I’ve run out of things to read, and I could use some more books from the library. What’s been interesting?

Happy Draft Day, everyone. Feel free to post your comments on the draft as it happens here. Here’s a brief update on draft contest predictions from people I’ve talked to:

Aaron - Clay Matthews Jr., New England (23)
Natalie - Eben Britton, Minnesota (22)
Dan - Larry English, San Francisco (10)
The Goat - Michael Crabtree, Seattle (4)
Brendan - Aaron Curry, Seattle
Kevin - Mark Sanchez, Seattle
Jim - Mark Sanchez, Seattle
Me - Aaron Curry, Seattle

I hope I got everyone’s pick right. You still have about forty minutes to add and/or change or pick. Feel free to chime in.

Fuz sent me this video. It has NSFW concepts. But I’m kind of amazed it even got made. 

I guess Bill Hicks was right; ad agencies would just show us porn if they could.

So I imagine that it isn’t news to anyone on this site that Joss Wheedon’s new series, “Dollhouse,” premiered a couple of weeks ago. (If you haven’t seen it, Hulu has it for free here.) The verdict so far? I like it, but I’m still kind of getting used to the more dramatic tone that they’re going for here. I miss the funny, to be honest with you. It’s one of the things that has always made Wheedon’s series great. Still, I’m expecting some rather fascinating and involving plot lines as the season goes on.

Apropos of nothing in particular, I’ve rank every season of Wheedon’s output thus far. I imagine this could provoke some arguments from the faithful. Here goes…

13. Buffy, Season 7
12. Angel, Season 1
11. Angel, Season 2
10. Buffy, Season 1
9. Buffy, Season 6
8. Buffy, Season 4
7. Angel, Season 4
6. Angel, Season 5
5. Angel, Season 3
4. Buffy, Season 3
3. Firefly, Season 1
2. Buffy, Season 2
1. Buffy, Season 5

Damn, that’s a lot of TV. Any thoughts from anyone?

The registration for the Penny-Arcade Expo has gone up, and I’m in. Last year I had a great time, and I believe Ms. Kerry G is also in. I don’t know who else might want to come, but at least some of us are going to brave the madness.

I full admit — I have been a very negligent ABO.U member.  Judging from my most recent posts, I seem to only update when either I have cancer or a kid.  I intend for this to be just a regular ass post about my regular ass life.  And, for what its worth, I haven’t posted on my personal blog in ages.

So, you may or may not know, but I’m in the business of valuing real estate.  It isn’t noble or especially gratifying, but I can solemnly swear I never outrageously overvalued a property thus contributing to further inflating the bubble.  Girl scouts’ honor.  Anyhow, I have been an appraiser for many years now and I have my own firm.  It would be fair to say that the recent credit tightening and the nosedive in home values has pretty much wiped the floor with my firm’s ass.  In 2008, I basically made $0 from mid-July through November.  Do you have any idea what making no money for 4.5 months tastes like?

Like ramen and bad attitude, that’s what.

But in this business, you expect slow months, lean times, famines, etc.  It is just part of the game.  But around October, I recognized that this famine might be more prolonged than I was prepared to tolerate.  Long story short, I was offered a position doing high risk analytics at everyone’s favorite government sponsored enterprise.  I won’t say which one because, dudes, I needs this job.  But suffice it to say, it has been really fucking eye opening.  I was assigned California as my territory.  I am personally responsible for the loss mit of every single high risk asset in the state of California, arguably the worst housing market in the US.  I mean, sure, Detroit, MI is a shit hole place with a glut of shit hole houses for sale, but the losses there are meager.  What cost $18,000 a year ago is now only worth $8,000.  But in Cali, I lose the American tax payer between $3-5mil a day from my desk.  For seriously.

So, take heart, my little unemployed wings.  Be sure to pick up my latest book, “I Saved Myself From Personal Insolvency By Sticking It To The Tax Payer, And So Can You”.

Also, kids are adorable geniuses and husband is fly like disco lemonade.

Peace outs, cub scouts!

In the book, The Power of Now, the author says that one has two choices when confronted with a situation they do not like: accept it, or remove yourself from it. Anything else is madness.

My last day at this job will be Jan 30th. I don’t have a job yet, so things ought to be interesting. But I have chosen.

I’m watching Blade Runner right now, and just realized that I can’t watch the scene with James Hong (you know, he’s the “eye guy” that Rutger Hauer and the other replicant brace for information) without thinking of Kung-Fu Panda.

For those of you who haven’t seen Kung-Fu Panda 100 times, Mr. Hong is the voice of Po the Panda’s father.

God I am a dork.

I’m going to return to ABOS… I’m going to post, I’m going to comment, and all of the above will rock your lame asses.

I’m here in Northwestern Ohio for the week… Which of the following movies should I see/avoid?

-Ben Button
-Valkyrie
-Doubt
-The Reader
-Slumdog Millionaire

I decided to post my second annual marginally informed list of my favorite CDs from 2008. As per usual, there was a lot of quality music that I just didn’t get to. Plus my portable CD player crashed at work about two months ago, seriously curtailing my music listening. Insert comment about how Mark is behind the times on his music technology. (Hey, I didn’t even get a CD player for my stereo until ‘94.)

Per Aaron, I’m putting my list in alphabetical order. Per Kris, I’ll keep my comments brief.

Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours. The best New Order album of 2008.

Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes. If there was a soundtrack for 2008, this was it for me.

Fleet Foxes - Sun Giant EP. See above. Would make the cut for “Mykinos” alone.

Hercules and Love Affair - Hercules and Love Affair. Disco fabulous.

Los Campesinos! - Hold On There, Youngster. I loved the youthful energy on this album.

M83 - Saturdays = Youth. At first I thought this was a little too Spandau Ballet-like for my taste, but it grew on me.

No Age - Nouns. Strangely loud. It’s hard for me to describe my reaction to this album; I just liked it.

The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely. Seems like Jack White can do no wrong these days. Except for that James Bond theme song…

Santogold - Santogold. I have Kris to thank for recommending this to me. One of the most consistent albums from start to finish of the year.

Shearwater - Rook. Hey, sometimes pretty is good too.

Times New Viking - Rip It Off. Funny, but I feel like I missed the whole noise rock scene the first time around. Maybe I’m just a late bloomer.

TV on the Radio - Dear Science. Can’t really add much that everybody else hasn’t already said about this.

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend. “I wish I could hate Vampire Weekend’s music, but I can’t” became the most overused music cliche since “Interpol is ripping off Joy Division”. It’s sort of true, but still…

Vivian Girls - Vivian Girls. Post apocalyptic girl group? I dunno. More noise rock, and under half an hour to boot…

Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer. This seemed to be the forgotten album of the year. I actually thought it was pretty epic.

Honorable Mention:

Atlas Sound - Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See…
Dodos - Visiter
Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
Kasai Allstars - In the 7th Moon…
The Ruby Suns - Sea Lion
The Walkmen - You + Me

Like I said, if I didn’t mention something that you really liked, it’s probably because I just didn’t get around to listening to it in time. Get back to me in July.

Final topic of conversation: Portishead’s “Third” as Pitchfork’s #2 album of the year. What do we thing of this?

Happy New Year, everyone.