Rock, Paper, Saddam!

Ok, I know I posted this two and a half years ago or so, but given recent events, I thought it was relevant again. Besides, it's just so friggin' funny!! Oh, and I just needed to blog something...

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!

Merry Christmas to all. Peace. Love. All that jazz.

Sound Like Anyone You Know?

The new Internet addictions I think half (at least) the attorneys suffer from the Crackberry addiction. Our friend Kristin suffers from blog streaking. I do suffer from one of the afflictions listed, but I'm not saying which...

It's Jurassic Park Time!

Virgin dragon prepares to give birth. I love the quote from the guy at the zoo, "[W]e certainly won't be naming any of the hatchlings Jesus." Too funny! Don't know why not, though. Actually, I do know. Damn PC. I'm sure they don't want to offend anyone.

OH! Speaking of out-of-control PC... What the $%&* is up with Chicago? They are afraid that non-Christians will be offended by advertisements for a Christmas movie? At a Christmas festival??!? Now, I'll be the last one to object to someone trying to keep organized religion out of somewhere it shoudn't be (e.g. schools, courts), but at a friggin' Christmas festival? Puh-Leeze!! Next thing you know, cities will take away people's freedom of choice by outlawing food that they deem unhealthy, like foie gras and trans fats. Oh, wait. They've already done that...

The Christmas Spirit is Here!

Six days to spare and we finally put up our little (artificial) tree! It may not be much, but it's ours. :-) Next year, we'll have a bigger place and, hopefully, we'll have a real tree! I'll have to remember to put a picture of it up here. So far, we're doing pretty well. We got all (I think) of our Christmas cards out. We've gotten almost all of our gifts. Chrissy has even wrapped several of them. I've even got one of hers wrapped! I'm still trying to nail down some details for the actual day itself. In any case, two more days of work, three days off, then the big day! WOO HOO!!

I'm Not Right

I am having way too much fun with this. I came across it on IMDb, where there was a link to it. I was crackin' up!! I must have sent out about 10 of them by phone or email...

Mei Lan!!

Atlantapandababy finally has a name! Her name is Mei Lan (roughly translated - Atlanta Beauty) and she's the third cutest panda baby ever! Of course, the cutest being Tai Shan (Peaceful Mountain). And the second cutest being Su Lin ("A little bit of something very cute," though doesn't it sound like a Romulan Subcommander?).

Miscellaneous Thoughts

This fiasco with the SD Senator Tim Johnson is ridiculous. Why does the governor get to appoint a successor? This is regardless of party. At the very least, if the gov gets to pick, he should have to try to pick someone from the same party whose platform aligns with the person who was elected by the people! Then that appointee should be ratified by Senators from the elected's party. Something like that. Or another election should be held. Otherwise, the will of the people basically counts for nothing, simply because someone, through no fault of their own, got sick.

Golden Globes. Congrats to Heroes for its nom for Best Drama and to Masi Oka for his for best supporting actor nom. And, wow! Michael C. Hall was nominated for Best Actor in a TV Drama for Dexter. Yaaayy! He absolutely deserves it for his incredibly nuanced, subtle performance.

Finally, I think I'm actually getting in to the holiday spirit a little early this year. Eleven days away, and I'm actually feelin' it (despite last weekend - a whole other story). Usually, it's not until at least the week of. Still not ready to start listening to Christmas music 24/7, but I don't think I ever get to that point.

Interesting Developments

Well, there have been some interesting events on a few different fronts. First off, I got an interesting email the other day from someone I hadn't seen in years! Denny! Of course, that name may not mean anything to anyone reading this, but he is a friend of mine from my days at the bank. He and Kelly (another friend from those days - she's a teacher) and I hung out on a semi-regular basis. Our favorite thing to do was to hang out at Kelly's, make Chef Boyardee pizza and watch Silence of the Lambs. I know, a bit odd, but then again, so am I, and by extension, most of my friends. So apparently, he was checking out MySpace the other day, and found my page. Now, if you go to my page, you'll see, there's nothing earth-shattering there. I mostly have it so that I can keep up with my niece & nephew, and a few movies/tv shows. So the fact that he found it, and that I actually checked it and found his message, is pretty amazing. I can't count the number of times I have told Chrissy about some crazy shit that he & I would talk about, joke about, or do, so I'm enjoying catching up with him.

On the TV front, Dexter only has 2 episodes left. Don't know if that's for the season or for the show. Sometimes cable does strange things with shows, so I don't know if the show is just a one-season show, or if it will go on, or if even the ratings merit a 2nd season. I know the quality does. It is better than 99% of what is out there on network TV. I know I look forward to it more than I do Lost. Dexter's sister is dating a doctor who just happens to moonlight as a serial killer, just like Dexter does. Only this guy is a few steps ahead of Dex. But from the previews at the end of Sunday's show, it looks like Dexter figures it out before the end of the season. Can't wait to see how he handles it! He handled Rita's asshole ex pretty well. Oh, snap! I just realized as I typed this that Rita's daughter is named Astor, and Dexter's captain is Capt. Astor. That can't be a coincidence. Does Rita have some connection to the captain? Hmmm....

But even more so than Dexter, my current fave is Heroes!! This show is sooo good! It is everything the first season of Lost was (emphasis on the past tense). Chrissy got a little squeamish the first episode or two when a couple of deaths by super-powered serial killer took place, but the story and characters are so good, she got hooked pretty quickly. There were four jaw-drop moments in Monday's episode, in no particular order: 1) Seeing that Peter's flash forward that he is the exploding one, 2) Eden's death, 3) Hiro v. T-Rex, 4) the Haitian speaks! Speaking of the Haitian, what is his agenda? Claire will play along, I suppose. Though it would be interesting to see get mind-wiped, re-discover her power and re-approach Zach to help her out. I hope she strikes up a new friendship with him. I think he was good for her and I'd hate to see him get cut out entirely.

Brandywine River Hotel

Wow. We just spent the four days before Thanksgiving at the aforementioned Brandywine River Hotel in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, for a belated anniversary trip. It was a gorgeous hotel in a beautiful area. We had a King Jacuzzi Suite and even had a real fireplace! We had to use Duraflame logs, but hey, it wasn't gas.

