Kristen Dunst - Turning Japanese MUSIC VIDEO

I know I am a few days behind, the quality is horrible and this will probably get taken down but it is still stuck in my head...

A-Rod: Yankees need Jeter

Alex Rodriguez can't imagine life without Derek Jeter in pinstripes. "Derek Jeter was born to be a Yankee and he was born to wear pinstripes," Rodriguez told a gathering of media. "He's our captain and we need him here. I envision he'll finish his career here. I can't envision him wearing any other uniform."

That's a far cry from Rodriguez's 2001 comments to Esquire when he said the Captain "has never had to lead. He can just go and play and have fun." He drew from the Yankees' past glories when he also told the magazine, "You go into New York, you want to stop Bernie [Williams] and [Paul] O'Neill. You never say, 'Don't let Derek beat us.' He's never your concern," he said.

From New York Daily "News"

Just Because Lee Mentioned Him A Few Days Ago...

found on Geek Orthodox by Reis O'Brien

Random Image Time

My Google Reader is FULL of stuff that I don't always comprehend. It is a combination of sites I try to follow and keep up with, people I follow because they follow me on one of these many sites I belong to, or it is stuff someone I have connected with thinks I might like and they share it with the world.

To that end, a woman in England named Eve often shares the contents of a site devoted to cross stitching, but always with a twist (sometimes NSFW). It is from there that the below image comes from.

This stitch is a tribute to the late and hilarious Mitch Hedberg, based on this bit.

A Blast From My Past

So I recently set up a Google Alerts with my name. I am curious where stuff I do gets spread around out there. I was pleasantly surprised to see this. The original, signed resolution hangs in my classroom!

Red Sox Numbers

Joy of Sox published this list of uniform numbers for your 2010 Red Sox.

 2 - Jacoby Ellsbury (changed from 46)
11 - Clay Buchholz (changed from 61)
16 - Marco Scutaro
22 - Bill Hall
23 - Mike Cameron
28 - Dave Magadan (changed from 29)
29 - Adrian Beltre
30 - Boof Bonser
32 - Jeremy Hermida
40 - John Lackey
46 - Joe Nelson
50 - Ron Johnson (1B coach)
55 - Brian Shouse
70 - Tug Hulett

97 - Kyle Weiland (highest # in camp)

I am glad that there is none of that Joe Girardi nonsense going on.  Even though I know I am biased, it seems soooooo childish!  

An e-mail I received recently...

I love the GoodReads site. I use it to track the books I have read and occasionally to get recommendations from people I trust. There is a "social" component to it, where you can "friend" other people and follow each other's reviews. There are also a number of authors on the site, too. It was there I first became "friends" with Dave Cullen.

Now, it was Dave Cullen who reached out to me, on the GoodReads site, to push a Q & A session he was "hosting" to discuss his marvelous book "Columbine". I had recently read and reviewed it on the site. He apparently tracks those who write about his books and engages those people. He never asked, but I did some shout outs on Twitter for him pushing the book and the Q & A session and eventually connected with him on Facebook.

All in all, a nice guy and a pleasant experience with him to date.

Recently I received the below e-mail. Now besides it revealing that I am WAY behind on my e-mail and am one of probably a dozen people still using AOL, it shows what authors need to do today to get their books read.

The e-mail reads:

You have received a book recommendation from Lesley Livingston!

Darklight (Wondrous Strange, #2)
by Lesley Livingston

"Since you liked The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, you might be interested in Darklight by Lesley Livingston. "Fans of Livingston's first book, Wondrous Strange (2009), won't want to miss this action-packed sequel... Bad-boy Fennrys adds an interesting wrinkle in Kelley’s devoted but increasingly strained relationship with Sonny... Readers will anxiously await the concluding volume." — BOOKLIST"

A few things jump to mind....

First, I did NOT like "The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins". As a matter of fact, rereading my review, I bemoan the fact that the book is a "series" starter and the fact it is so bleak.

Second, the above description for this book reads very "Twilight-esque", another series for which I am probably not the target audience.

Third, Ms. Livingston is the second most followed author on GoodReads. However, she and I are not "friends" at this time. While comparing books (a feature GoodReads offers to let you determine your compatibility), four of the ten we compared were books Ms. Livingstone wrote!

Now, I am not sure where I am going with all of this, as given the fact Ms. Livingstone is wearing a Flash t-shirt in her GoodReads profile pic, I'll probably friend her anyway. It just struck me as an interesting snapshot on the state of book publishing, where authors need to track down readers. I liken it to some local "band" sending you links to their music on iTunes.

Totoro is in Toy Story 3!

