Free Andre Agassi Trading Card

I love free. I love it so much that I subscribe to several different "bargain" and "free stuff" blogs just to get free stuff. Today on the Free Stuff Stimes I saw free trading card and I signed up. Here's the link:

Free Agassi Trading Card


Now here's a secret you might want to pay attention to: create a new email account with one of the free bulk email services, like yahoo, or gmail or whatever, and use that account to sign up for all your freebies. Then your regular email won't get junked up with spam, though it probably will anyway.


Every now and then I run across free trading card offers, I always try to pass them along.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas y'all

I Bought a pack of Hockey Cards!

Yes, I bought a pack of Hockey Cards for the first time in over five years. It was a 99 cent Score pack, and honestly I can't say I'm going to buy many more. I would like to buy more Topps Baseball update, but I'm so not interested right now that I can't bring myself to even purchase the odd pack here or there. This is monopoly in action folks. Topps baseball products this season were a solid effort, but so unspectacular that I know I'm not the only one going, "meh" over their entire line.

FYI my next pack of Baseball update will be my second. I'm burning up with the fever over here.


The fever to

SELL STUFF ON EBAY

yes, that's right, I've got more items on eBay, mostly comics, but some pretty rare ones. I'm planning on posting many more comics in the coming days, it's Christmas and all, and I've found that everything sells on eBay better during Christmas.

Once again, if you let me know via comments I'll refund 10% of your final bid if you buy one of my items. That's a special present from me to you for reading my blog.

And if I get any smarmier, please shoot me.

Thanks.

Some of the odder things I've put on Ebay Recently

I think I've mentioned that I'm in the process of paring down my collections on eBay, if I haven't well, you haven't been reading. Yeah, that's it.

I love books, that's not a surprise. I love most everything about them, except the fact that they take up so much space. Alas, I do believe eventually I will do all my reading electronically, and honestly I don't think that's a bad thing. The ecology needs humans to stop producing paper, it really does.

I really love Taschen Books, and I have since they began some 25+ years ago. When the Taschen store opened in Beverly Hills, a SHORT walk from my wife's workplace, I was ecstatic. I pretty much buy ALL my Taschen books there since they have the best prices, believe it or not. One of the great things about the store is that they will often display copies of upcoming books as an enticement, and when I saw the preview of "Content" way back in 2003 I knew that I had to have that item. What is it? I'm glad you asked.

Content is a hybrid magazine/book by renowned architect/designer REM KOOLHAUS and it's basically a catalog of his work over the previous decade. It's a follow up to his previous book S, M, L, XL, which was the first 10 years of his work. It also contains timely interviews and reportage from around the globe. Honestly I wish it had been more of a one-off thing, because it was the kind of project that I really could have gotten into.

In any case, I read the entire thing on a Camping Trip way back when and put it on my bookshelf, taking it down every now and then for perusing. A few weeks ago I decided to check out how collectible it might be, and lo and behold I found people selling copies for OVER $100! Not bad for a little $15 book eh?

So it's now On Ebay along with a ton of other stuff I'm trying to sell. Listings are all free right now, so I can list a lot of things that I wouldn't normally bother with. That includes some Hockey Cards, so do me a favor and check out My Items and once again if you buy something, let me know via comment and I'll knock off 10% of the final bid price for ya just because you read my blog.

Buy my Stuff (PLEASE?)

It's that time of the year, when collectors are forced with the bleak paring down of their accumulations to help pay for Christmas time items. Or something like that. Me, I'm liquidating stuff all the time. I haven't been posting eBay auctions because I fell behind paying my fees, but I'm now caught up and ready to rock and roll.

So check out my items, and if you want something, lemme know here and you'll get a 10% discount on your final auction fee!



Thanks

Budget Spotlight - Cheap Japanese Anime Magazines

I consider myself pretty lucky to live in Los Angeles, the city being a mecca for international flavor and culture. I've been a fan of Anime and Japanese models & toys since I was a little boy watching Speed Racer and Star Blazers on afternoon cartoons. For years I've collected anime toys and models, though in recent years instead of buying whatever suits my fancy I've been forced to take a more targeted approach. Los Angeles is a great town for Japanese culture, having several sections of the city being predominantly Japanese in population. Not only do we have a Little Tokyo, but just a few miles West is an even smaller "Little Tokyo Street" - aka Sawtelle Avenue, where the likes of Giant Robo's flagship store is located. There's also at least once "general" store that sells a few Gashapon/Chogokun and models. My favorite place though is the a multi-level strip mall where Asahiya Bookstore and Ninjiya Market are located. I try to get there at least once a month, because a couple of years ago I worked two blocks away and could go there for lunch, I now keep trying to ensure I don't lose that fun tradition.

I checked out the bookstore first this morning, knowing that in the last couple months several of the Japanese Hobby Magazines had some cool extra-bonus items. See in Japan, their magazines are several hundred pages thick, and carry free-premiums in every issue, making their cost in American Dollars usually prohibitively expensive. Fortunately at the chain store Asahiya they usually have a separate "sale" section of older magazines for at least half price. Today I lucked out and picked up October's copy of Dengeki Hobby, which came with a complete Gundam 0 Raiser Stand Arts toy! For a whopping six bucks I got a nifty modeling magazine with glamour shots of the latest Japanese model kits pu together by master modelers, and a nifty toy for my desk. The O Raiser is an add-on fighter for the Gundam 00 mecha. Standarts figures are a nice budget priced toy line that is usually found in grocery stores amongst the Chogokun/Gashapon candies. While I don't have the actual figure this piece goes with, it's really unnecessary for display, and I may try to flip the toy anyway on eBay, you never know.



(I 'borrowed' this image from Gundam Guy which is a great guide to everything Gundam oriented you could ever possibly want or think up.)


So my budget tip for the day, if you're into Anime, make sure you check out the bookstores "sale" section for older magazines, sometimes you'll get awesome deals.

Fight Football League Links Back!

Hey check it out:



See that little link on the right side of the screen - hey that's ME! In fact, if you google Fight Football, I'm on the bottom of page 2! That's not so bad.

Jim Rome's Rookie Card?

Jim Rome is a polarizing figure in sports talk radio and television, to some he's the greatest talking head on tv/radio, and to others he's a pompous jackass who's not much better than Rush Limbaugh. My own personal opinion is more on the positive side than the negative, since I've been listening to him for YEARS.

That's right, I count myself as an original clone. I was listening to Rome waaaaay back in the early 90's when he did his Saturday Scrub Show on XTRA 690 in San Diego. I even remember calling him up about some boxing match sometime in 1992 or 1993. Why I can recall sitting next to Natrone Means in the stands at Charger Training Camp while he was being interview by the young Pimp in the Box.

Once he got moved to the day-time shifts I became an avid, daily listener. I compiled lists of "Jungle Glossary Terms" before the Internet is what it is today. I remember the first couple of Smack-Offs too. I have though, never called the show because mostly I don't have a take and if I did, it would suck.

Now I haven't listened to Rome on a regular basis the entire time he's been on radio. There were a number of years where I was working when I couldn't have a radio at my desk so I never paid that much attention. Today though I get to listen to him when and where I want to, thanks to the internet and 570 AM KLAC's streaming coverage, oh and my car radio. So while I think the days of him calling athletes women's names are over, he's still up to his old antics.

So this brings me to his "rookie card." This is a set of trading cards that 690 used to hand out at events and I managed to snake one over the years. IN fact, I managed to get at least one of the autographed - the late, great Chet Forte was kind enough to his card for me, as did his partner and still a Loose Cannon Steve Hartman. You don't see these sets pop up very often, in fact I can't find another reference to the set on the internet machines. Cool hunh?

