MobileMe FAIL: homepage.mac.com is Down

As many of you know, I switched from iWeb to blogger for my blogging needs a few months back because MobileMe was a non-stop series of FAILs. However, because I'm still paying $99 a year for my MobileMe account, and it still has 20 GB of storage (well, 19 for files, and 1 for mail), I've been using it as a no-frills file host for my various web sites.

So, imagine my surprise when I came to my site earlier today and saw no background image. Well, after clicking around a little bit, it turns out homepage.mac.com is down.

I've already switched the file location on the background image, but the Buffy section and the Media Library are too big to move quickly. So I just have to hope Apple isn't too busy with the iPad launch to fix this problem. If you see anything wonky on the site, just let me know.

UPDATE (6:30 PM): Everything seems to be working again. No explanation from Apple about why the downtime occurred, but since homepage.mac.com file hosting isn't a well-advertised feature of MobileMe, that's not really a shock.

Series of Tubes: Lost "The Package" Recap/Reaction

For five years, I've been a critic of Jin/Sun heavy episodes because of their reliance on subtitles (I like to multitask when I watch TV, and I can't do that when I have to read TV too). And for all of this season, I've been a critic of the mysterious flash-sideways scenes that don't seem to connect to the Island universe.

But on Tuesday night, I just didn't care about either of those things, because the latest episode of "Lost", "The Package" was so well-crafted. As you could probably surmise from the preceding paragraph, this episode was about Jin and Sun. In both the island universe and the flash-sideways (which, if we're getting technical, is actually a flashback, since the island is believed to be in 2007, while the LA-verse is still in 2004) Jin and Sun wanted to be together but were being kept apart by forces beyond their control.

Let's take the LA universe first. In that world, Jin and Sun aren't married, something that was believed after this season's pilot and confirmed Tuesday. However, they are still together, against the wishes of Sun's father -- who, just like in the universe we know, is Jin's employer. Sun's father has sent Jin to America with $25,000 in cash, which causes him to be detained at LAX. Later, we find out that $25,000 was actually Martin Keamy's fee for killing Jin, who Sun's father wants dead for sleeping with Sun. This leads to Jin being taken by Keamy and his men, where his flash-sideways eventually meets up with the scene we saw at the end of Sayid's flash-sideways. Sayid doesn't exactly free Jin, but he gives him the boxcutter by which he frees himself. Eventually Keamy's associate -- one-eyed Mikail, who in this universe has both of his eyes -- brings Sun to the restaurant where Keamy was supposed to be killing Jin, but finds Keamy knocked out. Jin gets the drop on him, and kills him by shooting him through the eye. However, in the gun fight... well, actually I'm gonna save that for the end...

Desktop Girl of the Week: Jen Friel

Well, this one is long overdue. It's time to give my nerdy buddy some recognition, and make @JenFriel the Desktop Girl of the Week.

For those that don't know Jen, she's... well... she really defies definition. She's been an actress, a model and is now in charge of the nerd revolution that is TalkNerdytoMeLover.com (and yes, I'm a contributor there, so I'm biased, but I don't care).

If you think you recognize Jen, well, it's probably because she did a series of Snorg Tees ads a few years back and still occasionally shows up in one of those skyscraper ads that appear on various web sites (don't lie, you've clicked on them before, and not just to check out the T-shirts). Jen also had a run as Suitcase #16 on the syndicated version of "Deal or No Deal" (to clarify, she was the model holding the suitcase, not the suitcase itself. She's not a Transformer, as far as I know).

Series of Tubes: "Castle" Reaction (or how to ruin an event in one minute)

Let me get this out of the way up front: I really enjoyed the two-week "Castle" event. Last week's episode was great, balancing the traditional "Castle" fun humor with seriously tense drama and building to an incredible cliffhanger. The second part, which aired about an hour ago on the East Coast (and isn't airing for awhile on the West Coast, so, um, I guess "spoiler alert") was so good that I'm completely willing to forgive the absurdity of Beckett surviving the bomb blast in her apartment by hiding in her lead-lined bathtub.

What I'm not willing to forgive is the ending, which really just left a sour taste in my mouth after what was two hours of great television. For the majority of the two hours, the episodes centered around Beckett and Castle, and the serial killer with an unhealthy obsession with the Nikki Heat character (based on Beckett, created by Castle). There were a handful of Castle-at-home scenes thrown in, including one that provided another of those trademark "what did you say"moments where something random Alexis said leads Castle to break the case.

But those scenes weren't what the episode was about, which is why it was so weird to see the second part of the episode end with a scene between Castle, his daughter and his mother. It almost felt like the writers realized they forgot to wrap up the whole "Castle's mother moving out but hanging on" storyline, so they tacked it on to the end. It wasn't a terrible scene by any means, but it wasn't up to the quality of the rest of the episode, it came out of nowhere, and it seemed to "cut off" rather than come to a sensible ending. I went back and watched it again to see if I missed something, and I'm pretty sure I didn't. The scene just doesn't make sense where it's placed in the episode.

Jersey Monday: Mario Lemieux

I was planning on having this be a college hoops related Jersey Monday, in honor of the Final Four being set, but of the 14 college hoops jerseys I own, 0 of them are from Butler, Tennessee, Michigan State or Duke, so let's just move on to another sport...

How about hockey?

I haven't done an NHL-related Jersey Monday yet, mostly because I don't own many NHL jerseys. This Mario Lemieux classic is one of just seven in my collection, and four of those are Pittsburgh Penguins jerseys. I didn't count myself as a Penguins fan until the late '90s, specifically after the Hartford Whalers left town. With no more local team to root for, I ended up with the Penguins, mostly because of my family's Pittsburgh roots and because they had Ron Francis, who had been my favorite Whaler. Now I've got two Lemieux jerseys, one Jagr and one that's blank on the back (the "alternate" from a couple years ago when they brought back the skating penguin before making it their official home jersey).

Despite the old school look of this one (you can't see the front, but it's the original skating penguin logo from the mid-'80s), I didn't get this jersey until very recently. I picked it up online for about $45. It's not a real authentic (and trust me, with hockey jerseys, you can tell the difference), but at that price I couldn't pass it up. Eventually I'll get a real NHL authentic, and that'll probably be a Penguins jersey too. But if I do that, I'll go with Malkin over Crosby. As much as I want to, I just can't like Crosby. I'd blame it on him scoring the gold-medal winning goal against Team USA, but my anti-Crosby stance pre-dates that. He's just an ass (but don't tell any Capitals fans I said that, mostly because I think Ovie is an ass too).

My Twitter Pet Peeves

I'll admit, I used to be one of those people who thought Twitter was stupid, that it was just a tool for people to overshare the mundane tasks of their daily lives while pretending to be friends with celebrities (OMG! I'm following Ashton Kutcher! That means we're BFF!)

