Opinions are like…

When you’re single, it seems that literally everyone wants to give you advice on how to remedy this situation.  The one constant that you’ll hear from both the single and coupled alike is this:

“If you stop looking, that’s when you’ll find someone.”

In other words, if you simply accept your singleness, it will almost immediately end according to these people.  I call bullshit.  This, to me, is like the saying “it’s always in the last place you look.”  Of course it is!  If I’m looking for my cars keys and I find them behind the desk, I’m not going to keep looking for them.  I won’t walk all over my house thinking “I know my keys are in my hand right now, I see them there, I feel them there, but I better be safe and keep looking.”  That’s why everything you find was in the last place you looked.  You found it.  The next time someone says that to you, you have my permission to slap them and call them a dumbass.

Back to the B.S. advice above.  Everyone will tell you that they met their significant other as soon as they simply quit looking for them.  They will say that they simply didn’t care if they were in a relationship or not, and then this wonderful human came along and swept them off their feet.  To me, if you really didn’t care, you would’ve told this person that you weren’t interested in a relationship at the moment, but if they wouldn’t mind hanging out for a month or two, maybe it’ll go somewhere.  But you didn’t say that.  You immediately exchanged numbers or whatever.  So it’s not that you stopped looking, you just told yourself you did and most likely you did that well after you started dating this person.

In other words, I see through your lies.

Another year down…

I don’t usually write (actually I could stop right there) about myself, but I’m feeling introspective lately. My birthday is rapidly approaching and while that’s not a bad thing, the fact is after I turned 21, I stopped caring. It occurred to me that after you turn 21, the only “milestone birthdays” are 30, 40, 50, etc. which really only serve to remind you that you are indeed officially old. That depresses me. Also, I don’t really like calling attention to myself and that’s basically what birthdays do. It’s supposed to be a day where you walk around and say “look at me!” and everyone does. But, like I said, I’m not really comfortable with that. So I’m not a big birthday guy.

Now, a quick confession. I have been single for (gulp!) six years. Yes, there have been a few dates, but really nothing solid or meaningful. I try very hard not to let this get to me, but this seems to be the one aspect of my life that people want to use to define me. Now there are a myriad of other things one could pick. As I’ve stated on here, I’m a radio dork. I’m not yet 30 and am losing my hair. I have a bit of a gut (not fat per say, but a gut none the less…I’m working on getting rid of it). I like to think I’m rather funny. Any of these would be understandable traits to use when characterizing me, but without fail people always go to the single thing first. And they like to point out to me that I’m single, as if I would forget. Anyways, when my last meaningful relationship ended six years ago, it did not end well. She hurt me as deeply as any person ever has, and I readily admit it took quite a while to get over. But I am over it now. Seriously it’s been six years, if I wasn’t that would be pretty sad don’t you think?

So once a friend who was trying to be nice (I think) while chatting about my never-ending singleness asked if I ever miss my ex. I responded with “no, never.” And I don’t.

Except I do.

Lately, as my birthday has drawn closer, I’ve found myself missing her quite a bit. I think I finally know why. For being a rather selfish person, she went out of her way to make me feel special on my birthday. She was notorious for buying me many gifts, most being somewhat expensive. She would use the opportunity to remake my wardrobe of course, but she also would buy things that I would enjoy and were meaningful to me. She did this with very little money, so in truth, while the gifts were nice, the sentiment actually held more meaning to me. But it was more than material. She would cook (or attempt to anyways) for me, and always made sure that we had absolutely mind blowing sex (sorry to be graphic, but you have to admit that really, that’s what we all want on our birthday). Yes, I miss all those things, but I think what I miss more than all of that is just having someone to share the day with. Someone who went way out of her way to make me feel special that day. It was nice.

So now I inch closer to 30 and find myself with questions. Will I meet the fabled “special someone”? Will I ever make the kind of money that would allow me to not have to worry about money anymore? Will I have children someday? Will I ever own the house with the white picket fence and the dogs? Will the Bulls win another NBA title in my lifetime? (I don’t feel particularly good about that one)

I don’t know. But the promise I have made and the gift I’m giving myself this year is that I’m going to stop worrying about it. I’m going to wake up in a few days and I’ll be that much closer to the dreaded 30, but instead of focusing on my impending ticket to the retirement home (yeah, like I’ll be able to retire), I will pause for a moment to remember her and how she made me feel for several years on my birthday. I’ll then resume not thinking about her because she ended up being not very nice.

