Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Could This Be My Future?
I just got done studying for a final that I have tomorrow morning, so to relax a bit I decide to take 10 minutes to read the papers back in Orlando and Miami before getting some sleep. In the Miami Herald I came across a paragraph in this story that I feel might lend some insight into my future. Here’s the relevant part:
“a graduate of the University of Michigan law school, Kaplan gave up a successful law practice in 1984 after he tired of dealing with complex real estate transactions and construction law cases. He then nearly died of a ruptured appendix during a Las Vegas vacation before returning to South Florida to pursue his new dream of becoming a sportscaster.”
Nagging desire to eventually work in sports journalism? Check.
Law school graduate: Probably in a year and a half.
Successful law practice: Hopefully.
Ruptured appendix: Not if I can avoid it.
Vegas vacation: Certainly.
Inexplicably following a dream in the future: To be determined.
Monday, December 11, 2006
Finals Time
Anyway, I hope to put up my analysis of the Randy Shannon hiring sometime in the next couple days. Needless to say I'm happy.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
This post is simply a quick break from preparing for finals.
One persistent rumor is that Texas Tech coach Mike Leach will get the job. I can live with that also, given the fact that Leach is an offensive genius, but I really hope that under that scenario UM finds a way to keep Shannon at defensive coordinator.
While I would prefer Shannon if I had to choose between the two, Mike Leach does have come interesting characteristics that I find quite interesting. 1) He’s one of only 3 coaches in college football who didn’t play football in college. 2) He’s got a law degree. It’s nice to see there is employment for me out there somewhere after graduation, even if it’s as a football coach.
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Do you like Jesus? Do you like Rocky also?
It’s a web site with tons of free material about religious themes in the upcoming Rocky Balboa (A.K.A. Rocky 6). I’m really impressed with the stuff on the site. First off, go to this page and watch the “Keeping the Faith” trailer, it’s the best compilation video of the first 5 films I’ve ever seen. If for some reason you haven’t seen all 5 previous films by December 22nd watch this before you see Rocky 6. Secondly there’s a really interesting interview with Stallone on this page .
Robbie, Kim, I expect you to implement these materials into your church’s programs immediately. Danny, how about you and I start some sort of research paper for publication?
Saturday, December 02, 2006
I believe it can get no better
First a new Superman movie on June 30th and now a new Rocky film coming up on December 22…just thinking about it almost makes me tear up.
There is one down side to this though. I don’t think that I’ll ever be more excited about movie and dvd releases than I am right now. Seriously, I have to be at an entertainment mountain top that I will never be able to reach again. It has to go down from here, there’s no way that I’ll ever have these two franchises release new films and dvds within 8 months of each other…unllleeesss…..Rocky 7 anyone????????
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Late Night (or early morning) Ego Surfing
I just did a little search of my blog’s name on Google and found a few links. Most were law school friends and the like, however there was one surprise. My favorite sports blog, and probably the best sports blog on the internet, Deadspin.com linked to my June 24th post on the utterly hilarious Miami Heat championship celebration. Here’s Deadspin’s post linking back here to my humble blog. To put into perspective why I think this is so cool, if you search the term “Sports blog” on Google Deadspin will be the 4th page listed. Anyway, I guess I can cross “get referenced by one of my favorite blogs” off my list of things to do before I die. I'm also wondering if this counts as a fulfillment of my childhood dream of becoming a sports writer.
Friday, November 17, 2006
Simple Economics
I may be just a lowly law student, but something’s wrong here. I understand Sony’s economic model, they’ll make up all the money lost on these new systems with the sale of video games and accessories to go with the system. It’s the same economic model used by all video game manufacturers and is always wildly profitable for Sony. Even though this model works I just hate to see a company leave money on the table. Sony, since there are more than enough people willing to pay you $2,000 for your system, how about pricing it so you at least break even on release day next time. You’ll save yourself some money and might save the lives of some gamers.
While we're on the topic of video games I'll take the time to state that the next system I buy will be Nintendo's Wii. Sony and Microsoft have released 2 impressive systems, but the Wii's controllers and gameplay look like they'll be the most revolutionary thing to hit video games since the first Playstation. Here's the Wii's official website so you can see what I'm so excited about.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
New Rocky Preview
There's a new preview up for Rocky 6 . I know there's a long line of people waiting to take shots at this movie just because it's the sixth in the series, but it looks like it's going to be great. For anyone who thinks that the plot is too far fetched just look at the current heavyweight division and tell me that it wouldn't be possible for a guy over 50 to still be a contender.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Pata & Politics
Since the last post UM’s football season got a lot worse, it didn’t get worse because of something as meaningless as a loss to Maryland, it got worse in a way that actually matters as defensive lineman Bryan Pata was murdered in his apartment’s parking lot. Pata was one of the few Canes who had actually improved his NFL Draft status this year, more importantly he sounded like a really good guy. I don’t just mean that people have been saying great things about him because he died, you can’t just make up on the spot the amount of praise his friends and family heaped on him in the media.
Also, I’d like to commend 2 other universities on handling Pata’s murder with particular class over the weekend. First off, the University of Maryland held a moment of silence before their game with Miami, as well as wearing the same #95 tribute stickers on their helmets as the Canes had. On top of that the Maryland football players gave their per diem pay for gameday food to the Pata family in a truely classy act. The other schoold that deserves to be commended is Florida State. They also wore the #95 stickers in tribute to Pata during their game with Wake Forrest. Pata’s brother is a walk on senior on FSU’s team.
