I’ve never been much of a Halloween person to begin with, but I did get into the habit of attending a few bar parties over the years. I liked to go to the ones with big-money contests for the best costume because those always draw great crowds. Plus, it’s fun to see all the costumes — I can’t believe how much time and effort (and money) some people put into their Halloween outfits!

This year, however, I’m just going to stay in. I’m planning on watching a DVD, which I normally wouldn’t do on Halloween because of the constant interruptions from trick-or-treaters. But I recently moved and am now in kind of a remote area that shouldn’t draw too many kids, so I figure a movie will be ok. (I did buy some mini Snickers bars just in case, though.)

So what movie do I consider scary enough to be viewed on Halloween night? The Exorcist, of course! I still think The Exorcist is one of the scariest movies out there, and it’s definitely the scariest movie I’ve ever seen. I have always been of the opinion that horror movies in which the plot has a chance of happening in real life are much scarier than stuff featuring monsters or whatever. So the Nightmare on Elm Street series and the Child’s Play series just don’t cut it for me. It’s movies like The Exorcist that make me look over my shoulder a hundred times or jump at the slightest noise.

Ok, I like junk food as much as the next person, but I think fried Coke sounds completely disgusting! According to this article from Yahoo News, the fried Coke craze is sweeping through the Texas State Fair and will likely hit other parts of the country soon. Here’s the description of what fried Coke is:

Abel Gonzales, 36, a computer analyst from Dallas, tried about 15 different varieties before coming up with his perfect recipe — a batter mix made with Coca-Cola syrup, a drizzle of strawberry syrup, and some strawberries.

Balls of the batter are then deep-fried, ending up like ping-pong ball sized doughnuts which are then served in a cup, topped with Coca-Cola syrup, whipped cream, cinnamon sugar and a cherry on the top.

Does that sound good to you? I think it sounds overly sweet and totally disgusting! But then again, I’ve never had the urge to try deep-fried Twinkies, deep-fried Oreos, a deep-fried Mars bar, or any other “deep-fried” version of an already unhealthy food product.

As far as I’m concerned, Texans can keep their deep-fried Coke. I’ll continue to take mine in a glass with ice, thank-you-very-much!

I wanted to believe that the Chicago Bears would have no problem against the San Francisco 49ers today, but after the near debacle in that Monday Night game against Arizona a couple weeks ago, I wasn’t going to take anything for granted. Apparently, neither were the Bears.

They came out storming!! Chicago scored 24 points in the 1st Quarter alone (a 43-yard field goal by Robbie Gould, a 7-yard touchdown run from Thomas Jones, a 5-yard TD reception from Muhsin Muhammad, and a 1-yard scamper by Cedric Benson). That was the most points the usually anemic Chicago offense has scored in the first quarter in the history of the franchise! (AP Photo)

But they weren’t done there. Rex Grossman added two more touchdown tosses to tight end Desmond Clark (from 1 yard out and from 27 yards out) and Gould kicked another field goal to put the Bears up 41-0 at halftime. From there, the team pretty much just coasted. Backup QB Brian Griese relieved Grossman in the 4th Quarter, and the defense recovered four fumbles and forced an interception while yielding just 10 garbage points late in the game. (AP Photo)

The Indianapolis Colts also won, which means Indy and the Bears are still the only two remaining undefeated teams in the NFL. Let’s hope one of them runs the table this year to finally put an end to that obnoxious tradition of the 1972 Miami Dolphins. (AP Photo)

The World Series is finally over (which means I can count on FOX to resume regular broadcasting of its primetime TV programs) and the St. Louis Cardinals came out on top. None of the sports analysts I read picked the Cards to take the Series. After all, they only won 83 games during the regular season and barely made it into the playoffs. The Detroit Tigers, on the other hand, won 95 games and were the best team in the league for most of the regular season. In fact, those 83 wins were the fewest by an eventual World Series champion in the history of baseball. How’s that for mediocrity?