Where I go from there…well that’s the real fun isn’t it?

Let’s Pretend…

Last week I read a blog post where someone listed his all time NBA draft. If I could find it again, I’d link to it, but I can’t and I spent at least 45 minutes looking for it. His draft was interesting to say the least. Of what I can remember, his top 3 went:

1. Magic Johnson
2. Larry Bird
3. Michael Jordan

Bill Russell wasn’t even in the top 10. It sparked much debate and it made me think about how mine would shake out, so here it goes…

1. Michael Jordan. I’ll admit, I’m biased. I often refer to Jordan as either The Great One or God. But remember this, he is often called the greatest who ever played for a reason. Often overlooked because of his scoring was his superb defense. Oh and there’s the 6 rings which would probably be 8 if he hadn’t retired after the tragic death of his father.

2. Larry Bird. The Basketball Jesus himself. Bird was, like Jordan, hyper competitive. He simply hated to lose and no one, maybe not even Jordan, was as clutch as Bird was.

3. Magic Johnson. In football, if you ask me what position you build around, I’d say Quarterback. In basketball, I’d tell you Point Guard. So of course we don’t have a PG appear on the list until the 3rd spot. That said, Magic saw passing lanes that no one, I mean NO ONE else saw, and why wouldn’t you take a guy who can play literally every spot on the floor as he proved when he played Center after Kareem got hurt.

4. Oscar Robertson. This is where I start to have internal debates. However, the only player to ever AVERAGE a triple-double should be a top 5 pick.

5. “Pistol” Pete Maravich. A guy who should always be in the conversation for “Best Who Ever Played” but he isn’t. The reason why is simple, he was on bad teams before free agency existed. However, go to YouTube and look for the footage of the game against the Knicks when he dropped 68 points. He fouls out and even the Knicks players shake their head because they wanted to see what else he would do.

6. Bill Russell. The debate between Wilt and Russell will be eternal, but to me, you take the guy with more rings.

7. Wilt Chamberlain. You get the only guy to score 100 pts. in a game at the 7 spot, you’ve done alright for yourself.

8. LeBron James. Yes he doesn’t have a ring, but does anyone really think he won’t get one? He’ll win at least one MVP award (probably this year) and he’s just flat out dominant. Next year, he might be higher on this list.

9. Shaq. First of all, the man only needs one name. That’s gotta count for something. Remember, he’s two Nick Anderson free throws away from having 5 rings. In his prime, he was an absolute force of nature.

10. Julius Erving. I originally wrote Charles Barkley here. Then I thought about Jerry West. Then Kobe. Then Cousy, Walton, Stockton, Karl Malone, Isiah, Moses Malone, hell I even gave some thought to Sean Kemp and Gary Payton. My point is I gave this position a lot of though, but ultimately, I went with Dr. J. He was Jordan before Jordan. He flew, he dominated, he had one of the greatest Afro’s I’ve ever seen.

The rest of the draft goes like this…

11. Kobe
12. Barkley
13. Kareem
14. Isiah Thomas
15. Bob Cousy
16. Jerry West
17. Bill Walton
18. Hakeem Olajuwon
19. Scottie Pippen
20. Clyde Drexler
21. Earl Monroe
22. Walt Frazier
23. Willis Reed
24. Patrick Ewing
25. Karl Malone
26. Dwayne Wade (yep, I’m serious)
27. John Stockton
28. Chris Paul
29. George Mikan
30. Deron Williams (that one’s straight bias from me…hey at least I admit it)

There it is. My list for right now. In a week I might call myself stupid and re-do the whole thing.

Feel free to leave your thoughts.

