Happy Holiday(s) Bowl

Texas A&M has officially accepted in invitation to the Holiday Bowl in San Diego on December 28. A&M will be facing the University of California Golden Bears who are 8-3 with their annual game against Stanford still remaining. I am excited about this bowl game! I just hope the Aggies don't come out looking like they did in the Cotton Bowl two years ago. That was horrible. But I think that this team will be very pumped up to play especially with their excitement and momentum after upsetting Texas last week. It's a big game where A&M can make a really big statement about what they plan to do next season. BTHO Cal!!!

MPAA WTF!?!

The MPAA has a brilliant idea. For those who don't remember, the MPAA is also known as the organization that is the second most resentful of its own consumers right after the RIAA. So what's their big idea you ask? They want to get a law passed making "unauthorized" home theaters illegal.

The MPAA is lobbying congress to push through a new bill that would make unauthorized home theaters illegal. The group feels that all theaters should be sanctioned, whether they be commercial settings or at home.

The bill would require that any hardware manufactured in the future contain technology that tells the MPAA directly of what is being shown and specific details on the audience. The data would be gathered using various motion sensors and biometric technology.

The MPAA defines a home theater as any home with a television larger than 29" with stereo sound and at least two comfortable chairs, couch, or futon. Anyone with a home theater would need to pay a $50 registration fee with the MPAA or face fines up to $500,000 per movie shown.

Do these a-holes really wonder why people are downloading movies online? But it gets better. Head a-hole Dan Glickman has this to say:

"Just because you buy a DVD to watch at home doesn't give you the right to invite friends over to watch it too. That's a violation of copyright and denies us the revenue that would be generated from DVD sales to your friends," said Glickman. "Ideally we expect each viewer to have their own copy of the DVD, but we realize that isn't always feasible. The registration fee is a fair compromise."

F-you Dan Glickman!

I Had To Pinch Myself This Morning...

...because I was sure that I only dreamed that the Aggies beat the Longhorns in Austin. I checked the Tivo and sure enough, it still said that we won the game. ESPN confirmed the same. What a day and I couldn't help but write another post and bask in the glow of victory. I promise, I will move on soon, but it has just been so long since I was this happy about the outcome of a football game on the day after Thanksgiving. Gotta love the it! I'm looking forward to see where we'll be playing our bowl game. Until then, Gig 'Em and BTHO ____!

UPDATE: I just found this photo online and had to include it here.

College Football Week 13

Today marks the start of the last weekend of the regular season of college football. There are only a few games today, but for us Aggies, there is only one game: Texas A&M vs. Texas. I must say that his year has been a surprise to me in two ways. The first is that we started off so strongly and were able to bounce back and win our next four conference games after losing the conference opener to Texas Tech. The second surprise is that we lost our last two games by a total of two points. Despite our 8-3 record, a lot of Aggies are pissed at Coach Fran. The record is deceptively good considering our margins of victory for a majority of our wins. But all will be forgiven by the Aggie faithful if Fran and the Aggies can pull off an upset win against the Longhorns in Austin. We've played Texas tough for the past two years but failed to carry the momentum through the fourth quarter. But today will be the day! The Aggies are going to surprise the Longhorns and the rest of the state of Texas. I'll be watching while we trim the Christmas tree in less than two hours. Gig 'Em Aggies and BEAT THE HELL OUTTA tu!!!!!

UPDATE: Ags win by a score of 12-7! This is the Aggies' first win over Texas since 1999, the first win in Austin since 1994 and Coach Dennis Franchione's first win against Texas. The last time the Aggies beat Texas, I was a student about month away from graduation, so this win has some extra weight to it for me. Sadly, the end of the game was marred with some bad behavior by Kellen Heard. After the Aggies intercepted a pass by Colt McCoy to essentially clinch the game, Heard tackled McCoy well after the play was over. Heard was flagged and ejected from the game. The Longhorns had one more opportunity to win but with 0:20 left in the game, Martellus Bennett tackled McCoy in a play and he had to be taken off the field on a cart. I don't blame Bennett for McCoy getting hurt in the game, that's part of it. But Heard was pretty classless and a lot of people in Texas will be talking about that personal foul even though it didn't have any effect on the outcome of the game.

