Still have yet to watch a full Sharks game on TV. Have been watching Wild games, though, which for the most part has been depressing. There have been so many injuries that at this point they're like this motley crew of post-apocalyptic survivors who have been plucked from various teams (Kobasew, Ebbett, Latendresse). Led by that old grizzled veteran Owen Nolan who is creaky but apparently knows where to get food, guns and fuel.

Watching the 49ers has been really satisfying this season, despite their under 0.500 record. It's really nice to see players who I'd watched put their jerseys on at the draft blossom and succeed. Patrick Willis was pretty much instantly awesome, but Vernon Davis and especially Alex Smith took a while to emerge. I'm really liking what I'm seeing from Crabtree so far too.

I'm generally not into "internet phenomenons" and find them boring/unimpressive, but shitmydadsays is hilarious!

"I'm sitting in one of those TGI Friday's places, and everyone looks like they want to shove a shotgun in their mouth."

Had a fabulous dinner last night at PPQ Dungeness Island. Had half of a huge crab cooked in garlic and butter with garlic noodles, imperial spring rolls and fried banana with ice cream for dessert. The crab was so good. It actually makes me weepy right now thinking about it.

Heading over to Alex's place for Thanksgiving dinner #3 in a bit. *pig* *pig*

Season 4 of Supernatural is only $15 right now from Amazon! But it says it ships in 3-5 weeks so you won't be getting it anytime soon. :P

Had a fabulous Thanksgiving with lastcatastrophe yesterday. It's seriously the best holiday because it's all about food! :) She and her mom made turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, stuffing and steamed carrots and chocolate cream pie and pumpkin pie for dessert! And I got to take some of the leftovers home. *cries* ♥ Lira.

see more Epic Fails

It's been a busy busy busy past couple of weeks. I'm working on 4 projects at the same time, and 2 of them were due at approximately the same time. Thursday was particularly bad and I was cranky pretty much all day except when I found out that Timmy had won the Cy Young again. :) I wasn't expecting it to happen so it was a really nice surprise. He was even better this year than he was last year, but sometimes timing is everything. He did fade a bit towards the end of the season. I'm glad they didn't hold his lack of wins against him, though, since they were the result of poor run support.

Timmy press conference

( Cy Young statement was vintage Tim Lincecum )

Seriously, nobody in Northern California cares about people smoking pot, hahaha.

( It seems absurd, but Lincecum's worthy of Cooperstown talk at 25 )

It is totally absurd. Give him at least another 5-10 years in the league first, sheesh. He's really special though, mostly because of his attitude and strength of will. He's talented for sure, but I don't think any more so than say... Dan Haren. It's that stubbornness, where he gets to two strikes two outs in an inning and he pauses, and you know he wants the strikeout and 90% of the time he gets it. It's that quality that makes him stand out, the Ks and ERA and WHIP and all that just follows.

( Second Cy Young is historic )

He was jumping up and down on his roof when they told him, hahaha. Would love to see a video of that.

( Lincecum says pot bust 'won't ever happen again' )

It better not fucking happen again! Like, nobody really cares about the pot, but it's just not a good idea to get arrested. :P He actually called himself idiotic on Chronicle Live later.

I'm wondering, has any other Asian pitcher ever won a Cy Young? They never even refer to him as Asian in the media. Nobody gives a shit about Asian people. :(

And in case anyone hasn't seen this, a bunch of players talking about pranks. Wherein Getzlaf and Tambellini duct tape Sidney Crosby into a mattress...



What I want to know is, was Sidney Crosby conscious throughout all of this??? Is he a really sound sleeper? Did they roofie him? Is he just not able to put up a very good fight?

Oh man, it's been a busy week at work. I worked 15 hours on Monday and it didn't let up all that much after that. :P Looking forward to getting some rest on the weekend. Most people look forward to the weekend because they plan to go out and do fun things. I look forward to the weekend so I can bum around Saturday watching hockey and Sunday watching football, haha.

Last night's episode of FlashForward was pretty awesome.I actually got weepy at the end of it. Last week it was Dollhouse that made me weepy. One of the episodes of SGU made me weepy. Science fiction has gotten so emotional lately!

