A few weeks ago, while I was at Fry's, I bought Permanent Midnight on DVD, starring Ben Stiller, Maria Bello and Elizabeth Hurley. Basically, there was one other DVD I wanted and it was $9.99. Or, I could buy that DVD with another one for $15. I figured, why not just throw another one in for just $5, so I got Permanent Midnight having never seen the movie - though it sounded interesting from the description on the back, plus there were a couple actors in it I enjoy watching. So tonight I finally got around to watching it - as my friend and I go through my collection by association. Now, I can understand drug use in a movie that deals with the subject, however, I don't need to see it every five minutes to remind me that the main character is a junkie. You can only take so much of that. And by repeating the same scene over and over again, the movie dragged on and on and on. After just an hour, it had felt like two. It finally ended and while the story was interesting, the way it was put together was just nauseating. Tedious, boring, and repetitive. At least I didn't spend $9.99 on it.

As for the DVD watching by association, it started a few weeks ago when I received the new Rounders: Collector's Edition from Amazon. Since my original Rounders was stolen (or borrowed and never returned - same thing as stealing) by someone, this collector's edition was a welcome addition to my collection. But after Rounders, we decided, on a whim, to watch Keeping the Faith, starring Edward Norton, Ben Stiller, and Jenna Elfman. Seeing the connection between Rounders and Keeping the Faith of Edward Norton, we decided to keep it going. Tonight, we were planning on watching Rainman since in Keeping the Faith, Edward Norton's character does an impression of Dustin Hoffman's character, but since they didn't share any common actors, we decided to watch Permanent Midnight since Ben Stiller was a common thread between the two. Next up on the list is The Royal Tenenbaums - not for Ben Stiller since he's already been used in a connection, but for Owen Wilson, who played Ben Stiller's friend in tonight's film. After that, I'm not sure where we're going, but we're trying to get to Tom Cruise so we can watch Rainman and from Rainman, we'll use Dustin Hoffman to get us to Straw Dogs.

Movies in reverse order (to be kept track of here):

The Royal Tenenbaums (Owen Wilson and TBD)
Permanent Midnight (Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson)
Keeping the Faith (Edward Norton and Ben Stiller)
Rounders (Edward Norton - Starting Film)

URL: Permanent Midnight (1998)

I've seen a lot of unfortunate pictures, but this one takes the cake. Almost looks like Kerry's trying to either implant his head up his ass or remove it from there. You'd think they'd at least not publish photos that just look so stupid.

URL: Yahoo! News - Politics Photos - AFP

Now that's a game I would have liked to see.

URL: ESPN.com - NCF - College Football - Recap

I don't care what anyone says. I don't care what numbers anyone else put up. But if Vladimir Guerrero does not win AL MVP, something is wrong. He is the sole reason the Angels made the playoffs this season. He propelled them to the AL West win. Vlad is the man and deserves the AL MVP.

And...congrats to the Angels - AL West Champions. Playoffs - here we come again. Remember 2002?

URL: ESPN.com - Anaheim Angels - Clubhouse

There's a new button at the bottom of the page, one which I can't believe I didn't have down there before...Firefox. The latest version of Firefox came out a few days ago and it is absolutely amazing. The pop-up blocker works better, it has integrated RSS support through "live bookmarks," it still features the great tabbed browsing, and now, when you visit a secure site, not only do you get the "padlock" icon in the status bar, the URL field changes to another color so you are certain it's a secure site. Also included in the new release is an automatic update service, so when updates are released (minor or otherwise), you just click an icon that shows up right below the "maximize" button and it updates your browser, closing any security holes immediately. The new Firefox is amazingly fast, uses less RAM than previous versions and is standards compliant (unlike other browsers). If, for some strange reason, you've missed my previous ranting (0.8 and 0.9) about this great browser and haven't tried it, go download it now! You'll be thankful you did.

URL: Get Firefox!

What's that? Oh yeah...

Angels: 10, A's: 0

The Angels' magic number is just one. They need to win one more game to win the AL West and make the playoffs. And with the Angels about to win the AL West, the Dodgers' magic number is one as well - they too just need to win one more game and they will win the NL West and make the playoffs. Go SoCal. Screw you NorCal (Anaheim knocks out Oakland, Los Angeles knocks out San Francisco).

URL: ESPN.com - MLB - Recap

Wow, it is deathly quiet in Oakland right now. I guess I could see why since they're down 4-0 in the 4th (plenty of game to go though). Maybe I'll post some of my pictures from my trip to San Francisco later. My oh my that coliseum is one ugly sucker.

URL: ESPN.com - Anaheim Angels - Clubhouse

Over the weekend, I went to SBC park to see the Giants/Dodgers game and really enjoyed what they did there with the new park. With this trip and the one to New York in 2001, I figured I'd write down the ballparks I've visited and the ones I've just passed by.

