...and yesterday, I ate a pumpkin.

[Music] Kanye West - Jesus Walks

I kept hearing this song in the commercials for the movie Jarhead, and I just had to look it up. It's a damn cool song, and the beat is addictive.

So, the World Series is long since over, and the Astros got swept. I would be mad if I weren't so proud of them for making it in the first place. The White Sox are a helluva team, and I gotta hand it to them. On a side note, Sox slugger Paul Konerko is a free agent now, and I think it would be pretty funny if the Astros found a way to afford him. Then again, we don't need another first baseman, but it'd be fun nonetheless.

The Texans finally won a game, bringing their record to a sterling 1-6. Could this be a new beginning for the beleaguered Texans, or just a hopeful bump on the road to Sucksville? Only time will tell, I guess.

I totally ravaged Darren's music collection via IM, and came away with quite a bit of new music. Now, I just have to find time to listen to all of it.

I finally finished Final Fantasy 7, which was surprisingly easy. Then again, I had already killed off the strongest enemies in the game before making the end run, and my main party was hideously overpowered. But whatever, finished nonetheless. I'm now working on actually finishing Final Fantasy 10, since it's been sitting around unfinished for a long time. I got everyone's strongest weapons, so I'm just working on leveling them up and getting some stronger armor before I face the final boss. Good times.

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks is a surprisingly fun game. I never have been a big fan of the MK series, but this is pretty cool. It's an adventure/brawler. Think Double Dragon, but with 3D environments, deadly environmental hazards and a lot more decapitations. The camera gets a bit janky at times, and some of the voice-acting/writing is groan-worthy, but the control is pretty tight and the upgradeable move lists are a nice touch. Oh, and if you play this game, grab a friend and play the co-op mode. There are some bits in the game that can only be unlocked via co-op, and the combo kills are cooler. That, and playing a midair game of catch using an enemy as the ball is fun. Give it a rent.

I'm giving Ubuntu Linux a try. I have this super-nifty AMD64 processor in my computer, but I don't have anything that can actually make use of the 64-bit part. It's pretty nice so far, and very user-friendly. I was wondering how it would handle my wireless card, video card and sound card, but it recognized those right off the bat and enabled them. The only problems I've run into so far are my inability to access my other hard drives (they're formatted as NTFS, and Linux no likey NTFS), and my inability to install a decent media player thus far. But anyway, it's an experiment, and I hope to solve those problems in short order. Well, except for maybe the NTFS thing, because apparently that's a rather tricky problem that those much more qualified than I have tried to tackle and have yet to fully succeed.

Oh yeah, and as for the title, Ian and Brittnee made a stuffed pumpkin yesterday. It was pretty tasty. Can't say I've ever eaten a pumpkin before, but now I have. Whee. And now, it's back to work for me.

Not a Happy Boy

Crap. The Astros have dropped two straight to the White Sox in Chicago. Not good. 11 out of 12 teams who've played in the World Series have won once they've been up 2-0. Mind you, I'm not saying it can't be done, because one of those 12 did. However, it's going to be very hard to do. The Astros have pulled off some miracles this postseason, and I'd like to see them do it one more time. Hell, Jose Vizcaino got his first hit of the postseason, and it was a double in the 9th inning that drove in two runs, effectively tying the game. I cringed when they put in Vizcaino, but he actually came through in the clutch. The Sox did play a good game, I will give them that, but it's time to come back to Houston and show them how the real Southside plays.

On a side note, what is it with the White Sox and bad calls going their way? First, that call that helped them win Game 2 of the ALCS, and now, that foul ball that was called as a "hit by pitch." For those of you who didn't see it, Jermaine Dye of the White Sox is batting against Dan Wheeler when Dye twists out of the way of a close pitch. The pitch gets close but glances off of the barrel of his bat, making it a foul ball. However, the ump calls it a "hit by pitch" and allows Dye to take a base. This loads the bases for Konerko, who cranks a grand slam to make it 6-4, White Sox lead. It was a missed call by the umpire, and Dye shouldn't have been given the base. Granted, Dye very well could've been walked on the next pitch or hit a single and gotten on base anyway, setting up the Konerko dinger, but still. It's the principle of the thing.

