The Year of Badass Girls at the Movies

(Film still from Sucker Punch of Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens and Jamie Chung as strong and sexy warrior types.)

(Film still from Hanna of, Saoirse Ronan as an assassin.)

(Film still from the upcoming Colombiana  of, Zoe Saldana as a hitwoman.)

2011 in Cinema seems to be the year of the strong, ass-kicking, badass woman and I couldn't be happier!

 Sucker Punch came first with 5 young women in an asylum escaping into a fantastical world where they become fierce and soldier-like to escape.

Hanna came next--- the teen who is trained to be an assasin by her father.

And most recently--- is Colombiana--- about a hitwoman who wants to take revenge on the people responsible for her parent's death.

It's very exciting to see not one, not two, but three action films in one year--- starring women in the lead as action heroes!

Last year the movies had Salt starring Angelina Jolie, as a lethal CIA agent named Evelyn Salt and Resident Evil: Afterlife with Milla Jovovich reprising her role as Alice, a young woman genetically altered by a virus giving her super agility, speed and strength.

It's great to see Hollywood realizing that girls can be as cool and deadly as their male counterparts (who unfairly rule the action genre).

Here's to next year at the movies and the next and the following--- for women to dominate and kick ass wherever the action is!

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Fantasy Baseball Week 20

Fuck!  I was winning all week long!  Sorry about the vulgarity, but it is the only way I can express how angry I am after this week.  When I left on Saturday morning for a weekend trip, I was up 7-3.  I came home Sunday night and had lost to Dave, 6-5.  What the hell happened?

Well the first thing I can mention, is that I did not start Jon Lester on Monday.  I came home from work and assumed that he would be on a night game, but no!  He was playing at noon or something ridiculous.  We tied in strikeouts, Lester had at least one that game.  Also, his ERA and WHIP would have driven mine down, although I do not think enough to actually win.

I have two weeks left to go from 8th place to 6th place.  This is actually doable, since 1.0 game behind the sixth place person.  This week I take on Jason/Nick (who is probably not paying attention anymore or if the should at least not start anyone and allow me to sweep them...please.)

Tough to decide who my superstar was, probably because I am so irritated.  I would have to say Ryan Zimmerman, but one could argue for Derek Jeter or Ryan Braun.  Drew Stubbs still eats cock.

Musical Voight-Kampff test

Go listen to some Blast Surf on Grooveshark. It's music by a friend of mine; Finnish readers can read his "press release" here.



In our opinion, this album would work perfectly as a musical Voight-Kampff test. If the first song doesn't make you smile, there's a very good chance that you're a replicant.



Enjoy.

College is Overrated

The Pirates signed their second round pick, Josh Bell.  There seemed to be a debate about whether or not he would sign since he sent out a letter asking teams not to draft him because he wanted to go to college and play for the University of Texas.

Most people thought this was a ploy to get a team to offer him more money.  And it obviously worked, but the thing that cracked me up, was the number of people saying that they could understand why he would want to go to college.

This is something I read somewhere "he may want to go to college to get his degree in case baseball does not work out."  Umm, yeah, that is all well and good, or he could take that huge signing bonus he received and tuck about $100,000 away in case he gets hurt and wants to go to school.  That should cover it.

I could understand if he was deciding to go to college because he was not considered a huge prospect, but he would have probably been a top fifteen pick if he had not scared everyone away with that letter.  Yes, he could go to college and do very well and end up being a top five pick, but what if he gets hurt, ends his career?  Or because of injury, gets drafted in the eighth round.

It reminds me of those college football players who stick around for their senior year, yet they are already considered a top draft pick (I am looking at you Peyton Manning).  I wanted Manning to get hurt so bad and end up never making it to the NFL.  Oddly though, now I actually like Peyton Manning.  That is a different story though.

What other things would there be that Josh Bell would miss out on?  The college experience?  Banging a bunch of college girls?  Look, I am sure with his huge stash of cash, he will be able to stay up late and sleep with some hot girls.  Hell, he can swing by any campus and probably pick up a few girls.  Hey Josh, anytime you want to go out at PSU, let me know, I'll show ya the hot spots!

Hell, this is good advice to any young person who has no clue what they want to do with their life.  If they only want to go to college in order to party, here is my suggestion:  go to a huge college and become a bartender.  Seriously, move to PSU/UT/OSU...wherever.  Become a bartender, you will have money all the time and you will get to do some serious partying.  Once you get tired of the college town, move to the beach and do it for awhile.  As you are doing this, tuck away a little money in case you decide you want to go to school.  Then, go to a technical school and become a plumber or a HVAC repairman.  Best advice I could ever give anyone!

Crosy, Nash, and Young Together Again...

Thanks to my brother for sending this to me...pretty funny. 

End of the Road

Do not worry, I am not retiring this blog.  Instead, I have decided to stop doing GOTW.  After 139 posts, I have decided to hang it up.  You can still look at all the old ones if you want.  Just do not expect any new ones.

I have a few favorites I would like to remind you about:

-Lost girls:  This one was way too much work.

-Sid?

-Lindsey's Bikini Poll

-Helen of Troy:  I loved this one until I realized that it was only funny to me, since most people read this through facebook or something else, so the image after the jump is not nearly as hilarious.

-A terrible history lesson

-Religious

-My birthday girl

Obviously there have been tons, many of which have been friends of mine and whatnot.  These were just a couple that made me laugh.

Before anyone gets scared, there will still be pictures of attractive women on the site.  Now, what the hell should I post on Friday?  Anyone have a suggestion?

Wireless panic

I'd write about the moral panic taking over Britain's pundits, but I don't have to, because the Economist already did, brilliantly.



What I will make a note of, however, is the disturbing notion that public disorder gives Western countries an excuse to crack down on social networks and mobile communications. British PM David Cameron called for stopping "suspected rioters spreading online messages". As Canada's CBC News put it in a very disjointed article:

When social media helped protesters organize and overthrow corrupt regimes in the Arab world earlier this year, while also providing citizen journalism when mainstream media was shut out, it was lauded as a tool of democracy.



However, when the same methods are used in a scenario like Britain, they are seen as disturbing, says Megan Boler, a media studies professor in Toronto.

More to the point, when social media are used for dissent in the West, we want to censor them, and worse. In an astonishing decision, two UK men were given four-year prison terms for inciting violence via the social media, even though it couldn't actually be proved that anything they posted had had any effect on anyone (CNN).



Social media censorship is already upon us, however. Remember a while back when I wrote about San Francisco's BART police shooting a man? They recently did it again, and when people gathered to protest, BART shut down cell phone service at their stations.



So when the Egyptian government, or the Iranians, censor Twitter to stop popular protests against the regime, we abhor it as horrible censorship and a human rights violation. When California or the UK does it, we, um.



Although to be fair, this double standard is a bit more complicated than that. After all, when Iran blocks Internet use, they're mostly doing it using technology we sold them.



Having said that, it's all still a little ironic.