i rented the first dvd from season one of 24 on a whim last night. why was that a "huge mistake?" well.... it was good. really good. and now i know that i'm going to end up devouring the rest of season one, which will lead to season two, and eventually find myself becoming a certified 24 junky. that's how it starts with drugs, and it works the same way with good tv shows
the olympics are almost over. it's been fun to follow, but i'll be glad to see them go. here's my top-five upcoming tv events that i'm currently looking forward to:
march madness. duh
the amazing race. this is pretty much the only reality tv show i ever watch. why? because it's a race around the world, for goodness sakes. plus when they pick me to do it someday, i want to be really familiar with the game. new season starts on tuesday
conan o'brien. he's been over in finland filming some shows, and i can only imagine how hilarious it's going to be
let's make a deal. it looks kinda cool. i might watch it
ok, so i ran out of stuff, so this is a show that i definitely won't be watching... conviction. they had the pilot episode available on itunes ("you can download it for free!") and they've been advertising for it like crazy on nbc. so i watched it, expecting it to be good... and it wasn't. it stunk. i felt used. (and just think... they could still be showing boomtown! but nooo... nbc is a moron)
oops, i forgot about this one... american inventor on nbc. it's like american idol meets the red green show best as i can tell. should be good
-"I remember once imagining what my life would be like, what I'd be like. I pictured having all these qualities, strong positive qualities that people could pick up on from across the room. But as time passed, few ever became any qualities that I actually had. And all the possibilities I faced and the sorts of people I could be, all of them got reduced every year to fewer and fewer. Until finally they got reduced to one, to who I am. And that's who I am, the weather man." -"Do you know that the harder thing to do and the right thing to do are usually the same thing? Nothing that has meaning is easy. "Easy" doesn't enter into grown-up life."
quotes taken from the weather man. i wouldn't necessarily reccomend the movie... but it is a very fascinating (and dark) look at how easily the little stuff in life can build up until it overwhelms us. in other words, small decisions have big consequences, and life very rarely works out like we think it will. nicolas cage is pretty fantastic in the film (as is the rest of the cast, most notably michael caine), but there's quite a bit of language so i'd hesitate to say "you should watch it," but i thought it was a pretty powerful film despite some of it's moral drawbacks
in other news... olympic speed-skating gold and silver medalist joey cheeks deserves much more recognition for what he's done with his fame than what two rather self-absorbed teammates (hendricks and davis) have been doing with theirs. instead of stooping to some WWE-inspired feud between teammates , he's used the platform that his recent gold medal in the 500 meters gave him to announce that he was donating the prize money to charity. not only is he aware of the desperate plight facing refugees in the darfur region of sudan (which is more than can be said of most of america), but he's doing something about it. major props to him. he put his success in perspective in a press conference after the event:
"I thought I might actually have a shot at doing something great at the Olympics, and if I did, I wanted to make it meaningful...what I do is great fun. I love what I do. It's a great job. I've seen the entire world and I've met amazing friends. Honestly, it's a pretty ridiculous thing. I mean, I skate around on ice in tights, right?"
quite a guy.
(for more information on the ongoing crisis in sudan, you can visit this website. and if you're wondering why you haven't heard anything about it, you can thank the media for that. and thanks to my friend carol for passing along the info)
i haven't been terribly hardcore about watching the olympics, but i have been watching what i can and keeping up with the general flow of things. here's some random thoughts and observations:
-snowboardcross is pretty much the coolest event ever. and i'm not just saying that because a guy from Maine won the inagural event... i'm saying it because it is. that's pretty much the only olympic event that i think i would watch on a regular basis, if it were to become a mainstream sport. however, i think they could spice it up even a little bit more by doing the following:
having 6 or even 8 snowboarders compete at a time. this would equal more wrecks and chaos, which would make it even more exciting
split up the course; put in a couple of intersections where you can go one way or another, and then have both rejoin further down the hill
have a pack of rabid wolverines chase them down the hill. that way if you did have the misfortune to fall, you better believe you'd be doing your best to get back up and headed downhill again a.s.a.p.
-in the two-man bobsled event, a guy from jamaica won a silver medal. yes... a jamaican bobsledder. granted, he was competing for the canadian squad (they were so desperate for help, they had to turn to a country that doesn't even have any snow), but still, why isn't this getting any more attention? cool runnings, anyone? the jamaicanadian even said that he was inspired by the movie! the only thing that could possibly tip the scenario further into the surreal would have been for john candy's ghost to appear behind the medal podium, with tears of pride in his eyes. maybe i'm the only person in the world who's fascinated by this, but hey... that's how i roll
"we are the jamaican bobsled team..."
-bode miller isn't a bust. really. you can make an argument for bigmouth or bloomin' idiot, but the same people are busting him up for not living up to the hype are the same people (this means you, "the media") who created all the hype in the first place. seems sort of ludicrous. he hasn't exactly been tearing up the world cup coming into the olympics, so to assume that he'd walk out of torino with five gold medals seems preposterous at best. besides, have you seen this guy ski? he may not have won any medals yet, but his recoveries from a couple of near-disasterous falls were both nothing short of sensational. the guy can flat-out ski... he may not win any medals, but can you knock a guy who is as incredibly gutsy as him with the way he skis? i can't, at any rate
-any olympic event which determines a winner based solely upon a judges scorecard shouldn't be an olympic event, period. speed skating? keep it. ice dancing? scratch it. downhill and cross country skiing? keep them. figure skating and the halfpipe? scratch them. i want concrete times and scores to be the criteria for disbursing medals, instead of relying on the whims of a panel of judges. that's how i see it, anyways
finally, this doesn't have anything to do with the olympics... but today was president's day (also known as "another meaningless holiday which let's government employees take the day off and encourages car dealerships to try even harder to sell you a new model, with no money down and one trillion dollars cash back! hurry, come in now and get one!). we didn't get any mail today, and the library was closed. so basically, the presidents deprived me of two small glimmers of joy. thanks, guys. anyways, here's a link to some useful presidential trivia. how many of the twenty facts did you already know? (i think i recalled hearing 8 or 9 before, but that's about it)
i think roosevelt is my favorite president. who's yours?
two events of note today: (1) it got real cold, and (2) i got my ice skates sharpened. hopefully be able to get in some ice skating soon (tomorrow?)... been shut out by warm weather so far this year
this makes me laugh every time i see it. it's got the two vital ingredients you need for instant humor: 80's music and a mullet. can't go wrong with that
whoops... i just realized that i lied. there were actually three big things that happened today, and the last one was that spring training started today for the red sox. i was so excited about this that i wore my lucky red socks all day today in their honor. i just love baseball
this is an enchanting album. i highly recommend it. i didn't know too much about either group when i first listened to it (had heard a couple songs by iron and wine before, but nothing by calexico), but i'm pretty much in love with it now. wonderful music... it's just so flowing and melodic, that you almost forget that you're listening to it (and not in a bad way). it just sort of seeps into the subliminal
If you like: Relient K, Good Charlotte, Mae, The Academy Is..., pop/punk/alternative music,
i stumbled across this by chance while looking for some music on amazon.com. it's a really solid album... nothing new or groundbreaking, but it's stacked with rocking pop-punk anthems. maybe it's not "real punk," but Cartel knows what sort of music they're trying to make and they do it well. i honestly don't think i've skipped over a song while listening to this CD, which is pretty rare for me. it doesn't have any real radio-ready singles, but that can be a good thing too. lyrics are predictably underwhelming, but they don't detract too much from the solid tunes. no profanity or anything, but nothing terribly soul-satisfying either. this album isn't meant to be taken too seriously; it's just plain fun
this is another collaboratory album, from two guys i've never heard of before: Danger Mouse and MF Doom. i'm not a hip-hop aficionado by any means, but there are some absolutely crazy hooks in this album. old school is by far the standout track, and is one of those "put on repeat for half an hour or so" types of songs that is just incredibly addictive. some possibly objectionable language in a couple tracks, but overall it's a surprisingly clean album for the genre. i didn't think i'd enjoy it... but it's ended up getting put into heavy rotation. i don't know enough about this genre of music to say anything intellectual about the music, except that i happen to like it. so there
If you like: O.A.R., Guster, acoustic/indie rock music,
i got exposed to Dispatch at camp last summer... hadn't ever heard them before until uncle elvis was singing the general one night around the campfire. but that song is so incredibly catchy that i had to get some more of them, and there you have it. they broke up a while back, which is a shame since i guess they were pretty amazing live and have just a really unique and enthusiastic sound. you can pick up on some definite reggae influences on some of their songs, which is pretty cool. their lyrics reflect the group's solid songwriting skills that complement their infectious rhythms and hooks
If you like: Sufjan Stevens, Death Cab for Cutie, indie/alternative music,
ok, so their name is a little... pervy. anything with "porn" in the name has to be bad, right?.. (not to mention the fact that the group hails from canada)? well, not in this case. this album is good; really good. it's got catchy songs that slowly work their magic on you, causing you to go from "hmm, this song is ok," to "wow, this song is really good," to "i think i'm in love with this album," all in the span of just a few listens. as always, the band lists this huge range of artists that they view as influential, but when it comes down to it they're a group without any real comparisons
in other news... a guy from Maine (seth wescott) won a gold medal in snowboard-cross in a crazy race. i'm pretty pumped about that; nice to see the state getting some quality representation
compete in the olympics in any event but know that you won't come close to getting a medal, OR compete in doubles luge and be assured of a gold?
