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Contests
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Written by Hotstuffler
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Friday, 18 December 2009 13:44 |
 Nobody got the contest from a couple of weeks ago. Floridag8tor had a good guess with Kevin Federline, but that couldn’t have been further from the answer. The REAL answer was, of course, Radiohead. We are going to continue with the mystery theme for the month, and I’m going to remind you that you can still put in your captions for the caption contest done last week in lieu of a quote contest. Okay, let’s have fun!
Category: Theater
“Greetings, Prophet; The Great Work begins; The Messenger has arrived.”
Simply name the author, play, or character. Good luck, The Arsenio Hall Show! Remember that show?
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Extra Dose
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Written by Jeff
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Thursday, 17 December 2009 15:35 |
This video became another internet sensation a little while back. So I thought I'd share it with some of you that maybe haven't seen it yet. Those of you that know me, know I'm a sucker for cut animal videos. So this one was right up my alley. Here's the surprised kitty. Enjoy!
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**Football Picks: Bowl Games Special** |
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Contests
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Written by Jeff
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Wednesday, 16 December 2009 10:15 |
Yes, I put asterisks in the title, so you know it's special.
First of all, here are the top 3 scores from last week's contest:
floridag8tor - 14
philmonica, Rorschach's Revenge, ally2581 & stlope01 (all tied with) - 12
floridagators - 11
Congrats for the second time floridag8tor! It's too bad you're not this good at fantasy football (but I missed the playoffs too, so wtf do I know). Your $20 Visa Gift Card will be in the mail soon.
Let's move on to this week now. I've been thinking back & forth about how to go about the football picks contests over the next three weeks. I was tinkering with the idea of do a mixture of week 15 & 16 NFL games, plus the early bowl games, for this week's contest. And then for next week's doing the remaining bowl games, and just forgetting about week 17 of the NFL. But in the end I decided to -- as you can see -- just do one big bowl game picks contest. I've decided to not do picks for weeks 15-17 of the NFL for a couple of reasons. First of all, I didn't want to have to do 4 picks contests over the next 3 weeks (mainly b/c I'm poor enough already & I've got Christmas presents to buy). Secondly, I'm bitter towards the NFL right now, b/c I barely missed out on the playoffs in one of my fantasy football leagues; so screw the NFL (not really, I'll watch every single game). Alright, enough blabbering.
It's the same set-up; just pick the winner straight up. I was also thinking about doing it with confidence points, but I don't have the time, energy or program to run it. Just click the link below & make your picks for all the bowl games. I'll announce the winner on Friday, January 8th. I'll also give updates & put up a little leaderboard each Wednesday until the end. One other thing: The winner will get a $25 Visa Gift Card. I know, a whole extra $5, it's pretty amazing, settle down. If you have a friend or relative that you think would enjoy participating, please let them know about the contest. Good luck!
For those of you that have never played before: Just click on the image below, and you'll be able to submit your picks there. Only one entry per person, you must be a URDD member, and picks need to be submitted by 4pm (EST) on Saturday. The winner will get a $25 Visa Gift Card! If anybody has any problems, let me know.
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Extra Dose
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Written by Jeff
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Tuesday, 15 December 2009 12:31 |
Recently, I've been enjoying another hilarious website. Just how I did with www.awkwardfamilyphotos.com I'd like to spread the word, and share with you www.lamebook.com I know there are some of you out there that still aren't on facebook. But I imagine -- like me -- the majority of you are. And I'm sure that most of you have seen & read some pretty stupid things over the years. Well lamebook brings together the dumbest & saddest of them all. As you can see in their logo, they show "the funniest and lamest of facebook."
Go ahead & click HERE to check it out. I'm sure you'll find it as enjoyable as I do.
Here's a little taste...
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SNL Does Blackface...Story at Six |
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Guest Contributions
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Written by mrhotlanta
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Monday, 14 December 2009 10:11 |
 As I seem to be programmed to do every Saturday night, I stay up to try and watch SNL, which has now been the only 'live comedy' game in town for over three decades. Traditional vodka tonic in hand, I once again found myself rooting so very hard for this week to be "the one." Yes, I know, I should have seen it coming. The show disappointed, yet again.
Full disclosure - Somewhere between Dave Matthew's second number, I turned off the tube in favor of A Movable Feast, which has been my most successful attempt at reading Hemingway. But I didn't want to do this. I really wanted to be given a reason to stay up with SNL. Unfortunately, that reason never came. But since I didn't watch the entire show, and since I have a thesis in need of finishin', I'll just give a brief word on the opening sketch, for in it lies so much of what is wrong with this formerly great show.
