mr. blackandwhite

Down time

My Wife is out shopping with Daughter #1, Daughter #2 is sleeping and my Son is playing Pokemon video games.

I am going to take this opportunity to mix up a G&T, grab my iPod and my book, go sit on the porch swing and see if I can read a page or two..

Of course, now that I've said that, I expect all Hell to break loose any second..

Later I'll probably mow the lawn if it's not too late. First mow of the year..

Saturdays rule.

19 Songs

Ok so I got tagged by Courtney a few days ago to do this music thing, which is actually pretty cool because I got some CDs out of it and I get to give out some CDs too, so that is fun.

So here are the rules:
1. Choose 19 of the songs you like best, regardless of artist or genre.
2. Put them all together in a CD.
3. Make 5 other copies.
4. Post your playlist on your blarg.
5. Choose 5 people and send them a copy of your CD each. Send the first copy you made to the one who tagged you.

Neato. I'm in.

I tried to include several favorites from some local Massachusetts bands because I thought that would be extra cool.

Here are my songs:

1 Reach for the Sky - Social D (Mike Ness: born in Stoneham MA)
2 I Walk The Line - Johnny Cash
3 Live Fast - Mess With The Bull (Cambridge MA)
4 Gone Gamblin - The Supersuckers
5 Wake Up - Dave Smith and the Country Rebels (Northampton MA)
6 Death or Glory - Social D cover (I figure most people have the original version by The Clash)
7 Urethane - Fu Manchu
8 7 Months, 39 Days - Hank III
9 I'm Drunk Again - Assjack
10 Ramblin Fever - Haggard
11 World Ablaze - Killswitch Engage (Westfield MA)
12 Emperor Concerto No 5. in E-flat -- Adagio in poco mosso - L.V. Beethoven
13 Once Upon A Time in the Projects - Ice Cube
14 Just Like Heaven - Dinosaur Jr. cover (Amherst MA) (I like the cover better than the orig, and most people probably have the original by The Cure)
15 Carried Away - George Strait
16 Do It 4 You - Clutch Grabwell (Quincy MA)
17 Tell Me - Galaxie 500 (Boston MA)
18 Deadly Rhythm - Refused
19 Wonder - Gold Star Campaign (Worcester MA)

Now I get to tag some people:
B, Angela, Kristen, Jess, Iain

E-mail me and I will send you some CDs!

(my drop.io)

NHL Conference Finals: Who I'm rooting for..

Well the NHL's (that's hockey. ice hockey.) Conference Finals are starting tonight so I better get my 'who I'm rooting for' picks up here and let the appropriate cross-mojinations and jinxes start to work their magic.

West:
Wings / Stars - I'm going with The Stars. I don't really care for either team to be honest, but I like Mike Modano, so I'll root for The Stars. By the way, do you know what happens if you do an image search for Mike Modano in Google? Try it and find out. Heh heh. (Don't worry it's safe, unless you work for Puritans. Just don't search for 'mike modano wife'. That would be NSFW.)

East:
Flyers / Penguins - Well I think I've made it pretty plain over the last couple posts that I hate the Flyers, so obviously my pick is The Penguins. Not that I like (or dislike) The Penguins, I just hate the Flyers.

Ok there you go. Stanley Cup Conference Finals: ENGAGE!

(my drop.io)

Avs get swept by the Wings. Guess I'm rooting for the Pens now..

Well my #1A team, The Avs, got swept by The Wings in the Stanley Cup Conference Semis. And my other team out West, The Sharks, are down 3 games to 1 to The Dallas Northstars, er, I mean, Stars. Yeah, that's it.

It's not looking good at all in the West.

Unless there are some drastic changes and turn-arounds, it looks like I'll be rooting for a team from the East to win The Cup this year and I'll be damned if I'll root for either Philly or The Habs. That leaves The Pens. Go Pittsburgh. I guess. (I am not happy with this.)

The Patriots will have their first rookie mini-camp this weekend. I'm looking forward to hearing some tidbits about that. I am pleased with what the Pats did in the draft. The needed some young players to refresh their defense and thats what they tried to get. Will they all work out and become perennial pro-bowler super-stars? Only time will tell. (By the way, grading a team's draft is almost as stupid as spending weeks trying to guess which player a team is going to draft in the first place. Just my opinion..)

I also like that the Patriots picked a QB. Not that I am all that concerned about it, but the backup QB situation is kinda sketchy. It's important that when it's time for The Patriots to take a knee and run out the clock in the 4th Quarter, they have a guy who is fully capable of doing the job right.

