A Shocker

I had every intention of writing a little bit about The Brothers Bloom since we went and saw it tonight (excellent flick, by the by) but while we were at dinner, something came across my Google Reader that made my jaw drop. Apparently I gasped when I read it and startled the Missus.

Mitsuharu Misawa died last night.

The majority of people reading this probably have no idea who that is but suffice to say that if you're a wrestling fan, you know that it's a sad day for the business as one of the all-time greats has fallen.

But deaths in this business aren't usually so shocking. Misawa died in the ring in mid-match. He took a back suplex from an opponent and went into cardiac arrest. They performed CPR in the ring but there was nothing to be done. Misawa who had survived so many lethal looking moves through his career had died inside the squared circle.

Words can't do justice what an amazing in-ring performer this guy was. Soooooo...

Head Trauma

Somehow, someway, I smacked my head into the side of the door frame trying to get to this computer to post for you people.

The sacrifices I make for you!

So, with a slightly pounding head, I come to write...

...and find nothing to say.

How 'bout this one?

Earlier today, I read that former WWE superstar Bobby Lashley - who left the WWE in hopes of being a black Brock Lesnar in MMA instead of a black Brock Lesnar in pro wrestling - had made some comments on Kimbo Slice's addition to next season's The Ultimate Fighter cast. I'm too lazy to go look up the exact quote right now but he said something like, "I would've loved to do it but it would do nothing for my career and my management team wouldn't let me." Wow.

You may recall that I give Kimbo many props and much love for having the balls to stand up to his management team and put his cajones... err... where his mouth was. Sorry for the imagery on that one.

So, Kimbo Slice, a street fighter who probably could've ridden out freak show fights for the rest of his life and made a decent chunk of change doing it, put EVERYTHING on the line for a shot at getting into the biggest MMA promotion on the planet. You've gotta respect the man for that whether you think he's a joke as a fighter or not.

Bobby Lashley who is a former collegiate wrestler and is a genetic freak... well, he thinks it's a bad career move to try to earn a spot in the UFC. He'd rather slap around also-rans, has-beens, and never-weres until Dana notices him. His next fight is sure to make some headlines against Bob Sapp but Sapp hasn't been truly competitive in MMA in years. He was the product of overhype and believing in that hype did his career in as a fighter. So, a win over Sapp isn't exactly going to set the world on fire for Bobby Lashley.

Mr. Lashley, it's time to put your cajones where your mouth is! You want to be taken seriously as a fighter - and I can't believe I'm about to say this - but you need to follow in Kimbo's footsteps.

One To Go...

Like I really was going to talk about anything else tonight.

That was a fun game to watch. Back and forth, runs and droughts, cursing, screaming, and praising. You've got to love playoff basketball.

So, the Lakers find themselves one win away from another Championship which is absolutely awesome... duh.

The game was sloppy at times and got a little chippy at points [about time!] but that didn't make it any less entertaining. A second OT game? Amazing. Derek Fisher with the 3 Pointer Of Absolute Redemption? Incredible. Pau looking like he wanted to throw down with a foo'? Priceless.

Oh, and don't forget that Kobe guy. The best player walkin'.

One more win. One more. The question now becomes do they get too lazy and blow it in Game Five or does the young Magic team fold house like the Nuggets did?

Is Your Favorite Here?

One of my favorite websites had this linked today - a clip of the Top 100 memorable lines in movie history. Anything missing?

Split Decision

Lakers lose but is anyone super shocked by that? At work today, I had
predicted that if the Lakers were going to lose just one, it's be
tonight. They looked pretty good - sloppy at times with a lack of
defensive intensity. They made mental errors - Kobe's missed free
throws, the steal towards the end, etc.

I'm not worried - well, unless they lose Gm 4 too.

Dodgers win again, continuing this nutty season with the best record
in MLB despite being without Manny - who showed up to say hello and
apparently make sure we all know he didn't rape or kill anyone. I
still think they'll need another starter at some point though. 117
pitches for Chad tonight in 5.2 innings? Yikes!

Sent from my iPhone

God Bless America

I laughed my ass off watching this and I'm sure you will too. It actually reminds me of the night Chris Jericho beat The Rock and Austin in the same night to win the Undisputed Title and one of my loyal readers - YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE - threw the mother of all hissy fits and pouted the entire way home from San Diego, even going as far as giving me both tickets to Raw the following night and saying that he wasn't going.

