Da Bulls
Am I crazy, or have the Bulls actually won 5 games in a row?
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Monday, December 20, 2004
Eminem
The first time I ever heard of Eminem was during my first year of college, when MTV started playing his "My Name Is" video. The song was catchy in a retarded sort of way, and the video was funny, so I became a fan. Back then, it seemed like I was the only one, everyone else thought I was nuts for liking it.
Not that I blame them, cause you gotta admit, both the song and the video were pretty ridiculous. First off, it's this skinny white guy rapping in a high voice, to a beat that sounds like it belonged in an 8-bit Nintendo game. In the song, he's talking about impregnating Spice Girls, his mom doing drugs, and stapling his junior high teacher's nuts to a stack of papers. The video shows him in all these random situations, dressed up as Bill Clinton in one scene and then Marilyn Manson the next. And there was also the cameos by Gheorghe Muresan and Dr. Dre, which made absolutely no sense at the time. I mean, who the heck was this guy anyways and where did he come from?
Obviously, a lot has changed since then. Unless you live in a cave, you know that Eminem has become one of the biggest if not the biggest star in the music scene. Controversial among older people, but almost universally admired by anyone under the age of 30 - male or female, white or black (or yellow), it didn't matter. Every radio station plays his songs, and it seems like people can't get enough of him. These days Eminem is cool, he's hot, he's talented, and he can do no wrong.
For me, I guess my opinion of him went in the opposite direction as everyone else in this country. Yeah, I liked him in those early days, and continued to listen to his music while he was getting blasted by the media, liked a couple of his CDs enough to buy them, went to see his movie when it came out, and I still like some of his stuff.
But after listening to his latest CD (Encore) for a month or so, I'd have to say that I'm really Eminem-ed out. I'm sick of him, I don't enjoy his music or his videos as much, and I'd go as far as to say that some of it actually irritates me now.
Some of it is probably just overexposure, but one thing that bothers me is how he keeps trying to make himself look good by talking about his daughter. At first maybe it was nice to mention Hailie in his interviews or even dedicate a song to her on his CD. But now it's like he's just flat out using her name to promote his image.
In his latest song to her, "Mockingbird", he starts by saying:
"Hailie, I know you miss your mom
and I know you miss your dad
Well I'm gone
But I'm trying to give you
The life I never had"
It's not like he's a blue collar worker trying to grind out a living, never able to be at home because he needs to work 2 jobs to support his family. He makes it sound like he wishes he could spend more time with his daughter, if only he didn't need to work all the time to provide provide for her. As if the millions he has already made isn't enough in itself to give her a more comfortable life than any of us can imagine. If you choose to spend more time on your rap than on your daughter, fine that's your decision, but at least don't make it seem like you're doing it all for her sake. You're not.
Later on in the song he goes:
"all I ever wanted to do
was just make you proud"
More BS. What daughter wouldn't be proud of a dad who raps about all of his family's dirty laundry for the rest of the world to hear? I know I would love for everyone to know exactly how my mother is a psycho bitch, my grandmother is a psycho bitch, and how my dad wanted to kill them both. And every time I get to see one of his videos on TV, where he's either dressed up like Pee Wee Herman or streaking naked through the streets, I would be so beaming with pride.
It's not that I necessarily fault him for rapping about his most personal thoughts and private issues. And if he wants to continue pushing the boundaries of decency in his music videos, that's his decision, not mine. He could have a lot of motives for the things he does; maybe he legitimately wants to express himself artistically, maybe he's doing it all to get revenge on people, maybe he likes the attention and glory, or maybe he just wants to sell some records. But there's no way anyone could ever argue that Eminem is a man driven by a desire to make his daughter proud.
Then there's the song "Like Toy Soldiers", where he talks about all the battles and rivalries he's gone through in the rap world. I still like the song, but he could not possibly sound more self-serving in the lyrics. First of all, the guy is 32 years old now, when is he going to grow up and stop acting like he's in high school? And then, he again brings up Hailie as a convenient excuse to battle Ja. Are we really supposed to believe that Eminem wanted so bad to be the bigger man and ignore the battle, except for the one fact that the other guy mentioned his daughter's name in a song? Even if what he says is true, what's his point? Wow, what a saint he must be, let's all worship him now!
He also talks a little about having to sit back and stay out of Dr. Dre's beef with Suge Knight in the song. Who exactly does he think he is? If Dr. Dre can't handle his own business, you think he really needs help from Eminem, to protect him from Suge Knight of all people? I can't imagine Suge Knight really ever feeling threatened by anyone in the rap world, least of all Eminem, yet here he is, talking like some sort of bigshot thug kingpin that rules the streets. Whigga please.
One other thing about the song, I remember not too long ago Kellen Winslow Jr. got blasted by the media for comparing himself to a soldier. I know Eminem's song is titled "Toy Soldiers" but that's only the chorus, in the rest of the song and in past songs he talks a lot about being a soldier. I'm not so so sure that a college football player calling himself a soldier is much worse than a rapper doing the same, but I don't see anywhere near the outrage against Eminem than we saw for Kellen Winslow. It could just be the timing, but I found that to be interesting.
I think the thing that bothers me most is how his videos are marketed so much to kids. At first I figured, maybe his videos just happen to be colorful, so we should just give him the benefit of the doubt. But by now, it's become pretty obvious that he's trying to sell more CD's to little kids. Almost all of his major videos are so cartoony (actually the recent one for "Mosh" was an actual animated cartoon), and in the "Just Lose It" video he even features little kids dancing. It doesn't get much more obvious than that. I mean, it's one thing to make songs filled with obscenities and "adult" topics, but marketing that same music to kids is just wrong. I'd call him shady for doing that, but I guess he already calls himself that. Darn.
*****
In financial news, shares of Symantec Co. dropped 6% on the stock market today. Experts blame the fall on its recent deal to buy Veritas Software, but I'm sure readers of this blog know better. The real story is that my 11/11/04 entry that I wrote to bash their Norton AntiVirus product finally made its impact on shareholders.
Let this be a warning to all of you large corporations out there - better be nice to me or else you may suffer a similar fate. At the moment, Urban Outfitters is getting dangerously close to making it on my blacklist, but we'll have to see about that.
The first time I ever heard of Eminem was during my first year of college, when MTV started playing his "My Name Is" video. The song was catchy in a retarded sort of way, and the video was funny, so I became a fan. Back then, it seemed like I was the only one, everyone else thought I was nuts for liking it.
Not that I blame them, cause you gotta admit, both the song and the video were pretty ridiculous. First off, it's this skinny white guy rapping in a high voice, to a beat that sounds like it belonged in an 8-bit Nintendo game. In the song, he's talking about impregnating Spice Girls, his mom doing drugs, and stapling his junior high teacher's nuts to a stack of papers. The video shows him in all these random situations, dressed up as Bill Clinton in one scene and then Marilyn Manson the next. And there was also the cameos by Gheorghe Muresan and Dr. Dre, which made absolutely no sense at the time. I mean, who the heck was this guy anyways and where did he come from?
Obviously, a lot has changed since then. Unless you live in a cave, you know that Eminem has become one of the biggest if not the biggest star in the music scene. Controversial among older people, but almost universally admired by anyone under the age of 30 - male or female, white or black (or yellow), it didn't matter. Every radio station plays his songs, and it seems like people can't get enough of him. These days Eminem is cool, he's hot, he's talented, and he can do no wrong.
For me, I guess my opinion of him went in the opposite direction as everyone else in this country. Yeah, I liked him in those early days, and continued to listen to his music while he was getting blasted by the media, liked a couple of his CDs enough to buy them, went to see his movie when it came out, and I still like some of his stuff.
But after listening to his latest CD (Encore) for a month or so, I'd have to say that I'm really Eminem-ed out. I'm sick of him, I don't enjoy his music or his videos as much, and I'd go as far as to say that some of it actually irritates me now.
Some of it is probably just overexposure, but one thing that bothers me is how he keeps trying to make himself look good by talking about his daughter. At first maybe it was nice to mention Hailie in his interviews or even dedicate a song to her on his CD. But now it's like he's just flat out using her name to promote his image.
In his latest song to her, "Mockingbird", he starts by saying:
"Hailie, I know you miss your mom
and I know you miss your dad
Well I'm gone
But I'm trying to give you
The life I never had"
It's not like he's a blue collar worker trying to grind out a living, never able to be at home because he needs to work 2 jobs to support his family. He makes it sound like he wishes he could spend more time with his daughter, if only he didn't need to work all the time to provide provide for her. As if the millions he has already made isn't enough in itself to give her a more comfortable life than any of us can imagine. If you choose to spend more time on your rap than on your daughter, fine that's your decision, but at least don't make it seem like you're doing it all for her sake. You're not.
Later on in the song he goes:
"all I ever wanted to do
was just make you proud"
More BS. What daughter wouldn't be proud of a dad who raps about all of his family's dirty laundry for the rest of the world to hear? I know I would love for everyone to know exactly how my mother is a psycho bitch, my grandmother is a psycho bitch, and how my dad wanted to kill them both. And every time I get to see one of his videos on TV, where he's either dressed up like Pee Wee Herman or streaking naked through the streets, I would be so beaming with pride.
It's not that I necessarily fault him for rapping about his most personal thoughts and private issues. And if he wants to continue pushing the boundaries of decency in his music videos, that's his decision, not mine. He could have a lot of motives for the things he does; maybe he legitimately wants to express himself artistically, maybe he's doing it all to get revenge on people, maybe he likes the attention and glory, or maybe he just wants to sell some records. But there's no way anyone could ever argue that Eminem is a man driven by a desire to make his daughter proud.
Then there's the song "Like Toy Soldiers", where he talks about all the battles and rivalries he's gone through in the rap world. I still like the song, but he could not possibly sound more self-serving in the lyrics. First of all, the guy is 32 years old now, when is he going to grow up and stop acting like he's in high school? And then, he again brings up Hailie as a convenient excuse to battle Ja. Are we really supposed to believe that Eminem wanted so bad to be the bigger man and ignore the battle, except for the one fact that the other guy mentioned his daughter's name in a song? Even if what he says is true, what's his point? Wow, what a saint he must be, let's all worship him now!
He also talks a little about having to sit back and stay out of Dr. Dre's beef with Suge Knight in the song. Who exactly does he think he is? If Dr. Dre can't handle his own business, you think he really needs help from Eminem, to protect him from Suge Knight of all people? I can't imagine Suge Knight really ever feeling threatened by anyone in the rap world, least of all Eminem, yet here he is, talking like some sort of bigshot thug kingpin that rules the streets. Whigga please.
One other thing about the song, I remember not too long ago Kellen Winslow Jr. got blasted by the media for comparing himself to a soldier. I know Eminem's song is titled "Toy Soldiers" but that's only the chorus, in the rest of the song and in past songs he talks a lot about being a soldier. I'm not so so sure that a college football player calling himself a soldier is much worse than a rapper doing the same, but I don't see anywhere near the outrage against Eminem than we saw for Kellen Winslow. It could just be the timing, but I found that to be interesting.
I think the thing that bothers me most is how his videos are marketed so much to kids. At first I figured, maybe his videos just happen to be colorful, so we should just give him the benefit of the doubt. But by now, it's become pretty obvious that he's trying to sell more CD's to little kids. Almost all of his major videos are so cartoony (actually the recent one for "Mosh" was an actual animated cartoon), and in the "Just Lose It" video he even features little kids dancing. It doesn't get much more obvious than that. I mean, it's one thing to make songs filled with obscenities and "adult" topics, but marketing that same music to kids is just wrong. I'd call him shady for doing that, but I guess he already calls himself that. Darn.
*****
In financial news, shares of Symantec Co. dropped 6% on the stock market today. Experts blame the fall on its recent deal to buy Veritas Software, but I'm sure readers of this blog know better. The real story is that my 11/11/04 entry that I wrote to bash their Norton AntiVirus product finally made its impact on shareholders.
Let this be a warning to all of you large corporations out there - better be nice to me or else you may suffer a similar fate. At the moment, Urban Outfitters is getting dangerously close to making it on my blacklist, but we'll have to see about that.
Thursday, December 09, 2004
Laguna Biatch
I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before in my blog, but Laguna Beach is an awesome show. I know I always rip on trashy "reality TV" and stuff, but then I somehow always end up watching these shows anyways and find myself enjoying them.
I guess I'm not really sure why I liked this show so much. Olivia says "you just like it cause you think Kristin's hot", which she is, but that's only a small part of it, honestly. You gotta admit Kristin is pretty good looking, even though she's still just a high school girl. Not like I'm worshipping her as a goddess and drooling over her beauty as I'm watching the show, or anything like that. She's definitely not hot enough to make me watch a show purely based on hotness. The only examples I can think of that fit that category were Jessica Alba in Dark Angel, and currently maybe that dark-haired Desperate Housewife (Eva Langoria?). Even that one is questionable, she looked a little overrated in the last couple episodes I saw.
As far as Laguna Beach goes, people say it has no plot, and what's the point of watching, but they clearly don't understand the show. That's what I thought at first too. Who wants to watch a bunch of spoiled rich white high schoolers? If we can't stand them when they're being annoying at the movie theater or at the mall, why would we enjoy a "reality" show about them?
But after watching a few episodes, I realized that even though these are exactly the kids we all hate, their lives are actually still very interesting. It's all the stuff I never went through in my own high school experience - the girls, the drama, golfing, surfing, and hanging out at the beach. Am I envious of their lives? Maybe about some things, but overall, no not really. It's mostly just entertaining and interesting to watch.
And I couldn't disagree more about the show having no plot. It's about a bunch of high school seniors going through their last year in Laguna Beach before they all head off in different directions. At the center of it is LC, and the love triangle between her, Steven, and Kristin. There were other subplots too, but this was by far the most captivating storyline and probably the main reason I kept watching. How much more of a plot do you need anyways?
The thing is, it's not like I even liked any of the characters. Most of the girls were dumb, and the guys were tools, which I figured they would be anyways. Kristin, for all her attractiveness, was pretty freaking annoying and wasted her looks by being too much of a hoe. Steven, while you gotta give him props for being a stud (by high school standards), was too big of a whiner at times and way too self-centered to truly like. And LC, even though she was the narrator, it was still hard to feel for her because she was the one who kept wasting her feelings on a guy that obviously didn't deserve it. She's that stereotypical dumb girl we all have seen too many times, who knows she's being used but doesn't have the self-respect to do anything about it.
But by the final episode, I couldn't help but feel somewhat attached to all three of them. Despite their many shortcomings, I think I was still rooting for a happy ending for all of them in the end. The weird thing is that I don't really know what the best ending would be. On the one hand, I kind of wished Steven and Kristin would stay together like they were meant to be, but also thought it might be nice if LC and Steven hooked up in college and made each other happy too.
I guess the show's ambiguous ending was not bad, a good way to leave the viewers wondering. Especially since they had a Laguna Beach 2 planned, which I will definitely watch in hopes of seeing updates on what happened between the three star-crossed lovers. Not to mention the "new girl in the Mercedes", who is a good bet to spice things up.
People like to compare Laguna Beach to the OC, but I'd say this show is way better, for the simple and obvious fact that it's more believable. I know "reality TV" is never truly "real", but at least you don't have ridiculous things like guys hooking up with their ex-girlfriend's mom in this show. Even though I have to say LC's mom is not too shabby, they should follow her around more... haha.
One other thing I thought was interesting was how that one girl was a part of the Schuller family, who are actually kind of well known in the Christian community. At least, I have heard of them, the Crystal Cathedral, and seen the older Robert Schuller (her grandfather) preaching on TV before. It was funny watching her dad, Robert Jr., preach too, because he sounds and acts almost exactly like Rev. Lovejoy in the Simpsons.
While I'm at it, let me also say this: not all reality shows need to have a "point", like eliminating people every week and everyone fighting to win some prize money or a shot at stardom in the end. We have enough of those shows as it is, thank you.
Oh I almost forgot, the music in the show is awesome too. Hillary Duff 4-ever!!! Just kidding... kind of.
Hopefully they will release a Laguna Beach Season 1 DVD, with special features and deleted scenes. I'd line up to buy that one.
I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before in my blog, but Laguna Beach is an awesome show. I know I always rip on trashy "reality TV" and stuff, but then I somehow always end up watching these shows anyways and find myself enjoying them.
I guess I'm not really sure why I liked this show so much. Olivia says "you just like it cause you think Kristin's hot", which she is, but that's only a small part of it, honestly. You gotta admit Kristin is pretty good looking, even though she's still just a high school girl. Not like I'm worshipping her as a goddess and drooling over her beauty as I'm watching the show, or anything like that. She's definitely not hot enough to make me watch a show purely based on hotness. The only examples I can think of that fit that category were Jessica Alba in Dark Angel, and currently maybe that dark-haired Desperate Housewife (Eva Langoria?). Even that one is questionable, she looked a little overrated in the last couple episodes I saw.
As far as Laguna Beach goes, people say it has no plot, and what's the point of watching, but they clearly don't understand the show. That's what I thought at first too. Who wants to watch a bunch of spoiled rich white high schoolers? If we can't stand them when they're being annoying at the movie theater or at the mall, why would we enjoy a "reality" show about them?
But after watching a few episodes, I realized that even though these are exactly the kids we all hate, their lives are actually still very interesting. It's all the stuff I never went through in my own high school experience - the girls, the drama, golfing, surfing, and hanging out at the beach. Am I envious of their lives? Maybe about some things, but overall, no not really. It's mostly just entertaining and interesting to watch.
And I couldn't disagree more about the show having no plot. It's about a bunch of high school seniors going through their last year in Laguna Beach before they all head off in different directions. At the center of it is LC, and the love triangle between her, Steven, and Kristin. There were other subplots too, but this was by far the most captivating storyline and probably the main reason I kept watching. How much more of a plot do you need anyways?
The thing is, it's not like I even liked any of the characters. Most of the girls were dumb, and the guys were tools, which I figured they would be anyways. Kristin, for all her attractiveness, was pretty freaking annoying and wasted her looks by being too much of a hoe. Steven, while you gotta give him props for being a stud (by high school standards), was too big of a whiner at times and way too self-centered to truly like. And LC, even though she was the narrator, it was still hard to feel for her because she was the one who kept wasting her feelings on a guy that obviously didn't deserve it. She's that stereotypical dumb girl we all have seen too many times, who knows she's being used but doesn't have the self-respect to do anything about it.
But by the final episode, I couldn't help but feel somewhat attached to all three of them. Despite their many shortcomings, I think I was still rooting for a happy ending for all of them in the end. The weird thing is that I don't really know what the best ending would be. On the one hand, I kind of wished Steven and Kristin would stay together like they were meant to be, but also thought it might be nice if LC and Steven hooked up in college and made each other happy too.
I guess the show's ambiguous ending was not bad, a good way to leave the viewers wondering. Especially since they had a Laguna Beach 2 planned, which I will definitely watch in hopes of seeing updates on what happened between the three star-crossed lovers. Not to mention the "new girl in the Mercedes", who is a good bet to spice things up.
People like to compare Laguna Beach to the OC, but I'd say this show is way better, for the simple and obvious fact that it's more believable. I know "reality TV" is never truly "real", but at least you don't have ridiculous things like guys hooking up with their ex-girlfriend's mom in this show. Even though I have to say LC's mom is not too shabby, they should follow her around more... haha.
One other thing I thought was interesting was how that one girl was a part of the Schuller family, who are actually kind of well known in the Christian community. At least, I have heard of them, the Crystal Cathedral, and seen the older Robert Schuller (her grandfather) preaching on TV before. It was funny watching her dad, Robert Jr., preach too, because he sounds and acts almost exactly like Rev. Lovejoy in the Simpsons.
While I'm at it, let me also say this: not all reality shows need to have a "point", like eliminating people every week and everyone fighting to win some prize money or a shot at stardom in the end. We have enough of those shows as it is, thank you.
Oh I almost forgot, the music in the show is awesome too. Hillary Duff 4-ever!!! Just kidding... kind of.
Hopefully they will release a Laguna Beach Season 1 DVD, with special features and deleted scenes. I'd line up to buy that one.
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
We're #1
Over the past few years, we've had some good teams and gotten close to #1 a number of times, but never quite made it there. Well, after the latest polls were released yesterday, the Illini fans can now officially say we are the #1 team in the nation.
Yeah, it's still very early in the season, so of course a lot can change between now and March. And we all know that the real prize in college basketball isn't being named #1 in December, but to make a run at the Final Four in St. Louis and the national championship. Still, there's something about the sound of "the top-ranked Fighting Illini" that has an especially sweet ring to it. If nothing else, it will help in recruiting I guess.
The encouraging thing is, I think this team actually deserves its high ranking from what we've seen of it so far. Solid starting five, possibly the best of any team in the country, and the bench isn't bad either. Also, it means something extra that we didn't just back into the #1 spot by teams ahead of us losing. We scheduled tough teams early on, and beat them, including the incumbent #1, to earn that honor. Let's just hope they keep playing well from here on out and make the rest of this season a great one.
Over the past few years, we've had some good teams and gotten close to #1 a number of times, but never quite made it there. Well, after the latest polls were released yesterday, the Illini fans can now officially say we are the #1 team in the nation.
Yeah, it's still very early in the season, so of course a lot can change between now and March. And we all know that the real prize in college basketball isn't being named #1 in December, but to make a run at the Final Four in St. Louis and the national championship. Still, there's something about the sound of "the top-ranked Fighting Illini" that has an especially sweet ring to it. If nothing else, it will help in recruiting I guess.