And hey, it's another post about sports cards, go figure. At least I'm not pumping my eBay auctions. Oh wait...see what I did there?

McFarlane adding NFL to PlayMakers Line

http://www.spawn.com/news/news6.aspx?id=13706

Series 1 will have 14 figures including:

PEYTON MANNING -- Indianapolis Colts quarterback
ADRIAN PETERSON -- Minnesota Vikings quarterback
TROY POLAMALU -- Pittsburgh Steelers safety
TOM BRADY -- New England Patriots quarterback
DREW BREES -- New Orleans Saints quarterback
LARRY FITZGERALD -- Arizona Cardinals wide receiver
MARK SANCHEZ -- New York Jets quarterback
TONY ROMO -- Dallas Cowboys quarterback
BRETT FAVRE -- Minnesota Vikings quarterback
BEN ROETHLISBERGER -- Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback
AARON RODGERS -- Green Bay Packers quarterback
ELI MANNING -- New York Giants quarterback
JAY CUTLER -- Chicago Bears quarterback
JASON WITTEN -- Dallas Cowboys tight end


Being a toy collector, I've seen their Baseball PlayMakers on pegs at TRU, sitting there, kind of lonely, not selling well. I have to say I've never been overly impressed with McFarlane's toys, most of the ones I've ever held/owned feel like they're made from inferior plastic. I'm also well known as an articulation junkie so the barely poseable plastic statues that McFarlane has pumped out for years in the sports realm has always left me cold. I haven't taken the bite on any of the Baseball figures yet simply because there isn't one player out right now that I even like. Then again McFarlane has always neglected my favorite teams, I guess he just doesn't like me. (The one time I met him at a ComicCon I was nice though, so I dunno).

For the record, McFarlane has done a TOTAL of FIVE Los Angeles Kings in their NHL line and NONE since 2006. To make matters worse they've only done SIX Angels! It doesn't get much better in Football for old Will either, they've only done eight Chargers, but get this FIVE of them are Ladanian Tomlinson (The other three are Brees, Gates and Rivers, so I guess that's not too bad). Pro Basketball wise, I don't really care about the Lakers that much, but at least Todd's shown them some love with 16 figures since 2002, and all the big names are represented.

In any case, I might go ahead and pick up a Favre, Peterson or a Brees if I see them. I'd like to see the line do well, because perhaps that would me a "Classics" line would be possible and I could get some of my faves from years past, like Dan Fouts, Barry Sanders and Marshall Faulk.

Honestly my love of multipoint articulation comes from the great toys of the 70's, mostly Megos, but I also had one of these lads:



I know I had the Chargers figure because I lived in San Diego when I got it. I look for them on eBay every now and then when I remember what they're called. I think I'll remember more often now that I've blogged about it. Any readers out there remember these guys?

More Ebay Items

I've listed a bunch more comics on eBay, and if you're a reader of this blog - you wanna buy something, let me know in the comments and I'll throw in some free bonuses!


Check them out will ya?

Fight Football League

Jim Rome mentioned this today on his show and I HAD to check it out, its QUITE the spectacle, and you know what? I like it. Quite a bit actually. The organizers tell us that it's based on an ancient combat sport called Harpastum combined with a bit of this Calcio Fiorentino. TO me it seems more like a straight up combination of Australian Rules Football, MMA and Soccer. Oh and they've been playing it now for some time, only a few times a year though...until now.

Enter Fight Football League, and their debut match is on Youtube, a very interesting tilt featuring Rome versus Florence. The players are all Vinnie Jones look-a-likes who take their sport seriously. There's blood, quite a bit, and punching, a few take downs, but really no bad sportsmanship, which I found fascinating. In this match there were no penalties that I could see, no dismissals and no real warnings. The fighting is controlled, and it's always 1 on 1. You can't punch a guy from behind or when he's down. I don't think kicking was allowed either.

Basically there's 8 guys to a side (I think that's how many I counted) and they have to score a goal worth one point in a rather small square goal some 8-10 feet off the ground. They use a soccer ball and can run with the ball without dribbling. Passing is allowed, didn't see any offsides rules in effect. If a guy is tackled with the ball it's a turnover. They played four 12 minute periods with a short "extra time" for injuries I guess, the clock counts up like in Soccer. Substitutions seemed pretty liberal.

It's not all non-stop action, though it's pretty close. It's weird to see one guy running with the ball and right in front of him his teammate is squaring off with an opponent. If a fight goes on too long it gets broken up too. Actually they seemed to be broken up a lot.

Anyway, check it out, it's rather interesting stuff. The most scoring happens in the fourth quarter, so if you want to only watch one part that's it.

FINALLY A Sports Card Posting - Well Sort Of

I know, I don't write about sports cards much anymore. Mostly because I'm not really buying a whole lot. Between Upper Decks Baseball fiasco 2010, and my lack of interest in pretty much most of Topps releases, I'm just not spending a lot of money on cards. I still buy an occasional pack of Topps Series 2, and I've purchased a whopping 2 packs of Allen & Ginter and 1 of Heritage. Lack of funds really has me in a buying depression.

BUT that's OK, because I can still SELL SELL SELL right? Well, yeah, I could. I still need to send out trades from LAST NOVEMBER, so I'm erring on the side of caution with Baseball. I do have a decent amount of Hockey cards though, and I've just pulled them out of storage, which coincidentally is where I think the Baseball that I need to send out ended up.

So here's my first foray into selling Hockey Cards, three single player lots of arguably the most recognized three stars of the 20th Century, Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr and the Great One, Wayne Gretzky.

I also have quite a few rookies and Young Guns from the early 2000's and I'll probably be putting those up later this week, most of them I'll start at $1.00 with $1.00 shipping or $2.00 with free shipping. I may also just put the 3200 count box and the overflow boxes outside tomorrow morning for our yard sale and see if someone wants a good deal.

Meanwhile, as always lately check out my Ebay Seller Page AND if you buy something from me, and let me know you read about my items on my blog, I'll REFUND 10% of your sale price back to you! Just a way of saying thanks for reading.

NBA Mini Vinyls

Now I don't know why this hasn't happened sooner, but a company called Mind Style is putting out mini vinyl figures of NBA Super-Stars. Series 1 will be blind boxed with rare and chase figures! Woot!

Yes, I know there have been other companies to try the Designed Vinyl approach to sports collectibles, but so far they've all missed the mark. Why? In my opinion because they were too pricey and too stylized for sports collectors. We sports collectors are a finicky breed. We're not going to buy an expensive roto-cast vinyl figure of Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan, but give us a blind-boxed chance at a chase figure, for under 10 bucks, and guess how many will jump at the chance.

I see this as a positive, even though I won't collect the set. If there's any former Bruins in the series I'll go for them, and maybe try a custom.

NBA Series 1 will contain: Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Garnett, Derrick Rose, Dirk Nowitzki, Brandon Roy, Steve Nash, Manu Ginobili, Amar’e Stoudemire and Dwayne Wade.

I would imagine the chase/rare figures will be alternate jerseys or paint schemes.

FANTASY FOOTBALL 2010

I have started my 2010 Fantasy Football League, and am looking to add new owners again this season. I have 4 confirmed at the moment and invites out to a number of others. If you would like to play in a FUN but competitive league, one that I've been running in one incarnation or another for almost 20 years, then leave me a comment.

Thanks.

My eBay Report

So it's been a little more than a month since I started my hardcore "let's get RID of this stuff" eBay selling, and I thought I'd catalog the results so far since it's actually been pretty interesting.

