HOLY CRAP!!!

That's the only thing I can think to say right now. I still cannot believe that the Missouri Tigers are #1 in the nation. I am in awe and disbelief all at the same time. I think that they have achieved the perfect storm this year with Daniel, the Rucker/Coffman tandem, Maclin and a very servicable defense. Crazy thing is that they are getting the majority of the starters back next year too. Unbelievable.

Two things still concern me... First, they are Mizzou. I think the reason that I am in disbelief is because they are, after all, Mizzouri. I have a hard time getting too excited because the rug can be pulled out from under us pretty quick by the ol' Sooners. But, I also have to admit that I'm having a really hard time not getting excited too.

My second concern is still our goal-line/short-yardage offense. It still makes me pretty nervous that I'm more comfortable from the 10 than the 1. They've shown a lot more promise recently, even lining Daniel up under center once... Amazing! They'll need to convert these opportunities more often than not to beat Oklahoma.

I can't ever remember being this excited about a team that I didn't play on (or even one that I did for that matter). We'll have to see how far we can go, but regardless of what happens, I'm pretty pleased to be in the national hunt going into the final week. Even if they do decide to pee down their collective leg, it would have been a hell of a ride this year with some promise for the next.

R.I.P. - Big Shaky

It pains me to no end to do this, but I think it's time to put him to rest. I hate the fact that our cohort Big Shaky cannot find time in his ever so busy schedule to blog with us anymore. The blog was blocked on at his job because, obviously, this is an extremist site. Now, apparently he does not have the ability to update us from home. Shame, shame, shame...

I will miss the political rants and liberal bashing that became the norm over the past year. Shaky personified the conservative far-right and would have made Uncle Ted very proud. Rest in peace my fine feathered friend... God speed and remember - True North is the only way!

Now that the sap is behind us... What the hell is the problem??? You can't find 10 minutes out of your day to post your controversial thoughts on our precious (and ever so popular) blog??? What a turd. I guess you're too busy reading the recent stories on MoveOn.org or watching the Democratic debates to see which one of your favorites will get the presidential nod. Yeah, I said it... You don't scare me. One block at work and you give up on us! What, do the parental controls at home not allow our extremist site either? No excuses... I'm very disappointed in you.

OK Brent, now it's up to you and me to keep this train on the tracks...

In Nuge WE trust!

Strikes Suck

In case you've been living under a rock, you know that the Writer's Guild of America is on strike at this very moment. If you don't know what this means, basically all writers in Hollywood are refusing to write any more scripts until they can agree on a new deal with the TV/Movie studios. Basically what's going on is that they are arguing over residual income from DVD sales and online streaming shows, which has been booming in recent years. There is a lot of question as to how the pie should be split up. I don't know all the details, but I assume most or all of this income is currently ending up in the pockets of the networks/studios.

The one thing I do know is that nobody wins with a strike, and certainly not the viewers at home. I was pretty upset by this strike, because shows I really like, such as The Office, are being shut down since they don't have any new scripts to work from. But the last straw came on Wednesday when I read that the next season of 24 was in jeopardy. FOX released a statement that they would not air a partial season. They have only recently began filming, so unless this strike is resolved pronto, there is not going to be any Jack Bauer this year. This really pisses me off.

How greedy can these guys be? You know who's really getting dicked over? Us. The viewer. We pay the price, so these guys can sort out a few bucks here and there. I'm like most working stiffs, I work an 8-5 so I can pay some bills and feed my family. I don't do it because I love doing it. I do it because I HAVE to do it. I can't quit working because I'm not happy about my deal. Well I can, but it would probably take 6 months to find another job. Hollywood pisses me off.

Have we not learned about anything with strikes? Alienating the public can be a very bad thing. Just ask Bud Selig and Gary Bettman. Baseball has taken a beating in the ratings ever since the strike cancelled the '94 World Series. It's made a bit of a comeback, but it's definitely nowhere near the big deal it used to be. The LCS is on TBS for Christ's sake. And the NHL? Granted, this was different, a lockout, but it was the same for viewers. No hockey. They have completely fallen off the face of the planet. They weren't exactly thriving before, but at least they were on ESPN. Now they're on the network formerly knows as "OLN".

Anyway, this strike blows. Losing 24 blows. Hollywood blows. But at least this will give me more time with Call of Duty 4. That game kicks ass.

Should we pull the plug???

The Big Shaky is currently on blog-land life support. Apparently, he did all of his blogging at work and this site is now blocked by his corporate machine. Bummer. We may need to discuss pulling the plug because I know that he would not want to be a blog vegitable...

Oh, and I am pissed that KU whooped A&M today. Why can't we catch a break with these guys? It would be nice if the other team showed up one of these days when Rock Chalk comes to town. Oh well, I don't know why I am surprised. The one time MU has a BCS-type season, they get overshadowed by another north team that barely fielded a team for the past however-many years. Figures...

I'm Starting to Get Worried

I love college football. More than the NFL, NBA, NCAA hoops and every other sport combined. I'm not sure why I feel this way, but it's probably because my formative sports years (6th grade-beginning of my sophomore HS year) were spent just outside Columbia, MO. Sure, there was Chiefs, Cardinals and Royals coverage, but the biggest deal in town was the Missouri Tigers. At the time, I was more of a basketball fan, mainly because watching Jeff Handy try to throw it to receivers stumbling all over Omni-turf just wasn't much fun.

Let's fast forward to 2007. This is supposed to be our year. This is the year that we finally take the next step forward and capture the Big 12 north. This is our best chance for a BCS bid ever. It might be the last time in my lifetime that this happens. Sure you might laugh, but consider the fact that the last time Missouri won a conference title in football, Nixon was President and we were just landing guys on the moon for the first time. It was a LONG time ago.

Now, I knew we would have some stiff competition this year. It's never easy, even when the conference is having a down year. But I sure as hell wouldn't have picked Kansas to be the team to beat. Seriously, Kansas?!? Aside from a few good years with Glen Mason, the KU football team has sucked balls for years. Even when they've been "good" they've been mediocre. Bill Whittemore? John Cornish? Give me a break. They've had some decent players, but never a solid team. Mangina had only won 2 Big 12 road games in his tenure at KU until this season. Now they're undefeated and are 9th in the latest BCS standings. The game at Arrowhead later this season looms large.

With the way the schedule shakes out, KU misses both OU and Texas this year, with only games at Texas A&M and Oklahoma State as challenges the rest of the way. They have Iowa State and Nebraska at home, and they're both terrible. Upsets happen, but it's totally conceivable that KU shows up on 11/24 at 11-0. With our loss at OU, we really can't afford to stumble the rest of the way. It won't be easy. Kansas State on the road will be tough. We never play well there. We also have to go to Colorado which is, again, a place where we don't normally play well.

To get to my point, I'm worried that the best Mizzou season in 40 years has a good chance of being overshadowed by the greatest KU season of all time. The thought of KU playing in the Fiesta Bowl makes me sick to my stomach. The thought of their being conference champions makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit. I think it's unlikely that they run the table, but it sure seems like a reasonable possibility. And that scares the hell out of me.

In Bauer we trust

Too Much of a Good Thing

Without a doubt, the funniest half hour on TV each week is The Office. Notice I said the funniest HALF hour. At the beginning of this season, NBC decided to supersize each of the first four episodes into one hour instead of the normal 30 minute episodes that we are accustomed to. At first, I was really excited. The more I could get of the Dunder Mifflin crew, the better. But now after seeing the first four episodes, I'm just as excited to see it go back to the 30 minute format, starting next week.

As it turned out, 60 minute episodes were a bad idea. It was a little outside the box to begin with, because there isn't a single comedy on TV that runs for an hour each week. Every now and again, you'll see "special" episodes that end up being an hour, like a season finale or something, but it's hardly the norm. Even Seinfeld, one of the all time greats, only have a few hour long episodes, much less 4 straight to start a season.

I've found each episode to be very funny in parts, but then have lots and lots of downtime, which is a big buzzkill for any comedy. Keep me laughing for 30 minutes and leave me wanting more next week. I think that's the ideal formula. It's like the episode of Seinfeld where George tried to always end on a high note. We need to get back to this idea with The Office. Next week cannot come soon enough.

M - I - Z ... Z - Oh no!

Well, since my blog mates are a couple of no-typing hosers, I guess I'll just have to carry this thing myself. Go ahead and jump on my back, boys!!!

I enjoyed watching the Tigers play Saturday night in a prime time game with some meaning. I knew it was a long shot, to say the least, to get a victory at OU, but I was still excited that there was actually a chance at all. The tigers came out swinging and had some early success on offense, mainly because of Maclin. That guy is a man-child and will probably not stay for his 3 years of remaining eligibility. He is literally a threat to score every time he touches the ball.

My excitement peaked in the 3rd quarter when Mizzou went up 25-24. Are you kidding me??? The Tigers actually have a chance to beat a ranked team on the road??? As it turns out, the answer to that was a resounding NO. They folded at the end of the game with crutial turnovers, one for a touchdown. And that was that. They added a meaningless touchdown at the end, but the Sooners were able to control the game and come up with a home win that they needed and earned.

It is really nice to be able to root for a team that is actually playing well and fun to watch. Unfortunately, it looks like they'll have to run the table to have a shot at winning the north, especially with Gay-U actually coming out of nowhere and winning ballgames. Against the Little Sisters of the Poor, albeit. And this week should be really cool with MU playing Texas Tech. I don't even think either team will even dress a running back... They are just not necessary anymore.

The New Me...

Hey, remember me? How about this blog??? Ok, we've been on sabatical for a while, but I've decided to start posing again, so here goes. I just hope my cohorts follow suit...

I have made a personal decision to be a less negative person, a more kinder, gentler me, if you will. My job has been driving me nuts lately and I've been taking it home with me lately, so I've decided to be more like Chaz Michael Michaels on queludes. Just go with the flow. Don't get so worked up. REEEELLLLAAAAAXXXX! That's my new personal motto. Well, what do you think? Oh really, I don't care...

