We've got a great TV viewing experience tonight, boys and girls. At 8 EST we've got Bones, back after a hiatus of a few weeks. Very intense so far. They brought back a very irritating villain, Howard Epps. Great character, but really irritating. I hope he gets hit by a bus.
Then the great beast of them all, American Idol at 9 from Los Angeles.
According to the "Idol Chatter" on USA Today, some people thought it was boring last night. I am not one of those people. We had the "Big Bird Lady", the girl whose father shot her stepmother and himself (wearing a shirt that said "Blue Eyed Bombshell" and living up to the label--okay, I wasn't really looking at her eyes), and the funny chubby guy. I don't know what most people thought of him, but I thought he was hilarious. I hope he hangs around for a while for the comedic value alone.
All in all, I laughed my butt off most of the way through.
"The reason I'm auditioning for American Idol is that I'm the most exciting entertainer on planet earth." And that's how we start the show. As opposed to the something else earth? Ooh, Manoukian is his name. Armenian. I went to school with an Iskendarian and worked with a Garabedian. One of the great segments of Taxicab Confessions involved two Armenian guys who were awesome. Must be something in the water in Yerevan. No better way to close out than some geographical name-dropping.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Monday, January 29, 2007
Many Moons Ago...
I turned 30 on Friday. It was nice.
For the last year or so, I've been telling people that the most annoying thing about getting older is that the stories I tell always seem to have another year or two on them since the last time I told them. I tell a story that happened five years ago, I swear. Then I start thinking about it and it was in 1995. What the hell happened?
In other news, there's a movie coming out called The Messengers. the tagline from IMDB, one of the five best websites on the net:
"There is evidence to suggest that children are highly susceptible to paranormal phenomena. They see what adults cannot. They believe what adults deny. And they are trying to warn us."
I may just be getting the wrong impression, but haven't there been a lot of movies where kids see the baddies and adults don't? I'd really like to see a movie where they reversed the roles. Let the adults see the horrible monsters while the kids wander about in ignorant bliss. Now that would be entertainment.
National Signing Day for high school football recruits is next Wednesday, and I don't get the day off from work. Is there no justice? Is there no law?
For the last year or so, I've been telling people that the most annoying thing about getting older is that the stories I tell always seem to have another year or two on them since the last time I told them. I tell a story that happened five years ago, I swear. Then I start thinking about it and it was in 1995. What the hell happened?
In other news, there's a movie coming out called The Messengers. the tagline from IMDB, one of the five best websites on the net:
"There is evidence to suggest that children are highly susceptible to paranormal phenomena. They see what adults cannot. They believe what adults deny. And they are trying to warn us."
I may just be getting the wrong impression, but haven't there been a lot of movies where kids see the baddies and adults don't? I'd really like to see a movie where they reversed the roles. Let the adults see the horrible monsters while the kids wander about in ignorant bliss. Now that would be entertainment.
National Signing Day for high school football recruits is next Wednesday, and I don't get the day off from work. Is there no justice? Is there no law?
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Don't do that. Oh please, don't do that.
I have a standing rule about not voting for anyone who cries on American Idol. I think it started with Jennifer Hudson, who has since gone on to some pretty good things. (or at least one good thing so far). I don't have a particular reason, other than I don't like seeing people cry on TV ("real" TV, anyway). However, I did think it was kind of neat when the 16 year old guy whose parents didn't support him made it to Hollywood and started crying when his mom finally told him she was proud of him.
Have I mentioned that I'm glad the show is back on? I am. Very, very glad. Last night the State of the Union resulted in them cutting off what could have been another hour. I'd rather listen to awful people perform on American Idol than listen to the SOTU speech. They release the thing hours in advance anyway so the media can start talking it up, and they'll talk about it for days afterward, so I don't see the point in tuning in.
