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Check out my new blog at gratefulblog.com!

Worst. Blogger. Ever.

Yep, that's me. Worst blogger ever. I'd have to say no posts in two months would earn me that prize.

And now more than ever I have no excuse for not posting regularly, considering I am without employment. Unemployed. Jobless. Take your pick of phrases. In other words, no excuses for not getting something done.

So, here's my attempt at getting back into the blogging routine. This was prompted in part by my friend Nick's post about what albums you would want with you if you were stranded on an island. Nick was talking about "rock" albums but this is the closest I get to rock with rare exceptions.

Here are my five, in no particular order:

Jeff Buckley - Grace
Bruce Springsteen - The Essential
The Jayhawks - Rainy Day Music
Cat Stevens - Saturnight
Simon & Garfunkel - The Concert in Central Park (Live)

But if the island I'm stranded on is anything like the island on 'Lost' with polar bears and crazy criminal cohorts and hatches and invisible monsters, then I'm also going to need a little ABBA Greatest Hits to lighten the mood every now and then. Yes, I'm serious.

What are your top five? I'm not picky -- rock, pop, show tunes, cheese, i don't care. Post in the comments section below.

P.S. This post is for you, Donovan, of course. :)

* Song: Blue Eyes by Cary Brothers, from the 'Garden State' soundtrack
* Blog You Should Be Reading: Nicks' blog, Radio Free 2 Socks, to see what his peeps would bring to the island.
* Holy Crap Moment: Pac-Man Turns 25
* Featured Video/Audio: This one has made the rounds but just in case you haven't seen it or just want to see it again, here you go: A Young Sportscaster

Mr. T Loves His Mama, and Yours, Too

If you put together the greatest comic minds of the past century, they still wouldn't be able to come up with this absolute comic gem. I'm pretty sure it's the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life. At the very least, it proves without a doubt that cocaine use was extremely rampant in the '80s.

There really are no further words to do this video justice. See for yourself...

Click the green "Watch Now" link on this page, and enjoy!

* What Song/Musician I'm Listening To: The sweet music of a Red Sox lead over the Yankees, with musician Arroyo on the mound.
* What Blog You Should Be Reading: The Official Blog of Fetus Spears
* Featured Quote: "You can only be young once. But you can always be immature" -- Dave Barry
* Holy Crap Moment: Someone makes a great catch of a foul ball at Fenway tonight. Holy crap, that was Doug Flutie! (my very first crush, by the way)
* Must-See Picture: Cats in Bikinis

Confessions of an AI Addict

Another week, another Idol gone.

Yep, I admit it, I'm an American Idol addict. I never saw a minute of the first season, then tuned in for Season Two just to watch the early bad/funny performances. But I fell in love with the likes of Ruben, Clay and Kimberly (Locke, that is, not Caldwell -- someone needs to tell Caldwell her 15 minutes of fame are waaaay up because she clearly missed the memo). And here I am, in Season Four, never missing an episode. At least TiVo allows me to cut out commercials and somehow convince myself AI doesn't control my time. Uh-huh.

Was bummed last week when Jessica was voted off. She has an incredible voice, and certainly had that come hither look down pat, but apparently Simon was right about her lack of "likability" -- ouch!

Another bummer this week with the departure of Nikko Smith. Didn't think he was anything special early in the competition, but he really grew on me over the past few weeks. His take on the challenging "musicals" genre made a very boring week a little more interesting. Sadly, he did not end his AI run with the Ozzie back flip everyone's been waiting for. Unless he did it after TiVo cut off (really gotta remember to add five minutes to the recording time!).

So apparently not enough viewers were turned off by Scott's domestic violence rap, and he lives 'The Impossible Dream' yet another week.

Meanwhile, we viewers have to live 'The Impossible Nightmare' with another week of Anthony Federov. How is it possible this guy hasn't even been in the bottom three the past two weeks? This concerns me. Is he going to be the next Josh Gracin, somehow holding on despite terrible performances that even he can't deny? I mean, Sergei even admitted tonight that he agreed with Simon that his performance was "hideous." And am I the only one who notices an odd similarity between Anthony and Abram from MTV's Road Rules (in looks only, needless to say for anyone who has no life and watches both shows)?

My hope is that next week's nursery rhyme theme (Constantine Maroulis does 'Rockabye Baby') sends Scott or Anthony packing. At this point, I think the only ones who are truly safe are Bo, Constantine and Carrie. But what do I know?

Song/Musician: The Vineyard Song, by Jackopierce
Featured Quote: Al Roker on the 'Today Show' called Johnny Damon (who was standing right beside him) "one sweet piece of man candy." I'm still trying to erase that moment from my memory.
Must-See Picture: View of the cliffs in Newport ... so much for those floods of biblical proportions. We wound up with blue skies.

Oh Wells!

After a looong night celebrating my best friend Rachel's 30th birthday in Newport, RI, I skipped lunch and hit the road for Maryland by 1pm in an attempt to make it home in time for the Sox-Yankees season opener. Today I wonder why I bothered.

I know, I know, the Red Sox finally won the World Series, I can die happy, I have nothing to complain about, now I can just enjoy the games, blah, blah, blah. I think Chad really believed that's how it was going to be, because he seemed surprised (which is a nice way of saying annoyed) when about five minutes into the game I was already cursing loudly.

The truth is, the World Series win doesn't make me any less pissed that:

* Hideki Matsui used his go-go-gadget arm (and a little help from Mother Nature) to rob my boy Kevin Millar of a home run early in the game

* Our No. 1 starter David Wells (those two phrases just should not go together for the 2005 Boston Red Sox) not only couldn't get out of the 5th but balked (!) just in case anyone was thinking he might be able to pull it together

* Nothing was going right for the Sox. Our 1-4 hitters were a combined 1-for-16. Our bullpen quickly took away any hope of a comeback. Our defense gave the Skankee fans something to jeer at. Just an all-around embarassing outing.