Last 60 Days # Items Sold - 26
# Items Unsold - 26
Total Amount of Sales - $515.18

Highest Sold Items:
Young Allies #20 - $107.49
Derek Jeter 2000 Topps Auto: $99.49
Wrapped In PLastic Magazine #1-29 $49.99
Y The Last Man #1 - $39.99

Current Items Listed: 19

So not too bad. Could be better, could be a lot worse.

Yet MORE eBay Items

Yes, it does appear that my blog is now just a whore to pimp myeBay items. But hey in the last 30 days I've sold almost $400 worth of stuff, and believe me, that money has come in HANDY.

In any case, today it's Comic Books, and I've listed a bunch of nifty series and trade paperbacks, including a VERY hard to find Batman: Sword of Azreal Gold Tradepaperback>, and some really nice copies of Transformers: The Original Marvel Mini-Series from 1984 that I totally forgot that I owned!

More stuff is coming, so make sure you check back with me!

Thanks for looking

More eBay Items

You know at some point I may actually blog about Baseball Cards again, in fact in storage I found a really nifty 9 card set from Upper Deck that was released in conjunction with the PBS Ken Burns Baseball Documentary that I will blog about at some point, and also even though I missed the All-Star Fan Fest in Anaheim, I could share my memories of the 1992 Edition in San Diego, which was one of the most fun times I've ever had!

But right now, I'm in the drive for funds hardcore, and I've listed a bunch of new items on eBay. These aren't your standard collectibles though, they're Movie Press Kits. What are those? Well, back in the day before the internet, movie studios used to either send Press-Kits out or give them to members of the press at screenings, and basically they're official stills and production information that print media used to write puff-pieces or review the films. My Uncle used to edit BOXOFFICE magazine, which is an industry trade publication for movie theaters that's been around since the 1920's and still exists today. As a wee lad I used to beg for any movie memorabilia I could get my hands on, and boy did I collect a BUNCH.

The cream of this crop is undoubtedly the Princess Bride kit, which I am extremely reluctant to sell, but my wife said to sell it, so I will. Here's a pic:



I also found official press-stills for a NUMBER of older films, including ALIEN and DUNE, but those aren't being sold (quite yet).

In any case, if this intrigues you, please bid and bid high. Thanks.

Oh and in case you were wondering, the Jeter Auto sold for the BIN price of $99.49, to a guy in New York. Go figure.

Jeter is in the HOUSE - But for HOW LONG?

Remember back in March I blogged about the Jeter card I pulled out of the Topps Million Code Transmogrifier? Well I had it delivered. Also did you know that in certain states you don't have to pay for the delivery? California is one of those states, so I didn't have to pay at ALL for UPS Ground with tracking and insurance!

In any case, the card JUST arrived a few minutes ago, I took a couple of moments to scan it before I threw it up on eBay. Here's the card in all it's glory:








I also had a 1958 Russ Kemmerer card delivered just because I don't really have anything that old in my collection and I thought it'd be cool to have. Here's those pics:




Now the site doesn't claim to give you MINT cards, you expect a 2000 year card to be mint, and it is, though they didn't send it in a Top Loader darn it. Fortunately there was no damage. They probably didn't protect it better because the card is pretty thick. The 1958 though is in PRETTY good shape, I see a minor crease and the corners are slightly fuzzy, but it's solid.

Anyway, if you're interested in the Jeter, it's on eBay.

"If it weren't for bad luck you'd have no luck at all mate"

As you know the Budget Collector is on a SERIOUS budget lately. Can't afford much collecting at all these days, I've bought exactly four packs of Topps Series 2 and one Jumbo. Now I did pull that NICE Silk, but nothing else to blog about these days. Don't even talk to me about Allen & Ginter, I can't afford even a Hobby pack of that stuff right now.

Why is that you say?

The dread CAR REPAIRS. I was doing a favor for a friend last night, picked him up from the Airport at 9:30 at night on the tail end of a holiday weekend. Traffic was NASTY at the airport, but not so bad that we weren't out of there within 10 minutes of Gabe getting into the car.

Anyway, few minutes later we're driving down Airport blvd on the way to La Cienega and I notice a rattling sound, just a bit odd. THEN I notice the temperature gauge is all the way on H and there's steam coming out of the front of the car. I've had this happen before on another car, and I drove on it too long and cracked the head gasket. Once you do that your car is never the same. So we pulled off the street to a closed McDonalds and called AAA to get towed home. Fortunately I live next door to a service station, so I took it over there this morning. The bill is just under $500 for a new radiator, radiator hoses and thermostat.

SO, the Budget Collector is selling some stuff to hopefull recoup SOME of the costs. Here's my current eBay listings, it's all DVDs at the moment, and I doubt I have any good cards to add on, but you never know, I'll be scouring the apartment for as much stuff as I can find to turn over.

http://shop.ebay.com/wmnoe/m.html?_nkw&_armrs=1&_from&_ipg&_trksid=p4340

Buy some stuff? If you do I'll mention you on the blog and give out whatever link you want!

Sickovit! Video Posted

Remember a few weeks ago I mentioned Sickovit? The new line of clothing had a video shoot a couple of weeks ago and here's the result...



Those first three people in the video, boy they're pretty cool aren't they?

Also Selling a Digital Projector

Click here for the Craig's List posting

It's an In Focus LP 70 original cost of over $2K for just $250. I can certainly arrange shipping for a nominal price.

Buy Some Comics Please?

We're having a bit of a budget crisis in the Budget Collector's household, so I'm selling some comics on evilBay. These are some of my oldest and most valuable books and as much as it pains me to sell them, keeping the family fed and clothed is more important.

The process of putting stuff on eBay is getting more and more complicated it seems, and my browser/net connection isn't really helping me out this morning. I can't tell you how many times it took me to get Young Allies #20 up.

Young Allies #20 - My Oldest and most valuable single issue. It KILLS me to sell this, BUT I have no great affinity for the Golden Age of the Marvel Universe and whatever I make on it will be pretty much pure profit. I don't think it'll ever be more valuable than it already is, so selling now is probably the right timing.


Wolverine Mini-Series Complete - Bought this at the SDCC many, many moons ago, time to go bye bye I think.

If I come up with more, I'll do another post.

Topps Series 2 Woot!

Everyone and their brother is blogging about Topps Series 2, I guess I should join in the fun, except that as the Budget collector, I'm still waiting for packs to show up for $2 at Target! Lucky for me there was a brand new Serenity/Firefly comic book that was published last week ("Float Out" written by Patton Oswalt) and I had JUST enough cash to buy one pack at $3.95. Fortunately I chose correctly out of the box which was only half full, check out what I pulled:



OK truth time, I didn't pull THIS one, this is a picture from eBay, my scanner isn't hooked up at the moment. Mine is #18 out of 50, and according to the pack it's a 1 in 431 pull, which is pretty damn good for me lately. Unfortunately there's too many on eBay right now to make anything off of it, so I'll hold it or trade it to someone for something Angels related. Then again I have a ton of trades to send out still, so trading with me right now isn't your best bet.

Still it's my first "silk" card, and it's really nice. I just wish it wasn't a Red Sox player. At least it wasn't Kevin Youklis.

I'm SICKOVIT!

Are you sick and tired of life in general? Well, now just display that attitude on your chest, right here at sickovit.com! Check it out, this is the ground floor, the first merchandise available for the latest trend. ORDER TODAY! Don't you wish you had gotten in on Affliction, Tapout or Big Dog when they were just a nascent idea? Now you can, Right here

Here's your standard Men's T



and of course a Ladies Version



And much more is forthcoming. They'll also be doing corporate stuff as well.

