MLB Box Break - 2007 Ultra

Broke a box of 2007 Ultra the other day. Nice cards. The photography is real nice, and the borderless design looks real fresh after staring at stacks of Topps 2007 cards. I think I like this design a lot better than the Topps one. I remember the Ultras I had in the early 90s looked good too. I think my biggest complaint with these is that it is pretty hard to read the players full name and details at the bottom of the card. But they do actually have the position shown on the front, which I like.

So we got 6 packs, 5 cards per pack.

Commons


Jeff Francouer, Tim Hudson, Josh Beckett, Jermaine Dye, Grady Sizemore, Matt Holliday, Justin Verlander, Dan Uggla, Hanley Ramirez, Brad Lidge, John Buck, Rafael Furcal, Justin Morneau, Tom Glavine, Carlos Beltran, Eric Chavez, Jamie Moyer, Pat Burrell, Greg Maddux, Raul Ibanez, BJ Upton, Rocco Baldelli, Mark Teixeira, Nick Johnson







Rookies

Mike Rableo, Jay Marshall



Parallels

Vladimir Guerrero Gold Parallel



Inserts

Miguel Cabrera Faces of the Game

Cal Ripken Jr Iron Man UIM-33

Ryan Braun (MIL) Lucky 13 RC

They look good

I like that

And there are only 200 in the set, tempting to buy some more and try and complete it. This was a fun break cause the cards are so good to look at. But with only 5 cards a pack and 6 packs in this box it was over pretty quick!

Movie Review - Evan Almighty

Evan Almighty copped a bit of a shellacking in the reviews that I saw. Too long, not funny, Steve Carell trying too hard. But I couldnt disagree more! Sometimes I wonder if the people writing movie reviews have their heads too far up their arse to appreciate an easygoing, feel good family movie; which is exactly what Evan Almighty is.

The thing about movies like this is that you know exactly what you are in for. Like when you listen to an ACDC album, you know you will get some drums, some guitars and that same rock groove. Or when you watch a Tarantino movie; you know you are going to get the music, the blood, the guts, the swearing and the drugs. When you are going to a Steve Carell movie based on a story from the Bible, you ought to know what you are in for.

Steve Carell plays Evan the slightly wacky family guy / somewhat reluctant congressman with the mandate of "changing the world". Following a visit from the Big Guy himself - aka Morgan Freeman - Evan also becomes a doer of God's will. The basic premise is that Evan is visited by God, who says he should build an ark. As you would expect, Evan's family, workmates and neighbours dont quite understand or believe him. In the course of building his massive ark Evan gets some help from some animal friends, and gets stuck in some sticky situations at work, which leads to much of the comic material.

For a movie that has some complex jokes, this movie works out as a pretty good family affair. It rolls along at a steady pace, and there is plenty of slapstick and animal fun to keep kids interested. Steve Carell is Steve Carell, and while this is probably not his best material, you do get a few good laughs - and kids will love his slapstick antics. The rest of the cast do a pretty good job too - Morgan Freeman is good as the laidback God, and John Goodman plays as good a bad guy as you need in a movie like this. The special effects were quite spectacular on the big screen, and the CGI was pretty believeable too.

There is no doubt that it's not going to win an Oscar, but it is a good way to pass a couple of hours with the family.

Would I buy it on DVD? Yes
How much would I pay? $12

MLB Box Break - Upper Deck Artifacts 2007

Picked up a blaster box of Upper Deck Artifacts off Ebay. Not a bad looking set, has a bit of an archaelogical sort of desert/pirate/indiana jones type feel to it.

There were 8 packs with 5 cards per pack, but somehow I ended up with 41 cards... and I scored a few nice hits. Ended up hitting 40 out of the set of 200, with no doubles, a couple of ok rookies, some Padres cards, and an Artifacts Apparel Gold Edition game used card for Khalil Greene:



Also hit the A-Rod common:



and a Kevin Kouzmanoff rookie:





All in all it was a pretty good box. Its something different I guess, and with only 200 cards in the set, it seems pretty easy to get the full set.. at least compared to the Upper Deck Series One Set. Maybe I will pick up a few more boxes and see how I go.

worst day ever?

could it be today?
8 September 2007:

17 people arrested and 2 police officers injured after clashes during today's anti-APEC rally
NEWS.com.au reports that police were "targeted and assualted" by protestors marching against the APEC meeting being held in Sydney. News footage shows police blocking streets using highly armoured buses and other vehicles; police roaming the streets with special capsicum spray guns; heavily armed snipers travelling in helicopters overhead; and a massive water cannon circling Sydney's streets.

Sure there were a few dickheads there to cause trouble. Including the idiots that threw a dart, and used iron crow bars to hit the cops. But, were the police being heavy handed? The footage on all the news channels here shows them being very physcial and intimidating, even for those protestors that seemed to be marching peacefully. It is really a sad day when most of Sydney is guarded by police on every corner, in the sky, and with massive fences blocking off the best parts of the city. I myself dont care one way or the other about whether APEC exists or whatever, but it is pretty outrageous that taxpayers forked out more than $300 million to host it. And what did we get for our money? Most of the city locked down for a week. The experience of living in a police state for a week. Massive reductions in civil liberties including fundamental democratic rights such as the right to protest, and freedom of speech. Sounds like we got sold a big lemon.

And to make it even worse, just to stick the knife in and twist it a bit further, we the taxpayers of NSW funded a fireworks extravaganza this evening for each of the world leaders. Again, news coverage is showing huge fireworks displays over the harbour and the bridge, not unlike the usual New Year's Eve celebrations. But the public were not invited, and not allowed to watch. All the key spectator areas were locked off. What a stinking bust. Haven't these backpatting, pen pushing, arse kissing twits ever seen some fireworks before? Why should we fund it for them? Its all take, take, take in these instances, and despite what they may claim about the trading benefits, I think that that there are very little (or maybe even no) benefits to Joe Smith on the street. In fact, Im not even sure that selling billions of dollars of uranium to Russia is such a good idea!

But I guess, to be fair there were some bright sides to it all. Most of Metropolitan Sydney got an extra public holiday on Friday. Who could complain about that? And also, The Chaser had an absolute field day:


Also, NEWS.com.au reports a 300 per cent spike in brothel trade to cater for the extra business brought in by APEC! Apparently they had to bring in the mistresses from interstate to service all those secret service agents and envoys. I guess it is a bit of risk management going back to the Bill Clinton days...it would have been a real shame to leave a white stain on those dreadful drizabones they dragged out that they deemed to be our national dress. Oh well, I just hope they kept all those ladies of the night away from Kevin Rudd!


Manly Sea Eagles bundle Souths out of the NRL finals
After an absolutely appalling referreeing performance, some dodgy injury faking, and yet another over-rated performance, Manly Sea Eagles beat the Rabbitohs 30-6, knocking the bunnies out of their first finals series since 1989. In what was a very ordinary spectacle after watching the Cowboys scoot over the Bulldogs, Manly scored 5 tries to 1.

For Manly, it was a continuation of amazingly over-rated season. They are a very lacklustre team bar some flashes of brilliance from Brett Stewart. And if I have to hear Ray Warren tell me that Brett Stewart has diabetes one more time, i am gonna reach through the TV strangle him.

For the Bunnies, it was a lacklustre end to a pretty decent season. New coach Jason Taylor and Messrs Crowe and Holmes-a-Court have made some significant inroads into establishing a strong club for seasons to come. But for this year, it seems they peaked too early against the Tigers two weeks ago.

Here's hoping that someone, anyone, can put Manly in their place in the next few weeks!

Collingwood knock the Swans out of the AFL finals
In another lacklustre game (for Swans fans anyway) Collingwood steamrolled the Swans out of the race for the AFL flag. It will be the first time in 3 years that the Swans havent been in the grand final. And it is also looking pretty bad for last years winners the West Coast. Looks like there will be a new winner this year. Geelong would be deserving victors, after an amazing season. But they will have to fend off some quickly finishing teams in the Power and the Hawks.

bustin boxes

i got a couple of boxes in the mail this week: a hobby box of 2007 Topps Series One baseball, and; a Jumbo Hobby box of 2007 Topps Series Two. I have already cracked a hobby box and about 10 blaster boxes of Series One, and this was my first Series Two. I was hoping to complete the Series One set, go close to the Series Two set, and maybe get some nice inserts. here are some of the highlights:

Alex Rodriguez Gold Parallel #1908/2007

Joe DiMaggio and JFK Distinguished Service Cards

Daisuke Matsuzaka Rookie Card and Japanese Variation

Craig Wilson and Paul Konerko Season Highlights

Overall, a bit disappointing. Out of all the series 1 boxes i have opened, the best cards came from the retail blaster boxes. the guaranteed game used and relic cards in the series 2 box were a bit of a let down, but i did get 304 out of 330 of the base set, and some nice looking inserts:

harry potter

saw the latest harry potter movie on Tuesday. was a bit apprehensive about it, as the goblet of fire movie was probably not as good as i had hoped. i have found that as they have got into the later books, the movies have not been able to keep as much happening as previously. i guess it is hard to replicate such a rich story into a 2 hour movie. i had also heard some people say that the order of the phoenix suffered the same fate as the goblet of fire, in that they had to cut too much out. i have to say that i disagree, it was fantastic.

these movies are just such good fun. there is no other word for it. you cant help but be drawn right into the story, the places, the people. i do wonder if people who have not read the books would have this same feeling, as they may not know as much about all the characters and the background stories. it is hard to say though, i dont know anyone who has seen the movies but not read the books.

this movie reminded me a lot of the first movie. it was enthralling, engaging and exciting. the casting of some of the secondary characters like luna and umbridge was spot on. while they were not how i had imagined them, they were very very good . there were some variations from the story, but all in all i think that they covered all the key aspects of the movie very well. this has definitely been my favourite harry potter movie so far.

this was the first harry potter movie i saw at the cinemas, as i only started reading the books a few months ago. now i am fully up to speed i can jump on the bandwagon for the next two movies.

i have now finished the half blood prince, which was a good read - tying up some loose ends and providing some interesting new ones, and have now begun on the deathly hallows. hopefully it will live up to the hype