Movie Review: Transformers 2

Optimus Prime, Leader of the Autobots

This movie was absolutely unreal. I will be the first to admit, I am a biased fan of Transformers. I loved them when I was a child and that rolled over on to my adulthood. I find the concept of it fascinating.

When I found out that Michael Bay was making the first Transformers a couple of years back I had mixed feelings about it, but I was more excited than not. I knew it would probably not have the best storyline on the planet, but it would be action packed... and that is what happened. Shia LeBouf is terrible, but if you want to rationalize it most people would have been just as annoying and dumb as him in the role, its just the way the part was written. Megan Fox being beautiful outshines his bad acting. I honestly feel that Transformers 1 was one of the best movies as far as action and CGI in a long time, it pushed movies to the next level.

Megan Fox in Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

Which leads me to my review of Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen. I walked into this movie wearing my Autobots t-shirt and was a giddy child all over again, I couldn't wait to see what the story held for Optimus Prime, Bubblebee, Sam and Michaela and all of the Autobots. Again, I expected it to be more action based than storyline based, but that is where I was wrong. It had plenty of explosions and amazing action, but there was storyline that made the movie as good as it was. There was a thick plot, which revealed many unknowns about the existance of the Transformers as well as developing new plots to what is happening in the now. There were many surprises, and many different emotions ran through me as the movie unfolded. Times where my jaw hit the floor, times where I was laughing my rear end off, and times where I was so shocked that I felt like I was going to cry.

This movie has gotten many many mixed reviews, however I felt that this movie was flat out incredible. The ONLY negative to this movie, was that it was long... just under three hours long... and it felt long. There are movies that are long but feel like they went by in an hour because you are so captivated by what is going on. However, even though this movie felt long, I wouldn't have cut any scenes out of the movie to make it better and shorter, it was simply great.

Go see this movie. 5 out of 5. I cannot wait to rush out to get it when it is released on Blu-Ray!

The next movie that I will most likely be reviewing will be Tim Burtons movie 9. Go check out the trailers on YouTube, it looks awesome.

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On a side note, I wrote 5 quick tips to help improve your UFC Undisputed 2009 game and submitted it to the Madden Bible (www.maddenbible.com) after writer ZFarls (ZFarls on twitter) made a podcast and a mini-article providing 10 tips to help your game. ZFarls then featured my tips on the front of their site... check it out! Madden Bible is a great site for Madden NFL Football tips, plays, and schemes to make you better at the game. Go there, and sign up for there forums. If you are looking to get better at Madden, you need to go to Madden Bible. There are also various other tips for other games, such as UFC Undisputed 2009, NHL 09, NCAA Football 2010, and more!


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Steve McNair, 1973-2009

It has been a while since I've updated this blog. Sorry to those of you who actually read this blog. To be honest it was pure laziness on my behalf. I was gearing up, preparing a blog update for the latest summer movie that I have seen, Transformers 2. But after hearing the terrible news from this past weekend, the movie review can wait. The death of one of the biggest class acts in sports is more important. Rest in peace Steve McNair.

I found out about it during the evening of the 4th. My jaw nearly hit the floor. "Air" McNair had been one of my favorite players of all time. I remember being a youngster and being with my mom while we purchased his #9 jersey, back when he was on the Houston Oilers. I still own the jersey and have it in my closet. I still wear it every once and a while around the house. Now it has such a different meaning behind it.

There are more and more details coming out each day about the circumstances of the death and his relationship with the woman he was with. I pray that there was nothing too shady that went on, and that his potential romantic relationship is something that his wife knew about (maybe there is a chance that he and his wife had had a rough patch and were on a break for a bit or something?), but one way or another I have to admit, it does not look good, which hurts to hear.

The Red Shirt Senior (Right) wearing his Steve McNair jersey at the 2006 Madden Challenge held at Gillete Stadium in Foxboro, MA alongside Boston radio personality Adolfo Gonzalez of 104.1 WBCN

Every athlete is hurt at some point in their athletic career. But there is a difference between playing hurt, and playing injured. McNair was able to play injured on a regular basis towards the end of his career. Every Sunday he would strap on the pads and go to work. I always looked up to that.

Thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends. Rest in Peace.

Shaq to Cleveland

Damn. This shakes up things in the East a little bit, huh!

Cleveland gets: C Shaquille O'Neal
Phoenix gets: SG Sasha Pavlovic, C Ben Wallace, 46th Overall Pick in tonights draft, $500,000

This is all assuming the deal gets approved by the way. (I'll be shocked if it doesn't)

Initial thoughts are just that this is a shocking deal. LeBron finally gets the big man that he has needed. But unfortunately for him, Shaq is about 8 years past his prime. He is still a force to be reckoned with in the paint due to the pure size of the man, but he definitely did not fit in the Suns fast break offensive scheme which makes them happy to part with him, that on top of dumping his salary and opening up space for free agents and rookies. Phoenix getting Ben Wallace would have been big news 6 years ago, but ever since that championship Detroit team Wallace has been nothing more than a fart in the wind. He plays so piss poor offensively and his devense is getting worse and worse each year that he is just a liability to have on the court for your team. After reading up about Sasha Pavlovic, it appears that the Suns will likely cut him immediately and make more cap space. His 4.6 PPG and 1.1 APG arn't exactly striking numbers. You can never go wrong with draft picks. They could potentially take the 46th, and their first rounder (14th) and trade up, or even take the 46th, and their 2nd rounder (48th) and trade up with that.

If there is one thing you will learn about me, is that I love draft picks, there is so much you can do with them.

But what does this ultimately do to the layout of the East? Well assuming Boston does not deal any of the big three or Rondo, and assuming the Magic only lose Turk, these three teams will be the teams to beat, still. Boston has two solid seasons left in them with their current players, unfortunately, which puts a LOT of pressure on them this season. I think you will see different coaching philosophies this year by Doc Rivers and he will rest a lot of the big three throughout the season to ensure their health come the playoffs. Home court advantage is a huge deal, however if the Celtics can be a four seed next year, but be healthy and have no injuries to major players, I would like our chances.

The Magic will likely fade out over time, unless Dwight Howard picks up his offense. I had never really had a good opportunity to watch Howard play except during All-Star games, Dunk Contests and the Beijing Olympics (which the show was stolen by the best player on the planet, Kobe Bryant), but I remember walking into the Magic vs. Celtics series being scared of Howard, thinking he was going to drop 25 points per game. Then after watching him only dunk and layup, I actually was extremely disapointed in the kid. You hear so much about him and see all these highlights on Sportscenter, but the guy can't hit a shot 7 feet away from the rim. It's sad. Defensively he is a stud, but hes embarrassing on offense. Either way, without Turk drainining shots next to Lewis next year, the Magic will falter, even though they'll still be a top team.

