Links of the Week: Boardwalk Empire, Colbert/Stewart, and Getting Back into the Swing of Things

Football Sundays, to me, are 17 of my favorite days of the year. Every Football Sunday I run through my awesome routine of doing nothing until an hour after the first game starts, then DVRing and fast forwarding through the games while I continue to do nothing (on a related note, I'm lazy).

Week 1 was no exception for how much I love Football Sundays, especially after the Bears win-- even if I needed to take a shower after that final "no touchdown" call on the Lions. (Or I just needed to shower, either way.)

Football Sundays are a routine for me though, and served as agreat reminder after leaving for a week for vacation:  getting back into a routine is important.

Whether it is a routine that has only been gone for a week (from vacation), or 6 months (from the off-season), getting caught up on everything that happened when you were gone or not paying attention can be a daunting task, but once you're back in stride, things are great.

So, on the note that, I'm caught up, in stride, and ready for the fall, here are your Links of the Week:

As far as web browsers go, I have previously pledged my allegiance to Firefox and Google Chrome (basically anything BUT Internet Explorer). Well, Gizomodo took at look at the upcoming release of Internet Explorer 9 and, well, my allegiance's ties may be strained a bit. [Gizmodo]

A few months ago, NBA2k11 announced that they would be making their next game extremely Michael Jordan-centric, offering 10 versions of the superstar. They just came out with a commercial for the game, and... well, I think I just wet myself with excitement. [Chris Littmann, via Darren Rovell on Twitter]

I know I've had this conversation 10,000 times, it's a pet peeve. I'm sure I'm not the only one who dislikes talking about this.. you know, the conversation that usually goes something like,

PERSON A: "Gee whiz, I'm thirsty. Do you have any pop?"
PERSON B: "Pop? What's pop? Around these parts, we call it 'soda'!"
PERSON A: "OH REALLY?!? Where I'm from, we call it pop!"
PERSON B: "That's amazing! Let's talk about this some more!"
PERSON C: "Ugh."

(Note: I'm Person C.)

And for the record, this story has a point. The Chicagoist has a regional breakdown of "Pop vs. Soda vs. Coke". In case you cared. [Chicagoist, via TBL]

As a youngster, my favorite band by far was Weezer. They came out with a killer first album ("The Blue Album"- one of the top ten in my lifetime), then released "Pinkerton" a year or so later. It got panned critically, and Weezer took almost 6 years off before recording another album since the singer/songwriter, Rivers Cuomo, was so depressed about the panning. Personally, I thought it was almost as good as the Blue Album, which makes the news that they're going on a Pinkerton tour this fall for the first time AWESOME. [Rolling Stone]

I am quite intrigued by this Google Music concept, where you store your music in a cloud and pay $25 a year(!) to stream it from anyplace on Earth. Could this be the end of the MP3 Player/iPod? [Wired Online]

Over the two or three years (basically, since I've had a DVR), I've become a TV snob. On a related note, I'M EXCITED FOR BOARDWALK EMPIRE TO PREMIERE THIS WEEKEND! SCORSESE! {What's Alan Watching?]

I have no idea why but I always laugh when a mascot eats a cheerleader. Without fail. [The Big Lead]

I'm not one to usually bring in politics into the blog, but I'm looking forward to the Jon Stewart - Stephen Colbert opposing rallies being held on October 30th of this year. [Washington Post]

And why not, Unnecessary Censorship (sorry if there's a pre-roll ad):