A Simple Plea

I’m going to take a break from the not posting for a moment and get a little deep.  As with everything you read here, this is simply my thoughts and no one else’s.  You may agree, you may disagree and either way, you’re right.  See that’s the beautiful thing about America.  Hell, that’s the beautiful thing about being a person, you’re entitled to your opinion.  You have free will and regardless of what anyone tries to tell you, your opinion is, in it’s own special way, right.  So with that said, here is my plea to whomever wins the election tomorrow.

10 years ago, red and blue states didn’t exist.  10 years ago we didn’t really care if you were a republican or a democrat unless you were REALLY in to politics.  There wasn’t the hate and vitriol.  I beg of you, Mr. President-Elect, take us back there.  I’m tired of friends and family coming close to blows over red and blue lines that don’t even really exist.  I’m tired of the talking heads on TV ranting and raving, shouting simply to be heard, not to make a point.  I beg you, unite us again.

As an aside, this is the thing I’m most disappointed by with this campaign.  I believed that with both McCain and Obama, we had two men who could legitimately accomplish this and then the negativity began and I see at least a few more years of “divided we stand.”  Truly sad.

As for policy, I won’t try to advise you as I’m far too uneducated on things like foreign policy and the economy to help.  However, here’s what I would like to see:

1.  Please fix the economy.  I know it won’t happen in one term and it probably won’t happen in two.  But show me something.  Show me some growth.  Show me that I won’t find myself downsized or pay-frozen, struggling to get by on a tiny salary.  Listen to people like Warren Buffet.  There’s a reason he’s the richest man in the country.  He didn’t invent Microsoft, he just made smart investments.  To quote the CEO of the company I work for, “no company has ever gone under because of too little debt.”  This idea can be applied to the country.  Find a way to get us out.  Find a way to bring back the American dream, so that maybe I can own a house someday.

2.  Put some focus on education again.  No Child Left Behind failed.  Everyone admits it.  As we’ve seen here in Illinois, education is the first thing that gets funding cut in the troubled economic times we live.  This is so sad to me.  I know someone who thought for quite a while that Hawaii and Alaska shared a border because of the inset on the map.  You laugh, but it’s true.  This can’t continue.  Educate children so that someday they can grow up and fix the mess we’ve made of things over the last 8 to 10 years.  We won’t survive without them.  They must know where we came from, the good, bad, and ugly of it all.  They must know how to read, write, add, subtract, and so much more.  Let’s make sure that Jay Leno’s “Jaywalking” bits die because he can’t find enough stupid people anymore.

3.  Get us out of Iraq.  It’s time.  If they can’t survive without us by now, they’ll never be able to.  I believe that they can.  Maybe I’m wrong, but we need to find out.

4.  Find alternative fuel sources.  To me, this is pretty simple.  We know how to tap in to solar and wind energy.  Everyday, the wind blows and the sun shines.  Get companies to adopt this and make it widely available.  We must end our dependence on foreign oil NOW.  I believe we must end our dependency on oil in general.  Why not?  It’s better for the environment, and it’s better on our wallet if we can drop gas down to where it once was (I’m talking under a dollar).  Don’t pay it lip service, do it.

5.  I’ve heard so much about change and hope.  Don’t allow these words to become punchlines and campaign rederic.  Become the hope and change you promised to be.  Lead us.  Show us how it can be if we work together.  Show the world that America is still the shining city on a hill that it was, and I still believe, has always been.  Be tolerant when you must, be firm when you must, compromise when you must, but lead us.  Don’t hide behind congress.  Don’t tell me they won’t cooperate with you.  Make them.  Make them believe the way we believe in you.  When it gets hard, and it will, raise your game.  Be like the great men of the past who dug in and stuck to their convictions when times were tough.  If you do, it can work out in the end.  Show us how great we can be again.

That is my plea to you.  We will never fully trust politicians, but show us that our faith isn’t always misguided.  My plea is a simple one…

Lead.