Visited Baseball Stadiums (have seen a game inside the park):
Anaheim Stadium (Angels)
Dodger Stadium (Dodgers)
SBC Park (Giants)
Petco Park (Padres)
Qualcomm (Padres) (No longer used for baseball)
Yankee Stadium (Yankees)

Stadiums Seen (other than those above):
Candlestick Park (Giants)
Network Associates Coliseum (Athletics)
Shea Stadium (Mets)
Pro Player Stadium (Marlins)

Visited NBA Arenas:
Arrowhead Pond (Clippers) (Partial Home)
Great Western Forum (Lakers)
Staples Center (Clippers & Lakers)

NBA Arenas Seen (other than those above):
American Airlines Arena (Heat)
Rose Garden (Trailblazers)
Arena in Oakland (Warriors)
Madison Square Garden (Knicks)

Visited NHL Rinks:
Arrowhead Pond (Mighty Ducks)

NHL Rinks Seen (other than the above):
Canadian Airlines Saddledome (Flames)

Not sure of any others I can think of. Have only seen a couple NFL games - one at Anaheim Stadium before the retrofit and the other at Qualcomm in San Diego - both of which were mentioned above. Also, I can't quite remember if I saw General Motors Palace as I drove through Vancouver, but I won't add it since I don't remember. I also vaguely remember seeing the Delta Center as I drove through Salt Lake City in the dead of night, but I'm not quite sure about that either, so we'll leave that off the list too.

As a side note, if I could catch a game at Network Associates Coliseum in Oakland I will have completed the California superfecta (though I know superfecta refers to only four, I couldn't find something to work with five). I have already seen, starting in the south, Padres games (at both Petco and Qualcomm), Angels gams, Dodgers games and now, Giants games, but never an Athletics game at home. Though, quite honestly, the Oakland Coliseum has got to be one of the ugliest stadiums in existence as you look at it from the outside. We got up close looks as we flew into Oakland International Airport and then took BART to San Francisco and it has no character - it's just concrete with two huge Network Associates signs.

URL: Ballparks of Baseball-The Fields of Major League Baseball

I had the strangest dream last night, but can't quite remember all of it. What I do remember was that I was climbing a hill and there were a lot of snakes around near the top of the hill (or mountain) and I was bitten by one. I then went to the hospital and refused the anti-venom since the injection had to go directly into my spine and would temporarily paralyze me. I did survive in the dream, but it was just odd.

To see a snake or be bitten by one in your dream, signifies hidden fears and worries that are threatening you. Your dream may be alerting you to something in your waking life that you are not aware of or that has not yet surfaced.

URL: Dream Moods Dictionary: Words That Begin With S

Oddly enough, I never really mentioned to most that I was going to San Francisco this week when I probably should have been blogging about it earlier. I guess it was just because I really wasn't all too excited about going. The whole trip was planned around a Dodgers/Giants game at SBC Park, both teams which I couldn't care less about - all I need to know is how my Angels are doing. On top of the game I couldn't care about, we were flying in early Saturday and leaving Sunday night, so it just seemed too short with nothing really to do. Luckily, it turned out to be a great weekend trip and I had a lot more fun that I expected.

Other than getting burnt (yet again at a baseball game this year) while sitting down the third base line three rows back staring at the plethora of Giants relief pitchers used in the game, I had fun at the park. It was pretty cool to walk around the yard and see what's going on and being close to left field, you really can see how very disinterested Barry is in what is going on in the game. And while the new park is nice, it's still no Angels stadium (sure, I'm a bit biased, but Angels stadium is beautiful with the changes Arte Moreno made in the off-season). Most of the time I was sitting there with my PDA out checking on the score of the Angels game, looking for runs before they put them up on the scoreboard in right, hoping the Angels could beat the cross-San Francisco team of Oakland (who, by the way, have one of the ugliest stadiums in baseball from what I've seen).

So while the game was fun, made enjoyable by the guy two rows in front of us, it wasn't the highlight of the trip. After heading back from the game, we showered, changed, and headed out to dinner at a nice Italian restaraunt and then went back to the hotel where we quickly fell asleep. This morning, we got up, headed out to Pier 41 and boarded the boat for Alcatraz. It's been quite a while since I was out on "The Rock" and it was amazing to go back again. We took the audio tour of the cell block and I've got all the pictures to prove it and then we meandered around the rock for a while before heading back to the mainland. After getting back, we walked around for a while and ended up at a restaraunt for lunch that served a mixture of foods. I went with the always-good clam chowder in a bread bowl with some crab cakes on the side and some Mtn. Dew. After that, we then walked up a very steep hill (not hard to find in SF) and poked around a beautiful $2.7 million house on the market and finally caught a cab back to the hotel where we picked up our bags, walked to the BART station, took BART to the colliseum, took the bus to the airport and took the plane back to Long Beach.

All in all, like I said before, the trip turned out to be a lot more fun that I was really expecting it to be and it was good to see San Francisco again as it had been almost ten years since the last time I was there (which I don't remember much of). Alcatraz was a great visit and then walking along the shore down to Embarcadero and then up to Ghirardelli Square was fun. The trip was just long enough to be able to see the sights we wanted (one more day would have been nice though) but not too long where you just run out of stuff to do and get bored. I should be posting some pictures in the days to come as I took about 80 of the baseball game and almost 90 on Alcatraz, so stay tuned.

Oh yeah, the Giants won with a grand slam in the 8th inning, though they lost the two other games to the Dodgers, so they lost one game over the weekend in the standings for those who care. On the other hand, the Angels won two games from Oakland over the weekend and now sit just one game out of first place in the West.

URL: Alcatraz Official Web Page