It can be really sexy for a woman to eat a hamburger. In my mind, it means that she is very comfortable with herself. She isn’t “On A Diet” where she eats only salads while out with her boyfriend, and then McDonalds every night when he is not around. That kind of delusion just isn’t attractive.
But there is also too much. Take, for example, Paris Hilton and Carl’s Jr…
Tags: food, parishilton // Comments (0) // Trackbacks (0)
I was watching the Texas Rangers play the Chicago White Sox this week, and I noticed a large percentage of Ivy League graduates playing for the Rangers. Specifically, Chris Young (who played Princeton Basketball) who was pitching that night and Mark Derosa (who was Penn’s Quarterback when I was in school). Penn is also represented by Doug Glanville (Engineer) who was last playing with the Phillies. Dartmouth also has two current players, Brad Ausmus (Houston Astros) and Mike Remlinger (Chicago Cubs).
Suprisingly, only 42 MLB Players have college degrees. That is 5% of all players. Just for comparison, the NFL players union says that about 50% of active NFL players have college degrees.
Taking those two bits of information together and you see how well represented the Ivy League is in professional baseball. My total Wild-Ass-Guess at why this is: If you are going to shell out the money to play baseball at an Ivy, you mine as well get the most from your money and get the degree rather than waste it.
Tags: None // Comments (0) // Trackbacks (0)
Margaret and I were working on cleaning up our 4th floor a bit this weekend, when we were struck by how poor the shelving design was above our washer and drier (which live in a closet up there). So we thought we would (as we have with just about every other closet in our house), put up elfa shelving. Should be an easy enough job, maybe 3 hours of work including taking down the existing shelves.
But as long as we had the old shelves down, it would be a great time to put up a fresh coat of paint in there. So Margaret picked out a color at the Home Depot and we were good to go.
But if we are going to paint, we should probably move the washer and the drier out of the way so we can paint behind them (it will make things so much easier).
Once we moved the washer and drier out of the way, we saw how nasty it was behind there (Drier lint everywhere!), so we had to spend some time cleaning up that area as well.
It is amazing how a simple project like putting up new shelves can snowball into something bigger…
Tags: rant // Comments (0) // Trackbacks (0)
The NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Finals were held in Annapolis, MD this year, featuring the newcomers from Northwestern playing the old hands from Virginia in what was sure to be an epic battle. Since my Father-in-law was here from Chicago, we decided to check-out the matchup.
I haven’t been to a women’s lacrosse game since high school, and this was nothing like any of those games that I had seen. Unlike the men’s version, women’s lacrosse is “supposed to be” a non-contact sport. I saw at least 5 women take rough falls, 1 cross-check, a couple poke-checks, and an all out stick-across-the-back-of-the-head (no call!). That is a rough sport!
The first half was a game of two teams searching for each other’s weakness. It ended with a one point difference. I don’t know what they gave those Northwestern girls in the locker room, but they came out en fuego! They took a quick lead, and Virginia spent the rest of the game playing catch-up (while Northwestern played a strong game of keep-away). Virginia did manage to bring it within 2, but everyone knew the game was already over by then.
Talking with Margaret (who grew up outside Chicago), I was very surprised to hear that Lacrosse wasn’t a sport at her high school (neither was Field Hockey). Both sports were very big women’s sports at my high school. But I read a Chicago Tribune article that explained that Lacrosse is big in the East and Northeast. Just goes to show you how easy it is to become blinded by your background.
The only thing that would have made the experience perfect: Someone to explain to me what was going on. While I knew the basics of the sport, there were many times where I was completely befuddled by what was going on. Usually whenever the ref got involved for whatever the infraction was. It looked like she spent a lot of time repositioning player to where they were before the whistle blew.
At my high school, there was really no equipment for women’s lacrosse except the stick, the uniform, and cleats. It looks like they have upped the safety factor as every woman on the field had some kind of eye protector on. It looked like a much slimed down version of a home plate umpires mask. At first I couldn’t figure out why they wouldn’t just want to wear helmets. Then it struck me: Almost every girl out there had her hair in some kind of ponytail. Hair like that would never fit under a full helmet…
Tags: lacrosse, ncaa, nwu // Comments (0) // Trackbacks (0)
Hillcrest has launched their new website. We also put out some press releases.
Tags: None // Comments (0) // Trackbacks (0)
We went to the Joint Service Open House yesterday and had a blast. The weather forecast was a bit concerning to go to an airshow, but it turned out well as there was no rain and only a few puffy white clouds in the sky.
We took the same travel plans that we did last year: Drove to Fedex field and too the bus the Andrews Air Force base. Very painless to get there.
We planned our schedule around being there by noon for the B1 flyby, but we saw the B1 go by as we were on the bus. So they didn’t stick to their schedule. Once off the bus, we walked around and looked at the static exhibits while waiting for the next aerial presentation. And we kept waiting, and waiting. It turns out that the schedule was thrown off because Mr. Bush had to get on Airforce 1. So this was an extra special treat, as we got to see Marine 1 do a flyby dropping George off, and then go to see Airforce 1 taxi down the runway and takeoff. It was awesome to see.
We also got to see the B2 Stealth Bomber and F117 Stealth Fighter. The guys doing the airshow announcing over the PA were beside themselves with excitement at seeing both of these planes in the same show. “Only at Andrews”, I heard them say many times…
The finale for the show were the USAF Thunderbirds. They were pretty cool and did some cool stunts, but both Margaret and I liked the Blue Angels show better (which we say last year).
All in all, a fun trip and we got to see a lot of planes (including walking through both a C5 transport out of Dover and an AWACS radar plane). Highly recommended!
Tags: airplanes, jsoh, thunderbirds // Comments (0) // Trackbacks (0)
On the way home last night I explained to my wife that I didn’t think there were any spoilers to this movie. We all knew how it was going to end, who was going to live, who was going to die. We were pretty much along for Mr. Lucas’ Wild Ride. But there were some things that I considered borderline spoilers, so I am going to avoid covering them in this post (look for a later post on those topics).
In short, this movie was much better than either Episode 1 or Episode 2. It is the only of the prequel movies that you could even consider comparing the original trilogy. I think one of the main reasons for this, is that this is a very adult movie. Episode 1 was a kids movie. Yeah, Anakin is a kid in that movie, but the whole thing feels a little too squeaky clean. Episode 3 is dark. Right out of the gates in the first battle scene, you get to see some pilots die, including the body of a pilot floating in space. Pretty harsh reality that Mr. Lucas has (for the most part) avoided in his other movies.
But you have to expect this movie to be dark. In pre-release interview, Lucas even admits this is the darkest of the Star Wars movies that he has made. You know at the end of the movie there are no Jedi left, except Ben and Yoda. They make that clear at the beginning of Episode 4. So you are expecting a lot of people to die, and you will not be disappointed. This is probably not a movie to take your kids to, unless you screen it first and know when to cover their eyes (like the Darth Vader transformation scene, etc.)
The movie was full of a lot of good things. Yoda is one bad dude that I wouldn’t want to mess with. He appears pretty arrogant in the film, which I think leads to his eventual defeat (arrogance leads to the dark side, hmmm?). But he still has the best lines and the best moves. I also had mixed feelings on Yoda being used as comic relief. He’s a pretty serious dude and I thought his comic relief position hurt his bad-ass-ness. But he still got many rounds of applause in the theater when he went into total bad-ass mode.
I also thought that Mr. Lucas did an excellent job with the story. As I mentioned before, we knew both the beginning and the end, so it was up to Mr. Lucas to make the trip believable and interesting, and I think he achieved both goals. Even though I was pretty tired at the midnight showing, I had no problems staying awake. There was plenty of action and it moved along at a nice place.
Now for the bad stuff. I think Natalie Portman was largely under-utilized in this movie. Appearing in Episode 1 really put some punch into her career and made her a household name. Due to this, she has had the luxury of picking and choosing her roles. And she likes to choose meaty roles that really allow her to show off her range as an actor. But her job in Episode 3 was basically eye-candy. This was a boys movie (all the main characters were men), so she was reduced to standing around, looking slightly pregnant, and saying things like “It will be alright, Anakin”. A waste of the fine Ms. Portman’s talent, but also part of the price she had to pay to get into the franchise that made her a household name.
Somebody needs to get Mr. Lucas a dialogue writer, or maybe just a clue. There were at least 3 times when the dialogue coming out of some characters mouth was not needed. People who come to see Star Wars aren’t idiots and don’t need their hands held to make sure they understand things. Let people figure things out, give them a chance.
This is my paragraph dedicated to ultimate FanBoy nits. First, you don’t land capital ships (think Star Destroyers) in an atmosphere. Even Star Trek got that right, you build them in space. It is more efficient than wasting all that energy leaving the atmosphere, and since there is no gravity up there, you can be more flexible in your design. Margaret pointed out to me some time line issues. We figure it is at least 15 years between 3 and 4 (judging on Luke’s age, it could possibly be more). Ben must really age in those years. And I don’t think they had an early completion bonus with their general contractor on the Death Star, as it looked structurally complete in 3, but doesn’t come on-line for 15 more years? Or as Dave pointed out to me, that the Wookies don’t get burnt up as Yoda’s ship takes off no more than 15 feet away?
