I went to bed way too late last night, so I'm getting up later than I hoped, so let me cut to the chase everybody.

It's Week 17, the last NFL regular season week. The Patriots and the Giants had their last game last night, and the Pats won, and they went 16 - 0. Most every division has a winner and most every Wild Card spot has been taken. The few that remains are the 3rd, 4th, and 6th seeds in the AFC and the last and final 6th seed in the NFC. Today, is when it all gets decided.

he Chargers need a win over the Raiders to get into the 3rd seed, but if they lose, they drop to the 4th seed in the AFC if the Steelers beat the Ravens. This is important [to them, I add this because I don't think it means anything] because that means they don't have to play the Patriots until [if] they both make it to the Conference Championship game... after they knock off the Colts. I think this is a really stupid way to look at it - you have to go into the Playoffs feeling you can beat everyone, you can't hope that some other team will knock them off, because then guess what, now you're going to play the team that knocked off the Patriots. They know things more than you do, and you don't want to play them. The Titans and the Browns are playing for the 6th in the AFC, whoever wins is in, but the Browns are on the bad side of the deal, the Titans are playing the Colts, a team that is known to rest its players in the last week because they are always going to the Playoffs. So the only thing the Browns can do is wait, wait and hope the Titans choke Sunday night - which won't be a first, 'course.

click here to continue reading about the NFC....

ArcLight rocks.

Remember how yesterday I said that I'd be a hypocrite cos I'd be going to ArcLight Hollywood with Jo after saying that it sucks, and how I'd probably like it? Well... I ended up liking it. But I still stand at my original statement that they should split up the theaters, half the screens reserved and the other half for late-comers. You see, I've been planning to see There Will Be Blood for more than a year - I even bought Upton Sinclair's Oil! to read up before watching - which I never got around to though, haha. So in this case, reserved seating is an excellent idea; Blood's a film I was planning to see and it's a film I want to have good seats during. It proved to be great. Easy parking, easy entry, didn't have to deal with employees, cheap food, luxurious seats, ushers, huge stadium, great black singers after the movie - great experience.

Jo got stuck sitting next to a fat guy who kept sitting on his drink and the people next to me decided not to show, it was great. So there's another benefit, reserved seating gives you the ability to see how many people bought tickets and if you'll be sitting next to anyone. There were probably 200+ people, and for a Saturday afternoon flick, that is great. Blood's making a crap load of money by the way, $124,000 in its first two days when showing at only two theatres - about 10 screenings a day. If you calculate that out, it's making almost $30,000 at each theatre... even Spider-Man 3, which holds the Opening Weekend record, only got $12,000 average per theatre in its opening weekend. Sure, because Blood is showing at only two theaters that number goes up, but that's a lot of damn money! Only shows how dedicated us PTA fans are!

ArcLight wasn't holding that, once the film starts we won't let you in, thing because a couple people came in after the film started. And what if you had to go to the bathroom or get more popcorn? They wouldn't let you back in? Some people left and came back... although I don't why they would - I would never leave during a film, even if you could pause it. The seats would keep me sitting as well. They were so nice. It felt as if there was more hip room... but no iPhones in the cup-holders. That fat guy next to Jo had an iPhone... so did someone else in the row in front of us - it was a sophisticated crowd, they ate their popcorn with forks. But the seats were kind of difficult to find - at first. The seats have numbers on 'em, but the letter for each row are on the step. It took us a bit to realize that, K19 and K20 were our seats, I was K20 in theatre 10 I think. Some nice people in row N helped us though, we said thanks to them twice. We never bought tickets either - I printed out this thing from the website that let us skip all the lines and go straight to the "ticket-taker"; but in the time it took us to figure out what a "ticket-taker" was, we could've received the tickets from a machine. And the "ticket-taker" hardly looked at the print-out, I felt like such a VIP. Their food was cheap... but they didn't have pretzels. What theatre doesn't have pretzels?! That's the fifth straight movie I've seen without eating a pretzel. I hate it.

click here to continue reading about Blood....