The true test of the new me will come this weekend when Mizzou and the Chiefs play. I must admit that I got pretty worked up last weekend. The joy of seeing the Tigers hand Nebraska their asses on a silver platter cannot be described. When was the last time we could claim a victory of that magnitude? When was the last time we were #11 in the nation? It will be an even bigger test this weekend against OU in Norman. We'll see if I can hold it together...

Then on Sunday, the Chefs (no misspelled) will be at home vs. the Bengals. I was worked up in an exact polar opposite way during last week's goat rodeo. I can't believe that an NFL team can gain a total of 10 yards rushing in a full game. Inexcusable! And when Page was trying to run down Jones-Drew, he looked more like a retard trying to hump a doorknob. Sidebar: I still hate men with hyphenated names. I think we did a post on this before. Anyway, if anything can get the ol' blood to boilin', it would be the Chiefs.

At any rate, I think we all should sit back and listen to some Clay Aiken or Nickelback (whichever is your preference Kivett). Hang out and enjoy life! And hope that your home teams don't pee down their collective legs so you don't have to make the opposite life change of being talked down off the ledge.

Come on boys - we're back!!!

Sportscenter Sucks

I can't believe I just wrote that. Really, I can't. When I first discovered Sportscenter when I was a little kid (and coming into my own as a sports fan), it was pretty much the coolest thing I'd ever seen. I had always liked watching the sports on my local news, but this was like the nightly sports report on steroids. More highlights...longer highlights...everything a sports fan needs to be a sports fan.

Fast forward 20 years.

I can't even watch Sportscenter anymore. Gone are the days of Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann on "The Big Show." Enter the days of Barry Bonds, TO, Who Is Now, and literally a dead horse (Barbaro). Sportscenter has become overbearing. It's almost like a news magazine, without any of the appeal of 60 minutes.

I know it's for a good cause and all, but I don't watch Sportscenter to see the My Dream, or whatever that segment was called a few weeks ago, where they fulfill a kids sports dream. Don't get me wrong, it's a great thing. But it's not what I want to see when I turn on Sportscenter in the morning. Give me stats, give me highlights, don't give me Keyshawn Johnson and Mike Wilbon arguing over who is more relevant in pop culture.

Who gives a flip? When did my favorite show turn into something so blah, for lack of a better word?

Why are we constantly subjected to endless discussions of Barry Bonds, when I don't even know of a single person who isn't 100% sick of hearing about the guy. Same thing goes for Terrell Owens. I don't care if TO can coexist with Tony Romo. I don't care if he's doing situps in his driveway. I don't care about HIM. Yet I am endlessly subjected to him during the NFL season. As if the viewing public can't get enough.

I don't really have any answers, but I would really like to start a discussion. I've seen a lot of people complain about ESPN in general lately, so surely I'm not the only one who has any insight into this.

More Than Meets The Eye

Obviously the new Transformers movie has gotten a ton of press. I finally got a chance to see it last week, but had managed to avoid basically all information pertaining to the movie. All I really knew is that a lot of the movie was live action, and all the transformers would be CGI. When I finally sat down in the theater, I had no idea what I was about to see. I didn't really have any expectations. I definitely wasn't expecting greatness, but I wasn't expecting a bomb either. I expected to not be bored, and that's about it.

About 5 minutes into the movie, during a scene when a military post in the Middle East is attacked by a Decepticon, I couldn't help but wonder "Why on earth did it take so long for someone to make this movie?" From the second that I heard the transform sound, I knew I was going to be in for one heck of a thrill ride. I really liked it. I don't think I've ever been so geeked up after seeing a movie. Ever.

The storyline was kind of cheesy at times, sure, but any points lost were more than made up for in other places during the movie. I'll try to highlight all the things I liked about the movie. I'm going off the top of my head here, so nothing is in order:

1) I really liked the shoutout to the old VW version of Bumblebee. During the scene where Witwicky is picking out the yellow camaro (the present day Bumblebee), the yellow camaro breaks the windows in the old beetle. Nice touch that they acknowledged this change from the original cartoon.

2) Man, the chick who played LeBouf's love interest (whatever his name is) is smoking! During the movie, I was fairly certain that they had gotten someone who was in her late 20's to play a high schooler, but actually this girl, whatever her name is, is something like 21 according to IMDB. I can live with that. Lots of innuendos, which was nice to see. I thought the turn towards the end of the movie where they revealed that her dad stole cars, and that she had a prior criminal record was pretty dumb and completely unnecessary. But like I said, the movie as a whole is good enough to overlook some of these minor flaws.

3) I absolutely loved the parts where Optimus Prime and his cohorts came down from space and became vehicles. That's the best way I can describe what happened. I got chills. And hearing Prime talk for the first time was awesome too. They actually hired the guy who originally did his voice in the cartoon to come back for the movie. VERY nice touch. I knew that he would be doing the voice beforehand, but I had no idea how much it would add to the overall experience of seeing this movie.

4) One of my only complaints is that other than Prime, the rest of the Transformers looked a little similar. The only other one that you could really pick out during one of the many fight scenes was Bumblebee. Not too big of a deal, but some distinction within the individual robots would have been nice.

5) I'm going to buy this on DVD as soon as it comes out, as long as they have some extra features that are worthwhile. I'd say there's about a 100% chance that a DVD will be released, and then followed up with a "collector's edition" a "special edition" and a "special collector's edition." Ridiculous. Just release one version of the DVD. There's no reason to nickel and dime us to death.

6) I'm jacked that the door is completely left open for a sequel. Obviously Megatron will not be involved, but I think that will be ok, since Starscream will be leading up the Decepticons. I think this actually happened in the cartoons anyway, if I remember correctly. Megatron didn't have much of a role in this one anyway, so who cares. As long as they bring back Prime and his voice, I'm on board for a second movie. And a third.

Basically, anyone who ever watched the cartoon as a kid needs to go out and see this on the big screen. If you sit around and wait for a DVD release, you're cheating yourself.

Big "thumbs up" for Transformers.

In Bauer We Trust

Ramblings

Is this Really a Sport?
Over the last couple of weeks, we've been subjected to a competitive eating coverage on ESPN. I finally decided that this morning was the last straw, when people like Dick Vitale starting throwing in their two cents. At first I thought the whole bit was tongue in cheek, but they never really made it clear if the whole piece was supposed to be funny. At any rate, why is this crap even on Sportscenter to begin with? Even if it's on ESPN, it's not a sport. I've actually heard these guys referred to as "athletes" before. Are you kidding me? Have you actually SEEN a picture of Badlands Booker, or some of these other clowns. If you're over 400 lbs and not playing in the NFL, then you're not an athlete. I don't care what your talent is. Same thing goes for Poker.

Anyway, apparently Takeru Kobiyashi is not going to appear in the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating contest on the 4th of July, paving the way for Joey Chestnut (more on this in a second) to take the title this year. Apparently Kobiyashi has a sore jaw and won't be able to compete. Basically Kobiyashi kills everyone in this contest every year. He's like the Babe Ruth of competitive eating.

Joey Chestnut cracks me up on a number of levels. First of all, his name is Joey freaking Chestnut. Isn't this name already taken by someone in the adult film industry? Wouldn't Ron Jeremy have been more successful if his name was Joey Chestnut? Also, I saw JC put down a ton of hot dogs last year, and he nearly beat Kobiyashi. You should see the way he eats. His whole body rocks back and forth, much like Leo Mazzone, formerly the pitching coach of the Atlanta Braves. But I digress. I can't devote any more time to this. But you can bet on my watching this contest on the 4th of July. I'm a loser.

I'm a Little Kid
NCAA Football 2008 comes out in a few weeks, and I am totally geeked. I look forward to the release of this game every year. I even have a $30 Target gift card burning a hole in my pocket for this. I figure it's ok for me to drop $30 on a game I don't need, but $60 is just too much. This year's list of enhancements includes a better frame rate, enhanced dynasty mode, and an all new player motivation system. Basically if you have a leader type guy on the team, he can influence the play of his teammates. They have (thankfully) ditched the momentum system that was used last year. Having team momentum led to one team getting annihilated every time. You could run for 6-7 yards a pop right down the field with no problem. I hated it. I feel like I'm 12 for writing a paragraph on this. I think I just need to move on.

My TV Recommendation
Since summer TV sucks (well, until Big Brother comes back July 5th) I have been basically been stuck without anything to watch recently. I have to recommend The Shield. You should definitely watch the episodes in order, so head down to Blockbuster and pick it up immediately. The show features Vic Mackey, played by the guy who used to be the Commish. He's the leader of a police force strike team in the Los Angeles district of Farmington. The strike team is specifically assigned to combat the gang violence that is overrunning Farmington. Vic basically bends the law to suit his needs, and is constantly going behind his boss's back to get results on the streets. It's a great show, with an enthusiastic "thumbs up" from me. I would recommend catching up on this over the summer. Or watching Hell's Kitchen.

NBA Draft
This is on Thursday night on ESPN. Everyone is talking about how deep the draft is this year, and I guess I agree with that assessment, but let's face it. Everyone KNOWS the players that are in the draft this year. Would you have cared about Greg Oden and Kevin Durant if they had skipped college and headed straight into the draft? No. The age limit is the greatest thing David Stern has ever done for the NBA, because it's also improving the collegiate game at the same time. Even if you want to argue that there's no point for a guy like Oden to stick around for a year of college, for every Oden, there are probably 5 guys who would try to jump straight to the league and end up flopping, a la Sebastian Telfair. What's so bad about forcing someone to play at the collegiate level anyway? Their game gets refined there, and they also have the experience of being in college, which was probably the most fun I ever had in my entire life. And they get to go for free anyway, so it's not like they're really out of any money. If they're concerned about getting injured, take out an insurance policy. Isn't that what LeBron did?