That being said, I am still very, very happy that the Aggies were able to upset Texas in Austin, a tough feat to say the least (only the ninth win for A&M in Austin in eighty games!). With this win, Texas' Big XII title hopes rest on Oklahoma State beating OU tomorrow. So A&M improves to 9-3 with a shot at getting ten wins if we can win our bowl game. I have had my doubts about Coach Fran since the Army game and this doesn't necessarily put him in the clear but he does have a one year stay of execution, so to speak. He needs to win the bowl game and a get a lot of offseason improvement out of the team so that next year we can win those games we lost this year. I am hopeful about the bowl game and next season, but we should enjoy this win for the next several days and then get ready to face a tough foe in December.

Gig 'Em Ags!!!!!!!

LOST Moments 2

I didn't watch "Day Break" last night and I still have no plans to. These LOST Moments are barely worth watching on YouTube...

The Worst Part of Thanksgiving

The thing that I really love and hate about Thanksgiving is that it kicks off the Christmas season. I hate how it seems that the Christmas decorations and advertisements come out before Thanksgiving. This year it seems like most stores skipped directly from Halloween to Christmas. But I still love the month of December and how the lead up to Christmas feels. But I wouldn't miss the Day After Thanksgiving sales extravaganzas if they suddenly went away.

On our way to Roxi's parent's house, we passed Best Buy and saw two people sitting outside as if they were waiting for the store to open. On our way home seven hours later an actual line had formed along the front of the building and around the corner. I asked Roxi to turn around and pull into the parking lot so I could get a picture. I asked one of the people in line what they were waiting for. I thought it had to be a new shipment of Playstation 3s. But no. These damn fools are camping out, as I type, to be the first to shop at Best Buy on the day after Thanksgiving.







I'm all for capitalism and I think that people can do whatever they want, but I also reserve the right to call them idiots for it. The Christmas season has officially begun!

Happy Thanksgiving!

College Football Week 12

There's no Texas A&M game today as the Aggies take their first break since the beginning of the season. All that's left is the day after Thanksgiving game against archrival Texas. So no football to watch today unless you are interested in watching No. 1 Ohio State vs. No. 2 Michigan. I guess that might be a good one!

LOST Moments 1

In an attempt to keep viewers during the interminable 13 week hiatus of LOST, ABC has decided to give us "LOST Moments" each week during the replacement show Day Break. Day Break might be a fine show, but I'm not watching it just because it is in LOST's time slot. Plus everyone knows that the previews will show up on YouTube anyway. So without further ado, the first (disappointing) LOST Moment of the hiatus.

College Football Week 11

I can't believe that the season has gone by so fast but here we are at the last home game of the year for Texas A&M. Today the Aggies will face the Nebraska Cornhuskers who look to be the Big XII North division champions. I wouldn't be watching the game if it weren't for a trip to Houston today. The game is not being shown in Louisiana in favor of coverage of Ohio State vs. Northwestern (?). But Roxi and her friend Amy had to make a trip to Houston for Sat Nam Rasayan. While they're busy with that, I'll be watching the game with my parents. We are 0-1 when I watch games in Houston so I hope that record moves to 1-1 after today. Nebraska is doing pretty well with a 7-3 record (4-2 conference), but A&M is technically doing better with an 8-2 record (4-2 conference). A&M can't win the Big XII South but we can compete for a better bowl and a win against a good Nebraska team would help do just that. So here's to beating those shuckers at the seniors' last game at Kyle Field. BTHO Nebraska!

UPDATE: Ags lose...by one point...again. I hate Fran so much.

"I Do"

This is it. The last episode of LOST for THREE MONTHS! It probably was the best beginning to end episode of the season, but still a far cry from the show that I fell in love with. So without further ado, here are my thoughts.

STOP READING NOW TO AVOID SPOILERS!

This episode was about Kate, but it really wasn't. Like most of the other episodes this season, the flashback was incidentally connected to the story on the island, but it seemed to be much less relevant or parallel to the island storyline. In any event, we finally got to see who Kate was married to and who almost got her pregnant: Captain Mal Reynolds. Okay in LOST his name is Kevin and apparently, Kate told him that her name is Monica. So what else did we learn about Kate? Nothing we didn't already know. She can't stay put and she likes to taunt US Marshal Edward Mars. BFD. I don't like Kate anymore. She has too much baggage, she's a liar and you know she's just going to leave Sawyer just as soon as they get settled down in their hovel on the beach.

