SNL is sorta back… and sorta funny. Actually, its just a few funny clips book-ending a bunch of really bad ones… However, I had to highlight some activities :

1. Mark Whalberg talks to animals — Watch a mark whalberg movie… than watch this.

2. Then Mark gotta kinda mad about this…. some of this is tongue in cheek but he reportedly was not happy :

3. So , SNL brought him back this week. He popped up in a couple of very short things, looking for andy samberg and then they finally had their interaction :

Also, Sarah Palin showed up in the intro :

and later in the daily news :

The first one was pretty funny, and I include the second one for the pretty funny dance moves

It is post number 100 — and coincidentally my Texas is Awesome Post.

I don’t have to ask if you watched the game…. because you did. And if you didn’t you saw 360 sportscenter clips of it. If only Mizzou had won their game and upheld half of the bargain I could be watching back to back #1’s fall to Texas (guessing that they would have been number one this week). However, now my team is number one and I see them take on #11 in Austin this weekend. The game hasn’t lost ALL of its luster though, college Gameday will be here (for the 2nd week in a row covering UT) and since its a late 7pm start time in Prime Time it is going to be huge.

The one downfall for OU is the lack of tailgating due to the start time. Not saying its not crazy but I think the start time is set-up to prevent too much crazyness. Not this time around. A full day of buildup for (i think) the first night game in the new stadium, should be amazing. The new stadium is 99.9% complete and it should be ready for game time without all the fences and clean up going on around. It is epic. As it should be for a number 1.

Quick shoutout to Nate for housing me Saturday night in Dallas. I want my blanket back.

A congratulations to Chris Kenworthy (founder of Dream.In.Code) for getting married. I think he is in Cancun — and missed the game. Weak.

Also : The Cowboys suck but I don’t care. All my eggs are firmly in the UT basket. I’m not sure why hockey starts now, name one person who watches hockey during football season besides those teams that are already mathematically out of the playoffs.

More UT Details :
The gameday location is the southside of the stadium.. (last time it was in Austin it was a terrible spot) this time it will have some of the Austin landmarks in back. Comment for good sign ideas. I’m taking Saturday morning to be on TV.

Great pic from ShaggyBevo.com :

I read this article by the Chicago Tribune that says McCain is 6 times more likely to die in office than Barack. That seemed like a bold statement based mostly on a lot of interpretation of medical records. So, I wanted to go above and beyond and do some REAL scientific research on the matter. 

First off I had to compile some statistics on both candidates, and after some heavy lifting (had to go to the 2nd result in Google for these) I found the following : 

McCain is old. Really Old. 1936 is like a different millienia. In 1936 the average cost of a new house was $3,925.00. The average income was $1,713.00 . I spent that much on redbull last month. A loaf of bread was 8 cents and a pound of hamburger meat was 12 cents. No wonder McCain doesn’t know the price of milk.

What I am trying to say is that McCain lived in an era BEFORE the invention of the ball-point pen (1938) and over a decade before the Frisbee was invented. How do you live in an era without Frisbee!?!?! 

So, McCain also smoked for a while but eventually quit. He actually has a BMI of 24 (recommended is 22-25… didn’t see that coming) and I percieve him to be mostly a pessimistic guy. Maybe thats just me. Some might say he is sadistic. My results take both into account just in case.

I took this information and threw it into everyone’s favorite Death Calculator (THE DEATH CLOCK) and found out that McCain is actually already dead. Thats right folks. McCain is completely and utterly not alive. A walking corpse, probably running off some sort of futuristic japanese technology. In fact, he died in the 90’s. YIKES. So, just throwing it out there, McCain won’t “live” through his presidency but he also won’t “die.” The nice thing about being dead, it can’t happen twice. So seriously, stop with the fear-mongering about Palin taking over. It won’t happen.

Just to make sure Barack isn’t left out of the equation I had to run his numbers also. He’s not as interesting. He’s from the 60’s so he probably did a lot of drugs or something… he didn’t get to witness the invention of awesome things like the helicopter and he was born into a world with Frisbees. He doesn’t have the same kind of perspective. However, he does smoke, and apparently still does to this day though they do a good job of hiding it. So that throws a little loop into our processing. Nonetheless, the boy stays in shape, is very positive (that whole hope thing) and has a long life to look forward to. He will die in 2052, so he’s got plenty of time. By that time a lot of crazy things could happen… we could live forever, or we could find something better than frisbees.

SO I guess what I am trying to say is that if your vote depends on if Palin is going to be President. Don’t worry about it. Both candidates have a long future ahead of them. I’m not really sure when McCain will be done… probably when the disintegration of his corpse gets too far to cover up, but they both should last at least 4 years.

If you still visit a blue box store every Friday night in order to pick up and watch a movie then you, my friend, are behind the times.

As I have said before Netflix is where it at for a number of reasons, but most importantly for me is their online distribution service. While it still only works in IE (soooo… 1997) it is one of the best movie players out there, the quality is great, it is quick and it doesn’t cost you an extra sent. I actually use the online player more than I do the movies at home. Those are a nice addition to the service, not the other way around. Soon the xbox will release an update allowing you to watch all those same movies via the xbox (so on your TV) which really will push it to a new level. I’ve seen screenshots and it looks very sick.

BUT. After a certain time you use up the good movies on Netflix. They add some , but for the most part, its not the A-list talent you could be receiving via the mail. New releases are non-existent so you are stuck to TV series and older movies. This works for a while as you go through the older content but you get to the point where you want some newer, fresher, material.

