DOWN WITH PANTS!

Continuing on my need for "Best of" lists to end this year, here are my favorite movies of 2004. Again, just like in the songs post this is a list of my favorite movies not the best films of the year (except for Eternal Sunshine, which is the best film of the year). It's simply a list of the ones I really, really enjoyed. There sure were a lot of them. I don't think there has been a year when I loved so many movies. Yet most people say this was a very mediocre year.

This list is probably not complete because I'm positive I'm forgetting a couple of movies that I saw and I liked and I haven't seen many of the latest releases...

Tie #15 - Anchorman/ Dodgeball
#14 - The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
#13 - I Heart Huckabees
#12 - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
#11 - Finding Neverland
#10 - Shrek 2
#9 - Saved!
#8 - Garden State
#7 - Shaun of the Dead
#6 - Kill Bill Volume 2
#5 - Spiderman 2
#4 - The Incredibles
#3 - Napoleon Dynamite
#2 - Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless Mind
#1 - Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle

So? Think Harold and Kumar was crap? Did the Passion get you all hot and bothered? Is there something I'm missing? Please let me know...

I feel compelled to do some "Best of 2004" lists. Of course I realize that a "Best of" list is completely subjective so I won't force my opinions down your throat. What follows is simply the songs that have become my favorite this year. I don't really think that they are the best songs of the year, just the ones that I would put on a mix tape if someone asked me to...

Bonus #16 - "99 Problems" - DJ Danger Mouse - The Grey Album
15. "Move On" - Mike Doughty - Future Soundtrack For America
14. " Some Postman" - Presidents of the USA - Love Everybody
13. "I'll Be Around" - Cee-Lo Green - The Soul Machine
12. "Hoist That Rag" - Tom Waits - Real Gone
11. "Doublewide" - Southern Culture on the Skids - Mojo Box
10. "Portland, Oregon" - Loretta Lynn and Jack White - Van Lear Rose
9. "Common People" - William Shatner - Has Been
8. "Blinded By the Light" - The Streets - A Grand Don't Come For Free
7. "Me & Mia" - Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Shake the Sheets
6. "Sex, Love and Money" - Mos Def - New Danger
5. "I'm Tongue Tied" - Magnetic Fields - I
4. "Through the Wire" - Kanye West - College Dropout
3. "Way of the Light" - Gift of Gab - 4th Dimensional Rocketships Going Up
2. "Section 12 (Hold Me Now)" - Polyphonic Spree - Together We're Heavy
1. "Float On" - Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News

Anything I might have missed? Have a song that really did something for you? Does my taste totally suck? Let me know...

The Down With Pants! crew took in The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou at the Guild 45th in Seattle on Sunday night. While it probably is director Wes Anderson's worst movie it still is very good and I recommend it giving it Two Pants Down. It's funny, it's interesting, it's visually very well made, the music is great and it was a lot of fun.

That being said, I have no idea what the point of it was. It has so many themes and morals running around at once that as a whole it doesn't make much sense and continually contradicts itself. All of Anderson's films do this but they usually manage to clear it up nicer than this one does.

Bill Murray is incredible again but is upstaged by his co-stars especially Willem Dafoe who played the self conscious and hilarious Klaus. I'd love to see him get a nod for Best Supporting Actor but highly doubt that will happen. Even Owen Wilson manages for once to dial it down and gives a very restrained performance that fits his character nicely.

Overall, it's not great but it is very good. If you can enter the theater and not compare it to the other movies that Anderson has made I think you will enjoy yourself. But if you put it next to Rushmore and the Royal Tannenbaums it will not stand up. Not many movies could.

I have both good news and bad news. First the bad...Pho Shizzle isn't real. It's a photoshoped picture apparently originating from Fark. I kind of figured it was a joke especially since I couldn't find one in the yellow pages anywhere. "It isn't a real place, just cheap photoshoppery", says Dan Shahin of Wacky Hijinks, the site I originally got the picture from.

Now for the good news...Pho Shizzle isn't real! I can continue to use my stupid joke that if I opened up a Vietnamese Noodle shop I'd call it Pho Shizzle. Thank you to all the people on other blogs who have exposed this as a fake and thank you to Dan for commenting on my blog and letting me know. I appreciate it because I only have so many good jokes and need all the help I can get.

As I left the house this morning for work Death? yelled at me,"have a great day Fred Durst!". This is just about the last thing that I want to hear as I'm walking out the house because, as Michael Bolton said so eloquently in Office Space about Michael Bolton, he is a no talent ass-clown.

I was wearing my red Mexico City Diablos Rojos hat and a black hooded sweatshirt (shown above thanks to the magic of MS Paint). When I dress like this I suppose I do look a little bit like Fred Durst. Really anytime I wear a red hat and a black piece of clothing I resemble his dumb ass.

I noticed this resemblance years ago when Limp Bizkit was getting popular but I kept it to myself afraid that if anyone else knew they'd mock me mercilessly. Unfortunately Death? and I were walking around the NY State Fair in Syracuse when a hard rock radio station DJ broadcasting live stopped me as we were walking by and asked "hey Fred Durst, mind if we have an interview." I just snarled something nasty at him as I kept walking but the seed was planted in Death?'s mind and knowing my hatred of Limp Bizkit and Fred she has never let me live it down.

A big thanks to Daniel Sales for hooking me up with a GMail invite the other day. So now I finally have an email address that I don't feel weird about giving out to just anybody. Of course I should have done this a loooooong time ago, but I'm pretty lazy. So please, drop me an email sometime soon at downwithpants@gmail.com and let me know what's on your mind. Thanks!

Last night I attended the Washington Huskies 68-64 victory over the North Carolina Wolfpack. Both teams struggled and both stars, Nate Robinson for the Huskies and Julius Hodge for the Wolfpack, had off games. Brandon Roy surprised everybody by returning and scoring 10 points including a huge tip dunk late in the game that brought us to our feet and helped turn the tide for the Huskies. He also had the big defensive play that stopped the Wolfpack from tying the game with only a couple of seconds left.

It was an impressive win because the Huskies were totally taken out of their game offensively but were still able to overcome their struggles and make the big plays down the stretch against a really good team. After this win teams are going to take notice and know that the only way they can beat the Huskies is by playing their absolute best game of the season. It's going to be a great ride once the Pac-10 season starts.

Bitchiest thing overheard at the game: A little tiny waif of a girl sitting behind us talking about the cheersquad. "...and they are kind of fat, they are a little chunky. Look at that little chunk on the end closest to us. She's not the prettiest thing in the world." Personally Down With Pants! would take the "chunk" over that nasty rail any day.

In other sports news, my kind of alma mater (I never quite graduated, whoops!), Bowling Green State University has a football team playing on Wednesday in the GMAC Bowl, a basketball team that has started 5-1 on and a hockey team that has made vast improvements over the past few years standing at 8-6-2 on the season but suffered some tough news when they learned that their star goalie, Jordan Sigalet was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Good job Falcons, why couldn't you have done all of this great stuff when I was there?

I can't exactly say I'm a fan of John Mayer's music, but I just watched his show, John Mayer Has A TV Show, on VH1 and it was hilarious. Really one of the most entertaining TV shows I've seen in a long time. I highly recommend it. Of course it's on VH1 so it will definitely be repeated at some point, the question is when. They might squeeze it between an episode of the Fabulous Life of Some Skanky Bitch and I Love The Top 100 Most Awesomely Bad Polka Jams Strikes Back, so you'd better watch closely.

Blogging on a Friday night? Yeah, it's true. Tonight Death? is at a girls only slumber birthday party so I'm relaxing, watching the Supersonics game and surfing around.

