Somewhat Manly Nerd

…or for other people who want them, I guess.

Best Buy is having its (bi?)annual 50% off HBO DVD sets sale. I put the question mark because I only seem to notice the deal around Christmas every year. I hear they do it biannually, though. And since Amazon is pretty much the greatest commercial entity ever created, they are matching Best Buy’s sale with almost every set. That means you can buy The Wire Complete Series for 90 bucks almost any which way you prefer. Other awesome deals that I highly recommend, going by their Amazon prices:

Curb Your Enthusiasm (Seasons 1-6): $15.99 each
Rome (Seasons 1 & 2): $29.99 each
Band of Brothers (Blu-ray): $37.49

Of course, there’s The Sopranos, Entourage, Deadwood, etc. I actually haven’t seen Rome, but I’m not buying it because I’m crossing for my fingers for a Blu-ray release. Gratuitous gore and nudity in HD? Yes, please.

Fuck the Jets. This is (Mets) Collapse ’07 Redux. Tom Brady got his leg broken in half and the Jets couldn’t capitalize this season. Yeah, they technically can still win the division if the Pats lose and they beat the Dolphins, but who the fuck expects the Jets to win that game at this point? Chad Pennington is actually doing good in Miami, while Favre has thrown for less yards than him while throwing basically an equal amount of touchdowns and interceptions. Hmm, maybe the problem is the overweight, overhyped piece of shit over on the sideline. Mangenius he is not. He’d be lucky to wear Belichick’s hoodie sweater. As much as I hate that cheating scumbag up in New England, he has managed to keep the Patriot train going without his Golden Boy/Anti-Christ. Matt Cassel has looked like a Hall of Fame QB the past two weeks. If Brett Favre got hurt — as one of my friends said — Mangini would’ve thrown in the hamburger grease-laden towel. The minute the Jets are eliminated next week, he needs to be tossed out on his fat ass. I don’t want a Willie Randolph situation where he has to be fired in the middle of next season. Not that they’re even comparable situations, as football head coaches are a much bigger factor in their team’s performance. Willie Randolph wasn’t calling plays for Jose Reyes to hit .200 in September, while Mangini doesn’t know when to go for it on 4th down. Pathetic.

- Another reason GTA4 sucks: I’ve been playing the fourth installment in a different series — Project Gotham Racing 4 — and its soundtrack is vastly superior to the one featured in GTA4, a game which has always prided itself on terrific music. So glad I finally sold it so it no longer could contaminate my collection.

- Best part about driving in the snow is creating your own lanes since you can’t see any. “Oh, that was the shoulder? I thought it was the lane everyone was afraid of driving in!”

- Anecdotal evidence from my office Yankee Swap/White Elephant: White people like the book “Stuff White People Like”. This is very unexpected.

- Speed Racer is a more entertaining movie than The Dark Knight, at least in the sense that you can’t help having a smile on your face the entire time. If you can’t enjoy it, you have no soul. Or you suffer from epilepsy.

- I missed my chance to take my e-stalking to its logical conclusion and meet Veronica Belmont at the Engadget Reader Meetup in NYC last night. Probably for the best, as I would have pulled a Borat and attempted to kidnap her in a burlap sack.

- It’s nice to see New York be the only city take part in this year’s baseball offseason. Oh wait, I forgot the Phillies signed Raul Ibanez. Quality pickup there.

Courtesy of the NeoGAF MLB Offseason Thread

- The Bill James’ Historical Baseball Abstract should be every baseball lover’s Bible. Only this book is based on historical and statistical evidence.

- I would go into work an hour early every day if a few of us set up a game of Axis & Allies. No I wouldn’t.

- Jimmy Smits : Dexter :: Forest Whittaker : The Shield. If you don’t understand the analogy, you need to watch both shows ASAP. Your obsolete SAT test section score depends on it.

- Why are Citi Field’s seats dark green? Why is pretty much the entire stadium green? Are the Mets planning a uniform style change?

- Amazon Marketplace is vastly superior to eBay if you have stuff you just want to get rid of as painlessly as possible, i.e. GTA4.

I like to think of myself as an emerging film lover. It’s fairly difficult to keep up with recent releases while at the same time attempting to watch the classics, though. I wasn’t really exposed to any of them growing up. I found out that Darth Vader was Luke’s father from The Simpsons. I didn’t see an Indiana Jones film until I was in my teens. Perhaps these aren’t quite the classics I was referring to, but these are movies you would think parents would share with their kids. Maybe they were satisfied with me watching and loving every Jim Carrey movie. Oh well. I did see Die Hard and Terminator 2 in my formative years, so it wasn’t a total wash.

