………….of the decade. The holidays keep me busy and I don’t post often enough, but will be able to post on a regular basis soon. Anywho, Happy New Decade everybody!!

Like everybody else, I too can’t believe its the end of the decade already. I think about how much my life has changed and how much the world has changed in those 10 years. After the new year, I will write a post about how my life and how the world has changed, but this post I want to spew my opinion on what I feel is the best and worst of the decade and also ask for your suggestions as well. And by the best and worst, I mean in pop culture and what not. So without further ado, here are my picks for the best.

Song: “Hey Ya” by Outkast. I said it at the time, I felt this was one of the best songs of all time and I thought it would be a song to be remembered. I also thought it was one of my favorite songs of all time and I can still not get sick of it. Also, the Black Eyed Peas “I Gotta Feelin‘” is probably my favorite song of the year and certainly in my top 5 of the decade.

Album: “American Idiot” by Green Day. When this album came out, I had not been a big Green Day fan. In fact, when they first came out in the mid 90s, I hated them. Now the album might be my favorite of all time and it is filled with songs that I love, hell, I even use “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” as my ring tone.

Movie: United 93. This was a really tough choice, I really loved The Departed a lot. In fact, you can probably make it 1A if that is possible. But, United 93 really hit me and I was amazed at how they managed to pull off making it gripping to point of being on the edge of your seat in spite of the fact that you knew the ending. Oh, and if you are one of those 9/11 conspiracy theorists, than you need to get a fucking life.

Tv show: 24. Ok, I admit, I no longer watch the show. It has gotten downright unwatchable and so ridiculous and unbelievable because they have done EVERYTHING. But, the first 3-4 seasons were amazing and like nothing ever before on television. Personally, I think they should have ended it a long time ago, after all how much more could they do?

Worst movie: Bruno. Maybe I feel its the worst because I saw it so recently and I’ve managed to block out all the other awful movies I’ve seen in the past 10 years. But, the reality is that I tend to avoid bad movies and Sacha Baron Cohen’s previous movie, Borat, was not only the funniest movie of the decade, but to me it was the funniest movie I had ever seen.

Worst tv show: I don’t have a worst specific show, except to say that this spot can be filled with just about any “reality” show. Does anybody actually believe that any of these shows are actually real?

Worst Song: “Lips of an Angel” by Hinder. Oh I’m sure there are far worst songs to come out from just about any of those American Idol hacks but the reality is that I have done a good enough job of blocking out their music to the point where I can’t name a single one of their songs. And although Creed really sucks, I don’t know if some of their awful songs came out this past decade, although I’m sure they did. All I can say is that what made me hate this stupid Hinder song was that it was so cliched and awful and everybody but me seemed to love it.

I can’t honestly come up with a worst album because chances are if i didn’t like a couple of songs from the artist, I wouldn’t waste my time or money on the rest of the album.

So, let the debate begin. Hey, at least it ain’t politics.

I guess I’m a little late on a Christmas post. Christmas Eve I went out to breakfast with 19 friends for our annual Christmas Eve breakfast. We went to a great little place right near Joliet called Southern Belle. We went there last year too, the food is pretty good and the service is always outstanding. She made sure to put a pot of coffee at each table. Unfortunately though either she forgot to place the order or the cooks forgot to make the food for two of the people we were with until everybody else got their food. She was nice enough though to remove their drinks from the bill.

Christmas Eve night we went to my cousin’s house. As usual, my not so fat ass played Santa for the kids. My two year old niece was on Santa’s lap and I asked her what she wanted for Christmas. She said she wanted candy! Earlier we asked her what she wanted and she said pink toys and candy. I guess she has our sweet tooth because her mother’s side of the family is not big into sweets.

Normally whenever I get around a couple of my cousins, we talk politics. They are right wing nut jobs and I’m a flaming liberal. I was determined not to talk politics on Christmas Eve. I was talking to one of my other cousins who’s political views I don’t know and I decided to play it safe and talk about movies. I asked him what he thought were some of the top movies of the decade. He mentioned Gladiator and I mentioned United 93. Well, it turns out that he is even crazier than his damn brother! He is one of those 9/11 conspiracy nuts, insisting that United 93 never happened and that September 11th was an inside job by the U.S government. Next thing I know, I’m ass deep into a debate about the whole damn thing. And all because we started talking about movies! On Christmas day I was at my sister in law’s parents house when I again started a conversation about the best movies of the decade and it did not turn into some big political discussion. I swear, I don’t know what the fuck it is about my cousins. The funny part is that their parents are very nice and not confrontational when it comes to politics.

