The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

Talk about dichotomy. The Celtics are very, very good. The Lions -- after a promising start -- are still the Lions. Check some of this out:

1) The Celtics played their first game on November 2. Since then, they've played a total of 22 games, while the Lions have played a total of 7. Despite playing less than one-third the number of games, the Lions have lost three times as many games as the Celtics (6 to 2).

2) In the same period of time, the Celtics have won 20 times as many games as the Lions (20 to 1). I can't make this stuff up, kids.

3) Lions opponents come close to outscoring Celtics opponents. The Knicks scored 59 points against the Celtics; the Eagles scored 56 and the Chargers 51 against the Lions. Typically, of course, an NBA team will score roughly 3 times the number of points of an NFL team.

4) Despite playing 3 or 4 more games every season, the Lions have had fewer wins than Oklahoma football every single season this millennium. Not only that, but twice (the current season will likely make three) in that time they've won MORE post-season (Big 12 Championships and bowls) games in a single season than the Lions have won since the inception of the Super Bowl.

5) In the last 6 weeks, the Dolphins have won more games than the Lions. In the same time, the Phillies have won the same number of games that the Lions have, and they're not even in uniform. In fact, I -- by myself (that is, not only without teammates, but also without a uniform, pads, a ball, or 150 total lbs of body mass) have won the same number of games as the Lions. Come to think of it, my dog, my grandmothers (I love you!), and John-Jacob Jingleheimer Schmitt (sp?) have also won as many games as the Lions in the past six weeks. In fairness, however, my dog is surprisingly nimble for being overweight. I've never actually tried to tackle my grandmothers, so I'm not able to speak intelligently to their athletic prowess or lack thereof.

And do you know what? Really, it isn't even the worst of times. The Lions STILL have as many or more wins than any Lion team since '01. Wow. I truly never thought that the best of times would be so . . . below .500.

Impending Draft?

So I saw Impending Doom last night. It was cool! On top of being insanely brutal, they seemed like fun and genuine people. I'm a bigger fan of theirs today than I was yesterday, and that's always better than those times that you go away thinking that your image of a band in your head (or on your cd insert) was way better than the real deal.

Do you know what's even nicer, though? I didn't get hit in the face! Call me pansy or old or whatever, but bloodless shows are a plus for me. The "dancers" DID, however, manage to knock out a window. That's right, they didn't break it, just completely popped the bad boy out of the wall and onto the sidewalk. Good times, good times.

It was so much fun I'd like to do it all over again . . . and so I check their page and sure enough, they'll be back . . . on Valentine's Day? DANG! That's a tall order for married guy. Impending deal with the wife? How many chick flicks will that cost me? I don't know, I mean I'm pretty hardcore and all, but Mandy Moore movies just don't move me, you know what I'm saying? Impending decision, I suppose.

Whatever. Sorry this post is so lame. I'll try to do better next time (but no promises).

Just a couple random thoughts in the meantime:

1) Professional athletes often put their bodies through massive amounts of abuse. Not Celtics back-up center Scot Pollard, though. He's missing time because of a bad back that he hurt getting out of his car at Starbucks. Huh, and I thought that $4 for a white chocolate mocha cost ME a lot, but I guess not compared to him. Anyway, he thought it was better until he apparently aggravated his injury by putting on socks. My goodness. Seriously, what makes a guy (or a front-office, not that I'm going to be at ALL critical of Danny "bring me number 17" Ainge) think that he's going to be able to compete at a world-class level athletically when getting coffee and wearing socks puts him out of the game? My good golly-gosh. Seriously, you can't make this stuff up -- click here and read it right from the globe.

2) There's a preliminary version of what will become a Life Pointe promotional dvd (as well as the full half-hour performance at 4th Street Live as broadcast on the CW) on here. It's pretty flippin' cool, y'all, and if you're in the Louisville area, reading this, and STILL haven't checked out a service, you're missing out. Make it happen, you won't be sorry!

4 Channels, and . . .

It's the holidays, and for a bit Laura and I discussed not doing individual gifts for each other, but rather buying something big for "us". The best idea we had? A nice, new flat-panel or hd or plasma screen or whatever (I don't know the details of what's what and don't particularly care) tv. In fact, most of the obvious ways in which we could upgrade our "stuff" is in the tv family. We could get a home theater surround-sound deal, that sounds cool. Or an HD or Blu-Ray player (by the way -- come ON Sony -- is there a ration on "e"'s that you had to leave it off of "Blu-Ray"? Did Life Pointe take your "e"?) would look nice in our entertainment center. And of course if we DID get a cool tv, we should really look into ditching the rabbit ears and hooking up cable to be able to enjoy our newest purchase.

WHAT?! You don't have cable?!

Nope. And we're not getting the tv. Do you know why? Not only are they still WAY too expensive for cheapskates such as ourselves, but no matter how great your tv is, there's still nothing on. Hook up more channels? No it just takes longer to realize that . . . there's still nothing on. Get an awesome HD dvd or Blu-Ray player? Movies -- not all of them, but far too many -- still suck.

Hey -- like everybody else, I think that plasma screens have awesome pictures, and I love the newer higher-tech devices that deliver better resolution and more powerful sound and all that. I really do -- I love that stuff enough that every few months I think we should buy some of it. But then I ask myself the next question -- what will I watch on it? Football. That's pretty much it, and even then there's at MOST 2 games a week that I REALLY care about, and I can go out and watch those -- and eat buffalo wings -- for the price of buffalo wings. Hook up cable? Now I'm just watching MORE football games that I don't even really care about rather than doing something more productive (like blogging about watching football). HD dvd's are cool, but no matter how beautifully crisp Glitter looks, it's still the same crap.

So here's my deal -- I wish that everybody who is the "entertainment industry" would just go ahead and leave well enough alone technologically for a while. We'll be fine with our tv's the way they are. Now won't you put some of that creative genius that brought us these fine fancy toys into developing stories and plot-lines and witty dialogue that will be worth watching? THEN, my friends, maybe we'll have a more serious talk about those $800 tv's.

"Fiesta" -- Espanol for "Shouldn't Have Lost to Colorado"

So it's Ohio State and LSU. Whatever. Congratulations to the winner, I suppose.

Here's the deal -- OU was beyond spectacular last night in absolutely destroying the #1 (ranked) Missouri Tigers. It was an absolute joy to watch the Crimson and Cream (note the color change -- who reminded the Lions that they were the Lions?) take home another Big XII Championship. Wohoo! And then a little disappointing to come up short in terms of playing for the national championship. But do you know what? They don't deserve to play for the championship because they lost . . . twice. Of course LSU lost twice too, so do THEY deserve it? Nope. But that's what happens when you lose (TWICE) in college football -- close your eyes, clench your fists, and hope for the best. Who DOES deserve it, by the way? Pshhhhhhhh. Nobody, really. Just don't whine about your fate if you lost, that's all I'm saying.

A Big XII Championship, and maybe a Fiesta Bowl, too. That's pretty good. Next year might be even better. And in the meantime, there's still those Celtics . . . .