The mind starts racing with images when us guys think about a girls only slumber party. What do I think the girls are doing right now...

This week Death? (my fiance for everybody who is new. I'm Cake...our geocaching name is Team Cake or Death? in reference to the great Eddie Izzard) is interviewing for family practice residency programs here in Seattle. What this means for me is that I have been dragged to two dinners this week where applicants can meet the current residents in a more casual setting and pick their brains and see if they would like the program and be a good fit. Of course this means a lot of medical and hospital talk which isn't really my cup of tea.

If you've never been to a medical school party, then let me describe it to you this way. At another party I went to a few years ago a fellow non-medical student and former Microsoft employee said "med student parties are worse than Microsoft parties." Now I have never been to a Microsoft party but when I think of one pain shoots from the front of my brain, down my spinal cord, kicks me in the crotch and then makes my feet just give way and I fall down and ball myself into the fetal position and start crying.

Some parties have been pretty bad, it's true. When you put 50-100 med students into the same room and only sprinkle in a handful of non-med students chances are most of us non-med students will end up learning how to sleep with our eyes wide open. I'm starting to get pretty good at this, I've had lots of practice.

But please, worse than a Microsoft party? I have my doubts. At the very least, the med school parties are well catered. Tonight we had some outstanding Thai food, good beer and wine, some of the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever tasted and ice cream. What I think I would get at a Microsoft party is Cheetos, Mountain Dew and leftovers from the afternoon run to Chotchkie's.

Again we click on that magical button on the top of this website to see what mysterious and sometimes scary places Blogger will take us. Here is a little excerpt from the first five blogs that are thrown my way...

1. sToP By aT JaNNieViLLe - yOO..sUp..To aLL tHe viSiToRs To My bLoG!weLcoMe! hOPe u aiN'T To BoRed by iT~!HaViNg Lost My True LoVe! i CouLdn't pOssiBiLy ThiNk oF ANythiNg, buT i HaVe grEaT frens suPPortiNg aLL the wAy! Dis PoeM iS DeDiCaTeD To HiM WheReeVer u Are!

2. KC's Journal - i knew it was going to be messy when i told her, but i knew it be worse if she found out on the interim...and it probably still will be bad when i get the interim...but o well, fuck hell....teehee i rhyme when desensitized! parents are right though, i dont' get into yale with C's in drivers ed...

3. It's Over - my sis is begging me to let me share my blog with her...cause she's lazy to make one herself ( lazy pig..)...but obviously i'd sae no...ANYBODY HERE TT WOULD LIKE TO SHARE UR BLOG WITH MY SIS???hahah...it's like so late now ( or rather early in the morning)...ahha...i'm LAME!!!

4. CaRyN LoVeS eDwIn FoReVa!* - yo. changed mui songy to sylvester's its mui life ^^ gees. isit nyce? buden too bad he's not da sg idol. hahas. =]ps: feli dunch go krazee ova it wor =p if u wan ta webbie msg mui in msn when im online bahs! keke.

5. dial it down and listen up - kill me, kill mee nowww! exams are here and im not ready.

Five straight teeny bopper sites! (I'm only 27 and yet I really sound like an old fogey sometimes) Ok, I don't like to review people's sights because who am I to judge, you've seen my blog. But seriously now, what is the deal with the writing on these blogs? I think it is much harder to write like that than it is to write normally. Especially the ones that capitalize everything. Am I missing something? What gives? If anybody has any insight into this phenomenon, please let me know.

UPDATE!!! - Tonight (Wednesday) we have a dinner of Cous Cous (which I don't think I've ever had), tomato and mozzarella salad, roasted red pepper hummus and pita bread planned. Two new foods in one week, boy have I have come a long way since my days of eating Kraft Macaroni and Cheese (or as I like to call it, Kraft Cheese and Macaroni) for a week straight.

Somehow I have managed to live 27 years and never eaten hummus until today. In their never ending quest to fatten us up for the busy season my employers put out cookies, crackers, cheese and for the health conscious people pita bread, hummus and carrots. So in a feeble attempt to eat healthy I grabbed some bread and hummus. And damn, hummus is tasty! Where have you been all my life you yummy Greek goddess!

I just saw Modest Mouse perform on the Last Laugh '04 on Comedy Central tonight and they were predictably unpredictable. They truly are one of the most hit or miss live bands ever and tonight they were mostly miss. Isaac Brock had a massive shiner, a scratchy voice and barely hit any of the guitar notes that are the signature of their hit song "Float On". However the song is so good that even when they struggle to get it right it still manages to sound incredible. Modest Mouse is the happiest train wreck I have ever seen.

Also tonight I saw the new video "Me & Mia" by Ted Leo and the Pharmacists on MTV2's Subterranean. It is such a great song and the video is so simple and cool. It makes me want to run out and buy the CD right now. But alas I did something stupid and put it on my Amazon wish list the other day meaning that it may have been purchased already and I'm just going to have to wait and see if I get it as a gift.

Forget Jason Giambi. Forget Barry Bonds. Would somebody please leak Carrot Top's grand jury testimony about BALCO. I'm pretty sure that he's been using the same "flaxseed oil" that Barry has been.

editor's note - I posted this a couple weeks ago and didn't have much of a response. But now that I have a ton of new readers I wanted to resurrect it. Please let me know how you write your number eight because I know of only two or three people who write it like I do and I want to find out if there are more or if we are the only ones who are right...

A couple of months ago I noticed that I write the number eight differently than most people. Instead of one single continuous line in a loop-de-loop, I write mine with two separate circles...

The Washington Husky basketball team is flying high after losing to Gonzaga last week by first knocking off Eastern Washington 89-56 on Sunday and then tonight dismantling San Diego State 98-69.

The Eastern game was a blowout but the Huskies didn't look that good. They made a lot of mistakes and missed a ton of free throws and again got into some serious foul trouble. It didn't hurt them though as Eastern was just outclassed in all aspects of the game. Tre Simmons and Nate Robinson both had 20 points

Tonight was different though. The Huskies looked incredible. They played great defense, shot the ball ridiculously well, rebounded - really just about everything went right. They did have 26 turnovers but most of those came when the game got out of hand and just became a playground run-and-shoot contest. Simmons was on fire in the first half scoring 19 points. He finished with 23 while Robinson led the team with 24.

The 6-1 Huskies travel to Los Angeles this weekend to take on Loyola Marymount on Sunday and then have a week off before facing Julius Hodge and the 10th ranked North Carolina State Wolfpack on December 19th at Hec Ed.

While surfing Blog Explosion yesterday I found a post on a blog about a line in a Tim McGraw song called "Back When" that mentions Peanuts in a Bottle. After some research this blogger (If you are reading this, I thought I saved your URL but lost it somehow and I can't find you again, please post it in the comments if you see this) discovered what he was talking about was drinking Dr. Pepper with peanuts in the bottom of the bottle, which apparently they did "Back When".

This peaked my interest so I decided to try it. I went to Oh No Mr. Bill's, our local neighborhood convenience store, and purchased one bottle of Dr. Pepper. I then put a handful of Planter's peanuts into the bottle, sealed it up, shook it and let it sit in the fridge for about fifteen or twenty minutes.

After watching a bit of the Monday Night Football game (nice work Seahawks, you suckers) I went and grabbed the bottle. About half of the peanuts soaked up the Dr. Pepper and sank to the bottom while the other half just floated on top. I took a big gulp of the soda and got a bunch of peanuts at the same time. Neither the soda or the peanuts really seemed to change flavor at all and it was a very weird feeling to get chunks while taking a drink. I really have no idea how anyone could possibly drink bubble tea now. The chunks made me want to blow my own chunks right back into it.