Stupid Thy Name Is Bud

Hurricane Ike has apparently come and gone and while it didn’t cause nearly the destruction that Katrina did, Houston’s still a mess.  It caused plenty of havoc with pro sports.  The NFL had to some schedule adjusting for the Houston Texans and Major League Baseball postponed two Cubs-Astros games.  Now, the folks down in Houston said that Ike didn’t do any damage to Minute Maid Park (where the Astros play) so in theory, they could’ve played the postponed games there like they were originally supposed to.  They’re not, and I understand that.  Frankly it’s the right call.  But that’s the only right call MLB made here.

Yesterday it was announced that the games would be played at a neutral site…in Milwaukee.  Upon seeing that on ESPN, my brother-in-law said “That’s hardly a neutral site.”  Milwaukee is a pretty short drive from Chicago and when the Cubs play there, they always have a ton of fans show up.  It’s a home game for the Cubs.  End of story.  You want to play it at a neutral site, that’s awesome, but play it at an actual NEUTRAL site.  Play at Seattle, New York, Boston, Miami, Tampa, Washington D.C., Baltimore, Kansas City, hell pick one.  Just don’t pick a ballpark that’s a short drive away from either team’s home park.  But of course, Bud Selig did.  Why Milwaukee?  Well, when Selig became the interim commissioner, he was the majority owner of the Milwaukee Brewers.  His daughter ran the team until 2004 when the Selig group finally sold the team.  I’m fine with people being “homers,” but c’mon.  But hey, it’s OK because it’s not like the playoffs could be on the line…oh wait they totally are since the Astros are chasing the wild card birth.

If the Astros lose both games (they lost one tonight) they have a very, very legitimate gripe.

College Football officially makes me happy

Seriously.  I love it.  Here’s what we learned after Day 1:

Michigan…probably not going to be a good year for you.  New coach, new offense, no quarterback to speak of, defense looked so-so against Utah.  Not a good sign.

Ohio State…scary good.  They will be #1 at some point, although we’ll learn a lot about them when they play USC in 2 weeks.  Still though, great offense, great defense, but will still probably manage to choke in the BCS title game.  Sorry, it’s true.

USC…also scary good.  USC/OSU could be your national title game and it would be incredibly entertaining.  Either way, when they play in 2 weeks, it’s gonna be a great game to watch.

Georgia…will also be in the hunt, but something about them today didn’t look quite right to me.  Don’t know what it is, maybe they gave up too many points, I don’t know, but I don’t really see them holding on to the #1 spot for the whole season, and I’m not sure they make the title game.  Then again, stranger things…

People say the Big 10 is down, and during the Illinois-Missouri game they said “kind of a rough day for the Big 10.”  Yeah, about that…

Wisconsin 38, Akron 10

Penn St. 66, Coastal Carolina 10

Ohio St. 43, Youngstown St. 0

Northwestern 30, Syracuse 10

Indiana 31, Western Kentucky 13

Iowa 46, Maine 3

Michigan 23, Utah 25

Minnesota 31, Northern Illinois 27

Cal 38, Michigan St. 31

Missouri 52, Illinois 42

11 teams, 3 lost.  Yeah, definitely a bad day.  Morons

Of course I have to talk about my Illini.  The good news:

Juice Williams: 26-41, 458 yds 5 TD, 1 INT according to the Yahoo box score.  I think it’s actually 2 INT which is crap because the 2nd pick was in Dufrene’s hands and then Witherspoon, the Missouri linebacker just ripped it out of there so it should be a fumble.  I hate that about football.  In baseball they have errors so if a defender botches a ball and it leads to a run it doesn’t count against the pitcher’s ERA since it wasn’t his fault.  Same thing should apply if a quarterback hits his receiver in the hands, said receiver doesn’t catch the ball, and it’s picked off by a defender.  That really wasn’t the QB’s fault.  I digress…

The bad news:  the Illinois defense allowed 568 yards.  Look, I know Mizzou’s a great team.  I know they’re a great offense, but you give up that many yards, you won’t win.  Like at all.  They have to get better.  I saw a lot of sloppy tackling and that must change.

Overall though, I liked what I saw from Illinois on the offensive side of the ball, so that’s good.

And best of all, IT’S FOOTBALL SEASON!