Today Netflix released 2 major things. The first of which is that they signed up with Starz to have their catalog online. I got this pic from Engadget and it shows some of the movies right now Netflix is adding in conjungtion with Starz. All A movies, solid watchable flicks, not second hand-ers anymore. Awesome. I just won’t be doing any homework for the next month or two.

Also today (it was a big day) Netflix opened up their API to anyone and everyone. Black, white, red, whatever you can sign up on your own and start developing for whatever you want. So expect a plethora of new apps for your favorite device, or website to only expand the use of Netflix’s services.

If anyone has an idea for a Netflix App let me know and we can get going on one, I’m sure they will be rolling out in hours for those truly dedicated freaks of nature.

Good Day Netflix. Good Day Indeed.

I’m a Bo Burnham fan… which I wouldn’t have to tell you if you saw my favorites list. And Good ol’ Bo was just signed to be a writer for Judd Apatow’s next flick. Yes, that Judd Apatow, of Knocked Up, Superbad, Freaks & Geeks, 40 year old virgin fame… the comedy measuring stick for the last couple of years. Pretty good deal for an 18 year old to hook up with that kind of power after just a few years of filming himself in his room while still living with his parents. On his site he even mentions the camera sits on a stack of books because a tripod is too expensive… wow. Well, now he should have some cash.

Youtube finally makes someone rich who isn’t Chris Crocker or that Chocolate Rain Guy.

I did see him on one of the late late shows. I think it was Carson Daily so like a 3rd string show but still cool to see him on TV . Lyrics. Are . Ridiculous.

Check him out on TV : Bo is appearing on Spike’s show this Saturday night Oct 4th @ midnight on FOX

The shows I have been on talking about for months are now back online. I might consider finally signing up for showtime because of them… but you can watch the season premier of both of them online right now via this handy dandy link. You do have to sign-up but its just that one page 3-field form. Then you are good to go.

While we are at it : From the director of In Pursuit of Happyness and more importantly starring Will Smith, comes another really good looking flick… in the same serious tone of Happyness but hopefully happier. Plus Rosario Dawson is not hard to look at for two hours. I can’t embed the trailer, so here you go : 

http://www.movietrailertalk.com/2008/09/will-smith-seven-pounds/

Even if you watched the premiere… you didn’t see these. Cut scenes from Episode 1 : Weight Loss

Numero Uno :

Clip 2

Stream of consciousness:

Football : WOOOOOO HOOOOOO USC lost to Oregon State. Now 4 Big 12 teams are in the top 10. Wow. Pretty much that guarantees a big 12 representative in the national championship, but at the same time, sucks for us that it is so competitive this year. I think the road to the ’ship runs through Dallas. If OU wins they have a clear shot. If Texas wins then we still have to take on Mizzou and Tech, two other top ten teams…. before the ever stressful game vs. A&M (even if they suck they show up for us). However, you have to love USC getting punked again. Hook ‘em.

Heroes : Season 1 was good. Parts of Season 3 intrigue me… but for the majority I am over with. They lost me with too many superhero powers. There is no certainty of death, everyone just seems to come back to life. Superhero series are good because of a balance of powers. (Silas straight up sticking his finger into Hayden’s brain was cool… along with a few other things)

The Office continues to impress.

It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia’s first episode (the return of green-man) was hilarious, the other one not so much.

Worst week is the worst show. Even though I really like that guy, it wasn’t a good episode.

Att U-verse is such a mixed bag it drives me crazy. I’ve complained about them many a times here and there. For the past week I have been up and down with service. Anywhere from 75-90% uptime which is absolutely unacceptable obviously. Combined Erik and I have spent 3+ hours on the phone with them, 2 techs have come out and a third coming tomorrow… if we don’t get it fixed this week we will be going back to Time Warner. Customer support continues to be terrible, but then we get to second tier and they are knowledgeable, helpful and want to solve the problem not just get a temporary fix I will have to call back about again.

Then they released the update today that lets you watch the recordings from the one DVR they give you on any of the other tv’s in the house. This was supposed to be included in our original package but the fact that we finally have it after 2 months adds a lot to the service actually.

The fact that the NBC affiliate has not renewed their contract with Time Warner and Austin will be losing NBC (including the office, and all other nbc programs) until that contract is renewed is a reason not to switch back. A similar holdout with a different station lasted 3 months earlier this year, thats the entire fall season.

I have spent the last 2 hours programming a website in VI that I could have done in half an hour with even notepad. I do not envy you old programmers. The mouse is a beautiful thing.

Currently my netflix has been throwing a bunch of The Wire in my direction since I have to watch it for my english class. I’m pretty hooked. Cop Dramas that try to emulate real life pale in comparison, it is gritty, well-written and all around awesome.

It seems like all I have been posting about lately is TV shows, but thats how it goes at the beginning of the fall seasons. This will be my last one I promise. However, I must re-iterate that you SHOULD be watching Fringe (tuesdays), The Office (premiere thurs.), and How I Met Your Mother which premiered yesterday. Those are the must-watches.

This is less of a review and more of a command to watch this show. The first 3 seasons are available on DVD and I would recommend you watch this one from the beginning because some of the jokes are cumulative. Seriously just sign up for the 2 week free trial of Netflix and the cheapest 5.95/month plan and get the first seasons at your doorstep. In 2 months you can watch the first 3 seasons for a total of 10 bucks.

If however, you are cheap, jump into season 4 you will get 90% of the laughs, and you can pick up the characters easy. Barney (Neil Patrick Harris aka Doogie Howser) is my favorite character on the show, so I bring you some of his greatest moments below.