FULL DISCLOSURE - I'm not involved with this company, but I will get a commission if you buy something, so tell them Will sent ya!

Rumors of my demise have been greatly inflated

I'm not dead, I'm just totally flat broke. I guess I could be blogging about how I've pulled something like 12 of those Topps Million Codes, and one of the first ones I pulled was a 1999 Derek Jeter Auto worth about a C note, but no one really cares about those. At some point when I stop buying Series 1 I'll do a big post.

In terms of other budget collecting, I've noticed that GI Joe figures from last Summer's movie have been popping up at Ross and TJ Maxx stores lately, so that's been a boon to my collection. I can't justify buying the darn things at 8 bucks a pop, but half price isn't so bad.

I could post about how I'm really lame and haven't sent out my end of the trades I made in LAST NOVEMEBER yet, but I can't even do that right now since the box of cards that I need to get to got accidentally moved into storage and we haven't paid the bill yet for this month and can't access it.

What I can post about is how to get free money.

Wait, what's that? Free money?

I recently earned myself a $1,500 cash grant from the Jewish Federation, just for being Jewish and being broke. In Judaism there's a practice called Mitzvahs, where Jews are expected to help out those less fortunate than themselves. I often find that most religions have some sort of giving back to the community, and in truth I think that's the best part of being religious, the safety net that your peers have around you is very comforting. In any case, I was told about the program where the Federation was giving out cash to needy Jews during this bad economy, and I went for it. Sure I had to provide tax records and be interviewed about my need, but that was the easy part. The hard part was actually swallowing my pride and asking for the grant in the first place.

From what I understand there's a TON of cash grants out there for people in need, a google search should provide enough listings to get started on. Be careful though, make sure you're dealing with a reputable source and do your homework. There's a lot of cons out there too, and for some reason it's always easier to prey on those who are already down.

Oh and just in case you're wondering, the grant went entirely to rent, freeing up the dough we would have spent on rent to catch up on bills and such.

But such a Mitzvah!

I Will NOT

Shill for the Upper Deck blog awards, I will take no part in the proceedings. I shall not be pandered to, nor shall I involve myself in such frivolities. I will not publish your link to your blog, nor will I vote for you just because you're nominated.

I also haven't sent out trades from last year yet either, I have issues.

But I did pull an autographed Derek Jeter from 2000 from the ToppsMillion contest.

So there.

Oscar Picks

Every blogger does it I suppose. Here's mine:

Best Picture Avatar
Best Actor - Jeff Bridges
Best Actress - Sandra Bullock
Supporting Actor - Christoph Waltz
Supporting Actress - Mo'Nique
Best Director - Kathryn Bigelow
Animated Feature - Up
Adapted Screenplay - Precious
Original Screenplay - Hurt Locker
Costume Design - Nine
Score - Avatar
Song - Nine
Foreign Language - White Ribbon
Documentary Short - Music by Prudence
Documentary Feature - Food, Inc
Animated Short - Granny O'Grimm
Art Direction - Avatar
Cinematography - Avatar
Editing - Avatar
Live Action Short - Instead of Abracadabra
Make-up - Star Trek
Visual Effects - Avatar
Sound Mixing - Avatar

These aren't what I am ROOTING for mind you, just what I think are going to be the winners.

I do have about a 70% success rate over the years BTW.

Topps Million Pulls

"But Mom, everyone else is doing it!"

Since pretty much the entire card blogosphere is posting their personal Topps Million card pulls on the first day of availability, I shall do the same. So far I've purchased a whopping 13 packs of Topps and 1 Rack-pack. I haven't been at all dissatisfied with my pulls thus far, I've gotten a nice mix of inserts and even pulled a hit! I'll detail what I got below, but here's my first 4 Topps Million cards:

Paul Schaal 1972
Paul Schaal / Third Base / Kansas City Royals
Card ID Number: 177

Joe Coleman 1972
Joe Coleman / Pitcher / Detroit Tigers
Card ID Number: 640


Bill Campbell 1985
Bill Campbell / Pitcher / Philadelphia Phillies
Card ID Number: 209


Derek Jeter 1999
Derek Jeter / Shortstop / New York Yankees
Card ID Number: HDA1


See that last one? Yeah, there's NO pictures listed on the site, and I can't find one on eBay. In fact, I can't even verify the existence of a 1999 HDA1. There's a 2000 HDA1, which is a Jeter autograph. If I pulled a Jeter autograph out of this thing, then I win right? I mean everyone else is pulling JUNK so far, if I pulled a Jeter, well that would be the best so far. I think. If anyone else pulls something better, comment would ya? Oh and if you can shed some light on this HDA1 card, I'd love to know what the heck it is.


ANYWAY, here's the rest of what I've pulled out of Topps thus far:

4 Red Back Minis (Spahn, Mantle, Chipper, Jackie Robinson)
2 History of the Game (LOVE)
2 Tales of the Game (Love)
5 Peak Performance (Meh)
2 Serial # Gold Parallel
3 Turkey Red
2 When they were young
3 Legendary Lineage (1 double)
6 Cards Your Momma Threw Out - no original backs
4 Topps Million Codes
13 Standard Topps Town
2 Gold Topps Town

1 Peak Performance Relic - David Wright

Superbowl XLIV - Saints 31, Colts 17 FINAL

Wow, the New Orleans Saints win the Superbowl, just like the entire country was hoping. Drew Brees played like a MAN and deserves the MVP award.

Manning made one HUGE mistake, and it cost them the game.

I'm actually very happy for the Saints and Drew Brees, that's awesome.


Great game everyone.

Superbowl XLIV - Saints 31, Colts 17 1:16 4th

The Saints are getting little cocky right now, Robo still has the ability to tie this game. First and goal on the 4 with 1:34 is way enough time for Robo.

OK sorry, first and goal on the 13 after the penalty.

2nd and goal on the 3

Superbowl XLIV - Saints 31, Colts 17 2:00 4th

I guess it ain't over until the clock hits 00:00. In one play they could be right back in it, but then they still have to recover the onside kick after AND score another TD in under 2 minutes. Even with 3 time outs that's a tall order.


GO Daddy - Danica #2 - Again, I don't WANNA go watch more commercials on my computer. Ever.

No secret, I love the CBS comedies on Monday, except for the Jenna Elfman POS that's on at 8:30 pm I can only hope it gets cancelled and we're all put out of it's misery.

Superbowl XLIV - Saints 31, Colts 17 3:05 4th

Unless Robo can score twice in 3 minutes, this game is over and damn, what an amazing game it has been. Really. Manning makes ONE mistake and it costs them the game.

Bud Light - Book club - Maybe it's me because I no longer drink beer, but their ads were simply horrible.

Car Commercial - I'd rather have a car built by robots. Robots don't make that many mistakes.

E*Trade #2 - I really hate those babies.

Superbowl XLIV - Saints 31, Colts 17 3:12 4th

Tracy Porter gets my vote for MVP right now.

Superbowl XLIV - Saints 31, Colts 17

BALLGAME

Superbowl XLIV - Saints 24, Colts 17 3:24 4th

Now it's the time for Robo and the crew to show their stuff. But a false start penalty on first down isn't a good way to start.

On 1st and 15 though Manning has more time than God had to create the heavens and earth it seems. Garcon comes BACK to the ball.

1st and 10 from the Colts 42 and Manning is almost picked. Remember THAT!

Garcon with another first down and Robo robos on.

My wife and daughter are making cookies.

Reggie Wayne with a first down. It's like clockwork.