Pure awesome.

The Minor League System

I have no idea how these things happen but I woke up this morning pondering the existence of the minor league system in Major League Baseball. It might be a brief piece I saw the other night on James Loney and the MLB Draft or it might be all the talk of the upcoming Draft.

But in the middle of all this pondering, something stuck in my craw.

Why is it that MLB is the only one of the major four sports that have such a drawn-out and [possibly] bloated minor league system to work through to hit the big time?

NBA? You get drafted, you're on the big team's roster more often than not and sometimes have an immediate and huge impact. The NFL is the same way. Not sure on the NHL but occasionally you do hear about some wunderkind.

But MLB? Someone who gets drafted in MLB may wait YEARS before making the big leagues if they ever make it all. Is MLB that much harder of a sport? Is there that much difference between the sports in the quality gap between high school/college ball and the pros?

I decided to do a little research to see just how this plays out.

Thanks to this super-helpful report on sport participation up on the NCAA website, I can provide the following information...

In 2006-7, the following participation numbers were recorded.

Baseball - 29,846 (in Div I/II/III)
Basketball - 16,640
Football - 62,459
Hockey - 3,957

Okay... so from there, we look at the drafts for each sport...

MLB - 1,502 players were drafted in the 2006 MLB Draft
NBA - 60 players are drafted
NFL - 256 players were drafted in the 2009 NFL Draft
NHL - 211 players were drafted in the 2009 NFL Draft

Now, let's look at slots available for those players (and yes, I realize the math is flawed based on international, non-roster players, etc.) And of course, all of this is quite theoretical.

For the NBA, every team can carry a max of 15. At 30 teams, that means there are 450 jobs available in the NBA. Of the total number of NCAA basketball players, about 3% will get one of those jobs and rarely - and I do mean RARELY - do one of the sixty drafted not play immediately in the NBA.

For the NFL, every team can carry a max of 53. At 32 teams, there are 1696 jobs available in the NFL. Theoretically, up to 3% will also get a job in the NFL. And again, RARELY do those players not immediately play for their NFL team.

For the NHL, every team can carry a max of 20 players. With 30 teams, that makes 600 jobs in the NHL. In theory, about 2% of those college players will get a job. The numbers are probably really off on this one because of the amount of international players in the NHL who don't come through the NCAA system.

And finally, there's MLB...

At 30 teams... and I'll be generous and go with the 40 Man Roster... there's 1200 jobs available at the Major League level. Again, in theory, up to 4% of the NCAA players will end up in the Major Leagues. That's close to the other sports so that makes sense. However, when we look at draft numbers...MLB is the only sport where more players are drafted than are already in the Majors.

The Dodger organization alone carries seven minor league teams... three rookie ball teams, two A affiliates, one AA, and one AAA. That gives the Dodgers a grand total of 131ish listed players in the minor leagues with two teams not listing rosters. If we assume another 25 per team there, the Dodgers creep close to 200 players in their system. Let's say 150 to be conservative. If we assume the rest of the MLB teams do the same, that's another 4500 jobs open in the MLB system for a total of 5700. With 5700 jobs in the system, you can now theorize that about about 20% of NCAA players will get a job in the MLB system.

So, the numbers are fascinating to me but the real question is... why?

Any thoughts?

Fuck Microsoft

It's not exactly what you'd call a secret that the big MS and I don't exactly see eye to eye. I've been using Macs and professing their greatness to all who'd listen for years. Windows is a giant pile of shit compared to OS X whether it's XP, Vista, and I'll go out a limb right now and say it... yes, even the fabled Windows 7. The Zune is an even larger pile of shit that has earned it's place in the Mocking Hall of Fame. Office is... eh.... but it's hard to fuck up a Word Processor.

But the X-Box and I have always been on decent terms. I had an original X-Box pretty early in its inception - my last "big" Christmas gift from the family. I enjoyed it muchly and thought it much more fun than my PS2 that continues to sit untouched as it has been for years. I was pretty enthused about the 360 when I got it as well and used it for a while before all video games went ignored for quite some time.

Those decent terms end tonight.

The UFC game came out a couple weeks ago and after a couple-times-a-week check at Blockbuster to attempt to rent it, I buckled this evening and bought it. About two hours ago, we fired up the 360 for its first usage in a long, long while.