So, at a time like this when even arch rivals are putting aside their differences I figured the media would take a temporary break from characterizing the U with stereotypes that haven’t been relevant for a decade. To the media’s credit I must admit that they did do this, with one classless exception. Before Pata’s mom had the chance to bury her son Mike Celizic of MSNBC wrote an article about how this incident would serve as a great time for the University of Miami to reevaluate itself and the kids it recruits. The problem is that we’ve already done that, 10 years ago, and we were successful in becoming the best team in the nation (until recently) while also having the least off the field incidents of any powerhouse team in America. For example:
-We just came off of a 4 stint of having no players arrested, sadly most decent teams can’t make that claim.
-Our 2005 team graduated 21 players, that was a total higher than any other team.
-Our 2004 graduation rate was 84%, the national average was 58%.
Despite all this there’s still at least one guy in the media who finds it necessary to take shots at a program that has become the example of what all major college football programs should strive to be and at a time when the team is still grieving their teammate and friend. It’s things like this that make me wish we didn’t even bother to clean up the program in the first place, at least then we’d deserve the rebuke the media loves to heap on us.
Before I finish this rant here are a couple of links you should check out. First, Celizic’s article can be found here.
And, more importantly here’s an interview with Celizic on the Dan Le Batard show. Dan basicly lets the guy know how stupid he is, so it’s good listening.
Mid…Term…Elections
I’ve got a few things to say about the elections, but I’ll try to keep them short.
-Back to checks and balances:
In Bush’s time as president he has only vetoed one bill. This is in large part due to Republican domination of the House and Senate. Let’s face it, as president when people in your party are sending bills up to you there’s rarely any reason to veto anything, they get their add on spending packages and you get to pass legislation you wanted anyway. My main problem with this lack of vetoes is that it has led to Republicans being able to get any pet spending project passed by putting it into a bill as a rider. Riders will be a problem no matter what party is in power, but having a split in power between the legislative and executive branches should at least slow this down.
-Conservative Democrats:
Wow, you’re really got to hand it to Howard Dean. A lot of people don’t like him, but his plan to wage an election in all 50 states has really made progress. This became truly clear to me when I heard that Heath Shuler had won a seat in the House as a Democrat. This really surprised me because Heath is a Conservative Christian. Sure, the Dems already had some rather conservative people in their party, your Joe Leiberman and the like, but people like Heath are different, he’s spoken in Southern Baptist churches, he’s the quintessential conservative Christian whom you’d expect to have an “R” in front of his name. His social stances read like a Republican platform even. I’m not sure exactly what this means, but I do find the conservative Democrat phenomenon intriguing.
-What difference between the parties?
This observation is linked to the one above. If we’ve got a lot of new Democrats that look like Republicans, and many prominent Republicans who look like Democrats (Arnold, Giuliani) exactly what is it that engenders party loyalty in Republicans and Democrats. It seems more and more like professional sports where you're really just cheering for a uniform and a logo since the players are basically interchangeable.
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Last Chance to Save a Season
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Who’s In?
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Red Auerbach 1917-2006
-Larry Bird’s statements regarding Red Auerbach after learning of his death
Red was one of my favorite figures in sports. There was something about the way he handled himself that seemed to ooze confidence. While almost all sports figures have their fare share of confidence Red was one of the few who had accomplished enough to unquestionably justify his self assured disposition. He created the very definition of a basketball dynasty. He also did more than anyone else to break the color barrier in basketball by signing and playing the first black player, Chuck Cooper, in NBA history, being the first coach to have an all black starting 5, and signed Bill Russell to be the NBA’s first black coach when he retired from the Celtics bench.
I’ve often referred to the swagger that I like to see in the UM football team. Of non-Cane sports figures I’ve only seen this swagger in 2 people, one is Joey Porter and the other was Red. One of the best examples of this is how he responded to Chris Wallace asking him “in today’s politically correct climate, with no smoking allowed in the NBA arenas, would you still be able to light up your famous victory cigar at the end of a victory?” Red’s response “of course, who’s going to stop me?”
I’ve always felt it important to try and study successful figures of the past in an effort to understand what they did to achieve this success. This is in large part why, even though I wasn’t even close to being born when he built most of his legacy, Red’s autobiographies are still some of my favorite books. On top of all his accomplishments he came off as a decent person to me in my only interaction with him, he actually took the time to reply to a letter I sent to him when I was 12 years old.
Friday, October 27, 2006
Now That’s Putting a Law Degree to Good Use
The picture is from his 1987 Topps baseball card. At that point in time I was but a small child who loved the Oakland A's because they had Jose Canseco and Mark McGuire. Also the 1987 Topps baseball card series is my favorte series of all time.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Stained Carpet? Try Peroxide.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Fire. Coker. NOW.
Watch any sports program in the next couple days and I’m sure you’ll see yet another reason why it’s time for Larry Coker’s tenure to end at the University of Miami. Miami got into what can only best be described as a street fight with FIU. There’s a lot to say about this so I’ll have to break up my thoughts a little bit.
- There are some player who should never be allowed to play at Miami again because of their actions during the fight. Getting to go to UM on a scholarship is a privilege not to be taken lightly, I know because I did it (although mine was academic, not athletic).
- Why are we fighting with FIU, they’re 0-6? Yeah, I know it’s got a lot to do with it being a cross town rivalry and the players on both teams have been playing each other since high school, but that’ s still no excuse. With a team that’s as bad as FIU once you score there’s no reason to bother with trash talk, just score on them and act like they aren’t even significant enough to evoke a response from you. Back in the day UM would win the fights before, during, and after the game, but these fights were against teams that were great, not some upstart team from across the street that hasn’t even won a game yet this year.