Anyhow, Game 3 is Tuesday back here in Houston, and we'll have Roy O. on the mound. If anyone can help us win a game, it'll be him. He wasn't the NLCS MVP for nothing, right?

Fill the Bubble

Here's an interesting little project a guy undertook in New York. He put a bunch of empty word bubbles on ads around the city, and passerby filled them in. Made for some fun results.

Fun Trivia

[Music] Bloodhound Gang - Shut Up

I heard about this a little bit ago, and I thought I would post it. The Astros franchise (originally the Houston Colt .45s) was awarded to Houston on October 17, 1960 in a hotel in Chicago during the annual Major League Baseball Owners meetings. On October 19, 2005, the Houston Astros won the NLCS, giving them a pass to their first World Series appearance, which is to be played in Chicago. Kinda neat, huh?

Games, Violence and Kids

Here's a pretty interesting article. Also, reading this article keeps making me think about Battle Royale for some reason. "Fear the children!" and all that.

The Astros are Going to the World Series!

Two things: 1.) *does dance* I told you so, I told you so, nah nah nah, I told you so. 2.) "Momentum only goes as far as your starting pitcher in the next game." No truer words than that.

Riddle Me This, Dark Knight

Why buy an entire box set, when just these two will suffice? Sure, you could make an argument for the second movie, but I never really got into that one. Too dark for my tastes. But really, why did they bother releasing all four of them in one set? Good for completists, bad for anyone else who has an ounce of sense.

A Real Heartbreaker

The Astros lost game 5 of the NLCS due to a giant homerun by Albert Pujols. That I can wrap my head around. It was a massive shot, and it took the wind out of our sails real good. Yeah, I get that. But everywhere I look, there are articles and people pretty much calling the 'Stros dead in the water. That, I don't believe. In the game of baseball, the momentum of a series can change pretty quickly. We had the momentum coming into the series, having just come down off of that 18-inning marathon with the Braves, and the Cards properly deflated that bubble in the first game. Even if Pettite had a bum knee, they still beat us fair and square. However, we took the momentum right back in game 2 when Oswalt dominated the Cards in their home stadium. We rode that momentum to win 2 more games, but the fates turned against us, Lidge's slider didn't slide and Pujols made him pay for it. But we're not dead yet. The Astros have shown that they can win at Busch Stadium. We've got Roy "The Wizard of" Oswalt up on the mound for game 6. We've still got two games to do this, and I think it can be done. Now is not the time for naysaying. They need the fans behind them now more than ever. Besides, this team defied everyone's expectations before. The Houston Chronicle declared them dead back in June, only to see them mount one of the biggest comebacks in history to capture the Wild Card and come within one game of the World Series. Why wouldn't they be able to do it again?

On a related note, a coworker of mine sent me a link to an ESPN messageboard discussing the Pujols homerun. I hope people don't take this first guy as the average Astros fan. The guy that started that thread is an idiot for making a mountain out of a molehill, and he makes himself out to be a bigot. My thoughts? Sure, Pujols might've hocked a loogie on the field, but honestly, have you watched a baseball game? It's like a mobile organic sprinkler system out there. Everyone spits on the field for some reason. Like one poster said, "Maybe if Pujols would have blew a snot rocket onto the field and followed it up by urinating on the Crawford Boxes you might have a beef." As for the homerun itself, Pujols has every right to be proud of that one. Regardless of what team you're rooting for, it was a damn impressive shot. Stop being retarded and just wait for the next game like the rest of us.

So, in summation, go Astros!

Windows? Yeah, More Like Windon'ts.