But last year I started using it for work-related purposes, then decided to start my own account, and slowly but surely I came around to realize the benefits of a micro-blogging service, where I can send out my quick thoughts on sports, music, movies, or yes, even the mundane tasks of my daily life (note: I try to avoid these updates as much as possible, or at least add context beyond a boring play-by-play of what I'm doing).

Still, there are some aspects of Twitter that still annoy me to no end, and since I've got more than 140 characters to use here on AdamReisinger.com, I'm going to use them.

- Followers who insist that you follow them back, and get angry when you don't.
You know who I'm talking about: the random person that follows you out of nowhere, then sends you a message along the lines of "@adamreisinger, how bout follow 4 follow?". 95 percent of the time, when you actually check this person's Twitter profile, their last 20 messages are nothing but that same exact message sent to 20 different people, and no matter how far you go back in their timeline all they ever send out are requests to be followed, and notifications that they're not following someone anymore. If I'm going to follow you, you need to add SOMETHING to my timeline. Also, if you check my following list, you'll notice certain themes among who I'm following, and generally, if you don't fit one of those themes, then I'm probably not going to follow you. It's nothing personal, it's just I have certain uses for Twitter, and like to keep my following list dedicated to those uses.

This Week in Buffy History: March 28-April 3

March 28
1968: Max Perlich born (played Whistler in Season 2)

March 30
1965: Juliet Landau born (played Drusilla)

March 31
1997 - Episode 1.5 “Never Kill a Boy on the First Date” airs on The WB

April 2
2003 - Angel Episode 4.17 “Inside Out” airs on The WB

"Lost" Plus "Buffy"? Yes Please!

I was just informed of this great post by EW.com PopWatch Blogger Jeff "Doc" Jensen in response to this week's episode of "Lost", and let me just say I'm intrigued. The Island as a "cork" of sorts, keeping a Hellmouth from opening? That's awesome. A "Lost"/"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" crossover might be the greatest thing to ever happen in my life.

Now, Doc Jensen obviously isn't serious about this, but, given what we know about both shows, is it possible? Absolutely. It's been established in the Buffy-verse that there is more than one Hellmouth, most notably in "The Wish" and "Chosen", where the Cleveland Hellmouth is referenced (and yes, I, as a Cavs fan, take some offense to Cleveland being on a Hellmouth. It's not that bad, really.).

And "Lost" could easily take place in the same world as "Buffy". Think about it. Hurley and Miles can communicate with the dead. Sayid and Claire mysteriously came back to life. There's a black smoke "demon" that can take the form of the deceased, just like The First.

Imagine this scenario: sometime in the 1500s, the Watcher's Council becomes aware of a Hellmouth somewhere in the South Pacific. They attempt to defend the Hellmouth via traditional means (the dispatching of a slayer) but are unsuccessful in stopping the flow of demonic activity. So, in a last ditch effort to contain the Hellmouth, they invoke powerful magic, corking the Hellmouth with an island. A side effect of the spell is that the Hellmouth is now un-stuck in time and space, making direct travel to the island nearly impossible.

Before the Watchers could completely close the Hellmouth, one incredibly powerful demon -- the Black Smoke Monster -- escaped. However, he was trapped by the Council's spell. Upon discovering this, the Council dispatched a powerful warlock -- Jacob -- to keep the Smoke Demon in check and prevent him from re-opening the Hellmouth.

Imagine the post-"Lost" crossover possibilities. Jack and Angel have a brood-off. Sawyer and Spike team up to see whose "runner-up in love" story is better. Buffy and Kate share tips on how to keep two men pining for you long after they should have given up. Walt and Dawn swap "I was kidnapped by evil people" stories. Ben and Giles compare dark pasts and leadership abilities.

Again, I have ZERO belief that this is the actual "solution" to Lost (if there even is such a thing), but if this were to happen, I'd be in Nerd Heaven. Nerd-vana? The Garden of Nerd-en? Whatever. It'd be awesome.

Friday Five - Commercials I Wish Would Never Air Again

As you can probably tell from reading my blog, I watch a LOT of TV. And, despite our modern technological advances, I end up watching a lot of commercials. Some of them actually register positively with me, some of them just wash over me and some of them I'm just indifferent about.

Then, there are those rare ads -- getting much less rare -- that make me want to throw my remote through my TV, then pick up the TV and throw it through my window. These are the five (and trust me, it was VERY difficult to narrow this list to five) that currently consistently piss me off.

5. Verizon - Big Red

I already hate the "there's a map for that" ads, but now Verizon has taken it to a whole new level by using the old "Big Red" song from those cheesy '80s gum commercials. I hate you Verizon and hope your phones continue to suck.

4. Southwest - Battle Cry

The irony of this shit-tastic commercial. Most of these fatasses (and I use that term nicely, since I am one), wouldn't be able to fly on Southwest without buying an extra ticket.

3. Subway - $5 Footlong

Five... five dollar... five dol- SHUT THE FUCK UP! Everyone on the FUCKING planet knows how much your subs cost now. I will NOT eat at Subway again until they stop this campaign.

2. Progressive - Any of the "Flo" Ads

At some point, I'm gonna snap and hit Flo in the face. And for about 3 seconds I'll be really happy, until I realize I've destroyed my TV and my hand is bleeding. It'll still be worth it.

1. Any AT&T Ad with Luke Wilson

Did you know if you search "Luke Wilson Please Stop" on Google, my site is the first thing that comes up. There's a reason for that. I've been a Luke Wilson hater since these ads first started running. It was bad enough when they were just anti-Verizon, but now it seems like he's branched out to every possible service offered by AT&T. Look, AT&T, here's the deal. I enjoy my U-Verse service. I enjoy my iPhone. I'd like to not be reminded of fat Luke Wilson acting like a douchebag every time I go to use them.

Just Missed the Cut: The UPS ads with Captain Draw-a-Lot, Taco Bell's "shrimp blogger" (seafood at Taco Bell? Um, worst idea ever)

College Coach Yelling at Reporter is Nothing New

So a couple days ago, a reporter down in Florida made some news when he quoted a Gators wide receiver as saying it would be nice to play with a "real quarterback" this year. The reporter, Jeremy Fowler, then got chewed out by Urban Meyer at practice yesterday. You remember Urban Meyer, right? The former Florida coach who retired...resigned... took a leave of absence... relaxed for five minutes.... apparently never left the program and hasn't changed at all despite saying he would try and reduce his stress levels this season.

Meyer had this to say to Fowler, caught on film by Gatorbait.net:

You'll be out of practice - you understand that? - if you do that again. I told you five years ago: Don't mess with our players. Don't do it. You did it. You do it one more time and the Orlando Sentinel's not welcome here ever again. Is that clear? It's yes or no."

Fowler responded:

"Urban, come on. Don't make any threats," I said. "That's fine. I'll play by rules. But all I was doing is quoting the guy. I don't think I was the only one."

And Meyer finished with:

"You're a bad guy, man," Meyer said. "You're a bad guy."

