Sunrise on the Sufferbus

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Breaking Bad
2008-01-23 03:16:00
Lost somewhere in the post-Packer's loss haze of late Sunday night was a fantastic new program airing on AMC. AMC, has begun taking the MTV station trasnfmormation, wherein a station begins to alter its programming so drastically that in short order it begins to hardly resemble its old self at all. This was of course a huge problem with MTV and has led to the creation of one of American culture's most destructive and numbing shapers of young minds. However, if Breaking Bad is any indication, AMC is not likely to trip over the same pratfalls MTV (and MTV2) has.The show stars Malcolm in the Middle dad Bryan Cranston as Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher, part time car wash attendant living with his wife and their teenage handicapped son. Walt is struggling enough to make mends meet as is and the White's have another child on the way. And the final straw? Walt is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.These extenuating circumstances force something in Walt to give and ...
More About: Breaking Bad

Fucking gay ass Giants
2008-01-21 04:16:00
What the fuck??? Seriously, come on, the Giants ? It appears I must have accidentally tripped over something and fallen into an alternate dimension where the New York Giants don't always end up screwing themselves over and sucking and being the perfect definition of an average, so-so football team.I was right about the Patriots but the Packers sure let me down. They couldn't get a running game going, Favre threw too many errant passes, and Plaxico Burress made Al Harris his own personal bitch. Well, I'm totally nowhere near as hyped for the Super Bowl as I would have been.And I suppose I look like somewhat of a douche bag now. Only half though, I'll take the bag part.
More About: Fucking

Reign Over Me and Once
2008-01-21 00:18:00
I went into Video King the other day to rent Shoot 'Em Up and Rescue Dawn and I was somewhat surprised when I discovered a striking similarity. The box art and posters for Reign Over Me and Once are eerily similar in my opinion. I guess the only similarity is that it's the two main characters walking down a city street with nearly identically aligned text. I know the film industry is basically founded on the idea that imitation is the highest form of flattery and that nothing is really original anymore so this isn't really a big deal. Just struck me as odd.Or is this a long running style of movie posters that I have somehow remained entirely oblivious to in nearly two decades on Earth?

Super Bowl XLII
2008-01-20 01:52:00
This blog post is simply stating that I am going on record as predicting the New England Patriots over the Green Bay Packers in a close game, highlighted by a classic shootout between Brett Favre and Tom Brady. This will provide Brett Favre and his young teammates the necessary motivation to return to the Super Bowl next year and come away victoriously allowing Brett to retire on top. This will cap off the Patriots record shattering perfect season in the grandest of fashions.I predicted the Patriots would win the Super Bowl this year the second I first caught wind of the Randy Moss draft day trade and never looked back. I didn't choose the Packers as my NFC representative until week 8 or 9 and even then had my doubts about if they could beat the Cowboys but that doubt was settled after the two teams met and the Packers were able to keep the game close despite cornerback Charles Woodson and defensive end Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila sitting the game out injured as well as Brett Favre bei...

Cloverfield
2008-01-19 17:01:00
This one I really don't want to give much away. I made a point of not even looking at where Cloverfield stood on the Tomatometer before I went to see it. I wanted to know as little as possible. Which is interesting considering how madly I searched to find out what the hell that trailer was that played before Transformers last July.I had my doubts heading into Cloverfield like most people will. "It's just another crappy monster movie," "the shaky camera is going to ruin the movie like The Bourne Ultimatum," "the monster is going to be gay." Well, I was not disappointed. And I know a lot of criticism has been levied against the film's viral marketing campaign but I have managed to avoid over exposure to it somehow and I'm guessing most people haven't been too bothered by it either.The biggest reason I went to see Cloverfield was simply to find out what the monster looks like. Despite someone in the theater during my showing lamenting "I didn't pay $7 for this crap," if yo...