We went the Brandywine River Museum, which showcases the art of N.C., Andrew and Jamie Wyeth. We had a special treat at the museum - a tour by Andrew's only grandchild, Victoria Wyeth! She does occasional tours there, and we lucked out that she was doing one the afternoon we were at the museum. It was really neat. She will sit down with her grandfather and he will say to her, "Ok. What painting do you want to talk about?" Then he will tell her all about what it means, what he was thinking, how he did it, everything.

We also went to Winterthur, which is an estate formerly owned by Henry Francis du Pont, who amassed one of the largest collections of Americana, more specifically furniture. When he had gotten his hands on pretty much every type of furniture made in America at the time, he began buying furniture made in other countries to be sold in America. In 1951, the house became a museum and the family moved into the "cottage" where they now run a store. They had the entire building decorated for the holidays (a bit early for me - bah humbug) and it was beautiful. Oh, they had a visiting exibit of costumes from period movies. Very cool.

Last, but definitely not least, we went to Chaddsford Winery, where I got to taste pretty much their whole range of their wines! I think my favorite was the '05 Pinot Noir, which I took to Thanksgiving dinner at Mom's. Actually, I think my real favorite was the '02 Merican, but that was $40/bottle, so I didn't get any of that...

Guess that's all for now. I'll try to see if I can figure out how to post some pics of everything. Oh, and Happy Birthday to Rob!

Damn, I'm Good

As I said almost two weeks ago, Dr. prosthetic is the Ice Truck Killer! Somehow it seemed too perfect that he created artificial limbs and the killer cut limbs in just such a way that they looked artificial. The killer needed medical knowledge to do what he did. I'm just surprised they revealed it so quickly.

A Few Comments On This List

Premiere Magazine - The 50 Biggest Hollywood Disasters

#47. Nipples on the Batman suit. Who cares? I certainly didn't when Batman & Robin came out, and I care even less now! People obsessed with those damn nipples, when they should have obsessed with the awful debacle that was the miscasting of Mr. Freeze. I actually like Ahnuld (as an actor, not a politician), but he was absolutely wrong for the part!

#31. Sean Connery's Scottish accent in Hunt for Red October. Ok, this has been pissing me off since the movie came out 16 years ago. a) If a Russian man learns to speak English, who do you think will teach him? Someone from Brooklyn? Fargo? No, probably someone from closer by, say, maybe Europe? b) His dialog is @$#*ing translated!! The movie starts off entirely in Russian. 10 minutes or so in, the camera focuses in to a character's mouth as he's speaking Russian. Then, as the camera pulls back, the character is speaking English. When the Russians finally meet the Americans, the dialog returns to Russian. That's so the whole damn movie isn't in subtitles! People are so stupid!!

#1. The tyranny of the opening weekend box office. Amen, brother! When Hulk opened, it made over $62M opening weekend! And it was considered a failure. Partly because it had been so front-loaded to make a big opening weekend that it couldn't sustain that pace. It opened in 3,660 theaters! By comparison, the first weekend in November, the top 10 movies averaged 2,387 screens for an total of about $110M. But because the Sunday box office of Hulk had dropped off from Friday/Saturday, it was a flop. I think a lot of people stayed away from this movie because they were hearing about how much it was dropping over the weekend. Why is Friday B.O. even being discussed on Saturday/Sunday? Estimates don't usually even come out until Monday, then final numbers are tallied by Tuesday. Whatever. The point is, movies aren't given a chance to perform at the box office. If they don't have a blockbuster opening, they get shuffled out of the theaters. I hate it.

I Knew It!

Redskins Sending Portis to IR

I knew there was still something wrong with his shoulder. You don't operate on a healthy shoulder. Well, on the good side, at least we should get to see what Duckett can do. I guess between this and Cambpell going in, we're offically calling this a rebuilding season. Wonder if they'll try to trade out a few high-priced players to get some draft picks back, then really try to rebuild. I doubt it, but we'll see.

My Theories/Thoughts on Dexter

Ok, I'm a day late because I recorded Dexter on Sunday, but didn't get to watch it until last night. Anyway, here are some of my thoughts/theories on last night's ep:

1. Obviously, Neil Perry is not the Ice Truck Killer. I think he may be a protege. Someone the ITK saw (like Dexter) and decided to "play" with. The body in the yard (his mom?) is either an attempt to copy the ITK, or a killing that the Killer did as a favor to Perry.

2. Does anyone else notice that looks Dexter looks an awful lot like Paul (Rita's ex)? That alone is pretty creepy. But then you add in that Rita seems to have a penchant for picking psychos. Pretty scary.

3. I think there is a chance, not a great one, but a chance that Dexter is the Ice Truck Killer. Aside from the fact that he's a psychopath, he has been putting on a front to everyone but his father for the past, what, twenty years? He basically has created a false personality to portray to the outside world. That kind of stress, not to mention the stress of killing multiple individuals and covering it up without getting caught, can most likely take a toll on a body. He may have snapped. I don't think so, but if it turns out to be the case, at least it's out there now.

4. In actuality, I think Debra's new beau, Dr. Whatshisname is the Ice Truck Killer. Something about the way he said he "studied the human form" set off an alarm in my mind. The Killer clearly knows something about anatomy and the human body. Hell, they thought Jack the Ripper was a surgeon, so why not? Besides, it would make for great drama if she had to decide whether or not to shoot her boyfriend to stop him from killing. Then she'd come to Dex and say, "How could I have not seen that someone so close to me was a killer?"

5. The Captain is a dick.

6. Love that ending!

Hallucinogenic Hungarian Film

I love stories like this!!

a) Never heard of Tartan Films.
b) Rarely see obese speed-eaters. Usually, they look about 98 lbs. soaking wet.
c) Not just cats, but gigantic cats.
d) A man who shoots fire out of his penis? What's so special about that? Can't everyone?
e) Huh???!?! Did I drop acid before reading this story?

Well... Can't Say As I'm Overly Surprised...

