Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone.

Happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus or whatever else there is to celebrate at this time of year.

Regardless of the one you celebrate, it really is a special time of year and hopefully every one of us at one point or another during the holiday season takes a moment to really step back and gather in all the things that make this time of year so incredibly special. It sounds cheesy and cliche obviously, but it's true...

I'm currently home in Ohio, which does an equal job of reminding me: 1. why I left and 2. just how hard it was to leave and stay away at the same time. I love so many people here and so many things about this place that I'll always call home. But there's lots of places to see and things to do on this planet, and I plan on seeing and doing as much as you can jam into one lifetime...as well as make it home as often as possible of course...

I saw Four Christmases a few weeks ago - $5 out of $7. I also rewatched Traitor last night on DVD, which reconfirmed my opinion that that is a GREAT movie. I heard Valkyrie sucked, specifically that it was like Jerry Maguire trying to kill Hitler for two hours...but nevertheless, I plan on seeing it anyway. Hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised.

I am genuinely excited about the NBA right now. The Celtics are out of this world and the Lakers and Cavs aren't far behind. Paul Pierce, Rajon Rando and Mr. "Anything Is Possssssible!!!" Kevin Garnett are simply playing out of their minds, which is how you should play when defending your title. After all, it's yours until someone takes it, so don't let them take it. I love watching the Suns and I am definitely excited and encouraged by the addition of Jason Richardson. Watch out for those Suns. I also love the Trail Blazers. Absolutely love them. If they're on TV, do yourself a favor and sit down and watch them. I also love Chris Paul and his excellence at the point guard position. Call him Guinness cause he's brilliant. I'm gonna see CP3 Sunday night in Indianapolis when the Hornets are there to play the Pacers. Don't get me started on LeBron. It simply isn't fair from the moment he steps on the court. Dwayne Wade is secretly (b/c of the Celtics, Lakers, Cavs and LeBron) having a great, great season so far (leading the NBA in scoring and single-handedly making the Heat relevant). I haven't enjoyed the NBA this much ever really, the only thing that's even close is the boyish/teenage love I had of Michael Jordan and those 90s Bulls teams. The Run and Gun Phoenix Suns of the last 3-5 years are a distant 3rd (even though they were extremely fun to watch, I didn't care near as much as I do now or with MJ).

As for college basketball, haven't followed it much to this point. I do know that the Sun Devils of Arizona State are 10-1 and flying high. Catch James Harden on Sportscenter or at the top of next year's NBA draft if you don't see an ASU game this year. The kid is the real deal and hopefully will lead ASU to a deep NCAA tournament run come March.

Looking forward to seeing THE Ohio State Buckeyes take on Texas in the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale on January 5th. I was lucky enough to come across some great tickets thanks to a cousin of mine on the inside at O State. She also got me tickets to the SC game in LA in September. If you remember correctly, that was a 35-3, lopsided to say the least, game that we'd all just as soon forget. Hopefully this game vs Texas will be a LOT different...

The NFL is a complete crap shoot, I can say with absolutely no confidence who is gonna win the Superbowl. With a gun to my head I'd say the Steelers...

Hope everyone had a great day today.

Until next time...

Role Models / Quantum of Solace

A couple movie reviews today. First up, Paul Rudd's brilliant, hilarious and surprisingly heart-warming Role Models.

Role Models is a story centered around two guys who haven't really lived up to their potential; Rudd as the man with promise whose life has become stagnant and Seann William Scott playing his usually Stiffler self, only in this movie they call him 'Wheeler' and he wears the mascot outfit for Minotaur Energy Drink. Both are hilarious in their own way and play off of each other unexpectedly well. The movie also features McLovin' (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) as the dorky, seemingly weird, friendless high school kid, Augie Farks, as well as Bobb'e J. Thompson as Ronnie, an 8 year old with a foul mouth and a precocious love for 'boobies'. Here's a good paragraph describing the plot, "Danny (Rudd) and Wheeler (Scott) are two salesmen who trash a company truck on an energy drink-fueled bender. Upon their arrest, the court gives them a choice: do hard time or spend 150 hours with a mentorship program. After one day with the kids, however, jail doesn't look half bad. Once the center's ex-con director (Jane Lynch) gives them an ultimatum, Danny and Wheeler are forced to tailor their brand of immature wisdom to their charges, Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and Ronnie (Bobb'e J. Thompson)."

Role Models, despite Rudd and Scott playing the exact same role they've played in every movie they've ever been in, despite Augie Farks simply being a 16th Century McLovin', despite Jane Lynch (the electronics store manager from 40 Year Old Virgin) playing the same character we saw semi-molest Steve Carrell, despite all that, the movie was hilarious and everyone with a sense of humor should definitely see it.

