I considered a joke entry for April Fool's Day, but I have a few straight thoughts to offer to you.
First of all, what's the deal with the Cadbury Bunny? What kind of a clown is this? This fat little bunny gets off thinking he (or she) can start clucking like a chicken and get rewarded bogus Chocolate Eggs with goo in them. Come on people... that is *not* a chicken. Those eggs are from a factory!
Went to Wonder Con on Saturday with some relatives. It's in Anaheim and it's the "build up" event to Wonder Con in San Diego. It was a *scene!* I was pumped up!
You go over to the two autograph rows and see Blue Power Ranger, Soup Nazi, the Incredible Hulk from the 70s, Chewbacca (poor guy is in a wheelchair now though), and a few others... freaking VIRGIL was there too. Virgil has nothing to do with Sci Fi, Comics, or Fantasy whatsoever. You can bet he'll be at the next Antiques Roadshow convention too.
Somewhat funny story... ok my Mom and I were trying to come up with some ideas for things to do while my Aunt and Uncle dug into comics and autographs downstairs... so we went up to a few other rooms on levels 2 and 3. We saw some short family friendly films, really nice, very entertaining. Then I recommended a panel on Cartoon Voices. Good ole Mark Evanier, the man behind the wit behind the best Saturday Morning Kids TV show ever in my book, Garfield and Friends, hosted a panel of his colleagues from the voice acting business for a demonstration of how cartoon voice acting works. Really good panel. I'm sure they've done that show 1000s of times at various conventions, but it's tremendous! My mom and I went over to the room where the panel took place but another presentation was in progress, so we peeked in and we were about to carry on.
Then I noticed a group of people right next to us including this short woman who looked an awful lot like Larraine Newman (SNL fame etc., she has been doing cartoon voice work for the last 15 years). So I told my Mom in a low voice "Look behind you." So she did, and she's like "What?"
I wasn't sure who all those people were so I said "Oh, nothing, never mind, I thought maybe we saw some people we knew." Only a half hour later, I realized the Larraine Newman looking woman *WAS* Larraine Newman! Holy mackerel would you believe it?! She's very short, if anyone was curious. In fact, the group next to us at the time was the entire panel of guests: Larraine, Jason Marsden, Gregg Berger, Laura Summer, Saratoga Ballantine, and Neil Kaplan. Boy they all did a great job, that presentation was laugh out loud funny! Once we were seated, we were introduced as an audience to each of the voices through Evanier, the moderator.
Later on, my Mom and I checked out some more discussion panels at the Arena. It's not a big arena, but for the purpose of conventions it was an *enormous* venue to host discussion panels, and it was as good as packed. I thought we were just going to see some movie at the arena since the program said "Sony Pictures Entertainment Movies." Seriously, I thought it was just a giant screening room for some trailers, and it was, but to our surprise, we not only saw the trailer for this really bizarre new comedy called "This is the End" with Craig Robinson, the guy from Eastbound and Down, and Seth Rogen, but freakin' all three of them came out for a Q&A session. *THAT* was laugh out loud funny! That whole day was fantastic.
If you can see Blue Power Ranger, Soup Nazi, Chewbacca, Lt Uhura, Hulk, R2D2, Dark Helmet, a host of great cartoon voices including NR4PTP Larraine Newman, Jane Levy, Seth Rogen, Craig Robinson, and the Easbound and Down guy in one day, that's a good day.
Now... the quest continues at Comic Con, and the mother lode: The Big Bang Theory discussion panel. I've seen the last two of them on the internet... it just doesn't get any better than that. Only problem. I don't have tickets to Comic Con! Bah! Not sure how that ends... I probably won't go. Ah well, I'll always have Wonder Con to fall back on. Next year, Wonder Con is in San Francisco... I may be a-go for the roadie.
So other thoughts...
People have had a lot of buzz about this History Channel show "The Bible." I saw an episode tonight while with family... pretty good! We know exactly what happens here... but it's still interesting to see unfold.
I hope other books like that get their own TV shows someday. "The Tech Manual." The "Windows for Dummies" book. "The Phone Book." "The Encyclopedia." I'm all in.
In the history of TV shows, there have been numerous settings used. We've seen naval airships as a setting. World War II, a local bar, an apartment, a radio station, a police department, school, a mall, and coutnless others. Here's a few others that I'm surprised they didn't try yet.
Sit down restaurants and diners were used quite frequently in sitcoms and dramas, but how come no one really made more than a recurring sketch out of the fast food restaurant? Places like McDonald's, In N Out, and Shake Shack? I'd think there'd be some material there for a 30 minute show, don't you? Young teens trying to find their way through friendships and fries. Why wouldn't that work??
A library. You get some real characters at the library, and a bunch of folks who've held long time jobs there. Perhaps a look at the people behind the scenes could be interesting, dry humor.
A newstand... not a newspaper office, but just a dopey newstand in the big city someplace. A story from the perspective of the newstand owner who sees all sorts of goofballs walk by and buy their regular dailies.
I believe record store has been tried once or twice for shows, but not as a principal setting. A *used* record store could yield a very offbeat program. I've had that idea for quite some time, going back to 7 years ago at Santa Barbara. Back then there was a used record store, a giant one, called "Morninglory Music (More Music for Less Money)". I'd give the sitcom the same name: "Morninglory."
A sports stadium! To pose an example, a show about the staff at Staples Center, including the ushers, the concessions guys, and those intimidating "Red Coats," the guys in red suits who do security on the arena floor. I'd be really interested in a show like that.
That's what I had so far. I think in television you can really push the limits. Cable has been remarkable in doing just that. I commend television on the whole for getting more and more creative.
I didn't feel like chatting about sports in today's entry, and I said "would it be possible to do a whole blog entry without a current sports topic?" Then I looked at it -- I JUST DID!
Do the dance, everybody! I'll get back into sports banter tomorrow. Have a good Monday..
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Dave's Thoughts of the Day: March 29th
Happy Friday everyone! I have posted my picks for tonight's Sweet 16 NCAA Basketball games here on the blog. It's the post below this one. Enjoy.
Well friends, I have the day off today. I look forward to a day of relaxation some travel and good eats. Then the aforementioned NCAA games. This can get good, really good.
I saw someone present a giant cookie to someone for a birthday present on the internet. Like, instead of a cake they used an enormous cookie. I want a giant cookie too... not for a birthday, but just for fun.
One time I brought a cake sized cookie to a friend's apartment for an NBA All Star Game viewing party. It was a hit. The cookie was enormous and everyone in the party got a piece of it.
Imagine a hamburger the size of a birthday cake? I've seen those kind of burgers in pictures, but just ponder what it must be like in person! I wouldn't try to eat the whole thing but goodness gracious would I want to take a bite. How would one even lift such a thing?
Anyone try to eat cereal out of a punch bowl? I don't think I've ever been that hungry. Or out of dishes like that.
Well friends, let's hear it for several teams who won last night: Marquette, who's getting these wins out of nowhere it seems. Syracuse, for using their great frontcourt length to its advantage. Wichita State, for staying hot from 3 point land. Finally, a nod to Ohio State for once AGAIN fighting back from a ten point deficit and executing brilliantly down the stretch to work in a last second 3 point shot to go ahead. This time they won by 3, as it was last time against Iowa State.
Incredible. It's going to be a very different Final Four this year. It might be even more different than you could imagine if more wildness occurs tonight.
Today I'd like to see a movie in Dolby Atmos surround sound, the new surround sound format they have in select movie theaters. It's revolutionary! 64 channels of sound! I mean it was 4 in the 70s, then 6 in the 80s and 8 in the 90s. Now it's SIXTY FOUR. I gotta check it out at an AMC so I can get the popcorn pants working. You get these bags designed to hold soft drinks and then fill em up with popcorn. They look like pants -- ergo popcorn pants!
Today is wide open... I realized that in one day, I could go to Franks for the breakfast burrito with the fresh eggs, then skoobys for lunch: fries and hot dog. After that, the movie at the AMC with the popcorn pants and afterward the Sweet 16 games at my buddy "Coach's" house.
I won't do all of those things, but there would be enough time to execute all of that.
Thank you all very much for all of your kind words in response to the little pet fish story I had on Facebook. It is so funny how little fish could be so emotionally gripping. Such is life. Sometimes even objects can become sentimental. I don't want to get carried away with that kind of sentiment. If I start throwing funerals for old remotes, it gets out of control.
I've seen friends hit hard by the loss of pets in their lives. I understand completely.
Have you also seen friends hit hard by the loss of *bets* in their lives? I HAD been hit hard by the loss of bets, but not many of them. I learned my lesson after that disaster in Vegas in November. Never again. The only thing that saves me is that I don't put large money on sports bets. Nothing would be worse than blowing 300 dollars on the Browns money line over the Jaguars.
Bowling... is something I'd like to have a crack at very soon. That's another item I could try today. I believe at the El Dorado Lanes (by LAX) you can pay 11 dollars for "All You Can Bowl" before 5pm. That's incredible value! 11 bones to bowl as many games as you want until you get tired. How long would you be able to bowl without wearing down? I think most people could go 3 hours, no?
There was a really cool bowling-related Miller High Life commercial that aired years and years ago. I wish I remembered the semantics of it.
If there's a single commercial that stands out as the best I've ever seen, it has to be this one.
I just can't think of anything that a) was more entertaining b) drove the point home and c) sold its product *well.* It's technically not even a real commercial. It's a promotion from the Milk Advisory board as opposed to a specific brand. BUT, it was and still is great. The phrase "Got Milk?" is still a relevant term that gets modified to other subjects, even today.
So my friends... Got Friday?
Catch you all again after the weekend. Enjoy your day!
Well friends, I have the day off today. I look forward to a day of relaxation some travel and good eats. Then the aforementioned NCAA games. This can get good, really good.
I saw someone present a giant cookie to someone for a birthday present on the internet. Like, instead of a cake they used an enormous cookie. I want a giant cookie too... not for a birthday, but just for fun.
One time I brought a cake sized cookie to a friend's apartment for an NBA All Star Game viewing party. It was a hit. The cookie was enormous and everyone in the party got a piece of it.
Imagine a hamburger the size of a birthday cake? I've seen those kind of burgers in pictures, but just ponder what it must be like in person! I wouldn't try to eat the whole thing but goodness gracious would I want to take a bite. How would one even lift such a thing?
Anyone try to eat cereal out of a punch bowl? I don't think I've ever been that hungry. Or out of dishes like that.
Well friends, let's hear it for several teams who won last night: Marquette, who's getting these wins out of nowhere it seems. Syracuse, for using their great frontcourt length to its advantage. Wichita State, for staying hot from 3 point land. Finally, a nod to Ohio State for once AGAIN fighting back from a ten point deficit and executing brilliantly down the stretch to work in a last second 3 point shot to go ahead. This time they won by 3, as it was last time against Iowa State.
Incredible. It's going to be a very different Final Four this year. It might be even more different than you could imagine if more wildness occurs tonight.
Today I'd like to see a movie in Dolby Atmos surround sound, the new surround sound format they have in select movie theaters. It's revolutionary! 64 channels of sound! I mean it was 4 in the 70s, then 6 in the 80s and 8 in the 90s. Now it's SIXTY FOUR. I gotta check it out at an AMC so I can get the popcorn pants working. You get these bags designed to hold soft drinks and then fill em up with popcorn. They look like pants -- ergo popcorn pants!
Today is wide open... I realized that in one day, I could go to Franks for the breakfast burrito with the fresh eggs, then skoobys for lunch: fries and hot dog. After that, the movie at the AMC with the popcorn pants and afterward the Sweet 16 games at my buddy "Coach's" house.
I won't do all of those things, but there would be enough time to execute all of that.
Thank you all very much for all of your kind words in response to the little pet fish story I had on Facebook. It is so funny how little fish could be so emotionally gripping. Such is life. Sometimes even objects can become sentimental. I don't want to get carried away with that kind of sentiment. If I start throwing funerals for old remotes, it gets out of control.
I've seen friends hit hard by the loss of pets in their lives. I understand completely.
Have you also seen friends hit hard by the loss of *bets* in their lives? I HAD been hit hard by the loss of bets, but not many of them. I learned my lesson after that disaster in Vegas in November. Never again. The only thing that saves me is that I don't put large money on sports bets. Nothing would be worse than blowing 300 dollars on the Browns money line over the Jaguars.
Bowling... is something I'd like to have a crack at very soon. That's another item I could try today. I believe at the El Dorado Lanes (by LAX) you can pay 11 dollars for "All You Can Bowl" before 5pm. That's incredible value! 11 bones to bowl as many games as you want until you get tired. How long would you be able to bowl without wearing down? I think most people could go 3 hours, no?
There was a really cool bowling-related Miller High Life commercial that aired years and years ago. I wish I remembered the semantics of it.
If there's a single commercial that stands out as the best I've ever seen, it has to be this one.
I just can't think of anything that a) was more entertaining b) drove the point home and c) sold its product *well.* It's technically not even a real commercial. It's a promotion from the Milk Advisory board as opposed to a specific brand. BUT, it was and still is great. The phrase "Got Milk?" is still a relevant term that gets modified to other subjects, even today.
So my friends... Got Friday?
Catch you all again after the weekend. Enjoy your day!
Dave's Sweet 16 LOCKS of the Week (part two)
Posted my picks for the first half of the S16 last night on Twitter. Today I'll post my picks for the second half of the S16 games, the Friday games. I provide this as a public service to hypothetical wagerers everywhere so that they can bet against my choices and make good money.
As you can see from last night's 0-3-1 outcomes, we provide results here at LOCKS of the Week. Onward...
Today's picks:
Florida -13 over Florida Gulf Coast
Kansas -2 over Michigan
Michigan State +2 over Duke
and Oregon +10.5 to cover vs Louisville. No idea who wins it though. My feel is Oregon right now w/ the Money Line.
As you can see from last night's 0-3-1 outcomes, we provide results here at LOCKS of the Week. Onward...
Today's picks:
Florida -13 over Florida Gulf Coast
Kansas -2 over Michigan
Michigan State +2 over Duke
and Oregon +10.5 to cover vs Louisville. No idea who wins it though. My feel is Oregon right now w/ the Money Line.
Dave's Thoughts of the Day: March 28th
Last blog post before the day off and the weekend. I might write a Friday blog post even with the day off, stay tuned!
I may have put too much cocoa in my coffee this morning. The cocoa is very good but its pure. It has no sugar added -- straight from the bean at Peet's. It's ok though, this is the kind of problem you want to have.
Cocoa is good stuff.
Let's hear it for the Bulls beating the Heat to stop their winning streak at 27. Who would have thunk it??
Kim Kardashian is preggo? Just great... that kind of bonehead gene does not need to be spread to progeny. I feel bad for the kid... perhaps someone else can step in and raise him properly?
I think I will apologize to the Kim Kardashian *fans* for being so harsh, but I stand by my opinion.
For the opening series at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers will give away a Dodgers blue hooded sweatshirt in one of the games. I've seen all kinds of things given away before but a full hoodie? That's impressive! I think one of my buddies said he was going to the game and would give me the hoodie. Do the dance!
Hoodies are big time. Usually when I go to the store, I find hoodies running around 40 to 50 bones. Dodger Stadium must be doing this as a serious loss leader. Getting one for *free*... that's unbelievable.
...Am I a hypocrite for outing Kardashian as a bonehead while displaying my own boneheadedness? I crossed up a written signature with a message board signature yesterday. In all honesty, that's not so bad, but I can see hints of idiocy there.
Skooby's sounds like a go for tomorrow. Good hot dogs and great fries... I'll go light with the breakfast.
Speaking of "loss leaders," it's remarkable how far the Rockies have fallen. I would gauge that most MLB experts have them finishing last in the NL West this year. Who would you put below them? Not the Padres... they have a couple of good players and a great bullpen. All the others are better teams by a lot. Six years ago, they made the World Series. Today, they'll be lucky to win more games than the Cubs.
I saw them the other week at Spring Training, and they rolled out a lot of their AAA guys, so there is a little hope for a future. Not this year, though.
How did the Bruins miss out on Jerome Iginla? I saw the report and thought it was a lock. In fact, I complained about it on Facebook. Then, this morning, I read he went to the Penguins.
The Kings fans were making a big push for Iginla, but I'm relieved it didn't happen. To get a guy of his caliber, or, the Flames' best player, they'd have to give up a pretty good chunk of their own team. Had Rob Scuderi gotten involved, I would be upset. Scuds is serious with the defense... he's made some great plays to prevent scoring opportunities for the other team. He really does those "little things" that don't show up in highlights or the box score.
On Saturday, I'm headed to Wonder-Con, a comic book conference in Anaheim. I may have wanted to think that through. It turns out it runs the whole day, and that *day* is the same date as the NCAA Elite Eight. I might miss one or two of those games. HOWEVER, I have the NCAA app too, so do the dance there. Seems to me that I'm going to bring my charger on Saturday afternoon so I can keep up to date on the phone.