Injury Time Out


Car Commercial - Plastic Bags are illegal? WtF? That would be a totalitarian state wouldn't it? Green police? Oh come on.

Taco Bell - Can't go wrong with Chuck. Hey, so far they haven't shown Kim Kardashian, but we have now seen her Brother-in-Law.

Superbowl XLIV - Saints 24, Colts 17 5:35 4th

Car Commercial - Forgettable.

I think these are regional ads again.

More anamatronic chickens...Denny's. Damn that's funny. President Chicken.


OK so RoboBack is going to get the ball with 5 and a half minutes to play AWESOME. I want to see a LONG drive ending in a touchdown. Give the Saints a few ticks on the clock to try to win, but ultimately I want OVERTIME! If this goes to OT, greatest game ever. So far it's been everything we expected.

Superbowl XLIV - Saints 24, Colts 17 5:42 4th

And the Tie Game and OVERTIME is back on. I want overtime, I want overtime.

WE ALL want Overtime.

Don't we?

Superbowl XLIV - Saints 2?, Colts 17 5:42 4th

I think it's a catch.

Superbowl XLIV - Saints 22, Colts 17 5:42 4th

Almost a perfect situation for overtime. ALMOST. Now there's almost no way that can happen.

Dante's Inferno - If I had a crack machine ... err ... I mean console system, I'd play it. Then again if I had a crack machine I would no longer be married.

Budweiser - As long as there's a Clydesdale in it, it's all good. Love those horses. The bull wasn't bad either.



And they're challenging.

Superbowl XLIV - Saints 22, Colts 17 5:42 4th

Wow both teams are virtually tied in time of possession.

Bush FINALLY gets a decent run on first down, but will that be enough? Even if the Saints score here RoboBack gets the ball with time on the clock. Does this come down to the last possession wins?

Certainly looks like it right now. Brees may have a Superbowl record for completions, that's cool.

Jeremy Shockey catches the TD - that's great, didn't get to play in the Giants game.

Superbowl XLIV - Colts 17, Saints 16 - 10:39 4th

MVP Voting is available. I can't choose at the moment, unless something drastic happens it's going to the winning QB.

Oooh, 2nd and 12 sure looked like pass interference to me on that Reggie Wayne miss.

4th and 2 from the Saints 46 - RoboBack does what he does best and hits Reggie Wayne for the first. Big play, big cojones on RoboBack.

The Saints secondary pulls a big one out of their rear ends to foil a sure TD and the Colts settle for 3, but NO GOOD. That's huge. If the Saints score a TD you have to think they'll go for 2.


Vizio - What's with the rodents?

Emerald Nuts/Pop Secret - I think someone spent too much time at Sea World.

NFL Draft - again? No that's OK.


Yes, we'll watch Undercover Boss tonight.

Superbowl XLIV - Colts 17, Saints 16 - 15:00 4th

That one point difference in the score? Yeah, that's the Colts running game, as in they actually have one. If the Saints could bust just one play on the ground they would be leading.

Car Commercial - Forgettable.

MetroPCS - almost funny, but not really.

Jack in the Box - OK this must be the regional feed now since I know JIB isn't nationwide. Jack bungie jumping, that would have been way better 15 years ago. Still pretty funny though.

4th Quarter begins at 5:59 PM PST - 9 minutes ahead of last year.

Superbowl XLIV - Colts 17, Saints 16 - 1:58 3rd

When you catch the kickoff more than 5 yards deep in your own end zone - don't bring it out. Just. Don't.


Hyundai - Kid's toys - OK this is Just awesome because I recognize most of those toys. The red dude with one eye is Muno from Yo Gabba Gabba

Have you ever noticed that the ads on the Superbowl get lamer and lamer as the game progresses?

Of course, my favorite thing, if you can't get enough of the ads, go on line and watch them again. You know, because you need the products sold to you again, and you won't see them ad nauseum on other shows for the next two months.

Superbowl XLIV - Colts 17, Saints 16 - 2:01 3rd

1st and 10 at the Colts 48 Brees gets lucky and isn't picked for six. Remember that.

Dwight Freeney is out on the sidelines again, Brees has all the time in the world right now to throw. Who needs Defense?

But they can't make it on 3rd down and have to settle for a FG attempt...which is good.

Census - This isn't funny, despite all the good people in it. Just not funny.

Google - Yeah, we know, it's a verb. We all use it. Did you really need to spend a couple of mil for that?

Superbowl XLIV - Colts 17, Saints 13 - 6:08 3rd

Nice return by the Saints, can Brees come back and answer?

Coke - Sleepwalking in the Sahara - Do they still make bottles like that anymore? Nice CG

E*trade - I HATE those babies, I really, really hate those babies.

Have I mentioned that my wife kind of knows Jeff Probst of Survivor? I don't know if there are any JP cards, but if there are, I want one to get autographed.

Superbowl XLIV - Colts 17, Saints 13 - 6:15 3rd

First onside kick not in the 4th quarter in Superbowl history. Not surprising.

RoboBack completes on first down, big shock.

Joseph Addai came to play.

Manning was off the field for 70 - SEVENTY minutes between the Colts last possession of the first half and their first possession of the second. That's just weird. But that's why he's RoboBack.

Manning to Dallas Clark for 27 yards down to the Saints 20. Throws the ball where not ONE Saint could get it. Talk about clutch.

Dallas Clark makes 2 strong receptions and they use the run to get key yardage and RoboBack retakes the lead...this game has lived up to the hype thus far.


Michelob Light - Yeah, I'm so sure Lance Armstrong kicks back with a beer....not while he's still competing.

Homeaway.com - The Griswolds - Now I see, it's all about hitting up the website to see the whole video. Lame.

Bridgestone Tires - Uh - that was strange.

KGB - I like their other ads better. Wonder what the censored one was going to be?

Superbowl XLIV - Saints 13 Colts 10 - 11:41 3rd

Brees comes out slinging, three quick completions and they're almost in the red-zone. Make that 4 complete passes and they're at the Colts 23.

Talk about momentum swing - first of all Payton Manning hasn't spent more than 2 minutes on the field since the 1st quarter. Secondly the Saints are now moving the ball at will and have taken the lead.

Will we see the explosion of scoring now? RoboBack will have to counter to stay in the game.

As Nantz reminded us, that's 13 unanswered points.

Prince of Persia Jake Gyllenhaal looks RIPPED, but come on, it's based on a videogame. We all know how well those movies do.

Motorola - Yowza. Wait, haven't I seen this before?

Car Commercial - VW - punching each other is dumb, always have thought so, but Stevie Wonder was funny.

Denny's - Free Grand Slam - I heard last year you couldn't get in the door. The chicken animatronics were really cool.

How I Met Your Mother I'm not calling, but I'll report back when someone else does and posts it.

Superbowl XLIV - Colts 10, Saints 6 14:59 3rd

The 3rd Quarter is about to begin, at this rate we're looking at a pre 6:00 PM PST beginning of the 4th quarter! Last year it began at 6:08 PM, I think it's going to be earlier.

Colts get the ball to start the 3rd, RoboBack (I think that's better than RoboQB don't you?) looks like he'll get the ball and...

ONSIDE KICK?

You gotta be kidding me?

HOLY CRAP

Now I've seen everything, Saints Recover.

Superbowl XLIV - COMMENTS ARE WELCOME

Hey I forgot to mention - I've turned off moderation on the comments for the game, so come on, let me have it. Do you hate what I'm doing? Am I right on? What's the dealio??

