Can’t Forget

Not much more to say to this…

Red Sox sure knows how to do PR

 

     So last week on a whim I was browsing through a couple of boards and found out this email link that red sox fans can use to contact Red Sox.  You can email questions, concerns, reactions, scheduling, blah blah – basically anything your Red Sox heart can desire.  BUT, the one request most fans ask for is the famed Red Sox fan pack.  Now, I heard about this a while back from a couple of my friends and I didn’t really take it seriously.  I mean, ya sure it’s fun and neat -but who really gives a hoot?  It’s a couple of pics max and thats about it.  I rather save the time and play Guitar Hero 2 or something.  But seeing how it was a Monday morning and I was BORED out of my mind, I decided to give the Red Sox Fan Pack a try.  I sent out an email and really forgot about it.

  Well fast foward a week, guess what I got in my mail?  The Red Sox Fan Pack!  This was what was included:

1.) David Ortiz picture

2.) Red Sox Schedule (Dice-K front mug)

3.) Cool Red Sox Wristband

4.) Cute Wally Picture

5.) Huge Red Sox calender (picture cut it off)

6.) The famed Fenway Dirt

7.) and FINALLY a hand written letter from Red Sox Ambassador Phil himself (which honestly I never knew Red Sox had an “ambassador”)

Not bad considering it’s free eh?

Kiefer Sutherland Autograph

Can I just say once and for all this dude is badass?

 

     So I sent out a request to Kiefer Sutherland (a.k.a Jack Baur) to sign a photo I sent him, hoping really to not get anything in return.  Three weeks later, lo and behold, I get the picture in my mailbox signed by Kiefer himself.  I was totally blown away.  I think he is shooting or either finished shooting Season 6 and he still has time to sign for his fans.  AWESOME!!

Immortalized as a DNA

     My cousin was recently studying for a bio exam and had to draw diagrams of DNA and Viruses. Apparently, my mug gives her inspiration in studying…

Apparently I am a nucleic acid….

…and I just attacked a cell

End of the road for JACK BAUER?

Is Jack Bauer being written off?

     Ahhh let the conspiracy theories begin.  Is Jack going to die next week? (unlikely)  Could this be the last season for Kiefer? (maybe)   Is this the worst season so far? (a big YES)      

     24 forums have been erupting with the possibility of Jack being either killed this season or next and having Doyle (a.k.a Silver Spoon’s Idiot) as his replacement.  Personally, I think that would be a HORRENDOUS decision by the writers that not only will cause the ratings to plummet, but actually destroy the whole universe as we know it.     

     However, in some sick twisted way, if Jack dies, that would be the ultimate twist EVER.  Killing the main character that IS the show?  Classic.

Bleach 120 (Hitsugaya Falls! The Broken Hyourinmaru) : Recap and Review

No, Hitsugaya does NOT fall…

    

     All around, this was a pretty good episode.  You pretty much got 4 battles going around and I think the writers are doing a great job separating the battles equally into fourths without getting the viewers overwhelmed or confused.  This week’s episode, the episode is entitled “Hitsugaya
Falls! The Broken Hyourinmaru,” but realistically the episode was divided into 2 major sections.  Renji and Hitsugaya’s battle.     

     The first half of the episode revolved around Renji and his battle against the Arrancar.  Here, you see the animators have already skipped the whole Bankai release and Renji is already battling in his “ultimate form.”  Renji looks really tired and is in serious pain.  In an odd twist, Jinta and Ururu both help out Renji during the battle (with Ururu giving an eerily often scary smacking against the Arrancar).  The three stuff modified souls also try to help out but basically get their butt whupped. Things aren’t looking good for Renji… 

     The second half of the show dealt with Hitsugaya’s battle.  However, instead of action, we actually get an explanation of his Bankai’s strength and weakness.  We all know that it has superior ice damage, but apparently the 3 flower (each with 4 petals) gradually disappear as Hitsugaya uses more of his power.  It was pretty obvious this was the case from his previous battles, but it was nice for the writers to formally explain it without the viewers guessing it.      All seemed lost until they all get word from Soul Society that they have permission to release their “Power Limit.”  Suddenly they get tattoos on their chest and they release a sudden burst of resitsu.  Apparently they were holding back their powers – get ready to rumble!        

     If there was one minor criticism I have about Bleach, is that it moves too damn fast.  Contrary to shows like Naruto or even Yu-Gi-oh! (shudder), Bleach moves at an amazing quick pace.  For example, Naruto often spend at least 10 episodes showing the same battle scene over and over again (the whole scene with the 3rd Hokage being killed by Orochimaru?), often times having filler episodes of flashback, that drives the viewers crazy.  Yu-Gi-Oh! is even worst, because each episode would usually involve 3 card moves, while the characters spend most of the time smack talking one another and you get no progression of the storyline.  Bleach on the other hand blows by scenes and battles that often I have to re-watch what I just missed.  I actually want to see some more back-story with some of the captains and vice-captains in Soul Society, but I guess they are saving those for future episodes.     

     Rating:  A- Overall, great episode of Bleach – can’t say anything bad about this episode.  I just can’t wait to see what this Power Limit is

Sanjaya’s Hair-raising Performance

He stuns again…

Speechless… 

     Like I said in my previous post, I recently started to watch American Idol only because of Sanjaya’s off the top antics.  Not only can the dude NOT sing, but he sports one of the craziest hair I have ever seen – until last night.  I was so mezmorized by his hair that I don’t even remember what the hell he was singing about.  Maureen Ryan from Chicago Tribune gives a great recap on what happened last night, saying:

“Every week, the only real reason to watch Sanjaya’s performance is to see what he did with that shaggy mane of his. And that bizarre fauxhawk/ponytail combo he wore on Tuesday — well, as often happens with Sanjaya’s performances – words fail.”

What was the song he sang again?

*Update* I just found a great video by Jimmy Kimmel about his performance.  “Even his hair hates him” – classic.

24: Recap and Review (8:00PM – 9:00PM)

I hate Season 6.  There, I said it.

 

Are the producers trying to get a “free pass” this season?

 

     (I’ll start my ranting at how much this season has sucked so far, but I placed it at the end of this post.  Here is the recap of what happened last night.)      

     Am I the only one that is pissed that President Wayne is alive?  I mean seriously, I think the show started to get some much needed drama when Wayne decided to take a little snooze and the VP actually took the reigns in the office.  Obviously, we’re not suppose to like VP Daniels, but I rather watch his evilness ooze out of his character than watch “barely-audible-goody-goody-that-can-never-top-his-brother-David-Palmer” Wayne talk.  Just WATCHING him talk from his rest bed already caused me to go to sleep and wanting to smash my TV.  Ahem, anyways, having gotten that off my chest…     

     The rest of the episode doesn’t get any better either.  You find out that (surprise surprise) Nadia isn’t a mole but in fact this random agent that (I think) works for CTU and is gaining vital information through tunneling their network.  But in a weird and “huh?!” twist, his brother, who is mentally handicapped, is the one that can access the information from CTU.  Jack, through Chloe’s help, finds out where both brothers live and then manages to subdue both of them (after getting a sweet leg shot of course).  Jack then manages to sweet talk both brothers in helping him capture evil bad beard Gredenko.      During this time, Karen Hayes was smoothe talking Sandra Palmer into allowing her brother regain conscious to stop the evil VP’s planned nuke attack.  However, the twist was there might be a chance he might get some major clog damage in his brain or something – at which point I yelled “Yes, get him awake!”  So, after some blah blah exchange, Sandra finally agrees and Wayne is off the tubes…but then alarms go off!  Something is happening to Wayne.  Could he die?  If only…     

     Back to Jack. He tells the bro to go outside and give Gredenko the information he needs to launch a nuke attack.  The bro agrees, and during the exchange, CTU agents were positioned to shoot down Gredenko with a tranquilizer.  However, the brother was in the way and Gredenko had given the word to kill him after the data was transferred.  Jack was screaming at the brother to get down, but he wouldn’t!  Only at the last moment did the brother get down, the CTU agent shot the dart successfully, and Jack killed one baddie through the window just for kicks. 

(rant starting…..)    

     It is at this point where I have to really question the writers’ motive in bringing a character that is mentally challenged into the mix.  Are they just trying to “spice” the drama up by putting some tension between Jack yelling at the brother to get down, because he doesn’t seem “to understand”?  I mean, if this character was placed into the beginning of the season, I can understand, but it seems like the writers just thought of placing a random subplot in this one episode to try to draw some cheap suspense.  If that’s the case, than this is truely horrible writing.  To get drama and get viewers on the edge of their seat, you have to weave in an interesting story that lasts from one episode to the next.  If you just start adding characters and subplots that last for only one episode and then never appears again, you just leave audience scratching their head and thinking what the hell did they watch.   If I want to watch one episode dramas, I would watch Law and Order. 

     The whole point of 24 being awesome in the past was that each episode has a lasting effect to the next.  This season, you see people pop in and then pop out.  Jack’s dad?  Where the hell is he?  Marilyn and kid?  Nowhere to be found.  Curtis makes appearance and then gets killed.  Nadia was BARELY in the season until this weeks and last.  Sandra and Wally?  Wally was just written off and Sandra, as you can now see, was written just for the sole purpose of giving consent to get President Wayne out of the tubes.  None of these characters stay long enough on the screen to make you attached to them, and that’s the problem with Season 6 has right now.  Jack is REALLY the only character we care for.  Chloe is one exception, but that’s because we knew her from previous seasons.  If she started fresh this season, who in their right mind would like her?  Where are the Tonys and the Michelles?  Hell, I am getting so desperate, I even want KIM BACK.  ANYTHING!!!

     That’s how bad this season has gone.  This episode really pissed me off more than anything.  The characters really, really suck and I don’t know how much I can put up with 24 anymore.  Don’t get me even STARTED with Doyle…  I don’t know if the writers are banking the huge fans will pull them through their shoddy writing, but if they keep up writing this bunch load of crap, there will be no fans to write to by the beginning of season 7. 

Rating (episode): 5/10 – Bleh, Jack kinda made it better

Rating (season so far): 3/10 – horrible.  absolutely horrible… 

 

Peyton Manning SNL Skit

OK, OK, I’ll cut the guy some slack

     So I heard over the weekend that Peyton Manning would host SNL.  Now, I’ll have to admit I’m not a huge Peyton fan (HUGE Pats fan here) because of his nauseating amount of commercial time last year – and the fact he freakin beat my team in the AFC Conference.

     However, other than the fact that he is the opposing QB player, I actually like him as a person and an athlete.   Even though the commercials were everywhere, you have to admit the Master Card ones were pretty funny.  And so, today I finally got my paws on one of his “commercials” made for SNL.  Totally hilarious.

SNL United Way Clip:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxNAcpjChQM

Funny factor: 10/10

24 Chuckles

Good sites to go for funnies…

     There are alot of sites out there that pokes fun of 24, but these are one of my favorites.

1.) Dave Barry’s 24 Blog: Bar none,  one of my favorite sites.  Average of 500 posts each week and tons of witty comments from knowledgable viewers.  I can’t go through Tuesday mornings without reading Dave Barry’s forum.

2.) NYMad Absurd-O-Meter:  Gotta love those absurd situations where Jack kills 83 baddies with 5 bullets and NYMag does a great job in recapping the crazy scenes

3.) Jack Bauer Facts: Need a Baur Fact?  Came to the right place.