The opening sketch, which apparently now abides by a law requiring it to be a parody of a political event from week's past, attempted to lampoon Pres. Obama's recent trip to China. The sketch featured the underused Will Forte as China's President Hu Jintao with equally talented Fred Armisen continuing to fall short in his role as Obama. The theme of the bit was America's enormous debt to China, and Obama's empty assurances that it would eventually be repaid. Already laughing? Snideness aside, it was not terrible. The punchline was that Hu kept asking Obama if he thought Hu was a female. Obama would ask why, to which Hu would reply (through a translator) "Because you keep trying to do me as such!" (Hu sticks his rear in the direction of Obama.) Get it? Gay sex...get it? Good.
But no matter how funny this was, what I could not get past was that here, in the opening number, were two WHITE actors portraying an Asian and an African American. Got it? That's DOUBLE BLACKFACE! BOO-YA! Maria, who normally makes it through a couple sketches before letting loose with her weekly, "I don't know why you watch this RACIST show," saw this and called it a night. And while I'm not about to call SNL today's Birth of a Nation, it is glaringly clear at this point that Lorne Michaels and company have a real problem giving screen time, and contracts, to minorities (point proving stats to follow).
For the past decade, the world of popular culture has become a very integrated place. Crossovers between white and minority artists happen all the time, and no one bats an eye. The Chappelle show thrived on this type of social milieu, and you'd be hard pressed to find someone who didn't love that show much more than SNL. Did I mention that our president is African American? And yet, Lorne and the gang at SNL continue to push forth this bland, Ivy league, white comedy that hasn't been of real interest for a very long time. Why? Why has he refused to branch out, bringing in a more culturally representative comic voice? I guess only he knows, but if you ask me, I'm blaming it on being from Canada.
I know this site is supposed to be a soap box for my crappy jokes, but I'm branching out a bit. We have now at least ten regular readers, and I think they deserve something more thoughtful, so from now on, TBTF will also offer running commentary on the world of comedy and comic writing. Enjoy.
Read more from mrhotlanta @ http://thisblogtastesfunny.blogspot.com
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Contests
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Written by Hotstuffler
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Friday, 11 December 2009 15:33 |
Hey hermanos! It's been a while since we've had one of these so I figured now would be a good time. That and I didn't feel like putting in the leg work for getting a Quote Contest together. Enjoy and good luck!
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Sports
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Written by Jeff
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Thursday, 10 December 2009 13:14 |
 UFC 107 will be held Saturday night in Memphis. There doesn't seem to be much hype surrounding it, but it's a pretty damn good card. Any time there's one of the best fighters in the history of MMA on a card, I automatically get more excited. While I'm not exactly a huge fan of BJ Penn's, I can't deny his greatness. His only losses have come from other former/past/current champions: Georges St. Pierre, Lyoto Machida, Matt Hughes & Jens Pulver. Penn is the current UFC Lightweight Champion. In fact, his last loss at this weight class was almost 8 years ago (to Pulver). Penn has defeated the likes of Hughes, Kenny Florian, Sean Sherk, Joe Stevenson, Pulver, Renzo Gracie & Takanori Gomi, Matt Sera & Caol Uno.
For this title fight, Penn will be taking on Diego Sanchez. Sanchez was a very good welterweight fighter, but recently dropped down to lightweight. Sanchez has an overall record of 21-2, and is 4-0 since moving down to lightweight. Sanchez's only losses came to Jon Fitch & Josh Koscheck; two very good fighters. And Sanchez has victories over Clay Guida, Joe Stevenson, Florian, Nick Diaz, Karo Parisyan, Joe Riggs & John Alessio. I'm not saying Sanchez is nearly as good as GSP, but his similar size & strength could possibly pose a problem for Penn. When/if the fight goes to the ground, if Sanchez can avoid Penn's strong submission skills, there's a chance he can wear Penn out & really start to control the fight. In the end, I can't pick against Penn. He's just too good & too well-rounded. He'll retain his belt.
The next biggest fight on the card is between two heavyweights that are coming off tough losses: Frank Mir vs. Cheick Kongo. Mir's last time in the octagon he was completely destroyed by HW Champion, Brock Lesnar (whom avenged the only loss of his career). Kongo's last fight, he was dominated by Cain Velasquez. The analysis for this fight is pretty simple. If the fight goes to the ground, I don't see how Kongo will survive. And vice-versa, if Kongo can keep it standing, I don't see how Mir can survive. It's going to be an interesting clash of styles. I think Mir will be able to take Kongo down, where he'll most likely submit him.