Campbell to Start, Replacing Brunell I wish it hadn't come to this, but here we are. I don't think the Redskins' problems begin and end with Brunell. I think if the line gave him some protection and opened some holes for the RBs, we'd be in much better shape. I'm not sure how much this move will help. Unfortunately (or fortunately for the team), I wouldn't be surprised if this re-energizes the team. The same thing happened two years ago, when Ramsey was here. The team was pissing me off because the receivers were dropping passes and the line wasn't holding up. As soon as Gibbs pulled Brunell and put in Ramsey, suddenly everyone started playing better. We shall see...

Too Funny!!

Sometimes, YouTube is lame. Sometimes it is hilarious! This is clearly a case of the latter. The movie Office Space is one of my favorites. Just when I thought it couldn't get any funnier...

I Got the Horse Right Here, His Name Is Paul Revere...

Well, we had a pretty good day today. We went to Laurel Park track today. They had the Breeder's Cup being simulcast from Churchill Downs on the televisions. They also had live racing at the Laurel track. We had a set amount of money we had taken with us to spend1 and we did not go over it, even with eating lunch. Actually, I did fairly well. I placed a $2 win/show bet (for a total $4 bet) on Thor's Echo2 in the 6th race at Churchill Downs. He came in first at 15-1 odds!! When I went to the machine to cash in, I don't know what I was expecting, but it paid $43.40! Wow! Chrissy did ok. She bet (not sure how much) on Round Pond on the 8th race at Churchill Downs and she won. He paid about $33.

The cool thing about going to Laurel is that you can go down to the paddock and watch the horses get saddled and walked around. At one point, Chrissy was looking at one of the guide horses (who was named Al Capony) lovingly. The rider got off the horse, handed Chrissy the reins and said, "Here, can you hold this for a second?" I said, "You just made her day!" He went over to tell someone something, came back and handed Chrissy a starlight mint,3 which she got to feed the horse! In any case, we had a great time. It was lots of fun. We spent about 6 hours there and by the time we headed out, I was only down about $18 for the whole day! I had bought a soda and a candy bar, bet on a ton of races at 2 tracks, and had two gin & tonics. Chrissy was down a bit more, but she paid for our admission, the program and our lunches. Overall a rather successful day!

1. My view of betting is that it is more like spending. If you go to Disney, you spend your money, have fun, go home with little or nothing. You go to the track or AC, you spend your money, have fun, and maybe go home with a little left over. Who knows?

2. Thor is the Norse God of Thunder, as well as a superhero in Marvel Comics.

3. Horses apparently love peppermints. Who knew?

I Almost Forgot

But I am reminded with all the hubbub about this Sunday's game against Dallas... When we played Indy on the 22nd, the Colts came out from halftime like a team with a mission. Although we were up by a point coming out of the half, we were playing like we weren't quite as good as our 2-4 record. By 2:46 left in the 3rd quarter, the Colts had taken a 33-14 lead on a touchdown and it was more than obvious that they had the game well in hand. So what do they do with a 19-point lead? Go for the two-point conversion!! F-ing assholes! Then, as late as 7:45 minutes left in the game, still with a 19-point lead and obvious domination on the field, they're still passing on 2nd down! If you're halfway through the last quarter of a game dominating the way they were, you run the ball and you take time off the clock. Otherwise you're just trying to run up the score. That pissed me off. I thought they had more class than that. Guess I was wrong.

Is It Just Me??

Am I the only one who thinks that this is more than just a coincidence? Has nothing to do with upcoming election? Yeah, just coincidence. The same day I read this story about GOP seats being in jeopardy due to "scandals" which happen to include Mark Foley's "unseemly contacts with teenage males"? Bullshit...

How Cool Is This??

Dexter on Showtime - Visit the Dexter Blog Buzz, and read featured Dexter blogs. I got the following email today from someone at Showtime:

"Hello! We just launched a new page which links to online reviews and blogger responses to Dexter and I have included a link to yours. Thought you'd like to see it before it falls out of the cue. "

Then s/he included the above link to a page on the Showtime website! And there I was, linked right above and article from the TV Squad! Definitely way cool!

Dexter Rocks!

Dexter (on Showtime) has got to be one of the best shows on TV right now. I'm certainly looking forward to it more than Lost right now. At least the plot moves on Dexter. Lost seems to be... well... lost. Dexter, while definitely not for the faint of heart, is not nearly as graphically gory and violent as it could be, given that it's a show on pay cable about a serial killer. Dexter Morgan works by day for the Miami Police Department as a forensic blood expert. To his sister (they were both adopted), his other co-workers (including his sis), and is girlfriend (beaten and raped by her former drug-dealing boyfriend - and consequently "in her own way, just as damaged" as he is), he seems perfectly normal. He helps his sister's career by hiving her fantastic insights to a rival serial killer's behavior, which she contributes to his fantastic "hunches." His inability to feel normal emotions, and thus a lack of sex drive, comes across to his frigid girlfriend as a wonderful sensitivity to her reluctance to engage in sexual activity with him due to her abusive ex. His deep interest in violent crime scenes comes across as dedication to his job to all his co-workers, except macho shithead Sgt. Doakes, who finds Dexter creepy. His boss, Lt. Maria La Guerta, on the other hand, thinks Dexter is just dreamy and hits on him whenever she can. If only she knew. Most interesting are the flashbacks to Dexter's youth. His father was a cop named Harry, played by James Remar, who adopted Dexter and Debra. Harry realizes from an early age that Dexter has a nearly uncontrollable urge to kill. At first, he tries to direct Dexter's urges into hunting. When he realizes that killing deer won't satisfy his son's compulsion, he begins to train Dexter how to identify and kill the "right" people and, using his training as a cop, how to get away with it. He teaches Dexter how to verify that the person deserves death (e.g., they have murdered, escaped on a technicality and will kill again), obsessively, ritualistically prepare for the abduction and killing, and how to dispose of the body. I know it all sounds a bit dark, but it is really one of the best written shows on TV right now. Filled with dark humor and quirky situations, I highly recommend it (if you have the stomach)!

P.S. Heroes is on tonight! Yay! That's a post for another time...