I have a real problem with the MLB playoff system. There’s just no way the Cardinals deserved to be in the playoffs in the first place. I think the top four teams in the AL and NL (based strictly on W-L record) should advance to the postseason regardless of what division they come from. (The division pennant race is a joke anyway.) If the league adopted that system, then maybe we wouldn’t have a boring World Series like this.

Based on what I described above, there would have actually been only one change to the 2006 playoff entries: Philadelphia would have been in instead of the Cardinals. Otherwise, the Yankees, Twins, Tigers, and A’s in the American League all advanced as they should have, and the Mets, Dodgers, and Padres of the NL advanced as they should have.

Well, whatever. Baseball is the only sport where I don’t pay attention to the postseason unless a local team is involved. I mean, everyone watches the Super Bowl and NBA Finals regardless of who’s playing, right? But baseball… meh. Something needs to change. I didn’t watch a single at-bat live this year; I just caught the highlights on SportsCenter.

At any rate, congrats to the Cardinals. They’re the best team in baseball, right? Here’s a video clip of the final strike/final out/celebration if you’re interested.

I’d heard a few weeks back that Ford was planning on ending production of their Taurus line of sedans and wagons. Well, today the last one rolled off the assembly line at the Hapeville, GA plant. Instead of continuing with a Fourth Generation of Taurus cars, Ford will instead focus on three successors: the Five Hundred, the Freestyle, and the Fusion.

I’m a bit saddened by the news that Ford is discontinuing the Taurus because my very first car was a Taurus. I had a 1986 model (which, I think, was the first year the Taurus went into full production), but I didn’t get it until 1993. My mom bought it for me, and it was a real piece of crap. Seriously, there was one major problem after another with that thing. First, the heating system was messed up. I got the car in winter and when I turned the heater on, nothing would come out of the vents except white smoke. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Then, I had problems with the transmission. I’m not sure exactly what it was, but apparently the problem was common to the first generation Taurus models. It cost like $1200 to fix the transmission, which was approximately half the price that my mom paid for the car in the first place.

To make things worse, the crappy repair shop that we took the car to totally ripped us off. The car started having the exact same problems a month later, so we took it back to that place. They passed the blame off on us and said there was nothing they could do. In short, we ended up having to take the car somewhere else to spend another $1000 on fixing the transmission.

Even with all these problems, I still liked that car. I mean, who doesn’t have fond memories of their first car — no matter how bad the car actually was? That car took me everywhere I needed to go at the time and even served as my home for a couple of weeks when a friend and I decided to drive to Boston with only enough money for gas and food.

So anyway, even though I’ve been lucky enough to own several cool cars over the years, I’ll always have a soft spot for that old Ford Taurus… R.I.P!!!

I used to read Stephen King quite a bit when I was in junior high and high school. At first, I liked the straight horror stuff: Pet Sematary, Christine, Carrie, Firestarter, Misery… all the classic titles that most people think of when they hear King’s name. I also enjoyed some of the non-horror stuff. Different Seasons, a collection of four novellas — The Body, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil, and Breathing Lessons — was a masterpiece, in my opinion. All four stories were of excellent quality and highly memorable.

But I slowly started moving away from King as I got too busy with classes and heavier reading assignments and I really haven’t read anything from him in about 15 years. I’ve seen a couple of movie adaptations of King’s works in that time (The Green Mile and Secret Window), but I haven’t bought, borrowed, or read any books of his.

This book review over on Yahoo today caught my attention. I don’t know who the author, Ted Anthony, is or whether his opinion should matter, but he really makes it sound like Lisey’s Story would be worth checking out. I’m not going to buy the book, but I’ll put my name on the waiting list at the library and see how that goes. Most of the time I don’t like it when an author strays from his or her usual genre (case in point: John Grisham when he’s not writing legal thrillers), but from the brief decription given in the review, I think I might like Lisey’s Story.

We’re halfway through the 2006 fantasy football season, and I’m stuck in 10th place in my league (out of 12 teams) with a terrible 2-5 record. I should actually be 5-2 (or at least 4-3), but three Monday Night games have cost me big so far this season. I know everyone with a losing record has their own excuses, but just check out what has happened to me and tell me if my whining is justified.