As you know by now, the Mighty Saints (NO, NO, NO, this girl is terrible. Ouch) lost to the Bears in the NFC title game. Good news is we doubled our all time playoff wins total (really bad, she is). We now have 2. Some people are saying that Reggie Bush's taunting made the Bears play harder and turned the tide of the game. (Darlin', nobody cares how hard you worked for this. Get out. Oh wait, they're going with a soap opera angle. Good job.) It didn't turn it so much that the Saints defense couldn't (yowza, this has to be fake) stop the Bears offense and get the ball right back after making it 16-14. Or so much that the Saints were able to drive down and try a field goal. (We don't care if you think they're making a mistake. You're pathetic. Or at least acting pathetic.) I don't know if being fired up was the reason, but the Bears really rolled from then on.
I'm hoping we can have as good a draft and offseason this year as we did last year. Bush, Colston, Evans, Weatherford, and Roman Harper before he got hurt. Five rookie starters who performed well. Rob Ninkovich got hurt even earlier than Harper, but they really liked what they saw from him as well in the d-line rotation. It's unlikely that things will fall our way so well two years in a row, but I'm eager to see what the second offseason of Loomis/Payton holds.
Have I mentioned that I'm glad the show is back on? I am. Very, very glad. Last night the State of the Union resulted in them cutting off what could have been another hour. I'd rather listen to awful people perform on American Idol than listen to the SOTU speech. They release the thing hours in advance anyway so the media can start talking it up, and they'll talk about it for days afterward, so I don't see the point in tuning in.
As you know by now, the Mighty Saints (NO, NO, NO, this girl is terrible. Ouch) lost to the Bears in the NFC title game. Good news is we doubled our all time playoff wins total (really bad, she is). We now have 2. Some people are saying that Reggie Bush's taunting made the Bears play harder and turned the tide of the game. (Darlin', nobody cares how hard you worked for this. Get out. Oh wait, they're going with a soap opera angle. Good job.) It didn't turn it so much that the Saints defense couldn't (yowza, this has to be fake) stop the Bears offense and get the ball right back after making it 16-14. Or so much that the Saints were able to drive down and try a field goal. (We don't care if you think they're making a mistake. You're pathetic. Or at least acting pathetic.) I don't know if being fired up was the reason, but the Bears really rolled from then on.
I'm hoping we can have as good a draft and offseason this year as we did last year. Bush, Colston, Evans, Weatherford, and Roman Harper before he got hurt. Five rookie starters who performed well. Rob Ninkovich got hurt even earlier than Harper, but they really liked what they saw from him as well in the d-line rotation. It's unlikely that things will fall our way so well two years in a row, but I'm eager to see what the second offseason of Loomis/Payton holds.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
BCS, Big Trucks, and Curious Math
BCS
On Monday night Florida smacked Ohio State around to the tune of 41-14 in the BCS title game. Just about everyone was surprised, except a guy named Jim Walden, who used to coach at Washington State. He voted Florida #1 in the last regular-season poll, the only voter in the Harris poll to do so, and called this year's OSU team "one of the weakest No. 1 teams in 25 years." Every other #1 vote went to Ohio State. After the game, people were showering him with praise for picking the big underdog over the heavy favorite. Maybe he was prescient, maybe things just worked out for him. But he comes off looking like either a genius or a very lucky man right now.
Did I think Florida could win? Sure. They've got great athletes across the board, a tough defense, and a really, really good coach. Ohio State has the same, of course, but everybody gave them the edge because of Jim Tressel and Troy Smith. Earlier this season Lee Corso listed Jim Tressel's record in "big" games at 30-7. He regularly beats Michigan, and he pulled off a big upset against Miami a few years ago to win the BCS title. Troy Smith's bandwagon started to get full during last season's Fiesta Bowl, when he led OSU to a win over Notre Dame. It gained serious steam this undefeated season and a Heisman trophy.
So the two biggest surprises to me were:
1) Ohio State looked confused all game long, especially on defense. You would figure that with so much time to prepare, Tressel could come up with a defensive game plan to control Florida's offense. Didn't happen. It looked like guys were open over the middle all day long, and it looked like Florida was ready for whatever defensive looks OSU threw at them. Chris Leak played his best game of the season.
