We're hitting the road at noon. Not a lot on the agenda for this weekend, other than spending some quality time with the fam. We might go see a movie or something tomorrow, but that's the only thing I'm aware of. Have a good one!

You know the dorky, "can you hear me now?" guy that Verizon uses in its ads? Well, Toyota must be going for a similar effect with their new ad campaign for the Tundra:



They had this video booth set up at the Auto Show where you could make your own ads, and my dad did one. This is bust-a-gut funny. Check out the video here. Enjoy!

Okay, this list is the exact opposite of the one I posted yesterday: my top five favorite bad guy/gal characters on 24.

1. Nina Myers: easily the biggest twist of the series at the end of Day 1
2. Sherry Palmer: 100% bitch to the bone; you loved to hate her
3. President Charles Logan: Nixon, Bush, and Cheney rolled into one
4. Habib Marwan: something about this dude was really freaky
5. Miles Papazian: an obnoxious little turd, but he was really good at it

Okay, so who am I forgetting?

This is pretty depressing...

Those are two haunting names for Michigan State football fans. When Nick Saban won the national title with LSU in 2004, MSU fans revisited the pain of losing him four years earlier -- for what turned out to be petty financial issues. And when Urban Meyer won it two days ago, they must have been wondering how he didn't get an interview when the MSU job was open in 2002.

I would warn fellow spartan fans to read the rest of Joe Rexrode's post in a safe place that doesn't have any sharp objects around. The thought that we could've kept Nick Saban and could've hired Urban Meyer instead of John L. Smith is pretty soul-crushing.

Even if Dantonio doesn't turn out to be a national championship-type coach, all I hope is that none of the candidates we didn't hire last year (English, Kelley, etc.) don't go on to win titles of their own somewhere down the line.

"Once in a Lifetime" (minus my cameo). Enjoy!

We're just three days away from the big premiere! There was this really cool mini-magazine pullout in this week's edition of EW that was all about the upcoming season of 24. While a lot of it was just re-capping stuff from the first five seasons, the short bios got me thinking about my favorite characters from the show. So, here are my top five favorite good-guy characters from 24 (excluding Jack, of course):

1. Tony Almeida: The second-biggest badass on the show; he was smooth
2. David Palmer: He's like Sam Jackson and JFK rolled into one
3. Chloe O'Brian: Quite simply, the coolest bitch on TV
4. Curtis Manning: He's like my old karate teacher, Mr. Williams
5. Bill Buchanan: Kind of a dick at first, but he's come around

Who are your favs?

"Shave off your body hair and put on your bike shorts, you just grabbed the yellow jersey in the Tour de Truth! This is The Colbert Report!"

Oh, it's on. Bill and Stephen will be appearing on each other's programs on January 18. This might be the only time in my entire life that I actually make a point of watching "The Factor."

Yep, I'm takin' my girl for a long ride down I-75 in my new Buick Century to the fabulous state of Ohio this weekend. We're visiting my parents. Yeah, you wish you were this cool.

This bit of news has me kicking myself:

Apple shares surged nearly $7, or more than 8 percent, to $92.44 on the announcement (of the iPhone).

I should just make it a rule to buy, like, a thousand dollars worth of Apple stock the day before a keynote, and sell it the next day. Of course, if I had a thousand dollars right now to risk on a stock move, that means I would have enough money to buy two iPhones. Hmm...

Photos from macrumorslive.com

OMG - OMG - OMG - OMG - OMG - OMG - OMG - OMG ! ! !

I think I peed my pants.

As cool as this thing is -- it does calls, music, movies, texts, email, internet, photos, widgets -- the big bummer is that it costs a whopping $500 for the smaller version, and it's only on Cingular! Boooooo!

If I hadn't just bought a new car, my ass would be canceling my T-Mobile contract in June and buying one of these bad boys.