We didn't want to go anywhere tonight. Why? The Lakers are playing! Who leaves when the Lakers are playing? So instead, we went last night. I'm being rather vague, so let me continue. The plan was to go see Juno. That new film about the girl from Hard Candy (Matt's disgusting for recommending that to me, haha) who gets pregnant and looks for parents to adopt her baby. That wasn't the original plan, to go see Juno, but it became the final one. We wanted to go to the new ArcLight Cinemas in Sherman Oaks - when I say we, I mean I - at the Galleria to check out the new theatre. I'm not the biggest fan of the Galleria to begin with, but it's always fun to check out new places and complain about 'em, so that was the plan. They closed down the Pacific Theatres there a few months ago (ArcLight is a sister company of Pacific), so we became accustomed to going to the AMC in Woodland Hills instead. So the plan: Juno at ArcLight Sherman Oaks. Let me preface by saying we've never been to an ArcLight - this is the second one, the first one is in Hollywood, and we've never been there, nor did we know anything about it.

In the past, I've usually bought movie tickets online the morning of the movie and then just picked 'em up at the theatre. Or rather, that's what I always liked to do. I stopped because what normally happened was we all changed our minds at the last second - some would say I'm the one who changed our minds at the last second, haha - and go somewhere entirely different. It's happened many times in the past - but I guess if you think about it, if I did go ahead and buy the tickets online, we wouldn't have changed our minds to being with. Ah well. Anyway, the plan was to pick up Imadul and then pick up Carie (less vague now?) and head over to the Galleria for Juno, and Starbucks, all the while cracking Juno "you know" jokes. But then I showed up with a SoBe Nirvana (which was in the movie by the way! The best drink ever!) and we skipped Starbucks and went up to buy the tickets.

So, we take the escalator, and the first thing that changed was the place you had to buy your tickets. There was this big purple thing covering where you'd normally buy the tickets and it said to go upstairs to buy 'em. That's lame. So we went up upstairs, it was damn crowded.  Why? Because the ticket buying place was indoors. You enter from the left, and there's a stupid little store there, and the tickets are bought on the right. You have to climb over all these people to get to the ticket area, horrible arrangements. And the doors to exit and enter are exactly the same. How unorganized is that! Inside, it looks all fancy shmancy. Fake statue people, huge clock, crazy display. Tried to be totally state of the art, ArcLight did. So we say screw the lines and we go to the machines - only saps pay in lines. We go to the machine, waste some time - they say I'm the ultimate time-waster - and we check out what other movies there are even though we all know we're going to see Juno. We finally settle on the 8 o'clock showing of Juno, notice that infant prices cost more than children prices, proceed with three adult tickets, and click next. Then the unspeakable happens.

click here to read what happened that was unspeakable...!

Was Santa flying fast last night or what! The trees are still shaking! Yes, Santa came, but he didn't give me what I wanted. We got A Christmas Story on TBS going all night and ending today at 8 PM, and we have Miracle on 34th Street on Fox Movie Channel, both '47 and '94 versions going all day until 3 AM; we had It's a Wonderful Life in HD in prime time a week or so ago and we had all those Charlie Brown specials, but what about A Christmas Carol? TCM had it going last year, but this year no one has it on! I'm pretty bummed about that. I really enjoy that movie. Well I guess we can all look forward to a Family Feud marathon on GSN, I love that show (except for when the original host Richard Dawson's is there - he's the guy that kisses every person on the show, he scares the crap out of me). But I think that's all there is to look forward to on TV this Christmas... oh right, there's also that NBA DOUBLEHEADER ON ABC! This year, the Lakers aren't playing the Heat, I guess we've all become tired of the Shaq/Kobe drama; now we're hooked on the Suns/Lakers drama.

Starting at 2 PM in Los Angeles, Kobe and the Lakers will take on Nash and the Suns and try to beat 'em for a second time this season, after we whooped them 119 - 98 on their floor in our second game of the season. If you're a nutcase, you probably might not know the recent rivalry we've had with the Suns - Pacific Division rivals, always taking the No. 1 spot and getting the No. 2 seed in the Playoffs to beat us two straight years in Round 1: we hate their guts. Two years ago, Round 1 had to go to seven games, but we ended up losing, although it was extremely enjoyable; last year we only one won game and it was pretty much boring except when we destroyed them at home in Game 3. We play them four times this year and the last time we met, after we whooped them 119 - 98 (did I mention that already? Oh well), Mr. Mike "I can't spell my last name" D'Antoni starting arguing with our Phil "almost all my fingers have a ring" Jackson when we took a timeout after a TV timeout in the fourth, just to waste time even though we were ahead by too many for the Suns to recover. Mike waved three fingers in the air, alluding to the next three games we have, Phil just laughed it off and told him to sit the F down. Well, the next of the three games is in a few hours, you going to deliver, Mike, or are you going to let us get one game behind you? I hope we're wearing yellow because when we're in yellow and their in orange... oh it brings back so many memories of when we continually whoop them on our home floor. But if ABC does one of their annoying little pulley camera techniques where the court looks like it's sideways, I'm... going to continue watching. Oh I hate watching Basketball on ABC/ESPN. I hate it. We haven't won a Christmas game in five years, but don't let that get in the way, it's going to be a great game. And guess what, our favorite Laker, the other Kobe, Coby Karl will be suited tonight as Kwame and Luke are listed as inactive. For the Suns, Bell might not play as well, which will decrease some drama, because we all know what he did two years ago in the Playoffs.

