There's something that needs to be said about the state of the auto industry. Yep... you guessed it... Soapbox boarded... beware. I was leaving a store today and making my way towards my truck to leave the plaza when I saw a woman trying to back out of her space. She nearly got nailed by another car coming down the row. Well, normally I would blame the person trying to back out because they're not paying attention. Then, I saw that she had a Ford Excursion parked beside her. There was no way in the name of all that was holy that she would even stand a micron of a chance of being able to see around that beastly mother of a vehicle to see that another vehicle was coming down the lane to her spot. So, obviously, I blame neither of the drivers. I blame the SUV. Why? Because there is absolutely no reason in hell that people need a vehicle that big to drive around in.

What is the purpose of constantly making SUVs so much bigger with each new model year? I'd be willing to bet that 95% of the people driving them have no need for the "space" that such vehicles provide. So then why? Does sitting seven feet above ground level really provide you with that much greater a sense of safety? Is your social status really determined by the sheer size of your goddamned vehicle? Do you enjoy taking up two parking spaces wherever you go? Are you looking forward to needing to remodel your garage so you can fit that behemoth in there? What is the point? Please tell me dammit. If anything, these monstrosities of the road are more a hazard than anything else. They are impossible for those of us normal vehicle drivers to see around therefore creating a visual hazard. Half the people driving them have no idea how to keep them under control which makes me believe that people who drive anything from Ford Expedition size on up should need a Commercial Driver's License (CDL - what truck drivers need) to operate. This would apply to the Ford Expedition and Excursion, the Lincoln Navigator, the Chevy Tahoe, and several others I can't think of at the moment.

I am not railing against all SUVs, mind you. I like Cherokees because they are reasonable (in all aspects aside from price and miles per gallon). I really like the Ford Escape, Nissan Xterra, Toyota RAV-4, Jeep Liberty, and the like. Are you seeing a pattern emerge? They are the smaller SUVs. Nobody really needs anything bigger than this and that is the truth. If you really need that kind of towing capability, get a truck or a van or rent a U-Haul. I gotta admit that I really love that commercial where the woman is loading her groceries in the back of her oversized SUV and she's jumping up to try to grab the handle to pull down the tailgate. Cracks me up because it's so true.

I really don't have much worthwhile to say today other than I'm really sick of this damned weather fluctuation we've been getting here in Chicagoland. Warm... cold... warm... cold... snow... rain... sleet... sunshine... Will the madness ever end?!?!? Yesterday, I'm out with my brother and his friend Adam playing disc golf for the first time since last August. It felt damn good to get out and play. Not that I did particularly well. I did maintain par or maybe one under, but I felt like I played for crap. Working on my backhand drive which hurts my shoulder like no other, but the disc seems to fly a bit better. And, now here we are today, about 20 degrees cooler and it's rained once already. Crippity crip crap and crappers. That's about how I feel regarding Mother Nature right now (which just means I'm gonna have hail the size of coconuts fall on my truck during my drive home -- go fig).

Oh, if you want a fun site to check out, go to f@$ker.com. Yes, that is edited for a reason. And here I thought URL requests were monitored by ICANN so that names like this wouldn't be used. Guess not.

And on a "give it up already" note, Aerosmith has announced that they are working on a fourth greatest hits album. Do you realize that with this new collection, since 1993 Aerosmith has released as many greatest hits albums as they have original studio albums?

You know how every once in a while, there's a movie that comes out that kinda leaves you "on the fence" about whether or not you truly want to see it? For me, Steven Spielberg'sA.I. Artificial Intelligence was one of those films. Some of it looked really intriguing, but there were lots of aspects of it I thought I'd much rather do without. To clarify, the story sounded great... really good ideas and thought put into it plus I'm a big Jude Law fan (Gattaca remains one of my favorite movies and his acting alone made The Talented Mr. Ripley worthwhile). However, the set designs, the seeming over-reliance on SFX to tell a story that could be told without them, and the fact that this is pretty much a Stanley Kubrick film are three of the reasons I wasn't too sure I wanted to see it. Now, don't start lambasting me about Kubrick. He's had some great films and he's had, what I view to be, some real stinkers. I loved A Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket, and Spartacus... brilliance. However, I hated2001: A Space Odyssey and Eyes Wide Shut. I'm just kinda so-so about Dr. Strangelove... different... not entirely bad... you just have to be very open-minded.