We got about 3 or 4 inches of snow yesterday and although I’m never one to be scared off by snow, I didn’t have any real reason to leave the house so I didn’t. I figured why clean off my car if I didn’t have to. I pretty much had a relaxing day/night at home. And after watching the Bulls game, I decided to watch a movie. I figured with it being the day after Christmas and with the snow and all, I thought a nice Christmas movie would hit the spot. So I watched the greatest Christmas movie ever: A Clockwork Orange. I had never seen it before but had heard so much about it that I had wanted to see it for years. I thought it was kinda fucked up, but also good as well.

Today though, I thought it would probably be a good idea to actually leave the house. So I went sledding with some friends and their kids. I had not been sledding it probably 15 years or so and I had almost forgotten everything about it. I certainly did not dress nearly warm enough, I had on a light jacket, jeans and sandals. Come to think of it, I had more on than just that, but it still wasn’t warm enough. Mental note…………..or at least, a Xanga note, be sure to dress warmer next time so that I can still feel my toes when I come home.

I don’t know if any of you are fans of David Letterman, but I’m a huge fan and watch every night. Last night, he had a very funny Top Ten List about Christmas carols. Enjoy and have a good holiday.

http://www.cbs.com/late_night/late_show/video/?pid=X6HpwNj00rQk3dbZP4KanF1t6Oqid9fk&play=true&vs=Default

Being a single guy without any kids I can’t write about problems with my significant other or kids; instead I write about things that are more trivial and not as important, such as sports, which I try not to write about often. Well, I’m a big fan of the Chicago Bulls and last night’s game has really stuck in my craw as they say. By the way, is that the saying, craw? Or is it crawl? I dunno, either way, I’m still pissed about the game. The Bulls, who in their own right, suck, were at home against an almost equally suck ass team, the Sacramento Kings, a team that they beat in Sacramento last month. So when the Bulls went up by 35 motherfucking points midway through the 3rd quarter, it was to be expected that they would win. I thought about turning the tv off and doing something else, my thought being that either that this game was over or that if they did somehow manage to blow it, I would not want to see it. Well, I continued to watch and all of a sudden, they started to suck. Really bad. Eventually, you guessed it, they lost the fucking game! While they were in the process of blowing it, I sent a text to one of my friends stating that if they lose this fucking game, they should fire coach Vinny Del Negro before he even gets back to the locker room. Its not just this game that would be reason enough to fire him; he is an awful coach. But, here are the things that have happened this month alone that warrant him being gone:

• December 5- The Bulls lose at home by 32 points to the Toronto Raptors. During the game, one of the Raptor’s players stops to tie his shoe while the 5 Bulls players watch do nothing.
• December 8- The Bulls lose at home to the worst team in the NBA, the New Jersey Nets. Coming into the game, the Nets had won one game the entire season. Since beating the Bulls, they have yet to win another game.
• December 9- The Bulls lose by 35 to the Atlanta Hawks.
• December 12- The Bulls lose by 26 at home to the Boston Celtics. Sure, Boston is a great team, but this is getting old.
• December 21- The Bulls blow a 35 point 3rd quarter lead at home.
• December 22- The Bulls lose to the Knicks. Although I had the game on when I was washing the dishes, I don’t pay much attention to it due to my being so pissed at them. 

I’ve decided that I want Metallica to do an album of tv theme songs. They can start with the theme from Blossom! Then, they can follow it up with the themes from Punky Brewster, The Golden Girls, Silver Spoons, Different Strokes, Three’s Company and 60 Minutes. Oh, I’m well aware that 60 Minutes doesn’t have a theme song, but this will give Metallica a chance to show off their writing skills by writing a theme song for the show. Plus, haven’t you always wanted Metallica to work with Andy Rooney and Mike Wallace? I’m gonna fire off an email to the boys in Metallica to get them on board with the idea. I’ll keep you posted. Just imagine how many people will buy this album?

