Blayne Sucks

If you haven’t voted yet, you should go vote for Peyton Manning in the ESPYs!

The Pacers were able to get a steal in the NBA draft. Grainger was a potential top five pick who somehow managed to still be availible at #17. He’s positioned to play immediately. He’s not a shooting guard to replace Reggie Miller, but he just might be the last piece of the puzzle needed to get a championship.

Also, in the news of the insane, we have this little gem. I’m honestly not sure what made someone think this was a good idea, but they really need to do some more ‘thought-showering’ on it.

I watched President Bush’s speech the other night and found it to be pretty good. I don’t really like his speaking style because I don’t think it’s natural or emotional enough. He always comes across as a pseudo-puppet for his speech writing staff as a result. I also didn’t like his reference to 9/11 because that event really has nothing to do with Iraq.

However, his main point (That we are fully committed to winning the war and things are progressing in that direction nicely.) was something with which I absolutely agree, and I’m very glad that he finally got up and defended himself to the national media. They have been beating him up over this issue incessantly and, while I don’t know that it’s really hurting the war efforts all that much, I do think that they are not saying these things because they are looking at the big picture and wanting to make the world a better place. They are quite obviously trying to sell newspapers, tv time, and books. This is what the media does.

I’m also glad he didn’t set a time table for pulling out. That would have been phenominally stupid. I am also glad that he said he’s listening to his military commanders with respect to how many troops are required to achieve their goals. I don’t know why people seem to continually fail to understand that we’re not there to defeat an enemy so much as to create an ally. (If you are anti-Bush, feel free to insert an oil industry joke here.) The people of Iraq have been beaten down both physically and psychologically to believe that they need dictators and terrorists to lead them if they ever want to get somewhere as a nation. If they choose to they can become a powerful nation for freedom. If they choose otherwise, as the people of Vietnam did, then our leaders will have to be willing understand this and accept it without, well, doing what we did in Vietnam.

One more basketball tidbit, Oden is going to Ohio State. Look for them to be in the Final Four in 2007.

Well, the San Antonio Spurs are the NBA Champions again. I think they played just well enough to win. Though, I’m not entirely sure that the Spurs would still win four games if these teams were to play another seven game series. It was really great to see two teams that were actual teams in the finals as opposed to a collection of high paid self absorbed athletes. I’m sure that the NBA brass will be pleased that an international team won again. That’s really going too help their demographics. Now, if only there was a way to hide from all the Spurs fans in Austin for the next few weeks…

Well, it’s anybody’s series now. Honestly, I can’t believe that we’re sitting here in this position. I never thought that we’d get past game six in this series. San Antonio was lucky to win game five and needs to get their act together for game seven. I didn’t watch game six, but I suppose I’ll suffer through game seven.

If you’ve been watching the news lately you’ll have seen several individuals garner national attention for various things. Natalee Holloway missing in Aruba. The 11 year old boy scout found after he was missing for four days. Jennifer Wilbanks incited a national press frenzy when she ran away from her husband and extravagent wedding.

These stories are nothing new to the American public, but there have been a number of them recently and they have left me thinking. What is so important about these individuals that separates them from all the other Americans that get kidnapped, get lost, or run away from their weddings? Why do they receive so much attention?

Fame is something pretty powerful in America today. Jennifer Wilbanks has reportedly got a book deal in the works that will make more money than I would likely make in the next ten years. Does a woman who runs away from her family and lie to the police really deserve a book deal like that? It’s probably going to be ghost written for her too.

I haven’t decided what to think about these so-called human interest stories. I’m not sure what else I would put in the press though, so perhaps I should shut up if I don’t have a better idea.

I didn’t see all of this year’s Finals game 5, but the parts of it that I saw made me glad that I didn’t watch the rest. It seemed like both teams were trying to lose. Tim Duncan in particular seemed lost. I’m not sure there’s been an uglier offensive performance by both teams in the NBA Finals. Robert Horry was basically the only one who could come away from that game with any pride left since he actually played really well. Rasheed Wallace made the blunder of a lifetime by not guarding the inbounds pass and then found a way to make it worse by continuing to leave Horry wide open so that he could hit the game winning three.

