I Can't Take It Anymore

I'm watching the Pitt-Rutgers game on ESPN2 and with 11 minutes remaining in the 3rd quarter, Rutgers is winning 27-0. I'm not even sure if the game is as close as the score indicates. Pitt has no running game and QB Tyler Palko gets hit every time he goes back to pass. Why is there college football on Friday night to begin with? Here is how football is supposed to work: Friday night - High School; Saturday - College; Sunday - NFL.

I have no idea how (actually, Palko threw a TD pass to Greg Lee), but Pitt scored a touchdown. It's now 27-7. Um, Go Pitt!

UPDATE: Of course, I couldn't turn off the game and I'm glad I didn't. Pitt made a nice run, but fell short losing 37-29. The one (and maybe only) positive from the game is that Pitt may have finally found some receivers to compliment Greg Lee in Derek Kinder and Darrell Strong. However, unless the offensive line gets better, Palko is not going to make it through the season healthy.

Steelers Jersey

I'm still on my quest to find a unique Steelers jersey. There is no way that I will wear my two current jerseys: Kordell Stewart and Kendrell Bell. As soon as I bought the jerseys, their Steelers career went downhill (Stewart because he was a mediocre QB and Bell due to injures). Therefore, I will not buy a jersey of any current Steelers in fear that something bad will happen. I've been searching for a Louis Lipps, Rod Woodson or John Stallworth jersey. Woodson & Stallworth jerseys are available on EBay, but I haven't found any that I liked (or won). My new idea is to big on this Steve Bono jersey.

I may also try to go for Illawarra Steelers rugby jersey, if one becomes available.

Shakira's Song

Shakira has a fairly new song with Alejandro Sanz called "La Tortura." I really like the song. It's extremely catchy and is now also featured in cell phone ads. Oh, I didn't mention that this song is in Spanish. While I can sing (not well) along to parts of the song, I have no idea what the lyrics mean. I bet that non-English speakers feel the same way about the Thong Song.

Is It Just Me

or does Ed Harris look really scary in the previews for the upcoming movie A History of Violence?

Commander in Chief

Geena Davis was just on Monday Night Football being interviewed by Al Michaels. It will not be the highlight for either of their careers. Anyway, Davis said that she is excited to be the first woman president on TV. That's not true. For some reason, I remembered a show with Patty Duke as the President. Thanks to IMDB, here is information for Hail to the Chief.

The show didn't last very long, but it was produced by Paul Junger Witt, executive producer of Soap, Benson, Golden Girls, Blossom and Herman's Head.

Dilemma

The TV season is off to a great start, and I’m finding that there are a lot of shows that I want to watch. Which brings me to Tuesday night. Do I watch the debut of Commander in Chief with Geena Davis on ABC or My Name is Earl on NBC? Two completely different shows, but both that I'd like to see.

On the subject of new TV shows, Prison Break was fantastic tonight. Nothing like a prison riot and a "to be continued" episode.

Ithaca College and the Emmys

As I've mentioned before, this is the place for Ithaca College news (well, besides the IC website. Congrats to the following Ithaca College alumni for winning Emmys last week (and thanks to The Ithacan for this info):

• Chris Regan ’89, a writer for “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” won his fourth Emmy in the category of outstanding writing for a variety, music or comedy program. He’s a five-time nominee, and this is his third-straight win.
• Mike Royce ’89 picked up his second Emmy as the executive producer of the outstanding comedy series winner, “Everybody Loves Raymond.” Royce had also been nominated in the outstanding writing for a comedy series category for his contributions to the show’s final episode. Royce won an award in 2003 when he was the show’s supervising producer.

The following graduates were nominated for Emmys (and will win next year!):
• Barbara Gaines ’79, who has won five Emmys, was nominated again in the outstanding variety, music or comedy series category for her role as executive producer of “The Late Show with David Letterman.”
• Lighting designer Steven Brill ’80 received his first Emmy nomination for outstanding lighting direction for variety, music or comedy programming for his work on “The Late Show with David Letterman.”
• “Mad TV” production designer John Sabato ’80 earned his sixth nomination for outstanding art direction for a variety, music program or special.
• CCH Pounder ’75, a three-time acting nominee, was nominated for best supporting actress in a drama series for her role as detective Claudette Wyms in “The Shield.”

Jury Duty?

I received in the mail and completed a Jury Questionnaire. The form says that I have been randomly selected as a prospective juror for the County's Circuit Court. While it's not a summons to appear, I don't remember ever receiving any type of questionnaire like this before. For the lawyers and non-lawyers out there, is this fairly common? Should I expect to be called to jury duty soon?