This is where the smartphone really wins with me. You don't miss a thing... provided that you're in cell phone reception range. Back in the day, I would have had to dial this obscure 1-800 number to figure out the score of the game, or sneak out to a sports bar to see what was happening, or call a friend to ask him what the score was. Today I can see exactly what the score is on ESPN.com, or watch the game itself using the NCAA app.
Following sports on the road is challenging. The biggest challenge ever was when we were at Yosemite National Park. Out there we get zero TVs or anything... most people don't even have lodging, but we were fortunate to get a park-assigned Cabin for our stay. No TV or radio in the cabin. It's an awesome throwback setting. On the other hand, the Lakers had a big game against the Supersonics one time, this was 1999 -- lockout shortened season, when the Lakers had Dennis Rodman. We were at the park, and the whole day I was wondering how I'd ever know what happened. Later on, I scamped over to the local cafe at Yosemite and to my surprise they had a TV in there! Now Yosemite is really out in the boonies, and surrounded by mountains, but I think the place had Directv and the had the Lakers game on. The game was an NBC game at the time.
Maybe they didn't have Directv because for some reason I remember the picture being fuzzy. Anyway, the Lakers were getting pretty feisty with Seattle back at the Forum... and then, geez, Rodman wrestled a ball away from HIS OWN TEAMMATE during the game. That year will always be one of the worst Lakers seasons of all time. They had no chemistry at all... I think by season's end, after a sweep by the Spurs, the Laker individuals wanted to slash each others' throats. One coach was fired, several people were traded. I can't even remember where Cedric Ceballos was by then. It was a joke. I did enjoy Rodman's passion and enthusiasm but he was more bad than good at the end. Besides, he had no offense!
Anyway, that was a memorable way of keeping up to date with sports. My Dad found me at the Yosemite cafe and watched the end of the game with me, and we ordered a pizza. I remember drinking a Sprite too. Random.
You guys want to know how I followed the iconic Game 6 of the 2002 World Series? On the radio! That was where the Angels fell behind by 5 runs to the Giants. It was a wedding anniversary for my Cousin and her husband somewhere in LA, and I brought my radio to keep tabs on the game. Noisy affair with the reception but the game was underway, and I listened in on my headphones... it was hopeless. Giants up 5... I had no feeling for the Angels coming back at all. Then they did. And I started to listen more and more, and Rory Markas brought the words and the action to me (R.I.P.). In those days I really wanted to see someone, anyone, beat the Giants. It looked like Bonds and co were going to win the World Series. Then other people saw me listening to the game and asked me what the score was. The Angels started making the comeback. Then I went outside, and a crowd of people were huddled around me asking me for updates, so I started to repeat everything I heard on the radio, word for word. I might have even recited the commercials. So it was, the Angels had the go-ahead hit and the people around me erupted! Then, after the Angels won the game, I went over to my cousins to tell them the news, they announced it on the PA in the reception hall and everyone went bananas. To this day one of my favorite sports moments, and I never saw the game! but we recorded it on VHS at home so I got to see it later.
Will we see moments like that this weekend in College Basketball? Time will tell...
That's all from here. Have a good day you all.
I may have put too much cocoa in my coffee this morning. The cocoa is very good but its pure. It has no sugar added -- straight from the bean at Peet's. It's ok though, this is the kind of problem you want to have.
Cocoa is good stuff.
Let's hear it for the Bulls beating the Heat to stop their winning streak at 27. Who would have thunk it??
Kim Kardashian is preggo? Just great... that kind of bonehead gene does not need to be spread to progeny. I feel bad for the kid... perhaps someone else can step in and raise him properly?
I think I will apologize to the Kim Kardashian *fans* for being so harsh, but I stand by my opinion.
For the opening series at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers will give away a Dodgers blue hooded sweatshirt in one of the games. I've seen all kinds of things given away before but a full hoodie? That's impressive! I think one of my buddies said he was going to the game and would give me the hoodie. Do the dance!
Hoodies are big time. Usually when I go to the store, I find hoodies running around 40 to 50 bones. Dodger Stadium must be doing this as a serious loss leader. Getting one for *free*... that's unbelievable.
...Am I a hypocrite for outing Kardashian as a bonehead while displaying my own boneheadedness? I crossed up a written signature with a message board signature yesterday. In all honesty, that's not so bad, but I can see hints of idiocy there.
Skooby's sounds like a go for tomorrow. Good hot dogs and great fries... I'll go light with the breakfast.
Speaking of "loss leaders," it's remarkable how far the Rockies have fallen. I would gauge that most MLB experts have them finishing last in the NL West this year. Who would you put below them? Not the Padres... they have a couple of good players and a great bullpen. All the others are better teams by a lot. Six years ago, they made the World Series. Today, they'll be lucky to win more games than the Cubs.
I saw them the other week at Spring Training, and they rolled out a lot of their AAA guys, so there is a little hope for a future. Not this year, though.
How did the Bruins miss out on Jerome Iginla? I saw the report and thought it was a lock. In fact, I complained about it on Facebook. Then, this morning, I read he went to the Penguins.
The Kings fans were making a big push for Iginla, but I'm relieved it didn't happen. To get a guy of his caliber, or, the Flames' best player, they'd have to give up a pretty good chunk of their own team. Had Rob Scuderi gotten involved, I would be upset. Scuds is serious with the defense... he's made some great plays to prevent scoring opportunities for the other team. He really does those "little things" that don't show up in highlights or the box score.
On Saturday, I'm headed to Wonder-Con, a comic book conference in Anaheim. I may have wanted to think that through. It turns out it runs the whole day, and that *day* is the same date as the NCAA Elite Eight. I might miss one or two of those games. HOWEVER, I have the NCAA app too, so do the dance there. Seems to me that I'm going to bring my charger on Saturday afternoon so I can keep up to date on the phone.
This is where the smartphone really wins with me. You don't miss a thing... provided that you're in cell phone reception range. Back in the day, I would have had to dial this obscure 1-800 number to figure out the score of the game, or sneak out to a sports bar to see what was happening, or call a friend to ask him what the score was. Today I can see exactly what the score is on ESPN.com, or watch the game itself using the NCAA app.
Following sports on the road is challenging. The biggest challenge ever was when we were at Yosemite National Park. Out there we get zero TVs or anything... most people don't even have lodging, but we were fortunate to get a park-assigned Cabin for our stay. No TV or radio in the cabin. It's an awesome throwback setting. On the other hand, the Lakers had a big game against the Supersonics one time, this was 1999 -- lockout shortened season, when the Lakers had Dennis Rodman. We were at the park, and the whole day I was wondering how I'd ever know what happened. Later on, I scamped over to the local cafe at Yosemite and to my surprise they had a TV in there! Now Yosemite is really out in the boonies, and surrounded by mountains, but I think the place had Directv and the had the Lakers game on. The game was an NBC game at the time.
Maybe they didn't have Directv because for some reason I remember the picture being fuzzy. Anyway, the Lakers were getting pretty feisty with Seattle back at the Forum... and then, geez, Rodman wrestled a ball away from HIS OWN TEAMMATE during the game. That year will always be one of the worst Lakers seasons of all time. They had no chemistry at all... I think by season's end, after a sweep by the Spurs, the Laker individuals wanted to slash each others' throats. One coach was fired, several people were traded. I can't even remember where Cedric Ceballos was by then. It was a joke. I did enjoy Rodman's passion and enthusiasm but he was more bad than good at the end. Besides, he had no offense!
Anyway, that was a memorable way of keeping up to date with sports. My Dad found me at the Yosemite cafe and watched the end of the game with me, and we ordered a pizza. I remember drinking a Sprite too. Random.
You guys want to know how I followed the iconic Game 6 of the 2002 World Series? On the radio! That was where the Angels fell behind by 5 runs to the Giants. It was a wedding anniversary for my Cousin and her husband somewhere in LA, and I brought my radio to keep tabs on the game. Noisy affair with the reception but the game was underway, and I listened in on my headphones... it was hopeless. Giants up 5... I had no feeling for the Angels coming back at all. Then they did. And I started to listen more and more, and Rory Markas brought the words and the action to me (R.I.P.). In those days I really wanted to see someone, anyone, beat the Giants. It looked like Bonds and co were going to win the World Series. Then other people saw me listening to the game and asked me what the score was. The Angels started making the comeback. Then I went outside, and a crowd of people were huddled around me asking me for updates, so I started to repeat everything I heard on the radio, word for word. I might have even recited the commercials. So it was, the Angels had the go-ahead hit and the people around me erupted! Then, after the Angels won the game, I went over to my cousins to tell them the news, they announced it on the PA in the reception hall and everyone went bananas. To this day one of my favorite sports moments, and I never saw the game! but we recorded it on VHS at home so I got to see it later.
Will we see moments like that this weekend in College Basketball? Time will tell...
That's all from here. Have a good day you all.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Dave's Thoughts of the Day: March 27th
Let's hear it for the equals sign today! I went on Facebook and saw all these equals signs...
Now I am not dense, I know what they are for. Equal rights. I'm glad to see the passion and the support. Never before has a math symbol meant *so* much. Good stuff.
I saw an ABC promo for a TV show where there was a masquerade ball in the episode. Good gravy does it get any more Hoity Toity than that? Oh look at me! I'm so cool that I don't even need a complete mask... I'm just going to get these little eye slits on a stick. Ohhhh I am *so * cool.
1861 called -- they want their party back.
Went for a swim last night. Nice swim, great swim, a necessary swim too because I'm out of shape folks. Anyway, one of my colleagues was there and she said hello, hey how's it going, etc. Then I find out that her boyfriend got a new job in San Diego. I said to her "oh does that mean you're moving over there?" Answer: no. Apparently she's going to attempt a long distance relationship with the boyfriend with her staying in LA.
I ask you friends, what are the odds of the long distance relationship lasting? I wish her the best of luck -- hopefully it all works out.
I have had exactly *zero* response to any of my content regarding the "Splash" diving show, so I will not contribute any more opinions on the subject. However, on the topic of Nicole Eggert, she really came a long way and worked really hard to get in a good dive. It wasn't bad at all! In fact, she also got in better shape from all the training. Many fans out there are so proud and I dare say I am too.
I owe her an apology anyway. I was judging from all the tabloid press, and the tabloids are jokers. I looked at her go out there last night, and she wasn't even that fat! She's a mother of two teenage kids for goodness sake. What do people want? She seemed all right to me.
One odd correlation with women nowadays -- I think they like dating people who are bald. I can't explain it. Maybe baldness is a sign of maturity. More power to the people. I usually think of baldness as a sign of less hair.
It takes a lot for anything I read to make me cry. Yesterday on Facebook a story was going around about the Autistic girl who thought her hamburger at Chili's was broken because they cut it in half. but, in such a touching move, the Chilis staff realized the situation and made the most of it, and even encouraged the girl that they made a mistake and they'd fix the hamburger for her. Then the little girl was so mezmerized by the new cheeseburger that she just stared at it for a while and smiled. Now how moving was that story?
Boy do I hope that's not another one of those Facebook hoaxes... I just hope within heart of hearts it's a true story... you have to be a real jerk to fabricate such a touching moment from thin air.
Bed at 11pm, up at 5:30 am... back to my old tricks again. Wonders never cease.
Yesterday I had a *very* good coffee at Peet's... they supply a cannister of their delicious dark cocoa for the coffee. I got a regular coffee, added some half and half, then threw in two packets of sugar and a mound of the cocoa. Damn good coffee my friends. It's effectively a self made mocha, but not nearly as sweet. All for the price of a regular coffee. Now that's a good deal, friends.
Television can be a scary place. If it's not a comedy, every show, or every other show on the air has someone brutally murdered in every episode. In real life, do people get brutally murdered every single day in every single town in America? That's the guise you get from watching these shows. Person of Interest, all the C.S.I. shows, Dexter (well that's in the premise so no surprise there), and many others. If someone doesn't get mutilated to death, you don't have a complete storyline. Ig.
I checked twitter yesterday and *everybody* is talking about "Olympus Has Fallen." Here we go again, more death and destruction in the media. A movie where the White House gets torn to pieces does not strike me as something I'd be gung ho about seeing. Regular reality is already depressing... imagine seeing your worst nightmares unfold on screen?
I'll have to see "Olympus Has Fallen" for myself someday to see whether that angle is not overblown.
"Bronx Has Fallen: the Story of the 2013 New York Yankees..." coming soon to a stadium near you!
Corn Dogs... do you go into your local grocery store and see some readily cooked corn dogs in the Deli section? It's tempting isn't it? Especially for 99 cents. BUT, here's the thing... it's the same corn dog out of the box you could get at the freezer's section for roughly $3.99 for a dozen corn dogs. So, doing the math, I could get the same corn dog from the box for less than 39 cents.
I was having a TOUGH tough time figuring out where to go on Friday but I think I found an answer! Skooby's in Hollywood! Their french fries are *outstanding.* Their hot dogs are also outstanding. It's a good fit. Hopefully there will be time. Granted, it's Good Friday, and out of respect for the Catholic Church and my Mother, I should lay off the meats that day, but we'll see what happens.
I would like to go see a movie very soon. Maybe I *will* check out "the Croods" so I can get the Dolby Atmos sound experience at the spaceship (AMC Century City 15 Theater). I've been jonesing for some popcorn pants too.
The whole lenten season and outside of my foray with Lobster Claws in Arizona, I haven't taken advantage of the time to eat more seafood. Imagine? I'll fix that very soon.
That's all from here. Enjoy your Wednesday!
Now I am not dense, I know what they are for. Equal rights. I'm glad to see the passion and the support. Never before has a math symbol meant *so* much. Good stuff.
I saw an ABC promo for a TV show where there was a masquerade ball in the episode. Good gravy does it get any more Hoity Toity than that? Oh look at me! I'm so cool that I don't even need a complete mask... I'm just going to get these little eye slits on a stick. Ohhhh I am *so * cool.
1861 called -- they want their party back.
Went for a swim last night. Nice swim, great swim, a necessary swim too because I'm out of shape folks. Anyway, one of my colleagues was there and she said hello, hey how's it going, etc. Then I find out that her boyfriend got a new job in San Diego. I said to her "oh does that mean you're moving over there?" Answer: no. Apparently she's going to attempt a long distance relationship with the boyfriend with her staying in LA.
I ask you friends, what are the odds of the long distance relationship lasting? I wish her the best of luck -- hopefully it all works out.
I have had exactly *zero* response to any of my content regarding the "Splash" diving show, so I will not contribute any more opinions on the subject. However, on the topic of Nicole Eggert, she really came a long way and worked really hard to get in a good dive. It wasn't bad at all! In fact, she also got in better shape from all the training. Many fans out there are so proud and I dare say I am too.
I owe her an apology anyway. I was judging from all the tabloid press, and the tabloids are jokers. I looked at her go out there last night, and she wasn't even that fat! She's a mother of two teenage kids for goodness sake. What do people want? She seemed all right to me.
One odd correlation with women nowadays -- I think they like dating people who are bald. I can't explain it. Maybe baldness is a sign of maturity. More power to the people. I usually think of baldness as a sign of less hair.
It takes a lot for anything I read to make me cry. Yesterday on Facebook a story was going around about the Autistic girl who thought her hamburger at Chili's was broken because they cut it in half. but, in such a touching move, the Chilis staff realized the situation and made the most of it, and even encouraged the girl that they made a mistake and they'd fix the hamburger for her. Then the little girl was so mezmerized by the new cheeseburger that she just stared at it for a while and smiled. Now how moving was that story?
Boy do I hope that's not another one of those Facebook hoaxes... I just hope within heart of hearts it's a true story... you have to be a real jerk to fabricate such a touching moment from thin air.
Bed at 11pm, up at 5:30 am... back to my old tricks again. Wonders never cease.
Yesterday I had a *very* good coffee at Peet's... they supply a cannister of their delicious dark cocoa for the coffee. I got a regular coffee, added some half and half, then threw in two packets of sugar and a mound of the cocoa. Damn good coffee my friends. It's effectively a self made mocha, but not nearly as sweet. All for the price of a regular coffee. Now that's a good deal, friends.
Television can be a scary place. If it's not a comedy, every show, or every other show on the air has someone brutally murdered in every episode. In real life, do people get brutally murdered every single day in every single town in America? That's the guise you get from watching these shows. Person of Interest, all the C.S.I. shows, Dexter (well that's in the premise so no surprise there), and many others. If someone doesn't get mutilated to death, you don't have a complete storyline. Ig.
I checked twitter yesterday and *everybody* is talking about "Olympus Has Fallen." Here we go again, more death and destruction in the media. A movie where the White House gets torn to pieces does not strike me as something I'd be gung ho about seeing. Regular reality is already depressing... imagine seeing your worst nightmares unfold on screen?
I'll have to see "Olympus Has Fallen" for myself someday to see whether that angle is not overblown.
"Bronx Has Fallen: the Story of the 2013 New York Yankees..." coming soon to a stadium near you!