The encouraging thing is, I think this team actually deserves its high ranking from what we've seen of it so far. Solid starting five, possibly the best of any team in the country, and the bench isn't bad either. Also, it means something extra that we didn't just back into the #1 spot by teams ahead of us losing. We scheduled tough teams early on, and beat them, including the incumbent #1, to earn that honor. Let's just hope they keep playing well from here on out and make the rest of this season a great one.
Monday, November 29, 2004
Thanksgiving Weekend
Hope everyone out there had a great Thanksgiving weekend. Mine had its ups and downs. Among the highlights/lowlights:
- Had our traditional Thanksgiving dinner with the family. As I have explained in past years, "Traditional Thanksgiving dinner" for the Chen family doesn't mean turkey, yams, cornbread, and cranberry sauce. It means slices of raw meat, fish balls, squid, shrimp, bok choy, rice noodles, golden mushrooms and more, all cooked in a boiling pot in front of you and then dipped in a mixture of raw eggs and Chinese barbeque sauce. The almighty Hot Pot. I'm lovin it.
- Got to hang with 2 of my favorite people who moved away but were back in town for the weekend, Vic and P. It was only for a couple hours at Ontourage, not exactly my favorite place, but still a treat. Also good to see the rest of you guys who were out that night too, of course. I finally took some pictures too:
- Watched the Incredibles. Good movie, I recommend it. Stories about superheroes are just cool. I can admit it, after watching X-Men I went home and pretended that I had superpowers too. Also, it seems to me that these Pixar movies in general are a cut above the other animated movies coming out these days. Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, and now the Incredibles are all much better movies than the other two I saw recently, Shrek 2 and Shark Tale.
- Played some football, in a field composed entirely of snow and mud. It was messy but fun.
- Fantasy football was definitely not fun. Brace yourselves for my long sob story. It was probably the most miserable week I have ever had in fantasy sports (and I have had my share of bad weeks).
Coming into the week I was tied for 4th place, a game out of being tied for first, and facing Dan's team (one of the first place teams) with only 5 weeks left. In other words, it was pretty much a must win if I wanted to have any shot of contending for this year's title. So during every spare moment I had this week, I was looking up stats and reading up on the matchups, agonizing over how the weekend would unfold. By the time games started on Thursday, I could probably tell you every last detail about every player on my team or Dan's team, all the info on every opposing team they were going against, and every player I considered picking up.
Well, I ended up losing a close one. My team did pretty well, but as has been the story for me all year in McNown league, the other team scored more than it should have, and handed me yet another heartbreaking loss. Maybe at the end of the season I will write a recap of this year's results, and break down the numbers to show the different ways that fantasy football was horrible to me in 2004.
In the end, I watched about 15 hours of football games between Thursday and Sunday, filled with plenty of back and forth moments between my team and Dan's that kept me hooked to the computer or TV up through the very last seconds of the Sunday night game. As I watched Jason Elam line up for a last minute field goal yesterday in bed, my count of the scoring had me trailing Dan by 2, which meant that I would have won our matchup if he made it. Of course, the field goal was blocked, giving me a -1 instead of +3 and making me very very sad.
As it turns out, I woke up this morning to find that Yahoo scoring had me losing by 5, which means I would have lost even if Elam made that field goal. In hindsight, I guess it's somewhat more comforting than losing by 1 or 2. But that didn't keep me from tossing and turning in my bed all night, torturing myself by thinking about all the little things that might have cost me the game (and the rest of the season along with it). Not just the blocked FG, but Aaron Brooks throwing an interception on the last play of his game (not even a Hail Mary, it was picked at the 20 yard line), Patrick Kerney getting a sack nullified by a teammate's penalty, NFL.com crediting one of Reuben Droughns's two fumbles to Jake Plummer, Lelie setting up a Droughns TD by falling down at the 2 yard line, and worst of all, Willis McGahee dropping 4 touchdowns on me.
FOUR TOUCHDOWNS BY WILLIS MCGAHEE.... so maddening. I hate him and the Bills and the Seahawks so much after this game. For years, the Bills have been the biggest pansies when it comes to taking chances, yet all of a sudden they're:
1. Onside kicking to start the second half despite being ahead by 2 TDs, and
2. Passing up on a reasonable field goal to go for it on 4th down, despite being up by 3 TDs in the fourth quarter (!!)
And the Seahawks, could this team possibly be more inconsistent and overrated? To think people were picking them to win the Superbowl in the preseason, and talking about it being Matt Hasselbeck's breakout year. They're all colossal wastes of space if you ask me. As I look back at the situation, if McGahee would have "only" scored 3 TDs instead of 4, I would have won this week. I better stop thinking about it before it drives me more insane.
By the way, Happy Bday to Dan if you read this. Seriously, fantasy football aside, I hope your birthday was a good one.
- It wasn't all bad in sports this weekend though. Saturday's Illini game was a real treat to watch, as we crushed Gonzaga in our first game against a ranked team this year. Obviously we're not gonna continue to shoot these ungodly percentages the whole year, but even so, this team looks pretty damn good right now.
Needless to say, this Wednesday's game coming up against Wake Forest is gonna be huge, much bigger than any game at Assembly Hall back when I was still in school. I was looking up ticket prices a couple weeks ago and they were ridiculous, like 188 each for C-level seats and 488 each on B-level.
I guess it makes sense though - honestly, as a sports fan around here these days, what is there to get excited about other than the Illini? A month into the NBA season, the Bulls are 1-9. Meanwhile, the Bears just signed Jeff George for some inexplicable reason. Neither team has been any good for years now, and don't figure to be good anytime soon either. Illini football just fired their coach after yet another horrible season. That program hasn't been good either, since the time we had, well, Jeff George. Ok, maybe not that long ago, but it's definitely been a while.
Hope everyone out there had a great Thanksgiving weekend. Mine had its ups and downs. Among the highlights/lowlights:
- Had our traditional Thanksgiving dinner with the family. As I have explained in past years, "Traditional Thanksgiving dinner" for the Chen family doesn't mean turkey, yams, cornbread, and cranberry sauce. It means slices of raw meat, fish balls, squid, shrimp, bok choy, rice noodles, golden mushrooms and more, all cooked in a boiling pot in front of you and then dipped in a mixture of raw eggs and Chinese barbeque sauce. The almighty Hot Pot. I'm lovin it.
- Got to hang with 2 of my favorite people who moved away but were back in town for the weekend, Vic and P. It was only for a couple hours at Ontourage, not exactly my favorite place, but still a treat. Also good to see the rest of you guys who were out that night too, of course. I finally took some pictures too:
- Watched the Incredibles. Good movie, I recommend it. Stories about superheroes are just cool. I can admit it, after watching X-Men I went home and pretended that I had superpowers too. Also, it seems to me that these Pixar movies in general are a cut above the other animated movies coming out these days. Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, and now the Incredibles are all much better movies than the other two I saw recently, Shrek 2 and Shark Tale.
- Played some football, in a field composed entirely of snow and mud. It was messy but fun.
- Fantasy football was definitely not fun. Brace yourselves for my long sob story. It was probably the most miserable week I have ever had in fantasy sports (and I have had my share of bad weeks).
Coming into the week I was tied for 4th place, a game out of being tied for first, and facing Dan's team (one of the first place teams) with only 5 weeks left. In other words, it was pretty much a must win if I wanted to have any shot of contending for this year's title. So during every spare moment I had this week, I was looking up stats and reading up on the matchups, agonizing over how the weekend would unfold. By the time games started on Thursday, I could probably tell you every last detail about every player on my team or Dan's team, all the info on every opposing team they were going against, and every player I considered picking up.
Well, I ended up losing a close one. My team did pretty well, but as has been the story for me all year in McNown league, the other team scored more than it should have, and handed me yet another heartbreaking loss. Maybe at the end of the season I will write a recap of this year's results, and break down the numbers to show the different ways that fantasy football was horrible to me in 2004.
In the end, I watched about 15 hours of football games between Thursday and Sunday, filled with plenty of back and forth moments between my team and Dan's that kept me hooked to the computer or TV up through the very last seconds of the Sunday night game. As I watched Jason Elam line up for a last minute field goal yesterday in bed, my count of the scoring had me trailing Dan by 2, which meant that I would have won our matchup if he made it. Of course, the field goal was blocked, giving me a -1 instead of +3 and making me very very sad.
As it turns out, I woke up this morning to find that Yahoo scoring had me losing by 5, which means I would have lost even if Elam made that field goal. In hindsight, I guess it's somewhat more comforting than losing by 1 or 2. But that didn't keep me from tossing and turning in my bed all night, torturing myself by thinking about all the little things that might have cost me the game (and the rest of the season along with it). Not just the blocked FG, but Aaron Brooks throwing an interception on the last play of his game (not even a Hail Mary, it was picked at the 20 yard line), Patrick Kerney getting a sack nullified by a teammate's penalty, NFL.com crediting one of Reuben Droughns's two fumbles to Jake Plummer, Lelie setting up a Droughns TD by falling down at the 2 yard line, and worst of all, Willis McGahee dropping 4 touchdowns on me.
FOUR TOUCHDOWNS BY WILLIS MCGAHEE.... so maddening. I hate him and the Bills and the Seahawks so much after this game. For years, the Bills have been the biggest pansies when it comes to taking chances, yet all of a sudden they're:
1. Onside kicking to start the second half despite being ahead by 2 TDs, and
2. Passing up on a reasonable field goal to go for it on 4th down, despite being up by 3 TDs in the fourth quarter (!!)
And the Seahawks, could this team possibly be more inconsistent and overrated? To think people were picking them to win the Superbowl in the preseason, and talking about it being Matt Hasselbeck's breakout year. They're all colossal wastes of space if you ask me. As I look back at the situation, if McGahee would have "only" scored 3 TDs instead of 4, I would have won this week. I better stop thinking about it before it drives me more insane.
By the way, Happy Bday to Dan if you read this. Seriously, fantasy football aside, I hope your birthday was a good one.
- It wasn't all bad in sports this weekend though. Saturday's Illini game was a real treat to watch, as we crushed Gonzaga in our first game against a ranked team this year. Obviously we're not gonna continue to shoot these ungodly percentages the whole year, but even so, this team looks pretty damn good right now.
Needless to say, this Wednesday's game coming up against Wake Forest is gonna be huge, much bigger than any game at Assembly Hall back when I was still in school. I was looking up ticket prices a couple weeks ago and they were ridiculous, like 188 each for C-level seats and 488 each on B-level.
I guess it makes sense though - honestly, as a sports fan around here these days, what is there to get excited about other than the Illini? A month into the NBA season, the Bulls are 1-9. Meanwhile, the Bears just signed Jeff George for some inexplicable reason. Neither team has been any good for years now, and don't figure to be good anytime soon either. Illini football just fired their coach after yet another horrible season. That program hasn't been good either, since the time we had, well, Jeff George. Ok, maybe not that long ago, but it's definitely been a while.
Monday, November 22, 2004
I guess Ron Artest will have plenty of time to work on and promote his rap album now.
Out of all the entertaining parts of last friday's brawl, it's hard to pick a favorite. Jermaine O'Neal jacking that guy with a running haymaker was quality, and Stephen Jackson going nuts all over the place was good too. It was also hilarious when the fan was punching Artest from behind, and then Artest turned around and started whaling on him.
I can't find a good video or picture of it, but I think the first guy Artest chased in the stands was actually holding a drink in his hand when Artest started kicking his ass. Wasn't the whole point of going after that fan because he thought that was the guy who threw the beer on him? I guess it never crossed Ronny-boy's mind that maybe if the man was still holding his drink, he probably wasn't the one who threw a drink at him. Hilarious.
Thanks to my dad's internet hookups (I know, what the), he downloaded a bunch of pirated movies which I watched this weekend. Actually, it was just the first half of Shark Tale (I hope it was the lame half, cause it was pretty lame), and Dodgeball. He also got Alexander, but it turned out to be not the one that just came out, but an old movie called Alexander the Great from the 60's or 70's.
I heard the new version of Alexander is under fire in Greece because it suggests that he was gay/bisexual. Interesting.... I wouldn't be surprised, I always thought Colin Farrell was kind of queer.
I also heard that the mom from Meet the Parents is the real-life mom of Gwyneth Paltrow.
Considering how horrible a time it is to be a sports fan around Chicago these days, it is that much more of a relief that Illini basketball is back. Bulls have zero wins in 8 games, everyone important on the Bears is injured, and there's not even a NHL season to follow.
If anyone is going down to U of I at all in the next few weeks, can you do me a favor and try to get a couple of those Illini basketball schedule posters for me? I would like to continue the tradition:
Maybe one of these days I will have to write the entire story on the Wafflemaker Quest, but for now just some highlights:
- Flipped Will on the sidewalk after a friendly hug from behind
- Insulted some girl
- Miller Lite sign
- Licked a slice of pizza and yelled at Andy for not eating it
- Played with a rabbit and got lots of fur shedded on my coat. It's ok though, I love rabbits.
- Test tube shot injuries
Favorite song right now: Lil Wayne - "Go DJ". I like the lyrics, so inspiring.
On the other hand, one song that bothers me is John Mayer's "Daughters". It's not that I have anything against cheesy music, in fact I have this CD and like it overall. But this song is just annoying. Like some guy is going to listen to this song and be like "I guess I should be good to my daughter, John Mayer said so"? Lame.
Out of all the entertaining parts of last friday's brawl, it's hard to pick a favorite. Jermaine O'Neal jacking that guy with a running haymaker was quality, and Stephen Jackson going nuts all over the place was good too. It was also hilarious when the fan was punching Artest from behind, and then Artest turned around and started whaling on him.
I can't find a good video or picture of it, but I think the first guy Artest chased in the stands was actually holding a drink in his hand when Artest started kicking his ass. Wasn't the whole point of going after that fan because he thought that was the guy who threw the beer on him? I guess it never crossed Ronny-boy's mind that maybe if the man was still holding his drink, he probably wasn't the one who threw a drink at him. Hilarious.
Thanks to my dad's internet hookups (I know, what the), he downloaded a bunch of pirated movies which I watched this weekend. Actually, it was just the first half of Shark Tale (I hope it was the lame half, cause it was pretty lame), and Dodgeball. He also got Alexander, but it turned out to be not the one that just came out, but an old movie called Alexander the Great from the 60's or 70's.
I heard the new version of Alexander is under fire in Greece because it suggests that he was gay/bisexual. Interesting.... I wouldn't be surprised, I always thought Colin Farrell was kind of queer.
I also heard that the mom from Meet the Parents is the real-life mom of Gwyneth Paltrow.
Considering how horrible a time it is to be a sports fan around Chicago these days, it is that much more of a relief that Illini basketball is back. Bulls have zero wins in 8 games, everyone important on the Bears is injured, and there's not even a NHL season to follow.
If anyone is going down to U of I at all in the next few weeks, can you do me a favor and try to get a couple of those Illini basketball schedule posters for me? I would like to continue the tradition:
Maybe one of these days I will have to write the entire story on the Wafflemaker Quest, but for now just some highlights:
- Flipped Will on the sidewalk after a friendly hug from behind
- Insulted some girl
- Miller Lite sign
- Licked a slice of pizza and yelled at Andy for not eating it
- Played with a rabbit and got lots of fur shedded on my coat. It's ok though, I love rabbits.
- Test tube shot injuries
Favorite song right now: Lil Wayne - "Go DJ". I like the lyrics, so inspiring.
On the other hand, one song that bothers me is John Mayer's "Daughters". It's not that I have anything against cheesy music, in fact I have this CD and like it overall. But this song is just annoying. Like some guy is going to listen to this song and be like "I guess I should be good to my daughter, John Mayer said so"? Lame.
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Anti Norton AntiVirus
I've had my laptop for a few months now, and pretty much everything about it is great, except for one thing. It came pre-loaded with Norton AntiVirus software, which only had a 3 month subscription that ran out a few weeks ago, and now it won't stop bugging me to renew. I tried to uninstall the program, and not only did I fail at that endeavor, but I now get these stupid error messages every time I boot up, in addition to the reminders to renew.
Some of you may be thinking, how hard can it be to uninstall a program? Just go to the Start menu, the program folder, and find the "Uninstall Norton AntiVirus" shortcut, right? Sounds good, but there was no such option to be found, anywhere. Believe me, I looked everywhere. When was the last time you saw a program that didn't come with its own uninstall feature? I mean, even the little dinky apps you download from freeware sites all come with an option that lets you uninstall.
It's ok though, no big deal. I'll use my computer smarts and go to the Windows Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, and Remove Norton AV myself. Again, no such luck. Norton AntiVirus was listed, but when I selected it, there was no button there to "Change/Remove" like every other program has.
Now I was pissed. How can there be no option in Control Panel to remove this program? I mean, it's one thing if it's a Microsoft program, which might have features closely integrated to Windows and stuff, and even then, I think they usually give you the option to remove. But this is THIRD-PARTY SOFTWARE. HOW DARE THEY TELL ME WHAT PROGRAM I CAN AND CAN'T REMOVE??!
Actually, I checked some of the other programs in the Control Panel list, and to my surprise, a few of the other ones were the same way, no "Change/Remove" button. I don't remember this ever being an issue in Windows 2000, maybe it's a new thing in XP? In any case, it's BS. Nobody should have the right to decide what I keep and what I delete on MY computer, except for me.
At one point in this ordeal, I hit a new low. That is, when I told Olivia about my problems and she decided she would try to help me. You know you're in trouble when your girlfriend is working on fixing your computer for you. The same girl who still connects with dialup, uses the internet mostly to shop for clothes or look up pictures of puppies, and believes it's a good idea to click those "Unsubscribe" links in spam emails. Needless to say, it took her about 5 minutes of struggling with my computer before she, too, gave up. Even though I wanted the program off my system, I have to admit that deep down, I was somewhat relieved when she failed. It just wouldn't sit too well with my manhood if I needed my girlfriend to fix my computer for me.
So after all this, I still got the error messages and the renewal reminders to deal with. What makes those reminders that much more infuriating is the way they are presented. At the top, a message that says "Your virus definitions are not up to date" in red letters. As you all know, red means danger. Then it gives two options:
[ ] Renew now (recommended)
[ ] Remind me again in {drop down box} days
WOW, thank you SO MUCH for the recommendation! I wasn't going to renew, but since you recommend it, sign me up immediately! Worse yet, the only selections in the drop down box were either "1" or "15". So basically, I have three choices: 1. Paying these assclowns for a service that I think is worthless to begin with (more on this in a little bit), 2. Having them bug me to pay them every day for as long as I have this computer, or 3. Having them bug me every 15 days for as long as I have this computer. Awesome.
If there's one thing I hate, it's shady and/or unprofessional business practice. For example, when record companies flood Kazaa with bogus files to foil downloaders, it just makes me that much more determined to steal their music out of spite. Likewise, when Norton Antivirus tries to coerce me into subscribing to their services thru repeated harrassment, I do not respond well.
For a while now, I have thought of the whole antivirus industry as a sham to begin with. By now, I have been using computers for more than 10 years and as far as I can remember, not once has my antivirus software saved me from any real threat. There actually was a time when I respected Peter Norton because of his exceptionally useful set of DOS utilities, and thus figured his antivirus programs would be just as good. Unfortunately, I think his name has been sufficiently whored out to the large corporations over the years, to the point where he probably has little if anything to do with the software that still bears his picture on the cover. And if I ever meet the people who designed the current version of Norton Antivirus, I swear I will punch them all in their ovaries, Ron Burgundy style.
I'm not saying that there aren't viruses (virii?) out there. I'm sure there do exist viruses that can destroy your computer, but I think as long as you aren't a dumbass about opening suspicious attachments and that kind of thing, you wouldn't really have to worry about getting them. Either way, if a really potent virus does happen to come along, your antivirus software probably won't be able to catch it anyways, because it's too new to have any definitions available.
Basically what I'm saying is, all NAV really does is slow down your computer, interfere with some legitimate installation programs, and try to charge you for letting them continue to do so. I suppose if you are the ignorant type, you might enjoy paying for that false sense of security. But for me, I will never ever pay for worthless garbage. I just want the stupid program off my computer and out of my life. And soon, before I flip out and the ovary-punching rampage begins.
I've had my laptop for a few months now, and pretty much everything about it is great, except for one thing. It came pre-loaded with Norton AntiVirus software, which only had a 3 month subscription that ran out a few weeks ago, and now it won't stop bugging me to renew. I tried to uninstall the program, and not only did I fail at that endeavor, but I now get these stupid error messages every time I boot up, in addition to the reminders to renew.
Some of you may be thinking, how hard can it be to uninstall a program? Just go to the Start menu, the program folder, and find the "Uninstall Norton AntiVirus" shortcut, right? Sounds good, but there was no such option to be found, anywhere. Believe me, I looked everywhere. When was the last time you saw a program that didn't come with its own uninstall feature? I mean, even the little dinky apps you download from freeware sites all come with an option that lets you uninstall.
It's ok though, no big deal. I'll use my computer smarts and go to the Windows Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, and Remove Norton AV myself. Again, no such luck. Norton AntiVirus was listed, but when I selected it, there was no button there to "Change/Remove" like every other program has.
Now I was pissed. How can there be no option in Control Panel to remove this program? I mean, it's one thing if it's a Microsoft program, which might have features closely integrated to Windows and stuff, and even then, I think they usually give you the option to remove. But this is THIRD-PARTY SOFTWARE. HOW DARE THEY TELL ME WHAT PROGRAM I CAN AND CAN'T REMOVE??!
Actually, I checked some of the other programs in the Control Panel list, and to my surprise, a few of the other ones were the same way, no "Change/Remove" button. I don't remember this ever being an issue in Windows 2000, maybe it's a new thing in XP? In any case, it's BS. Nobody should have the right to decide what I keep and what I delete on MY computer, except for me.
