soccer, music, my new job

With the church retreat last weekend, I wasn’t able to watch any soccer. However, after catching up on scores and highlights, I do have a couple of observations:
*Liverpool have collapsed.
*Barca are having a wobble, but can Real sustain their form?
*Inter will win the scudetto, but the race for second will be as exciting as any race for the title.

Today and tomorrow are the first legs of the Champions League knockout. I’m very busy this week and will probably miss most of it. I hope the return legs have drama since I’ll probably be able to watch those. I’m very nervous for United. Barca will turn it around and Juve and Chelsea is a coin flip at this point.



Moving on to the topic of the day, economic crisis, in these tough economic times, I have found a back up job in case I get fired. I will hire myself to maintain my Facebook page. With all of the updates, tags and chain documents to fill out, it’s a full time job.

What a shame spiral Facebook is. I keep my circle of friends relatively small, and could even make it smaller, but I start checking status updates and all of the sudden I’m taking the never ending movie quiz while instant messaging someone about betting on futbol.

Facebook is just another aspect of the internet which, once you’re ensnared, it’s hard to get away from. Another example is youtube. I start watching soccer highlights and, after a series of clicks, I’m watching how to build a car in 15 minutes.

Not that I mind this of course. I’m just not getting paid for it. So I need to create a series of shell companies with the end result of creating a company which pays me to update, post and stalk through Facebook. I’m working with an accountant right to start the process. Maybe I’ve finally found my true calling.



I listened to Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible album all the way through. It’s ok but really does not hit high notes. No Cars Go is an amazing song but the rest is sort of a mismash of Gallon Drunk and Bruce Springsteen.

I’ve also listened a little bit to Moby’s Last Night. Not mind blowing but more of the same.



Finally congrats to Danny. His son (Cameron Thomas) was born on Saturday. I doubt he will post tomorrow due to the new kid brouhaha.



That’s about it. Ta Ta for now.

The Day Has Come

Happy Oscars Day!

I'm happy to say I very nearly closed the gap on seeing all of the films I wanted to. Over this weekend I watched The Reader, The Wrestler, and Milk in theaters, and Changling and Man on Wire. I'm watching Frozen River as I type, and have In Bruges to watch afterward. That leaves me short on Rachel Getting Married, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and The Visitor. Not too shabby. Wished I could have seen Benjamin Button based on the nominations, but yikes, the 3 hour runtime kept me away.

So here's how I'd like to see the major awards go, based on what I saw (list of nominations here: http://www.oscars.com/nominees/?pn=nominees):

-Actor in a Leading Role: (I didn't see Button or the Visitor) Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler. What a great role for him, with a lot for him to do--physical and emotional pain, triumph, humor, etc. He inhabited the role completely.

-Actor in a Supporting Role: How could it not go to Heath Ledger--even without his death maybe stacking the deck in his favor. Great, creepy, magnetic performance. Christian Bale who?

-Actress in a Leading Role: (didn't see Rachel Getting Married)--Kate Winslet, hands-down. A thrilling performance, and better than her performance in Revolutionary Road, so I was glad to see this role nominated.

-Actress in a Supporting Role: (didn't see Button)--I think I'm maybe not impartial here--I thought Vicky Christina Barcelona was just really really boring. Please Woody, get over your infatuation with Scarlett Johansson--she is no doubt very attractive, but she couldn't act her way out of a paper bag, and she brought the whole movie down for me. So while I think Penelope Cruz might be the front runner here, I thought the very brief performance of Viola Davis in Doubt was riveting. And I wouldn't bee sad to see it go to Marisa Tomei either. Because she's unbelievably hot at 44.

Best Picture/Director-- (didn't see Button)--Slumdog Millionare/Danny Boyle. What a thoroughly enjoyable film this was. I love Boyle's visual style, ever since first seeing Trainspotting, and it's well used here--very kinetic and exciting, taking in the 5 mile out view of Mumbai as well as the in the gutters angle as well. Fun, funny, scary, hopeful, and romantic there's a lot to like about it. My favorite of the season for sure.

So I'll be excited to tune in tonight at 8 on ABC--I don't know that I've done as well as this in the past with seeing so many of the films so it should be fun to watch it all unfold. For now, though, time for some household chores...penance for the movie marathon. ;)

How Much is Too Much?