be chased through the woods at night by a giant monster with glowing red eyes, OR swim in the ocean at night?
eat nothing but bread and water for an entire week, OR not be able to eat any ice cream for an entire month?
i had an interview today. it went swell
i've decided that when (if?) i finally do get a job, i'm not going to tell anyone what it is. i mean, let's face it... most jobs are pretty boring. so i figure if i keep it top-secret, it'll give whatever i end up doing an air of mystery and intrigue that would otherwise be absent
i went to the banff mountain film festival world tour this evening, and it was fantabulous. seriously awesome. they had a sampling of seven or so films from the festival that they put into a 2+ hour viewing, so you got everything from a guy's attempt to paraglide over the grand canyon, to a documentary on crack climbing, to a rambling stream of thoughts as a guy rides the chair lift. it ranged from hilarious, to awe-inspiring, to heartwarming. great show. i highly recommend you check here to see if the tour is scheduled to stop anywhere near you, because you won't be disappointed if you go. promise
it was especially cool to see, because there were some places showed in the films where i said to myself "oh yeah, i've been there before, i recognize that scenery." cool stuff
interview tomorrow. hopefully it'll go well so i can wash my jeans soon
i rented march of the penguins for the folks the other night... they hadn't seen it yet, and i figured they'd enjoy it (they did, although dad snoozed through part of it). the only problem was that blockbuster forgot to take out that silly little anti-theft piece of yellow plastic that they insert into the case. oops. so of course, rather than drive back there and ask them to remove it, what do i do? of course... i try and solve the problem the easy way. in this case, the easy way involved breaking the case apart, piece by piece, until i could get the DVD out. then i removed the liner and UPC code from the outside of the destroyed case, and inserted/fit/pasted them onto a case from one of my own DVD's so no-one would know that i absolutely demolished the original case. it was actually pretty entertaining, and i learned exactly how those yellow security strips work (so now i know how to remove them without destroying the case). plus i honed my forging skills by transferring all the vital identification from one case to another
what do you get when the writers of napoleon dynamite and school of rock combine on a screenplay, cast jack black and efren ramirez (aka 'pedro') in lead roles, and create a movie about a priest who moonlights as a pro wrestler in mexico?
17 straight days of the same jeans. i also vowed a while back not to cut my hair until i became employed once again, so i'm getting pretty shaggy in that department. all of this brings about the desired effect in me: a ramped-up job search. i'm giving my job-hunting a total makeover, so to speak... southern maine employers are about to be confronted with the most motivated and aggressive job seeker they've ever encountered
so consider yourself warned
got some much-needed snow over the weekend, which i'm still pumped about. i found a pretty sweet sledding location this afternoon, so i plan on finding a sled tomorrow (brief sidenote: we don't have any in the garage. a travesty. any self-respecting maine household needs at least one serviceable sled) and hitting the slopes. i also have this roguish idea of a training regimen to augment my plans for next winter, which would make sledding a big help . so i'm excited to see how that goes
i made chili for supper tonight... and it was, if i may say so myself, superb. i saw in the paper that they had a chili and chowder cookoff yesterday in portland that i had no idea about, and missing it made me considerably perturbed. so i decided to have my own chili cook-off, and i blew the competition away. i made a few intriguing modifications to the usual standby chili template which ended up enhancing the dish considerably. i'm proud of me
it sounds like a train-wreck of colliding flavor engines, but diet cherry vanilla dr. pepper is actually pretty good. the only thing i'd complain about is the 'diet' part, but mom bought it so i can't really whine too much. i was extremely saddened to hear that coke discontinued it's vanilla coke line in favor of black cherry vanilla coke (which is good, but not as good as plain vanilla). the truly sad part is that vanilla coke will still be available... in canada. talk about a moral conundrum; would it be acceptable to travel to canada to purchase vanilla coke? could this be construed as raiding and pillaging, and depleting their natural resources? i hope so but i'm not sure
speaking of canada... apparently they designed and made our team u.s.a. outfits. this explains alot
oh, thanks for the many VCR offers... i finally did end up watching the rest of the CPR tape (i'm fully certified to save lives now) over at my grandma's. so i'm good to go
our vcr is dead. it's been around for just over 20 years, but it finally showed enough signs of dementia for us to retire it. basically, it tried to eat a vhs tape. not a good thing. i had to take the whole dang thing apart just to get it to release the tape from it's celluloid-thirsty jaws. so now we're fully immersed in the digital world... our last piece of 80's analog technology is officially down for the count
the reason i was watching a tape at all was because i decided to get re-certified in CPR and first aid. my mom's a certified AHA instructor, so i figured "hey, how about i take advantage of her some more and make her teach me this stuff for free!" and it worked, strangely enough. but now i have to find somewhere to finish watching the tape before i can be actually certified... thus my current technological dilemna. does anyone even have VCR's anymore? probably not many people do. i sure don't think we still need one, so i guess i'll have to go over to someone's house to watch a video about giving CPR and using an AED and stuff like that. and the acting is great... a barrel of laughs. i love cheesy instructional videos
the olympics start tonight. i think that i prefer the winter olympics to the summer, because of events like the bobsled, skeleton, luge, speed skating, ski jump, snowboardcross, hockey, and ice dancing (kidding about that last one)
but seriously, winter is cool. i love it. my favorite winter olympic events basically resemble some of my favorite seasonal pastimes... on steroids (figuratively speaking). speaking of winter, it'd be pretty swell if, just maybe, we'd actually GET SOME WINTER WEATHER in the next couple months or so. that'd be nice. maybe some snow and ice, stuff like that...