- Larry Coker’s has gotten too much credit for his skill as a coach for years, that for sure. Now, it’s clear that he’s gotten too much credit for running such a clean program also. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like we’ve lost all discipline as a program, Coker’s suspensions for the FSU game show that, but it’s also really obvious that the character of the guys in the UM uniforms overall is not where it was 5 years ago. I could go on about this for hours, but this post from the allcanes.com blog explains in better detail what I’m talking about.
- I’ve said before on this blog that Miami might as well not even bother running such a squeaky clean program since any time a UM player does anything remotely wrong everyone in the program is branded a thug. So why does this fight bother me? Because we’re out of the top 25 and being thugs. When you’re dominating the nation and being thugs, ala the Canes of the 80s and 90s, it’s called swagger. When you’re out of the top 25 and getting into fights with meaningless opponents it’s called stupid and disgraceful.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Life’s Little Conveniences
Enough with the mushy stuff, on to business:
Google bought Youtube today. I think that it’s a pretty risky move by google given that youtube doesn’t exactly have a product that can’t be duplicated. Sure, youtube is far and away the best site for streaming video, however it’s not like another site, or google themselves, couldn’t have bettered their video streaming capabilities (in google’s case they could have done this without having to shell out over a billion dollars). However, some may say that even if other sites are able to duplicate youtube’s ability to convieniently stream video they couldn’t duplicate the brand loyalty built up in the youtube name. The problem with that argument is that is that there is already some backlash on youtube as they are being seen as owned by “the man” (I personally don’t know when or how google became “the man” but that’s for another post), as an example here’s a comment from msnbc’s discussion board:
“I Can't really fault the folks at YouTube for taking the money — most people would. But I think this deal will probably lead to YouTube becoming irrelevant. That is, it will mostly likely require a user fee that most people won't want to pay, or be covered in splashy ads. Either way, it will turn into just another corporate entity that pretends to be hip. The coolness of YouTube was that it was a maverick and was kind of "for the people," "by the people" without a lot of corporate nonsense. No more.”
For better and more ellequent commentary on this topic (that has probably been proofread at least once, unlike this post) click the Mark Cuban link in the top right corner and read his last couple blogs.
Saturday, September 30, 2006
I'm Moving Back to Florida to Work for this Firm
Friday, September 29, 2006
Thank You Sharon
IF PROFESSIONALWRESTLING REWROTEAMERICAN HISTORY.
BY EUGENE TUCKER
Benedict Arnold
Despite having dispatched each of their opponents, the tag team ofGeorge Washington and Benedict Arnold is not a harmonious entity.Arnold feels that Washington is gaining too much individual credit forthe tag team's success. Before that night's match, hidden camerascatch Arnold shaking hands with their opponent, King George. WhenWashington gets in trouble during the match, he goes to tag in Arnold,but instead Arnold slaps him in the face. The match degenerates into athree-on-one until Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys race to thering to save Washington.
Mexican-American War
A supremely popular and confident James K. Polk comes to the ring andsays he has achieved everything he wanted except winning a title beltfrom the utterly deplorable Santa Anna. At this incitement, Santa Annawalks out showered by boos. Santa Anna says that Polk can't have thebelt, that it belongs to him and he refuses to relinquish it. Polkasks Santa Anna, "Whatcha gonna do when the United States of Americaruns wild over you!" At that point, Polk's cronies, Zachary Taylor andWinfield Scott, ambush Santa Anna. With Santa Anna sufficientlydebilitated, Polk delivers the final blow and takes what he believesrightfully belongs to him.
World War II
FDR. Churchill. Stalin. Hitler. Mussolini. Tojo. Steel Cage. Availableon pay-per-view for $39.95.
Watergate
A feud begins between Richard Nixon and two nonconformists, Woodwardand Bernstein, when "the Journalists" embarrass Nixon in front of fansin Tacoma, Washington. Nixon seeks revenge against the two and forcesthem to fight enforcers G. Gordon Liddy and Bob Haldeman. In themiddle of the match, though, Haldeman quits, and Woodward and
himself with one stipulation—the loser must leave the business! Nixonpulls out all the tricks, going as far as to use a plunger as aweapon. "The Journalists" gain an advantage eventually when a maskedman, known only as Deep Throat, enters the ring, and are ultimatelyvictorious. After the match, Nixon dejectedly walks away, pausing fora minute to say goodbye to his friends.
2000 Election
George Bush and Al Gore meet in the squared circle for thechampionship title. It's a back-and-forth match. Gore gains the upperhand and hits his finishing move, the Global Warmer. But, as Gore goesfor the cover, William "the Chief" Rehnquist rushes to the ringcarrying a steel chair. With the referee distracted by Laura Bush,Rehnquist knocks Gore over the head with the chair. Bush goes for thecover and wins the belt. The show ends with an incredulous announcerscreaming, "George W. Bush is champion, but I don't know if hedeserves it!"