At one point in this ordeal, I hit a new low. That is, when I told Olivia about my problems and she decided she would try to help me. You know you're in trouble when your girlfriend is working on fixing your computer for you. The same girl who still connects with dialup, uses the internet mostly to shop for clothes or look up pictures of puppies, and believes it's a good idea to click those "Unsubscribe" links in spam emails. Needless to say, it took her about 5 minutes of struggling with my computer before she, too, gave up. Even though I wanted the program off my system, I have to admit that deep down, I was somewhat relieved when she failed. It just wouldn't sit too well with my manhood if I needed my girlfriend to fix my computer for me.
So after all this, I still got the error messages and the renewal reminders to deal with. What makes those reminders that much more infuriating is the way they are presented. At the top, a message that says "Your virus definitions are not up to date" in red letters. As you all know, red means danger. Then it gives two options:
[ ] Renew now (recommended)
[ ] Remind me again in {drop down box} days
WOW, thank you SO MUCH for the recommendation! I wasn't going to renew, but since you recommend it, sign me up immediately! Worse yet, the only selections in the drop down box were either "1" or "15". So basically, I have three choices: 1. Paying these assclowns for a service that I think is worthless to begin with (more on this in a little bit), 2. Having them bug me to pay them every day for as long as I have this computer, or 3. Having them bug me every 15 days for as long as I have this computer. Awesome.
If there's one thing I hate, it's shady and/or unprofessional business practice. For example, when record companies flood Kazaa with bogus files to foil downloaders, it just makes me that much more determined to steal their music out of spite. Likewise, when Norton Antivirus tries to coerce me into subscribing to their services thru repeated harrassment, I do not respond well.
For a while now, I have thought of the whole antivirus industry as a sham to begin with. By now, I have been using computers for more than 10 years and as far as I can remember, not once has my antivirus software saved me from any real threat. There actually was a time when I respected Peter Norton because of his exceptionally useful set of DOS utilities, and thus figured his antivirus programs would be just as good. Unfortunately, I think his name has been sufficiently whored out to the large corporations over the years, to the point where he probably has little if anything to do with the software that still bears his picture on the cover. And if I ever meet the people who designed the current version of Norton Antivirus, I swear I will punch them all in their ovaries, Ron Burgundy style.
I'm not saying that there aren't viruses (virii?) out there. I'm sure there do exist viruses that can destroy your computer, but I think as long as you aren't a dumbass about opening suspicious attachments and that kind of thing, you wouldn't really have to worry about getting them. Either way, if a really potent virus does happen to come along, your antivirus software probably won't be able to catch it anyways, because it's too new to have any definitions available.
Basically what I'm saying is, all NAV really does is slow down your computer, interfere with some legitimate installation programs, and try to charge you for letting them continue to do so. I suppose if you are the ignorant type, you might enjoy paying for that false sense of security. But for me, I will never ever pay for worthless garbage. I just want the stupid program off my computer and out of my life. And soon, before I flip out and the ovary-punching rampage begins.
Friday, November 05, 2004
Seizure
I witnessed someone having a seizure yesterday. It was probably the scariest thing I have ever seen in person. A bunch of us were in a meeting, when suddenly the guy next to me started spasming and making all these weird noises. Face turning blue, then white, then red, white again, mouth foaming and everything.
Not knowing what the freak was happening or what to do about it, all we could do was try to steady him in his chair as he was violently shaking. Then after the spasms stopped, he started moving around like a zombie as we tried to keep him in the room until the paramedics arrived. When we stopped him from moving around too far, he started fighting us and shouting. At first it was incoherent, then he was shouting stuff like "LET ME GO" or "STOP HOLDING ME", which continued even after the paramedics got there and were trying to strap him to a stretcher.
Like I said, it was one of the scariest things I have ever experienced firsthand. At one point I was holding him when his eyes rolled backwards, his mouth all foamy, and his body went limp. I really thought he was going to die right there in my arms.
For the rest of the day I felt a little lightheaded and weak, as that scene kept replaying in my head. He was literally in the middle of a sentence when all of this started happening, and within seconds, complete chaos. Always knew him as a normal, somewhat quiet guy, nice person and good sense of humor, maybe only a year or two older than me. I think they said he was on medication for something, but other than that, he seemed healthy enough.
I don't know how many of you out there have witnessed anything like that, but I haven't ever seen anything remotely close to this in my life and it scared the crap out of me. And I don't think of myself as a person who scares easily in general. Didn't know if it was a heart attack, panic attack, epilepsy, or even demon possession at the time. Afterwards, one of the medics explained that he would probably be okay, that it looked a lot worse than it was, and it was common for the person to be combative in their disoriented state, which he definitely was. And thankfully, the news today is that he was released from the hospital and is doing fine, so I guess the medic was right.
Still, I really hope I (or anyone) would ever have to witness, or worse yet, have a seizure like that. If any of you are ever in that situation, though, one thing I heard is that you should put something soft in the person's mouth so they don't bite their tongue off. Other than that, just hope the paramedics get there fast and let them handle it.
Thus ends my horror story of the day. Sorry if it was disturbing.
I witnessed someone having a seizure yesterday. It was probably the scariest thing I have ever seen in person. A bunch of us were in a meeting, when suddenly the guy next to me started spasming and making all these weird noises. Face turning blue, then white, then red, white again, mouth foaming and everything.
Not knowing what the freak was happening or what to do about it, all we could do was try to steady him in his chair as he was violently shaking. Then after the spasms stopped, he started moving around like a zombie as we tried to keep him in the room until the paramedics arrived. When we stopped him from moving around too far, he started fighting us and shouting. At first it was incoherent, then he was shouting stuff like "LET ME GO" or "STOP HOLDING ME", which continued even after the paramedics got there and were trying to strap him to a stretcher.
Like I said, it was one of the scariest things I have ever experienced firsthand. At one point I was holding him when his eyes rolled backwards, his mouth all foamy, and his body went limp. I really thought he was going to die right there in my arms.
For the rest of the day I felt a little lightheaded and weak, as that scene kept replaying in my head. He was literally in the middle of a sentence when all of this started happening, and within seconds, complete chaos. Always knew him as a normal, somewhat quiet guy, nice person and good sense of humor, maybe only a year or two older than me. I think they said he was on medication for something, but other than that, he seemed healthy enough.
I don't know how many of you out there have witnessed anything like that, but I haven't ever seen anything remotely close to this in my life and it scared the crap out of me. And I don't think of myself as a person who scares easily in general. Didn't know if it was a heart attack, panic attack, epilepsy, or even demon possession at the time. Afterwards, one of the medics explained that he would probably be okay, that it looked a lot worse than it was, and it was common for the person to be combative in their disoriented state, which he definitely was. And thankfully, the news today is that he was released from the hospital and is doing fine, so I guess the medic was right.
Still, I really hope I (or anyone) would ever have to witness, or worse yet, have a seizure like that. If any of you are ever in that situation, though, one thing I heard is that you should put something soft in the person's mouth so they don't bite their tongue off. Other than that, just hope the paramedics get there fast and let them handle it.
Thus ends my horror story of the day. Sorry if it was disturbing.
Monday, November 01, 2004
Fogo de Chao
For Olivia's birthday we went to this place, known for all-you-can-eat steak. Corner of La Salle and Ontario (or is it Erie), basically right around Hard Rock Cafe and Rock & Roll McDonalds. The deal is, you pay $48 a person for all you can eat, except drinks and dessert. Waiters come around with these big shishkebob type things with different kinds of freshly cooked meat on them. You tell them what you want, whether you want the rarer or more well done sections, and they carve it off for you on the spot.
I'm not an expert on restaurants, but I highly recommend this place. The food was really really good - we especially liked the house special rump roast cut. I liked the service and general atmosphere too, even though it was an expensive place, the people there weren't snooty, overbearing, or anything like that. You get your food fast, and they refill your water often, but they aren't bothering you every 2 minutes either to ask if everything is ok for the 50th time either. I hate when waiters do that. Thanks to their red/green coaster system (you get a coaster and flip it to the red side if you don't want to be interrupted, green side to have the waiters come by), you can eat in peace until you want to be served again.
Like I said, I'm no food critic. For $48 a person, it's probably too steep to go regularly, but unless you are a vegetarian, I definitely think it's worth going once in a while. Nothing beats a really great, high quality meal, and that is what you get at this place.
By the way, I also had dinner at Biaggi's yesterday. I don't know what the rest of you think, but back in the day at U of I, I always thought that Biaggi's was this super nice place that you only go to for special occasions. As a college student, pretty much all of our options for food were at around the same level. If it wasn't fast food, we rarely went anywhere beyond the standard places like Friday's, Chili's, Steak & Shake, Applebee's, Fazoli, Olive Garden, etc. Biaggi's always seemed like it was a big step above all those places. In my 4 years at school, I only went there once, and it was for lunch on a Sunday.
Well, when I went yesterday, the place didn't seem quite as high class as I used to think it was. Maybe the Biaggi's in Deer Park isn't as nice as the one in Champaign, but I doubt that. I think it's more because of the fact that I have gotten to eat at a lot more nicer places, in the 2 years since I left school and started working. It just feels weird that a place I used to think was so fancy, is now merely a somewhat souped-up version of Olive Garden in my mind.
Fantasy Politics
During a conversation at dinner yesterday, the topic came up on how our country's political system is limited to 2-parties. I haven't studied political science beyond junior year of high school, so I can't really get into an in-depth discussion about whether it's good to have more political parties involved or not, instead of just Democrat/Republican.
However, one thing I was thinking about was how cool it would be if we had like 20-30 political parties to choose from (instead of 2.01). Not so much in the sense of increasing democracy (i.e. allowing more groups to be represented). But if we had that many candidates for each election, from the local races to the Presidential races, then we could have fantasy leagues for politics.
I can picture it: every time an election year comes around, you and your boys would hold a draft, a few months in advance of Nov. 2nd. The standard league settings would probably require you to start 1 President, 2 Senators, a bunch of Congressmen, 1 Mayor, 1 Governor, maybe a few state senators too. Then you score points depending on how well they do in the election. Like 1 Fantasy point for every 15 electoral votes in the presidential race, 1 pt for each percentage of the vote in the other races, 10 for each win, etc.
The only problem is that there isn't enough games, it all ends up coming down to one day. Although I'm sure you could probably tweak the rules somehow, to let you have weekly matchups, even starting maybe as early as the primaries.
I know it sounds stupid, but I'm telling you, it could work. Basically all of the same things that make fantasy football or baseball exciting translate to fantasy politics. Like in this year's race, the biggest stud to get would probably be Barack Obama, pretty much a lock to win, especially more valuable at a critical position like Senator. On the other hand, if you drafted Jack Ryan, you got totally screwed when he pulled a Ricky Williams, forcing you to scramble to pick up a scrub like Alan Keyes off the waiver wire to replace him.
Trades would be cool too. Maybe after watching the 2nd Presidential debate, you would decide to ship G-Dubs and Phil Crane in return for Kerry, Melissa Bean, and a first round pick in the next election (which would probably get you a stud mayor like Daley).
Most importantly, if we could make fantasy politics a reality, more people would definitely follow politics more closely and passionately, like they should be anyways. We wouldn't need Puff Daddy and Cameron Diaz begging us to vote, or need Ben & Jerry's and Chipotle to remind us to register.
Ok, so in the end, maybe it's not the greatest or most realistic idea. Sorry. This is the kind of thing that happens when I go out to a club and don't drink, smoke, or dance, and then my mind wanders off to nowhere.
I guess what makes fantasy sports what it is, is that it's separate from reality (hence the "fantasy" part). To some extent you control your team's results, but mostly it still depends on a lot of things you have no control over. And when your team loses, it hurts, but outside of some lost pride, weeks of sadness, and maybe $10 or $20, it's not going to affect the rest of your life a whole lot.
As much as it sucks when your fantasy football team fails, it would suck a whole lot more if you made the wrong moves in fantasy politics, and as a result, all of a sudden your taxes were doubled and you got drafted to go fight in some war.
For Olivia's birthday we went to this place, known for all-you-can-eat steak. Corner of La Salle and Ontario (or is it Erie), basically right around Hard Rock Cafe and Rock & Roll McDonalds. The deal is, you pay $48 a person for all you can eat, except drinks and dessert. Waiters come around with these big shishkebob type things with different kinds of freshly cooked meat on them. You tell them what you want, whether you want the rarer or more well done sections, and they carve it off for you on the spot.
I'm not an expert on restaurants, but I highly recommend this place. The food was really really good - we especially liked the house special rump roast cut. I liked the service and general atmosphere too, even though it was an expensive place, the people there weren't snooty, overbearing, or anything like that. You get your food fast, and they refill your water often, but they aren't bothering you every 2 minutes either to ask if everything is ok for the 50th time either. I hate when waiters do that. Thanks to their red/green coaster system (you get a coaster and flip it to the red side if you don't want to be interrupted, green side to have the waiters come by), you can eat in peace until you want to be served again.
Like I said, I'm no food critic. For $48 a person, it's probably too steep to go regularly, but unless you are a vegetarian, I definitely think it's worth going once in a while. Nothing beats a really great, high quality meal, and that is what you get at this place.
By the way, I also had dinner at Biaggi's yesterday. I don't know what the rest of you think, but back in the day at U of I, I always thought that Biaggi's was this super nice place that you only go to for special occasions. As a college student, pretty much all of our options for food were at around the same level. If it wasn't fast food, we rarely went anywhere beyond the standard places like Friday's, Chili's, Steak & Shake, Applebee's, Fazoli, Olive Garden, etc. Biaggi's always seemed like it was a big step above all those places. In my 4 years at school, I only went there once, and it was for lunch on a Sunday.
Well, when I went yesterday, the place didn't seem quite as high class as I used to think it was. Maybe the Biaggi's in Deer Park isn't as nice as the one in Champaign, but I doubt that. I think it's more because of the fact that I have gotten to eat at a lot more nicer places, in the 2 years since I left school and started working. It just feels weird that a place I used to think was so fancy, is now merely a somewhat souped-up version of Olive Garden in my mind.
Fantasy Politics
During a conversation at dinner yesterday, the topic came up on how our country's political system is limited to 2-parties. I haven't studied political science beyond junior year of high school, so I can't really get into an in-depth discussion about whether it's good to have more political parties involved or not, instead of just Democrat/Republican.
However, one thing I was thinking about was how cool it would be if we had like 20-30 political parties to choose from (instead of 2.01). Not so much in the sense of increasing democracy (i.e. allowing more groups to be represented). But if we had that many candidates for each election, from the local races to the Presidential races, then we could have fantasy leagues for politics.
I can picture it: every time an election year comes around, you and your boys would hold a draft, a few months in advance of Nov. 2nd. The standard league settings would probably require you to start 1 President, 2 Senators, a bunch of Congressmen, 1 Mayor, 1 Governor, maybe a few state senators too. Then you score points depending on how well they do in the election. Like 1 Fantasy point for every 15 electoral votes in the presidential race, 1 pt for each percentage of the vote in the other races, 10 for each win, etc.
The only problem is that there isn't enough games, it all ends up coming down to one day. Although I'm sure you could probably tweak the rules somehow, to let you have weekly matchups, even starting maybe as early as the primaries.
I know it sounds stupid, but I'm telling you, it could work. Basically all of the same things that make fantasy football or baseball exciting translate to fantasy politics. Like in this year's race, the biggest stud to get would probably be Barack Obama, pretty much a lock to win, especially more valuable at a critical position like Senator. On the other hand, if you drafted Jack Ryan, you got totally screwed when he pulled a Ricky Williams, forcing you to scramble to pick up a scrub like Alan Keyes off the waiver wire to replace him.
Trades would be cool too. Maybe after watching the 2nd Presidential debate, you would decide to ship G-Dubs and Phil Crane in return for Kerry, Melissa Bean, and a first round pick in the next election (which would probably get you a stud mayor like Daley).
Most importantly, if we could make fantasy politics a reality, more people would definitely follow politics more closely and passionately, like they should be anyways. We wouldn't need Puff Daddy and Cameron Diaz begging us to vote, or need Ben & Jerry's and Chipotle to remind us to register.
Ok, so in the end, maybe it's not the greatest or most realistic idea. Sorry. This is the kind of thing that happens when I go out to a club and don't drink, smoke, or dance, and then my mind wanders off to nowhere.
I guess what makes fantasy sports what it is, is that it's separate from reality (hence the "fantasy" part). To some extent you control your team's results, but mostly it still depends on a lot of things you have no control over. And when your team loses, it hurts, but outside of some lost pride, weeks of sadness, and maybe $10 or $20, it's not going to affect the rest of your life a whole lot.
As much as it sucks when your fantasy football team fails, it would suck a whole lot more if you made the wrong moves in fantasy politics, and as a result, all of a sudden your taxes were doubled and you got drafted to go fight in some war.
Thursday, October 28, 2004
Halloween
Being the boring person that I am, I do not plan on dressing up for Halloween this year. But that doesn't mean I don't encourage all of you out there to dress up for Halloween, which I do. Now that we are too old to trick-or-treat for candy, seeing all the different ideas people come up with for Halloween costumes these days is definitely the best part about the holiday for me.
For me, the last time I remember having a "real" costume was in about 4th grade when I was a Ninja Turtle (Donatello). Basically it was just a purple eyemask with a turtle nose, a t-shirt with a picture of the shell on the back, and a plastic Bo (which was light green for some reason). Other than that, the other two costumes I remember having were:
1. Walter Payton - Probably the most complete costume, with jersey, shoulder pads, pants, helmet and everything.
2. Karate Kid - I think because my mom and dad didn't feel like buying a costume, so they just made me wear my uniform from judo class instead.
Another memorable Halloween costume was my sister's, one year when she decided to be a "boy". I think I might have written about this before, but basically she was just using it as an excuse to wear my Air Jordan shoes and Little League Baseball hat, which she thought was the coolest things ever but I never let her touch them. We definitely got a lot of confused looks when we went trick-or-treating that year, nobody knew what the heck she was supposed to be dressed up as.
Someone (I think Vira) was telling me once about her bad Halloween experience as a kid, when the kids that didn't have a costume at school had to make their own costume out of a paper bag. Haha... I thought that was hilarious. "Hmmm, looks like your parents didn't dress you up for Halloween. Here, take this paper bag and make one yourself, so you don't look out of place with the other kids!"
There were a few good Halloween moments in college too. One year we were hanging out at Brothers, and then these guys came in dressed as Teletubbies. All the girls in the bar were fighting to dance with them and stuff. As Mr. Chan would say, "HO-larious".
This year, I have heard a few ideas on costumes so far, which I am interested to see. Among them:
- Kobe Bryant
- Johnny Damon
- The little Asian kid from The Grudge
- Slutty Bee
- Slutty Flower
- Jessica Simpson
- Keymaster from the Matrix
- Krang (from TMNT)
- Greg "Fossilman" Raymer
Hopefully I'll get to see some of those this weekend...
Being the boring person that I am, I do not plan on dressing up for Halloween this year. But that doesn't mean I don't encourage all of you out there to dress up for Halloween, which I do. Now that we are too old to trick-or-treat for candy, seeing all the different ideas people come up with for Halloween costumes these days is definitely the best part about the holiday for me.
For me, the last time I remember having a "real" costume was in about 4th grade when I was a Ninja Turtle (Donatello). Basically it was just a purple eyemask with a turtle nose, a t-shirt with a picture of the shell on the back, and a plastic Bo (which was light green for some reason). Other than that, the other two costumes I remember having were:
1. Walter Payton - Probably the most complete costume, with jersey, shoulder pads, pants, helmet and everything.
2. Karate Kid - I think because my mom and dad didn't feel like buying a costume, so they just made me wear my uniform from judo class instead.
Another memorable Halloween costume was my sister's, one year when she decided to be a "boy". I think I might have written about this before, but basically she was just using it as an excuse to wear my Air Jordan shoes and Little League Baseball hat, which she thought was the coolest things ever but I never let her touch them. We definitely got a lot of confused looks when we went trick-or-treating that year, nobody knew what the heck she was supposed to be dressed up as.
Someone (I think Vira) was telling me once about her bad Halloween experience as a kid, when the kids that didn't have a costume at school had to make their own costume out of a paper bag. Haha... I thought that was hilarious. "Hmmm, looks like your parents didn't dress you up for Halloween. Here, take this paper bag and make one yourself, so you don't look out of place with the other kids!"
There were a few good Halloween moments in college too. One year we were hanging out at Brothers, and then these guys came in dressed as Teletubbies. All the girls in the bar were fighting to dance with them and stuff. As Mr. Chan would say, "HO-larious".
This year, I have heard a few ideas on costumes so far, which I am interested to see. Among them:
- Kobe Bryant
- Johnny Damon
- The little Asian kid from The Grudge
- Slutty Bee
- Slutty Flower
- Jessica Simpson
- Keymaster from the Matrix
- Krang (from TMNT)
- Greg "Fossilman" Raymer
Hopefully I'll get to see some of those this weekend...
Monday, October 25, 2004
I went to the dentist over the weekend for a checkup and cleaning. First time in at least 3-4 years. I had been avoiding it for a long time, mostly because I was so afraid that I would have to get my wisdom teeth pulled.
The visit went alright, except for all the pain and bloodiness involved. Actually, the dentist told me I had "nice teeth", except I needed to get them cleaned regularly. Most importantly, she decided that my wisdom teeth did not need to be pulled. YAY
The other day I was at Marshall Fields and decided to buy a dress shirt. I wasn't sure what my neck and arm sizes were, so I had one of the sales guys measure me. As he was measuring my neck, he was like "wow, you have a really small neck." Olivia was also there and agreed with him. Made me feel so inadequate. Nobody wants to be a pencil-neck.