So, the first thing MS decides to do is piss on my parade by informing me that I have to do a system update before I can play the game. Awesome.

Well, no, it's not awesome because I don't have a hard line Internet connection in that room nor did I drop $100 for the overpriced 360 wireless receiver. I scoured the house for an Ethernet cable for which to tether my laptop to it to do the stupid update. Nothing. I even trudged down three flights of stairs to check the garage. Nothing.

I finally decided to take the cable from my Cable Modem to Airport and use that while piggybacking on someone else's connection. Plugged in. Fired it up.

I spot a weird little checkerboard pattern in the corner with a non-responsive controller that starts to make me nervous. Having been the victim of failed logic boards in the past, I have a sixth sense about these things.

Turn it off, turn it back on.



The infamous Red Ring Of Death.

For those unaware, MS describes this as "general hardware failure." It's infamous for a reason as countless X-Box 360 users over the past few years reported it. I'm sure I would have earlier if the unit hadn't gone untouched for months at a time. I immediately declare the situation a "traumatic event" to the scorn of the Missus because apparently we have different definitions of "traumatic."

I go to the Microsoft website for what they somehow have the unmitigated gall to label "support."

Step One - they give me some bullshit about checking the power adapter. Looks good.
Step Two - Turn it off for ten seconds. Brilliant! Like I hadn't already tried that.
Step Three - Welp, you're fucked. Submit an online repair request.

"Awesome," I think. This should be easy and painless.

Apparently the geniuses in Seattle believe that the first thing you should do when you have someone sad about not being able to use their product is to ask them to sign in to their website. Alright, I can dig it.

But I apparently don't have a Microsoft Live ID even though they send me monthly e-mails about X-Box Live - a service I haven't had in over a year [at least.] So, now I have to create a Microsoft Live ID complete with that character recognition bullshit that always takes me four tries to get right.

Yay, I have a Microsoft Live ID.

Time to fill out that service request, right?

Nah. Now these fucking idiots think it's a good idea to ask me to create a "Gamertag" and select an avatar for a game I won't be able to play for no telling how long thanks to their shoddy equipment. Are you fucking kidding me?

Alright... I select the Gamertag of "MakeMineApple" which shockingly is both available and apparently approved. Wocka wocka wocka!

I refuse to pick an avatar because that's how I roll. Surprisingly, they let me continue anyways. Thanks, Mr. Gates!

Okay, this part I'm writing as I go through the rest of this. I had to stop and come here to write because this is how ridiculous this whole thing is.

The next step is to register the X-Box that I plan to send in. Sounds... reasonable, I guess. But I bet they're going to want a serial number that I can't find without going back to the other room and disconnecting the 360. Any takers?

Indeed! The first thing they ask for is the S/N without the slightest hint of where it's at. Jackassery at it's finest.

To further the "Huh?" Factor... they ask me for my e-mail even though I'm signed in under my Windows Live ID which is linked to my e-mail. And they ask for my name again. And where I'm from. Leave no stone unturned. Here's an odd one... they ask for my preferred language and even though the entire page is in English, that's not the first choice. I have to scroll through the alphabetical list to bring it up. Is it too American-centric to ask that they put the language on the screen as the first option?

Okay... off I go to find a serial number...

It's on the back of the unit which is now unplugged. Bizarre thing is I powered it up before unplugging it. No red circle. Now I don't have a clue what's going on.

I'm going to fill this out anyways... just in case...

Standard Warranty Expired. But when you click the Red Ring as the problem, they list a free repair including them paying for shipping. Of course, I'd have to find a box to ship it in but that should be not horribly painful, I suppose.

I'll probably give the thing another shot tomorrow to see if it works but... yeah, not the best customer service support experience so far.

If only I liked Sony any better...

9

Somebody at work showed me this yesterday with a disclaimer of, "This looks soooo much better than Up." Consider me skeptical as I loved the shit out of Up [more on that soon] but I thought I'd take a look.

Now, while it's too hard to tell from this clip if the movie will have the heart of Up, it's definitely in the ballpark visually.

Check it out...

Laker Game Recap

Worked late tonight and I just finishing watching the game. I open tomorrow so I'll make this short...