I Like Earl

I mentioned this in the comment section of my "Much to Discuss" entry of Tuesday night, but I feel like this deserves its own post. I was really impressed with the new TV show "My Name is Earl." All-around good show. It was funny and I liked the show's characters. I also enjoyed seeing Ethan Suplee in the show. While I didn't know his name until I looked it up, he is a recognizable and likable actor from great roles and performances in American History X, Remember the Titans and Boy Meets World (yes, I wrote Boy Meets World with Fred Savage's brother, Ben). I'm looking forward to the next episode.

New Addiction

I'm already addicted to fantasy football and baseball and NCAA College Football 2005 on XBOX. My new addiction is a number puzzle called Su do ku. It's in the Washington Post Express (and many other newspapers) just below the crossword puzzle and is really keeping me occupied during my Metro and bus commute. I've been able to solve the easy "degree of difficulty" puzzles, but am really struggling with the medium one right now.

Arrrrrrr

Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Much to Discuss

I'll start with the Emmys. I only watched parts of the show, but was not surprised to see Everyone Loves Raymond win its lifetime achievement award for Best Comedy. On the other hand, I was surprised to see Lost win for Best Drama. I saw the first few episodes and then saw the last twenty minutes of the finale. I think I may have missed a little bit in between. I hope it's not too hard to get caught up.

Congrats to Felicity Huffman on winning Best Actress. She was great on Sports Night.

The premiere of How I Met Your Mother was pretty good. Doogie's character was a little annoying, but it's still great to see Doogie back on TV. I wonder if Neil Patrick Harris is sick of being called Doogie or if he embraces it.

During commercials, I switched to Fox's Kitchen Confidential. I wasn't expecting much, but the show looked pretty good too. I need to get Tivo.

Oh yeah, there was a Steelers game too. :) The Steelers defense played so well that the Houston Texans fired their offensive coordinator. I'm sure it was his fault why the Texans lost.

Gray Hair

I found my first gray hair and feel like I have officially become a man. I should get a fountain pen for this accomplishment. Seriously, I know some people freak out about their first gray hair. It doesn't bother me.

All of a sudden, this has become a place where I talk about my hair. It's all Sean's hair, all the time! Good thing there's a Steelers game today.

Prison Break Haircut

I got a haircut the other night, and I now look like I would fit in nicely with the cast of Fox's Prison Break. Maybe it's not THAT short, but it's not far from it. My barber/stylist finished cutting my hair in about four minutes. I figured that since it took such a short amount of time for him to cut my hair, he must not have cut enough. Note to self...find a new place to go besides Hair Cuttery.

Speaking of Prison Break, something does not seem right (actually there are many things, but I'm just going to focus on one). From my experience watching movies involving prison (Green Mile, Dead Man Walking, Silence of the Lambs), the folks on death row tend to be completely isolated from the general prison population. Not on Prison Break where the lead character's brother (who is on death row) is able to be outside and be on work duty with everyone else.

More Rants

This is a belated rant: The U.S. Open was completed on Sunday and the amazing James Blake-Andre Agassi match has been over for almost a week. The fifth and final set of the Blake-Agassi match was decided by a tie-breaker. A tie-breaker! I could be wrong, but I believe that the other major tennis tournaments (definitely Wimbledon and I believe the Australian Open and French Open) go until the winner actually wins. I've seen the score of the final set as 16-14 and 21-19. This is the way it should be at the U.S. Open.

While I'm at it, I don't like World Cup soccer matches ending by a shoot-out. They should play until someone scores. I would love to see a 4-overtime game like they have in the NHL playoffs.

Who are the people that still approve of President Bush's work (or lack thereof) during and after Katrina? He doesn't even approve of himself.

Why is it called the World Music Awards when all of the performers and winners are American performers?

Not a rant...congrats to Tommy Lee on getting a C+ in English, a B in Horticulture and well, no credit in Chemistry because he got a 10 out of 100 on the final. I didn't do much better in my only college science class. I have to admit that I enjoyed the show.

Just Feel Like a Rant

I know I'm not going to get any sympathy from women with my rant since many women spend hundreds of dollars on all types of toiletries and cosmetics such lipstick, make-up and shampoo. I can get a monster bottle of Pert Plus from Costco for $5, but many women need special shampoo, conditioner and I'm sure there's more hair products. Anyway, my rant involves razors. I don't understand why they are so expensive. I bought a 5-pack of Gillette Sensor Excel razors the other day for $8.50. $8.50!!! I can get maybe three good shaves out of one razor and then two or three mediocre shaves after that. I've tried electric razors before, but it just does not give a close shave. Some razor company needs to design an inexpensive razor that does not get dull for at least a week. Does this exist?

Great Sunday

A Steelers victory always makes a Sunday and weekend great. I love having football back, especially with an impressive Steelers win against the Tennessee Titans. The Steelers may have played a perfect game. After giving up a touchdown on the Titans' first possession of the game, the defense played great, Willie Parker had 161 yards rushing and Big Ben looked 1000 times better than he did during the preseason.

