The BSG finale is Friday and I would be remiss if I didn't post my predictions.

( Spoilers if you're not up to the finale )

Meant to post this Wednesday night or Thursday, but better late than never, I suppose.

I was at one of the most exciting Marquette basketball games of the season Wednesday night. Marquette vs. UCONN. The Bradley Center was completely and utterly packed. The energy of the crowd was unbelievable. It was such a close game. We were only down by 3 with 2 minutes to go. But, as you can see, we ended up losing 93-82.

The bigger disappointment, however, happened before I got there. I didn't get there until a few minutes in because it was a 6:00 game and I hit heavy traffic coming back from work. Early in the game, Dominic James, our star ball handler as the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article puts it, broke his foot, ending his season. Obviously this hurts our chances in the NCAA Tournament, but I feel really bad for James. I don't think he would have been a first round NBA pick, but he may not even get picked now.

Thanks for a great four seasons, Dom. Here's hoping you heal quickly and make it to the NBA.

Read: this and this.

Discuss.

Hello all! I've been fairly quiet on LJ recently due to several factors - being pretty busy at work being the biggest - but if there's one thing that will make me post, it's BSG.

( Read more... )

I just watched the Inaugural Address with genuine pride, inspiration, and perhaps even a glint of hope.

Today is a good day.


/not even a hint of snark here
//oh yes, I'm still alive

Many happy returns to ozy_y2k and ikkarus01!

I hope your respective birthdays were full of fun and enjoyment, and if not, I at least hope they didn't completely suck. :)

incyr and resk have asked me to share my feelings about Proposition 8 in California. My quick response was that I have mixed feelings and am on the fence. They asked for more.

I am reluctant to oblige. I have been in this position before. Party A asks me for my opinion, beliefs, or feelings on a controversial issue. I try to share my opinions, beliefs, or feelings on said issue as matter-of-factly as possible. Party B takes offense and/or has their feelings hurt by what I write. I don't enjoy offending people and certainly don't enjoy hurting others feelings. Still, I don't want to let past bad experiences inhibit me from speaking my peace (piece? whatever). So I will expound on what I've already said with the disclaimer that my intent is not to pass judgment, wish ill will, or in any other way cause harm to anyone. I'm speaking what is on my mind and that is all.

So, though I can see this going very, very badly very quickly, and I don't really have the time nor the inclination for a long drawn out debate or discussion, I will share my thoughts and see where this goes.

( you've been warned )

I am glad that we finally have our first African-American President.

I am glad that we finally have a well-spoken, articulate, even inspiring President.

I am glad that so many people are happy with the election results, domestically and abroad, even if I am not.


Congratulations, Mr. President-Elect, especially on being the first black president.

I continue to fear that you and your party's majority in Congress will bring utter disaster upon the nation. I honestly hope you prove me wrong. I doubt you will.

That's the best I can do right about now.

There used to be a common saying that had some inherent sarcasm in it. If someone did something fairly common poorly, you would ask if they did it much, to sarcastically imply that they must not since they're so bad at it. For example, if someone tripped over their own two feet for no apparent reason, you would ask "Walk much?" implying that they must not because they just failed at it.

Somehow that has morphed into a meaningless phrase with no trace of sarcasm. I see it all the time. If someone is shilling for another person or group, you'll hear "Shill much?" If someone is being overly sarcastic, you'll hear "Sarcasm much?" If someone is coughing a lot, you'll hear "Cough much?"

It makes no sense. I want to reply, "Much-much much-much, much?"

I've got my first Taekwondo tournament tomorrow. I'm currently a yellow belt* and I am participating in all three events: forms, breaking, and sparring.

Forms are a formal sequence of moves performed on ones own (usually simultaneously with others, but each person is on their own, you're not interacting with others). Usually a particular form is associated with a particular belt rank. I'll be doing the Dan Gun form, which consists of 21 moves. It's fairly straightforward, including only strikes and blocks but no kicks. I've been training in this form for months now, so I'm fairly confident that if I keep my focus, I'll be fine.

Board breaking demonstrates that you can perform your moves with accuracy and power. As a yellow belt, I'll only be breaking one board. The score depends on many factors including difficulty, so I'm attempting one that is a bit above the norm for my belt break: a jumping front kick. Two people will hold a wooden board about 5 feet off the ground, angled down and away from me. I'll start with my right foot forward, spring off of it with my left foot up in the air, and then switch my feet in mid air, kicking the board with my right foot. The key is pulling my toes back and kicking with the ball of my foot or I will break my toes.

Sparring is where I'm weakest. I'll be matched up with other yellow belts, but it still likely won't be even footing...no pun intended. I really enjoy sparring, but the class I train at most often - at work over lunch - is mostly populated by students who do not enjoy sparring very much and are more interested in just the exercise and basic training. There are other schools, for example, where sparring is practiced every class. We have been training more in sparring over the last month or so in preparation for the tournament, and I have improved from where I was, so we'll see. I'm not pessimistic, I'm just not overly hopeful.

My family and possibly a few friends should be there, so I'll see if I can get one of them to snap some photos or even take some vids.

Wish me luck!

* The belt order is: White, Advanced White, Yellow, Advanced Yellow, Green, Advanced Green, Blue, Advanced Blue, Red, Advanced Red, Black...and then the different degrees of black belt begin.

No matter what your political beliefs, no matter how you feel about our involvement in Iraq, I think just about everyone can agree that this article is pretty great to read:

Back in Iraq, Jarred by the Calm By DEXTER FILKINS

Bonus: It's in the New York Times

The very idea of Chocolate Skittles makes me want to throw up a little.


That is all.

Reposted from hmrpita. Thanks, Pita!

I couldn't stop laughing out loud for about 5 minutes...