According to recent reports, the occurrence of twins born in the US is up 60% since IVF and other fertility treatments have become more common. This means everytime I'm at the grocery store and see twins, I have to stop and think to myself, "Are those real twins, or fake twins?" Then I look at the parents and realize they are 50 year old yuppies and I know the answer.

You see, kids today are an awful lot like boobs. Sometimes God gives you a nice pair, and sometimes you have to get them from the doctor. Before plastic surgery if you saw a woman with a giant pair and you pointed at her and said "fake!" no one would know what you're talking about. I have to think the same thing is going to happen, nay MUST happen, with kids. We will look at the twins in our neighborhoods and try to figure out which are real and which are fake.

Look at these freakin' old celebrities who are popping out twins! Not only that, but I find it an insult to my intellegence that they try to make us think that somehow Julia Roberts just happened to have twins WITHOUT fertility treatments? Yeah right! And Jane Seymour at 45, more twins! Joan London, 2 sets of twins at 50 and 54. And 47 year old Marcia Cross. Some of them are smart enough to own up but let's think about this...

Your celebrity twins are NOT special. They are no more special than your $30,000 butt implants and your $28,000 chipmunk cheeks and $8,000 trout lips. Everybody has twins. It almost takes away from those people that conceive twins naturally, now that's something to be proud of! And the fact that celebrities are setting this trend of spending insane amounts of money to have fake babies is a little saddening. Considering there were 520,000 kids in foster care in the US as of 2003 (the most recent stats I could find) it's just unreasonable for couples to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to have their "own" kid. It's even more unreasonable for single unemployed women to make tax payers pay for their fake babies which will most likely end up in foster care! What would happen if we channeled all that money from fake babies into adoption and foster care? Wouldn't this world be a better place?

This is how I see it, in choosing to spend that God forsaken amount of money to get pregnant you are basically saying 1) pregnancy is THAT important and 2) I don't want used goods. Take a look at pop culture today. If you follow the trend, you're going to build your career until about 4 months before menopause sets in, then you spend $500,000 to have fake triplets that don't look like you because you either used someone elses eggs or vagina or you've had so much plastic surgery or all of the above. If you want a taste of what I'm talking about, read some "miracle baby" stories.

About 80% of the time, women are half in love with the "baby bump" cause it's just so dang cute, but it MUST be gone within 5 minutes after your scheduled c-section. Then you take your premature 3 pound kids to whichever gossip rag paid you the most and have them photographed until they're having seizures from the camera flash. Then at about 4 or 5 you abruptly take them out of the spotlight when the toddler cuteness has worn off and you realize kids are not cute or fun and you're too freakin' old to deal with their learning disabilities. But that's all ok because you have a full time nanny and by the time they're 18 you're dead of old age.

Let me just say to all those "celebrity" "parents" out their, or even if you want to be a "celebrity" "parent", here is some hard truth for you: You should not be a parent. There is nothing about parenthood that comes close to the LSD hallucination you're basing your decisions on. You are too selfish to be a good parent. In fact, I don't really think you should have pets either. Get yourself a nice plant, not an orchid because you may have to water and feed it. Start out with a cactus or some other succulent that doesn't require water. If the only stable relationship you have is with your therapist, you should just not get involved in the life of minor children in any way, shape, or form.

Now let me talk to the normal people out there who may be having difficulty conceiving. If you really want kids, not pregnancy, not a baby, not a toddler, but actual kids who will grow up and look awkward and get acne and talk back and eat all your food and want to drive your car, then take a good look at the money you make minus the money it would take to conceive and compare it to the money it would take to adopt, or even foster kids. Don't consider foster kids used goods. In fact, we won't even call them "used", instead we'll call them "previously born". Out of 520,000 kids currently in foster care, couldn't there be one out there that's right for you? Let's take "green" thinking to its logical next step: reduce, reuse, recycle! Let's 'reduce' the number of children we concieve, 'reuse' perfectly good children we already have, and 'recycle'...them....because...eh, 2 out of 3 is good enough.