Campbell Takes Snaps in Practice

So Jason Campbell has practiced for two days. Does this mean Gibbs is pulling Brunell? I doubt it. Brunell has some sore ribs after Sundays beating in Indianapolis. I'd be willing to bet he sits out some more practices, but plays against Dallas a week from Sunday. Look at what he did against Jax after he sat out. Actually, I should say look at what he did against Jax after he sat out and Clinton Portis got his run on. Which begs the question, why won't the coaches run Portis more? I asked this question before and have yet to see a reasonable explanation. All during last year's run to the playoffs, everyone kept saying we were playing better because we had re-dedicated ourselves to the run. So why aren't we doing that now, when we're struggling? Argh! Example: in our two wins against Houston and Jacksonville, Portis and Betts had a combined 70 rushes! That's 35 per game average! Against the Colts, who incidentally had the worst run defense in the league, 22. Portis, who ran a record 1,516 yards last year on 352 carries rushed twelve times. Twelve... In the whole game! He should be doing at least that every half! *sigh* I just hope Gibbs & Co. can pull it together before the whole season goes by and we're sitting at 2-14.

Visitors from England

Chrissy and I got to visit last night with my old high school friend, Katy, and her three children. We missed her husband, Geoff, who had to return to England before we were able to get over there. By "old," I mean we've known each other for 24 years, not that she's old & decrepit. In any case, she's visiting from England for the first time in 3 years or so, and had about one free night left. We went over after work to her mother's house in Laurel. It's amazing to see how much her kids have grown in such a short time! I've seen pictures on her blog, but it's not the same as seeing them in person. Alex, her youngest and her only son, warmed up to me first as we were eating pizza. We had a nice little talk about pizza crust (which is the only part he likes) and I guess he decided that I was ok. Once Olivia (the middle child - it was her 7th birthday) saw that Alex was talking to me, she decided she could talk to me. And then, when Sarah saw Olivia and Alex talking to me, she figured I was ok, too. Naturally, they took to Chrissy the moment we walked in as if they had known her all of their short lives. In any case, all three children are adorable and we had a lovely time.

Katy gave us an incredible wedding gift, too. I had forgotten she does quilting as a hobby and she made us a very nice quilt.

She didn't make the individual squares, but as I understand it, she obtained all of them through trade with other quilters for squares that she did make. So in essence, all the squares used in the quilt are a direct result of her hard work. So, we had a great time. Hopefully, it won't be another three years or more before we see her again! More than once, the topic of our flying to England was brought up. That would be nice...

Nobody Bothers Me Either! *wink*

I saw this on Celebritology this morning and haven't stopped smiling about it yet! Brought back memories of Captain 20, Ultraman, Bozo, and Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot. The best part is that Chrissy now knows what I'm talking about when I say, "Nobody bothers me! Nobody bothers me, either!" She still thinks I'm crazy, but whatchoo gonna do?

There's Still Not Anything Wrong With That...

Ok, so the Redskins are now 2-4. Despite this, and in addition to my love for Clinton Portis, I now have love for Santana Moss. During the Skins' pathetic loss to the previously-winless Titans, the fans began chanting Jason Campbell's name and booing Mark Brunell. In response, Santana Moss said, "If you're going to be with us, be with us. Don't cheer one minute for the person, then boo him as soon as he has a couple of miscues or you feel like something's not going his way." As great as Skins' fans are, they are so fickle. I know the first impulse when a team is struggling is to blame the QB, but come on. Saunders only runs Portis 14 times?? WTF? Since the beginning of the Skins' 5-game run to the playoffs last year, all I heard was how when we commit to the run, we win. During those games, Portis averaged 26 carries per game. We struggled through the preseason and the first two games without him, then won 2 games (including Jax) when he came back. 14?? My theory, such as it is, is that Portis' shoulder was bothering him again. I mentioned to Chrissy during the game that he wasn't getting the ball very often and, when he was, he was running to the left a lot. I wouldn't be surprised if he confessed to the coaches before the game that he was sore and needed some rest before the Colts game this week, so they went easy on him. Even with that, though, what about Betts? Sellers? Duckett?? We trade a 3rd round pick for him and he's got 5 carries in 1 game? Ok, enough ranting. The point of all this, besides just getting something written down since I've been so lazy with blogging lately, is that I love me some Santana. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

To quote M*A*S*H's Colonel Potter...

HORSE HOCKEY!!! Ok, I'm not a big conspiracy theorist, but come on. After all the polls, articles and discussion about how shaky the Republicans will be in the upcoming elections and how many seats they're going to lose, right before the primaries, the price of gas drops about 50 cents? Gee, how much do you wanna bet that we hit right around $2/gallon right before November 7? Did they suddenly rebuild all the refineries around New Orleans? I could swear I remember the oil companies (and whose buddies run them?) saying the price was increasing because Hurricane Katrina wiped out the refineries and supplies were low. Hmmm....

Fluorescent Green Rat Sperm

Gotta love any story that uses the term "flourescent green rat sperm" in it. Especially when the first sentence of the article contains the phrase "Who's your daddy?" Next time you're at a party, try working that phrase (about the rat sperm, not the daddy) into conversation. If I were still single, I bet I'd drive the ladies nuts with that one...

Al Saunders - The Redskins' New Sheriff

The Redskins' New Sheriff Ok, here's my theory. Gibbs has been back for two years. Greg Williams has been his (kick ass) defensive coordinator for both years. At the end of last year, everyone thought Williams would leave to take a head coaching job, but guess what? He signed an extension on his contract for three more years. What do I think? Dan Snyder & Coach Gibbs convinced Williams to stay on for the remainder of Gibbs' tenure by promising him the Head Coach job when Gibbs left. Smart move, I think. Ok. Then, after the end of the season last year, we hear Al Saunders, offensive coordinator of the highest scoring offenses in the league for the past two years, has been hired to take over the offense for Gibbs. After reading this article, I'm guessing that the feeling in the league is that he's proven himself as a coordinator, but doesn't have the proven leadership ability to take the top spot. So what does he do? He takes a job as offensive coordinator under one of the greatest coaches and leaders in the history of the NFL. A coach who had done wonders with his team, but has floundered a bit on offense. A team that has a great defense, but has needs help delivering the ball into the end zone. So with the some of the best offensive and defensive coaches in the league, with some of the most creative free agent financing and acquisitions in the off season, it looks like the Skins will have the ability to go all the way this year. That's what we get out of it. What does Saunders get? He gets to watch the master in action. He gets to watch and learn from a cocah who has won three Super Bowls. He gets to learn how to be a head coach in the National Football League. And three years from now, when Gibbs has proven that he still has what it takes to win a Super Bowl and retires again, and Williams takes his place at the top spot in the franchise, Saunders will have his choice of teams to call his own.

