Somewhat Manly Nerd

Time for stream of consciousness on being surrounded by DVDs and Blu-rays and video games and books. While intoxicated.

I really expected to be more drunk tonight after the shots of Jose Cuervo with Tabasco sauce I downed tonight. Perhaps the latter combats the effect of the former, who knows. I nonetheless did have a fun Mardi Gras celebration, complete with aforementioned shots and Jumbalaya. And now I will complete it by adding a post to my blog in which I explore the feelings and thoughts I have regarding the relatively massive collection of entertainment I have in my room.

I have a lot of DVDs. Somewhere near 150. Actually, it’s closer to 350, since a lot of the DVDs I have are actually TV sets. I’m just going by my DVD Aficionado account with these numbers. It’s a lot. There are certainly people out there with many times more, but for a not-filthy-rich 23-year-old, it’s a pretty big collection, I think. My Blu-ray collection is lifting off the ground too, starting the whole cycle again.

And movies and TV shows on physical media aren’t the only form of entertainment I like to spend too much money on; I like my video games as well. Buying games on Steam is probably the worst, since I can’t resell them. Even books — do I need a library of books that I will probably never read again?

All this shit, all these movies and games and books — I like buying them because I like sharing them with people. I like having the ability to pull these things off my shelf and give them to someone who’s interested. I want to be able to pull Curb Your Enthusiasm out and expose a person to its greatness for the first time. I want to be able to lend A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again to someone unacquainted with David Foster Wallace. I want to watch The Godfather with the one person I know who hasn’t seen it.

These opportunities just seem to be drying up. Perhaps because I still live at home and I do not wish to have anyone spend their time in my bedroom smack dab in the middle of my parents’ house. Maybe because most of my friends have seen a lot of the stuff I’ve seen. Maybe because no one fucking cares, including myself. I find myself with a collection of shit that I truly have no need for. I want to sell most of it.

I think this all might be tainted by the lost hope of wanting to share all of it with someone, or maybe just the happiness that person brought. I would have liked to watch everything with this person, but at the same time I would have been happy just being with the person without any of the shit around me. Either way, without that person, I hate the pile of shit around me. I hate all of it and would trade all of it for her. But that won’t change anything — except my bank account. But maybe that’s enough?

I have the insatiable urge to know as much as possible about everything fucking thing. I want to be knowledgeable about movies. I want to play as many games as possible so I can say I’ve played them. I want to read voraciously both for my own knowledge and also for conversational purposes. So I don’t go back to stuff I’ve already experienced often. I am all about new experiences (apparently not when it comes to weekend hangouts, though). So why should I own all these things if I’m not sharing them? I have no goddamn idea.

Radiohead – True Love Waits (live)

I was going to pick something a bit more obscure, but I’ve never posted this song before and I’m sure there are at least SOME people out there that haven’t heard this. And by some people I mean clueless teenagers. It’s not on any of Radiohead’s studio albums, but surely everyone over the age of 17 has heard it. I guess I’m just making sure — since everyone 18 and up obviously reads my blog. Perhaps I should comment on Valentine’s Day?

Usually I would be one to rip on the holiday, but I think Valentine’s Day hate is getting played out. Apathy is the new hate. I just do. not. care. that I will not be spending today with some special lady. I’m sure this sentiment will change at some point during the course of the day*, but that would just cement it as any other day. Does this signal personal growth of some kind? A scary possibility, I know. But then I think about making a joke about having sex with a virtual Yvonne Strahovski in Mass Effect 2 for Valentine’s Day and I breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that I’m still an idiot.

Man, Mass Effect 2 is awesome. And I don’t need to buy it anything for some random holiday. Now watch my 360 break. That would be a bad Valentine’s Day.

*Yep, that was quick.

I could have made this a “Valentine’s Day Edition”, but fuck that. I’ll just dedicate the Song of the Week to the holiday that makes lonely girls eat lots of ice cream and chocolate.

I Enjoy Watching Curling – Brewed Sports says curling reminds him of baseball. I subsequently end up watching curling purely due to this statement.

Hipster Puppies – The picture captions make the site. Well, that — and the fact that it involves dogs.

The 7 Somewhat United States of America – A pretty interesting take on collections of people across the country using Facebook. I guess it’s not all bad.

NYPD World Trade Center 9/11 Aerial Photos – Amazing (if you can call them amazing) “new” photos of the collapse of the twin towers. Seriously, it looks like a volcano erupted.

Under the Milky Way – The sci-fi and astronomy geek in me absolutely loves these posters and wants to buy every single one. I’d be all over The Sun poster if it were available to buy.

Yes, this is real. I think this just beat the Jump to Conclusions Mat as the worst idea ever.