After forcing down the remaining peanuts that floated on top I proceeded to drink more of the Dr. Pepper without peanuts until I got to about a quarter left. That's when I started getting the soaked peanuts. These were actually very tasty but the soda still didn't taste any different and the chunk factor was still there.

I think that I would probably try this again and let the peanuts soak for much longer, strain them out and eat them individually. One of the main things I don't like about peanuts is how dry they are. I love peanut sauces and peanut butter but usually don't like plain peanuts out of a can. Soaking them in Dr. Pepper got rid of that dryness and they picked up the flavor magnificently and were very enjoyable.

Confirming I don't have an original bone in my body, today I found Thai One On, a fancy schmancy Thai restaurant in Whistler, BC. After Pho Shizzle, Thai One On was my second choice for favorite cheesy restaurant name that I would open if given the chance. Now I'm just completely lost (an illustration of this: It just took me six different tries to spell completely correctly).

Today Death? and I traveled to the beautiful Snoqualmie Valley to pick up our Christmas tree at the Carnation Tree Farm (our new favorite place to get a tree) and found two incredible roadside attractions.

1. Segis Pietertje Prospect, AKA Possum Sweetheart...

Fresh off of cutting down our tree, emboldened with a sense of adventure, we set out to find Possum Sweetheart. About five miles north of Carnation just off of Carnation Farms Road sits this heifer of a memorial. It honors Segis Pietertje Prospect, a Holstein who in 1920 set the world record for most milk produced in a year by churning out 37,361 pounds of milk. The plaque goes into great detail about Possum and the record and delivers this solidly true statement. Cows.."nobly deserve the title, 'Foster Mother of the Human Race." Learn more about Possum here. Picture stolen from here.

2. XXX Root Beer Drive-In...

Following our stop to see Possum Sweetheart and a quick cheese finding mission we then headed back to Seattle but got distracted in Issaquah by the XXX Root Bear Drive-In. Having eaten hours ago at the good but skimpy Longshoreman's Daughter in Fremont we were quite hungry and our stomachs overruled our minds. Good thing breakfast wasn't very big because the XXX doesn't skimp and the food is incredible.

First we ordered XXX Root Bear, Death? had the 24 ounce mug while I went with the 34 ouncer and it was just about the best root beer I've ever had. Then we ordered food and I had the Cameo 49, a footlong Philly cheesteak sandwich smothered in XXX sauce, XXX gravy, green peppers, grilled onions and mushrooms. Death? ordered one of the most modest sounding hamburgers on the menu and it was still freaking humongous.

One of the sandwiches on the menu consists of ham, a hamburger patty, bacon and a hot dog (I think there may have been even one more meat product as well) with cheese. Everything is huge and messy and they will not give you a fork or knife no matter what, so don't even bother asking. We didn't even eat dinner tonight since we have been completely full ever since and I may not eat breakfast in the morning. Learn more about the historic XXX here (it's also where I stole the picture).

I don't know who scares me more anymore. The person using the hands-free device on their cell phone or a completely delusional crazy fuckhead. It's nearly impossible to tell the difference between the two. You see them come stumbling toward you totally oblivious to the world flapping their gums to what seems like no one in particular. One roams the malls and grocery stores of the suburbs, the other roams the streets and alleyways of Pioneer Square. But can you really tell the difference?

Who really knows if that grungy looking guy yelling at the top of his lungs in downtown is really fighting with his inner demons or just on a really bad connection. Who knows if the well dressed soccer mom is really talking with her husband about what to get for dinner or if she thinks she is making plans with Satan for the coming war between a group of super strong flying monkeys and an all-star army consisting of Ashton Kutcher, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.

All I'm saying is, please be careful. When you see someone talking to themselves, give yourself enough space to get away quick. Because you never know when Kelly the soccer mom may use you as a human shield against an unholy Kutcher/Hilton/Lohan army.

Just a quick programming note for all a y'all. Tonight I got rid of the "Previous Posts" section on the sidebar and added a "My Favorite Posts" section instead. For those of you who are new to Down With Pants! (which most of you are) this is an excellent way of seeing what I'm all about. Please check it out....Thanks!

Ok, so I was sure I wasn't the first to have this idea and now it's been proven. However, it's been my joke for the last few years that if I ever opened up a Pho shop, I'd call it Pho Shizzle. Surprisingly people thought it was a pretty funny joke and actually a good idea. I would've been happy to give up my idea to someone if they wanted to open up Pho Shizzle in Seattle because I haven't the foggiest clue about running a Pho place.

This Pho Shizzle aparently is somewhere in either LA or the Bay Area, nothing I read says where it is located, but it isn't in Seattle. So if you are thinking of opening a Pho restaurant in Seattle, please call it Pho Shizzle because I would so eat at it. Now if only I could find a restaurant called Pho Sho. Feel free to steal that one too. Picture stolen from Wacky Hijinks.

The Huskies played an outstanding game but ran out of gas in the last five minutes and lost to Gonzaga 99-87 tonight. The game was pretty damn good until those last minutes or so when foul trouble really hurt the Huskies. Add that to 6,000 screaming Zag fans and a Gonzaga team that was on a mission to show they weren't as bad as their loss to Illinois on Saturday and it's no wonder they won.

It's disappointing to see the Huskies suffer a setback after such a positive beginning to the season but I don't think this loss is that big of a deal. It does show that they have some weaknesses without Brandon Roy in the lineup but these are the kind of losses, just like Gonzaga had to Illinois, that helps a team grow.

One major problem that the Huskies are going to have all season long is fouls. This is a team that fouls quite a bit. They even put Seattle Pacific in the bonus early in both halves of that blowout. Bobby Jones has already fouled out in two of the four games he has played in after fouling out 15 times last season. Tonight, Jones stayed out of foul trouble but just about everybody else was saddled with two or three by the end of the first half. Tre Simmons picked up his fourth early in the second half and had to sit for a long time taking a way the Huskies best three point shooter. The style that this team plays means they are going to foul a lot and with the depth that the Huskies have when Roy is healthy it won't be that big of a deal. Without him they are spread thin and their intense defense suffered tonight because guys had to back off so often. It also doesn't help that Gonzaga hit 27 of their 33 free throw attempts while the Huskies only hit 9 of 17.

The Bulldogs face UMass on Saturday here in Seattle at the Key Arena in the Battle of Seattle. UMass has been awful this season and Gonzaga should be able to pick up a second straight win. On Sunday the Huskies look to get right when they take on Eastern Washington at the sold-out Hec Edmundson Pavilion.

See that little button on the top of the page that says "Next Blog", click it I dare you....It will lead you to some pretty scary places on the web. Not that DOWN WITH PANTS! is that great either, read long enough and I'm sure you can find a hundred or so posts that could make this list. Anyway, here are five snipets of the horror that you can find by hitting the "Next Blog" button...

1. Kelleigh's Life in a Page - "Sunday, after work, I went to lunch at Panda King. I missed church because of work, but all we needed was Pastor John and we could have broken out in another service during lunch."

2. Bangs and a Ponytail - "sadly enough, weezer makes me think of vance, who walked by on friday (oh friday - so hilarious). I didn't recognise him...they stopped and briefly chatted, i was bemused but cool. but f that, back to weezer..."

3. Om Improvement : Steady, Comfy, Happy, Yoga. - "Nothing prepared me for the adventure that was teaching yoga and making all of my life part of yoga. There are many things I have learnt since I started on this path. Not the least are the simplicity of yoga's message and the profundity of the consequences of choosing to live in this simple way."

