Monday, March 25, 2013

Dave's Thoughts of the Day: March 26th

Sometimes blog posts have a beginning and an end, but today I just want to write in a whole lot of "middle." 

I was convinced that they'd have a Press Conference regarding the firing of Ben Howland at Pauley today.   It didn't happen.  All I saw was two wimpy little news trucks parked in front of Pauley Pavilion at UCLA.    I don't they even had a presser.  

I suppose I got a little too hyper about it.   I don't think they often hold big press conferences to announce a firing.  Would the fired coach go up in front of dozens of microphones and then field questions about why he sucked so much?   That seems so cruel.  I didn't think that one through.

I was thinking that way because I saw all these news trucks in front of *my building* this morning:






Well sports fans, these trucks were here to provide props for a movie shoot on the other side of Dickson Court here on campus.   It had nothing to do with Ben Howland or sports at all!  In fact, look closely... those are presumably Washington D.C. news stations.   As a matter of fact, they might even be ficticious TV stations.  I've been duped again!

They even got in two D.C. Police Cars for the shoot on the other side of the courtyard.  And I thought the crew at WPXW was so excited about Ben Howland's firing that they drove 3000 miles to cover it.

As I was walking to Royce (it's more towards the middle of campus), I saw a whole lot of other cars with Virginia or D.C. license plates.   Once I did the math I realized some Washington D.C. based movie, maybe a political one, was shooting here at UCLA.    I did some further investigation and noticed a Paramount Pictures truck, so we know the movie will be from Paramount.  In theaters, coming at an undetermined time!

We probably won't even know what the movie is.  9 out of 10, hell, 99 out of 100 projects that shoot here at UCLA are quickly forgotten.  They did a TV show out here called "Glory Daze" a few years ago for TBS... nobody watched it -- it was corny 80's themed dreck.  

Ever try to make a cash deposit at an ATM before?  They do great things with ATMs now.  It's pretty easy to make one now.  You get a wad of cash, feed the whole stack into the slot and it counts the money automatically.   

The only drawback is that I wonder if the ATM machine is smart enough to tell the difference between real dollars and counterfeit ones.   Imagine if some joker brought re-printed bills and put them into the slot?!   Would the ATM know the difference?

I set up some Penne Pasta with ground italian seasoned turkey and Marinara Sauce last night.  It was pretty good.  Always good to get the cooking hands back at it.   Cooking is very rewarding.

Did you realize that when you swim for about an hour, you can burn up to 600 calories?  That's an enormous amount!   No wonder effects of swimming regularly are profound.   I've been really lazy with the swimming lately... shame on me.  I'll try to be more regular with it as we go along.

Splash continues on ABC tonight.   This week: they send in the other jokers to dive.  The first group was very entertaining: Katherine Webb, Rudy, Louie Anderson and his enormous body going down for a plunge, Kareem, and that nutjob that does the extreme snowboarding.  That was a good group.  This week its that sulking dope Ndomakong Suh, the lady from the Playboy Mansion, Chuy from "Chelsea Lately," Drake from "Drake and Josh", and one other guy.  In other words, a *very* unrootable group compared to last week.  You almost hope they all belly flop.  In fact, I saw in one of the promos where the Playboy lady cursed out Greg Louganis.  What kind of an ungrateful wench do you have to be to curse out a legend like Louganis?  Geez, show a little respect, will ya?

The first group did not come close to getting that upset with Louganis as a coach.  Goes to show you the kind of bad seeds who can get involved with the reality programs.  Very lame.

I heard that they hired Brandi Chastain, the former U.S. Soccer Superstar as an alternate!  OI!!   She's perfectly fine at what she does until she *opens her mouth.*  That voice of hers is tough to take!   Remember her color commentary for USA Womens Soccer during the Olympics?   Awful... terrible, really!

I remember also, in that second group, was Nicole Eggert.  Good lord what happened to her?  She used to be a hottie and now she's almost bigger than Kirstie Alley.   She also mentioned that she never knew how to dive at all.   That's either some amazing revisionist history or she completely forgot the entire episode of Baywatch she did when she portrayed being a springboard diver as a hobby between lifeguard work.  *that's how I remembered the story in the promos, but I'd be surprised if she didn't at least bring up that particular episode of Baywatch she did, it was a central storyline.

Now how I remember all of this is a mystery... I would catch Baywatch reruns off and on about a decade ago, but nowadays the show is nowhere to be found.  Strange too, because Baywatch was *huge* when it hit the air in the 90's.  There was no real plot or character development... that'd seem to allow for great replay value.

The Hoff had two big TV roles... one as an old lifeguard among a group of models... and the other was him driving around the desert in a talking car.   Memorable shows both, but pretty hokey!

Chocolate bars... many good ones, some favorites.  I long held the contention that Snickers is my favorite, but lately I've had a good thing for the plain ole Hershey bar.   I think I mentioned in an earlier blog how great it was to divide it into 32 little pieces.   Good times.  Honorable mentions: Baby Ruth, Butterfinger, Twix, and Milky Way.

I don't eat chocolate bars on a regular basis any more... it's just not good for me.  I don't know where I'd fit candy bars into my regular daily diet.   That'd be tough.

Coffee can fit very easily into any and every meal, on the other hand.   In fact, I think I'll have a coffee right now! 

Short week this week with the Cesar Chavez holiday coming up on Friday.  Only a few places get the day off in California, but who am I to complain for being one of the lucky ones who get the holiday?

It shall be a good week indeed.   That's all from here, catch you all soon.

No comments: