Observation

NBC hockey commentators < Mickey Redmond.

Meatballs

SLAM!

So, did the Pistons' window for winning another championship just slam closed? It's especially galling to see them lose to the Celtics after listening to the media anoint the Celtics the champions as soon as they made the big trade. I don't care much about basketball, but I would have taken a lot of satisfaction in them being beaten. Oh well. Go Wings!

Cyberwar

So, were you feeling like you could sleep soundly tonight? Then don't read this. Here's the short version: hackers in China, some potentially with support from the government, have committed major attacks against US government and private sector networks. Probably the most interesting (and scariest) thing I've read in weeks.

Tecmo Bowl Kickoff Review

This is what you've been waiting for: video of gameplay in Tecmo Bowl Kickoff, and a review, thanks to Joystiq.



So, are you guys going to go buy DS's now or wait until September?

68

That is today's special number. Can anyone figure out what it might represent? I'll give you a few guesses:

1. My golf score after 18 holes? I wish.
2. Fritz's golf score after 9 holes? Maybe, but no.
3. The number of miles Adam ran last week around town. Probably not.
4. The number of hours Aaron spends online with his computer games each weekend? I hope not.
5. The number of freakin' errors our Varsity baseball team had tonight in the Pre-Districts against Bad Axe? No, but pretty close.

The Answer:

How much it cost me to fill up my 16+ gallon gas tank in my car tonight in C^2. OUCH!

Wisdom For The Day

Okay, you're going to want to grab a pen and paper and write down this incredible wisdom from the lips of Nathan Haag. Let me set the stage:

Mandy and I were eating our Subway sandwiches. Mandy asked if I could save her a little bite of my footlong. I looked over at her and noticed she was putting away the other half of her footlong.

I said, "Your 'little bite' is right there!" I was referring to the fact she still has 6 inches left of her own sub that she can eat.

"I'm saving that for my lunch tomorrow."

Okay, here it comes. Are you ready...

..."There's no tomorrow until tomorrow."

Old School

According to Xbox 360 Fanboy, RBI Baseball might be coming to Xbox Live Arcade. How great would that be? If this happens, I'm going to download the first day it's out. Of course, bringing up the game caused discussion of other NES sports classics, which gives me an excuse to post this video (also featured at the original post):



Bo knows Tecmo Super Bowl.

Wedding Songs

Andy's looking for songs to play at his wedding reception, so I thought I'd put up a post to get ideas. Serious of silly ideas would be appreciated. So far, in the discussion I was in, there was:

Serious
"Grace and Love", Kutless
"Falling Slowly", The Frames
"Hanging by a Moment", Lifehouse
"Your Are For Me", Plankeye

Probably Not
Cotton Eye Joe
The Legend of Zelda theme
"M4 Part II", Faunts (from Mass Effect)

Banned
The Chicken Dance

Any thoughts? I'll add as they come up.

Broken

Vows

I don't know if Andy is writing his own vows, but are some ideas from The Simpsons episode "A Milhouse Divided":

"I will now read these special vows which Homer has prepared for this occasion. 'Do you, Marge, take Homer, in richness and in poorness' -- poorness is underlined -- 'in impotence and in potence, in quiet solitude or blasting across the alkali flats in a jet-powered, monkey-navigated'... [consults the notecards] ... and it goes on like this."
-Rev. Lovejoy

I think the "quiet solitude or etc." line would make for a memorable ceremony.

Good News

All those hours put in coaching kids in baseball may be teaching them more than pitching and hitting. A quote from this article at The American:

But below the radar of popular athletic culture is something that has profoundly shaped the lives of millions of Americans for the better: youth sports. A growing body of research is showing the social and economic benefits of participation in youth sports to be surprisingly large and overwhelmingly positive. Other things being equal, if a kid plays sports, he will earn more money, stay in school longer, and be more engaged in civic life.

Now, this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who's coached kids, but it certainly is nice to see evidence.

Toyman

I got a kick out of this article, specifically the pictures which show Harrison Ford with an armload of Indiana Jones toys that he's just purchased. It's especially funny when you consider that Ford would have been able to buy an action figure with his likeness (Han Solo specifically) for a large portion of the last thirty years. (Hat tip: Rebelscum.com)

The Coldest Heart

Baseball Trip

So, uh, have any plans been made?

