Tom's Decadal Favorites

Was that the correct use of "decadal?" I think it works. Anyway, this is not the list of the best of stuff from the aught years. It's my favorites. Which means I acknowledge that "Kung Pow: Enter the Fist" is not better than "No Country For Old Men." It means much heralded shows like The Sopranos and The West Wing are not on these lists because I never watched them. In fact, I refused to list any movie I never watched, any TV show I haven't seen at least one full season of, or any band I haven't listened to ad nauseum. Actually, the lists of favorite bands and favorite songs are just lifted directly from last.fm's most-listened-to stats, which has been tracking my musical tastes since 2006.

Tom's Ten Favorite Sitcoms, 2000-2009

1. Scrubs
2. Arrested Development
3. Futurama
4. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
5. How I Met Your Mother
6. The Office (US)
7. The Big Bang Theory
8. 30 Rock
9. Parks and Recreation
10. Community

Scrubs, better than any show I've ever seen, walked the line between silly jokes and heartfelt emotions. Seventh season aside, I loved every episode. It's only problem is that it just... won't... die. NBC cancels it? It comes back (on ABC). It has a brilliant series finale? It comes back (with an adjusted cast). Scrubs is/was a great show that is being kept on the shelf past its expiration date, and I just want to see it end with dignity. ● Yeah, I know I haven't seen a full season of Community since a full season hasn't even aired yet, but so far I've like it more than Better Off Ted, which is the only sitcom left that would even qualify to be on the list. ● 30 Rock has some great jokes, but winning the Emmy for Best Comedy three years in a row is the biggest joke of them all. HIMYM, It's Always Sunny, The Office, and maybe even BBT have all been objectively better. 30 Rock is also knocked down for its obsession with guest stars (I mean look at this, its rare when an episode's preview doesn't include "look who's coming to 30 Rock!"). ● Another thing about Scrubs - if any episode from the first five seasons came on the TV, I could probably say every line along with the characters. I've seen them that many times. ● Buster from Arrested Development and Ted the Lawyer from Scrubs would be my favorite comedy characters. Notice how they're both pathetic sad-sack losers. ● After its first season, no way would I think Parks & Rec would be up here. Now it's regularly the funniest part of NBC's Thursday night.

Tom's Ten Favorite Drama Series, 2000-2009

1. Band of Brothers
2. 24
3. Lost
4. Mad Men
5. House
6. Battlestar Galactica
7. The Wire
8. John Adams
9. True Blood
10. Deadwood

Is Band of Brothers a 10-hour movie, or is it a TV series with only ten episodes? Same question for John Adams. I went with the latter, if only because I needed two more drama series I actually liked to make an even ten. ● If Hugh Laurie was in every scene of House, it might be #1. ● The Wire is close to a critic consensus as best show of the decade, and I think its greatness is also reflected in just cracking my top 10 considering my general distaste for shows about crime (never been much interested in the Law and Orders, the Sopranos, or any of the hundred CBS crime dramas). ● 24, Lost, and Mad Men, my favorite on-going TV shows of the decade, can be summarized with the following exclamations, respectively: "Oh $&%#!", "What the @#$%?", and "Whoa". ● Interesting that half the shows on this list air/aired on a network I don't even get - HBO. Thank goodness for DVDs and Megavideo.

Tom's Ten Favorite Miscellaneous TV Shows, 2000-2009

1. Late Night with Conan O'Brien
2. Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld
3. Mythbusters
4. Pardon the Interruption
5. Dog the Bounty Hunter
6. Digging for the Truth
7. Deadliest Catch
8. Mystery Diagnosis, Untold Stories of the E.R.
9. Cash Cab
10. MonsterQuest

Notice there's no American Idol, no Survivor, no Dancing with the Stars, no the Amazing Race. I don't think I've ever enjoyed "reality shows" where situations are designed, planned, choreographed, and presented to volunteers to see how they handle them (other than, you know, sports). But a reality show about events that would occur whether or not the camera crew was there? Like say, bounty hunting or Alaskan king crab fishing? I'm so there. ● The reason Cash Cab is my favorite game show ever? All the contestants are there by complete accident. No one's trying to get rich or jump start their acting career on Cash Cab. They were just trying to get from one side of Manhattan to the other when suddenly a game show broke out. ● I thought Conan moving to 11:30 would allow me to watch him more often. Nope, I can't even stay up that late anymore. ● Number 7 is two shows that air on the soon-to-be defunct DiscoveryHealth. They're both about doctors dealing with very challenging cases or situations, and are the ground beef to House's filet mignon. DiscoveryHealth's replacement, by the way? The Oprah Winfrey Network. Sigh. ● I love the History Channel (oh, I'm sorry, I mean just "History") and numbers 5 and 10 are my favorite programs from that network. ● EDIT: I completely forgot (until now) about Red Eye, the best show to ever air at 3 a.m. Sorry, Nostradamus Effect, but you've been bounced.