2) The pressure Florida's defense put on Troy Smith and the overall effect it had on the OSU offense. Heavy pressure from the ends and some creative blitzing early put Troy Smith on his back and got the Gators an interception. With the way Florida came out rolling on offense, they quickly built a big lead. Troy Smith was 4-14 for 35 yards for the whole game. Yowza.
If you're a Michigan fan, here's something that'll warm your heart:
Ohio State scored a touchdown on the opening kickoff of the game. Ted Ginn went 93 yards, 7-0 Buckeyes. What happens when he reaches the end zone? He gets tackled by two of his own teammates and hurts his ankle. I think he was back in for one play after that, then it was the sidelines for the rest of the game. The fastest player, the big-play threat, the dangerous returner, gone. And at the hands of his own teammates. My dad and I used to watch games and see stuff like a guy make great moves and go untouched to the end zone, then get hit--no, hammered--by his own guys, and we'd say, "I'd be really ticked off if I managed to run all that way without getting hit, and then get blasted by my own guys."
Big Trucks
Last night I went to the Monster Jam at the Verizon Center. You can see the pictures I took here. Most of them aren't that good. The video I got was much better. Observations:
LOUD!!
When those guys gun it and really go, it blows you back. There was a guy in the hallway giving away earplugs beforehand, and like a dope I think to myself, "Bah, it can't be that bad." After about 40 minutes my ears were actually sore. They do a pretty smart thing by breaking up the show into different segments so you're not constantly bombarded with the noise.
Just driving over the cars easily isn't what people want to see. You need to get high up into the air and come down hard. You know how gymnasts want to stick the landing? Here sticking it is boring. If you can almost flip over backwards or somehow lean forward on your front wheels and then rock back, that'll be pretty popular.
They have "Quad Wars", which seems like four-wheeler racing mixed with pro wrestling mic rhetoric. It's not as loud, but the fumes are stronger. Team DC beat Team Philly in the rubber match of three races when a nice-looking blonde girl crossed the finish line first.
They also add in motocross stunt jumping. Each time I was pretty sure that somebody was going to crash and endure a horrible trip to the emergency room. But those guys can do some pretty crazy stuff in midair, like headstands and letting go of things you'd think they would want to hold on to. It was pretty good.
Many moons ago, back when the world was young, I'd see some monster truck stuff on TV. I seem to recall that King Kong or Bigfoot was the big dog on the block. These days it's Gravedigger. It gets the biggest cheers and things seem to be set up for it to succeed. The announcer even calls it "everybody's favorite monster truck" or something like that.
All in all, it's a pretty good show. I'm glad I sat down close my first time, but I think I can settle for farther seats from now on.
Curious Math
I see before me coupons from Pizza Hut. One of them offers a medium pizza for $6.99. It also says "2 for $13.99". Doesn't that mean for two pizzas, they're charging you twice the amount plus one penny? If they charged the same amount per pizza for two as they did for one, the price would come out to $13.98. I may be wrong, but doesn't getting an additional product often come with a discount for the additional product? Something like "Shirts: $4 each or 3 for $10". I don't ever recall seeing a higher per-item price the more you buy. Curious.
In Other News
Congratulations to my good friend Sandy for finishing the Disney Half-Marathon. Good work, my friend. I'm proud of you, and I know I'm not the only one.
On Monday night Florida smacked Ohio State around to the tune of 41-14 in the BCS title game. Just about everyone was surprised, except a guy named Jim Walden, who used to coach at Washington State. He voted Florida #1 in the last regular-season poll, the only voter in the Harris poll to do so, and called this year's OSU team "one of the weakest No. 1 teams in 25 years." Every other #1 vote went to Ohio State. After the game, people were showering him with praise for picking the big underdog over the heavy favorite. Maybe he was prescient, maybe things just worked out for him. But he comes off looking like either a genius or a very lucky man right now.