Well, I rented A.I. and I watched it last night and... wow. I was blown away. While there is a big use of SFX throughout the movie and it does aid in the story, they are not the driving force behind it. The story is fantastic. The acting by Law and Haley Joel Osment is second to none, as is Frances O'Connor. The story is effectively a futuristic, android variation of the classic Pinnochio and there are several allusions to the classic childrens' story througout. Okay, "allusions" is far too weak a word. You'll see what I mean. Please, if you, like me, are sitting on the fence about this one, give it a chance. Many critics of the film said that the "second" ending was unnecessary and took away from the picture as a whole. I didn't mind it so badly. Different. Definitely reaked of Spielberg's family-driven desire over Kubrick's dark dementia. But, not a really bad ending. Watch it.

I do have one curiosity question, though. Spielberg is now seemingly over-sensitive as a result of what happened on September 11. In his reissue of E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, he rerecorded a scene in which Dee Wallace as the mom says that one of her kids looks like a terrorist in his Halloween costume. Plus, he changed the scene in which the kids are biking away with E.T. in tow so that the agents chasing them are carrying (and aiming) walkie talkies instead of shotguns. So, then how come he didn't change the scene in A.I. where David (Osment) and Gigolo Joe (Law) go to Manhattan? Knowing his hyper-sensitivity, I'm surprised Spielberg didn't go in and remove the WTC Towers from the submerged view of the city. I realize that they are important because they help you identify the city, but wouldn't you expect him to have done this? Hell, they edited the towers of The Time Machine. I guess it's possibly that Spielberg felt it wasn't necessary because the theatrical version of the film had the towers in it, so why not keep them in, right? But, following that logic, he never should have re-edited those scenes inE.T. because the original theatrical release contains them as do hundreds of copies of the VHS tape that have been on the market for years. Aw hell, if I understood his logic, maybe I'd be working for him. One can wish.

Well, boys, it would seem that Britney is back on the market. I'm sure this announcement will appeal to my brother Brian and my brother-in-law Steven. Apparently, she was at a news conference in England to promote the release of her flick Crossroads and, despite prior "convincing" from her publicists that they not ask the relationship question, one reporter had the balls to ask (well, I shouldn't say "balls" since it was a woman). Britney's response was that she's not "in an intense relationship with anyone" right now. The saddest thing about all this is that, after weeks of speculation about the status of the relationship, this was all the reporters truly cared about. Nobody gave much of a damn about the release of Crossroads. If the movie was what they really were there for, do you think her publicists would have needed to corral them in advance? Doubtful. Why do we put celebs and their relationships under such a microscope? I'll admit that, from time to time, I'm just as much a celeb smut mutt (say that one ten times fast) as anyone. Jesus, just let these people live. If Katie and I were scrutinized as badly as celebs are, we'd probably both be permanent residents of one of those nice securely locked and well padded rubber rooms wearing a starched white straitjacket embroidered with our initials. It's gotta be maddening to have to live like that.

I guess I should correct some earlier news of mine. Despite deserving to by given a swift kick off the airwaves, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss' sitcom "Watching Ellie" was not given the axe. It has just been placed "on hiatus" by NBC. There will be one episode tomorrow night and one next Tuesday. After that, execs are going to decide to either retool it massively or kill it. Hopefully, they'll opt for the latter. Death, I say... death.

I was once an AOHell user. I admit it. I wish I never used it, but I did. However, I kicked my habit and I have become a better (and somewhat more critical) net junkie as a result of my past indiscretions.