2008 Election
The fans have been told to expect a monumental announcement from worldchampion George Bush and anxiously wait. When Bush finally emergesfrom backstage, the crowd begins to loudly boo and deride him withjeers. Ignoring the commotion, Bush begins to reminisce about thesignificance of his title reign and how he brought glory and honor tothe profession. He then announces to the stunned crowd that he will behanding his title over to his sidekick, "the Doc" Bill Frist. Frist,Bush explains, will continue to seek out those whose only wish is todestroy the sport of wrestling. It is at that moment that twowrestlers appear, united, in the ring. John Edwards, supported byHillary Clinton, voices his opposition to Bush\'s plan. Bush laughs atthe duo and mockingly inquires, "What are you going to do about it?"Such a question catches the group off guard, and, while they arediscussing a potential plan, Frist superkicks Edwards. The ring clearsas Edwards struggles to his feet and attempts to get to the middle ofthe ring. As he squares off against Frist, the crowd begins to booagain, this time louder, once it becomes apparent that neitherwrestler possesses the talent to be an effective champion.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Whoa There Oprah!
Click here to see the paperwork Oprah’s lawyers filed.
Also, if you think I’m disappointed that one of my dream candidates won’t be running you’d be wrong. I picked Oprah and Mark Cuban largely because, in addition to agreeing with many of their positions, they’ve both said they don’t like politics and wouldn’t run for president. I figure that so long as none of my wishes come true nobody can hold me accountable for being wrong.
Monday, September 18, 2006
Finally an update!
Okay, a lot has happened since the last update. Here’s a few quick answers to commonly asked questions:
School: Is going well. Most of my classes are with adjunct professors (professors who are actually currently practicing lawyers). So far I like the adjuncts much better than professors who haven’t practiced in years. Sure, every now and then an adjunct will go on for 20 minutes telling a story about a case they’re doing/have done, and yeah, these story’s won’t be on the final exam, but they do give some tips for the practical application of the law.
UM Football: Larry Coker needs to be fired. Now. Put Randy Shannon, our defensive coordinator, in as head coach and see what he can do with the rest of the season. Shannon is one of the best assistant coaches in America and should already have a head coaching job by now, so why not see if he’s the right guy for our job. The fact that he isn’t a head coach somewhere already is pretty good evidence that racism is still a factor in college football head coach hirings (Shannon is black).
Now, since the last update I’ve found a couple great new sources of entertainment. 1st is the show Ace of Cakes on Food Network. It’s about a small bakery in Maryland that makes unbelievably huge cakes with great deatail. However, the people who run the bakery are even more entertaining than the cake themselves, which is saying something because the cake are awesome. Though, the thing about the show that really stands out to me is how much it reminds me of working at Photograph-X. So, if you ever wondered what my workdays were like just watch this show. I’ll paraphrase one of my favorite lines from the show as an example.
Duff (bakery owner): Man, it’s Wednesday night and we’ve still got 14 cakes to do by the end of Friday.
Mary Alice (receptionist extraordinaire): Well…maybe the cake fairies will come in tonight and do them.
Geoffrey (cake baker guy): Well, it’s happened before.
What’s great is that if you replace the word “cake” with “tshirt” you have an exact conversation between Mike, Beth, and myself circa 2001. Here’s the website for the show that has more info and a schedule of upcoming shows.
Lastly, on the first day of Intellectual Property class our professor told us about a great site. The site is http://www.patentlysilly.com/ and it is a catalogue of some of the stupidest, or funniest, inventions ever to be filed at the patent office. Go ahead, click the link, hours of fun await you, I mean, where else could you see a Combined Pet Leash/Umbrella?
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Is Political Gridlock the Only Way to Get Fiscal Conservatism Nowadays?
From what I’ve observed in my lifetime the most fiscally conservative our nation has been was during the last six years of the Clinton administration. Despite this the Democrats can’t lay claim to being the nation’s fiscal conservatives since what spurred Clinton’s conservatism was the Republicans taking control of Congress in 1994. This led to some knockdown-drag out fights between Clinton and the Republicans (anybody remember the Government shutdowns in 95’ and 96’?) but in the end these skirmishes helped result in balanced budgets and eventually a surplus (admittedly other things also played a role in creating the surplus, however the legislation passed at the time certainly was a large factor).
In the years since Clinton we’ve predominantly had the White House and Congress controlled by Republicans. As a result spending has spiraled out of control and 2 things have disappeared, the surplus and most of the political gridlock. While we hear all the time that the nation is more polarized than ever this has not translated into the same amount of gridlock as we had in the mid 90’s (possibly the only issue that has created the amount of fervor seen in the 90’s has been the filibuster issue regarding Supreme Court Justice nominations). Basically Bush has acted as a rubber stamp, using his veto only once on legislation, no matter what spending was attached to a bill.
At the end of the day the gridlock of the mid 90’s didn’t insure fiscally conservative governance, but was likely just a side effect of having a better balance of power within our government. The recent centralization of power within one party has probably played the biggest role in squandering the country’s financial security. In the end I don’t think it matters which party has control of the White House, just so long as the other party is in control of the Congress.
Random Thoughts
While setting up my fantasy football team for this season I indulged myself in a bit of fantasy politics. I came to the conclusion that if I could pick 2 Americans to run for President and Vice President in 2008 I would choose Mark Cuban and Oprah. I'm not sure which one I would prefer to be President and which one I'd like for Vice President, but either way I'd take it. This decision was arrived at in part by reading this story about Oprah's school in Africa and this post from deadspin about Cuban's favorite book from college.
::::Second::::
Here’s a short but good entry over at the Cato Institute’s blog. In less than a page it gives a great example of why political party affiliation has become completely unimportant to me. The post talks about the role reversal of the Republican and Democratic parties in terms of fiscal conservatism, specifically over the issue of earmarked spending in legislation.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Update on Mid East Editorial Comics
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Finally an Update!