In Bauer We Trust

MAKE IT RAIN!!!

I have to talk about this now, OK? Enough is enough! I am really tired of PacMan Jones showing up on my TV for ANOTHER run-in with the law. What is wrong with this guy??? How can you not stay out of "altercations" at the titty bar? I don't understand it...

The guy has been in the league now for about 3 years and he has already been arrested/indicted/questioned/named as a "party of interest" 16 times. Yes, that is right - SIXTEEN! One - Six, the number after fifteen... I can't understand it. There is no possible excuse. Somebody needs to tell him and Vick that it's OK to stay home. It's OK to leave the hood rats in the hood. It's OK to let the hood rats come over and play PlayStation. They are scared to death to lose their street cred, and maybe have to get normal friends. I wouldn't care what those douche bags thought of me. The only reason an entourage hangs around anyway is for a shot at driving the Bentley or a chance to stick their hands in your pocket.

Instead they are fighting dogs, involved in shootings at strip joints and other ghetto - related chicanery. The funniest part to me is that they have the balls to complain that they're being picked on because of their celebrity status. Ridiculous. Once again, if you plant your butt at home or a nice restaurant instead of a juice bar, problem solved. I think that repeat offenders should be banned for life. Period. If you are arrested more than 2 times during your career - you're done. If you are convicted one time of a felony of any kind - sianara. Why is this not OK? Why shouldn't we expect men who make ungodly amounts of money to play a game for our enjoyment to use a particle of common sense? They build themselves $20 million mansions, then can't stay home to watch their 100 inch TV's.

I am really at a loss on this one. I can't think of anything else to say. I think the immortal Jim Carey said it best in his film Liar, Liar - STOP BREAKING THE LAW ASSHOLE! Oh well, it's a pipe dream to expect these guys to behave. You can take the boy out of the hood...

Am I a Pompous Ass?

Earlier in the week, I was trying to figure out what I wanted for father's day, since it's my first. Anyway, I was trying to find something in the $40 range, that way I'm not shortchanging myself, but I'm not spending an arm and a leg either. I talked myself into a bluetooth headset for my cell phone, only to see an article in the KC Star the very next day basically labeling anyone with the audacity to wear one of those things in public as a pompous ass.

So I started to have second thoughts. Did I really want to turn into "that guy"? Honestly, my intentions are good. My new phone is almost impossible to hold when it's charging, which is a real pain because 99% of the time, I charge it in the car. Having a hands-free headset eliminates this hassle. Also, not having to hold my phone frees me up to do other dangerous things in my car, like dig through my glove compartment for missing CD's, adjust my mirrors and yell at the hippies at 63rd and Ward Parkway every Tuesday evening.

Besides, these things are cutting edge, right? Everybody used to hate computers, and now the only people I know who function without them are my grandparents. Maybe bluetooth headsets are the wave of the future.

Anyway, tonight I finally gave in and purchased one. You can see it here: http://http://www.amazon.com/Plantronics-510-Bluetooth-Multipoint-Technology/dp/B0009B0IX4/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-0404031-4866436?ie=UTF8&s=wireless&qid=1181873063&sr=8-1

What do you guys think? Am I just wasting my time with this? I don't think this will generate as much discussion as Josh's Tim Duncan diatribe.

Tim Duncan, the G.O.A.T.???

I was reading the Bill Simmons chat yesterday and came upon a quote saying that Tim Duncan is the greatest power forward of all time... What? Does anyone else think that Bill was jumping the gun a bit? Granted, Duncan is a great player and one of the best big men in the game today, but of all time? I just can't agree with this for the following reasons:

1) Is Duncan really a power forward? He's a 7 footer that plays either position depending on match-ups and/or injuries. Many times he's on the roster as forward, but matched-up with the other team's center. I saw a lot of Mavericks games this year and not once when they played the Spurs was Duncan matched up with Dirk. I would argue that Duncan's more of a center than a power forward for this reason. Then the argument ends because he's not even the best center in the league today.

2) OK, for arguments sake, let's call Duncan a forward. Even then, you cannot convince me that Duncan is a better player than Charles Barkley. Barkley was a force in the league and led both the Sixers and the Suns to the championship series with no help (sorry to all the Hornacek fans out there). He was great offensively and defensively and had the ability to intimidate his opponents. Duncan is a well rounded player, but far from intimidating. Another better forward was Kevin McHale. He did have a lot of help (Parrish and Bird), but he was a defensive and rebounding presence who was still deadly from 15 feet. Thirdly, everyone forgets about Maurice Lucas from the Blazers. He was overshadowed by Bill Walton's personality, but he also was an intimidator that averaged 15 points and 8 boards over a 14 year career.

3) What about Kevin Garnett??? Garnet is an amazing player that is stuck in Minnesota with no supporting cast and a GM that refuses to help him (sorry McHale, great player, terrible GM). If you flip-flop those players for those teams, Garnett would be the one with all the rings and we'd be having this discussion about him. Garnett is more athletic and has better range than Duncan, too. I don't know, am I missing something?

4) OK Brent, I gotta bring it up - Duncan has turned into a whiny little girl! Maybe Ginobili is rubbing off on him, but he bitches constantly. I just don't think that the greatest forward of all time would need to piss and moan after every whistle. He loses a lot of credibility with me for this reason. In this the sissified version of the NBA, he fits right in, but I'm pretty sure that Laimbeer would have knocked him out in the early '90's for crying so much.

Tim Duncan is a good player and a good person, from what I hear. But I think crowning him the greatest is over the top. There are a lot of great players out there that played in the hay-day era of the NBA that can be, or possibly should be, ranked higher. Obviously, I'm always up for debate on this...

Sidebar - Simmons also said that Robert Horry can be considered for the Hall of Fame. WHAT??? Yes he has 7 rings (after they beat Cleveland), but his career averages are 7 points and 4 rebounds per game. If this happens, they should burn the HOF down. That's like giving me a Super Bowl ring because I watched the Patriots win 3 of them on TV. Ridiculous.

I will not go quietly into the night!!

Let me tell you a little story. This will just go to show you how ridiculous this world has become. I'll be very general in case a certain reader is still reading this blog.
A couple of months ago, I got into some trouble for some comments I made at work. They were in jest and everyone knew this......well, almost everyone. So this all went to the Corporate machine. Long story short, HR was here the following week doing a campfire while we all held hands and sang Kumbaya.
Wait, it gets way better. This corporate HR lady comes up to me later and wants to search my vehicle because it has been reported that I was packing heat on company property. I know, I was livid. I told her I know she had ZERO rights, by law, to search my vehicle, and furthermore, that it is legal in this state for me to carry, even without a permit. She went on to tell me that the law stopped when I crossed company property. BLAH! BLAH! BLAH! Anyway, she didn't find anything, I still have a job, and I've lost even MORE faith in people as a whole. She then wanted to know about the extremeist website that I was posting on! I know, I couldn't believe it! Extremeist?! Man I've been pretty mellow, I thought. She said she heard that I said in my blog that I had a piece in the car, that part of the reason she had to search it. What a crock! I'm telling you, this world is nothing but a giant powderpuff game.
Needless to say, my spirits were a bit rattled, but not broken. After much thought, I have decided to continue in my blogging, but I will have to make some changes. I guess there are certain subjects in which my passion flows deep that I may have to steer clear of for now. As for TV, celebrity, and sports items? Still fair game!
I will do the best I can to continue in our endeavor to bring the world joy by the power of the blog! I have a dream!......That we can all.......oh forget it, lighten up A-holes!

Weekend at the Movies

I'll keep this brief, but I saw two movies over the weekend. I was really excited to see The Good Shepherd, and not so excited to see Night at the Museum. Before I get too far into this, I'm revising my scoring system. From now on, every movie is going to get a "thumbs up" a "thumbs down" or a "whatever" rating. I think it's pretty self explanatory.

First up was Night at the Museum. Am I the only one to notice that Ben Stiller can only play one role in a movie? He's usually a bumbling kind of guy who deadpans some funny stuff at various points throughout the movie. Of course, he deviates from this sometimes, like with Dodgeball, but for the most part, his role here is the same that we saw in Meet the Parents. Anyway, he's playing the role of a divorced, down on his luck, out of work dude who ends up netting a job as a night-shift security guard at a museum.

Anyway, at night time, the musuem exhibits come to life, and there are quite a few laugh out loud moments to be found. I personally enjoyed Owen Wilson as the miniature cowboy who feuds with the miniature Roman exhibit that is nearby. Attilla the Hun was pretty entertaining too. All in all, it's a funny movie that the entire family can enjoy. A very solid "thumbs up."

Unfortunately, The Good Shepherd was quite a letdown. I was stoked to see this movie. It has all the things I like...CIA, Robert DeNiro, Angelina Jolie and Matt Damon (ok, that might be a stretch, but he's done some good movies). Yet, at almost three hours in running time, it wasn't exciting enough to warrant the time investment. The main problem I had is that Matt Damon's character was so boring. I guess they were trying to play him off as the super-spy that hides all his feelings or whatever, but they overdid it. Even the twists at the end of the movie weren't worth the time it took to get that far.

If you're going to make a 3 hour movie, there better be a lot of twists and turns along the way, or at least some explosions or boobs. There was nothing like that going on here. It ended up feeling like they didn't know where they wanted to go with the storyline. It starts up with the bungled Bay of Pigs invasion, then they flashback to Matt Damon's college years, some work with the FBI, which gets him invited into the CIA. Then he's doing WW2 work, then spying on the Russians...just too much going on. You almost lose sight of what you need to concentrate on, and by the end of it, you just want it to end. An extremely disappointing "thumbs down" for The Good Shepherd.

In Bauer We Trust

I'm Sick and Tired

Normally I rant about TV, but I'm going to touch on two particularly annoying sports subjects that I am repeatedly subjected to, but have never cared about.

