Random Rantings

SO, I'm just sitting around today watching the Fox Game of the week. It happens to be Dodgers and Cubs.

My first question is how the Dodgers any good this year, let alone have the best record. Orlando Hudson is hitting .370, but besides him everyone is around .270-.320. Their clean up hitter has 2 home runs and their home run leader has 5. I can't figure out how they have the best record. I guess it is just consistency all around the team, no one guy beats you.

The second thing that I noticed that was during the game they were promoting the Boys and Girls Club and some fundraising drive they are having. Cool, that's a good cause. Then after the little piece on The Boys and Girls Club, one of the announcers (I think Tim McCarver) said, "You know another great, safe place for kids to go..... Wrigley Field." WTF? Wrigley Field is the worst place for anyone, let alone kids. The roof is falling in, fans are drunk and obnoxious, there are fights, there is probable asbestos, and it is downtown Chicago. Horrible place.

On the sunny side of the street I found this clip:


Man I wish I were famous and could get away with that.

Movie Reviews

So it's officially summer movie time. I usually don't have much of a chance to watch movies in the beginning of summer season, but try to catch more movies once we get to June. Here is edition 1 of a multi-part series on Summer movies.


Wolverine
I liked it. It had cool action scenes, a believable storyline, and it ended in a way that X-Men 1 makes sense. Some people complained that it had nothing to do with the comic books. Truth be told, I don't care. I can't read, so I don't care what the comic books have to add to this story line. They introduce some cool characters with some cool tricks. They also have Gambit, which is one of my favoirte X-Men characters. I still don't understand how Wolverine and Sabretooth were brothers and mortal enemies in this movie and then in X-Men 1 Sabretooth never talks and Wolverine and him don't even know each other. Maybe an Origins movie that explains that Sabretooth also loses his memory. I would like a Professor X origins that show him starting X-men, that could be cool. A Magneto origins would be cool as well.

Star Trek:
Loved it. Best "fun movie" since Batman. It did a great job of introducing people to Star Trek who know nothing about it. Had cool action, a cool story, and some very funny parts. It was cool to see how all these classic characters came to exist on the Enterprise. I also like how they didn't dumb down the story line. They just told a cool story. Yes there is time travel and multiple planets and storylines, but if you can't keep up, you're an idiot. I think this might be the best movie this summer.

Previews I have seen:

With Michael Bat making these Transformers movies, I am always a little nervous. At any point he could make these into horrible movies. With that being said, the first one was awesome and this one looks cool. Hopefully there is more Megan Fox and robots fighting and less of that dorky kid trying to figure out that puzzle and get into the feelings and emotions of the robots.



This looks horrible. First it has Dennis Quaid, enough said It looks nothing like GI Joe cartoons or action figures. Its almost like they wrote an action movie and added GI Joe character names into it. Fail.


This looks like the hipster's new Citizen Kane. Enough said.


I hope this movie is funny. Michael Cera is hilarious. I fear that Jack Black will be the annoying Jack Black instead of the funny Jack Black.


This appears to have potential. I like Adam Sandler when he is funny and serious in the same movie (Spanglish or Punch Drunk Love). Hopefully this is good.

Lastly, I hear Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards is bad, but we'll see.

Remember 2006?

So the other night I was hanging out with some friends and we decided to play Golden Tee. Now, I was never very good at it, and really have not played it in over 2 years. The other guys playing were having a "pissing contest" between them and were trying to out-shoot each other. In doing so their games fell apart and I ended up winning the 18 holes some how with a -8. At one point I saw how got an Eagle on a par 4, and this new Golden Tee 2009 said it was posted on Youtube, and here is the video. (this is real)

There has to be a better way to say that.........

So today I get to work at 7:30 as usual. Around 7:45 our principal comes on the announcements asking if the social worker or the s=psychologist could immediately come to the office. Keep in mind our work day starts at 8:35, so these people were not in the building. Our principal came on the announcements almost every 10 minutes looking for these people. Meanwhile everyone in the building is wondering what is going on. Why is the principal looking so frantically for these individuals. Since it involved the psychologist and social worker, it probably is pretty serious, maybe very serious.

Right when the school day ends our principal comes on the announcements and makes the following comment:

"Good morning staff. If anyone needs to speak to a social worker or psychologist today, please give me a call and we can arrange that. If anyone is having a hard time emotionally making it through the day, call me and I can arrange for someone to watch your room for a moment."