Plus, today marked the season premier of The Simpsons, and the US Open tennis final of Roger Federer and Andre Agassi was fun to watch.

Just a great day to sit on the couch. Well, until Fox's "The War at Home" started. Not a great show, but at least I can switch to more football.

Are You Ready For Some Football?

Yes!!

(Steelers kick-off and the first full day of football starts in about 2.5 hours!)

5000

According the Site Meter, I have passed 5000 visits since I started this blog in January. While this is not a significant number compared to many other websites, it is a lot more than I expected when this first started. Granted, probably 2500 visits have been me, but that's still 2500 visits from people other than me. Thanks to everyone who has checked out this site whether or like it or not (hopefully you like it; you really, really like it). I also want to thank all the people who visited looking for Kevin Pittsnogle information or searching for Sean William Scott instead of Seann William Scott.

Ramblin' Man

* Do people not work over the summer? After two months of being able to get a parking spot at the Park 'n Ride at 8:15 and a relatively easy commute to work, the parking spaces are now gone at that time and the Metro is packed. Where did all of these people come from and can they go back?

* What mothers decide it would be a good idea to be on MTV's Date My Mom, where young men date mothers to decide which daughter to choose?

* I have watched a lot of national news the past few weeks for the Katrina coverage and discovered that 1 in 10 people have Restless Legs Syndrome. I'm sure it is serious for some people, but when I think of restless legs, I think of someone sitting in a cramped airplane. It just sounds like someone made this up.

* Bow Wow was much better as Lil' Bow Wow.

* Since I finished Harry Potter, I have read a wide variety of books: 1776 by David McCullough, Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made by David Halberstam, Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut and A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby. Very different but all were very good. The current book I am reading is Winning the White House, 2004: region by region, vote by vote (I think I know how it ends), which was partially written by one of my college professors. I've read 13 pages thus far.

As always, please let me know if you have more book suggestions.

Bye, Bye Lloyd

The Pirates fired Manager Lloyd McClendon after five years on the job. I still think it's not Lloyd's fault that the Pirates have been so bad during his tenure. Before PNC Park was built, Pittsburgh and Pirates fans were told that the team could not compete without revenues from a new ballpark. There's now been a new ballpark for four years, but the team still can't compete. I don't feel like having a baseball economics discussion, so I'll get back to Lloyd. Would it have been terrible to wait until after the season to not rehire Lloyd? What benefit is there for the team to fire him now? Could they at least have waited one more week so there would be one final Pirates-Cardinals, McClendon-LaRussa & Duncan series? The big question: will Nick change the title of his blog?

Happy Labor Day

In honor of Labor Day, I thought I would write about some of the jobs I have had over the years. Please note that many of these jobs I had after I earned a Masters degree.

- Beer Man (I went up and down aisles at sports arenas/stadiums yelling "Cold Beer Here")
- Harry Potter board game demonstrator at a Northern Virginia mall.
- Blockbuster employee
- Kohl's Men's Department during Christmas season
- Data entry at a Repo company (You like having the repo guys on your side.)
- Soccer referee (I still do this one)

Pittsburgh Sports Notes

As with most University of Pittsburgh fans, I was really excited for last night's national TV game against Notre Dame, the first game of the Dave Wannstedt era. Unfortunately, like several games from last year, Pitt had trouble running the ball and the defensive line was overmatched. Pitt is still going to have a good year, probably with 8 wins, but will struggle against the better college football teams.

The final National Football League cuts took place yesterday. Among the cuts was the Steelers 2nd round draft pick from 2003, Alonzo Jackson. What a wasted pick. The Steelers never could figure out what to do with him. I wonder if he'll end up being anything in the NFL. In other cuts, the Seattle Seahawks cut former "Superman" Bobby Shaw and the Jacksonville Jaguars cut Chris Fuamatu-Ma’afala. I don't care what anyone says. He is still a bad Ma'afala!

Finally, congratulations to Woodland Hills High School in defeating Gateway High School, the former #1 team in Western Pennsylvania.

Something Different

The pictures tonight of people dead or dying on the streets of New Orleans and thousands of people needing medical attention, food and water is awful to watch and is even more amazing to know that this is happening in this country. I actually wanted to write about something a little lighter tonight. I watched the two-hour debut of Fox's Prison Break, which despite way too many stories going on (that I hope will all come together in a few weeks), I enjoyed. I'd like to write more about it, but I really can't. I'm still in disbelief that food, water and medicine are not getting to people who need it. I don't understand why the local, state, and especially federal government was not prepared when we knew a major hurricane was going to hit as early as Friday or Saturday.

In a completely unrelated note, why were the Saints playing a preseason game tonight?