Now, I'm not against all fertility treatments, in many cases, fertility drugs are cheaper than the cost and time and energy that an adoption would take. In fact I really trully think adoption (both in and outside of the US) needs major overhauls to make the whole process smoother and quicker and CHEAPER for those healthy well balanced couples who choose to adopt. For myself, I plan on having my 'own' kids some day, mainly because it seems cheaper and more fun than adoption. But I have limits on how far I'm willing to go to get them. Clomed (sp?) is a popular fertility drug that works for a lot of people and doesn't cost as much as adoption. However if, at some point, I find that kids are possible with only 52 easy payments of $25,000 plus tax, I'm going the other route.

One of the major proponents of the early church was that it take care of the widows and orphans, two of societies most neglected peoples. I think we should kill two birds with one stone, get your kid, and take care of someone who doesn't have anyone else to take care of them. Doesn't this make sense? Why do people believe they could only love someone that came from themselves? Especially for Christians, we should know that Christ loved us enough to die for us when we were still sinners. We are Gods adopted/foster/used goods kids, we are broken and He still loves us. Why can't we pass that kind of love onto others?

pull me away from the tv

Where do I start?

Watched a lot of soccer over the weekend.

Saturday was the Betis/Barcelona game. Betis put Barca on the back foot and was up 2-0 after 30 minutes. Barca got a soft penalty on the stroke of halftime to give them the momentum going into the second half. Their slick interplay didn’t pay off even with the introduction of Henry and Messi, and Olivera could have killed the game off on a breakaway but failed to convert. With 10’ to go Barca equalized but couldn’t find the winner. Betis away is a tricky fixture and a point keeps the double digit lead over Real Madrid. I’m not too worried about Lyon, which is probably a bad thing. Barca will score at least a goal in France and dismantle them at the Nou Camp.

Sunday was the Manchester United destruction of Derby County. Giggs was in amazing form and his flick to Ronaldo should have resulted in a goal instead of an offside decision. Welbeck’s goal was awesome. I hope he is able to deliver consistently and not just be remembered for his wonder goals.

After that, we watched the Juventus/Sampdoria game. I will try to keep this short. Juventus was unfortunate to only get a point. After Samp’s early goal, they were totally dominant, hit the woodwork several times, and couldn’t get the vital touch. Even though Amauri scored the equalizer, he must go. His whole job is to poach and get across defenders and he could have had a hat trick had he done his job. The only other thought of the game is Juve’s lack of shape, in particular width. At least half a dozen crosses went to the back post with no one home. AAARRRGH!!

Yesterday I watched the Arsenal/Cardiff game. I’m not a huge Arsenal fan and wanted to see the upset. No dice. If Cardiff’s goalie had not stood on his head for the first 15 minutes, the score could have really gotten out of hand.
Couple of thoughts on Arsenal:
--Song and Denilson give up possession too easily and that will cost them against better opposition.
--I hate Bendtner.
--What a return for Eduardo. Great composure, linked up play well and got his just reward.

Next week the Champions League returns. Cannot wait.



I’m still working on the TV on the Radio album. I don’t get it. It’s hip hop, pop and something else entirely. I will say this, their songs don’t sound the same.

I picked up Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible album, Moby Last Night and Portishead Third. For Moby and Portishead I’m going back to bands I’ve liked in the past. As for Arcade Fire, I really like the singles, Black Mirror and No Cars Go, and am trying to get more of an overview.

While going through my music, I realized I never got into Weezer and I don’t know why. They rock and they have a good degree of snarkiness. Oh well. I think I’m going to create a Weezer playlist and just have that run on a constant loop wherever I go. Wow.



I’m playing through Shield Season 2. The show continues to deliver. Great story lines and character development. I’m a big fan of Dutch and Wyms. I really like their dynamic and motivations. Great show and am looking forward to more.



I’m going to end this post with my break up notice with House. I’m done. This show has descending into formulaic drivel. I would do so many different things, but they are not going to. I think they should pull the plug and move on but they won’t. It was a good run. The first two seasons and the start of season 4 were amazing, but you can’t keep doing the same thing in season 5. All good things must come to an end.



Ta Ta.