Complete and total domination was awesome to see. In all of the interviews all week, you could FEEL that Kobe was... pick an adjective... focused, determined, centered, motivated, etc. And he certainly shot right out of the gate tonight to show it.

But the real good sign was the defensive intensity that our boys put out there.

If they can keep it up, things will be looking good. Game 2's are always tough though for the winner of Game 1 - especially in a game like this. It's important to not get cocky and to come out with the same level of intensity.

Sunday should be a lot of fun.

Kimbo Slice - The Ultimate Fighter?

This news broke yesterday and I never got a chance to post anything about it so here it is...

Yesterday, the UFC announced that Kimbo Slice would be a contestant on the next edition of The Ultimate Fighter.

Everybody got that?

If not, let me expand on that. Kimbo Slice, the man who was in the most watched MMA fight in history, will now be relegated to one of sixteen heavyweights fighting it out for the chance to earn a UFC contract. Oh, by the way, he'll be doing this while being coached by either Rashad Evans or Quinton Jackson. If the thought of Kimbo Slice trading words with Rampage doesn't give you a little bit of a flutter, you have no soul... well, MMA soul at least.

My thoughts?

First, this is EXACTLY the kind of thing that will make me watch TUF again after skipping the current season.

Second, like him or not, you've got to give Kimbo MAJOR credit for this. If you are to believe the rumors, he may have gone around his management team to make this deal which is crazy, stupid, and ballsy all wrapped up in a grill-covered ball. He's taking the biggest risk of his life here. If he proves to be a bust and gets KOd in the first round of his first fight, odds are high he'll never get a chance at another major fight. If he somehow works his way through and actually makes the UFC, whew, baby. Katie bar the door because MMA might hit a fresh run of awesomeness.

So, yeah... in short, I'm looking forward to seeing Kimbo on TUF and I just might find myself rooting for him as well.

By the way, this might be the biggest non-losing scenario for a promotion I've ever seen. Dana White remains a promotional genius in the vein of Vince McMahon. If Kimbo fails, Dana gets to mock him forever and show the world that not just any overhyped street fighter can be successful. If he wins, it's the ultimate success story and a chance at some big headlines and buyrates.

I'm suddenly excited about MMA again... for now.

Kobe: Doin' Work

In the quest to finish clearing off all the old TV off our DVR, we decided to watch ESPN's special from a few weeks ago about Kobe Bryant titled Kobe: Doin' Work.

This premise behind the show was that Spike Lee was directing a documentary about Kobe Bryant. For the film, they taped one game - Lakers vs Spurs - from April of 2008 using something like 30 cameras, all aimed at Kobe throughout the game. He was mic'd as well and they managed to get Phil to allow cameras pre-game, halftime, and post-game in the locker room for some surprising access. They also had Kobe provide a running commentary track over the game in January of '09 before polishing it off for commmercial-free airing on ESPN a few weeks ago.

The movie is well-shot, well-edited, and generally well-done.

It's fascinating to me as a basketball fan to hear him break down the action on [and a little bit off] the court - hearing him explain why they're calling certain plays, why he does certain things on the floor like his seemingly OCDish wiping of his hands (he's trying to keep them wet! Who knew?)

It's not your traditional type of documentary. You're not going to gain some huge inside into Kobe Bryant the person. However, if you're a basketball fan, you might gaint a little bit of insight to Kobe Bryant the player and you may see a side of the game you've never quite seen before.

I enjoyed it... and I think other basketball fans would enjoy it as well.

Short One

Here's a quick one just before bedtime!

On tonight's Dodger game, Vin Scully quipped (slightly paraphrased):

"Speaking of tattoos, have you ever seen more tattoos (outside of the circus of course) then on the Denver basketball team? They must be out of ink in the entire state of Colorado."

I love that man.

A Fitting Farewell...But Not

Last night, the Missus and I decided to burn through the last half dozen or so episodes of Scrubs that we had sitting on the DVR. As you may be aware, this was supposed to be the final season of Scrubs after NBC fucked them out of what was SUPPOSED to be their final season last year.

Earlier this year when The Shield wrapped up its run and then again when BSG did the same (seriously? We lost both of those this year? I'm already fucking depressed) I commented on the difficulty in putting together a series finale. There have been so many really, really bad and disappointing series finales, it's almost like we expect that now.

