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Saturday, June 08, 2002
Well, I guess I was still in a blogging mood while catching the second half of one of the crappier World Cup games, which means I'll get to bed once I'm done with this -- maybe.
The Vent section in the AJC is always a lot of fun. But I have this sneaking suspicion one of them on Friday is aimed at me (the vents have since cycled out since the original post). I haven't been able to prove it, but I did see a copy of the newspaper next to the person in question this evening. Yes, I do think I'm an idiot. (Anyone wanting to know what it is can ask me.)
And on a similar note, a blog from another of my quizbowl colleagues had this interesting link. It's very intriguing and unintentionally hilarious, and at the same time I can't help but think of the guidelines to appreciate poetry from Dead Poets Society.
posted at 3:42 AM
Friday, June 07, 2002
Nice to see I play golf as well as Jamie Sale.
posted at 8:24 PM
There were already too many people taking The Onion too seriously. Now a Chinese newspaper has cribbed directly from the paper. Good to see we're believing everything we read on the Internet.
posted at 2:34 PM
You want fun? You pay for it
Atlanta has been trying its best over the years to attract big events downtown and not abandon it at 5 p.m. Sure, there are the sporting venues, but there has to be something else, right? Well tonight (and for most of the summer), there are two free concerts downtown. Now that seems a bit much, especially with stages just a few hundred feet away from each other. Of course, all of the hassle and fear of crap happening will depend on the artists playing -- and I can already see that it may not matter much on some weekends. All I know is that I've got to drive through some of that traffic on Fridays -- great.
And somewhat related, a parks official is recommending banning major festivals like Music Midtown or the Atlanta Jazz Festival from city parks because of damage done during the festivals. It may make sense since the city has few parks to begin with. "If we build it, please don't come!" The official suggests the Lakewood Fairgrounds. Not a bad idea, except that it's kind of in the middle of nowhere -- although at least MARTA goes there, sorta. It seems like no one knows how to get free, large-scale events in the city without massively screwing it up.
posted at 12:58 PM
Thursday, June 06, 2002
Don't hate her because she's beautiful
If you believed this article from the Chicago Sun-Times about the changes at "60 Minutes II" -- specifically the replacing Chicago TV reporter extraordinaire Carol Marin with Lara Logan as a correspondent, you'd think CBS just hired one of Hef's Playmates for the job.
Looking at Logan's bio from GMTV in England, it looks like she's a very accomplished reporter. She's spent time with CNN, ITN, BBC and ABC, and also spent time on the front lines in Afghanistan. Oh yeah, she is very, very attractive, and she spent time as a model in her earlier days (and then there are a couple of cheesecake paparazzi shots floating around thanks to the British tabs). As long as she's got the credentials, it shouldn't be a problem unlike Andrea Thompson's situation last year.
posted at 11:57 PM
Heaven help us
The stories have been coming out for years about sexual abuse among clergy, so I guess I wasn't as shocked when it became such a huge scandal. I just know it wasn't going on at my church (or any near me, as far as I could tell), although I suppose I should've been a bit more concerned. This article seems to get into the guts of why it took so long for it to become a scandal, including questions of tackling the Catholic hierarchy as well as the comfortability of tackling sexual issues. Being more open about such topics today has many repercussions. It's also odd to think that lawyers are coming out like "good guys" in this case.
posted at 11:28 PM
And there's also some NFL Europe, too
It's turning out to be a ridiculously busy sports weekend (which in turn means a hellish existence for me, although I'd rather not have the ultimate boredom of last Saturday and the second head growing out of Hasim Rahman's temple).
Let's see, Friday night has the start of interleague play (including Barry Bonds at Yankee Stadium) and Game 2 of the Nets-Lakers NBA Finals. There's also some World Cup (which I'll eventually stay up late/get up early for), then the Williams sisters slugging it out for the French Open title, Pedro-Schilling at Fenway. Then comes War Emblem going for the Triple Crown (and seems to have a better shot than the other three that have done it in the past five years), Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals, then the potential train wreck that is Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson followed by more World Cup.
Yup, it's just another one of those weekends. And I go on vacation right after that. What a fun way to head into that.
posted at 11:09 PM
Wednesday, June 05, 2002
And sources say Shaquille O'Neal will miss a free throw tonight
Ironically for a sport that helped spawn the "Just Do It" slogan, basketball never seems to actually do anything. It's reported and pondered about to death that when something actually happens, it's irrelevant. And you wonder why people think NBA games/series are fixed. They can't even handle awards ceremonies right. There was plenty of hand-wringing over the Tim Duncan vs. Jason Kidd MVP fiasco. Problem was, the award wasn't announced yet when the debate started. We all wanted the announcement to come so we could end the debate -- not begin it. And today, there were "reports" that Larry Brown was selected to the Hall of Fame -- never mind, the full announcement was coming within hours. What's the rush to be first for something like this?
For all the heat baseball gets for its sometimes archaic voting process for the major awards and the Hall of Fame, at least the announcements can keep you guessing until the time they release the results. Then you can argue. Same goes with the other major sports. The AP handles many of the NFL awards, and the Hall of Fame is handled by a council of elders emerging from their semi-secret gathering during Super Bowl weekend proclaiming their choices. The NHL has its Oscars-like ceremony for the awards. Using hockey as an example, could you imagine a report saying "Sources say Denzel Washington will win the Oscar"? Thanks, NBA. Can you tell me the lotto numbers, too?
posted at 4:56 PM
Will the Juice Box work as a nickname?
The Enron Field name went away this spring, now to be replaced by Minute Maid Park. It just doesn't work as well as Tropicana Field, mainly because Minute Maid sounds like a corporate name; Tropicana sounds like a real name (I still remember the Atlantic City casino with the moniker). But I guess it's fine that a more "tangible" name is being used as a sponsor.
posted at 4:11 PM
While rearranging some stuff around the apartment, I stumbled across a whole bunch of old books, letters, etc. from summers past -- some as old as 11 years old, and yet it feels almost like yesterday that I did some of that stuff. And I guess it's a bit odd to think that a lot of my fondest memories from my high school days were from my summers -- time spent with new and interesting people who may or may not have had more in common with me than my classmates. Of course, some of that could be that most of my good friends from those summers were women (I guess I had a better idea of what to do back then ... bizarre).
I also realize how much communication has changed over the years. While I can instant message or e-mail all sorts of people, I was very much a letter writer back in the day. That's because most of my closest friends lived miles away and wasn't doing the e-mail thing at that point (despite being very technologically adept). As much as I e-mail people, it's definitely not the same as writing letters. I've saved a ton of e-mails from people, and lost as many as well. However, it feels a bit better looking through old letters (the paper, the penmanship, the occasional goofy drawings, etc.) than a screen of old e-mails. Granted, I hardly do any letter writing myself these days (outside of some jottings in Christmas or birthday cards), but then again, I hardly have anyone to write to since I know mostly e-mail addresses. And I guess to be brutally honest, there are only a couple of people I feel I would actually put pen to paper to write a letter these days.
posted at 1:01 AM
Monday, June 03, 2002
More reasons to feel old
The '80s nostalgia stuff is pretty cool, and then you realize some of the songs are now 18-20 years old. But then again, I was only in grade school at the time and I was a bit ahead of the curve in getting into pop music. However, now it's really hitting me in the face when the alt-rock station here in Atlanta played The Breeders' "Cannonball" during their lunch hour retro show. That came out in the early '90s and that song was played to death on Chicago's alt-rock station during my freshman year of college. At least now I'm getting an idea what kids today might consider "old" for quizbowl purposes.
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