While Kate's stock is falling, Jack's is rising in my opinion. I really didn't like him much last season and that carried over in a big way this season, but starting last week, I started to like him again. I think the real reason is that he has the upper hand on Ben now. But pretty much anyone who can screw with Ben's head is okay in my book.

Ben is a real a-hole. The same goes for Juliet, Pickett and all of the Others. They are all terrible liars who are hypocrites and ego maniacs. If you think I'm being too hard on them, it's not my fault. The producers have given me ABSOLUTELY NO REASON to like them. At least they didn't bother saying the played out "we're not killers" line this week the numerous times they said they would kill Sawyer. They are full of BS.

So Sawyer and Kate finally did it. Is anyone surprised?

Locke decided that Mr. Eko would be buried where he died and not at the beach so as not to upset the other Losties. How very Jack of you Locke. Keep hiding stuff from your friends. At Eko's funeral, Locke said he thinks that there was a reason for his death, he just figure out what it is. Hey I have an idea...ask the damn island! It seems to work every time Locke has a question! Hasn't he figured that out yet? Man they are dragging this show out.

So Jack is conned into performing surgery on Ben to remove the giant tumor. Ben sets it up so that he can see that Kate and Sawyer "got caught in a net." Right before going under anesthesia, Ben asks if Alex asked about him. She did but of course Juliet lies because that's what the Others do. I wonder what the bond is between Alex and Ben. Is she Alex's real father? Too bad we won't find out until Season 5. So Jack starts the surgery and Pickett takes the opportunity to kill Sawyer. Thankfully for Sawyer, Jack cuts Ben's kidney sack which will kill him in an hour if it is not fixed. Jack gets all Sidney Carton on the situation and volunteers to stay behind and save Ben if Pickett lets Kate escape with her Charles Darnay who we know as Sawyer (This episode should have been called "A Tale of Two Cities"). We are left with Ben sedated on the operating table (I called it!), Sawyer with a gun to his head and Jack telling Kate to run and let him know that she is okay within the hour.

So that's it for more than three months. I guess I'll be itching for a new episode eventually, but I don't think it will be until after Christmas. I'm sad that this season is not moving along quickly enough but it's because there are so many loose ends from the first two seasons not to mention these first six episodes of the third season. Who are Adam and Eve? What is the Smoke Monster? Who are the Others and why are they such a-holes? What is the Dharma Initiative? What's with the giant foot statue? What happened to Michael and Walt? Where are Yemi and Christian Shepard's bodies? Why was Ana Lucia such a bitch? What's going on with Penny Widmore and the Portuguese guys at the listening station in Antarctica? Was Libby really crazy or was she part of Dharma or both or neither? Why did the Others wear fake beards during the first two seasons? Where are the kids from the tail section of the plane? What happened to Cindy from the tail section? Who is Karl and why was he in the cage? Why hasn't Danielle found Alex yet? Who is Jacob and who was on his list? Who's the guy with the eyepatch and what station is he in? What do the Numbers mean? What's up with Desmond? WTF is going on????

NEXT YEAR(!) on LOST:

Borat Sagdiev

Roxi and I saw the Borat movie last night and although I enjoyed it, I kind of feel like it fell victim to the same fate as most SNL movies. Granted it is better than most of those, but I still feel like the shorter sketches on Da Ali G Show just work better than the plotline designed to fill in the spaces between the sketches in the movie. The show sketches leave me wanting more while I felt like the movie was losing a little steam by the end. Still very funny and worth seeing, but it got off to a slower start than I expected. I must say though that Sacha Baron Cohen is a very good actor not only being able to pull off the ruse on unsuspecting people, but many of the other scenes had a believable emotional element considering the absurd premise.

www.GiantOmelette.org

This afternoon, Roxi and I went to Abbeville, LA a short drive from our house to attend the climax of the Giant Omelette Celebration. I remember my mom taking me and my brothers as a young child, but I didn't realize that it is an annual event. We just happened to see a flyer for it on Friday and thought, "We must be there."

