Another Summer Almost Gone

*sigh*

I sit in a townie bar, using their free internet and sipping on the one Bud Light I purchased to not feel bad about asking to use their internet. So technically, the internet isn't actually free...but that does seem to be the American way. This brings me to begin a list of blog topics I plan to talk about eventually. I just don't know when I'll get around to them.

The Power of the Asterisk: A look at American Economics

Lobbyists: Hindering Progress since their creation

Football: The Most Exciting slow-as-hell sport. Ever.

College: Hindsight Thoughts

College: The Year I Brag about to my Grandkids

Food Service Industry Rant #1: Recycling

Food Service Industry Rant #2: Wedding DJ's

Food Service Industry Rant #3: Over/Under-staffing

My Six-year-old Laptop.

328: The House, The Myth, the Legend

Speak of the devil, I need to go clean that legend...

We Got No Respect.

I blame the system, but I'm getting tired of the Big Ten getting no respect.

Too often the BCS takes TWO Big Ten teams to fill its spots (Unless one of us is ranked 1st or 2nd, there should only be one of us going to the Rose Bowl) It's happened the past several years, and it has made the Big Ten look like crap on a national level. There's a severe mis-match of in-division rank between schools going on when the system does this.

Logic would dictate that the best team from one conference should play the best team from another conference, the second best against the second best, and so on. The 2008 season is a wonderful example, as are most other seasons.

In 2008, The Big 12 Champions, Oklahoma were ranked #1 and played The SEC Champions, Florida, who were ranked #2. Perfect thus far.

The #3 Team in the nation, Texas (Big 12 South Co-Champ), whom had already beat the #1 ranked Oklahoma team in Conference play, was then matched up with...wait for it.

The #10 Ohio State Buckeyes (Big Ten 'Co-Champs'). Why were they there? It was a BCS Game...there was no reason that they HAD to pick a Big Ten Team...Replace Ohio State with someone else in the top 10...(Boise State and Texas Tech didn't win their bowl games that year, but they had as much right to the Fiesta Bowl as Ohio State did that year)...then move Ohio State BELOW Penn State to the Capital One Bowl and replace Michigan State, both teams which would likely defeat their respective opponents in their new Bowl Game assignments. Ohio State definitely had a chance against Georgia, and Michigan State would have done well against Missouri. If you keep Iowa in the Outback Bowl (they get to be the exception in this scenario because they actually WON their bowl game) that matches up Northwestern against Kansas, and Minnesota against Florida State. All of those games look and sound much more interesting to watch than their respective outcomes. Wisconsin gets shafted out of a bowl game, but maybe that's what's necessary for a while to make the Big Ten look better.

Penn State was already playing USC in the Rose Bowl (a Big Ten Bowl Game that was actually worth watching, even though Penn State lost).

I think that's all I'm really trying to get at. These games should be fun to watch...fairly matched, etc. Much like backyard football, or a fun pick-up game on a Sunday afternoon, the point is to have fun. It's no fun playing 5 on 5 football when the other team has the two fast guys, and you got stuck with the gimp and the fat kid.

I'm not saying the Big Ten is out of their league. All of those games last year were completely winnable. It's just a system that naturally stacks the odds slightly against the Big Ten, and more often than not, the Big Ten doesn't come out on top.

Are you ready for some football?

No one reads this. I do this for me.

Room's rearranged. Not clean yet, but rearranged. There's temporarily an xbox in my room, so I'm playing Gears of War when I'm not doing school work or sorting out all of the shit on the floor of my room.

My toe is very much purple. Crowbar fell on it while I was cleaning my room. Doc melted a hole through the nail and volcanically 'eased the pressure under the nail'.

Classes are finally in full swing. It's different having no class on Mondays/Fridays.

Happy Football Season. Go Bears, Go Hawks.

Crazy Flashback

I saw something today that I haven't seen since I was probably twelve. It's a book on Star Wars weapons and technology. Supernerd, I'm well aware, but half of the literature I read growing up was Star Wars based. It took me back, because I haven't done or read anything REALLY nerdy in a long time. a long time.

Thanks to this book, I know where the Power coupling on a sensor jammer is. That's important shit to know.

No new movie reviews...just life today. Let's talk music and television.

I've been discovering a lot of wonderful new music the past few weeks. One of the wonderful things about Pandora and Last.fm is that they don't exclusively play artists that are very well known, so when I typed in MJ to get some Billie Jean going, some really cool bands started popping up. One thing lead to another, and now I'm listening to a bunch of bands I didn't know, and a few I did. Adding these new bands to my summer playlist that already had some great material on it, I'm pretty much set until September.