Final Verdict: $6.25 out of $7


Next up is the highly-anticipated, long-awaited Quantum of Solace, starring Daniel Craig as Ian Fleming's James Bond. Most all of you I assume saw Craig as Bond in Casino Royale, he was certainly different from Pierce Brosnan's Bond and Casino Royale was much different from the previous set of films starring Brosnan. Widely considered one of the better Bond films of all time, Casino Royale reshaped our thinking and expectations for Bond films going forward. That said, it was certainly going to be difficult for Quantum of Solace to live up to Casino Royale. In the end it did not, but that is not at all a knock on Quantom of Solace and really serves as more proof of how great Casino Royale really was.

Without the unnecessary comparisons between the two films, one can make rational judgments about Quantum of Solace. Judging it on its own merits, I thought it was really, really good. Craig is once again proving the doubters wrong as he's more than pulling off his altered portrayal of Bond (as opposed to Connery or Brosnan's Bond). Olga Kurylenko pulls off a scorned Bolivian revenge seeker (even though she's Ukrainian) quite well and Gemma Arterton didn't have much of a chance (maybe 5 minutes of screen time) to show what she's got but did well in a limited role. The bad guy was more creepy Frenchman I think than true villian, but he served his purpose. Dame Judi Dench was once again fantastic as 'M'.

All in all, as long as you don't unnecessarily compare it to Casino Royale, I think movie goers will realize Quantum of Solace was a really good flick and one of the better Bond films, at least that I've seen (which is not all but most of them). My only complaint is we'll have to wait 2-3 years for the next one...

Final Verdict: $6.75 out of $7


On another note, this excerpt from an ESPN article about President-elect Obama's plan to use his influence to push for an 8-team college football playoff has me more excited than anything else he's said in all his time in the national spotlight.

Also on Sunday, BCS coordinator John Swofford responded to a playoff push by President-elect Barack Obama that was broadcast on CBS's 60 Minutes.

"First of all I want to congratulate newly elected President Obama and I am glad he has a passion for college football like so many other Americans," Swofford said in a statement. "For now, our constituencies -- and I know he understands constituencies -- have settled on the current BCS system, which the majority believe is the best system yet to determine a national champion while also maintaining the college football regular season as the best and most meaningful in sports."

Swofford added: "We certainly respect the opinions of president-elect Obama and welcome dialogue on what's best for college football."

Obama said he will use his influence to create such a system.

"If you've got a bunch of teams who play throughout the season, and many of them have one loss or two losses, there's no clear decisive winner. We should be creating a playoff system," he told reporter Steve Kroft.

According to Obama's proposed system, eight teams would play over three rounds to settle the national champion.

"It would add three extra weeks to the season," he said at the conclusion of a wide-ranging interview. "You could trim back on the regular season. I don't know any serious fan of college football who has disagreed with me on this. So, I'm going to throw my weight around a little bit. I think it's the right thing to do."

"A New Dawn"...?

Certainly a historic victory for President-elect Barack Obama. The picture (and this article http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?source=hptextfeature&story_id=12562373) to the left summarizes how I feel about the whole thing. I'm certainly encouraged by the spirit of the American people. On election day, just the fact that people were talking about it and excited says a lot, regardless of which candidate or set of ideals we individually prefer. Now that two years of campaign ads, speeches, fundraisers, debates, town hall meetings and rallies are over with, the real challenges begin for the man set to be our 44th President. I sincerely hope that Barack can live up to the hype. Our country needs most of what he represents. The big question is whether he can deliver on those "great expectations". His victory will hopefully (but most likely not) put an end to the race issue in this country. His message of change is welcome, not because the idea of change is something new, but mostly because our country, like anything else, can always be changed and improved. I just hope he follows through on his promises (politicians rarely do) and makes this country a better place both domestically and abroad. His message was hope and that's certainly what I'm doing now. I hope he's everything he's cracked up to be. As much as I admire what he claims to represent and his historic victory on Tuesday, I fear he's not. I still don't agree with most of his policies, but that's a whole 'nother story. If he's not like every other politician and can actually live up to his enormous promise (without implementing some of his disastrous domestic policies) and lead this country in a new and positive direction, I'm all for it. As an American, like it or not, he will be my President come January 20th, so let's all understand that and make the best of it. Let's just hope he makes the best of his unprecedented opportunity. Time will tell...