Week One: Going into the Oakland-San Diego game, I just needed 3 points out of my starting quarterback, Aaron Brooks. I know, I know …. why did I even have Brooks in the first place? Well, I got stuck with him because I couldn’t make it to the live draft and the computer picked him up because of his 2005 ranking. I figured I’d start him for one week (after all, Oakland has Moss, LaMont Jordan, and Courtney Anderson — three solid weapons, or so I thought) and then pick a different QB off waivers for Week Two based on the Week One stats. Besides, 3 points is nothing for a QB in fantasy football. So what happens? Brooks gets a big 68 passing yards and scores me a whopping 1.8 points, meaning that I lost by 1.2 points.

Week Six: I was down 10 points prior to the Monday Night game but I was still confident because I had three players left: Rex Grossman, Bernard Berrian, and Cedric Benson, all of them from the Chicago Bears. The Bears were going up against the lowly Arizona Cardinals, so I figured between the three of those guys, I’d get 10 points with ease. Of course, that just had to be the week that Grossman and the Chicago offense go MIA. Not only did those guys fail to score any touchdowns, but I lost points on the night thanks to Grossman’s horrific performance.

Week Seven: This was a much closer matchup that really could have gone either way. I had a slim one-point lead prior to the Dallas-NY Giants game, and still had Barber and Shockey in my lineup. My opponent had the Dallas “D” and Terrell Owens. Shockey had a touchdown grab, but Barber failed to find the end zone (yet again — zero TDs so far this year). Owens had 96 receiving yards and a TD, while the Dallas defense put up 5 points. I ended up losing by three points. As I said, though, that matchup could have gone either way. (Photo credit: AP/Matt Slocum)

So there you have it. I should be doing much better in fantasy football than 2-5, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. Oh, well. Maybe my guys will come on strong in the second half!

I came across an interesting site while surfing the ‘net today. It’s called ShopInPrivate, and they bill themselves as “The World’s Most Private Drug Store.” Basically this site gives customers a way to purchase “embarrassing” items somewhat anonymously. Whatever you buy is shipped to you in an unmarked package so you never have to deal with snickering salesclerks.

What kind of items can you get from ShopInPrivate? Well, under the “Embarrassing” products link, they have things like condoms, yeast infection creams, enemas, douches, vibrators, and hemorrhoid creams. Yeah, a couple of those things are embarrassing to buy, but those aren’t exactly items that I would necessarily use this site for.

But they also have a whole selection of sexual aids, toys, lubricants, books, oils, etc. that I’m sure some people wouldn’t be comfortable purchasing in person. Hell, I sometimes get a bit embarrassed browsing around Spencer’s, so I can definitely understand how people would be reluctant to buy these products at a bricks and mortar store.

Overall, I think that there’s definitely a niche market for a site like this. I’ve gone ahead and bookmarked it just in case I need to buy a gag gift or something similar in the near future!

I think one of the most exciting plays in football is that last-second field goal attempt to tie or win the game. Everyone knows that anything can happen on kicks: the kicker could miss an easy chip shot or drill one from beyond 40 yards. Well, today’s NFL matchups saw three games decided by late field goals.

One of the games was an overtime contest between the Atlanta Falcons and Pittsburgh Steelers. It was an offensive shootout, with Mike Vick throwing four touchdown passes (three of them to tight end Alge Crumpler) and Hines Ward making 8 catches for 171 yards and three TDs for the Steelers. But the game was decided in OT when Morten Anderson (who’s like 46 years old or something) hit a 32-yarder to seal the 41-38 victory for the Falcons. (Photo credit: AP/Scott Audette)

The second game was between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Diego Chargers. The Chiefs looked to be in control most of the game, but let the Chargers claw their way back into a 27-27 tie. Then, on what was to be their final possession in regulation, the Chiefs drove to the San Diego 30. After a 5-yard penalty on the first field goal attempt, however, kicker Lawrence Tynes had to do it all over again — this time from 53 yards out. He nailed it with 0:11 left for the 30-27 KC win.
The most amazing kick of the day came in the Tampa Bay-Philadelphia game. The underachieving Bucs were all over the Eagles early on and jumped out to a 17-0 lead. But Donovan McNabb brought the Eagles back thanks to three TD passes to make the score 21-20 with 0:33 seconds left.