4. My Life Is A Hollow Grave - "i usually play music. And so happened my Dad came in. I was listening to Simple Plan's new album : "Still Not Getting Any" ...Then he started to say that the lyrics were too negative and started "lecturing" me? Bleagh...Then he thinks i will follow the song..."

5. TastyFOOD - "only cool people can like taking back sunday and theres only a few people who are cool. everyone else is posing and needs to get a life and new band. k thx."

I am currently locked into a battle with my roommate. I'm sitting on one side of the wall listening to the Rushmore Soundtrack (Genius!) while she sits on the other side listening to Jack Johnson (is it on repeat or do all the songs sound exactly the same way.....booooorrrrring?). I guess it could be worse, Jack Johnson is so soft he is easily drowned out.

MONDAY UPDATE....First, the good news. The Huskies moved up to 14th in the AP poll and Nate Robinson was named the Pac-10 player of the week. The bad news is that Brandon Roy will miss four to six weeks with a tear in the meniscus of his right knee. He will have surgery on Tuesday.

The Washington Husky basketball team looked very impressive playing three straight games against quality opponents winning the Great Alaska Shootout on Saturday night. They beat Utah on Thursday night78-71, then took down Oklahoma 96-91 on Friday and closed out the tournament beating #19 Alabama 79-76 on Saturday night in the championship game.

Nate Robinson was incredible showing the athleticism and game changing abilities that make him so dangerous. He scored 29 points against Utah, 19 against Oklahoma and 16 against Alabama. His scoring was down a bit against Alabama but he stepped up when he needed to taking over the game in the final ten minutes. What was great to see was how the crowd in Anchorage warmed up to him throughout the tournament. In the championship game, even on TV, you could sense that everytime he touched the ball the crowd sat up and started buzzing. He has a star quality about him that trickles down throughout the entire team. Just his presence on the floor makes this team better even when he isn't playing his best.

The only bad news to come out of the tournament is that Brandon Roy suffered a hyper-extended knee in the Oklahoma game and will be further evaluated on Monday. The ESPN analysts made it sound like it could be pretty bad and that the Huskies were not optimistic. They speculated that he may miss as much as two months. I actually think that missing Roy for a month or so wouldn't hurt the Huskies too much. They have a ton of talent in the backcourt that can fill in for him. Robinson, Tre Simmons and Will Conroy will just have to step it up like they did against Alabama on Saturday. It will also give players like Joel Smith and Jamaal Williams the opportunity to play a little bit more in some big games and help them develop an even deeper bench for when Roy returns. Just as long as he's back for Pac-10 play, I think the Huskies will be fine.

The Huskies take on Gonzaga, who got murdered by Illinois today (the Zags didn't look terrible, Illinois just looked like the best team in the country), on Wednesday night in Spokane. The game will be televised on FSN. Their next home game is against Eastern Washington on Sunday. If anybody who reads this has an extra ticket please let me know. It is the only game I couldn't get tickets for that I wanted to go to. You'll probably see me outside of Hec Ed with a finger in the air asking everybody if they have one extra ticket.

Death? and I just got back from seeing the incomparable Taj Mahal play at Jazz Alley in Seattle. He put on an incredible show as always and it was a lot of fun even though we got stuck in the very back of the balcony and had to keep moving to see around this scruffy looking dude who was sitting on the railing in front of us. If you are going to Jazz Alley make sure you get there relatively early so you don't get stuck in the bankhead in the balcony.

Anyway, enough trashing on Jazz Alley (it is a great place to see a show as long as you are not up there). I actually am not a huge fan of the blues. Usually when you see blues shows you normally get those paint by numbers artists where every song seems to be the same thing, everything is played the same way with a couple of mixed up lyrics. It just always seems that for such a free-form and once dangerous genre it sure can be bland and repetitive lacking in any feeling. This amazes me when I hear it because the blues is supposed to be all about soul and feeling and yet, even when you hear some of the so-called greats (there sure are a ton of so-called greats in blues, ever been to a blues festival?) they seem to lack that feeling.

What I love about Taj is that he doesn't do anything by the book. Sure the backbeat and structure is the same but the way he solos is so different sounding than anyone else. If you broke him down technically you would cringe. He doesn't play the right notes, he is off rhythm a lot, he is all over the place. But he plays it with such soul and with such feeling that it absolutely works. It's what makes him unique among blues musicians and why I enjoy him where others bore me.

Today I made a quick jaunt (five hours) to Spokane for the night and after dining at the incredible Spokane institution, The Onion, I picked up Spokane's weekly entertainment magazine, The Pacific Northwest Inlander. In The Inlander there is one of the all time greatest music reviews for the Yanni show at the Spokane Arena which, sadly, we missed. The following is a quick snippet. Enjoy!

"...With grandiose, windswept arrangements and fabulous flowing locks to match, Grecian heartthrob Yanni reels off one swooshy album after another, vacillating between the romantic, the melodramatic and the heroic with the dexterity of Danielle Steele. His live performances are massive spectacles of light, sound, misty watercolor memories and fog. While the Spokane Arena might be a step or two down from the Taj Mahal....it certainly should be more than capable of containing - even elevating to dizzying new heights - the supernatural, otherworldly majesty that is Yanni..."

It wasn't pretty, but they got the job done. The Washington Huskies didn't look particularly good last night beating Seattle Pacific 89-71 but they were missing four of their top players and were forced to play their deep bench for quite a bit of the game. Brandon Roy scored 23 points and Nate Robinson added 22. Freshman Joel Smith had 15 points in his first collegiate game.

I was most impressed with Smith. In his first two games he has looked very impressive on both sides of the ball. Offensively he has a decent outside game and shoots very well from just inside the three point line and he is explosive around the basket. Early in the second half he received a pass just outside the key and drove and exploded into the air for a dunk that surprised everybody in the building. He didn't look like he was anywhere near being able to dunk the ball but all of a sudden, there he was.

I was also impressed with Seattle Pacific. Not only am I a big husky fan but I've always really enjoyed going to small college games. Growing up in Olympia we had some outstanding NAIA teams at Saint Martin's and it was there that I started to love college basketball. So around here we have the Huskies obviously and then the crosstown rivalry between Division II Seattle Pacific and Seattle University. Anyway, Seattle Pacific looked pretty good despite losing by 18 points. They have an incredible guard in Jordan Lee who scored 22 points including six three pointers and a solid big man in Jason Chivers who added 17 points. They look like they'll be pretty tough in GNWAC play this year.

Washington travels to Anchorage next week for the Great Alaska Shootout. They play Utah on Thanksgiving Night at 7:00 PM. The game may or may not be on ESPN2 as I cannot find confirmation that it will be. They then face either High Point or Oklahoma in the second round on Friday and the final round is on Saturday.

Today while looking at a chart of abbreviations of Canadian provinces I noticed a province I hadn't heard of before, Nunavut. Of course being American means you can be totally oblivious and ignorant of other countries so it's easy to understand why I missed this new province. Anyway, it peaked my interest and I feel like I should share what I learned.



Nunavut was formed in 1999 breaking away from the Northwest Territories as part of a settlement of Inuit land claims for this major Inuit homeland. The territory stretches from Manitoba to Greenland and the North Pole and is comprised mainly of islands in the Artic Ocean and the mouth of Hudson's Bay.

As of 2001 Nunavut's population stood at 29,000 in 26 communities (this is one of the most sparsely populated areas in the world). Nunavut's population is about 85% Inuit and according to the government's website, "...government, business and day-to-day life are shaped by Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, the traditional knowledge, values and wisdom of Nunavut's founding people." Signs are written in both English and the Inuit language, Inuktitut.