I was watching a Fringe video podcast and they included a clip about the Two Slit Experiment mentioned by Simon in FlashForward and I started thinking about it on the way to work this morning...

( Spoilers )

I usually don't do much speculation and theorizing about shows. I like listening to podcasts where other people do it, but I usually don't have any thoughts at all. :P But this was actually fun and interesting to think about.

So, as expected, Noah Lowry is gone. *sniffles* From here:

In another move that was expected but might carry some emotional weight, the Giants cut ties with popular but injured pitcher Noah Lowry by declining his $6.25 million club option for 2010 and placing him on outright waivers.
...
The Lowry move ends a sad saga for the Giants and the 29-year-old left-hander. A first-round draft pick in 2001, he became one of the team's most popular players and led the team with 14 wins in 2007, when his season was curtailed by arm numbness. He has not pitched since then, but agent Damon Lapa said Lowry now is "completely healthy" and throwing three days a week.

I hope he does well wherever he ends up.

I'm always skeptical when I read stuff about Petr being angry. Sulky? Yes. Grumpy? Yes. But angry? It's just hard for me to imagine. Apparently he was "fuming" about being scratched for a game. The Minnesota beat writer was like WTF the team is struggling to score goals and you scratch the goal scorer? :P

Anyway, he's gotten much more... cuddly in recent years. He throws his arms around someone's neck (usually someone who's tall, so he has to LEAP) and clings to them for a while. Or if it's Sidney Crosby, he would nuzzle his neck. Or if it's Marty he leaps on him and wraps his legs around his waist... It's a good thing his teammates generally love him.

( Sykora, one riled Wild, takes it out on Rangers )

From Petr's agent's Twitter:

P. Sykora on tonight's game, "I played hockey with my boy before the game. I got 2 or 3 goals against him + it carried over to the game."

So basically Petr gets ready for games by OWNING HIS TWO-YEAR-OLD SON beforehand.

Stephen Curry had a nice debut with the Warriors even though they lost. He's almost enough to lure me back to following the Warriors again. *coughs* Ahh, if there were only more hours in the day. I'll settle for watching highlights.

Cliff Lee pitched out of his mind last night. I wonder why Pedro Martinez is starting tonight instead of Cole Hamels. I thought he was the Game 2 starter in the previous series?

I may have jumped the gun by adding an Alex Smith icon again, but Singletary did say that this wasn't a flavor of the week type thing, so ideally I can use this until the end of the season, at least. :)

( More Alex Smith articles )

Anyone watching FlashForward? It's not bad so far. One thing that struck me while watching the show was that Joseph Fiennes really reminds me of Christopher Meloni, which is weird because he really doesn't look like him at all. But then somebody on a podcast said that he really reminded him of Christopher Meloni too!

Sporting News named Timmy NL pitcher of the year. :) He was picked by a panel of GMs and assistant GMs.

I thought he was even better this season than he was last year, even though his win total is lower. That's really the fault of the offense, though. :P He induced a lot more ground outs and fly balls, instead of getting all of his outs by strikeout (even though he got a lot of those too) which let him go much deeper into games. I think he only had one complete game last season and that one was kind of arduous. This year he had a few. He also stopped wilting as much in hot weather. :P

I can't really compare him to Carpenter or Wainwright because I haven't watched them pitch enough. It would be nice if he wins the Cy Young again, but I'm not going to be upset if he doesn't.

And and and... Alex Smith has been named starting QB for the next game. ( I am so proud I could burst! )

Ugh, I can't find the article again, but I read something that was pretty accurate about the Texans game. Alex was coming in down 21-0 and there wasn't any pressure on him. It's a good situation. The team that's up tends to relax a bit, and the team that's behind feels free to play loosely and try creative things. So the real question is how does he perform when he knows he's going in as the starter?

It's not that I dislike Shaun Hill. I just think he's a placeholder and I think the longer he's in there, the more of a waste of time it is when the real QB (whoever that may be) isn't playing. Alex has the potential to be something more than a placeholder, and that's why I support him on a football/practical level. On an emotional level, I just like the guy. :)

The latest episode of Dollhouse was so amazingly good. This is why I will watch anything Joss Whedon does. :)

Was sitting through yet another 49ers game of ineptitude today (which I'd thought wouldn't be happening anymore) and I thought, man if Alex Smith was the QB, at least this would be unbearable. Instead I was just sort of resentful of Shaun Hill.