Which brings us to the Cavs. LeBron and company will be an absoulte force to be reckoned with, as always, however adding Shaq to the mix doesn't automatically propel them to the Finals just yet. Shaq has always needed that big point scorer asside him for him to be dominant (Kobe and Wade). LeBron fits perfectly into that role, but it was the 2005-2006 season in which Shaq last had a dominant Wade. Next year will be 5 seasons after that, and at age 37, Shaq is by no means in the best shape of his life. His knees have to give out on him eventually, for a man that size to not have knee problems would be incredible. Fortunately for the Cav's, they essentially lost nothing in this trade. Adding Shaq is a risk because of his age, but for what they gave up it would be foolish for any team to not do what they did. If Shaq can somehow find the fountain of youth, and share enough time on and off of the court with Z so that they're both healthy for the playoffs, then watch out for the Cavs. But if Shaq just becomes another liability that LeBron needs to pick up the slack of, then watch for him to be traded at the deadline.

Either way, this shakeup in the East definitely makes things interesting.

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The Worst US Open in the history of the PGA

So many stories were gracing the headlines last week about this past weekends U.S. Open at Bethpage Black in New York: Tigers return to the U.S. Open, Rocco Mediate doing the improbable again, Phil's return to golf after his wifes diagnosis of breast cancer, etc etc. But the only thing that seemed to happen was rain, and rain, and rain. It was by far the most disapointing U.S. Open that I can remember. This weekend I would turn on the TV and get myself ready for some good action and all I would see was the analysists sitting in front of the camera showing groundscrew members sweeping off the water from the greens.

Last year was incredible. A tie after 72 holes between the number one ranked golfer in the world and a relative unknown. An 18 hole stroke play playoff, only for that to go into extra holes... oh, and for the winner to be doing all of this with a tear in his ACL. The 2008 U.S. Open would go down in history as one of the best ever played, which left high expectations with the fans for the 2009 Open, however Mother Nature had other plans.

I was frustrated watching it, because I would never know when it would be on, and even if I started watching there was a risk of it stopping at any time due to the weather. And if I was that frustrated watching it, imagine being one of the players trying to play in it? Most sports involve a lot of flow and rythem, both of which golfers need to have. Players couldn't find their groove, and once players did the horns would blow and the players needed to get off of the course.

Unfortunately, there is nothing anybody could do about it. Mother nature should have been declared the winner of this tournament. But congradulations to Lucas Glover for capturing the trophy. Also, David Duval finishing tied for second place? Who saw that one coming.

I hope that the USGA takes a look at what happened here and comes up with a contingency plan for future Major tournaments. I am by no means saying that it will be easy, however, I feel like there could have been a better way to get the tournament completed. What that would be, I don't have the faintest idea, but I don't feel like there was a Major golf tournament this past weekend, even though there was.

Oh well.

Maybe I'll see a Federer vs. Nadal championship at Wimbledon sometime soon...

Oh wait...

Summer Movie Review: The Hangover

When I saw the previews and initial advertisements for The Hangover, I'm not gonna lie, I thought it looked average at best. But in the weeks leading up to this movie, I had not seen or heard one bad review about The Hangover. That was when I started to do a little bit of research for it, and was please when I found out that it was from the director of Old School, and that Ed Helms was in it. For those of you who have been living under a rock, this movie topped the box office for the last two weeks. It cost $35,000,000 to make, and has grossed $110, 299, 949 in 11 days. Pretty freakin' impressive if you ask me. Based on some of these things, and about 30 of my friends saying it was the funniest movie they've seen in a long while, I just had to go. And I did.

A quick plot synopsis(bear with me, I don't remember the names). A guy is getting married somewhere in southern California and on the weekend before his wedding he goes to Las Vegas for his bachelor party with two of his best friends, one being a middle/high school teacher, the other being a dentist, and his future brother in law who doesn't really have any friends due to his odd personality and appearance. The four of them plan on going out and partying harder than rockstars, and as they have a celebratory drink prior to going out, you next find them woken up the next morning trying without any clue as to what happenen that night, and the groom to be is missing. Throughout the rest of the movie, it is the three guys gathering clues and trying to track down their friend and figure out what the heck happened the night before.

Now the best part about a plot line like that, is because *anything* could have gone on without it being unreasonable, based on how they feel when they woke up the next morning. They did themselves a lot of drinking which could have potentially lead to anything, and that is where the genius of this movie lies. As a viewer, you lose focus on "wow that is so completely unrealistic" which can single handedly ruin a movie. Believe me, I am not going to post any jokes or times where you could should pay extra attention to, because I hate spoilers as much as the next guy, and if you have friends, then I'm sure you have probably already heard 75% of the quotes from it.

I really enjoyed this movie. I honestly do not think it was nearly as funny as everyone made it out to be, however I feel like if I saw this movie before all of my friends and a lot of places saying it is the funniest movie on the planet and they would see it again in a heartbeat. I was very pleased and satisfied when I left the theater, which was a great feeling because it got rid of the sour taste in my mouth that was left over from Terminator: Salvation.

One of my favorite TV shows is The Office, and Helms character of Andy Bernard is my favorite character in the show. One things I loved about The Hangover was that it showed Ed Helms playing a different character, and he absolutely nailed it. To my knowledge this is the first major character he has played since getting his role as Andy, and it is refreshing to see him not fall into a typecast(see Cera, Michael). Sure, a lot of people could have played that role and done very well at it, but it was refreshing to see Helms do so well.

My rating: 3.9 out of 5. Why might you ask? Well as far as recent comedies go, I put this one just a smidge below Superbad, which I would have given a 4 out a 5 if I had a blog back then. While I would still recommend this movie to absolutely everyone in the age demographic it is targeting, I need to give it a 3.9. I can't even think of a comedy that I would consider giving over a 4, however there probably is. What I'm getting at, is that while I love comedies, it is going to take a lot for it to be even close to a 5 due to the nature of being able to score laughs.

One way or another, go see this movie, and if you look young, bring your ID's because I've heard of a lot of people saying that they were carded going into this movie.

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Lets Make Some Rule Changes

It is no secret: I love sports. However, there are some things in sports that frustrate me and I think that there are some rule changes and general changes that could amp up things and make certain aspects of certain sports better. Do I think all of my ideas are picture perfect? No. I realize that, though practical, some of these ideas would never be implemented or worked into the sports, however the discussion is happening and I want to throw in my two cents.

Baseball: My only issue with baseball is at times the pace of the game can really be slowed down. Sure, a lot of the times it typically has to do with strategy, such as having a mound visit or two to give the bullpen more time. But it can be frustrating. Solutions:

- At the home plate umpires digression, institute a pitch clock. The pitcher has 20 seconds to get the ball off of the rubber from the second he gets the ball back from the catcher if the home plate umpire feels like he is stalling the game. This means trying to hold a runner on the bag or making a pitch.

- At all times, the batter is not allowed to step out of the box and take a practice swing unless he swings at the previous pitch, or unless there is a ball that could have hit him and he needs a few seconds to get his head back. No more stepping out every pitch and adjusting your batting gloves three times on each hands, Nomar. Keep the game moving.

- Figure out the Designated Hitter rule. Either implement it to both leagues, or get rid of it all together, there is no reason the American League should have it while the National League doesn't. I don't care which way, make a decision.

- Have at least one day game per day. There are 30 teams in Major League Baseball, this does not seem unreasonable to do and more people than you would think own the MLB Package and would actually be interested in this. Teams could charge less money for a day game based on the fact that less people would be likely to attend, causing people to call in sick to work and bring their kids to a game, this could be especially nice during the summer months where the kids are out of school.