Nunavut flag and logo...

None of Nunavut's 26 communities are connected by road or rail and are only accessible by plane or boat making the territory very expensive to live or visit. The climate is very harsh with most of the country being as far north as Alaska and much of it above the arctic circle. There is an abundance of wildlife including caribou, whales and bears that makes Nunavut popular with hunters and fishermen and nature lovers in general. It's also becoming a popular tourist destination because of the native population's cultural activities.

For more information on Nunavut, visit their page on Yahoo Travel, Nunavut Tourism, and the Government of Nunavut website.

Please bear with me today as I am trying to implement a new template but I haven't ironed out all of the kinks yet so it may look pretty bad. Please let me know what you think. Thanks!

This picture is priceless! What an evil looking man. Apparently the Shrub was pecked in the midsection two years ago by one of the turkeys he pardoned so this year he held them by the necks. Kind of a metaphor for his entire presidency don't you think? It was either revenge or a pre-emptive strike.

This is Biscuit the turkey, one of the two turkeys he pardoned this year. Last year his pardon was a kiss of death. Both turkeys died within three months of their pardons.

There are so many funny captions you could use for this picture. If you have one please leave it in the comments section. If I get enough entries the best one might get a great prize from me purchased at Archie McPhee although I can make no promises about that.

NPR's All Things Considered had a story Friday afternoon about the Conet Project and number stations that has creeped me out beyond belief. You can find a link to listen to the story by clicking here.

The Conet Project is a four CD recording of numbers stations, these mysterious shortwave radio stations that broadcast people reading random numbers. Many different theories exist about what these stations are, but most agree that they are for espionage purposes and are broadcasting code for spies in the field. The stations are completely anonymous with no identifiers and most disappear as randomly as they appeared.

The creepiness of these stations is incredible. Just thinking about them gives me the willies. Some broadcasts are read by men, some are read by women and some are read by children. Some have computer generated voices reading the numbers. Some have music playing at times including old music box jingles that are perfectly scary in their simplicity.

The tone of these stations, regardless of how happy the person reading is or how upbeat the music sounds, is ominous. Who are these people and who are they reading these messages for? Why do they continue to this day despite the cold war ending years ago? As Akin Fernandez, the guy behind the Conet Project, says in the story, "when you don't know what your government is doing then bad things happen." These are stations that are not meant for public consumption and it's exactly that secrecy and the tone that make them so scary.

You can find more about these stations on SpyNumbers.com and on Simon Mason's website. On SpyNumbers.com there is a link to a page about a parody station running on the East Coast occasionally broadcasting messages as the Rodent Revolution and Commander Bunny that is very interesting.

To hear a bunch of clips from the Conet Project go to it's page on Public Radio MusicSource. You can also put yourself on backorder for the CD's for the cheapest price I've seen so far. There are a number of other places to purchase the CD's such as Amazon but prices range from $65-$95 for this rare box set and a new copy may take forever to actually get. If anybody has a copy they would be willing to burn for me or know where I can get my hands on a used copy, please let me know because I am totally fascinated by these recordings.

Down With Pants! is looking for a few generous donors who would be willing to help me purchase this scoreboard and Jumbotron for Down With Pants! Stadium (my backyard). It will be used to broadcast messages to our pikey neighbors like "clean up your f--ing yard" and "move your damn caravan you dirty bastards" and to keep score and play cheers for their fights. Thanks to Boing Boing for the link.

The Down With Pants! crew just got back from the Pacific Science Center where we saw The Polar Express in 3-D on the IMAX screen. I'm not really a big Christmas movie fan especially in the middle of November, however The Polar Express in 3-D is incredible and highly recommended if you are planning on seeing this movie.

I doubt I would have enjoyed it as much on a regular screen. The movie was animated using motion-capture technology like they use in video games and at times it did look like you were watching the bad slow-motion dunks on NBA Live. With the 3-D, however, everything came to life and was rich even when the animation looked awful.

The story wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. The movie is adapted from the book of the same name which, apparently, is beloved. Death? said that she had read it numerous times when she was young. I had never even heard of it since I did my best to avoid books at a young age. It's sentimental and happy without being sugary and sappy (sugary and sappy are what scare me away from most Christmas movies) and manages to be interesting and suspenseful.

It's also very action packed and those scenes looked amazing in 3-D. The action scenes and scenery shots are really what make this film beautiful. The facial features and body movements are a little tough to watch at times but they got all the wide angle scenery and high speed action shots right.

There are a couple of awful songs in the movie especially the gut-wrenching ballad during the end credits which may have been sung by Josh Groban. I do not know this Groban fellow but I have been assured that he is a talentless hack.

So if you plan on seeing this film, find yourself the IMAX 3-D version and prepared to be blown away. If you can't make it to the 3-D version, don't bother going without a couple of rugrats, it won't be worth it. But if you have some kids in tow and can only see it on a normal screen then don't be afraid. The kids will love it and you most likely will find it at least passable.

Down With Pants! give the regular movie a lukewarm Pants Down, but gives the 3-D version two big Pants Down! Now I just wish that I could get my eyes to focus right again and my head to stop hurting from wearing those huge 3-D glasses.

Ok, I finally got Haloscan commenting enabled on my blog. Many people have seen me monkeying around with it all day and now I finally have it ready to go. Not that anyone really comments very often but if they do, it will be much easier. I was really unhappy with Blogger's commenting since you have to click on one link, then click on another, then click on another and so on and so forth. It's really quite a pain and you can't get any information about people posting on your blog. Hopefully this will be better. And I beg you, please comment on my crap, any feedback is welcome. Thanks!

The Washington Huskies men's basketball team routed Westmont College 92-52 last night at Hec Ed. The game was an exhibition game before the Huskies tip off for real on November 19th against Seattle Pacific. The Huskies outscored the Warriors 49-23 in the second half after struggling in the first half. Brandon Roy scored 22 points to lead the way.

They didn't look very good all game long. Even when they came around in the second half they still weren't playing very well. They just wore down the NAIA kids who were outmanned in every way and got a ton of easy shots. They struggled in the first half to break the zone defense of the Warriors and looked lost offensively for much of the game despite scoring 92 points.

I was most disappointed with the play of Mike Jensen. He had a solid game offensively knocking down a few outside shots but it was his rebounding that made everybody in my section scratch their heads. He was crashing as hard as he could to the boards and taking out other players in better position. Him and Brandon Roy seemed to just be in each other's way the entire game and I was getting worried that Jensen was going to hurt somebody. I like aggressive play on the boards but come on Mike, get it together. Let the guy in the best position get the rebound.

I was really impressed with Freshan Joel Smith who scored 10 points and Jamaal Williams, despite not playing a whole bunch, looked like he will be solid. The bench looks like it's going to be strong with Tre Simmons and Hakim Rollins coming off early and Smith, Williams, Brandon Burmeister, Hans Gasser all being able to contribute when need be.

I'm sure that the Huskies looked bad only because they were trying some different things and treated the game as practice as opposed to a real game. I'm still geeked about this season. I'm going down to the Arena this afternoon to pick up a few more tickets. Most likely I will have tickets to every game except the Houston game on Christmas Eve Day which is my fiance's birthday so it's probably a game I will have to miss. For those of you not in the Seattle area you can catch the Huskies on ESPN2 against Utah on November 25th in the Great Alaska Shootout.