NBA

For those of you that may have missed it, the NBA season is underway and my Phoenix Suns are off to an impressive 4-1 start, with that one loss coming to the New Orleans Hornets, led by stud point guard Chris Paul. Considering the Hornets are a top 3 Western Conference team, the game was played the night after the Suns played the Spurs on the road and it was the 2nd game of the year under new coach Terry Porter, who has an entirely different system and coaching method than former Suns and now NY Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni, I'm ok with the Suns losing that game. Before the season, the Suns had numerous doubters across the country questioning their merits. As of this moment, the Suns are looking great and the haters are looking pretty dumb. If they stay healthy (always a giant concern for any team in any sport), watch out...

I'm truly hoping Greg Oden just has terrible luck. After microfracture surgery unexpectedly cost him his rookie season, he's hurt again, this time 13 minutes into his first NBA game. He was hurt when he was at Ohio State with a wrist injury that forced him to solely use his left hand for the majority of his one year in college. I hope he can just get healthy and have the opportunity to use his incredible size and talent and show everyone what he can really do. So far though, he's either terribly unlucky or his body just wasn't meant to handle the rigors of playing basketball for a living. Let's hope his luck is about to change; the Blazers need him, the NBA needs him, professional sports always needs more good guys like him. I'll feel cheated if he doesn't get his chance to shine. I can't imagine the frustrations he'll feel if his career doesn't amount to what it should. Let's hope it doesn't come to that...

NFL

I don't live and die with the NFL, I prefer college football, but I definitely watch when I can. It's entertainment and the speed, size and talent of the NFL is incredible and as a sports fan, can't be ignored. That said, my hometown team, the Bungals, are terrible. My adopted local team, the Cardinals, are now good but have always been terrible, and I'm certainly not one to just jump on the bandwagon. That's offensive to real Cardinals fans, if they actually exist. But the Cardinals look to be on the right track and I wish them the best of luck. As always, it'll be interesting to see how the NFL season unfolds.

College Football

The BCS system is a disaster and simply has to go. We've been for awhile now, as Mike Wilbon would say, in a "gots ta go" situation with the BCS. Please bring on a playoff. Please. This is what an eight team playoff might look like for this year:

No. 1 Alabama vs No. 8 OK State

No. 2 Texas Tech vs No. 7 USC

No. 3 Penn State vs No. 6 Oklahoma

No. 4 Florida vs No. 5 Texas

BCS backers claim that the system is effectively a season long playoff and therefore every game, every week truly matters. Yea, yea...whatever. I call shenanigans... What if in the NFL, after 16 games, computers and the subjective opinions of so called 'experts' decided which 2 teams would play in the SuperBowl? The NBA, no playoffs, just whoever the ESPN guys think should represent the Eastern and Western conferences after the 82 game regular season is finished. The baseball World Series will feature the winner of a coin toss in even years and a rock-paper-scissors contest in odd years between the Red Sox and Yankees vs the winner of a National League raffle ticket 50/50 fundraiser, proceeds going to support St. Jude's Children's Hospital. In the World Cup, we'll just have Brazil play the top European team at the time and forget about the rest of the tournament.

College football has never been more popular, but attributing that success to the BCS system (the backers claim the BCS has driven interest sky high) doesn't mean the system is working, it simply means it is controversial and gets people talking. Like people that slow down to look at a crash on the highway, just because it's something people look at or talk about doesn't make the crash a good thing. With an eight team playoff, interest in college football would be at an all time high (because of the potential games listed above) and would peak at the right time, the National Championship game between the two teams that earned the right to be there with their play ON THE FIELD, not the two teams placed there by the computers and pollsters who make up the BCS.

As for my Ohio State Buckeyes, I think they're looking at a 10-2 season and a trip to the Rose Bowl for a rematch with the Trojans of USC. No shame in a season like that...

College Basketball

I love college basketball but don't truly care about it until like February. I'll obviously watch and try to keep up with it until then, but it doesn't get my full attention until after the holidays, the college football bowl games and the NFL playoffs are over. That said, watch out for my Arizona State Sun Devils this year under third year head coach Herb Sendek, lead by All PAC 10 1st team and Freshman of the Year JAMES HARDEN (and senior Jeff Pendergraph). Harden is one of the best players in the country and will be the main reason ASU will surprise some people this year. They've been picked to finish as high as 2nd in the Pac 10, which gets them nothing other than expectations which I think they should live up to and possibly surpass.

Hockey

I don't care about hockey.