2007 in movies
2008-01-09 11:02:00
2007 was a fantastic year of cinema. I can't remember a single year in which there were anywhere near as many movies I wanted to see. And while some of them were collossal dissappointments (Spider-Man 3 anyone?) the year was overall a tremendous one for film quality. After struggling for countless hours over the way to order this list I finally decided to put it in the order from the movie I liked the most to the movie I liked the 20th most. And finally, I decided to include the first ever Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy award for worst movie at the end. Regrettably, as of this post I have yet to see several movies from last year I really missed out on, namely 3:10 to Yuma, Lars and the Real Girl, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Dan in Real Life, Atonement, In the Valley of Elah and There Will Be Blood. I also have had just about no exposure to small independent films and foreign releases and this will likely continue well into 2008 sadly. No Cou...
More About: Movies

Daily Show and Colbert Report return!
2008-01-08 09:15:00
Last night in spite of the continued WGA Strike, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report returned to the air. While it was just a little obvious the shows were missing their writers, it is still good to see Jon and Stephen back on television. Both hosts chose to show their solidarity to the cause, especially Stephen. Stephen pronounced the name of the show with a "t" as in taco and not as in parfait and "The Word" segment came up empty without the writers. The shows aren't near the quality they would be with their full roster of writers and correspondents but decent shows are better than no shows in my book.Here's hoping the strike ends already.
More About: Colbert Report , Daily Show

Juno
2008-01-06 01:20:00
I waited a month for this charming little gem to go from an incredibly limited release to finally showing in Binghamton and I must say it was definitely worth the wait.Juno instantly reminded me that films can still be original even as the medium continues to age years old and grows increasingly and uncomfortably commercialized and formulaic as a whole. Featuring a fantastic soundtrack provided by Kimya Dawson, Belle & Sebastian, the Moldy Peaches with a wonderfully imposed splatter of "A Well Respected Man" by the Kinks, Juno uses music to set the lighthearted and yet serious and maturing nature of it's characters and their story.Juno tells the story of 16 year old Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) who ends up pregnant by way of her close friend Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera, who has very nice legs). Juno tries but is unable to bring herself to get an abortion and decides instead to give the baby up for adoption. She and her best friend scour the Pennysaver in search of an appropri...

Mega Moose energy drink
2008-01-03 01:48:00
A little over ten years ago Marlboro was forced to end their use of the Joe Camel cartoon character in advertisements many believed were at least partially aimed at teens and children. Well I was getting something to snack and drink the other day in a local Pump and Pantry before heading off to a concert and I stumbled upon an interesting bottle. I know it's not even in the same universe of questionability as Joe Camel, and I don't even think it's a very big deal, I just found it interesting how striking the similarities between the character I imagine is known as Mega Moose and Joe Camel. I'm not a doctor, but I don't think it's terribly good for a child to drink an energy drink, no matter how rad the moose on the bottle is. And while it's not Red Bull or Monster, all the sugar and caffeine and ginseng and taurine and whatever else goes in these drinks can't be good for a 10 year old. The drink in question is pictured to the right next to a bottle of Nesquick vanilla mi...
More About: Drink , Energy , Energy Drink

New England Patriots finish undefeated regular season 16-0!
2007-12-30 05:18:00
The Patriots have done it and have become the first team in over thirty years to finish the regular NFL season undefeated. The Giants played a close game, even holding the lead for a good amount of time, but when the final whistle blew, it was New England who had come out on top. The Patriots capped off a record breaking 2007 regular season with a 38-35 nail biter of a win. Tom Brady and Randy Moss became proud owners of all time single season touchdown records for their respective positions. Brady bested Peyton Manning's mark of 49 passing touchdowns in a single season. Moss topped Jerry Rice's all time mark of 22 receiving touchdowns when he brought in a 60 yard bomb from Brady. The Patriots also set the single season team record for points scored. The Patriots finish the season an unparralled 16-0, but the real test comes in the playoffs where they will have to contest with tougher competition. New England could be challenged by the Chargers, Jaguars, or be faced with a...
More About: New England Patriots , Season , Regular