WTF??

Body Parts Found in Nude Dancer's Home

It's Back, Baby!

The Contender is back! Prime time, baby! WOO HOO!! Unfortunately for Chrissy, the two-hour premiere started at 10:00, so she didn't make it to the second fight. She's just not a night owl. First fight shocked me. From everything that everyone had seen to that point, I don't think anyone expected "K-9" Bundrage to beat Michael Clark. He just seemed too awkward and raw during sparring. Clark seemed to be the experienced one with the skills. Unfortunately for him, though, K-9 was too strong and he kept Clark away with the long jab. He used it effectively to keep Clark from getting close enough to hurt him. Kept him from putting together combinations. The second fight, Norberto Bravo (35 years old!) beat Rudy Cisneros by split decision. I was surprised it wasn't unanimous. Not shocked, but surprised. Both fighters scored pretty much non-stop for 5 rounds, but Bravo was just the more skilled fighter. Cisneros looked good, though. Nothing to be ashamed of. A few interesting changes from last season. No challenges on the first episode. Pretty much introduced the fighters, let them choose teams, and let them pick their first fighter without knowing what the other side would do. The team that won the first fight chose the second fight. The winning boxer also got to choose his place for the next fight. They had a big ol' board on the wall with a playoff-style bracket showing the matchups through the final round. The trick is that K-9 got to choose his spot in Round 2 (1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th fight), but no one knows yet who his opponent will be. Interesting. Can't wait for next week!

Not That There's Anything Wrong With That...

Can I? Dare I say it? I love Clinton Portis! Not that I'm gay or anything (see title of this post). Aside from his obvious talent (1,516 rushing yards last year) and his great sense of humor (Southeast Jerome), I think the man is a great team player. Just read what he says about the upcoming season. Watch him play. He always knows where the ball is and is aware of what is happening in any given play. More importantly, he doesn't stop playing until after the play is over. How many times do you see people standing around doing nothing because they thought they heard a whistle, only to see someone run right past them with the ball? You never see Portis do that. He hustles until the bitter end... and then keeps going. He also has a bit of a reputation as a man-about-town, but come on, the guy's 24, single, good looking (see title again) and rich. BUT you don't hear about him getting arrested for pulling a gun on someone (you listening, Sean?). Is it obvious? I'm an admirer!

Spider-Man 3

Holy Crap!! Damn, this looks killer! Sandman - Looks good. I bet he will look even better once the f/x are finished. The black costume looks great. Not identical to the comics version, but works better for the big screen. My guess is that it will come back from the moon with Jameson's son. Peter will get rid of it in the same was as he does in the comics (sound waves from a bell tower) and it will attach to Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) much as it did in the comics. Possible setup for SM4? Looks like Harry gets on the glider, too, but my guess is that he does it as a favor to Mary Jane to try to stop Peter from hurting anyone, especially himself. The teaser kicks ass. I can't wait for May 2007!! Argh!

The End of Civilization as We Know It

I don't know which is worse, this, or the fact that K-Fed & Britney are spawing a 2nd time... God help us all.

Luau, Part II

Ok, this is a picture of the tablescape from the luau that we had on Saturday. I had tried repeatedly to post the picture, but for some reason, I was unable to. The wok on the right had the fried rice Chrissy's sister Noelle made. You can't see, but the pinkish tray on the front left corner of the table had a tiki face on it. It is holding sweet potato chips. The 3-tier tray directly behind it was a wedding gift from one of the guests, Sharon. All in all, I think it was a great success. Everyone seemed very surprised and pleased with the lengths to which we went to decorate everything. If I can get the image tool to work again, I'll post a picture of Chrissy and me in our luau gear. :-)

This is So Friggin' Bizarre

Everytime Connie Chung Says Goodbye We Die A Little, Especially This Time - Gawker

This is Farrah-on-Letterman/Cruise-on-Oprah-level weirdness. I'm talking Howard-Dean-scream weird. Actually, it reminds me of Ashcroft singing, "Let the Eagle Soar." Eeee... Wonder if she was boozin' it up before this show. Or maybe she started doing drugs. Who knows?

Turning Up 'American Idol'

Turning Up 'American Idol'
This is an amazing article that about a man who was born with a defective gene that made his hearing all but gone by the time he started school. He really has an incredible perspective on life in general. I think that people's attitudes really have a lot to do with how they happy they are in life. Some people are bound and determined to be miserable and no matter what happens to the, by God, they are going to be miserable! In any case, I was very moved by Mr. Swiller's story. I would recommend that anyone read it.

A Weekend of Extremes

Well, we went to New Jersey this weekend to visit with Chrissy's family. We had a luau last night with a bunch of our friends, and that went great. We baked a ham, fried some rice and got some chicken, we had crab rangoon appetizers as well as chicken and vegetable spring rolls. We had rum (yum!). Basically anything remotely polynesian, we got. Of course, we fed 12 people and still had leftovers for about 8 more meals. But that's nothing unusual for us. So that was the good...

Then, this morning, we were meeting Chrissy's cousin Denise and Aunt Fran for breakfast at a restaurant she highly recommended. Then we were going to visit her Aunt Kay, who is in a physical rehab center recovering from breaking a pelvis bone in a fall. If she follows orders, she should be able to go gome in a few weeks, but she's pretty stubborn. She's already had one setback because she was trying to do too much herself.