In other news; a company has developed a perfume that smells like cheese. I think I know what one of Angelina's Christmas gifts this year is going to be.
Monday, July 17, 2006
Taught by a Zombie? pitt law (in)competence strikes again
My school seems to be having a very hard time coming to grips with Welsh’s death. Last spring he was also dead before the semester began, but this didn’t mean pitt was prepared for the ramifications of his death. Because they refused to acknowledge that one of their best professors was probably going to die pitt was left without a replacement for Welsh’s classes. This meant that they slapped two classes together, creating a class so large that the fire marshal demanded the transfer students be kicked out to get the room down to its legal occupancy. I must say that I was in favor of pitt showing Welsh respect by not removing him from the official spring schedule last year (which would have essentially said to him “we think your going to die”). However, I was even more in favor of showing the students who go to pitt some respect by having contingency plans ready just in case he died.
Anyway, all that annoyance is in the past. Well, it would be if pitt ran anywhere near as well as it should and didn’t have Welsh White teaching classes posthumously.
Saturday, July 08, 2006
In Case You Didn’t Believe Me The First Time
- An infestation of Chefs: Within the 3 blocks where all this strangeness happens is a culinary school. Now, that alone isn’t weird, but around lunch time the streets are flooded with culinary students wearing their chef outfits. Some even keep the hat on. Don’t think that’s weird? Well then just imagine pushing through about 150 of these guys on your way to get a sub for lunch.
- Abortion Protesters: Once again, this is something I’m very used to seeing in Florida, but it’s still weird. They stand outside a Planed Parenthood every morning equipped with huge pictures of aborted fetuses. I can’t say that I disagree with them exercising their right to protest, I can’t even say I disagree with their use of dead fetus pictures in a protest, but doing it every morning seems rather stupid to me. Honestly all their protests have done is desensitize me to dead fetuses, so I think they’re hurting their cause. On a lighter note I do have to say that it was awkward to see and hear a guy holding a 4 foot picture of a dead fetus casually chatting about his family with a police officer who stands there to make sure nothing breaks out.
- Random Pierogis Walking Around: One day I was walking down the alley and out of nowhere I passed by two of the pierogis that race between innings at Pirates games. Why were they there? I have no idea, but they were. Maybe it was a day game and they got really lost during the race. So that you’ll know what I’m talking about here’s a link to a picture of a pierogi race and here’s a link about pierogis in general.
- People Dressed Like Animals: Ok, this one counts for all of downtown, but I’ll include it anyway. A couple of weeks ago Pittsburgh was the home to a convention of furries, which are people that like to dress like animals. For a few days it was common to see somebody walking around in a full mascot outfit holding hands with a person wearing mouse ears and a tail. Rather than explain any further I’ll just direct you to this article about the convention.
So there you have it, conclusive proof that the office I work in is situated above some kind of magnet for weirdness.
Sunday, June 25, 2006
New House for Angelina and I to Consider
This Made Me Chuckle This Morning
Here's George's spliced together version
And here's a sample of the original
This, my friends, is what the internet was invented for. Thank you Al Gore.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Hilarious Stupidity in Championship Celebration
Part 1:
There has been some discussion about whether the Committee to Give Dwayne Wade the Love He Deserves should disband now that it looks like the nation has finally caught on to his greatness. Well, thanks to a monumental mistake by a member of Miami’s city council I can assure everyone that the Committee must remain intact. At the championship parade in downtown Miami Dwayne Wade was introduced on the stage by some councilwoman as “Wade Jones.” The full introduction went something like this; “he’s calm and collected, has a will to win, because his name, OF COURSE, is WADE JONES!” The conviction with which she says “OF COURSE, WADE JONES” just takes it to another comedic level, and then you can hear the crowd wondering “who is she talking about” and then start laughing.
Part 2:
Heat Owner Micky Arison didn’t fare much better than the councilwoman who introduced D-Wade. Throughout the playoffs the Heat used the term “White Hot” as their marketing slogan. Arison went up to the podium and wanted to cap off his speech by telling Miami to “stay white hot.” Seems simple enough, doesn’t it? Not if you’re Micky Arison. Instead he wound up telling all of Miami, the most culturally diverse city in America, to “stay white.” I cannot imagine any worse town in America to tell to “stay white”
Here’s an interview that my favorite sports radio program did latter in the day with Micky Arison talking about him telling Miami to "stay white" and it also includes audio of the councilwoman introducing "Wade Jones".
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Liberty City Sleeper Cell?
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Say Hello to the New Face of the NBA
36 Points, 10 Rebounds, 5 Assists, 4 Steals, and 3 Blocks, Finals MVP.
I was alone when I said it 3 years ago, but now the nation, nay the world, must agree;
Dwayne Wade is the Best Player in the NBA and Will Usher in the Next Golden Age for the NBA.
Monday, June 19, 2006
Forget Calling Him the Next Jordan. He’s the First Dwayne Wade.
42 points in game 3, followed by 36 points in game 4, followed by 43 points (and 17 in the 4th Quarter) in game 5. A player as young as Wade hasn’t had this large of an impact on an NBA Finals series since Magic Johnson filled in for Kareem and scored 42 back in game 7 of the 1980 Finals.
It appears that D-Wade has decided that he will single handedly win the Finals for the Miami Heat. If for some reason you have not been watching this almost superhuman display be sure to put Tuesday night at 9:00 on your calendar.