I think my biggest complaint about Meyer's actual response isn't his personal threat at Fowler (which, I truly doubt he'd ever follow up on), but his threat to ban the Orlando Sentinel. If he actually followed up on that, then I'd suggest that the Sentinel and other members of the Associated Press refuse to vote for Florida in the AP Top 25 poll.

Also, I've seen people arguing both ways regarding whether Fowler was right or wrong to write his original blog post, but what's more interesting (at least to me) is the sentiment from a lot of the sports media that "if you haven't been yelled at by a coach then you're not doing your job right."

Thoughts on "The Guild" Issue #1

As I mentioned in yesterday's "Desktop Girl of the Week" post, I'm just getting into "The Guild", so I didn't know exactly what to expect when I picked up the first issue of the Dark Horse comic based on Felicia Day's popular web series. So I was pleased to discover that not only was the comic a prequel to the web series (something of an origin story for Day's Cyd/Codex character) but was also entirely relatable.

The majority of the comics I read fall squarely in the superhero genre, and the rest are "Buffy" related, so it's not like my standard monthly reading is full of characters who are going to remind me of me, but Cyd does that. I actually enjoyed seeing her go through her little self-pity period, questioning who she was, in part because I knew she was going to come out better for it on the other end (that's the benefit of this being a prequel) but also because I think so many of us go through the same thing in our lives.

The story is written by Day herself, so it obviously does a great job of capturing not just the essence of her character, but the quirks and dialogue too. In reading the book, you can really hear Day's voice coming through. In fact, some of the book's script sounds better if you imagine Felicia's voice in your head, since her tone doesn't always translate perfectly to the printed word.

Series of Tubes: Lost "Ab Aeterno" Reaction

How does that phrase go? "Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it."? Or is that a Pussycat Dolls lyric? Either way, for five-plus years, I've been demanding answers of "Lost", but in Tuesday's episode, we a lot of answers, some of which I didn't really want.

The episode centered around Richard Alpert's background: how he came to the island, why he doesn't age, and his relationship with Jacob and the Man in Black. And while the episode was chock full of answers to all our questions about Richard, it kind of took the mystery away from the one character I was hoping would remain mysterious.

I tend to think of Richard as Lost's version of Shepherd Book from "Firefly". He's a spiritual leader who isn't exactly what he seems to be, with a background that no one quite knows. In Book's case, there were lots of hints to a dark past, coming to a head with this exchange in "Serenity", the post-"Firefly" theatrical movie:

Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: It's of interest to me how much you seem to know about that world.
Shepherd Book: I wasn't born a shepherd, Mal.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: You have to tell me about that sometime.
Shepherd Book: [pause] No, I don't.

I loved that Joss Whedon made the decision that Book's history would remain a mystery (no rhyme intended), though that's eventually changing with a soon-to-be-released comic from Dark Horse. And not only would I have been fine with J.J. Abrams keeping Richard Alpert's background a secret, I think it would have been cooler.

Pixar and Blu-ray: A Perfect Match

"Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2" came out on Blu-ray today, and despite the fact that I already have both on DVD, I bought both of them. Normally I'm not a DVD-to-Blu-ray upgrader, but Pixar movies are my one notable exception.

Now, I could go on and on about how well-crafted Pixar movies are, how they're incredible stories, how some of them rank among my favorite movies of all time, but that's not what this post is about. No, this is about how GOOD a Pixar movie looks on Blu-ray.

When the current generation of high definition movies started to come out, I was impressed with the picture quality, but it wasn't until I saw my first Pixar movie on Blu-ray that I was really blown away. The colors on a computer-animated movie in high definition just pop on the screen. The worlds that the Pixar animators create were designed for a format like this, because literally everything in the movie is digital from start to finish.

I remember when "Finding Nemo" first came out on DVD, that was my go-to movie for showing off how good DVD could look (especially because of the ocean scene screensavers they included on the disc). And while the "Toy Story" Blu-rays don't look quite as good as "WALL•E" (which I think is the best-looking Pixar Blu-ray), they don't look dated at all, even though the first one came out in 1995. I've got a handful of non-new release movies on Blu-ray and none of them come even close to the quality of a Pixar release.

The other nice thing about the "Toy Story" release is it means we're down to two Pixar movies that have yet to be released on Blu-ray: "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles". Unfortunately neither has a release date that I can find as of yet, but I'm sure they're both due within the next year or so. While there are other catalog releases I'm still anticipating on Blu-ray (the "Star Wars" and "Lord of the Rings" trilogies come to mind), those two movies are definitely near the top of the list.

Desktop Girl of the Week: Felicia Day

When I was looking through the Desktop Girl of the Week gallery trying to spark ideas on who this week's selection would be, I noticed that all the picks since I re-started this feature last month have been television actresses. So I tried hard to find someone from outside the world of TV to go with this week, but I kept coming back to Felicia Day -- which is helpful, since Felicia is so much more than a TV actress.

Like many people, my first exposure to Felicia was her role as Vi, one of the slayer potentials on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Of course, I didn't actually see the episodes until two years after they aired, but for some reason, I've been late to the game on pretty much everything Felicia Day has ever done -- and pretty much everything she's done has been awesome (well, unless you count "Bring It On Again", which sadly, I do, because, sadly, I've seen it).

I didn't see "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog", in which she played the adorable Penny, until about a year after it debuted on the web. And, not surprisingly, I fell in love with it when I did finally see it (though, not all the credit goes to Felicia on that, since I'm also an unabashed NPH fan and think Nathan Fillion might be the coolest dude ever). I've just started watching her web series, "The Guild", which debuted back in 2007. Yeah, I'm behind, but it's pretty awesome.

How Zydrunas Ilgauskas Made Me a Cavs Fan

Zydrunas Ilgauskas is expected to re-sign with the Cavaliers today, and over on LeBron2010.info, I'll have the analysis, how this affects the Cavs, LeBron, etc. But here, I wanted to take some time to share how Zydrunas Ilgauskas has made me a Cavs fan.

I've written about this before, but when I started following the team in 2003, I had no intention of becoming a Cavaliers fan. I was a LeBron James fan, and I fully planned on following him to whatever team he ended up with, without really getting attached to that team. I still told myself, and anyone who would ask, that was the case, but come this past February, I realized it was no longer true.


When Ilgauskas was traded my first thought as a LeBron fan should have been "wow, this is great for LeBron. He'll definitely win a championship now." But it wasn't. Instead it was "wow, it would suck if the Cavs finally won a championship and Z wasn't a part of it." And yes, I'm aware that nothing that's happened in the last two months has guaranteed a championship for Cleveland, but my mindset had completely changed. In 2003, I just wanted LeBron James to win a championship. Then, at some point, that became wanting to see LeBron James win a championship in Cleveland. Now the mindset is "I want to see the Cleveland Cavaliers win a championship, and I want Zydrunas Ilgauskas to be there when they do it."

