Random thoughts

Today in the subway I managed to get a good seat. I find if I'm either very late or extremely early, I will get a pretty good seat. Also, I find it easier to get a seat the closer you are to the front of the train. Anyway, today was a late day and I even managed to get my favorite seat in the second car. My favorite seat is the ones facing either front or back (not to the side), and sitting closest to the wall of the train. I find those seats usually best for my posture, when the train stops and goes it doesn't send your body in one direction or another.

I also find those seats cosier, and particularly in winter time because the heater is usually just below this seat.

Anyway as I was saying, I got a good seat today and sat down and pulled out my book. I've been reading "The Life You've Always Wanted" by John Ortberg. It's a good read I guess. I'm on the chapter that talks about the sin of hurriedness and how to slow down your life. I find this chapter rather humorous. Ortberg talks about how multi-tasking, road rage, and rushing are all forms of this hurriedness that we need to train ourselves to avoid. I found this quite funny because Ina and I have had so many conversations about these very things..

But back to my story. I was sitting there reading my book and this woman or girl sat down beside me. I could tell she was probably a good looking woman because all the men around us were stealing glances at her. This is actually something I do all the time, I think it's fun. I like observing other peoples' reactions (in most cases, men) to women. A woman doesn't have to be good looking, but if she's blonde you are almost guaranteed that men will turn their heads to take a good look. They will even nudge eachother and in one single nod with their head all their pals will be looking over and gawking. It's absolutely hilarious. Men are pigs. By the way, women often also notice good looking women, only it's not so much a gawk like guys, but more of a "I hate you, but I have to admit those are nice shoes" look.

Right so back to my story.. of course, couldn't see what she looked like because she was right beside me, unless I leaned far forward and stole a look myself, which in my opinion, is just wrong. Anyway, she pulled out a magazine and started reading. It was a magazine about celebrities and their lives, you know the ones with the fashion do's and don'ts, papparazi pictures of their personal lives, gossip, things like that. I continued reading, but every once in awhile I couldn't help notice how engrossed this woman was in her readings.

I think it's sad how these people who are in one particular profession -- in this case, acting, have become such idols in the world today. Who cares what these people are doing in their lives? They are entertainers, nothing more. Who cares about what their babies look like? Why would I want to see their kids, if I don't even know them? It doesn't make sense. And why is their such a fascination in how many times a person goes to rehab? Another thing is the clothes.. don't even get me started on that one.

If someone came up to me and asked me what I was wearing, I would tell them, "Are you blind? I am wearing clothes. Can you not see them? Get that camera out of my face, please. Oh and by the way, Jesus loves you." "Oh I see.. who made them? How should I know? Um.. one sec. It says 'Made in Thailand'. My guess, it was a Thai person."

Just the other day, my cousin emails me and asks me about the glasses that Clark Kent was wearing in the movie "Superman Returns". As if I would remember something like that. That movie was a year ago, how in the world would I remember what some dude in a movie was wearing? I mean talk about a useless fact to stuff your brain with. "YES! I *do* know! Ah ha all you naysayers! I knew this information would come in handy some day, so I had it tattoo'd on my arm. Let's see.. It was model 5222-062XFPWES.. hold on, the rest of it is on my other arm.. -250-GGF0-11. It's from Lenscrafters, it comes in 3 colors."

I mean come on. Apparently he wanted to know because he wants to look like Clark Kent.

Has the world gone mad?

Mega Man

Is this a killer costume or what? And he's got the picture perfect pose! Bring it on, Dr. Wily!

Wee Sports

Lame Duke

Duke totally bombed yesterday, taking out a large chunk of my NCAA bracket predictions with them. I remember about a month ago, there were still 2 minutes left in a game they were losing, and Josh McRoberts was sitting on the bench sobbing. I tucked that image away in my head but I should have used to to make my predictions. Duke has no leadership which is why they lost the game. While I can't blame this particular loss on McRoberts, this will definitely his draft stock, if for any reason that other players will get a longer chance to showcase their talent. I still think he has more potential than, say, Aaron Gray -- but he has no way to prove it now.

Speaking of which, here's hoping VCU rights a wrong by beating Pittsburgh in the next round.

Everything else was okay for me except for the 8/9 matchup between Michigan State and Marquette. Perhaps Marquette's loss here is a good indication for Dominic James to stay another year. Anyway, these 8/9 matchups are tough to call. My next one will be Villanova against Kentucky. I picked Villanova but it really could go either way.

One game to watch today is Georgia Tech vs UNLV. I see a mini-upset there. Another one to keep an eye on is Memphis.. I think they are a crap team, even though they received a #2 ranking. If there's one high seed that could be upset, I think it could be them.

From friends to more than just friends

Looks like this kid has got it all figured out. Too funny..

Phew..

I have been on a bit of a lucky streak lately.

Firstly, and I know some of you are sick and tired of hearing this -- I won again on Tim Horton's Roll-Up-The-Rim thing. I've won twice now, out of 2 tries.

Yesterday after I got home from an evening of "Resistance: Fall of Man" (great game, btw) at Stan's house, I found a peculiar message on my answering machine about me owing money to the doctor who spent literally 2 minutes with me at a walk-in clinic I went to a few weeks ago. It turns out my health card is invalid, I'm not covered at all by the Ontario Government.

Aside: $35 for 2 minutes.. that's $1050/hour. Maybe I should have went to med school..

Anyway, so you're wondering where is the good luck in that?

Well, as I started preparing documents to renew my health card:

1. Proof of address.. credit card bill.. check.
2. Proof of citenzenship.. Passport.. check.
3. Proof of signature and photo.. Driver's license, let's see.. it's expired!!