But I digress. We went to a restaurant in Maple Shade, NJ, called Maritsa's. We had forgotten it was Father's Day, and had to wait a little bit for a table. No problem. After a bit, we got seated. The waitress took our order, including our usual "pork roll well done," and the wait began. After about 15-20 minutes, we started seeing people around us finish their meals and leave, and other patrons being seated and ordering. Then, we started seeing the new patrons getting their food! So we snagged the passing waitress and asked if it would be much longer, and were told (with no apology) that "he" was real busy and backed up and it wouldn't be long. Another 10-15 minutes later, Denise got up and asked the manager how much longer it would be, because she had to leave for work soon. She was assured that it would be any minute. Another 10 minutes or so later, we decided that if one more table that was seated after us got served before us, we would leave. No sooner did we decide that, then the table next to us got served. So we get up to leave. As we pass the counter, the owner/manager sees us and says, "Oh, wait, your food is up!" We turned to each other, trying to decide if we should stay, when the owner's son (and the cook of the restaurant) says, "You want it well done or you want it raw? Get the hell out of here!" I said, "Forget it. Let's leave." I guess the owner decided to back his son and said, "You always complain! We don't want you here! Leave and don't come back!" So long story short (too late), if you're ever in Maple Shade, NJ, don't ever got to Maritsa's on Main Street. The service is slow and apathetic and the owners and cooks are rude.

The 40-Yard Line!!

Yow... God, I love the internet. Where would you have seen a story like this before Al Gore created the internet?

In other news, Ben Roethlisberger is an idiot. If you haven't heard, he was riding his motorcycle without a helmet and crashed. He claims now that he will be more careful in the future and wear his helmet. More likely, Cower told him that if he doesn't stop riding or at least wear a helmet, he's off the team. That's what I would do if I were his coach...

Blogarithm

Again inspired by my sister's blog, I am adding a Blogarithm button. If you wish to be notified any time I make a new post, however infrequently, simply click on the button at the bottom of the column on the right and follow the instructions. Thanks for reading!

YouTube - AL Gore as the president

YouTube - AL Gore as the president

I had heard about this before and I finally watched it. It's friggin' hilarious! Now, I just have to find and watch Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondents Dinner!

Ted Koppel's Speech

I can't vouch for its accuracy, but according to The Bay Net News, this is what Koppel said at my neice's graduation. Unfortunately, they leave out his hilarious opening remarks. He started by saying that he knew some people were hoping it would be a short speech and "Why, oh why did I drink that much last night?" "No," he said, "I wrote it, and you're going to listen to it." He also said something to the effect that he's been paid enough money over the years that, if he was wearing a rug, it would look a lot better than his hair looked. In any case, enough of me, on to Mr. Koppel:

"I want to talk to you today about time... and television... and the relevance of one to the other. Let's talk first about TIME. There is, in each of us, just enough ego that we tend to regard time as something which is synonymous with our individual lifetime. We measure time in terms of our own experience. For some among you, the past 20 years represent, quite literally, a lifetime. For your younger brothers and sisters, it's even more than that, it's history. For your parents, your grandparents and me, it's the blink of an eye. One of the most jarring aspects of getting older is the sudden retaliation that time does indeed pass just as quickly as our parents once said it did. Even within some of the younger amongst you here today, there is the gnawing sense that not all of life's treasures lie ahead of you-that there is also something of value in what is past. You should be warned that it becomes increasingly easy, as you get older, to drown in nostalgia. In fact, you can almost measure where you are in life by the degree to which you have begun looking back rather than ahead. Some, among the very old, lose themselves completely in the past, presumably on the grounds that they no longer care, or dare to look ahead. Some, among the very young, lose themselves entirely in the future, perhaps in the expectation that there is always some promise in the unknown. Both are illusions. John Lennon once said, "Life is what happens while you're making plans." Time doesn't pass. We do, hurtling across the face of a continuum. More than 75 years ago my father bought a small bronze, which I took into my home after he died. It's the figure of a lithe young woman, head back, hair streaming out behind her, her whole body balanced on the ball of one foot, frozen in the act of running, endlessly running. The bronze is entitled "Fleeting Time." But time doesn't race by any more than that bronze has moved in the past 75 years. She stands absolutely still, frozen in the illusion of motion; and my entire family, my mother, my father, my wife, her mother and father, our children and I have raced past the motionless figure of Time, believing all the while that she was running and we were standing still.

"Life is what happens while you're making plans."

"The passing of a generation, the span of a lifetime, the difference between youth and middle-age, or the passage from middle-age to what is poetically referred to as the winter of our lives, passes as quickly as a sigh. And as we sweep past the figure of Time, we in the profession of television perfect the art of measuring Time in teaspoons. I'll come back to that image in a few moments.

"Have you ever wondered why it is that the human race is so intolerant of excellence, so unforgiving of originality? We tend to reserve our highest praise and our richest rewards for those whom we can understand. We encourage banality because it threatens none of our preconceptions. We raise conformity to the level of high achievement by offering it as society's best alternative to anarchy; and perhaps it is. But we tend to be truly comfortable with excellence only when its practitioners are dead, or very old, or engaged in some activity which we are free to ignore.

"One of the greatest crimes against society is to threaten the status quo with new ideas. New ideas force us to unravel and re-weave the fabric of our lives. The need for change, after all, implies that there is something lacking, or even wrong, with the way we are. In repressive and totalitarian societies change is either suppressed or, eventually, achieved by violence and imprisonment at the least. In democratic societies like our own, change is the product of gradualism. The ideas of an old Socialist like Norman Thomas, for example, suggested changes far too extreme and far too abrupt to be acceptable when they were first proposed more than 70 years ago. Now, many of them, like social security itself for example, have become such an indispensable part of our society that it would amount to political suicide for anyone to propose dismantling that system. Those then would seem to be the alternatives: abrupt change, imposed by force, quickly, and therefore almost violently, or gradual change that awaits the benediction of a democratic process that is so long, and frequently so tedious that some of the best ideas are stupefied by the endless journey toward consensus.

"And so they come together, these two thoughts: excellence and Time. How to achieve the first, under the assault of the second? How, as a society, we can transcend mediocrity without resorting to revolution? To propose television as an answer to mediocrity is to invite ridicule. Television embodies mediocrity. Its economic framework is designed to appeal to the greatest possible number with the lowest common denominator. Insofar as it even matters who watches a program, it's only a question of meeting Madison Avenue's demand for a particular demographic. Yours, as it turns out. And that is as true of television news and sports as it is of entertainment programming on television. And yet, I do propose television as both the medium for excellence and the means toward telescoping Time.