Is it just me or is there kind of a negative vibe out there regarding 'The Man'? I'm talking about a guy that I would totally bear-hug in a non-homo fashion if I could, Tom Brady of course. Maybe it's just me but I've been feeling like there's been a lot of nit-picky and dumb barbs thrown his way lately. Step off bitches.

Tom Brady is THE MAN. THE END.

In other scintillating news, I need a hair cut, like wicked bad. I was going to get one Saturday but I have to attend a family thing instead. Saturday night I'll be amongst the crowd at The Lucky Dog in beautiful Worcester, MA to see The Goldstar Campaign. Come find me if you're there. And, finally, I've switched from celluloid to tortex guitar picks. So far, so good. Wow. Now that's exciting!

Don't forget about my drop.io. Happy Friday!

ONETWOTHREEFOUR

I'm loving drop.io. Drop some more on me here.

The other night I was practicing the geetar while watching the Celts / Hawks game in the background. The game ended with a C's loss after holding 10+ point leads throughout the game.

As the game was winding down, the last couple songs I happened to play were 'Shot Down in Flames' (AC/DC) and 'Death or Glory' (The Clash).

Appropriate.

Note:
I turned off the Social D track after I realized it was loading every time somebody opened the page, which can be annoying to the reader. (See, I care.) You can still hear it on my drop page.

Send me some shite at my drop.io

I just started fooling with this: drop.io.

I found it after listening to some of the recent episodes of The Daily Sourcecode and so far it seems super cool.

I made my own drop.io and you can go look at it right here .

I don't have much on there right now but I'll probably drop all kinds of junk in there over time. Feel free to send me your shit, junk, nonsense or anything that you think will make me laugh while I'm sitting here in hell, I mean.. at the office. It's a free-for-all, for now anyway, so go nuts.

{Mood: Ted Nugent - Free For All}

Stunning news: I know absolutely nothing about the NFL Draft..

Despite a seemingly non-stop and never ending barrage of draft news, mock drafts, draft pick contests and all things NFL draft, I can honestly tell you that I know absolutely nothing about a single player in the NFL draft, who the top prospects are or anything of the like.

If I were hard pressed, I think I could name two people in the NFL draft this year, some Michigan O-Lineman named Long that Miami already signed, and Matt Ryan from Boston College. That's it.

I know people go nuts about the NFL draft, and seem to get nuttier every year, but I have never been able to understand the NFL draft phenom and trying to guess which player is going to get picked by what team in which spot. Is anybody ever right about these things?

Anyway, I don't want to sound like I'm picking on anybody who's a draftnic, I just don't get into it that's all. I admit it's a little strange considering how much I enjoy football, but there you go.

Saturday afternoon I'll go to Patriots.com at some point, check to see who the Patriots picked, nod my head and say to myself, 'Hmmm I wonder who that guy is.. Well he must be pretty good. Go Pats. Ok back to the yard work..'

If I had to make a prediction about the Patriots and their 7th Round draft pick this Saturday, I'd say the chances are very high that they will draft a football player, one that plays offense or defense, or they will trade their 7th pick to get other picks, in order to draft some other football players who play either offense or defense.

This much I know for sure, Bill Belichick and Scott Pioli are very shrewd when it comes to the NFL draft and I have no doubt that they will make some moves that will improve the Patriots this coming weekend, and that's the only thing about the NFL draft that I need to know.

In Bill and Scott We Trust

Here's my, 'who I'm rooting for' for the Stanley Cup semi-finals.

Alright everybody, with the quarter finals wrapping up last night, I can list my 'who I'm rooting for' picks for the next round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs..

East:

Montreal vs Philly - I hate both teams so it's a no win situation. I hate Philly only slightly less than I hate Montreal. I find it impossible to make a pick here. I will just say that I hope it goes seven games so whoever wins is totally exhausted for the Conference Finals..

Pittsburgh vs NY Rangers - Although I don't hate the Rangers, and have actually rooted for them in the past back when Messier was there, I find I cannot bring myself to root for a New York team right now. So, Pittsburgh gets all the love from me, not only in the Semi's but I hope they win the East and go to the Cup Finals. You hear that Johnny?? I'm rooting for your team!!

(If Washington had won last night they would have been my 'who I'm rooting for' pick for the East. Oh well.)

West:

For some reason I always tend to like the Western hockey teams a lot more than the Eastern teams. It probably has to do with the various rivalries that the Bruins have with the other Eastern teams.. In any case..

