They got a committee to get me off the block. 'Cause I say my rhymes loud and I say 'em nonstop.

And So It Begins

Another season of Rockets basketball is upon us and I can’t wait to see what happens. Spending last week reading the Free Darko posts on Dream got me all misty eyed thinking about the days of yore when it seemed like if you just believed enough the Rockets would be the only team left standing in the end. I want all those exhilarating, frustrating, drunken, happy moments back again and honestly the only team that can make it happen for me in that way is the Rockets. I’m cynic first with the Astros and Texans for whatever reasons, but I’ve always been believer first with the Rockets.

This Rockets team doesn’t have one of the best players of all-time on it, but it does have, well, ummm, it has spunk? This team isn’t the most talented, but you’re going to have to outwork it to beat it because it’s going to fight every night until 48 minutes are up. Hopefully some of that fight is on the defensive side of the floor because that appeared to be an afterthought last season. There are a lot of “hopefully’s” when it comes to these boys. None bigger than hopefully Yao Ming can stay healthy or at the very least be healthy come playoff time. Hopefully Kevin Martin can get back to being one of the league’s most efficient and dangerous scorers and hopefully his defense and comfort level has improved. Hopefully Aaron Brooks builds off last season and doesn’t let the lack of an extension bother him. Hopefully Kyle Lowry can stay healthy. Hopefully Courtney Lee gets back to being the player he was in Orlando. Hopefully I don’t lose my iPhone at a game this year. Hopefully the bench will be as strong as it looks like it could be. Hopefully the last two 4th quarters aren’t going to be a regular season trend. Hopefully this team can get into the playoffs and hopefully those championship feelings that only the Rockets have provided get stirred up in us once again. I’m not saying this Rockets team is destined to win a title, but, you know, hopefully.

Quick Hitters and Random Thoughts

--Daniel Faraday/Widmore/Jeremy Davies is going to Justified?! Out-standing!

Lost Halloween Costume Over!

--November 8th Conan begins and one of the guests it begins with on the first night is Jack White. I’m in. If you’ve never seen Jack White perform live then your life is seriously incomplete.

--Friday Night Lights is back for its final season this week. Should be interesting to see how things shake out in Dillon and East Dillon.


--Your obligatory and in-depth analysis of the Top 10 Candy Bars from WastedPotentialz.com. My personal number one is Payday which checks in at #10. So simple and so salty sweet. Always loved the underrated Whatchamacalit which comes in at #7. KitKat at #5 which is about right. I wouldn’t even put M&Ms or Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups on this list, but they check in at #4 and #3. Seriously, M&Ms?! And not even the peanut ones?! 30 Rock is the M&Ms of Thursday night’s lineup. There’s nothing necessarily terrible about it and it’s reliable, but it’ll never be the best on the block again. Number 2 is my personal #2 – Twix. Just about the perfect candy. Finishing in the top spot was Snickers which used to be my go-to Blizzard flavor before I started trying Heath with it. Heath Blizzards are unstoppable.
The biggest omission has to be Baby Ruth, just over 100 Grand.
Glad I didn’t see any of that Almond Joy or Mounds crap.

--Maria Sharapova and Sasha Vujacic finally got engaged like we've all been wishing for.


--What I meant to say last week was Cain Velasquez is going to D-O-M-I-N-A-T-E Brock Lesnar. Wow. Helluva performance. Cain stuffed or quickly worked his way back up off the mat, punched Brock in the face a few times and Brock started that dramatic pratfall that was more reminiscent of Chevy Chase’s Gerald Ford imitation than a UFC Heavyweight Champion. Cain vs. Junior Dos Santos ought to be fun.
Hard to be more underwhelming than Jake Shields was against Martin Kampmann. Has the person who will beat GSP next even been born yet?
There was no doubt what Fight of the Night was after Diego Sanchez and Paulo Thiago threw down, especially in that 2nd round. Very impressive win for Diego.
Tito Ortiz looked pretty good for the 1st round, but unfortunately for him he had rounds 2 and 3 to go against Matt Hamill and those belonged to Matt Hamill. But this version of Tito beats Chuck Liddell.

--The League crushed it again last week. Out of all the TacoTones Productions this year the wedding video has to be my favorite. Strong blast on Andre’s “Dr. Huxtable” wedding suit. “Hernando’s Song” might be the greatest title of anything ever. I’ve gone ahead put myself in charge of building a “Bathroom Cubby” for my wedding because I don’t think La Colombe d’Or has one…yet…
Only thing I didn’t care for was Pete vs. ex-wife’s new man, Ted. Instead of that storyline we could have had, oh I don’t know, Bro-Lo El Cuñado! Is he not related to Sofia?! Perfect time for a little Rafi.
Andre – “I think he means gay Tony Stark. Read your comics, bro.”
Oh and apparently The League did some contest to come up with your own “Notarize” line. The winner was: “Don’t blast in her eyes. Notarize!”