A few years ago when blowhard Bill O’Reilly and all of the other conservative whack jobs had nothing to bitch about because their boy Bush was in office and the Republicans held both house of Congress, they decided that shit was boring and they had to make up something to get pissed off and all riled up about. So O’Reilly created this so called “war on Christmas” in which he finally noticed after a million fucking years that stores and people say Happy Holidays or Season’s Greetings instead of Merry Christmas. And so now there is this whole group of people who get offended if you wish them Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas.

One of the arguments that they always come up with is that it is wrong that the reason stores don’t say Merry Christmas anymore is because they don’t want to offend people who don’t celebrate Christmas. And then they go on to say that the rest of society shouldn’t have to cater to people who don’t celebrate Christmas and that those people should just sit down and shut up. Well, maybe I missed the whole outrage over companies wishing people Merry Christmas, but to the best of my knowledge, there was no big outcry when places did wish people a Merry Christmas. Than again, for a long as I could remember, stores and companies have always wished people Happy Holidays or Seasons Greetings. Hell, I even remember growing up, my mom used to put Christmas stickers on the window with Santa and snowmen and all that Christmas shit. And with these stickers, which were from about the 1960s (and that is not an exaggeration at all) was a sticker that said Season’s Greetings. So, the whole thing goes back at least 40 years.

My question though, is why is it such a big deal? Seriously. I think its because these fuckers like O’Reilly can’t stand the fact that some people are different. Not everybody celebrates Christmas. And that is ok, nothing wrong with that. Hell, could you imagine the outrage he would have if stores and companies wished him a Happy Hanukkah, or a Happy Kwanza or dear I say it, Ramadan. I mean he would flip the fuck out so bad that not only would the head on his shoulder explode, but so would his cockhead. Why can’t they accept for a certain percentage of the population, wishing somebody a Merry Christmas doesn’t make a damn bit of sense. Besides, Christmas is still everywhere, I mean some radio stations go to an all Christmas format during the holidays, tv shows have Christmas episodes, networks run Christmas movies sometimes non stop and damn near every business has Christmas decorations up.

But, as I have learned about this group of people its that they despise anything different or out of the norm or non, straight, white, male. Its no small coincidence that these are the same group of people who protest against gays, who are against amnesty for illegal immigrants, and who are against improving schools in the predominately black inner city. And yes, it is certainly quite a stretch to tie in the Merry Christmas fighters of the world with the racists and homophobes, but the underlining thoughts are exactly the same. They are against people who are different from them and because they are different, instead of trying to find a way to work along side them or to just accept them as they are, they try to force their beliefs onto them. And that is not only wrong, but it is also just about goes against the mere beliefs of America.

I saw a Metallica cover band last night called Blackened. They sounded very good, although the lead singer probably could have been better. Than again, its not exactly easy to sound like Metallica lead singer James Hetfield. I know that most of the people who read my Xanga probably don’t listen to Metallica, but I’m still going to post about the band anyway.

I’ve always liked heavy metal, although not as much as my friends. I didn’t hear my first Metallica song until the song “One” from the album “……And Justice For All” came out in 1988, so truth be told, I was late to the whole Metallica game. And a lot of long time Metallica fans feel that Justice was the last good Metallica album and that they have since sold out, however I disagree. I always loved their next album, which was self titled but is often referred to as The Black Album. My favorite Metallica song of all time, “Wherever I May Roam” is from that album, although it is my favorite due to my friends always listening to it on our road trips. We were trying to come up with Metallica’s best song last night and we all agreed that it is “One” which not only is their best song, but might very well rank up there with Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” as the greatest metal song of all time.

What I always find funny about music is the rivalry between fans. Of course it all goes back to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, probably the two best bands of all time, in that order. Many Beatles fans dislike the Stones, however most Stones fans do like the Beatles. I have a theory that its because the Beatles fans feel threatened that somebody might actually think the Stones are better. The same situation exists with fans of Nirvana and Pearl Jam. And also with Metallica and Megadeth fans. Every genre of music has rivals and they don’t seem to understand that both bands are great and it is indeed possible to be fans of both artists.