Ilgauskas is the last link to the pre-LeBron Cavs, and given what he's had to go through in his career -- with major foot problems that nearly derailed his career 10 years ago -- he deserves a championship as much as any player in this league. I'm happy that he's back in Cleveland, not just to help LeBron, but to be part of a special Cavaliers team.

Series of Tubes: How I Met Your Mother "Say Cheese" Reaction

Given how many serialized shows I watch, sometimes it's nice to just sit back and watch 22 minutes of stupid hilarity, and that's exactly what this week's "How I Met Your Mother" gave to me. Sure, there wasn't any "mother" related stuff this week, but, ya know what, I don't always need that. In fact, I think "How I Met Your Mother" is at its best when it's not doing that.

Throughout the five seasons of "HIMYM" (I'm tired of typing the whole damn name), the most memorable episodes for me have been the ones that revolve around some relatively random thing. Think the "slap bet" episodes, or the ones with Robin's Canadian pop star past, or the bro code. Sure, they had nothing to do with Ted's long-term romance, but they made me laugh.

In Monday's episode, Lily was having her birthday party, and Ted brought a random skank -- Lily's word, not mine, and the show might have set a record for the most uses of the word "skank" during a network primetime comedy -- and Lily didn't want the skank in the group picture. Ted was upset by this, until Lily brought out her photo album showing the group pictures through the years with the group and Ted's random skanks (and if you think I'm gonna stop using that word any time soon, you're sorely mistaken).

Jersey Monday: Dwight Gooden

So for the first two days of the NCAA Tournament every year, my workplace lets us wear jerseys of our favorite teams to work. They don't have to be college hoops jerseys, so you get to see a whole bunch of jersey diversity in the workplace. In past years I've done a lot of LeBron James and Redskins wearing, but this year (after rocking LeBron on Thursday) I went with my Dwight Gooden 1986 Mets jersey.

Obviously, if this had been a jersey I purchased in 1986, it wouldn't come close to fitting me. But I bought this jersey in 2004, along with two other Mitchell and Ness jerseys (you can read all about it in this blog post from that day). I've rarely worn it since then, because I really enjoy keeping it in crisp condition. It's a very nice jersey, with the over-sized nameplate and the Mets 25th anniversary patch on the sleeve, and obviously represents the most recent (I refuse to say "last") Mets World Series title.

Gooden was obviously a phenom who burned out way too fast, but he was never my favorite player on those '80s Mets teams. No, that was Keith Hernandez, who, in addition to wearing my favorite number, played my little league position and had that sweet mustache. And if I'd set out to buy an '86 Mets jersey, it would have been Hernandez's, but I never anticipated randomly coming across a Gooden Mitchell & Ness jersey at a local store. And given that I rarely wear baseball jerseys, I don't anticipate dropping $250 on a Hernandez jersey anytime soon (then again, it has been almost six years since I purchased the Gooden jersey, so I'm not sure this qualifies as "soon" anymore).

Jersey Monday will continue every Monday until I run out of jerseys to spotlight. And since I’ve got more than 150 of them, that could be awhile. And yes, I promise that eventually I'll spotlight a baseball jersey that ISN'T a Mets jersey.

Series of Tubes: "FlashForward" Returns to Low Ratings

When I wrote my "returning from hiatus" entry last week, I wondered why more shows weren't returning this week, like "FlashForward" was. And then Thursday came around, and I remembered why.

Going up against the first day of the NCAA Tournament, the two-hour spring premiere of "FlashForward" got destroyed in the ratings, posting a new series-low and grabbing just over half the viewers that this fall's series premiere drew in. And it resulted in me not watching the episode until Sunday, which means I'm not getting around to sharing my thoughts until now. 

The episode itself was solid, but suffered from the same problem that crept up during FlashFoward's 10-episode run in the fall: too many characters. The main story was sort of a triangle of revelations between Agent Mark Benford, Lloyd Simcoe and Simon Campos, detailing more of Benford's FlashForward while also revealing what happened to Simon during the blackout (SPOILER ALERT: he was awake and was partially involved in the blackout plot, and has been involved in some way since he was 13 years old. So now we've at least got a real bad guy on the show). That story was interesting and captivated me. There were side stories that tangentially related to the main story, specifically the one with FBI agents Demetri Noh and Marshall Vogal (Michael Ealy, who has joined the cast in a regular role), and Janis (the lesbian FBI agent who saw herself pregnant in her FlashForward) continually being given the slip by Dr. Campos. Those weren't terrible, and are to be expected in a two-hour episode.

This Week in Buffy History: March 21-27

March 24
1974: Alyson Hannigan born (played Willow)

March 25
1997: Episode 1.04 “Teacher’s Pet” airs on The WB
2003: Episode 7.17 “Lies My Parents Told Me” airs on UPN

March 26
2003: Angel Episode 4.16 “Players” airs on The WB

March 27
1971: Nathan Fillion born (played Caleb in Season 7)

Series of Tubes: Hiatuses Coming to an End

FlashForward returns to the airwaves in an hour (at least, in the Eastern and Central Time Zones) after more than three months off the air (not counting Tuesday's recap episode), marking the beginning of the returns of a lot of sci-fi type shows, most of which had some level of critical acclaim in the fall, but also their fair share of problems.

So let's take a look at the upcoming schedule and see which shows are coming back to my TV schedule in the next few weeks.

FlashForward
Last episode: Dec. 3, 2009; Next episode: Tonight
The way this show was spiraling out of control, it definitely needed to take a break and get things back on track, but I think three and a half months was a little too long. For the first few weeks after the show disappeared from ABC's schedule, I was missing it, but at some point since 2010 began, I moved on. The characters were so one-dimensional that there was nothing keeping me hooked from week-to-week, outside of the main story of the blackout. And even that was handled poorly (with a fumbling revelation in one episode, then some conspiracy confusion). I think this show will survive the rest of the season, but a 2010-11 pickup seems unlikely at this point.

The Vampire Diaries
Last episode: Feb. 11, 2010; Next episode: March 25, 2010
This show hasn't been away that long, but because of the way the last episode ended -- with the revelation that Katherine wasn't in the tomb, which means she's probably alive out there somewhere -- I've been anticipating its return. After a disappointing start, this show has really picked up in its last few episodes, and I'm excited to see where they take the story from here, particularly if more of the vampires in the tomb can somehow awaken and escape. 

Bracket Perfection

Well, since this will only be true for another few minutes, I might as well write it now: I have a perfect bracket.

Somehow, I managed to pick the first five games of the NCAA Tournament correctly, despite the fact I watched almost no college basketball this season. I guess that means that this year, I'm that guy who just fills out the bracket at random and hopes for the best -- you know, that douche that always ends up winning your office pool and says things like "wow, I didn't expect this at all" or "I didn't even know who was on that team."

Well, I didn't expect this at all. And I didn't know who was on Murray State (and at one point today, I couldn't even remember their nickname). So yeah, I'm holding out hope for a championship this year.