- As far as Little League Baseball, ban the curveball. LL did a great thing by implementing the pitch count rule a couple of years back, but it is not enough. 12 year olds should not be throwing curveballs, end of story.

- If one team chooses, they should be allowed to forgo their attempts at bat and just stay in the field, re-setting opposing base runners every three outs after the seventh inning. Think of it like this, if the home team is up seven runs in the bottom of the 8th inning, taking their at bats in the 8th could be potentially meaningless, and a waste of time. If the home team elects to, they should be allowed to just stay in the field, and forfeit their at bats, and finish the game. If the away team ends up scoring enough runs to capture a lead, that's the home teams problem, but it could make things interesting.

Professional Football: I don't think there is much wrong with the NFL, and the popularity of the sport speaks for itself, however there are a couple things that could be changed to make things better:

- Get rid of the annual game in London. This year, I was livid when I found out that my Patriots are playing the annual game over in London. It just is not fair to do that to teams. And to take a home game away from the Buccaneers isn't fair either. While I'm sure there is a system in play where the Buccaneers will make up for the gate that they will be losing, a game at Wembley Stadium is not a home game, and home field advantage in a sport where verbal communication is key and crowd noise is a big advantage. And not to mention the fact that being jet lagged and adjusting to the different time zones will be difficult, only to then return to the east coast and waste half of the bye week in simply re-adjusting your mental clock. If the NFL wants to make itself more international, try keeping the game in North America. Mexico City? Sure. Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver? Fine. Just keep regular season games out of Europe.

- Play the Pro Bowl during the Sunday of the week off break in between the AFC and NFC Championship games. Players that played in the playoffs have the option of not playing in the Pro Bowl, however are encouraged to make an appearance and be honored as a member of the two teams. The players that are going to play in the Super Bowl are the only players that are officially ineligible to play who have been voted to the team. This would stir even more interest for the Super Bowl and make the Pro Bowl that much more watched. Playing the Pro Bowl a week after the Super Bowl takes all of the hype out of the NFL's version of the All-Star game.

- Get rid of the post kickoff commercial break. Yeah, the NFL makes a lot of money off of these commercials, but it slows down the pace of the game. It cam be pretty brutal to sit through the 'touchdown, commercial, kickoff, commercial, start of possession' sequence multiple times each game. For the fans sake, get rid of these commercial breaks.

- Fix the scheduling. While I think that the NFL has a pretty solid scheduling system, at the same time there is definitely something messed up. 2007 season, Patriots played in Indianapolis. 2008, Patriots played in Indianapolis. This season, what do you know, the Patriots are scheduled to play in Indianapolis. Now I understand the Patriots vs. Colt rivalry, and how the NFL wants it to happen due to pure ratings, however something here isn't right. I'm not complaining that we are playing the Colts every year, (the Patriots actually hosted the Colts three straight seasons from 2004 to 2007), and have played them at least since the 2003 season every year, but bounce it back and fourth each year, there is no reason that two teams that are not in the same division should play each other back to back seasons at the same site. Play one at one teams stadium, then alternate the next year, it's only fair. I am only using the Patriots vs. Colts as an example because I am directly familiar with it, however it would not surprise me if the same is going on to other teams out there.

- Change the overtime rules. There are two ideas, both of which would be better than the current system. One idea would be to make overtime not sudden death, and make it a full length 15 minute period, whoever is winning at the end will be declared the winner, and if the teams have the same score, the game will be ruled a tie. In a playoff game that goes to overtime, if the two teams have the same score at the end of the 15 minutes, then play another one. The other idea here would be changing the system to the system that college football uses, only with different rules. Rather than starting at the 25, start the ball at the 35, as most NFL kickers should easily be able to kick a 37 yard field goal. Keep the rule where after the third overtime the teams are forced to attempt a two point conversion after a touchdown, and starting in the fourth overtime move the ball back 5 yards, and then five more yards for each overtime until the ball is placed on the 50 and keep it there. Moving the ball back makes it harder for kickers and offenses in general. We can't have anymore situations where a team wins the game because they won the coin toss, got a good return, and moved the ball 35 yards to kick a field goal.

College Football: I'm going to not really say anything in this particular post, and save college football for its own because there is so much wrong with it. It will probably be soon after this post and will mainly feature how the BCS needs to go along with Pre-Season rankings.

Hockey: I, for one, actually agree with the rule changes in the NHL from a few seasons ago. The fact that they made rules that appeal to the non-fan was a good move, even though the NHL is the least viewed of the four major sports in North America. And personally, I would not be able to stand another season of watching teams play "Trap Hockey." There is room for improvement, however:

- Less is more; Contract teams. This is a lot easier said than done (based on what to do with the players, their salaries, the owners of the teams, and a plethora of other issues), but get rid of at least four teams. Try to figure out which teams the League can do without, probably based on fan-base, revenues, actual abilities, and contract them.

Basketball:

- Get new referees. The NBA is the worst officiated of the four major sports in this country. Let them all go.

- I personally like the fairly new rule that keeps players jumping from high school into the pro's, but I know that there is a very mixed reaction over this issue. I like it because all it takes is a freak accident for a player to injure themselves for their career and then they do not have a degree or education to fall back on. However, what if there was a rule installed where high school players could enter the draft if they earn a certain score on the SAT test, or some other standardized test? Due to the change in the SAT scoring over the past 3 or 4 years, I don't really know what is a good score if someone tells me what they earned. But if a score is set that the kids can get grade of or higher, then it proves that they are indeed smart enough to get into college based purely on their brains, and then allow them to enter into the draft.

- In college basketball, change the shot clock from 35 seconds to 28 seconds. There is no need for the shot clock to be 35 seconds long.

Soccer:

- Install a back court violation, just like in basketball. Put in a rule where you have 20 seconds to clear the ball to mid-field, and once the ball gets past mid-field you cannot return the ball to the defensive part of the field, otherwise its a loss of possession. A big part of the game of soccer is stalling the game because you have a lead, and also waiting to pick your spot because the game is very long, however I feel like if there was a "Failure to Advance" violation(like in Basketball and Lacrosse), then late in games, "full court press" defenses could be used and cause turnovers in the defensive end to make more scoring occur. The installation of the back field violation could also cut back on stalling.


That's it for now. I realize that some of these are unrealistic, however these are just some suggestions.

Do YOU think that you have a better idea for a sport, or that my idea is completely unreasonable? Let me know! Send me an instant message on AIM at 'i3rian 87' or Follow me on Twitter! and send me a tweet! I will be sure to give you credit for your idea/comment!

Kevin Ferguson in TUF10

Staying on the topic of the UFC from the last post, it appears that Kevin Ferguson is going to appear as one of the fighters in UFC's reality show, The Ultimate Fighter. I have talked about this show before, but it was about two months ago so lets brielfy recap what exactly the show is before we dive any deeper into it. Each season has sixteen fighters, typically in the Middleweight and Light Heavyweight divisions and if you win your fights you advance farther and farther into the tournament. The fighters all live in the same house and they are split off into two teams that have coaches that are UFC fighters who pick the teams the same way teams are chosen in the schoolyard. The man reason I became interested in the show in the first place is because in my sophomore year of college, my roommate really liked it and it was basically the only show he ever wanted to watch, so we would watch it and I really got into it. The winners of the show are given guarenteed contracts where they make a good amount of money which tends to vary from season to season. But if there is one thing that this show has produced, is good fighters. The show has produced great fighters such as Forrest Griffen, Kenny Florian, Rashad Evans, Michael Bisping, and many others. But it appears that the only person on the upcoming season that anybody will even be caring about is Kevin Ferguson.