Corn Dogs... do you go into your local grocery store and see some readily cooked corn dogs in the Deli section? It's tempting isn't it? Especially for 99 cents. BUT, here's the thing... it's the same corn dog out of the box you could get at the freezer's section for roughly $3.99 for a dozen corn dogs. So, doing the math, I could get the same corn dog from the box for less than 39 cents.
I was having a TOUGH tough time figuring out where to go on Friday but I think I found an answer! Skooby's in Hollywood! Their french fries are *outstanding.* Their hot dogs are also outstanding. It's a good fit. Hopefully there will be time. Granted, it's Good Friday, and out of respect for the Catholic Church and my Mother, I should lay off the meats that day, but we'll see what happens.
I would like to go see a movie very soon. Maybe I *will* check out "the Croods" so I can get the Dolby Atmos sound experience at the spaceship (AMC Century City 15 Theater). I've been jonesing for some popcorn pants too.
The whole lenten season and outside of my foray with Lobster Claws in Arizona, I haven't taken advantage of the time to eat more seafood. Imagine? I'll fix that very soon.
That's all from here. Enjoy your Wednesday!
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.
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.
Dave's Thoughts of the Day: March 25th
Good to be back after a nice weekend.
This weekend I joined some of my sisters, her relatives, and friends to celebrate her birthday. To celebrate we went to the Griffith Observatory. It's all about the views from the outside. From Griffith you can see all of Los Angeles. You're also within a clear line of sight of the famous "HOLLYWOOD" sign.
After the trip, we all met at a nearby Johnny Rockets. Johnny Rockets is not my favorite hamburger. It's not my least favorite hamburger either, but it's somewhere in the middle. I ordered a basic one, the #12... I liked it, but it was a tad dry and not earth-shattering. Their fries were boring too, and I'd have done sweet potato fries instead had I remembered.
That wasn't so important. Sharing moments with my sister who's now in college was the big thing here. Good times.
We all went back to Oxnard to meet our parents for the family party the next day. My sister loved the barbecue my Dad made. It was a good time. You know what really surprised me about my Dad's barbecue this weekend? He got some top sirloin boneless steaks and popped them on the grill too. They were cooked really well done for safety reasons but despite that, the steak was very good! Completely took me by surprise. To eat these little filets and get the same taste and texture (aside from the done-ness) that I'd get at Nick + Stef's. The quality of the meat was *very* good!
So back to the grind... a few other observations.
Can somebody beat the Heat please?! There are 30 teams in the NBA and 26 of them can't beat Miami? That is a disgrace!! I know how good Miami is, but this is getting outrageous. Truthfully, I'm now *very* worried about the Heat beating the long standing 33 game winning streak the Lakers had in 1972.
The team that finally beat the Lakers to end the streak: Milwaukee. At the time, Milwaukee had a guy named Lew Alcindor aka Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. They also had Oscar Robertson. The Lakers had Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West. Great teams both!
And you want to know who the Heat would play to get their 34th straight win on April 9th? THE MILWAUKEE BUCKS. How about that synergy?! I can guarantee you the NBA did not plan that... but how amazing of a coincidence is that?
Florida Gulf Coast is the most amazing story going in the NCAA Tournament. I want to also give a lot of credit to my buddy John in CT for pointing out their incredible rise to their tournament both. 15 years ago, they were barely starting as a *school* let alone a basketball program. Today, Coach Andy Enfield has them into the Sweet 16.
This is a terrible comparison, but two weeks ago in our Fast Food Bracket, we had #15 seeded Anthony's Coal Fired pizza advance to the Sweet 16. Most of us thought it was outrageous! And I'll be honest: I said to myself "There is no way this will happen in the actual NCAA Tournament. Ever."
More than the mere prospect of making the Sweet 16, FGCU is bar none the most exciting team to watch in this tournament. Now, I think it gets outrageous when people over-focus on acrobatics a la the LA Clippers, but this team can both score, dunk, and play defense. In other words, they know how to *play.* The Clippers do not know how to play... they know how to dunk! They know how to market themselves... but you put them into a half court game and they look lost.
FGCU on the other hand has it down with pretty much most facets of the game. Beating tournament teams by 10 points each is damn impressive no matter what the seed is, and that it was a 15 seed is captivating. Now, the dunks FGCU makes are unbelievable. You usually don't *see* athleticism like this in college basketball. The only problem is, they're now going to play Florida.
Florida is probably their equal in terms of athleticism and overall talent probably goes in the Gators' favor. I also think Florida is bound for a huge upset BUT, I'm not seeing it against Fla. Gulf Coast. I saw somewhere that Florida is a 13.5 point favorite. Not sure if the Gators cover that but I would guess they'd win by ten points or so. The Gators play very well in blowout games and so far they've won each game by double digits. The Gators do NOT play well in close games, but that won't be an issue with FGCU. HOWEVER, what a story the Gulf Coast team is. What-a-story!
Next weekend, I'm joining some family and going to Wonder-Con in Anaheim. I know, nerd central. Stay tuned folks I'll have more to share on that one!
Going back to the Clippers, my Grandfather, a casual observer of the game, was telling me about how well the Clippers were playing and he said "Their defense is really good." Boy I could not agree less, but I was not about to get into an argument with my grandpa. Those are scenarios where respect is important. They always say "respect your elders." It's good advice.
It was probably a good thing I didn't argue with him: Later I found out the Clippers are 4th best in the NBA for Points Allowed Per Game. That *is* a good defense.
Has anyone tried the new NBA Stats webpage lately? The damn thing is unreadable. I respect advanced stats and sortable data as much as anyone but all I was trying to do was get the damn points allowed per game stats for all 30 teams. Instead I got all this mumbo jumbo and excel formulas and percentages and PER hootinany. How do you spell "Hootinanny?" It's a Southern Term... whatever... the point here is, I do not have an accountant available to retrieve the information I need. Ah well, I'll stick with Yahoo!
Tried to bodyslam an insect with my hand but I missed! Blast...
Let's face it... the Yankees are a terrible baseball lineup. They've got good pitching, but those games will be tough to watch.
The team to watch this year will be the Blue Jays. I'm going to put on more Blue Jays games than ever before. I want to see if these jokers are worth all the hype.
Too much red meat this weekend: tonight I'm prepping some ground turkey with italian seasoning... with it I will serve Marinara sauce and Penne Pasta. Good meals ahead.
That's all the time I have... catch you all tomorrow.
This weekend I joined some of my sisters, her relatives, and friends to celebrate her birthday. To celebrate we went to the Griffith Observatory. It's all about the views from the outside. From Griffith you can see all of Los Angeles. You're also within a clear line of sight of the famous "HOLLYWOOD" sign.
After the trip, we all met at a nearby Johnny Rockets. Johnny Rockets is not my favorite hamburger. It's not my least favorite hamburger either, but it's somewhere in the middle. I ordered a basic one, the #12... I liked it, but it was a tad dry and not earth-shattering. Their fries were boring too, and I'd have done sweet potato fries instead had I remembered.
That wasn't so important. Sharing moments with my sister who's now in college was the big thing here. Good times.
We all went back to Oxnard to meet our parents for the family party the next day. My sister loved the barbecue my Dad made. It was a good time. You know what really surprised me about my Dad's barbecue this weekend? He got some top sirloin boneless steaks and popped them on the grill too. They were cooked really well done for safety reasons but despite that, the steak was very good! Completely took me by surprise. To eat these little filets and get the same taste and texture (aside from the done-ness) that I'd get at Nick + Stef's. The quality of the meat was *very* good!
So back to the grind... a few other observations.
Can somebody beat the Heat please?! There are 30 teams in the NBA and 26 of them can't beat Miami? That is a disgrace!! I know how good Miami is, but this is getting outrageous. Truthfully, I'm now *very* worried about the Heat beating the long standing 33 game winning streak the Lakers had in 1972.
The team that finally beat the Lakers to end the streak: Milwaukee. At the time, Milwaukee had a guy named Lew Alcindor aka Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. They also had Oscar Robertson. The Lakers had Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West. Great teams both!
And you want to know who the Heat would play to get their 34th straight win on April 9th? THE MILWAUKEE BUCKS. How about that synergy?! I can guarantee you the NBA did not plan that... but how amazing of a coincidence is that?
Florida Gulf Coast is the most amazing story going in the NCAA Tournament. I want to also give a lot of credit to my buddy John in CT for pointing out their incredible rise to their tournament both. 15 years ago, they were barely starting as a *school* let alone a basketball program. Today, Coach Andy Enfield has them into the Sweet 16.
This is a terrible comparison, but two weeks ago in our Fast Food Bracket, we had #15 seeded Anthony's Coal Fired pizza advance to the Sweet 16. Most of us thought it was outrageous! And I'll be honest: I said to myself "There is no way this will happen in the actual NCAA Tournament. Ever."
More than the mere prospect of making the Sweet 16, FGCU is bar none the most exciting team to watch in this tournament. Now, I think it gets outrageous when people over-focus on acrobatics a la the LA Clippers, but this team can both score, dunk, and play defense. In other words, they know how to *play.* The Clippers do not know how to play... they know how to dunk! They know how to market themselves... but you put them into a half court game and they look lost.
FGCU on the other hand has it down with pretty much most facets of the game. Beating tournament teams by 10 points each is damn impressive no matter what the seed is, and that it was a 15 seed is captivating. Now, the dunks FGCU makes are unbelievable. You usually don't *see* athleticism like this in college basketball. The only problem is, they're now going to play Florida.
Florida is probably their equal in terms of athleticism and overall talent probably goes in the Gators' favor. I also think Florida is bound for a huge upset BUT, I'm not seeing it against Fla. Gulf Coast. I saw somewhere that Florida is a 13.5 point favorite. Not sure if the Gators cover that but I would guess they'd win by ten points or so. The Gators play very well in blowout games and so far they've won each game by double digits. The Gators do NOT play well in close games, but that won't be an issue with FGCU. HOWEVER, what a story the Gulf Coast team is. What-a-story!
Next weekend, I'm joining some family and going to Wonder-Con in Anaheim. I know, nerd central. Stay tuned folks I'll have more to share on that one!
Going back to the Clippers, my Grandfather, a casual observer of the game, was telling me about how well the Clippers were playing and he said "Their defense is really good." Boy I could not agree less, but I was not about to get into an argument with my grandpa. Those are scenarios where respect is important. They always say "respect your elders." It's good advice.
It was probably a good thing I didn't argue with him: Later I found out the Clippers are 4th best in the NBA for Points Allowed Per Game. That *is* a good defense.
Has anyone tried the new NBA Stats webpage lately? The damn thing is unreadable. I respect advanced stats and sortable data as much as anyone but all I was trying to do was get the damn points allowed per game stats for all 30 teams. Instead I got all this mumbo jumbo and excel formulas and percentages and PER hootinany. How do you spell "Hootinanny?" It's a Southern Term... whatever... the point here is, I do not have an accountant available to retrieve the information I need. Ah well, I'll stick with Yahoo!
Tried to bodyslam an insect with my hand but I missed! Blast...
Let's face it... the Yankees are a terrible baseball lineup. They've got good pitching, but those games will be tough to watch.
The team to watch this year will be the Blue Jays. I'm going to put on more Blue Jays games than ever before. I want to see if these jokers are worth all the hype.
Too much red meat this weekend: tonight I'm prepping some ground turkey with italian seasoning... with it I will serve Marinara sauce and Penne Pasta. Good meals ahead.
That's all the time I have... catch you all tomorrow.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Dave's Thoughts of the Day: March 22nd
First of all, Happy Belated Birthday to my Sister, who had her birthday yesterday. I look forward to joining her for her birthday party this weekend.
Just when you think you saw everything, you see a team like Harvard have their way on the inside, kill the three point shot, and knock off the heavily favored New Mexico Lobos.
Sometimes you see a double digit team upset a 3 or a 2 seed and it's not a huge upset in context. Last night's game *was.* This was pretty incredible. Not only that, but it seemed that Harvard had control of the game most of the way. Hard to imagine we'd be speaking of this today, but indeed we are.
That single upset reduced a pool of 8 million perfect brackets down to just over a thousand. IS THAT NOT CRAZY?
This week, I was unable to present any real news or stories from this writer's pen, but today I'm happy to offer one to you. Well friends, if I seemed a little lost or out on Mars yesterday afternoon, there was a good reason for it.
Without realizing it, I offered Thursday afternoon in the schedule to deploy a new computer to a professor's home. --at his house.
Now I *rarely*, in fact extremely rarely deploy new computers to a person's home. I genearlly set up the machine and have the professor bring his old computer to me so we can exchange. This was new territory. So I said, "Thursday is open" and the man jumped at the opportunity. Then I realized that was the opening afternoon of the NCAA tournament. Oi.
While it was an "oi" moment, I was really excited to install this new computer. It was really tricked out... multiple core processors, oodles of RAM, and a sturdy case. He drove me over from the office to his home... now at UCLA, some people live pretty close by. In this case, the home was really close by in an adjacent neighborhood known as "Bel Air." It even has its own gate. I have always wondered what was inside that Bel Air gate. Today, we found the answer.
...the answer was more homes and lush hills. It was pretty sweet, my friends. So the computer installation went without a hitch at all. He had some nice equipment set up for the computer. For example, did you know you could attach a USB printer to an AirPort Extreme Base Station? Talk about blowing one's mind... that instantly allows the printer to be accessible by Wi-Fi. Any computer can then interface with the printer that way. Any computer in the house. That's pretty neat!
This new computer was so good that it allowed for a second hard drive to be installed comfortably inside the case. The computer can actually house up to four, maybe even five hard drives. *Really* impressive.
The Professor's House was tremendous, my friends. Swimming pool in the back, living room, good open spaces, stylish. Professors on campus live the life. The only problem was that the neighborhood had awful 3G reception, so I couldn't stay up to date while I installed and migrated to the new machine.
So predictably, all kinds of exciting finishes and thrilling games went on while I was away from the office. While true, it was no bother. It was very calm and peacful in the person's home office. Definitely a unique experience.
I honestly don't want to make a habit of going to peoples' houses for computer deployment, but in this particular case for this particularly tricked out system, I was happy to oblige. Timing was right too with it being Finals Week. School was pretty dead in terms of foot traffic.
I was worried about doing something like this and having it cut into the work week but honestly it wound up being a good time. The professor was very grateful for the help and things should be running well as far as I know.
Goodness, what if I check the work emails and the person reports panic. That just seems like my luck.
Onward...
I remember another guy, not a professor but someone else at the department, offered me a paid gig on a weekend to do a computer setup once. I really should have taken the dude up on it. It does not suck to be paid extra to set up computer systems.
Obviously if the ladies were to ask for some help I'd place a priority on it. I am *all* about helping people out there with their machines, especially if $ is involved.
One dream job I had was to be an audio/video home theater designer. A person who goes out and sets up home theater systems for a number of wealthy clients. That sounds like a lot of work, but the diversity in the homes involved would be extremely fun. I love setting up TVs and stereos too.
Last night, my buddy "Coach" and I met up with a third friend, let's call him "Overkill" a la his favorite band, at Tony P's Bar and Restaurant. Great times. Good food. The basketball that night was "ok."
At Tony P's my favorite thing there is the Pulled Pork Quesadilla. Tender, juicy, tasty, quite good. I love their beer selection -- they have quite a few. I wanted a lighter beer tonight, so I went for the Orange Wheat. Great choice!
I'm doing all right in most of my bracket pools, but there is one pool where we don't do a formal bracket but instead we are assigned two teams and to stay alive, at least one of them has to cover the point spread. I got Oklahoma State and "Northwestern State". So far, Oklahoma State was blown out and all I have left is Northwestern State tomorrow against ***FLORIDA!!*** Florida is favored by 20.5 points. Northwestern State would have to lose by 20 pts or less.
The concept of that point spread pool is *really* cool! It's too bad I could not have hung around longer, but it's truly the luck of the draw in this case. It's a very fun way to follow the games. Mad props to John even though I do not have the good fortune of lasting past the opening weekend.
That's all for now, the NCAA Tournament Excitment is just beginning. Enjoy all the games, and enjoy the weekend!
Just when you think you saw everything, you see a team like Harvard have their way on the inside, kill the three point shot, and knock off the heavily favored New Mexico Lobos.
Sometimes you see a double digit team upset a 3 or a 2 seed and it's not a huge upset in context. Last night's game *was.* This was pretty incredible. Not only that, but it seemed that Harvard had control of the game most of the way. Hard to imagine we'd be speaking of this today, but indeed we are.
That single upset reduced a pool of 8 million perfect brackets down to just over a thousand. IS THAT NOT CRAZY?
This week, I was unable to present any real news or stories from this writer's pen, but today I'm happy to offer one to you. Well friends, if I seemed a little lost or out on Mars yesterday afternoon, there was a good reason for it.
Without realizing it, I offered Thursday afternoon in the schedule to deploy a new computer to a professor's home. --at his house.