What in the h**l is going on. At this point I have no idea. About an hour of the day has started, she makes the same announcement. Now most of us our concerned.

At no point does anyone with any authority make any announcement or tell us what is going on. Through the grape vine we hear that one of the 3rd shift maintenance employees was killed in a car accident the night before while going home. Now, this is tragic, but they way they handled it was a little over the top. Most of the staff probably didn't even know him since he worked 3rd shift. Wouldn't it have made more sense to send out a company memo or e-mail alerting us instead of making us aware of the psychologist support available.

For some reason it reminded me of Arrested Development and the doctor who was always using the wrong figment of speech when talking to the family. (Again, I understand what happened was tragic.)

If I wanted your opinion, I'd tell you it

So I thought yesterday's post about President Obama not receiving an honorary degree at ASU was enough. Wrong. It turns out that over the weekend there was more controversy when he spoke at Notre Dame.





What's the big deal here people? I think it really comes down to the fact that most people should keep their opinions and views to themselves and their blogs.

So Obama is pro-choice, okay? So you don't want him to receive an honorary degree? You mean to tell me that everyone that graduates from Notre Dame has to be pro-life. I can see it now, a guy gets enough credits to graduate, and then the last question on the last exam in his last class is "Are you pro-choice."

Who cares. If you don't like what he has to say, don't go to his speech. There were people yelling at him while he was trying to give his speech and their were a lot of people outside protesting. Some people want to celebrate and enjoy themselves on this graduation day, a day they have been working 22 years toward.

This reminds me of the Seinfeld episode in which Elaine falls in love with this guy who she thinks is the best. She is telling Jerry how great this guy is, and then he asks what this guy's stance is on abortion. Elaine is worried and ends up asking him, and their relationship falls apart. Keep your opinions to yourself.

I've done graduated............

First things, I went on a few errands today and was stuck behind 2 lesbians on a Harley going 20 miles per hour on a road with a speed limit of 35. I couldn't believe it. Nothing like a nice casual Sunday drive that holds up traffic for miles.


Moving on. Some of you may have read the news lately (if you can read) and read about Arizona State University NOT giving President Obama an honorary degree after giving a commencement speech. Instead of going into it to much, I will play a clip of the Daily Show, I think they did a good job of summing this up:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Arizona State Snubs Obama
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

Now, I am not sure why Obama is even giving a speech at Arizona State University, but since he is, why not give him an honorary degree, that is the protocol.

IN an opposite story, Jimmy Fallon recently received an honorary degree from the school he dropped out of.

Juking the stats

Here is another true story from work that seems like it was taken directly from an episode of The Office.

Towards the end of each year each school has a survey online that is suppossed to be taken by as many staff, students, and parents as possible. They ask questions like do they enjoy coming to work, do they fell safe, do they feel supported and appreciated, etc. You take or you don't, but they would like as many as possible to take it. I took it in about 8 minutes.

Today at this meeting, it was my job to just once again mention to staff to take it please. I mention this and immediately a staff member has a comment. She is upset that after you answer all the questions, it takes you to another page asking questions about gender, race, and how long you have been at this school. It says that this page does not affect the results, its just for calculation purposes or whatever. She argues that when she got there she canceled out of the survey because she thought who ever looks at these results could easily identify her. She said that she would mark that she teaches English, is white, female, and has been here 8 years; and she is the only teacher that fits this profile. She didn't want to complete this survey because someone could identify her.

At this point I tell her to just give the school and administration great marks on the survey that way if she was identified ( which she never would be), they would see that she thinks great about the school and administration. She then said that if she did that she would invalidate the whole survey, and all the results would be useless.

I then suggested to lie about her demographics on the last page, mark that you are male or have been here for 4 years instead of 8. She then said that this would also invalidate the whole survey for everyone. At this point I gave up. So her decision was to just not take it. Wouldn't this invalidate the whole thing just as much? Would it really be the end of the world if someone identified her survey. Again this would never happen because a computer is calculating these results and then posting them in a pie chart.


Here is a funny skit from SNL on Saturday

Dead to Me

It's been a little bit since something has wronged me and has become Dead to Me. This weekend Local Channel 12 news took that honor.

I don't know if anyone watched that Michael J. Fox special on optimism on Thursday night or not. It wasn't bad for what was basically a fluff piece. It was him promoting his book and just looking at the bright side of things in the life, especially in a time when there is some much wrong going on. I enjoyed it. That is until about 2 minutes left in it. HEre is what happened.

