(in the dark) the shine of small things

Watched Veronica Guerin over lunch today. Good movie. It was a little hard, since I knew her fate going in (and even if I hadn't, the film opens with it), but I'm glad I finally got around to it. I bought the film used about 2 years ago, and I kept meaning to watch it, but I was never in quite the right mood. I kind of hate it when I watch a movie that is based on a true story and realize I had no idea about stuff that was going on in the world not too terribly long ago...but at the same time I love that movies like this get made, to enlighten me. My dad was resting his eyes downstairs in the living room when I started it, but I looked over 15 minutes in, and he was sitting up and watching it too. So that's cool. Because I would imagine one can only watch True Grit but so many times.

On the topic of movies, for some strange reason, Johnny Depp's The Libertine comes out on DVD today. Weird. Anyone besides [Bad username or site: catslash / @ livejournal.com] see that? Er, I think it was Cat who posted about it some months ago, but I could be wrong. I know it was shelved for over a year after it was made, and it got some pretty bad reviews...but Johnny Depp's in it. As is Jack Davenport and my girl-crush Rosamund Pike. Hmm. But $17 is a bit much to pay for a movie that might suck as bad as The Astronaut's Wife so I'll pass for now.

(Also, if you were a fan of The Pretender, the first three seasons are on sale at Best Buy for $14.99 each.)

Okay, AT&T's Home Turf website is incredibly annoying. It took me, no lie, close to two hours to finally get the fucking Pujols video playing so I could rip it. If anyone besides Bri wants it, have at. I had planned to also grab the David Ortiz and Nomar eps, but the idea of fighting with the site for another four hours was beyond me, sorry.

Home Turf is basically MTV's Cribs, but with Deion Sanders as your host. There's a bit of unsubtle product placement, but otherwise it's a cute little visit to the Pujols home. I think I might have a crush on his wife Dee, because she seems like she's fun times and I like her sense of humor.

It occurred to me in the shower the other day (things always occur to me in the shower, just go with it) that I forgot about 5 people when I sent out postcards last month and belatedly, a couple weeks ago. Well, I didn't forget you so much as I was fairly sure I'd sent you all postcards and then thinking about it, I realized I probably hadn't? It wasn't intended as a personal slight, I swear. I'm just kind of absentminded sometimes. I have stamps, and I still have postcards, so more will be going out tomorrow.

Next week's SI reveals that Major League Baseball has licensed a company to produce coffins that carry team logos. I... don't think so, guys. And for people like Bri, the company is producing urns :P

( SI's notable mid-season awards )

I am down to the last forty pages of Three Nights in August. Say it ain't so ^_~

Bri didn't want to hear about some poor squirrel's final moments so a small sample of stockbroker!Chavvy screencaps.

( Lidge stuff )

Though it pained me to do it, I've added additional lines from the as yet unguessed 7 songs that remain in the lyrics meme from a couple days ago. It's not that I'm judging those of you who haven't gotten a single one, as much as it is...that I'm judging those of you who haven't gotten a single one. Look, what can I say? As Alanis once sang - we are fundamentally judgmental. I've also uploaded mp3s of all the songs that have been guessed.

In other distressing news: IT IS NOT SNOWING. I don't know why I got my hopes up. I told my father all we'd get is rain, but nooo, he had to go and convince me this storm was badass and we would definitely see at least an inch. **sniffs**

According to my brother's away message on AIM, he's dealing with being snowed in up in PA by curling up with the last few eps of the 24 season one boxset I loaned him. Aww. I'm so proud.

ETA: in honor of Astros Fanfest, I've had the NLCS on in the background as I do my grf work today. Well, Games 2 and 6. I continue to find myself all kinds of crushing on Roy O. That is all.

Congrats to the NL Champion Houston Astros! I'm glad I came over to Christine's for the game, we had a fun time, and she saw my awesome homerun calling power in action. (I totally called Lane's homerun, kids. PHEER ME.)