Now I *rarely*, in fact extremely rarely deploy new computers to a person's home. I genearlly set up the machine and have the professor bring his old computer to me so we can exchange. This was new territory. So I said, "Thursday is open" and the man jumped at the opportunity. Then I realized that was the opening afternoon of the NCAA tournament. Oi.
While it was an "oi" moment, I was really excited to install this new computer. It was really tricked out... multiple core processors, oodles of RAM, and a sturdy case. He drove me over from the office to his home... now at UCLA, some people live pretty close by. In this case, the home was really close by in an adjacent neighborhood known as "Bel Air." It even has its own gate. I have always wondered what was inside that Bel Air gate. Today, we found the answer.
...the answer was more homes and lush hills. It was pretty sweet, my friends. So the computer installation went without a hitch at all. He had some nice equipment set up for the computer. For example, did you know you could attach a USB printer to an AirPort Extreme Base Station? Talk about blowing one's mind... that instantly allows the printer to be accessible by Wi-Fi. Any computer can then interface with the printer that way. Any computer in the house. That's pretty neat!
This new computer was so good that it allowed for a second hard drive to be installed comfortably inside the case. The computer can actually house up to four, maybe even five hard drives. *Really* impressive.
The Professor's House was tremendous, my friends. Swimming pool in the back, living room, good open spaces, stylish. Professors on campus live the life. The only problem was that the neighborhood had awful 3G reception, so I couldn't stay up to date while I installed and migrated to the new machine.
So predictably, all kinds of exciting finishes and thrilling games went on while I was away from the office. While true, it was no bother. It was very calm and peacful in the person's home office. Definitely a unique experience.
I honestly don't want to make a habit of going to peoples' houses for computer deployment, but in this particular case for this particularly tricked out system, I was happy to oblige. Timing was right too with it being Finals Week. School was pretty dead in terms of foot traffic.
I was worried about doing something like this and having it cut into the work week but honestly it wound up being a good time. The professor was very grateful for the help and things should be running well as far as I know.
Goodness, what if I check the work emails and the person reports panic. That just seems like my luck.
Onward...
I remember another guy, not a professor but someone else at the department, offered me a paid gig on a weekend to do a computer setup once. I really should have taken the dude up on it. It does not suck to be paid extra to set up computer systems.
Obviously if the ladies were to ask for some help I'd place a priority on it. I am *all* about helping people out there with their machines, especially if $ is involved.
One dream job I had was to be an audio/video home theater designer. A person who goes out and sets up home theater systems for a number of wealthy clients. That sounds like a lot of work, but the diversity in the homes involved would be extremely fun. I love setting up TVs and stereos too.
Last night, my buddy "Coach" and I met up with a third friend, let's call him "Overkill" a la his favorite band, at Tony P's Bar and Restaurant. Great times. Good food. The basketball that night was "ok."
At Tony P's my favorite thing there is the Pulled Pork Quesadilla. Tender, juicy, tasty, quite good. I love their beer selection -- they have quite a few. I wanted a lighter beer tonight, so I went for the Orange Wheat. Great choice!
I'm doing all right in most of my bracket pools, but there is one pool where we don't do a formal bracket but instead we are assigned two teams and to stay alive, at least one of them has to cover the point spread. I got Oklahoma State and "Northwestern State". So far, Oklahoma State was blown out and all I have left is Northwestern State tomorrow against ***FLORIDA!!*** Florida is favored by 20.5 points. Northwestern State would have to lose by 20 pts or less.
The concept of that point spread pool is *really* cool! It's too bad I could not have hung around longer, but it's truly the luck of the draw in this case. It's a very fun way to follow the games. Mad props to John even though I do not have the good fortune of lasting past the opening weekend.
That's all for now, the NCAA Tournament Excitment is just beginning. Enjoy all the games, and enjoy the weekend!
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Dave's Thoughts of the Day: March 21st
What a game last night in Anaheim! Blackhawks/Ducks. I was really impressed with the Hawks going into the 3rd period. Then they gave up two goals... then the Ducks put in an empty netter. Ducks won 5-2. Oiiiiii...
If you were a girl, and a guy called you "shorty," would you be flattered? Or would you go "I'm not short! I'm 5'8"!!"
Why is it called chili when it's served hot? Usually it's spicy too.
The other day I get a flyer ad from Directv. They're offering new customers the choice package for $29.99 for 12 months. What a bunch of jokers... so if I just cancelled right now and called Directv back, I'd get the deal for 30 bones a month? Yet, if I just stay on I'd have to sign an act of congress to get the bill below 80? What kind of universe is this?!
Here's my Final Four for the NCAA Tournament, in case anyone missed it: Gonzaga, Indiana, Kansas, and Michigan State. Some chalk in there, but I'll take the chance.
Did you all know that the people on ABC's "Splash" show were training at Rose Bowl Aquatics in Pasadena? It's right next to the Rose Bowl. Geez, and it looked like some other swim programs were going on at the same time. To think, I could have been swimming there on a random day and all those semi famous people could have been there.
I wonder what Brent Musberger is thinking this week?
He's probably thinking "I hope they don't throw in the mustard this time, I hate the mustard. I love this coffee. What's the point spread for the Louisville game?"
I'm saddened to see that Brad Benson's idiot son tarnished an already seedy name like "Brad Benson." My buddy "Brad Bensons Ad Agency" on the message boards is right to request a name change. He is now "The Agency." I like it!
I followed Norm MacDonald on Twitter expecting a few zingers. All I've gotten from him, in the several months he's been on Twitter, is golf updates, and the most unusual war ever against Bible Freaks and the scriptures. The worst part is, none of his tweets are funny. He must use it as a release to say unfunny things where elsewhere in life, he cannot.
Now Norm wants to quit twitter, or he could be pulling a fast one and he's being sarcastic. Norm MacDonald was funnier when he wasn't so serious.
The Captain and I have a running bet this year for MLB... I like the Rays for the AL East. He likes the Blue Jays. Whoever has more wins gets a free meal at Chipotle. Ergo, if the Rays get more wins than the Blue Jays, I win! If the Jays win more, Captain wins. This will be a great running bet all year long...
I can appreciate people who want to establish a different personality on a certain platform than they otherwise would have. For example.. you do two radio shows. One show is a sports show... you're riled up, you're bombastic, you make big opinions, you have a lot to say. The second show is a food show. What if you don't want to be loud and opinionated? On the food show you can be relaxed, calm, and noncommittal on subjects, simply taking in what life gives you. You're almost two different people on these two shows. It might not be for everyone though, and if people who know your first persona try the other show it probably leads to disappointment, but it's all part of the game.
Twitter would have been the perfect medium for Mitch Hedberg. R.I.P. Mitch. I might have said this once before.
Good luck to all the swimmers out there at the NCAA National Championships! There are a lot of big names out there, but I hope everyone swims fast and does well.
Short entry today, I believe that's all I have. Have a good time with the games, everyone!
If you were a girl, and a guy called you "shorty," would you be flattered? Or would you go "I'm not short! I'm 5'8"!!"
Why is it called chili when it's served hot? Usually it's spicy too.
The other day I get a flyer ad from Directv. They're offering new customers the choice package for $29.99 for 12 months. What a bunch of jokers... so if I just cancelled right now and called Directv back, I'd get the deal for 30 bones a month? Yet, if I just stay on I'd have to sign an act of congress to get the bill below 80? What kind of universe is this?!
Here's my Final Four for the NCAA Tournament, in case anyone missed it: Gonzaga, Indiana, Kansas, and Michigan State. Some chalk in there, but I'll take the chance.
Did you all know that the people on ABC's "Splash" show were training at Rose Bowl Aquatics in Pasadena? It's right next to the Rose Bowl. Geez, and it looked like some other swim programs were going on at the same time. To think, I could have been swimming there on a random day and all those semi famous people could have been there.
I wonder what Brent Musberger is thinking this week?
He's probably thinking "I hope they don't throw in the mustard this time, I hate the mustard. I love this coffee. What's the point spread for the Louisville game?"
I'm saddened to see that Brad Benson's idiot son tarnished an already seedy name like "Brad Benson." My buddy "Brad Bensons Ad Agency" on the message boards is right to request a name change. He is now "The Agency." I like it!
I followed Norm MacDonald on Twitter expecting a few zingers. All I've gotten from him, in the several months he's been on Twitter, is golf updates, and the most unusual war ever against Bible Freaks and the scriptures. The worst part is, none of his tweets are funny. He must use it as a release to say unfunny things where elsewhere in life, he cannot.
Now Norm wants to quit twitter, or he could be pulling a fast one and he's being sarcastic. Norm MacDonald was funnier when he wasn't so serious.
The Captain and I have a running bet this year for MLB... I like the Rays for the AL East. He likes the Blue Jays. Whoever has more wins gets a free meal at Chipotle. Ergo, if the Rays get more wins than the Blue Jays, I win! If the Jays win more, Captain wins. This will be a great running bet all year long...
I can appreciate people who want to establish a different personality on a certain platform than they otherwise would have. For example.. you do two radio shows. One show is a sports show... you're riled up, you're bombastic, you make big opinions, you have a lot to say. The second show is a food show. What if you don't want to be loud and opinionated? On the food show you can be relaxed, calm, and noncommittal on subjects, simply taking in what life gives you. You're almost two different people on these two shows. It might not be for everyone though, and if people who know your first persona try the other show it probably leads to disappointment, but it's all part of the game.
Twitter would have been the perfect medium for Mitch Hedberg. R.I.P. Mitch. I might have said this once before.
Good luck to all the swimmers out there at the NCAA National Championships! There are a lot of big names out there, but I hope everyone swims fast and does well.
Short entry today, I believe that's all I have. Have a good time with the games, everyone!
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Dave's Thoughts of the Day: March 20th
Nobody wants to hear thoughts about C-list Celebrity Diving, but I wanted to share just a couple of things about it then I'll move on.
First of all, "Rudy" got railroaded... that was outrageous. I shouldn't take the scoring of ABC's "Splash" show seriously, but I felt bad for ole Huxtable because she had a great heart and for goodness sake, she *did a handstand dive*. I mean come on! To do that as a debut, that's tough. David Bodia and that Aussie dude docking her for not holding the handstand long enough is reasonable in a vacuum, but then when they went gaga for Louie Anderson for falling and not breaking all his bones, and then giving Kareem Abdul-Jabbar a "7" because he's "seven feel tall", it really put an unfair advantage for Keshia Knight-Pulliam. I felt bad for her, but she was a good sport the whole way.
Katherine Webb -- yeah you know her, the one Musberger oogled during the BCS Title Game, is remarkably athletic. You'd think someone like her who absolutely is sucking up her fifteen minutes of fame would be in over her head, but not so. She was tremendous... really went after it, and tried a pretty tough dive to start her program. Great job by Katherine.
The best part is that in her intro segment, she went out and just said "Yeah Brent Musberger made me famous overnight." You gotta love the honesty! All in all, a good show, and far better production values than the Fox Special "Celebrities in Danger: the High Dive," which preceded it. It's clear the production is not intended to be a serious evaluation of diving on an Olympic level and the Fox version was far too hardcore. Formatting the judging segment similar to American Idol makes sense. It's a much more human interest diving show, and I think it shows. The audience is much more into it, as am I. The people involved are far more interesting to begin with.
I had the privilege of watching footage from the original Dutch version of "Celebrity Splash" and they had all the details of the original down to a T: the babe in the swimsuit taking the robe off, the high fiving and doing the dancing with the audience, the on-diving platform interview before the dive, the wild variance of contestants from all shapes, sizes, and walks of life, and the judges from an actual diving background. Getting last year's 10m Platform Olympic Gold Medalist David Bodia was a HUGE get for ABC. So far I'm into it, and this is just Episode 1!
Then after the show, ABC put on Dancing with the Stars and we got to see Andy Dick cry like a baby. Wonderful... hasn't America had enough of Dick? Unreal. I didn't even care for him on "Newsradio."
Newsradio turned out to be a good ensemble comedy but to be honest, it hasn't aged very well. Even the theme song was rather grating and too influenced by the "Seinfeld" theme song. It was a little over the top.
Any sitcom centered around any kind of industry tires its best to be "Barney Miller" but where everyone else loses it is when they give in to the sheer zaniness of the characters and lose the rugged authenticity of the workplace. The best attempt I've seen so far is "The Office." I speak of the USA version, since I never saw the UK edition which never lost its stride. Even "The Office" out here in the States couldn't hang onto the magic for more than a few seasons.
I have soft spot for "Night Court" even though it was over the top irreverent and never tried to be otherwise. Come on -- who couldn't like Bull?? Dude was a riot! All those goofballs were... Markie and her Posts, Dan Fielding, Mac, the other lady, Judge Harry and his bag of tricks. It was great.
Overacting is a very common problem with sitcoms -- yet, it's also the Chuck Lorre sitcom. Really it's the Chuck Lorre/Carsey-Werner signature, where punch lines are telegraphed so that they can put it on a plate for audiences to laugh at. I'm really not a fan of that despite my current favorite sitcom, Big Bang Theory, being one such production.
In fact, I can tell you right away, the worst actor on the show is Simon Helberg a.k.a. Wolowitz. This *might* be how he was written but his stilted speech and corny one liners is typical 80's-era cornball syndicated possibly worse than "Small Wonder" but just a notch above "Out of this World" lame-ness. With that in mind, there are ways to pull off the character better, but I will admit, his physical humor is an asset. It's just all the pregnant pauses in the wrong places and things like that. I can't put a finger on it, but he has the comedic timing of Jon Heyman.
So, you wonder, why am I such a huge fan of "Big Bang Theory?" In the beginning the answers were 1) High Concept Premise and 2) On Set Chemistry . Both of these hold true today. You don't often seen TV shows about science nerds, wherein said nerds are the principal focal point. It's a treat to watch each week. Series co-creator Bill Prady is a big reason why it works, and I hope he can see his baby through to the very end.
I think it goes to show you that in television, characters are a bigger factor in a show's success than the mere plot line. Anybody can go to the dentist, but Sheldon Cooper trying to disprove his relative fear of germs while going through a process he'd see as beneath him is intriguing. Any dope giving a tour of a ranch is dull, but Dwight Schrute extolling the virtues of his long running love of beets at his own personal beet farm with his cousin in the background puts us in stitches.
I may have made up the plotline about Sheldon going to the dentist, but Bill and Chuck, if you're reading, TRY THAT OUT!
We are never going to get rid of Pitbull are we? He has songs that anchored two ABC shows last night back to back.
I was watching another show, for a few moments, by chance, about a guy who has to go to a support group to cope with the loss of his wife. Dude is a Sportstalk Radio Host. The show's called "Go On" on NBC. I'll be damned, the show is actually pretty good! Matthew Perry is the main character.
Let's give it up to North Carolina A&T for winning their play-in game and emerging as one of the "First Four." St. Mary's also held steady in their game. Both are into the 2nd round on Thursday.
Some joke popup ad claimed to have all the answers for scoring with women... usually I close it out on the spot but this time I gave it a listen just to see how bogus this joker's ideas were. Well the only thing I got out of that, after 45 minutes of sitting through it, was that if you talk to a woman's mouth she really wants you. And for just 15 easy payments, this crock can tell you more secrets to wild nights in bed. Haha, ok fella, I think I will pass.
...but I did try the talking to women's mouths idea and iono, its seemed to work and then not work in spots. You really cant prove it one way or the other. It does get the lady's attention though. I mean it would get MY attention too if somebody was just looking at my mouth or leaning that way.
Would you ever get a Latte without the sugar? I really think that's good enough for my needs, many times. My last trip to Starbucks, I got just the latte, no vanilla, no sugar. It was tremendous! It saves a ton of work that you'd otherwise commit to mixing milk into the coffee.
Dinner last night: Life Cereal and a PBJ sandwich. Not all that exciting.
Like others, I think Taylor Swift's whiny music is getting old quickly. She really needs to move on with her life.
If Katherine Webb came to my door, I wouldn't say no. Hell if Spud Webb came to my door I'd want to go to the pub and talk sports with him over a few beers.
I bet you Katherine would be down to pound beers and talk sports too. A.J. McCarron does not know how good he has it.
Good lord, A.J. McCarron. He's not that exciting to me. If he lands in the NFL he'll be a good backup, nothing more. The most exciting thing about him is his current girlfriend.
Man, this is the crazy thing about writing this blog. You start with the goal of writing a few sentences and suddenly you get a whole booklet of material. It's truly a great exercise of the mind!
Books would be a daunting task to write. Books would be like writing about 100 blog entries in a row, but then, all 100 of them would have to connect to one another. That's hard! I have a lot of respect for the great authors of the world.
I believe that's really all I have this morning. Hope you all are doing well out there, and more to come tomorrow.