For future reference, if anyone wants to buy me a fitted dress shirt, my measurements are: 15 1/2, 32.
Okay fine, it's actually 15 1/4, 32.
I was browsing the internet the other day and saw this exercise video called "Yoga for Wimps". Probably a knockoff of those "_____ for Dummies" books. But apparently this is one of the top-selling videos on the market today. I'm thinking to myself, maybe I should try selling a video called "Math for Nerds".
Every once in a while I open up my old high school yearbook and flip through the memories. It's a little scary to think that 6-7 years have already passed since then. One thing I noticed is that the girls at our high school were kind of ugly in general. A few were good, but they were the exception, not the rule. Maybe it's just my imagination, but I think high school girls today are much more attractive than they were back when I was 18 or so. Sluttier too, but more attractive nonetheless.
Anyways, seeing a lot of the old faces, and reading the things they wrote in my yearbook, made me wonder where are all these people today and what are they doing with their lives? What happened to the guy who joined the Army, the quiet girl who went to the small artsy college, or the Mexicans I only saw in gym class and working at WalMart? Did the kid everybody suspected was gay finally come out of the closet, and if so, is he one of those super-flamboyant homos that I can totally picture him being? Which of the plain-looking girls got hotter and which of the hot girls got fatter in college?
If any of the people from my high school were wondering about me, I think I am exactly where they would guess that I would have ended up, based on the person I was back then. Graduated with an engineering degree after 4 years and now working as an engineer. Still skinny, nerdy looking, except my hair is a little shorter.
While having dinner at Chinatown the other day, I ran into an old friend I hadn't seen in a long time. Actually, she was the girl I went to senior prom with back in the day, but also a pretty close family friend since about 7th grade through high school. It makes me happy when I meet old friends and I see that they haven't completely changed since the last time I saw them. As opposed to suddenly learning that they are married, they look way older or fatter than what you remember, or they've been through all sorts of dramatic experiences during the last few years. "Yeah, I OD'ed on heroin in college, then went through rehab, then I got diagnosed with cancer, but underwent all this treatment and now I'm like a new man with a fresh outlook on life". Hearing something like that would freak me out. It's definitely a reassuring and comforting feeling when you can see that not everybody and everything changes as fast in this world as you may have thought.
Then earlier today I was reading Andy's Xanga page and he mentioned something about the days when we took a consumer economics one summer in high school. All the memories of those times came back, including the songs like Puff Daddy's "I'll Be Missing You" which he mentioned, riding in his cop-car (Ford Crown Victoria), or getting lunch every day at Taco Bell and trying to collect all the pieces needed to win the Batmobile.
The subject of memory is something I've been pondering more since I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind a few weeks ago (great movie by the way). The thought of forgetting certain memories is something that has always really scared me, maybe more than anything else.
Like when I see all the many kinds of bad stuff that happens to people when they get old, the thing I probably fear the most is getting Alzheimers and losing my memory. Not that I would ever choose to go blind, become bald, have heart problems, etc., but I think I'd honestly rather suffer any one of those things, than to become senile and forget the things and the people that were important to me.
I mean, when all is said and done in our lives, what will we have left to hold onto, besides the memories of all our experiences? The things we experience on a day-to-day basis, and the relationships we have, those things will all change as time passes and the world moves on around us. You can take away my health, my possessions, even my loved ones, and eventually all of those things will indeed be taken from us. But if we can hold on to the memories forever, then those things will continue to have meaning and shape our lives, transcending the effects of time.
This got a little deeper than I intended, but hopefully it made some sense. Maybe I tend to value memories much more than other people, I don't know. And it kind of goes against the point of the movie, but I really do feel like they define so much of who I am and what my relationships mean to me.
If nothing else, it's highly therapeutic to relive old times by remembering them in my mind. Just the other day, me, Chras, P, and Vic were talking about one incident that happened freshman year of college in our DiffEq class, and it brought a huge smile to my face just to think about what we remember happening that day. When all the memories come flooding back at once, it's almost like a natural high.
I guess this is one of the main reasons why I have maintained this blog for as long as I have, because much of it is basically like a written version of my memory. Just in case my mind starts to leak someday, I can still dig into my archives and remember the things that I have experienced along the way.
On a completely unrelated topic, I just watched this new show on MTV "You've Got A Friend". What a horrible show. Basically all it proves is that people will do pretty much anything if it gets them money and/or TV time.
White Castle. It's WHAT YOU CRAVE.
The visit went alright, except for all the pain and bloodiness involved. Actually, the dentist told me I had "nice teeth", except I needed to get them cleaned regularly. Most importantly, she decided that my wisdom teeth did not need to be pulled. YAY
The other day I was at Marshall Fields and decided to buy a dress shirt. I wasn't sure what my neck and arm sizes were, so I had one of the sales guys measure me. As he was measuring my neck, he was like "wow, you have a really small neck." Olivia was also there and agreed with him. Made me feel so inadequate. Nobody wants to be a pencil-neck.
For future reference, if anyone wants to buy me a fitted dress shirt, my measurements are: 15 1/2, 32.
Okay fine, it's actually 15 1/4, 32.
I was browsing the internet the other day and saw this exercise video called "Yoga for Wimps". Probably a knockoff of those "_____ for Dummies" books. But apparently this is one of the top-selling videos on the market today. I'm thinking to myself, maybe I should try selling a video called "Math for Nerds".
Every once in a while I open up my old high school yearbook and flip through the memories. It's a little scary to think that 6-7 years have already passed since then. One thing I noticed is that the girls at our high school were kind of ugly in general. A few were good, but they were the exception, not the rule. Maybe it's just my imagination, but I think high school girls today are much more attractive than they were back when I was 18 or so. Sluttier too, but more attractive nonetheless.
Anyways, seeing a lot of the old faces, and reading the things they wrote in my yearbook, made me wonder where are all these people today and what are they doing with their lives? What happened to the guy who joined the Army, the quiet girl who went to the small artsy college, or the Mexicans I only saw in gym class and working at WalMart? Did the kid everybody suspected was gay finally come out of the closet, and if so, is he one of those super-flamboyant homos that I can totally picture him being? Which of the plain-looking girls got hotter and which of the hot girls got fatter in college?
If any of the people from my high school were wondering about me, I think I am exactly where they would guess that I would have ended up, based on the person I was back then. Graduated with an engineering degree after 4 years and now working as an engineer. Still skinny, nerdy looking, except my hair is a little shorter.
While having dinner at Chinatown the other day, I ran into an old friend I hadn't seen in a long time. Actually, she was the girl I went to senior prom with back in the day, but also a pretty close family friend since about 7th grade through high school. It makes me happy when I meet old friends and I see that they haven't completely changed since the last time I saw them. As opposed to suddenly learning that they are married, they look way older or fatter than what you remember, or they've been through all sorts of dramatic experiences during the last few years. "Yeah, I OD'ed on heroin in college, then went through rehab, then I got diagnosed with cancer, but underwent all this treatment and now I'm like a new man with a fresh outlook on life". Hearing something like that would freak me out. It's definitely a reassuring and comforting feeling when you can see that not everybody and everything changes as fast in this world as you may have thought.
Then earlier today I was reading Andy's Xanga page and he mentioned something about the days when we took a consumer economics one summer in high school. All the memories of those times came back, including the songs like Puff Daddy's "I'll Be Missing You" which he mentioned, riding in his cop-car (Ford Crown Victoria), or getting lunch every day at Taco Bell and trying to collect all the pieces needed to win the Batmobile.
The subject of memory is something I've been pondering more since I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind a few weeks ago (great movie by the way). The thought of forgetting certain memories is something that has always really scared me, maybe more than anything else.
Like when I see all the many kinds of bad stuff that happens to people when they get old, the thing I probably fear the most is getting Alzheimers and losing my memory. Not that I would ever choose to go blind, become bald, have heart problems, etc., but I think I'd honestly rather suffer any one of those things, than to become senile and forget the things and the people that were important to me.
I mean, when all is said and done in our lives, what will we have left to hold onto, besides the memories of all our experiences? The things we experience on a day-to-day basis, and the relationships we have, those things will all change as time passes and the world moves on around us. You can take away my health, my possessions, even my loved ones, and eventually all of those things will indeed be taken from us. But if we can hold on to the memories forever, then those things will continue to have meaning and shape our lives, transcending the effects of time.
This got a little deeper than I intended, but hopefully it made some sense. Maybe I tend to value memories much more than other people, I don't know. And it kind of goes against the point of the movie, but I really do feel like they define so much of who I am and what my relationships mean to me.
If nothing else, it's highly therapeutic to relive old times by remembering them in my mind. Just the other day, me, Chras, P, and Vic were talking about one incident that happened freshman year of college in our DiffEq class, and it brought a huge smile to my face just to think about what we remember happening that day. When all the memories come flooding back at once, it's almost like a natural high.
I guess this is one of the main reasons why I have maintained this blog for as long as I have, because much of it is basically like a written version of my memory. Just in case my mind starts to leak someday, I can still dig into my archives and remember the things that I have experienced along the way.
On a completely unrelated topic, I just watched this new show on MTV "You've Got A Friend". What a horrible show. Basically all it proves is that people will do pretty much anything if it gets them money and/or TV time.
White Castle. It's WHAT YOU CRAVE.
Monday, October 18, 2004
The Best Part About October
Except for maybe March Madness, the baseball playoffs are probably the best championship tournament in all the major sports. One reason is that it's the only true "series" I can think of, where each of the individual games significantly affects the others.
Like when 2 teams play each other in the NBA finals, for example, the circumstances from one game to the next don't really change. The only thing is whether you're playing home or away, but in either case, you approach it with the same "one game at a time" philosophy.
In the MLB playoffs, you have to manage your pitchers carefully because their arms need an indefinite amount of rest. It's not just "let's play the same team 7 times and see who can win the most times". One day you gotta face Roger Clemens, the next day it might be Brandon Backe. So you end up having to figure out, is it worth starting your ace on 3 days rest, or are you better off just throwing your scrubbier but more rested starter out there for Game 4?
Also, how effective will your closer be, if you pitch him for more than one inning at a time? What if you use him 2 or 3 nights in a row, will he be able to throw effectively on the 4th night?
Other than that, playoff baseball is just awesome because it's like regular season baseball with the intensity multiplied by 100 times. It's already a sport where every little thing is crucial, so when it's a do-or-die series, each individual detail has that much more riding on it.
If only the White Sox and Cubs were involved, I would be in heaven right now.
Unfortunately, I don't really like any of the teams left. I think mostly what I'm rooting for is the Yankees to close out Boston, and then whoever wins from the NL to sweep the Yankees in the World Series. Whether it's the Cardinals or the Astros, I don't really care, as long as the Yankees don't win another title I'll be happy.
But yes, I am rooting for the Yankees to beat the Red Sox. There's probably some bandwagon Red Sox fans out there who are outraged that I want to see the "Evil Empire" beat them, but I don't care.
Why I Dislike Red Sox Fans
Seems like it's the fashionable thing these days to cheer for the Red Sox. Oh, those poor fans have suffered since 1918, and had their hearts broken so many times that they deserve to win. Besides, their archenemy is the Yankees, who are ruining baseball with their rampant spending, so GO BOSTON!!
Give me a break. Okay, so 85 years is a long time to not win a World Series, but Red Sox fans really act like they are the center of the baseball universe, and nobody else has suffered like they have. Cry me a river. In fact, there are two baseball teams in Chicago alone that have gone longer without a World Series win. So if anyone should be whining as much as these Boston fans, it would be us.
The thing is, no matter how much you love your team, and how long you have gone without a championship, there's no such thing as "deserving" to win. In any sport or competition, you have to earn your victories, that's what makes winning so special in the first place. When Bill Buckner makes a crucial error, hey guess what, you don't spend all your time and effort licking your wounds, you go out and fight to win Game 7. If you don't take care of business on the field, you don't "deserve" to win, simple as that.
On a historical note, let's not overlook the fact that Boston was the last team in the major leagues to accept black players on their team. While the rest of the country was moving forward, the Red Sox passed on future Hall-of-Fame players like Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays. So correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't this mean that a lot of this team's misery was self-inflicted, as a result of their own prejudiced and intolerant attitudes. With this in mind, should we still feel so sympathetic for their continued losing during those years?
Now, I won't go as far as other people to call the city of Boston racist, but this isn't exactly the most diverse crowd out there. Next time you watch a Boston home game and they show the crowd, see if you can spot one single person of color at Fenway, other than the players on the field or the hot dog vendors. Seriously, I tried to find one during the past 2 games they showed on Fox, and I couldn't identify any minorities there, whether Black, Hispanic, or Asian. It's not necessarily a reason in itself to dislike the Red Sox, but I do get some feeling that the whole baseball in Boston thing is a part of the New England blue-blood elitist identity. And I don't know about you, but I am not particularly inclined to align myself with a bunch of Ben Afflecks or John Kerrys by joining in the Red Sox love-fest. At least in New York, you can ride the subway with some queer with AIDS, deal with bad Asian women drivers, or walk through Times Square and not hear anybody speaking English (just ask John Rocker).
As for the Yankees, no I don't like them either, but it's no reason to root for the Red Sox. It's true that the Yankees spend more than any other team in baseball, but don't forget that the second highest payroll belongs to none other than the Boston Red Sox. Think about it for a second - if there were no Yankees, the Red Sox would be the Yankees.
If you really hate the Yankees, I say just root for your own team to beat them. Or at least pick an organization that is not like them, such as the Oakland A's or Minnesota Twins. Teams that win not by spending as much money as possible, but by making smart signings and developing their talent in a good farm system. The Boston Red Sox as an organization have much more in common with the New York Yankees than they would have you think, and rooting for them because you hate the Yankees is a stupid concept if you ask me.
Lastly, considering how annoying they are when they lose, imagine how annoying these Red Sox fans might become if they suddenly became winners. I think there's a chance we would uncover something that we never thought was possible: a group of people more irritating and cocky than Yankees fans. I don't doubt that they love their team a lot, but so do the rest of us baseball fans (including those New Yorkers). Getting the most worked up when your team loses, or whining the loudest about your suffering doesn't automatically make you the best fans out there. Most annoying? Yes. Most loyal? Not so fast.
I'm not sure where it's from, but I like the saying "There's no crying in baseball". I think it's from "A League of Their Own" but I could be wrong. Anyways, it's clear that the players, management, and fans associated with the Boston Red Sox have all broken this rule by their incessant complaining about the Curse and about the Yankees. Because of this, and the other things I discussed above, I personally wouldn't lose an ounce of sleep if they went another 85 years without a World Series win.
Except for maybe March Madness, the baseball playoffs are probably the best championship tournament in all the major sports. One reason is that it's the only true "series" I can think of, where each of the individual games significantly affects the others.
Like when 2 teams play each other in the NBA finals, for example, the circumstances from one game to the next don't really change. The only thing is whether you're playing home or away, but in either case, you approach it with the same "one game at a time" philosophy.
In the MLB playoffs, you have to manage your pitchers carefully because their arms need an indefinite amount of rest. It's not just "let's play the same team 7 times and see who can win the most times". One day you gotta face Roger Clemens, the next day it might be Brandon Backe. So you end up having to figure out, is it worth starting your ace on 3 days rest, or are you better off just throwing your scrubbier but more rested starter out there for Game 4?
Also, how effective will your closer be, if you pitch him for more than one inning at a time? What if you use him 2 or 3 nights in a row, will he be able to throw effectively on the 4th night?
Other than that, playoff baseball is just awesome because it's like regular season baseball with the intensity multiplied by 100 times. It's already a sport where every little thing is crucial, so when it's a do-or-die series, each individual detail has that much more riding on it.
If only the White Sox and Cubs were involved, I would be in heaven right now.
Unfortunately, I don't really like any of the teams left. I think mostly what I'm rooting for is the Yankees to close out Boston, and then whoever wins from the NL to sweep the Yankees in the World Series. Whether it's the Cardinals or the Astros, I don't really care, as long as the Yankees don't win another title I'll be happy.
But yes, I am rooting for the Yankees to beat the Red Sox. There's probably some bandwagon Red Sox fans out there who are outraged that I want to see the "Evil Empire" beat them, but I don't care.
Why I Dislike Red Sox Fans
Seems like it's the fashionable thing these days to cheer for the Red Sox. Oh, those poor fans have suffered since 1918, and had their hearts broken so many times that they deserve to win. Besides, their archenemy is the Yankees, who are ruining baseball with their rampant spending, so GO BOSTON!!
Give me a break. Okay, so 85 years is a long time to not win a World Series, but Red Sox fans really act like they are the center of the baseball universe, and nobody else has suffered like they have. Cry me a river. In fact, there are two baseball teams in Chicago alone that have gone longer without a World Series win. So if anyone should be whining as much as these Boston fans, it would be us.
The thing is, no matter how much you love your team, and how long you have gone without a championship, there's no such thing as "deserving" to win. In any sport or competition, you have to earn your victories, that's what makes winning so special in the first place. When Bill Buckner makes a crucial error, hey guess what, you don't spend all your time and effort licking your wounds, you go out and fight to win Game 7. If you don't take care of business on the field, you don't "deserve" to win, simple as that.
On a historical note, let's not overlook the fact that Boston was the last team in the major leagues to accept black players on their team. While the rest of the country was moving forward, the Red Sox passed on future Hall-of-Fame players like Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays. So correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't this mean that a lot of this team's misery was self-inflicted, as a result of their own prejudiced and intolerant attitudes. With this in mind, should we still feel so sympathetic for their continued losing during those years?
Now, I won't go as far as other people to call the city of Boston racist, but this isn't exactly the most diverse crowd out there. Next time you watch a Boston home game and they show the crowd, see if you can spot one single person of color at Fenway, other than the players on the field or the hot dog vendors. Seriously, I tried to find one during the past 2 games they showed on Fox, and I couldn't identify any minorities there, whether Black, Hispanic, or Asian. It's not necessarily a reason in itself to dislike the Red Sox, but I do get some feeling that the whole baseball in Boston thing is a part of the New England blue-blood elitist identity. And I don't know about you, but I am not particularly inclined to align myself with a bunch of Ben Afflecks or John Kerrys by joining in the Red Sox love-fest. At least in New York, you can ride the subway with some queer with AIDS, deal with bad Asian women drivers, or walk through Times Square and not hear anybody speaking English (just ask John Rocker).
As for the Yankees, no I don't like them either, but it's no reason to root for the Red Sox. It's true that the Yankees spend more than any other team in baseball, but don't forget that the second highest payroll belongs to none other than the Boston Red Sox. Think about it for a second - if there were no Yankees, the Red Sox would be the Yankees.
If you really hate the Yankees, I say just root for your own team to beat them. Or at least pick an organization that is not like them, such as the Oakland A's or Minnesota Twins. Teams that win not by spending as much money as possible, but by making smart signings and developing their talent in a good farm system. The Boston Red Sox as an organization have much more in common with the New York Yankees than they would have you think, and rooting for them because you hate the Yankees is a stupid concept if you ask me.
Lastly, considering how annoying they are when they lose, imagine how annoying these Red Sox fans might become if they suddenly became winners. I think there's a chance we would uncover something that we never thought was possible: a group of people more irritating and cocky than Yankees fans. I don't doubt that they love their team a lot, but so do the rest of us baseball fans (including those New Yorkers). Getting the most worked up when your team loses, or whining the loudest about your suffering doesn't automatically make you the best fans out there. Most annoying? Yes. Most loyal? Not so fast.
I'm not sure where it's from, but I like the saying "There's no crying in baseball". I think it's from "A League of Their Own" but I could be wrong. Anyways, it's clear that the players, management, and fans associated with the Boston Red Sox have all broken this rule by their incessant complaining about the Curse and about the Yankees. Because of this, and the other things I discussed above, I personally wouldn't lose an ounce of sleep if they went another 85 years without a World Series win.
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
X-Sport Fitness
I recently had some bad blood with the X-Sport Fitness company, which has made them the newest addition to my blacklist. It's a long story, but the end result is that I will end up being a member of their club for one more year, except now I have a "Power Pass". After a drawn out battle between me and them, I guess that's the best I could do. I won't tell my whole long sob story here, but let me just say that these people are shady motherhuggers and after this year is over, I'm done with this company forever.
So anyways, a couple weeks ago, I went to the X-Sport in Arlington Heights for the first time. And man, is that place nice. I haven't been to Lifetime, or any of the other fancier gyms before, but I felt like high society to be working out at this place. Among the features that impressed me most:
- Basketball court: Not just one, but two full courts. And I rarely see anyone using it, so if I decided to shoot around, I'd probably have 2 courts to myself. So luxurious.
- Swimming pool/Jacuzzi: They're not like the ones at Bally's, which are a little bit old and dingy, and filled with dirty old men. These are shiny new, and filled with clean old men (or no one at all). Plus on the walls they have little waterfalls running to spice things up. Very nice.
- Personal TV Screens: If the hundreds of TV's on the walls and hanging from the ceiling weren't enough for you, every cardio machine has its own little flat panel TV screen hooked up to it. You can control the channel/volume while you jog/bike, and plug in your own headphones and everything.
- Locker Rooms: There's a lot of TV's in the locker room too. And I mean a LOT. Basically every direction you look, you will see at least one TV if not more. Also a nice feature of their locker rooms is that there's dividers between urinals. I always appreciate dividers.
- Internet Stations: Yes, they actually have a spot in the gym with a bunch of computers set up for you to use the internet. When I saw that, it was about when I realized that I was in high society. Now, I haven't used it yet, but it gives me a sense of comfort to know that if the internet at my house went down, I could always drive down the street to check my fantasy teams at X-Sport.