Octuplet Obsession

To keep this blog on the cutting edge of cultural developments, today I would like to address a serious issue that has come to the forefront in the last month. In case you have been under a rock, a woman, Nadya Suleman, – mother of 6 – had octuplets. I wanted to spend this entry going off on her, but I will let someone else do that. The following is an editorial is by Jim Wooten and from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Sunday, February 08, 2009. I have edited it for content and space but you can read the entire article here.

****************
Octuplets and all children deserve better

The octuplets born to an unmarried woman in California are consequences of self-centeredness gone awry. The woman, Nadya Suleman, had six children, all conceived with the help of a sperm-donor friend. The eight born last month grew from six implanted embryos, life created with friend-donated sperm. She told NBC’s “Today” show that she wanted a large family because she felt alone as an only child. “All I wanted was children,” she said. “I wanted to be a mom. That’s all I ever wanted in my life. I love my children.” The outrage is that a narcissistic adult, for her own pleasure, intentionally brought 14 children into the world, children who will never know their father. It was a conscious, medically assisted choice to have multiple births —- a decision suggesting an impaired mental state that should have raised questions about her fitness as the primary adult female in the children’s lives.

The octuplets should be a wake-up call to the nation. It is child cruelty to inflict the suffering on human life that Suleman visits upon these 14 children. As Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears has noted, children born to unmarried women and to those in cohabiting relationships “must often overcome increased risks of poverty, education failure, child abuse, delinquency, emotional distress and mental illness.” The focus of all law and public policies really should be reoriented to children. They desperately need protection from self-centered adults who casually create life for reasons that are frivolous and self-indulgent. The octuplets’ birth dramatically highlights the plight of children carelessly and frivolously conceived. It should be the spectacle that prompts ministers, educators, entertainers, politicians, aunts, uncles and other family members need to recognize the harm unmarried adults are causing to children.

Life begins at conception. Anything adults do prior to that moment that doesn’t harm a third person is their business. At the moment of life, however, the wants and even the needs of the adults are incidental to those of the child. These 14 children need a protector.
*******************

Here are some additional statistics for you to consider from an article on yahoo.com:

Suleman has been supporting her six other children with $490 a month in food stamps and receives Social Security disability payments for three of the youngsters that could total $2,379 a month.
She has estimated her in vitro fertilization procedures have cost $100,000.
Suleman has said she saved for the treatments by working double shifts and also used money from a disability award exceeding $165,000 that she received after an on-the-job back injury.
The Suleman octuplets' medical costs have not been disclosed, but in 2006, the average cost for a premature baby's hospital stay in California was $164,273, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Eight times that equals $1.3 million.
For a single mother, the cost of raising 14 children through age 17 ranges from $1.3 million to $2.7 million, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

If you want to get into the “medicine” of the story, you can go here.

Her personal website. Not much there, but you can donate if you feel led.

So here’s how I feel. I think she is selfish and unnecessarily burdening herself and the rest of us to fulfill some need of hers. If she wants to have children and love them, then fine – I don’t begrudge her that. But when she already has 6 children and spending $100,000 on fertilization techniques whose end result could be nothing other that the birth of multiple children is irresponsible and selfish. There are plenty of options for her to have children and not be such a burden – being a foster mother is one good option. Another would have been to spend the $100,000 on adopting children because God knows there are plenty of children both here in America and abroad that desperately need a good home. Does she deserve the death threats she has received? Of course not. But something has to be done for the future to keep this sort of thing from happening. I implore lawmakers to seriously consider barring these doctors from practicing this brand of “medicine” that is so manipulative and has such wide reaching consequences.

I wish her the best, but expect the worst. I know my tax dollars will help give these kids what they need to survive. I just wish they had been spent elsewhere.

Well, I'm looking like a total failure in the Oscars run-up--haven't chipped away at all at that list of films I still need to see. Is it fair to blame my wife? I'd like to, if that's an option. Oh, but I did see The Duchess, which I believe is up for an award for its costumes. Super.

No good excuses, really, except for the wife option, just haven't made it out. But I have been watching a lot of Deadwood (sorry to continue the TV theme). In fact, it's my fourth time watching it, if that counts as a testament to the following statement's veracity. If you have ever enjoyed a Western, you MUST watch Deadwood, because it is the BEST TELEVISION SHOW ever produced, and so long as you don't hate the "wild west" setting, you'll think so too, because:

1) Complex characters--every character showing depth and dimension over the course of the three seasons.
2) Fascinating language--you have the collision of Victorian civility with the vulgarity of the West.
3) Writing--tied in with both of the above, I am frequently struck by how perfectly each scene has been set, and love how it almost takes on a Shakespearian quality with characters delivering monologues, thinking aloud.