First of all, "Rudy" got railroaded... that was outrageous. I shouldn't take the scoring of ABC's "Splash" show seriously, but I felt bad for ole Huxtable because she had a great heart and for goodness sake, she *did a handstand dive*. I mean come on! To do that as a debut, that's tough. David Bodia and that Aussie dude docking her for not holding the handstand long enough is reasonable in a vacuum, but then when they went gaga for Louie Anderson for falling and not breaking all his bones, and then giving Kareem Abdul-Jabbar a "7" because he's "seven feel tall", it really put an unfair advantage for Keshia Knight-Pulliam. I felt bad for her, but she was a good sport the whole way.
Katherine Webb -- yeah you know her, the one Musberger oogled during the BCS Title Game, is remarkably athletic. You'd think someone like her who absolutely is sucking up her fifteen minutes of fame would be in over her head, but not so. She was tremendous... really went after it, and tried a pretty tough dive to start her program. Great job by Katherine.
The best part is that in her intro segment, she went out and just said "Yeah Brent Musberger made me famous overnight." You gotta love the honesty! All in all, a good show, and far better production values than the Fox Special "Celebrities in Danger: the High Dive," which preceded it. It's clear the production is not intended to be a serious evaluation of diving on an Olympic level and the Fox version was far too hardcore. Formatting the judging segment similar to American Idol makes sense. It's a much more human interest diving show, and I think it shows. The audience is much more into it, as am I. The people involved are far more interesting to begin with.
I had the privilege of watching footage from the original Dutch version of "Celebrity Splash" and they had all the details of the original down to a T: the babe in the swimsuit taking the robe off, the high fiving and doing the dancing with the audience, the on-diving platform interview before the dive, the wild variance of contestants from all shapes, sizes, and walks of life, and the judges from an actual diving background. Getting last year's 10m Platform Olympic Gold Medalist David Bodia was a HUGE get for ABC. So far I'm into it, and this is just Episode 1!
Then after the show, ABC put on Dancing with the Stars and we got to see Andy Dick cry like a baby. Wonderful... hasn't America had enough of Dick? Unreal. I didn't even care for him on "Newsradio."
Newsradio turned out to be a good ensemble comedy but to be honest, it hasn't aged very well. Even the theme song was rather grating and too influenced by the "Seinfeld" theme song. It was a little over the top.
Any sitcom centered around any kind of industry tires its best to be "Barney Miller" but where everyone else loses it is when they give in to the sheer zaniness of the characters and lose the rugged authenticity of the workplace. The best attempt I've seen so far is "The Office." I speak of the USA version, since I never saw the UK edition which never lost its stride. Even "The Office" out here in the States couldn't hang onto the magic for more than a few seasons.
I have soft spot for "Night Court" even though it was over the top irreverent and never tried to be otherwise. Come on -- who couldn't like Bull?? Dude was a riot! All those goofballs were... Markie and her Posts, Dan Fielding, Mac, the other lady, Judge Harry and his bag of tricks. It was great.
Overacting is a very common problem with sitcoms -- yet, it's also the Chuck Lorre sitcom. Really it's the Chuck Lorre/Carsey-Werner signature, where punch lines are telegraphed so that they can put it on a plate for audiences to laugh at. I'm really not a fan of that despite my current favorite sitcom, Big Bang Theory, being one such production.
In fact, I can tell you right away, the worst actor on the show is Simon Helberg a.k.a. Wolowitz. This *might* be how he was written but his stilted speech and corny one liners is typical 80's-era cornball syndicated possibly worse than "Small Wonder" but just a notch above "Out of this World" lame-ness. With that in mind, there are ways to pull off the character better, but I will admit, his physical humor is an asset. It's just all the pregnant pauses in the wrong places and things like that. I can't put a finger on it, but he has the comedic timing of Jon Heyman.
So, you wonder, why am I such a huge fan of "Big Bang Theory?" In the beginning the answers were 1) High Concept Premise and 2) On Set Chemistry . Both of these hold true today. You don't often seen TV shows about science nerds, wherein said nerds are the principal focal point. It's a treat to watch each week. Series co-creator Bill Prady is a big reason why it works, and I hope he can see his baby through to the very end.
I think it goes to show you that in television, characters are a bigger factor in a show's success than the mere plot line. Anybody can go to the dentist, but Sheldon Cooper trying to disprove his relative fear of germs while going through a process he'd see as beneath him is intriguing. Any dope giving a tour of a ranch is dull, but Dwight Schrute extolling the virtues of his long running love of beets at his own personal beet farm with his cousin in the background puts us in stitches.
I may have made up the plotline about Sheldon going to the dentist, but Bill and Chuck, if you're reading, TRY THAT OUT!
We are never going to get rid of Pitbull are we? He has songs that anchored two ABC shows last night back to back.
I was watching another show, for a few moments, by chance, about a guy who has to go to a support group to cope with the loss of his wife. Dude is a Sportstalk Radio Host. The show's called "Go On" on NBC. I'll be damned, the show is actually pretty good! Matthew Perry is the main character.
Let's give it up to North Carolina A&T for winning their play-in game and emerging as one of the "First Four." St. Mary's also held steady in their game. Both are into the 2nd round on Thursday.
Some joke popup ad claimed to have all the answers for scoring with women... usually I close it out on the spot but this time I gave it a listen just to see how bogus this joker's ideas were. Well the only thing I got out of that, after 45 minutes of sitting through it, was that if you talk to a woman's mouth she really wants you. And for just 15 easy payments, this crock can tell you more secrets to wild nights in bed. Haha, ok fella, I think I will pass.
...but I did try the talking to women's mouths idea and iono, its seemed to work and then not work in spots. You really cant prove it one way or the other. It does get the lady's attention though. I mean it would get MY attention too if somebody was just looking at my mouth or leaning that way.
Would you ever get a Latte without the sugar? I really think that's good enough for my needs, many times. My last trip to Starbucks, I got just the latte, no vanilla, no sugar. It was tremendous! It saves a ton of work that you'd otherwise commit to mixing milk into the coffee.
Dinner last night: Life Cereal and a PBJ sandwich. Not all that exciting.
Like others, I think Taylor Swift's whiny music is getting old quickly. She really needs to move on with her life.
If Katherine Webb came to my door, I wouldn't say no. Hell if Spud Webb came to my door I'd want to go to the pub and talk sports with him over a few beers.
I bet you Katherine would be down to pound beers and talk sports too. A.J. McCarron does not know how good he has it.
Good lord, A.J. McCarron. He's not that exciting to me. If he lands in the NFL he'll be a good backup, nothing more. The most exciting thing about him is his current girlfriend.
Man, this is the crazy thing about writing this blog. You start with the goal of writing a few sentences and suddenly you get a whole booklet of material. It's truly a great exercise of the mind!
Books would be a daunting task to write. Books would be like writing about 100 blog entries in a row, but then, all 100 of them would have to connect to one another. That's hard! I have a lot of respect for the great authors of the world.
I believe that's really all I have this morning. Hope you all are doing well out there, and more to come tomorrow.
This had to be posted...
Mike Francesa's Final Four Predictions:
#1 Gonzaga
#2 Duke
#3 Florida
#2 Miami
Godspeed to the four schools above who will now feel the wrath of Tank's mush.
#1 Gonzaga
#2 Duke
#3 Florida
#2 Miami
Godspeed to the four schools above who will now feel the wrath of Tank's mush.
Dave's Thoughts of the Day: March 19th
Great podcast last night with Chris in Syracuse, John in CT, and the Junk Man in Hour 2 for Random Questions! We have it up at blogtalkradio.com/daveinthecity .
Still cool and damp here in Los Angeles. It makes me appreciate how warm it was over in Arizona.
I gave it some thought, to move to AZ. On the other hand, the mongos that drive out there are far worse than ones who drive here in California. There are some other things that would be tough to handle out there, including the seriously hot summers.
The Heat won 23 games in a row. Congratulations to them. The 1972 Lakers have the longest winning streak of all time, 33 games. It sounds exciting to think about, but the Heat are not getting close to 33 games in a row. In fact, I'll tell you right now: they're losing next week, maybe this week. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see them lose to the Cavs tomorrow.
After an exciting vacation to Arizona, everything else seems pretty ordinary. Tonight I'll try to get in some extra rest. Hopefully the bed will cooperate.
On Sunday I listened to Green Day's first four full albums: 39/Smooth, Kerplunk, Dookie, and Insomniac. I never listened to them all in full before. That was some good music! Green Day music in their first 7 years was so simple... then from Nimrod on they got more and more theatrical. However, that doesn't mean their music was bad, it's just fancier than how they started out. I wouldn't say they "jumped the shark" because even within an Operatic like "American Idiot", the title track was a return to basics. Green Day is plain good.
The name "Green Day" is a reference to pot, not surprising.
I also learned the other day that Green Day was formed in the East Bay, not so much San Francisco. Specifically, they formulated in Vallejo, CA. Interesting, isn't it?
It suddenly made sense, because the East Bay is full of down to earth family suburbs with houses and shopping malls. You don't have quite the same circumstance on the Peninsula (western side of the Bay Area). Daly City, Palo Alto, etc, has some of the same effect, but the area is much smaller, so it doesn't quite have the same effect as say an Pleasanton or Walnut Creek would. I can't speak to demographics, but it seems like the Peninsula area is higher priced real estate.
I read about topics and people a lot. I like going to Wikipedia and digging into who what when where and how. Trivia is my homie. If you were to shout any word to me... say, "cupcakes", I would suddenly feel like doing research on the history of cupcakes. I live for useless information.
I'm stuffed. I can feel all the calories from the previous week lingering in my system. I got in a very long swim yesterday but I have more work to do. The last thing I want to do is look like Tank Franceser.
Ok, I had two slices of pizza for breakfast, what could I do? I don't have much food planned for lunch. More exercise will go a long way.
I wear a belt now that's modeled like a car seatbelt. The big advantage to such a belt is that it stays in one place the entire time and all you do is buckle the belt. Your stomach cant stretch out the notches as it could on a leather belt. It gives you a much more accurate idea of how heavy or light you are. It's bound to change too... it all depends on your diet and exercise. When you exercise, fat content is converted to muscle. When you stop exercising, muscle mass is converted back to fat. As I went into vacation, I could very quickly feel that muscle to fat conversion. It was weird.
Now to get it back the other way! We are on our way, friends!
I challenged an assistant swim coach to a sprint duel on Facebook...... that may not be such a good idea.
Going back to the muscle to fat thing, you ever notice how athletes double in size after they retire? It's *precisely* because of the muscle to fat conversion! They work out and move around their entire career and once they stop they stop cold... and all the years of muscle mass reverts to about 1.5 times that of fat. That's pretty brutal. You'll see guys like Albert Belle and Nolan Ryan... older age, much more fat. It's a tough situation.
Whew... let me touch into some more positive subjects to round out today's entry.
Tonight is the debut of "Splash!" the Celebrity Diving program... oof... very odd collection of people for this program but the topic is fascinating. ABC must be nervous as heck seeing how much the Fox version of Celebrity Diving bombed. ABC is doing more than Fox's one episode, they have a whole series! What would the TV Rating be in that case for ABC's show? 1.5? 2.5? Those aren't good scores in diving either. Yoiiii! Haha
BUT, I'll be plugged in. I also hope it's available for on-demand replay just in case I were to miss it tonight on TV.
Diving is HARD, let me tell you that right now. Tough on the body... imagine getting checked to the glass in hockey? That's what every dive is.. you have to fight a wall of water that is akin to plowing into a giant pad in football practice. Way fun though, and I hope the people on tonight's show had a good time!
Dunkin Donuts coffee is HUGE out East. Starbucks is enormous out West. What do the people in the Mid-West do?? Half of each? Do they have their own big coffee company?
That's all I have. See you all tomorrow!
Still cool and damp here in Los Angeles. It makes me appreciate how warm it was over in Arizona.
I gave it some thought, to move to AZ. On the other hand, the mongos that drive out there are far worse than ones who drive here in California. There are some other things that would be tough to handle out there, including the seriously hot summers.
The Heat won 23 games in a row. Congratulations to them. The 1972 Lakers have the longest winning streak of all time, 33 games. It sounds exciting to think about, but the Heat are not getting close to 33 games in a row. In fact, I'll tell you right now: they're losing next week, maybe this week. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see them lose to the Cavs tomorrow.
After an exciting vacation to Arizona, everything else seems pretty ordinary. Tonight I'll try to get in some extra rest. Hopefully the bed will cooperate.
On Sunday I listened to Green Day's first four full albums: 39/Smooth, Kerplunk, Dookie, and Insomniac. I never listened to them all in full before. That was some good music! Green Day music in their first 7 years was so simple... then from Nimrod on they got more and more theatrical. However, that doesn't mean their music was bad, it's just fancier than how they started out. I wouldn't say they "jumped the shark" because even within an Operatic like "American Idiot", the title track was a return to basics. Green Day is plain good.
The name "Green Day" is a reference to pot, not surprising.
I also learned the other day that Green Day was formed in the East Bay, not so much San Francisco. Specifically, they formulated in Vallejo, CA. Interesting, isn't it?
It suddenly made sense, because the East Bay is full of down to earth family suburbs with houses and shopping malls. You don't have quite the same circumstance on the Peninsula (western side of the Bay Area). Daly City, Palo Alto, etc, has some of the same effect, but the area is much smaller, so it doesn't quite have the same effect as say an Pleasanton or Walnut Creek would. I can't speak to demographics, but it seems like the Peninsula area is higher priced real estate.
I read about topics and people a lot. I like going to Wikipedia and digging into who what when where and how. Trivia is my homie. If you were to shout any word to me... say, "cupcakes", I would suddenly feel like doing research on the history of cupcakes. I live for useless information.
I'm stuffed. I can feel all the calories from the previous week lingering in my system. I got in a very long swim yesterday but I have more work to do. The last thing I want to do is look like Tank Franceser.
Ok, I had two slices of pizza for breakfast, what could I do? I don't have much food planned for lunch. More exercise will go a long way.
I wear a belt now that's modeled like a car seatbelt. The big advantage to such a belt is that it stays in one place the entire time and all you do is buckle the belt. Your stomach cant stretch out the notches as it could on a leather belt. It gives you a much more accurate idea of how heavy or light you are. It's bound to change too... it all depends on your diet and exercise. When you exercise, fat content is converted to muscle. When you stop exercising, muscle mass is converted back to fat. As I went into vacation, I could very quickly feel that muscle to fat conversion. It was weird.
Now to get it back the other way! We are on our way, friends!
I challenged an assistant swim coach to a sprint duel on Facebook...... that may not be such a good idea.
Going back to the muscle to fat thing, you ever notice how athletes double in size after they retire? It's *precisely* because of the muscle to fat conversion! They work out and move around their entire career and once they stop they stop cold... and all the years of muscle mass reverts to about 1.5 times that of fat. That's pretty brutal. You'll see guys like Albert Belle and Nolan Ryan... older age, much more fat. It's a tough situation.
Whew... let me touch into some more positive subjects to round out today's entry.
Tonight is the debut of "Splash!" the Celebrity Diving program... oof... very odd collection of people for this program but the topic is fascinating. ABC must be nervous as heck seeing how much the Fox version of Celebrity Diving bombed. ABC is doing more than Fox's one episode, they have a whole series! What would the TV Rating be in that case for ABC's show? 1.5? 2.5? Those aren't good scores in diving either. Yoiiii! Haha
BUT, I'll be plugged in. I also hope it's available for on-demand replay just in case I were to miss it tonight on TV.
Diving is HARD, let me tell you that right now. Tough on the body... imagine getting checked to the glass in hockey? That's what every dive is.. you have to fight a wall of water that is akin to plowing into a giant pad in football practice. Way fun though, and I hope the people on tonight's show had a good time!
Dunkin Donuts coffee is HUGE out East. Starbucks is enormous out West. What do the people in the Mid-West do?? Half of each? Do they have their own big coffee company?
That's all I have. See you all tomorrow!
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Dave's Thoughts of the Day: March 18th
Top of the Mornin' to Ya! I hope you all had a good St. Patrick's Day, full of drinking and all the rest.
I posted day by day recaps of my trip to Spring Training in Arizona. Five recaps in all! Check 'em out as you have time later today. The posts are just below today's "Thoughts of the Day."
I'm shocked that McDonald's got bounced from the Fast Food tournament. I like Five Guys Burgers and Fries too, but to see it overtake McD's is flabbergasting. I mean, wow.
Inevitably everybody gains weight after a vacation. I am no different. I have to get in shape. I want to challenge my assistant swim coach to a sprinting duel. We had a semi tentative, tongue in cheek perhaps, joking, agreement to do a race, but I'm going to broach the topic again.
Even if this doesn't pan out, the *team* planned a Coaches vs Swimmers relay duel during our Team Swim Meet, and the asst coach is in the mix. It's actually pretty exciting. Now to be fair, I'm not even half as fast as any of our coaches. Bear in mind, we're talking about former intercollegiate swimmers *and* in some cases Olympians. I would be bringing a pea shooter to a gun show.