Thankfully, after the game ESPN showed "Red Sox: The Off Season" (or something like that) which brought me happily back to my warm-and-fuzzy Sox place. I remained there today, if only because the Sox had an off-day. See, I'm still the same old Sox fan.

Speaking of the Sox, check out Wally's European Vacation.

* Song: One Shining Moment
* Holy Crap Moment: I know I've had time to get used to it, and his comments on the way out should make it easier to take, but Pedro in a Mets uniform is just weird!
* Featured Quote: "He may be old, and he may be fat, but he has some good pitches." -- Chad on David Wells
* Must-See Picture: From Rach's 30th Birthday Night I think this picture accurately sums up the night.

Lewis Black and President Bush: Sarcasm as a Weapon

You know what I think would be fascinating to watch? President Bush sitting in the audience during one of Lewis Black's 'Daily Show' segments, particulary the one where Lewis Black talked about such subjects as:

* The lack of punishment for anyone involved in the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal.
Press conference remarks by Navy Staff Director Vice Adm. Albert Church: "I don't think you can, you know, hold anybody accountable for a situation that maybe if you'd done something different, maybe something would have occurred differently."
Lewis Black's response: "Acutally, if I'm not mistaken, that's the definition of accountability!"

* Allowing those on a federal terrorist watch list to legally buy guns.
Lewis Black: "Terrorists think they can attack us with conventional weapons. Listen up, Osama. I don't care how long you plan, I don't care how far you go. There's no way you can kill more Americans with your guns than we already do with our own!"

Watch the Daily Show Clip

There has been talk recently that more and more people are looking to 'The Daily Show' as their primary news source. I imagine Republicans (and not just a few Democrats) shuddering at the thought.

While I think it's best to look at a variety of news sources no matter which way you lean, it's easy to see why 'The Daily Show' is appealing to anyone who wants to pay attention to the issues without being driven to the edge of the nearest cliff. Our options are watching a bunch of stuffy older white guys shout at each other in a fight for male supremacy, or watching one older white guy shout at an audience in a fight for a laugh. I'll take option 2, please. There's just something about sarcasm that makes frightening/depressing news somewhat easier to swallow.

Not to mention that sarcasm can be used as a very effective weapon, or so a wise man once told me. The truth hits home harder when spoken through the raspy, sarcasm-laden vocal chords of one Lewis Black.

And now, for the features of the blog post...

* Song: Sweet Girl, Fleetwood Mac
* Goal of the Moment: Get to bed before 1 AM. Yes, that is my goal again.
* Featured Quote: "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" -- Gandhi
* Holy Crap Moment: When reading this story in the Boston Globe about Matt Damon's assertion that Mass. is failing in the film industry, I came upon this fact: "Matt had a great experience when he filmed 'Good Will Hunting' here 10 years ago." Holy Crap! It's been 10 years since Good Will Hunting? I didn't truly feel the push of the 3-0 mark until that statement.
* Must-See Picture: Talk about making me long for New England. Check out this view from a summit in NH's White Mountains. (Courtesy Glengroup.com)
* Featured Video/Audio: Weather Guy with Tourrettes?

For Starters...

I got my feet wet in the blogging world with my Red Sox 2004 -- Why Not Us? -- We Believe Blog. That blog ended with the Sox winning the World Series for the first time in 86 years. Not too shabby!

I considered continuing that blog but something about it just didn't seem right. A big part of me felt compelled to file that blog away -- along with the newspaper clippings, game tickets, pictures, and memories -- as something to look back on as an entity of its own. Plus, I figured people would get sick of the topic after awhile. Not me, of course. But others.

So here I am. A new year, a new blog.

This one is not nearly as focused as my previous Sox blog. But, I am a neat freak, perhaps to a fault. I will always remember my high school art teacher, Mr. Coughlin, telling me that I'm "anal-retentive." I remember thinking, "I can't believe he just said that ... (pause, pause) ... he's so right." So, of course, there has to be some structure to this blog.

While rambling about whatever happens to enter my mind each day, I also plan to include some or all (depending on my level of motivation) of the following in each post:

* What Song/Musician I'm Listening To
* What Blog You Should Be Reading
* Goal of the Moment
* Featured Quote
* Joke of the Post
* Holy Crap Moment
* Must-See Picture
* Featured Video/Audio

So I guess I should start with that:

* Song: Seeing Things for the First Time by the Black Crowes -- title seems appropriate but if you listen to the lyrics, it's not appropriate at all. But still, a very good song.
* Blog You Should Be Reading: Zack Braff's Garden State blog Written by the actor who plays J.D. on Scrubs. Makes me laugh out loud every time I read it. The guy's a riot.
* Goal of the Moment: Get to bed before 1 AM.
* Featured Quote: Simon Cowell on Constantine Maroulis singing the Partridge Family's 'I Think I Love You' -- "It's like ordering a guard dog for your house and getting a poodle in a leather jacket."
* Joke of the Post: Q: What is black and white and screams "YES! YES! YES!" A: A nun winning at BINGO.
* Holy Crap Moment: I work with message boards in which people talk about whatever the top news stories of the moment are. Yesterady, the earthquake off Indonesia and the possibility of another tsunami was the hot topic. You'd think people would be talking about their concerns for the people in the region. No. An alarming number of people wanted to complain that this would mean we would be giving more money to countries other than our own. I'm telling you, this job is stripping me of all my faith in humanity.
* Must-See Picture: One of my favorite pictures of my nephew -- Gabriel's Feeling Lucky
* Featured Video/Audio: One of the best ever. Always avoid live interviews while severely hungover. Watch the Video

And so it begins...