One Man’s List

Obviously this weekend, all over the country, it’s all about The Dark Knight.  Many call it the best comic book movie ever.  While it is incredibly good, I won’t go that far (see below).  Like I said in my quasi-review, I love the movie, but there’s something that holds me back from rating it the greatest ever.  So without further ado…here’s my top 10 list:

1.  Batman Begins.  It’s simply brilliant.  It tells the story of how Bruce Wayne became Batman 100% accurately and has a stunningly great cast.  It shows how this is a man who is constantly racked with guilt, fear, and anger and how he’ll never truly be whole.  LOVE IT.

2.  Iron Man.  Certainly the best of the Marvel films, and again, it’s simply brilliant.  Robert Downey, Jr. owned the role of Tony Stark.  Again, it tells his back story accurately and the cast is just stunning.  Like with Batman Begins, it’s directed by a person who understands the character and what the movie needed to be.  Fantastic film.  Close second, and I mean CLOSE.

3.  The Dark Knight.  Extremely good, especially the way they handled the Joker.  Brilliant cast, great writing, but like I said, there’s just something about that holds me back from naming it better than it’s predecessor.  I might change my tune after a few months go by and the DVD comes out.  We’ll see.

4.  Superman the movie.  The original starring Christopher Reeve.  It’s the part he was born to play.  He nailed the character like no other actors has ever done.  He changed his voice, mannerisms, and body language when he switched between Clark Kent and Superman.  What most people don’t understand is that the glasses aren’t the only thing hiding his identity, he creates an entirely different person when he’s Clark.  On top of that, the movie was made in 1976 and as it promised, it made you believe a man could fly.  For 1976, the special effects are great and I think the movie still holds up aside from the fashion and old cars.  My only complaint is that Lex Luthor is essentially the comic relief.  He’s supposed to be cold, cunning, power obsessed, and evil.  They just didn’t write the character correctly.  Other than that, great flick.

5.  Batman.  From 1989 starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson.  Keaton was great as Batman and Jack was amazing as the Joker.  It’s a great movie but I don’t like how they portrayed Commissioner Gordon and I hated Robert Wuhl’s character.  I don’t know where that reporter came from and I don’t know why they picked Wuhl who tends to be annoying at best.  Also Prince doing the soundtrack.  I like Prince, but he and Batman don’t really go together.  Other than that, they did a great job.

6.  X-Men.  I actually don’t know which I like better between all three movies, so I’ll just go with the original for the first appearance on the list.  Good casting, good story, great special effects.  I didn’t like some of the writing (”you know what happens to a toad that’s hit by lighting?  The same as everything else”…that’s just awful), the way they underused Sabertooth, and Halle Berry’s attempt an African accent.

7.  X-2.  Like I said, I like the three pretty equally, so they should probably all be grouped together on the list.  Liked what they did here with Nightcrawler and the first appearance of Colossus.  Lady Deathstrike was a nice touch too.

8.  X-Men The Last Stand.  Or X-Men 3 if you prefer.  A lot of people pan this movie, but I liked it.  Some shocking deaths, Kelsey Grammar as Beast was great and they had a good old fashioned knock down, drag out fight at the end of the movie.  I have few complaints.

9.  Daredevil.  Another movie that a lot of people pan, but I think was really well done.  Jennifer Garner’s a little stiff in it in terms of her performance, but I liked Affleck as Matt Murdock/Daredevil.  Some good casting and a story that was basically taken word for word, scene for scene from one of the comic book’s story arcs.  I think people really underrate it.

10.  The Punisher.  I mean the one starring Thomas Jane.  I liked the movie a lot because they did a nice job of making it pretty gritty.  I really like the inclusion of the Russian (even if it is brief).  Better movie than people think.

Yes, I left the Spider Man movies off.  I hate them.  With the exception of the villains in the first and second movies, they’re complete wastes.  3 was awful.  I haven’t seen the newest Hulk movie, mostly because the first one was so terrible I’m afraid of this one.  I left Superman 2 off because the one that most of us have seen gets a little too weird for me at times.  The giant celephane “S” logo that he throws at the Kryptonian criminals?  When Zod and his band of thugs shoot some weird ray out of their fingers?  WTF?  The Richard Donner cut is much better I think, but still a little bit on the odd side for me.  Superman Returns really disappointed me.