so i called the police today to file a report about my cd's getting stolen. an officer came over, we talked, i gave him a list of everything that was missing, and he chided me for leaving my car unlocked. pretty much par for the course. they don't expect to ever recover my stuff, but they'll at least keep an eye out for it in case a miracle happens and it turns up somewhere. you never know...
of course, the loss it's not covered under my car insurance. i found that out pretty quick after reading my policy and then calling my insurance company to double check. it got denied in about .08 seconds, which i think must be a record. it probably would be covered under my folk's homeowners insurance, but after you factor in the deductible and realize that it might make their rates go up, i really don't want to file a claim under their policy. even though the actual replacement value for 92 cd's (that's the official MIA count) would be a pretty high amount... dang. hard to believe i've spent that much money (actually even more, once you consider downloaded music that i don't have on cd) on music over my lifetime. i guess it's not tons when you break it up over maybe the last eight years, but even so a thousand bucks (more or less) is a lot of money
on the bright side, i did have all my music backed up. i probably won't burn everything back onto discs... i'll probably just save up my money until i can get an ipod, and then try and quell the audiophile inside me who keeps saying stuff like "AAC is a lossy format!", and "if even a superb digital recording can't perfectly duplicate an analog sound wave, how do you think an mp3 will fare?" that side of me is a nerd (even if it does have a good point). please try to ignore him
on the even brighter side, i can only hope that whoever sheisted my cd's tries listening to some of them. there are some truly horrid recordings in there... albums such as scoop it up, seltzer 3: more modern rock to soothe your soul, cheeses..., or either of the two (yes, i actually bought both) albums by the w's.
somebody must have been really thrilled to find those gems.
but there are some truly irreplaceable cd's in there. like, the first relient k cd i ever bought. the third day cd that i listened to non-stop for the first month i had it, all those years ago. the supertones' cd chase the sun that i would crank up to 11 and sing along with full-blast when nobody was home, and which we sang songs from all the time during sunday school (yeah mrs. corey's class!). and the recently-released apathetic ep, which i bought in florida on the road trip on my birthday which was the day it came out
(that one hurts)
it's more than just the discs... it's the memories that i miss. music is like that for me. i use it as sort of a timestamp to keep track of events in life; "let's see, five iron had just come out with their final album and i was listening to it non-stop so i could know all the songs when i went to their last concert... so that must have been early october of '03 when i had both my legs amputated and i won the lottery on the same day." (kidding... it was only one leg). but seriously, listening to different albums conjurs up different memories; of roads traveled, of concerts attended, of times when songs felt like they were written just for me, and of course of people i've enjoyed the tunes with
today went from a D- all the way to a B+, thanks to a crunchwrap supreme, a soft taco, a 1/2 pound beef combo burrito, and a large vat of mt. dew for lunch.
my entire cd collection got stolen. i'm not sure exactly when... but i know that i had my cd case in the car, and it's not there now. the only cd i still have is the relient k christmas album. so dave, i'm sorry... but i might be forced to listen to it out of season, just because of sheer desperation. the only good news is that i have all of my music backed up on my computer, but even so there's something about having the original cd's that a file on the computer (or even a burned cd) can't duplicate
sigh.