Roxi's parents joined us for the trip to the square in historic downtown Abbeville. We walked around through the arts and crafts tents before making our way to the courthouse where the giant omelette preparation was about to begin. We got there just in time for the ceremonial cracking of the 5000 eggs. As you can imagine, it takes a while to crack and beat 5000 eggs, so we took the opportunity to enjoy some Abita beer and some of the Cajun foods on hand.

The only thing that takes longer than cracking 5000 eggs is cooking 5000 eggs. We didn't really want to stick around for the long wait, but before leaving we made sure to get pictures of the army of chefs cooking the omelette. It was a great day to be outside at another of the many festivals in and around southern Louisiana.

College Football Week 10

It's a big day in College Station, TX for the Texas A&M Aggies and the students and fans of the team. ESPN College Gameday is on campus today for their weekly show and the Aggie crowd looks great! Tonight, A&M faces Oklahoma, who admittedly is a little down this year, but they are still very dangerous. They are a great team and they are in the position to play spoiler to A&M's hopes of winning the last three games and going to the Big XII Championship game in December. Right now the Aggies have an unbelievable 8-1 record (4-1 in conference) and actually control their own destiny in the Big XII South, but these things really have to be taken one game at a time. I've had trouble with some of the decisions of the coaching staff at times this season, but the players really do seem to have a lot of guts to stay in all their close games and manage to pull off wins in all but one of them. This week will be hard if we can't keep up with OU, but having home field will be a big help and the crowd will definitely be a factor like it was in all of the recent OU games at Kyle Field. I am looking forward to this one and I really hope that the team is as fired up as they should be. It's a good day to be an Aggie and a win would make it a great day! Gig 'Em and BTHO OU!!!!

UPDATE: Ags lose by one point. Risky coaching and the stupidest of mistakes (12 men on the field!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) when they had more than enough time to get their play figured out. STUPID! How could a coach let that happen? UNFORGIVABLE! Fran is dead to me.

UPDATE: After having a night to sleep on it, I may have been a bit hasty in my post-game sentiments. The players fought hard all game and the Aggie defense did a lot to keep the team in the game by not allowing Oklahoma to score touchdowns after two in the first quarter. The offense worked hard to get the team back in the game but they could not capitalize by scoring points off of two Oklahoma fumbles. The offense managed to pull within one point of the Sooners off of two field goals, but was unable to get the ball back to attempt the game winning field goal. Of course that brings us to the horrible mistake of having twelve men on the field on the crucial fourth-down stand. But Bob Stoops is certifiable and only he would have the balls to go for it on fourth from his own 29-yard line. But the gamble paid off and Oklahoma won the game.

The Aggies played a good one and the score was much closer than it probably could have been considering how close games against worse teams have been this year. We just came up short last night and that's the breaks. It was really only a matter of time. I would like to think that the Aggie team can use this as motivation going into next week's game against Nebraska, but they are starting to click and will be coming into Kyle Field as the leaders in the Big XII North. We are still playing for a good bowl game so two more wins would not only put us into a better position but it would be the first ten-win season since 1998. Plus ten wins would mean we would beat Texas and I think that would make any Aggie forget about the loss to Texas Tech and Oklahoma.

"The Cost of Living"

So we have come to the penultimate episode of LOST for 2006 and again I am conflicted. There isn't really much more I can say without specific episode details. So...

STOP READING NOW TO AVOID SPOILERS!

ABC has been hyping that one of the survivors would die in this episode but I think most people knew who it would be. This episode followed the formula for killing off characters: the flashback was about the character, the character came to an important realization about themselves, and the character was arrested for some driving related issues during the hiatus. I'm conflicted because there were really only four characters that I still really cared about on the show and now that Mr. Eko is dead, there are only three: Sawyer, Locke and Desmond. And according to Locke, Mr. Eko's last words were that they were next. So I am bummed about losing Mr. Eko, but I guess the producers had to kill someone pretty important otherwise they would be accused of coping out. But why did the black smoke kill Eko? It didn't kill him when he faced off with it before. I guess I'm supposed to be excited that we got to see the smoke monster, but it didn't really explain anything.

I was glad to see that Locke brought some of the other survivors to the Pearl Station but are we really supposed to believe that Locke never thought that the other monitors might be linked to the other stations? I know he was pissed off the first time he was in the Pearl Station, but that doesn't explain a complete lack of common sense. Anyway, we get to see one of the other stations and clearly see a person with an eye patch. No big surprise here since it was in the preview, but I have heard an interesting theory on a couple of podcasts. The theory goes back to some clues we got in Season 2.