The Bucs were able to move the ball to the Philly 44, and coach Jon Gruden called for the field goal unit. Matt Bryant drilled the 62-yarder, which was the third-longest in NFL history, and the Bucs won the game 23-21. That had to hurt for the Eagles and their fans! (Photo credit: AP/Scott Audette)

It’s good to see games go down to the wire like this. I would much rather watch a close game than a rout…. unless the Bears are involved, of course!

While I’m not at all interested in what happens in the MLB World Series (St. Louis vs. Detroit? Yawn.), I definitely keeping an eye on the Japan series. That’s because my favorite Japanese team, the Chunichi Dragons, are facing off against the Nippon Ham Fighters.

I’m happy to report that the Dragons took a 1-0 lead in the series on the strength of a 4-2 win at the Nagoya Dome. It didn’t sound like it was a particularly exciting game, but at least the Dragons won. They got a two-out single from Kazuki Inoue in the third inning to take a 3-2 lead, and then Alex Ochoa sealed the victory with an RBI double in the eighth.

I keep up with the Japanese Pro Yakyu scene mostly through JapanBall.com. It’s updated regularly and is truly a great resource for anyone interested in what’s going on in the Japanese league. I visit that site frequently in order to read news articles, check box scores, and get the latest scoop on all the Japanese baseball happenings.

Through its first two seasons, I thought Grey’s Anatomy was one of the best shows on television. I always looked forward to seeing it, and would actually sit through the regular broadcast instead of waiting to watch it on TiVo like I do with almost all the other programs I follow. I thought the writing was good, many of the actors are fantastic, and the storylines have, for the most part, been pretty compelling.

But I never quite got the whole “McDreamy” and Meredith love story. First of all, while Patrick Dempsey certainly looks a hell of a lot better than he did in, say, Can’t Buy Me Love, I’d hardly go so far as to tab him dreamy. Plus, he acts like such a jackass half the time that I really have a hard time understanding the attraction there.

Second, while I think Ellen Pompeo is a good actress, I do not think she’s very good-looking at all. I mean, when she shares the screen with the likes of Katherine Heigl, Sandra Oh, and Kate Walsh, she just doesn’t hold up very well. Plus, her character is just soooo boring that it’s no wonder forums like TWOP have nicknamed her “Meh.” Hmmm, unattractive and boring… is this someone that Derek Shepherd would really be attracted to?

And the way they just keep going around and around… first they’re together, then they’re not. Then they’re together, then they’re not. God, who even cares anymore??? I can’t believe the writers are making this the central storyline for Season Three too!

Another thing that’s ticking me off about this season is Izzie’s character. I never thought she would have gone as far as she did for Denny (cutting the LVAD wire) in the first place, but since the writers made her do that, they should follow through with the consequences. There’s no way Izzie would be allowed anywhere near Seattle Grace again, and there definitely wouldn’t be any talk of reinstating her. So the writers have given her an $8.7 million check to tote around now. I guess this is so they have an excuse as to why the character will still be hanging around even though a) she’s not a doctor anymore; and b) all she does is mope and cook. Again, just annoying.

I’m going to keep watching Grey’s, but I might just relegate it to TiVo status until things pick up this season.