So that’s my list.  I might revisit it in a few months or maybe I’ll wait for Iron Man 2, Captain America, Thor, The Avengers, and Watchmen.  After those movies the list could be completely different.  We’ll see.

The Dark Knight

Saw it twice this weekend and here’s what I think…

Go see it.  Go see it now.  It’s fantastic.  Heath Ledger is simply amazing as the Joker.  I’m not even sure I know the words to describe how good he is.  I read an article talking about how even though he’s spectacular, they probably won’t give him the Oscar because the academy doesn’t usually give out Oscars posthumously.  I don’t care, give it to him and give it to him now.

Now, that said, I do love this movie and I can’t wait for the DVD so I can spend a weekend watching it again, but I don’t think it’s the best superhero/comic book movie of all time like so many people seem to think.  I can’t explain it, but there’s something about the movie that keeps me from thinking it’s better than Batman Begins (my current pic for best superhero/comic movie of all time) and Iron Man (my #2 and it’s REALLY close between those two).  I was talking about that with a friend of mine after we saw the movie Friday night and he agreed.  Batman Begins and Iron Man blew me away.  After watching those movies, my jaw was on the floor and I walked out knowing I had experienced something really big.  I walked out of The Dark Knight totally entertained, but not completely blown away.  I don’t know why either.  Maybe it’s because of how much hype went in to it, maybe it’s because of the way they did Two-Face (I don’t want to give anything away, but if you’re a big fan of the character like I am, you might feel a little bit of disappointment….just a little).  I don’t know.  I do know this, I love how they made several references to “The Long Halloween” which is one of my favorite Batman stories ever.  I love Christian Bale as Batman, in fact, instead of listing the entire cast, let’s just say I love the cast.  Their extremely good, but still no one stands out more than Heath Ledger.  See the movie if for no other reason than him.  But see it anyways cause the movie’s really good.

My final rating: 4.99999999999999999999 stars.  Add a couple more 9’s, what the heck.

Oh Brett, Why Must You Tease Us So?

I’m a fan of Brett Favre.

There, I said it.  I’m a Bears fan and I like Brett Favre.  If he had played for any other team besides the Packers, I would argue until I’m blue in the face that the debate for greatest quarterback ever consists of Joe Montana, Johnny Unitas, and Brett Favre.  That’s it, that’s the list.  But he did play for the Packers and so I never allowed myself to root for him.  I respected him, but I always wanted him to fail in the end because he was a Packer and I hate the Packers.

Finally, he gave me my wish and retired.  I could finally allow myself to embrace my forbidden respect/love for Favre and move on with my life…or so I thought.

As you probably know, Brett now says he wants to play again.  Not terribly shocking.  Most athletes find it really difficult to let go that first year of retirement.  Their body gets amped up like it has done for the last however many years they played their sport and it’s really hard to turn it off.  But that’s not what’s going on here, at least not according to Brett.  Oh no, Brett has “the itch” again and he wants to play, but he doesn’t want to play for the Packers.  He says he doesn’t “feel welcome” so he asked for his release.  As Brett must surely know, it won’t happen.  The Packers cannot, I repeat CANNOT, release a Hall of Fame QB that was the face of their franchise for like 17 years or something.  It’s a horrible P.R. move for the team.  They can trade him, but that doesn’t look great either and they might not get back the value he’s worth.  So how do we find our way out of this?