So I just trimmed down the argument above prior to posting because I realized I was going on for far too long on certain subjects, but again, I cannot commend this show strongly enough to you.

I've watched it the last two times on my iPod, I should mention, listening to it on the commute. I probably have a post coming down the road about movies on the Ipod, too, now that I think about it.

Cheers!

NO MINE!

Most people would think this is weird so I'll 'splain it for everyone who doesn't understand pets.

Let's say you took a picture of your kid and it was a good picture. Like a really really good picture of your favorite person in the world and you thought, "Wow, I don't think I could have taken a better picture of a kid anywhere!". So you show it to your friends and you go to Meijer and have them put it on a t-shirt for you so you can wear it around and when you wear it around even strangers say, "Hey! That is a great picture of a kid!"

Let's say you enjoy that for a while, until one day you notice someone wearing a shirt and it's got that picture of your kid on it! And then someone saw THAT guys shirt and made buttons! And then you notice stickers, and online avatars, and cutsie posters where people have photoshopped a clown nose onto your kid! You'd think "What the heck?" Or maybe you'd think "I really should have copyrighted that picture and then sued all these people" or maybe you'd think both.

This is basically what happened to my horse. Yeah yeah, I know, it's just a horse but it's got to be one of the weirdest things for me to do a Google image search for the word "Clydesdale" and undoubtedly more than one link will have MY picture of MY horse! Let me give you a little sample:

Here he is, and here, and yet again, here he is in a poorly done video, and here he is enjoying some heavy metal, and proudly representing his breed, and here he is in australia, and there are more. Search "clydesdale" in Facebook Flair and he's there. At one point someone had drawn little cartoon running shoes on his feet for their jogging club website.

I know it's petty, but that horse means something to me. And yet people who couldn't care less about this horse use his picture hither and yon without a care in the world. They don't care who he is or where the picture was taken or what a good horse he was. And the little kid in me wants to shout, "NO MINE!" So just to get the word out there, here's the scoop.

His name was THV Jasper. THV standing for Thurstons High Vally, his breeder. Glen Thurston sold my Grandfather Jasper when he was a 2 year old. Jasper was born April 16th, 1980. He was 19 hands tall, taller than the average clydesdale but he was so well proportioned you can't tell from the picture.
Japser served as our main breeding stallion, show horse, and favorite pet for many years. He once dragged me by his leadrope through 2 feet of snow for several yards. He noticed the gate to the pasture had been left open and I didn't. I chose to hang on as opposed to letting go and having to chase him all over the field. He finally got tired of dragging me.
We also had a local newscrew out to do a story on our farm, I was filmed in my pigtails riding on Jasper's back.
The famous picture was taken in Madison, Wisconsin around 1988. The original picture has him facing left. My father was originally in front of his head wearing a blue coat but most pictures you see have him cropped out.
Jasper died the summer of my 8th grade year. He was buried in the stud pen on the family farm. He is one of 4 who have been buried on the farm. Many of our clydesdales are his direct descendants.

That's my horse, he always will be.

music reviews, 25 things, soccer

Sam mentioned that music hadn’t really been a topic on the blog. Agreed. So here’s my contribution.

Bob Mould, District Line. At the library I stumbled across this album from the former lead singer of Sugar. There were a couple of strong tracks (Stupid Now and The Silence Between Us) that really had that Sugar feel, so I enjoyed those. The album as a whole was weak. I now plan on looking for some of his other solo albums to get a better feel of his sound. By the way, if you have never listened to Sugar, do so ASAP.

I also checked out the Killers album Day and Age. AWFUL!!! It was as if they produced a song with a Casio keyboard a la 1985 and then copied it 10 times and created a CD. Truly horrible.

I am still moving through the Top 10 albums according to Noise. Plan to review TV on the Radio next week.