P.S.....I forgot to mention that the Huskies are going to be missing guard Will Conroy, Bobby Jones, Williams and Simmons for the opener against Seattle Pacific because they participated in an unsanctioned basketball competiton over the summer. This shouldn't have much of an impact considering SPU is a mediocre Division II team but you never know. Simmons will also miss the Utah game on the 25th because he played in two games while the others only played in one.

I have one more way of looking at the election that leads me to believe that things are actually going to be OK. Please pay no attention to how I flip-flop from pessimistic to optimistic from post-to-post...Thank You!

On September 11th we were attacked and suddenly our country, more or less rightfully so, became the most conservative it has been since World War II. Even the most liberal people, whether they said it or not, were angry and ready to do some very bad things. Most of us got our heads together (Me), some never have (Toby Keith and his fans) and some saw it as an opportunity (Dubya and Toby Keith).

Ever since, we have been inching back ever so slowly to where we once were, which was an increasingly progressive nation (Gore did win the popular vote last time and Dubya was being slammed on a daily basis before 9/11). To make it back from our most conservative point since Pearl Harbor to a "Liberal" Democrat garnering 48% of the popular vote in only three years is astonishing.

This election has set us back again but considering where we were on September 11th, 2001 and where we ended up on November 2nd, 2004, it seems entirely possible that four more years will be enough time to make up even more distance. 48% of the voters got their heads together and noticed how badly Dubya has been screwing up. We only need three or four more percent to notice in 2008. Given his record, I'm sure he will do something that will make them sit up and take notice.

Single liberals listen up. Here's your chance to jump off this sinking ship and get all the advantages of Canadian life. MarryAnAmerican.com hooks you up with single Canadians who are sympathetic to your plight. It's a little too late for those of us in relationships and have no special skills that would get us a work permit in Canada, but here's your chance. Grab yourself a hot little Canadian progressive and flee while you still can!

I keep forgetting to have my roommate email me the pictures of Death? and myself in the Halloween costumes that we wore to a great party on Saturday night. So instead, since a post about Halloween even a week later is a little to late, I went back to the power of MS Paint and did a little more art.

This piece is entitled "The Happy Couple". I went to the party as Mugatu from Zoolander. Once I got into costume it became crystal clear. I might be Mugatu's long lost fatter twin brother. I looked so similar it was scary! I kept yelling "I am a hot little potato right now" and after running into Hanz and Franz I started yelling "That Hanz, he's so hot right now!" Of course it is needless to say, I had a little bit to much to drink.

Death? went to the party as Miss Mia Wallace from Pulp Fiction. But not just the coked up Mia, no no no. She was the "I just snorted heroin and now I have a big fucking needle sticking out of my chest" Mia. It was an awesome costume complete with humongous syringe sticking straight out of her heart and vanilla milkshake puke around her mouth.

Thanks Arkansas! Thanks Georgia! Thanks Montana! Thanks Oklahoma! Thanks Ohio!

Because of you I have realized something important. I am incredibly immoral. I voted for John Kerry for president, a man who is so immoral that a record number of voters turned out to vote for George W. Bush despite everything that this president has done wrong.

If being for a woman's right to choose and against amending the constitution just because two dudes want to get married means that John Kerry, myself and 48% of the voters are immoral, than so be it. If being anti-choice and anti-equality is what morality is all about, than immorality it is for me. I'm immoral and proud damnit!

So who's with me? Show your immoral pride by wearing it across your chest. For just this occasion I have created a t-shirt emblazoned with the label that all of us Kerry supporters have been given by all those moral folks in the South and Midwest. "Immoral" is written straight across the chest in beautiful low-tech Pixeltees pixelated fashion (with a shameless little plug - ok let's not kid ourselves, it's pretty friggin huge - for Down With Pants! on the back).



So grab yourself a t-shirt and show the world that you are an equality loving, pro-choice, immoral liberal!

One of the huge positives to come out of last night was the election of Barack Obama to the Senate. He just plain whooped that nut job Alan Keyes thankfully. He gave an amazing speech afterwards and Daily Kos has some excerpts from it up now.

I think the Obama in '08 talk is a little bit premature but he is definitely someone who has captured the attention of Democrats and, using the same words as everybody else, a rising star for the party. Looking forward to 2008, there are some intriguing people who you would think would be interested in making a run at the presidency for the Democrats including Obama and Hillary Clinton giving me hope for that election.

For some reason, despite reading all of these prediction horror stories about what could be in store for America, I am much more optimistic about our future than I was last night. I personally think that the Republicans will mess this whole thing up for themselves and come 2008 the rest of the country will be ready for a change. Things undoubtedly will get worse for us liberals (and I am proud to call myself a liberal) but that's the price we will have to pay the next four years before we can start to make things better again.

(Olympia, WA) - In a surprising move Wednesday morning, Brandon DWP! has announced that he is conceding the race for Thurston County Public Utilities District Commissioner to Alan Corwin. Currently Corwin holds a 53% lead over incumbent Bud Kerr (47%) and DWP! (0%).

"We are extremely disappointed that we couldn't make it a closer race," said DWP! in a statement. "How do you lose to a retiree and a guy who is moving and would have to give up his post anyway? Maybe next time I'll try to actually get on the ballot."

DWP! wasn't on the ballot for the election but the polls showed that his write-in campaign was gaining momentum. Of likely voters surveyed, 100% said they were voting for Brandon.

"I guess that poll may have been a little bit biased," continued DWP! "We probably should have talked to more people than Death? and myself. Nonetheless we thought we had a good chance at winning this thing but the citizens of Thurston County have spoken. Enjoy your stinking water you bastards!"

I've been looking for the right words to describe how I feel about the election last night without being too reactionary. Of course I could bash the Christian Right, they usually deserve it. I could bash the Democrats, who probably deserve it more. I could bash pretty much everybody, we all deserve it. However I'm holding off and getting my thoughts together. There is just to much to think about and process.

In the meantime I give you a link to an excellent post on Boing Boing summarizing another blog's post of what this means for America. He's absolutely right and it's scary.

Well, I wish I had something to add to the discourse about today's election, however I'm just nervously sitting here at work watching other blogs (Boing Boing, kottke.org, Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo) most of whom are having massive trouble because everybody has been checking them out.

So far it sounds like things are going pretty smooth and Kerry is doing a little bit better than expected. Turnout is definitely up resulting in hours long lines in some places. Right now on Electoral-Vote.com (it is also awfully slow due to high volume) the race is neck and neck with Kerry ahead 262-261.

How did I vote? Well, I voted absentee late last week with relative ease. Thankfully we have a pretty self-explanatory system here in Washington for absentee voting. Unfortunately you never know exactly what will happen to your ballot once you place it in the mailbox. One other thing I hate about absentee voting....no "I Voted" stickers to wear all day.

Anyway, I voted almost completely Democrat including Kerry for President and Gregoire for Governor. However for the first time in my voting history I voted for a Republican choosing Sam Reed for Secretary of State. Everything I read about his term as SOS in the past few years sounded good (thankfully he is a moderate Republican) and the Democrat challenger didn't impress me in any way. I hated to do it because I don't think very highly of anybody who claims to be a Republican but he sounded like a better candidate and has done a great job so far.

Soon I'll be heading home and plopping my butt down in front of the TV to watch the results come in. I'm fully prepared to stay up all night long again watching the debacle unfold if necessary. Let's hope things unfold the way we want and we can get back on the right track. Kerry isn't a perfect candidate and change may not be sudden, but at least we will have a man making important decisions from a moderate to liberal perspective instead a G.I. Joe, conservative to pure evil perspective.

Today I've been playing around with the super sophisticated graphics design program that is installed on my work computer, MS Paint, and I thought I'd share my amazing artistic talents with everybody.