Superbowl XLIV - Halftime Performance - The Who

I love the Who. I'm old enough to remember before Keith Moon died too. I'm also old enough to remember their numeous farewell tours, and I went to see them in 1994 with Tom Ammon. As much as I love Pete and Roger, it's not the same without John and Keith, it really isn't. I don't condemn them for continuing to do what they do best though, I'm just glad they both can still get up on stage and do their thing.

That stage set up is something else though. I'll bet my Brother in Law Brent is sitting there watching the game trying to figure out how they did everything.

Can't really say much for the 'medley' of songs though. They sound good I suppose, but I'd rather hear a couple of FULL songs than snippets from many.

The fact that it takes a half a dozen musicians to recreate the sound that John & Keith provided by themselves is telling though.

It's also never a bad day when you can still watch Peter Townshend do the windmill and Roger Daltry swing the microphone around like it's a bullwhip.

Superbowl XLIV - Colts 10, Saints 6 Halftime

Did I mention the under was 57.5? Yeah, not looking like they're going to get there does it?


With the exception of the Saints not getting into the endzone on 4th and Goal, this game has been pretty even. Brees and the Saints owned the 2nd quarter, but the Colts took the 1st by force. Brees and RobQB are both playing their butts off, but the difference thus far has been the Colts running game. Addai has 7 attempts for 60 yards with a long of 26. The Saints COMBINED are 12 attempts, 22 yards and a long of 8. If the Saints don't get a game breaker out of Bush & co, it's over.

I'mmma watch the Who now. Be back after halftime.

Superbowl XLIV - Colts 10, Saints 3 0:12 2nd

Wow, the Saints did a great job of getting to the ball and spiking it, as Phil Simms said, that always takes more time than you think. He's right, as usual.

Saints call TO on the Colts 27, that's a 44 yard FG attempt, definitely makeable - but they'll go for the endzone at least once.

Intel - Not memorable.

Superbowl XLIV - Colts 10, Saints 3 0:35 2nd

Saints get the ball back with 1 time out and under 46 ticks on the clock.

I'm noticing a trend here, the commercials are apologizing to women for men enjoying the game. That's just wrong. Flo-TV - you fail too.

Bush doesn't get much of a run back, 30 yards for a FG try.

Superbowl XLIV - Colts 10, Saints 3 0:51 2nd

And the Colts stuff them on 4th and Goal - That was the play of the game so far, they didn't have a chance of getting into the endzone.

Here comes RoboQB with under 2 minutes - no, he's not going to go for a drive, he'll run the clock out. Fine by me, I wanna see The Who!


Harry Potter World - Yeah, I'd go there instead of Disneyworld.

Superbowl XLIV - Colts 10, Saints 3 1:55 2nd

Mike Bell trips on 3rd and Goal.

Do they go for it on 4th down?


Alice in WonderlandOh we're SoOOOOOOOOOOOOoooo there. Gotta wonder if we can take Kaylee.

Dr. Pepper - Little Kiss - which one was Vern Troyer? Hilarious.

TruTV - Puxatawny Polamalu - OK that was funny. That gets a top 5 for me.

Superbowl XLIV - Colts 10, Saints 3 2:00 2nd

The Saints look like they've found their offense, getting more than a couple big third downs and into the red-zone for the first time of the day.

But on their first play inside the 25 they blow it with a stupid reverse. Doesn't matter Brees shoots a ROCKET to Marques Colston and is 9 of his last 10.

Whereas the first quarter was all Colts, the second has been all Saints.

Stupid Car Commercial - Man's Last Stand - uh...no. Just no.

Teleflora - Talking Flowers - Freaky. Hot chick though.

Papa Johns - Gotta love that car. Not a big fan of the Pizza though.

Superbowl XLIV - Colts 10, Saints 3 8:14 2nd

Addai was looking unstoppable until Jonathan Vilma came along. DAMN son. The Saints finally hold on 3rd down, is this a momentum shift? If so, this has the makings of a great game.

Reggie Bush getting the punt calls for fair catch.

Bud Light Lost Parody - Sorry Bud Light, you are the big stinkeroo so far this year.

Dove for Men - Disturbing, in a weird way.

The NFL Draft is going to be shown in prime time? Why?

Superbowl XLIV - Colts 10, Saints 3 9:27 2nd

Budweiser Bridge Out - Oh that's just silly. But I do love hearing the music from Stripes

Shutter Island - Why is it that when I hear a Boston accent I just start cringing?

Leno, Oprah & Dave - Uh...that's interesting. I thought Jay played for the other team?


OK biggest laugh so far of the day? Sheldon hacking into the Superbowl broadcast. How awesome is that?


Careerbuilder - Casual Day - is just creepy OK?

Apparently this is the no-pants commercial set my wife says.

Dockers Free Pants? I'm there.

Brett 2020 MVP ad - the best part was already aired.

Superbowl XLIV - Colts 10, Saints 3 9:34 2nd

The Saints came out in the first quarter very flat and looking like they spent their two weeks off at the beach just happy to be in the big dance. The first quarter is always a bit sketchy for the first time team, the Colts looked like they'd been there before.

Greer out for the Saints, CBS explains why that TD looked so easy.

Now the Saints look like they can move the ball, this is exactly what we all wanted to see, two teams moving the ball up and down the field. Makes the game go quicker that's for sure.

And on 3rd and 3 Dwight Freeney impacts the day already with his first sack.

Saints kick the 36 yarder, on the board.

Superbowl XLIV - Colts 10, Saints 15:00 2nd

Garcon was wide open on that touchdown, in double coverage. Saints have to do better than that.

Car Commercial - You'll notice that most of the time I don't differentiate between car companies, mostly because it doesn't really matter. The Shamu one was for Bridgestone tires, bet you wouldn't have remembered that.

Cars.com Timothy Richmond - the Tiger birth was really cute. I knew it was for Cars though, they've done those ads before.

Factoid - Biggest Comeback 10 points. Saints offense can do it, can their defense stop the Colts?

Superbowl XLIV - Colts 10, Saints :30 1st

Simpsons Coke Ad, very, very amusing. Best one they've done in years.

Go Daddy - Danica Patrick debuted in NASCAR yesterday. Yeah. And that's not soft-core is it?

Saints two possessions 9 plays - 32 yards.
Colts two possessions 21 plays - 154 yards, 10 points

Whoa...


Doritos Fan Ad #3 - Lame.

Bud Light #3 - Completely lame, though I'd love to talk like that.

Monster.com - Beavers fiddling. That's just odd.

Wolfman - Meh

Superbowl XLIV - Colts 10, Saints 0 0:36 1st

Robin Hood starrng Russell Crowe: Are you kidding me? BEFORE Sherwood Forest?

Doritos Fan Ad #2 - Funny, but not as good as the first one.

So far the Bud Light ads are falling flat to me.

Having never watched an episode of NCIS I can now only guess that the entire show is about slapping each other upside the head.

Addai's 16 yard run on 2nd down is going to be a rarity I think. Neither team is that good with the rush, as they said previously the Colts were dead last in the NFL in rushing yardage. When you have RoboQB, who needs a running game? Then again the Colts just hit 100 yards, and almost 1/3rd of them are now on the rush.

Addai goes for 26 yards on 3rd and 1...damn!

Oh it's not a polygon, it's the roman numerals XLIV. Still ugly.

Touchdown Manning to Pierre Garcon. Let's hope the Saints can come back quickly, otherwise it's going to get ugly really quickly.

Superbowl XLIV - Colts 3, Saints 0 5:12

Simms thinks that the fumble wouldn't have counted because the player was down. Debatable.

Reggie Bush makes a play on third down and a 16 yard reception. Bonus that he didn't cough up the football, though it looked like he easily could have.

