Been stressed out lately. Mostly due to work and the house hunting, maybe I'll distract myself by writing blogs on other subjects.

1. Star Wars Episode III - came out today. It's kind of hard to believe that the series is actually ending now. I think it was 1999 when they released the first prequel, and back then I was pissed because their plan of releasing the movies 3 years apart seemed like it would take way too long. I was like "man, by the time they get to the last one, I'll be old and I probably won't even care anymore". Well I guess I still do care, but not enough to go line up and battle the crowds on the day it opens. (That, and my 4 year anniversary with Olivia happens to be the same day).

It's getting pretty good reviews, which is a good sign, but honestly it doesn't matter much to me what other people are saying about it. I thought Episodes I and II were alright, when almost everyone else I talked to hated it. But some didn't really even know what was going on, and others complained about the acting. Did they not realize that the acting in the originals was just as bad or worse than the new ones?

By the way I was reading an article about the original Star Wars and George Lucas said that Christopher Walken actually was second in line to play Han Solo (after Harrison Ford). Of course that reminded me of the old "Star Wars Tryouts" skit in SNL when they had Kevin Spacey playing Walken trying out for Han Solo: "Fast ship.. what... you've never heard of the Millenium Falcon.... she's fast enough for you... old man... I'm sorry that sucked". I wonder if they knew that fact when they were making that skit, or if it was just a random coincidence?

2. American Gladiators - For some reason I was thinking about this show the other day, wondering what happened to it, and remembering how I used to watch it all the time and think it was the coolest show. I think at one point I actually wished I had an awesome Gladiator name like "Turbo" or "Laser". Obviously all of that seems ridiculous now.

Then again, I turn on the TV today and there's this show on ESPN with NFL players running through obstacle courses that ends with climbing a wall, wasn't that pretty much the Eliminator? Or on MTV's Inferno 2, there's Brad battling Abe to dunk a ball into a can in the middle (great battle by the way, very intense). I could've sworn there was an event like that in American Gladiators too. Maybe it's not so silly.

3. Duke gets Scheyer - Any college bball fan who followed the recruitment of Scheyer during the past few months (or longer) probably should have saw yesterday's announcement coming from a long way back. We've seen the story before, most recently with Livingston: "Duke takes highly ranked recruit from the state of Illinois", so what's the big deal? Yeah, his coach is Bruce's brother, and the state team was #1 for most of the past year. But I guess when a kid grows up pretending to be Christian Laettner, reenacting the shot against Kentucky in his basement, you're not gonna change his mind easily.

Anyways, I mention this story here because it might be interesting to look back one day and see how everything turned out. Just like when everyone was mad we didn't get Livingston, I think we did alright. Will Scheyer become the next no-name guy on the end of Duke's bench or actually develop into an NBA star? Will Bruce Weber get Collins and Carlwell or whoever else and take this team to the Final Four again in a few years? Can Coach K make more commercials and become even more irritating?

4. Chaotic - I don't know why I still decided to watch the Britney Spears "reality show". I mean, I knew it was gonna suck. I saw the commercials for it, read the articles on what it was gonna be about, and pretty much knew for sure that I would not enjoy watching it.

And what do you know, it did suck. Honestly I changed the channel after the first 20 minutes and only caught pieces of the rest, in between innings of the baseball game. I never fully realized just how annoying the girl was, until I watched the show. My how far her star has fallen in my eyes.

I guess the lesson I learned is that hotness can cover many flaws. Which it did for the first few years I was a fan. But she is definitely not #1 in my hot list anymore. Probably not even top 10. I'm not sure when I dropped her, but it was most likely during the past year when she turned into a freak show.

Seeing the girl without her makeup, and close up, really showed how wrinkly her skin is underneath. Not cool. I might criticize her weight too but I'll try not to be that shallow, at least publicly. Let's just say the aging process has not treated her well physically.

But what really makes a girl most unattractive (in my opinion) is when she's all over the place with different guys. One day she's kissing Colin Farrell. Next she's getting married in Vegas to some guy she dated in high school. Then all of a sudden she gets engaged to a random dude who happens to already have kids with someone else. When I see that it's pretty much over right there between me and her. Goodbye.

It doesn't help that these guys she's with are all either trashy, dirty, or ugly looking. I mean it's one thing if you get married to Brad Pitt or something, I can't argue with that. Justin Timberlake I can even accept, reluctantly. The type of guys that a girl chooses to be with says a lot about her as a person. And I must say I am disappointed in the choices that Ms. Spears has made in the past year or so.

I guess it's her life so who am I to judge, all I'll do is just put her out of my life from here on out and live only in the past. Haha... Seriously though, I can live without watching closeups of Kevin Federline's butt and listening to the girl I once adored talk about how amazing the sex is with her husband. I'm just saying is all.

5. White Sox - continue to lead the majors with their surprising hot start. I won't say I saw this coming, but I did have a pretty good feeling about the season coming in. With all the hype about home runs, the most underrated things in the game are leadoff hitters and defense. We may have lost Carlos Lee and Magglio in the offseason, but improved both of those categories. Not to mention Dustin Hermanson's solid performances out of the bullpen and Jon Garland's emergence as a legit starter (finally!).

Obviously they aren't going to win 120 games or whatever they were on pace for, but at the very least they are fun to watch. I've been to 3 games so far and even though 2 of them were losses with horrible weather, I definitely liked what I saw on the field.

I'll probably write more about the team later. Baseball season is long.