on a completely unrelated note, i went to TWO churches last sunday. how's that for hyper-religiosity? i decided to skip sunday school (gasp!) at my church, and instead visited the catholic church around the corner. i hadn't been to a mass in a long while, so it was really cool to attend one again. if you haven't ever been to a catholic church, i highly recommend it. it'll open your eyes to a different perspective of worship; a lot more reverent, a lot more ritualistic, and strongly steeped in tradition and history. i sort of re-realized too just how many facets from our church's worship service are drawn from the orthodox tradition (which i really like). so anyways, i pulled off the catholic-protestant double switch on sunday morning, which i guess could be construed to be very non-irish of me... but hey, i'm only a quarter green-blooded, so what can i say?
jeans: 11 straight days (and counting)
every time i see this video, i get goosebumps...
that wave re-defines ginormous. unreal
"do not be afraid of death; be afraid of the half-lived life"
i've decided to become a hardcore seahawks fan for the night. why? well, for a few reasons...
i've been to seattle; haven't been to pittsburgh
seattle is the underdog, and it's always fun rooting for the underdog
mike holmgren, the seahawk's coach, is a member of the same denomination church that i attend
not terribly good reasons for sure, but i needed a rooting interest to make the game passably interesting. so there you go. i decided to keep a running diary while watching the game, so here's my rambling and incoherent thoughts as i watch the game...
4:29 i start watching the pre-game coverage... and aside from a special-interest piece about mike holmgren's wife and daughter going on a missions trip to congo, it's pretty lame. they had some footage of a football game being played among special-needs kids getting pushed around in their wheelchairs by their dads, and all i could think was "gee, what do they call the players they bring out for the kickoffs... the very special teams? the special squared teams?" yes, i'm a horrible person who reads the onion too much
5:06 i've got my lucky shorts, lucky t-shirt, lucky socks, and lucky gold doubloon all ready to lend their aid in the game. i would have larry the lucky lobster, except that i accidentally left him at camp at the end of the summer. whoops. i think all of his power got used up in the previous two years anyways, because i brought him out for the patriot's game-winning kick versus the panthers two years ago, the red sox comeback vs. the yankees (didn't bring him out until the 9th inning of game 4... the rest, as they say, is history), and the patriots superbowl win last year. after a run like that, you can't expect anything more, really. but i'll use every other legitimate means i have of lending aid to the seahawks. i was thinking about getting some pizza for the game, but i'm too lazy to make it and too cheap to buy some. i'll content myself with cheeze-curls and moxie instead
5:11 i look around the room... and i'm the only person here. i'm pathetic. but wouldn't it be even more pathetic to invite yourself over to someone else's super bowl party that you weren't really invited to? i think so. plus this way, i get to enjoy the game in my favorite chair, with my 12-pack of moxie within easy reach. can't beat that
5:24 i'm not sure if you've heard this breaking news yet... but jerome bettis is from detroit. and, the super bowl is in detroit! wow. now there's a story. someone should do a piece about that
5:45 i thought the game started at 6... apparently not. kickoff is still a ways away, and they're killing time with musical acts. unacceptable. i head downstairs to make some spicy "burns both ways" burritos for supper and come back up with two of those and a giant bag of cheez doodles: 15 ounces of puffy, cheezy goodness. mmmmmm...
6:01 they start introducing former super bowl mvp's, and when larry brown comes out i realize for the first time how many pittsburgh fans are in detroit... all you can hear are boos! truly hilarious. how awkward would it be to be the only man in a long lineup of all-time greats to (a) not actually be very good, and (b) get booed? of course, when swann and harris and the other steelers come out the house starts rocking like it's Heinz
6:05 joe namath makes it all the way out to midfield without trying to kiss anyone. i wonder what the odds were in vegas of him trying to plant a kiss on a random female reporter?
6:10 "and now singing the national anthem...aretha franklin." something doesn't seem quite right with the shot; either (a), aretha lost 50 pounds and grew a goatee, or (b) the production team was a little out of sync. i'm guessing (a)
6:21 if i'm al michaels, and i have john madden sitting in the booth next to me, i'm going to want to make sure he stays well-fed during the game. not that i think john is a rather large man, or that i'm insinuating that he'd actually eat his broadcasting partner... but i'd just make sure the nachos and hotdogs stayed in good supply. that's all
6:23 tom brady is on the field during the super bowl, and all is again right with the world. how hilarious would it be if instead of a simple flip, he just chucked the ball downfield and made them run down there to see how it landed? he doesn't... but it could have been epic
6:27 kickoff.
6:32 the seahawks punt on their first posession after a couple of quick first downs, which brings about the first wave of announcements. the ads, of course, are as hyped-up as the game itself. the burger king ad is simultaneously disturbing and hilarious, which is what makes their ads so great. long live the king, the only man in the world with a more disproportionately large head than mine. the best superbowl commercial ever is the reebok "terry tate: office linebacker" one from a couple years back. an instant classic that has yet to be eclipsed
6:37 i was just reminded that lofa tatupa, the seahawks' rookie linebacker, played for umaine. if i needed any more incentive to root for seattle, i just got it
6:39 "guys, the magic fridge is back!"