Dear Lazyweb,

I've had a Canon A620 for a few years now and I've been very happy with it, with one compaint: it's big. Because it runs on four AA batteries, it's too big to fit in my pocket and thus I don't take many pictures unless I'm on a vacation or trip.

Now, this feature saved my behind when I was in Rome going into the Colosseum because my batteries ran out just as I was about to see the one thing I wanted to see in Italy above any other. Thankfully, because my camera took AA batteries, I could simply buy some off of a street vendor, and be on my merry. But then again, if I had a different camera, I probably would have recharged my batteries overnight and wouldn't have run out in the first place.

So, to make a long story short, I want to buy a new Canon SD series ELPH camera. Anyone have any recommendations?

I didn't get to watch much of the RNC last night because I'm playing host to EGo and a friend of his as they road trip across the country. (I'll post about that soon.) I did, however, watch Romney's and Rudy's speeches, and I listened to Sarah Palin's speech in podcast form on my way to work.

Here are a couple of quick, random thoughts:

1. Romney is doing a great job of supporting what was once his somewhat bitter opponent in the primaries.

2. Oh Rudy, how I missed thee! Great to see him speaking again. Love his sense of humor.

3. It took GREAT PHYSICAL RESTRAINT to keep from throwing something at my TV when Keith Olbermann interrupted and TALKED OVER Rudy to defend Obama from something Rudy said about him (can't remember what it was at the mo'). Dude, just shut up. Serves me right for watching the MSNBC broadcast, I suppose.

4. Sarah the Barracuda, indeed. Great speech. Excellent way to introduce herself to the party and the country. I hear she was just as physically in command as she was verbally, so I plan to go back and skim through the video of the speech. Loved the humorous jibes at Obama, especially this one:

"When the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot, what exactly is our opponent's plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet?

I've heard some people calling her comments about Obama 'personal attacks'. I'll have to listen again, but I don't recall anything personal, as say, calling into question his ability to be a parent or discussion of his children's personal affairs. I do recall hearing quite a bit of discussion on his lack of experience and qualification to be president. I don't recall anything personal. Actually, I recall her speaking of his personal characteristics in a positive light.

Looking forward to McCain's speech tonight.

What did you think of Sarah Palin's speech?

Time for me to address the elephant in the room. The young, female elephant to be precise.

( abandon hope, all ye who enter here )

So for the entertanium generated by watching the left twist itself into a pretzel of self-contradiction, I applaud McCain's pick.

As far as my feelings on the candidate herself? Sure, I wish he would have picked someone more experienced. As I said, I think any cries of inexperience against Palin in favor of Obama are downright laughable considering their positions on their respective tickets and the type (executive vs. legislative) experience each brings to the table, but it would have been nice not to have to get into the issue. Since she's a pretty true conservative, I agree with just about all her positions (I'm still learning about her here and there as I can, so I reserve the right to register disagreement as I learn more). She seems to have been unafraid to challenge her own party in terms of corruption and government spendiness, which is something I'd love to see more of in Washington.

So at the moment, I suppose I'm in pretty firm support of Sarah Palin on McCain's ticket.

What do you think of Palin?

Time for another post about BSG. Yes, I'm obsessed. Sue me.

( spoilers, obviously )

Tonight I am cooking Prosciutto Pesto Chicken with pasta and having my friends J&S over to watch the BSG Miniseries. I am also inviting wyvern_x, who, along with phaedra_amunet, got me hooked on BSG in the first place.

J&S have both expressed great antipathy toward watching such a show. I can kind of understand. It sounds like Star Trek. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But like me, they are not Star Trek people or big into typical sci-fi in general. They are however very much into Lost and, at my behest, Heroes, both of which compare very well to BSG if you ask me. All three are sci-fi that aren't about sci-fi. They are simply good shows with interesting stories and great characters that just so happen to have a sci-fi and/or plot device.

Anyway, I made them an offer they couldn't refuse by offering to cook dinner and reminding them that I was right about Heroes, which they were also reluctant to watch. Here's hoping they'll watch the Miniseries with an open mind. If they are anything like me, they will think the Miniseries is okay - not bad, not great, but okay - and get hooked somewhere in the next disc or two (my hook, if you recall, was You Can't Go Home Again).

Saturday I'll go to Taekwondo class and then to the Brewers game with a friend, and then out to a favorite quirky local establishment to see some friends. Sunday will be spent with the family, celebrating my nephew's birthday.

What are your weekend plans? How long did it take you to get hooked on BSG?

The Blogalyser reveals...

Your blog/web page text has an overall readability index of 13.

This suggests that your writing style is conventional
(to communicate well you should aim for a figure between 10 and 20).Your blog has 16 sentences per entry, which suggests your general message is distinguished by verbosity
(writing for the web should be concise).

CHARACTER MATRIX

male		female
self		world
past		future

Your text shows characteristics which are 51% male and 49% female
(for more information see the Gender Genie).
Looking at pronoun indicators, you write mainly about yourself, then the world in general and finally your social circle. Also, your writing focuses primarily on the present, next the past and lastly the future.
</small>
Find out what your blogging style is like!

What? Is this computer-generated quiz based on my Live Journal posts implying, stating, or otherwise conveying that my writing style could be considered by some to be too wordy, or in other words, verbose?

Well, I never.

Also, apparently it thinks I'm 49% female. That's just mean. Honestly, it's not that I'm upset by what it's saying, it's the way it said it.

Ha! I know I shouldn't be as excited about this, but I was just googling the piece of music entitled "Diaspora Oratorio" from the BSG Season 4 Mid-Season Finale to see if there are any plans to release it as a single (I really, really love this piece of music) and what do you think comes up as the 9th hit?

My very own post that mentions it!

Weird!