Baseball

My Reds once again sucked. They do have the makings of a good team though if they can continue to develop the youngsters and make some frugal/smart free agent signings and trades. The Devil Rays proved that even without Yankee or Red Sox money, you can make it happen if you are smart and do things the right way.

The D'backs are just as close to being terrible as they are to being really good, if that makes any sense. The NL West is a bad division overall so it's hard to judge the success of anyone from that division, including the D'backs. A few players and/or decisions will dictate their success in the coming years...

Enough about baseball though, we'll revisit in February/March.

Soccer

I'd talk all day about soccer but since most people don't follow it, I won't waste my time writing about it. If you wanna see the best players and teams in the world, watch the UEFA Champions League on ESPN.

Movies

I'm impatiently waiting for Quantum of Solace to open on November 14th. Casino Royale was fantastic and I've always liked the Bond movies.

To tide me over until then, I plan on seeing Role Models this weekend. It looks pretty funny, I'll let you know how it goes.

As for movies I've seen recently, Pride and Glory, Traitor, Eagle Eye and Body of Lies were all really good, no regrets in spending the time and money to see those four. Righteous Kill was ok, probably worth about $4 of the 7 I paid to see it. The scale I use to rate movies (stolen from my [doofus] brother some years back) goes by how much money I would have paid based on how much I did pay to see the movie. The brilliance of this scale, if not painfully obvious, is that if you go to the $2 theater (to see the movies that have been out for awhile) you simply adjust how much you would've paid to see the movie you paid $2 for. I remember seeing Catch Me If You Can at the $2 theater and since it was pretty good, it was worth at least a buck fifty. I also remember seeing Kung Pow!: Enter the Fist at a $2 theater. Except for one scene in that movie, I remember thinking the entire time that I had gotten robbed; I would never be able to get my $2 or more importantly my time back. I don't remember who I was with but we walked out, the only time I've ever done that at a movie.


That's all I got for now. Until next time...

The Phenomenon vs The Big Picture

On the eve of the 2008 Presidential Election, ALL signs point to Barack Hussein Obama, the junior senator from the State of Illinois, becoming the 44th President of the United States of America. If you watch the news, you'd have to believe that most all of America will be singin' and dancin' in the streets after Barry takes 85% of both the popular and electoral college vote. In fact, according to this article/poll from The Economist, http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displayStory.cfm?story_id=12498538&source=features_box4, one would have to believe that people from all over the world will be singin' and dancin' in their respective streets. Will tomorrow's outcome be this one sided? Time will tell...but my guess is that it will not.

Whether this map, http://www.economist.com/vote2008/, is an accurate reflection of world-wide opinion, who knows. But it definitely gets at the point that the world currently views America in a less than positive way. The world feels that America needs the change that Barry has been selling to all that would listen for the last 2-6 years, however long he has truly been campaigning for the world's highest office. As this article discusses, http://www.economist.com/research/backgrounders/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10689547, (and at this point a day before the election and most voters minds made up, it most certainly is much to late) America should have been evaluating Barry the potential President instead of riding the wave that is Barry the Phenom. Not by any stretch of the imagination am I now going to compare Obama to Hitler, but the point I will make is valid... Germans of the late 1920s and early 1930s rode the Nazi wave of hope and change to the most terrible stretch of German (and human) history. Again, let me repeat that I am in no way implying that Obama as President equals Hitler as the worst human being ever to live, my point is that we should all be cautious to these political waves that promise hope and change to a population craving/hoping/desperately wanting to hear exactly that.

My main fear today is that Obama, for numerous reasons, simply won't be able to deliver on all he has promised. You'd be hard pressed to find a sensible person that would deny Barry's list of very positive attributes. He's an excellent speaker, a young, charming guy with a pretty good sense of humor. His campaign has proven his ability to inspire those not often inspired by politics and "rally the troops" to help him thru astonishing donations and volunteer work in the effort to get him elected. But are these qualities really the ones that matter when choosing the leader of the free world?

It's not hard for one to see the reasons behind The Phenomenon that is Barack Obama. But once elected, then what? All the money he's raised isn't going to fix bad policy. We'll certainly have very well delivered State of the Union addresses for the next four years but what else...? Will he do the things he's promised? His voting record as a senator is troubling at best relative to his promise to reach across the aisle and get things done. Why would the most liberal senator we have suddenly decide he should be more in the middle?? ESPECIALLY when the liberal House and Senate are offering up legislation that he most likely will agree with wholeheartedly. My fear here is he'll sign most everything that lands on his desk without thinking twice. I certainly hope he can be the moderate he's portrayed himself to be during his campaign, but his record certainly indicates otherwise. Let's all cross our fingers because only the most liberal of us would want such a partisan man in the Oval Office. The foundation of our federal government is built on the idea of Checks and Balances, that no one line of thinking should dominate and therefore our central government won't skew too far from the middle (the common ground that hopefully all Americans share).