Did I think Florida could win? Sure. They've got great athletes across the board, a tough defense, and a really, really good coach. Ohio State has the same, of course, but everybody gave them the edge because of Jim Tressel and Troy Smith. Earlier this season Lee Corso listed Jim Tressel's record in "big" games at 30-7. He regularly beats Michigan, and he pulled off a big upset against Miami a few years ago to win the BCS title. Troy Smith's bandwagon started to get full during last season's Fiesta Bowl, when he led OSU to a win over Notre Dame. It gained serious steam this undefeated season and a Heisman trophy.
So the two biggest surprises to me were:
1) Ohio State looked confused all game long, especially on defense. You would figure that with so much time to prepare, Tressel could come up with a defensive game plan to control Florida's offense. Didn't happen. It looked like guys were open over the middle all day long, and it looked like Florida was ready for whatever defensive looks OSU threw at them. Chris Leak played his best game of the season.
2) The pressure Florida's defense put on Troy Smith and the overall effect it had on the OSU offense. Heavy pressure from the ends and some creative blitzing early put Troy Smith on his back and got the Gators an interception. With the way Florida came out rolling on offense, they quickly built a big lead. Troy Smith was 4-14 for 35 yards for the whole game. Yowza.
If you're a Michigan fan, here's something that'll warm your heart:
Ohio State scored a touchdown on the opening kickoff of the game. Ted Ginn went 93 yards, 7-0 Buckeyes. What happens when he reaches the end zone? He gets tackled by two of his own teammates and hurts his ankle. I think he was back in for one play after that, then it was the sidelines for the rest of the game. The fastest player, the big-play threat, the dangerous returner, gone. And at the hands of his own teammates. My dad and I used to watch games and see stuff like a guy make great moves and go untouched to the end zone, then get hit--no, hammered--by his own guys, and we'd say, "I'd be really ticked off if I managed to run all that way without getting hit, and then get blasted by my own guys."
Big Trucks
Last night I went to the Monster Jam at the Verizon Center. You can see the pictures I took here. Most of them aren't that good. The video I got was much better. Observations:
LOUD!!
When those guys gun it and really go, it blows you back. There was a guy in the hallway giving away earplugs beforehand, and like a dope I think to myself, "Bah, it can't be that bad." After about 40 minutes my ears were actually sore. They do a pretty smart thing by breaking up the show into different segments so you're not constantly bombarded with the noise.
Just driving over the cars easily isn't what people want to see. You need to get high up into the air and come down hard. You know how gymnasts want to stick the landing? Here sticking it is boring. If you can almost flip over backwards or somehow lean forward on your front wheels and then rock back, that'll be pretty popular.
They have "Quad Wars", which seems like four-wheeler racing mixed with pro wrestling mic rhetoric. It's not as loud, but the fumes are stronger. Team DC beat Team Philly in the rubber match of three races when a nice-looking blonde girl crossed the finish line first.
They also add in motocross stunt jumping. Each time I was pretty sure that somebody was going to crash and endure a horrible trip to the emergency room. But those guys can do some pretty crazy stuff in midair, like headstands and letting go of things you'd think they would want to hold on to. It was pretty good.
Many moons ago, back when the world was young, I'd see some monster truck stuff on TV. I seem to recall that King Kong or Bigfoot was the big dog on the block. These days it's Gravedigger. It gets the biggest cheers and things seem to be set up for it to succeed. The announcer even calls it "everybody's favorite monster truck" or something like that.
All in all, it's a pretty good show. I'm glad I sat down close my first time, but I think I can settle for farther seats from now on.
Curious Math
I see before me coupons from Pizza Hut. One of them offers a medium pizza for $6.99. It also says "2 for $13.99". Doesn't that mean for two pizzas, they're charging you twice the amount plus one penny? If they charged the same amount per pizza for two as they did for one, the price would come out to $13.98. I may be wrong, but doesn't getting an additional product often come with a discount for the additional product? Something like "Shirts: $4 each or 3 for $10". I don't ever recall seeing a higher per-item price the more you buy. Curious.