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
2007-12-30 04:41:00
Out of all the movies I have ever gone to see in theaters, none may have had the immediate impact on me that Sweeney Todd has had. To go to the length to say that Sweeney Todd has overthrown Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind as my favorite movie of all time might be a little premature after only one viewing, but I am tempted to go those lengths. I might even go so far as to say Sweeney Todd is my favorite or even the best movie of 2007, besting 300, Transformers, The Simpsons Movie, Superbad, American Gangster, No Country for Old Men, and I Am Legend. Would I go so far as to say it is Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's collaboration? I'm not sure of that, but I would put it on the same altar as Edward Scissorhands and Sleepy Hallow.Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is an adaptation of a 1979 musical by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler with the same title. Sweeney tells the story of a barber, played by Johnny Depp, scorned and exiled who returns to his native Londo...

Polar bears and penguins do not share habitats
2007-12-23 22:52:00
The idea that polar bears and penguins populate the same geographical region is a common misconception that plagues far too many individual's minds. Sure, it might seem like a nice thing to believe - polar bears roaring ferociously, chasing poor, defenseless penguins around over snow and ice, and devouring them whole. This, however, is pure hogwash. Polar bears are entirely native to the northern hemisphere, on the complete opposite end of the Earth from where penguins make their homes. Perhaps the worst offender in spreading penguin-polar bear interaction lies is the Coca Cola company. Polar bears and penguins are frequently and unrealistically seen frolicking together and enjoying a refreshing bottle of Coke. It is high time Coke ended these commercials. I recently purchased a package of gift labels, only to find that much to my dismay a number of the labels featured penguins and polar bears jovially interacting. Such a sight would surely make any intelligent individual ...
More About: Bears , Share , Habitats

Bamboozle
2007-12-23 02:24:00
Well it's that time of year again, when the famous Bamboozle music festival begins to announce bands and sell increasingly higher priced tickets. The lineup looks awful as of now but it's still almost six months until the show.The past two years I have made the trek to East Rutherford, New Jersey for the annual Bamboozle festival. Now, right off the bat, the festival has the worst name and is in the worst state it could possibly be in. The first year I went to Bamboozle, I didn't decide to go until a month before the show. The reason behind this was that it was in NJ so it took a really good band to get me there, and AFI was announced quite late. Well, by then tickets were sold out and it cost me $130 plus food, gas, and lodging. I got to see AFI, Thursday, missed Circa Survive so I could be front row for AFI and saw HIM who sucked vinegary Sasquatch nuts, Chiodos, Fluff My Boner (who turned out to be Chiodos which was really cruel of them), Taking Back Sunday who were adeq...

Daily Show and Colbert Report return!!!
2007-12-22 19:02:00
I was with the WGA on this strike, that is until NBC ran out of episodes of The Office and I realized how empty my 11 P.M. to 12 A.M.'s truly are without Jon and Stephen presenting the news to me. I understand what the WGA is going for but enough is enough, non-violent protest can only accomplish so much before more ex...just kidding.Both shows will be returning without their writing staff so the question of quality has to be raised. However, Stewart and Colbert already served as writers on their respective shows and new shows that are just ok will be better than no new shows at all. Also, the return of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, both WGA members themselves, may motivate the WGA to end this strike sooner rather than later. When asked if they would have preferred to come back on the air with their writing staff on board Stewart and Colbert responded “If we cannot, we would like to express our ambivalence, but without our writers we are unable to express something as nuan...
More About: Daily , Show , Report , Colbert Report , Daily Show

