Matt Young

Haha... I'm reading The Spy Who Came For Christmas by David Morrell, and a few pages in, one of the main characters mentions his parents' names. He gave his father's name as Vladimir Kozlov.

I watched Impact on Thursday, but I'm watching the replay now- I guess after the UFC thing, they moved it to 6 A.M. permanently- and I just have to say, as my first HD wrestling show, this is awesome. I'm so glad to finally b able to watch in high def.

It'll be my first NHL game, but not my first time at Staples Center. Seats are in section 318.

So, after going to 8 or 9 Ontario Reign games, I'm finally going to get to attend a Kings game live! They have a 36 hour sale going on where tickets, including some lower bowl seats, are $11.50 each for home games in January. I'm not sure where I'll be seated yet since my friend got the tickets, but I'm really looking forward to it. The game is Saturday, January 3rd, against the Flyers.

Well, sure Bill Simmons would say that now. I bet he was howling for more parity when the Celtics sucked dick for free, in between references to Georges Muresan and the Karate Kid. Don't cite that feeble-voiced punkass in Boston-related sports matters, Matt; you're smarter than that. I never read Simmons before last year, so I don't know what he was like. His Boston homerism is blatant. That much is apparent to anyone who has read a single one of his columns. But I still agree with what he said as I stated before. It was the same when the Bulls were on top. Speaking of the Bulls, they're playing a rare nationally televised game right now. I wish the DirecTV guy would get here so I could watch the rest in HD. The Bulls are wearing their black unis as they play the heat in the first ever matchup between #1 pick Derrick Rose and #2 pick Michael Beasley and the Heat. It's 21-18 Bulls after 1. Ben Gordon has hit 3 three pointers and, I was surprised to find out, is 1 behind Scottie Pippen for most threes ever in a career by a Bull.

I agree. They turned Bolt before even bothering to establish her as a character, and Rhaka Khan would have been much better as an opponent for Kong. Neither. They're "predicitions".

Exchangeit at the store before you try sending it to MS. You should have at least 30 days.

Why the hate? I could see hating Kobe, which you said you don't, and Gasol if you're Chinese, but other than that... why? I don't like the Celtics, but I respect the team. Also, Kevin Garnett has been one of my favorite players since his second year in the league, so even though I was pissed when Boston won the title, I was happy for KG. Anyway... Since Devin Harris was mentioned during the Mavs/Blazers game (nice red and green Christmas color coordination, by the way)- do you guys think the Nets can keep up their decent start and contend for the playoffs? I had them pegged to be the second worst team in the league after OKC, but they're 14-14 and Devin Harris is in beast mode. Postgame edit: Wow... the Blazers just collapsed there. Roy could have brought them right back in it with that 3, but he missed badly. Props to Dallas for beating a very game Blazers team, even after Josh Howard was ejected early on. Today was the best day of basketball I can remember in a long, long time. This all reminds me of why I used to obsess over basketball and why it was my favorite sport for so long. I kind of stopped watching regularly (but always kept up with things) around 2003. The Bulls were no good, the Lakers were no good, and the game just wasn't entertaining. Teams like the Spurs, Nets, and Pistons were just no fun to watch and they were the ones contending year in and year out. Bill Simmons was right- fuck parity. The league is infinitely better when there are some very elite teams and some really horrible teams, rather than all but 2-3 being in the middle of the pack.

I can't believe Washington blew that game. Okay, I can, because it's Washington. But the Wizards had the Cavs beaten there. Fuck. Why can't Cleveland just lose?

It may have been Michael trying to cover his ass so they wouldn't reveal his identity to the captain, but more likely than that, it was Keamy and his people trying to stop Sayid and Desmond from siding with the captain so that they could fool them into taking the side of the Keamy-led crew.

I had a dream (terrible choice of words, but it was an actual dream) after Sojourner Bolt attacked Christy Hemme. In that dream, Bolt joined Kong and Rhaka Khan in a group called "The Black Bitch Brigade".

Yeah, but sometimes you end up with gift cards from shitty places.

Great game by both teams. Now we sadly get to see the Cavs beat the Wizards by 25. Psycho, I'd love to see the Cavs lose, too, but it won't happen.

Hot damn. Trevor Ariza with the diving save, and Vujacic catches it, hits the layup, and gets fouled. Man, NBA Christmas is already way better than NFL Thanksgiving, and we still have 2 and 1/2 games to go. Cavs/Wizards will probably have a margin of victory similar to the Thanksgiving football games, though. EDIT: I can't believe it took until 13.5 second left in the half for Boston to shoot their first free throws. That was one hell of a well played (by both teams), physical, entertaining first half at Staples. 51-45 Lakers.

I was under the impression that it would be a highlight show until Lawler mentioned that on Raw. When a year in review and/or Tribute to the Troops normally replaces Raw, it's easy to get confused.

For sure. I'm watching all 4 seasons prior to the new one. I'm just not waiting until 3 days prior this time around. I ended up starting season 3 around midnight January 30th/31st and finished the whole 18 hours or so just before the season 4 premiere.

TNA Impact will be on sale, NEW, for $9.99 from 12/28-1/4 at GameCrazy. Can't pass that up. Thanks to my buddy Jon from GameCrazy for the info.

Raw is a regular show. They announced the 4 way Race to the Rumble match for next Monday.

WOW... Amazing finish in Phoenix. Tied at 88, Grant Hill inbounds the ball, runs in behind a couple SA defenders, and drops in a layup with 4 and a half seconds remaining. San Antonio calls a timeout and inbounds at half court. Parker tries to drive, kicks it out to Roger Mason, and Mason hits the 3 as time expires to win it for the Spurs, 91-90. Stuff like that reminds me of why I love basketball. I hate both teams (not that they aren't fun to watch) but that finish and the fact that Phoenix lost makes me happy. Now it's time for Lakers/Celtics. My only regret is that I don't get to see it in HD, but I found out that ESPN is showing Bulls/Heat, Rose vs. Beasley, tomorrow afternoon. I get a rare opportunity to see my Bulls on TV, and I'm getting my HD receiver tomorrow.

Holy crap. That's a lot... I got $230: $100 each from my mom and great grandma, $30 from one grandma(all early) plus a couple random gifts. I used $50-some to buy Smackdown vs. Raw 2009 and Fallout 3 for $20 and $30 respectively, spent $137 on my HD DVR which will be installed tomorrow, and I'm using the rest on Lost Season 4 and the new Edge DVD. Merry Christmas, TSM Universe!

Deleted. I got a "Merry Christmas" from Chave. Aww.

Yeah, NHL 08 was a huge leap forward in hockey games, and 09 just improves on that formula with things like stick lifts and one handed dekes while adding online 6 vs. 6 leagues (with I believe 50 players per team- my team has 40ish) complete with stat tracking. It's my favorite sports game ever, and I've played dozens.

I changed the Kings' lines in my dynasty to close to what the real ones are. The differences are that I have Brown and Purcell switched in line 1 and 2 because Brown is my leading scorer, Johnson and Doughty are first line D since Johnson isn't injured in my game, and Harrold is scratched because Quincey, not so good in the game but better than Harrold, is the 3rd defenseman. Current record is 18-10-6.

I'm just surprised Imageshack only flagged 2 of the images. But you can see worse stuff in jj.am's amateur gallery.

The idea of the forum for all the end of year awards is a good one, but the execution is quite bad. There are no categories, and people are just randomly listing shit. We need people to organize things. I'm volunteering to do it for the video games forum. My suggestion, which should at least get people more involved, is to create a pinned link to each subforum to its respective award topic.