[Music] The Avalanches - Since I Left You

I restarted my computer over the weekend, as it had been on for 2 weeks and was acting funny, and it just didn't finish rebooting. It got to the Win2K logo screen and just stopped doing anything. I could boot it into safe mode, but not into the normal OS. So, I'm trying things and just getting frustrated, and I go for help in a forum I found called Geeks to Go. Pretty helpful, that lot is. A guy on there told me about the repair function on the Windows install CD and the right way to use it. This worked well enough to get me into the normal OS, but some things are now broken, such as my virus scanner. I decided to uninstall that and reinstall it, but it doesn't like that idea as parts of it were still there and trying to function. The forum guy tells me to run a program called HijackThis!, which will allow him to see what's running on the computer. I get the rogue parts of McAfee deleted, and then the guy tells me that I might have a virus or malware of some sort. I have to doubt that it's a virus, since 3 different virus scanners didn't pick anything up (AVG's free virus scanning software, Trend Micro's Housecall and Panda's ActiveScan, the last two of which are web-based scanners), and AdAware and Spybot didn't turn anything up either. Since I was having to reinstall a bunch of stuff anyway, I thought I might just nuke the OS and start fresh. Well, after three attempts, I'll get a certain point and it'll stop booting on me again. Still can go into Safe Mode, but no regular booting. Fun times. If it does turn out to be a virus, I'll have to shake that guy's hand for creating the most annoying stealth virus ever. Bleh.

It Could. Go. All. The. Way!

[Music] The Avalanches - Frontier Psychiatry

Wow, what a game! I got up this afternoon and turned on the game around 1:30 or so. Astros vs. Braves, in Houston, 'Stros up 2-1 in the National League Division Series. I came into it during the 5th inning, with the Astros down 5-1. Kinda disappointing up until the 8th inning, given the bang-up performance of the Astros the night before. McCann of the Braves hits a homer to make it 6-1 in the 8th, which had pretty much killed my buzz. However, the Astros turned it around in the bottom of the 8th with a grand slam by Lance Berkman, making it 6-5. Still behind by 1, but the gap was closed. Bottom of the 9th, 2 outs and Brad Ausmus up to bat. Thankfully, the guy who is notorious for hitting into double plays cranks one out to left-center field and ties the game. I almost didn't think it was a homerun, but it fell just barely in the corner of the yellow line. Game tied. Sweet.

However, after this, the game just got long. Both sides started to run out of pitchers and position players. The Astros went through at least 23 players, which ties them with 2 other teams for most used in a game. Both teams went far enough with their bullpens that they had to pull in their starters. Astros closer Brad "Lights Out" Lidge played from innings 10 to 12, Dan Wheeler played from 13 to 15, and Roger "The Rocket" Clemens came out of the bullpen for only the second time in his career to pitch innings 16-18, and to pinch hit (something he's never done). That's right, 18 innings. The longest postseason game in league history, and also the only one to feature grand slam homeruns by both teams. Chris Burke finally came in at the bottom of the 18th and jacked one out of the park to end this thing. So, Astros win 7-6 and they now move on to face the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship Series. Damn, was this game awesome.

While we're on the subject of sports, might as well touch on a few other things. Green Bay finally won a game this season, trouncing the Saints 52-3. The Texans lost again versus the Tennessee Titans (34-20), bringing their record to a stellar 0-4. In a big surprise, the Dallas Cowboys beat the Philadelphia Eagels, 33-10. Didn't know the 'Boys had it in them. Oh yeah, and the OU-Texas game yesterday was just fuckin' ugly. My dad had told me that the Sooners weren't doing well this year, but damn. 45-12? UT's got the hot hand this year, and OU fell out of the rankings completely. Helluva turnaround, I guess.

And so, sports fans, I'm out.

**ADDENDUM** I almost forgot something on here. Possibly one of the saddest sights in the game was when Brad Lidge had gone out to pitch, leaving Dan Wheeler in the bullpen alone. No coaches around, no catchers, nothing. Just him, sitting on a bench eating sunflower seeds and tossing a ball to himself. So sad. Also, if you want a more complete and better written article about the game, here's the one ESPN posted.