There's probably more cool stuff that I haven't mentioned, or discovered yet, but just the stuff I listed above is pretty crazy if you ask me. Granted, I'm comparing it to an older X-Sport and the 2 or 3 Bally's I've been to, but still.
One other thing I wanted to mention about my X-Sport experience, is the subject of 150-lb dumbbells. I don't think I have seen dumbbells that heavy, until I got to this gym. When I first saw them sitting on the rack, I thought maybe it was a novelty thing. Kind of like when you go to Hooters, and they have a deal for wings with a bottle of Dom Perignon on the menu. Or when you're at the arcade, and looking at stuff you can win with your tickets. It's like you can redeem 5 tickets for some stickers, 50 for a rubber toy, 200 for a coffee mug, or 8 billion for a plasma TV. You know nobody's ever going to save up enough to get the TV, it's just there for show. It's the same with those humogenous dumbbells at the end of the rack, purely a status thing I figured. I mean, who is actually strong enough to need 150 lb dumbbells?
Well sure enough, yesterday when I went, I saw a guy using these giant dumbbells. And he wasn't doing like shoulder shrugs either, he was straight up bench pressing with them, one in each hand. At least about 10 reps per set too. I don't know, maybe some of you guys out there have seen something like this at your gym before, but for me, watching this guy press 150's really blew my mind.
The most entertaining part for me was later on when I overheard him telling his friend "man, that last set with the 150's really wore me out" and I'm thinking to myself, "wow, imagine that". I felt like saying to him "yeah, I guess you're just weak", but I didn't want to risk him not thinking it was funny, and then deciding to break me in half. Come to think of it, 150 is more than I weigh. Scary.
Oh, in case you missed my original point, I'll sum it up again. In conclusion, don't join X-Sport. Just trust me on this one. Their new gyms are nice, but they are a shady company, from top to bottom. If you get involved with them and regret it, don't say I didn't warn you.
I recently had some bad blood with the X-Sport Fitness company, which has made them the newest addition to my blacklist. It's a long story, but the end result is that I will end up being a member of their club for one more year, except now I have a "Power Pass". After a drawn out battle between me and them, I guess that's the best I could do. I won't tell my whole long sob story here, but let me just say that these people are shady motherhuggers and after this year is over, I'm done with this company forever.
So anyways, a couple weeks ago, I went to the X-Sport in Arlington Heights for the first time. And man, is that place nice. I haven't been to Lifetime, or any of the other fancier gyms before, but I felt like high society to be working out at this place. Among the features that impressed me most:
- Basketball court: Not just one, but two full courts. And I rarely see anyone using it, so if I decided to shoot around, I'd probably have 2 courts to myself. So luxurious.
- Swimming pool/Jacuzzi: They're not like the ones at Bally's, which are a little bit old and dingy, and filled with dirty old men. These are shiny new, and filled with clean old men (or no one at all). Plus on the walls they have little waterfalls running to spice things up. Very nice.
- Personal TV Screens: If the hundreds of TV's on the walls and hanging from the ceiling weren't enough for you, every cardio machine has its own little flat panel TV screen hooked up to it. You can control the channel/volume while you jog/bike, and plug in your own headphones and everything.
- Locker Rooms: There's a lot of TV's in the locker room too. And I mean a LOT. Basically every direction you look, you will see at least one TV if not more. Also a nice feature of their locker rooms is that there's dividers between urinals. I always appreciate dividers.
- Internet Stations: Yes, they actually have a spot in the gym with a bunch of computers set up for you to use the internet. When I saw that, it was about when I realized that I was in high society. Now, I haven't used it yet, but it gives me a sense of comfort to know that if the internet at my house went down, I could always drive down the street to check my fantasy teams at X-Sport.
There's probably more cool stuff that I haven't mentioned, or discovered yet, but just the stuff I listed above is pretty crazy if you ask me. Granted, I'm comparing it to an older X-Sport and the 2 or 3 Bally's I've been to, but still.
One other thing I wanted to mention about my X-Sport experience, is the subject of 150-lb dumbbells. I don't think I have seen dumbbells that heavy, until I got to this gym. When I first saw them sitting on the rack, I thought maybe it was a novelty thing. Kind of like when you go to Hooters, and they have a deal for wings with a bottle of Dom Perignon on the menu. Or when you're at the arcade, and looking at stuff you can win with your tickets. It's like you can redeem 5 tickets for some stickers, 50 for a rubber toy, 200 for a coffee mug, or 8 billion for a plasma TV. You know nobody's ever going to save up enough to get the TV, it's just there for show. It's the same with those humogenous dumbbells at the end of the rack, purely a status thing I figured. I mean, who is actually strong enough to need 150 lb dumbbells?
Well sure enough, yesterday when I went, I saw a guy using these giant dumbbells. And he wasn't doing like shoulder shrugs either, he was straight up bench pressing with them, one in each hand. At least about 10 reps per set too. I don't know, maybe some of you guys out there have seen something like this at your gym before, but for me, watching this guy press 150's really blew my mind.
The most entertaining part for me was later on when I overheard him telling his friend "man, that last set with the 150's really wore me out" and I'm thinking to myself, "wow, imagine that". I felt like saying to him "yeah, I guess you're just weak", but I didn't want to risk him not thinking it was funny, and then deciding to break me in half. Come to think of it, 150 is more than I weigh. Scary.
Oh, in case you missed my original point, I'll sum it up again. In conclusion, don't join X-Sport. Just trust me on this one. Their new gyms are nice, but they are a shady company, from top to bottom. If you get involved with them and regret it, don't say I didn't warn you.
Monday, October 04, 2004
Super Size Me
My sister rented Super Size Me over the weekend, and since I eat a lot of fast food, I decided to watch it with her. If you haven't heard of the movie, basically it's a documentary done by a guy who decides to eat McDonalds every single meal for a month and see what happens.
If that sounds like a ridiculous premise for a movie, that's because it is. It was intriguing enough to suck me in though. Actually, I think he got the idea from an argument posed by McDonalds' lawyers in a lawsuit by people suing them for causing their obesity.
Anyways, I'm not going to write a lot about this movie, like I did about Fahrenheit 9/11. I don't recommend it though, I didn't find it to be very informative or persuasive. First of all, I think we are all already aware that there are lots of fat people in this country. Second of all, I think we all already know that fast food is bad for you. All he proved by his stunt was that if you eat way too much McDonald's like an idiot, you will gain lots of weight and lose performance in bed. You don't need a movie to tell you that.
The funny thing is, after watching the movie, my sister said "I feel like getting some fries now". And I agreed with her.
On a side note, watching the movie reminded me of Wesley Willis, because the director used part of his "Rock and Roll McDonald's" song in it. I'm guessing most of you have never heard of Wesley Willis, even though he is one of the greatest musical geniuses of our time. I highly recommend that if you've never heard any of his songs, you should go download some (I can send you my collection if you want).
So I went through my computer and listened to all my Wesley Willis songs. Among my favorites:
They Threw Me Out of Church
It's Against The Law
I Whipped Superman's Ass
I Whipped Batman's Ass
Shoot Me In the Ass
Suck A Caribou's Ass
Rock Saddam Hussein's Ass
Rock It To Russia
Pretty much every single one of his songs uses the same tune, and then just has him hollering lyrics like: "You are a rock star. You are a rock and roll girl. You are a good rock and roll singer. I like you a lot. LIZZZZ PHAAAAIR.... LIZ PHAIR............ LIZZZZZZZZ PHAIRRR......... LIZZZ PHAIRR"
And the best is that he ends every song with: "Rock over London, Rock Over Chicago," and then a slogan like "Wheaties. Breakfast of Champions" or "TCBY. It's The Country's Best Yogurt" or my favorite, "On ATA, you're on vacation".
My sister rented Super Size Me over the weekend, and since I eat a lot of fast food, I decided to watch it with her. If you haven't heard of the movie, basically it's a documentary done by a guy who decides to eat McDonalds every single meal for a month and see what happens.
If that sounds like a ridiculous premise for a movie, that's because it is. It was intriguing enough to suck me in though. Actually, I think he got the idea from an argument posed by McDonalds' lawyers in a lawsuit by people suing them for causing their obesity.
Anyways, I'm not going to write a lot about this movie, like I did about Fahrenheit 9/11. I don't recommend it though, I didn't find it to be very informative or persuasive. First of all, I think we are all already aware that there are lots of fat people in this country. Second of all, I think we all already know that fast food is bad for you. All he proved by his stunt was that if you eat way too much McDonald's like an idiot, you will gain lots of weight and lose performance in bed. You don't need a movie to tell you that.
The funny thing is, after watching the movie, my sister said "I feel like getting some fries now". And I agreed with her.
On a side note, watching the movie reminded me of Wesley Willis, because the director used part of his "Rock and Roll McDonald's" song in it. I'm guessing most of you have never heard of Wesley Willis, even though he is one of the greatest musical geniuses of our time. I highly recommend that if you've never heard any of his songs, you should go download some (I can send you my collection if you want).
So I went through my computer and listened to all my Wesley Willis songs. Among my favorites:
They Threw Me Out of Church
It's Against The Law
I Whipped Superman's Ass
I Whipped Batman's Ass
Shoot Me In the Ass
Suck A Caribou's Ass
Rock Saddam Hussein's Ass
Rock It To Russia
Pretty much every single one of his songs uses the same tune, and then just has him hollering lyrics like: "You are a rock star. You are a rock and roll girl. You are a good rock and roll singer. I like you a lot. LIZZZZ PHAAAAIR.... LIZ PHAIR............ LIZZZZZZZZ PHAIRRR......... LIZZZ PHAIRR"
And the best is that he ends every song with: "Rock over London, Rock Over Chicago," and then a slogan like "Wheaties. Breakfast of Champions" or "TCBY. It's The Country's Best Yogurt" or my favorite, "On ATA, you're on vacation".
This Day in Fantasy Sports
Though I know that not many people who read this blog care to read about my fantasy teams, today was a landmark day and I must record it while I can. Over the weekend, I clinched my second Dudo League championship in a row in baseball, and also won my matchup against Dave Chan in football. I am extremely proud and happy about both accomplishments. If my fantasy hometown of Taipei existed in real life, I would definitely have to declare today a city-wide holiday.
That is all for now.
Though I know that not many people who read this blog care to read about my fantasy teams, today was a landmark day and I must record it while I can. Over the weekend, I clinched my second Dudo League championship in a row in baseball, and also won my matchup against Dave Chan in football. I am extremely proud and happy about both accomplishments. If my fantasy hometown of Taipei existed in real life, I would definitely have to declare today a city-wide holiday.
That is all for now.
Monday, September 27, 2004
Watch This
- Watched Hero a couple weeks ago. I thought it was a cool movie, except the story was a little hokey. They tried to make it a little too deep and philosophical, and it didn't really work, if you ask me. Still, I would recommend it to anyone who is considering watching it, and I think it is worth paying the $7 to see on the big screen.
- Watched Mean Girls with Olivia. It was a truly profound film, that has changed my outlook on life entirely. Well maybe not, but it has convinced me to start using the word "fetch" more in my everyday conversations. "You see the rims on that Benz? So fetch man." "Wow, good thing I pulled that full house on the river. That card was pretty fetch."
- Watched Roy Jones Jr. get dismantled by some Jamaican guy, getting knocked out in the 9th round or so on Saturday night. He just did not look good at all throughout the fight. It's sad to see how fast things can come apart for a guy in the world of boxing. You dominate your sport for more than a decade, then all of a sudden you lose two big matches in a row and your career is pretty much over just like that.
- Watched Dan play PartyPoker for real money. I never realized how entertaining online poker could be, but it was awesome. It made me want to deposit some money in my own account and start playing myself. Only thing that's stopping me right now is that I don't really trust them with my credit card or bank account numbers.
- Watched a frustrating day of football, both fantasy-wise and Bears-wise. Got to see Onterrio Smith and Culpepper have their way with the Bears defense, while simultaneously lighting me up in the McNown league. Roy Williams was also a killer, I must say. I might've had a chance to win, if Domanick Davis didn't get injured, and more importantly, had I started Reggie Wayne instead of Larry Fitzgerald. What a stupid decision by me. Every pass to Wayne was like a knee to the groin, so by about 6pm yesterday, you can probably imagine how swollen my jewels felt. Seeing Manning and Favre going head-to-head was a real treat though, as a football fan. Especially after watching Josh McCown and Drew Brees repeatedly mess up drives for my boys with their rampant fumbles and sacks. Which often came on the same play, I might add.
- Watched Hero a couple weeks ago. I thought it was a cool movie, except the story was a little hokey. They tried to make it a little too deep and philosophical, and it didn't really work, if you ask me. Still, I would recommend it to anyone who is considering watching it, and I think it is worth paying the $7 to see on the big screen.
- Watched Mean Girls with Olivia. It was a truly profound film, that has changed my outlook on life entirely. Well maybe not, but it has convinced me to start using the word "fetch" more in my everyday conversations. "You see the rims on that Benz? So fetch man." "Wow, good thing I pulled that full house on the river. That card was pretty fetch."
- Watched Roy Jones Jr. get dismantled by some Jamaican guy, getting knocked out in the 9th round or so on Saturday night. He just did not look good at all throughout the fight. It's sad to see how fast things can come apart for a guy in the world of boxing. You dominate your sport for more than a decade, then all of a sudden you lose two big matches in a row and your career is pretty much over just like that.
- Watched Dan play PartyPoker for real money. I never realized how entertaining online poker could be, but it was awesome. It made me want to deposit some money in my own account and start playing myself. Only thing that's stopping me right now is that I don't really trust them with my credit card or bank account numbers.
- Watched a frustrating day of football, both fantasy-wise and Bears-wise. Got to see Onterrio Smith and Culpepper have their way with the Bears defense, while simultaneously lighting me up in the McNown league. Roy Williams was also a killer, I must say. I might've had a chance to win, if Domanick Davis didn't get injured, and more importantly, had I started Reggie Wayne instead of Larry Fitzgerald. What a stupid decision by me. Every pass to Wayne was like a knee to the groin, so by about 6pm yesterday, you can probably imagine how swollen my jewels felt. Seeing Manning and Favre going head-to-head was a real treat though, as a football fan. Especially after watching Josh McCown and Drew Brees repeatedly mess up drives for my boys with their rampant fumbles and sacks. Which often came on the same play, I might add.
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Confessions of a Messy Eater
For someone who eats as slow as I do, you would think that I would be careful enough with my food to not always spill stuff on myself. But I don't. In the past few days alone, I have:
- Spilled tartar sauce from a Filet-O-Fish on my shirt and pants (it was right after church, so they were among my nicer clothes)
- Accidentally smeared grease from a hamburger onto two different pairs of khakis, in the SAME MEAL. After I noticed the first stain on one of my favorite pairs of pants, I wanted to wash it out right away before it set. So after I did that, I changed into another pair, continued eating my burger, and within minutes I did the exact same thing again to the new khakis.
- Dropped half the toppings from a slice of pizza onto my pant leg. Interestingly enough, I had a napkin open on my lap to protect from such incidents, but the cheese, spinach, and chicken magically avoided the napkin and scored a direct hit on my lower leg.
Honestly, I don't know how I manage to do it sometimes. I think I need to wear a bib, disposable/rubber clothes, or at least those Dockers Stain Defender pants. Not sure if those would even work, but hey, the commercials are cool.
Speaking of commercials, I listed a bunch of dumb commercials that I liked in the last entry, but just so people know, I do have some standards when it comes to rating the quality of commercials. Those standards may be low, but they are standards nonetheless. Here are some commercials that I don't like:
- Miller, President of Beers. What a retarded campaign, not funny or clever in any way. Actually made me drink more Coors Lite and Bud Lite instead, since they were so bad. The new Miller commercials with the referees might bring me back though. "We've got a disproportionately hot girlfriend here, further review is required"
- ATA. Sorry if you like the song, and I do know at least one person who does, but I hate it. HATE IT. I couldn't think of a more annoying or flaming tune if I tried.
- McDonald's I'm Loving It commercials. So lame.
- Geico. At first it was kind of entertaining, but now I just feel sorry for the duck. Nobody ever hears the poor little guy.
- 1-800-CALL-ATT with Bobcat or David Arquette. Partly because I'm bitter that 2 no-talent clowns like them get to be with such hot chicks. But really, those commercials do suck.
I think it might be possible that I have been watching too much TV lately.
Note to Domanick Davis: STOP FUMBLING
For someone who eats as slow as I do, you would think that I would be careful enough with my food to not always spill stuff on myself. But I don't. In the past few days alone, I have:
- Spilled tartar sauce from a Filet-O-Fish on my shirt and pants (it was right after church, so they were among my nicer clothes)
- Accidentally smeared grease from a hamburger onto two different pairs of khakis, in the SAME MEAL. After I noticed the first stain on one of my favorite pairs of pants, I wanted to wash it out right away before it set. So after I did that, I changed into another pair, continued eating my burger, and within minutes I did the exact same thing again to the new khakis.
- Dropped half the toppings from a slice of pizza onto my pant leg. Interestingly enough, I had a napkin open on my lap to protect from such incidents, but the cheese, spinach, and chicken magically avoided the napkin and scored a direct hit on my lower leg.
Honestly, I don't know how I manage to do it sometimes. I think I need to wear a bib, disposable/rubber clothes, or at least those Dockers Stain Defender pants. Not sure if those would even work, but hey, the commercials are cool.
Speaking of commercials, I listed a bunch of dumb commercials that I liked in the last entry, but just so people know, I do have some standards when it comes to rating the quality of commercials. Those standards may be low, but they are standards nonetheless. Here are some commercials that I don't like:
- Miller, President of Beers. What a retarded campaign, not funny or clever in any way. Actually made me drink more Coors Lite and Bud Lite instead, since they were so bad. The new Miller commercials with the referees might bring me back though. "We've got a disproportionately hot girlfriend here, further review is required"
- ATA. Sorry if you like the song, and I do know at least one person who does, but I hate it. HATE IT. I couldn't think of a more annoying or flaming tune if I tried.
- McDonald's I'm Loving It commercials. So lame.
- Geico. At first it was kind of entertaining, but now I just feel sorry for the duck. Nobody ever hears the poor little guy.
- 1-800-CALL-ATT with Bobcat or David Arquette. Partly because I'm bitter that 2 no-talent clowns like them get to be with such hot chicks. But really, those commercials do suck.
I think it might be possible that I have been watching too much TV lately.
Note to Domanick Davis: STOP FUMBLING
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
TV Talk and More
Lots to write about lately, but haven't had time. A few things on my mind right now:
1. 2004 WSOP. Like everybody else I know, I'm a sucker for watching these every single time they show it. And between ESPN and ESPN2, they show them a lot. The thing is, the tournament is taped, edited to fit into exact one hour episodes, I already know who wins, one of the announcers is really annoying, yet I can't change the channel whenever I see it on. Too addicting I guess.
Watching some of the people in this tournament who are jackasses can be frustrating sometimes though. This kid Josh Arieh, for example. He's actually a really good player, I have no idea how he laid down his flush against John Murphy's full house, but man, what a jerk. Anytime someone calls his bet, or raises him without a hand that he deems worthy enough, he's scoffing and mocking their play. Worst was when he got pushed all in for all of his chips on the flop with a 10-high flush draw, hit it, and then talked smack to the other guy. I mean, considering the guy had the better hand, and made all the right moves, I don't think you deserve to act like a bigshot when you managed to put your own tournament life at stake with a draw and get lucky.
It's not just the amateurs, either. I don't even want to get started on that Mike Matusow guy. All I will say is, if you are going to call yourself a pro, you should act like one. Everyone has bad luck and good luck and you shouldn't be crying like a baby if you happen to lose, no matter how bad the beat is.
Anyways, for those of you who haven't seen the end yet, I won't ruin it for you. There's also a "Tournament of Champions" thing they are showing next week, that looks pretty cool. Johnny Chan, Doyle Brunson, Lederer, Phil Hellmuth and more at the same table.
2. Pimp My Ride might just be the best show ever. Xzibit is hilarious, I don't think anybody could be a more entertaining host than him. It's also nice that for once, there's an MTV show where they don't just pick the people who are the best looking, or the ones who will stir up the most controversy. I actually feel happy for all the people who have their rides pimped, because they at least deserve it in some way.
3. Olivia says that I like all the most retarded commercials. This is true, I admit it. For example, one of my favorite commercials right now is the Old Navy jeans, where the kid is raving about mowing the lawn:
"Are you kidding me??!! I've only been waiting for it to grow!! It's like a haircut, for the lawn!! I can't believe it's legal! Mowing the lawn... is BLOWING MY MIND!!"
I like the one with the girl in history class too:
"History? I LOVE history!! Something happened... then, something else happened. So sequential! Thank you, First Guy, for writing things down!!"
Haha... too funny. Other commercials worth mentioning are:
- Starbucks, with a band singing "Eye of the Tiger" to some guy going to work.
- Toyota Tacoma, where they have the pickup truck in sports situations with Kenny Mayne doing commentary. I like the one when the truck gets caught stealing.
- Old Spice, with the guys being loud and obnoxious in the background while the girlfriend rolls her eyes. But when they hug, all the fond memories associated with the smell come back and it's all good. I like how their slogan is "Spice things up" too. That's a good phrase.
I'm just a sucker for stupid stuff like that, what can I say?
4. This might be the most exciting time of the year in terms of sports (and of course, fantasy sports). Football and baseball are overlapping for a few weeks, and college basketball is around the corner. For my fantasy teams, I had a good start in football, thanks to good days from Owens, Domanick Davis, and Tiki Barber. In baseball, though, I had my lead chopped down to 2.5 a few days ago, which made me nervous. I remember only a few weeks ago, my team was up by more than 15 points, and looked pretty strong. Right now I'm sitting on a 6 point lead, still uneasy. Those stupid Jobberz just won't go away. If I somehow end up losing this year, it may go down as the worst choke ever in the history of Dudo League Baseball.