I am a religious watcher of Pardon The Interruption, with Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon. I know, I know, Kornheiser isn't very good on Monday Night Football, and he's basically a blowhard, but bear with me. He's actually pretty decent on PTI. Anyway, there are two subjects that come up on this show all the time, and on SportsCenter. Here they are.

Michelle Wie - If you're not familiar with her, she's some women's golf phenom, who has actually received a couple of sponsor exemptions to play in a couple of PGA events in addition to the LPGA tour. To make a long story short, Michelle has never won anything, and she's a women's golfer, so why are we constantly hearing about her? Who cares about women's golf anyway? It's not a sexist thing to say. Ask a guy if they watch women's golf. Ask a woman if they watch women's golf. Nobody watches it, nobody cares. Wie can't even win an event on the woman's tour, so why is she even bothering with lingering in some of the men's events? I can't figure it out either. It's almost like the female equivalent of Tiger Woods, only if Tiger Woods would have flamed out immediately.

Danica Patrick - Danica is in pretty much the same boat as Wie. She's famous for being a woman in a man's sport. And before we get too in-depth with this, let's not forget that IRL is like the 4th most popular form of racing in America, behind NASCAR, roller derby, and lawn mowers. Nobody cares about the IRL. But at least they have one big event, the Indy 500. All we hear about heading into the Indy 500 is Danica Patrick related. Never mind the fact that she's never won a single race. Then she shoves some guy after the race was over last week, and now they're making it into some kind of feud. Sportscenter actually showed a comparison of the two racers (this guy's name escapes me at the moment, and I don't care enough about this subject to actually look it up), and this guy led more laps of the Indy 500 this year than Danica has ever led in her life.

What I'm trying to get at here is that we see an awful lot of women's coverage, when the majority of the people watching this programming (men) don't care, so why do you bother shoving this down our throats? Can't we just forget about Danica Patrick and Michelle Wie? I'd rather have an extra 15 minutes of NBA finals or MLB coverage.

I can't take it anymore!

In Bauer We Trust

PS: This season of 24 sucked, with the exception of a few episodes. You guys HAVE to go out and buy Season 1 at Target. It's less than $20, and there's nothing on TV during the summer anyway (well, until Big Brother starts).

We're Back Baby!!!

After a far-too-long hiatus, I have decided to restart the GRS blog (please, hold your applause until the end of the post). With new babies, a new city and many other lame excuses, I, and my cohorts, allowed the blog to fall into obscurity. But now, it is revived and, once again, a living breathing spectacle of knowledge and wit. With that being said, I have a few items to touch on to get the ball rolling again.

Moving back to KC: I'm coming back to the land of empty arenas and sub-standard professional sports! I'm pretty excited about being back up there, but Texas was a pretty cool place to be for a while. The people down here are pretty cool, but the overuse of the word "y'all" has become nauseating. When it is used multiple times in emails, it's just too much.

Sheff's racism rant: This is what really made me want to blog again. Gary Sheffield has about as much right to talk about racism as Oprah. He says that black player numbers are diminishing because latin players are more controllable. What a load of crap! Numbers are diminishing because black kids don't play baseball, period. I wonder when Freddy Adu is going to pipe up about the lack of blacks in soccer. When will Steve Nash complain about the white minority in basketball? Ridiculous.

Also, I hate to break this to Sheff, but ALL professional athletes are controllable. Owners have them under contract and are able to cut them or trade them on a whim. In return, they pay them (yes, you too Sheff) ungodly amounts of money to play a game. I'll make that trade any day.

NBA Finals: Brent and I agree that it was a good thing when Cleveland beat Detroit. Another Pistons - Spurs series would have been utterly unwatchable. It's hard enough to watch Bowens' groin shots and Ginobili's flops, but throw in Rasheed Wallace - train wreck. I have a really hard time watching the Spurs anymore because of the constant bitching and flopping. As Bill Simmons said, it's starting to look like a European soccer match. I think Stern is going to talk to the refs and tell them to crack down on the acting so Bowen will foul out and Ginobili will get technicals just for acting like a 3-year-old girl (yeah I know, fat chance). But, since I'm living in that dream world now, I'm calling the Cavs in 6. Bron Bron will take control and have a Jordan-esque series. Shock the world, baby!!!!!!

The Chiefs off-season: I am really disappointed with what they did in the draft. Getting 2 D-tackles back-to-back when they need offensive linemen is inexcusable. They did finally deal Green and got something for him (5th rounder), which I think is a good thing. He's a fragile head-case that will be a liability. Now, watch him throw for 4,000 yards and start in the pro bowl. Whatever.

Well, that's all I have for now. I'm giddy about getting the blog started again. Our style is impetuous, our defense is impregnable, and, just like King James, we're going for "global icon" status.

24 Recap for Josh

This was the one episode of the season that you absolutely could not afford to miss. I would highly recommend that you buck up for the Itunes copy of the show. There was a LOT that happened, and I will try to recap it here as best I can.

At the end of the last episode, CTU had taken Abu Fayed into custody and Wayne Palmer was ordering a nuclear strike. I'll cover the Palmer storyline first. He puts the screws to the ambassador demanding that they give information on the suitcase nukes. Finally, the ambassador caves and gives up a guy named General Habib. Apparently General Habib has been working with Fayed. CTU scrambles to find out everything they can about him and his ties.

Meanwhile, Jack and Doyle are interrogating Fayed to no avail. He absolutely will not talk. So they decide to take him back to CTU, where they plan on using chemicals to get him talking. Nothing like a little truth serum to brighten your day. On the way back to CTU, the transport vehicle is ambushed by Fayed's men. They shoot down Jack and Doyle and take off with Fayed. But after the vehicle speeds away, Jack and Doyle get up and are apparently alive and well. As it turns out, CTU staged the whole event in an attempt to get Fayed to talk. So Fayed is in a van full of CTU operatives. They tell him that they are affiliated with the aforementioned General Habib of the unnamed country and they are here to do whatever Fayed needs them to do. Fayed, understandably, is skeptical and demands to speak to General Habib.

Meanwhile, General Habib is being interrogated. Palmer threatens the general's family and eventually he becomes complicit. He receives a call from Fayed and assures Fayed that the men in the van are working with him and that he can trust them. Only as it turns out, he gave Fayed a distress code during their conversation. The van containing Fayed heads into a tunnel and the CTU comm channel goes dark. The van fails to emerge from the tunnel after several minutes. Jack and Doyle are sent in after the van to see what happens.

When they arrive on the scene, Jack and Doyle find that all the CTU men have been killed and Fayed is on the run. Jack tracks down Fayed as he is stealing a garbage truck. Jack latches onto the undercarriage of the truck, but is unable to communicate with anyone due to the noise. So the truck pulls into Fayed's safehouse where there are like 3 or 4 of his men there, along with the suitcase nukes. Jack apparently never got a chance to call into CTU, so nobody really knows where he is. Jack sneaks around the hideout and snaps a guy's neck. He then opens fire on another guy. A shootout ensues, and it ends with Jack and Fayed remaining.

Fayed and Jack exchange blows, and it looks like Fayed gets the upper hand. I was convinced that he was going to get away with the nukes. Anyway, Jack recovers and delivers a heck of a blow to Fayed. He manages to wrap a chain around his neck. The chain is connected to some kind of machine...Jack pulls a lever, and Fayed is lifted off the ground while the chain tightens around his neck. Meanwhile, CTU shows up on the scene, apparently able to track the stolen truck on satellite. Doyle, upon seeing the carnage, delivers the line of the season. "Jesus, Jack." My sentiments exactly. So the suitcase nukes are secured by CTU and Fayed is out of commission. That's the end of Jack's problems, right?

Not so fast my friend.

Jack gets a call from the CTU switchboard. On the other end is Audrey Raines, Jack's woman from season 4 and 5. A few episodes ago, Jack learned that she was dead. But as you can see, she is most definitely alive. After Audrey speaks for a couple seconds, the Chinese guy from the very beginning of this season (and also seen at the ends of seasons 4 and 5) tells Jack to call him back on a secure line, and not to alert anyone if he ever wants to see Audrey alive. We're left with a shot of Jack in distress as we fade to the ticking clock.

Needless to say, I cannot wait for tonight.

BEEP...beep...BEEP...beep.

What the hell is this, Ireland?

