3 Things for the Day

In no particular order:

#1
Thalia Shire is 60 today. Is that suprisingly old to anyone but me?
If you don't know the name off the top of your head, she was Adrian in all the Rocky movies. She was also Connie Corleone in the Godfather trilogy. Having never seen The Godfather, I can't comment on her role in those films, but I never really liked Adrian. She was very... well, I like spunky women and let's just say she wasn't one. Except for that scene on the beach in Rocky III. She got Rocky back on track there and I liked her better for it.

#2
Click on the image for full size


#3
Y'ever get to work needing a nap? I felt like that this morning. Got a good 7 hours of sleep, but got up maybe half hour earlier than usual. First thought I had when I waked in the building was how I'd like to go back to my car for a bit.



That is all.

The King is Dead.

Long live the King.


As I write this, the NHL playoffs have begun.

In Detroit, Nashville, and Ottawa, teams are playing in Game 1 of their Stanley Cup playoffs. There's a game in Calgary tonight. And in New York City, Dallas, East Rutherford and Raleigh, NC, their postseason begins tomorrow.

My beloved Kings won't be playing for the Cup again this year, due to yet another 2nd half collapse caused by lackluster efforts, a horrible set of special teams, injury, and mostly the inability to adapt. But even as loyal fans watch as others play on, a ray of hope glistens on the distant horizon of next season. We've got a new GM/President, what seems to be a surprisingly driven ownership, and a strong core of players that one could certainly see contending in the future.

Just so you know, the NHL playoffs can be found on OLN, if you can get it. I don't care what sport you love, there is no playoff tougher or more exciting than the Stanley Cup tournament. If you enjoy sports at all, you owe it to yourself to give it a chance.


'Cause though the Kings are dead. Long live the King. Long live the NHL.

Note to England: Don't Be Such a Spaz

It seems Tiger Woods got into trouble this weekend.

After finishing in a tie for 3rd at The Masters this weekend, Tiger commented on the putting problems he had all throughout the tournament that may have cost him the title:
"I putted atrociously today. Once I got on the greens I was a spaz."

Why is Tiger in trouble? The word "spaz."

From the Online Sun at www.thesun.co.uk:
"A spokesman [from Scope] said: “Although in the US the term ‘spaz’ may not be as offensive as in the UK, many people will have taken exception to linking a poor golf stroke to a spastic."

See, in England, the term spaz is short for spastic, just as it is here in the US. However, Scope, formerly know as the Spastic Society, has this to say:
“The word ‘spaz’ as used in Woods’ context is being used to attribute symptoms of spastic cerebral palsy to non-disabled people.”

Excuse me? How did cerebral palsy get into this? They derogatorially refer to CP patients as spazzes in England? How is Tiger supposed to know that?

And, as an American playing in a golf tournament in America, is he really expected to carefully and specifically choose his verbiage so as not to offend small communities of people around the globe? I mean, if he's playing in the British Open and he says that, then okay. Someone pulls him aside, tells him how it's interpretted in the host country, and he apologizes. But in this case?

Can I be offended if I watch BBC America and someone says something I believe is innapropriate even though it’s common and accept in England? Anyway, I like William K. Wolfrum's take on the situation on TravelGolf.com, partially 'cause it's funny and partially 'cause of his name.

Needless to say an apology was issued on his website, tigerwoods.com.

I dunno. To me, this is just another case of people looking to be offended. Or, at the very least, people feeling entitiled to be offended regardless of the actual intent of the “offender.”

Yet another reason I hate people.

How about tree-fitty?

Another day, another reason to be glad to be American.

Or at least, glad to not be Malayasian. More specfically, a Malaysian with a phone. Otherwise, you might end up like this guy:

Man Gets $218 Trillion Phone Bill

I know some of you guys have really good jobs, but I personally don't have that kind of money.

On the bright side, the phone company did give him ten days to pay before they prosecute him, so that's something. If someone owed me $218 trillion, I dunno if I'd give 'em 10 days. All he's gotta do is raise $2.18 trillion a day. Easy, peasy, Malyasia-nesey.

I Rule!

Don’t ask me why I remember this, but I do and look how relevant it is now:

A few years ago, I’m standing somewhere in downtown SF, watching some sort of cultural show in a plaza. I forget where Ms. Lisa Chen is, but I’m looking on with Mr. Randy Mano. We’re conversing easily about this and that when he mentions that there are plans to build a new Mac Store on University in dowtown Palo Alto. He asks me what I thought of that.

This was some time after graduation, and maybe a year before the Mac Store eventually opens. I own a 2nd gen iMac (with a whopping 233Mhz processor and a 4GB hard drive) and the Mac is really the only computer I’ve ever spent serious time working on. Apple’s put out the G5s and maybe the iBook. I dunno if the 1st iPod’s even been built yet.

I tell Randy that it seems like a good fit. High-end boutique store. Lots of disposable income around. Lots of trendy people, young and old, who all wanna have the next cool gadget. And there’re enough creative people in town where they can buy a computer just for the looks. They don’t have the need for an especially practical computer. These folks can get along with a Mac.

We talk about the limits of the Mac OS and how Microsoft runs everything. Software can be tough to find for a Mac, especially some of the more niche applications, and certainly a big chunk of games. He asks something like what I think Apple might do, or how viable I think they might be in the long run (‘member, this is before the iPod). And as I am wont to do, I speak completely out of my ass (which usually leads to some of my best thinking) and I give a response something to the effect of:

If I were Apple, I’d take my cool looking, trendy cases, and stuff ‘em with guts that could run Windows. At that point, the one thing Apple has going for it is it’s Design division, so why not sell computers that would run Windows and look like a Mac? They’d outsell anything Dell or Gateway or HP could put on the market and give Apple a decent share of the home PC market. They could still work on the Mac OS for schools and art designers, but these machines would find their way into a bunch of homes real fast.

Well, as I’m sure most of you have seen:
Apple stock jumps on news that new Macs can run Windows

For the record, at around the same time I also came up with concept of video game consoles that could connect to the internet and update game software. What can I say? I wanted new stadiums and updated player rosters for my version of 989’s NFL Gameday and EA's NHL whatever-the-year-was. That was before the PS2 and Xbox, though those consoles may have been in development at the time.


2 points to be taken from all of this:
1) I'm bloody brilliant and apparently 5 years ahead of my time
2) 3 post in 3 days! How ya like me now??

Response to Rob - Revisited

Nothing happens for 3 weeks, I finally post and what happens? I need to post again.

To start, I gotta go back to a post by Rob from a while back (early December to be exact), wherein he asked why female superhero movies tended to have little to no crityical success. My response basically centered on, as Rob so aptly put it, the depth of commitment to a project -- someone who loves the source material will do a good job, and the people involved with these projects up to that point were not as wholly committed as they needed to be.

Well, I heard some good news on that front this morning, and it’s got two parts:

Joss Whedon is attached to Wonder Woman. Yay! A female superhero from the creator and driving force behind Buffy? Excellent. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, next to Aaron Sorkin, this guy is one of my favorite people in show biz. I now have very high hopes for the project ‘cause I’m not really aware of anything he’s worked on sucking. Okay, not everyone liked Titan AE, and Alien 4 wasn’t spectacular, but still. And according to IMDB, the guy worked on the screenplay for TOY STORY?? Mr. Sorkin, make some room on the potium, we have a tie.

Up to this point, it seems there was a particular actress in mind for the role of Wonder Woman:

As Joshua Malina is to Aaron Sorkin, it seems Charisma Carpenter is to Joss Whedon. The woman was in both Buffy and Angel, and if I recall, she may have been up for a role in Firefly, but they got someone else. But the woman is not only a pretty good actress, but she is quite the looker. She’d make a pretty good WW. And she wants it. Word is she’s been putting off having a baby for this role. But there may be some competition from the likes of…

Kate frikin’ Beckinsdale! Oh, yeah! ‘Cause skintight wet black leather wasn’t enough to make her one of the absolutley hottest women alive, we gotta see her in the WW costume! And it certainly doesn’t hurt that she’s got some chops as an actress and can be a huge box office draw. And c’mon – she’s already been a Hero!*

So Rob, it seems we have a test case. If this one fails, I’d be at a complete loss.


*Bwahahahaha!! I made a Much Ado About Nothing joke! When was the last time you heard one of those??
=====


And in an unrelated NFL side note, the Tennessee Titans told Steve McNair to go home. He showed up at their facility for offseason training, and basically scooted him out the door, a possible prelude to either a trade or his outright release. They guy carries a $9 million cap hit and he's only so durable nowadays.

The Titans are holding the 3rd pick in the draft, Reggie Bush is expected to be taken 1st, and the Saints signed a high-priced QB a few weeks ago. Any coincidence that this comes soon after USC's pro day? Any coincidence that Norm Chow, the Titan's current offensive coordinator was USCs offensive coordinator when Matt Leinart won a Heisman and 2 National Championships?

Like TO - I'm Baaaaack

So I’ve been off the map for a few weeks. Sorry to leave y’all hanging.

Nothing super exciting’s been going on and I have to admit to a little bit of depression.

In the past few weeks I’ve:
1) Had to pick up slack for a couple of lost co-workers
2) Suffered from lack of sleep due to a carpooling situation which was caused by
3) A car accident (not to worry – I escaped from the fender-bender unscathed. Sadly, the Drewbymobile has been out of commission for repairs) and
4) I’ve had to watch my Kings from seats equipped with some sort of seat belt in order to counter-act the tremendous pull created by the intensity of their sucking.

Okay. So that’s not enough to throw me into a real depression, but you could see where I might be a little run down.

I wanted to write about March Madness, but I, as always, I remain remarkably sane during the 3rd month. Still, I look up today and see my bracket’s sitting in the number 2 spot. How that happened, I don’t know ‘cause I’ve watched all of about 5 quarters of Men’s basketball this season and 4 of ‘em were Stanford losing to Irvine. I do hope that UCLA loses tonight, though. It’s bad enough down here with USC Football. I don’t need UCLA Basketball on top of that.

Oh, and Brett Favre – retire already. If you’re thinkin’ this long, you don’t want it bad enough. I personally think you’re stalling so that GB will cut you and make the decision for you. Then you can still be the Golden Boy and still maybe get paid a little.

Okay. Enough for now. It's a start and that's all I really think I needed. Now, I wanna get back to ignoring the summer doldrums that is the MLB season.