It seems, though, that I am not the only one who is proud to be an ex-AOHeller. I was forwarded an MSNBC article from the wife of my coworker Eric about how, a little over a year ago, the employees of Time Warner (which merged with and are now lorded over by AOL execs), were forced, in a show of corporate solidarity and to "give symbolic resonance to the marriage of AOL and Time Warner," to convert to using AOL mail as their primary e-mail service at work. Well, there were problems from the get go as a result of this conversion. In all, two percent of e-mails sent were irretrievably lost in the AOL netherworld, the new mail system was incompatible with portable e-mail devices like BlackBerry handhelds, and proofs of articles and ad presentations were not making it to the people who needed it (half the time, people didn't realize these e-mails weren't getting through). Another kicker in the article tells about people who would send out broad-distribution e-mails (huge mailing lists). AOL Mail was treating these e-mails as spam and would, as a result, block the sender from being able to send messages. Heh. Gotta laugh. Well AOL reversed this decision and allowed all its company branches to outsource their own e-mail service. But, here's one last line from the article that I'd like to share... "When computers crashed in the Washington bureau of Time magazine due to the e-mail software, staffers sometimes sung out, 'So easy to use, no wonder it's number one'." Just try and tell me that's not funny as all hell.

I think I've found a new favorite sport. Who the hell needs football, baseball, or hockey when you could be watching a friendly, down-home game like buzkashi. Now you're all probably scratching your heads wondering what kind of crack I'm smoking and why I'm not sharing it with the general public. Well, that's because you don't deserve to dip into my stash. Just kidding, I'm no junkie.

Buzkashi is the national sport of Afghanistan. Apparently, it was developed before the days when soccer balls existed because the game "ball" is a headless calf. The players ride horseback and the goal is to swoop in and grab the "ball" and pitch it across the goalline. While you're trying to grab said "ball," you are not allowed to dismount your horse. That's the trick, you've got to be such a good equestrian that you can not only stay on horseback while riding in a mad melee with a bunch of others on the field, you are actually able to dip down off your saddle, grab the calf, and score with it (get your minds out of the gutter, this is not a farm in Iowa... sorry Alyson... had to take the cheap shot). The game requires so much intense training that the best players, known as a "chapandaz," are typically over 40 years old. Hell, by that age, most American athletes have retired.

If you'd like to see some pictures or read more about buzkashi, check out this Geocities site, Afghan-Network, or Afghanistan Online. I'm impressed. This game requires some truly solid cojones.

Oh, and if I seem out of it for the next week, it's not because I've been reading about buzkashi. It's because Katie's going to her parents' home to watch over her kid brother Steve to make sure he doesn't throw any wild, sex-filled romps while their parents are in San Antonio. I'm going to have the apartment to myself. How weird is that going to be? Not to sound sappy, because I'm sure you don't want to hear it, but I'm going to miss her.

Much as I expected, NBC, either yesterday or very early today, has announced that Watching Ellie will be cancelled after two more episodes. Good. The show sucked. The "Seinfeld Curse" lives on. Supposedly, Jerry Seinfeld has said that he has not ruled out a potential Seinfeldreunion. That would probably be the only post-Seinfeldian venture that would get ratings.

And, now to add to the "Darwinism Missed Me" file... or, more specifically, "Musical Darwinism"... Eddie and Alex Van Halen. It pains me to do this because I've always been such a Van Halen fan, but we're talking a couple of dumbasses here. After years of speculation and back-and-forth pingponging over a new lead singer for their band Van Halen, they still don't have a singer. As a result, they've been dumped by their label Warner Bros. Yes, I realize that is old news.