"Charmed" Comic? Count me... out?

For those of you who've know me for awhile, you know my love affair with the show "Charmed". I once bought a set of episodes on VHS, including the original pilot with Lori Rom as Phoebe (she was replaced by Alyssa Milano for the actual series, in one of the best casting upgrades in TV history). I used to record the episodes on my computer and burn them to disc -- and this was back in '99 with one of the earliest TV tuner products, a CD burner and VCD software. I even dropped a class in college because it conflicted with Charmed's Thursday night slot (to be fair, I had other reasons for dropping that class too, but the "Charmed" conflict definitely played into the decision).

So when I got an e-mail last night announcing a pre-order for the upcoming "Charmed" comic, I should have been really excited right? Well, actually, wrong.

See, by the time "Charmed" completed its 8-year run back in 2006, I felt like it had stayed beyond its creative peak. Also, more importantly from the perspective of the comic, I feel like the show did a good job covering the available character arcs for the three main characters, and came to a relatively satisfying conclusion, even going as far as to include a future-set epilogue in the series finale.

Now, much like the "Buffy Season 8" comic series from Dark Horse and the "Angel: After the Fall" series from IDW, the "Charmed" series from Zenescope is going to pick up where the series ended. However, I don't think that works for "Charmed". Think about it. While "Buffy" ended with the Sunnydale Hellmouth destroyed, the final scene had much more of a sense of open-endedness, a "where do we go from here" moment (if you'll excuse the "Once More, With Feeling" reference). "Angel" was even more in need of a a post-series comic, having ended on a cliffhanger.

Ghosts of PooZ's Past Coming Back to Haunt Me

It's all fun and games until someone else's shitty quarterback ends up on your team. I'm sure I harassed PooZ plenty during the Rex Grossman Bears years, even though they reached the Super Bowl with him under center. Remember this gem:

Rex is our quarterback. We'll make the necessary corrections, which we have done in the past. We're 9-2 right now with Rex leading our football team. Rex is our quarterback and we'll go from there.

Now, after a one-year detour in Houston, Rex Grossman has signed with the Washington Redskins. Fuck it, he's throwing downfield.

Oh, God, my team is screwed.

Series of Tubes: Lost "Recon" Reaction

Through eight episodes of the final season of "Lost", I think we can safely place each episode into one of two categories: an "answers" episode and a "progress" episode. Tuesday night's episode "Recon" fell squarely into the latter category. It wasn't about getting answers about the island or about characters, but about moving the on-island story forward, so it can start to reach some kind of general conclusion.

The Sawyer-centric episode featured Sawyer running an "errand" for not-Locke, going over to Hydra Island and meeting with the recently-arrived Charles Widmore. Of course, Locke didn't tell Sawyer about Widmore (though he didn't seem surprised when Sawyer told Locke about Widmore), which contributed to Sawyer's trust issues.

Of course, as it turns out, Sawyer isn't really interested in picking a side between Locke and Widmore (who is probably on Jacob's side), but is in everything for himself, because he wants to get off the island -- and he wants to bring Kate with him. This shouldn't surprise anyone who's been watching the show since Day 1, since Sawyer has always only cared about two people at any point in time: himself and his lady friend of the moment (Cassidy, Juliet, Kate, etc.).

Of course, in the LA-verse, Sawyer still seems to be in things for himself, only he's not Sawyer, he's Jim. The entire LA-verse plot contained tons of references to Sawyer's on-island past (using the word "LaFleur", the con in the initial scene, Charlotte and Sawyer bickering), but put Sawyer in the role of a cop, with Miles as his partner.

Desktop Girl of the Week: Sarah Lancaster

I know most fans of "Chuck" consider Yvonne Strahovski to be the real eye candy of the show (and the blonde from Australia has been a past DGOW selection), and Rachel Bilson, Kristen Kreuk and Jordana Brewster have all heated up the show in the past, but for me, the show's best hottie has always been Chuck's TV sister, Sarah Lancaster.

The 30-year-old from Kansas was actually blonde back when she broke onto the scene as Rachel Meyers on "Saved by the Bell: The New Class", and I'm not ashamed to admit I watched that show (though not nearly as much as the original "Saved by the Bell", for which there are episodes I can still recite start to finish). She bounced from guest appearance to guest appearance -- ranging from "Dawson's Creek" to "That 70's Show" to "CSI" -- before landing a recurring role on the critically acclaimed WB show "Everwood."

Series of Tubes: Chuck Versus Everyone Leaving?

Previously on "Chuck"... Morgan found out Chuck was a spy and The Intersect, Devon (who already knew about Chuck being a spy) tried to get Ellie to join "Doctors Without Borders" so they could get away from Chuck, the relationship between Sarah and Shaw heated up, and Chuck flashed on a name from Casey's past, revealing Casey may not be who we think he is?

OK, all caught up? Good, because all that happened in the last couple episodes, and rather than drag things out for years (I'm looking at you "Lost"), "Chuck" addressed most of that -- specifically the big Casey reveal -- in this week's episode.

"Chuck Versus the Tic-Tac" was a lot darker than last week's episode, but that's to be expected of an episode that focuses on Casey as opposed to one that focuses on Morgan. Still, I didn't expect it to go in some of the directions it did, specifically with Casey betraying the government and his team to save the life of a woman he loved 20 years ago. It almost seemed at times during the episode that they were going to set Casey up as a straight-up traitor, but that never felt right, and I'm glad they didn't do it.

As for what they DID do, at the end of the episode, they fired Casey. I DEFINITELY did not see that coming. In addition, Sarah got on a plane to DC and is considering reprising her request to be re-assigned away from Chuck (especially now that he's turing into super-intersect 2.0). Now, I truly doubt Adam Baldwin and Yvonne Strahovski are leaving the show, but the timing of these moves -- when combined with Ellie and Awesome's possible move -- seem like the producers might be paring down the main cast. This was another episode in which the Buy More crew didn't appear at all, and honestly I didn't miss them. I'd miss Casey and Sarah, and I don't think they're leaving the cast permanently, but I wonder if we might see a few episodes with Chuck's team broken up.

Of course, come next week everything could be back to status quo, in which case ignore the entire preceding paragraph. But "Chuck" does seem willing to take some risks with its creative direction, which has kept me interested in tuning in week after week.

You Gotta Have Faith... and Buffy... and Willow... and...

When I got home today, I had a nice surprise waiting for me on the doorstep: my Tooned-Up Faith Maquette from Sideshow Collectibles. I wasn't actually expecting it until tomorrow, but getting it today gives me a nice reason to share this bit of AdamReisinger.com site news.

The Buffy Collectibles section, formerly created in iWeb and not updated for about three months (and down for the last month or so), has finally been re-done from scratch, and is ready to go on the new AdamReisinger.com.

Upon rebuilding the site, I discovered that I need to re-take a lot of photos. Back when I was photographing my Buffy collectibles, I had a considerably worse camera, and was rushing through the pictures since I was taking so many of them. Now I've got a better camera, a bigger memory card and a cleaner photographic set-up for collectibles, so I'm much more meticulous about shooting them (I took about a dozen shots of the Faith maquette before getting to the one seen above). Eventually I'll re-shoot the older stuff, but since 90% of it is boxed up in a basement right now, that's not an immediate priority.

The gallery isn't completely up to date, as I'm still missing some statue pictures, some comic covers, and I haven't updated which of my comics are signed, but it's way better than it had been. Plus it doesn't take up nearly as much web space, and it's significantly easier for me to update. Of course all that technical stuff is stuff you don't care about, so why don't you check out the pictures and enjoy the Buffyverse (and Angelverse and Serenity/Fireflyverse) in all its collectible glory.

AdamReisinger.com Buffy Collectibles Section

Jersey Monday: Ronald Curry

Look, I've still got a ton of amazing, quality jerseys to spotlight here, but it's time for a selection from Adam's Embarrassing Jerseys. And, in honor of defending national champion North Carolina missing the NCAA Tournament entirely and accepting an embarrassing NIT bid, here's a horrible jersey from North Carolina's past: basketball player Ronald Curry.

Technically this is just a UNC jersey, because Curry's name isn't on the back, but for those that remember this era of UNC basketball, you know #22 was Curry. He was once touted as the top recruit in the nation in both football and basketball. He was the MVP of the 1998 McDonald's All-American Game, a game that included future NBA stars Al Harrington, Rashard Lewis, Tayshaun Prince, Mike Miller, Corey Maggette and Richard Jefferson (ok, maybe I'm stretching the definition of "star" there, but still...).

Curry was never as good in college as he was in high school, and I blame this horrible jersey. North Carolina has one of the most iconic looks in sports, not just college basketball, but for some reason Brand Jordan (run by UNC alum Michael Jordan) decided to tinker with the look, going with this interlocked NC logo on the front of the jersey. Sure, they reached the Final Four wearing these duds in 2000, but fan reaction was beyond positive when they switched back to wearing "North Carolina" the following season.

Curry failed to distinguish himself as a UNC point guard or a UNC quarterback, and went on to a pretty undistinguished career as a wide receiver with the Raiders. This jersey went on to be worn once or twice, and is now buried in my basement, never to return to my wardrobe.

Jersey Monday will continue every Monday until I run out of jerseys to spotlight. And since I’ve got more than 150 of them, that could be awhile.

Jedi Batman vs Giant Shark

I... I have no words for what is happening in this picture. All I know is if this actually comes to pass in a Batman comic, it may be the greatest thing to ever happen in the history of everything (or the worst... I'm still not sure yet).

(h/t IO9)

Series of Tubes: Sons of Tucson "Pilot" Reaction

Back when "Reaper" was on the air, my favorite character was Sock, played by Tyler Labine. He was easily the funniest character on an overall funny show, and Labine handled the slacker best friend character with ease.

However, that kind of character is best as a supporting character to a more straightforward main character (in the case of "Reaper", that was Bret Harrison's Sam), so I had my doubts as to how a character like that, played again by Labine, would work in the lead role of FOX's new sitcom, "Sons of Tucson".

After watching the first episode, I still have those doubts, though I'm willing to stick it out for a few more episodes to see how it works. Labine is once again playing a slacker-type character, with the home improvement store of "Reaper" replaced by a sporting goods store, who gets recruited by a trio of orphaned kids (pulled straight out of the "Malcolm in the Middle" kids acting way too old for their age playbook) to be their pretend dad.

I actually liked that it took the entire pilot episode for them to come to an agreement on how Labine's character will serve in that role more permanently -- the kids kept trying to ditch him after they were done using him -- and I liked how Ron kept proving himself worthwhile to them by basically being a complete liar and fraud.

This Week in Buffy History: March 14-20

March 14
1980 - Mercedes McNab born (played Harmony Kendall)

March 16
UNKNOWN YEAR - Scott L. Schwartz born (played multiple characters)
1999 - Episode 3.17, “Enemies” airs on The WB

March 17
1997 - Episode 1.3, “Witch” airs on The WB

March 19
2003 - Angel Episode 4.15, “Orpheus”, airs on The WB

March 20
1979 - Bianca Lawson born (played Kendra)

Friday Five - TV Shows I Enjoyed This Week

Consider this a combination of "Friday Five" and "Series of Tubes", since I've been behind on sharing my thoughts on TV episodes this week (and haven't done a Friday Five in awhile either).

Chuck - "Chuck Versus the Beard"
I've always thought the strength of this show was the supporting cast (particularly Morgan and Ellie) and when its stories dealt more with Chuck's regular life than his spy life. This season had been very spy heavy, so this episode was a welcome breath of fresh air. Hopefully they'll keep up the Morgan momentum while also finding a way to make sure Ellie and Awesome don't bail for Africa. Oh, also, the Buy More revolution scenes were hilarious. I could use more Big Mike on the show.

How I Met Your Mother - "Of Course"
I'll be honest, I didn't really like the whole "Robin is still dealing with the emotions of her breakup with Barney" thing. It didn't seem to fit the character. That said, the Jennifer Lopez cameo was amazing, both in comedy (she played a great foil for Barney) and in looks. She's still got it. Also, the "bang, bang" song that Marshall came up with WAS catchy.

My Buffy-versary present to me

So, with this being the Buffy-versary (specifically the 13th anniversary of the premiere episodes, "Welcome to the Hellmouth" and "The Harvest"), I had to get myself a gift. But, what to get for the Buffy fan who already has nearly everything?

Well, how about one of the few things I didn't have, the original piece of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" merchandise. This 12-inch statue by Varner came out way back in 1999, years before I ever started watching the show or collecting copious amounts of Buffy merchandise.

I'd come across this a couple times in the past few years, but never took the plunge on buying it, in part because it was kind of hard to find the other two Varner statues (and I hate having incomplete sets). But my local comic shop dug this out from the back a few weeks ago, and when I was there today picking up my weekly comics, I figured the time was right to get it. This particular one is #122 out of 4,500, so it's a low-numbered one to boot.

Eventually I'll get my entire Buffy collection back online -- I managed to dig out all the pictures from my iPhoto library and start to get them organized -- but for now, this will have to do.

Happy Buffy-versary! What did your Watcher get for you?

Happy Buffy-versary!

It's officially March 10th, and you know what that means... Buffy-versary!

While March 9, 1997 brought the death of The Notorious B.I.G., March 10, 1997 brought the birth of my favorite TV show of all-time. Not that I noticed.

As I've mentioned many times before on this blog, I didn't see an episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" until December 14, 1999 ("Hush") and didn't start seriously watching the show until 2005 -- nearly two years after it'd gone off the air.