Fire Bryant Gumbel
2007-12-16 04:33:00
For the love of God, please, please, please, please, NFL Network, fire Bryant Gumbel yesterday. Already a noticeably annoying schmuck, Bryant Gumbel is the most incompetent sports announcer I have ever heard. Bryant has routinely gotten his facts wrong and has troubling remembering statistics and even which teams are playing in the game he is being paid to commentate on. Despite being paired with Marshall Faulk and Deion Sanders, Gumbel still maintains an heir of self-imagined superiority. Gumbel's incompetence was never more apparent than in tonight's contest between the 49ers and the Bengals. The 49ers most important and well known player is running back Frank Gore. I know his name, Marshall Faulk and Deion Sanders know his name, every fan in attendance and everyone watching the game on television know his name. In fact, the one person alive who didn't seem to know Frank Gore's name was Mr. Gumbel. Not only did he not know his name, he seemed to mistake him for everyone...
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Futurama: Bender's Big Score
2007-12-13 18:01:00
One of the saddest events in recent television was the untimely cancellation of one of my favorite shows by the idiots at Fox, Futurama . A few years go by, and I hear Fox is bringing back an animated show canceled way before it's time. Imagine how excited I was, only to find out it was just Family Guy. Well, a few more years have gone by and Fox still hasn't come to their senses, and now they likely will never get the chance even if they wanted to bring the show back.Futurama is back and in a big way. The first of four feature length direct to DVD movies has arrived. Bender's Big Score picks up like the show was never gone to begin with. Anyone who has ever had a mild interest in Futurama before will enjoy the film. And for those of us who are huge nerdy fans, Bender's Big Score is a gift straight from the Hanukkah Zombie. The film is packed full of references to past episodes and features cameos from scores of less frequent or important characters, from the Emperor of t...

Assassin's Creed
2007-12-11 06:10:00
A few weeks ago, my copy of Madden 08 for 360 decided to crap out totally and stop working and just freeze my console whenever I tried to sim computer games. This left me with nothing to play, so I went to GameSpot to see what the best Xbox game was that I didn't have, and it was Assassin's Creed ..at least according to GameSpot.The game started off promisingly enough and I believed GameSpot was right in giving it a 9.0 rating. The graphics were beautiful, some of the brightest and most detailed I've yet to see on the 360. Game play was quite interesting, a combination of stealth assassination and button mashing melee combat. Perhaps the funnest part of the game is jumping and swinging about on rooftops. It's quite easy to run seamlessly along rooftops and quite fun as well. You go about performing certain tasks to get your missions to assassinate various slavers and merchant kings corrupting cities while the kings were away fighting the Third Crusade.The problem with Assas...

It's over :-(
2007-12-11 05:56:00
Well, it turns out that my fantasy league this year isn't like the one I was in last year, and only the top four teams enter the playoffs. I ended up being the fifth ranked team with an outside chance at moving up to fourth as late as the last five minutes of the Saints-Falcons game Monday night.I ended up beating my opponent by 22 points. The team I beat is the number one ranked team and in all likelihood will end up winning the championship. It didn't matter that Drew Brees had a fantastic game, even without Reggie Bush. It doesn't matter that I made the right choice choosing Marion Barber instead of Joseph Addai. None of this matters in the end. I've been on such a tear, it's just not fair that it's over. I now have an extra two hours of free time every day to be filled with nothing. I'll be back next year, with vengeance.

A little something
2007-12-06 23:48:00
You know that feeling you get when you’re driving home from a long and tiring day? It’s about 3 o’clock and you’ve been awake since last night. The road starts to blend together into one long, vertical black hole. Your eyelids are more difficult to lift with each blink. You are awakened by the sun setting over the horizon, creating a bright plumage over the hilltops that would make a peacock blush. You quickly right your vehicle on the road, aligning your tires with spaces void of snow. It is at this point you notice something following your car. Within minutes it has caught up to you. You are now racing head to head against your own shadow and no matter how fast you drive you are unable to escape it. You realize that all you have been doing for the entire ride, for months, for years, for your entire life, is escape the shadow your mind has cast over your life. Every choice you’ve made up to this point was in a vain attempt to overcome self imposed limitations o...
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Do or Die
2007-12-06 19:21:00
This is it. My fantasy season comes down to one week and one game. If I win, I'm in the playoffs. If I lose, I get to spend the next 9 months wondering where I went wrong, what I can do better next year, and generally being depressed over my failure to dominate my fantasy league like I did last year. I am playing the team with the best record in the league that already has a bye in the playoffs and really has no need to win at all. He also has both LT and TO on his roster. I need this win in the worst way. I am stressing soo badly right now over whether to start Joseph Addai or Marion Barber III. Usually I would side with Addai, but he is playing against a tough Baltimore Ravens defense, while Marion the Barbarian gets the pushover Lions. Even though that problem is dominating my mind, I am still aware that I have to wait until Monday night to know for sure if I've made the playoffs or not, as my quarterback Drew Brees doesn't play until Monday night. I think there's a...