I have to say, I'm not as crazy about St. Patrick's Day as others would be. So what if the beer is green? Last week it was brown, and it tasted the same. What is the big deal?
Remember back in school where people would pinch you if you didn't wear green? That got annoying after a while. Listen folks, green is the color of the Boston Celtics. If you think that on this planet I'm going to willingly wear anything that supports the Celtics well I'm afraid I'm here to disappoint you.
Sometimes I put my green jacket on just to stay safe, but even then it's an olive green. A muted green... I can play along I suppose.
I can't wait to get back into swimming shape. I want to get into competition again and challenge people on the street to 50 yard sprints.. It'd be fun.
Lakers! The beat continues. How *surprising* was that win at Indiana? Unbelievable! Kobe is hurt pretty hard, yeah, thanks a lot Dahntay Jones. Get bent you dirty player. Go stick your leg into a meat grinder, toolbag. Dirty play has no place in the NBA. At any rate, the Lakers still had enough to fend off the Pacers and beat the Kings. We'll see if there's enough in the tank to beat Phoenix tonight.
I really wanted to stay in Phoenix a couple more days just so I could see that game, but it wasn't realistic. It'd cost quite a lot more to see a Suns game in the valley of the sun. It'd get pretty complicated, no?
Here we go! NCAA Tournament is starting in just days. Very exciting field this year, but impossible to predict. I want to say Indiana wins it all this year, but they may not have the defense. I may have to go over the brackets a few more times before I have an answer. For now I'll stay with Indiana. I can't even say why, but it seems to be the team I'm going with. I really wish they'd play defense, however. That's going to kill the team.
Hey! Didn't I say Kansas was going to be Number 1 before the year was out? They're (a) Number One today aren't they? Ohh, do the dance!
All righty, that's all from here. Have a good one, folks. Til tomorrow.
I posted day by day recaps of my trip to Spring Training in Arizona. Five recaps in all! Check 'em out as you have time later today. The posts are just below today's "Thoughts of the Day."
I'm shocked that McDonald's got bounced from the Fast Food tournament. I like Five Guys Burgers and Fries too, but to see it overtake McD's is flabbergasting. I mean, wow.
Inevitably everybody gains weight after a vacation. I am no different. I have to get in shape. I want to challenge my assistant swim coach to a sprinting duel. We had a semi tentative, tongue in cheek perhaps, joking, agreement to do a race, but I'm going to broach the topic again.
Even if this doesn't pan out, the *team* planned a Coaches vs Swimmers relay duel during our Team Swim Meet, and the asst coach is in the mix. It's actually pretty exciting. Now to be fair, I'm not even half as fast as any of our coaches. Bear in mind, we're talking about former intercollegiate swimmers *and* in some cases Olympians. I would be bringing a pea shooter to a gun show.
I have to say, I'm not as crazy about St. Patrick's Day as others would be. So what if the beer is green? Last week it was brown, and it tasted the same. What is the big deal?
Remember back in school where people would pinch you if you didn't wear green? That got annoying after a while. Listen folks, green is the color of the Boston Celtics. If you think that on this planet I'm going to willingly wear anything that supports the Celtics well I'm afraid I'm here to disappoint you.
Sometimes I put my green jacket on just to stay safe, but even then it's an olive green. A muted green... I can play along I suppose.
I can't wait to get back into swimming shape. I want to get into competition again and challenge people on the street to 50 yard sprints.. It'd be fun.
Lakers! The beat continues. How *surprising* was that win at Indiana? Unbelievable! Kobe is hurt pretty hard, yeah, thanks a lot Dahntay Jones. Get bent you dirty player. Go stick your leg into a meat grinder, toolbag. Dirty play has no place in the NBA. At any rate, the Lakers still had enough to fend off the Pacers and beat the Kings. We'll see if there's enough in the tank to beat Phoenix tonight.
I really wanted to stay in Phoenix a couple more days just so I could see that game, but it wasn't realistic. It'd cost quite a lot more to see a Suns game in the valley of the sun. It'd get pretty complicated, no?
Here we go! NCAA Tournament is starting in just days. Very exciting field this year, but impossible to predict. I want to say Indiana wins it all this year, but they may not have the defense. I may have to go over the brackets a few more times before I have an answer. For now I'll stay with Indiana. I can't even say why, but it seems to be the team I'm going with. I really wish they'd play defense, however. That's going to kill the team.
Hey! Didn't I say Kansas was going to be Number 1 before the year was out? They're (a) Number One today aren't they? Ohh, do the dance!
All righty, that's all from here. Have a good one, folks. Til tomorrow.
Spring Training Vacation 2013 Recap: Day 5
Day 5 was the end of the road. One last breakfast at Thunderbird Suites, after which we packed up and checked out. Before traveling back home for good, we stopped at Phoenix proper, which was *not* done during the 2011 trip. In so doing we got a good look at the exterior of both U.S. Airways Arena, home of the Suns and Chase Field, home of the D'backs. I thought it was delicious to set foot on the same site of the Suns, knowing the Lakers were going to play them the next night. I looked for the corner plaza that TNT *always* shows when they begin NBA telecasts from Phoenix and got my own photo of it.
Here's to a big Lakers effort in Phoenix later tonight! Next up, Chase Field. This place is *monstrous.* I cannot believe how huge this stadium is. I think it's even bigger than the NFL stadium. I might be wrong, but it's just enormous. Pretty nice ballpark, I have to admit. It seems cavernous though, but what's funny is that the roof was open that day. I could see through the gates and see the sun drench the field.
That really was it. After this, it was simply a drive home, a stop in Indio, CA for food, and a look at the thermometer to see the temperature drop from 96 degrees to 59 degrees in West LA. What a fun time! I hope to do it again very soon. I also hope to return to Phoenix to see a D'backs game down the road. I'm now very curious to see an official game at Chase. For now that's the word. A standard "Thoughts of the Day Post" is up next!
Here's to a big Lakers effort in Phoenix later tonight! Next up, Chase Field. This place is *monstrous.* I cannot believe how huge this stadium is. I think it's even bigger than the NFL stadium. I might be wrong, but it's just enormous. Pretty nice ballpark, I have to admit. It seems cavernous though, but what's funny is that the roof was open that day. I could see through the gates and see the sun drench the field.
That really was it. After this, it was simply a drive home, a stop in Indio, CA for food, and a look at the thermometer to see the temperature drop from 96 degrees to 59 degrees in West LA. What a fun time! I hope to do it again very soon. I also hope to return to Phoenix to see a D'backs game down the road. I'm now very curious to see an official game at Chase. For now that's the word. A standard "Thoughts of the Day Post" is up next!
Spring Training Vacation 2013 Recap: Day 4
Day 4 was off to a better start than Day 3 was, thankfully. No bacon, unfortunately at the Thunderbird Suites Breakfast Hall. I would think bacon is cheaper to produce than sausage patties, but for whatever reason they elected to either not serve it or serve a really small supply that ran out before we got there. To make up for it, Thunderbird Suites had bacon and biscuit gravy. VERY good!
This time I purchased the tickets to the game, in fact, that was done the night before, and I got two very nice shaded seats at the new Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, home of the Diamondbacks and Rockies. The stadium was opened two years ago, although we didn't visit it back then. Many have raved and said high praises of Salt River Fields. Once we got there, we could see why. The facility is so fancy, so well designed, and stocked with dozens of high quality concessions. They had Crust Pizzeria represented. Some other place was there too. A smallish Mexican Cantina called Rosie's Salty Eyes or something. A chicken and burgers place was on board. I recall some other knick knacks in effect. Giant bratwurst sausages. Craft beers from Colorado and Arizona. A spacious, comfy lawn behind the outfield fence. A modern, state of the art, enormous scoreboard screen. Very large roof panels that covered a good 50-60% of the seats. What a stadium!
The Mariners and Rockies were both dismal teams but we had a wonderful time sitting just behind home plate, only a couple dozen rows up. The game was all right, but again, most teams have no shot to go to the playoffs. Jesus Montero and a kid by the name of Peguero were destroying the baseball for the M's, but I don't think that's enough for their offense. The Rockies have an improving lineup and EY Jr. is pretty good. Tulo looked great at the plate that day. I just don't think they have any answers on the mound. The only reliable arm is their setup guy Rafael Betancourt. Heck, he might even be upgraded to closer by now. Despite the teams on the field, it was a really good time at Salt River Fields.
Later that day and into the evening, Coach and I went to Talking Stick Casino. It's just an Indian Reservation Casino by name, but it was a fantastic place. Decent choice of gaming options such as Blackjack, Video Poker, and Slots, and an expansive Poker Room. No Casino is complete without a big buffet and Talking Stick had a great buffet and I mean *great* which we had that night. I went after the prime rib off the bat, but the lady there was slicing it into really thin pieces. Ah well, that didn't bother me much. At worst I could just go back. Instead I went after a bundle of lobster claws. Ohhh were those good!
After dinner, Coach and I sampled some of the bars at Talking Stick. The best one seemed to be the one near the middle of the Casino. Below this bar was another lounge which had dueling pianos. There wasn't much "dueling" going on -- it was more like Cooperating pianos. The pianos weren't facing each other, and all the two guys did was take turns playing. That's not how dueling painos work! They had a really lame playlist too, and cycled through all the same songs over again after 3 hours. I love his work but how many Elton John songs can you take in one sitting?
As all this went down, my buddy was watching the Oregon/UCLA game on a small TV at the center bar. We sipped on some cocktails and all the while waves of bachelorette parties descended onto the bar. It was enjoyable watching the different kinds of women party here and there but they quickly went off into other places.
Suddenly, I see across the way, between the chasm that housed the pianos, a lady in a silver glittery dress. She was gorgeous, cute as a button. I dubbed her "Silver Dollar." Now Silver Dollar was swinging it with a lady with cut off shorts and a blouse with a flowery pattern... that only reached down to her midriff. Like a Flower Pot. So Silver Dollar and Flower Pot were catching many peoples' attention that night. I was intrigued but I couldn't leave the bar and I still had 3/4 of a Harvey Wallbanger to deal with. I was stuck. So I carried on... and it worked out because to big dudes went over to join Silver Dollar and Flower Pot anyway. I couldn't decide if they were just friends, random strangers, or boyfriends, but it didn't make any difference. Just as well. So Coach and I move on, then we come back, and both Silver Dollar and Flower Pot are at the same two seats *we* were at! What are the odds?! Their "friends" were also with them. I think if there was one thing I'd like to have done, I wish I had a chance to ask Silver Dollar to take a pic with me. Maybe the other guys wouldn't like that so much though, bwahahahahahahaahaha. --I'm just joking, anyhow. 'Twas a fun night, although it ended without much fanfare.
Whew! There went the final night. One more recap is coming up, to wrap up the trip.
This time I purchased the tickets to the game, in fact, that was done the night before, and I got two very nice shaded seats at the new Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, home of the Diamondbacks and Rockies. The stadium was opened two years ago, although we didn't visit it back then. Many have raved and said high praises of Salt River Fields. Once we got there, we could see why. The facility is so fancy, so well designed, and stocked with dozens of high quality concessions. They had Crust Pizzeria represented. Some other place was there too. A smallish Mexican Cantina called Rosie's Salty Eyes or something. A chicken and burgers place was on board. I recall some other knick knacks in effect. Giant bratwurst sausages. Craft beers from Colorado and Arizona. A spacious, comfy lawn behind the outfield fence. A modern, state of the art, enormous scoreboard screen. Very large roof panels that covered a good 50-60% of the seats. What a stadium!
The Mariners and Rockies were both dismal teams but we had a wonderful time sitting just behind home plate, only a couple dozen rows up. The game was all right, but again, most teams have no shot to go to the playoffs. Jesus Montero and a kid by the name of Peguero were destroying the baseball for the M's, but I don't think that's enough for their offense. The Rockies have an improving lineup and EY Jr. is pretty good. Tulo looked great at the plate that day. I just don't think they have any answers on the mound. The only reliable arm is their setup guy Rafael Betancourt. Heck, he might even be upgraded to closer by now. Despite the teams on the field, it was a really good time at Salt River Fields.
Later that day and into the evening, Coach and I went to Talking Stick Casino. It's just an Indian Reservation Casino by name, but it was a fantastic place. Decent choice of gaming options such as Blackjack, Video Poker, and Slots, and an expansive Poker Room. No Casino is complete without a big buffet and Talking Stick had a great buffet and I mean *great* which we had that night. I went after the prime rib off the bat, but the lady there was slicing it into really thin pieces. Ah well, that didn't bother me much. At worst I could just go back. Instead I went after a bundle of lobster claws. Ohhh were those good!
After dinner, Coach and I sampled some of the bars at Talking Stick. The best one seemed to be the one near the middle of the Casino. Below this bar was another lounge which had dueling pianos. There wasn't much "dueling" going on -- it was more like Cooperating pianos. The pianos weren't facing each other, and all the two guys did was take turns playing. That's not how dueling painos work! They had a really lame playlist too, and cycled through all the same songs over again after 3 hours. I love his work but how many Elton John songs can you take in one sitting?
As all this went down, my buddy was watching the Oregon/UCLA game on a small TV at the center bar. We sipped on some cocktails and all the while waves of bachelorette parties descended onto the bar. It was enjoyable watching the different kinds of women party here and there but they quickly went off into other places.
Suddenly, I see across the way, between the chasm that housed the pianos, a lady in a silver glittery dress. She was gorgeous, cute as a button. I dubbed her "Silver Dollar." Now Silver Dollar was swinging it with a lady with cut off shorts and a blouse with a flowery pattern... that only reached down to her midriff. Like a Flower Pot. So Silver Dollar and Flower Pot were catching many peoples' attention that night. I was intrigued but I couldn't leave the bar and I still had 3/4 of a Harvey Wallbanger to deal with. I was stuck. So I carried on... and it worked out because to big dudes went over to join Silver Dollar and Flower Pot anyway. I couldn't decide if they were just friends, random strangers, or boyfriends, but it didn't make any difference. Just as well. So Coach and I move on, then we come back, and both Silver Dollar and Flower Pot are at the same two seats *we* were at! What are the odds?! Their "friends" were also with them. I think if there was one thing I'd like to have done, I wish I had a chance to ask Silver Dollar to take a pic with me. Maybe the other guys wouldn't like that so much though, bwahahahahahahaahaha. --I'm just joking, anyhow. 'Twas a fun night, although it ended without much fanfare.
Whew! There went the final night. One more recap is coming up, to wrap up the trip.
Spring Training Vacation 2013 Recap: Day 3
After a most eventful Day 2, we began Day 3 with the first of several full breakfast included free of charge by Thunderbird Suites. I love these free breakfasts. They were very comprehensive, with eggs, waffles, sausage, toast, and a few other delights. The only thing was, it was missing bacon. Hard to imagine breakfast without bacon, but after a while I asked one of the fellas roaming the dining hall if they had any bacon. To my surprise, they did! Do the dance! They brought out about a dozen extra strips and I partook in several of them.
Thunderbird gets stingy with bacon, who knew? Thankfully they had strips on demand, so I was happy to oblige.
Next destination: Scottsdale Stadium, home of the Giants. Well sports fans, if you thought Game 1 was an adventure, wait until Game 2. Coach tried to buy the tickets off stubhub the day of the game which works 99 out of 100 times. I have bought many tickets to many games in several places the same day and it was never an issue. First we tried to print the tickets using the Hotel's in-lobby computers and the tickets wouldn't load at all. Stupid Adobe Flash and IE extra secure settings... We then went back to the hotel room and I broke out my small Netbook. We loaded the tickets successfully this time and saved them to USB. Or we *thought* they loaded successfully. After printing them out back at the lobby, I noticed something really peculiar -- NO BAR CODE! The rest of the ticket printed fine but the bar code went missing. What the *hell?* So we thought the computer was faulty so we took the USB drive to FedEx Office..
First of all, it was the wrong FedEx Office locations. I had no clue that some of them were partial scale operations, i.e. only some of the services offered instead of the full assortment. So we had to go UP another mile to a different FedEx Office. We found an internet station to bring up the ticket and it still had no Bar Code. Oy vey! Then we checked Coach's iPhone... still no tickets. This was outrageous! I called Stubhub (I called because Coach was driving at the time so I figured I might as well mediate). It turns out there was a HUGE snafu between MLB, the Giants, and Stubhub that couldn't generate the ticket barcodes for that day's Giants game. I mean *can you believe this?*
Coach was fuming... he was suggesting we cancel the order, so I asked if that was possible, and started to go HAM. Then Stubhub calmed me down and said that it was still possible to bring the bogus ticket to the Giants' Will Call office and exchange for hard tickets. I went with that idea, and we eventually got to Scottsdale Stadium. By then it was quarter of one, or roughly 20 minutes before game time. As it turns out, dozens and dozens of other fans were also at Will Call with missing barcodes. What an epic fail by MLB and Stubhub, who are partners in ticket resales. With all that said, the Giants did a good job handling the situation and providing replacement tickets. We were in and didn't even miss a pitch.