When the Tailies found the abandoned Arrow Station, they found a trunk with a radio, a Bible and a glass eye. The glass eye probably belongs to this mystery person, but who is he? For that we go to the Bible. The secret of this Bible is that it contained a short reel of film that had been edited out of the Orientation Film for the Swan Station. In the Season 2 finale, when Kelvin was telling Desmond about the hatch, he said that Radzinsky was his previous partner in the station until he killed himself. He also said that Radzinsky was responsible for the edits in the Orientation Film. So did Radzinsky really commit suicide or is he this mystery eye patch wearing man? For my money, that's a pretty compelling theory. Too bad we won't find out for a very long time.

Meanwhile on the other island, Jack is invited by Ben to attend Colleen's funeral. The strange thing about the funeral was the music playing over the loudspeakers. It sounded like a Patsy Cline. I'm not sure if it was, but it would be interesting because her music has appeared at least three times in Kate's flashbacks. Connection or red herring?

Before the funeral, Jack confronts Ben about his tumor and Ben nervously denies it but then confirms it for our benefit in a conversation with Juliet. So then Ben sort of tells Jack his original plan for "breaking" him and making him want to perform the surgery. I'm not sure if the producers are intentionally setting us up by making me doubt the sincerity of everything that Ben says, but I did like his comment about God and the plane crashing on the island.

Finally, Juliet secretly conveyed a message to Jack about a coup against Ben. She appears to be telling Jack to agree to perform the surgery but have an unforeseen accident. She implies that the Others want a change in leadership and that she will protect Jack. I sort of want to believe her, but all of the Others are liars. It seems like a very conveniently placed setup for next week's cliff hanger. My guess is that Jack will perform the surgery and the episode will end with the "complication." So we won't know if Ben lives or dies until February.

So this episode was very bittersweet for me. I'm really going to miss Mr. Eko. So long Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje.

UPDATE: I just wanted to respond to the comments this post received so far. First off, thanks to Kat for informing me that the song during Colleen's funeral was by Brenda Lee and not Patsy Cline. According to the Jay and Jack Podcast, the song is titled "I Wonder."

Secondly, I thought I'd clarify a few of my comments based on Roxi's questions. I grew weary of Kate during Season 2 because she always seemed to get the group in trouble most notably in "The Hunting Party" where she follows Jack, Sawyer and Locke when they go looking for Michael. She got caught and was used as a pawn for the Others to take Jack, Sawyer and Locke's guns.

I guess I liked Ben's God comment because it might have given some indication of his motivation. If he is telling the truth about when he found out about his tumor, I thought it showed that he is just as scared and as human as the Flight 815 survivors.

Despite everything the producers have said about plotting out the entire story for five seasons, they are definitely making up BS padding along the way. At this point, all of the Tailies are dead except for Bernard (who we haven't seen yet this season), Cindy (captured by the Others just before Ana Lucia shot Shannon) and the kids (also captured by the Others just after the crash). What was the point of developing their stories last season if they were all going to be gone by the beginning of season 2? Couldn't the same plot have been executed sooner by characters we already knew?

LOST has definitely lost it's edge. Although there have been some developments in this first part of Season 3, they have lacked any emotional impact. I am sad to see Eko go, but I wasn't as shocked or surprised like I was when Ana Lucia and Libby were killed. Nothing this season has been as cool as the light coming out of the hatch door after Boone died or when we found out that Locke was in a wheelchair before the crash. Nothing has been as creepy and disorienting as "Make Your Own Kind Of Music" playing in the Swan Station at the beginning of Season 2. Don't get me wrong; I've enjoyed parts of Season 3, but the stories haven't really been all that compelling to me. I might have pretty high expectations, but that is only because LOST was so very good in Season 1 and at times during Season 2. The producers really need to stop doing the marketing for the show and get back to making a great show. The marketing will take care of itself. Word of mouth made the show what it is, not some gimmicks like "Bad Twin," real-life Apollo candy bars or The Lost Experience. At this point, there probably won't be that many new fans to the show, so the producers should really concentrate on not losing the the fans they already have!

NEXT WEEK on LOST:


CANADIAN PROMO: