Robin Williams in the UK

Just follow me on this, OK?

History will prove that George W. Bush is one of the most environmentally-friendly presidents ever.

How?

Now I'm not talking about his actual environmental policies, Lord knows he favors industry and even drilling and lower EPA guidelines around national parks. No. I'm talking about his economic policies! Here's how it goes:

• Bush favors pretty much no regulation whatsoever. Whatever the industry is. He's a real free-market kind of guy, letting the market do pretty much whatever it damn well pleases.
• As a result, lenders started letting people buy houses using this whole subprime mortgage deal, where the consumers bought houses that they obviously could not afford, that they simply had no business buying in the first place, by paying lower monthly mortgage payments. Of course, all along, lenders did almost no credit checks on those buyers. Why would they? Greed and the quick buck make you do stupid things.
• Little did those people know, that after a very short time, their interest rates would skyrocket, because that's how those subprime mortgages worked. They were adjustable after a short period of time, and not fixed over a long period of time. Besides, just like in the above point, they could not afford those houses in the first place.
• Lenders started packaging those subprime mortgages and selling them to banks as assets. Banks being greedy enough to buy them because they believed they would make a killing off of those mortgages when the interest rates rose.
• Here what they didn't think of, that people could no longer pay off the mortgages on those houses that they bought. The monthly payments skyrocketed. People started losing their houses. Banks started to foreclose on those same houses.
• Then all hell broke loose! The housing market crashed because there weren't enough buyers, and the market was saturated from all those foreclosed homes. The credit market crashed, because now lenders were starting to lose money because of all the foreclosures and loan defaults. Then Wall Street started its downward spiral because of the housing and credit market crises.
• What happened then was that the economy began its faceplant. People weren't spending their money because they were afraid they were going to get laid off and lose their jobs. Manufacturers and service providers started to lose money because there was no spending. Companies did start laying off thousands of workers. Household budgets got even tighter and tighter. Unemployment rose to their lowest marks in decades. It was chaos everywhere.
• So, as all this was happening, industry began to slow down, since demand was really, really down. With the industry slowing down, a lot of plants started to shut down.
• And since a lot of those plants were anyway in China and India, and since most of the pollution cam from countries like China and India where there are no environmental regulations to contend with, pollution should start easing up.

Here's what should happen next: more and more plants would shut down, in places like China and India and Taiwan and Mexico and so on. Pollution rates would start to decrease. The environment would start to recover, Global Warming would start to reverse course, the Ozone layer would start to patch itself up, and life on planet Earth would become more abundant, and Human Beings healthier, in the long run.

Ah, if only things were that simple!

So, Bush should get a couple of awards and maybe even a Nobel prize for what he did to the environment, because of his economic plans!

Don't you think?

Axis of Evil Comedy - Maz Jobrani

3 things I was thinking while watching TV last night..

1. "How I Met Your Mother" on CBS is a very funny show, and one of my favorite shows, hands down. But, last night's episode was creepy from the fact that the whole show is supposed to be the main character, Ted, telling his kids in the year 2053 about how he met their mother, yet last night's episode was all about the "naked man" technique for sleeping with women! Is that what people talk to their children about in the year 2053?

2. "Worst Week" on CBS is one of the funniest new comedies I've seen in a long, long time! My wife and I were cracking up last night. Seriously, how DO you set a pool on fire? LOL

3. As fantastically illogical and unbelievable the story behind "Chuck" on NBC is, I can't help but fall in love with that show more and more! I can't remember a show that makes me roll my eyes more than "Chuck," yet I find myself looking forward to watching each new episode!

Feedback?

The decline of the Republican Party | Ship of fools | The Economist

The decline of the Republican Party Ship of fools The Economist: "Ship of fools"

Great read!

Meet the Palestinian Seinfeld. Who knew?

(Clicking on the post header will take you to a different website where the article is)

Sounds funny. I will be looking for it.

Obama Dance Party in the streets of Seattle

Random thoughts while watching this clip:

- This is the exact thing that McCain would've called the cops on. "TURN OFF THAT RACKET YOU CALL MUSIC AND GO HOME"

- If this were the Republicans celebrating, you know that they would've had the non-inclusive "this is a private party" vibe to the festivities, because, you know, in the GOP, you're either with us or against us!

- For the Democrats, we just want to party man! Come join us! There's room for all!

- I love living in this city!!!

One final thought on the elections

Well, for today at least, it's my final thought!

Two points we have to keep in mind here:

1. It wasn't the Democrats that won the elections, it was Obama. Make that very clear. It's a very clear distinction, that it was the Dems who rode on Obama's coattails and got the momentum they needed to get a few extra seats in Congress. That is made very clear by the fact that the Dems were not able to get the clear majority that they needed to become filibuster proof.
2. It was Bush who had made the Republicans become the big losers of these elections. I can't think of any one other President in the history of the United States that had become such a liability on his own party, that any association to him, however near or far, almost meant the kiss of death for the candidates in all races. It's true that there were a lot of Republican incumbents that made it back into Congress, but those mostly came from Republican country where being a Democrat is tantamount to being a leper. Bush's legacy will be as a highly divisive leader, whose ideas of empire building were squashed by Obama's historic run to the White House.

One other thing, and I heard that on NBC during one of the interviews they had, that electing Obama does not make America post-racial, it means that a black man is elected President. I think that there are still a lot of racial problems and tensions in America that will take years and generations to heal and resolve.. if at all.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO

YES WE CAN!!!!!

This is amazing!

Finally!

Now let's get to work. Let's fix this. Let's undo the damage done over the last 8 years.

Time to turn the page.

And, of course, time to PARTAY!

A note on the election coverage

I feel most comfortable with watching Brian Williams of NBC News than anyone else. I just did a quick channel surfing exercise and checked out ABC, CBS, MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, and even Fox News, but Williams gets my vote!

Gibson and Sawyer were almost fighting for more air time, Couric I still can't see her as more than the Today Show host, and the other channels had nutjobs from both sides and too many talking heads. Brian Williams shows everyone on NBC that "hey, I'm the top dog and everything flows through me, got it?"

Although, curiously enough, Fox News were the only channel at this time that called Virginia for Obama! Nobody else did but them, giving Obama 220 electoral votes, where every other network had him around 207.

Go figure!

200

No, that's not the prequel to the movie 300.

That's how many electoral votes Obama has as of 6:30PM PST.

He needs 70 more to get to the magic number of 270. Between WA, OR, CA and HI, that's more than enough!

It's still early to celebrate, but the excitement is growing! Especially after Ohio went for Obama. 20 big electoral votes in a swing state. All fingers are crossed at this time.

I voted for.. Elmo??

My 15 month son got so bored with the election coverage on TV, that he almost put on a riot, so we decided to put on Sesame Street for him. So now I'm down to having to click refresh on the MSNBC site to see if there are any new updates.

It's 4:45PM in the Pacific Time Zone, and no new updates.

Kentucky, Vermont, already called

Kentucky went to McCain, Vermont to Obama.

And away we go!

Stock Market Hearts Presidential Elections

It seems Wall Street was energized today by the elections, all indexes closed up, some considerably so.

The Dow Jones is up 305 points.

Nasdaq is up almost 76 points.

The S&P is up 39.5 points.

It will be interesting to see how the markets react to the new President Elect tomorrow morning, but if Wall Street enjoys a good election day, let's have everyday be election day! God knows Americans love to vote.

Still pretty slow

Little bits of news here and there are trickling in, but nothing of substance:

• Democrat Barack Obama came up a big winner in the presidential race in Dixville Notch, N.H., where the nation's first Election Day votes were cast and counted early today.
• A funny thing happened when Michelle Obama voted, Barack said that she took a long time to fill out her ballot, that he had to look and see who she's voting for!

Besides that, nothing much. Oh, that new buzzword, Hispanic, came up in yet another interview on MSNBC. Not sure why they are pushing that, must be a trend that they are seeing. Also, not sure what that means, but it basically is good news for Obama, since most Latinos turned against McCain when he turned against his OWN immigration policy to stick to the party line. Yep, that's a mavericky thing to do.

Not much going on

They are just showing video of people lining up to vote around the US. I guess that we should start hearing things in about 4 hours time when the first polls start closing on the East Coast. They are interviewing people and pundits on the news networks, which is very boring, so we've switched and are watching the Ellen show! Well, it's on, and I'm working on the laptop and so is my wife on hers.

GO OBAMA!

The new "it" demographic

Apparently, in this election, the new "it" demographic is Hispanics. They may turn the tide for Obama in a lot of states including New Mexico and Colorado, states that normally vote Republican.

I don't know about that. Definitely the Hispanic vote is an important voting bloc, but I'm not so sure that they're the new "it" crowd. Well, we'll see. And if it's true, more power to them, especially if it means that they vote Obama!

OK, here we go!

So, today's the day for Change!

The day of reckoning!

The elections are today. I will be online and posting some updates and news items and general thoughts throughout the day, so stay tuned!

Oh, and GO OBAMA!

Happy (Belated) Halloween

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Stolen from an email from my friend Youbie!

WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE ROAD?

BARACK OBAMA: The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a change! The chicken wanted change!

JOHN McCAIN: My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.

HILLARY CLINTON: When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to insure right from day one that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then this really isn't about me.

GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

DICK CHENEY: Where's my gun?

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with that chicken. What is your definition of chicken?

AL GORE: I invented the chicken.

JOHN KERRY: Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.

AL SHARPTON: Why are all the chickens white? We need some black chickens.

DR. PHIL: The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on this side of the road before it goes after the problem on the other side of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his current problems before adding new problems.

OPRAH: Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

NANCY GRACE: That chicken crossed the road because he's guilty! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.

PAT BUCHANAN: To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die in the rain, alone.

BARBARA WALTERS: Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its lifelong dream of crossing the road.

GRANDPA: In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?

Change!

Wassup 2008 FUNNY @ Yahoo! Video

Phillies win game 1

Good to see the Philadelphia Phillies win game 1 of the World Series. Even though the Tampa Bay Rays are the darling story of this season, we in Seattle have a vested interest in the Phillies. See, their GM, Pat Gillick, used to be the M's GM. Jamie Moyer, a beloved pitcher here in Seattle, was driven out of town for being washed up, only to win 16 games for Philadelphia this year, and would be on tap to get a World Series ring if the Phillies win.

The Phillies also have a player named Greg Dobbs who used to be with the Mariners, but was also driven out of town, but has been an important part of the Phillies run this year to the World Series.

So, I would like to see the Phillies win the pennant this year.

Besides, it would be a real shame if Tampa Bay won the World Series before the Mariners, who have 22 years on the Rays!

The Mariners pick a new GM

The Mariners baseball club today announced Jack Zduriencik (pronounced zur-EN-sik) as their new General Manager. This is a good hire, according to analysts, but I will hold my optimism for a bit.

Deciding whether this is indeed a good hire or not will depend mostly on the kind of autonomy that Z will be given (I will be referring to him as Z, much easier!). If team president, Chuck Armstrong, and CEO, Howard Lincoln, want to continue down the path of meddling and making sure that they sign off on anything that Z does, then this is going to be same old, same old for Seattle Mariners fans.

Also, Z is a very good talent appraiser, and has a good eye for not just acquiring talent, but developing it. But what that means is that in order to succeed, two other things need to happen:

1. The old guard throughout the organization needs to be let go. We need a clean slate to start from. Thank you notes need to be sent out to them, but they need to be informed that their services are no longer needed. How can you start off anew when that means that you need to make changes to personnel and roster, which means in a most direct way indicting the decisions made by the old guard regarding the same players and coaches that they acquired or hired. That's' why they need to go.

2. Z needs to get one or two of those highly intellectual Ivy League graduates who are good with the new statistical analysis that permeates the Major Leagues these days. Those have been proven to improve the odds dramatically in favor of the organizations that utilize those statistics, and don't rely solely on scouting. I believe a hybrid of the two, headed by a man with a keen eye for talent such as Z, with the power of statistical analysis can work even better than expected, and bring in the turnaround that all fans are craving for in a much shorter time.

Moving the M's forward will not be an easy task. A 100 million dollar roster needs to be reevaluated. Positioning of players needs to be reconsidered. Fresh talent needs to be infused. Smart, cheap free agents need to be brought in for leadership and stop gap measures. Coaches need to be hired. Front Office personnel need to be evaluated. And the most important thing, a fan base needs to be re-energized.

The good thing is that the resources are there. Now we need to see if the will is there as well.

Oh, that wacky Palin!

Yes, she is my favorite subject, why do you ask?

So, according to financial disclosure records, the Republican National Committee spent $150,000 on Palin's wardrobe. Clothes for her were bought from stores including Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale's, Barney's New York and Macy's. The entries also show a few purchases at Pacifier, a top notch baby store, and Steiniauf & Stroller Inc., and an additional $4,902.45 was spent in early September at Atelier, a high-class shopping destination for men.

Good to see the RNC putting clothes on the backs of the Palins! Now, here's the thing, based on the Federal Election Commission's rules, that kind of campaign spending, for personal use, is illegal. Which makes sense. However, those clever RNC spokespeople came out and said: "With all of the important issues facing the country right now, it’s remarkable that we’re spending time talking about pantsuits and blouses," said spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt. "It was always the intent that the clothing go to a charitable purpose after the campaign."

Didn't you know that? Those clothes were to be donated. Oh, silly us! Now I feel this small (you can't see it, but imagine my index finger and thumb are almost touching when you read this). And shame on us that we are talking about pantsuits and blouses. Didn't the Republican campaign just perfect the personal attack mode of operations during the elections? And this didn't come from the Democrats either. But I guess it's the elite liberal media, stirring controversy after controversy. Why do they do that, man?

The kicker in all of this is that all of the above expenses came out in the RNC’s September monthly financial disclosure report under “itemized coordinated expenditures,”which is a report that records expenses for things like direct mail, telephone calls and advertising. Those expenses do show up, but the report also has a new category of spending: “campaign accessories.” Does this mean that Palin is considered a campaign accessory?

Anyway, just in case you haven't heard, Palin the Alaska governor was in the habit of taking her kids along for state business, even if they weren't invited, and she just billed the state for their expenses. Conveniently, Palin just never bothered to point out that those expense reports she submitted included expenses incurred on her children and family. What a wonderful family woman. We should only hope to have more people like Sarah Palin.

You be the judge

Is the hit the referee put on the QB intentioanl or not? He claims it wasn't intentional, that he was protecting himself. I say it's obvious that it was intentional. He stalked the QB, got in the lane, and lowered his shoulder to deliver the tackle.

I'm not saying that he was trying to influence the outcome of the game. USC still scored on that drive, eventually (and still lost the game), but I think the referee just got caught up in the game action and it took him back to his glory days in college (the ref did play on defense as a linebacker when he was in college).

So, what do you think?

Palin on SNL

So, what did you all think? (I'm always assuming that I have a huge following!)

I thought that having Palin on SNL didn't really add anything. It just made the show kinda awkward, for her. Sure, she seemed to have a good sense of humor about it, but the whole show was about her being made fun of by other folks on the show. It was like the writers, Tina Fey, the cast, Lorne Michaels and even Alec Baldwin were in on the joke, and she was on the sideline watching. Usually when people come on the show, they make fun of themselves. Not this time.

Even during the Weekend Update rap by Amy Poehler, they made fun of everything that Palin has come to stand for: an inexperienced gun-toting Alaskan dimwit with a nimrod for a husband!

Don't get me wrong, it was freakin hilarious! But, I'm sorry Sarah, the joke's on you! You're not in on it.. you're it!

The Candidates' Speeches at the Alfred E. Smith Dinner

The two presidential candidates last night made speeches at a charity dinner, where historically, they are supposed to be funny. Here they are. I personally liked Obama's more than McCain's, and not just because I'm clearly biased towards Obama! But Obama made fun of himself, whereas McCain made fun of Bill Clinton! Doesn't make any sense!



I give it a 6 out of 10



I give it an 8.5 out of 10

Friday's Random Thoughts

* I'm so happy that today is Friday.

* It's only 11:05 AM and I'm already starting to get hungry. Not sure what I will have for lunch today. I think I'd like to go out somewhere.

* Our family is jinxed! For the past 2 months we've been going from one doctor to another, and from one hospital to another. The latest thing is that my wife broke the big toe on her right foot. Seriously! Does anyone know of a good witch doctor or shaman they can recommend? We might need an old priest and a young priest!

* How jinxed do we believe are we? To the point that we removed most of our pictures from Facebook in an effort to ward off the envious eye! True story! We have started sending emails to family with pictures, rather than post them on the Internet!

* I'm getting more and more hungry.

* I'm listening to Vivaldi violin concerto 'l'estro armonico' No. 6. Good stuff!

A couple of sports related quick thoughts:

* I really do hope the Seahawks can win in Tampa on Sunday night. It would be embarrassing if not because they are playing in front of a national audience (Sunday Night Football), and they already are a measly 1-4. The thing is, I don't see them winning!

* I really do hope the Mariners pick a solid GM, one that can get into contention sooner rather than later.

* I was very happy to hear that one of the new Oklahoma City NBA team owners, Aubrey McClendon (a real schmuck) lost most of his fortune because of this economy!

Update at 4:04 PM: It gets even better about this McClendon guy! Karma is a "female dog!"
http://www.statejournal.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=45520&catid=159

Movie Review: Iron Man

For anyone who enjoys movies about comic book super heroes, you’re going to enjoy this one.

For anyone who enjoys movies about sassy lead characters, who turn from lovable jerks to lovable humanitarians before their eyes, you’re going to enjoy this movie.

And, for anyone who just simply enjoys meaningless movies that add nothing to their intellect (and perhaps even takes away some of that brain power), you’re going to enjoy this movie!

Bottom line, you better watch Iron Man.

Robert Downey, Jr. plays the part of Tony Stark, a very wealthy industrial genius whose company specializes in building weapons. Naturally, Stark only focuses on inventing new weapons and basically the R&D part of the company he owns. Unbeknownst to him, living in his own version of a Utopian world, his company also deals under the table with the bad guys. Stark realizes that after being kidnapped by said bad guys, so he ends up building an armor suit full of smart weapons and gizmos that make him fly and impervious to bullets and explosions. Then he starts using that alter persona, Iron Man, to fight the bad guys and general injustice around the world.

Throughout the movie, we can follow Stark’s transformation from a grade A womanizing schmuck who thinks that the world revolves around him, to a bad-guy-fighting-one-woman-loving lean mean machine, all in a span of a few short weeks, based on the movie’s chronology. But it’s a good transformation, as he starts to learn that people who he thought he could trust were only looking out for themselves, and people he took for granted are the ones he should let into his new found “big heart.”

Robert Downey, Jr. excels in portraying both aspects of Stark’s personality. His casting was a major coup, because he carries the whole movie. Even though the supporting cast are to be feared, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard and Jeff Bridges, all of them were way overshadowed by Downey’s efforts.

They all seemed to have had the sense that this is yet another comic book super hero movie, and they didn’t take it too seriously, especially Jeff Bridges. One would expect much more from these actors. But Downey, well you can’t really tell if ever he’s taking anything seriously, which is the beauty of his acting. Look at his career, whether he’s playing the romantic lead, or the obsessive journalist, he’s always been the best at showcasing confident vulnerability (or sometimes vulnerable confidence), peppering his characters with a touch of irreverent lunacy. It has always worked, and it works best in this movie, where you need that added level of likability to get through some patches of the plot where things don’t make a lot of sense, and can be a tad boring.

Jon Favreau did an admirable job of directing Iron Man (even casting himself as a Stark bodyguard, which did not feel like it was needed at all, or added anything to the movie), and he made sure to put the focus entirely on Downey. Well, it worked. Favreau saw something new and fresh in Downey that he could bring to this genre, and he rode him to success! Of course, as always in big budget Hollywood movies, the door was left wide open at the end for a sequel.

I can’t wait!

New Movie Reviews

It was brought to my attention that the last two movie reviews I wrote were for chick movies. That may be true, and that's also the price one has to pay when he lets his wife manage the Blockbuster queue, but lately I watched a couple of good, macho type movies, that I'm sure my fellow male brethren would appreciate. With that being said, expect to see in the coming week a review of the following movies (with a quick watchability guide):

- Forgetting Sarah Marshall: a la "40 Year Old Virgin" and "Superbad." See it!

- Iron Man: Just to watch the greatness of Robert Downey, Jr. See it!

- You Don't Mess with the Zohan: Three words: Gotta see it!

McCain: Shameless. Palin: Classless

This is beyond belief.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.mccain10oct10,0,7557571.story

Apparently, at a McCain rally in New Mexico, someone from the crowd shouted, referring to Obama, "he's a terrorist," and McCain didn't flinch. On the same day, at a Palin rally in Florida, someone shouted from the crowd, again referring to Obama, "kill him." Again, Palin didn't flinch. The whole McCain campaign didn't flinch. Then again, the whole Republican Party didn't flinch.

It is despicable. Not only that McCain and Palin supporters actually do think those thoughts and are not ashamed to share them out loud, but those thoughts were aided by the McCain/Palin campaign and their personal, nonsensical attacks on Obama. Who else, other than McCain and Palin in their speeches referred to Obama as "palling around with terrorists" and as "not one of us?"

And nobody apologized. Nobody, from the candidates themselves to campaign aides and PR folks, admonished those ralliers who yelled those vile and hate-filled shouts. Why would they? They stoked that fervor. They flamed those fires.

What happened to McCain promising to run a clean campaign based on issues and not character? I guess that's one more "mavericky" thing that McCain did not follow up on. How many people are disenchanted with McCain? Forget Palin. She's a nutjob, who I would hope would crawl back into Alaska after they lose the elections in November, never to be heard from again (unless after getting arrested because some scandal or something like that). But McCain?

I have to admit that I liked that guy. Liked. I was literally on the fence before the VP announcements. I leaned more towards Obama after the Biden pick, which was brilliant. He gave Obama the kind of boost of reassurance I was looking for. And then McCain picked Palin, and when I read all the things about her and heard her speak at the RNC and the later interviews, I lost all faith in McCain. He sold his soul to the devil (aka Rove) to get to the White House.

What a shame. How the heroes have fallen.

A little 80's nostalgia, literally!

Quick thought of the day

Why are depression medicine commercials depressing?

Monday funny

To get our minds off all these problems, a little something for the ladies!

Ughh

What a Monday, huh?

It wasn't a good weekend, was it?

Everybody knows I'm a sports nut. So, for us sports fans here in the Northwest, specifically in Washington state, it was a particularly bad weekend.

Opponents outscored Washington football teams, the Seahawks, Huskies and Cougars, 120-23. Depressing is the word you're looking for.

Then we all wake up this morning to find that Wall Street isn't too enamored with the bailout plan, even though America mortgaged the future to help those corrupt bastards (helped by NO OVERSIGHT from this government, but this is a topic for later discussion). As of now, at 11:14 AM Pacific time, the Dow is down 630 points and is below 10,000 for the first time since October, 2004. Four years ago, if you're trying to do the math. NASDAQ is no better, down 141 points to just around 1,800.

Good times to be had by all!

Update: good to see that the markets rebounded a bit by closing bell, but there's still a tough road ahead. Unfortunately, no results were changed for the football teams, they still lost a combined 120-23.

One of my favorite songs - enjoy this treat :)

The VP Debate

Did you watch it last night?

I do have to say I was a little bit disappointed that Palin didn't crash and burn! She did OK, considering her recent TV interviews. However, the debate showed that she is very new to this kind of stage, and that she's still not ready for the White House,

Sen. Joe Biden came off as a polished, veteran politician, not afraid to reach across party lines or to make hard decisions, and that he's well connected. He knows people, which is important in getting things done.

Palin cam off as a newbie. She wanted to appeal to Main Street America, and she started things off by asking if she can call Senator Biden "Joe," which, to me, sounded too rehearsed. But, the idea was that she wanted to show the voters that she's one of them. That she's an "Aw, shucks" kind of gal. That might be cute when running for mayor of a small town or even the Governor of Alaska, but not in a Vice Presidential debate.

And the winking! What's up with that? Did anybody notice it? She kept winking to the camera when she thought she was making GREAT points! That irritated me! All I kept thinking was, when she's meeting with heads of state, is she going to be winking like that too? When she meets King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, is she going to be winking at him like that too? Let's keep the winking, during a national Vice Presidential debate, to a minimum, shall we?

Sen. Biden had a plan, to pin McCain to Bush. Which is true in so many ways. He kept to the plan. Even later, when Palin said that he was too focused on the past (which is a dumb thing to say, since the past consists of too many mistakes made by her own party's government that all ensuing governments should learn from), he stuck to the point, and made sure to leave an impression with the voters that McCain equals Bush. I think he succeeded.

At least now we know that Palin can actually make a coherent sentence or two. But it's still not good enough.

Sen. Biden won last night. Hands down.

Movie Review: Sex and the City

During its run on HBO, Sex and the City was a very successful show, due to certain attributes, certain things that the show and the writers were able to capture, a certain “je ne sais quoi!” It made New York a glamorous place to live in. It made spending thousands of dollars on shoes something adorable, if not necessary even. It made dishing and gossiping among friends a social habit worthy of chronicling. It made relationships seem simple and yet difficult at the same time. And, let’s not forget, it made instant celebrities of all who appeared on the show. True, almost the whole cast were famous and successful by their own rights, but the show made them household names.

As for the movie, I’m afraid I have some bad news. If you liked the movie, you might not want to continue reading, because things might get a bit ugly, plus, I will be revealing some plotlines, so avert your eyes if you really want to watch this movie and haven’t yet.

All gone? Good. Now let’s get to it.

I will give you two words to describe the movie: too long!

Two more words? Too predictable.

OK, I can’t help myself. I’m going to throw in yet two more words: too simplistic! Huh?

Let me explain. The first thing: too long. Well, it is! I was watching the movie with my wife and even she felt bored at certain times. I guess what this actually shows is that Sex and the City should only be seen half an hour at a time a la the HBO show!

Too predictable? You bet. When we last left the ladies, Carrie was getting back with Big, Samantha was moving to LA with boyfriend Jerry, Charlotte and hubby Harry were about to adopt a girl from China and Miranda was getting back together with Steve and raising son Brady.

So, what happens in the movie? Carrie gets a wedding proposal from Big, gets jilted at the altar, but still ends up marrying him anyway. Samantha does not like the West Coast, or being in a relationship, so she ditches both. Charlotte gets miraculously pregnant. Miranda has a huge fallout with Steve but still ends up back with him. How original.

Let me point out some holes in all of the above.

Carrie and Big. It’s cute that they were getting married. Trouble is, the show was never about being cute. Actually, the show constantly made fun of cute. The cuter you were the more ridicule you faced from the ladies. The whole thing with Carrie being profiled in Vogue and her trying on wedding dresses and getting one as a gift was beyond cute. It was downright out of Disney. And Big getting cold feet, that’s not Big. Big is a character larger than life. He is supposed to be the embodiment of New York in one single man. He is a successful business man, able to afford multi-million dollar penthouses. He gets cold feet because he is not able to connect with Carrie the night before, and the day of the wedding? Only to get cold feet on his cold feet and decides to go back to get married? Who writes this stuff? True, Carrie should have been devastated, but you know what? If that ever happens to me, that my wife-to-be’s cellphone is out of reach, and she is not responding to email, you know what I would do? I would go down to see her wherever she was. She is the love of his life, and he doesn’t know her three best friends’ cellphone numbers, so that he can talk to her and explain things? Maybe she wouldn’t have wanted to talk to him, and I would understand that, but not even trying to call Samantha or Miranda or Charlotte? I don’t get it.

Then when the ladies get back from Mexico, he doesn’t try to go to her apartment to talk to her? He instead sends a few emails and that’s it? Again, I don’t get it.

Samantha and Jerry and LA. I guess everyone knew what we going to happen there. She was never cut out for relationships, sex is her eternal boyfriend, and LA is just not her scene. But did they really have to make Jerry out to be a loser jerk that cares more about his career than Samantha? He’s the same guy who stood by her when she had cancer and chemo, and now at the drop of a heartbeat, he can’t even make it for a Valentine’s dinner? Oh yeah, the chocolates were a nice gesture! Just plain dumb writing.

Miranda and Steve. Who knew that she would put her career ahead of family? OK, OK, you all can lower your hands now. Apparently, one of the outcomes of putting career ahead of family is lower sexual libido. The outcome of that is the husband cheats. The outcome of that is the family gets separated. The outcome of that is that people realize they love each other and are meant to be together. Rinse. Repeat. Anyone who watches the Lifetime channel can tell you the above sequence. The irony is that the Lifetime channel is exactly the opposite of what Sex and the City is supposed to be about.

Charlotte and Harry. Well, they are living happily ever after. With their adopted child. And then they get pregnant. How much more “happily” can you get? The only thing missing are cartoon birds tying her hair knot! One thing about Harry: his part in the show was great because he was the anti-Charlotte. His rawness made him appealing. In the movie, he barely has a few lines, and looks like an idiot. A reformed, civil idiot.

New York is never featured as the fifth friend on the show. What is up with that?

The great thing about the Sex and the City show was that it showed the four friends as strong powerful women who can stand up on their own, with the occasional fling here and there. They never needed a man to feel fulfilled and accomplished. What this movie does is show them as sappy fools who only are looking for everlasting love. Well, they all eventually find it.

Even Samantha, beau-less, because the City (and a lot of sex) are her everlasting true love!

I give it 1.5 stars out of five.

Is everybody ready for tonight?

What's tonight, you ask? Only the most anticipated television event in years!

No, it's not Bush coming out to say "Ha, ha.. screwed you, American people, and your children and grandchildren too! Who's laughing now?"

No, it's the Vice Presidential debate. One and only! Better not miss it! Some pundits believe that if Palin screws up royally, by Friday she will withdraw her name from the GOP ticket. But that's not why I'm going to be watching. Oh, who am I kidding? OF COURSE IT IS!

I believe it was Jay Leno who said a couple of days ago that Palin's strategy for the debate should be to let Biden go first, in which case he'll take up all the time and she wouldn't have to say anything! Brilliant! I hope that's not the case though.

Anyway, I just hope to God that Putin does not rear his head while Palin is not in Alaska.

Something funny happened on the way to work this morning..

I heard a WaMu commercial on the radio, complete with their tagline of "WOOHOO!"

No wonder those people went bankrupt!

Yet another ridiculous "statistical" link!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26959100/
"Car crash risk rises on election days, study says. Death risk goes up 18 percent but that's no reason to skip polls, authors say."

Give me a flippin break!

""This is one of the most off-the-wall things I've ever read, but the science is good," said Roy Lucke, senior scientist at Northwestern University's Center for Public Safety. He was not involved in the study, which appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association."

Apparently, we're not having any potential or actual crises these days. Apparently, "scientists" need to find other ways to fill their time. Apparently, "science" magazines are deperately looking for any material so that they can publish it.

Two things need to happen, people:
1. Stop funding these ridiculous "studies." That money could be better spent somewhere else.
2. Scientists and researchers need to find better tings to do with their time and money and resources.

Then again, the researchers in this study were Canadian, and it's not Hockey season yet, so that might explain a thing or two!

A new link to breast cancer?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26954781/
"Women who were bigger and longer babies may be more likely to develop breast cancer, researchers reported on Tuesday."

This is just the most ridiculous thing I've heard since that Palin interview with Couric.

To link breast cancer to birth size, or specifically birth length, is ridiculous. I'm sure that, if you're looking for it, you can find a link between any two things you want, if you look hard enough. Maybe there's a link between breast cancer and the kind of brush a woman uses to brush her hair. Or a link between breast cancer and whether a woman wears eyeglasses or not.

So what does this mean, anyway? Seriously.

I call BS.

This just blows my mind

No further comment necessary

Letterman is my new hero!

I usually don't like Letterman. I think he's not that funny, and would ten times more rather watch Jay Leno than him. But, how can you deny the beauty in these clips?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26885532#26884600

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26885532#26902602

Palin declares victory in Iraq!

Oh thank God! I thought we had lost that war!

Excerpt from the Seattle Times:
In an interview with CBS' Katie Couric that aired Thursday night, Palin said that "a surge in Afghanistan also will lead us to victory there as it has proven to have done in Iraq," adding that "we cannot afford to retreat, to withdraw in Iraq."

So there you have it. First, we accomplished the mission. If anybody had any doubts on whether that accomplishment was a success or a failure, we have Palin, here, to put to rest all those doubts.

Compared to her, Dubya is a Rhodes scholar. Seriously. She didn't even know that she did indeed meet with a foreign leader. She had met with Iceland president Olafur Ragnar Grimsson just this last October. But when Charlie Gibson asked her in the ABC interview on September 11, she said she had not met with any leader of a foreign nation. When asked about it, Palin's Alaska press secretary, Bill McAllister confirmed that Palin, as Alaska governor, had met with the president of Iceland, but he said that he thinks that Palin thought that Charlie was asking her about major events and leaders like Putin. (Oh, you meant ANY foreign leader, well why didn't you say so in the first place, Charlie?)

She also referred to McCain as her running mate in some of her speeches. No. The VP is the running mate, not the other way around. She also referred to the Republican ticket as Palin/McCain. Again, no. It's McCain/Palin, you Neo-Con dimwit.

She has no clue. How can she be the 2nd in line to be America's president?

McCain and the economy

Just a quick thought, for now, but isn't McCain saying that he needs to suspend his campaign so that he can run back to DC to fix the economy, the same as a janitor shutting down his bucket or a parking lot attendant suspending the entrance gates at a nuclear power plant because they must run to the control room to fix the meltdown?

Ichiro!

Yes, I'm starting with a sports related post. I can't apologize for being me!

In case you haven't heard, the Seattle Times yesterday published a report that said that some Mariners players wanted to kick Ichiro's butt around May this year. Why? Apparently he was playing hurt, he had some hamstring issues, and so he wasn't as fast and couldn't get to fly balls the way he normally would have. Some national media outlets even picked up the story, since I saw it on ESPN.com and MSNBC.com.

When did Major League Baseball become 2nd grade recess? That is wrong on so many levels.

Here's the thing, almost all professional sport players play hurt and through pain at one time or another. Heck, even weekend warriors, people who are not getting paid to play sports, play through bumps and bruises and tweaks and sprains. I did that. Why? Because of the love of the game. It doesn't matter what sport you play, there is an elevated possibility of getting hurt. To tell you the truth, if a professional player starts complaining about HAVING to play through pain, then that's a player that your team probably doesn't need, and would probably be better off without that player.

Let's dissect that sentiment a little further. A teammate wanting to go kick another player's ass because that player is playing hurt. I cannot see that statement coming from a position player, just because they themselves might get hurt at one point and would have to play through the pain, so they wouldn't even be thinking about taking another player out just because they're playing hurt.

So did this come from a pitcher? Most probably. A reliever wouldn't have the same prima-donna attitude as starting pitchers, so I would say this came from a starting pitcher. This year, only two new starting pitchers were added to the M's staff: Bedard and Silva. Bedard doesn't talk to anyone in the clubhouse, he's as quiet as a mouse (even though I've had a mouse in an old apartment that kept me up at night because of its incessant running back and forth across the ceiling, but that's a different post for a different day). So that leaves Silva. And yes, I can see Silva saying that.

If that's the case, if Silva was the one who wanted to kick Ichiro's ass, then I would advise Mr. Silva to take a look in the mirror. First, he wouldn't like what he would see, girth-wise. Boy is huge! Second, didn't he, himself, play hurt a few games this year and couldn't even get out of the 2nd or 3rd innings? Perhaps other M's should have kicked his ass. Problem is, you would need a really big foot to do so.

And what about Ibanez last year? Didn't he play hurt throughout the first half of last season? his power number didn't start going up until after July. However, there was no mention of any ass kicking threats. Ibanez might have cost the Mariners even more last year. Think about this: If Ibanez had admitted that he was having back problems, perhaps the organizations would have let him rest his back for a while and called up Adam Jones to play left field. Perhaps Adam Jones would have put up some decent numbers and when Ibanez was ready to come back, then both would have stayed in the lineup (I'm sure the M's would have found a spot for Ibanez in the lineup, they need his productivity), and if you all remember, last year the M's had 88 wins and were very close to earning a sport in the playoffs. Perhaps the above scenario of playing Adam Jones and Ibanez would have produced a couple more wins, and put the M's in position to remain a contender for a playoff spot down the stretch. Not too far fetched, is it? Still, no talk about any Ibanez ass kicking. Go figure!

I would rather have Ichiro play at 90% than a lot of the other Mariners playing at 100%, except for Ibanez and Beltre, because he would still be better than those bums. All of them.

So whoever is saying those things about Ichiro, just shut it. Yes, I'm looking at you, Silva. Don't make me come down there (is Shaq available?)

I'm back!

It's been a while since I've posted anything, but seeing as today's Friday, and I have already mentally checked out for the weekend, I'll be putting up some new posts today. If everything works out, I'll have a couple of sports related and a couple of politics related posts.

Stay tuned, if you must!