The new Buzz word these days seems to be "green". I don't really know what that has to do with being "environmentally conscious", but that's what they are calling it these days. Leonardo Di-fag-rio said that the Academy award show was green. They want cars to be green. My Explorer is green. It really is a lovely shade of forest green. I like it. I keep hearing that we all need to have the new green attitude.......but this takes the taco. There really is nothing sacred in this world anymore:
On canada.com (go figure), people are calling for green sex. What?! Yes, I said green sex. To me, that sounds bad. If you are having green sex, you probably need shots for something. But I digress.
Some place in Canada is selling an "eco-sexy kit". This contains a "phthalate-free vibrator (whatever that means), soy massage candle, a natural lubricant with no animal-tested derivatives, eco-undies (don't ask, I don't know), and some condoms". Other ways to 'geen up" the bedroom are as follows, and I'm not making this up......I couldn't:
Turning ou the lights, ensuring S&M paddles are made from sustainably harvested timber, use organic massage oils, shower together, use bamboo bed sheets (???), and wearing lingerie made of hemp or bamboo. I couldn't make this stuff up. This is exactly what they said on this canadian website.
This is ridiculous. This has gone WAY too far. These hippies are freakin' killing this country. We used to be a kick-ass industial nation until all these tree-huggers shut down industry. No one used to ever push us around or threaten us. Now, Iran, North Korea, they all see who our leaders are and they laugh. They think we are a joke. And the sad part is.....they are right!
If these jokers really wanted to say the world, here's what they'd do. They would fish. In many areas, fish are overpopulating lakes and waterways. When this happens, disease runs rampant. Also, they eat all the food in that particular ecosystem and some fish starve. Survival of the fittest. If we fish, we not only eat like kings, but we help the environment. Here's something else. Hunt. Deer, raccoons, possums, squirrel, rabbits, etc. I quote Uncle Ted, "The only good coon is a dead coon". Raccoons carry so much disease and rabies. They should all be shot and disposed of on site. Same with squirrels. These are lawn rats. I'll just say this, NO squirrels live in my backyard. If they happen to be passing thru, my kids inform me promptly and they are shot without prejudice.
You want to save the planet? Keep a sidearm in your glove box. In the state of Missouri, one who is over the age of 21 can keep a sidearm concealed in the "passenger compartment" of their vehicle WITHOUT a concealed carry permit. I recommend this way instead of getting the carry permit because of price, and there are too many private properties that won't let you carry them on the premises anyway even if you have the permit. This was passed in Feb. of 2004 when all the concealed carry laws passed. I have had a Smith & Wesson .380 semi-auto in my glove box ever since that numb-nut Bosnian refugee open-fired on a peaceful mall in the middle of Mormonville, Salt Lake City. If a terrorist is going to mow down white Christians in Utah, what makes you think that can't happen here? If you all want to be helpless, that's your choice, but I'm going to make the world a better place by popping off a terrorist if the situation calls for it.
I know I've gotten off track a little, but my main point is this: to green-up the country is a gigantic, bogus, pop-culture, crock of s#@&!!! You want to green up this nation? Plant a garden and let your kids help you harvest it. It gives you time with them and also teaches them a skill and some responsibility.
Here's my advice:
Eat meat. Shoot guns. Grow some food. Store some food. Have lots of kids. Say your prayers. Eat your vitamins. Eat dinner at the table.
It doesn't get much better than that. To close, here's a quote from "God, Guns, and Rock & Roll":
"Though many may cringe at the thought of whacking cute little furbearers, that kind of uneducated ignoranceis the very cause of rampant infestations of disease and even the death of innocent children."
Poetry in motion, my friends.

Long-live Nuge

Hilarious!

So I was looking on a website called Craigslist today. If you don't know, Craigslist is basically a free, world-wide, classified ad. Anyway.
I found this article of a guy from Linwood, KS selling a "custom racing lawn mower". It peaked my curiousity. I was not disappointed. So, I decided to share with my friends. Read and Enjoy!

Lawn Mower 4 Sale
It's that time of year again... Time to pack up all my belongs, sell whatever I don't need, and load up the El Camino to head for Colorado. This is one custom mower that I modified Summer 2006. I removed the mower deck and flip-floped the pulleys. I also removed some of the metal covering the engine to decrease the weight ratio and increase the speed ratio and got a pretty sweet penny from the scrap yard. When you drop the hammer on this bad boy you've better had it pointed somewhere because its gonna take off like a rabid jack-rabbit thats been shot in the ass. One time I did a burn out in the garage so big I thought I was going to pass out from all the smoke and fumes! But to really make this mower a racer, the frame needs to be beefed up a bit and a racing tranny would definately get you some sick speed! All dreams of mine but sometimes dreams just disapear like a fart in the wind, just as I am destined to do. My loss, your gain to fame! _______________________________________________________________ PLEASE BUY!!!!! i'VE GOTTA GET MY KOMODO DRAGON SKIN COWBOY BOOTS OUT OF HAWK, OR I'LL LOOSE THEM IN 4 DAYS!!!!

Now, that's poetry, my friends. This guy is definitely a Nuge fan. Guaranteed.

Switch Gears

Since I'm not totally in love with the last 2 posts on this blog, I'm going to go ahead and switch gears a little. I'm going to do my best to put a little more balls back into this thing again. Yes, it's time for my weekly extremeist rant.
I've been reading a book entitled. "God, Guns, and Rock 'n' Roll". Written by the incomparable Ted Nugent. I know there are quite a few people that think he's nuts. They are wrong. He's passionate about life, music, the Constitution, and his family. He's a survivalist. He's always prepared for a catastrophe or hard times.
If that's being nuts, then put a little white jacket on me and throw me in a rubber room. So many of the things he writes about, I believe in, wholeheartedly. So, let me tell you, my fellow bloggers, some things that I would do, If I were you, to prepare for a Democrap in the White House. Or when times get tough, these are always goodthings to do to be prepared for anything.
Buy as many guns as you can and lots of ammo. Heaven's knows they will try to make them all illegal. Buy the ammo for them to. Guns don't kill people, the ammunition does!
Buy a generator. If power is lost, you will never be cold. And you can listen to the news on the radio or watch it on a TV.
Store food and water. We have about 3 months of food and water supply in our house right now. Our goal is to have a year's worth. Get canned goods, cereals, crackers, chips, pastas, freeze dried or dehydrated foods. If you know what to do with it, store powdered milk, flour, wheat, and beans and legumes. You can live a long, long time eating these foods everyday.
Have a 72 hour kit for each member of your household. This should include, but is not limited to: flashlight, pocket knife, blanket, first aid kit, necessary toiletries, some protein or granola bars or MRE's, water pouches, etc. Keep this stuff in seperate duffle bags or backpacks. This will insure they are easily transportable.
Learn to fish and hunt. Once you've caught or shot something, learn what to do with it from there. To survive, you can't just shoot it, or catch it on a line. You've got to know what to do with it from there so you can provide for your family.
Get you concealed carry permit. Lord knows if Hillary or Obama are Presidents, they will want to do away with this God-given right. At least if you have a permit already they will probably have to grandfather you in because you've already gone through the correct channels to get licensed.
I know this sounds radical, and to some, maybe it is. But for me, it gives me a great deal of comfort to know that I have done these things and am ready to protect and provide for my family no matter what happens.
I'm not just talking about the day when the government falls and people will have to protect everything they have (which will happen someday). I'm talking about a tornado, ice storms, heavy snow. If those people in New York that have had 11 feet of snow knew of these things, they wouldn't be worried at all. They can easily survive with what they have in their home.
I lost a job about 8 years ago. Money was real tight and sometimes nonexistent! Because of our food storage, we didn't have to buy groceries (except for milk and bread). We were prepared.
Call me an extremeist, radical, militant, or whatever else you want. Just don't call me when tought times are here and you didn't listen to the promptings of ol' Matt and Uncle Ted!!!

Long Live The Nuge!

American Idol - Round of 24 - The Guys

You know, when they get further into the competition they start having theme nights. Apparently tonight was elevator music night, although they never mentioned it on any of the commercials. Here are my thoughts on each of the guys who performed tonight (listed in order of appearance as far as I can remember):

1. Rudy Cardenas - I don't remember seeing this guy prior to tonight, and it was pretty forgettable again. I think he's probably in danger of going home. He really wasn't the worst of the evening, but he didn't do anything to stand out from the rest of the bunch, and he went first, and any late arrivals to the show probably missed him.

2. Brandon Rogers - This guy got a lot of pub during the audition rounds, and he has some credibility, having sang backup for Christina Aguilera and Usher. That's actually pretty impressive. I thought his song was rather boring, but he'll sail through to the next round. He's pretty much a shoe in for the round of 12, I just wish he would do something a little more exciting next time. A lot of these guys were just dreary tonight.

3. Sundance Head - Oh boy. The only positive thing I can say about this guy is that his chest hair was covered. Other than that, he was basically a disaster. He got a lot of attention during the auditions, but he's been pretty awful except for the very first time that we saw him. I don't think he has a prayer of making it out of the prelims. In fact, he'll probably be one of my picks to get the boot this week. He just doesn't have what it takes to be a star. He seemingly has a good voice, but he doesn't know how to use it.

4. Paul Kim - This guy is a giant douche. He's ugly, boring, and his "gimmick" is that he performs barefoot on stage, because it makes him feel free or something. Whatever. He's a hippie. Plain and simple. And he's not a good singer either. But I think he's done enough for people to remember him, and probably vote for him too. Unfortunately, he'll be back for another week or two. I would be EXTREMELY happy to see him go tonight, but I'm not going to count on it.

5. Nicholas Pedro - This is the guy who quit in the middle of the Hollywood round last year. He has an ok voice, but he's dead up on stage. He would sound ok on a CD maybe (I stress the maybe), but he can't work it up there. Some of the other guys really put him to shame. Probably another candidate to get the boot.

6. Chris Richardson - I really liked the choice of an upbeat song. But he was absolutely hideous all the way around. His vocals were way off as far as I concerned, and his dancing was laughable for the most part. Judging from the wife's input, he'll make it far in this because he looks somewhat like Justin Timberlake, and the girls will probably vote for him. I think she's probably right. He'll be safe, but he is not very good.

7. Blake Lewis - This is the beatbox kid. I was glad to finally hear him sing for a change. I thought he was really good, and he probably has enough of a following to sail through to the final 12. I think he kind of resembles Wes from the Real World...kind of like his skinnier cousin or something. Am I crazy here? But yeah, Blake makes it through for sure.

8. Sanjaya Malakar - His performance was easily the worst of the evening. Any kind of cuteness factor he has is mitigated by the fact that he sounds like a chick and he sang one of the most boring songs I've ever heard on this show. Seriously, what are some of these guys singing? It should be pretty easy to figure out at this point, since this is the 6th season of American Idol. For the first week or two, you better either be really good, or sing something upbeat to get the crowd into it. Don't go up there and put the audience into a coma for 1 min 30 sec. Ugh. He doesn't have a chance on this show. Any votes he gets are for pity only.

9. Chris Sligh -The show finally started when he began singing. He was clearly in a different league than every guy who went before him. He has pretty much everything going for him. Good pipes, funny guy, memorable...the total package more or less. And he also gave us the funniest moment in AI history by calling out Simon for being behind the Teletubbies. I had no idea, but you could easily tell that Simon was genuinely PISSED after Chris said that. Yikes. He can dish it out, but he apparently can't take it.