5. When it comes to our crushes on celebrities, girls are much more shallow and fickle than guys. One minute it's Justin, next it's Eminem, then Ashton Kutcher for a while, or Brad Pitt when his movie happens to be out, maybe Michael Phelps or Andy Roddick when they win something big, and seems like right now Usher is all the rage. Maybe they'll go back and forth between them at times, but basically it's all about who's getting the exposure at the moment. Who has the hottest CD, TV show, movie, or who won the last big sporting event. Meanwhile, my #1 celebrity chick has been the same for the past 5 or 6 years, until she decided to cancel her concert and get engaged to some schmuck.
6. At this point, I wonder how many times they have "digitally remastered" or "digitally enhanced" the original Star Wars Trilogy, and what else is left for them to do to those movies so George Lucas can make even more money off of them. I'm seeing ads for the new DVD set and they might as well have been the same commercials I saw about 10 years ago when the VHS set came out. That said, I'll probably end up buying these DVDs anyways.
7. With every new season of Real World, I have to insert the obligatory complaints. I get tired of saying the same thing over and over about not ever having any Asian guys represent in the cast, but this time it's especially ridiculous. I mean, look at the 2 white guys, is it just me or are they not the same person? Light curly hair, pretty built, dress the same, act the same, even one of the girls said something like "they both look like they just stepped out of an Abercrombie catalog". One is taller, but carbon copies otherwise, am I wrong? Also, this time they have 2 gay guys, not just the normal token homosexual. Maybe they are trying to make up for not having any in the last season, fine. But let me get this straight, you have room for 2 of the exact same white guy, and 2 different types of gay guys, and 3 of the ugliest, skankiest girls I have ever seen, but not for one little yellow man? It's a tired argument by now but man, that's just poor.
Lots to write about lately, but haven't had time. A few things on my mind right now:
1. 2004 WSOP. Like everybody else I know, I'm a sucker for watching these every single time they show it. And between ESPN and ESPN2, they show them a lot. The thing is, the tournament is taped, edited to fit into exact one hour episodes, I already know who wins, one of the announcers is really annoying, yet I can't change the channel whenever I see it on. Too addicting I guess.
Watching some of the people in this tournament who are jackasses can be frustrating sometimes though. This kid Josh Arieh, for example. He's actually a really good player, I have no idea how he laid down his flush against John Murphy's full house, but man, what a jerk. Anytime someone calls his bet, or raises him without a hand that he deems worthy enough, he's scoffing and mocking their play. Worst was when he got pushed all in for all of his chips on the flop with a 10-high flush draw, hit it, and then talked smack to the other guy. I mean, considering the guy had the better hand, and made all the right moves, I don't think you deserve to act like a bigshot when you managed to put your own tournament life at stake with a draw and get lucky.
It's not just the amateurs, either. I don't even want to get started on that Mike Matusow guy. All I will say is, if you are going to call yourself a pro, you should act like one. Everyone has bad luck and good luck and you shouldn't be crying like a baby if you happen to lose, no matter how bad the beat is.
Anyways, for those of you who haven't seen the end yet, I won't ruin it for you. There's also a "Tournament of Champions" thing they are showing next week, that looks pretty cool. Johnny Chan, Doyle Brunson, Lederer, Phil Hellmuth and more at the same table.
2. Pimp My Ride might just be the best show ever. Xzibit is hilarious, I don't think anybody could be a more entertaining host than him. It's also nice that for once, there's an MTV show where they don't just pick the people who are the best looking, or the ones who will stir up the most controversy. I actually feel happy for all the people who have their rides pimped, because they at least deserve it in some way.
3. Olivia says that I like all the most retarded commercials. This is true, I admit it. For example, one of my favorite commercials right now is the Old Navy jeans, where the kid is raving about mowing the lawn:
"Are you kidding me??!! I've only been waiting for it to grow!! It's like a haircut, for the lawn!! I can't believe it's legal! Mowing the lawn... is BLOWING MY MIND!!"
I like the one with the girl in history class too:
"History? I LOVE history!! Something happened... then, something else happened. So sequential! Thank you, First Guy, for writing things down!!"
Haha... too funny. Other commercials worth mentioning are:
- Starbucks, with a band singing "Eye of the Tiger" to some guy going to work.
- Toyota Tacoma, where they have the pickup truck in sports situations with Kenny Mayne doing commentary. I like the one when the truck gets caught stealing.
- Old Spice, with the guys being loud and obnoxious in the background while the girlfriend rolls her eyes. But when they hug, all the fond memories associated with the smell come back and it's all good. I like how their slogan is "Spice things up" too. That's a good phrase.
I'm just a sucker for stupid stuff like that, what can I say?
4. This might be the most exciting time of the year in terms of sports (and of course, fantasy sports). Football and baseball are overlapping for a few weeks, and college basketball is around the corner. For my fantasy teams, I had a good start in football, thanks to good days from Owens, Domanick Davis, and Tiki Barber. In baseball, though, I had my lead chopped down to 2.5 a few days ago, which made me nervous. I remember only a few weeks ago, my team was up by more than 15 points, and looked pretty strong. Right now I'm sitting on a 6 point lead, still uneasy. Those stupid Jobberz just won't go away. If I somehow end up losing this year, it may go down as the worst choke ever in the history of Dudo League Baseball.
5. When it comes to our crushes on celebrities, girls are much more shallow and fickle than guys. One minute it's Justin, next it's Eminem, then Ashton Kutcher for a while, or Brad Pitt when his movie happens to be out, maybe Michael Phelps or Andy Roddick when they win something big, and seems like right now Usher is all the rage. Maybe they'll go back and forth between them at times, but basically it's all about who's getting the exposure at the moment. Who has the hottest CD, TV show, movie, or who won the last big sporting event. Meanwhile, my #1 celebrity chick has been the same for the past 5 or 6 years, until she decided to cancel her concert and get engaged to some schmuck.
6. At this point, I wonder how many times they have "digitally remastered" or "digitally enhanced" the original Star Wars Trilogy, and what else is left for them to do to those movies so George Lucas can make even more money off of them. I'm seeing ads for the new DVD set and they might as well have been the same commercials I saw about 10 years ago when the VHS set came out. That said, I'll probably end up buying these DVDs anyways.
7. With every new season of Real World, I have to insert the obligatory complaints. I get tired of saying the same thing over and over about not ever having any Asian guys represent in the cast, but this time it's especially ridiculous. I mean, look at the 2 white guys, is it just me or are they not the same person? Light curly hair, pretty built, dress the same, act the same, even one of the girls said something like "they both look like they just stepped out of an Abercrombie catalog". One is taller, but carbon copies otherwise, am I wrong? Also, this time they have 2 gay guys, not just the normal token homosexual. Maybe they are trying to make up for not having any in the last season, fine. But let me get this straight, you have room for 2 of the exact same white guy, and 2 different types of gay guys, and 3 of the ugliest, skankiest girls I have ever seen, but not for one little yellow man? It's a tired argument by now but man, that's just poor.
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Labor Day Weekend
Had a good weekend. Always a good weekend when you get an extra day. And it's nice that this work week is starting out one day shorter.
Went to the Sox game on Saturday, saw Ichiro go 5-5, rob Carlos Lee of extra bases with a leaping catch, and make some pretty throws. Man I wish he was on our team, I might just have to buy season tickets if we signed him.
Happy Birthday to Will and his cousin.
"My goodies... my goodies.... my goodies
not my goodies!
I bet you want the goodies
Bet you thought about it
Got you all hot and bothered
Maybe cuz I talk about it
Lookin for the goodies
Keep on lookin cuz they stay in the jar
ohhohhh ohhhohhh ohhhhohhh" - Ciara
I have no idea what she is talking about in this song. Maybe she's got a jar of really good Skittles or something. Such a catchy tune though.
About an hour ago I accidentally stabbed myself in the finger with a meat knife trying to pry open some frozen burger patties. It hurt. Lots of blood. Now my finger is wrapped in lots of gauze and I am finding it difficult to type.
Had a good weekend. Always a good weekend when you get an extra day. And it's nice that this work week is starting out one day shorter.
Went to the Sox game on Saturday, saw Ichiro go 5-5, rob Carlos Lee of extra bases with a leaping catch, and make some pretty throws. Man I wish he was on our team, I might just have to buy season tickets if we signed him.
Happy Birthday to Will and his cousin.
"My goodies... my goodies.... my goodies
not my goodies!
I bet you want the goodies
Bet you thought about it
Got you all hot and bothered
Maybe cuz I talk about it
Lookin for the goodies
Keep on lookin cuz they stay in the jar
ohhohhh ohhhohhh ohhhhohhh" - Ciara
I have no idea what she is talking about in this song. Maybe she's got a jar of really good Skittles or something. Such a catchy tune though.
About an hour ago I accidentally stabbed myself in the finger with a meat knife trying to pry open some frozen burger patties. It hurt. Lots of blood. Now my finger is wrapped in lots of gauze and I am finding it difficult to type.
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Dear Mama
I think the person that cracks me up the most is my mom. I've written about her more than a few times in this blog, but not so much lately. Maybe that's because I don't think anyone else will understand why I think she's so hilarious.
One of the things that always makes me laugh is when my mom emails me. Most of the time it's one of those lame forwards, like an inspirational story, a poem about sunshine, or a slideshow of cute babies or puppies. For some reason she must think I like all that gayness, I don't know why.
Not that I'm complaining, cause I think it's hilarious and that's why I'm writing about it to begin with. Also, I mean "gayness" in the pejorative sense (flashback to Jesse Ventura skit on Conan O'Brien), not in the literal sense, especially as she is one of the most politically conservative people I know of. In fact, one of her more recent forwards to me was some petition to our local Congressman to Constitutionally ban same-sex marriage, so you know she won't stand for any real gayness.
My favorite part is her fobbiness. Her English isn't terrible, but she still does a lot of things that I find to be so amusing. In her writing, she tends to put quotes around phrases that don't really merit quotes. Or she will discover fun new ways to mispell words, like "I am eating too much lately, I notice I'm getting choppier" actually means she feels "chubbier".
Also, I have talked before about how pointless it is to explain stuff like wireless networks, MP3s, or the Internet to her. Teaching her how to use her cell phone was not easy to say the least. Yet sometimes, she will surprise me with flashes of technology-savviness. Such as recently, when I asked her if she had heard anything about Millenium Park, and then she sent me a link to the URL for the Millenium Park website. And when something like that happens, it cracks me up even more.
Like I said, many of you may not understand why I think these things are hilarious, but trust me, they are. Especially those of you who were not fortunate enough to be born with a fobby parent, you guys are seriously missing out.
* By the way, in case anyone is wondering, the word "fobby" is derived from the word FOB, actually an acronym for "Fresh Off Boat", which refers to people who were not born here but immigrated to this country. Thus "fobbiness" represents pretty much all the things you tend to associate with fobs, like a heavy accent, lack of fashion sense, etc. Prototypical example of a fob: William Hung.
I think the person that cracks me up the most is my mom. I've written about her more than a few times in this blog, but not so much lately. Maybe that's because I don't think anyone else will understand why I think she's so hilarious.
One of the things that always makes me laugh is when my mom emails me. Most of the time it's one of those lame forwards, like an inspirational story, a poem about sunshine, or a slideshow of cute babies or puppies. For some reason she must think I like all that gayness, I don't know why.
Not that I'm complaining, cause I think it's hilarious and that's why I'm writing about it to begin with. Also, I mean "gayness" in the pejorative sense (flashback to Jesse Ventura skit on Conan O'Brien), not in the literal sense, especially as she is one of the most politically conservative people I know of. In fact, one of her more recent forwards to me was some petition to our local Congressman to Constitutionally ban same-sex marriage, so you know she won't stand for any real gayness.
My favorite part is her fobbiness. Her English isn't terrible, but she still does a lot of things that I find to be so amusing. In her writing, she tends to put quotes around phrases that don't really merit quotes. Or she will discover fun new ways to mispell words, like "I am eating too much lately, I notice I'm getting choppier" actually means she feels "chubbier".
Also, I have talked before about how pointless it is to explain stuff like wireless networks, MP3s, or the Internet to her. Teaching her how to use her cell phone was not easy to say the least. Yet sometimes, she will surprise me with flashes of technology-savviness. Such as recently, when I asked her if she had heard anything about Millenium Park, and then she sent me a link to the URL for the Millenium Park website. And when something like that happens, it cracks me up even more.
Like I said, many of you may not understand why I think these things are hilarious, but trust me, they are. Especially those of you who were not fortunate enough to be born with a fobby parent, you guys are seriously missing out.
* By the way, in case anyone is wondering, the word "fobby" is derived from the word FOB, actually an acronym for "Fresh Off Boat", which refers to people who were not born here but immigrated to this country. Thus "fobbiness" represents pretty much all the things you tend to associate with fobs, like a heavy accent, lack of fashion sense, etc. Prototypical example of a fob: William Hung.
Monday, August 30, 2004
Low Quality H2O
"Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put it in a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot and it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend." - Bruce Lee
I have always thought of water as being awesome. You can drink it, you can shower with it, you can swim in it, and you can even Chinese Water torture with it. Definitely something innate in human nature that draws us to water, something about water that fascinates people to the core. I think the first chapter of Moby Dick talks about this exact subject, but I'd rather not think about that book right now.
Anyways, some of you who are loyal readers of my page may already be thinking to yourselves, "Here we go again... another one of Dudo509 Blogspot's retarded tributes to some silly topic, like the Sun, Britney Spears, the town of Darien, the White Sox, or salads." Well, you would be wrong.
This time, I would like to take the time and effort to bash water, instead of praise it. The reason? It's Friday night. Actually Saturday morning, around 3 or 4 am, when my sister calls me up from Darien to tell me that the power went out and that our basement is flooded with 3 inches of water. Me, half asleep, tells her that there's nothing we can do about it right now, so go back to sleep and we'll take care of it in the morning.
Of course, now that I'm fully awake, I can't stop thinking about our flooded basement, so about another half hour later, I decide to just drive home and check on the basement myself. On the way back, I noticed that there's not a lot of cars on the highway at 4-5 in the morning, other than FedEx and UPS trucks.
As I drive into Darien, I notice that the entire place is dark. Stoplights and streetlights are completely off, store signs unlit, and my block looks like a scene out of a zombie movie. Then I get to my house and realize that with no electricity, the garage door won't open. Under my breath, I curse the state of Illinois for letting our most talented homegrown Power Engineers slip away to north of our borders. "I bet all of the 'Sconz is up and running right now," I say to myself.
With our storm door locked, I end up having to call and wake up my sister to open the door for me. We go down to the basement, and sure enough, there's at least 3 inches of water there, maybe 4 at this point. I hear a clicking noise in the corner, which was the backup sump pump futilely trying to start. Stupid thing wasn't working, only making stupid noises. Otherwise the basement wouldn't have flooded. Oh well.
So I figure that I better walk through the basement and unplug everything, and make sure to move anything valuable to higher ground. Since I didn't have rubber boots, I ended up getting an old pair of shoes and tying plastic bags around them, something I remember doing back from Camp Edwards in sixth grade. I think I looked pretty weird at that moment, with plastic bags around my ankles, jeans rolled up to the knees and everything. In fact, my sister decided to take some pictures of me to record exactly how stupid I looked.
The good thing was, there wasn't a lot to unplug, and nothing that valuable down there. The bad thing was that the "plastic bags around shoes" idea stopped being effective when I was about halfway to the other side of the basement.
Anyways, we went to sleep, and by the next morning, the power had come back on, and most of the water was pumped out. All was good again, except that the pieces of carpet were still soaked, there was dirty residue covering all the tiled areas, and the whole basement smelled disgusting, kind of like an old fish tank.
So as I alluded to earlier, this weekend's flooded basement experience caused me to become more aware of the uglier side of water. Yes, it is still a great beverage, and yes, I still think oceans are cool, but it is definitely not fun to clean up the mess left by dirty rainwater in one's basement. The worst parts about water I learned this weekend:
- Soaked pieces of carpet that reeked like a mother hugger. Trying to carry them from the basement to the garage to the driveway to the deck without messing up the rest of the house was not easy or fun.
- Soaked cardboard boxes. Like the silly aliens in Signs, water is like kryptonite to cardboard. Not only that, but if you have the corrugated cardboard, you get a nice surprise when you pick it up and all the water trapped inside rushes out. Fortunately, most of our stuff down there was in plastic bins or plastic bags, but there were still plenty of things stored in cardboard boxes to make life miserable during the cleanup process. I might have to write an "Ode to Plastic" sometime.
- Mopping up the dirty water that had collected all the dirt, dead bugs, rust juice, etc. in the basement. Squeezing out the concentrated filth into the bucket and dumping it out was not pleasant.
In the end, I realized that Bruce Lee was right. The worst enemy to deal with in a fight is water. Specifically, old nasty floodwater. Virtually impossible to catch and manage, with an overwhelmingly bad smell to boot. Definitely a battle I would just like to avoid in the future. Anyways, my body is so sore and blistered right now that I'm not sure I could fight a mouse (not my expression, one of my managers likes to say that).
*****
McNown League 2004
The weekend was not entirely without positives, however. The 2004 McNown League draft took place last night and I'm actually feeling pretty happy with the results. Didn't like being in the 4th spot, but a good start was having LaDainian Tomlinson fall to me somehow (Priest, Ahman, and Portis were taken 1-2-3). Starting lineup for my team looks like:
QB - Aaron Brooks
RB - LaDainian Tomlinson
WR - Terrell Owens
Flex - Domanick Davis
Flex - Tiki Barber
Flex - Peerless Price
TE - Boo Williams
K - Jason Elam
D - Ray Lewis
D - Keith Bulluck
D - Rodney Harrison
Not expecting a whole lot out of Owens this year, but I wouldn't mind seeing him prove me wrong by busting out. Also, I like having Aaron Brooks at QB, but maybe that's only because he's never been on my team to frustrate me personally. Other than that, the flex looks a little weak beyond Davis. I'm not that worried though, because I think everyone else's flex is kind of weak too. Just means we'll have to fight it out on the waiver wire is all.
September 9th is only 10 days away. LET THE NFL SEASON BEGIN...
"Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put it in a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot and it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend." - Bruce Lee
I have always thought of water as being awesome. You can drink it, you can shower with it, you can swim in it, and you can even Chinese Water torture with it. Definitely something innate in human nature that draws us to water, something about water that fascinates people to the core. I think the first chapter of Moby Dick talks about this exact subject, but I'd rather not think about that book right now.
Anyways, some of you who are loyal readers of my page may already be thinking to yourselves, "Here we go again... another one of Dudo509 Blogspot's retarded tributes to some silly topic, like the Sun, Britney Spears, the town of Darien, the White Sox, or salads." Well, you would be wrong.
This time, I would like to take the time and effort to bash water, instead of praise it. The reason? It's Friday night. Actually Saturday morning, around 3 or 4 am, when my sister calls me up from Darien to tell me that the power went out and that our basement is flooded with 3 inches of water. Me, half asleep, tells her that there's nothing we can do about it right now, so go back to sleep and we'll take care of it in the morning.
Of course, now that I'm fully awake, I can't stop thinking about our flooded basement, so about another half hour later, I decide to just drive home and check on the basement myself. On the way back, I noticed that there's not a lot of cars on the highway at 4-5 in the morning, other than FedEx and UPS trucks.
As I drive into Darien, I notice that the entire place is dark. Stoplights and streetlights are completely off, store signs unlit, and my block looks like a scene out of a zombie movie. Then I get to my house and realize that with no electricity, the garage door won't open. Under my breath, I curse the state of Illinois for letting our most talented homegrown Power Engineers slip away to north of our borders. "I bet all of the 'Sconz is up and running right now," I say to myself.
With our storm door locked, I end up having to call and wake up my sister to open the door for me. We go down to the basement, and sure enough, there's at least 3 inches of water there, maybe 4 at this point. I hear a clicking noise in the corner, which was the backup sump pump futilely trying to start. Stupid thing wasn't working, only making stupid noises. Otherwise the basement wouldn't have flooded. Oh well.
So I figure that I better walk through the basement and unplug everything, and make sure to move anything valuable to higher ground. Since I didn't have rubber boots, I ended up getting an old pair of shoes and tying plastic bags around them, something I remember doing back from Camp Edwards in sixth grade. I think I looked pretty weird at that moment, with plastic bags around my ankles, jeans rolled up to the knees and everything. In fact, my sister decided to take some pictures of me to record exactly how stupid I looked.
The good thing was, there wasn't a lot to unplug, and nothing that valuable down there. The bad thing was that the "plastic bags around shoes" idea stopped being effective when I was about halfway to the other side of the basement.
Anyways, we went to sleep, and by the next morning, the power had come back on, and most of the water was pumped out. All was good again, except that the pieces of carpet were still soaked, there was dirty residue covering all the tiled areas, and the whole basement smelled disgusting, kind of like an old fish tank.
So as I alluded to earlier, this weekend's flooded basement experience caused me to become more aware of the uglier side of water. Yes, it is still a great beverage, and yes, I still think oceans are cool, but it is definitely not fun to clean up the mess left by dirty rainwater in one's basement. The worst parts about water I learned this weekend:
- Soaked pieces of carpet that reeked like a mother hugger. Trying to carry them from the basement to the garage to the driveway to the deck without messing up the rest of the house was not easy or fun.
