Fantasy Baseball Week 21

Well I am back on top after a few weeks of slowly sliding and losing my position as number one. After beating Imler 7-3-2, I am tied with Ruskin for the lead. My team finally came alive, cranking 16 HRs, .325 AVG, and 65 Ks.

A-Rod led the way, with 4 HRs himself, but Carlos Lee was also pretty big, coming up with 12 Hits. Pitching was not spectacular, since I got a lot of no decisions, but Bedard had 14 Ks, not too bad for a guy I did not mean to draft.

This week I go against Singers Sluggers, and as of now I am beating him, and I really think after this week I will be in sole possession of first place.

The Dark Tower

Two years ago Offord let me borrow the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. I loved it and have wanted to read it again. The other day while I was at Barnes and Noble, I decided to buy the Gunslinger. Last night I finished it and noticed something. The new edition of the book had some changes in it. These changes helped enhance the book, but also tie the entire series together a little bit more.

For those of you that have not read the series, go out and buy them and give them a shot. You will love them. It is a fantasy epic that does not come off sounding like another Tolkien ripoff.

It's weird going back to the first book after finishing the last books because Roland seems like such an odd character. He is unfamiliar and yet strangely attractive. There are times when you go, "oh that's the Roland I remember." And other times you think to yourself, "huh, would Roland do that?" But, that's what makes it so great. You get to see Roland adapt to situations.

One of the things I could not remember was what the hell the Man in Black (Walter, Marten, RF) planned. He could have killed Roland at so many points in the story, and yet he seemed to be aiding him. Then I remembered his true reason behind everything and was sad to think of his not-so-great death.

Throughout the whole series, my favorite character will always be Jake. He goes from the kid at the Waystation to becoming a formidable gunslinger. The scene in Book 3 of him trying to get through the doorway and escape the monster had my heart racing and seriously scared for poor Jake (who had already died once in the story).

I would like to mention to any of the fans of the books out there that the comic by Marvel rocked. The art is absolutely amazing and the story fits nicely. It is just the flashback scene from Book 4, but there are some new things added in, and also the stories in the back of each comic give plenty of new information, such as the history of Arthur Eld or Rhea of the Coos. The next comic series will be about the Battle of Jericho Hill, or so I have heard.

If you have read them let me know who your favorite character was, your favorite scene, and other such information.

Character: Jake
Book: Wizard and Glass
Moment: Eddie defeating Blaine the Monorail

Football Predictions

Okay, I guess it is football time. Well not for me really. I will not get into football until the World Series is over. Alright, that's a lie, but I just do not get into football like I do baseball. I have decided to do my picks for the season because it is fun, and these will end up being horribly off, but everyone else is free to put up much more educated predictions in the comments.

AFC
East
Patriots
Jets
Bills
Dolphins

North
Bengals
Ravens
Steelers
Browns

South
Colts
Jaguars
Titans
Texans

West
Chargers
Broncos
Chiefs
Raiders

NFC
East
Cowboys
Giants
Eagles
Redskins

North
Bears
Vikings
Packers
Lions

South
Saints
Panthers
Falcons
Buccaneers

West
Rams
Seahawks
49ERS
Cardinals

Hell, I had to look up the divisions to see which teams were in which division. My football knowledge is definitely nowhere near my baseball. I will also put up my Fantasy Football team from my league with Tami and Mike. Since none of you are in the league, you can help me each week by giving me some advice on who to pick up and what the hell to do because I am pretty bad.

Fantasy Baseball Weeks 19 & 20

Week 19 sucked. I lost 3-8-1 to Pittsburgh Lumber Co. Whatever, there was nothing to talk about, which is why I waited until now to post. I got beat, big freakin' deal.

Week 20: Argh. I lost 4-7-1 to Gideon. This knocked me out of first place and put me four games behind Ruskin. I know that Gideon will brag it up, but this battle was pretty close, especially going into Sunday, where it could have flip-flopped. Neither of our teams hit well for average, but he got me on the RBIs and HRs, while I took SBs. My pitching fared well, but I did not get wins out of some guys who I should have, like Zambrano.

Right now my team is in a downward spiral, and I really see no ways of stopping it. I just have to hope that guys pick it up because the trade deadline came and went and I did not make any moves.

This week I take on Imler, which should be a good match up, but hopefully I can break my losing streak and retake first place before the playoffs.

Stardust

Kacie and I went to see this last weekend with very high expectations. I had never read the book, but absolutely love anything Neil Gaiman writes. For her birthday this year, I bought her the book and hope to read it once she finishes it.