I do feel bad for Mulder, that's three elimination games now he's started for his ballclub only to watch the other team celebrate at the end of the night. And I'm sorry, rickenbacker and starfishchick. I know you guys never lost faith in your boys.

But at the end of the night, I'm pretty excited about the Astros/White Sox matchup. But who to root for now? The club that hasn't won since 1917...or the club that's never won one? I usually vote for AL over NL, just 'cause you gotta have league pride, but Oswalt! and Everett! and Ensberg! Yeah. I dunno.

sensefille says Chicago in six. [Bad username or site: __dtrain / @ livejournal.com] says 'stros in six. ([Bad username or site: cruzalicious / @ livejournal.com] also calls 'stros in six. All the ESPN guys are giving it to Chicago.) I don't think I lose either way; I'd be happy for either club :-P

[Poll #594304]

ETA:
Hee, Roger, Andy and Roy are one big mutual appreciation society. All with the ghey. And accents. Too cute.

Edit 2:
Leo Mazzone is our new pitching coach? Okay then. That works for me ^_^

Edit 3:
They keep showing the phantom tag. I probably would not find it so damn amusing if it had cost the Astros a scoring opportunity.

+ Joe Torre is such a glutton for punishment. I wonder if he talked to Jeter and DJ was like For the love of Christ, please do not leave me alone to handle this clusterfuck of a team. Such a glutton for punishment. There are also rumors that Cashman could still stay. So all that hullabaloo over nothing.

+ **sends good vibes in the direction of Astros fans** Yeah, I was rooting for the series not to end yesterday, but Sports Guy's column today was a tough read. Except for the following random potshot at AJ Polish:

Yet another question: Is A.J. Pierzynski the most annoying professional athlete in recent memory? He's like the Rick Barry of this generation -- everything he does seems annoying for some reason, even his interviews. You can see why the Giants and Twins couldn't stand him. I don't even think he's a bad guy, he's just one of Those Guys. If you played at a $25 table in Vegas with him, he seems like the guy who would say stuff like "Wow, you're way up right now, huh?" and scream "Whammy!" every time he was dealt a blackjack. And he wouldn't even know he was being annoying, so his friends would think of convoluted ways to ditch him, stuff like, "Hey, A.J., I'm gonna go walk around, get some air, I'll be back in 10 minutes" ... and then they would scurry to another casino. That's A.J., right?

HAHAHAHAHHAHA.

+ Speaking of Bill Simmons, anyone read his book?

+ Random non-baseball thing that is not like the others: My dad's going back to Egypt for a month for work!

+ I am totally spamming, I realize. I do this when I have a fuckload of work to do and I can't deal.

So, I really shouldn't watch the game, I have a lot of stuff to do :-/ But I'll be rooting for [Bad username or site: rickenbacker / @ livejournal.com]'s boys again, for all the good it did them last night. Partly for her, but mostly because yeah, I need baseball to not gear up to leave me so fast.

Neat bit of randomness from Jack Curry's piece on the Sox win:

Maybe numerology favors them. Guess what uniform number Doug Eddings, the umpire who made a disputed call that helped the White Sox prevail in Game 2, wears on his sleeve? Eighty-eight. As in, 88 years since the White Sox last won a title.

Cool beans :-P

Btw, is it just me, or are there really more than enough Yule scent decant circles going right now? Jeez Louise.

....Um, it's 4:04pm. There's supposed to be playoff baseball on my tv. What is this football bullshit?

In slightly more fun news, Hot Topic is now carrying a Boondock Saints merch line. Not much there yet, but I'm crossing my fingers for a Rocco tee eventually.

[Bad username or site: johnnybvo / @ livejournal.com] sends an email to inform me of the following:

I was watching SC and they were showing (I want to say) the Astros (but maybe it was the Angels) getting off of a bus and I have never seen so many white guys in my life outside of that time I watched White Squall.

And I almost choked on my eggroll and died :-P

Btw, Alex - you totally abandoned me, and I hope you know that as you breathe, I am preparing appropriate retribution. Seriously. This is my evil face.