretty damn good.  Let me see what highlights I can give:

-Viserys finally got his crown.  It was awesome in the book, but it was better looking on the screen.  Khal Drogo pours the molten gold over Viserys head, which kills him almost instantly.  The best part was Daenerys reaction:  that he was not a true dragon, since fire cannot harm a dragon.

-Ned realizes that Joffrey is not Robert's child.  All from something Sansa says.  She is a pretty unlikeable character, but the path her life goes makes you feel so bad for her.  So for those watching, do not fret, things do not go well for her.

-The moment that Ned confronts Cersei about her children, is the moment that my heart started racing.  By the end of that episode, I felt like I was about to have a heart attack.  I knew what was going to happen, yet I just could not bear it.  I mean, the way Littlefinger betrays Ned and Joffrey becomes the new king.  Such a great few moments. 

-Khal Drogo's anger over the attempted assassination of Daenerys was just awesome.  Him screaming what he will do to the Seven Kingdoms was sweet.  He was pretty damn scary.

-When Cersei tears up the letter from Robert, in front of Barristan Selmy, it was gut wrenching.  That was the moment you know that things are going to suck for Ned.

-Speaking of Barristan, how great was the scene of him being relieved of his duty?  I loved how angry he was and how you could see the other members of the Kingsguard almost shit themselves when he draws his sword. 

-I completely forgot about Shagga and his great threat "I will cut off the halfman's manhood and feed it to a goat."  I love that guy.

-Robb Stark leading his men into battle and watching the Greatjon lose some fingers to the direwolf.  I loved his strategy of allowing the Lannister scout to return to Tywin (Charles Dance is amazing as the Lannister lord) and tell him that "winter is coming."  If I remember correctly, Robb then goes to Riverrun to attack Jaime, completely fooling Tywin.  Bold move.

-The best part of the episode comes when Syrio protects Arya with a wooden sword against the Lannister men coming to capture her.  He beats down those soldiers pretty easily and we never see the outcome of him versus Ser Meryn Trant.  I am guessing Trant one, it sounds that way, yet I always got the suspicion that we would meet Syrio later at some point.  I could be wrong though.  Also, I loved how Arya kept saying "not today", from Syrio's speech about there is only one god, and that god is death, and you only say one thing to death:  not today.

-Littlefinger's lesson of sex to his two whores was about as close as you can get to porn without actually being porn.  Not that I am complaining.  Was there some anal involved there?

X-Men: First Class

Lindsey and I went to see X-Men:  First Class on Friday, and it was pretty good.  Before I get into the movie, allow me to say about the theater.  Remember when I went to see Thor?  That place in Indiana was a real dump, but the new place in State College was just the opposite.  They had huge leather seats, the screens were very large, and the sound system was fantastic.  You suck Indiana!

Anyways, back to the movie.  It is set in the 1960s, Erik Lensherr is trying to find the man who killed his mother (Sebastian Shaw, played by Kevin Bacon).  He is like James Bond or Eric Bana in Munich.  He travels to Argentina and kills some former Nazis (he mixes his magnetic control with some pretty tough fighting skills).

Meanwhile, Charles Xavier and his good friend Raven are celebrating Charles receiving his doctorate.  He is pretty much a jerk trying to get into the ladies pants.  Moira MacTaggert enlists his help in tracking down the Hellfire Club.  She works for the CIA and has seen mutants in action.  He then informs the CIA of his abilities.

He then meets Erik and they become friends.  They enlist the help of a bunch of young mutants and set out to stop Shaw and the Hellfire Club.  One of my favorite scenes was the way they trained together.  Especially Charles and Erik together.  How funny is it that Charles is the one who helped Erik unlock his full potential.

There were a few little inconsistencies from the first movie.  Professor X tells Wolverine that Magneto has his helmet because he and Erik built Cerebro together, but in this one, Beast is the one who built Cerebro, and the Russians designed the helmet for Shaw.  How come Magneto never had more of those helmets made so that his followers could defend themselves against Professor X?

Also, we see the development of Mystique.  She starts out as Charles friend, but he does not think she should reveal her real appearance to people (Beast feels the same about how they should look normal).  Magneto constantly tells her that she is beautiful.  It was also cool seeing her shift into Rebecca Romijn.

Speaking of cool cameos, when Erik and Charles go on their mutant finding quest, they walk into a bar and start their proposition to Logan (Hugh Jackman), who tells them to "go fuck yourselves."  I was pretty shocked they allowed that kind of language.

Also, how does Moira go from a CIA agent, to someone who runs a hospital or something.  Remember in the post-credit scene after the third one?  Professor X takes that guys body over that Moira is taking care of, that hardly seems like CIA work to me.

I also loved how Shaw was someone who could challenge Magneto's power.  Although, how would a coin through his head kill him?  Or did Xavier have his powers shut off while he was in his head?  Seemed a bit weird to me.

I thought January Jones was extremely hot as Emma Frost, but umm, does this movie fit with the Wolverine movie?  Emma Frost was a young girl in that film and still being held by Stryker, at the end of this film, Magneto frees her from Stryker's grasp...