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Pour Myself a Cup of Ambition.
In addition to the substance of my job, the walk to work is pretty interesting also. One building over from where I work there is a guy who is living in a 3-sided glass store front apartment under 24/7 surveilance by 4 digital stream cameras. To see what I’m talking about go to www.lookinginlookingout.com. If you watch his webcam at the right time you might even see me staring in awkwardly at him while I’m on my lunch break.
In an alley on the way to my job there is another interesting installation, rather than explain it I’ll just show you a picture:
Here's an explanation of what's going on here
Lastly, I don’t have a picture of this one, but another building nearby is covered in fake grass as part of miniature golf course thing, I’ll try to get a picture and post it sometime this week. For now you can read this description
Lastly, anyone who knows what song I’m quoting in the title gets bonus points.
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
R.I.P. John "Earthquake" Tenta
Here's a great retrospective of Tenta's career
For those wondering how my job is going, I love it. It's quite demanding, but even more rewarding.
Monday, May 29, 2006
Back to work and a Few Other Things
-Well, I’m finally starting my job tomorrow. I’m not nervous or anything, actually I’m pretty excited to be working again after so long without a job. It has been a whole 3 weeks since finals ended so I’m feeling well rested.
-If you haven’t been watching the NBA playoffs then start watching tonight. Dwayne Wade has been slicing the Pistons apart and tonight his talents will be showcased on a national stage since the game is being broadcast on ABC.
-X-Men 3 doesn’t disappoint so check it out if you get the chance.
Sunday, May 21, 2006
A Few Observations From The First Day Back In The Gym
Secondly, why is it that elliptical machines seem to only be used by women? I went back to the gym today to watch the first half of the Cavs – Pistons game while on an elliptical and I was the only guy using one. I can’t figure this out given that other guys apparently have no problem using a treadmill or stationary bikes, oh well.
Lastly, an observation from the NBA: I know he doesn’t fit well with the NBA’s hip hop image but I love ABC's use of Tom Petty music when going to commercials.
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Luck, What a Cruel Mistress
I think the comment left by my girlfriend sums things up perfectly:
"It's just like those choose your own adventure books...sometimes you find the castle and sometimes you fall down a pit. Only I used to keep my finger in the previous page so I could go back and choose again. So maybe it's not like that at all..."
Saturday, May 06, 2006
What Defines a Great Movie?
Also as a side note, one of the perks of being me seems to be that any time a Rocky marathon is on at least one person will at attempt to (or successfully) contact me to make sure that I know about it. I’d like to thank Adam for keeping that streak alive today.
Friday, April 28, 2006
Hey Amy, June 6th = Dusty Rhodes DVD Viewing Party
Monday, April 24, 2006
Continuing With the Cell Phone Theme…
Sunday, April 23, 2006
A Day Late and About $40,000 Short
(For those of you who aren’t into sports the first part of the commercial has famous endings in sports changed via CGI, i.e. Instead of Michael Jordan making a buzzer beater against Cleveland in the 1989 playoffs he misses it.)
As proof for the statement and video above I offer you this unfortunate tale from yesterday.
I was spending my Saturday morning getting stuff together to mail back home, a shirt that needs to be sewn, my old cell phone so my niece could use it, and a couple other random items. As I was about to put the phone in the box I decided that I should check it in case there were any messages on it from people who don’t have my new cell number yet. I’ve had my new number for almost a month, but it had been about a week since I last checked it for messages so I figured there could be somebody out there who hadn’t gotten the update.
I checked the voicemails and found out that on Monday the Reed Smith office called wanting to set up an interview regarding a fellowship that I had applied for a little over a month ago (before I got my new cell number). This fellowship was a diversity fellowship that required essays on adversity that I’ve had to overcome and another one on my commitment to community service. Luckily for me I’ve got a pretty good life story for the adversity essay and I’ve handed out my fair share of food to the homeless. If I were lucky enough to be picked the fellowship would provide in state tuition for my next two years at pitt (saving me $39,402), and get me a job as a summer associate with Reed Smith next summer (not sure how much that pays, but the experience alone is worth more than at least 8 of my toes and 4 of my fingers combined). The unfortunate part is that they wanted to set up an interview with me on Friday, as we have already established it was Saturday when I finally got the message. Yup, I had just screwed myself out of a chance at one of the best legal opportunities I’ll see for quite a while. Sure, I may never have an opportunity like this again, but at least I did prove that I am the ultimate adversity candidate since even when I get a great opportunity because of overcoming adversity someone, something, or I myself, as in this case, will find a way to keep it from happening.
P.S. For those wondering, yes I did email the person in charge of the fellowship, and no, it didn’t make a difference. However they did thank me for solving the mystery as to why I hadn’t called them back.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Superman and Sports Randomness
1st is a really cool video of a joke played by some student’s in a Physics 140 class at the University of Michigan. I only wish this was me doing this in law school, here's the clip. Go to www.UMPatriots.com for a link to 2 more videos of these guys.
2nd is a great story from the best owner in professional sports today, Mark Cuban. Apparently he was able to arrange free airfare for every fan in attendance at the Dallas Mavericks last home game. Here’s the article. For more on Mark Cuban click the link to the right bearing his name to go to his blog which is always an interesting read.
Thursday, April 13, 2006
The Agony and Ecstasy of Being a Florida Marlins Fan.
