It's always great to be watching Sportscenter and having Peter Gammons, the most knowledgeable person on the sport of baseball say:

• The Angels will finish in 1st place in the West, and thus go to the playoffs after missing them last year, the first year after their World Series triumph AND
• The Padres are the Marlins/Angels of the year. If any team can pull off a surprising run, it's going to be the Padres, with their new home-run powered lineup and a brand new ballpark.

What a great year to be a baseball fan in Southern California.

Anaheim Angels : The Official Site

A couple things I was thinking about before heading to bed last night:

• Why would you dedicate your Grammy to a presidential candidate? I know people are pretty fanatical about certain things, but when you win a Grammy (Chris Martin - Coldplay), it's fine to dedicate it to a former great, such as Johnny Cash, but then to go on to dedicate it to John Kerry? Give me a break.
• The second was a quote I saw last night by Jermaine Jackson at the Grammys: "The media seems to be picking on the Jacksons lately," (slightly paraphrased, but something to that effect). So, let's see. Michael Jackson is accused of molesting young children and, even if he gets off, the evidence of wrong-doing is stacked heavily against him, and Janet's "wardrobe malfunction" exposes her breast on national television during the most watched program of the year. Granted, the whole Janet Jackson thing has gotten out of control a little bit, but still, to make the statement that the Jacksons are being unfairly treated is probably the stupidest thing I've heard this year.

URL: GRAMMY.com - Winners

Did you know that Mozilla Firefox (formerly Firebird, formerly Thunderbird) has just been released in a new version - 0.8? If you didn't well, click the link below, download it and experience the glory that is Firefox. It does everything IE could ever want to do, it's cross-platform, it's standards-compliant, and, best of all, it's free. I have been using the beta version of 0.8 for a while now (I think I blogged about it a while ago) and it's incredibly stable and I haven't encountered any problems at all. Now, with the final 0.8 release, it's ready for the big time and if you haven't given it a try yet, please do so. It replaced IE on my computer a long time ago and I still wonder why I didn't try it earlier. Firefox - the browser, reloaded.

URL: Mozilla Firefox - The Browser, Reloaded

While still procrastinating, I came across this new train line opened today in Australia on Next@CNN. I had planned to write about it earlier today, but I forgot about it and luckily it was replaying again tonight. There's pretty much only three places I'd really love to visit - Australia, New Zealand and Ireland and/or Scotland/Great Britain. While in Australia, I'd love to go into the Outback, see the sights, the wildlife, and all the other beauty of the continent. Now, just starting today, they have a north/south train that traverses Australia from Adelaide to Darwin. At 1600 miles and 3 days long, what better way to see everything in Australia? Optimally, there would be stops along the way to see some wildlife, but obviously, that's quite prohibitive along a railway that is also used for freight trains. The cost is a bit high - $1200 to $1700 for a sleeper and ranges up to $12,000 for the best of the best. With five dining cars and a multitude of other options on the train, I don't think boredom would be a problem - and the sights must be amazing. Now, I've just got to get the cash to get to Australia and then the two grand or so to book the train ride.

Edited to add: The menu (PDF) looks amazing as well. And they have huge discounts for students - just $1100 for the normally $1700 package. What an amazing trip that would be.

URL: Australia's Great Train Journeys

And just as I was about to turn off the TV, I remembered a reason I should continue watching, but probably won't - the tribute to the Beatles. Since I am taking a "Music of the Beatles" class, it probably would be fun to watch, especially as they start off with Since I Saw Her Standing There - a song I know too much about thanks to the class - though this rendition isn't the greatest and it's a shame the fab four still aren't around to perform.

URL: BEATLES.COM

I don't usually watch the Grammy's - they're usually filled with music that I really don't care about, but, since I should be studying for a midterm tomorrow, I decided to turn them on in order to procrastinate just a little bit more. It was a pleasant surprise, with all the musical acts they could have opened up with, to see a classic from the 80's come out with a purple background as Prince opened with Purple Rain. During that song, he was joined onstage by the gorgeous Beyonce to finish off Purple Rain and then continue on to Let's Go Crazy. A nice start, but unfortunately, I can't continue to watch the whole thing since I really do need to pass this class.

URL: GRAMMY.com