Though, I would lay some of the blame for this blunder on Coach Brown, who should have told him to stay in Horry’s face on the inbounds pass. I have never bought into the philosophy that the best way to deny the inbounds pass, particularly from the side, is to guard their four with your five. If you have a guy in the face of the passer, you are not only pressuring the people trying to get open, but you’re cutting down on the passer’s vision. All in all it was a bad move.

One of my good friends recently sent me a link to one of the funniest collections of Charles Barkley quotes on the Internet. Take a look.

Slashdot recently had an article about who’s duty it is to recycle computer parts. One of the comments was an absolutely hilarious parody of Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant.

Another friend passed along a link to Store Wars, which is really quite well done, even if you don’t care whether or not you’re eating organic foods. You’ve got to tip your hat to the folks that put it together.

One of the things that I wanted to talk about but haven’t blogged about is that I went to the LJB Presidential Library last Saturday. It was really, really good. I didn’t realize how much fun I would have there or I would have gone a long time ago. It has prompted me to want to visit a bunch of the other Presidential Libraries. There was a really cool exibit on “The Swinging Sixties” which was very well done. I was also really impressed with the wall of official Presidential portraits and the selection of gifts from various heads of state. There was a lot of information about the JFK Assassination, which has always fascinated me along with millions of others. I even got a book by Max Holland called The Kennedy Assassination Tapes, which is a collection of transcripts of taped conversations during the LBJ administration about the Kennedy Assassination. It’s really well written and quite interesting. All in all it was a really good trip.

The Pacers lost. I have to say it was quite a moving basketball game. Reggie looked like he could have played another 2 or 3 years, but as he said in one of his many post-game interviews, we should look at how he played in all the games of the series to see if he should continue his career. I grew up watching him play. It’s sad to see him end his career without winning a championship, but it was really nice to see him play the way he did.

Honestly, there’s more to playing the game than winning a championship. There are third stringers with half his talent that manage to get rings on the championship team every year. I don’t want to downplay their contributions to their teams, but it does show that winning a championship doesn’t directly relate to what an individual brings to a team.

Reggie meant so much to the team and to the community because he gave everything he could on and off the court. He stayed in Indiana when someone burned down his house. He holds a charity bowling event at Cooper’s Stardust Bowl every year. He has been loyal in an environment where disloyalty is encouraged. He could have easily left as a free agent for a team where he might have a better shot at a championship. Certainly the Pacers have been a great team over the years, but what team wouldn’t want an absolutely clutch shooting guard?

Reggie stayed though, and they came so close. Reggie’s Pacers were arguably the toughest team that Jordan’s Bulls played against late in Jordan’s career. They lead the league in wins and got to the NBA finals. They came as close as you can come to a championship team without winning. It’s a shame that people are going to hold that over his head.

I recently saw the last Star Wars movie. Twice. I saw it on opening night at the Alamo Drafthouse and then the next day with some guys from work at a more traditional theater. I’m a fan of this one. I really didn’t like the first two prequels, but this one showed me that the series could have been a lot better. I would have smashed the first movie and about half of the second one into one movie. I would have then expanded the second movie to cover more of the Clone Wars and show Anakin and Obi-Wan fighting together. Then, I would have left the third one pretty much as it is. Episode III is really good, even if the first two needed some revision.

Now you have to wonder what’s next. I would like to see about where Yoda came from. In Episode III, Palpatine talks about a Darth Plagius who was able to create life with the force. Wouldn’t it be hilarious if the only life he was able to create was a little green turd named Yoda? I would also like to see what happened with Luke. How does he form the Jedi counsel again? What new Sith lord comes to replace Palpatine and Vader?

It’s West Wing week on Bravo! They claim to be showing West Wing reruns all day and night, but they don’t have one one right now. Either way though, I’m hopeful for tomorrow since it seems like they are doing West Wing episodes all day long. This could mean that every lunch from here to the end of the week I’ll be able to run back and watch the West Wing!

The Pacers play tomorrow night (tonight) in Detroit. It’s a critical game 5. Last time we managed to win a game 5 on the road, but then we blew the game 6 clincher at home. I think it will be a lot harder to manage a game 7 road win in Detroit than it was against Boston. This means of course that game 5 is a very nearly a must win. (As if a game 4 at home to go up 3-1 wasn’t…) Anyhow, I’m actually considering skipping my Bible Study for the game. How bad is that? Will God smite the Pacers if I choose to watch the game?