In Other News
Congratulations to my good friend Sandy for finishing the Disney Half-Marathon. Good work, my friend. I'm proud of you, and I know I'm not the only one.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Sugar Bowl
You can see what I thought would be the deciding factor in the Sugar Bowl here. A quick quote:
Last year, I thought LSU's offensive line underperformed the same way ND's did this year. But they really pulled it together for the Peach Bowl stomping of Miami. There's certainly the possibility that ND could do the same thing and get it together. As good as LSU's back four are, there's not a secondary in the country that can't be had if you give the QB time to throw.
I think I was a bit off. Notre Dame's offensive line played much better than most people would have expected, they still only put up 14 points, and got outgained by 300 yards in the second half. I had figured that if Brady Quinn had time to throw, he could exploit mismatches against the LSU secondary. In the second half, however, LSU covered the receivers really, really well. The defensive line helped out with a little more pressure and shut down the Irish running game, but I was very impressed with the play of the back four. Jessie Daniels entering the game after being suspended for the first half probably helped.
Additional thoughts:
A lot of people are saying that LSU's receivers had a great game because of their speed advantage over the ND secondary. That could be part of the reason, though I imagine if you lined up the ND players and told them to sprint, they'd be pretty fast. A bigger reason is probably because the ND secondary just doesn't have very good players, fast or not.
The LSU offensive game plan was put entirely on the shoulders of JaMarcus Russell. It's a good thing he's got really big shoulders. He played very well and may have played himself in to a top ten selection in this year's draft. Lots of people said that this could be the last game for him and LSU offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher. It looked like they wanted to go out with a bang, slinging it all over the place. It was a very aggressive attack to build up a 20 point lead, then they mashed away with the running game for most of the 4th quarter.
Keiland Williams ran hard, strong, and showed good moves. I like how he manages to break tackles while being elusive at the same time. Justin Vincent played a very good and complete game to close out his career. He ran it for about six yards a pop, breaking a lot of tackles. He caught a couple of balls. He blocked well in pass protection. In short, everything he could do to help the team win.
Early Doucet is the best athlete among the big three receivers, and he showed it with a couple of big pass plays. But Dwayne Bowe is the most skilled receiver in terms of running routes and catching the ball. The slants and deep outs he has in his arsenal could serve him well in the NFL. Craig Davis is a little between the two.
Brandon LaFell has two TD catches this season. One in the first game, one in the last, both for 58 yards.
Les Miles is 22-4 as the LSU coach. That ain't too shabby.
Some people are taking this opportunity to bash Charlie Weis, saying he's not as good a coach as he thinks he is or people have been saying he is. I've already mentioned that I've completely drunk the Kool Aid on Charlie Weis. I think that next year may be a setback record-wise for Notre Dame, but by 2008 I think they'll be back in a big way. He's proven to be a very capable recruiter so far. In the next few years I'd expect to see a lot more talent on the o-line, at the skill positions, and in the secondary. Let's see what he can do with equal talent as the other coaches before we label him a bust.
Now we get to turn our attention to the stretch run of recruiting, starting with today's US Army All-American game. Let the fun begin.
Last year, I thought LSU's offensive line underperformed the same way ND's did this year. But they really pulled it together for the Peach Bowl stomping of Miami. There's certainly the possibility that ND could do the same thing and get it together. As good as LSU's back four are, there's not a secondary in the country that can't be had if you give the QB time to throw.
I think I was a bit off. Notre Dame's offensive line played much better than most people would have expected, they still only put up 14 points, and got outgained by 300 yards in the second half. I had figured that if Brady Quinn had time to throw, he could exploit mismatches against the LSU secondary. In the second half, however, LSU covered the receivers really, really well. The defensive line helped out with a little more pressure and shut down the Irish running game, but I was very impressed with the play of the back four. Jessie Daniels entering the game after being suspended for the first half probably helped.
Additional thoughts:
A lot of people are saying that LSU's receivers had a great game because of their speed advantage over the ND secondary. That could be part of the reason, though I imagine if you lined up the ND players and told them to sprint, they'd be pretty fast. A bigger reason is probably because the ND secondary just doesn't have very good players, fast or not.