This piece I call "The Three Candidates". It features our great presidential candidates George W. Bush (BOOOOOO!!!!!), John Kerry (YEAAAAA!!!!!!) and Olympia Public Utilities District Comissioner candidate (I wrote myself in, come on, you know you want me as your PUD Commissioner!), your boy Brandon (WHOOPEE!!!!!!!!).

One of the most eye-catching headlines I've seen in a while...

Yahoo! News - 'Cornhole' Catching on Beyond Midwest

I sure love the Cornhole

UPDATE!!!!!!!!!! - They changed the name of the story to "Corn Toss" instead of "Cornhole". I knew it was too funny to last...

Brandon : Why do you wear that stupid bunny suit?
Frank : Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?

Nate Robinson throws it down over the Wildcats...

I've for the most part avoided making this blog about sports. I don't know why considering a huge part of me is all about sports. It just hasn't seemed appropriate. However it's time to get those sports nerd tendencies out. Starting today I will be making at least one post a week about the Washington Husky men's basketball team. I'm a partial season ticket holder and am absolutely geeked for the upcoming season. It's going to be a big part of my life starting in a couple of weeks and it's time to bring it to this blog.

ESPN just released their first poll for the season and the Huskies are ranked 23rd. Pac-10 rival Arizona is ranked sixth while Stanford is ranked 25th. The Huskies were 19-12 last season made the NCAA tournament losing to UAB 102-100 in the first round. They knocked off Arizona twice and beat Stanford at home in the last game of the regular season in one of the most exciting sporting events I have ever been to.

They return all of the main cogs from last season losing only guard Curtis Allen who graduated and center Anthony Washington who transfered to Portland State. Guard Nate Robinson declared for the NBA Draft and was a huge hit at pre-draft workouts but decided to return for his junior year as a Husky. He is arguably the most exciting player in the nation and should become the team's leader. They also add forward Jamaal Williams, a transfer from New Mexico who averaged 11.3 points per game for the Lobos in 2003 before sitting out last season.

The Huskies last year snuck up on alot of teams. They started the season poorly and turned it on in the end upsetting team after team in an improbable run to the NCAA tournament. This season however they are a known commodity and will be the hunted. Season tickets for the season are almost sold out and Hec Ed will be packed to the rafters for just about every game. Expectations are dauntingly high. With the football team stinking up the joint they will have the weight of the entire University on their backs. Can they stand up to this pressure? We'll find out soon. The Huskies open the season against Seattle Pacific on November 19th. Their first test will be in the Great Alaska Shootout against Utah on November 25th.

Leave it to the Stranger to come up with some pretty fucked up Halloween costumes. All of them perfect for your little ones. My favorite is the costume on the cover...



From the Stranger..."Your child will be the hit of the neighborhood costume parade in this recreation of the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal's most indelible image. As an added bonus this easy-to-make costume will remind everyone on your child's trick-or-treat route of our national shame! Simply roll a cone from a sheet of 24"x 38" black cardstock, making sure to cut out a hole for the face. Drape with two yards of black felt, and add leftover wires from your last lamp-rewiring project. VoilÀ! So easy, so quick, and so terrifying!"

While writing my Week Seven Preview for my Inland Empire Fightin' Combine blog (my fantasy football team - a really dorky thing to have a blog about, I know) my boss asked me an interesting question...

"So does anybody really read this thing?"

To which I replied "nope."

"So why do you do it?"

"Because I am a nerd who likes to write."

After a moment pause my boss countered with "well, cheers mate!" and left for the weekend. It was a fair enough response I suppose.

Today one of my coworkers and I were confronted with a terribly difficult and pained decision to make. It's times like these that really make you reflect on your life and question decisions you've made in the past. When faced with a decision like this you automatically think back to all of the poor decisions you have made. Why did I make such a bad decision? Did I learn anything from that and how can I use that knowledge to make a better decision this time? You agonize and struggle for the right justification for the decision you are about to make.

When you finally come to a decision you start to doubt yourself. Did I make the right decision? How will this decision affect me? What are the long term consequences of this decision?

So faced with all of that internal strife, my coworker and I agonized until we were forced to make a choice...

Brian will be having the Chicken Katsu for lunch with a Coke, I will be having the Chicken Philly Sub Special with fries and a Coke. Damn you John's Wok for supplying us with so many delicious options and making us question our entire lives.

Down With Pants! would also like to congratulate the St. Louis Cardinals for knocking off those Texas bastards. If you have spent any time in Texas, you would be happy too to see them lose. It's too bad that the Astros play in Houston because I really like most of their players but it's nearly impossible for me to root for a Texas based team.

The Down With Pants! crew would like to congratulate the Boston Red Sox for finally knocking off those Yankee bastards!

Now Boston fans, please remember one thing...the curse has not been lifted. The only way that can happen is if you win a World Series. Coming back and beating the Yanks was great, but the ultimate prize has not been achieved yet. The curse will live if you can't pick up the win. Don't ever forget Bill Buckner in '86. Anything can happen...

Although I love Albert Pujols and the Cardinals and am a big fan of Carlos Beltran, I'll be rooting for the Sox to finally win one and get rid of that awful curse that has haunted them since 1918.

I only fear for the city. What would be worse? Another World Series loss or finally a World Series win. Another loss would be horrible but some argue that the one thing that bonds Boston together is the misery that is the Sox. Would a World Series win destroy that bond or would it re-energize the city to new levels of greatness? One can only wonder.

In the post about the Hitchhiker's Guide Movie a couple of days ago I linked to a website thinking that it would be about the book the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Instead I linked to a website that really is the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy called h2g2. It was really late and I was tired and didn't really do my research.

Anyway, the h2g2 website is amazing. It's inspiration comes from The Hitchhiker's Guide book and is basically a guide to everything written by people all over the world. The website says that "the result is a living, breathing guide that's constantly being updated and revised, driven forward by the very people who use it."

On the site you can find everything from a review of Lynnwood, WA to a biography of Æthelred II the Unready. There is just a ton of information and the great thing is that you can add your own reviews with ease. I'm planning on adding some reviews of my own. I was surprised to see that the travel sections are actually pretty bare especially when it comes to travel reviews of the United States. Most likely I will add some reviews of Washington State starting with Olympia and maybe moving on to Mukilteo and then maybe some reviews of some hidden gem restaurants in Seattle that most tourists wouldn't usually hear about.

So please visit my space on h2g2. I'll probably let all of my faithful four or five readers know when I have written something so you can check it out. If you register for the website please leave your username in the comments section so I can check out your space. Thanks!

There are three things I would quickly like to say before I leave work today (I most likely won't be able to get to them in greater detail, but I wanted to say something)...

1. There is a new feature at Down With Pants! It's a list of the music I currently am listening to in my car while I'm driving around. I have a six CD changer that I keep well stocked and you can basically consider this a recommended listening list. You can find the list on the left hand side in the menu.

2. Sunday night the Down With Pants! crew took in Team America - World Police. It was extremely stupid but really, really funny. I give it Two Pants Down!

3. I have been wanting to purchase William Shatner's new Album Has Been but I have been hesitant. Today I found the website for the album and listened to a bunch of the clips and it's really good. Hopefully I can pick it up soon. Check it out, Shatner is such a goofball.

I was just reading the two posts that I wrote last night and noticed a few grammatical errors. I wrote both posts very late (2:00 AM) so maybe I have a bit of an excuse. Usually when I notice errors I just go back and correct them but I really don't feel like it tonight so I think I'll just keep them and use them as examples to myself about the poor grammar I tend to use when I write quickly.