That brings us to John Sidney McCain III. Though not perfect (but who is?), I believe the senior senator from the State of Arizona has all the requirements to, at worst, adequately fill the role of Commander-in-Chief. Most likely he'd be a good president, maybe even great. His vast experience and record indicate he would do what he thinks is right and I don't think anyone but the haters out there would say he has the ability (or lack thereof) to be a bad president. I fear that his age, admittedly a little past prime for a first time President, has not helped his effort. I also wonder what the world would be like today had the 2000 election gone differently and President McCain was finishing his second term and planning his retirement on his beautiful plot of land in the beautiful Sedona area of Northern Arizona.

That may seem like an indirect slight to President Bush, but it is not. History will judge these past eight years, not one of us on this Earth has the perspective needed to properly evaluate the presidency of George Walker Bush. He's obviously not very popular at the moment, but to lead the orchestra, you have to turn your back on the crowd... I fear John McCain missed his best chance to serve as our President and this run is his last ditch effort to attain the one thing he hasn't been able to in his long and storied life, which is sad because I believe he would've been great and now it looks as if he'll never get the chance. Most of the out of character and desperate things he's done during this campaign can be attributed to the fact that his window is all but closed and he doesn't want to miss out on what is certainly his final opportunity. He realizes 2000 would've been his best time, but this is his last chance. Bad timing I guess...

As this article, http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=11496904, points out, in one way this is the best choice America has had in quite some time. Both parties have put forth men who have the potential to be great in their own way. On the flip side, pessimism would indicate this choice is just as bad as others in recent memory. One man is old, past his prime and possibly desperate. The other inexperienced and one sided. I hope that regardless of who wins tomorrow, the man lives up to his potential to be great, not simply confirms our worst fears about him.

Our system isn't perfect but it is working (http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displayStory.cfm?story_id=12511205). This is still the greatest country on Earth and tomorrow's result will not change that. Be proud we, the people, pick our leader. Get out and vote, utilize the gift that is the freedom to voice your opinion.

I'll leave you with an excerpt from an Economist article (http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11965260) that was written a week before Barack accepted the Democratic party's nomination. Personal thoughts/beliefs/opinions aside, it makes very clear who seemingly should win tomorrow's election. Whether events past should boost one candidate and hinder another is debatable (I believe men should be judged on their own merits), but the advantage is and has been distinctly in one sides favor, we'll see tomorrow if the other side can make it interesting...

"If the Democrats remain divided they will lose the presidency. Were that to happen, after Iraq, Katrina and an economic crisis, they might well want to consider an alternative line of work."

Making An Entrance...

"You never get a second chance to make a first impression."

Wow, that seems like I'm under some intense amount of pressure now doesn't it? This blog (and specifically this first entry) better be good. The realist in me understands that outside of a few friends and family members, no one is actually going to read this, so that certainly alleviates some of the self-imposed pressure. Regardless, even if I'm the only one reading it, I promise it will be good. I have very high standards for myself, as all of you should have for yourselves as well. Not just for your blog (if you have one), but for everything you do in life.

This blog, starting today, Halloween 2008, will cover a variety of topics. My thoughts on various aspects of life, insights into my own life and anything else I really feel like writing about (it's my blog, right?). The title of my blog is not some pompous, arrogant attempt to demean those reading it, but simply a reflection of the fact that I will more than likely jump around with my train of thought, topics covered from post to post, etc. I hope I don't lose you all with what at times I suspect will seem like borderline rambling and general incoherence.

I've got a lot to get off my chest, 22 (23 on Sunday) years of life I've got figuratively bottled up and with this blog I've finally removed the lid. Pandora's Box I will attempt to avoid, but I make no promises. I hope to bring you educated, opinionated and insightful commentary on everything from sports, economics, politics, movie reviews, personal experiences and maybe even a mailbag or two if I get enough feedback from the millions of readers I hope to gather.

I'll get right into it with my next post, I won't bore you with an introductory autobiography, you'll find out what you need to know about me, and probably more, as time goes on. Barring some unforeseen event between now and Tuesday (November 4th aka Election Day), I'll definitely have a post about the election. Hopefully I'll have time to get in a post about Halloween (today) and my birthday, which is Sunday (November 2nd). Send all gifts to a PO Box I've set up specifically for this occasion, the address is... just kidding.

Until next time...