I taped the show and decided to watch it Sunday night. I'm going through and watching it, and enjoying it. It is accomplishing what it set out to you, to make the viewers feel happy. There was about 2 minutes left and Michael J Fox was sitting there summarizing everything and how great it makes him feel to have met all these people in the show that are so optimistic every day of their life. Then all of a sudden local channel 12 news breaks in for a "Breaking News story."

They are talking about a shooting that has happened, and this story last about 5 minutes, and when it is over, the show is over, and they go right into the news. I don't want to sound decencitized to violence, but this got me pissed. Sadly people are shot, it happens, and society is falling apart, I get that. But, the news was 2 minutes away from starting, could this have not waited? Seriously, 2 minutes. The other thing was that this show was such an uplifting experience, and showed you all that was right in the world, then they break into the end to remind you that the world is still f**ked. Thanks.

I have e-mailed them and told them how disappointed I was and vowed to never watch their local news coverage again. (FYI, I never watched it to begin with.)

For shame, Local Channel 12.

This is the end........

So tonight is the possible end of a great classic comedy, Scrubs. It is being advertised as the season finale, but 90% chance that it is the Series finale. JD wants to leave the show and do movies. Carla has said she wants to move on to something else. Dr. Cox wants to do more shitty movies as well. Only Eliot and Turk have expressed interest in returning. I say all this because I hope it is the end. The show next year would be terrible without Dr. Cox, Carla, and JD. Not because those characters are great, but because they show would lose what it is all about. It was always about JD and Turk being best friends in love, Carla and Turk being married, JD trying to get Dr. Cox to appreciate him, and JD and Eliot chasing each other. I would have a hard time believing the show next year if it were just Turk with no Carla, and no JD and Dr. Cox playing off each other. Who would the janitor torture.

So it was a great show, and I will miss it. But go out the way Brett Favre should have. Many great years at the beginning, then a few so-so seasons (Seasons 6 and 7 for Scrubs), then one last good season (this year for Scrubs and Favre's last year with the Packers). Don't come back for me and make us regret all those years of greatness just because one or two people can't let go.

That being said, here are my comments about their final episode

• We willl find out that the Janitor's name is Neil Flynn (the name of the actor who plays him) of Jan Itor (his German alter-ego on the show).
• JD will move away (they hinted at this in the last episode) but will remain close to Turk (they also hinted that Turk and JD weren't going to be friends. There is no way they will take a plot line that lasted 8 years and throw it away in the last episode.)
• Kelso comes back to work as some capicity.
• Cox finally hugs JD and tells him he respects him.
• Eliot and JD decide to finally move on.

Now, how I would end it is. The last episode is 4-5 years in the future. Turk is chief of surgery and JD is chief of medicine (Cox's old position) and Cox is the head of the place (like Kelso). Dr. Kelso is coming into the hospital because he had a heart attack. Eliot and JD are married (no kids) and the Turks have 3 kids. The Janitor is still there, and so is Ted. It is kind of a coming full circle approach to the show that started with everyone on their first day. (I personally don't like the plot twist with JD moving away).

Just like on TV

So I'm sitting around watching House tonight ( in this episode a
woman's skin is falling off). What bothers me is that there was a
commercial for the news tonight. They are going to have a story about
whether the show House is like reality or is just a tv show. They are
interviewing area doctors and asking them. Spoiler alert: the show is
nothing like reality.

Let's see. On the show all doctors are attractive. The boss of the
whole hospital is in her 40s. They only have one case a week. Their
first idea is always wrong, but they always figure it out in the end.
The young hot female doctors have a thing for the old grumpy guy. It
is never lupus. House can break every rule and is never fired. Any
many other reasons. So I would say it is nothing like reality.

I think the local news could do a series of stories to see what tv
shows are like reality. The could interview FBI and government
agencies to see if 24 is real. They could interview real plane crash
survivors to see if Lost is real. Interview medical interns to see if
Scrubs is real. Interview lawyers to see if Boston Legal is real.
Interview private eyes to see if Monk is real. Interview people with
super powers to see if Heroes and Smallville are real. Interview
scitzoprenic scientists to see if Fringe is real.

The only shows this might work for are The Wire ( frightenly real) and
The Office (comically real).