Slap Countdown
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Monthly Archives: November 2007
Happy Birthday Buddy!
Dear Herm Edwards
You play to win the game. Hello! You play to win the game!
- Herm Edwards, October 30, 2002
Note your own words. It’s not “You play not to lose the game.” which is what you did today in Indianapolis. Let me know how that worked out for you.
When you have a team like Indianapolis playing the way they did today, you step on their throat. I don’t care if your best friend is on the other side of the field. When he had the chance to step on your throat at the end of the game, he did just that. Going for it on 4th down so your abysmal clock management would bite you was a genius part of coaching on Tony Dungy’s part. You should go to his coaching school and learn how to coach a team to a victory instead of coaching them just to KEEP IT CLOSE.
Oh yeah, and let Brodie Croyle throw the ball down the field. The kid looked good.
Presidential Candidates 2008
When I started blogging in October of 2004, we were in the midst of the debate season of the election between John Kerry and George W. Bush. Four out of my first ten posts were about politics, but since that election ended, I’ve only had four politically related posts in the 3 years since.
This isn’t because I’ve stopped caring about politics – far from that – but it’s just that a lot hasn’t really been happening except that my former party of choice has slowly been making bad decision after bad decision. It has been difficult to watch, but the hope is that things will at least change in 2008. That’s part of the beauty of our system, although I would like to see some measure of term limits that are applied to presidents applied to both houses of Congress.
With the missteps of the Republican party, I’m keeping an open mind with the upcoming election, even considering Democratic candidates in my search for someone to vote for. When I got the idea for this post, it was intended to be an overview with a nice little chart showing where I agreed with each of the candidates from each party.
First, I went out and got my list of all the candidates. I knew there were a lot of candidates, but it was overwhelming. There are currently 17 candidates for president (9 Republican, 8 Democrat) in the two major parties. Visiting each of their websites became frustrating because even reading their stance on “the issues” didn’t really give me any insight into what they were actually saying. It sounded like a debate where there are lots of words and no one actually says anything.
Then I found this great little chart. Without getting into great detail, it outlines where each of the 17 major candidates stand on the bevy of issues that face voters come 12 months from now.
What I found was that there isn’t a candidate out there right now that I categorically agree with on every issue. A lot of it has been based on what I’ve seen of the debates up to this point, but I have my favorites. I’m hoping that in the next few months that will become more defined and I’ll find a candidate that I don’t want to punch in the face. We’ll see.
Friday Blogthing – World Leader
What Famous Leader Are You?
I’m no Einstein.
I am a mild mannered assassination victim. I am Abe Lincoln. I have a peaceful nature and am good at mediating disputes with the exception of the occasional bloody civil war.
Allen Field House
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a Kansas Jayhawks basketball fan. I remember when I was 12 in 1988 and they won the National Title. I remember going to the Final Four in New Orleans to watch them in 1993 when Chris Webber called the timeout in the title game that sealed the game for North Carolina.
I’ve experienced the pains of losing to Bucknell and others, but I’ll forever be a Jayhawk, even if I went to Graceland.
Last night, I got to do something that I’ve always wanted to as a fan, but never had experienced – I got to see a game at Allen Field House, the hallowed, historic hall where the Jayhawks call home. My buddy Josh procured some General Admission tickets so we took the trek out to Lawrence with Brett and Mike D for an evening in the best college basketball venue in America.
We got there a little late (driving to Lawrence from JoCo when all of you work makes it hard to get there on time), but the game had barely started. We came in through the KU Hall of Fame, which is really cool. They have the old Midcourt up there, which is pretty neat.
The game was against Washburn, so it was bound to be a blowout, but the real exciting thing was that we got to see the return of Brandon Rush to action. Rush, who hurt his knee in the off-season, returned from surgery much more quickly than expected. I imagine that they wanted to give him a test against a lesser opponent just to see how he did. I think he ended up with 7 points, 0 turnovers, and a block.