6:45 dad joins me, and starts helping me tag-team the huge bag of cheeze doodles
6:51 so that was a prety underwhelming first quarter. i can't remember a single play... this is shaping up to be a prototypically boring superbowl. the ads have been farly run of the mill so far, too. i'm hoping for a stellar second quarter, on the field and off
6:57 first shady officiating call... that was the wussiest "push-off" i've ever seen. not that i think the NFL would try and get the media darling that is jerome bettis a superbowl or anything, but i wouldn't put it past them. speaking of bettis... his teammate larry foote is from detroit too! how come this isn't getting any publicity? two teammates, both from detroit... playing in the superbowl! in detroit!
7:00 two LOL rated commercials so far... the "magic fridge" from earlier, and the one with the guys on the roof of the house. both bud light promos; they're like the jerry bruckheimer of advertisements. other than those two, my thoughts on the rest are usually "they payed 2.5 million dollars to air this?"
7:15 jerome bettis comes into the game for the first time for two plays... and then has to go out. aside from the PBA, is there a professional sports league who has a more out-of-shape star 'athlete' than the steelers do with bettis? all you hear is how nice a guy bettis is, but gee whiz jerome... being a nice guy doesn't mean eating donuts every time someone offers them to you. trust me, if he didn't have that "nice guy" reputation, he'd be getting an incredible amount of flak from the media about how fat and out of shape he is, because... he's fat and out of shape. and he's from detroit
7:17 monkeys are always funny. remember this if you ever write a commercial, because it's pure gold. monkeys are funny. third LOL commercial of the night
7:21 rottenburger (i won't even try to spell his name right) gets picked off, and seattle... keeps it's lead? they're up 3-0? when did that happen... i guess it's just that sort of game
7:29 "they just had him behind some curtains, so they could take his pants off and tape his groin." an instant classic in the annals of sideline reporting
7:32 instead of gatorade, do they fill jerome bettis' water bottle with jelly donut filling? these are the type of things i wonder about
7:34 best offensive showing by the steelers yet; rottenburger makes a heckuva throw down to the 3 yard line. pittsburgh has looked inept at offense to this point, but they might be coming to life
7:39 FIVE BLADES! BEST.SHAVE.EVER! the shaving wars are elevated to a whole new level. next thing you know, you'll be buying a butler named james who personally shaves your entire face with a chainsaw in about 2 seconds
7:40 TD? or... yes. but not really. 7-3, steelers. rottenburger runs it almost in, but the officials decide that hey, that was a really nice try so we'll give it to you. in other news, jerome bettis is on the team for the sole purpose of picking up first downs and TD's in short-yardage situations... and he can't punch it in from the 3 yard line on two tries. what they needed to do was paint a huge jelly donut in the end zone... he'd be unstoppable
7:54 that was one of the worst-executed two minute drills ever. seattle ends up settling for a 50+ yard FG attempt, which is no good.
7:56 and it's halftime. it pains me to say, but the rolling stones could actually be more exciting to watch than the first half of the game
8:10 maybe it's just me... but i swear that the guy playing keyboard looks exactly like kiefer sutherland if he added a paunch and a beard. it's eerie. their drummer looks like he's eighty, but still lifts weights every day. that's even more eerie. and the rolling stones have been around longer than the super bowl. that's bizarre. but trucking in all of the young guys and gals to fill the "mosh pits" and watch people who could be their grandparents dance around on a stage takes the cake in the "downright creepy" category
8:11 chuck leavell, keyboardist for the stones...kiefer sutherland...i rest my case
8:16 dad, as the stones are playing their last song: "all those years, and he still can't get any satisfaction? must not really want any."