And Again

Anyone still on the fence about seeing Serenity should check this out. It's the first 9 minutes of the movie, in surprisingly good quality for something being streamed off of the web. I found the link on the blog for the comic Yirmumah, and it changed his mind. Why not yours?

Orson Scott Card Review

Here's a pretty cool review of Serenity by Orson Scott Card, sci-fi author extraordinaire (thanks for the tip Blake!). He brings up some very good points, some of which I couldn't have hoped to articulate on my own. Fitting, with him being a writer and all. Anyhow, it's good stuff, you should read it.

Serenity, Redux

[Music] Motion City Soundtrack – Indoor Living

With all of my talk about this movie, you would think I would've posted something about it immediately after I saw it. You would think that, wouldn't you? Well, I've been lazy, so here it is. I got to see it last Saturday night with Jason and Blake, and it was damn cool. Lots of action, the wit that we've come to expect (and it's not all dialogue either), a cool story and a pretty neat villain. Whedon could've easily gone with some generic sneering guy and probably gotten away with it, but instead we get Mr. Ice-Cold Badass.

I liked the introduction of the movie, as it quickly established the setting and its circumstances. The whole thing had a nice layered effect, starting in the distant past and moving closer to the story's present in very smooth strokes. Kind of a cohesive stream-of-consciousness. If you haven't watched the series, be sure to pay attention to this part, as there is a good amount of info being thrown at you. That was also one of the advantages to this movie: you're brought into the movie's world without being bogged down with an overabundance of exposition. You get a feel for the characters and the overall story, but you don't get hammered with all of the details that were laid out in the series. There are many times that things are left unsaid, but you can glean a good amount about them from the character's dialogue and interactions. The relationship between Mal and Inara, for example. It's never said exactly what that relationship is, but their conversations reveal a veneer of antagonism painted over a palpable tension.

The interactions of some of the characters seemed a bit crunchier in the movie. A good bit more conflict, especially between Simon and Mal. It's to be expected, I guess, being stuck on a ship for a year with a doctor who has the equivalent of a ticking time bomb in his ward. Tension amongst the crew has always been there, but it just seemed a bit more pronounced here.

I only have three complaints about the movie. Actually, "complaint" is kind of a strong word. "Qualms" might work better. 1.) River's rescue from the Alliance at the beginning of the movie is executed by Simon. In the series, Simon paid some mercenary guys to free her. It's more exciting by the movie's interpretation, and blends into the story better, but I thought the discrepancy was worth mentioning. 2.) The beginning of the movie took a little getting used to due to the color scheme. (I said it was a qualm, didn't I?) In the series, the cargo hold of Serenity was much warmer and more inviting, being cast in an array of reds and browns. In the movie, it's all blues and grays, which, while matching the coloring of the rest of the ship's interior, makes it seem colder. The characters and their interactions were still there, but it felt slightly off. 3.) They left out a fair amount of the "Western" feel that permeated the series. It was strong at the beginning during the bank heist, but it kinda petered off after that. Then again, with the story they were telling, there really wasn't much of a place for it.

One odd note I keep seeing in reviews are comparisons to Star Wars. I guess you might have a resemblance there, with Serenity sitting in as an impromtu Millienum Falcon and Mal as the troubled Han Solo-type. The effects aren't as good in Serenity as they are in the recent Star Wars series, but that's about the only strike it's got against it in comparison. The characters are well developed, and the performances aren't wooden (at best) or laughable (at worst). The universe is there, and the sociopolitical aspects are better presented in Serenity, not to mention a bit more tangible, since we're dealing with the repercussions of Chinese and Western cultures merging, not lightsabers and the Force.

Newbie or not, I would highly recommend you go see this movie. Hell, I really wouldn't mind seeing it again myself. It's a damn good time, and if you like sci-fi in the least, you should go check it out.