The other two solid match-ups are Kenny Florian vs. Clay Guida, and Jon Fitch vs. Mike Pierce. Florian & Guida is a very interesting fight, between two very successful & experienced fighters. Both of them are trying to work their way back into title contention. Florian is coming off a failed title shot against Penn. While Guida is coming of a split decision loss to Sanchez. This one has fight-of-the-night written all over it. I have no idea who's going to take it. I'm almost sure it'll go to a decision though.
Originally, Fitch was supposed to be taking on Thiago Alves. It would have been a rematch from their 2006 fight, in which Fitch was victorious. But Alves had to withdraw from the fight because of a knee injury. So Pierce stepped in to take his place. Pierce is a good, relatively young fighter, with some good wins, but I don't see how he's going to be able to hang with Fitch. Fitch has only lost once in the last 7 years; and that was to GSP last year. Pierce might be able to take Fitch the distance, but I don't see him winning this fight.
The remaining fights are as follows: Paul Buentello vs. Stefan Struve, Alan Belcher vs. Wilson Gouveia, Shane Nelson vs. Matt Wiman, Johny Hendricks vs. Ricardo Funch, Rousimar Palhares vs. Lucio Linhares, Damarques Johnson vs. Edgar Garcia, Kevin Burns vs. T.J. Grant. Overall, it's a very good card, and I'm really looking forward to it. If you check it out too, I hope you enjoy.
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Football Picks 12/8/09-12/14/09: |
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Contests
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Written by Jeff
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Wednesday, 09 December 2009 10:43 |
Sorry again, I didn't make an official chart. This time I wasn't too busy, I just didn't want to see all that red covering Florida over & over; making me relive that loss. That merciless beating by Alabama was painful. Great, now I'm depressed again. Okay, here are the top 5 from last week's contest:
Rorschach's Revenge - 11
stlope01 - 10
Hotstuffler - 10
ally2581 - 9
Hope - 8
Congrats Rorschach's Revenge! Although, I've gotta call you out. Come on man, you're a Gator fan. And you won by picking Alabama. That's messed up. You've always gotta pick your team. The only other person to pick Alabama was jlutjelu, but he's a Nebraska fan, so he can do that. Guess what else; jlutjelu picked Nebraska over Texas, like a true fan should (he was the only person to pick Nebraska by the way). You broke my heart Rorschach's Revenge...you broke my heart. Hey jlutjelu, just wanted to say, I hope you're doing okay after that brutally close loss. But at least your team showed up & represented. Unlike my Gators, who came out and laid a giant fucking orange & blue egg. And Suh, holy shit, he is a beast! I was rooting hard for Nebraska; mainly because I wanted BCS chaos. I'll tell you, it's hard to root for Nebraska though. We still haven't forgotten the '95 National Championship game.
Alright, well let's get on with this week's contest. Besides the Army vs. Navy game, college football is done until the bowls begin. So I've included all of the NFL (except for the Thursday night game). Click on the link below to submit your picks. Good luck!
Also -- like I say every week -- if you know anybody that you think would enjoy participating, please let them know about the contest. For those of you that have never played before: Just click on the image below, and you'll be able to submit your picks there. Only one entry per person, you must be a URDD member, and picks need to be submitted by 11:30am (EST) on Saturday. The winner will get a $20 Visa Gift Card! If anybody has any problems, let me know.
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Movie Recommendations: Milk & This Is England |
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Movies, Music, TV, etc.
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Written by Jeff
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Tuesday, 08 December 2009 12:55 |
 I have another couple movie recommendations for the 7 of you that will read this. I watched Milk and This Is England this weekend, and they were both incredible. Again, much like with Michael Clayton, I know it's not much of a reach to recommend Milk. It was held in very high regard and won multiple awards. But for those of you that have been holding out for some reason, or just haven't had a chance to watch it yet, I highly suggest it.
Milk is based on true events & the life of Harvey Milk. Milk was a gay activist & eventually became the first openly gay politician to be elected into any office in the United States. Milk was portrayed by Sean Penn (whom won the Academy Award for Best Actor). I know some people don't like Penn because of his political views, but you can't deny that he is an incredible actor. The supporting cast also did a great job. James Franco, Josh Brolin (nominated for Best Supporting Actor), Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna, Alison Pill, Victor Garber, Denis O'Hare and Joseph Cross, among others, were all outstanding.
Milk was directed by Gus Van Sant. Van Sant is a great filmmaker. He also directed Good Will Hunting, Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho, Finding Forrester and Elephant, among others. Milk also won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay; and was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Directing, Best Original Score, Best Editing and Best Achievement in Costume Design. If you haven't seen it yet, please check it out.