10. Jared Cotter - We haven't seen anything out of this guy until tonight, and he definitely held his own. For some reason, the judges weren't very high on him, but I liked him. I hope he makes it through to the next round. He's definitely more deserving than some of these other guys. You know, they said during the Hollywood round that the girls outnumbered the guys 2-1 this year, and I'm not all that surprised. A lot of these guys left me feeling really bored. I guess they'll improve, but there were only like 3-4 semi decent guys tonight.

11. AJ Tabaldo - You know, this guy sounded halfway decent, but I can't get past the fact that he popped his collar. I just can't look the other way on this. This automatically makes him a tool. Maybe he'll get some fashion advice on this, but if not, then I hope he meets an early demise on this show.

12. Phil Stacey - A couple of things here. I was looking forward to hearing him. They always save the best guy for last in the first week. Seriously, it always happens. You think this is a random draw? Think again. Anyway, the beginning of his song sucked big time. But, he recovered and really showed that he is in the top tier of the guys this year. He easily had the best vocal performance of the week. My only complaint is that he needs to either grow some hair, or go back to hats. He kind of looks like a cross between Gollum and a cancer patient. I think his ears stick out too much. But anyway, dude can blow, as Randy would say.

Anyone else have any thoughts? I'm looking forward to the girls tomorrow night.

Ramblings

Too much to cover here, so I'm just going to ramble about whatever comes to mind.

- 24 was a little slow this week, but the twist at the end was great. It was pretty clear that they are using this episode to drop a bomb in the coming weeks. For those of you who aren't caught up on the previous season (everyone except me), the guy at the end, Charles Logan, was the President last season. He was implicated in the death of David Palmer, the President during seasons 2 and 3. I was kind of surprised by this, because I figured he would be in prison or something. I'm looking forward to seeing the fallout from the end of last season. Also, he is sporting a heck of a beard this time around. First Jack and now Logan. Amazing. It's like they're having their own version of the "facial hair challenge" this year.

One thing that slightly bothers me is that Phillip Bauer had the balls to kill Graem, but not Jack. Maybe he couldn't bring himself to kill two of his offspring. What an upstanding guy! Anyway, they both have the same agenda (finding Redenko) albeit for different reasons.

- Lost was just downright weird this week, but still fascinating. Apparently Desmond is stuck in some kind of weird timewarp. I'm not even going to try to figure out what is going on with this island. I swear, these writers must be hanging out with Snoop Dogg and the sticky-icky too much, because they really leave you scratching your head each week. The one redeeming moment of the show was the preview for next week, where we supposedly get answers to three of the island's biggest mysteries. Whatever, I'll believe it when I see it. Even last year, when they explained what caused their plane to crash, it raised about 50 more questions than it answered. But I'll keep my fingers crossed just in case.

- The American Idol dudes sing tonight. I swear, 2 hours tonight, 2 hours tomorrow night, and another hour on Thursday night is just too much. Obviously I'm not going to miss a second of it, but what a time commitment! I have no idea who should be favored at this point, although I'm a big fan of Chris Sligh, and I guess Phil Stacy is pretty good too. For the girls, I don't really know. We'll just have to wait and see. Expect full recaps in the next couple of days. I warned you guys months ago that once 24, Lost and American Idol were running at the same time, I'd be monopolizing this blog.

- I've seen a bunch of movies lately and thought I should provide a little detail as to what you should see and what you should avoid.

• The Hills Have Eyes - Not a whole lot going on in plot here, but a BUNCH of crazy violence here. I had to turn my eyes away from the screen a legitimate 5 or 6 times because I couldn't bring myself to watch what was happening. I think they tried to market this thing as a scary movie, but it really wasn't scary...just really gory. I give it a 6 out of 10. Watchable, but you're not missing much.
• John Tucker Must Die - This one was kind of dumb. The premise is that John Tucker, the good looking, superstar basketball player, high school kid is a player, and the girls he's messing around with want to get him back. So one of them pretends to date him...you know what, as I'm explaining this, I realize how lame it was. If your wife really really wants to see it, then go ahead, but stay away otherwise. There are some really lame things, like where they start sneaking estrogen pills into John's energy drinks, and he starts acting like a chick within minutes. Dumb. Rating of 4 out of 10.
• Clerks 2 - If you have enjoyed any of Kevin Smith's other movies, do yourself a favor and rent this. I was scared, thinking that it probably wouldn't be any good, and that KS was just trying to make some money after his other stuff has bombed. Well it was actually very enjoyable. The Quick Stop burns down, and Dante and Randall are stuck working at Mooby's, essentially a clone of McDonald's. Jay and Silent Bob return as well, fresh out of rehab. They've found Jesus too. I don't want to say anything else, just get it. Rating of 9 out of 10.
• Sideways - This movie's about an aspiring author who's down on his luck. His actor buddy is about to get married, and they go on a tour of California's wine country. This probably doesn't sound very interesting, but it's actually a really good movie. The main character is kind of whiny, and sort of brings the movie to a kind of gloomy level because he's so pessimistic. But it's definitely entertaining and worth a rent. Rating of 7.5 out of 10.

- The last thing I'll mention here is my weekly vagina update. I'm pissed at the writers of Grey's Anatomy. We were told that someone was going to die this week. At the end of the episode, Meredith appears to die, only to be told that her life hangs in the balance during the next episode. I feel like I've been lied to. Maybe they meant someone would die next week, but they should have made it more clear. Meredith isn't going to die, she's the lead of the show! She would be a fool to give it up, as would pretty much any of them. If anyone dies this Thursday, it will be more of a minor character. I'd be shocked otherwise. Oh, and Desperate Housewives was great this week too. They wrapped up the entire Orson/Monique/Delfino storyline very nicely. At the end I couldn't help but say to myself "wow, that was actually really good." Usually big, elaborate stories like this really don't pan out, especially on this show (see the Applewhites last season), but this time the writers really pulled it off. My hats off to them.

That's all for now. I promise.

Friday Night Lights update

I haven't posted about this show in quite some time, but I should have. It's quite possible that there is not a better show on TV. 24 is more exciting, LOST is more elaborate and I Love New York is crazier, but you'd be hard pressed to find any show that is more well done that Friday Night Lights.

When it debuted this season, I wasn't even going to watch it. The only reason I gave it a shot at all was because my fellow blogger Josh said he was going to check it out, and he wanted to be able to talk about it with somebody. At first, it seemed almost sort of cartoonish. There was the pretty boy quarterback (Jason Street), the troubled drunk (Riggins), the town sloot (Tyra) etc etc. The show was entertaining, no doubt, but it was entertaining in a sense that I could sit back, pick it apart and poke fun at the characters they were portraying. Definitely an entertaining show, but one that I could probably live without if it was cancelled.

Well I'm past that point now. Somewhere along the way, FNL got a lot more real, for the lack of a better word. The writers make you care about these guys stuck in a small town in Texas. High School football is a huge deal in Texas...it seems to have something like a NCAA D1 following in each town. At first I thought it was kind of corny, but now I think it's pretty cool. There are teams all over the KC metro area, and I really don't care about any of them, even my own alma mater. I guess it's just one of those small town things, but it would be pretty cool to see everyone get behind the same team.

Anyway, for some of these guys, football is their only chance at a better life. Smash Williams is willing to do whatever it takes to be a star, rampant steroid use included. For other guys, like Riggins, it just seems to be an escape from an otherwise miserable existance. Personally, my favorite character is Matt Saracen. Here's an 18 year old kid who doesn't have a mom, his father is overseas in Iraq, and he lives with his grandmother, who has Alzheimer's, or at least some form of dementia...she's just not all there. But he's expected to pretty much function as an adult and a kid at the same time.

I can't go an entire column about this show and not mention how much I love the Coach Taylor character. Kyle Chandler should win an emmy for his role on the show. His interaction with the team, coaches and family keeps me glued to the tv screen week after week. And that's what really makes a show great. When I look at the clock and see that there are only 5 minutes left, it makes me wish that there was still 30 minutes left. FNL always leaves me wanting more.

I've only scratched the surface here, but I PRAY that NBC somehow renews this for a second season. Honestly, it's one of the lowest rated shows on network primetime TV, but NBC stuck to their guns and gave it a full season run this year. For the most part, critics have done nothing but rave about this show. It just hasn't had an easy time finding an audience. I'm no expert, but I sincerely doubt that this show has much of a female audience, due to the fact that the show revolves around football. But it's so much more than that. The first couple of episodes, I was disappointed when there were no football scenes. After all, this is a football show right? But eventually it came to where the football stuff was almost bringing the show down. I used to wonder how they would work this show when the season ends, but they could totally just focus on the characters and ignore football, and I would still tune in.

Ok, the last thing here. The good news is that the racial angle from the last two shows seems to have piqued some interest among casual viewers. It was the second rated show in the 18-49 demo during the 7:00 hour on Wednesday, and had 7.43 million viewers. While that is a pretty pathetic number (10 million is considered acceptable, more or less), it's a pretty nice increase from the previous week's figure of 6.41 million viewers. Hopefully this turns into a trend, because I'm going to be devestated if FNL doesn't make it to season #2.

Come One, Come All !!!