Also, last night, during Monday Night Football, Mike Tirico took time off during halftime to talk to Kobe and LeBron about their games today. The Cavs host the Heat in the game before ours, which is on now, and is the first of three games today. The other game after ours is Seattle at Portland on ESPN. That last game backfired on them, didn't it - Oden is out and the Sonics suck, haha. Anyway, the interviews pretty short, a little over three minutes, but Mike asks Kobe and LeBron to comment on each other's game and Christmas and such. It's a fun little clip. Download the video here.

Before I go, I just want to comment on the Saints. We lost. Crucial game. And the worst part? The Vikings lost Sunday Night. That's bad because if we would've won, then we'd be in the Playoffs so long as we beat the Bears this coming weekend. Now the Redskins have the 6th spot and we drop to 8th. I was pretty bummed for most of the day on Sunday, but I'm kind of over it now. In order to get into the Playoffs now, we need both the Redskins and Vikings to lose this weekend, while also winning at Chicago. If you remember, we lost to Chicago in the Championship Game last season, mostly because of the weather, and it's supposed to be snowy/rainy this weekend. The Redskins play the Cowboys, but because the Packers lost to the Bears, the Cowboys don't need to put any effort into the game at all, and they'll probably take the two week rest cos of all the injuries; the Vikings play the Broncos, the team who let LT get 100 yards and a touchdown in the first half last night - but Adrian Peterson has sucked major these last three weeks, so who knows how he'll do for the Vikings. So the odds are not in our favor, but it's still possible. Giants won against the Bills, so they're in no matter what. We lost a lot of guys in the game on Sunday: Colston, Branch, McKenzie, to name a few. Bush didn't play, but that only means he has one more week to recover if they want to play him this weekend. So that's where it stands. And I'll leave you with that. Abrupt ending, right? haha. I'm going to go get ready for the game, take care everyone. see u.

It's only a few days before the biggest holiday of the year - am I the only one that feels that these winter holidays are getting less and less celebrated as the years go by? Maybe that's because we're getting older year after year. Who knows.

All I know and care about today is that it's a Sunday in December, which means it's football's best day and most exciting month. (And I mean it, I got family coming over today and I'm not talking to a one of them until 1 in the afternoon, haha.) It's Week 16, which means it's the second to last week of the regular season - there are some teams who are guaranteed a playoff spot, and some who don't know what they'll be doing in January. It's a fun time. The Pats are going to take on the Dolphins, which in and of itself promises to be something great, until the game of course. Bill Parcells is now part of the Dolphins and every Dolphin is basically playing for a job now that Parcells is there, and the Pats are looking to stay lossless, against a division rival that was the last team to beat them last year. Sounds like fun - probably won't be though, haha. Then you got the Giants, they lost Shockey last week, but let's agree that he hasn't been much help to Eli in the past weeks anyhow - probably a great leader though - who are taking on the Bills in Buffalo for a playoff spot. They need to win just 1 game and they're in the Playoffs. If they don't manage a win today, they'll have to beat the Patriots next week... so it's a must-win for them today, haha. The Bills on the other hand are definitely out of the Playoffs, the only thing they're playing for is to stay above .500 and to make Kevin Everett proud - he'll be in the stadium today. And to make even stranger, the guy who caused the scare for Everett is now on the Giants team and is there today. Another game to watch is the Packers and Bears, playing in Chicago. The Bears are out as of last week from their loss to the Giants, and know one knows why they're still playing, but the Packers are very much in it. Currently, they are No. 2 in the NFC, behind the Cowboys who won last night in Carolina. If the Packers lose today, the Cowboys will be at home all through the Playoffs and can easily lose next week's game on purpose just to get some rest, some needed rest as TO went out last night. But if they do rest everyone in the final game of the season, the Redskins will have a better chance of beating them, and we don't want that do we? Of course not, because they are 8th in the NFC, just behind the Saints. Which leads me into the two last games to watch today.