8:28 the second half is about to get started any minute now. in other news, israel is utilizing llamas to carry gear for their commando units. what does that have to do with football? absolutely nothing
8:32 willie parker doesn't need any llama's... he carried the ball 70+ yards all by himself for a 14-3 lead. that, my friends, is HUGE. 75 yards, they're calling it... longest ever in the super bowl. impressive
8:34 the motorola PEBL commercial is pretty sweet. i don't want or need a different phone... but i gotta say that one rivalz the RAZR for sheer phone appeal. motorola is pretty much the top dog in cell phones right now. they're going "fast willy parker" on their opponents... striking fast and with big results
8:39 jeremy stevens was the only seahawk who said anything all week that could even remotely resemble "smack," and so far he has zero catches for zero yards, and two huge drops that he should have caught. way to be, jeremy
8:42 all i gotta say is: no way adam vinatieri misses those two field goals that brown did. one, maybe... but not two
8:52 whoa... interception at the goal line after pittsburgh was threatening to go up 21-3. eerily similiar to the champ bailey pick vs. new england in denver, where you could feel the momentum shift. one of the blockers on the runback after the pick absolutley leveled rottenburger; there would be no repeats of his miracle/lucky tackle vs. indy. as jesse would say, "he got blasted!" so far we've seen the longest td run, and the longest interception return ever in superbowl history. second half is starting to make up for the abysmal first half. could this be a new england-carolina version of the game, with a slow first half turning into a scoring frenzy? time will tell
8:54 TD, seahawks! 21-3 becomes 14-10, just like that. huge. in other news, hasselbeck is a pretty swell quarterback, and stevens finally catches a pass
8:56 i'm going to incorporating the taco bell wave into my daily life. "good to go"
9:00 madden: "what do you think they were looking at that they made him take his pants off?" michaels: "i don't want to even hazard a guess at that." safe move, al
9:02 if you just saw the toyota commercial, and were thinking about driving your vehicle down onto the beach, let me give you a word of advice: don't do it
9:11 i'm more and more impressed with hasselbeck. he's no tom brady, but he's no rottenburger either... which is a good thing. no interceptions, and making one smart decision after another in the pocket. he'd have two more touchdowns if his receivers could (a) catch footballs, and (b) do it in bounds. not to mention getting robbed by the zebras on that one "offensive pass interference"... i've seen more violent handshakes than that supposed offense
9:18 what's with the neon-green stripe around the collar and sleeve on the seahawks' uniform? i just noticed it, and it's... weird
9:23 another bad call by the refs. they call a horrible "low block" on hasselbeck, when he was going for the tackle after an interception. ridiculous. yes, i know they do a really good job 95% of the time, but even so there's been some glaringly bad calls in this game
9:27 TD, steelers on a nifty flag-football inspired play. it is pretty cool to see trick plays actually fool pro players, too. 21-10 steelers... not looking too good for seattle right now
9:29july 7... can't wait. if you have to ask, "what happens that day?", then i'm not sure i know you
9:33 fumble by hasselbeck? or... no. they fortunately got it right after review. maybe the refs are staging a 4th-quarter comeback!
9:47 the refs might be staging a comeback, but the seahawks sure don't look like they will be. still 21-10 pittsburgh with just under four minutes left. mvp pick for the game, barring a game-changing bettis fumble: hines ward. five catches for 123 yards and a touchdown so far. huge game for him
9:55 i must admit, despite never having seen the show before i'm very tempted to watch grey's anatomy after the game. i'm pretty sure "code black" means "we're all going to die because someone has a bomb in their gallbladder," but i'm not sure. i might have to appease my curiosity
9:56 last chance for seattle... they're driving, but they still need two scores in less than 2 minutes. not looking good. those two missed FG's by brown are HUGE now; if he makes one of the two, seattle only needs a TD and a 2-pt conversion to tie
10:01 guess who doesn't get out of bounds on a key play to stop the clock: stevens. he almost singlehandedly, with a little bit of a boost from the zebras, handed the steelers the game.
10:02 your 2006 Super Bowl Champions... the pittsburgh steelers. the elusive "one for the thumb" is finally theirs.
10:05 "the cowher chin" is in top-notch form: you can tell he's trying to fight back tears, and he does it by jutting his already protruding chin out even further. great guy, good coach... fantastic chin
10:08 my superbowl XL grades: game, B-. commercials, C+. eating almost an entire bag of cheez doodles... priceless.
10:14 superbowl mvp: hines ward. am i good, or am i good? now write this down: next year's superbowl matchup is going to be new england vs. carolina. you can take that all the way to the bank
10:17 jerome bettis is from detroit? no way....
10:56 my guess as to what a "code black" is was pretty dang close... only a couple of vital organs off the mark
i walked into borders yesterday looking like i had peed my pants. i hadn't... but it was still awkward. i wanted to stop and explain what really happened to everyone i saw looking at me, saying that "i know it looks like i wet myself, but what really happened was my sister dumped water into my lap while i was driving here. worst part is, i deserved it. anyways, it's clean water. not urine. water. i'm a civilized, decent sort of chap, so stop looking at me like that."