Getting back to last night though. While standing in the middle of the crowd of mostly overly testosteroned men, I was reminded of the rage and anger that seems to be in nearly all of them. I also thought about how they would react if they found out that a gay man stood amongst them. Probably not well I would imagine. The ironic part though, is that I’m nearly positive that Metallica’s amazing guitarist, Kirk Hammett is probably indeed gay, although not out for obvious reasons. I’ve seen enough of him in several interviews, however most notably in the Metallica documentary “Some Kind Of Monster” to know that he is gay, even though I’m notorious for having awful gaydar. I wonder how those enraged fans would react to his being gay. I suspect though that they would react the same way a racist reacts to a black athlete; it would be ok because he happens to be in their favorite band, however as soon as he is out of the band than they all of a sudden magically have a problem with him.

I realized that in the 5 years I’ve been on Xanga, I’ve never updated my profile. I remember when I first signed up, I said that I would go back and update my profile. Well, I can now say that I’ve never not updated my profile. Of course, I had to steal my profile from Jeremy/Brett/Upandoutward/ or whatever he will call himself in his next post!

Sorry, I hope you take that as a joke.

Nevertheless, feel free to check out the new profile. Be sure to study it, there might be a quiz on it next week!!

Just kidding about the quiz, after all who the hell wants to do a quiz over Christmas?

Well after a rather interesting and somewhat of a roller coaster season, I have made the playoffs in one of my fantasy football leagues. In all my years of playing fantasy sports, I don’t think I’ve ever had a week in which I tied the team I was playing, yet this year in this league I somehow managed to have two ties. And another week I went to bed after the Monday night game losing by a point, I woke up with a one point win. With 3 weeks left, I had the best record in the league, yet after one tie and two straight loses, I somehow managed to find myself in a position where if I had lost my last game and another team won, I would not only not have the best record in the league, but I would also be out of the playoffs. As it stands, I won my last game rather convincingly, won my division and go into the four team playoffs as the number two seed. I wonder what will happen if I tie in the playoffs?

You know what I find annoying? The yes hello. What is the yes hello you ask? Well, its just what it sounds like it is and I’m quite certain you have all seen it or maybe you are even a yes hello-er yourself. It is when you say hello to somebody and instead of saying hi back, they respond by smiling and shaking their head yes. Honestly, what the hell is that? You shake your head yes? I mean, I understand the smile, that part makes sense, but the shaking of the head? Are you trying to imply “Why yes, I will have sex with you!” Or maybe its something along the lines of “Yes, yes, I know you are there, now just go about your day and don’t bother me with your yip yap!” Are these yes hello-ers so lazy that they can’t bother to open their mouths and utter a quick, one syllable word? That can’t possibly be it, after all, it takes more work to shake your head than it does to say hi. Maybe these are people who are antisocial or who are introverts and the yes hello gives them an excuse to not be extroverted. I don’t know, but maybe they don’t realize how awkward the whole thing looks. And in some cases, its more than just awkward, its actually borderline creepy.

As you may or may not know, I’m nothing if not an avid reader. The last book I read I finished in October, or at least I think it was in October, either way, I’ve been bookless since then. Well not bookless, but without a book to read. That was until now. I started reading a book that a friend lent to me tonight, it’s called Don’t Know Much About History. Judging by the title, I’m thinkin you could probably figure out what it is about. If you guessed that it is about math, well than you really need to go back and read this paragraph again. If you still think its about math, well than you are a fucking moron and probably should just stop reading now and go read Sarah Palin’s book, as her ramblings are probably right up your ally.

So anywho, the book is about American history. I know some people find history boring. This book claims to be a book that makes history interesting and fun to read, and while I have enjoyed the first 10 pages (out of nearly 700), I still don’t see how this could hold the interest of somebody who hates history or even dislikes it a lot. But, luckily I’m reading it so you don’t have to and I will just catch you up on the main points every now and then as I progress along in the book. The book starts with the discovering of America. Let me sum it up for you so far.

• Christopher Columbus didn’t actually discover America. Turns out the cast of Lost was living there before he got there.
• Columbus grew so bored on his journey over here that he got his nipple pierced and it got infected and he had to have the nipple amputated. All the other dudes on the ships made fun of him. They called him “One Nip”. He became so despondent and depressed that he became addicted to internet porn.
• Contrary to popular belief, America was not named after Barack America. Instead it was named after Ugly Betty star America Ferrera.

See, just look at how much was info was stuffed into 10 pages. And I cut out all the crappy tasting vegetables to give you only the greasy fat like you wanted. So every now and then, perhaps once a week, depending on how quickly I read, I will give you more and more history lessons.