Tonight's Sunday Night matchup is going to be awesome. It's going to be the Redskins at Vikings. If the Redskins lose, they are definitely out of the Playoffs, giving the Vikings a better chance to snab the last Wild Card spot. If the Redskins win though, the Saints will grab the last Wild Card spot (how awesome is that), dropping the Vikings down to the 8th spot and pushing the Redskins up to the 7th spot (because the Saints hold a better conference record). So the Redskins need a win. And those calculations are based on New Orleans beating Philadelphia today. Which brings me to the last very important game of the day, Eagles at Saints. The last time these two played, it was in New Orleans in the second round of the Playoffs last year. The Saints beat 'em by 3, in a very entertaining game, but hurting for Reggie I'm sure. The score was 24 - 27. It was the second time they played against each other last year. The first time the played, it was Week 6, and the score was also 24 - 27 there as well - both times it was in New Orleans. In the Week 6 game, then-Saint Joe Horn had over 100 yards receiving and in the Playoff game, McAllister had over 100 yards (closer to 140 yards) rushing. We know both players aren't here anymore - well Deuce is, but he won't play. The big news of the game? Reggie Bush might be returning. What does that mean? A few more fumbles? Let's hope not. Let's hope it'll be 150 total yards for the day. After all, the Saints will only play him if they know for sure that he's better, and he definitely, definitely wants come back. Who knows, maybe these two weeks off have allowed him to grow as a player a bit. We know he wasn't much a factor in the Eagles games of last year. Another key thing to look at? The Eagles' offensive line. It's the same Eagles team that allowed the Giants to get 12 sacks in Week 4, tied for the highest sacks in a game. McNabb has had 37 sacks this year, the third most in the league. We got a few guys who can sack ourselves. You know, guys like Charles Grant, Hollis Thomas, Will Smith (who can also force fumbles well), and Scott Fujita who can get in there for a few sacks of his own. All we have to do is keep Brian Westbrook from having another monster game like he did last week against the Cowboys, and the Saints will be that much closer to getting into the Playoffs!

So a recap. We need the Giants to lose in Buffalo, we need the Packers to win in Chicago, we need the Redskins to win in Minnesota, and we need the Saints to win in New Orleans. The only thing Imadul cares about though is the Giants losing, but that's something good to care about. But you know, football isn't the only thing going down today; in a few minutes, the Lakers take on the Knicks in New York, Bynum's close to home with 39 tickets for his family, and Kobe's 20 points away from 20,000 career points - Ima, Carie, and I were there for his 19,000th point if I remember correctly. The last game of their four-game road trip. They'll come back to LA for the Christmas game against the Suns. And because Fox lied about the Saints being on TV in LA again, I'll have the Laker game on while reading about the Saints, and after it's over, check if the Packers are blowing out the Bears so Fox will flip it to the Saints game. Today is going to be a good day. I'll leave now. Take care everyone, stay safe. see u.

Before I talk about the new photo album, I want to go ahead and wish all the Muslims reading an Eid Mubarak! Moonsighting.com lists Eid-ul-Adha as being today, tomorrow, or Friday (in the Valley here in Los Angeles, our masjids are having prayer on Friday), so whatever the day may be that you're praying it, Eid Mubarak. This comes post-Hanukkah and pre-Christmas, and I guess then it's pre-Kwanzaa as well. So happy holidays! (I did a quick search, and there are way too many religions! It's unbelievable!)

So that graphic to the left looks pretty tight, right? Hell yah it does. That's Chad in the foreground - Kevin in the background in the shade. We all used to make skate videos all the time, but I kind of got out of it. Well, I hope it's no secret that I still love that skate world and have been wanting to get back into it in some way, so that Photography class I was in (it's over now) had an assignment entitled "Action Hero" in which we had to take action shots. The first thing in my head was "skating". Then the second thing in my head was Chad and Kevin. The next day in another class, I got a text from Kevin, a very vague one, "Yo". I found it extremely ironic that just the night before I was thinking about him and Chad and how I wanted to shoot them (with a camera!) and here's Kevin trying to set up a date to hang out. To my delight they agreed on a photo shoot and the date was settled, October 7 (a long time ago, I know!). As soon as I showed up to Kevin's house, the assignment was the furthest thing from my mind - the only real thing in my mind was that we were gonna get some awesome, awesome photographs that day. We started at around four in the afternoon, and because winter was just around the corner, the sun went down pretty early, so four o'clock on had beautiful sunlight. I shot Kevin for a bit and then when Chad showed up we gunned it to a park to shoot on a two-stair. We ended a few hours later and I knew I got some awesome shots. In total, I took 568 photographs - a high amount because my camera was set to continuous drive to get continuous air time. When I sat down to pick which ones I'd put on the site, I came up with 100 - and I didn't even mean to! They look great, I think. One shot looks like it belongs on the cover over Thrasher even. One thing to note about this collection compared to the other ones is that I worked on these entirely out of Adobe Lightroom. In the past, I limited my Lightroom usage to simply organizing, but I've come to edit in Lightroom as well, and let me tell you - it's awesome. These photos look beautiful, and the organization (although you probably won't be able to tell) is also beautiful. Anyway, enough talking about the photos, click here to look at 'em! I hope you enjoy 'em; I sure did.