The other film I saw this weekend and recommend is This Is England. Quite a different film than Milk, but also very well made and extremely powerful. In the vein of American History X, Romper Stomper, 16 Years of Alcohol and The Believer; This Is England is a film about skinheads. This film however is set in 1983 England. It was written & directed by Shane Meadows, and is based on some of his real life experiences. The main character, 12-year-old Shaun, is played by first-time actor Thomas Turgoose. Turgoose gives an incredible performance in a film with an extremely heavy subject matter. Shaun is a loner & is picked on quite a bit at school. One day, he stumbles upon, and is taken in by a young group of skinheads. Believe it or not, this group is actually fun, friendly & non-political. It's not until Combo (played by Stephen Graham) shows back up from a stint in prison, that Shaun realizes what skinheads are really all about. This Is England is pretty brutal at some points, but don't let that deter you. It's also a very poetic & emotional film. If you're up for something a little different, I highly recommend it. I hope you enjoy them both.
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Sports
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Written by Jeff
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Tuesday, 08 December 2009 10:37 |
 Hopefully you get the point of the gif to the right. Okay, let's move on. So the college football regular season & conference championship games have come to a close. Here are a few things we learned this weekend:
- Florida is not the best team in country.
- If you didn't know who Nebraska's Suh was, you do now.
- Alabama is better than I -- and most people -- thought.
- USC lost its 4th game of the season, and dropped out of the AP top 25. Holy shit, that's crazy!
- The BCS is complete bullshit.
- The people running the BCS are cowards.
Well, I guess the last two points were already known. And it sure as hell was reinforced Sunday night when the BCS match-ups were announced. As we knew going in, the winner of the SEC championship would play Texas, if they won. And while the outcome of the Big 12 championship was much, much closer than expected; the effect on the BCS was the same.
We already knew the Rose Bowl was going to be Ohio State vs. Oregon. We knew the loser of the SEC championship would go to the Sugar Bowl. We knew the winner of the ACC championship would go to the Orange Bowl. But what we didn't know, was how the rest would fill out. Well, in typical BCS fashion, they fucked it up. They send Iowa to the Orange Bowl, to face Georgia Tech. And they send Big East champions, Cincinnati, to face Florida in the Sugar Bowl.
Who does that leave?
It leaves the two non-BCS conference teams to face each other in the Fiesta Bowl: TCU & Boise State.
First of all, don't give me the bullshit response that the BCS selection committee doesn't create the match-ups. That they are chosen one by one by the bowls themselves. I understand that's how we are explained it takes place. But you know as well as I that this reeks of backroom dealings, dirty handshakes and mutually beneficial decisions. It's funny, on one hand, they won't give schools like TCU, Boise State & Utah the chance to play for the National Championship. Yet, they are too scared to play them.
Dear BCS, if you're going to continue to screw them out of a chance to play them for the National Championship, at least let them take on some of YOUR other conference champions. Let TCU & Boise State take on YOUR automatic BCS teams Cincinnati & Georgia Tech. Don't be a bitch and pit them against each other. I guess it's going to take more time. These schools from the Mountain West & WAC need to further prove themselves. But how are they going to prove themselves to you and the rest of the nation by beating each other? Let me show you why you are scared. Here are teams from BCS conferences that TCU, Utah, Boise State & BYU have beaten in recent years.
TCU: Oklahoma, Cincinnati, Texas Tech, Arizona, Clemson, Stanford (2x), Vanderbilt, Louisville (2x), South Florida, Iowa State, Northwestern (2x), Baylor (2x) and Virginia.
Utah: Alabama, Oregon, Michigan, Pittsburgh, California, Arizona (2x), Texas A&M, Oregon State, Georgia Tech, UCLA, Louisville (2x), North Carolina and Indiana.
Boise State: Oklahoma, Oregon (2x), Oregon State (2x), Iowa State.
BYU: Oklahoma, Oregon, Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, Arizona, UCLA (2x), Washington and Syracuse.
How much more do they have to prove? I'm not saying Alabama & Texas don't deserve to play for the National Championship. But I am saying that you can't look college football fans in the eye(s) and tell them that the other 3 undefeated teams (TCU, Cincinnati & Boise State) don't deserve a chance. And I hope all you TCU fans out there noticed that Cincinnati jumped TCU in the final BCS rankings. So even if Texas would have lost to Nebraska, TCU still wouldn't have got a shot.
There is something inherently wrong with this system. It's corrupt and too much about the money. Are you telling me that a playoff wouldn't make more money? Bullshit. We can keep the Konica Minolta Gator Bowl, Little Caesars Bowl, Meineke Car Care Bowl, and the rest of them. At least give the top 8 teams a chance to play for true National Championship.
Until my next rant, goodbye.
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