Monthly Archives: May 2009
Greenlit
Among the 7 million other things that I LOVE LOVE LOVE is upfront week for the television networks. This is when they present their schedule for the coming season and introduce the new shows that they’ve picked up. Below you’ll find the grid that keeps me from going insane during the week and trying to piece together what all the media outlets put together in reporting the information from each network. The pdf version of this grid can be found here.
The Network call letters in the pdf file are links to descriptions of the shows and the schedules from which I created this grid. If you can’t get the links, please use the ones below.
The Weird World of Sports
This may shock you, but a lot of times I keep my opinions about sports stories to myself. Most of the time I don’t figure anyone wants to hear my thought on it. And to some degree I think that my friends (both male and female) who are sports fanatics still think I’m a complete idiot when it comes to sports. I would greatly disagree with them and say that just because I don’t sit around talking formations and stats and all that doesn’t mean I don’t understand them and find them highly intriguing. I just prefer to discuss the other parts of the sports world like transactions and retirements and the stupid things people do. I still know who the best players are even when their character sucks. And to that end, I choose to not release my opinions when it all boils down to considering the source. Cause when you know someone’s an idiot and there’s nothing you can do to change that then why waste precious time and space in the news media talking about it. Alas, I have decided to break my silence on what’s been going on in the world of sports in the last couple weeks.
Mark Cuban: So I found this hilarious. Now of course I don’t believe for one second that it is ok to call anyone a thug unless you have empirical proof of such distinction, but as I was stating before, you have to consider the source. Mark Cuban has and always will be a loose cannon. He’s going to sit where he wants to sit in his arena. He’s going to yell at the refs on every call. He’s going to interact with the fans in what most people would consider an inappropriate way. He’s gonna do all this because he’s Mark Cuban and no amount of you wanting him to be different or act different is actually going to make him that way. He’s set in his ways and that’s just it. So in all honesty, Kenyon Martin’s mom should have just let what Mark Cuban said go in one ear and out the other…consider the source. He’s a hot head and while that might not make it ok in your little corner of the world, Mark Cuban just doesn’t care. So vote him off your island as I have with this next guy.
Brett Favre: He has officially been voted off my island and by association whatever team that signs him has also been voted off my island. Now I get the whole I just can’t walk away from the game that I have loved and played for more years in my life than I’ve done anything else. I understood when Michael Jordan came back the first time. I did not understand or like it the second time. And I get that riding around on a tractor day in and day out is probably no where near as fulfilling, but COME ON…now you’re gonna have surgery (or not have surgery depending on which report you listen to) so you can play until they put you in the home. Banished, I tell you, banished!
Manny Ramirez: I’ve pretty much written off most of this era of baseball because of the flagrant steroid use, but this one just cracked me up. Basically because of the fuss he made about his contract in the off season and during spring training. He was so determined to get the money he thought he deserved and then he not only gets hurt but he further hurts his team by testing positive for steroids. Now from what I understand there was an initial report that a female fertility drug was what he tested positive for, but in actuality that drug never showed up on the test while elevated levels of testosterone did, which indicates steroid usage. Oh Manny…this one…I’m not sure we can file under “Manny being Manny.” It can however be filed under “Stupid is as Stupid Does.”
Jeremy Mayfield: Sticking with the drug habit for one more, we move on to NASCAR which has just this season instituted a banned substance drug testing policy. Jeremy Mayfield was the first to test positive and be suspended for having a banned substance in his body. He claims that his combination of Claritin-D and a prescription drug that he refuses to name created a banned substance on the test. Furthermore, he has requested that NASCAR inform the driver’s of what is on the banned substance list and would like to know what drug he actually tested positive for. According to a report yesterday, the doctor who handled the testing says that he told Jeremy exactly which banned substance he tested positive for. But here’s the thing that I just love about people who try to talk their way out of the hole they put themselves in. You’re operating heavy machinery on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis. It shouldn’t matter which drugs are on the banned list because you shouldn’t be taking them and then getting behind the wheel of a car to drive around on a race track where you could not only hurt yourself but any number of other people. Dale Jr. actually said as much when he heard Jeremy’s quotes. And quite frankly, Dale Jr.’s probably got enough moonshine in his garage to blast the banned substance list out of the water, so I commend him for being intelligent and realistic enough to say just don’t take the freaking drugs and you won’t have to worry about the test. Novel concept if you ask me.
Ok…so there’s my ranting and raving for the time being. Still no stats or discussions of formations or types of defenses, but don’t think I haven’t noticed. I have and I’m keeping them all in my memory bank.
Mr. Hansbrough goes to Washington…
…with a bunch of his friends.
To the victors go the spoils. It’s been raining practically every day here for the last week and a half, but even the rain knows to stop for the UNC Tar Heels. I was lucky enough to attend the event in which President Obama welcomed the National Champions to the White House.
Every member of the team was present including Deon Thompson who was apparently flying back in from California to begin summer school classes tomorrow. They presented the President with a Carolina jersey complete with Marcus Ginyard’s number and OBAMA on the back. The seniors presented him with a team picture from when then Senator Obama visited Chapel Hill and scrimmaged with them during his campaign.
There were times when it was hard to tell who was more excited. The President seemed equally enthralled to be around the team as they were to be around him. He gave a great speech thanking them for saving his bracket during the tournament. He made a point to congratulate Tyler Hansbrough on returning for his 4th and final season, and he even congratulated the seniors on yesterday’s graduation. His thoughts were complimentary, choosing to focus on the good deeds that the team does throughout the year, such as their annual Special Olympics basketball camp and the Christmas present shopping for needy children. He praised Coach Williams for successfully leading a program that cares most importantly about the men the players will be off the court. And he poked fun at Jack Wooten for being so aggressive during that scrimmage.
I have shared these last 4 years with these men from the comfort of my couch as the only way to experience their accomplishments with them. But getting up off my couch to cheer this group on one last time, at the White House no less, is…well…there just are no words for what that feeling is like.
Terrie’s Daughter
Today is my mother’s 36th Mother’s Day, which means two things:
- My older brother is really freaking old (love you, Andy), and
- What an accomplishment for her to have raised her children into adulthood after having saved them from themselves and each other a multitude of times during their childhood.
In all seriousness, I can look into the person I have become and recognize the incredible impact she had on creating that human being. The things I appreciate, the things I do, the things I laugh at that I know she’d laugh at, too. It’s all there. I’m certainly no mirror image of her. She’d like me to clean my house and make my bed a little more often than I do, but when it comes down to the list of women she wants to hang out with, I’m blessed to be counted among them. I am so thankful that she has gotten to be a grandmother (or Mimi as Lincoln knows her). Even though she was one heck of a stellar mother, I think she shines even more as a grandmother.
At church today, our minister spoke briefly, leading into his sermon, about the names/descriptions of Jesus, such as “King of kings” and “Lord of lords.” The last one he mentioned was “Mary’s son.” I stopped and thought about that for a minute as our minister continued with his thoughts. He painted a very beautiful picture of the kind of impact Mary had on Jesus’s life. We speak so often about Jesus’s impact on our lives, but we rarely, if ever, speak about who impacted Him. Our minister noted how you can learn about the kind of person Jesus was throughout the Bible, but if you want to see how consistent Mary was as a mother to her sons, read the book of James (Jesus’s brother). I intend to do that this week.
I am thankful to be a child of God more than anything else in my life, but in knowing just who my mother is as a woman, as a mother, as a person, I am grateful for what being Terrie’s daughter has given me.
Thanks, mom and Happy Mother’s Day!
My Mind's Eye 