Wow. Old Kings of Leon came on my Pandora right now. I know this because I have three of their albums. I'm not going to say that I discovered them long before the Radio did, but I knew them well before anyone could sing along to their music in the bars...which it never got played in. (The Ting Tings, however, I've been listening to for the past year, and I'm getting tired of the fact that Sex on Fire and That's Not my Name are on severe repeat in the bars)

I currently can't get enough of "The Whitest Boy Alive", a collaborative work between several members of several bands, but I like them. The Kings of Convenience lead singer is their vocalist, so they're very familiar to me.

Rescue Me
This show never ceases to amaze me. The amount of "don't go there" subject matter that they are able to cover is absolutely ridiculous. From world views on 9/11 to Alcoholism to dead parents and dead children. With the exception of the alcoholism, I find myself relating to Tommy Gavin a lot more than I wish I was, but a lot of the time, I feel the same way he does about things...except when he doesn't get something or backs himself into a corner. That's just funny.

I'm going to a Cubs-Cardinals Friday afternoon. Exciting stuff.
I leave for a four-week trip to Massachusetts on Saturday. Even more Exciting. I'm already packed.

So why am I just going through all the motions? Why don't I feel excited? It's a question for another day to answer...I need some sleep.

Rating system Change. and some Frisbee. My Sister's Keeper (6), and Inside Man (9)

So, I think I've figured out a way to condense my rating system. I think I'm going to do Enjoyment out of 5 and critical review out of 5 and then add them together. One number per movie makes it easier to deal with, and pay attention to. I'll be going back and changing the others accordingly.

My Sister's Keeper - 6/10
Critic: 3/5. Enjoyment: 3/5
One of the reasons that this might be so high compared to the National average on Rotten Tomatoes (44%) is probably because I haven't read the book. I saw it with a bunch of friends and colleagues from Dance Marathon, most of whom have read the book, and say it is very different. As dramatic as it got at some points, I didn't think it was overdone or unnecessary. It had its humorous moments, but overall it did what it was supposed to: Let you look into the lives of a family dealing with childhood cancer.

Inside Man - 9/10
Critic: 4/5. Enjoyment: 5/5
This is one of the more interesting movies I think I've ever seen. The plot has you confused and enthralled the entire time, The cast has more talent than most ensembles out there, and the end is just twisty enough to spin you around without making you dizzy. I watched it a second time tonight with my Dad, and HE thought it was a great movie. That doesn't happen often...

I'll send some more reviews out when I see some more movies...

Happy 4th of July Weekend, The Hangover (8.5) and Transformers 2 (c5/e8)

Hello everyone. After driving a LOT this weekend, I'm finally back in the Chicago Suburbs. Blogging about the rest of life as I know it. I used to have a Xanga, which I used for Xanga-esque things, but I feel this has much more potential to do great things.

Why do we celebrate the day we declared Independence and started a brutal war? Why don't we celebrate the day we signed peace agreements with England and they recognized us as a sovereign nation? It was September 3, 1783, for those of you that care.


On to some Movies I've seen recently.

The Hangover - 8.5/10
Critical: 3.5/5. Enjoyment: 5/5)

I really enjoyed The Hangover. The second time I saw it just made everything that much funnier. It is vulgar, raunchy humor, with a pinch of a Napoleon Dynamite or Borat style of awkward-funny, but just enough that it doesn't pull the movie down, and the other characters are aware of it and play off it well. The plot has purpose and a drive to it. Similar movies have been made without this drive and have missed terribly at the box office...giving The Hangover some class, credibility, and added humor to the plot that sets it apart from its peers. The movie itself is lacking in the class department, but I suppose it was made to be racy.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - 4/10
(Critical: 1.5/5, Enjoyment: 2.5/5)
A decent sequel to the original movie, it had a lot of moments that were difficult for me to watch (I have never been so dizzy watching a movie before...they do that like six times, too!). Then there's the father-son corniness. And the Roommate corniness. And the stereotypical frat-boy party corniness. And the "Love" corniness...what was that, the Matrix?

It was a fun movie to watch, but it's been thrown into the category of "popcorn" flick, and won't win any oscars, except for visual effects, of course. It was a fun, cool movie that had a few too many comic-relief, plucky, quirky, or annoying characters (Seymore, Leo, Galloway, Mud Flap, Skids, Wheels, Starscream) to take it all seriously in the long run.

More later (see Subject line for the next stuff). I'm tired. Been watching Dexter (9/10), and there were some intense games of frisbee today. More on this later. Let me know if you keep up with this.