But who the hell is Kevin Ferguson? I'd bet you've heard of him one way or another under the name "Kimbo Slice." It was announced recently that Kimbo will be one of the fighters in the 10th season of TUF. This has spawned many mixed reactions by sports junkets of all types. Not much more than a year ago, Kimbos face was all over the sports world where he was the poster child for the EliteXC brand of Mixed Martial Arts which was broadcast on CBS. Now, not to play the spoiler, if you don't know what happened to his career, here it is:

Let me quickly set up the clip: Kimbo Slice is set to fight Ken Shamrock in the Main Event of the evening, however due to a cut that Shamrock received during pre-fight warm ups, he was taken off of the card and Kimbo agreed to fight Petruzelli one hour prior to the start of the fight.


And as you can see, Kimbo lost in 14 seconds after making an ass of himself after not returning the pre-fight fist pound offered by Petruzelli. Like the rest of the world, I was shocked as can be initially. Petruzelli was backing up and had put his foot out to try and keep the monster that is Kimbo off of him and in the act of doing so, threw out a quick jab and caught Kimbo on the chin which stunned him, and the rest is history.

Kimbo was a huge controversial topic in MMA prior to this fight because at that point he was 3-0, but had for the most part fought against bums who he should have beaten. He was not challenged in any sense of the word. Even going into the Shamrock fight, there was controversy because like Kimbos other fighters, Shamrock was way over the hill and washed up.

People loved Kimbo, and people loved to hate Kimbo, but however you Slice it(ha, get it?), his name brought the money. I don't blame EliteXC for doing what they did, because they knew as soon as he lost, especially against someone who is washed up or someone he should easily beat, people would not care about him anymore. But one thing is for sure: he brought in some serious revenue. People wanted to see him fight, and slapping his name on the card for a fight brought in the viewers(It also didn't hurt that EliteXC had a women's division which featured one Gina Carano... sex appeal FTW!). But after Kimbo lost to Petruzelli, the EliteXC went bankrupt and Kimbo has not fought professionally since.

TUF 10 is most likely Kimbo Slices last chance at becoming a big name professional MMA fighter, and it is surprising that the UFC, THE premier brand of MMA fighting in the world, would give him this shot. However, UFC President Dana White knows the business end of things and realizes the opportunity that comes along with having him on TUF and fighting under the UFC name. Not like TUF and the UFC needed the ratings, but they are about to get that much higher if Kimbo can win some fights. One thing for sure, I will be rooting for Kimbo. Who cares if he got his success by beating up less than average Joe's in peoples backyards for cash, he did nothing illegal by Florida state law. Kimbo is hardly the first to make a name for himself off of the internet, if anything I'd say I was jealous of him due to the fact that I haven't made my money off of the internet yet. Either way, when the bell rings on Kimbos fight in TUF, I for one, will be watching. Although, I hope he touches gloves with his opponent before the fight.

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- In other news, let me admit that I am officially addicted to Twitter. At first I had absolutely no clue what it was, but after using it for around a month and actually seeing what you can get off of it, I love it. Clearly it would be better if I had a phone that could access the internet and be able to read off of and post tweets, however as of right now I'm more than content. The reason it is so appealing is because you feel like you are interacting with Celebrities. Just four hours ago from writing this, Shaq tweeted this to the world: "thats right i am saying it today and today only, i want kobe bryant to get number 4, spread da word" If you ask me, that is pretty big of him to say that. Then two hours ago he tweeted saying that there was more to the modern Laker dynasty than Kobe and Shaq, tweeting "Why yall messin around I kno if it wasn't for big shot bob, I know we wouldn't got two of those rings, thanks horry" I think it is safe to say that the Shaq and Kobe feud is over, at least in Shaq's mind. Shaq is just one of the few celebrities that I follow, and like mentioned before, it feels like you're talking to the celebrities through this site.

- Good luck Randy Johnson, on going for win number 300 tonight against the Natinals, however it is unlikely if the game will start tonight due to severe rain.

- Good luck Ichiro, on trying to extend the hitting streak to 27 games. (My most recent Streak for the Cash pick was that he would extend it tonight.)

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X-Box's answer to the Wii (and more!)

It looks like XBox is getting in competition with the Wii for active video games, with this video(click on the "Featured Video" towards the bottom right). And if it works the way it is portrayed in this video, then it will be taking a hot steamy dump on the Wii. That skateboarding game could be amazing.

Speaking of Video Games, I've been playing UFC Undisputed 2009 for my PS3 pretty frequently over the past two weeks, and I'm finally ready to tell the world my two cents: Like most fighting games, its always better when you're playing another human, but in this game it is a million times better. The career mode is pretty cool, it takes about halfway through the career mode until you really can figure out how you're supposed to be playing the game, and then from there on out the game is awesome. Whats cool is that the UFC forces you to retired 'when your contract is up' but what really that means is that you have about 30 fights in your carrer, which is kind of cool because you cant just string out your career because most guys don't really fight past the 30 fight mark. It is fun to take the game online and fight other people, because this game allows people to have so many different styles of fighting, however there are some downsides to the online aspect of the game. Unlike EA Sports games, the online menus are terrible. You pretty much have to play a quick match and play a random opponent. If you're struggling at the game and looking to get better you can't seek out people with bad records and fight them and if you're really good and looking for good competition you can't seek out highly ranked players. The quick match tends to do a decent job in hooking you up with similar competition, but about every fourth fight is against someone who is either terrible or incredible. If the menus were better, then the whole online experience would be a hell of a lot better. Overall, I am enjoying this game, and am having a whole lot of fun knocking the snot out of people and then taking them to the ground to tap them out. Get this game if you're into fighting games.

And while I'm here... people are pissed at LeBron for not shaking the hands of the Orlando Magic after they lost. My initial thought? Whatever, he's pissed. They were the one seed, lost only a few games at home in the regular season, and lost in the playoffs to an overrated Magic team. I'd be mad if I was LeBron too... guy dropped over 30 points consistantly in the playoffs only to have his team fall apart around him, or as I like to say it, depend too much on him. Up until this afternoon I didn't really care too much, until SportsCenter did a mini segment on it and Barry Melrose made the following point: He shook hands with teams after his team won, he talked to the media after his team one, but he can't do these things after they lose? Be consistant. Sure the NBA isn't like the NHL where the end of playoff series handshake is a tradition, and it isn't like MLB where the winning team celebrates on the field while the losing team stays in their dugout and walks down to the locker room. One way or another, stay consistant with what you do, and LeBron did not do that. A player of his calaber and level is going to be judged upon these things, and he needs know that and get his act together. I'm not saying he should be shaking hands, or shouldn't be, but he needs to make up his mind and stick to it. One way or another, I'm happy the Cav's are not in the finals... I was rooting for the Nuggets and the Magic pretty much based on the fact that those Most Valuable Puppet commercials were made before the Finals even started, and because the NBA would be so upset based on the fact that the Finals ratings would drop as low as the NHL Finals. As far as who I'm rooting for in the NBA Finals... I wouldn't say I'm rooting for the Magic to win, I'm just rooting for the Lakers to not win... so I guess go Magic?