I consider myself conservative. OK, REALLY conservative. I've always voted Republican, NEVER Democrat. But let me tell you a little something, I am extremely disappointed in the current President and minions. It flat-out pisses me off!
I just read earlier this week that we've been negotiating with North Korea to let weapons inspectors back in their country. In return, we are going to give them $400,000,000 wirth of oil among other things. So now we are negotiating with who we consider to be one of the axis of evil?!?! We are giving them oil, and they don't even have to quit making nukes, they just have to let in weapons inspectors?? What a great deal for them! He's busting a gut right now, I'm sure.
Al Quaeda leaders are running for cover now to Iran, but that douchebag president of theirs says that he has nothing to do with any terrorist acts. Well let's just call off the investigation then. If he says it, it must be true. Good grief!
I'll tell you what we should do. Send in a couple of snipers. One to North Korea, one to Iran and take out those scum leaders that are in power now. Neither one are very popular in their respective countries. They are just very powerful and everyone there is afraid to do a thing about it. For heaven's sake, that sand monkey in Iran is doing interviews with the US media!! He can't be that hard to find if he and Diane Sawyer are chumming it up. Shoot him. Shoot that Sum Yung Guy or whatever his name is. Survival of the fittest. Natural Selection only we are doing the selection. We need to sack up and act like we have a pair. This is war. ALL IS FAIR IN WAR. Kill them.
People in America make it real hard to win a war. What's with all the sympathy towards other countries? They want Americans dead. Plain and simple. But Hollywood, the democraps, and all the other flag-burning, tofu-eatin', anti-war chanting, hippie, fags think we need to be more thoughtful and respectful to those people that want us dead. I don't understand it.
One more thing. GW had a press conference yesterday. It was all BS, but one of the most disturbing things is that he wants to bring in Iraqis!. He said by the end of this year, he wants to bring in at least 7,000 Iraqi refugees. Are you kidding me?!? 7,000! Iraqis! We can't keep Mexicans in their own country, now you want to bring in the Iraqis too? This is absolutley insane. A bunch of bleeding-heart libs were calling on all the radio shows saying they think we should let in a couple of million in here!!!!! I'm serious, I am so pissed right now, I can't type fast enough! Does anyone think maybe some of these 7,000 could be sleepers for the enemy? Can't happen huh? Guess what? The massacre in the Salt Lake City mall was a Bonian refugee. They brought he and his family in because of the turmoil they suffered in Bosnia. Oh, I forgot to mention.....HE WAS A FREAKIN' MUSLIM, KILLING CHRISTIANS!!! But we won't have any problems with these refugees, I'm just sure of it.
We've turned into a nation of cowards. Politically correct. Liberal. Let me tell you the same thing that Michael Savage says, "Liberalism is a mental disease!"
I have to quit talking about this before it ruins my entire day.

Here's the first of MANY future quotes from Ted Nugent's book: God, Guns, and Rock 'n Roll. "If survivalists are looney, then nonsurvivalists are just plain wimps."
Hail the the Nuge

24, Lost, and other shows

-Two hours of 24 tonight! I'm spent. I'm glad that the little lull we had a couple weeks ago was an aberration rather than a sign of a larger problem. Very different tempos with the two hours tonight. The first hour was more of the on-the-edge-of-your-seat and explosions variety, while the second hour offered some quieter, more heartfelt moments.

The biggest development of the night was Lennox's involvement in what seems to be an attempt on Wayne Palmer's life. I'm still pretty shocked about the developments here, and I'd like to know how this guy's political agenda ties in with Phillip Bauer's agenda. I just don't see a connection here, but I like what I'm seeing. I'm dying to see what is going to happen next. Just a really solid two hours tonight. Even the slower parts were really interesting.

More on the possibility of a Palmer assassination attempt...I'm actually kind of happy about this. I don't think that Wayne Palmer really does much for me. He can't hold David Palmer's jockstrap in terms of screen presence. I hate to compare them, but if they're going to make them brothers on this show, then he needs to step up to the plate. The bar has been set pretty high here, and he's just not reaching it. If they dump him and insert the current VP into his place, I'm ok with it. I'll be completely and utterly shocked, but I'll be pretty happy. We'll see.

-LOST came back last week. I love this show, but I'm not sure why. The entire time I'm watching, I know that it's basically a carrot being dangled in front of me. I realize I'm basically never going to get any answers on this show. Even when you get a semi-answer, it just poses about 6 new questions. I was pretty disappointed that we didn't get to see anybody other than Kate, Jack and Sawyer. The writers realize that this show was most popular 2 years ago, when the storylines revolved around those three, as well as Locke, Hurley, Sayid, Charlie and Claire, right? So why do they abandon these guys in favor of The Others, who nobody likes? At the very least, don't introduce two new random characters. What purpose could they possibly serve? We don't need more people on the beach to be central characters. They don't even have time for the people they've already established.

One "weirdness" note here. Who in the heck was the girl that helped Kate and Sawyer and who the heck was her boyfriend? I need to do some searching to figure this out. But what really threw me for a loop was the weird mental experiment being done on the girl's boyfriend. It's probably pretty similar to the way I feel after watching most weeks. They were flashing random images and phrases in front of him, almost like some kind of weird sensory deprivation or something. I have no idea what they were doing. I also don't expect an answer in the next 20 episodes. After all, we still don't have any idea what the smoke monster is.

-For my weekly vagina update, I still love Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives. I was getting kind of worried about DH for awhile, but they have really rebounded this year. The writers actually have a storyline instead of just switching everything aimlessly from week to week. The pizzaria is still my favorite storyline, and Tom going on a power trip was freaking hysterical. I think I laughed harder at the fake chewing out that he gave Lynette than I did at anything on The Office or My Name is Earl this week, and that's saying a lot. When I think about how much I'm enjoying this season, it's really confusing as to how last season got so bad with the Applewhites and all.

-I just saw this on ESPN.com, but San Diego just fired Marty Schottenheimer! I have to admit, I'm pretty surprised here. This franchise has been basically nothing for as long as I can remember. They peaked for a couple of years in the mid 90's, even making the super bowl once, behind the two headed monster of Stan Humphries and Natrone Means. Correct me if I'm wrong, but those guys aren't hall of famers. They DID have Junior Seau, and he was an absolute terror back then (isn't HGH great?), but other than that, they've been nothing until Marty put their current team together. And I think Marty was a great fit for them. Yeah, he doesn't win in the playoffs, but if you're in San Diego, why would you even care?

I used to wonder why people in warm weather climates could be so apathetic towards things like this, considering the way we live and breathe football 11 months out of the year here in KC. But when I went to Hawaii back in December '05, it all became pretty clear to me. These types of people live in gorgeous weather all year round, when you can go to the beach in the middle of January, heck even their malls are open-air. It's just a totally different vibe in places like this. And I totally understand it now.

So why not keep Marty around? They'd be in pretty good shape with him. They'd be pretty successful year in and year out, just enough to keep the fanbase interested. That's really all they need in San Diego. They have plenty else to occupy their minds, so they're not going to mind if they get bounced from the playoffs right away each year. Surely my blogging cohorts have some thoughts on the end of Marty ball in San Diego.

To gay or not to gay...

I was watching ESPN yesterday (imagine that) and I saw that some ex-NBA player wrote a book announcing that he is gay. First of all, I don't even know who the guy is. Apparently he played from 1997-2003, but I don't recognize his name or his face. I bet he'll really have a huge impact on the way the NBA looks at things...

This brings me to my point - why do gay people have to have announcements? All we ever hear about is "equality," but then we here about announcements of people coming out and pride parades. I don't recall ever having my coming out party for my heterosexuality. I feel robbed, because that could have been a bash! Listen, if a guy wants to go around fondling another man's squashed spider, it's a free country. But why do you have to throw it in my face? Why is it that somebody has to write a book, hold a press conference or get on reality TV to announce that he is gay? I don't understand why there has to be an announcement at all. Just be gay. I obviously don't agree with it, but if that's what you want to do and you're not hurting anyone else (besides your parents, most likely), then have at it.

Equality is a joke today with the gays and minorities. They beg to be equal, but then they constantly call attention to themselves and demand specific political correctness. I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ("Mormon" if you will), but I don't go around demanding special treatment because that makes me a minority in this country - it does, by the way - there are more muslims in the US than mormons. I just go about my business - no books, no parades.

To sum up: if you want to be gay, then just shut-up and be gay. And get the hell off of my ESPN!

I need to get this off my chest....

.....I've put it off too long. There is a subject that everyone loves to talk about. A subject that might be the biggest lie and dramatization in the history of the world if it keeps up this pace. I'm talking about a little thing called global warming. I can't even type those 2 words together without getting pissed off. The icing on the cake.....Al Gore is up for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize because of his FICTIONAL movie called The Inconvenient Truth. Dear Lord, what is this world coming to?
Liberals are going to keep spouting off about the ozone and how the glaciers are melting and that if the glaciers melt, it will cause flooding of global proportions. Please. Have you ever heard of displacement? I heard a scientist talking on the radio about it. He said Gore is full of crap (big surprise) and that we could prove it with a glass of ice water. Take a glass of ice water, fill it to the top of the glass. Let the ice melt. When it melts, did the water overflow the top of the glass? Nope! In fact, you can barely even tell the level of the water moved at all. It's the same thing with the glaciers. If they melt.....well..... they melt! This same scientist that is actually a climatologist said that the warmer climates like this cycle around about every 1500 years. In fact, he cited some worries and fears 30 years ago about global cooling!! That's right, just 30 years ago, people were worried about global cooling. You mean to tell me, in 30 years of time, we have gone from worrying about our world getting too cold to worrying about the world baking?
Now the latest thing is light bulbs. I guess the freakin' knee-jerk libs have decided that by the year 2010, we should all have energy-efficient light bulbs in our house. Who gives a crap what kind of light bulbs I use in my house? Is that really going to lower the world's temperature? No. But if there's a way to legislate something new, the Democraps will do it.
Here's where it starts. Smoking bans. I'm not a tobacco user, but I disagree with trying to ban people from doing things that are legal. What's next? Are there going to be inspectors come into my home to make sure I have the correct liught bulbs in my home? Go ahead and laugh, but that's where this country is heading. If this happens, I've decided I'm going to start selling this stuff on the black market. Soon, people will pay a mint for old, energy-eating light bulbs, cheap cigarettes, and 6 gallon-per-flush toilets. I'll be rich.
I hate to keep playing this same song (ok, not really), but you guys will look back and remember how right I was. If the terrorist wannabe Obama, or the bra-burning, it-takes-a-village-to-raise-a-child-(hippie) Hillary Clinton get into the white house, many freedoms that we take for granted now, will be gone. We won't be able to choose what kind of health care we want to participate in. We won't be able to buy certain kinds of cars. We won't be able to buy any more firearms. Taxes will be through the roof. Queers will be able to marry anywhere. Dogs and cats living together.....mass hysteria!!
Look, I love American stuff. I love Fords. I love V8's. I love trucks, tractors, my eight firearms, my bow, country music, John Wayne movies, and my right to enjoy each and everyone of those things. And I won't have some left-wing hippies come in and tell me that I can't enjoy them because I'm contributing to the demise of the planet, or they are too dangerous to have. Laws, or no laws, I'll have them. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

Damn hippies.