"We are, as I suggested a few minutes ago, guilty in television of measuring Time in teaspoons. On television news in particular, we tend to find ourselves in a headlong race to be first with the obvious. We are obsessed with immediacy. We gauge the importance of an event by two criteria: who said it or did it, and how recently was it said or done. We thrive on confrontation. And since ours is a society in which elections take place every two years, we have an endless parade of "outs" to challenge the plans and claims of the "ins." What is lost in the constant exchange of political sloganeering is both a sense of context and national purpose. Consider, for example, the national debate over immigration policy. It's all reduced to simplistic concepts: secure borders, the jobs Americans won't do, singing our national anthem in English or Spanish. Absolute success for either side in this debate would be catastrophic to our national interest; but compromise-which must and will be the only path to a solution-does not easily lend itself to powerful slogans of the left or the right. Clever slogans can induce us to elect bad leaders, and initially to support flawed policies. But you can't sustain either on slogans.

"We wonder, as we look back on the past twenty-some odd years of your lifetime, whether we have lost our sense of direction. There's nothing wrong with the system. We simply have to ask ourselves more often, as journalists, as an electorate, WHY something is important. We've become so obsessed with facts that we sometimes lose all touch with the truth. Ultimately, of course, Time provides context. It's usually a far truer glass through which to view events than a television camera. But Time is an expensive prism through which to gain a proper perspective of events. The wisdom we gain after the passage of Time is frequently irrelevant to the particular even that once might have benefitted from that wisdom, unless that wisdom is applied in a fresh way that makes it relevant. Listen to what Walk Whitman had to say about the universality of human experience, and consider how uniquely qualified television could be to spread that message:

"It avails not," Whitman wrote more than 120 years ago,

"It avails not, time nor place - distance avails not,

I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many generations hence.

Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt.

Just as any of you in one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd.

Just as any of you are refresh'd by the gladness of the river and bright flow, I was refresh'd.

Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current, I stood yet was hurried,

What is it then between us?

What is the count of the scores of hundreds of years between us?

Whatever it is, it avails not - distance avails not, and place avails not."

"So wrote Whitman in 'Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.' There is a universality of man that spans distance and Time. And, for the first time in history, it is a universality that can be seen and heard in almost every home in America. Film and videotape span Time; we can hear and see what happened in the past. Satellite transmissions span distance. We have the technology to hear and see what is happening in the remotest corners of the earth. We need only apply excellence and make it understandable, to revolutionize our era, quickly and without violence.

"What a challenge.

What an opportunity.

You have all the tools.

Now seize the moment!"

Soul Patrol!

Taylor Hicks is the winner of American Idol, Season 5! WOO HOO!! I still can't say that I have complete faith in the voting process, but we're happy Taylor won. If Chris wasn't going to win, Taylor definitely deserved it.

Idol Final

General thoughts - I don't know why they had both contestants sing two songs they had already sung. It was a waste of time. Not as much of a waste as the lousy written-for-Idol third songs, though. Those songs were awful!

McPheever - Good first song. Better than she performed it before. Still didn't care for her "Over the Rainbow." I think she does better with the perky, bouncy, fun songs. Lousy last song. Bad song and she was pitchy at the beginning and the end. She did ok in the middle, but she was hampered by bad material.

Taylor - Great first song. Much better than Kat. Second song, his vocals were better than the first time he sang it, but the first time had better energy. Lousy last song. Not quite as bad as Kat's song, but bad. He did a much better job with it, though. He took a lousy song and made it into a bad song.

Overall, I can't see any way that Katherine wins. Unless the voting process is compromised. Given that Taylor has never been in the bottom group and Katharine has been multiple times, and given that I don't think the people that voted for Elliott will vote for Kat, and given that he did much better last night (not to mention he's had 8 more years stage experience), I think Taylor will win easily. If it's a 51 to 49% vote, it's fixed. It should be a clear majority in Taylor's favor. Of course, if the voting process were legitimate, it wouldn't have been so close last week. No way was that legit. Doesn't pass the sniff test.

Tough Night on Idol

Elliott - Three solid performances. Not bad, but not spectacular. I think Simon was absolutely right on his criticism on the first one - Elliott needs to loosen up. I think that has been his biggest drawback. He's too stiff onstage. I think his biggest advantage of the night was that each performance was better than the previous one.

Katharine - Looked great, especially on the first song. I didn't care for the second song. I'm not sure why the judges were so gaga over it. I don't like the sitting-on-the-floor thing again and I thought she tried to hard on it. I also didn't care for her expressions when they criticized her. She came across to me as very arrogant for the 2nd week in a row. I think she thinks she should win and is surprised when someone indicates that she's not the best.

Taylor - Shaky first song, but it helped when he got up and danced with Paula. Fantastic second song. I have been waiting since his audition for him to sing Joe Cocker. Third song was also good, but I am surprised he didn't rock it out. I think he and McPheever would both have benefitted from an upbeat song that got the crowd fired up and got them moving.

Overall, I wasn't overly impressed with the performances last night. Solid, but not spectacular. Nothing wowed me. Unfortunately, I think it is Elliott's night to go tonight. I think it should be Katharine, but I don't think Elliott did well enough to oust her. Actually, I've been getting more and more skeptical of the voting process over the past week, culminating in Chris getting the boot, and I think regardless of the votes, the producers want Kat in the finals. So it will be her versus Taylor. It should be Taylor versus Chris with Chris winning. Alas, it is not to be. There is no doubt in my mind that Taylor should win. If Katharine wins, there is definitely something screwy, and Chrissy and I both agree we will probably not watch next year. We shall see...

I feel so old!

Well, I went to my 20-year old niece's college graduation yesterday. It was a beautiful day and I am so proud of her! The ceremony was very nice. They had a large canopy set up. There were flags from every state or country of the graduating students draped around the inside of the canopy. It was very nice.