Last week, I gave into Facebook peer pressure and did “25 Things About Me.” http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/note.php?note_id=47599016644

I started it and was planned to bail after 5 or 6, but it went pretty quickly, so I did the whole thing. It was enjoyable exercise. Brandon tagged me on “25 bands”, which may be a little tougher.



I watched the movie Primer, which is a mindfuck of major proportions. I read their wikipedia page and it was amazing. Made for like $7000, it will blow your mind. They have a great diagram that sort of illustrates the crux of the movie. I definitely recommend it. I’m watching it again to get a better understanding of it.



Watched Spurs v Arsenal Sunday afternoon with James. Boy do I want those 2 hours of my life back. Eboue is a complete tool and should be cut immediately. Arsenal actually played well with 10 men and most grabbed a goal on a couple of occasions. Without Adebayor, they are in real trouble. As for Spurs, one word CLUELESS. They had no idea how to score. You can’t go up the middle against Arsenal. And then they had no one to cross the ball, so they were stuck. Chimbonda. What a joke. He is terrible and I have no idea why they resigned him.

United and Barca roll on, with Barcelona in amazing form. Cannot wait until the Champions League starts again.



Finally, I played at LISA South on Sunday night. The heater went out so it was like 40 degrees in the bubble. Wore a warm up suit for the first game; could see your breath; couldn’t feel your hands. Crazy.

Ta Ta for now.

All that glitters is not Grammy-worthy

This blog has focused pretty heavily on TV shows the last few weeks, so I thought I would change it up and talk about music. In the last couple of weeks I have seen various commercials promoting the Grammy Awards show. These commercials kept touting great acts such as the Jonas Bothers (check out my rant against them here), Lil Wayne (who I add to my “no talent ass clown" list), and Carrie Underwood (whose country genre I could do without). So, needless to say, I had not planned on tuning in to see a bunch of artists that I wish would be censored. But a strange thing happened, the Grammys were on while my wife and I caught up on “House” and “Burn Notice” on my laptop. So, I was able to pick and choose what I could take in. And I will say, there were some awesome performances and some embarrassing combinations. So here goes:

Kid Rock was entertaining as usual. I like the song “Amen” and so was happy to see its inclusion in his medley.

Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus sang a song written by the former called "Fifteen". I am not a fan of either and don’t see what all the hubbub is about. But, it was a decent song.

Then, the embarrassment of the night – the Jonas Brothers teamed up with the legend - Stevie Wonder – to do their crappy song "Burnin' Up". One day, someone will explain to me why these guys deserve to perform at the Grammys with Stevie. Until then, I will have to resign myself to continue despising them.

A highlight for me was Dave Grohl playing drums for Paul McCartney as he performed "I Saw Her Standing There". I was hoping they would do a medley and Dave would come out from behind the drums and play some guitar, but it was not to be.

Radiohead performed "15 Step" with USC Trojan Marching Band. If you didn’t see it, you have to check it out below. Classic Radiohead brilliance.



Two groups combined the old and the new to made for great performances. There was a Four Tops medley with stand ins Jamie Foxx and Ne-Yo. In addition, John Mayer, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, and Keith Urban gave tribute to "Bo Diddley". I believe that song could have gone on for 10 minutes and I would have been in heaven. Unfortunately, the production had to make way for Lil’ Wayne & Robin Thicke’s tribute to New Orleans. While that is all well and good, how Lil’ Wayne wins Best Rap Album, Rap Song, and Solo Performance stretches my compression of the human species to the limit and demeans the value of winning a Grammy. Because too many bad sentences can begin with, “If Lil’ Wayne can win a Grammy…”

So all in all, I was entertained by many of the acts and was glad that they included not just the commercial successes in both the award winners and in the performances.

So I've been AWOL for a few weeks--apologies to anyone who cares, but I just didn't have much I felt like writing about at the time, but I do have a couple things on my mind of late.

#1 - The Virtual Console on the Wii is awesome.  This is not a new discovery for me, I figured this out pretty much instantaneously back when we bought the Wii last year.  For the uninitiated, the Virtual Console is basically a game system within the Wii.  You can download retro games from the NES, Super NES, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, and the NEO GEO directly to your Wii for $5-$10 depending on which system the game is for.  So we have all the old Mario and Zelda games, without the hassle of having to do the Nintendo Shaman rituals required to get an ancient cartridge to work, and it's just brilliant.  Now, that leads me to...

