One of my favorite blogs that my aunt got me hooked on, Waiterrant, was nominated for Best American Weblog of 2006. Everyone should go the Bloggies page and vote for ones you like or find something new and interesting to read.

This is some pretty huge news. Walt Disney, the original king of animation, has bought the 21st century leader in animation, Pixar. With seven huge movies in 10 years, Disney (and I) better hope Pixar keeps it up to pick up the Disney stock.

How can a basketball player at a major university possibly not get a 2.0 GPA for a semester. Considering all of the monitoring of grades the athletic department must do, it seems like something could have been done to get the senior leader of a top 20 team to stay on the court. Either way Chris McCray is an idiot; a 2.0 sucks especially for someone who was probably given any kind of tutoring he could possibly want. Maryland will have a tough time replacing him considering how versatile a player he was. The new starting five will probably be:
PG: DJ Strawberry
SG: Mike Jones (who really needs to step up his game)
SF: Nik Caner-Medley
PF: James Gist
C: Ekene Ibekwe

I really hate the Steelers. Whichever team wins the NFC Championship better win the Super Bowl. If the Steelers charter plane got shot down on their trip back East, I would not be upset. There are so many members of the team I hate I can't decide who I hate the most, but I'll try:

1. Joey Porter
2. Hines Ward
3. Jerome Bettis
4. Bill Cowher
5. Ben Roethlisberger

That's a solid top 5 of hate. All I can say is "Go NFC!"

Last night I was at the Garden for the Billy Joel concert. For a guy who's body has gone through as much as his must have over the years, he still puts on an amazing show. He played a long set list filled with most of his hits:

Prelude/Angry Young Man
Pressure
Everybody Loves You Now
New York State of Mind
The Ballad of Billy The Kid
Stiletto
Zanzibar
Allentown
The Great Wall of China
Sometimes A Fantasy
Sleeping With The Television On
Goodnight Saigon
Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)
The Night Is Still Young
She's Always A Woman
Keeping The Faith
In The Midnight Hour
The River of Dreams
I Go To Extremes
We Didn't Start The Fire
Big Shot
It's Still Rock and Roll To Me
You May Be Right
Only The Good Die Young
Scenes From An Italian Restaurant
Piano Man

I really don't understand the big deal about who Alex Rodiguez plays for, if at all, in the World Baseball Classic. This whole thing is a made up tournament that was brought about for no significant reason. It seems clear that the Latin American countries have blown past the US as area that's home to the best players. Why does this stupid thing need to be played out; we even aren't going to see "real" games as all of the pitchers will be on a strict pitch count, it's going to look more like the All Star Game than a tournament of true baseball games.

After having almost a month off I'm back to blogging in full force.

As far as the state of NFL playoffs go, I'm happy about the way they have gone but am not completely satisfied. Having the Pats lose to the Broncos was a great moment, the second half of that game was amazing for all of the Pats haters such as myself.

I still can't believe what happened at the end of the Colts/Steelers. There was so much crapiness packed into five minutes I didn't know what to think. Both teams and the refs had suicidal moments and I can't believe the goddamn Squeelers came out on top. The Broncos better take care of business this week in Denver.

As far as the NFC goes, I've been rooting for Seattle since the beginning. The Panthers are dangerous but it's going to be tough for them to go to Seattle and win without Deshaun Foster.

One of my friends and I had a long debate over my break about trading our love of Baltimore sports for the teams of another city. The two at the top of my list are Seattle and then Denver. I've always been a Mariners fan and the Seahawks seem like an organization I could root for. Also, the SuperSonics have my favorite basketball player: Ray Allen.