My Last.fm Wave graph
2007-12-04 01:27:00
I recently downloaded a neat little program that hooked up to my Last.fm account and made a sweet looking graph of everything I've listened to for the past couple months. It sure is colorful and it's a much more interesting way of looking at my listening habits than plain text. If anyone uses Last.fm and is interested in making a wave graph, here is the link to do so.You can use it to make lots of other neat charts and graphs but the wave graph is probably the coolest looking one.
More About: Wave , Graph

The Mars Volta creates annoying puzzle that took me 20 minutes to solve
2007-12-03 02:00:00
The Mars Volta , everyone's favorite alternative progressive neo-prog rock post-hardcore Latin jazz fusion metal band, are continuing the trend of big bands doing weird advertising type stuff online after Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails. While not quite up to the level of Radiohead's internet ways, TMV have offered up a puzzle to fans to try and figure out what the album art looks like for The Bedlam in Goliath, which is in stores January 29th.The puzzle is one of those bitch ass puzzles in a box where you can only move one piece at a time. Thankfully, there's no limit on the number of moves you can make to solve it. It took me a pathetic 344 moves to put the picture together properly. Give it a go and you're treated to a free mp3, which isn't a new Volta song. Instead it's a cover of an old Circle Jerks song "Back Up Against the Wall". Can you say shortest Mars Volta song ever?Give it a go here
More About: Puzzle , Minutes

Cowboys and Indians
2007-12-03 00:21:00
Threadless reprinted one of my all-time favorite shirts ever a few weeks ago. The shirt I speak of is none other than Cowboys and Indians . This shirt is a classic example of everything that makes Threadless great. Good drawing based on a great pun pulled off perfectly.I ordered the shirt almost as soon as they went on sale, and sorry for everyone else in the world, they are sold out.I wore it for the first time today and it fit great, and felt even better knowing it was a reprint I've been wanting for two or so years almost.

A small fantasy football update
2007-12-02 08:03:00
In my main fantasy league I am currently the sixth highest ranked team out of the twelve participants in the league. Four teams have a better record than me and one person with the same record as me beat me, making him rank ahead of me as well. Six teams make the playoffs so if the season were over I would have gotten in. I win this week and I have a good chance of moving up in the rankings. I'm really pumped for the games tomorrow because fantasy is almost over so I have to cherish every second. Once the fantasy season is over, there's going to be about 3 extra hours of incredible boredom in my life everyday.
More About: Football , Fantasy , Small , Update , Fantasy Football

Research papers are lame
2007-12-02 07:44:00
I don't really mind writing an essay or two every now and then. Sit down for about a half-hour and crank out two or so pages of random bullshit to satisfy whatever requirements need to be satisfied and that's that. Research papers are a whole nother bitch though, and what a bitch they are. If done properly, a good research paper takes hours of preparation and includes a detailed research process, documenting everything along the way, making sure to maintain proper MLA formatting. All of this does not really gel with my thought processes or how I get my work done.My topic was the history of the graphic novel, which is basically just the history of comics with a cooler name. Anyways, this is a topic that, while I'm not an expert on, I have a decent understanding of. This made it relatively easy to write once I actually got down to writing it. The problem is, writing something you know doesn't exactly qualify as a research paper because you didn't do any research. And here...
More About: Papers , Lame