- Soaked cardboard boxes. Like the silly aliens in Signs, water is like kryptonite to cardboard. Not only that, but if you have the corrugated cardboard, you get a nice surprise when you pick it up and all the water trapped inside rushes out. Fortunately, most of our stuff down there was in plastic bins or plastic bags, but there were still plenty of things stored in cardboard boxes to make life miserable during the cleanup process. I might have to write an "Ode to Plastic" sometime.
- Mopping up the dirty water that had collected all the dirt, dead bugs, rust juice, etc. in the basement. Squeezing out the concentrated filth into the bucket and dumping it out was not pleasant.
In the end, I realized that Bruce Lee was right. The worst enemy to deal with in a fight is water. Specifically, old nasty floodwater. Virtually impossible to catch and manage, with an overwhelmingly bad smell to boot. Definitely a battle I would just like to avoid in the future. Anyways, my body is so sore and blistered right now that I'm not sure I could fight a mouse (not my expression, one of my managers likes to say that).
*****
McNown League 2004
The weekend was not entirely without positives, however. The 2004 McNown League draft took place last night and I'm actually feeling pretty happy with the results. Didn't like being in the 4th spot, but a good start was having LaDainian Tomlinson fall to me somehow (Priest, Ahman, and Portis were taken 1-2-3). Starting lineup for my team looks like:
QB - Aaron Brooks
RB - LaDainian Tomlinson
WR - Terrell Owens
Flex - Domanick Davis
Flex - Tiki Barber
Flex - Peerless Price
TE - Boo Williams
K - Jason Elam
D - Ray Lewis
D - Keith Bulluck
D - Rodney Harrison
Not expecting a whole lot out of Owens this year, but I wouldn't mind seeing him prove me wrong by busting out. Also, I like having Aaron Brooks at QB, but maybe that's only because he's never been on my team to frustrate me personally. Other than that, the flex looks a little weak beyond Davis. I'm not that worried though, because I think everyone else's flex is kind of weak too. Just means we'll have to fight it out on the waiver wire is all.
September 9th is only 10 days away. LET THE NFL SEASON BEGIN...
Thursday, August 26, 2004
- I have written about my disdain for weather reports more than once in the past, but I don't care. Weather forecasts are a sham and a waste of time and I'll keep saying it unless they someday improve and make me change my mind. It pisses me off that given all the technology available today, they still can't do any better than the weak sauce they feed us.
I hate the ambiguity of their reports. What's the difference between "partly cloudy" and "partly sunny"? Other than the occasional day when the sky is completely clear or completely covered, isn't every day "partly sunny" or "partly cloudy"? What does "40% chance of rain" mean to me? Should I bring 40% of an umbrella, wash 40% of my car, or shut my windows 40% of the way? I don't need some hyped-up meteorologist telling me that it might rain or it might not rain, or that there's probably going to be some clouds in the sky along with some sunlight. I knew that already.
And even though they never commit to anything, they still get it wrong. For the past few days up through this morning, all I see is rain in their "forecasts". Rain, rain, more rain tonight, thunderstorms the rest of the week. Then I open up the same weather report a couple hours later and what do I see? Big happy sunny icons representing today's conditions. That's great that you can tell me it's sunny right now. I can look out the window and do just as well. Did you really need your fancy Doppler radar to tell you that one? Still, they make sure to cover their butts in case it ends up raining: "Some clouds. A stray thunderstorm is possible." Now, if you can't accurately predict what's going to happen later this same day, how can you expect anyone to believe what's in your 7-day forecasts?
- While getting my hair cut a few days ago, the lady asked me if I was going back to school soon. I said no, I graduated a couple years ago and now I'm working. Her response: "Oh that's great, my daughter graduated last year and she's working now too. So how old are you, like 19, 20...?"
- Olympics are cool, but I think I'm glad they are only once every 4 years. For a lot of these events, I can see why they aren't more popular outside of the Olympics. I'm not just talking about obscure stuff like archery, walking, fencing, trampoline, etc. I'm getting sick of the swimming, gymnastics, track & field too. So much politics and subjectivity to these sports that it just becomes too much to handle. Someone wins a medal and then you have all this bickering about tenths and hundredths of points in scoring, judging bias, illegal "dolphin kicks", doping, all this extra garbage that just turns off fans. Then they wonder why nobody wants to follow their sport more regularly.
- My current guilty pleasure in life is listening to the Jim Rome show when I'm driving home and back for lunch. Not because it's awesome, but because it is so awful that it's entertaining in a train-wreck kind of way. If it's not long uncomfortable pauses ("dead air", if you will), it's Rome harping on one subject for 20 minutes. And not like he's making new points, just saying the same thing over and over, with different phrasing until he's completely beaten the subject to death:
"Team USA loses in beach volleyball to Switzerland, a land-locked country. We lost to a country that has no oceans on any of its borders! They're land-locked! How sad is that, we can't win against the Swiss, who have zero beaches! They're a land-locked country! It's BEACH-volleyball. We invented the sport, we have beaches all over the place. You go to Switzerland, there's no oceans around!
[10 minutes later]
Simply pathetic, losing in beach volleyball to Switzerland. What a JOKE. I can see us losing to them in Alpine skiing, they have that. Not beach volleyball. We oughta be ashamed. Simply UNACCEPTABLE. We invent the sport, now we lose to a land-locked country.
I think what we need is to invent more Olympic events. How about 'shopping at the GAP'? I bet we could win gold in that pretty easily. How about 'eating fast food" and "being lazy'? That's something Americans are definitely good at. I think we should compete to see who has the worst reality shows. Guaranteed gold medal for USA there. I know, let's do Olympic 'shopping at the GAP'! Who's going to beat us in that? I'm sure Lithuania would have no chance. Or maybe 'starting wars', that's something our country is good at too.
[10 more minutes pass]
Since we can't win in the sports that we invented ourselves, that's what we need to do, just invent new ones. Olympic 'shopping at the GAP' - we'll sweep in that event. Not like beach volleyball. Losing at a sport you invented, to a country that has no beaches. Switzerland, a land-locked country. What a JOKE."
But my favorite thing about the Jim Rome show is his loyal followers, "clones" as they are called. They're all part of the "jungle". I don't normally use this phrase, but LOLZ. ROTFLMAO. Basically, they're all guys who call up or email trying to be clever enough to impress their grand master Jim Rome. They try to talk like him, using the same tone of voice and as many of his lame catchphrases. Which reminds me, I remember he used to have on his website a whole dictionary of those phrases. I'm sure it's still there, for anyone who feels like a dose of unintentional comedy I encourage you to look up his site yourself.
The funniest part is, no matter how bad the show is, I can't force myself to change the station. It's just too entertaining.
I hate the ambiguity of their reports. What's the difference between "partly cloudy" and "partly sunny"? Other than the occasional day when the sky is completely clear or completely covered, isn't every day "partly sunny" or "partly cloudy"? What does "40% chance of rain" mean to me? Should I bring 40% of an umbrella, wash 40% of my car, or shut my windows 40% of the way? I don't need some hyped-up meteorologist telling me that it might rain or it might not rain, or that there's probably going to be some clouds in the sky along with some sunlight. I knew that already.
And even though they never commit to anything, they still get it wrong. For the past few days up through this morning, all I see is rain in their "forecasts". Rain, rain, more rain tonight, thunderstorms the rest of the week. Then I open up the same weather report a couple hours later and what do I see? Big happy sunny icons representing today's conditions. That's great that you can tell me it's sunny right now. I can look out the window and do just as well. Did you really need your fancy Doppler radar to tell you that one? Still, they make sure to cover their butts in case it ends up raining: "Some clouds. A stray thunderstorm is possible." Now, if you can't accurately predict what's going to happen later this same day, how can you expect anyone to believe what's in your 7-day forecasts?
- While getting my hair cut a few days ago, the lady asked me if I was going back to school soon. I said no, I graduated a couple years ago and now I'm working. Her response: "Oh that's great, my daughter graduated last year and she's working now too. So how old are you, like 19, 20...?"
- Olympics are cool, but I think I'm glad they are only once every 4 years. For a lot of these events, I can see why they aren't more popular outside of the Olympics. I'm not just talking about obscure stuff like archery, walking, fencing, trampoline, etc. I'm getting sick of the swimming, gymnastics, track & field too. So much politics and subjectivity to these sports that it just becomes too much to handle. Someone wins a medal and then you have all this bickering about tenths and hundredths of points in scoring, judging bias, illegal "dolphin kicks", doping, all this extra garbage that just turns off fans. Then they wonder why nobody wants to follow their sport more regularly.
- My current guilty pleasure in life is listening to the Jim Rome show when I'm driving home and back for lunch. Not because it's awesome, but because it is so awful that it's entertaining in a train-wreck kind of way. If it's not long uncomfortable pauses ("dead air", if you will), it's Rome harping on one subject for 20 minutes. And not like he's making new points, just saying the same thing over and over, with different phrasing until he's completely beaten the subject to death:
"Team USA loses in beach volleyball to Switzerland, a land-locked country. We lost to a country that has no oceans on any of its borders! They're land-locked! How sad is that, we can't win against the Swiss, who have zero beaches! They're a land-locked country! It's BEACH-volleyball. We invented the sport, we have beaches all over the place. You go to Switzerland, there's no oceans around!
[10 minutes later]
Simply pathetic, losing in beach volleyball to Switzerland. What a JOKE. I can see us losing to them in Alpine skiing, they have that. Not beach volleyball. We oughta be ashamed. Simply UNACCEPTABLE. We invent the sport, now we lose to a land-locked country.
I think what we need is to invent more Olympic events. How about 'shopping at the GAP'? I bet we could win gold in that pretty easily. How about 'eating fast food" and "being lazy'? That's something Americans are definitely good at. I think we should compete to see who has the worst reality shows. Guaranteed gold medal for USA there. I know, let's do Olympic 'shopping at the GAP'! Who's going to beat us in that? I'm sure Lithuania would have no chance. Or maybe 'starting wars', that's something our country is good at too.
[10 more minutes pass]
Since we can't win in the sports that we invented ourselves, that's what we need to do, just invent new ones. Olympic 'shopping at the GAP' - we'll sweep in that event. Not like beach volleyball. Losing at a sport you invented, to a country that has no beaches. Switzerland, a land-locked country. What a JOKE."
But my favorite thing about the Jim Rome show is his loyal followers, "clones" as they are called. They're all part of the "jungle". I don't normally use this phrase, but LOLZ. ROTFLMAO. Basically, they're all guys who call up or email trying to be clever enough to impress their grand master Jim Rome. They try to talk like him, using the same tone of voice and as many of his lame catchphrases. Which reminds me, I remember he used to have on his website a whole dictionary of those phrases. I'm sure it's still there, for anyone who feels like a dose of unintentional comedy I encourage you to look up his site yourself.
The funniest part is, no matter how bad the show is, I can't force myself to change the station. It's just too entertaining.
Monday, August 23, 2004
Athens Olympics 2004
Men's Basketball - You never want to root against your own team, but I really think it would be best if these guys got blasted. Not just losing, but getting dominated and shut out of the medals entirely. The thing is, it's not like anyone in this world really thinks that their country's could beat the best the US has to offer in basketball. Clearly, this team is not the best representation of our country's basketball talent. And that is the problem, that we don't take the Olympics seriously enough. Because if we did, none of this would be happening. It will probably take a few more embarrassing losses to shame the NBA and the USOC into figuring out that their system isn't working.
Women's Softball - Outscored their opponents like 50-1 or something like that in these Olympics. That's more like a real Dream Team. Also, the Australia team has a pitcher named Tanya Harding. Funny stuff.
Men's Gymnastics - Great performance by Paul Hamm, unfortunately his gold medal will be disputed. Sucks for the South Korean guy, and I would probably be pissed too. But he's hardly the first athlete to ever be screwed in sports, nor will he be the last. Roy Jones comes to mind, when he got screwed (by none other than the South Koreans in the Seoul Olympics). It ain't right, but that's what happens. I would hope that in the end, it all evens out. Anyways, even if they take away the medal from Paul Hamm, Waukesha can still be proud of having one of the gold-medal-caliber power engineers within its borders.
Women's Marathon - Maybe only me and my sister are big enough losers to be watching people run on a Sunday morning, but it actually turned out to be much more entertaining than I expected. As the broadcast was showing one runner passing another, my sister asked the question: "I don't get it, how come she doesn't just run faster??" Easily the most hilarious thing I have ever heard while watching a marathon on TV.
Trampoline - When I first saw this event, I couldn't believe people could actually get an Olympic medal for bouncing around on a trampoline. (I don't know if that's the official name, but that's basically what it looked like). Must be awesome to do that for a living. "What do you do?" "I train to compete in Olympic Trampoline"
Women's Volleyball - Not liking the short hair, Logan Tom. But you still get plus points for being part-Chinese.
Swimming - Watching all the swimming events on TV made me feel like swimming. Too bad all the Bally's pools are filled with dirty old men. I don't think I have been in a pool in about 10 years, but I used to be a decent swimmer.
Track&Field - Those sprinters are very fast.
Taiwan - 2 medals and counting last time I checked, both in Archery. OH BABY
Men's Basketball - You never want to root against your own team, but I really think it would be best if these guys got blasted. Not just losing, but getting dominated and shut out of the medals entirely. The thing is, it's not like anyone in this world really thinks that their country's could beat the best the US has to offer in basketball. Clearly, this team is not the best representation of our country's basketball talent. And that is the problem, that we don't take the Olympics seriously enough. Because if we did, none of this would be happening. It will probably take a few more embarrassing losses to shame the NBA and the USOC into figuring out that their system isn't working.
Women's Softball - Outscored their opponents like 50-1 or something like that in these Olympics. That's more like a real Dream Team. Also, the Australia team has a pitcher named Tanya Harding. Funny stuff.
Men's Gymnastics - Great performance by Paul Hamm, unfortunately his gold medal will be disputed. Sucks for the South Korean guy, and I would probably be pissed too. But he's hardly the first athlete to ever be screwed in sports, nor will he be the last. Roy Jones comes to mind, when he got screwed (by none other than the South Koreans in the Seoul Olympics). It ain't right, but that's what happens. I would hope that in the end, it all evens out. Anyways, even if they take away the medal from Paul Hamm, Waukesha can still be proud of having one of the gold-medal-caliber power engineers within its borders.
Women's Marathon - Maybe only me and my sister are big enough losers to be watching people run on a Sunday morning, but it actually turned out to be much more entertaining than I expected. As the broadcast was showing one runner passing another, my sister asked the question: "I don't get it, how come she doesn't just run faster??" Easily the most hilarious thing I have ever heard while watching a marathon on TV.
Trampoline - When I first saw this event, I couldn't believe people could actually get an Olympic medal for bouncing around on a trampoline. (I don't know if that's the official name, but that's basically what it looked like). Must be awesome to do that for a living. "What do you do?" "I train to compete in Olympic Trampoline"
Women's Volleyball - Not liking the short hair, Logan Tom. But you still get plus points for being part-Chinese.
Swimming - Watching all the swimming events on TV made me feel like swimming. Too bad all the Bally's pools are filled with dirty old men. I don't think I have been in a pool in about 10 years, but I used to be a decent swimmer.
Track&Field - Those sprinters are very fast.
Taiwan - 2 medals and counting last time I checked, both in Archery. OH BABY
Monday, August 16, 2004
The End
- Of Summer: Now that I'm 2 years out of college, and pretty much everyone I know has graduated too, the only sign that "summer vacation" is coming to an end for me is when the interns here at work leave to go back to school. Technically, there's still a few weeks left of summer, but I'm already regretting that I didn't take advantage of the warm weather and sunny days enough this year. I think I will definitely have to take a vacation to someplace tropical when the Chicago winter arrives.
- Of the A-Rod era: Assuming the trade goes through, a deadline deal struck yesterday in Dudo League sent my precious Alex Rodriguez to Piya's team in exchange for Michael Young and Ben Sheets. After having A-Rod as a keeper for more than 3 years, it was definitely hard to part with him. I think it was about time for me to move on though. You can't argue with his production on the field, but during the past couple seasons I started to dislike him more for some reason. Maybe it was the whole "it's not about the money, but I'm going to Texas" thing, or the "now I'm at a point in my career where winning is the most important thing" when he went to the Yankees. Or maybe I just got spoiled with awesome fantasy players and I got sick of him. Anyways, hopefully Sheets and Young both turn out to be good the rest of this year, as well as in the next few seasons and thus cushion the blow. I don't want to become the "stupidest GM ever" by trading away one of the greatest players in the history of the game for a couple of scrubs that never went anywhere.
More Baseball
- White Sox: Good games this weekend. My favorite moment was Jose Valentin's leadoff single, steal 2nd, move to 3rd on flyout, and score on sac-fly yesterday. Home runs are nice, but that's the kind of thing a winning team needs to do. I like the decision to go to a 4-man rotation too. The one thing that worries me is Shingo, who doesn't look good. I don't necessarily think a closer needs to throw 100 mph, but if you're going to rely on off-speed stuff, you better be able to throw strikes and get ahead in the count. And Shingo hasn't been throwing strikes too consistently in his last few outings.
- Sox announcers: The TV guys have gotten pretty bad this year. First of all, Hawk needs to tone down his Hawk-ness. I don't remember him being like this back in the day, when it was Hawk and Wimpy. All the catchphrases are fine, but not if you use them so much that you sound like a cartoon character. "Stretch!! HE GONE!! Put it on the board... YEEE-SSS!!" And it's ok to root for your team, but not so much that you take it personally every time they lose or something bad happens. As far as DJ goes, he's not terrible, but not good either. Seems like all he does is drop names of players he played with. Seriously, every game, there's at least an inning or two where they don't even talk about what's going on in the field, but spend like 10 minutes trying to list as many names as they can.
On the other hand, the radio guys have been solid for many years and are still very good. I've been listening to John Rooney and Ed Farmer since the first days I was a White Sox fan, and they do a really good job. Nothing spectacular, just reliable broadcasting with a good mix of commentary and friendly banter.
- Cubs: I'm not sure why, but Dusty Baker irritates me. Other than that, I think the Cubs are fine. You would never know it with all the panic among Cubs fans, but the team is still favored to make the playoffs. I was looking at their record, and 9 games over .500 is pretty good considering all the negatives that have happened this season. What a difference a year makes. The expectations have gotten so high that even when the team is successful overall, nobody is enjoying the season.
- Of Summer: Now that I'm 2 years out of college, and pretty much everyone I know has graduated too, the only sign that "summer vacation" is coming to an end for me is when the interns here at work leave to go back to school. Technically, there's still a few weeks left of summer, but I'm already regretting that I didn't take advantage of the warm weather and sunny days enough this year. I think I will definitely have to take a vacation to someplace tropical when the Chicago winter arrives.
- Of the A-Rod era: Assuming the trade goes through, a deadline deal struck yesterday in Dudo League sent my precious Alex Rodriguez to Piya's team in exchange for Michael Young and Ben Sheets. After having A-Rod as a keeper for more than 3 years, it was definitely hard to part with him. I think it was about time for me to move on though. You can't argue with his production on the field, but during the past couple seasons I started to dislike him more for some reason. Maybe it was the whole "it's not about the money, but I'm going to Texas" thing, or the "now I'm at a point in my career where winning is the most important thing" when he went to the Yankees. Or maybe I just got spoiled with awesome fantasy players and I got sick of him. Anyways, hopefully Sheets and Young both turn out to be good the rest of this year, as well as in the next few seasons and thus cushion the blow. I don't want to become the "stupidest GM ever" by trading away one of the greatest players in the history of the game for a couple of scrubs that never went anywhere.
More Baseball
- White Sox: Good games this weekend. My favorite moment was Jose Valentin's leadoff single, steal 2nd, move to 3rd on flyout, and score on sac-fly yesterday. Home runs are nice, but that's the kind of thing a winning team needs to do. I like the decision to go to a 4-man rotation too. The one thing that worries me is Shingo, who doesn't look good. I don't necessarily think a closer needs to throw 100 mph, but if you're going to rely on off-speed stuff, you better be able to throw strikes and get ahead in the count. And Shingo hasn't been throwing strikes too consistently in his last few outings.
- Sox announcers: The TV guys have gotten pretty bad this year. First of all, Hawk needs to tone down his Hawk-ness. I don't remember him being like this back in the day, when it was Hawk and Wimpy. All the catchphrases are fine, but not if you use them so much that you sound like a cartoon character. "Stretch!! HE GONE!! Put it on the board... YEEE-SSS!!" And it's ok to root for your team, but not so much that you take it personally every time they lose or something bad happens. As far as DJ goes, he's not terrible, but not good either. Seems like all he does is drop names of players he played with. Seriously, every game, there's at least an inning or two where they don't even talk about what's going on in the field, but spend like 10 minutes trying to list as many names as they can.
On the other hand, the radio guys have been solid for many years and are still very good. I've been listening to John Rooney and Ed Farmer since the first days I was a White Sox fan, and they do a really good job. Nothing spectacular, just reliable broadcasting with a good mix of commentary and friendly banter.
- Cubs: I'm not sure why, but Dusty Baker irritates me. Other than that, I think the Cubs are fine. You would never know it with all the panic among Cubs fans, but the team is still favored to make the playoffs. I was looking at their record, and 9 games over .500 is pretty good considering all the negatives that have happened this season. What a difference a year makes. The expectations have gotten so high that even when the team is successful overall, nobody is enjoying the season.
Thursday, August 12, 2004
Thoughts on Fahrenheit 9/11 and Michael Moore
A few days ago, I watched Fahrenheit 9/11. I'm sure as many of you are aware, the movie has been talked about a lot since before it was even released, with much of the discussion being about the bias of the movie and the credibility of its content.
Since there's plenty of articles and stories that cover the details of "what's true and what's not" in the movie, I'm gonna try to avoid repeating all those details here. Instead, I just want to write about my personal feelings and reaction after seeing the movie, and say how I feel about Michael Moore in a more general sense. If anyone is interested to read about the details, I'll try to list some links at the end for people to pursue on their own.