My blogs have been a work in progress. My grammar has always been poor mainly because I write like I speak and I never paid attention in English class. But reading over my first few posts and comparing them to some of my recent posts, the change has been pretty dramatic. Believe it or not I actually made my living writing press releases and stories for a couple baseball teams. I slowly got out of the habit of writing and it's been very tough to get back into the swing of things. I know my grammar is pretty bad at times so just bare with me, most likely I'll notice the mistakes and make changes. And thank you to the four or five of you for reading my silly blogs bad grammar and all!

I just learned something both exciting and disturbing while reading a review of Mos Def's new album. Mos has been cast and has just finished filming the movie version of one of my favorite books, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Mos Def plays Ford Prefect in the film.

Douglas Adams wrote the screenplay years ago before his death in 2001 (which I just learned about) so hopefully it won't be bastardized to much. Martin Freeman is going to play Arthur Dent. I don't know to much about him but the message boards I saw seemed to be ok with him. Sam Rockwell from Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is playing Zaphod Beeblebrox and John Malkovich will make an appearance as a character that doesn't appear in the book.

I just hope they get this right. It sounds like it has been kicking around for years and was nearly thrown away after Adams passed away. I like the cast so far and but I'm concerned about the director Garth Jennings. This is his first feature film after doing mainly music videos and ads. He could make this a disaster or totally blow us away with something new. The movie is slated for release in June of 2005

My new neighbors!

We have gypsies living next door. It started this summer with the arrival of two large vans with piles of junk billowing out the windows and strapped to the top at our neighbors. Everyday I would come home and see the contents of the van strewn about the front yard, side yard, back yard and every other way possible. By the end of the night most everything was packed up, the vans would disappear and we thought maybe they were gone. But as sure as the sun came up, there they were again, getting ready for another day of unpacking and repacking their vans.

About a month and a half or two months ago the vans disappeared for good. Some other cleaner people started showing up but instead of making a mess, they cleaned one up. Tons of yard work, housework and general good was done. The house was looking pretty good or at least better than it has since we moved in. Things were very quiet and seemingly back to normal.

Until last week when the vans reappeared and started their routine again. Unpack during the day, repack and disappear in the night only to return the next morning. Actually, the situation got worse because they weren't even leaving at night anymore. Instead it seemed like a 24 hour unpacking and rummaging event.

Two days ago I looked out the back window and to my shock saw a caravan parked in the back alleyway. Not only was it parked there, but they had set up camp, complete with tarp coverings, a camp area, bicycles everywhere and of course, the unpacked junk spread out all over their back yard. I finally realized what has been going on. Our neighbor's children are gypsies and they occasionally decide to make her house their camp.

So In honor of my gypsy neighbors, tonight I watched one of my favorite movies, Snatch. I couldn't believe the similarities. Anyway, I'm on the verge of complaining to somebody. It's getting ridiculous having all of these gypsies squatting in our neighborhood. I just hope one of them isn't a gypsy bare knuckle boxing champion, which makes him harder than a coffin nail.

A couple moments from the debate really stood out for me excluding Bush's HUGE gaffe about Osama. The first two saw Bush get really upset and go off on major tangents. The third is just an illustration of how out of touch he really is.

The first one was when Schieffer asked "The gap between rich and poor is growing wider. More people are dropping into poverty. Yet the minimum wage has been stuck at, what, $5. 15 an hour now for about seven years. Is it time to raise it?"

Kerry gave a good enough answer to a decent question. But all Bush said about the question was "Actually, Mitch McConnell had a minimum-wage plan that I supported that would have increased the minimum wage," and then went into a minute and a half lecture about education that was so off question it was incredible. He looked rabid during it. This is also when he said that "reading is the new civil right." What does that even mean?

He also said this tasty nugget in that same tangent - "Many inner-city kids just move through. We've stopped that practice now by measuring early. And when we find a problem, we spend extra money to correct it." This was one of the most ignorant statements I have heard in years and years. Because there are no suburban (white) schools that don't just move kids through. Really the problem is those damn inner-city (minority) schools! Ask any inner-city teacher or principal if they recognized a problem and actually had money thrown at them to fix it and I'd be willing to bet they would say absolutely not.

Following that question came this very interesting exchange where Bush seemed to absolutely lose his cool and showed how disciplined John Kerry is during a debate (this is taken straight from the debate transcript):

SCHIEFFER: Mr. President, I want to go back to something Senator Kerry said earlier tonight and ask a follow-up of my own. He said -- and this will be a new question to you -- he said that you had never said whether you would like to overturn Roe v. Wade. So I'd ask you directly, would you like to? (Editor's note - Bush cut Schieffer off. He finished the question but Bush was already well into his rant)

BUSH: What he's asking me is, will I have a litmus test for my judges? And the answer is, no, I will not have a litmus test. I will pick judges who will interpret the Constitution, but I'll have no litmus test.

SCHIEFFER: Senator Kerry, you'd like to respond?

KERRY: Is that a new question or a 30-second question?

SCHIEFFER: That's a new question for Senator -- for President Bush.

KERRY: Which time limit. . .

SCHIEFFER: You have 90 seconds.

KERRY: Thank you very much.

Well, again, the president didn't answer the question.

I'll answer it straight to America. I'm not going to appoint a judge to the Court who's going to undo a constitutional right, whether it's the First Amendment, or the Fifth Amendment, or some other right that's given under our courts today -- under the Constitution. And I believe that the right of choice is a constitutional right.

Kerry comes out and answers the question perfectly and then uses all of his allotted time while Bush used maybe 10 to 15 seconds of his and left both Bob Schieffer and John Kerry completely confused. It was like Bush said "How Dare You" to Schieffer and refused to say anything else.

Bush's ignorance of middle and lower class America was amazing to me. He just doesn't fully understand what's really going on. He looks at all of these statistics and stays in his little bubble and never really gets the full story. This was illustrated by the comment about inner city schools from earlier but was really evident when he was asked "...what do you say to someone in this country who has lost his job to someone overseas who's being paid a fraction of what that job paid here in the United States?

Bush gave a long winded answer about education (I guess it must be there one and only true success so they keep harping on it. To me it was still a failure) which included "I'd say, Bob, I've got policies to continue to grow our economy and create the jobs of the 21st century. And here's some help for you to go get an education. Here's some help for you to go to a community college. We've expanded trade adjustment assistance. We want to help pay for you to gain the skills necessary to fill the jobs of the 21st century."

Bush truly doesn't understand that the jobs that are being sent overseas in many cases were filled by qualified college graduates that have high educations. The jobs being shipped overseas are jobs of the 21st century. Computer jobs for example. So when you say "go to community college" to an Ivy League grad who has lost his job what are they going to say? The point is that going to community college is most likely a downgrade to these people who have lost jobs. The jobs you can get trained for at a community college are jobs for the 20th century and even most of those have been outsourced.

This is not necessarily a slam on community colleges, they do alot of good for alot of people. I am a community college and Bowling Green State University dropout and even having gone for a few years was incredibly beneficial and helpful. However if you go to a CC expecting to find a great job right away you will be sadly mistaken especially with all of these incredibly talented unemployed workers looking for the same jobs. This is the fault of Bush's economic policies and not the American workers or community college students.

I don't have a college degree but I have a great (yet low paying) job. I consider myself extremely fortunate and lucky to always land on my feet despite myself. It helps to have a great support system of family and friends who are basically like unemployment benefits in a way. Some people are not so fortunate.

Anyway, I'm sick of politics and I can't wait for this to get over. I'm a fun loving person and this has not been that much fun. Please god, let John Kerry win and I can go back to a the blissful ignorant haze I used to live in.