Scrubs accomplished the opposite. The "home stretch" of episodes that we watched last night were absolutely fantastic television. So many heart-felt moments that the show is so good at mixed with the crazy, zany humor that the show is so good at. As we got closer to the finale, I started to feel a little sad that we were going to see it go.

And then the finale arrived.

It's an odd thing - a series finale. For most shows, a series finale is quite the bittersweet moment. While you sit and wait and wait and eagerly anticipate just what the creative forces can do knowing there's "no tomorrow" there's also a piece of you who is - again - really fucking depressed that it's ending. I know I felt that strongly for The Shield. I was also pretty bummed that BSG was ending even though I hadn't dedicated much time to it. And I can already tell you that having no more Lost on Wednesday nights is going to make my brain bleed.

But Scrubs was different.

Scrubs has long ago passed the point where I eagerly looked forward to it every week. It wasn't like it was a chore to watch it or that I was watching out of habit - I just didn't really care that much about what was going on. Scrubs was the show where every week you'd watch it and most weeks you'd say, "That was good" and then forget about it. So, the end of Scrubs wasn't really going to bum me out.

And then the finale arrived.

And it was... perfect.

It was the absolute perfect way to end the show. I was okay with the series ending and I was happy with the way everything was resolved. I ended the finale thinking, "This show really couldn't have a better ending."

Unfortunately, they're going to have to try. As the show was ending, I also was thinking, "God, I really wish they hadn't agreed to another season."

Yep, "one more year" with a scrambling of old and new cast members.

Eh. I'm just not feelin' it.

While at one time, I thought The West WIng should last forever, simply by changing the cast every 4-8 years with a new administration... I just don't think Scrubs should keep going with a new cast. It just feels... cheap... to me at this point.

Who knows? I may change my mind when it re-arrives on ABC but right now? I think it's a bad call.

The Toys Are Back In Town

Saw Up earlier today - will review in the next day or so but until then, there was a very special trailer before the movie...

Top 25 Songs EVER!

A few days ago, I launched a project that I expect to take quite some time.

I decided that I would attempt to create a list of my Top 25 favorite songs... EVER!

For most, this would be a near-impossible task. For me, it gets even worse because of my OCDish tendency to want to make all "mixtapes"/lists the same way. Start with every possibility and work my way backwards one by one by one. So, couple that insanity with a library that currently hits over 7000 songs - you can quickly sense my problem.

But I've only been working at this for a handful of days [okay, maybe a week or so] and I'm already down to 5000 so progress is being made and being made rapidly.

Even at this early stage though, I've already encountered tough choices.

Cut Pearl Jam's "Last Kiss?" Really? It seems like a painful thing to do but when I actually stop and think about it, there's likely 25 Pearl Jam songs ALONE that I like better than "Last Kiss" so it's almost impossible that it'd actually crack the 25.

Then there was the decision to eliminate all Christmas music from consideration. It just didn't seem a fair comparison to make. I almost made the same choice with classical/score type music but I've opted not to... for now.

It is, however, giving me a chance to hear songs that I haven't heard in a long, long time. I'm constantly surprised to see the low play counts for songs that I really, really like. And likewise, I'm surprised to see the high play counts for songs that I barely know although some of that we can blame on having a shared library, I'm sure.

It's a fun project though. In the 30 minutes before I started writing this, I knocked off an additional hundred plus songs so as long as I can get a chance to knock down a heaping handful a day, this should be done... oh, sometime this summer at worst, right?

Right?

Please?

Some Random Thoughts

Just sneaking in before the witching hour with some random thoughts about random stuff...

*** Lakers heading into Game 6!
It's not like I don't have absolute faith in the Purple & Gold but... well, let's just say that when I found out that Game 7 was scheduled for Sunday evening, I had to put in quite the effort at work today to get them to switch my schedule so I worked in the morning instead. Gotta be prepared, you know?

*** Prop 8
I know, I know. After all the fuss I raised back in November, you expected some huge diatribe on my part but I don't think I have it in me this week. Suffice to say that with all the riots, all the crime, all the jokes about pollution and earthquakes and fake breasts and all that jazz, I can honestly say that I can only recall two times in my life where I've been embarrassed to be from California and they both were because of this issue. It's a crime, it's a travesty, and until it's righted, it's a wrong that Californians shouldn't just accept. Oh, and for all those religious folks out there crying "Morality prevailed" - you can come pay me a visit and we'll discuss your morality and what it means to real people.