Now, bass player Michael Anthony, frustrated over the lack of work the band has been doing, has recorded two songs with the unceremoniously dumped VH frontman Sammy Hagar and his supergroup Planet Us (with former Bad English members Neal Schon and Deen Castronovo). Don't worry, he says, he has not left VH, he just wanted to get in the studio and record something. One of their songs, "Vertigo," may wind up on the Spider-Man soundtrack this summer. At one point in time, former G'n'R axe slinger Slash was going to guest on guitar for Planet Us, but he was unable to make it to the studio when the rest of the guys were recording. Damn, that would have been cool.

What's even worse is that, since the VH boys have been leaving two of their former lead singers - David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar - in the dark so long (rumors were that one of them, most likely Diamond Dave, would return to helm the band), the two singers have decided to tour together with their own bands. The tour is tentatively title "The Sam and Dave Show" even though lawyers are not likely to let that one fly because of the old TV show of the same name.

Many people who know toys know that McFarlane Toys makes some of the best toys around. Highly detailed... pretty damned realistic... just downright cool. Not to mention highly collectible... hard as hell to find sometimes... and a bit pricey. McFarlane expanded in the last couple of years from just fantasy and movie toys to including professional athletes as well. I guess they felt that fans were getting gyped by Starting Lineup toys which, in all honesty, really do suck and have rarely, if ever, actually looked like the athletes they are meant to represent. McFarlane started out with two series of hockey and baseball figures, however, they never obtained licensing from the NHL nor the MLB, so they were never able to use real team logos which made the first two series look like cheap, red-headed stepchildren. However, they did obtain licensing rights when they made new figures for the NHL (series 1 | series 2) and the NFL (series 1 | series 2 | series 3). And, let me tell you, they are choice looking figures. I bought myself a Brian Urlacher which is spot on. The NBA (series 1) just recently followed suit. And now, after seeing how good the figures are, the MLB has finally granted licensing rights to McFarlane and the first wave of officially licensed MLB players are being released. They are incredible looking to say the very least. The list includes Shawn Green, Ichiro Suzuki, Randy Johnson (with his trademark higher-than-hell leglift), Pedro Martinez, Mike Piazza, Albert Pujols, Ivan Rodriguez, and Sammy Sosa. Check 'em out.

Anybody remember who Claire Forlani is? She was Brad Pitt's love interest in Meet Joe Black and she also costarred in Mallrats as Brandi Svenning, T.S.'s girlfriend/fiancee. Well, after a long time of what seems like nothing roles, she may be returning in a pretty big way. Bear in mind that this is still just a rumor and, as would be expected, may be debunked as soon as I post this. Forlani may be in talks to costar as the female human lead in T3: Rise of the Machines (the new Terminator flick). I specify "human" because this new installment is supposed to have a female android as well called a T-X, but she will be played by Kristanna Loken (Tom Everett Scott's leggy, blonde, legal eagle, love interest in the TV show Philly who got nearly nekkid in an elevator with Scott when said 'vator broke down). I guess since there will be no Linda Hamilton, they needed some kind of positive female role in it. However, I just don't see Forlani being the strong character from T2, more like she will be the scared-to-death Hamilton nurse character from the original Terminator. I always liked Hamilton better in the first flick. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against strong female characters in movies. Hamilton just bugged me. Honestly, the entire movie bugged me save for Robert Patrick as the T-1000 -- total badass.

In more T3 news, the John Connor role, once held by current junkie Edward Furlong, may have been taken over by Shane West - Mandy Moore's wrong-side-of-the-tracks boyfriend in A Walk to Remember. I never cared much for Furlong. He was pretty damned annoying. The only movie I liked him in was American History X. I also never saw A Walk to Remember so I don't know jack about West or his acting abilities. I heard mixed reviews of the flick... as would be expected, guys hated it, girls loved it. However, this casting may do wonders for guys who would otherwise have difficulty convincing their significant others to go to what promises to be a wonderful, special effects laden, tear-jerking, shoot 'em up, heartwarming, blood and guts, fun for all ages, leave 'em for dead, family flick. Now if we can just convince the writers and Director Jonathan Mostow (U-571) to make Schwarzenegger a bad guy again, I would be oh-so-happy.