It was a fun evening and KU ended up winning by more than 30. The halftime show was all of these frisbee dogs and it was pretty funny. One of them had a red-white-and-blue cape, which was hilarious. They also kept showing scores from the Oregon-Arizona football game, which had BCS implications for the undefeated Jayhawks. When they flashed up that Oregon was losing, the place went nuts.
Our Tree in the Yard
Isn’t it gorgeous?
Reality Hosts are Terrible
I’m not sure where these reality shows manage to find the losers they put in front of the camera in between events. Jeff Probst’s previous gig before Survivor was Rock N Roll Jeopardy. Ryan Seacrest had a radio show in Los Angeles before American Idol. Chris Harrison hosted Designer’s Challenge on HGTV before The Bachelor. And these are all people who I would consider more qualified to host reality shows than Samantha Harris.
I’m not proud to admit that I watch Dancing with the Stars, but one thing I do is that I mute the TV whenever Samantha Harris is on the screen. Andy Denhart of reality blurred recently published an article on MSNBC giving several instances of Harris’ awfulness as a host.
Harris is just absolutely and completely lost half the time, constantly referring to her handy-dandy postcard to be saved from herself. Is it really that hard to ask interesting questions? I seriously don’t think she pays attention at all to the show and has a monkey behind the camera telling her what to say. Although a monkey might make more sense…
ABC, I beg of you to get rid of her from this show. Having Tom Bergeron’s cheesiness is plenty to stomach during the show. We really don’t need Samantha’s babbling on a show where the host’s other gig is America’s Funniest Home Videos and the top prize is a mirror ball trophy.
A Non-Chiefs Post
So, I’ve knocked out two successive Chiefs posts. I apologize for coming back after a short hiatus with some seriously sports-y posts – how about something a little sunnier.
Anyway, one of the original reasons I started this blog was to post movie reviews. Before we had an unexpected run to the hospital on Saturday for our niece, we took advantage of AMC’s A.M. Cinema program and managed to see two movies for a total of 20 bucks for both of us. Plus, I got the opportunity to use the Dyson Air Blades at the theater again.
Lions for Lambs
Robert Redford’s latest directorial offering is an extremely powerful and successfully executed film focusing on a very controversial subject – the war on terror. The story is actually three separate stories shown in almost real time.
The first story centers around a junior Republican Senator (played brilliantly by the frustratingly good Tom Cruise) who is putting forth a “new plan” for Afghanistan and giving a seasoned veteran journalist (Meryl Streep) the exclusive. He says all the right things, reacts the right way, answers all her tough questions. Across the country, a college professor (at an obscure California university) is having a meeting with a talented, yet apathetic political science student. Across the world, that very plan is being put into action by a group of Army Rangers (Peter Berg, Derek Luke and Michael Peña).
There isn’t much that should be said about the movie other than it challenges us to think. Redford does a great job framing the story and it is superbly acted (you’d hope so with the Hollywood heavyweights lining up on the bill). I enjoyed it very much.
Lars and the Real Girl
Ryan Gosling is absolutely fantastic in this indie flick about a guy with some social issues in a small Northern town. To help him deal with a tragedy in his life, he orders himself a very real “doll” who he names Bianca and gives an entire personality, much to the chagrin of his brother and sister-in-law who live in the main house next to his garage residence.
What impressed me most about the movie was Ryan Gosling. Previously probably best known as “that guy who was in The Notebook with that girl from Wedding Crashers“, Gosling is an up and coming Hollywood star. Here’s a guy who has not waited until later in his career to take chances on roles (like, perhaps, Tom Cruise), but has followed more the path of Sean Penn, taking roles that others wanting to be “stars” rather than “actors” might steer clear of.
Even though I disliked Half Nelson somewhat, you had to respect the fervor with which Gosling threw himself at the role of the drug-addled inner-city teacher. The same could be said for his portrayal of Lars in this film. Gosling is also surrounded by great actors, although they are certainly supporting in every sense of the word.
The movie is extremely heartfelt and I really enjoyed it in a very different way than I enjoyed Lions for Lambs. Both movies are excellent in my opinion, but they are very different. Neither is for everyone, but they were both for me.