*** Remakes! Remakes! Remakes!
I know everyone's GOT to be as sick of the remake trend in Hollywood as I am. It seems like every week has a half dozen remakes greenlighted but this week scraped the bottom of the barrel. "Hey, I know. Let's make a Buffy The Vampire Slayer movie but not involve ANYONE that actually saved that creative concept the first time around." God forbid they actually make money on something.

*** Twilight At Comic-Con
I'm disillusioned, I must admit. I can not fathom any earthly idea why there would be a Twilight panel at Comic-Con. Not one. Not a single hint of one. I know it's popular, I know it appeals to horny teenage girls. But come on... really? This is almost enough reason alone to make me not want to go this year.

*** Battlestar Galactica Lives On
And I'm not even talking about Caprica. Between receiving the soundtrack in the mail, last night's post about the live concerts of the score, and the super-fantastic amazing board game that the Missus and I just finished a rousing game of, I'm more in love with BSG than ever.

Oh, and I don't really have a comment on this but...

How 'bout them Dodgers?

Hey! That's Weird!

So, I was super-stoked when I got home to find my long-awaited copy of the Battlestar Galactica Season One soundtrack waiting for me.

And imagine my surprise [and pure joy] when I read this just moments ago...

(May 27, 2009- Burbank, CA) – Battlestar Galactica and Caprica composer Bear McCreary will have a busy summer, with the release of two soundtrack recordings and concert performances. On June 13 the music from Battlestar Galactica will kick-off the 2009 Grand Performances Series at California Plaza. Three days later, on June 16, La-La Land Records will release the soundtrack for Caprica.

Bear McCreary will again conduct the music from Battlestar Galactica for three nights at the House of Blues in San Diego from July 23-25th – during Comic Con! The concerts will celebrate the July 21 release of a special 2-CD set, Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.

Anyone else up for this?

Blue's Reviews: Star Trek (spoilers ahead!)

I promised the review and despite the urge to address what happened in California today, I shall do so.

STAR TREK

DISCLAIMER: I write this review having seen only one Star Trek movie - the very first one. I saw it many, many moons ago as a child and remember nothing about it other than I fell asleep during it. I haven't seen a single Trek movie since then. I also have never seen The Next Generation or Voyager or...I think that's it, right? I was a fan of Deep Space Nine for 2 or 3 seasons but gave it up long before the end. So, with that in mind, I go into the movie with no love of the franchise to insult.

That being said...

I dug it. I really dug it. It was a fun, exciting, amusing sci-fi flick and J.J. Abrams outdid himself, IMO. It had just enough geek to stay sci-fi but not enough to drown in (although the Missus wasn't feelin' the time travel stuff.) As a non-Star Trek fan but someone familiar with some of the Trekisms, it was cool to see them effort to work in the, "Damn it, Jims" and "I'm givin' it all she's got, Captain!"

The appearance of old Spock caught me by surprise. I knew Leonard Nimoy was in the movie but I assumed it was just a cameo. That was no cameo. He played a major part in the movie and even as a non-fan, I got a little bit of a chill when he arrived on the scene. It makes me glad that the Shatner stuff didn't work out because I think that might have been overkill.

So, I liked the action, the humor, the effects... the acting was "okay." It wasn't Oscar-worthy but it doesn't need to be. It was good enough for what it needed to be and didn't distract from the movie.

What didn't I like?

There were a few Lucas-esque "Let's do this crazy creature/action scene just because we can" moments especially on the ice planet thing that as a Star Wars fan instantly reminded me of Hoth. Also, there were a couple of comedic sequences that seemed kinda... odd. Not quite Peter Parker in a dance sequence odd but approaching that level. I've read a few interviews where the filmmakers thought that humor was very important to the movie so... well, they accomplished that.

But all in all, I really was happy with the movie and I have a feeling I'm going to be very glad this was my first movie of the summer instead of Wolverine or Terminator.

What does it take to get a non-Star Trek fan enthused enough to rush out to see Star Trek?

Four words: In J.J. we trust.

Holiday Greetings

Hope everyone enjoyed their Memorial Day!

Check back tomorrow for my review of Star Trek!