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Movie Review: Terminator Salvation

Been a while since I've posted, and I apologize people! I've been a bit busier than I normally am and unfortunately this blog had to go onto the back burner. Sorry out there. However one of the things I did this past week was see Terminator: Salvation, and let me tell you: Save your money.

I am a big fan of The Terminator and its sequel, Terminator 2. Terminator 3 was a bit of a stretch, it was cool for there for be another Terminator movie made, however losing James Cameron as the director was a bit of a let down and clearly the series took a punch to the stomach over it. By no means was Terminator 3 bad, if anything it was cool to actually see SkyNet take over and to actually see the machines rise up into power and Judgement Day arriving. The only thing that the series lacked was a movie where the war is happening, and that's what Salvation was... or so I thought it was going to be.

I walked into this movie expecting it to be two hours of things blowing up, multiple awesome battle scenes, plot expansion, and just overall badass-ness. When the credits rolled, I felt unsatisfied. Even though I had heard some reviews on the radio and television, and read some reviews in the papers and online, all of which said that the movie was garbage, I still had hope that maybe this movie would actually be good.

But I was wrong. Honestly, nothing essential happened in this movie. Nothing at all. All two hours of this movie could have been explained in the next movie in a 5 minute conversation between the characters. There was a cool scene here and there, but there was not one scene in the movie in which chills were sent up my spine or that I just sat back and said "wow that was fucking awesome." (See: Matrix Reloaded; Scene that takes place on the highway). And to make matters even worse, is that Christian Bale is one of the worst actors of the current wave of actors. He sucks, especally in this movie. Personally, I think he is the worst actor that has ever played Batman. There is so much talent out there in Hollywood, and this clown somehow gets selected to be Bruce Wayne and John Connor. Something is wrong with Hollywood. ANYONE could play Bruce Wayne and not mess it up, other than Christian Bale. Thank god that Heath Leger was in The Dark Knight otherwise it would be one of the worst movies of all time.


But back to Salvation. The main reason I was overly upset about this movie was that I was expecting an awesome battle between humans and machines, which just never happened. I wanted just ONE scene in the movie to be worthy of pushing this movie to the next level. And it just didn't happen, unfortunately. If you want to watch a movie where Christian Bale walks around pretending hes a badass and doing that growl/whisper/yell voice which happens to be the only voice he is capable of acting in, then go see this movie. But otherwise, save your money. The economy is too bad to throw away ten dollars for this movie, throw it in your gas tank.

I give it a two out of five.

It may have been a three out of five if there were able to incorporate this into it though:


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Quick thoughts

The season finale of 24 on FOX this past week was very satisfying, especially after how bad the finale of the previous season of it was. But as usual this season had it all, explosions, car chases, multiple plot twists, and even the return of a former main character that was supposedly dead. It was interesting, however fairly predictable to see Renee become the by the book girl in the beginning of the season only to have Jacks style of just straight up getting things done become her mind set. Predictable, but still pretty cool. The whole open ended ending where you don't know if Jack will die from the disease or not depending on how it goes when the stem cells are extracted from Kim and inserted into Jack, would have been suspenseful if we didn't already know that 24 was signed on for an eighth season. Oops. The only thing that I didn't like about the ending of this season was how Renee handcuffed up Janeane Garofalo(how did she get casted onto 24... does anybody out there like her in this show?) and went in Jack Bauer style to get the necessessary information from the coach in Remember the Titans whos name is not Denzel Washington. One way or another, I'm looking forward to the next season of the show because Jack Bauer is awesome. Jack Bauer would beat The Undertaker at Wrestlemania.


Thank God that David Ortiz finally hit a home run this season. Sure he hasn't done that much since that home run on Wednesday, but having the monkey off of his back must be such a great feeling for Papi. And speaking of home runs for the Sox, whats up Varitek? Guy goes from having a terrible season behind the plate to already hitting eight tall jacks this season. Steroids anyone? I sure hope not, but I would not be surprised somewhere down the road. Whatever, they all do it now a days, which is disappointing. But great job Sox, taking care of and sweeping the Blue Jays this week!


Big week for the UFC. They release their most awaited video game ever in UFC Undisputed 2009 and have a pay-per-view event this weekend. I picked up the game this week, opting to buy the PS3 version over the XBox 360 version, in a decision that is trying to make me use the PS3 more because I've had it for close to a year and it is the second game I own for the system. I will write a review in about a week because I need to get more use out of the game to write a good review, but so far it is really fun to play.

Evans knocking out the Huntington Beach Bad Boy

As for the PPV, the two main fights this weekend are Matt Serra vs. Matt Hughes and Rashad Evans vs. Lyoto Machida. I am going to be pulling for Huges and Evans. The Hughes vs. Serra fight should be awesome because these two guys just absolutely hate one another. Unfortunately, Hughes career has seen better days, but in his prime he is a top 10 Light Heavyweight UFC fighter of all time. People like Serra because he was big in the season that he won of The Ultimate Fighter. I still like to think in my mind that he did not win that season and that Shonie Carter won because he was the reason that that season was awesome. The Evans vs. Machida fight should be interesting. Anytime you have a challenger that has an undefeated record it can be pretty exciting. I have never seen Machida fight though, and from what has been written about him says that he is a boring fighter due to his style of Karate. But I am looking forward to this fight because I don't think I've ever seen a guy fighting straight up Karate style in the octagon. And you know that if Evans gets a window he will land a strike for the ages.


Anywho, I hope everyone has a safe and fun Memorial Day Weekend. I know I will. As mentioned, I will be watching the PPV for UFC 98 and will be attending the NCAA College Lacrosse National Championship game on Monday. But amidst all this great sporting events, it is important to remember what this day is all about: Thank you to every single solider who has ever served for the Stars and Stripes. We salute you.



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Oh well

For the first time in the history of the Boston Celtics, they lost a playoff series while leading 3-2. It was bound to happen eventually, right? One way or another it is definitely frustrating. As if last years playoffs wern't stressful enough having the first two rounds go to game 7, while the Cav's took the C's to game 6, and the Lakers took the C's to game 6... Only for the C's to go to two game 7's in this years playoffs. So stressful as a fan, however this post-season was pretty stressful too.

As the last couple days of the season winded down, the C's kept saying that Kevin Garnett would be back for the last couple games of the season, then we were told he would be there for the last game of the season, then we were told he would be there for the playoffs, then we were told that maybe in the late rounds of the playoffs, then it was confirmed that we wouldn't see him until next year. It's no secret that not having KG in the line up takes a very important cog out of the machine that is the Celtics.

Possession after possession, watching this years playoffs compared to last seasons were so tense. Wondering if Perkins, Powe, Scal and Big Baby could fill the big shoes that KG left out there (note how I left Mikki Moore out of this), and then only to have Powe tear his ACL immediately in the playoffs. Great. But Perk played great, and Big Baby shined when he needed to shine, same with Scal. Seeing Big Baby play well was promising for next season, however not having KG out there really hurt us, especially on defense. But on the same wavelength of not having KG, not being able to re-sign James Posey really showed its true colors last night. Sure Rondo played out of his mind this post season, but Posey was a big peice of the championship equation. Not to sound overly pesimistic, but going into this postseason, it was pretty easy to realize that this wasn't the year for the Celtics. At least we don't have to watch them get killed by the Cav's.