Avs vs Wings - The Avs have been my 1A hockey team ever since Ray Bourque went there and they remain so today. The Avs have provided me with my most enjoyable hockey memories, watching Ray hoist the Cup and there's also the fact that my kids were conceived between the 2nd and 3rd period of Game 6 in 2001.. So yeah. Go AVS!

Sharks vs Stars - Gotta go with San Jose here. It's the whole Worcester Sharks connection. Plus Joe Thornton remains a big fave of mine.

There you go!

Damn. Just damn.

I'm going to tell you something, coming into this opening round Stanley Cup series with the Habs, I was just happy to see The Bruins in the playoffs again and I was not expecting much. I was mostly hoping the Bruins would at least avoid an embarrassing sweep at the hands of a team they had not been able to beat all year..

But then something happened along the way. The Bruins showed that they were not going to just celebrate their entry into the second season and call it a series. They came out and really fought hard against The Habs, a team that, frankly, was a superior team. The Bruins gave Montreal all they could handle and yesterday evening, prior to the game, I really did believe the Bruins were going to pull off a Game 7 win, so as you can imagine, I am mired in disappointment today.

I thought that The Bruins played hard during the game and had a ton of opportunities, but Montreal goalie, Carey Price, was just too big in the net last night. The Bruins had numerous power-play chances and just could not get the goal. I think The B's spent most of the opening of the 3rd period (what 10 min? That's what it felt like,) on a power-play and could not get it in. There was a point in the 3rd when the B's had a point-blank shot on Price and still could not score. That play really stands out in my mind and basically sums it up right there. Once the Habs went up by two, things looked bleak. When they went up by three, I felt there was still a chance if the B's could score quick in the 3rd but that chance ticked away like the minutes the Bruins spent on the power-play.

I am disappointed with the loss, and coming at the hands of Montreal once again certainly does not make it any easier.

I think I can honestly say that Montreal has leap-frogged (frog. heh.) The MFY to solidly take the #2 spot on my list of most hated teams. I still have no love for the MFY, but The Sox have exorcised their demons with that team, at least in my mind anyway.. The Bruins were almost there last night. Almost.

Despite the disappointment, I am proud of the Bruins for their accomplishments this year. They are a young team that will take this playoff experience and store it away. They are a team I am confident will continue to get better. I can only imagine what might have been this year, and during the playoffs especially, if Patrice Bergeron had not been, literally, knocked out of the season back in October.

We are left to wonder.

So now that the B's are out of it, I fall back to the annual ritual of picking backup teams and rooting for others to get knocked out of the playoffs. In that vein I will now say, GO CAPS!!!

I'll wait till the round two match-ups officially get squared away before listing my 'who I am rooting for' picks for the 2nd round..

C's win, Sox win. How about getting the Hat Trick tonight Bruins?

Well it's been a few weeks and there's been some dates added to the list, but it looks like Mike Ness is not going to grace the Boston area with his presence during his solo tour this Spring. Crazy as it may seem, I actually considered making a road trip to one of the NY or NJ shows. In fact, I am seriously considering the Saturday May 17th show in Asbury Park, NJ as I write this, but soon reality will sink in. Dammit.

Oh well maybe Mike will come back around later this year..

In the meantime, The C's won in dominating fashion last night in their first game of the NBA playoffs vs The Hawks, The Sox won today against the Rangers, getting the series sweep I might add, and the Bruins will play in the winner take all, Game 7 of the Stanley Cup quarter-finals tonight vs Montreal.

Let's make it 3 out of 3, a Hat Trick if you will, shall we Bruins? Yes, I think that would be nice, because I need to see more of Cam 'Mungo' Neely as lunatic fan, obviously too pumped up to be able to sit down during the game (I know that feeling) and jumping around like, ah, well, like one of us does whenever the Bruins score a goal. I should try and see if there is a youtube video of Neely's excited antics somewhere because it is truly awesome to behold.

A win tonight for The Bruins would be an almost complete reversal of the B's previous playoff appearance in '04, when the then #2 seeded Bruins blew a commanding 3-1 series lead to the 7th seeded Habs. A win tonight erases that collapse from my mind, something I would very much appreciate. Plus The Bruins have not won a playoff series yet this century. So they need to do that. Tonight.

I will now direct you to this wonderfully written prayer to the Hockey Gods on the Bruins behalf by Hockey Chick Courtney.

LETS GO BRUINS!!

Update:
Well I dug around a little for video of Neely losing his mind in the press box after the B's scored a goal and this is the best I could find. This is pretty funny too.