Ted Koppel was the guest speaker. I was pleasantly surprised at how funny he was! He even made a joke about his hair looking like a rug. His speech was wonderful, too. Very poignant and thought-provoking. I'm hoping I can get a transcript of it at some point. If I can get it electronically, I'll post it.

My sister and her husband had a party afterwards for Marisa. I couldn't get over how much work they had done on the house! It looked incredible! The food was great, naturally. They had a local band called Lionize. They played reggae and were surprisingly good! Especially for, as Marisa put it, rich white nerds. They weren't really, but they certainly didn't look like reggae musicians.

Schweeeet!!

I am there

To Mr. Brett Ratner,
I humbly apologize for any misgivings I ever had about your ability to direct this movie. Although, I must brag that I was one of the ones who reminded everyone that you quite ably directed Red Dragon. In any case, thank you in advance for a great movie!

Idol Final Four

Ok. My weekly Idol analysis...

Taylor - Kicked some serious ass. Picked the right songs. Had the right energy for the first one and held it back just right for the second. Should have no problem. My only serious problem with the night was Simon's comments to Taylor. I think, just as he disliked Bucky because of his dislike of country music, he doesn't like Taylor because of his dislike of Taylor's "dancing." I think it works for Taylor, though, because it is genuine and not put-on. He doesn't move for show, but because the music moves him. I think the audience feels that and enjoys it. Simon doesn't.
Elliott - I thought he did the best of the night. Amazing. I was worried about his song choices because I hadn't heard of either one, but he knocked it out of the park! I found the songs online afterwards, and I must say I enjoyed Elliott's versions better than Elvis'!
Chris - Did great also! Great job on the first song. Held back a little on the second, but as he said, that's how the song was written.
McPheever - I think she's going to go tonight. I think on the first song(s), she should have stuck with Hound Dog. I was worried when I saw she was doing Hound Dog, but I thought she was better with that part than with All Shook Up. I think it was desperate of her to mix songs and it showed. Wasn't a good performance. I think the second performance was a little more her speed, but still a little shakey. I think she's going. It was definitely the guys' night.

We shall see!

Idol, Top 6

My thoughts on last night and predictions for tonight.
McPheever - Did ok, but I agree with the judges. The song was too big for her. She struggled a bit. There were 2 big reasons viewers may have liked her.
Elliot - Did fantastic. One of the best performances of the night. Paula was nuts for breaking down in tears for it, but I loved how Simon was laughing at her while she was doing it.
Pickler - Not a great performance. She is struggling a bit. I think her days are numbered. Looked great, though. And she's still adorable enough that I think she'll make it 1 more week, but she'll be bottom 3.
Paris - Again, good for a 17-year old, but the song was too much for her. I think she'll be bottom 3, but will make it through.
Taylor - Not his best performance, but I think his general popularity and stage presence will pull him through.
Chris - Kicked ass. Excellent song choice. I am worried, though, since he did the slow sensitive song last week and was 2nd from the bottom. But I think he was tied with Elliott for best performance of the night.

Overall, I'm going for the upset. I'm picking McPheever to go home. I think there are a lot of people who get the same feeling from her that Chrissy does (and I get glimpses of occasionally) - there's a little something not right. Maybe something under the surface that she might not be as nice as she appears. Also, a bit spoiled & arrogant, maybe? Not as bad as Ayla, but it's there. I think she may have put off some of the female viewers with those boobs. (Meow - know what I mean?). I think the females will be bottom 3, Paris will get the black vote, Pickle will get the male-wants-to-be-her-boyfriend vote, Kat will go.

New Respect for Manilow?

Barry Manilow was on Idol this week. I'm not the biggest Manilow fan, but I must admit - after listening to him coach the contestants for their performances, I really have a new respect for him. I'm still not the biggest fan of his music, but I have a new admiration for his talent as a performer. Unfortunately, all the coaching in the world couldn't help Chicken Little (Kevin). I really thought Lisa was going to be the one to go. Her performance really wasn't very good. I'm waiting for Prettyboy Ace to bite it, too. I think Bucky will go out first. I think he's a better performer, but he's too country for the average Idol fan and Ace appeals to the average Idol fan. All I can say is that we'll be pissed if Chris doesn't win...

Time to Play Catch-Up

Man, so much is happening. I need to start posting more regularly.

First off, the Redskins are going bat-shit in free agency! First Randel El, then Lloyd, Archuletta, Carter and Collins. Now, if Al Saunders can whip the offense in to shape and everyone can stay healthy! We know Williams can keep the defense kicking ass... Oh, and we need a punter and a kicker.

Bill Lester became one of the first African-American drivers to qualify for a premiere-cup NASCAR race in almost 20 years! Wow! He's starting in 19th place, which is not too shabby. Hopefully it won't be another 20. Kick ass, Bill!

TV. I can't believe the Shield is already on its last episode of the season! Fifth season and it is still kicking ass! It's all over too quickly, though. Only 11 eps this season. Not enough! Also on f/x is a new show called "Black. White." Very interesting show. Two families, one black and one white, are put in make-up to appear as though they have traded races. They go out and experience a small sample of life as the opposite race. Then the makeup comes off and they live in the same house for six weeks. Not by any means do they get the full experience of a race, but it is interesting to hear their perceptions of events when they discuss them. Highly recommended. I have recently become addicted to 24. The damn advertising worked on me this season. I watched the first four hours consecutively when I was laid up with my back. I was addicted by the end of the first hour. Just today, I bought Season One. I caught the premiere this week of a new show called The Loop. Frickin... Hilarious! Oh my God... To quote Dr. Evil, "I haven't laughed like that since I was a little girl." I'll save Idol for another post.

How much do we take for granted in this country? I was reading the other day about the lander making its run preparing to land on the surface of Mars. On... the... surface... of... MARS!! How amazing is that??!? What is wrong with us that this story is not on the front page of every newspaper in the free world? It's so unbelievable!

Guess that's all for now.

Leather District Gourmet

Ok, I have been inspired by my sister's new blog to pick mine back up. What in God's name is the Leather District, you ask? Check it out for yourself. And be sure to click on the link on her page for Suite101! She has a new column on that site all about gourmet food. Yummy!