#2 - What is the best Mario game, and why?  

For my money, I've got to go with Super Mario 64--even as much as I really do enjoy all of the sidescrolling Mario Game (Mario 3 probably being the best of those), I've probably come back to play this one more often than any of the others.  

Here you have the introduction of so many of Mario's now-staple movements--the long jump, triple jump, butt bounce, wall jump, back flip, and dive--he even punches, kicks, and slide tackles.  In fact, I'm struggling to think of any other moves that have been developed since then.  It also might have the best "flying Mario" mechanic out of all of the games--it's still a thrill to swoop and dive without the terrible camera angles that are forced on you in Galaxy.

This game also introduced the ability to choose which level you want to play next, so I can choose to play in the "world" of Jolly Roger Bay or go to Thwomp's Fortress, as opposed to the preceding games which were, for the most part linear (there's some jumping around in Super Mario Land via Star Road, but still not the same sort of thing).  You've also got red coin stars and 100 coin stars, plus lots of secret levels.

#3  Friday Night Lights, the tv show.  I'm a little past midway through watching the second season on DVD--highly addictive.  It's a tv series based on the film of the same name, which was based on a nonfiction book of the same name about a Texas high school (American) football team.  Even though it revolves around a football team, much of the show is off of the field, dealing with their families and the relationships with their friends.  Complex characters, very compelling narratives, and even a great soundtrack.   There's a lot to like here.

#4  The Oscars Itch is upon me.  I am scrambling to see as many of the Oscar-nominated films as I can before the broadcast on the 22nd.  

Down: Frost/Nixon, Tropic Thunder, Doubt, The Dark Knight, Revolutionary Road, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and Slumdog Millionaire.

To Go (among major awards):  The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Reader, Milk, The Wrestler, The Visitor, Rachel Getting Married, Changling, and Frozen River. 

I'm starting to get nervous--I'm running out of time.  At this present moment all of these titles can be seen between Grand Rapids, Lansing, and on DVD (The Visitor out already and Frozen River on the 10th, Changling on the 17th). 

More on Oscar and these films next weekend.  Cheers!

Light at the end of the tunnel!!!!!!

Sorry Austin for not keeping with the trend yesterday, the past few weeks have been insanely busy and it doesn't look like easing up in the near future as the wife and i are due to expect the arrival of our 2nd son in the next few hours, days, or weeks its that close, but i do see "Light at the end of the tunnel"

Anyway!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Superbowl Sunday:
What a game, in particular what a 4th quarter. I have new found respect for QB's and their calming ability to perform game winning drives where the possibility that just one misplaced pass goes astray and so do your hopes of winning the most prestigious title in American sports.

Big Ben produced the most memorable game winning drive that i have witnessed since coming to the States and taking part in the Superbowl Sunday Euphoria. In supporting Manchester United all these years and being passionate about it beyond belief i have been used to them doing things the hard way in winning titles over the past 10-15 years, but nothing like this final drive by the Steelers.

In his post match interview Holmes said he wanted the ball, he wanted to make the plays to win the Superbowl for his team. You need some "Chun duoys" (that's Chinese for "Balls" for anyone that wants to know) in a game of this magnitude to be able to say that let alone execute it, but to his credit he delivered and now the Pittsburgh Steelers are the most successful franchise in Superbowl history.

Going back to my "doing things the hard way" did you see Holmes miss a catch with no pressure at all around him on 2nd down i think it was just before he caught the game winning touchdown in 2 yards of space surrounded by 3 Cardinals players....... hence my respect for QB's, for Big Ben to put the ball on a dime so to speak with barely no room to maneuver is incredible and well worthy of an MVP, but can anyone begrudge Holmes of his nomination...... i can't. Congratulations Steelers

English Premiership:
Well things are finally taking shape in the most exciting season yet, even with defeat at Anfield on Sunday i still see Chelsea finishing 3rd in the top 4, but now see Villa taking Arsenal spot in 4th place after some impressive performances under Martin O'neil.