Still at it
2007-12-01 08:24:00
It's been two months since I first made a post about how I was going to reorganize my entire collection. Well, I'm still at it. I have recently stumbled upon a program called Mp3tag that makes tagging mp3s much, much easier. Mp3tag lets you renamed the actual files, look up information on several different databases for missing tags, download album art, and numerous other neat little features that beat the hell out of tagging the files in Winamp, WMP, iTunes, or Explorer. I might finish by 2009 thanks to this program.Mp3tag can be found here.

Led Zeppelin to tour?
2007-11-28 23:53:00
The rumor mill is spinning like crazy with a rumor as big as any in recent memory. Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and John Paul Jones are reuniting with Jason Bonham, son of Led Zeppelin drummer John "Bonzo" Bonham, as part of a tribute show for the late Ahmet Eregun, founder of Atlantic Records, Led Zeppelin's label, and chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.In the past, the surviving members of Zep have gotten together a few times for similar benefits and tributes, but something seems different this time. Billboard.com reported that Zep was likely preparing for a tour. Also, the lead singer of the Cult recently mentioned that they would be opening for Zeppelin in 2008 on Zep's tour. Rumors are circulating about a possible appearance at the Bonnaroo music festival in Tennessee.Jimmy Page said something to the effect that it would be an injustice to the millions of Led Zeppelin fans to only perform this one show. That statement certainly lends itself to the theory that Zep ...
More About: Tour

Ryan saw titties on Facebook
2007-11-23 03:23:00
Earlier tonight my friend Ryan was witness to a miraculous thing. He saw titties on Facebook . The titties came in the form of a little ad on the left side of the page. Unfortunately, he didn't get a screen grab of this incident but I assure you it's true. I refreshed Facebook at least 50 times after that looking for the titties but I was never able to find them.

Xavier: Renegade Angel
2007-11-16 22:42:00
I doubt anyone has seen the latest show on Adult Swim, Xavier: Rene gade Angel , and I hope for everyone's sake no one else ever happens to see it. Adult Swim usually has quality shows like Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Sealab 2021, Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law, Home Movies, Metalocalypse, The Boondocks, Moral Orel, Frisky Dingo, Lucy the Daughter of the Devil, Robot Chicken and Saul of the Molemen. However, all is not roses on Adult Swim, as a unfortunate amount of shit inevitably seeps through the programming schedule. This would include the crude 12 oz. Mouse, and of course, Family Guy.This new show has every right to be awesome though. Xavier is made by the guys who made Wonder Showzen, which was amazing when it aired on MTV2. Something went wrong though, as Xavier is for lack of a better term, complete shit. The show is slow as all get out, pacing through it's all too generous 11 minutes like a turtle in molasses. After you sit through a lot of nothing happening you'd expe...
More About: Renegade

Fantasy Football Resurgence
2007-11-12 22:20:00
If everything goes as I think it will tonight, I will end up as the fifth ranked team in the Susquehanna Football League. While this may not seem like a big deal to some of you (or most of you,) it's a really big deal to me. It's kind of sad, actually it's really sad, but fantasy football is one of the biggest things in my life. Where did I go wrong?Anyways, now that I am ranked 5-5, I enter into a tie with other teams with only 4 teams having better records than 5-5, and one of them by only 1/2 of a game. I beat all of the other 5-5 teams except two, so I end up ranked ahead of them thanks to that tiebreaker. That places me in a decent enough sixth place in the SFL, just high enough to make it into the playoffs in the bottom. However, I am on a complete tear the past 4 weeks after a disappointed start to the season, dominating my last four games, with no end in sight.Four weeks remain before the start of the fantasy playoffs and if my winning streak continues I even have t...
More About: Fantasy , Fantasy Football , Urge