Movie Review: Made of Honor

Even though the trailers for this movie did raise a red flag or two, my wife and I decided to rent the movie on DVD and give it a go. Bad mistake. Bad, bad mistake. I think not even 15 minutes into the movie had passed that I realized that this was going to be a weak movie. Julie gave it a little bit longer to pass judgement. Judgement was swift afterwards: worst. movie. ever. Pretty harsh, ain't it?
Here's the deal. I like chick flicks as much as the next heterosexual guy. However, every once in a while a chick flick rolls by that I truly enjoy, and I wouldn't even mind admitting to that in public (manly man disclaimer ends here).
This movie didn't quite pass the mustard. There was no chemistry between the lead characters, the script was awful, the plot was done (to a much better extent with gender reversal in "My Best Friend's Wedding" with Julia Roberts and Dermot Mulroney and Cameron Diaz), and the "zingers" were as bad as they can be. Really, the one liner deliveries by Patrick Dempsey were horrible. It felt like he was reading from a cue card, which I think he was the entire movie. He is no leading man charmer, not in this movie at least. Dempsey had more charm in "Sweet Home Alabama" in his 15 minutes in that movie, where he was supposed to be the jilted suitor, than this entire movie. He must have read the script, thought it was a joke, then saw how much money he was getting paid for it, and decided to go for it, winging it! That's what I would have done. Reputation? Who cares? He has that little hospital drama on ABC, if you haven't heard by now, where he has his own nickname and all!
Michelle Monaghan did add a layer of respectability to the movie. It seems she at least tried to make it a real movie. I give her that much. But she had no help, and was doomed with the shoddy writing and horrible supporting cast (her other friends who were supposed to be the bridesmaids were as cliched as heck, and even they mailed in their performance).
One more thing that I abhor, is when the writers throw in sophomoric jokes in chick flicks, that fail miserably. The shining example is when one of the bridesmaids dupes Dempsey into hiring an exotic toys sales woman for the entertainment at the bridal shower, and the consequent "Beads of Thunder" joke that the writers stretch to its breaking point and beyond. Two words: NOT FUNNY. Or when Dempsey's dad, the wonderful and incomparable and the late Sydney Pollack, is negotiating the number of times he and his sixth wife-to-be will be intimate in a week ("I will give you 3 times a week and a 1 BJ a month") for the pre-nup right before they get married. Awful. Who writes this stuff? 13 year olds, with WILD imaginations?
Here are my grades for the movie, out of five:
Plot: 0.5 star. Been there, done that.
Script: 0.5 star. Downright horrible.
Direction: 2.5 stars. Nothing much to complain about there. Script and acting sink this movie.
Lead actor: 1 star. Dempsey's still nice to look, I'm told by the ladies!
Lead actress: 3 stars. I like Monaghan. She's likable.
Supporting actors, collectively: 0.5 stars. Busy Phillips, in particular, ZERO stars!

As always, let me know what you think!

New MS Ads!

Have you seen them?

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/149155.asp

Let me know what you think!

Stay Tuned!

I went to the Microsoft company meeting yesterday at Safeco Field and they talked about innovation and demoed some new features and apps, and let me tell you, two words: STAY TUNED! The things that they featured were very very cool, and very very exciting. I can't wait until they showcase all the cool stuff at PDC in a couple of months, but get ready to be blown away!

Not too creative today!

I'm not feeling too creative today, which is why I haven't posted anything yet! I think I'm rather bored. I do have a couple of short story ideas that I'm playing with in my head that I might end up posting on this blog sometime in the very near future. This is something that I would love to do, given the chance, to write stories, probably mostly short stories. The thing is, I can't see myself writing them all in one genre. I think they would span multiple genres, from Scifi to romance to mystery, and so on. I hope that works! I hope I get the inspiration to start that!

McCain, a serial liar

A very good article about McCain and his lies about Obama. I think that he repeated them too many times, that he now actually believes them.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/379185_teepenonline16.html

Also, a very nice article from Thomas L. Friedman, with whom I don't always see eye to eye!

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2008182445_friedman16.html

Yes, indeed, SNL did not disappoint!

That Palin and Hilary skit on Saturday Night Live was amazing! Very funny, and very on point, and very scary how much Tina Fey nailed her impersonation of Palin! From the hair to the glasses to the suit to the mannerisms, and most frightening of all, the voice! I hope Tina comes back and does more. She was, I'm sure, the second happiest person in the world, after Palin herself, when McCain asked her to join his ticket! Anyway, I would give the skit 10 out of 10, and would recommend watching it on YouTube if you haven't already. I haven't seen any clips there straight from YouTube, probably because of copyrights, but there are quite a few that are from a Fox News review of the SNL skit. I will not be linking to any of those videos, since I do not link to Fox News, anything.

SNL

I can't wait to go home and watch the opening sketch from Saturday Night Live! Everybody is talking about it, and it's on the web everywhere, but I want to watch it when I'm home with my wife! I'll probably write a thing or two about it tomorrow.

Quick thought about Obama

I believe that when he restarts his campaign and responds to all those shameful lies being thrown at him from the McCain/Palin campaign, it's going to be a thing of beauty.

Sports over the weekend? Meh

There were some sporting events that I was looking forward to! College Football and NFL games on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, the University of Washington Huskies were playing against the No.3 team in the country, the Oklahoma Sooners. I knew it wasn't going to be pretty, but it was downright ugly. I have no idea why I follow Husky sports, I'm not an alumnus or anything, but I guess they're the local college team and it would be cool to see them do well. Saturday, they didn't do well. They did awful.

But, on Sunday, my beloved Seahawks were playing. And they were going to take down a lower quality division opponent in the San Francisco 49ers. Or at least that's what i was hoping for. When the score became 14-0 in the first quarter, I thought it was going to be a GREAT game! But.. to make a long story short, the 'Hawks lost in overtime, 33-30. I know there are a lot of injuries to the receivers, and we had another one yesterday on the first couple of plays in the game, but that's not an excuse. I would have to say that all aspects of the 'Hawks played well, except the secondary. The cornerbacks and safeties were GAWDAWFUL. I'm not going to get into it now, but the season is looking to be slipping away from us, which would complete the cycle of misery for sports fans up here in Western Washington.

Also, a quick thing about my wife!

