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.