Simple.  Brett stays retired.  The truth is, that’s what he should do anyways.  He walked away for a reason and whatever that reason was, I assume it’s still there.  If he retired because he “didn’t feel welcome” then he should have known that’s not a valid reason to retire.  Simply put, Brett is now only doing damage to his legacy.  People are damn tired of hearing about Brett and will he/won’t he play again and if he does end up getting his wish of either being traded or released, he’ll join the ranks of Joe Montana, Johnny Unitas, and Joe Namath who finished their careers with Kansas City, San Diego, and the L.A. Rams respectively (did you know that by the way?).  Do you really want to see Favre wearing a Tampa Bay jersey, or a Minnesota jersey, or a Baltimore jersey, or a Dolphins jersey?  Of course not.  The final image most of us have now of Michael Jordan is the shot he made to win the sixth and final championship for the Bulls.  We either block out or ignore the Washington days because it really didn’t do anything to enhance his legend and we don’t want to think about Jordan basically failing because Washington wasn’t exactly good while he played for them.  We do the same when we block out those other quarterbacks I listed and the jerseys they actually retired in.  The best thing for Favre is to just walk away.  Ride off in to the sunset as the old gunslinger who finally hung ‘em up with his legend in tact.  He’s got his ring, he’s on the short list of best ever, and he holds almost every major record for a quarterback.  What’s left to prove?

Maybe that Brett’s truly as classy as we’ve been told and will do one last great thing for Green Bay.  Walk away with dignity.  Or is it too late for that now?

Welcome to the Rapid Fire Round

So, I’ve been woefully bad about posting here.  I started a sports oriented blog on my station’s website with the intention of posting either on here or on there and then copying and pasting to the other, but it hasn’t really happened (obviously) so here’s lots of stuff…

NBA draft happened, as I hoped, the Bulls took Derrick Rose.  Some people would argue they should’ve taken Michael Beasley who fills their low post needs, but Rose is a Deron Williams/Chris Paul type player who makes everyone around him better.  I believe that anytime you can get someone like that, you do it and never look back.  Hopefully time will prove me right on that one.  Truthfully, I don’t expect the Bulls to be much better this year.  Vinny Del Negro (by the way, really?) is a first year head coach and the Bulls have an overload of guards.  Obviously Chris Duhon will be gone, but they still have Rose, Kirk Heinrich, Larry Hughes, Thabo Sefolosha, and maybe Ben Gordon if they re-sign him, which I think they will.  That’s too many chefs in the kitchen.  Someone’s gotta go and I think it’s Heinrich, but I doubt they move him as John Paxon seems to be in love with him.  We’ll see.

White Sox and Cubs split their season series which I actually expected.  The Cubs have been virtually unbeatable at Wrigley but terrible on the road.  The Sox meanwhile have to be the hottest team in baseball and I couldn’t be happier.  I heard an interesting question the other day as someone on either TV or the radio was pondering who had the easier road to winning their division between the two.  I think the answer’s easy, it’s the Cubs.  They play in a week division.  Yes, Milwaukee’s remembering how to play baseball, and the Cardinals are only about 2 games back (I think), but the Cubs don’t have Soriano back yet so if they can get to the All-Star break with at least a one game lead, I think they’re sitting pretty.  Meanwhile the Sox have to contend with Minnesota and Detroit.  I would include Cleveland on the list but I think they’ve played themselves out of the race and I expect them to trade C.C. Sabathia at the deadline which really won’t help them.

NFL wise, not much to report really.  Cedric Benson finally lived up to my expectations for him and did stupid crap and got kicked off the Bears and maybe out of the NFL.  Yes, he is Ricky Williams v2.0.  I was right on that one.  Sadly, to prove me right my team had to blow the #4 pick in the draft on him.  Awesome.  I’m so completely upset by the prospect of this upcoming Bears season that just thinking about it is making me depressed.  I see no way that they’ll be any good at all.  Again, awesome.

Luckily though the Fighting Illini should be every bit as good as last year.  I’m thrilled.  I seriously can’t wait for Saturdays this fall.

I spent $60 on two (2) baseball hats.  Is it just me or is that WAY too much?  And yet, I paid it.

I think I hate the baseball All-Star game.  They have the utterly stupid rule that every team has to be represented, so Toronto, who have no hope at all of making the playoffs, let alone the World Series, will have a player that will help determine home field advantage for the World Series.  Why the hell baseball doesn’t just do what every other league does and have home field go to the team with best record is beyond me.  For every good idea Bud Selig has, he has three that are just stupid.  Having the All-Star game determine home field is one of them.

I’m so beyond excited for The Dark Knight to premiere that I could seriously wet myself.  Just thought I’d throw that in.

And on that note, I’m done for tonight.