End How You Began

With a loss to the Braves.

It’s funny how the Phillies’ season started and ended with losses to the Braves (not funny haha, but funny). I watched the whole game because I am a glutton for punishment, but at least the Phillies’ season is now finally, mercifully over. The regular season isn’t over, of course, because Game 163 will be played tomorrow (go Rangers!). It’s pretty cool, but the idea of a one-game playoff to get into a one-game playoff is kind of depressing.

Speaking of depressing, how ’bout that Eagles game, huh? Yeesh. That game was so bad that I’m pretty sure the national FOX broadcast switched to the Cowboys – Chargers game at the start of the fourth quarter. The feed in Tampa definitely switched. I didn’t actually do much yelling at the TV during the Eagles game (shocking, I know) because it played out pretty much how I’d expected. What was the point in yelling? At least the Cowboys and Giants lost, too. (Remember when the NFC East was good? Those were the days.)

I actually came up with the title of this post last night when I decided to wear my Chase Utley shirsey today. Yes, the 2013 Phillies were a disappointment, but that doesn’t mean I support the team any less today than I did on Opening Day. Thus is the oddly hopeful nature of fandom.

Look at that, I found something to be positive about. Go me 🙂

Until tomorrow.

Observations While Doing The Dishes

You can thank the Top 100 Alternative station in iTunes Radio for this.

Every time I hear the new Panic! At the Disco single, “Miss Jackson,” I think it’s a song off the new Fall Out Boy record. I eventually realize it’s Panic!, but it always takes a minute. I seriously wonder if Patrick Stump co-wrote that song, though. Even the vocal sounds like Brendon is doing his best Patrick, which is weird because his voice used to be so distinctive.

I like “Reflektor,” the new Arcade Fire single. Or I would if it ended at the 4:00 mark instead of going on for another 3.5 minutes. I really do like the song’s dance-y, disco vibe, but it’s the rare song that can stay awesome for an entire 7:33. It’s also excessively long for a single. Apparently all musicians need to read this recent Jezebel post.

Apparently some contestant on The Voice covered Coldplay’s “The Scientist” (which is pretty much the only Coldplay song I like). That’s awesome; good for her. But, iTunes, that doesn’t make it alternative. She was singing on The Voice, for cryin’ out loud!

Until tomorrow.

I Has A Sad

You guys, this is the last Friday of regular season baseball 😦 That is absolutely terrible. I know the playoffs are coming (yay!), but it’s sad that after Sunday I won’t be able to watch live games on MLB.tv anymore. With that in mind, most of the items on today’s list are things I should’ve shared earlier in the season. (Better late than never, right?)

• One nice thing about watching the playoffs on regular TV is that (theoretically) there will be a wider array of commercials shown during games. The guys over at Cespedes Family Barbecue spent way too much time thinking about two of the most often seen commercials on MLB.tv (that also happen to be absolutely terrible commercials): the C.J. Wilson and Josh Hamilton Head & Shoulders commercial and the Microsoft Surface commercial featuring the worst baseball scouts ever. (Side note: does anyone else watch this commercial and just think Microsoft has the biggest inferiority complex with respect to Apple? Just me?) If I never saw any of those commercials again I would die happy.
• ZooWithRoy’s staff reporter, Awesome Emma, is back conducting adorable interviews with Phillies players and broadcasters. She returned to the red carpet of the Hamels Foundation Diamonds and Denim event. Later she took a trip to Citizens Bank Park to interview Gregg Murphy from CSN Philly. Those videos are so cute I could die!
• Speaking of things that are so cute I could die, Jimmy Fallon and the Roots covered the Sesame Street theme song with a bunch of Muppets!!! Life does not get better than that. (Although I am bummed that Oscar the Grouch isn’t in the video. But Cookie Monster! And Big Bird! Yay!)

Okay, the Sesame Street video cheered me up and I no longer has a sad 🙂

Until tomorrow.

A Good Decision

I made what was possibly my first smart decision all week when I decided to watch the repeat of the Agents of SHIELD pilot instead of the Phillies game. Go me 🙂

But my iPad is really dying (8% – yikes), so I should really charge it.

Until tomorrow.

Aaahhhh!!

I’ve long used a flashlight app on my iPhone while walking upstairs after a productive night of sitting on my ass watching television. It’s so convenient. The LED flash provides more than enough illumination and it means I don’t have to turn on lights just to walk down hallways. So you can imagine how excited I was to discover that iOS 7’s new control center has a built-in flashlight app. New Apple flashlight app! Yay! (It’s the little things.)

But now I’m not so sure that I love it. While I was walking into my office (to start this very blog post) my iPhone started playing a Straylight Run song and it scared the bejesus out of me. Seriously. I flinched so violently that a lot of water flew out of the cup I was carrying and landed on my desk. (Thank God I wasn’t walking up the stairs at the time because I probably would’ve fallen and died.) I guess I somehow told my iPhone to play the Straylight Run song (which shouldn’t even be on my iPhone), but I don’t know how I did it. Weird.