The Giants pitched very well that day against the Rangers. Matt Cain got in 3 innings if memory serves and he was lighting it UP. Cainsie had amazing pitches, tremendous control of the plate and knocked everything down. One guy from the Rangers that got my attention, by the way, was Jim Adduci... I mean this guy came from nowhere but was really stroking it with the bat. He had some pop! Two home runs in the game, one from Hunter Pence. It was that kind of game, but the Giants dominated.
All ended well from a baseball standpoint, and the crowd was just packed for this one. It was packed to the gills, but nonetheless a very enjoyable atmosphere. Dinner that night was at a Mexican Food Cantina called "El Santo." It was the only restaurant I've ever seen that had its own pool bar, yet was not attached to a Hotel or Casino. Coach and I tried it out, and it was just my luck that I wore a green shirt.
...the shirt matched every single article of furniture at the pool bar!!
People up and down the bar were telling me "Wow you match everything at the bar!" Haha, I got a kick out of it. In fact, some people were asking to take pictures. LOL. El Santo's a pretty sweet place, especially for happy hour. Wait until summer time when babes start to crowd the place and start swimming. Good times ahead for "El Santo."
The rest of the night was uneventful. Instead of old town Scottsdale, we tried bars within walking distance. It was a joke. Scottsdale Quarter is the epitome of the "sleepy town." Nothing was open past 11 and anything that was was pretty dead. There was one bar at Mastro's Ocean Club restaurant, but it was packed with older folk. Not my scene.
Day 4 Recap is next!
Thunderbird gets stingy with bacon, who knew? Thankfully they had strips on demand, so I was happy to oblige.
Next destination: Scottsdale Stadium, home of the Giants. Well sports fans, if you thought Game 1 was an adventure, wait until Game 2. Coach tried to buy the tickets off stubhub the day of the game which works 99 out of 100 times. I have bought many tickets to many games in several places the same day and it was never an issue. First we tried to print the tickets using the Hotel's in-lobby computers and the tickets wouldn't load at all. Stupid Adobe Flash and IE extra secure settings... We then went back to the hotel room and I broke out my small Netbook. We loaded the tickets successfully this time and saved them to USB. Or we *thought* they loaded successfully. After printing them out back at the lobby, I noticed something really peculiar -- NO BAR CODE! The rest of the ticket printed fine but the bar code went missing. What the *hell?* So we thought the computer was faulty so we took the USB drive to FedEx Office..
First of all, it was the wrong FedEx Office locations. I had no clue that some of them were partial scale operations, i.e. only some of the services offered instead of the full assortment. So we had to go UP another mile to a different FedEx Office. We found an internet station to bring up the ticket and it still had no Bar Code. Oy vey! Then we checked Coach's iPhone... still no tickets. This was outrageous! I called Stubhub (I called because Coach was driving at the time so I figured I might as well mediate). It turns out there was a HUGE snafu between MLB, the Giants, and Stubhub that couldn't generate the ticket barcodes for that day's Giants game. I mean *can you believe this?*
Coach was fuming... he was suggesting we cancel the order, so I asked if that was possible, and started to go HAM. Then Stubhub calmed me down and said that it was still possible to bring the bogus ticket to the Giants' Will Call office and exchange for hard tickets. I went with that idea, and we eventually got to Scottsdale Stadium. By then it was quarter of one, or roughly 20 minutes before game time. As it turns out, dozens and dozens of other fans were also at Will Call with missing barcodes. What an epic fail by MLB and Stubhub, who are partners in ticket resales. With all that said, the Giants did a good job handling the situation and providing replacement tickets. We were in and didn't even miss a pitch.
The Giants pitched very well that day against the Rangers. Matt Cain got in 3 innings if memory serves and he was lighting it UP. Cainsie had amazing pitches, tremendous control of the plate and knocked everything down. One guy from the Rangers that got my attention, by the way, was Jim Adduci... I mean this guy came from nowhere but was really stroking it with the bat. He had some pop! Two home runs in the game, one from Hunter Pence. It was that kind of game, but the Giants dominated.
All ended well from a baseball standpoint, and the crowd was just packed for this one. It was packed to the gills, but nonetheless a very enjoyable atmosphere. Dinner that night was at a Mexican Food Cantina called "El Santo." It was the only restaurant I've ever seen that had its own pool bar, yet was not attached to a Hotel or Casino. Coach and I tried it out, and it was just my luck that I wore a green shirt.
...the shirt matched every single article of furniture at the pool bar!!
People up and down the bar were telling me "Wow you match everything at the bar!" Haha, I got a kick out of it. In fact, some people were asking to take pictures. LOL. El Santo's a pretty sweet place, especially for happy hour. Wait until summer time when babes start to crowd the place and start swimming. Good times ahead for "El Santo."
The rest of the night was uneventful. Instead of old town Scottsdale, we tried bars within walking distance. It was a joke. Scottsdale Quarter is the epitome of the "sleepy town." Nothing was open past 11 and anything that was was pretty dead. There was one bar at Mastro's Ocean Club restaurant, but it was packed with older folk. Not my scene.
Day 4 Recap is next!
Spring Training Vacation 2013 Recap: Day 2
Day Two
I think I was the first one to get up in the morning at the Blythe Motel 6. Coach was still asleep so I changed, then walked about a half mile to the nearest Starbucks. Got the Venti Pike Place Roast. Really hit the spot. I walked down the street over and back and it felt like a trip back to 1988... there was a Pizza Hut there that time forgot. Do you all remember those old Pizza Hut restaurants from the 70's and 80's? It was complete with the dining room, arcade machines, and the salad bar. That brought back some good memories. I'm saddened that Pizza Hut couldn't keep those kind of restaurants in circulation, with exceptions, but it was a sign of the times. Once their delivery took off, who really needed to go to the Pizza Hut to eat the pizza on site? A *few* of them are left, such as this one in Blythe, but I totally realize why the large overhead of full scale restaurants fell out of favor with the Hut.
Anyway, I returned to the Motel 6 and we checked out and packed our gear back in the car. Next stop: a donut shop in Downtown Blythe. Again, this reminds me of old Oxnard too... it's much like Downtown Oxnard: run down, some old shops, the design of the roads, and even the green street signs. Here's an example of one...
We used to see these all OVER Oxnard, and a bunch of them are still there, and it was neat to see such a nondescript sleepy town bring me such fond memories. The sign in the picture was *not* in Blythe, but I used it for illustration.
Off we went, to our next stop: Glendale, AZ. That's where the Dodgers and White Sox train and play their spring training games. On the way over we heard that Kelly Clarkson song at least three more times. We made a stop at a Gas Station near Goodyear before finally getting to Glendale.
We stopped at University of Phoenix Stadium, the home of the NFL's Arizona Cardinals. What a nice stadium! It's funny though: the stadium looks like a giant inflatable mattress. Well, "the mattress" is pretty sweet. We walked all the way around the stadium, and checked out the team store. There were a series of glass doors that'd let you go right into the concourse from there. They weren't even locked, but both store attendants were watching the door like hawks. Nevertheless we asked anyway if we could check out the concourse and they still said no. Then we moved on and went outside. As we walked around, we saw the retractable field just outside the south entrance. Man it is a sight to see! The field is on an enormous concrete slab with wheels about 5-6 feet high. There's also a slot to bring the field in that goes roughly 10 feet high. It's a unique feature, but a great idea.
Next destination: Camelback Ranch -- home of the Dodgers and White Sox. In the past, the term "Ranch" always reminded me of places for cows, beets, or hookers. Anyone hear of the "Bunny Ranch?" That's another story! Anyhow, this Ranch was farming baseball players. What a place! Truly first class all the way, with wooded facades and rock like barricades that remind me of fancy resort spas, and log cabins. Cool architecture like that.
The seats for the game were pretty good... the whole place was pretty festive... AND, I'm happy to report that they *do* serve official Dodger Dogs at Camelback Ranch. I wasn't hungry enough to try one, but it's great news for Dodger fans. One other item of interest: Fresh Lemonade. It was *extremely* hot that day. 92 at least. Everyone was hot, and most people during the game were running for cover. Unfortunately there weren't very many shaded seats at Camelback and our seats were baking for most of the game. I got pretty dehydrated often and once I saw Coach with a lemonade I followed his steps. In between I'd take regular trips to the water fountain to suck on that thing like a baby sucking a milk bottle. The lemonade was outstanding! Only five bones to boot. I believe it was a 32 ounce 'ade.
When the Dodgers took the field, it was great to see all the familiar faces back at it: Kemp, Ethier, Gonzalez, both Ellises, and the rest. The game wasn't so great. The Dodgers played an awful game. Capuano wasn't helping. Good God what a sieve... thankfully he's not going to make the starting rotation this year. All he did was give up hit after hit the whole day. I think officially he allowed five runs but he was good enough to give up a baker's dozen.
During the game, three people, THREE, were hit with foul balls. The first one was a poor teenage dude who was on the first row. The ball went and smacked him right in the face. I thought "geez, did he get all of it?" Then the turned his head and there was a huuuuuuuuuuuuge gash on the right side (it would be the left side from his point of view). Poor kid! The staff waved their arms and got medics... dude was way out of it. I hope he's all right.
Then some other lady gets hit with a foul ball... she wasn't hurt as badly since it just got her wrist. Then some fat guy down the line got pegged with a ball but I think he used his man boobs to trap it. It was kind of funny! It might have still bounced off of him, actually.
If that wasn't enough, we were leaving the game and an old lady behind us tripped over a pole with the ropes on it and spills out onto the floor. Geez! Is no one safe?? She seemed to be ok, but she was woozy.
Despite the accidents, it was a great time at Camelback and I picked up some souvenirs on the way out. Coach and I went out to the 101 loop, a freeway that went in a circle. I'm not used to these kind of freeways in California... out here the freeways go up and down, or left and right, or diagonally. Usually we leave circles for race tracks. Haha! But, in other places, such as Phoenix, loops are in the picture. Traffic was great, and in fact, traffic had *never* been a problem in Phoenix and we even said as much during the drive. We "never have to worry about traffic...."
......until that day. A whole host of cars got into some spill on the 101 loop somewhere east of Peoria. They closed down the ENTIRE 101 FREEWAY East of Route 51. It was insane! There was about an hour long delay with all of this as we attempted to reach Thunderbird Suites in Scottsdale. We never knew what the cause of the delay was, but as you can see in this article linked here: http://www.azcentral.com/community/scottsdale/articles/20130314scottsdale-fatal-crash-traffic-backup-abrk.html
...what happened was, a lady was on the shoulder and then inexplicably just backed up onto the road. It got messy... I'm saddened to hear the initiating party died. Very tough spot.
Not realizing what happened at the time, we carried on and took surface streets only to find yet *another* accident on the road, with a cars totaled on the opposite side of the road and emergency vehicles at the scene.
From all of this, we managed to get to the Thunderbird Suites. We were there two years ago for our last Spring Training Trip. The suite was again very nice. Next stop was Zipps.
At Zipps, a sports bar in Arizona, similar to Buffalo Wild Wings, but local with a half dozen locations, we watched some college basketball and snacked on appetizers. I asked for the Hot Golden Wings but the bartender lady warned me 3 times that they were *really* hot. I was used to spicy foods so I went with it. I handed it "ok" but they were right. It was a struggle getting through those wings. Whew!
I believe the rest of the night was split between the W and the Lodge, two venues that were mildly buzzing that night. Oh I was buzzing too, I had a healthy amount of alcohol. I got a little loopy. The W hotel has a pool bar on a roof, but it looked like some convention was there. Didn't have the usual vibe, although it was Thursday anyway. A quick tangent: why is their pool only a lousy 3 feet deep? It's pretty hard to swim in just a 3 foot pool, but I digress. I doubt people are doing any serious swimming at the W.
The Lodge was like a ski lodge, and it had a lot of locals from what we saw. They also had a bean bag game at the front. Looked like fun!
That was Day 2. Day 3 recap forthcoming...
I think I was the first one to get up in the morning at the Blythe Motel 6. Coach was still asleep so I changed, then walked about a half mile to the nearest Starbucks. Got the Venti Pike Place Roast. Really hit the spot. I walked down the street over and back and it felt like a trip back to 1988... there was a Pizza Hut there that time forgot. Do you all remember those old Pizza Hut restaurants from the 70's and 80's? It was complete with the dining room, arcade machines, and the salad bar. That brought back some good memories. I'm saddened that Pizza Hut couldn't keep those kind of restaurants in circulation, with exceptions, but it was a sign of the times. Once their delivery took off, who really needed to go to the Pizza Hut to eat the pizza on site? A *few* of them are left, such as this one in Blythe, but I totally realize why the large overhead of full scale restaurants fell out of favor with the Hut.
Anyway, I returned to the Motel 6 and we checked out and packed our gear back in the car. Next stop: a donut shop in Downtown Blythe. Again, this reminds me of old Oxnard too... it's much like Downtown Oxnard: run down, some old shops, the design of the roads, and even the green street signs. Here's an example of one...
We used to see these all OVER Oxnard, and a bunch of them are still there, and it was neat to see such a nondescript sleepy town bring me such fond memories. The sign in the picture was *not* in Blythe, but I used it for illustration.
Off we went, to our next stop: Glendale, AZ. That's where the Dodgers and White Sox train and play their spring training games. On the way over we heard that Kelly Clarkson song at least three more times. We made a stop at a Gas Station near Goodyear before finally getting to Glendale.
We stopped at University of Phoenix Stadium, the home of the NFL's Arizona Cardinals. What a nice stadium! It's funny though: the stadium looks like a giant inflatable mattress. Well, "the mattress" is pretty sweet. We walked all the way around the stadium, and checked out the team store. There were a series of glass doors that'd let you go right into the concourse from there. They weren't even locked, but both store attendants were watching the door like hawks. Nevertheless we asked anyway if we could check out the concourse and they still said no. Then we moved on and went outside. As we walked around, we saw the retractable field just outside the south entrance. Man it is a sight to see! The field is on an enormous concrete slab with wheels about 5-6 feet high. There's also a slot to bring the field in that goes roughly 10 feet high. It's a unique feature, but a great idea.
Next destination: Camelback Ranch -- home of the Dodgers and White Sox. In the past, the term "Ranch" always reminded me of places for cows, beets, or hookers. Anyone hear of the "Bunny Ranch?" That's another story! Anyhow, this Ranch was farming baseball players. What a place! Truly first class all the way, with wooded facades and rock like barricades that remind me of fancy resort spas, and log cabins. Cool architecture like that.
The seats for the game were pretty good... the whole place was pretty festive... AND, I'm happy to report that they *do* serve official Dodger Dogs at Camelback Ranch. I wasn't hungry enough to try one, but it's great news for Dodger fans. One other item of interest: Fresh Lemonade. It was *extremely* hot that day. 92 at least. Everyone was hot, and most people during the game were running for cover. Unfortunately there weren't very many shaded seats at Camelback and our seats were baking for most of the game. I got pretty dehydrated often and once I saw Coach with a lemonade I followed his steps. In between I'd take regular trips to the water fountain to suck on that thing like a baby sucking a milk bottle. The lemonade was outstanding! Only five bones to boot. I believe it was a 32 ounce 'ade.
When the Dodgers took the field, it was great to see all the familiar faces back at it: Kemp, Ethier, Gonzalez, both Ellises, and the rest. The game wasn't so great. The Dodgers played an awful game. Capuano wasn't helping. Good God what a sieve... thankfully he's not going to make the starting rotation this year. All he did was give up hit after hit the whole day. I think officially he allowed five runs but he was good enough to give up a baker's dozen.
During the game, three people, THREE, were hit with foul balls. The first one was a poor teenage dude who was on the first row. The ball went and smacked him right in the face. I thought "geez, did he get all of it?" Then the turned his head and there was a huuuuuuuuuuuuge gash on the right side (it would be the left side from his point of view). Poor kid! The staff waved their arms and got medics... dude was way out of it. I hope he's all right.
Then some other lady gets hit with a foul ball... she wasn't hurt as badly since it just got her wrist. Then some fat guy down the line got pegged with a ball but I think he used his man boobs to trap it. It was kind of funny! It might have still bounced off of him, actually.
If that wasn't enough, we were leaving the game and an old lady behind us tripped over a pole with the ropes on it and spills out onto the floor. Geez! Is no one safe?? She seemed to be ok, but she was woozy.
Despite the accidents, it was a great time at Camelback and I picked up some souvenirs on the way out. Coach and I went out to the 101 loop, a freeway that went in a circle. I'm not used to these kind of freeways in California... out here the freeways go up and down, or left and right, or diagonally. Usually we leave circles for race tracks. Haha! But, in other places, such as Phoenix, loops are in the picture. Traffic was great, and in fact, traffic had *never* been a problem in Phoenix and we even said as much during the drive. We "never have to worry about traffic...."