Now, 13 years after "Buffy" debuted, it's become my personal obsession. Yes, the "Buffy" section of my web site is down right now, and yes, most of the collectibles that were spotlighted in that section are now in boxes in my basement, but that doesn't change the fact that I love them and I love the show.

My Top 10 Biggie Songs

I spent a lot of time listening to Biggie today (mostly while driving or working) and kept trying to figure out which songs were my favorite. Every few songs, another great one would come on and I'd jot it down. By the end of the day, there were WAY more than 10 songs on my list. Still, I decided to forge ahead with a list, and here is what I consider to be my 10 favorite Biggie songs. Of course, this could change tomorrow, and I'm sure if I did this list again next year the list would be different. Here they are, my 10 choices, in no particular order.

"Juicy"
If you haven't seen the movie "Notorious", it's worth seeing, just for the scene where Biggie comes up with this track. Puffy plays the sample in the studio, and everyone laughs at it, because it's a silly-sounding song, but Biggie decides to give it a shot.  Everyone leaves the studio for a while so he can come up with lyrics, and when they come back and he lays it down, they're just in awe. Its the closest any of us are going to come to seeing how Biggie really worked.

"Who Shot Ya"
The other great scene in the movie involves this song. Yes, this song may have contributed to his eventual death, but it's still a great song.

"Hypnotize"
Because iTunes didn't start tracking play counts until 2003, it doesn't reflect how much I listened to this song in 1997. I remember driving around West Hartford with my co-workers from Marshalls all summer, constantly playing this song (and, really, the rest of the "Life After Death" album).

Desktop Girl of the Week: Alyson Hannigan

Now that the Olympics are over, my standard slate of TV shows is pretty much back on the air, which meant I had plenty of eye candy to pick from for this week's Desktop Girl of the Week.

Yes, when browsing the archive this weekend, I realized that somehow, I've never spotlighted Alyson Hannigan, so it's definitely time.

Sure, you can see her every week now on "How I Met Your Mother", but Lily Aldrin will never be my immediate association when it comes to Hannigan. No, that honor will always fall to Willow Rosenberg, the super-powered witch from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". I adore Willow, probably more than any other character in the history of television. She's hot, she's a redhead, she's a witch, and she's a lesbian. Sure, that means I've got no shot with her, but she's still awesome.

The Greatest Rapper of All-Time Died on March 9

It's hard to believe it's been 13 years since The Notorious B.I.G. died, but that's exactly what happened on March 9, 1997. Here we are in 2010, and Biggie's music is no less popular than it was back then, even though there's nearly an entire generation of kids who grew up not really ever knowing who he was (pretty much anyone 20 and under wasn't listening to Biggie when he was alive).

I remember the first time I heard the "Ready to Die" album and how blown away by it I was. It wasn't like anything I'd heard before, and arguably nothing since has matched it. I still get hype whenever I hear the opening strands of "Juicy" or "Big Poppa".

"Life After Death" came out just two weeks after Biggie died, and I'm pretty sure I bought it that day. That double-album was pretty much the soundtrack to my summer, particularly at Journalism Camp (yes, there is such a thing) at the University of Maryland. If it's possible to wear out a CD, that's exactly what we did -- and we actually did wear out a couple mix tapes that had plenty of Biggie material on them.

Biggie didn't leave us with a huge catalog of posthumous material like 2Pac, but in some ways I prefer that. It makes the music he made before he died stand out that much more, and really, no unreleased music was ever going to live up to his first two albums. I'd rather listen to "Ready to Die" a thousand times before listening to "Born Again" even once (not that "Born Again" is bad, it's just not up to the standards of "Ready to Die" or "Life After Death.").

Jersey Monday: Chris Webber

It's Championship Week in college basketball, so let's spotlight one of my favorite college hoops jerseys, my Chris Webber authentic Michigan jersey.

Webber only played two seasons with the Wolverines, but led them to the NCAA Championship game in both seasons (losing to Duke in '92 and UNC in '93). A few years later, Nike put out a series of NCAA Throwback jerseys for the players on its roster, and Webber was one of them.

That inclusion is what allows this jersey to exist with Webber's name on its back. Schools can sell numbered jerseys of active players, but can't put the names on the back while the player has amateur eligibility left, so it's rare to see a jersey like this. I happened to come across this one when I was working at Marshalls, and picked it up for $20.

About a year later, I had a friend get it signed for me when the then-Bullets were visiting the Celtics (as a thank you to him, I gave him my Chris Webber replica Bullets jersey, which he also got signed). I obviously haven't worn the jersey since, and I'm still waiting to get it framed, but at one point in high school, this was a staple of my wardrobe.

Jersey Monday will continue every Monday until I run out of jerseys to spotlight. And since I’ve got more than 150 of them, that could be awhile.

Now THAT'S an archive

Well, I've been writing about it for a few weeks now, but it's finally done. The transition of the AdamReisinger.com blog from MobileMe to Blogger is complete, with 946 posts in the archive (this will be #947).

I even went and dug out an old backup CD that had a copy of AdamReisinger.com from 2003 and added in the SportsBytes and Reviews from that site. Since that iteration of the blog really only existed to link to those posts, it only made sense to add them in here, even if I never did add them in to iWeb.

I also found my old LeBronJamesNews.com site on that disc and considered adding that too, but eventually decided against it, since that -- just like LeBron2010.info -- was always maintained as a separate site.

So now that I've got 946 posts (soon to be 947) in the archive, what have I learned about my blogging habits? Well:

This Week in Buffy History: March 7-13

March 7
1974 - Larry Bagby born (played Larry)

March 10
1997 - Episode 1.1, “Welcome to the Hellmouth”, airs on The WB
1997 - Episode 1.2, “The Harvest”, airs on The WB

March 11
1946 - Mark Metcalf born (played The Master)

March 12
2002 - Episode 6.17, “Normal Again”, airs on UPN
2003 - Angel Episode 4.14, “Release”, airs on The WB

Review: Buffy #33 - "Twilight, Pt. 2"

Well, it's finally here. The issue we've all been waiting for. The one in which... Andrew dresses up in a costume with more nerd references than I thought were possible to cram into a single panel.

Oh, yeah, and Angel is Twilight.

Even thought I've know about this for a couple months, thanks to the magic of Internet spoilers, it was still shocking to see it on the page the first time. I absolutely loved that Angel unmasked himself almost as a joke, in response to one of Buffy's jokes about "Twilight" (which I'm pretty sure is the first time in this series that the connection between the villain's name and the unfortunately successful Stephanie Meyer series has been explicitly referenced).

COVER TWO

The Jeanty cover is an homage to Amazing Spider-Man #289, where the Hobgoblin's identity was revealed. It's funny, but looking at the outline of Twilight's hair on Jeanty's cover, it's hard NOT to see Angel. Ditto for Chen's cover, where you can only see his clothes and part of his face, but the shirt seems so much like something Angel would wear that it's hard to not see it.

