Well, I've had my new car for several weeks now, but it's finally time to bid a fond farewell to my Chevy Lumina. Dan's brother-in-law is going to buy the car, and he's probably going to come pick it up from my dad's house tomorrow or Saturday.

While it's been nice not having to worry about selling the car to someone I don't even know, I'm still a little sad to be getting rid of it.

This was my first car. Dan gave it to me – gave, as in $0 – the summer before my senior year of high school, a few months after he moved to Ohio. To be quite honest, I'm not really sure I deserved it. Especially not from Dan, considering that I was kind of a snot to him back then.

So... I really, truly, can't thank him enough for giving me a leg up by giving me this car. It's been rock solid for five and a half years, and while it's by no means a flashy vehicle, it's gotten me from point A to point B with virtually no problems.

Every kid should be so lucky to get such a good first car, from such a great guy. Thanks, Dan!

Stef and I are seeing Jerry Seinfeld at the Wharton Center tomorrow. I can't wait! Seinfeld is still one of those rare shows where I can watch the reruns over and over and over, and still find them funny. I can sit there and quote entire stretches of dialogue, and still bust a gut at the punchlines. It just doesn't get old.

Anyway, I was poking around for a snippet of one of Jerry's stand up routines from the show, and thought this one was pretty perfect for certain members of my family:

On my block, a lot of people walk their dogs and I always see them walking along with their little poop bags. This, to me, is the lowest activity in human life. Following a dog with a little pooper scooper. Waiting for him to go so you can walk down the street with it in your bag. If aliens are watching this through telescopes, they're going to think the dogs are the leaders of the planet. If you see two life forms, one of them is making a poop, the other one's carrying it for him, who would you assume is in charge?

I won't say who does this – their names rhyme with "Rad and Cherry" – but I have to agree with Jerry on this one.

Here's how things are shaping up for the rest of the week:

• Dinner with Stef at my dad's house tonight
• More American Idol afterwards
• Maybe more website work on Thursday night?
• Seinfeld @ Wharton on Friday not Saturday, as I originally thought
• Saturday is kind of a haze right now
• Maybe seeing "Harvey" at the Lansing Civic Players on Saturday?

That's it for now. I hope everyone is having a good week!

Tickets to "Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues" (aka "The Stefy Play") at the Fairchild Theater are on sale on the Wharton Center's website. If you're not familiar with the play, here's a brief description:

ASMSU and Women's Council presents Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues. The Vagina Monologues is an Obie Award-winning episodic play written by Eve Ensler which premiered Off-Broadway in 1996. The Vagina Monologues is made up of a varying number of monologues read by a varying number of women. Every monologue somehow relates to the vagina, be it through sex, love, rape, menstruation, mutilation, masturbation, birth, orgasm, the variety of names for the vagina, or simply as a physical aspect of the female body. A recurring theme throughout the piece is the vagina as a tool of female empowerment, and the ultimate embodiment of individuality.

Age Rating: This production is appropriate for children ages 16 and up.

The shows are on Thursday, February 15 and Friday, February 16 at 8PM. FYI: I'll be there at both shows, in case anyone else ends up getting tickets (we're going to be in the second row, in case those seats are open).

This is a debate I've been having with myself since the sixth season of 24 started last week.

Batman has always been my favorite super hero for one reason: he's just a regular guy. The dude kicks as much bad-guy ass as Superman (who's still my second-favorite super hero) or any of the X-Men, but he doesn't have any super powers. These other super heroes are basically indestructible (kryptonite doesn't count in my book), but Batman comes home with some cuts and bruises after a long day of fighting crime.

Well, the same can be said of Jack Bauer. In fact, one might argue that Jack Bauer is even more of a badass than Batman because (a) he's not a billionaire (b) he doesn't have a man-servant like Alfred to help him out all the time (although, I suppose Chloe kind of serves that purpose for Jack) and (c) he doesn't have access to all those cool Batman gadgets. All Jack really needs is a cell phone and a gun. And, after this week's episode, the occasional plastic bag.

Still, Batman has been kicking asses and taking names since the late 30s, so he does have an edge in the longevity department, I suppose.

So, what do you think? Who's the bigger badass?

Well, the Oscar nominations are out, and while some films/performances I enjoyed were already snubbed (Children of Men, Jack Nicholson and Leo in The Departed, Sacha Baron Cohen for Borat, etc.), here are the top five people and films that I hope don't win an Oscar this year:

1. Clint Eastwood, Letters from Iwo Jima: this old codger has already stolen two awards from Marty Scorsese. Shouldn't he be in a retirement home for crusty old bastards by now?
   
2. Bah-bel (as Arnold pronounced it) for Best Picture: yawn.
   
3. Paul Greengrass, United 93: I simply refuse to see this film. You can't convince me that this wasn't a blatant attempt to profit off the tragedy of 9/11. Plus, didn't A&E already make this movie?
   
4. Every film in the Best Documentary Feature category that isn't titled An Inconvenient Truth. Give Al the Oscar!
   
5. Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson: I didn't see it, but there's no way this dude deserves an Oscar for anything. Not after this.

I haven't done one of these in a while, but I've been on a Badly Drawn Boy kick lately. This is one of my favorite songs from the About a Boy soundtrack, but the video is very bizarre. Basically a robot from 2000 years in the future downloads the memories of the duck that gets killed in the film, and erases the "bad memory" and replaces it with a "happy ending." Or something like that. Anyway, it's worth checking out, if for no other reason than to listen to the song. Enjoy!

From CNN...

