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December 30, 2002

Not much 2002 left now... crazy. The Bowl Challenge gets weirder, as underdogs keep winning. Five players got a point apiece on Saturday with Wisconsin and Virginia winning, and only five more had a point today. None of them were at the top at the time, so we're in something of a holding pattern. Ric still leads, with nine; a handful are behind him at eight and then there are bigger groups at seven and six.
It sucks having to do this - I was bounced ass-early last year - but the following people are, by my count, officially eliminated: Nemo (trails the current leader by five; only has two picks different from him the rest of the way) and Rudnik (trails the current leader by four; only has two picks different from him the rest of the way).

December 28, 2002

More reviews! Wow! And more As! There really are a lot of good films out there right now; anyway, here's the review for Spielberg's latest.

December 27, 2002

Post-Christmas recap. I got some clothes, which sounds crappy, but I've been able to appreciate getting clothes a little more recently. Either way, I got the BTTF boxed set and the complete Sports Night, plus A Hard Day's Night. Pretty sweet deal, plus I have $90 in Borders gift cards that I can spend at my leisure, though on what I'm not sure.
Seven games down on the bowl challenge... that's a quarter of them. (Can you believe there are 28? Ri-goddamn-diculous.) Drew leads at 6-1, but a group of six (including myself) is right behind at 5-2. Two-thirds of the field lags behind at between 2 and 4 correct picks.

December 23, 2002

So, this is completely bizarre. I was bored and on AOL, so I was searching the member directory for "Flaxman." Not everyone I got was named Flaxman, though; one person said he lived at the corner of 57th and Flaxman in Pensacola, Florida. (We'll get into how bright it is to put your address into your profile later.) Now, the fact that there is a street named Flaxman is weird enough, right up there with Flaxman Island as the most amusing geographic discoveries of my lifetime. But look what the street is just north of the 57th and Flaxman intersection. My sister says she wants to move there.

Amazingly enough, there is a new Poll of the Week.

December 23, 2002

More reviews? Why, sure. Here's my third straight A review - I guess I'm finally seeing the right movies.

December 22, 2002

Another review, you lucky people. Unless you hate my reviews, in which case, fuck you.

December 21, 2002

   When I'm at home I tend to eat less, for several reasons - 1) it's harder to find things to snack on; 2) I'm more likely to be made to feel guilty for eating a lot. My dreams recently appear to be mocking me on this front; that's what I get for going to bed hungry.
    A few nights ago I had a dream where I was at the grocery store shopping for ingredients for a stir-fry. I was looking at cans of baby corn, and then I was trying to pick out some broccoli. I also was selecting from a whole bunch of sauces. I wanted to make sure I got the right one, so at one point I took the top off one and tasted it (something I would suggest not doing in a real grocery store). It's odd, but the taste was actually quite vivid; I still have some recollection of it.
    Last night I was just outright mocked. I had a dream in which I see an ad on TV stating that Lift (which you BigFlax aficionados will recognize as my favorite soda of all-time) was going to be released in the United States by Coca-Cola in 2003. I get really excited and start telling everyone who's there (which included a number of suitemates; I recall Ric, Drew, and Rich specifically) how excited I am that Lift is coming to the U.S. and how I hope it's true and the TV isn't just jerking me around.
    I swear I can hear my subconscious laughing its head off.

December 18, 2002

Another review, and a much more positive one - good news for you LOTR fans.

December 16, 2002

The first of what will hopefully be quite a number of reviews in the next month is here. It may also be the worst of those reviews.

December 15, 2002

NCAA Gamebreaker '96 is soooo rigged. First off, I go 12-0, destroying everyone and beating USC 63-14 in the Rose Bowl. I finish #3 (behind Florida and Ohio State, who somehow also go undefeated). Second, Eddie George wins the Heisman. What the hell? I mean, he had 1700 yards or something, but come on - Steve Schnur threw for 6,968 yards. That's pretty damn good. And all he gets is the Davey O'Brien. You know why George wins - he wins every time. Because he's on the cover of the game. Bullshit. Plus, D'Wayne Bates' stats mysteriously disappeared so he was denied Receiver of the Year (Alex Van Dyke? I ask you) despite having around 6,000 receiving yards. Glitch? Or conspiracy?