By the way, I don't think anything I'm about to say will "ruin" the movie for anyone, so go ahead and continue reading even if you haven't seen it. It might actually even benefit you whether or not you end up watching the movie.
As a whole, Fahrenheit 9/11 is pretty similar to the other Michael Moore movies I've seen ("Roger & Me" and "Bowling for Columbine"). He doesn't appear as much on screen as in the past, but still narrates throughout the movie. To support his points, he uses a combination of news clips, interviews with his chosen "experts", and of course, his own footage. Pretty standard, really.
As I watched the movie, the main problem I had was trying to figure out exactly what points he was making. A lot of the movie seemed to me like it was more about mudslinging and just trying to make people look bad than anything else. Actually, this was the main issue I had with Bowling for Columbine as well. A lot of information thrown around and discussed, but not much in the way of conclusive arguments.
Still, I think I was able to dig out a few main points regarding the movie:
1. George W. Bush stole the Presidency from Al Gore in the 2000 election.
2. Bush was such a terrible, negligent President during his first months in office, that he should be blamed for the September 11th attacks.
3. The Bush family knows the Bin Laden family well and protected them after 9/11.
4. The Bush family is also heavily influenced by the Saudi royals. This influence was the real reason behind both the campaign in Afghanistan as well as the war on Iraq.
5. The members of Congress who voted for going to war are mostly cowards, who don't have any of their own kids fighting, but are quick to exploit the lower-class in recruiting for military service.
Other than that, like I mentioned, it seemed like the rest of the movie had little purpose, other than making people look bad. For example, one of the intro segments was simply showing President Bush and some of his administration in off-camera scenes. Little or no dialogue, just random clips of them getting their makeup touched up, combing their hair, adjusting their collars, etc. This goes on for at least a few minutes straight, and I guess by showing these scenes, it's supposed to prove to all the viewers that our country's leaders are sloppy or something. Which is useful knowledge to us in what way, I have no clue. It also makes me wonder if Michael Moore has ever seen clips of himself, on camera.
As far as the points he makes in the movie, they would be valuable, if there was more truth or relevant basis to them. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the ideas he discusses are either highly exaggerated, twisted, or simply false. Again, there are plenty of articles written elsewhere that describe in detail the ways that Michael Moore misleads or flat out lies to his viewers, so I won't go over all of them here. I do, however, highly encourage people to do their own searching and try to figure out for themselves what's true and what's not.
For me personally, after reading all the stuff I've read about the tricks and lies in Fahrenheit 9/11, I really was very disturbed about the whole thing. There are those who believe that it's important to watch this movie, just to see "both sides", and I had that opinion myself, before this week. But right now, I honestly think that the movie is such trash, actually worse than trash, that we would all be better off if it were never made. And I'm not telling people that they shouldn't see it, but I am saying that even if you do decide to see it, I believe you are highly unlikely to gain anything useful or worthwhile out of it. So be warned.
If you know anything about Michael Moore, you would know that he has an extremely liberal agenda. So liberal, that he considers many of the most liberal Democrats to be too conservative. Moore also does things like accuse the national media of pandering to Bush on the Iraq war in the movie, specifically naming guys like Peter Jennings and Dan Rather. For those of us who don't have selective memories, we may recall that Peter Jennings and many in ABC News were quite outspoken about opposing the war, while Dan Rather did his suck-up piece in his interview with "President" Saddam Hussein. Not that either of those facts make those guys liberal, but to accuse them of pandering to our President is ridiculous by any standard.
To gain even more perspective on Michael Moore, consider that in the days after the 9/11 attacks, Moore's first comments posted on his web site were to the effect that the terrorists should have targeted states which voted for Bush, not the ones that voted against him like NY, DC, or California (since then, he has removed those comments). And with regard to the current situation in Iraq, he actually supports the cause of the extremists who are attacking our soldiers: "The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not 'insurgents' or 'terrorists' or 'The Enemy'. The are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow - and they will win."
I'm not listing these things because I neccessarily think it's wrong to have such extremely liberal views. But my point is that when someone who has such extreme beliefs makes a movie about President Bush, it's going to be exactly the one-sided presentation that Fahrenheit 9/11 is. A piece where only shots of civilians getting killed in war are shown, where the only "experts" that are interviewed are those who criticize the Bush administration. Where only the most unflattering images are put next to the President in a "guilt by association" kind of way.
Watching this movie, one would be led to believe that Iraq was such a happy place before the United States barged right in and ruined it all. That Saddam was a peaceful guy who just minded his own business and never wished any harm on Americans. Michael Moore would have you believe that during the war, we only killed civilians, and not enemy fighters. And the way he presented things, you'd think that George W. Bush was the one firing at and killing our soldiers, not the extremist insurgents or Saddam's militia. That only tiny, unknown countries participated in the coalition, as none of the major countries in the coalition like Italy, the UK, or Australia were mentioned.
With this in mind, if you want to get a truly balanced view of our government after watching this movie, you might actually have to watch a movie about Bush that was made by his mother or something, to see the other extreme. It would be a documentary filled with nothing but news clips of Bush at charity functions, interviews with Dick Cheney and Bush Sr. about how good his policies are, and then show plenty of scenes of him hugging his daughters or shaking hands with soldiers, all presented with triumphant music playing in the background. (I'm not saying this is what we all need, I'm saying that something that one-sided would be just as worthless as Fahrenheit 9/11).
And even then, I doubt that old Barbara would use any of the same kinds of shameless tactics that Moore employed. Some of the things Moore does, is comparable to those Conan O'Brien skits where he puts a face of a celebrity on the screen, cuts out the part with the mouth, and has someone else fill in the talking and moving lips. Or, when they do that thing on morning radio shows where they cut sound bites of people talking, and then pretend to interview them, using the sound bites as out of context as possible. Only in this case, it's not obvious as a joke, it's being passed off as the real thing.
So when I call this movie "worse than trash", I'm not really even joking. The movie is so one-sided, and has so little credibility, that it can really do a lot more harm than good to someone watching it. Let's say that someone offers you a drink, with the warning that if you drink it, it will fill your body with so many toxins that you will need to drink 10 cups of water just to flush it all out and get back to normal. Would you do it? Well, I think it's much the same situation with Michael Moore offering us Fahrenheit 9/11. Except, he provides absolutely no warning about the toxins contained within, and he's getting millions of people to pay for it, raking in the cash in the process.
Before I wrap up this discussion, I also want to talk a bit about Michael Moore the person. I once believed that he was a great citizen, out to help his fellow man in whatever way possible. But the more I see of him, and the more I learn about him, the more I start to despise him and what he stands for. When I watched him ambush Charlton Heston at his home in Bowling for Columbine, I was disgusted. There wasn't as much of that in Fahrenheit, but it's just irritating for me to see this guy who feels like the normal rules of common courtesy or human decency don't apply to him, and see how much he gets away with. And since he's the one editing the movie, he gets to make himself look good and make the other side look silly 100% of the time, even though he is always the instigator. Well, I guess the way I look at it is like the old saying goes: "When a dog bites a man, that's not news. When a man bites a dog, that's news." Since he seems to have no sense of self-respect, it's like a win-win situation. If by being a jackass he manages to incite a reaction, then he did his job. If he gets ignored, the other side looks like they're afraid of being held accountable. If they react in a completely civilized manner and make good arguments, all he has to do is edit it out of the movie and no one will be the wiser.
But what really disgusts me the most is how he manipulates and exploits normal people to suit his own needs in making his movies. Such as the way in he paraded around the sobbing, angry mother whose son was killed in Iraq. Does he truly care about the people themselves, about the tragedies and losses they experienced? If so, would he have used a clip of the soldier who lost both his arms, when the soldier himself strongly objected to being in the movie?
The sad thing is that just because a guy like Michael Moore has a camera and the capability to make a movie, we automatically give him credibility as if he were an expert or a trusted news reporter. In reality, he is a man who is concerned most about pushing his agenda on the rest of the country, and is not afraid to use whatever underhanded method he deems neccessary to achieve his objectives. He has not earned anybody's trust, that we should blindly subscribe to everything he has to say. In fact, by the dishonest ways in which he's presented the his material, he has done basically the opposite, such that we should be very careful and extra suspicious of anything he tries to feed us.
I don't think it's going too far for me to recommend that people avoid this movie, because of all the things I just talked about. However, I don't blame anyone out there who wants to see the movie. Just be very aware of the fact that this is far from a real "documentary". It is more of a 2 hour long negative political ad against George W. Bush than anything else. For that matter, I doubt that any real political ad would be able to get away with half the stuff that's in this movie, due to the lack of basis and truth behind the accusations.
In the end, if you really want to see "both sides", there are already plenty of sources available that have much higher credibility and don't distort the facts nearly as much as Michael Moore does. If you don't trust CNN or the NY Times, there's always C-Span, international news organizations, etc. There's really nothing in Fahrenheit 9/11 that is so "exclusive" that you can't find anywhere else, despite what he would like us to believe. Bottom line is, if you think you need Michael Moore in order to find out the whole story, then you are just not trying hard enough.
Furthermore, to watch Fahrenheit 9/11 while knowing that so much of its content is extremely questionable, without making an effort to follow up his claims and research their whole truth, is at best lazy, and what I would consider to be very, very irresponsible. I think it would be so sad for anyone in this country to simply watch this movie and use it as their sole basis to cast their vote. Unfortunately, I think that is exactly what is going to happen with a lot of people. And if you do that, you are effectively empowering Michael Moore to continue his dirty act elsewhere.
I hope anyone who read through this blog found it to be helpful in some way. As I said, I tried to avoid making it a point-by-point rebuttal to the movie, and provide more of a broader perspective, so it could make sense to both people who have and haven't seen the movie. Now, you may or may not agree with everything I said, which is fine. But if nothing else, I hope that reading this blog will at least encourage everyone out there to be more aware of what's going on in this country. And I really believe strongly that one would be better off not watching a movie like Fahrenheit 9/11 at all, than to watch it and accept everything in it without checking on the facts for themselves.
Before I go, I promised earlier to list some links to sites about the movie. Actually, there's a lot of stuff out there, if you just do a search in Google. So I think I will just list one site that stood out to me the most, which I found to be the most complete and done with the most fair approach:
http://davekopel.com/Terror/Fiftysix-Deceits-in-Fahrenheit-911.htm
It's written by a guy who is a "lifelong Democrat", who, like Moore, voted for Ralph Nader in 2000. He's not a Bush supporter and is critical of many of Bush's actions, but focuses this particular article on the "deceits" of Michael Moore's movie. This article is a good place to start, but I would also read other sources to get a better sense of the whole story.
A few days ago, I watched Fahrenheit 9/11. I'm sure as many of you are aware, the movie has been talked about a lot since before it was even released, with much of the discussion being about the bias of the movie and the credibility of its content.
Since there's plenty of articles and stories that cover the details of "what's true and what's not" in the movie, I'm gonna try to avoid repeating all those details here. Instead, I just want to write about my personal feelings and reaction after seeing the movie, and say how I feel about Michael Moore in a more general sense. If anyone is interested to read about the details, I'll try to list some links at the end for people to pursue on their own.
By the way, I don't think anything I'm about to say will "ruin" the movie for anyone, so go ahead and continue reading even if you haven't seen it. It might actually even benefit you whether or not you end up watching the movie.
As a whole, Fahrenheit 9/11 is pretty similar to the other Michael Moore movies I've seen ("Roger & Me" and "Bowling for Columbine"). He doesn't appear as much on screen as in the past, but still narrates throughout the movie. To support his points, he uses a combination of news clips, interviews with his chosen "experts", and of course, his own footage. Pretty standard, really.
As I watched the movie, the main problem I had was trying to figure out exactly what points he was making. A lot of the movie seemed to me like it was more about mudslinging and just trying to make people look bad than anything else. Actually, this was the main issue I had with Bowling for Columbine as well. A lot of information thrown around and discussed, but not much in the way of conclusive arguments.
Still, I think I was able to dig out a few main points regarding the movie:
1. George W. Bush stole the Presidency from Al Gore in the 2000 election.
2. Bush was such a terrible, negligent President during his first months in office, that he should be blamed for the September 11th attacks.
3. The Bush family knows the Bin Laden family well and protected them after 9/11.
4. The Bush family is also heavily influenced by the Saudi royals. This influence was the real reason behind both the campaign in Afghanistan as well as the war on Iraq.
5. The members of Congress who voted for going to war are mostly cowards, who don't have any of their own kids fighting, but are quick to exploit the lower-class in recruiting for military service.
Other than that, like I mentioned, it seemed like the rest of the movie had little purpose, other than making people look bad. For example, one of the intro segments was simply showing President Bush and some of his administration in off-camera scenes. Little or no dialogue, just random clips of them getting their makeup touched up, combing their hair, adjusting their collars, etc. This goes on for at least a few minutes straight, and I guess by showing these scenes, it's supposed to prove to all the viewers that our country's leaders are sloppy or something. Which is useful knowledge to us in what way, I have no clue. It also makes me wonder if Michael Moore has ever seen clips of himself, on camera.
As far as the points he makes in the movie, they would be valuable, if there was more truth or relevant basis to them. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the ideas he discusses are either highly exaggerated, twisted, or simply false. Again, there are plenty of articles written elsewhere that describe in detail the ways that Michael Moore misleads or flat out lies to his viewers, so I won't go over all of them here. I do, however, highly encourage people to do their own searching and try to figure out for themselves what's true and what's not.
For me personally, after reading all the stuff I've read about the tricks and lies in Fahrenheit 9/11, I really was very disturbed about the whole thing. There are those who believe that it's important to watch this movie, just to see "both sides", and I had that opinion myself, before this week. But right now, I honestly think that the movie is such trash, actually worse than trash, that we would all be better off if it were never made. And I'm not telling people that they shouldn't see it, but I am saying that even if you do decide to see it, I believe you are highly unlikely to gain anything useful or worthwhile out of it. So be warned.
If you know anything about Michael Moore, you would know that he has an extremely liberal agenda. So liberal, that he considers many of the most liberal Democrats to be too conservative. Moore also does things like accuse the national media of pandering to Bush on the Iraq war in the movie, specifically naming guys like Peter Jennings and Dan Rather. For those of us who don't have selective memories, we may recall that Peter Jennings and many in ABC News were quite outspoken about opposing the war, while Dan Rather did his suck-up piece in his interview with "President" Saddam Hussein. Not that either of those facts make those guys liberal, but to accuse them of pandering to our President is ridiculous by any standard.
To gain even more perspective on Michael Moore, consider that in the days after the 9/11 attacks, Moore's first comments posted on his web site were to the effect that the terrorists should have targeted states which voted for Bush, not the ones that voted against him like NY, DC, or California (since then, he has removed those comments). And with regard to the current situation in Iraq, he actually supports the cause of the extremists who are attacking our soldiers: "The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not 'insurgents' or 'terrorists' or 'The Enemy'. The are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow - and they will win."
I'm not listing these things because I neccessarily think it's wrong to have such extremely liberal views. But my point is that when someone who has such extreme beliefs makes a movie about President Bush, it's going to be exactly the one-sided presentation that Fahrenheit 9/11 is. A piece where only shots of civilians getting killed in war are shown, where the only "experts" that are interviewed are those who criticize the Bush administration. Where only the most unflattering images are put next to the President in a "guilt by association" kind of way.
Watching this movie, one would be led to believe that Iraq was such a happy place before the United States barged right in and ruined it all. That Saddam was a peaceful guy who just minded his own business and never wished any harm on Americans. Michael Moore would have you believe that during the war, we only killed civilians, and not enemy fighters. And the way he presented things, you'd think that George W. Bush was the one firing at and killing our soldiers, not the extremist insurgents or Saddam's militia. That only tiny, unknown countries participated in the coalition, as none of the major countries in the coalition like Italy, the UK, or Australia were mentioned.
With this in mind, if you want to get a truly balanced view of our government after watching this movie, you might actually have to watch a movie about Bush that was made by his mother or something, to see the other extreme. It would be a documentary filled with nothing but news clips of Bush at charity functions, interviews with Dick Cheney and Bush Sr. about how good his policies are, and then show plenty of scenes of him hugging his daughters or shaking hands with soldiers, all presented with triumphant music playing in the background. (I'm not saying this is what we all need, I'm saying that something that one-sided would be just as worthless as Fahrenheit 9/11).
And even then, I doubt that old Barbara would use any of the same kinds of shameless tactics that Moore employed. Some of the things Moore does, is comparable to those Conan O'Brien skits where he puts a face of a celebrity on the screen, cuts out the part with the mouth, and has someone else fill in the talking and moving lips. Or, when they do that thing on morning radio shows where they cut sound bites of people talking, and then pretend to interview them, using the sound bites as out of context as possible. Only in this case, it's not obvious as a joke, it's being passed off as the real thing.
So when I call this movie "worse than trash", I'm not really even joking. The movie is so one-sided, and has so little credibility, that it can really do a lot more harm than good to someone watching it. Let's say that someone offers you a drink, with the warning that if you drink it, it will fill your body with so many toxins that you will need to drink 10 cups of water just to flush it all out and get back to normal. Would you do it? Well, I think it's much the same situation with Michael Moore offering us Fahrenheit 9/11. Except, he provides absolutely no warning about the toxins contained within, and he's getting millions of people to pay for it, raking in the cash in the process.
Before I wrap up this discussion, I also want to talk a bit about Michael Moore the person. I once believed that he was a great citizen, out to help his fellow man in whatever way possible. But the more I see of him, and the more I learn about him, the more I start to despise him and what he stands for. When I watched him ambush Charlton Heston at his home in Bowling for Columbine, I was disgusted. There wasn't as much of that in Fahrenheit, but it's just irritating for me to see this guy who feels like the normal rules of common courtesy or human decency don't apply to him, and see how much he gets away with. And since he's the one editing the movie, he gets to make himself look good and make the other side look silly 100% of the time, even though he is always the instigator. Well, I guess the way I look at it is like the old saying goes: "When a dog bites a man, that's not news. When a man bites a dog, that's news." Since he seems to have no sense of self-respect, it's like a win-win situation. If by being a jackass he manages to incite a reaction, then he did his job. If he gets ignored, the other side looks like they're afraid of being held accountable. If they react in a completely civilized manner and make good arguments, all he has to do is edit it out of the movie and no one will be the wiser.
But what really disgusts me the most is how he manipulates and exploits normal people to suit his own needs in making his movies. Such as the way in he paraded around the sobbing, angry mother whose son was killed in Iraq. Does he truly care about the people themselves, about the tragedies and losses they experienced? If so, would he have used a clip of the soldier who lost both his arms, when the soldier himself strongly objected to being in the movie?
The sad thing is that just because a guy like Michael Moore has a camera and the capability to make a movie, we automatically give him credibility as if he were an expert or a trusted news reporter. In reality, he is a man who is concerned most about pushing his agenda on the rest of the country, and is not afraid to use whatever underhanded method he deems neccessary to achieve his objectives. He has not earned anybody's trust, that we should blindly subscribe to everything he has to say. In fact, by the dishonest ways in which he's presented the his material, he has done basically the opposite, such that we should be very careful and extra suspicious of anything he tries to feed us.
I don't think it's going too far for me to recommend that people avoid this movie, because of all the things I just talked about. However, I don't blame anyone out there who wants to see the movie. Just be very aware of the fact that this is far from a real "documentary". It is more of a 2 hour long negative political ad against George W. Bush than anything else. For that matter, I doubt that any real political ad would be able to get away with half the stuff that's in this movie, due to the lack of basis and truth behind the accusations.
In the end, if you really want to see "both sides", there are already plenty of sources available that have much higher credibility and don't distort the facts nearly as much as Michael Moore does. If you don't trust CNN or the NY Times, there's always C-Span, international news organizations, etc. There's really nothing in Fahrenheit 9/11 that is so "exclusive" that you can't find anywhere else, despite what he would like us to believe. Bottom line is, if you think you need Michael Moore in order to find out the whole story, then you are just not trying hard enough.
Furthermore, to watch Fahrenheit 9/11 while knowing that so much of its content is extremely questionable, without making an effort to follow up his claims and research their whole truth, is at best lazy, and what I would consider to be very, very irresponsible. I think it would be so sad for anyone in this country to simply watch this movie and use it as their sole basis to cast their vote. Unfortunately, I think that is exactly what is going to happen with a lot of people. And if you do that, you are effectively empowering Michael Moore to continue his dirty act elsewhere.
I hope anyone who read through this blog found it to be helpful in some way. As I said, I tried to avoid making it a point-by-point rebuttal to the movie, and provide more of a broader perspective, so it could make sense to both people who have and haven't seen the movie. Now, you may or may not agree with everything I said, which is fine. But if nothing else, I hope that reading this blog will at least encourage everyone out there to be more aware of what's going on in this country. And I really believe strongly that one would be better off not watching a movie like Fahrenheit 9/11 at all, than to watch it and accept everything in it without checking on the facts for themselves.
Before I go, I promised earlier to list some links to sites about the movie. Actually, there's a lot of stuff out there, if you just do a search in Google. So I think I will just list one site that stood out to me the most, which I found to be the most complete and done with the most fair approach:
http://davekopel.com/Terror/Fiftysix-Deceits-in-Fahrenheit-911.htm
It's written by a guy who is a "lifelong Democrat", who, like Moore, voted for Ralph Nader in 2000. He's not a Bush supporter and is critical of many of Bush's actions, but focuses this particular article on the "deceits" of Michael Moore's movie. This article is a good place to start, but I would also read other sources to get a better sense of the whole story.
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