So we all know IMDB, right? It’s pretty much THE site for movie information, arguably superior to even Wikipedia. You may have known that the site maintains a Top 250 list, compiled from user votes. The Dark Knight sitting at #4 is all you need to know when it comes to the people who are voting. The Shawshank Redemption at the top of the list is just as ridiculous, but it’s not a comic book movie that nerds eat up, so I can’t make condensing implications. I guess TNT and TBS showing it so many times as a NEW CLASSIC has convinced people of its transcendence. Rankings (and a few insane choices scattered around) aside, the list is a great starting point for anyone looking to truly delve into the history of popular films.

Here’s a little quiz to see how much delving you need to do:

It will automatically compare your results to mine.

So, did you beat my 38.8%?

The top ten movies I need to see according to the list are:

1. 12 Angry Men
2. Casablanca
3. Seven Samurai
4. City of God
5. Once Upon a Time in the West
6. Psycho
7. Sunset Blvd.
8. North by Northwest
9. It’s a Wonderful Life
10. Lawrence of Arabia

Not surprising to see 9/10 are pre-1970. To the Netflix queue they go. Except for It’s a Wonderful Life, as I’m sure I will stumble across it in the next couple of weeks, like I always do. I’ll try to stop myself from reverting to my usual ritual of watching Die Hard instead.

The Who – The Ox

Unfortunately, the video montage isn’t awesome, due to being all over the place and certainly not in sync with the song at all. Oh well, still badass drumming.

That is neither a typo nor a lie. By Rock Band bundle, I refer to the game+guitar+drums+microphone, for both the 360 and PS3. I think this is officially called the Rock Band 2 Special Edition, but I think “bundle” gets the point across a bit more. You can get all those goodies at Toys “R” Us this week (12/14-12/20) for $110 plus a $25 gift card, bringing the net total to $85. Hence the “basically $85″ part of the title.

I, of course, could not resist this deal. Less than half the price it normally goes for? I am fucking THERE. Especially since Pearl Jam’s album Ten has been announced as upcoming DLC. J.I.MP. I recommend this deal to every single person with a 360 or PS3 who hasn’t already bought a bundle of Rock Band 1 or 2 or Guitar Hero: World Tour, because even if you hate it due to being soulless, you could sell the shit off and make your money back and then some.

And for those counting at home, I now have three fake guitars in my possession, with my first fake drum set to keep them company.

The Mets have reportedly signed Francisco Rodriguez to a 3-year, $37 million deal. This has seemed like a foregone conclusion since the season wrapped up, but I really thought it was too perfect. I’m pretty sure that their compatibility rating on e-Harmony would be through the roof. K-Rod and Los Mets are like Jim and Pam. (Watch it become totally frustrating in a few years — really, I think I’m done with The Office.)

Getting back to the Mets propping up their bullpen with an overpaid — but absolutely needed — closer, I’m happy with the deal. That may be due to expecting them to pay much more. I’d like to thank the tanking U.S. economy for this. And also maybe baseball execs, for realizing closers are overrated across the board. If the Mets were a smaller market team strapped for cash, this move would probably not even classify as good, but they just gave a bigger, longer contract to Billy Wagner a few years ago. So fuck it, the guy was needed, and they got him. Much like last year with Santana. Now sign Sheets or Lowe, please. And make sure Luis Castillo never sets foot on Citi Field.

Faunts – M4 (Part II)

You may be wondering why I’m posting the credits song of a year-old game. Well, I finally beat Mass Effect this weekend, a year behind the rest of the gaming world. I’m not quite sure why I stopped playing, as I enjoyed the game immensely and had thought about replaying it immediately once I finished it. I think maybe I bought GTA4 as I was near the end and that made me hate gaming for a little while. What a piece of shit that game is. Anyhow, I only had about two hours left in the game — I knew this was the case when I stopped playing — so I told myself I wouldn’t take it out of my 360 drive until I beat it. And no Fallout 3 either. I’m glad I got it out of my backlog, as the ending was fairly epic, and this credits song is pretty damn cool. So I decided to post it for your enjoy.

No, this is not a description of my Saturday night. This is the title of the newest SNL Digital Short — the funniest things on SNL nowadays. Andy Samberg has to be the best current SNL cast member, since he’s the only one whose videos go viral on the internet the next day. I think that’s all anyone can go by nowadays since no one watches SNL anymore. Between Lazy Sunday, Dick in a Box, and now Jizz in My Pants, Samberg has been part of a trilogy of comedy greatness. I guess I should give some credit to the rest of The Lonely Island gang, though, as they are also in this video.

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I bought a Blu-ray player on Friday and I jizzed. in. my pants.

Soundgarden – Jesus Christ Pose

This is one song that I never imagined would find its way into Rock Band. Its music video was banned from MTV, and now the song is in a game owned by the same company that owns MTV. What a difference 17 years make. Of course, I’m elated that a song this brutally awesome is now available for playing on fake instruments. I only wish I had room for a fake drumset. I guess I’ll have to settle for straining my vocal chords.