So I got tickets for the last of the new Star Wars movies almost a month ago and it just happens to directly conflict with game 6 in the Pacers - Pistons series. I’m going to go for the “record the game and hope no one tells me the score” philosophy since I can’t very well pass up seeing the Star Wars movie on opening night. I also found out today that this Friday afternoon my group at work is going to be going to the movie as a team building exercise. Between all the television, sports and movies this week, I can honestly say that I’m gearing up to be very American by Memorial Day.

It’s getting longer and longer between the times that I have a chance to blog something. Hopefully, I’ll be able to correct this. I haven’t necessarily been all that busy, but I have been having a lot of trouble sleeping. I suppose I should have used some of that time lying awake to blog.

The Pacers won! They are now up 2-1 in the series with another home game tomorrow. They are 6-0 all time in seven game series where they were leading 2-1. Hopefully, they’ll continue the streak. I thought they played very well last night.

Realistically, if they manage to get past Detroit I think they match up pretty well against Miami. They probably matchup better against Miami than they do against Detriot. Richard Hamilton can run with Reggie Miller better than anyone else in the league and the Pacers don’t really have a player that can match up with Prince. Miami doesn’t have anyone that can really run with Reggie and the only matchup problem they would have is Shaq, who hasn’t really been much of a factor so far in the playoffs. I also think that our bench is better than Miami’s bench, but they are both pretty good. Anyhow, I should stop now before I jinx it by looking too far ahead.

I recently re-discovered the band Stroke 9. This is one of those things that makes me so glad I got an iPod. It’s so much easier to not lose track of bands simply because you only have space for 20 CDs in your CD case. The Vertical Horizon and Stroke 9 concert at Butler University is still one of the best shows I’ve ever been to live and I can’t believe that it’s been so long since I listened to some of their stuff.

A recent Newsweek cover story was talking about how China would become a world power in the next century. It makes a lot of really good points, but I think it doesn’t really emphasize the importance of international trade as much as it should. I really believe that free trade prevents war. There’s a lot to be said for having a healthy economy and a happy populace world wide. Happy people usually don’t start wars. I would much rather see a billion plus happy people in China making cool things for everyone to use than a billion plus hungry people in China desperate for some way to feed themselves. Anyhow, it’s a good article.

Now having said all that there are certainly things that I don’t like about China, particularly some of their stances on human rights. Then again, there’s a lot I don’t like about America too. I know a lot of people think about free trade and don’t want to reward people that do things they disagree with. These are things that I would rather work out with a happy society that’s willing to listen than a desperate society that simply couldn’t care less.

Obviously, things like free trade and war are, uh, somewhat complex, but my point in all of this is that having another economic superpower in the world can be really beneficial for everyone.

When are we going to get the Wal-Mart of the medical profession? A place where you can go and get the most basic of products and services done for a modest price shouldn’t be impossible to create and maintain for the medical profession. However, it doesn’t exist most places. Why can’t I go to one place for a dental checkup, a physical and an allergy test? It’s frustrating to have to drive all over the place just to get three rather related and relatively basic services. Furthermore, why do we require 30 different forms and documents just to get these things done? Is America really that litigious that we have to have a backup, backup form to validate your parking in the dental offices’ parking lot?

As if my annoyance with the health industry wasn’t enough, the Pacers lost tonight. They were leading the series 3-2 with a home game tonight to wrap it up and yet they managed to find a way to lose. It actually looked like they were going to win after a really hard call to swallow down the stretch that gave Reggie a free throw to tie the game and ejected Paul Pierce. However, we still managed to lose. Now we have to go to Boston and play a game 7. I really hate Boston.

I have tickets to see the Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith on opening day. I should have got the tickets for the show that was Wednesday night/Thursday morning at 12:01 am. That would have been a kinda cool way to do things. Anyhow, I rarely go to the movies these days, but this is an exception. It’s more like a movie-event and it’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime kind of things.

I certainly hope this one is better than the previous two prequels. If I were to have done the first two prequels, I would have merged as much of them as possible and made the second movie more about the actual war of the clones and less about how the war started. It would have picked up the pace of the movies and perhaps restored more of the clarity of good and evil that the previous trilogy had.