Has anybody ever noticed how Wal-Mart seems to totally disregard what's known as "Street Dates?" For those who don't know, a street date is the date a manufacturer has given for items that they produce to be put out on shelves. For example, a new video, DVD, or CD typically has a street date of some given Tuesday. A retailer, by law, is not allowed to put this product on their shelves for sale until that street date. Go in to any Wal-Mart on almost any given day, and you will find a new DVD on the shelf a couple of days before its official "street." I've found new movies on the shelf almost two weeks in advance. Manufacturers are allowed to fine stores for violations of street dates, too. God, I'd love to know how much money Wal-Mart shells out annually for violation of street dates. Now, they're putting out toys for the new Star Wars movie well before they're supposed to be doing so. I remember that for the last movie, there was a massive midnight sale of SW toys. This time around, they've just been leaking slowly through the system instead of holding off for some big marketing blitz. I suppose it's possible that Hasbro saw how big a bust they had with their over-marketing of the SWI toys. Or maybe, Wal-Mart just ain't following the rules again. Who's to say?

This was definitely a first so far as parades go. Today, Katie and I as well as my parents, my brother, his girlfriend, and her roommates (sounds like a great movie title, doesn't it... ala The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover) went to the St. Patrick's Day parade in Chicago. There were metal detectors to pass through to go to the bathroom and the people were stacked about 10 deep on the sides of the road making it impossible to see anything even for me at over six feet tall (imagine poor Katie who is only 5'2"). Well, President Bush decided to attend our parade and when he went by, despite news clips and newspapers showing otherwise, he was sitting behind a tinted, bullet-proofed window in Cadillac 1 waving to the crowds during our stretch. Oh, boy. That was sooooo worth it. Hell, for all we knew, it could have been a stand in. Dana Carvey pulling a Kevin Kline in Dave? We'll never know for sure, will we? Since our view was so bad, we left after the first half hour to catch some food before all the pubs filled up. Still too late.

After work today, Katie came by my office and we moved everything around. We cleaned, vaccuumed, dusted, and ate pizza (you gotta have some fun, don't you?). I'm sorry, but I was just sick of how my office looked. Technically, it wasn't even my office, per se. It was still set up the same way from when the Director of Media Relations was in my office. Now, I can finally lay claim to "my office." If you know me and you have the opportunity to see my new office, you will be able to tell that it's definitely "me." My boss agrees. She's very much into feng shui (sp?) and she says the Chi in my office is much better now. She gave me a couple of suggestions and I'm going to implement them, not only because it will make the Chi better, but because they're nice ideas. Maybe I'll work on them this weekend.

When you're wrong, you're wrong, and I was wrong. Back on March 6, I wrote about how it looked like the Texas housewife - Andrea Yates - was going to get off on charges of murdering her five kids. Thankfully, I was wrong. She was found guilty of murder. Thank God you can still somewhat rely on the American legal system (I'm still bitter about O.J.). This morning on the news, though, they were airing some tape of Yates' attorney that I found completely ridiculous. He was talking about how the verdict in this case harkens back to the days of the Salem Witch Trials because it's obvious that the jury didn't understand how psychology can play into cases such as this one. Get real. She killed her kids. She took her time to murder each one of them. That is not temporary insanity. It's called "premeditation." Hell, she even had the clarity of mind to call 911 after she did it. That's someone who knew what she was doing. Burn.

Justice has been served... kapgar style, baby. My employer of old - a magazine in Chicago called Telecom Business - seemingly exists no longer. Every so often, I would go back to their old site at telecombusiness.com to check out how things are going. Actually, I must admit that I was hoping each time to see that the Editor-in-Chief had been canned. He was a prick and the worst kind of manager one could ever hope to not be stuck with. He had no managerial skills and no confrontational abilities whatsoever. I was hired as a web designer there, but he tried to convert me into a tech writer which is something I have no training in. All this because he didn't have the balls to just fire me. You see, TCB is part of a parent umbrella of tech magazines, and the web designing portion of the job was farmed to an outside source to take care of all the mags together. This announcement came just after I was hired. So you know the EiC was working to cover his ass for hiring me when he probably should not have done so. Well, the magazine no longer exists. Going to their website redirects you to the aforementioned parent umbrella site. And if you look at the directory, there is no listing for my former magazine at all. My old publisher now works for a different magazine in the company, but no sign of the old editor whatsoever.