I am not sure if it is just a cameo, but according to an item on Topless Robot, Totoro is making a guest appearance in Toy Story 3!

NOW I am glad Logan woke me up early this morning! I might have missed this in my Google Reader, otherwise!

Today is the first day of vacation. Logan woke up earlier than he does on a school day, when you need to drag him out of bed. I'm a little tired, as I went out with some fellow teachers last night to celebrate the end of this stretch of school. I wasn't out long but enough to be....tired...this morning.

That being said, I have not seen Robert Altman's "Popeye" in a very long time, but for some reason this song was stuck in my head when I woke up.

And I am feeling a little babbly this morning. I am not sure why. I had a good blogpost in my head yesterday morning when I couldn't sleep at around 4:00 am, but instead of getting up and writing it, I let it slip away.

I think I will spend some time reading some of your blogs and some Facebook stuff more closely this morning. With some cursory looks yesterday, I finally figured out why VASmacky has Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso time on his wonderful blog, was reminded that The Armchair Squid was born in Japan, and BubbaShelby remains far funnier and cleverer in his MANY blogs than any one person should be allowed.

So, I've got no real ending for this. I need my wife to wake up so I can have some coffee. I need to find a hotel room in Albany for next weekend. And I've got the whole day ahead of me!

The Start of Reality TV?

Click to SUPER-size it.

The Sinatra Letter

Click to embiggen

Click here to read the whole story...

Happy Valentine's Day

This one seemed appropriate....

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here are some old Valentine Day cards from the late 80's*.

*Not really. I found them on tumblr a while ago.

Happy Birthday, President Lincoln!

Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery.

My Favorite Commercial So Far....

Toyriffic: Smallville Absolute Justice JSA Painting

Toyriffic: Smallville Absolute Justice JSA Painting

The contents were arranged by special permission so a link seemed safer. Ties in to my last post nicely. Doubly so since Bubba was the first to alert me to the show!

Letting My Geek* Flag Fly

I recently realized that a lot of the blogs I follow through Google Reader and most of the tumblogs on my Dashboard are trending more and more into the realm of comic books while I wait for baseball season to start again. A while back I had started to notice a lot of people getting excited for an upcoming episode of "Smallville", the series that is "re-imagining" the Superman mythos.

Now while I still buy comic books, I don't tend to watch any of the television shows that are geared for comic book fans. Don't get me wrong, back in the day I watched so much "Star Trek: The Next Generation" that when my wife flipped past an episode two nights ago, I was able to name it from a snippet of dialogue I heard and then extensively quote O'Brien's scene in Ten Forward ("It's not you I hate, Cardassian. I hate what I became... because of you. ").

So while I've seen a random "Battlestar Galactica" or two, these days I just don't have a lot of TV watching time in my schedule and reserve it for shows both Nan and I enjoy.

All that being said, I couldn't pass up the chance to see an episode of "Smallville" that was being written by Geoff Johns, the go to guy at DC right now, and was to feature characters (in costume) that appeared in some of the first comic books I ever bought (All-Star Squadron) AND was being billed as a "Movie Event".

We gave it a whirl on Saturday night, after The Penguin plunge. I've got to say it was an enjoyable romp. I thought the casting was dead on, even in the non-speaking newsreel footage roles. The costumes weren't overly cheesy, while I thought Dr. Fate's was really good...except it did suffer from the "cross-eyes" effect at times. The script was tight and provided me with lots of "cool" moments as a comic fan. As a casual viewer of this particualr show, I never felt too lost with back story and felt that devoted fans were probably tossed a nugget or two that kept them happy.

While this episode won't necessarily make me a regular viewer, it felt like time well spent and will have me checking other people's blogs for a heads up when the show does something fun like this again.

It also got me excited for what can be done for the big screen, with a bigger budget, longer lead time, better filming equipment and so on. And I think it showed that the somewhat garish costumes CAN indeed translate to the big screen. It actually looked odd for the Superman character to be dressed in black (like "The Matrix" or "The X-Men" movies) while everyone else was wearing the colored spandex.

*I went back and forth between "geek" and "nerd" here. While I use both to describe myself, I know there are some who don't like one or the other. I asked my wife which was less "offensive" and she said "geek". And she would know, being far geekier than me....she just hides it a WHOLE lot better!

What I Read...Tonight!

Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend by Mélanie Watt


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
My son brought this Red Clover nominee home from the library today. Apparently there is a series of books starring Scaredy Squirrel. This one would be a great story to share with a youngster who is slightly shy or an over-worrier.Delightfully illustrated and filled with sly humor.

View all my reviews >>

For Science Class Today...

That's right, woodchuck-chuckers...it's GROUNDHOG DAY!

"It's still just once a year, right?"