click here to continue reading about a little sports....

It's Sunday! There are a bunch of important games going down today. There's the Falcons/Bucs game at 10, the Lions/Chargers game at 1, the Redskins/Giants game at 5, the Bears/Vikings game at 5:30 (tomorrow), and of course, the Cardinals/Saints game at 10. Ah the Cardinals and the Saints. You'd think they would've played more games against each other, wouldn't you - I mean come on, both teams are pretty holy. Probably the only teams in the NFL that should play more - maybe the Redskins and the Chiefs also have that. But these teams have hardly played each other, it'll be the first time since all the new guys came to the Saints. I like the Cardinals, I have to admit. I don't like Kurt Warner all that much - you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out I like Matt Leinart. But he's out. Will he be there? Nope. It'd be cool though, watching Leinart and Bush chat it up pre-game on the side lines. Both are out! But at least Bush isn't on Injured Reserve, so he'll be in the Dome. It's a must win game.

A lot of NFC games are must-wins today. I mean, starting with that Buc game, they haven't even won their division yet, the Giants, a Wild Card team, has a better record than them. Then you got the Lions game. On the NFC side, the Lions (6 - 7) promised a 10 win season, and although that promise has deflated, a 9 win and a Playoff berth is still possible; on the AFC side, the Chargers (8 - 5) hold the AFC West division, so they're playing to keep it. Redskins/Giants will be pretty intense, Redskins (6 - 7) are coming off that quick win last Thursday against the Bears, a few days after the team attended Sean Taylor's death - they are also on the edge of the Wild Card. The Giants (9 - 4) on the other hand have the Wild Card spot in the palm of their hands, and need one more win to guarantee a Playoff berth. Then there's the Monday Night game between the Bears (5 - 8) and Vikings (7 - 6) - the Bears are out of the race, but the Vikings are very much in it. They hold the last spot of the Wild Card spots and are looking to keep it that way. Then finally, there's the Cardinals/Saints. Both teams are second in their division, both teams need a win, both teams are in the race, both teams are out a Trojan, and both teams are damn spiritual.

The Cardinals are sitting at 6 - 7 and have the Saints today in New Orleans, then the Falcons at home, and finally the Rams at home. The Saints have the Cardinals today in New Orleans, then the Eagles at home again next week, and finally the Bears in Week 17. Of the four NFC teams at 6 - 7 (the Lions, Redskins, Cardinals, and Saints), the Saints have the best chance of making it to the Playoffs. Why? Because I love 'em, that's why. No seriously though, it's because they have the best record in their conference, the Saints leading the way at 5 - 4. That four-way tie is being led by the Saints, and if they all win their last three games (which is impossible by the way), the Saints would still hold the top spot. The only thing standing in their way is the Vikings. At 7 - 6, they obviously have the best chance of winning that last Wild Card spot (unless the Giants just choke, lose their last three, and open it up to another team to grab it). But, if the Vikings lose just one, the Saints suddenly grab that spot because the Saints have a better conference record than the Vikings. In fact, New Orleans is the only team that needs the Vikings to lose just one game. All the other teams need the Vikings to lose at least two to still stay in it. So what I'm trying to say is, the Saints have the best chance of the four guys in the race to play in January.