Liverpool went out of the FA Cup last night to Everton and losing Stevie G for 3 weeks..... no he has not been sent to jail just yet LOL, but he will be missing due to a torn hamstring. Given the fact that he has rescued Liverpool so many times and he is their driving force and also Rafa's complete stupidity in selling Keane back to Spurs i now see United regaining their title in May.

Its all squeaky bum time down at the bottom of the table, really anyone from 8th place can go down, 2 wins for any team on the bounce and they move like 9 places which in recent Premiership campaigns has been unheard of, but i am going to predict the following 3 teams that will be relegated to the Championship.
18 - Newcastle United
19 - Stoke City
20 - West Brom

TV:
Shows on the box right now are class, i have subjected myself to 2 new programs "The Beast" & "Damages"
The Beast is actually quite good, Patrick Swayze i have always liked since the days of his movies "Youngblood" & "Roadhouse", but i was actually impressed by the first few episodes... check it out.

Damages has just started season 2 so i picked it up late, but its not hard to get to grips with what happened in Season 1 as their are enough flashbacks, i have never liked Glen Close acting or looks, but she is actually pretty damn good in this drama. Her assistant is Ellen is quite hot, but the storyline is cool... check it out.

Nip Tuck - Classic for any guy to watch
24 - Best Season start yet, can they keep it up throughout the entire season
House - Class above no other
CSI Miami - Getting boring
The Unit - Awesome
Burn Notice - you have got to check this out, people call it cheesy, but i really like it

Looking forward to the return of Prison Break...... see ya next week

quickie

i missed the ending of the super bowl. in typical austin fashion, i turned it off after 3 quarters, assuming that the steelers were in control. imagine my suprise when the headlines screamed greatest fourth quarter ever. but it's how i roll. you can thank me for ensuring a great finish. once i hit the off switch, magic happens.

who cares about michael phelps? i don't. 8 gold medals. fine. he's not my role model so what do i care if he hits the bong? enough. listen to charles barkley on this one. atheletes are not role models. they are not even heroes.

i broke down and did the 25 things about me on facebook. i was suprised at how quickly they came out. i thought i would break down after 2.

that's all i've got for now.

sam did monday, i came through on tuesday. can danny, tom, crystal and jd make this a perfect week? stay tuned.

Super Bowl Civility

I enjoyed the Super Bowl last night, though I went in assuming it was going to be awful. I assumed that Pittsburgh would dominate and that the game would not be close. And, much of the game played out in this way. Fortunately, the fourth quarter more than made up for the rest of lopsided game and it ended up being quite an exciting conclusion.

However, I watched the game with a bunch of high schoolers and middle schoolers, if you can call it watching. They have the attention span of flies, and so they were constantly running off to play basketball, dodge ball, Rock Band, or whatever else. Also they all were rooting for the Cardinals (while I was rooting for Pittsburgh). So, they paid little attention to the game until the fourth quarter when Arizona actually showed up.

It was at this point the inexplicable happened. When Arizona took the lead, two middle schoolers got in my face and were taunting me. I am not a violent man, but I was ready to twist the heads off of their puny bodies. I mean, really? You haven’t rooted for this team ever before, and now you find it necessary to verbally abuse me because they are winning? It is insane! It is a silly game that you and I have no vested interest in. Maybe - maybe - if it is your favorite team you could root like a fanatic. But even then, you aren’t on the team. You don’t own the team. It doesn’t really matter if they win or lose other than your pride bring bolstered or hurt. SO GET OFF ME!!

I know, they are immature 6th graders. But even still, get a clue. This is no way to act. When I hear of LSU fans showing up at Alabama fans house and shooting them. When I hear about Soccer fans rioting and killing one another. When I see the sort of conduct that would be completely unacceptable under any other circumstances, it makes me want to distance myself from the human race as much as possible.

We need to get a clue about what is important. We can root for our teams, or their teams, or any teams. But for God’s sake, we don’t need to dispense with civility in order to do it. Perhaps instead of $3 million commercials about Clydesdales we need sensitivity training commercials. Or maybe, just maybe, we could treat each other with some respect understanding that life is bigger than a silly game filled with testosterone overloaded men trying to maim each other.

Sorry for the Super Bowl downer, but that’s just how I feel. I’ll leave breaking down the commercials to someone else.