Oh well.

Rough Game 7's for both the C's and the B's.

Now it is time to fully focus on the Red Sox, I 'spose.

I just hope that when it was all said and done, that the Celtics wern't out partying the night before game 7 with McLovin. Since when did he become the #1 Celtics Fan?

(Peirce, Perk and Pruitt with McLovin)

And while we're on the subject of Celtic Fans... why was Boston's own WWE Superstar John Cena sitting at game 6 of the Magic vs. Celtics series wearing this:

I'm disappointed in you, Mr. Cena

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Streak for the Cash: A Day for the Ages

ESPN.com has a game on it called "Streak for the Cash." I've been playing it for about three months or so now, and its great. I don't like to gamble at all, I can find better ways to spend my money. But streak for the cash is pretty much like gambling without the money, and as lame as that actually sounds, I like it a lot and it can be pretty exciting. What it is, is a set of about 12-15 games per day where you choose between two options, and try to successfully pick a series of correct picks. It sounds relatively easy, however it can be pretty tricky. There are all sorts of games to choose from and it is not just pick the winner, there are times where there are options of what I like to call "gimmick picks" such as:

MLB, Red Sox at Mariners, Which side will record a higher total? Jon Lester Strikeouts, or Seattle Mariners hits off of Lester

-or-

NCAA Women's Softball, San Diego State at Arizona State, how many Total Runs will be scored? 9 Runs or fewer, or 10 Runs or more.

These are the games that really make streak for the cash interesting, because you're not picking the outcome of the game, you're picking on basically a game within the game. Now, what is really cool about streak for the cash, is that you can pick multiple games in one day, however you have to do it chronologically and you cannot pick the next game until the game you've picked is over, so thats where a lot of strategy comes in to play. It is possible, but very rare, to get four correct picks in on one day, and thats what happened to me yesterday.

I was riding a one game winning streak going into yesterday after successfully picking the aforementioned Softball game correctly (having picked "9 or fewer" and 5 runs plating during the game) so things were already good. All the games for Friday were done and it allows you to pick the next days games when that occurs, so looking at the first game on the list was:

8:53 AM - PGA Texas Open 3rd Rnd (San Antonio): Which player will card a LOWER FRONT 9 SCORE? (9 holes): Jonathan Kaye or Charlie Wi.

Now, I tend to stay away from things like golf, soccer, cricket (yes, there are times where there are cricket games on this) and sports that I don't know anything about or whatever when I have a decent streak going, but when I have only a streak of one I go for it because its not that big of a deal when its over, and seeing that the next pick was a UEFA soccer game starting at 10:00 am, which is something I know absolutely nothing about, I went for Jonathan Kaye, and he shot a 31 while Wi shot a 32. Streak is at 2.

(Molly Qerim tells you what she will be picking today)

The next game on the dockett that I went for was:

1:05 PM - Who will WIN this matchup? Astros (Oswalt) at Cubs (Wells).

Cubs have been playing well, Oswalt has not been playing well. I go with the Cubbies. They win 5-4. Streak is at 3, 2 correct picks on the day.

Then went back to the list and went after the matchup of the day:

6:15 PM - 134th Preakness Stakes: Where will Rachel Alexandra finish? First or second, or Third or worse.

Now I don't know anything about horse racing, which would mean that this would be something where I would stay away from however every analist in the world took Rachel Alexandra to win the race, so I went for it and picked 'First or second.' Also what made this pick appealing, was that the race takes approx 2 minutes to run, so picking this game meant that I could easily choose a game 10 minutes after the race when the site updated. Rachel Alexandra holds off Mine That Bird and wins the Preakness. Streak is at 4, 3 correct picks on the day.

Knowing I would be going out last night, and due to the times that the games that were left on the day to start, I knew I would only have one game left to pick on the evening, and being on such a hotstreak on the day I had to pick another game. My options were three straight up MLB games, a MLS game, and a gimmock MLB game. I wanted to stay away from the gimmock game (which was which team will win by more runs: Cincy who was playing at San Diego, or the Red Sox who were playing at Seattle) and i definitely wanted to stay way from the MLS game, and what ended up catching my eye was:

7:05 PM - Who will WIN this matchup? (Game TWO of doubleheader): Phillies (Carpenter) @ Nationals (Cabrera).

The Natinals are terrible this year. I didn't even check to see who won game 1 of the doubleheader (turns out it was the Phillies winning 8-5) and went with this no brainer and choose the Phillies. They win 7-5, Streak at 5, 4 correct picks on the day.

It was a day like that which made me wonder if I should actually start to gamble because I had such a good go at it, but then just like that, it was all gone. Before I went to bed last night I checked out the docket for today's games and picked the 8:30 AM game of:

PGA Texas Open (San Antonio): Who will have the LOWER TOTAL SCORE THROUGH THREE COMPLETED ROUNDS? Paul Goydos, or Justin Leonard.

I went with Leonard, and Goydos beat him by one stroke. I probably should have stayed away from it, due to the fact that a streak of 5 is my personal best, but the itch for getting a big streak was there and I went for it. It put me back on Earth and made me remeber why I don't actually gamble. Streak for the Cash keeps track of your overall record, and I'm 28-27-0 as of this pick. Yup, I wouldn't be raking in the cash. Only cash I'll be raking in is if I go on a mircale streak with this, and that likely won't happen.

Oh well, its fun either way. Lets just hope that Torquay United beats Cambridge United and I'll be right back in it...

(also, what's nice is if you want you can watch as Molly Qirem makes her daily video of what she is picking, and I will boldly say that she is one of the most underrated sportscasters out there, sure she isnt Erin Andrews hot, but Qerim is as velouptious as they come.)

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How To Ruin What Could Have Been A Great TV Show

As mentioned in the Star Trek post, I was a big fan of X-Men when I was younger. People with powers was cool to me. Cyclops shooting that red ray out of his eye, Gambit being able to throw inflamed playing cards, Storm controlling the weather and on and on and on. I turned to the show Heroes this past winter because of the show being available to be watched instantaneously with Netflix(which I stream to my Xbox 360 and is awesome by the way) and figured I'd enjoy it due to how it has a lot of similarities with X-Men.

My initial thoughts on Heroes were that it was a great TV show. Looking back, this was partially because of the fact that it was a new show and the first several episodes were about watching not only the life of these characters and learning about them, but watching them learn about their abilities and how to use them. It was really cool to see all the characters come together and follow the plot that Issac Mendez had painted, as he could see the future through the pictures he painted, and watching Sylar gain powers from other people with abilities. However, I did say at the end of season one that I was a little disappointed with the ending because I was waiting for there to be an epic fight where all the guys would be using their powers and things would be exploding and all sorts of entertaining stuff... but it didn't happen.