Will they do it? They have to win their final three of the season. Will they? Well, it all depends on today's game first. They're at home, against the Cardinals, who have some huge turnover problems, but who also have a great offense when there are no turnovers. So what's the answer? Cause them turnovers of course. The Saints defense has to play and get the same results as they did on Monday in Atlanta, hold 'em to as many three and outs as possible (which is going to be hard with those great receivers!), while causing a few other turnovers along the way. The Saints offense on the other hand has to cause zero turnovers. They have to throw the ball like they do, and maybe trick the Cardinals' D that they're going to run Stecker a few times (and maybe get Pierre into it too, eh?!) - I'm sure they'll be looking out for that guy. With Bush out, they'll have a better opportunity to run it conventionally... and maybe will hold on to the ball. But Colston and Henderson are still out there, they've been known to drop a few balls here and there. So who's going to win? The Saints of course. The Saints are going to win, the Falcons are going to win (I want them to so badly! They lost their coach and need to win), the Chargers are going to win, the Redskins are going to win (I'm not threatened by them - that's going to be a great, fun game), and the Bears are going to win. It's a big NFL weekend everyone, and I'm not including that huge Jets/Patriots game today - that'll probably take the cake in ratings. So turn on the TV and get ready for a big Sunday! But wait, Fox lied and are not going to show the Saints game in LA! I'm pissed. We're getting the Packers/Rams game instead. Ah well, I'll just have to read it like always. The Lakers play tonight too, against the Clippers, LA floor. LA vs LA. That's gonna be a doozy! So keep your TVs on guys! All of you are home for the holidays, so make it a family event. Oh, and the car's coming along great. I'm going to go eat some breakfast and get ready. Take care everyone. see u.

So we won the game - Reggie and Deuce were out, Stecker got 100 yards rushing, Drew threw for over 300 (almost 250 in the first half; they started running it half way through the third because the game was practically over by then), Patten had over 120 yards receiving in 9 catches, Colston had almost 100 in 9 catches, defense got three sacks, including one by Will Smith (not that Will Smith), and Brees fought his way out of one. A very productive game. Except, I would rather have Brees gone for 450 yards passing again, that would've been great. In fact, we beat 'em so hard that we made the Falcons' coach quit! Even after the owner sat in the booth with Mike, Tony, and Jaws talking about the future of the coach and the team! We beat 'em hard man, hard. In the fourth quarter, our kicker Mare was injured while trying to help tackle Atlanta's Norwood during a kickoff return - while I never really liked Mare, we got him this year from the Dolphins (replacing Carney), he played extraordinarily well Monday night. He's out though and the Saints signed last year's Cowboys kicker Martin Gramatica, who's good for a few 50 yarders. Let's hope Mare gets better. And about Reggie's injury, because the Saints won in Atlanta, we are still in the race for the Playoffs. By getting the win, six teams remain in the Wild Card race, the top two get it, and because of the win, we are in third place. At 6 - 7, we are technically tied with Washington, Detroit, and Arizona, but because we have the best conference record (surprisingly, haha), we are at the top of that list. The Giants and the Vikings are the leaders of the race holding the first two Wild Card spots, the Giants are 9 - 4 and the Vikings are 7 - 6. At 6 - 7, we are only one game behind the Vikings, who are playing a Monday Night game in Minnesota versus their division rival Bears, who out of the Playoff picture. All we need is to win the rest of our three games (Cardinals, Eagles, and Bears, the first two are at home, the last two shouldn't be too difficult because they are already out of the race) and for the Vikings to lose just one of their next three (Bears, Redskins, Broncos, with their first two at home as well) and we're in the Playoffs at the number six spot, probably playing the Seahawks in the first round, who we beat earlier this year in Seattle. Oh, and don't forget, the Bucs still haven't won the division yet; they will though if they win just one more game because even though we are only two games behind them, they have a much better record in both the division and the conference - so if they lose the rest of their three, we'll win the division! So that's what it looks like. Los Angeles is scheduled to air the Cardinals/Saints game this Sunday at 10 AM (yay!), as well as the Eagles/Saints game next weekend at 10 (yayer!), so I'm damn excited about that!

But enough about football, the reason I wanted to write today is to discuss what happened after the game on Monday night. So as you all probably know are are experiencing, it's finals week - a damn hectic week. Well, in one of my classes, Photography, our final is a week after all my other classes, so this week was still filled with assignments in such, one assignment that I've been kind of putting off because I was busy. Thawley, our professor, titled it "Yellow", and gave us no direction. So did that mean we were supposed to shoot all yellow stuff? Ah hell, I don't know. I just ignored the title and took whatever, haha. One of my shots was a shot I took a few months ago for fun that I wanted to try again and make perfect and turn it in. It was on Topanga Canyon, in the hills, at that turn where it looks over the Valley to the north. It's a great spot. I was taking it looking south though, of the mountain and the cars that pass in front of it. They were only two minute exposure. I say only because the shot I took after that was much longer. I've done it before, though very unsuccessfully, where I put the camera up to the sky and shoot the moving stars - this time I tried it with a foreground. So I set up the shot, keep the shutter open, press the shutter button, and sit in my car because it was way too cold to stand outside for ten minutes. (It's been damn cold lately!) I turn on the radio - no signal - so I turn on Mos Def and listen to "Climb", and about a minute into it, the headlights of a car didn't drive by like it usually would have, it just stopped behind me and lit my whole car. I've experienced this before, usually it was some people wanting to look at the view of the Valley, but this time the lights stayed on for much longer. I had a feeling I knew who it was.

click here to continue reading to find out who it was....