I discovered that my driver's license expired... TODAY!

Spring forward

I remember a few years ago, my boss took me down for coffee because I had just gotten promoted or something, and we started talking about my career and all that. He was gonna buy me a coffee but I don't drink coffee. We had a talk about that too. He said he was like me, didn't drink coffee at first but then one day it hit him and he needed it. And now he just couldn't go without it.

I think I can safely say that I have had maybe 30 cups of coffee in my entire life, although 3 in the past week. I guess it's finally caught up to me. The spring forward thing totally killed me. I remember last night telling Ina if I just sleep early I'll be fine. But this morning my alarm sounded woke me and I was like "no way.. I just went to sleep a few minutes ago..". Plus it was still dark outside.. who wants to wake up when it's still dark? I sure don't. I'm a government employee.. that's supposed to be one of the perks!

Fortunately I had a free coffee in my pocket thanks to Tim Horton's "Roll Up The Rim To Win" promotion. Coffee is bad.. but feeling awake is good.

KD anyone?

I wish I had posted this one 3 months ago so that I could look like a genius, instead of posting now and looking like a copycat. The fact is, before the season started I predicted the Texas Longhorns to do much better than most analysts had prognosticated. I had them 12th overall, while experts put them at #26. Looking at the rankings today, they are ranked 15th by the Associated Press, 14th by USA Today and ESPN.

The reason they had ranked Texas so low no doubt is because they lost 3 key players to the NBA: LaMarcus Aldridge (who many thought the Raptors should have taken 1st overall), PJ Tucker (the player Toronto *did* draft, albeit in the second round), and point guard Daniel Gibson. These 3 were the core of their team and the reason they were one of the top ranked teams in 2005. So it's only reasonable to expect a team devastated by 3 core players declaring for the NBA, to suffer the following year. So why in the heck did I rank Texas 12th?

To clarify, this isn't a post about me showing off that I predicted a team higher than everyone else and that I turned out to be right. If you look at my rankings (made November 27, 2006), no where do I have Wisconsin ranked -- yet they're the 3rd best team in the country (I mean.. who could have seen Alando Tucker's rise to the top on his 5th season?!). So yea, I'm not here to tell you how smart I am.Unless you don't follow college ball or the NBA, you already know the name -- Kevin Durant. KD is a name you'll be hearing a lot about come draft time, and during March Madness. This freshman could have been wearing a Raptors uniform this year if not for David Stern's age restrictions (forcing players to spend 1 year in college before coming to the NBA). Whether Durant would have been a better choice over Bargnani remains to be seen.. but you sure wouldn't be hearing critics complaining about the Raptors' inability to rebound and defend down low if we had him.

Kevin Durant can do everything Bargnani does, and then some. The 6-10 small forward defends (a word that is not even in Bargnani's vocabulary), blocks shots, steals, shoots 80% from free throw range, 41% from 3-point range, and is averaging 25 ppg and 11 rpg. Kevin Durant is uber talented, and has carried the Longhorns all season long. Barring injury, I would not be surprised at all if the Longhorns end up in the NCAA Elite Eight. Heck, they could probably make it to the Final Four. Okay.. realistically speaking I can't see them making the Final Four.I'm not saying Texas is gonna take it all, but with Durant leading the way I don't see why they can't surprise a few teams. They almost beat 2nd-ranked Kansas on the weekend, where Durant scored 25 in the first half and then was held to just 7 in the 2nd after he was injured. Hey, if Carmelo could pull off what he did in Syracuse on an extremely strong draft class (likely the greatest draft class in NBA history), I definitely think Durant has the potential to do something similar.

I will post more as we get closer to March Madness, including a final revisitation my poll ranking predictions.

Forward progress needed

I was having a conversation about the show Heroes with Kenric the other day, focusing on their writers. It seems that they have the ability that many other shows' writers seem to lack -- the ability to satisfy viewers with substance, while getting us to keep coming back for more.

It seems like every episode has a cliffhanger, and in the next episode they resolve it. The same cannot be said about another popular (though becoming less and less) show, LOST. LOST is a show where the writers fail to tie up loose ends, proving to the viewers that even they don't know the answers to the many questions that left unanswered about this show. This proves to be a prevalent problem in many of these serial shows that need to provide something to keep the viewer from changing the channel.

Shows like LOST, Smallville, The 4400, they lack writers who know how (or don't bother) to bring the show forward, to make progress in the storyline. If motivation is what they're looking for, take a look at a show like Alias. Alias was an amazing show at one point in time, before they started to drag the story along, throw in re-runs and recaps, until the fans lost interest and they had to can it due to poor ratings. Yet in its inception it was an *extremely* popular show. LOST too, was highly successful when it came out, even winning an Emmy for best new show. Their ratings have dropped significantly but the writers have yet to clue in.

Smallville has less to worry about because it's a CW show, a channel that only kids watch (and a few of us pretenders). They have made some progress, but for the most part, it's 3 episodes of "meteor rock freaks" for every good episode involving Clark learning a new power, development of Lex vs Superman, and etc.

The 4400 is a lesser known show that I won't comment on because I don't know anyone besides me and my brother who watch it. The show has the potential to be as good as Heroes, but ends up being worse than Smallville.

Lately, Battlestar Galactica, a highly-acclaimed television show that I have been keeping up with, has fallen off the deep-end as well. Again, the common notion is that you need to sit through 3 bad episodes before you get a good one. Season 1 of Battlestar Galactica was incredible, absolutely amazing. But season two has left much to be desired.

The only serial dramas that I can think of that have had constant "forward progress", are 24, Prison Break and Heroes.