I now wear a large, shit-eating grin on my face.

By the way, did anyone else out there watch "The American Embassy" last night on FOX? Not bad. I enjoyed it a lot. All about a young vice-consul who has just joined up with the American Embassy in London. Check it out next week. It's currently sitting in "Ally McBeal's" time slot Mondays at 8 p.m., Central Time, right after one of my fave's "Boston Public." Dunno how long it will stay there, though. Wait and see.

In what was obviously a blatant move to try to lure viewers away from watching ABC's "9/11" last night, FOX played a 2 1/2 minute long trailer for Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. I didn't see it, basically because I took much greater interest in "9/11" and didn't want to dare miss any of it. By the way, it was incredible. I didn't have to worry too much, though, my co-worker Eric, taped the trailer and brought it to work today. After watching it, I'd have to say I wasn't thoroughly impressed. Eric said it best when he used the word "spectacle" to describe it. It seems like the movie is going to be all show. That scares me. I wasn't a huge fan of the last SW movie The Phantom Menacebecause the acting wasn't on, some of the characters really sucked, and there was far too much emphasis on special effects. This one looks like another chapter in the book of "Been There, Seen That." Don't get me wrong, I will still see it in theaters, but I'm not placing my expectation level too high (which is probably for the best).

Now this has certainly become an entire weekend of rarities. Yep, the Bulls game yesterday, and today Katie, Scott (Katie's other brother), and I saw the Bears playing basketball. What's that, you say? Who are the Chicago Bears basketball team? Well, it is the Chicago Bears. Actually, it's members of the Bears football team playing charity basketball against alum from Oswego High School. Pretty cool. The Bears players who joined in the fun were Marty Booker, Otis Wilson, Rosevelt Colvin, Warrick Holdeman, and Bryan Robinson. They were having a lot of fun and the announcer was pretty good which made it even more enjoyable. They guys came back in for an autograph session afterwards, but the line was immense and would've taken an hour or more to get through, so we decided to skip it. Oh, well. The autographs were what I really wanted out the whole affair, but the game was good enough that I don't feel like I'm missing out.

Well, tonight certainly would count as a rare event in my book. I went with Katie, Mary Ellen, and Steve (Katie's brother) to see a Bulls game at the United Center. I have not been to a Bull's game since the days when they played in Chicago Stadium. The only times I've been to United Center have been to see the Blackhawks play or see some concert. UC is very cool, indeed, and it's not that I don't like it that kept me from going to see the Bulls play there. More like, the Bulls were either incredibly good and tickets were impossible to find or they sucked so horribly that I wouldn't want to see them play. Those are what kept me from going there. They've been playing a bit better since they picked up Jalen Rose and I thought it would be fun and the tickets were free (thanks Mary). But, as would be expected, the Bulls did lose. It was still fun and I hope the photos I took turn out okay. We shall see.

I guess I owe some of my readers an apology. I just received a pretty heated e-mail from someone who was performing a search for "Apolo Ohno" when my site came up. The search engine she used said that the reference to Ohno was on my homepage when, as you can see, it no longer is. Longtime readers will remember that I did write about Ohno back on February 22. But, said longtime Kapgarites (all two of you) also know that I archive my homepage entries at the beginning of the next month so that my page doesn't get too cluttered. She felt that I was using Ohno's name to attract hits, because it appeared that I really didn't have anything about him on my page. I really do... I swear. Just go to the February page in my Life in HTML Archives (you'll find the link in the blue bar on the left). Most new readers probably don't realize the Archives exist. In fact, the archives include entries, separated by month, dating all the way back to March 1998.