Where the hell have you buggers been? Studying for finals or something? Alas, so have I, kind of. I've been more caught up with this new DVD holder I got from TekNmotion, it holds 400 DVDs! But, the bad news is, I don't like it that much - it's too weak to allow me to flip through it easily, but I'll survive.

But that isn't the bad news I was referring to. I was originally gonna write this post a few days ago to talk about that new Netflix thing that came up, where they have to redesign their envelopes because the USPS is getting mad at them for making an envelope so difficult to ship (it took 'em this long to bring this up? Those USPS people have to grow some backbones and maybe shoulda took a gun to Netflix a few years ago!). Or I was going to talk about that IMAX story about how they're teaming up with AMC Theatres to bring us all new 3D screens (one of the theatres are our very own Promenade 16!), and I was going to go on a small rant about how I don't like all this 3D crap and how movies will be just one big CGI fiasco (not that I hate CGI or anything, but there should be a limit, right?). I just didn't want to have sports story after sports story to make this site seem like it's a sports site, I mean, the title is "modena"dude, and I hardly ever have car stories, haha. Hell, I went to the Auto Show and refuse to put up the photos. I'm pathetic.

No, the actual bad news I want to talk about is with tomorrow's Monday Night game. Initially, when EPSN started to promote the game between the Saints and Falcons, they used the same little story about the dude that got his seafood from some guy in a truck and made all the people at his football part go sick that they had during the Titans Monday Night game when Deuce got hurt (that was a long sentence! and this is only adding to it!). They had the voiceover "Drew Brees, Reggie Bush, and the Saints go into Atlanta to take on the Falcons, Monday Night", or something like that, but after the Thursday/Friday news, now they only say "Drew Brees and the Saints..." excluding Bush's name; it made me sad. In case you haven't heard, Reggie Bush is a game-time decision tomorrow night because he partially tore his PCL - the posterior cruciate ligament. Now, if you're like me, all this "CL" business scares the crap out of you. Sometimes it's bad, sometimes it isn't so bad. We know last year, McNabb went out for the the season because of his ACL. For the Saints, it's their second CL injury this year, Deuce tore one of his CLs in the Titans game (his ACL) and now Bush has his PCL hurt. ESPN loves to cover these stories, wanting to bank on all this drama. Those guys tried to scare everyone by saying that Bush would be out for the rest of the season. But lately, those reports by Chris Mortensen and John Clayton really suck, they get so off. Like in the Eli Manning report that he'd be out for many more weeks, I don't even think he was out for a single damn game, and now look where the Giants are. So because I didn't believe them, I was still positive. Then Sean Payton came out and flat out rejected those insane statements by saying that the PCL tear is not as severe as the other tears that can occur, and that Bush still might play. The MRI they took showed that this isn't new, Bush has been playing with the partially torn PCL for a game or two already, and no one really even worried about it. They only started to get concerned about it after Thursday's practice when Reggie felt sore.

click here to continue reading about the NFC Wild Card race....