I discovered Bill Simmons, also known as The Sports Guy several years ago when he just started writing for ESPN’s Page 2. I don’t remember exactly how I heard of him, but I know it was from a friend’s recommendation. At any rate, I thoroughly enjoyed his columns because they were so fresh and original, like nothing I had ever read before. Simmons had a knack for seamlessly combining current sports news with bits and pieces of pop culture trivia. He could frequently made references to television shows like Road Rules, The O.C., Entourage, and Beverly Hills, 90210. He gave detailed analyses of movies like Hoosiers and The Karate Kid. And he did it all with an unpretentious, humourous style. (Photo credit: Robert Beck/SI)

Some of his columns are absolute classics, such as his formula for winning in Vegas, his “Levels of Losing” article, his infamous “Ewing Theory,” and the great “Vengeance Scale.” Those are columns that I can read again and again without ever getting tired of them.

But after being based in Boston for, I don’t know, his whole life (?), he decided to move to LosAngeles a couple years ago to write for Jimmy Kimmel Live. After that, both the frequency and quality of his sports columns declined. He dropped down to maybe one column a week (or every two weeks) and they were much shorter than readers had grown accustomed to. Instead of eagerly checking Page 2 first thing in the morning to see if there was a new Sports Guy column, I just gave up and read other stuff.

Even after Simmons left his Kimmel gig, his columns haven’t been up to par. I don’t know if it’s him or if it’s me. Is the quality of his writing really declining or am I just getting tired of the pop culture/sports tie-in shtick? It’s hard to say for sure, but all I know is that I simply skim his columns now (whenever I remember to check in the first place). I don’t think I’m missing much, as he seems to fill his column space with running diaries, chat wraps, and emails from readers. Yawn.

Anyway, if anyone else has a good sports columnist to recommend, I’d be interested in hearing about it. I think I’m done with Simmons.

Here’s a pretty funny page that lets you create your own Sports Guy column. You have to enter a bunch of terms based on prompts (like Mad Libs, but this one’s very, very long) and then at the end the site generates a whole column. I actually just spent time doing it. I wouldn’t say the result was really worth the time involved, but, yeah, that did actually sound pretty close to a Sports Guy column!

I was a huge Seinfeld fan when that show was on the air, and I still watch the reruns on the local FOX affiliate whenever I get a chance. Elaine Benes is by far my favorite character on the show. I just love the way Julia Louis-Dreyfus portrays her, with the snarky comments and everything. Even though I’ve been looking for a new comedy to watch for some time now, I never tried anything that any of the Seinfeld alums did after leaving that show — until recently. I’ve just started watching The New Adventures of Old Christine.

I heard of this show when it first came out but decided not to bother with it since Louis-Dreyfus’ last effort, Watching Ellie, was such a disaster. However, I started taking notice of TNAOC after Louis-Dreyfus won an Emmy a couple months ago for her work as Christine Campbell.

So anyway, I was at a friend’s house a last week and she mentioned that she had the entire first season of TNAOC on TiVo still. I watched the couple episodes at her place that night, and while I wasn’t completely blown away, I thought the show was extremely watchable. I decided to continue with the rest of the season.

I’ve now watched up through 1×07 and think that the episodes have been very inconsistent in quality. Some have been pretty good with a few laugh-out-loud moments, while others have just been boring and unfunny enough to actually make me squirm with discomfort. I hope the show hits its stride and stays on the air, though, because I love being able to watch Louis-Dreyfus again. Her character is different enough from Elaine that I don’t expect George, Jerry, or Kramer to walk on the set anytime soon; yet there’s still enough Elaine left to make me a bit nostalgic. Like when she does that god-awful shoulder-shake dance thing at the Whole Foods Market, or when she hooks up with a desperate guy nicknamed “Sad Dad.”

The two big negatives for the show so far are the brother and the kid. The brother is extremely annoying and seems to serve no other purpose than to be a convenient babysitter. I find the actor to be highly unattractive and I hate seeing him on my TV screen. The other negative so far is Christine’s son, Ritchie. So far, all he’s done is ask precocious questions in every single episode. “Where are all the black kids?” “What’s intercourse?” “Why are some people gay?” “What does Mom do when she goes out [on dates]?” Again, it’s just annoying and not very funny.

Anyway, I’m happy to have a new comedy to watch now! I can’t wait to get caught up with Season One so I can start watching the Season Two episodes as they air on Monday nights!