The LSU offensive game plan was put entirely on the shoulders of JaMarcus Russell. It's a good thing he's got really big shoulders. He played very well and may have played himself in to a top ten selection in this year's draft. Lots of people said that this could be the last game for him and LSU offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher. It looked like they wanted to go out with a bang, slinging it all over the place. It was a very aggressive attack to build up a 20 point lead, then they mashed away with the running game for most of the 4th quarter.
Keiland Williams ran hard, strong, and showed good moves. I like how he manages to break tackles while being elusive at the same time. Justin Vincent played a very good and complete game to close out his career. He ran it for about six yards a pop, breaking a lot of tackles. He caught a couple of balls. He blocked well in pass protection. In short, everything he could do to help the team win.
Early Doucet is the best athlete among the big three receivers, and he showed it with a couple of big pass plays. But Dwayne Bowe is the most skilled receiver in terms of running routes and catching the ball. The slants and deep outs he has in his arsenal could serve him well in the NFL. Craig Davis is a little between the two.
Brandon LaFell has two TD catches this season. One in the first game, one in the last, both for 58 yards.
Les Miles is 22-4 as the LSU coach. That ain't too shabby.
Some people are taking this opportunity to bash Charlie Weis, saying he's not as good a coach as he thinks he is or people have been saying he is. I've already mentioned that I've completely drunk the Kool Aid on Charlie Weis. I think that next year may be a setback record-wise for Notre Dame, but by 2008 I think they'll be back in a big way. He's proven to be a very capable recruiter so far. In the next few years I'd expect to see a lot more talent on the o-line, at the skill positions, and in the secondary. Let's see what he can do with equal talent as the other coaches before we label him a bust.
Now we get to turn our attention to the stretch run of recruiting, starting with today's US Army All-American game. Let the fun begin.
Monday, January 01, 2007
Clear Cut, Yes? Clear Cut, No!
I would recommend a John Feinstein article to you. You can find it on the Post's website here. The best thing about the article to me is this line:
"People want heroes to be heroes and villains to be villains. It is rarely that simple and it isn't even close to being true with Knight."
Personally, I think it isn't true for just about everybody. I mentioned this to someone during the last season of The Sopranos. Tony Soprano can be a very frustrating protagonist to root for sometimes. One moment he's cutting short a tryst with another woman because she's unbuttoning the shirt his wife buttoned for him on the way out. The next moment, he's driving along with a Bada Bing girl's face in his lap (to put it mildly). Sometimes people do things they aren't proud of and say, "That wasn't me." Which is nonsense, if you ask me. It's always "me" or "us". We're the same person doing the good thing as we are doing the bad. It's just not that easy to reconcile something like that within ourselves.
My favorite novel is Atlas Shrugged. I think it's wonderfully written and put together. But I disagree with Francisco d'Anconia that there are no contradictions. I think that every human being is a contradiction. We do want two different things at the same time, things that are not only different but contradictory. Things that reject each other. And we still manage to get through every day, pretty much every day. I think that's rather nice.
"People want heroes to be heroes and villains to be villains. It is rarely that simple and it isn't even close to being true with Knight."
Personally, I think it isn't true for just about everybody. I mentioned this to someone during the last season of The Sopranos. Tony Soprano can be a very frustrating protagonist to root for sometimes. One moment he's cutting short a tryst with another woman because she's unbuttoning the shirt his wife buttoned for him on the way out. The next moment, he's driving along with a Bada Bing girl's face in his lap (to put it mildly). Sometimes people do things they aren't proud of and say, "That wasn't me." Which is nonsense, if you ask me. It's always "me" or "us". We're the same person doing the good thing as we are doing the bad. It's just not that easy to reconcile something like that within ourselves.
My favorite novel is Atlas Shrugged. I think it's wonderfully written and put together. But I disagree with Francisco d'Anconia that there are no contradictions. I think that every human being is a contradiction. We do want two different things at the same time, things that are not only different but contradictory. Things that reject each other. And we still manage to get through every day, pretty much every day. I think that's rather nice.
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