From there it all went downhill, however it went down gradually. But it wasn't until this season where I started asking myself "Why am I still watching this show?" Nathan Petrelli was a terrible bad guy. We watched the real bad guy drive around with some kid across the country in a station wagon for far too many episodes only to have a meaningless encounter with his father, watch Hiro and Ando bicker back and fourth like they're married, watch Daphne die withouth much of a fight by Matt Parkman and in the meantime watch Parkman get back with his ugly ex-wife, see that Denko guy go from the good guy to the bad guy like 10 times in as many episodes, and now that I actually started to catch back onto the Nathan Petrelli character they killed him off only to now have Sylar be shapeshifted into the form of Nathan and he mentally thinks that he is him? Come on, now even for a show that features people with superpowers, even that is a stretch. One way or another this show had a lot of potential, but the writers let it get away from them and everything just got way too out of control, it even got to a point where the writers neglected to remember about powers that Sylar had obtained (remember the super-sonic hearing that he had? Also how he had the human lie detector ability? What ever happened to those?).

Also, why did they get rid of Kristen Bell? She is a smokin hottie and the show was only better with her on it. Her character was actually kid of cool, too. And personally I think Hayden Panettiere is a lot hotter than people give her credit for, but apparently people in Hollywood actually dislike her, or so i've read(if anything click that past link for a hilarious picture of her looking like she might eat a baby). One way or another the last thing a show that is going downhill needs is to get rid of the eye candy. They even got rid of the THIRD(which was another rediculious part of the show) character that Ali Later played, and she added to that eye candy.

But when everything was said it done, it is all for not. There is no chance I will continue to watch Heroes when the new season comes out next year. I've been meaning to get into Rescue Me and dropping this show opens up a great opportunity to start it. One of the main taglines of heroes was "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World." Well, my advice to you is "Save your time, go watch something else."

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BIG NIGHT FOR BOSTON, LETS GET IT DONE GUYS!!!

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Summer Movies

I rarely get excited for movies. However, I love movies. I'd say at MOST per year I am really excited about 5 movies, especially when the cost of a movie ticket is close to $10 dollars. This summer alone so far, I'm excited for at least 4. Star Trek, X-Men: Wolverine, Transformers 2, and Terminator Salvation. After hearing the reviews for X-Men, I'll wait for the DVD from Netflix. Normally I would not be interested in that movie, but I loved X-Men as a child. I've heard that its just god awful though, so I'll just wait. I've been waiting for Transformers 2 for a while. Transformers 1 was to me a great movie. Sure Shia LaBeouf ruins every movie hes ever in because he is just a terrible actor, but honestly the character he plays, Sam Witwicky, would be butchered by any person who tried to play that role. Also, I realize that it wasn't the best movie ever, however it was just a bad ass Michael Bay movie where things blow up. Like X-Men, I loved Transformers as a child. Bumblebee was my favorite, and I'm not embarrased to admit it. And plus... Megan Fox anyone?!?! Sure I don't expect Transformers 2 to have a great plot and such, but I look for it to be entertaining... and plus, Megan Fox. Terminator Salvation should be great too. Personally, I am not a big fan of Christain Bale in the first place, and I think he is a bad Batman. However, Terminator 1 is such a great movie, and the sequels got worse and worse, however they were not terrible. But this is what we wanted to see: The war... and now its here. Tack on the fact that special effects now a days are absolutely insane and that should be factored into why this will likely be the best movie of the summer. I cannot wait for it. On a different wave length, I took an interest into the movie Star Trek. I have zero interest in the television show, and pretty much zero interest about anything that has to do with all things Star Trek in the first place, however the movie looked bad ass, and quite frankly, it was.

I saw Star Trek last weekend with my beautiful girlfriend. Sure that may seem odd, however she actually is a Star Trek fan, based off of the fact that her dad was a big fan of the series and it was just something that dended to be watched in her house. She isn't die hard, however she enjoys it. So anyways, I went into the movie without knowing anything about Star Trek except the gang sign that all the Trekkies throw up at one another. The movie did a good job catering to the fan and to the non-fan of the series. I thought the movie was very well done and very well put together, and most importantly it was not hard to follow. Sure as the movie progressed I had a few minor questions but after all was said and done everything was answered. I knew that the Star Trek world is pretty elaborate and honestly expected the movie to be a bit more elaborate that it was, and so I tried to focus pretty hard on details like the names, the planets, the species, and some other stuff, however honestly you don't have to which is really nice. After exiting the theater, I was talking with my girlfriend about how she liked it and she felt the same way. She loved the movie, and she said that the movie was full of a bunch of nostalgic quotes and symbolism that would go over the head of a non-fan like myself, but make a fan smile from ear to ear. This movie was very good, and I give it a 4 out of 5.

Stay tuned throughout the summer for my reviews on Transformers 2, Terminator Salvation, and probably more like Angels and Demons(the girlfriend really wants to see that one).

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On a side note, WAY TO GO BOSTON. Another day where the Celtics, Bruins and Red Sox all play, another day where they all win. The biggest win of them by far being the B's as they were able to escape elimination against Carolina last night, followed by the big come from behind win by the C's to take control of the series and lead 3-2. Also any win on the West Coast for the Sox is a big win, they tend to play pretty poorly in the pacific time zone. Lets keep up the good work, gentlemen.

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and last but not least...WTF?

Ok Wow

Ok, so I know I just made a post like an hour or two ago, but I'm pretty heated right now. I just saw footage of the play that got a FINE, and not a suspension on a punch to Aaron Ward by Scott Walker.

You make the call, which one deserves a one game suspension?



or



It's pretty clear to me that the punch that Ward took off of the face is the one that is worse. Yet, somehow the NHL downgrades the worse of the two hits into a fine, which is terrible.

You blew this one, NHL... badly. Its looking like there is a chance that Ward may miss a game because he is injured due to a fractured face, yet the guy who threw the punch is not going to miss the game. That makes sense.

Mothers Day for the Ages

Big Baby. What more can I say really? The Celtics this post-season needed people to step up in the place of Kevin Garnett, and they have. Rondo is playing out of his mind, Big Baby is hitting big shots and making key plays, even Scal is getting in on the action and making big plays. Great TEAM victory for the Celtics last night. It looks like all you have to do to take the Magic out of their rythem is to make Dwight Howard actually take jumpshots, of which he is incapable of doing. It is kind of amazing how good someone can be in that level of basketball, and still not be able to hit jumpshots. Layups and dunking is all hes capable of doing offensively. And with Big Baby being able to hit thrilling shots like he did to win game four last night, Howard has to play outside of the paint, making the lane open for the Celtics taking.

Also, Big Baby, props for pushing over little kids... amazing haha.










On to the Bruins. Thank god they decided to show a little passion and actually play a solid 60 minutes of puck last night. Not really too much to mention here other than the fact that its looking like even though the Hurricanes have a 3-2 lead going back to Carolina that they are losing their heads. Like Jussi Jokinen slashing the achilles of Chara last night while the puck was already out of the zone and the refs clearly were not paying attention and the schenanigans that went on to Aaron Ward at the very end of the game. Honestly, I didn't even see what happened to Ward because that game was in the books and I changed over to the C's game. Great W for the Bruins, and hopefully we see the NHL take action on some of this crap that the 'canes are doing.