One of my classmates invited me to this Friday’s Pirates game against the Cubs. Even though I’ve been wanting to get out to PNC Park since opening day I didn’t want to spend my money designated for the Marlins to get there. Then after a few minutes of pondering the answer to my problems dawned on me. Because of the Marlins unique franchise history, going to a Cubs game would be just about the same as going to a Marlins game this year. “How so?” you ask. I’ll explain.
This off-season the Marlins upheld team tradition by dismantling the nucleus of the team that won the 2003 World Series, just like they did to the 1997 team. As a result I’ll be able to see more of my favorite Marlins players if I go this Friday than I would if I waited until this year’s Marlins finally came to town. The only catch is that the Marlins will be in Cubs uniforms. Take a minute to let that sink in, it’s not an exaggeration. I can buy a ticket to a Marlins game and see Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis, if Dontrelle is starting that day, or I can buy a Cubs ticket and see Derek Lee, Juan Pierre, and Ryan Dempster, If Dempster is pitching. In fact the Cubs are just one of quite a few teams that have more familiar (former) Marlins than the current Marlins roster which has 11 rookies and only 5 players with more than 3 years of experience or more. Basically I can see some of my favorite Marlins no matter what 2 teams are playing. This is yet another of the mixed blessings of being a Marlins fan I guess. I’ll still be at PNC when the Marlins make it to town, but I’ll be in the upper deck because the big money will be spent to see the Ryan, Derek, Juan, and Cubs.
Saturday, April 08, 2006
How do I feel about the house sale? To quote the Wu…
Financial Security > Sentimentality
Also, if you want a visual representation of what I’m talking about just scroll down a couple of posts and take a gander at the random picture of Ted Dibiase, I think it makes my point quite clear.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
I know where I'll be in December 2006
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Well, at least I didn’t go there.
Honestly, after giving this some deep thought I’m not totally convinced that it’s that bad of a situation. Who wouldn’t love to take a few classes in those really short chairs and tables, you would feel like a giant. If you’re free when the kids are having recess you could dominate some pickup basketball games for added self confidence. What’s even better is that during long breaks between classes you could raid the closet with the nap time mats and get some sleep in every day just like in kindergarten. I wonder if it’s too late to transfer?
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Congratulations UF, from a Cane.
Sunday, April 02, 2006
I Miss My Style'n Shoes
Here's the documentary's web site.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Showcase of the Immortals
Somewhat Busy...
1: Finished my intramural volleyball season and then celebrated with the team + Danny and Laura.
2: Went to a brain bowl practice here at Pitt, had a good time too. I’ll be going back this Thursday.
3: Saw the Governor when he came by the law school to get a speech.
4: Angelina came for a visit.
5: Reunited with the majority of the volleyball team to beat Duquesne’s volleyball team in the Golden Gavel Competition (an annual competition between the law schools of Duquesne and Pitt).
6: Avoided doing school work by going to see a movie that night.
7: Eventually wrote a brief that was due, but only after spending part of the night at the local Dave & Buster’s arcade to help celebrate Sharon’s birthday.
So that sums up what I’ve been up to, a more interesting post will be forthcoming.
Thursday, March 16, 2006
I Paid How Much For This???
On the bright side I did go to two other events in the last two days and both were great. One was a panel on non-tradition jobs for lawyers and the other one was about legal careers in politics, I might post some interesting observations on those later though.
Everybody Owes $30,432.74
It looks like the Senate will pass legislation to let our national debt grow to 9 trillion dollars in order to avoid a default on national treasury notes. Here are a few ways to put this into perspective:
#1: Type out 9 trillion on a keyboard. It's easy, just type a nine and then put 12 zeros behind it with a coma between ever three zeros. If done correctly it'll look like this 9,000,000,000,000. Whew, that was a lot of typing.
#2: Do your part and pay what you owe on that debt. I'll come out to around $30,432.74.
#3: Read Running on Empty by Peter Peterson.
#4: Spend $35 million dollars a day for life to equal a trillion, then live 9 times.
For more fun ways to better understand how far in debt we are read this great little explanation of how much ONE trillion is .
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
No Whammy…No Whammy….aahhhh
Sunday, March 05, 2006
If You've Got a Little Extra Time...
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Photograph-X Pittsburgh Division
Monday, February 27, 2006
Money = Happiness
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Thank God I’ve Still Got Both My Eyebrows
Well, tonight I had a lot of trouble eating chili because more chili was getting in my RIDICULOUSLY long goatee than in my mouth. Even though I’m a fan of having moderately weird facial hair the goatee had to go because nothing, and I do mean nothing, stands in the way of me eating my chili.
So after I finished shaving the goatee I decided to take care of the previously mentioned single hair attempting to be a unibrow. And then for a slit second I found myself almost shaving off my right eyebrow, I didn’t intent to do this, but my hand was headed that way without thinking about it. Thank God I started thinking about what I was doing before I accidentally shaved off half an eyebrow. However this did make me start thinking about some questions, such as: “How would I have explained that at school on Monday?” “If I had shaved off half of the eyebrow should I shave the rest of it and just have one eyebrow, or shave them both and go with the King Kong Bundy look (pictured above). Just wondering, let me know what you think.
Thursday, February 16, 2006
They’ve gone too far now, way too far.
Tech Support/Reconnaissance:
The Burger King Kid’s Club.
It would take too long for me to do a member by member profile, but if you were born around the same time I was you’ll remember these guys. If you don’t then just click this link to understand why they’ll be collecting the data and keeping the technology going.
Foot Soldiers:
The Chik-Fil-A cows.