11 weeks ago, they were 0 - 1. They lost their first game to the Colts, but no one got mad at them for that, they lost to the Colts! Then they went into Florida to take on their division rivals, the Bucs. They lost that game as well, badly. They went on to lose their next two games, a Monday Night game against the Titans and then against the Panthers, both at home, dropping them to 0 - 4. They didn't end up winning a game until week 5 in Seattle against the Seahawks, a Sunday Night game; a game where Reggie had 100 rushing yards at one point, a feat he had reached only once in his NFL career before - he was making up for Deuce being out, due to his injury in the Tennessee game. The Saints went on to win three more games, going 4 - 0 to finish off the first half of their season - they were looking great. The second half promised to be victorious for the Saints, but they lost their first two games of the second half, against two opponents they should have easily destroyed. Only six games remained, three against divisional foes, and three against NFC foes - they took apart the Panthers last week, and look to destroy the Bucs this week. The Bucs are at the top of the NFC South, but are without the QB that beat them back in Week 2, Garcia. The Bucs somehow won last week against the Redskins, but this week, they might not be so lucky. Their starting QB, Gradkowski, doesn't seem to click well with their top receiver, Galloway, who had 4 catches for 135 yards in week 2 against the Saints when being thrown to by Garcia. No, even though the Bucs are number one and are two games ahead of the Saints, the Saints need the win more and they will get the win. From here on out, the Saints need every win to ensure a Wild Card spot, and they will deliver. And just in case they don't (in no way am I saying this will happen, I'm just putting it out there), if the Saints end up losing this game, it will be bad because then they'll be pretty much neck-and-neck with the Vikings, Lions, Cardinals, Panthers, Redskins, and Eagles fighting for that last Wild Card spot, assuming the Giants get the first one. So, it's pretty much one of the final must-wins of the season, so let's hope they win. Meanwhile in the NFC South, the Panthers welcome the 49ers, and the Falcons visit St. Louis to take on the Rams. The Panthers will win their game and the Falcons will lose their game making the NFC South look like this: Bucs will fall to 7 - 5, Saints will rise to 6 - 6, Panthers will also rise to 5 - 7, and the Falcons will fall to 3 - 9, and will start preparing for their Monday Night game at home against our Saints next week. This game is sure to be big, big and spectacular. And because it's in New Orleans, it promises to be very loud as well. But a lot of us won't be able to watch it, as the Giants/Bears game will probably be broadcast over more of the country. I will be reading it though, as always.

The second big game tonight is here at home, in Los Angeles. The Lakers lost to the Jazz two nights ago (that I fell asleep during... a few times), but look to beat the Magic like they did the Nuggets at home the day before. The game's on FSN tonight and starts at 6:30, starting with the pregame show at 6 - I hope you'll all be watching; keep your eyes open for Imadul and me as we're going to rush the court in the middle of the game when we go tonight. He's convinced me to bring my camera, so we could, as he put it, "stick it to the man". Who the hell says that? But if I don't take that many photos, don't worry, he will. He'll even take some photos of my newly painted bumpers on my beautiful Civic. Other than that, the other photos you want to look out for are the Howard jersey being masking taped up (in green) saying that he and the Magic suck. We'll be holding it up during free throws and yelling like crazy throughout the rest of the game. Perhaps we'll even bring a whistle like they did yesterday to the UCLA/USC game - that was hilarious, maybe even more hilarious than how badly the Bruins lost. That was pathetic. Stupid UCLA. Anyway, catch the game tonight on TV, because we won't be able to watch it - on TV. Lucky you.

Before I go, I want to wish you all a Happy December! That means it's... holiday movie time! I love those movies. ABC Family has a lot of movies going on - and oddly, HDNet Movies has a marathon of Hitchcock films playing, and all of 'em are (obviously) in HD! Not sure how that's related, but I sure ain't complainin'. haha. But because it's December, I'd like to talk about this site's November stats via Site Meter. We hit another record: last month was the second highest visit total ever, the first being January 2007 - I have no idea why that is - with 367 people coming last month. It narrowly beat out October 2007 which had 360 people (January had 419 visits). The pages per visit also rose this month, which averaged out to almost 4 pages per, with over 1300 total page visits, compared to 1000 last month. It ranks third though in page visits, first going to September 2007 with 2247 and second going to June 2007 with 2016 (both had to do with the Disneyland photos). So all in all, it was a good month. Decembers though have always been low months, everyone goes on vacation (and it's usually me who does that, haha) and no one comes to the site, but in addition to all that, YouTube has disabled my account so I won't be getting anymore hits via YouTube. Ah well - I was doing illegal stuff anyway, I deserved it. I won't make a new account though, they disabled the "modenadude" account. Ah well. Maybe they'll forget and let me go on in the future. haha. Okay, that's all I have for you guys today. I'm still in the middle of painting my car, still have a lot of black parts to do, but once that's all done, I hope to get an album up by the end of the year, Insha Allah. And you guys already know about a few of the other albums I need to put up, and I'm also going to start working on the comments for next year (that'll be a surprise, don't tell anyone), so December's a big rebuilding month here. I think I'm going on vacation again at the end of the month too, so I'll be ditching you guys for a week or so - haha. Okay, I'm off to finish the work on my car for the day before the Saints game and the Laker game. Until next time everyone, take care. see u.