On the other hand, I’d been at a loss for a blog post topic before my iPhone scared me half to death. Thanks?

Until tomorrow.

Chores Are Boring

I’ve been washing some of my dishes (the pots and pans) by hand lately. And I’m feeling pretty proud of myself for doing so, too. But I’ve also remembered another thing I hate about my house: the faucet in the kitchen sink can’t be moved. This wouldn’t be a problem if it weren’t set so low, but it is. Thank God I’m double-jointed because otherwise I couldn’t rinse my pots and pans without them hitting parts of the sink, thus making me have to wash those parts again. Stupid, useless sink.

On the plus side, iTunes Radio is finally on Apple TV 🙂 Listening to Brand New radio is much better than listening to the annoying homeowners on the episode of Love It or List It I had on last night. Although it would’ve been better if I’d heard a single Brand New song on Brand New radio. At least Pandora actually plays the artist in question every once in a while (but then again, Pandora isn’t on my Apple TV).

Oh! I almost forgot! I hope tonight’s Agents of SHIELD premiere was successful, because I want to see many more episodes. It made me so happy. And not just because J. August Richards and Ron Glass were in it 🙂 I mean, the hackers-as-bad-guys trope is super boring, but there’s a much more shadowy group of bad guys that I’m much more interested in. And Joss Whedon has a new show on TV! Yay! (By the by, I knew next to nothing about the show – other than the creative minds behind it – before I watched the pilot. I didn’t even watch a single trailer. I like to have as few biases and preconceived ideas about new shows as possible before starting them.)

Until tomorrow.

Inspired

So, I’ve been thinking about Baby J (that’s my brother’s nickname for his unborn child) a lot lately. And it’s made me think back to the days when my brother, our cousins, and I were little, but the thing is I don’t really remember most of those years beyond what was captured in old photographs. And an inordinate number of those photographs were taken at the beach; there is a lot of photographic evidence of what my parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles looked like in the early 80s. And man, I do not want there to be a lot of pictures of me at the beach; not the way I look now, anyway.

So Baby J has inspired me to start taking care of myself. I don’t expect to lose 50 pounds before next summer, but I know I can get to a place where I will be comfortable having my picture taken on the beach. (This kid is gonna change the world. Not even born yet and already fucking shit up.)

Until tomorrow.

Mmm, Pumpkin

If you were wondering whether IHOP’s pumpkin pancakes are delicious, I can assure you that they are.

That was my big excitement for the day: breakfast at IHOP. At least I actually got pancakes, unlike my mother; she ordered oatmeal. And God knows I love oatmeal, but I just can’t bring myself to order it at IHOP. I can’t. It feels wrong. But ordering pumpkin pancakes was the best idea I’ve had in days.

Until tomorrow.

Productive Saturday Night

I watched It Happened One Night on TCM this evening because my life is better than yours. I kid, I kid. But not about the movie. It’s one of my all-time favorites and you should totally watch it if you’ve never seen it

I also watched so much Emergency! (yes, the 70s TV show) this afternoon that I’ve had the theme song stuck in my head for hours. Good times.

Until tomorrow.

A Slightly Late Friday List

I won’t get this posted on Friday because I was busy watching Shakespeare on PBS, as one does. It was a British production of Richard II that was beautifully done (and I say that as someone who knew next to nothing about the play before tonight). I hope I remember to watch Henry IV, Part 1 next Friday. But enough about Shakespeare, on with the list 🙂

• Long live Pope Francis I. Seriously, if he keeps this up I may become an un-lapsed Catholic. But probably not, though, because I still really hate going to Mass. At the very least, these sorts of statements will really fuck with my parents’ heads, which is kind of awesome. (Does that make me a bad person?)
• I can’t not share things about Clueless. I can’t. Especially when it’s as awesome as BuzzFeed’s idea of what Cher’s Instagram feed would look like.
• Have I ever told you guys how much I love Cookie Monster? Because I do. So imagine my joy at this video in which he recreates movie scenes.
• I love the American Authors song “Best Day of My Life.” Love it. Hell, I loved it when it was in an otherwise annoying Lowes commercial (maybe Home Depot, I can’t remember) that I saw during every commercial break on MLB.tv at the beginning of the season. (Incidentally, I must say that I love American Authors’ debut EP and it’s only five bucks at iTunes, so you should totally get it.) I also love English bulldogs, which makes the “Best Day of My Life” music video pretty much the best thing ever.
• Brand New just played five shows. Five whole shows! One of those shows was Riot Fest Chicago, where Jesse Lacey was joined by Andy Hull for “Play Crack the Sky.” Swoon. (Brand New linked to a different YouTube video of the same performance that actually includes the entire song, but I am boycotting that video because the person who shot it kept their phone in portrait mode. Stop shooting iPhone videos in portrait mode! It’s so stupid.)

Man, do I love parentheses.

Until tomorrow.