Remember when I asked for a spoof of the Google ad during the Super Bowl ending with “divorce lawyers”? The internet listened.

via AutoComplete Me

Peyton Manning pulled a Favre. Did anyone see that coming? That inception may not have been the last throw he made, but it might as well have been.

It’s amazing how little I have to say about this game. Maybe I’d have more to say if I could gush about Peyton Manning being the GOAT, but that’s kinda impossible when he was outplayed by Drew Brees, who was absolutely perfect. A QB can’t do much better than 32-39 for 288 yards and 2 TDs. If it weren’t for that pick, maybe Peyton would have. Or if Garcon caught that one pass. You know the one I’m talking about.

Seriously, I’ve got nothing. Uh, Reggie Bush didn’t do much. That I know. And my friend won 100 bucks in his pool. That was cool.

So is New Orleans officially rebuilt now? Did this Super Bowl win just make the city OK finally? Can we move on?

I really should work on getting more non-baseball links, but I can’t help myself. Edit: Hey, I did!

This Tweet in Baseball: Your Weekly Update on the Sport’s Twits – Walkoff Walk puts together a collection of amusing and inane tweets from people in the sporting world.

Does it matter that the Yankees keep buying pennants? – A long post ruminating on the Yankees’ massive payroll and what it means for baseball. The comments make the discussion pretty interesting.

Viva El WAR (Part 1: Hitters) – A fantastic rundown of the hottest baseball stat in the land from the #1 Cardinals blog on the internet. No doubt Cardinals fans love WAR due to it being just another way to quantify Albert Pujols’ greatness.

Super Bowl XLIV Ads – Not even sure why I’m linking this, since every American already saw how much they sucked. I expect spoofs of Google’s ad shortly. May I suggest one that ends with a search for “divorce lawyers in paris”?

Best (And Worst) Cities to Find Love – Hey, Valentine’s Day is in a week! This list sucks though. The three biggest cities in the US — New York, Chicago, Los Angeles — get Ds for ‘Social Life’ due to their formula depending on a ratio, not total number. I can maybe understand the singles ratio part, but restaurants and bars? Come the fuck on.

Sarah Palin’s Keynote Speech: Now With Tea Party Illustrations! – I really wish this post looked how it did in my Google Reader with no need to click on each individual picture. Nonetheless, I think the stupidity is still worth a look. And no, I do not subscribe to Jezebel, someone shared it with me, I swear!

The Secret History of the Birthers – How the movement associated with insane right-wingers actually started on the left. This is why I hate politics.

Is there any more explanation needed? I think not.

So I was recently in Chicago for a couple of days and I figured this would be an opportunity to add to my ongoing series of city posts. This post would actually be better if the massive snowstorm didn’t move south. My flight back to New York would have been canceled and I would have most likely been stuck in Chicago for the entire weekend, judging by the snowfall amounts in the lower mid-Atlantic.

- I had never seen “CAUTION: FALLING ICE” signs on sidewalks before.

- Chicago’s skyline is the only one in North America to rival NYC’s. It’s pretty damn impressive — but still inferior. Second City indeed. I wonder which city has a higher density of Starbucks+Dunkin’ Donuts, though.

- Every other apartment had massive wooden staircases that seemed integral to the structures. Didn’t they learn anything from that incident in 1871?

- Walking around a city in a suit and overcoat had to be the first time I felt like an adult since…nope, that had to be the first time.

- Law schools being located way off main campus is total bullshit.

- Wrigley Field really does look like the 96-year-old stadium it is. And I only saw its exterior from the L (elevated rail). I imagine seating inside it makes you feel like you are back at the turn of the century. Until you notice everyone around you has a smartphone.

- Chicago apparently still wants the 2016 Olympics, as I saw a massive banner for it. Someone needs to tell Chicagoans they lost.

- Fuck deep dish pizza and fuck Roger Ebert. I had some pizza he apparently rated four stars — almost as inaccurate as his Avatar review.*

- I must admit the massive heating lights in some L stations were a nice touch, but if there’s a BIG city that needs its public transportation to be underground, it’s Chicago. Although, it was not particularly cold or windy (comparable to NYC) while I was there. Lucky me.

- O’Hare Airport didn’t have free Wi-Fi. Guess which airport did?

- On the plane trip home, while surfing through JetBlue’s live TV offerings, I came across Fox News. It was Glenn Beck, and the first words out of his mouth were, “What, do we all have pixie dust that shoots out of our butts from time to time?” I turned it off immediately before he could ruin the moment by making sense.

- I am no George Clooney — then again, who is?

*Ok, the pizza wasn’t actually THAT bad, but I just can’t endorse any pizza that is more efficiently eaten with a knife and fork. New York pizza has EATABILITY.