24 Day 6: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

After such a turd of an episode last week, it was nice to be back to normal this week. And to top that off, next week is a 2 hour event. I can't freaking wait.

I'm kind of sad to see Karen Hayes resign as the National Security Advisor, but I think it's probably for the best. She needs to be back with Buchanan at CTU, and this frees her up to do that. It also set up what was probably the sweetest part of the entire night. Lennox had the stage set for his plan to be put into motion, only to have President Palmer call a meeting in front of the entire cabinet to shoot it down. How could you not love that? Lennox is a snake in the grass. I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of him, or the worst. But for now, he's got to pick himself up off the canvas.

There was a bit of a swerve last week when Graem double crossed Jack and Papa Bauer. That wasn't all the surprising, given Graem's shady past with all the happenings from last season, but I'm dying to know what Father Bauer is trying to hide. It must be something pretty bad. I'll be really disappointed if they're just trying to cover up their company name. It just seems a lot more serious than that. The interrogation of Jack and Graem was crazy...just really painful to watch. You can tell that Jack is just about at the breaking point...and who can blame the guy? He's spent the last 4 years either in a Chinese prison or under an assumed name. Old Jack would have really put the screws to Graem, but we actually saw some compassion there. Believe me.

You should have seen the interrogation of Sayed Ali during Season 2. That involved what might have been the most horrifying moment in the show's history. Or the time where Jack shot a guy, cut his head off, put it in a box and delivered it to somebody to show he meant business. That was during Season 2 as well. Come to think of it, Jack was never more of a badass than he was during Season 2. Have I mentioned that you guys need to watch the previous seasons yet? You really need to get on it.

Of course, it was all for not when Phillip Bauer killed his own freaking son. That was pretty brutal to watch. Obviously Jack gets his ruthlessness from this guy. I wasn't ready for that at all. Even with Graem's unforgivable past, you have to feel bad for the guy. Tortured by his brother and then killed by his father in a 15 minute span. But you can't say that he didn't get what he deserved. Sneaky, sneaky move at he end by Phil Bauer too. He picked a pretty good way to cover up Graem's death. Of course, you would think that a normal toxicology report would probably reveal what really happened. But I digress.

The last twist of the night really wasn't all that shocking. When Fayed and his clowns started talking about recruiting a new guy to program the nucs 2-3 episodes ago, I knew that Morris would somehow be involved, I just didn't know how they would get him on the hook. I'm glad he's being dragged into this unwillingly instead of just being a mole. I'm sure these guys will pull out all the stops in order to get the 4 remaining nucs up and running.

I still have a feeling that there is more here than meets the eye. I could be wrong, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if we eventually learn that one of these bombs is more than just the suitcase variety. But at any rate, I'm jacked for the double shot of Jack we get next week.

DVD Review - Transamerica

DISCLAIMER

I had no idea what this movie was about when we rented it. Actually, we didn't rent it, my wife ordered it from Blockbuster Online, which is an amazing service. You can select any three movies at any given time, and they'll mail them to you. When you're done, send it back in the return envelope and they'll ship you the next one you request in your online queue. It's a great service, and I cannot recommend it enough. If you would rather, you can return the movie to your local blockbuster, and pick up a free in-store rental. Seriously, what could be better than this? And it's only $16.95 a month. So if you rent 3-4 DVD's per month, it makes 100% sense to do this.

Just make sure you don't rent Transamerica in the process. Good lord. I had literally no idea what it was about when we loaded it into the DVD player. I asked my wife what she knew about it, and she mentioned a woman playing a man who wants to be a woman. What??? Basically, Felicity Huffman plays the role of a guy who dresses like a woman and is about to have a sex change operation. She/He gets word that her/his kid is in trouble with the law in New York, so Felicity travels to the big apple to see her son.

I'm not going to bother with the details of the rest of the movie. It wasn't a feel-good movie, and it wasn't a depressing movie. It didn't bring any emotion out other than disgust. Even the acting was terrible. Felicity Huffman spoke in this weird monotone voice the whole time. It was almost like they were trying to go Forrest Gump style and win her an Oscar. Unfortunately for the writers and everyone else associated with this train wreck, the movie sucked. If you want the plot in a nutshell, I will say that there is a shot of a fake penis at one point, and another shot of Felicity Huffman's boobs. These are bad things. I am having trouble removing the images from my head right now. Anyway, don't rent this, don't let your wife think that it's a good idea to rent...just stay away. Very far away. I shipped that sucker back to Blockbuster first thing on Saturday morning.

Thank goodness Clerks 2 is up next.

Overall Rating: 0 out of 10. Even the gag reel sucked.

Hall of Shame

I FINALLY found something that I can post about. Apparently, the next NFL Hall of Fame class will be announced this weekend. Now that I live in Dallas, all I've heard about all week is Michael Irvin. This is the 3rd year that he is eligible and everyone around here is expecting him to get the bid. Why? Because "he's the best receiver not in the Hall of Fame right now." That's the lamest rationale I've ever heard. OK, say he gets in, then is the next best receiver after him automatically in? There's always going to be a "next best not in the Hall" out there. What good is a Hall of Fame if everybody gets in? I guess I just don't get it.

This brings me to the next question - should off-the-field incidents make a difference? It should not make a difference, depending of course on the offense. Should we let murderers in the Hall because they had great stats? Obviously not. Should Pete Rose be in the baseball HOF? Absolutely. My problem with this is when borderline HOF players still get in with multiple incidents. Irvin was charged multiple times with possession of cocaine and crack. On the field, he was great for a few years, mostly because he had Aikman and Emmitt Smith on the team. The Cowboys would have won those titles without Irvin, I have no doubt about that. There's no way he belongs in the Hall. He's no Jerry Rice, or even Marvin Harrison, for that matter.

I don't have a legitimate laundry list of off the field things that should keep players out. But how about just concentrating on only letting the great players in? Performance enhancing drugs should definitely keep you out (McGwire & Bonds), but Pete Rose was one of the greatest baseball players of all time and gambled that his team would win. I don't think this should keep Charlie Hustle out. Irvin was a good receiver that is a complete tool of a commentator and smoked crack. Let's do everyone a favor and leave him out. ESPN is definitely not helping his cause by putting him on national TV every week so he can make a complete ass of himself.

To recap: McGwire out, Bonds out, Rose in, Irvin out. We should go ahead and prepare our busts for the bloggers Hall of Fame. I want mine to be made of cheese.

Random TV Thoughts

I had several ideas for a regular post, but I decided to lump a few small things together instead.

-In case you hadn't already heard, Monday, February 14th is going to be a 2 hour 24 event. I can't wait. I expect things to really pick up in the next couple of weeks. It took about 6 episodes last season to really get into the swing of things, and I think we're just about there.

-I haven't mentioned Desperate Housewives on here in quite awhile, so I'll go ahead and throw in my $0.02 now. I'm kind of torn on this season. There have been times where I have liked it as much as I have ever liked the show, and then there are other times where it's almost painful to watch. For instance, I love the Scavo Pizzeria idea. I hope it works out well for them. On the other hand, Zack Young should not be trying to date Gabrielle Solis, even if he is a billionaire now. There's been a surprising lack of Nicolette Sheridan on the show this year, which is even more disappointing when you consider the work she's had done since last season. I swear, blow up an HD picture of her and you can see a difference. I hate seeing it go to waste. Also, the whole "Delfino in a coma" storyline is getting tiresome. I realize he has woken up now, but still. A little soapy, even for a show like this. Last thing (I promise) is that Marcia Cross's pregnancy is really hurting the show. Bree was the best character on the show last season, without a doubt, and they are kind of limited to what they can do with her now since they can't even put her on camera from the chest down, or without throwing something random into the frame to block your view of her belly.

-Speaking of my vagina, how awesome is Grey's Anatomy. George and Callie got hitched, making her Callie O'Malley! How awesome is that? I actually laughed out loud at that one. In another crazy turn of events last night, Meredith's mom snaps out of her Alzheimers, and is totally lucid. I had no idea this could happen. Maybe they just made this up for dramatic effect, but it worked. She's such a bitch. At first I couldn't understand why Meredith didn't want to talk to her, but they made it pretty clear as to why she felt that way. Anyway, it was really sad at the end to see her go back into her funk again. I feel like such a chick for saying it, but I think the only shows I look forward to more than this one are 24, Lost, American Idol and The Office.

-Speaking of American Idol, I'm completely sick of auditions. Have they ever lasted this long before? I was about 95% sure that Wednesday night was the last audition night. It made perfect sense...last audition in LA, so there's a logical transition to Hollywood week. Instead, we're going to San Antonio next week! I realize that this show brings in huge ratings for Fox, and they have to milk it for all it's worth, but give me a break. Enough is enough. Let's get to the real part of the competition. I feel like I've already seen every nut job and every delusional singer that this country already has to offer, so there's no need to subject us to another audition show.

-I'm really tired of Dr. Phil, Oprah, Maury and Rachael Ray. My wife watches all of these shows religiously, and the only one I can even remotely stomach (sometimes) is Dr. Phil. Rachael Ray is annoying, Oprah is pompous, and Maury is literally the same show every day. And the worst part about Maury is it's always a hoodrat or trailer park ho screaming back and forth with the baby daddy. You can't even hear anything because every other word is bleeped out. Anyway, I'm just really tired of all these shows on the DVR backlog. I'll just leave it at that before I end up getting served with divorce papers.

In Bauer We Trust