THE WRITE STUFF

Brad Meltzer has been handed probably the most difficult single arc in this entire series and so far he's pulled it off phenomenally well. As everyone involved with this issue has promised since the spoilers broke, it's not just about WHO is Twilight, but about the characters' reactions to it, most specifically Buffy.

Buffy's reaction to finding out her ex-boyfriend -- and really her one true love -- is now her mortal enemy, is as you would expect. She quickly dives into the stages of grief, all while fighting Angel with everything she's got.

Review: "Heavy Rain" for PS3

After playing through "Heavy Rain", the new interactive fiction game for the PS3, I'm not sure calling it a "game" is accurate. It doesn't have a lot of the standard mechanics we expect from a video game. There's no specific "action" button, there's no jump button, you switch between four main characters throughout the game, and -- in the most divergent path from standard video games -- if one of your characters dies, it's not "game over", but instead the story moves on without that person.

I know some people have had mixed feelings after playing the two-level demo of "Heavy Rain", but after having completed the main story mode, I can say this isn't a game that is going to wow you in a short demo. It wasn't until about halfway through playing that I was seriously engrossed in the game. "Heavy Rain" doesn't just give you control of a character, it forces you to become that character, giving you an attachment that most games could only hope to replicate. Sure, some of the actions may seem tedious, and some of the chapters at first don't seem to have much of a purpose, but this isn't a traditional platformer, where you complete a task and advance. Sometimes the task you complete is only there to give you better perspective on who you are and what your character motivations are.

The primary story of "Heavy Rain" features the Origami Killer, who has kidnapped the son of Ethan Mars. Throughout the game, you'll control Ethan and others as you try to identify the killer and rescue Shaun before he dies. Because of the way the game established Ethan and his relationship to his son early on, I quickly became motivated to save him at any cost. The amazing thing is, because of the level of engagement with the characters, my emotional response often mimicked that of the characters on screen (particularly when Ethan is asked to kill a man to get another clue toward the location of his son).

Series of Tubes: Lost "Sundown" Reaction

Well, after two relatively lackluster episodes, "Lost" got back on track in a big way Tuesday night.

First off, let me say that the title of the episode threw me for a loop. I figured an episode named "Sundown" would be about Sun, especially since the order of the LA-verse scenes had mirrored the flashback scenes from season one. Well, not this episode, which instead featured Sayid, who definitely ranks among the show's strongest characters.

We still don't know exactly what's going on in the LA-verse, but for Sayid, it still involves him being the go-to guy for violence. He also still isn't with Nadia, though for different reasons. Basically, no matter what the status of the island is, Sayid's life is pretty much gonna suck. And it was in watching those scenes that I figured out two things about the LA-verse:

Desktop Girl of the Week: Blake Lively

After a three-month, one-day long hiatus, "Gossip Girl" is finally coming back to the airwaves next Monday, so what better time to spotlight the star of the show, Blake Lively?

The 22-year-old actress began acting 11 years ago, but her first major role came in 2005's "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" (and yes, I've seen it. Don't make fun of me, it's got a significant hottie ratio). She also appeared in the 2006 movie "Accepted" alongside Apple endorser Justin Long, though honestly I didn't even see that movie until well after "Gossip Girl" started airing.

Obviously, "Gossip Girl" has been Lively's biggest role to date, though she's never been my favorite hottie on the show (that role technically falls to Kristen Bell, the voice of Gossip Girl, though among actual on-screen regulars, Leighton Meester takes the cake). At times she's even ranked behind recurring stars Michelle Trachtenberg and Hilary Duff. That doesn't mean she's not hot -- she's definitely hot -- just that she's not AS hot as some of the other people on the show.

I've yet to be able to find definitive evidence that Lively got breast implants, but comparing scenes from this year to past years of "Gossip Girl", there's noticeable growth (and no, I haven't creepily researched this topic intensely, it's just something I casually noticed this season).

As always with DGOW, I’ll provide a widescreen (1680x1050) image for downloading. If you want to see past DGOW, then just check the archive album.

Series of Tubes: How I Met Your Mother "Hooked" Reaction

"How I Met Your Mother" has generally done a pretty good job with stunt casting. Britney Spears had a very well received two episode run a couple years back, that not only raised the profile of the show, but worked creatively as well. Rachel Bilson did a great job in her "so close to the mother, but not quite" appearance earlier this year, and Wayne Brady was hilarious as Barney's gay, black brother. Still, despite that track record, I wasn't sure how Carrie Underwood's performance would go last night.

Much to my surprise, Underwood was solid. She didn't carry the episode, but she didn't stand out as bad either. After seeing her performance as Tiffany -- the girl who has Ted on the "hook" -- I'm willing to say I'd accept her back on the show in the future.

As for the actual premise of the episode, I never really bought into the whole "hook" storyline. Yes, it did relate to real life dating, in that most of us can probably remember a situation when we were either the hookee or the hooker (as Robin so ineloquently put it), but the odds of multiple people in that little group going through the exact same thing at the same time -- including Ted from both ends of it -- seemed a little far-fetched. Still, it did make for some of Bob Saget's best narration in years.

The one thing I kept coming back to last night was just how funny Barney Stinson is as a character. His explanation of hot women professions through the years was laugh out loud funny, as was his quest to sleep with as many "pharma-girls" as possible. I'm pretty sure I would watch a spinoff show about Barney, and I'm pretty sure it would be the funniest show on television.

Our losing streak...

So PooZ and I went to another Hartford Wolf Pack game this weekend, and to no one's surprise, the Wolf Pack lost. This extends a strange streak for PooZ and I: the last four sporting events we've attended together have resulted in a loss for the home team. There was a Red Sox-Orioles game at Fenway last year, a Mets-Dodgers game at Citi, and now two Wolf Pack games.

At this point, I wanna see if we can harness this power. Like, if we go see LeBron play in Boston, will he finally win there, or will my personal streak of seeing Cavs losses in Boston continue?

Jersey Monday: Johan Santana

The Mets first spring training game is just a day away, so that means it's about time for me to spotlight a baseball jersey here on Jersey Monday.

I got this Johan Santana home replica jersey at a Mets game a couple years ago. At the time, the only Mets jerseys I owned were either blank on the back or of the throwback variety, so I wanted something that would last me a few years. Since Santana had just signed a huge long term contract, I figured this would work.

The nice thing about this jersey is it's one of MLB's upgraded replica styles. Until recent years, MLB replicas had single-color names and numbers on back, which made them a poor substitute for the authentic jersey. Despite this lack of quality, they still cost more than NFL or NBA replicas. However, rather than lowering the price, MLB upped the quality of the replica. Now, for some teams, it's actually hard to tell the difference between a replica and authentic on quick glance (the easiest way to tell is to check the back collar -- the authentics have an MLB logo there; for the Mets, the replicas also lack the front jersey number, though for teams like the Red Sox, that's not part of their style anyway).