Can I just say that the multi-colored polygon logo on about the 25 of each side of the field is damn obnoxious?

RoboQB on the bench looks upset.

Marques Colston was looking for six instead of the ball on 2nd down.

Brees can't complete on 3rd down again, just 1 - 3 so far, that is not going to make Coach happy.

Nice punt by the Saints pins the Colts on their own 4.

Superbowl XLIV - Colts 3, Saints 0 7:29

So that was the big anti-abortion advertisement with Tim Tebow and his mom. Honestly, it was fine. It wasn't in your face, and it wasn't obnoxious. Big deal.

The Snickers ad was funny though.

FUMBLE - aw, Saints recover.

More ads.

Boring car commercial.

On and here's the Superbowl Shuffle retrospective. Oh that's just terrible.

Doritos fan ads #1 - Ok that was funny.

Superbowl XLIV - Colts 3, Saints 0

Wow, it is loud in there with Saints fans, Manning looks like he's having a hard time giving audibles and making himself heard.

Manning is methodical especially in the no-huddle:

• Dallas Clark 18 yards on 1st down.
  
• Dallas Clark 7 yards on 3rd down.
  
• Austin Collie 14 yards on 3rd down.
  

The protection appears to be pretty good for Manning, but on 1st and 10 from the 42 he looked like he had happy feet. Next play he goes with the shotgun and a quick throw to Garcon.

Stover FG - first points of the game.

Superbowl XLIV - Saints 0, Colts 0 - 13:31 1st

Saints go 3 and out, one bad run, one broken play, one long pass. Good punt, great coverage, and it's Peyton's turn

Superbowl XLIV - Coin Toss

the Last Airbender trailer looks decent. If Night wants to continue to have people pay him to make movies, he had better have made a good movie. Of course the source material is pretty rich and compelling, but that's never stopped Hollyweird from screwing something good up before.

Love the updated McDonalds Basketball spot. Very cute.

As usual the HOF class is there to do the coin toss. Can't really complain about the selections this year, I think 7 is the maximum number of guys they can put in, and there were easily another 7 more that could have gone in this year.

Heads win, Saints will receive, let's get it on!

Superbowl XLIV - America & Nat'l Anthem

Never said Dana couldn't sing, and she looks good too. Not too sure about the mashup, seems a little too much like what they do on Glee, not that there's anything really wrong with that. Just a bit weird.

Carrie Underwood, the third American Idol alum in a row, is singing the Star Spangled Banner. Hate the outfit.


Don't you love it though when they shoot off fireworks on "rockets red glare" and "bombs bursting in air?"

Superbowl XLIV - Kickoff Festivities

Here we go, the Kickoff festivities are underway and the CBS broadcast is starting. As I recall, Simms played and was MVP in only one Superbowl (1986), he didn't play in the 1990 game as he was injured in week 14 that year and Jeff Hostetler came in to lead the G-men to their second Superbowl in five years. I've always respected Simms though and I thought he got a raw deal in 1990 losing his starting job to the undertalented Hostetler.

Can't really say anything negative about Jim Nantz, at least I don't have to hear Joe Buck announce a big game again. I get sick of his constant rooting for the Yankees during Baseball.

Saints take the field and they've already shown one vintage pic of Archie.

The Colts come in to the sounds of "Won't Get Fooled Again", this being their fourth appearance in the Superbowl. They LOST their first appearance famously to the Jets in Superbowl III, and won two years later against the Cowboys. Yes, that's right in Superbowl III they were the NFL (NFC) Champions, and after that they moved to the AFC. Course Baltimore is one of only two cities to have Superbowl champions from different teams. I think. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Superbowl XLIV - End of Pre-Game

Three of the four "experts" picked the Colts, with only Bill Cowher picking the Saints.

Get ready for the broadcast to begin, kick-off is just under 30 minutes away.

Superbowl XLIV - Drew Brees & Katie Couric

I am a Drew Brees fan, unabashedly. Anyone who isn't has no heart. This guy had a ton of natural talent, and I will NEVER forgive the Chargers for giving up on him so quickly. I think the story of Brees recovering parallelling the recovery of the City of New Orleans from Katrina is so very compelling.

The Saints may be the underdogs today, but they are clearly the team that everyone I've spoken to is rooting for.

Superbowl XLIV - Saints Coach Interview

More cliches from the rookie Head Coaches as we inch closer.

And the Colts are taking the field.

I suppose I should switch computers.

Superbowl XLIV - Peyton Manning Interview / Archie Manning Interview

For a guy who's such a freaking machine on the field Peyton is pretty darn personable. Little Peyton was just a cutie too.

Marino asking Manning about getting hit is just classic. He actually looked a bit taken aback.

Seems like Peyton was a bit p.o.ed about the choice to not go for the undefeated season. He's not saying as much, but with everything in sports you have to read between the cliches.

Archie's pretty happy, and why wouldn't he be? 'The weather's better than it was three years ago when I was with y'all'. Great accent.

Superbowl XLIV - Colts Coach Interview

So Dwight Freeney is playing, there's a shock. Jim Caldwell is being fairly cagey with the Colts plans as expected, and he's basically giving the standard pre-game BS. The team's excited, but we know we have a game to play.

Superbowl XLIV - Plaxico Burress Interview

I would love to start snarking off right now, but let's face it, there's nothing funny about what happened to Plaxico, nothing at all. Whether you hate guns or are a card-carrying member of the NRA, you have to admit that sports figures and guns are not a good mix at all, and guns in the locker room is just not a necessity.

OK the rampant commercialism of the Callaway sponsership is so extremely obnoxious already. Have they been doing this for three hours already? See, that's why I don't watch the full pre-game.

Oh and I'm not an IBMer. Not by a longshot.

Superbowl XLIV - Final Hour of Pre-Game

I have just turned on the CBS Pre-Game show for their final hour. The snarking shall commence shortly...

Superbowl XLIV - Indianpolis Colts (AFC) vs. New Orleans Saints (NFC) - Miami, FL - Preview

I've live-blogged the Superbowl in year's past several times, I suppose that I'll keep up tradition. Should you wish to peruse last year's "performance', simply click on the "Superbowl" tag off to the right there and you'll see a couple pages of posts I made during last year's game, which let's face it, will be pretty hard to top in terms of excitement and back and forth action. I've previously written a couple of other pieces on the big game, one is here back from 2001, in which I proclaim that the Ravens victory over the Giants was the worst game ever in the history of the big game. Not only did the game itself suck (34-7) but the National Anthem was done by the Backstreet Boys, and the half-time show had Aerosmith, Britney Spears & N'Sync. Can't think of too many other games that were more horrible.

At the moment it's just about 9 AM on the West Coast, meaning we have six and a half hours of pre-game to go. No, I'm not going to watch all of the festivities, I usually turn it on sometime after 2 pm, though I have been known to go whole hog in the past and watch the entire day, that was a long time ago, and I wasn't married with a child back then. Today I get to spend the hours leading up to kick off with "My Little Pony", "Care Bears" and "Tinkerbell" on the TV. You know, those shows might actually be more enjoyable to watch than the marathon pre-game over on CBS, or the insipid total access on ESPN. I don't know what's on over at the NFL Network, but I'm kind of intrigued, but I doubt I can pull my toddler away from the ponies at this juncture.

Preview

I suppose that I don't need to post statistics or expert commentary here, since it's all been done ad nauseum thus far. The betting line favors the Colts by 5 1/2 to win, from what I can tell listening to sports-talk radio and reading the nets, the Saints are the money bet. The over is 57 right now, which means that BOTH teams would have to score at least 4 TDs apiece to hit the over - as I heard earlier in the week, only 9 of the previous 43 games have hit the over, so that's a good bet too. I don't bother with propositions myself, though I would suppose that Reggie Bush will have a fumble and both QBs will throw a TD pass. Proposition bets are for suckers, and my momma didn't raise no sucka!