The story is set about 150 years ago in Wall, England. The town contains a portal to the realm of Stormhold, where a young man goes and impregnates a witches prisoner girl. Nine months later a baby boy is delivered to him named Tristan.

Tristan tries to woo the girl of his dreams, Victoria, and tells her that he will retrieve a fallen star for her. On his quest for the star he meets Yvaine, who is actually the star. Together they work their way through Stormhold while being pursued by an evil witch who wants to take Yvaine's heart and also the Princes of Stormhold.

The movie was awesome. It had everything: romance, fighting, a gay pirate, and comedy. It reminded me of Princess Bride, a movie that I will be able to watch over and over again and enjoy it more each time.

Also, Robert DeNiro was great and I kept thinking of Garden State and how everyone keeps telling Zach Braff how great DeNiro is by quoting one of his movies. Sorry, that was random, but figured I would throw that in there.

kacies birthday

Potsy and Kacie.

This was taken at Champs last night while celebrating Kacie's 22nd birthday. Hopefully she sends me more pictures and I can put them up and say a few more things about such an awesome evening.

Crooked Little Vein

Yesterday I finished reading Warren Ellis' first novel, Crooked Little Vein. If you are wondering what I thought of it, let's put it this way, I read it in about three hours. I absolutely loved it and could not put it down whatsoever.

Some of you probably know that Ellis is my favorite comic book writer. I will read anything he puts out, and he never lets me down. Transmetropolitan battles with the Neil Gaiman's Sandman series as my favorite series of all time.

The book follows the adventure of Mike McGill, a private detective given the task of finding the Secret Constitution. A book which will help bring morality back to the United States. The government lost the book around the 50s and since then the country has gone down the tubes. Or so the powers that be would have us believe.

On his way, Mike teams up with Trix, a college girl who believes in polyamorous relationships and being part of what the government would call immoral lifestyles. Together they encounter all sorts of crazy groups of people, such as guys who inject saline into their testicles to rich people with STD's who have sex with children and place bets on which will die first from some disease. The different scenes will freak you out, but also leave you laughing your asses off because of the way that Mike observes them.

The book pushes home the idea that things that were considered taboo years ago, and belonged to the underground, are now mainstream because of technology. The internet allows people to hear about things much faster than ever before. Mike struggles with the idea of accepting these people as normal members of society, but he no longer understands what the term "normal" really means.

Many of these stories are adapted from news articles which Ellis posted on his website as research material. Or from pictures people would send him and his unique imagination extrapolated stories around them.

So, if you want to read something funny, weird, but will also make you think. This book would be perfect for you. Also, if you are a fan of Transmet, you should read it because Mike McGill's narration is very similar to that of Spider Jerusalem's.

Fantasy Baseball Week 18

I knew it was coming, a rough patch. My team played poor again and I lost 9-2-1 last week. I am still in first place, but my lead is no longer comfortable. Dmitri Young was my biggest producer, but not too spectacular.

This week I play Pittsburgh Lumber Co. I should beat him, but who knows with how my team has started out. I decided to give up on JD Drew and pick up Justin Upton. Mainly because he impressed the hell out of me against the Pirates, and because his brother has done so well for me.

Bourne Ultimatum

Over the weekend I went to see Bourne Ultimatum, well actually I saw it twice. I definitely enjoyed the first two movies, and this one did not disappoint.

It begins where the second one left off, with Jason fleeing Moscow. We flash forward six weeks to a reporter who finds out about Project: Blackbriar and that started with Jason Bourne. From that point on, Bourne is trying to find out more about his identity, while also staying one step ahead of the CIA, who is tracking him.

I do not want to say too much about the movie since many people may not want me to ruin it for them. I do want to make one complaint though: would a CIA building have such clear windows that you could easily read classified documents from neighboring buildings? Also, how many operatives does the CIA have working in different cities? It seems like every time Bourne goes to another European city, they send in at least four agents to take him down. At this point, I am beginning to wonder if I work for the CIA...

For those of you who have seen the movie, I would like to ask what you thought of the ending? I loved it. I enjoyed that they did not explain the relationship between Nicky and David. We could infer that they dated before he went into the program, hell maybe after they broke up that made up his mind to commit to the program.

Also, I wonder if the writers of Wolverine, were big Robert Ludlam fans. You can definitely see the parallels between Logan and Bourne. Hell in the movie, X2, they say that Logan volunteered for the program.

Does anyone think there will be a fourth movie? There have been new books written based on manuscripts by Ludlum, or something like that. I hope not. I like the idea of the ending being left to our imaginations. To me, he remembers who he is, and it must not have been such a great life if he was willing to give it all up to serve his country.

Anyways, those were some of my thoughts on the film. Let me know what you guys thought of it.