Hijinks Inc.

Author: Dave Sack

  • T.W.I.S.T. for September 5-12

    Let’s face it, all the news I was going to talk about yesterday was football related anyway… so why bother posting a brief line or two about semi-interesting stories, and then turn around on Monday with another post to talk about all the football that was played yesterday. So at least during the football season, T.W.I.S.T. will be moved to Mondays, so that I can recap some of the football that has just been played along with any other worthwhile news from the sports world.

    Before we jump into the football, I should point out that Chicago is trying to put together a deal to get Carmelo Anthony out of Denver. Their trio of Rose, Boozer, and Melo would be a very interesting match to the trio in Miami (Bron-Bron, D-Wade, and Bosh). Oh, and I should also throw in that the new look Team USA is surprisingly close to a title at the World Basketball Championship. Alright, enough about basketball, let’s move on to the important stuff.

    Let’s go way back to September 6, when Boise State met Virginia Tech. My pick for national champion almost went out the door in week 1! But after taking a big lead early and then getting knocked around for awhile, Boise was able to survive and hold onto the chance for a title shot, beating VT 33-30. However, any good vibes they get from that game was probably canceled out the very next week when Virginia Tech turned around and lost to Division 2 opponent James Madison 21-16.

    In other college football news, Michigan QB Denard Robinson is clearly the front runner for Heisman out of the gate. He finished Saturday, against Notre Dame, with 502 yards total offense including 258 yards rushing on 28 carries, one of those carries being an 87-yarder for a TD, the longest run in Notre Dame’s stadium… ever. This guy is sick, you really need to take some time to watch him play if you get a chance.

    In semi-local/national sports news, the Omaha Nighthawks signed a few of the late NFL cuts, most notably former Pro Bowler Cato June. Omaha put together a really solid roster for a first year team (QB Jeff Garcia, RBs Ahman Green and Maurice Clarett among others), it will be interesting to see how it translates to the field.

    Probably the biggest story out of week 1 in NFL action is the screw job Detroit got in Chicago. WR Calvin Johnson clearly caught the ball, even landing on both feet in the endzone and transferring possession from one hand to another before falling to the ground (all in bounds). But because he let the ball go after it hit the ground, he didn’t “finish the series” that is required to display possession, and it was ruled incomplete. Sure, the call was correct by the rule, but the rule needs to have some area to account for situations like this. If a running back can dive for the end zone and fumble the ball as it hits the goal line, and have it count for a TD… that catch should have counted.

    Oh, and for the games tonight, New York Jets vs. Baltimore Ravens and San Diego Chargers vs. Kansas City Chiefs, I pick the Jets and Chargers to win.

  • Quick Tip: Get That Song Out Of Your Head

    I ran across this the other day, and just had to share it. We’ve all had that song stuck in our head… happened to hear one of those terrible pop songs on the radio, perhaps in a store or a movie. Once you hear it, you can never unhear it, right? WRONG!

    I present to you, Unhearit.com. Here’s their quick blurb:

    We created this site for those of you that have a song stuck in your head and you can’t get it out no matter what you do. Using the latest techniques in reverse-auditory-melodic-unstickification technology, we’ve been able to allow our users to “unhear” songs by hearing equally catchy songs. So all we’re doing is making you forget your old song by replacing it with another one… sorry.

    I gave it a whirl and the first 5 songs I got were:

    1. Barbie Girl
    2. Macarena
    3. some sort of strange Single Ladies/Andy Griffith Mix
    4. Never Gonna Give You Up (I got Rick-Rolled!)
    5. I’m Just A Girl

    It worth a play or two, just to laugh at the songs it conjures up if nothing else.

  • Something’s… missing.

    Although this is the regularly scheduled time slot for T.W.I.S.T. , there won’t be a T.W.I.S.T. today. I started writing it up, and it was all football related news, so I figured it made more sense to just wait until tomorrow to post it, and then I have all the football that transpired over the weekend that I can also talk about… so you’ll get your T.W.I.S.T. tomorrow.

    In related news, I’ve briefly mentioned the football team that I coach (we won our first game of the season yesterday by the way!), well I’ve found it increasingly difficult each week to continue my post-a-day pace. I’ve made it 2 straight months (which is more than I could have ever dreamed previous to this stretch) and I have a number of posts queued up for the rest of the month, so you’ll still get a dose of entertainment news mixed in with the tech stuff our other fine writers have brought you… it just might not be a daily occurrence until football season is over. I’ll do my best, but finding time to sit down and put my thoughts together (on something other than my family or my football team) has been pretty tough lately and I don’t want to stress out about it. I don’t like doing things half-way, and I’m starting to stretch myself too thin attempting to keep too many plates spinning (does that analogy work here?).

    What I need to do is head over to Fred’s house and forcefully pull him away from his Starcraft 2 and take a night to just sit together and blog… that would probably do us both a world of good! Either way, I felt like it would be easier for me to just make this cut and dry and not worry about it anymore instead of looking like I accidentally slacked off *cough*like Fred*cough* and missed a day, or two… or 3 weeks. So, with all that said, I’m going to go sit down, relax, and enjoy me some NFL football week 1 action. Enjoy your Sunday!

  • Saturday Shenanigans: Recent Entertainment News

    Time for your weekly dose of shenanigans. To start out, we’ll cover what is easily the biggest and coolest news that came out recently. Universal is planning an unprecedented feature/network TV adaption of the acclaimed Stephen King series The Dark Tower. I haven’t read this series, but my good friend Bob Sacamano told me that it’s pretty good. Hopefully they do it justice and it turns out as well as The Walking Dead looks.

    Geek Tyrant links to an interesting interview with Marc Guggenheim at Newsarama.com. Guggenheim is one of the 3 screenwriters recently hired to pen the scripts for Green Lantern 2 and The Flash. They highlight some good stuff, but the interview itself is worth the read.

    Pixar might be looking to jump into the superhero mix (outside of the Incredibles). Digitalspy.com has a story that Pixar is considering a CGI Doctor Strange movie.

    More after the jump. (more…)

  • The MMA Minute – Fighter Profile: Ken Shamrock

    Last week we detailed some of the highlights and big moments in the career of Royce Gracie. This week, we delve into the career of another one of MMA’s ‘godfathers’, Ken Shamrock ‘The Worlds Most Dangerous Man’.

    Shamrock emerged as one of the biggest stars in the history of mixed martial arts, headlining over 15 main events and co-main events in the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Pride Fighting Championships during the course of his career and set numerous pay per view records with his drawing power. In addition to being the first UFC Superfight Champion (the title that was eventually renamed the UFC Heavyweight Championship when weight categories were introduced to the UFC), Shamrock has been ranked by Inside MMA as one of the top 10 greatest mixed martial arts fighters of all time. We’ll get into some of the reasons why after the break. (more…)