And then they put Alex Smith in the second half!!! :D He could have been just as inept and I would have been happy, but he went and like... threw 3 touchdown passes to Vernon Davis (♥ ♥ ♥) and I kind of exploded with happiness. Would have been nice to have won the game, but really, wouldn't have made things all that much better. :P Just seeing his confidence and quick decision-making was really rewarding.

I liked what I saw from Michael Crabtree. Yeah, he's a diva, but the best wide receivers all have a little diva to them. I don't know if the 49ers just feared good wide receivers after the TO experience, but it's so nice to have someone who looks like he's going to be able to reliably make plays.

After the team's performance, I pretty much knew that the analysts and fans were going to be abuzz with talk of a "quarterback controversy" and starting Alex Smith in the next game. I got kind of excited at the prospect at first, then I found out we're playing the Colts. *gulp* Perfectly fine with having Shaun Hill start that game! :P

From what seems to be a legitimate web site:

Taiwan is a real melting pot.

98% of people are Han Chinese, while 2% are Taiwanese aborigines.

LOLOLOL!!!

Havlat and Sykora are both out with groin injuries.

I don't even know what to say.

Just read an article from the Mercury News that started with "Marc-Edouard Vlasic ran a hand through his thick, dark hair" and immediately was concerned that it was going to launch into some unfortunate PWP. I'm conditioned!

It turned out to be a really nice article about him being a young veteran and stuff and aside from the trauma of Rob Blake saying that Vlasic is "so good with his stick", I'm very proud.

[Edit: Sad that Christine Lahti is (most likely) at the end of her guest stint on SVU as the ADA. Her character was super annoying but I loved the interaction between her and Stabler, especially when she slapped him and then he just sort of smiled at her.]

It is perhaps a testament to my fiercely pure and undying love for Marc-Edouard Vlasic that I was able to read the following article about him and glow warmly about his emerging offense while squelching the more unsavoury aspects of the article...

( Putting Up Points from the Blueline )

That is an obscene, completely unwarranted, amount of slash (and self-slashing!) for such a short article. :(

"Yesterday, I scored on a half-slapper and (Dany) Heatley was in front. It found a hole and went in."
*weeps piteously*

"I see a lot of him," Vlasic said.
Please stop looking at Rob Blake. :(

Vlasic hopes he can keep Blake excited about the game and playing more than just year-to-year.

"Hopefully, he like skating with me and it will make him want to play longer and feel younger," Vlasic said of their near 20-year age difference.
This is like some kind of horrific set up for a Viagra commercial.

So I woke up early yesterday feeling like ( my head was spinning. )

In conclusion, having sex with Barry Zito makes me throw up.

In more cheerful news, it appears that the pairing that never was (except in some other world *coughs*) and had no basis in reality is... becoming? After like... 6 years.

I got so excited last night I almost gave myself another vertigo attack when Petr scored on the give-and-go with Marty and then fell down (Petr always ends up on his ass at least once per game) and then got up to leap on Marty! A leap on their first goal together! Usually it takes a few goals before Petr jumps on people!

From Havlat's Twitter:
Going to shut it down now....off to LA after practice. Me and Siki..like old times!

Also, he did this Twitter Q&A thing and answered like 7 questions out of 600+ people asked and this was one of them:
Who is more handsome? Me or Petr Sykora? Giving credit to Siki here. LOL

The Wild beat writer is starting to make them his OTP:
I'm sure Havlat would love to still be with Koivu, but I can guarantee he loves the fact he’s with Sykora. He even tweeted early this morning how it felt like old times. The two have played together in a number of international tournaments and definitely showed on that one give-and-go goal that they’ve got chemistry.

I'm contemplating getting the MLB iPhone app for $5 so that I can listen to playoff games...

I could not be more proud of Vernon Davis and Patrick Willis. :D Vernon had some key catches, including a touchdown and Patrick Willis got an interception he returned for a touchdown, 2.5 sacks and was just really solid with his tackling, as always. Glen Coffee is not Frank Gore, but he did a decent job and got a few long runs in.