it probably wouldn't have helped
recent addendums to my agenda for the year: rent a house by the ocean and learn to surf. this will complete items #8 ("live by the ocean") and #55 ("learn to surf") from my list of things to do. the best part is, both are very feasible in the offseason in maine (september-may). housing prices go way down, french-canadian tourists go back home, and the surf goes way up. all you need is a quality wetsuit, and you're good to go
so that's the plan. i'm pretty stoked at just the thought... so here's hoping everything falls into place
i've been wearing the same pair of jeans for over a week now. my plan is to wear them every day until i get a job. hopefully i'll get to wash them sometime this week
tomorrow is going to be a swell day, i can just tell
this race is a pretty big deal in maine. it gets plenty of world-class runners and is a pretty top-notch event. but it's not terribly hard to get into, either... as long as you register early enough. so i got to thinking the other day while i was out jogging, how hard would it be to train for a 6 mile race? not neccesarily to be competitive, just to keep a good pace and finish the race in a respectable time?
doesn't sound like too hard of a proposition, given the chance for some preparation and training. a six mile run isn't exactly a walk in the park, but it's not like you'd be trying to complete a marathon either. i'd guess that 45 minutes would be a reasonable length of time to expect to complete the course in
but then i thought, most anyone can run the race... but it would take a rare breed of mainer to attemt to run the race dressed as a lumberjack. and how much more of a mainer could you hope to be than by running a race that our state is famous for while decked out in the following:
jeans. boots. flannel shirt. thermos. axe.
ok mabe not the axe... event security would probably spazz if you walked into a crowd of people with an axe slung over your shoulder. but the rest would be do-able, and incredibly epic
most anyone can run a race. fewer people could be a lumberjack. and fewer people still could run a race as a lumberjack.
it seems like too golden an opportunity to pass up
i don't expect any raucous applause or cheering for my speech/statements... but then again i'm not the president
here's the deal: a large number of people have been feverishly petitioning me to move out to ohio. this coalition of sorts has been masterminded by ben, who has been running a campaign to get me out there ever since the idea was first spoken in jest over new years. and trust me, when ben sets about to persuade someone or get something done, it gets done. period. he made extremely generous offers as far as giving aid in transportation and housing and basically paved the way for a move to the midwest.
but, as much as i would like to take up the offer, pack up everything and go... i can't. at least not right now
i'd list the reasons or arguments or rationale behind my decision, but quite frankly they don't hold much water. i'll be the first to admit that. and truth be told, there's a large part of me that does want to be out in ohio right now... i mean, i have so many amazing friends still in the cedarville area and the state in general that it's be wicked awesome to have at least one last chance to be near them, for however long
but i also really feel that i'm supposed to be here, in Maine, for now. how long is "now?" not sure... probably through this year. maybe not. but i guess my main point is that i've put a lot of thought, time, consideration, and most importantly prayer into the whole thing, and it just seems to be really clear to me that for now i'm supposed to be in Maine.
so yeah... i really do appreciate the offers, and all the heartfelt pleas for me to join the gang out in OH, but right now i know that i need to be here, in Maine. and that's pretyt much all i have to say... i know it's not a terribly good reason or explanation for my decision, but that's at least a brief synopsis of the whole scenario.
in other news... i was down at higgins beach for a while this afternoon, watching some surfers tackle some gnarly waves. it was pretty awesome to watch. if i had a wetsuit, i'd have been out there with my bodyboard in a heartbeat. i plan on learning how to surf sometime in the near future. even though i never have surfed, i'm already in love with the sport and the lifestyle that goes with it. i'm too tall and gangly to ever be real good at it, but i think it'd be a pretty sweet hobby to try and stick with over the years. it's really good exercise, and i've even seen studies that have shown that breathing the spray from the waves is really good for your lungs. seriously. it actually is supposed to decrease your chances of getting lung cancer dramatically. good enough reason to surf for me!
while i was there, i had the radio playing, and also had my lights on. i knew about the radio, but didn't realize i had left my lights on until i tried to start the car. notice i said "tried." yeah... dead battery. d'oh. i tried to do a push-start, but i hadn't eaten lunch yet and was pretty hungry, so when i hopped into the car i put it into the wrong gear in my food-deprived state of mind. so of course, it didn't start. all i could find to eat in the car was a couple packets of pez, so i ate those and tried to give it another go, but this time i was pushing on flat ground (i'd been going down a very slight incline earlier) so i didn't even have a chance to get it going fast enough
so i called mom, and she rescued me. thank goodness for jumper cables (thanks mom. love ya!)
maybe i've been spoiled by the patriots recent success... but i'm really not excited about the super bowl this year. like, at all. i could almost not care less who wins... although i'll probably root for the seahawks because they're the underdog. plus i've actually been in seattle before, while i've never been in pittsburgh. no real desire to visit there, either. but really, the whole thing is pretyt blase. maybe jerome bettis will eat a referee and that'll cause some excitement or something. or... not
i'm going to start chaining myself to my bed at night, so ben won't try and kidnap me while i sleep. he's that hardcore