I hope she doesn't divorce me because of this, but, I wanted to add new entries to the blog over the weekend, but here's the thing. My wife has the fastest laptop closing hands in the west! I swear that sometimes I wonder if she will close the laptop on her own fingers one day, because of how fast she goes from typing something to just closing the laptop. It must be something between .01 seconds (the margin Phelps won one of his gold medals) and .03 seconds (the margin Bolt broke the 100m sprint world record). So, in a nutshell, my wife would be using the laptop, and I would wait until she's done so I can use it, and all of a sudden, WHAM, the laptop's closed, and I then lack the will power to turn on the laptop again and do whatever it is that I wanted to do.

Did I mention that I love my wife?

From the department of the glaringly obvious

This is going to be one of the most polarizing elections in years, if not ever. Both candidates (or tickets, I should say) have some pretty hardcore followers that speak the message of their candidates as gospel. Very frightening, if you ask me.

One more thing about the Seahawks

Will the media please, PLEASE, stop calling Floyd Womack "Pork Chop?" It was cute for the first couple of years, but it has become very silly since. You don't have to say Floyd "Pork Chop" Womack every-friggin-time!

9/11

RE: The 7th anniversary of 9/11. On the one hand, it's hard to believe that 7 years have passed since that day, I remember the events as if they happened yesterday. On the other hand, 7 years have passed since that day and the world has only gotten worse. Seeing the closeness and comradarie of people and nations on that day and the days that followed, I had a feeling that the whole world will unite and it would be a safer place for all of us. But, then again, I'm not a politician or a military person, and I did not see the same thing that those people saw. That 9/11 was an amazing opportunity to drive personal and political agendas and create this culture of fear and war and oh-so-misguided-and-misplaced-even-if-sincere patriotism. More and more people are coming out of that fog and that funk and realizing what happened was the absolute wrong chain of events. I just hope this bodes well for all of us in this very important year, a year of and for CHANGE.

Seahawks week 1 review

After week 1, they SUCK! Yes, those are capital S capital U capital C and capital K. Anyone who watched the game who wasn't a Buffalo Bills fan, was completely and utterly depressed after it. We wait for Football for 7 months, and that's what we get? My son, who's 1 year old, and this would be his first Football season where he could comprehend a thing or two, looked at me with a very quizzical look on his face after some of Holmgren's calls. Especially, ESPECIALLY, the draw play to the FB Weaver on a 3rd and something ridiculous! Yes, if you didn't see the game, then the look on my son's face is that same look that you have right now! A draw play.. to the Fullback.. on a 3rd and beyond long! Anyway, to be quite honest, I was very disgusted, I think I threw up in my mouth a little bit during and after the game, but I got over it. Why so quickly?

Well, first of all, I'm a sports fan in the Pacific Northwest. If you haven' heard (and I don't blame you if you haven't, because believe it or not the Pacific Northwest is indeed part of the United States, and it's part of the contiguous United States) sports up here seem to be our emotional and psychological black hole. It sucks in everything and leaves nothing but darkness, which is how our souls feel after considering any of the sporting teams that are associated with this part of the country. The Mariners are so far at the bottom of the Al West that the next worst team in that division can't even see them in their rearview mirror. And they have not been to the post season since God knows how long (I'm sure someone else other than God knows how long, it just seems like an eternity). The beloved SuperSonics are gone. Snatched from amongst us by the wickedest of methods (something that I might visit in the future, I still have a lot of steam to blow off regarding that whole debacle). Even the Huskies and the Cougars football teams are the worst in their division and expected to finish dead last and next to dead last. I would like to include sports teams from Oregon in this discussion, but I just can't get myself to acknowledge them! Point is, we're some of the best adjusted fans in all of sports because of the heartache upon heartache our teams have given us.

Second, I am giving the Seahawks a mulligan for the first 3 games and up to the bye week. Their top 4 wide receivers are hurt (2 lost for the season, the other 2 are expected somewhere around the bye week). They also play the 49ers and the Rams @ home, so that makes the schedule very favorable. They can still get to the bye week with a 2-1 record and get their top 2 receivers back. Maybe by that time the OL will have gelled together nicely and a running game will have started to emerge from the ashes of the past 2 years. Maybe Hasselbeck and the new receivers will have adjusted to each other and displayed a semblance of a passing game. Maybe rookie Tight End Carlson will show that he really is worth the draft day maneuvering to get him. Maybe. That little word is what keeps us sports fan tuned in, week in and week out.

With all that being said, I still can't understand all the recent moves the Front Office made the past couple of days:
- Released Jordan Kent: Even though we do need more, not less wide receivers, I can understand this move because he still needs some experience and he can't be relied on to be the team's 3rd or 4th best option. In any case, he cleared waivers and was signed to the Practice Squad.
- Release Justin Forsett: HUH???!!! Why? He is a rookie, and a little bit undersized, but he has potential and plenty of it. Everybody knew that he was not going to clear waivers, no way. So what happened? The Colts picked him up. I hope he's not the next Westbrook or something like that. Besides, why do we still have 2 kickers on the roster?
- Keeping 2 kickers on the roster: I can understand that if one is so outstanding at kickoffs, and that's all he does, and the other is so outstanding at field goals and so accurate that you have to keep them both. But that's not the case. Coutu wasn't even active last week. Don't you think that if he were release, nobody would've picked him up and he could've been placed on the Practice Squad, and thus saving a spot for Forsett? Makes no sense to me that the FO would rather keep a 2nd kicker who does not even get activated on game day rather than a running back with a lot of potential and great hands coming out of the backfield. That's the major head scratcher.
- Signing 2 new wide receivers, McMullen and Parker: Ok, we need wide receivers, but, um, who?! I think that the Front Office need to swallow a big gulp of their pride and take a look at Koren Robinson. Why not? He already knows the offense, he's rehabilitated, and besides, it's a win on all sides situation for the organization in showing that they give players a second chance and he's someone who the fans would feel good about because there would be an elevated sense of relief and familiarity. Judging from last season, Robinson still has that explosiveness in him and I think that getting him back in Seattle would encourage him to prove to everybody including himself that he still can play, and that people's faith in him is well placed. And if he does anything stupid, the organization will show him the door as fast as humanly possible and they can say "hey, at least we tried!"

I'll be watching the games on Sunday. Oh you know I will. I'm a fan, and that's what fans do. They stand behind their teams. Or it's just out of morbid curiosity! And if they are down big near the end of the game, I'll be turning off the TV, sulking for a bit, and then picking myself up and rejoining the normal universe. How come so quickly? Well, I'm a Pacific Northwest sports fan!