I want to say that Michael Fassbender was amazing as Magneto.  I can see why so many mutants would want to follow his cause.  He came off as determined and unwavering in his belief.  Charles (I thought James McAvoy was really good too) came off as arrogant and a little bit afraid of the mutants who look different.  He does not embrace mutantism (I am making that word up) 100% yet.  I am sure with him being paralyzed he will lose some of that ego.

The movie was really good and I am excited about the idea of a sequel.

Comic Book Movie Grade:  B+/A-

Girlfriend of the Week

This weekend is the premiere of X-Men:  First Class, which reminds me that Jennifer Lawrence is pretty damn hot.  She deserves to be GOTW.  Check her out.

The Shadow Rising

The book I read while on the beach was The Shadow Rising, the fourth book of The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.  The book started off pretty slow, mostly with Rand handing out in Tear, making some kingly decisions and every once in awhile fighting with evil things sent to attack him.

Then the group splits up and things start to get crazy.  Rand and Mat head to the Aiel Waste (Egwene and Moraine come along as well).  Perrin heads back to the Two Rivers and becomes a leader against Trolloc raids.  Elayne and Nynaeve head to Tarabon and seek out the Black Ajah.  Once all the characters split, it was hard to put the book down.  I am just going to mention some of my favorite parts with each character.

Mat
-I love that he wants to go back to the fox people (or the snake people) and teach them a lesson.  I also enjoy that he must be descended from maybe the Manatheran king or something.  He might be my new favorite character.

Rand
-I love how he no longer seems unsure of himself.  He knew all along that one of the Foresaken would be in the Waste.  He does not fear Moraine any longer, plus he just likes to infuriate her with his vague answers (like she did with he and the others in the beginning).

-It seems that I was wrong so far about Elayne.  Rand seems to be leaning pretty heavily that way (although, the Aiel girl seems to be catching his eye as well).

Perrin
-I am totally going to sound like a girl right now, but it was such a sweet moment when he and Faile got married.  I love that they fought so much, but then when she heard his family was murdered, none of that mattered.

-I wonder what Elayne's mom (under the influence of a Foresaken) will do when she finds out that Perrin is being called a lord and they are flying the old Manatheran banner down in the Two Rivers?  I bet she will not be happy.

Interesting Revelations
-It seems that pretty much everyone has some women that can channel.  The Sea People, Seanchan, Aiel, and who knows who else.

-I love the idea that the Tinkers are actually the original Aiel.  The Aiel used to serve the Aes Sedai (back before the Breaking and the world was much more advanced, sounds like they had flying cars) and the Aiel were extremely non-violent.  When Rand was reliving his past, it was interesting to see how they continued to split at times.

-Will it turn out that Thom is Elayne's father?  That would be interesting, although a bit too convenient.

-I wonder if Mat and Perrin will meet up together at this weird tower that was mentioned.  It was mentioned that they are connected and the way to defeat them might be in the old Snake and Foxes game.  Mat and Perrin together could probably outsmart them since they are such opposites.

-I love that the Aes Sedai ended up stilling Siuan and Leane and that they are now working with Min and Logaine.  That is probably why Min saw a halo (or crown) around his head.

-I think that when this series ends, Rand will still be alive and he will usher in a golden age.  He will find a way to get rid of the Dark One and remove the taint that drives men who can channel mad.  Or he will die a hero.  I know, a bold prediction.

DC Comics Reboot

For years I have been saying that DC Comics should just scrap everything and start over.  After all the stupid Crisis books (minus Identity Crisis, I liked that one),  major events like Zero Hour or Final Night, and then whatever the hell Grant Morrison did with Final Crisis and Batman RIP; it just seemed like things were getting a bit stupid.

DC has announced that will reboot the system and all issues will start back at #1.  They keep saying that this is not some gimmick or another quick event.  This is permanent.  Characters will be lost, some will be gained.  HOW CRAZY! 

If they are telling the truth and the comics just start over and they come up with new stories, or updated origins for characters, then I am okay with it.  For awhile I thought they might at least try something like the Ultimate Marvel books.  I liked the Ultimate line when it came out.

Something tells me that DC will stick with this for awhile and when they realize that sales did not go up by 20% (or that sales went up for a bit, but then dropped back down), they will panic and let us all know that this is some kind other part of the multiverse.  Then they will go back to renumbering the books the way the way they were.  Hell, I can see them doing that when Action Comics gets close to #1000.

The real question:  will this reboot mean the Goddamn Batman will be the only Batman?

Fantasy Baseball Weeks Seven and Eight

My team blows.  Well, I do not really think that, they are pretty good, but they just do not play well together.  Bunch of freakin' dickbags.  I am not going to give a huge recap about my weeks, but I will say that I cannot believe I lost 9-2 to Pat back in week seven.  If I remember correctly, the score was either tied or 6-5 (Pat) going into Sunday and then his team decided to be amazing.  Ugh.

I tied Dan 5-5 for week eight.  I do not think he even pays attention.  He has a guy on the DL starting, he never moved his pitchers around.  Ugh.  My pitching was atrocious.  Actually it has been pretty bad the last two weeks.

The only pitcher that I think was any good for me was Charlie Morton.  He had a win and a great ERA/WHIP.  My big hitter was Ryan Braun (Mike Stanton was huge in week seven).  Anyways, I am getting frustrated.

Picture via WHYGAVS.