What I've noticed has been happening is that search engines have not been refreshing themselves regularly (at least not as regularly as I clean up this page). So people searching for Ohno are still finding that he is supposed to be on my homepage. Sorry... not no more.

For the time being, I think I'll bump up the link for the Archives page so it's easier to find. Sorry, K.

Me thinks it's looking like that housewife in Texas who killed her kids is going to get off on insanity charges. That is a complete travesty of justice in my opinion. Think about it... she killed her kids. For Christ's sake people! I could care less about her whole Post-Partem Depression argument. Every mother suffers from Post-Partem to some degree or other. Do they all murder their kids? No. If she was suffering so badly from this malady, why in the name of all that's holy did she have as many friggin' kids as she did? Why not put them up for adoption or have them be taken care of by someone else while you undergo counseling? One of those nighttime news shows did a special on women who suffered from Post-Partem Depression. Despite all their horrible feelings, they still managed to overcome their depression and all their kids are still alive. It is possible to fight it. Jeezus. She needs to fry and that's all there is to it. Soapbox dismounted.

Is it safe to say that Jennifer Garner is Hollywood's current "It" girl? In less than one season with her new series "Alias," she has won a Golden Globe, become one of Rolling Stone's best cover models (hey, it is a pretty good picture), and been cast in two pretty major Hollywood feature films -- Daredevil and Catch Me If You Can. In DD, Garner will play Elektra and be costarring with Ben Affleck, Colin Farrell, and Michael Clarke Duncan. Catch Me finds her acting alongside Leo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks (probably the best actor today in Tinseltown, in my humble opinion) and will be directed by Steven Spielberg. I don't think she's going to be wanting for work for a little while at least. I think what I like most about Garner is the reaction she elicits from my wife Katie. You see, in real life, Garner is married to "Felicity" costar Scott Foley who plays Noel. My wife loves Noel and every time she sees Garner on TV or elsewhere, she'll either flick Garner off or call her a bitch... sometimes both. It's hard to stop myself from dying laughing when this happens. Don't worry, it's okay with me if my wife is infatuated with an actor. She knows about my feelings for Sandra Bullock... so it's all good.

For those of you who are either Metallica or Beatles fans, I've got a site for you. This is called Beatallica and it's a fanboy site that shows what would happen if Metallica rewrote and performed some Beatles staple songs. Pretty cool stuff on this site. Check it out. I gotta tell you, the music and the vocals are pretty dead on. Here are just a few of the song titles available for your listening pleasure...

• Sgt. Hetfield's Motorbreath Pub Band ("Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band")
• A Garage Dayz Nite ("A Hard Day's Night")
• The Thing That Should Not Let It Be ("Let It Be")

To start off, since I kinda left the last entry hanging... yes, Leap of Faith was much better than Watching Ellie. Sarah Paulson was incredibly funny as was the rest of the cast which includes Tim Meadows (funny, since I mentioned him on Wednesday as well) and Ken Marino (Joey's professorial love interest on Dawson's Creek). So, yes, it has now made my TV show list on Any Life Out There? (ed. note - page has since been removed. Please see homepage for links). Whether or not it stays there remains to be seen, but I have a pretty good feeling about this show. Finally, we have something good to follow up Friends on Thursday night. I think Thursday could've been "Must See" again if they would have kept Inside Schwartz (but moved it to 8:30 so it would be tentpoled by Will & Graceand ER), keep Leap of Faith at 7:30, and fire all of this season's writers onWill & Grace because they suck horribly. Has anyone else noticed how Will & Grace is suffering the same sort of fate that Friendsdid? Think about it, for the first two seasons of Friends, you never wanted to miss it because it was so well written. However, it followed those first two seasons with a couple of really shitty seasons. I guess that means we still have at least one more season of W&G crap to wade through before it gets good again.