Ok, that’s enough geeking out for now… Back to the regularly schedule review.
The end of this movie is not very uplifting at all. Remember that Episode 4 is titled “A New Hope”. They don’t have much hope at all at the end of Episode 3. Just a little bit of a downer.
To summarize, it doesn’t matter if you forgot to see Episode 1 and 2, as long as you have seen Episode 4 (The original Star Wars), you will enjoy Episode 3.
Tags: movies, starwars // Comments (0) // Trackbacks (0)
Just got back from the midnight showing and I wanted to post some quick thoughts. I’ll post a more detailed and thought out review later on today (after some sleep).
I give it both thumbs up. That’s all for now.
Update: Longer Review Available.
=
Tags: movies, starwars // Comments (0) // Trackbacks (0)
A Long Time Ago, in a movie theater Far, Far Away….
Our hero is sitting back in a theater chair enjoying the feature. Anakin and Amidala are their room discussing the state of the universe. Suddenly, that distinctive light saber startup sound is heard from behind the door and out steps our hero and kiss Anakin. Amidala is so happy to be free of that bore, she starts to make out with our hero. At this point, our hero notices that his hand is feeling pretty wet for some reason he can’t fathom.
Don’t let this be you! Check out my ideas on different ways to stay awake and don’t fall asleep during the premier tonight!
Some kind of caffeinated drink may work, but be careful with the sugar. Sugar can only keep you up so long before you’ll crash. You need to keep the sugar high going to stay awake. You may be better off going for a diet soda and avoid the sugar crash.
But there are more dangers with caffeinated beverages, and I’m not talking about tooth decay. I’m talking about bladder issues. You buy that super-sized soda at the beginning of the movie thinking that this should be more than enough caffeine to keep you awake. And about half-way through the movie, just as things start to heat up, it hits. That pressure building up inside you. At first, you try and ignore it. Maybe it will go away. But after that much to drink, you know you’re in trouble. There is no way you can just wait it out until the end of the movie, so you have to run to the bathroom. Not only will you be missing scenes while you are in the bathroom, the people around you will hate as you cross in front of them to get out of the row.
Think A Clockwork Orange”. If you don’t have a device like that, you can borrow a page from Scooby Doo and use toothpicks. Or improvise something to keep them open.
A nice aerobic exercise before going to see the movie may help. Your energy should be up for all the hormones and stuff pumping through your veins. The drawback is that nobody is going to want to sit next to your stinky, sweaty body. So you may want to go by yourself.
This is probably the easiest and the one I plan to employ. I’m thinking of about 30 minutes and absolutely no more than an hour. If you nap for too short, you aren’t going to feel rested. If you nap for too long, you are going to be too groggy to enjoy the beginning of the movie. It is a tricky balance, but it is probably your best bet.
Any other ideas or suggestions? Include them in the comments below…
Tags: None //
Comments (2) //
Trackbacks (0)
One of the reasons that Margaret and I were so happy for DC to get baseball is because the Nationals are a National League team. And with our Cubbies also being a National League team, that means we get to see the Cubbies play a few games pretty close to our home.
I say pretty close because travel time home from the games this weekend was about 90 minutes door to door. Another 45 minutes and I could have seen a game in Philadelphia. Another 90 minutes and I could see a game in Pittsburgh!
Fearing traffic, we took Metro both days. Getting there wasn’t a problem and it is only a 7 minute walk from the station to the stadium. Getting home seemed to take forever. Ignoring that fact that a majority of the 30,000 people at the game were taking Metro home, it still took a while. We had to change trains at Metro center on Friday and that took 10 minutes to wait for a Red line train. On Saturday we happened to be in Virginia and decided to take Metro from there (a straight shot on the Orange line). It still took 90 minutes to get home…
If you weren’t watching Saturday night’s game, there was a 2 hour rain delay that we sat through. While RFK may not be much of a stadium to look at, it is big and was plenty roomy enough to keep the entire crowd dry during the delay.
Not getting home until 2AM on Sunday morning, we decided to skip the Sunday game. It was just too much for us to try and do. So we watched them play on TV, which was good enough for the two of us.
Tags: cubs, mlb // Comments (0) // Trackbacks (0)