The nominees for best picture are "The Departed," "Babel," "Letters From Iwo Jima," "Little Miss Sunshine" and "The Queen."

The nominees for best actor are Forest Whitaker ("The Last King of Scotland"), Leonardo DiCaprio ("Blood Diamond"), Ryan Gosling ("Half Nelson"), Peter O'Toole ("Venus") and Will Smith ("The Pursuit of Happyness").

The nominees for best actress are Helen Mirren ("The Queen"), Judi Dench ("Notes on a Scandal"), Penelope Cruz ("Volver"), Meryl Streep ("The Devil Wears Prada") and Kate Winslet ("Little Children").

The nominees for best supporting actor are Eddie Murphy ("Dreamgirls"), Alan Arkin ("Little Miss Sunshine"), Jackie Earle Haley ("Little Children"), Djimon Hounsou ("Blood Diamond") and Mark Wahlberg ("The Departed").

The nominees for best supporting actress are Jennifer Hudson ("Dreamgirls"), Adriana Barraza ("Babel"), Cate Blanchett ("Notes on a Scandal"), Abigail Breslin ("Little Miss Sunshine") and Rinko Kikuchi ("Babel").

The nominees for best director are Martin Scorsese ("The Departed"), Clint Eastwood ("Letters From Iwo Jima"), Stephen Frears ("The Queen"), Paul Greengrass ("United 93") and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu ("Babel").

FWIW: I'm glad Dreamgirls didn't get a Best Picture nod. It was a decent movie with some memorable performances, but on the whole it was kind of blah. I still think The Departed was the best film of the year, but considering Marty's track record, it's probably a safe bet that he won't win (again).

Also, I'm glad Will Smith got nominated. Dude's come a looooong way since the Fresh Prince, and he was great in Pursuit of Happyness.

I got a belated Christmas gift card for the iTunes store from Stef's brother and sister-in-law yesterday.

See, this is why I love iTunes. I did some poking around for albums by some of my favorite musicians, read a few reviews, and was able to listen to them in a matter of minutes. Getting new music never gets old.

Anyway, here are the three CDs I downloaded:

• Have You Fed The Fish – Badly Drawn Boy
• Motherland – Natalie Merchant
• Recorded Live in Birmingham, AL, March 3, 2004 – Guster

So far I've only listened to the Badly Drawn Boy album, and it's really good. I'm looking forward to hearing the others on my Pod while I'm at work.

Thanks for the gift, Sean and Marina!

Pretty boring and low-key weekend...

• Went to Best Buy and picked out the new/old stereo on Friday
• Watched a bunch of Star Trek: TNG episodes that night
• Slept in on Saturday, pretty lazy morning/afternoon
• Cleaned the whole apartment – way overdue
• Went back to Best Buy to get my stereo installed
• Watched MSU destroy PSU after I got back; great game!
• More TV/movies that night
• Slept in again on Sunday; organized some crap in my office
• Made dinner for Stef and me after she got back from rehearsal
• We plowed through the second half of the 24 premiere after dinner...
• I can't believe Jack killed ______! Didn't see that coming!

I always loved Stef's long hair, but the new 'do is really cute.

Sparty is nation’s top mascot

Sparty, MSU’s beloved mascot, earned the title of the nation’s top collegiate mascot last weekend in Orlando, Fla. He won the honor at the Universal Cheer Association’s national competition at Walt Disney World.

MSU also was represented at the event by the MSU cheerleading and dance teams, along with other fans that came along for the fun. The competition was held at Disney’s MGM studios, where there was a sea of colors representing many universities.

Sparty is the only Big Ten mascot to claim the title. He won back-to-back national championships in 2004 and 2005. He placed third last year. He was in second place after judges reviewed videos that each mascot submitted.

Hey, the football team might suck, but our mascot is a badass.

Usually I'm really good about posting picture series. It's thank-you cards that I normally drag my heels with. Well, it was the other way around this year. My thank-you notes went out about a week after Christmas, and here it is a month later, and I'm just now getting around to posting the new picture series. Ah, well. There were a lot to edit, tag, and organize, so it took me a while to get them all sorted out. Anyway, here you go. Enjoy!

Back in April, I had this JVC after-market car stereo installed in my Lumina. At the time, I didn't think I would be buying a new car in less than a year, so it made sense to me (since my old CD player was basically dead). Well, after buying the Buick a couple weeks ago, I was already missing being able to listen to my iPod in my car. CDs are so 20th century, and so is the radio for that matter (sorry, dad).

After hemming hawing about what to do for about a week, I finally just went into Best Buy to talk with someone there about what I should do. This really nice kid went over the different options with me, and based on my somewhat-limited budget, he basically recommended that I buy the same JVC unit. It has an auxiliary port on the front of the CD player (on the right in the photo) that I can use to plug into my iPod. The sound quality isn't quite as good as if I paid the extra $50-80 to buy the iPod adapter (which would also charge my Pod, and let me control it through the unit), but it'll do for now.

So, since I basically bought the same stereo I already had from the same vendor, you'd think I spent as much, if not less on it. Well, since this Buick has such an oddball dashboard setup, the installation is much more complicated – they basically have to remove the entire dashboard face, which stretches from door-to-door. This meant installation wasn't free. Still, the kid at Best Buy shaved some dough off the price for me, so at the end of the day I only spent about $30 more than I did before. Not bad.

Now I have this cool stereo that can pump out the jams... in my Buick. Yep, I'm a badass. Hmmm... maybe I should've stocked up on some Perry Como CDs while I was at Best Buy.