Tom's Twenty Favorite Movies, 2000-2009

1. Garden State
2. The Dark Knight
3. The Lord of the Rings trilogy
4. The Harry Potter series
5. Batman Begins
6. Black Hawk Down
7. Catch Me If You Can
8. Kung Pow: Enter the Fist
9. Equilibrium
10. Star Trek
11. In Bruges
12. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
13. Casino Royale
14. 300
15. X2
16. The Prestige
17. Spider-Man 2
18. No Country For Old Men
19. Sin City
20. Kill Bill, Vol. 1

Yes, I know I squeezed in nine separate movies into the 3 and 4 slots. But I didn't want the list to get repetitive and it's difficult for me to critically separate one entry of those series from the other. ● Garden State topping this list is the strongest evidence yet that this is all about my favorites. I know it's not really that good, but it's just my personal favorite, what can I say? ● Catch Me If You Can is one of the most effortlessly watchable movies ever. I can't change the channel anytime it's on. ● I sure have cooled on Vanilla Sky. Eight years ago I thought it'd be near the top of this list, now its floating somewhere outside the top 20 with Phantom of the Opera, Iron Man, 30-Year Old Virgin and I Love You Man. ● Kung Pow - forever and always the funniest movie I've ever seen.

Tom's Favorite Bands, 2000-2009

1. Death Cab For Cuite
2. The Shins
3. Remy Zero
4. Tree63
5. Neko Case
6. Regina Spektor
7. Lifehouse
8. Snow Patrol
9. Sufjan Stevens
10. Weezer

Again, this is just lifted straight from my last.fm charts. Since my list of favorite bands can change entirely from week to week, it was the only way I could think to do it that would accurately reflect ten years of listening to music.

Tom's Favorite Songs, 2000-2009

1. The Shins - New Slang
2. Greg Laswell - Sweet Dream
3. Death Cab - Your New Twin Sized Bed
4. Blind Pilot - One Red Thread
5. Death Cab - Death of an Interior Decorator
6. Blind Pilot - The Story I Heard
7. Joe Purdy - Wash Away
8. Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson - Winter Song
9. Greg Laswell - Comes and Goes (In Waves)
10. Death Cab - The Sound of Settling

These were adjusted slightly from my last.fm chart in that I eliminated songs that came out before 2000.

Well, I hope somebody out there enjoyed that.

best year-end pitching blowout ever?

All of my fantasy baseball seasons, no matter how they go, end with the same glorious event: at some point in the final week, I'll shave down my remaining innings pitched to single digits, and then the next day start as many "probable" pitchers as possible, thereby getting a nice bit more than the stated innings pitched maximum.

Well, even though I won't able to win my league this year, I had perhaps the greatest year-end pitching blowout in history. With six innings left, I threw out Clayton Kershaw, Randy Wells, Andy Pettitte, Nick Blackburn, Wade LeBlanc, and Anibal Sanchez (and closer Joe Nathan). These are the numbers they put up: 39.1 innings pitched, 3 wins, 1 save, 39 strikeouts, a 1.37 ERA and a 0.86 WHIP.

That gave me a decent 2 point boost in the standings, and put me within 1/2 a point of the team in second place for the last day of the season. It also left me with 1283.1 innings pitched in a league with a "maximum" of 1250. I suppose the theoretical limit is 1312.2 innings, if you start the day with a measly 1/3 of an inning left and manage to get your two SPs, two RP-eligible starters, and three Ps to ALL throw complete games. Seeing as how the last time baseball had seven complete games on the same day was probably around 40 years ago, I'm gonna chalk this up as pretty much the most innings possible, and the extra ones being of excellent quality.

Hockey Update: I picked a hellofa league to join. One day into the season, Alexander Ovechkin and Shane Doan are being traded for Dany Heatley and an out-for-two months Marian Hossa. Great.

hedge funds. women. the 2009-10 fantasy hockey season.

the three great mysteries of my life. seriously, my draft is in 45 minutes and this is the dillema i'm facing: CBS's 4th ranked player is 25th and 36th in ESPN and Yahoo. ESPN's 4th ranked player is 21st and 40th in CBS and Yahoo. Yahoo's 5th ranked player is 49th and 21st in CBS and ESPN. After the holy trinity of Ovechkin, Malkin, and Crosby, and then I guess Datsyuk, it's a complete and utter crap shoot. Any player I get...

Well, I just got the draft order and I'm 4th. Hellloooo Pavel Datsyuk.

I think.

Update: I went a little unconventional and picked Mike Green. I remembered how year after year I get frustrated having to play four defensemen and let them act as a giant blackhole of fantasy points in my lineup. So I opted for forward-disguised-as-defensemen Mike Green a few picks ahead of his ranking - and then later grabbed another point-minded defensemen in Zdeno Chara in the 5th round - to try and avoid the same old headaches. Is this winning strategy? Probably not, but its the best I could come up with after getting the worst draft position possible (missing out on above-referenced holy trinity and then not choosing again for 17 picks). And its only fantasy hockey - its not a matter of life or death (or fantasy baseball - which I should be winning if not for Johan Santana getting shut down and some of most horrifically unlucky bench/start pitching decisions in history).

you know, i *do* have the time

it's just that the things i think about have changed. right now, i've pretty much been thrown to the social security wolves. i'm giving advise to clients on things i only learned about earlier that day. and i hate that. i don't want to BS people into thinking i'm smart, i just want to be that smart. so i adsorb whatever my co-workers say about the law, and then read books about law practice at night. i just don't think about random crap like movies or TV at the moment, or whatever else might be relevant for a blog or tweet. but hopefully the daily grind of practicing law will soon get moved into my reptile brain and i can just do it in my sleep. then i can, you know, find a hobby or something.

also, bar exam results get mailed tomorrow. here we go.