The first half was really painful to watch. Both offenses were terrible. The only reason the 49ers scored any points at all was that one of the Rams kicked the ball on a punt, making it a live ball, and one of the 49ers dove onto it in the end zone.

I'd like to think of that half as therapy for last week when Favre threw that winning TD pass with 2 seconds left in the game. :P The 49ers played much better in the second half. I'm glad that they got to play a crappy team this week and not say... the Colts. *shudder*

The Giants won their last game of the season in the 10th inning on Pablo's home run with Brian Wilson getting the save. I haven't watched the game yet as I was watching the 49ers. A nice way to end things I think, for a team that surpassed everyone's expectations this season.

I don't feel sad about their season being over. I have the 49ers and... the Minnesota Wild (presumably Petr will not be invisible for the next 81 games) to follow. But I did feel sad when we drove past the empty ballpark on Friday, knowing it would stay that way until next March.

[Edit: You know how you can recognize your favourite hockey players by the way they skate? I can now recognize Vernon Davis by the way he jumps and catches balls. Scary.]

So tonight there's a ton of TV shows I'm interested in watching: Bones, Fringe, The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural, FlashForward and The Mentalist. The Sharks season opener is tonight too. At least the Giants are playing a day game so there isn't a conflict with that as well.

WTF? I know that Thursday commercial slots are more valuable because it's the day before movies come out but did they really have to cram everything on one day? :P Move some stuff to Wednesday!

I don't think I could possibly be any less enthusiastic about the start of hockey season as I am right now. I mean, I hated Joe Thornton but I was aware on another level that it was a good trade. But this? I've been good at burying my head in the sand but when I saw the article headlines that the Sharks were going to name a new captain it all caught up to me and I started crying. It just hurts because Patty and Cheech are the two guys who most represent the Sharks to me.

I briefly thought about watching Bones and Fringe live instead of the Sharks game because I get them in HD if they're live, but decided against it because I'll have to sit through commercials. Am I going to feel this bad before every Sharks game this season?

LOL, Olesz the new Ocho Cinco.

Just watched last week's episode of Supernatural and I really liked it! Now that they're ripping off quality stuff like The Prophecy and comic books like Hellblazer and Preacher (and Castiel's trenchcoat brigade wardrobe is straight out of The Books of Magic) the show is so much better.

Unfortunately, the scene with Lucifer kind of showed that Jared can't act either. :( I don't know, maybe I just blocked that out cos' I loved Dean from Gilmore Girls but I was embarrassed for him. Maybe they should have asked Mark Pellegrino to make his acting worse so he wouldn't make Jared look so bad. :P

My only complaint about the episode would be the implausible behaviour of the hunters at the end. Threatening to kill an innocent girl because... your best friend just died? Really? Don't hunters die like ALL THE TIME?

But overall, really liking the direction the series took from season 4 onwards.

(... still concerned that the series finale will be one colossal kick in the crotch that launches me into space, though.)

Got the latest Sporting News magazine yesterday and when I opened it, I went straight to this full page photo of Timmy and Matty smiling gaily together. Then I read the title of the article - a quote from one of them "I just LOVE watching him pitch" - and then I started choking and had to stop reading.

( GAY GAY GAY )

The 49ers played a really good game today, I thought, especially given that they lost Gore on the first play. They definitely didn't embarrass themselves (which was all I was hoping for) and even would have won the game if not for Favre's TD pass with 2 seconds left. I'm so so proud of Vernon Davis (he's a Terp, flanneryflyer!) finally emerging as a reliable target for receptions. This is definitely a game to feel good about. :)

Alex and Tessa went to a B&B on Thursday and Friday night so I ended up babysitting overnight. :) They were concerned that she might be terror baby and cry a bunch and not go to sleep, but she slept through the night on Thursday. She woke up at 4:30 AM on Friday night but after I found her pacifier and gave it back to her she just went straight back to sleep. Other than that, we just had fun playing and hanging out and she was a very good baby.

Then last night after dinner she gave me a "nose squish" which is basically pressing her nose lightly against yours as a display of affection. She hasn't done that with anyone else but her parents. *sniffle*

Why is Timmy making BJ face at Matt Cain? :(