I am still in shock over last night’s game between the Bears and Cardinals. I have to admit that I thought the Bears were down and out, especially when they were trailing 23-3 with just about one minute left to play in the 3rd Quarter.

Rex Grossman was god-awful last night and couldn’t get anything going with the offense. His stat line for the game is one of the worst I’ve ever seen in my life: 14-of-37 for 148 yards and four, yep — four, interceptions. He also coughed the ball up twice for a total of six turnovers all on his own. Grossman’s passer rating for the game was a laughable 10.7. But it was Chicago that would have the last laugh on the Cardinals. (Photo credit: AP/Paul Connors)

So, as I said, the Bears were down 23-3 with, like, a minute left to play in the third. Then Mark Anderson sacked Matt Leinart, causing a fumble in the process. Mike Brown picked it up and walked three yards into the end zone. 23-10.

The score stayed that way until 5 minutes left to play in the 4th Quarter. So it still looked like the Bears were toast. But Brian Urlacher unleashed a big hit on Edgerrin James to knock the ball loose, and Charles Tillman was right there to scoop it up and run it in for a touchdown. 23-17.

Neither offense did much with the ball on their next couple of drives. Then, the Cardinals lined up to punt with just over 3 minutes left to play in the game. Devin Hester (2nd round pick out of Miami), fielded the ball at the Chicago 17, and then ran it back for a touchdown!!! After Robbie Gould nailed the extra point, the Bears were actually leading 24-23!!

But there was still plenty of time left on the clock and Matt Leinart did an admirable job of driving the Cards into field goal range. Then Neil Rackers, whom I just dropped from my fantasy team after he missed a potential game-winner last week, missed wide left again with the game on the line!! Man, what an awesome finsih for Bears fans! I have to feel for Cardinals fans, though. That team always finds a way to lose. (Photo credit: AP/Roy Dabner)

Anyway, yes, it was a very ugly win for Chicago, but we’ll take it! 6-0 heading into the bye and they’ll have plenty of things to work on. I bet they won’t ever take an opponent so lightly again.

10-minute SportsCenter highlight clip (from YouTube) right here:

I first started working the day after my senior year of high school ended. I wanted to save up money before heading off to college so that I’d be able to pay for incidental expenses while on campus. Since that time, I’ve had numerous other jobs, mostly forgettable ones. It’s true that in the last 10 years or so, I’ve only had two jobs and have finally settled into a career. But when I was younger, I went through part-time positions at a rate of 4 or 5 per year.

Out of all those jobs, I just remember a couple of my bosses. None of them were exceptionally good or exceptionally bad, so I’ve pretty much forgotten all about them. There was never a boss that I absolutely dreaded facing, nor was there anyone that I truly enjoyed working for.

If I had to choose, I would say my two favorite bosses were Eileen and Gary. Eileen was the supervisor at an inventory company that I worked at part time. We had a small crew of four or five people and would go into stores at the mall or wherever and take inventory by scanning each and every product in there with handheld scanners. Eileen was pretty cool and laid back. She didn’t care how we got the work done, as long as we did get it done in the allotted time. That’s how I’ve always liked to work. I hate it when bosses are sticklers for doing things “by the book.” For most jobs, the process doesn’t really matter at all. I’m glad Eileen recognized that and was able to make inventory nights a lot of fun.

Gary was the first boss I had at a “serious” job, one that I stayed at for nearly five years (whereas I had only stuck with previous jobs for a few months at a time). Gary was the manager of my department, but didn’t really deal with me directly as there was a middle layer of management in their as well (a supervisor). I enjoyed talking to Gary about literature of all things, and we had some really interesting chats along the way. He was always very nice to me, was intelligent, and never wielded his power unnecessarily. He had a certain presence and charisma that appealed to almost everyone in the company, and always had people around him.

I don’t keep in touch with either Gary or Eileen anymore, but I do think about them occasionally — especially on days like today (National Boss Day and all). I’m thankful that I was able to have so much fun while on their watch.