Truth be told, I don't usually bet a whole lot on the game myself, I know I have an addictive/compulsive personality, but combine with my inherent Jewishness means I HATE losing money. With a passion. I would rather go buy a pack of Baseball cards than bet on a game, at least with Baseball cards I have the chance of getting something good, and even though I'm out a couple bucks, I have the cards that I can trade or sell. I do bet over at

Centsports

which is a FREE sports betting site. They gift you with 10 cents to make your bets, and don't worry, if you lose all your money, they give you more. You NEVER have to pay a thing. You can't cash out until you make at least 20 bucks though, and their process for cashing out is a bit arcane (though I do notice they will allow you to donate your winnings to Haiti relief which is awesome).

I currently have $1.16 in my Centsports account - I've never had more than five bucks in there to be honest. I'm going to bet it all on a parlay of the Saints at +6 and the Under at 57.5. I stand to win a whopping $3.00 plus a 23% bonus if I win for viewing an ad. Should you wish to join Censtports, click the link above or here and you'll get a free account, plus every time you win I'll get a spiff. See what I did there?

Now SOME people only watch the big game for the commercials, me, I watch it for the GAME itself, because I love football. Honestly I think the Colts will pull out the victory, but it's going to be a lot closer than expected, and I'm really hoping for a great game.

See you in a little while.

Doctor Who Review - Story 77 - 4C "The Sontaran Experiment"

When we last left our intrepid time adventurers the Doctor and his companions Harry Sullivan and Sarah Jane mith had just saved the remains of the human race from the Wirrn, a race of six-foot tall space flies. Orbiting Earth in their space-ark on board the Space Station Nerva the humans need a trans-mat (think Star Trek teleporter) beam to get down to the surface, however something's wonky with the one on the station, so the Doctor and his buddies decide to beam down to Earth and fix it.

When they get there they notice that London in the far, far future is much less inhabited than they remember. In fact, it's grown over and looks a lot less like London and more like Dartmoor where the episode was filmed. They soon discover that they are not alone, and in fact there are other humans there who have been drawn to the dead planet by a distress call. The 'astronauts' are from one of Earth's many colonies, and when informed that there are a bunch of "super-humans" on board Nerva they aren't too impressed. They are, however, paranoid and turns out that they've been hunted by some monster since they arrived, and several members of the original crew have vanished.


Mister Potato Head? Oops sorry, it's just Styre the Sontaran

After all three explorers are separated by various stupid plot devices (Harry falls down a crevasse, Sarah Jane just falls in with one of the astronauts, they all discover that they're being manipulated by an advance Sontaran scout and his tin robot. Sontarans are a returning alien race in the Whoniverse, looking quite like potatoes with eyes, they're all clones of one-another and a most militaristic race indeed. They been at war with their solar-system neighbors the Rutan host for centuries, but are in this time period, search for other planets to invade. The scout, who is called Styre, has been sent by the Sontaran Empire to text the limits of the human race prior to a massive invasion. He freely experiments on the astronauts, starving, torturing and forcing them to perform ridiculous strength tests to discern whether or not they'll be a factor in their invasion.

This is a Sontaran

The single sontaran is no match for our intrepid gang, and all is set right. There is a singularly hilarious moment when the Doctor actually fights Styre in hand-to-hand combat, however apparently Tom Baker had broken his collarbone in an earlier stunt, and was replaced in the sequence by a stunt-man.

Thankfully this story was only two episodes, and while it showcases the BBC's ability to shoot an entire story on location (and conveniently not have to move the TARDIS prop) it's brevity is matched only by it's complete silliness. Sontarans alone, while in number are quite strong, are pretty weak, though still strong enough to capture several frail humans. In the revived series Sontarans would be redesigned to look a bit less silly and have been pumped up in strength, but still fall short of being a "classic" villain race like the Daleks or Cybermen.

Still they have a decent amount of collectibles, though most are based on their more recent appearances. The current Character Options line of 5 inch figures sports a number of different Sontarans, including named characters and generic army-builder "troopers". There's even a 4 pack with three Sontarans and a Donna Noble figure from last season's "The Sontaran Stratagem." Being a "classic" alien race they've been made into all sorts of odds and sods, including this 3 inch metal figurine that I found on eBay:



This review would not be complete if I omitted a couple of salient pieces of trivia (oxymoron much?). First, the TARDIS does not make an appearance in this episode at all. Secondly, the entire hour of story was filmed on location with no interiors at all. There are a few shots of the inside of Styre's space pod, but it's not a full set. Strangely the Sontarans don't have communication devices in their ships either, Styre uses a separate view screen to talk to his superiors, which becomes unintentionally funny when you realize that both Sontarans are being played by the same actor in the same costume. It's also a continuation of the long "arc" story that began with Robot our first review. The story ends with the Doctor, Sarah Jane and Ian beaming back to Space Station Nerva. Of course, their beam doesn't quite reach the station right away, and we're set up for an epic six-part episode that we'll be reviewing next.

This story is also too short to have much future impact on the Doctor or his mates. There's very little character development here, though there are a few funny moments with Sarah Jane and Harry, it's clear that the writers were kind of in a quandry because of the casting of Baker. Baker was much younger than they had expected, so they had created the character of Harry Sullivan to be the younger, more action oriented character. In fact, Sullivan is also a medical doctor so he serves many of the same functions as our main Doctor.

Our next story promises much, much more, just from it's title alone: next up - The Genesis of the Daleks

Happy New Year & Housekeeping

Happy New Year

Good morning folks, it's the Year of our Lord Two-Thousand and Ten. Or "twenty-ten" if you're so inclined. At first I was annoyed at people who were shortening the pronounciation of the year, but in the end I don't really mind so much. That said "Twenty-Eleven" sounds silly.

My wife and I spent our New Years at Disneyland, right in front of the castle in the Hub, watching the fireworks and lights. It was an amazing time that I'll not soon forget. We stayed up late, walked through the crowds and had a great time. We even rode Pirates and sat in the Tiki-Room! We indulged in our favorite park food and played in the silliness that is New Years. We weren't able to get a set of special 2010 Mickey Ears though, they were sold out early in the day. Did you know though that Disneyland and DCA publish special maps for New Years only? Got one, but by the end of the evening it was trashed, we'll keep it anyway though. Enterprising collectors may have snagged a bunch and put them on eBay already, not me.

Housekeeping

I have yet to send out my end of the team trading as I promised. That's not a shock. December was a roller-coaster month for us, one minute we were flat broke, the next we were doing OK. Regardless that's not an excuse, I'm just being very lazy. My "resolution" for 2010 is to be less so. I will get out my end in the next few days, if not a week. If my birthday rolls around (it's January 16) and I haven't shipped, then feel free to come out and flog me.

As my followers know, I'm moving away from being a sports-card blog and more into general collecting of stuff, which is what I do anyway. I've never focused on any one thing in collecting in all my years, and to start now would be an effort in futility. So if you're expecting keen commentary on the latest Topps Baseball set, you're probably going to need to look elsewhere. If, however, you're interested in reading my retro reviews of Doctor Who stories, or finding out about Disney Vinylmations, or whatever else comes to mind, then this is your place in 2010.

I don't promise to be more prolific in writing columns than I already am, were I being paid I could pump one of these out each day, but alas...

So here's to the new year, let it bring you everything you want and nothing you don't.