--I haven’t been able to find SPUNK or Thunder Muscle at a GNC here, but maybe in Peru they have it. Apparently two teams were playing soccer for the right to move up to a higher league. So if a team offers another team “energy drinks” you may want to watch them drink it first. That team didn’t and four players dropped like flies.

--Tim/Martin Freeman from the British’s The Office is going to play Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit. You’re telling me we can’t find small roles for David Brent and Gareth. At minimum they can be minstrels because you can’t find musical talent like this growing on trees. Bonus learn a new language video below:


--Our No-F’n-Way-This-Can’t-Really-Be-True Story of the Week comes to us from Silsbee, Texas. Two years ago Rakheem Bolton of Silsbee High was accused of rape by a woman who in the story is simply referred to as H.S. He pled guilty to a lesser assault charge, paid a fine, did community service and was on probation two years. So yeah, basically no punishment and certainly no suspension from his athletic endeavors. Rakheem was apparently a really good basketball player so I can’t imagine how awkward it was for H.S. to be on the sidelines cheering for the team, but she did. What she didn’t do is what got her kicked off the squad. After made free throws the cheerleaders scream the shooter’s first name. She refused to scream and celebrate the first name of the man who admitted to assaulting her and that got her booted from the squad. Really. H.S. was also reportedly told to basically become less visible at school because I guess she was cramping Rakheem’s style. She sued the school district and the justice system of course didn’t have her back.
I’m not saying I know for fact everything that went on in the night in question. What I am saying is it is beyond f’n ridiculous that a school bullies a girl because she refuses to personally cheer for the athlete who admitted to assaulting her. Stay classy Silsbee.
For all the story’s details and a petition to sign click the link.

--Pretty impressive that Josh Freeman already has five 4th quarter comeback victories for the Bucs in just 15 career starts. The Freeman-Mike Williams connection is going to be fun to watch for quite a long time especially if Raheem Morris continues to be this out of touch with reality, "We're the best team in the NFC. Yeah, I said it. We're excited."
Too bad it took a drug possession charge to get Tampa to cut that piece of crap Jerramy Stevens. Burn in hell, Jerramy. Burn. In. Hell.

--It’s only four games, but Ryan freakin’ Fitzpatrick has a 102 QB rating second only to Peyton Manning.

--I believe the phrase “going back to the well one too many times” was coined after Pamela Anderson made her 8th or 9th Playboy cover appearance much less her freakin’ 13th which will be the new year’s issue. Oh joy.

A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

--With the notable exception of its treatment of Party Down Starz has done some good things and a fictionalized retelling of Allen Pinkerton sounds like another good thing.

--I think going into the season the consensus fantasy RBs behind Chris Johnson and Adrian Peterson were MJD, Ray Rice and maybe Frank Gore. Those last three guys have combined for all of 5 rushing TDs. Rice and MJD are 15th and 16th in rushing yards per game

--Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome?! Caprica has been pretty meh, but this at least will be between the timeline of Caprica and Battlestar when the Galactica is first launched and the war is on. Interesting.
Apparently Caprica’s fate for another season will be decided within the next couple of weeks. I can’t imagine it getting picked up. Always a problem when you kill off the hottest chick in the pilot episode.

I approve this future way of dress.

--No one has more 20+ yard receptions than Brandon Lloyd (just like we all thought). Lloyd has 14 such catches, who has the second most? Not Roddy White (10). Not DeSean Jackson (8). We were looking for Antonio Gates (11).

--By now you’ve probably heard the story about ESPNU reporter Elizabeth Moreau getting pranked last week while staying at a hotel in Florida. It was one of those call up a random room, tell them the building is on fire and then get them to do whatever they ask which in this case including using the toilet lid to break open a window. Anyway, The Smoking Gun has the story including this awesome block of text:

Moreau told cops that the caller then advised “that’s what she gets for being a bad ex-wife and further explained she was bad at ‘sucking d***.’” At this point, Moreau realized she had been pranked.

At this point?! So once they said she was bad at “sucking d***” she immediately knew it was a prank?!? Outstanding.

--I don’t know which 4-2 division leader surprises me more: Seattle or Kansas City.

--Congratulations to the Saints on becoming the first defending Super Bowl champs to lose to two rookie QBs in the same season. Those would be Max Hall and Colt McCoy. Sam Bradford will get a shot too.

--Because you needed detailed analysis and a list of errors from the Back to the Future movies.
Personally, I find the detailed analysis of Doritos Late Night All Nighter Cheeseburger Chips much more interesting.

--RIP Sony Walkman.


Questions, comments or if you’re a “deep googler”…I'm talking "5-page googler"...