And last but not least, the Sox. Big W. Sure it was pretty much kind of another game, but the Ray's have had our number as of late and quite frankly it was a big win. Any division win is big when you play in the toughest division in baseball like the Sox do. But moving beyond, my question to the people is why are so many people concerned that Papi hasn't hit any home runs this season? Yeah, I'd obviously like it if he had too, however hes hitting. I'll take hits in any form, and just getting on base for now is working. He scored the game winning run last night by hitting a double in the bottom of the 8th and having Jason Bay hit a double of his own in the next at bat and knocking Papi across. The home runs will come, lets just be happy that hes getting on base. And speaking of Jason Bay, why haven't we re-signed him? Left and right, he is making big plays for the Sox this year and people arn't really talking too much about him. I don't get it, this is the guy who replaced Manny in left and he is doing just as good, if not better, and people don't seem to grateful. John Henry, stop writing e-mails to girls 30 years younger about how you love them and please show Mr. Bay some green.

Also, when was the last time Papelbon has had a dominating performance? I may be alone on this one, but he is starting to scare me on the mound. He is still one of the best, however Cinco Ocho has not dominated like he once has, maybe he just needs to come into mid-season form, but personally I'm not 100% confident in him anymore.

Also a big shout out to my mens league softball team, Sweeney and O'Connell for getting our first ever team victory this past Friday night. Unfortunately I could not be there as I was on my way to Long Island to see my girlfriend and had to miss the game(see how much I care about you baby?). We are now 1-2 and on our way to a winning streak... I can feel it...

and finally check out this song by my buddy. He has been a friend of mine since kindergarden and he is doing his best to get his name out there... and how better to do it than throw his single on my blog to all seven of you out there that read it! Check it out and let me know what you think.


Thats it for now, check the blog out again later in the week for EAFL updates, my Star Trek review and hype for the upcoming summer movies (mainly Terminator and Transformers), ESPN's Streak for the Cash, and more sports talk!

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Whole Buncha Stuff

Tough loss for the Celtics last night. Obviously the second I make a live post during a game saying how they're surging and coming back they go stone cold and do nothing. Sure they made a great comeback at the end of the night. Personally, I hate moral victories, but it definitely was encouraging to see them storm back strong at the end of the night. Rajon Rondo disappointed after he played so great against the Bulls. He had a couple of key turnovers that ultimately helped propel the Magic to the win. Brian Scalabrine played really well again, he has impressed me in his return hitting several key shots and even doing a pretty damn good job on defense. Covering Lewis, Turkoglu, and Howard proved to be tough and the Celtics did not do that bad of a job with it. However, a big reason we were in that game towards the end was the lack of basketball IQ by the Magic. They are a team that lives by the three, and thats fine, however when you have a 20 point lead late in the second quarter you have to have to somewhat slow the pace of the game down. They launched three after three with 18 seconds left on the shot clock. Even if you hit them, it gives the other team ample time to be able to get shots of their own and creep back, had the Magic managed the time in that game better the Celtics don't end the game down 5, but rather down 15.

Should be interesting to see how game two goes tomorrow night, to see if the Magic learned from their mistakes and will see if they actually manage the time a bit better. I am all about still pushing hard and going strong at the end of games, however this is the playoffs and taking away homecourt advantage is huge, you have to slow things down at times.

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What the hell is going on in Dallas? Who thought that it would be a good idea to have a rookie mini-camp inside of a tent during a storm that had 64 mph winds?! Honestly did they think it would be safe? Why not just make up that day later in the summer... it's May! They have plenty of opportunity to make up that one practice. And why the hell is someone running around in there with a video camera rather than actually helping people get out? I was so bothered when I saw this story. A man is now paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life because of this. Unacceptable.


last but not least... umm.... what?

Marbury?!?!

[the game is on while i'm typing this]

I do not like gambling much at all. But if someone was to bet me that Stephon Marbury would spark the Celtics in the first game in the second round of the playoffs I'd have bet against you hard.

GO CELTICS!!!

A Series to Remember

Wow, what a series. Seven collective overtimes, one double overtime game and one triple overtime game. Who knew Rajon Rondo could actually step up and lead the team as well as he has been? I remember watching Rondo as a rookie and wondering if this kid would actually be good. His rookie season he literally ran around the court trying to do everything. It was literally like watching a puppy chasing a ball around the court. He always went balls to the wall, which is actually pretty rare now a days, but it is just nice to see that he has finally learned how to settle down and control the flow of the game. Rondo is a big reason the Celtics are still alive.

And so is Brian Scalabrine. This guy should not even be on the court due to his double concussion earlier in the season. People don't realize how bad a double concussion is, I honestly think he should retire at the end of the year for health reasons. Sure he was never collecting gigantic checks, however the guy should be set for life with money and he has his championship ring with last years team. But Scal came up huge this series. It was devostating enough to not have KG, but when Leon Powe went down with a torn ACL the big men on the Celtics were reduced to Perk, Big Baby, Mikki Moore and Scal. Nobody in Boston wants to see Moore out there, but Perk and Baby need rest and if they get into foul trouble Moore needs to come in. Scal has done great and last night he hit a couple of huge threes which really electrified the crowd and brought the Celtics back into the game. And talking about threes...

Eddie House. He is one of the most underrated players in the league. Whenever the Celtics need a big three pointer, Eddie nails it. I'd love to see what he does at practices. I am convinced that he just launches threes. Last night I was talking with a friend and we determined that he must jog constantly around the three point line with music playing and as soon as it stops he just launches up a three, musical chairs style. He went 4-4 from three last night and was huge. Also, what was with that technical foul on House? For taunting the bench? I'm sorry, but that is a load of garbage. The three was taken in front of the Bulls bench and I guarentee you that every player that was on the bench was yelling things at him while he shot it, so HE gets T'ed up for yelling back after successfully making the shot? Thats just stupid.

So now its Celtics vs. Magic, and there is a little bit of concern floating around Boston. Who is going to cover Dwight Howard? Honestly, I don't know, it might have to be Peirce. One way or another, it will be very interesting.

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In other news, the Washington Nationals had two players wearing uniforms with the team name spelled wrong in the same game. Really? How does this happen?!



Really?!?! That is just wrong. But none the less, the Bruins are looking to go up 2-0 tonight and take a commanding lead in the Series vs. Carolina. Hopefully they can win again in convincing fashion and take the series by the throat.


And last but not least, four games into EAFL E2 season I am 2-2 with the Arizona Cardinals. As previously mentioned, if I can control the turnovers as far as throwing interceptions I felt I could go far, and so far in the season, in four games here are Kurt Warners stats: 51/74, 830 yards, 8 TD's, 2 INTs. Pretty damn good. However, he appears to have a case of the fumbles because in the two losses this season so far, he has fumbled in each while getting sacked and both fumbles have been recovered and returned for touchdowns. I lost the first game of the season by a score of 21-16 and the second game this season by a score of 37-31 in overtime. Take those fumbles out of the game and well, I could be 4-0. The really frustrating part is in the overtime game the kickoff after the touchdown that was scored off of the Warner fumble, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie fumbled which again was returned for a touchdown. At one point in the 2nd quarter the score was 28-7 and I was able to come back and force overtime. Lost the cointoss, and the rest is history. However, other than the fumbles, I'm doing a good job of protecting the football and that should lead to more victories.