Windfall

This article by Jonah Goldberg is the best thing I've read all week. Here's the first three sentences:

Imagine this. You’ve built the better mousetrap. (Because lasers and pneumatic tubes are cool, let’s imagine it uses them.)

You had me at "lasers and pnematic tubes". Seriously though, this is a great evisceration of Washington stupidity. Worth your time.

Iron Man

Quote of the Day

"Oh, let’s also point out that, as a matter of political reality, Clinton might as well be calling for a ban on the use of unicorn meat in dog food, because there is no way her proposal can actually, you know, happen."

-Jonah Goldberg, 5/7/08 column

A Slightly Different Advantage to Being the Heisman

Check out this article on ESPN.com about the sophomore QB Heisman winner, Tim Tebow. He's probably not the only Heisman to "spend time" in prison, but at least it's on His terms. Pretty cool.

B-Squared Sightings

You'll never guess who I ran into at Videomation a couple of Saturday's ago...Brian Brown. I have not seen him since about a year or two after we graduated...when he was coming out of yet another video store, All-Season Video. What are the odds of that? But that's not all. Four days after our Videomation encounter, guess who was coming into McDonald's on Wednesday morning? Yup, Brian. Larger than life. The same gait. Same haircut. Same voice.

New Post

There is a new post on "Monkie's Progress" just in case no one has checked it in awhile.

Third Time's the Charm

A season like the Lions' 2007-2008 season would get some guys down. Not Jon Kitna. He expects to win 10 games this season. Of course. Let's break the Lions down for a bit. Last year, they had no running game, partly because the didn't actual try to run the ball. So they fire Martz and will presumably focus more on the run this year. To help with this they, uh, cut Kevin Jones and let go of T.J. Duckett, leaving them with Tatum Bell, rookie Kevin Smith, Brian Calhoun, and Aveion Cason. Well, that's one approach. Sure, they'll have more yards, but just handing the ball off more than twice a game will guarantee that. Defense? They drafted a LB. I'm guessing pretty much a wash here. Same at offensive line. WRs are about the same, possibly slightly better if Calvin Johnson improves. Kitna should be about the same; decent but making too many important mistakes. The schedule looks relatively favorable, so I'm going to say they'll end up between 6-10 and 8-8. Wildcard: If Drew Stanton comes back strong from injury and shows the spark he had in college, the Lions might just be able to push close to 10 wins. But probably not.

Pic of the Day

$102.1 million

Iron Man, the first blockbuster of the summer, reportedly made $102.1 million over the weekend, making it one of the most successful superhero movies ever. Coming off this impressive success, Marvel Studios announced they will not release a film in 2009, instead concentrating on an Iron Man sequel for the summer of 2010, as well as a Thor movie. 2011 will have a Captain America film followed shortly after by a film featuring the Avengers. If Marvel handles this well, they're going to make a lot of money. Oh, since I hyped Iron Man but didn't haven't wrote about since I saw it, here's a quick review: Awesome. (Hat tip: Libertas)

(In case you're wondering, I was listening to the song while typing this.)

A Galaxy Far, Far Away...

StarWarsShop.com is selling a projector that looks like R2-D2. Apparently it can move, has most of the hookups you'd want, and only costs... $3,000. So it's not cheap. And based on the video, I don't think it's quite lifesize. But it's still pretty cool. I don't think I need a projector quite that badly though. (Hat tip: Gizmodo)

Now, even cooler than R2 is this guy's home theater setup, linked by a commenter at Gizmodo. Wow. I've seen a similar Star Trek themed theater, but it wasn't as impressive as this. Maybe I do need to buy a house after all...

J-E-T-S

I posted earlier that the Lions should think about signing Jehuu Caulcrick as a free agent. Well, a few other teams had the same idea and the Jets actually did it. I'm not sure if he'll make it with the Jets, but I feel pretty certain Jehuu will make an NFL roster this year.

"If it's brown it's down."

I saw a truck in the parking lot of Wal-mart with a sticker in the back window displaying that phrase and immediately thought of Matt. So, has he bagged a deer since those words were uttered (while hunting, getting it with the car doesn't count)?

Tecmo Returns

Tecmo Bowl is making a comeback in the form of Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff on the Nintendo DS. So, how many DS's did I just sell with that statement? Anyway, the game doesn't have the NFL license, so there will be lots of customization available instead. Can it live up to the fabled TSB?