(swoon, drool, wolf whistle, sigh)

The glorious sixth season of 24 starts this Sunday/Monday with a block of four episodes. This will be the first season I've watched as it airs since Day 3, so it's going to be hard for me to wait a whole week to see what happens in the next hour (instead of watching like ten in a row on DVD). Of course, now that I have Tivo, I suppose it's not out of the question that I might let a few pile up so I can watch them all back-to-back.

Anyway, I'm obviously really psyched about the return of my favorite show, so to celebrate, here are my top five favorite examples of Jack Bauer's badassness.

1. [Season 5] Jack shoots Henderson's wife in the leg
2. [Season 3] Jack's heart stops and is basically dead for several seconds
3. [Season 3] Jack kicks a heroin addiction in a matter of hours
4. [Season 2] Jack decides to fly the plane with the nuclear bomb himself
5. [Season 5] Jack chokes Miles after he destroyed the Logan recording

Are there some I'm forgetting? What are your favs?

I obviously quit caring about the football season a long time ago -- I think my apathy began somewhere between the day MSU lost to Notre Dame and the day John L. Smith was fired -- because I didn't even bother watching the BCS National Championship game last night. Since I really didn't have any emotional investment in the game, it just wasn't worth the effort to me. But, now that it's over, and Florida whomped all over Ohio State's ass, I think we've all learned two important lessons:

1. Nobody knows anything about how the BCS games will shake out.
2. Michigan really didn't deserve to play in that game. Florida did.

Yes, I realize I still have Santa Claus in the sidebar. He'll be coming down as soon as I get around to loading those pictures from Stef's camera. I don't want to be one of those people who leaves up their Christmas decorations until summer (*cough* dad and Sherry *cough*).

1. Paying sales tax on a used car: call me Grover Norquist today
2. Writing the wrong year on checks by accident: I'm stoopid
3. Winter weather (if you can call it that): WTF is up, Michigan?
4. Talk of a "surge" in Iraq: making a terrible idea even terribler
5. Wanting to buy a new ipod thing-a-ma-bob for my new car

Here's the weekend rundown:

• Worked a full day on Friday
• Was a nerd and watch a bunch of Star Trek episodes
• Spent Saturday morning straightening up my apartment
• Stef got back into town by noon so we could go to the party
• Made it to dad's by 3; one of the biggest turnouts they've had
• Stayed until about 6, then came back to my place
• Stef and I watched Breakfast at Tiffany's Saturday night
• I think we were both a little disappointed by the movie
• Pretty lazy Sunday morning, met up with dad by 1
• Drove to Lisa's together to pick up my new set of wheels
• Brought the car back to dad's and cleaned out the Lumina
• Watched MSU get spanked by Indiana afterwards

Okay, so here's the deal with the "new" car. My cousin Lisa's grandmother bought this Buick Century in 2002 and never drove the car outside of town, so this thing has just over 13,000 miles on it. When Lisa first told me about it I wasn't exactly jumping out of my seat to buy a Buick, but the more homework I did about this model and priced out alternatives, the more it seemed like a great deal.

The car is basically like a newer, slightly larger version of the Lumina I've been driving happily for five and half years. While the Lumina was never my "dream" car, it always got the job done, and I never really had any problems with it. If I had really hated my Lumina, or if it was always breaking down or something, I would've been less keen on buying this Buick, but the thing is basically rock solid. Which is why I couldn't pass up the chance to buy a vehicle that's essentially in brand-new condition for a used-car price.

Since I've been a good little worker bee and have been saving my pennies over the past year, I was able to pay for the car in cash, so I won't have to worry about car payments either, which will be nice. This definitely puts a dent in my savings account for the time being, but I have some irons in the fire that will help rebuild my savings within just a few months. That didn't make it any easier to write out a big fat check for thousands of dollars, but I definitely like not having to owe anyone anything.

So yeah, I bought a car, and a good one at that. I feel like a grown up now, or something. Anyway, I'm excited to have a new set of wheels (even if it makes me even more of an old man), so jump in my car...