......until that day. A whole host of cars got into some spill on the 101 loop somewhere east of Peoria. They closed down the ENTIRE 101 FREEWAY East of Route 51. It was insane! There was about an hour long delay with all of this as we attempted to reach Thunderbird Suites in Scottsdale. We never knew what the cause of the delay was, but as you can see in this article linked here: http://www.azcentral.com/community/scottsdale/articles/20130314scottsdale-fatal-crash-traffic-backup-abrk.html
...what happened was, a lady was on the shoulder and then inexplicably just backed up onto the road. It got messy... I'm saddened to hear the initiating party died. Very tough spot.
Not realizing what happened at the time, we carried on and took surface streets only to find yet *another* accident on the road, with a cars totaled on the opposite side of the road and emergency vehicles at the scene.
From all of this, we managed to get to the Thunderbird Suites. We were there two years ago for our last Spring Training Trip. The suite was again very nice. Next stop was Zipps.
At Zipps, a sports bar in Arizona, similar to Buffalo Wild Wings, but local with a half dozen locations, we watched some college basketball and snacked on appetizers. I asked for the Hot Golden Wings but the bartender lady warned me 3 times that they were *really* hot. I was used to spicy foods so I went with it. I handed it "ok" but they were right. It was a struggle getting through those wings. Whew!
I believe the rest of the night was split between the W and the Lodge, two venues that were mildly buzzing that night. Oh I was buzzing too, I had a healthy amount of alcohol. I got a little loopy. The W hotel has a pool bar on a roof, but it looked like some convention was there. Didn't have the usual vibe, although it was Thursday anyway. A quick tangent: why is their pool only a lousy 3 feet deep? It's pretty hard to swim in just a 3 foot pool, but I digress. I doubt people are doing any serious swimming at the W.
The Lodge was like a ski lodge, and it had a lot of locals from what we saw. They also had a bean bag game at the front. Looked like fun!
That was Day 2. Day 3 recap forthcoming...
Spring Training Vacation 2013 Recap: Day 1
I'm back!
Good to return to Los Angeles, though I'm not all that motivated to return to work. Haha, we'll work that out later. I've got a lot to chat with you about! I thought that summarizing a long, exciting, enjoyable, and action filled Spring Training Baseball vacation in one blog post would not do the story justice. Instead, I will use separate blog posts for each day of the trip and add in some other thoughts of the day at the end. Let's do this...
Day One
The day started back at home. I took an extra day off to buffer the trip and ensure I have time to properly pack and prepare. Even though I had the day off work, I still woke up at my usual time of 5:30 am to go to swim practice. Great practice! It's kind of funny... I should have stayed around to talk to the assistant swim coach after practice, ya know the tall one, but I wasn't thinking ahead. I wanted to get into the other aspects of my day, plus I had plans to pick up my sister from CSUN and meet my pop for lunch in Simi Valley. So swim came and went.
Picked up my sis to meet my pop at Simi Valley at a place called Red's BBQ in Simi Valley. If you want quality barbecue chicken, *this* is the place. Folks, the meat comes right off the bone, it is amazing, and that smoky flavor is just incredible. I had a half chicken special for 7 dollars! SEVEN DOLLARS! Boy do I love prices outside of LA. It was great to chat with my Pop and Sister again. Lunch came and went and I dropped off my Sister back at CSUN and returned home.
I was packed, I had nothing in the fridge, but was plenty full from lunch. Ooh, I forgot to mention, I snuck in a "breakfast" of three tacos and chips at El Indio Mexicano in Northridge before I got my sister. Guilty as charged! Carne Asada tacos were phenomenal though. I don't regret that decision for a second, although both meals were spaced apart by only an hour.
Anyway, I was home after all of that, listened to the Franceser show, lurked on tmf.com, and did some additional research for Arizona. Eventually my buddy Andrew aka "the Coach" picked me up with his hybrid Nissan car and we were off to Blythe, CA for the night.
We chose Blythe because it was the half way point between Los Angeles and Scottsdale, AZ, our destination. For the night we stayed at a Motel 6. It was pretty darn nice as is expected for M6: simple, functional, and cheap. As with every Motel 6, the front desk people were *very* kind. I just LOVE that about Motel 6. How do Motel 6 staffers, of all people, stand out as the nicest most caring front desk persons in the lodging industry? I can't explain it, but I enjoy it.
Before we turned in for the night, Coach and I went to the nearby Denny's after Midnight, when we arrived. Denny's was not at all my first choice, but given the location, it was the only realistic choice that was open after Midnight. For Denny's part, they did a tremendous job. Little did I know they were a) Celebrating their 60th anniversary (who knew?) and b) it was "Bacon Week" or something at the Denny's. I went with the Jalapeno Bacon Chipotle Burger. That was delightful. I also had an Oreo Cookie shake. Friends, this vacay was off to a great start.
It was remarkably comforting... out on the road with Denny's food... I didn't think it'd be so good, but it worked out very well. We heard this song from Kelly Clarkson on the PA called "Catch My Breath." Little did we know then that it would play 978 more times during our trip! Oi!!!
That was Day 1... we were just starting. Day 2 recap is coming up!
Good to return to Los Angeles, though I'm not all that motivated to return to work. Haha, we'll work that out later. I've got a lot to chat with you about! I thought that summarizing a long, exciting, enjoyable, and action filled Spring Training Baseball vacation in one blog post would not do the story justice. Instead, I will use separate blog posts for each day of the trip and add in some other thoughts of the day at the end. Let's do this...
Day One
The day started back at home. I took an extra day off to buffer the trip and ensure I have time to properly pack and prepare. Even though I had the day off work, I still woke up at my usual time of 5:30 am to go to swim practice. Great practice! It's kind of funny... I should have stayed around to talk to the assistant swim coach after practice, ya know the tall one, but I wasn't thinking ahead. I wanted to get into the other aspects of my day, plus I had plans to pick up my sister from CSUN and meet my pop for lunch in Simi Valley. So swim came and went.
Picked up my sis to meet my pop at Simi Valley at a place called Red's BBQ in Simi Valley. If you want quality barbecue chicken, *this* is the place. Folks, the meat comes right off the bone, it is amazing, and that smoky flavor is just incredible. I had a half chicken special for 7 dollars! SEVEN DOLLARS! Boy do I love prices outside of LA. It was great to chat with my Pop and Sister again. Lunch came and went and I dropped off my Sister back at CSUN and returned home.
I was packed, I had nothing in the fridge, but was plenty full from lunch. Ooh, I forgot to mention, I snuck in a "breakfast" of three tacos and chips at El Indio Mexicano in Northridge before I got my sister. Guilty as charged! Carne Asada tacos were phenomenal though. I don't regret that decision for a second, although both meals were spaced apart by only an hour.
Anyway, I was home after all of that, listened to the Franceser show, lurked on tmf.com, and did some additional research for Arizona. Eventually my buddy Andrew aka "the Coach" picked me up with his hybrid Nissan car and we were off to Blythe, CA for the night.
We chose Blythe because it was the half way point between Los Angeles and Scottsdale, AZ, our destination. For the night we stayed at a Motel 6. It was pretty darn nice as is expected for M6: simple, functional, and cheap. As with every Motel 6, the front desk people were *very* kind. I just LOVE that about Motel 6. How do Motel 6 staffers, of all people, stand out as the nicest most caring front desk persons in the lodging industry? I can't explain it, but I enjoy it.
Before we turned in for the night, Coach and I went to the nearby Denny's after Midnight, when we arrived. Denny's was not at all my first choice, but given the location, it was the only realistic choice that was open after Midnight. For Denny's part, they did a tremendous job. Little did I know they were a) Celebrating their 60th anniversary (who knew?) and b) it was "Bacon Week" or something at the Denny's. I went with the Jalapeno Bacon Chipotle Burger. That was delightful. I also had an Oreo Cookie shake. Friends, this vacay was off to a great start.
It was remarkably comforting... out on the road with Denny's food... I didn't think it'd be so good, but it worked out very well. We heard this song from Kelly Clarkson on the PA called "Catch My Breath." Little did we know then that it would play 978 more times during our trip! Oi!!!
That was Day 1... we were just starting. Day 2 recap is coming up!
Monday, March 11, 2013
Dave's Thoughts of the Day: March 12th
One more day to go and it's off to Spring Training! Good times ahead.
Once I take off, I'm going to take a mini vacation from the blog too, so this will be my last post of the week.
Reflections... ah it's been quite a week. Yesterday was Monday, and today, after a momentous period of time, it is Tuesday.
I think I'll lay on a few quickies to round it out and roll into the vacay. A good old fashioned roast beef sandwich on a good bread roll is worth living for. They do a great job with those at Jersey Mike's.
Izzy's Deli also makes a mean roast beef sandwich over in Santa Monica. They're open 24 hours a day.
Arby's does a good fast food roast beef sandwich, but there are better ones if you want to be picky with quality. For the price, though, Arby's is hard to beat.
I keep going to bed a half hour later than I am supposed to. This is ruining any shot at my having a proper morning routine. Ah what are you gonna do?
Do you ever find yourself up late at night watching Youtube clips? Of course, in this case, it was all about classic Lakers highlights.
I saw clips of the 1985, 2001, and 2002 playoffs. I figured -- might as well, there won't be many memorable moments of the Lakers 2013 playoffs am I right??
I want to wish my buddy Chris aka "Get Your Own Show" a happy birthday. You might not know that we converse on a nightly basis about usual nonsense, jovial topics, and some other stuff. It's enjoyable banter. Hope he's doing well out there.
I can't fathom why it's so hard to just turn off the computer and lie down in bed at 9pm. Even without an actual cable subscription I find ways to stay occupied well into 11pm. Go figure.
People are still buzzing about DeAndre Jordan's dunk in the Clippers game on Sunday. I never have seen so many people get this excited about 2 points! (hee hee)
Did the dunk win the game? Nope. Did it signal a big momentum switch? Perhaps. It was good old fashioned fun. It was also a pretty small guy like Brandon Knight who broke his ankle the next night. Annnnnnd a pretty dismal team like the Pistons. Nonetheless, the props go out to Jordan for lighting the basketball world on fire.
I'll be honest here -- I like the Clipper players. I can't really complain about any of them, as I think they're all likeable guys. Even Blake Griffin's flopping expertise is something I can shrug off. Matt Barnes isn't that big a factor so I could just ignore him. The main reason for my tendency to tweak the Clippers and their fans is simple: I think Clipper fans care less about the Clippers as they do about the Lakers' foibles.
I find that silly. The Clipper Nation has a great team that should be rallied behind and supported. Why are Clipper fans so absorbed about what the Lakers are doing? When the Lakers are about to win 60 games one year, do Laker fans look over their shoulder to see if the Clippers have a shot at the playoffs? No! I feel like Clipper fans ought to consider the same perspective.
Clipper fans... you all have a wonderful basketball team. Flawed, yes. Defensively lacking, yes. Poorly coached, yes. Nonetheless, the deepest squad in the NBA and one of the most talented top to bottom. Cherish it! Stop worrying about what Kobe and Dwight Howard are doing. Fear not, our jokers will be the talk of the court soon enough.
Speaking.... of jokers... I want to strangle the kid who wrote this Trojan Virus and somehow tacked it onto a word file for a professor while she was abroad and collected it on her USB drive. That "effort" resulted in about 72 hours of undue stress and aggravation in a somewhat fruitless venture to repair what has been a badly infected netbook computer.
Honestly, are people out there just so bored with themselves? Do they really have so little to live for that they must resort to devastating virus code writing and somehow place it onto innocuous Word Documents? I'm this close to formatting the whole machine, and that's going to be a huge problem. If I were somehow to meet this kid, oh baby...
People talk about putting candles on the birthday cake. Now what would YOU want to put a candle on? I'd like to put candles on a pizza. That would be really fun to blow out. Other ideas... Candles on a hot dog would be nice. Candle on a big juicy porterhouse steak. Stuff like that.
I have *always* wanted to get the woman to jump out of the cake for me. What do I have to do to sign up for this? Is it arranged by a company perhaps?
All one would have to do is hitch a ride to Vegas and any wish can come true. ...except sports bets. There still hasn't been one win in like 15 tries. I don't even want to attempt an NFL futures bet this year, or if I do, I'll intentionally put bets on teams I hate so they don't make the playoffs. Right away I can think of placing ten bones on the Seahawks, Broncos, maybe the Eagles although I don't *hate* them as much as I find consternation with how they run things. The Titans would be on that list too, and the Cowboys, the Saints, as would be the... well all right I'll be honest, the Jets too.
As I think of those futures, I will think forward to a big week. Hope you all enjoyed it, and hope you all have a good week!
Once I take off, I'm going to take a mini vacation from the blog too, so this will be my last post of the week.
Reflections... ah it's been quite a week. Yesterday was Monday, and today, after a momentous period of time, it is Tuesday.
I think I'll lay on a few quickies to round it out and roll into the vacay. A good old fashioned roast beef sandwich on a good bread roll is worth living for. They do a great job with those at Jersey Mike's.
Izzy's Deli also makes a mean roast beef sandwich over in Santa Monica. They're open 24 hours a day.
Arby's does a good fast food roast beef sandwich, but there are better ones if you want to be picky with quality. For the price, though, Arby's is hard to beat.
I keep going to bed a half hour later than I am supposed to. This is ruining any shot at my having a proper morning routine. Ah what are you gonna do?
Do you ever find yourself up late at night watching Youtube clips? Of course, in this case, it was all about classic Lakers highlights.
I saw clips of the 1985, 2001, and 2002 playoffs. I figured -- might as well, there won't be many memorable moments of the Lakers 2013 playoffs am I right??
I want to wish my buddy Chris aka "Get Your Own Show" a happy birthday. You might not know that we converse on a nightly basis about usual nonsense, jovial topics, and some other stuff. It's enjoyable banter. Hope he's doing well out there.
I can't fathom why it's so hard to just turn off the computer and lie down in bed at 9pm. Even without an actual cable subscription I find ways to stay occupied well into 11pm. Go figure.
People are still buzzing about DeAndre Jordan's dunk in the Clippers game on Sunday. I never have seen so many people get this excited about 2 points! (hee hee)
Did the dunk win the game? Nope. Did it signal a big momentum switch? Perhaps. It was good old fashioned fun. It was also a pretty small guy like Brandon Knight who broke his ankle the next night. Annnnnnd a pretty dismal team like the Pistons. Nonetheless, the props go out to Jordan for lighting the basketball world on fire.
I'll be honest here -- I like the Clipper players. I can't really complain about any of them, as I think they're all likeable guys. Even Blake Griffin's flopping expertise is something I can shrug off. Matt Barnes isn't that big a factor so I could just ignore him. The main reason for my tendency to tweak the Clippers and their fans is simple: I think Clipper fans care less about the Clippers as they do about the Lakers' foibles.
I find that silly. The Clipper Nation has a great team that should be rallied behind and supported. Why are Clipper fans so absorbed about what the Lakers are doing? When the Lakers are about to win 60 games one year, do Laker fans look over their shoulder to see if the Clippers have a shot at the playoffs? No! I feel like Clipper fans ought to consider the same perspective.
Clipper fans... you all have a wonderful basketball team. Flawed, yes. Defensively lacking, yes. Poorly coached, yes. Nonetheless, the deepest squad in the NBA and one of the most talented top to bottom. Cherish it! Stop worrying about what Kobe and Dwight Howard are doing. Fear not, our jokers will be the talk of the court soon enough.
Speaking.... of jokers... I want to strangle the kid who wrote this Trojan Virus and somehow tacked it onto a word file for a professor while she was abroad and collected it on her USB drive. That "effort" resulted in about 72 hours of undue stress and aggravation in a somewhat fruitless venture to repair what has been a badly infected netbook computer.
Honestly, are people out there just so bored with themselves? Do they really have so little to live for that they must resort to devastating virus code writing and somehow place it onto innocuous Word Documents? I'm this close to formatting the whole machine, and that's going to be a huge problem. If I were somehow to meet this kid, oh baby...
People talk about putting candles on the birthday cake. Now what would YOU want to put a candle on? I'd like to put candles on a pizza. That would be really fun to blow out. Other ideas... Candles on a hot dog would be nice. Candle on a big juicy porterhouse steak. Stuff like that.
I have *always* wanted to get the woman to jump out of the cake for me. What do I have to do to sign up for this? Is it arranged by a company perhaps?
All one would have to do is hitch a ride to Vegas and any wish can come true. ...except sports bets. There still hasn't been one win in like 15 tries. I don't even want to attempt an NFL futures bet this year, or if I do, I'll intentionally put bets on teams I hate so they don't make the playoffs. Right away I can think of placing ten bones on the Seahawks, Broncos, maybe the Eagles although I don't *hate* them as much as I find consternation with how they run things. The Titans would be on that list too, and the Cowboys, the Saints, as would be the... well all right I'll be honest, the Jets too.
As I think of those futures, I will think forward to a big week. Hope you all enjoyed it, and hope you all have a good week!
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