In their calendars they’ve played football, extreme sports, and this year they’ve gone with a medieval theme. Certainly athletic enough, and apparently trained in medieval weaponry, they should be useful.
Grimace, the Fry Guys, Mayor McCheese, and the Hamburgler.
Each bring their own talents, but Mayor McCheese will act as a leader among the foot soldiers, and the Hamburgler is our specialist who’s willing to do the jobs of questionable legality.
Taco Bell Dog.
I have no idea how he/she will be useful, let me know if you have any ideas.
The Leadership:
Jared from Subway: Fitness and Nutrition Expert.
Actually I can’t stand this guy. He’s really not going to have any role other than to be a human sacrifice. Enjoy it extremists, it’ll be your only kill
Little Cesar: Field General.
Even though lately all he seems able to say is “Pizza Pizza” he did lead the Roman War Machine, so he’s clearly qualified to get the most out of our foot soldiers.
Dave Thomas and Connell Sanders: Strategy/Organization
I bet you guys thought they were dead, didn’t you? Well they aren’t. Connell Sanders is still kick’n around as an animation. In fact I’d say he’s even more lively in this incarnation. He over strategy and organization since he was known for firing somebody on the spot if their KFC store’s gravy didn’t meet his standards. As for his protégé Dave Thomas, check the date of his alleged “death” JANUARY 8th, 2002. That’s right, my birthday. Back in 02’ Dave’s gift to me was to fake his death so that he could come join me and the others here in fighting terrorism instead of having to run his restaurants. With these 2 around the gray will be right and the attacks precise.
The Burger King: Figurehead/Front Man.
NWA had Eazy-E, Public Enemy had Flava Flav, Van Halen had David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar, Metallica has James Hetfield, and we have the Burger King. He colorful, new, and kinda freaky.
Ronald McDonald: President.
He is the face behind the world’s largest fast food chain. That alone is enough to qualify him for the top spot. Also he’s had great media relations throughout the decades, so keeping him in charge should ensure positive popular opinion.
The time to unleash this mighty force has finally arrived.
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Ring the bell, this fight is over.
"The winner of the match...and Adam's NEW favorite politician...Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi!!!"
Berlusconi pulled off this upset by calling himself "the Jesus Christ of politics". He then went on to say "I am a patient victim, I put up with everyone, I sacrifice myself for everyone."
As another person who is a patient victim, puts up with everyone, and sacrifices himself for everyone, I can understand how he feels (sarcasm is dripping from the keyboard as I type). I'm not stupid enough to call myself Jesus because of it, but I do understand.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
That’s the spirit guys!
In the article about the cartoon contest the guy from the Iranian paper asks a question which I'd like to answer. The question he asks is "Does the West extend freedom of expression to the crimes committed by the United States and Israel, or an event such as the Holocaust? Or is its freedom only for insulting religious sanctities?" The answer is yes, we do extend freedom of expression to our own crimes, take for example Abu Ghraib. Or if you want to go further back consider Mia Li massacre in Vietnam. Both storys were allowed to be covered by the US media as free expression.
Lastly, here's one more observation on how the Muslim community needs to address this issue by categorically denouncing these violent protests. In the U.S. many Christians feel that a human life is created at the moment of conception (whether or not you actually believe this assume it to be true for the time being). As a result of abortion being legal people who feel this way believe that their government is allowing the murder of over a million babies a year. A few people with these beliefs have taken the law into their own hands and bombed or otherwise attacked abortion clinics in response. Every Christian denomination responded to these violent actions by denouncing anyone who did such actions. There was absolutely no waffling among Christians about how what the clinic bombers did was wrong. No Christians claimed that the bombings must be understood by considering how offensive the U.S. government's abortion policies were to the bombers. Instead these radical elements of Christianity were denounced at every turn by every denomination. I think it's time Islam hold itself to a similar standard. If U.S. Christians are able to condemn violent actions by extremist Christians in response to what they see as murder then I think Islamic leaders and lay people should be able to stand up and clearly condemn a violent response to what they see as a blasphemous cartoon.
Monday, February 06, 2006
Good response guys, next time try not to reinforce that stereotype.
While looking around online I found some articles discussing how this situation is just an example of westerners being ignorant of the Islamic religion and as a result insulting Muslims worldwide. There’s some truth to this argument since most westerners don’t have any idea about even the basics of Islam. Unfortunately it’s very hard to get westerners to look past their opinions of Islam when Muslims respond to an offensive cartoon linking their religion to terrorism and violence by starting violent riots that have already claimed multible lives. (In part credit James for that simple yet profound observation).
I’m sure there are those who would say that westerners don’t understand the kind of offense that a Muslim takes to a depiction of Mohamed. Well, I don’t remember deadly riots after the unveiling of Piss Christ.
In the end it's frustrating to me to know that my Muslim friends have to deal with a distorted perception of what they're like due to actions of those half a world away.
Saturday, February 04, 2006
Ok, it’s late on the Saturday night before the Super Bowl, time to give my analysis.
Also: I think Bettis will have a few more carries than normal. This isn’t for centimental reasons but because throughout the season the team lightens his workload so he’ll be around all year. Now that he’s at what is probably at the last game of his career there’s nothing to reserve, expect Bettis to leave everything on the field and Cower to realize that this is the one time this year he’ll have access to a completely unrestrained Bettis.
With the Seahawks keying on Ward and Randle El expect Cedrick Wilson to have to have a big game.
And even though this is obvious, expect Joey Porter to come up big.
Final score: Steelers 31 Seahawks 16