December 12, 2002

   Back in New Jersey. Am I just really sinister-looking? I'm now batting 1.000 at O'Hare this year with getting selected for the "random" security screening. 2-for-2. My dad says he's been picked more than once as well, so maybe this is just the Flaxman Travel Jinx manifesting itself in a more pernicious fashion.
    No interesting mainstream movies are coming out this weekend, so it looks like I'll be trying to see the following: Far From Heaven (at Millburn or the Clairidge), Bowling for Columbine (Clairidge), and maybe El Crimen del Padre Amaro (Screening Zone). I might also waste some money on Harry Potter but the whole giant spider thing isn't exactly psyching me up. I'll also probably go into the city to see Adaptation if at all possible. We'll see what my dad thinks, unless someone else wants to go with me. (I'm not making a 90-minute round trip to see a movie by myself, I'm afraid.) The only other movie I'm really even willing to see, even with my "see more movies" radar on, is Star Trek, and it's not exactly first in line.
    Apparently I forgot to wash like three dishes, which, I suppose not altogether surprisingly, led Drew to blanket the site with abuse of one form or another. I'd feel a lot worse about it (in a making Rich pack for me freshman year sort of way) if Drew weren't such a little bitch about the whole thing, particularly since he's making it seem like I left a sink full of dishes. To the best of my knowledge I left one plate, maybe two, three at the most glasses, and a couple forks. The horror. Anyway, I'm not sure it counts as "doing someone a favor" if you bitch at them about how they now owe you a favor.
    The bowl challenge is closed at 21 entrants, meaning that your winner will take home $42, unless there is a tie. Frankly, I consider that unlikely.

December 11, 2002

I hate the WildCard machines on this campus. Either the one to put money on it doesn't work, or the one to take money off it doesn't work. Today I loaded up three washers before I realized I wasn't going to be able to add any money to my card without leaving the building, which wasn't happening. I ended up having to bum some quarters for the washers and then was able to use the food machine as a change machine (it's odd that it always works with those because most machines these days are rigged against it).
The Bowl Challenge is up to 21, what with Drew's lady friend joining the fray. This means the winner (which will probably be either her or Rich as they know the least by far) will take home a cool $42.

December 10, 2002

Well, it's been a while. But I had a little something called finals to take care of. I felt pretty good about them; hopefully that will pan out. The Bowl Challenge now has 20 entrants; the last day to sign up is tomorrow so I doubt we'll be getting any more. I retained a slight semblance of pride by finally winning another week in the NFL Picks. I'm going to see a lot of movies when I get home, which will be Thursday. I may or may not watch lots of college football (guess: I will try to and get yelled at). I will try not to have a ridiculous sleep schedule, but it's me, so we'll see how that turns out.
Rudnik sent me a check for seven dollars ($2 for bowls, $5 for the eventual tournament challenge, which I'm thinking I could cancel and make five bucks). He addressed the envelope to "FLAX" at my address (and also put "Rud" for the return address). He also wrote "only seven dollars" on the check since I had complained about receiving such a small check and also wrote "Eat me." in the memo section. I hope this thing actually goes through.

December 4, 2002

Birthday shoutouts (or is it shouts-out) to NU Dave and Chong, who both turn 21 today, thus leaving me as the only person around who isn't 21 yet. I am so young.

    In other news, the BigFlax.com Bowl Challenge is returning for its third year. Here's the official announcement and rules.
    The 2002-2003 BigFlax.com College Bowl Challenge is upon us. As in previous years, the entry fee is $2. Unlike the tournament challenge, in this case winner simply takes all (even if we get a lot of entrants). Also unlike the tournament challenge, there are some entry restrictions - you must be a current or former student of Northwestern University, unless you beg me and I change my mind (which did happen last year, so if you're really interested and don't go to NU, you may want to try that).
    The first bowl is the New Orleans Bowl on December 17, so all picks are due no later than midnight in your respective time zones on the night of December 16.
    Anyone interested in participating must sign up by Wednesday, December 11 at midnight, i.e. the night before I go back to New Jersey. All NUers must get me two dollars before I leave; anyone who manages to sneak onto this from somewhere else must have a way of getting me their money before the bowls begin.
    I think that's everything, except to say that this year, due to two years' worth of complaints, I've removed the rule that says you have to pick the title game right in order to have your score count. Remember, as a tiebreaker I have you pick the final score of the championship game (this year the Fiesta Bowl). In previous years you needed to pick the team right as well. This year you don't.
    If you have any questions, e-mail me.

December 2, 2002

New Poll of the Week and also Top 20 College Football Poll. Woo.

Also, because I get too many complaints on my Movies to See, here's a new and different page.

December 2, 2002

What the fuck. It seems like just yesterday I was making the November page... where the hell did the time go?
Anyway, I'm back in Evanston, though not for very long. That's right, just ten days and I'm back in Jersey for the holiday break. Seems sorta pointless to come back, but of course I've got finals. Three of them a week from Monday (which I guess is today but this is basically Sunday night), which is a major bitch, but at least I've got all week to study with minimal class interference.

There's more! View last month's updates.

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This page last updated: Tuesday, December 31, 2002 02:50:13 AM