A Trip to Paradise, Part 6

Day 6, continued

After lunch, we headed up towards Volcano National Park. On the way, we stopped at the plant orchard that features the orchid valued at $20,000.



Please, in the name of all that is holy, do not ask why this plant is valued at this. Trust me when I say that it's a claim that does not stand up to careful scrutiny. I bought a $.79 key chain at this store that is more valuable to me than this plant.

We eventually entered the national park. This is a park that contains ACTIVE volcanoes. No one knows when they might pop off again. This is a picture of a caldera of an active volcano. You might notice it's the size of a small town...



The park is also peppered with steam vents. If you recall your basic high school physics, you know that steam is actually invisible. The white stuff that you see is actually water vapor that has changed from complete gas to partial liquid. So visible steam is cooled enough to be harmless. Observe...



(An aside: yes, that is me. Aren't you all glad I don't post pictures of myself more often?)

We headed back down the mountains after this. We stopped at an exit where we could walk through a lava tube. If you ever get a chance to walk through a tube of solid rock that once upon a time had red hot molten lava flowing through it, then do it! You won't be disappointed.

We returned to Hilo, Hawaii, and I was disappointed to find that Wal-Mart had invaded.

At the airport, after traveling through security, we spent our time in the Hilo airport departure lounge. Note to Homeland Security--who will soon surely ship me to Guantanamo--check folks who wear cargo shorts! I had in my pocket a 6 ounce bottle of sunscreen that went through security undetected. I am kidding about this by the way.

I have to say that of all the airport lounges I have been in, this one was the most comfortable by far! The chairs and couches were all fitted with comfortable cushions, and it was very easy to become so comfortable you didn't want to leave, especially after spending a day in constant motion. We nearly missed our flight!

We finally arrived back at our resort at nearly 11 PM...

A Trip to Paradise, Part 6

Day 6

My dad and I scheduled a tour of the big island of Hawaii this day. For those of you who don't know, the island of Hawaii is the BIG island that you can see on every map of the U.S. It is the biggest--and newest--island of the island chain. It is the one that still contains the bulk of the active volcanoes that formed the islands in the first place.

The first step was getting there. We flew out of Honolulu airport via Go! airlines, which is a VERY small regional airline that has dreams of being a LOT bigger. It never will be, though, because it believes in friendly customer service, arriving and leaving on time, and thinking that the comfort of your passengers is more important than making a profit.

We boarded the tour bus for our tour. Our first stop was Rainbow falls. Sadly, due to the extreme drought being experienced by the islands, the falls was more like Rainbow trickle.


We then visited the Mauna Loa Macadamia nut factory and store. If you've never had a Macadamia nut, then you don't know what you are missing. they are delicious, sweet, and not to be missed. If you do nothing else in this life, taste a Macadamia nut before you die. (I recommend the Maui onion and garlic flavored ones.)

We journeyed up the steep island slope. It is important to remember that the Hawaiian island chain was formed by volcanoes. Those volcanoes are still active, and are doing their best to add to the land mass of their island chain. We stopped for lunch at a drive in that resides at the base of a lava plain that covered over six square miles of what was once open Pacific ocean.


TO BE CONTINUIED

A Trip to Paradise, Part 5

Days 4 and 5.

It would be nice to say that we did something on these days, but it would be a lie.

I live in Northwest Ohio. From October to April, this is a city that gets maybe 5 days of sunlight during that entire six month period if we're lucky. So on these two days I spent most of my time lying on a chaise or swimming in the resort pool or lagoon. I applied 30 SPF sunblock in a futile attempt to obtain a tan, but my combination of Scandinavian and Irish genes rendered that attempt futile.

Suffice to say that nothing itches more than second degree sunburn.

I am a simple creature, with simple tastes. I am happiest when I am doing nothing. And nothing is what I did for 2 days on Hawaii.

If any of the 3 readers of this blog have a problem with that, then I invite them to take a week away from their jobs and travel to a place that requires nothing of them other than to lie down and soak up sunrays.

It's not something that's easy to pass up.

A Trip to Paradise, Part 4

Day 4

Returning the rental car was on today's agenda, after a morning spent fat-assing around the hotel doing as little as possible.

Returning the rental car meant going back to Honolulu airport. There were a few ways to get back to the resort once I returned it. My choices were a cab ride, or relying on Hawaii public transportation (= The Bus).

Cab: $30
The Bus: $2.25
(By the way, "The Bus" is not my name for Hawaii's public transportation system--it's theirs. Seriously. It's simply called "The Bus". It's not terribly original, but why should they call it anything else when it's the only one available?)

Easy choice.

It's quite a remarkable thing. Riding a bus in Honolulu is a lot like riding a bus in any other city in the country. Crowded, smelly, and with non-existent shock absorbers. I have experienced being completely dependent on public transportation before, though, and it is not fun.

But hey, the price is right. And I did my small part to help keep Hawaii green.

After day four, we had little to do except a lot of nothing...

A Trip to Paradise, Part 3

(Day 3--Tuesday)

A drive up the East coast of Oahu was on our agenda this day.

We started late, much later than I would have preferred. But we got going. Eventually. Please understand that I have now gotten to the point that whenever my dad and I have to be somewhere, I always tell him we have to be there half an hour earlier than we are supposed to be. That way, we sometimes get there on time. But I digress.

Our ultimate destination was the Polynesian cultural center. The problem was that we were often sidetracked by stops at several scenic pullouts and beach sites. As a result, we did not arrive there until almost 1:30 PM. This caused us to miss a lot of the shows put on by the various students of the center from the many Polynesian islands represented at the center.

Not to worry, though. We arrived in plenty of time to view the 2 PM canoe pageant. This is when all of the Polynesian islands represented at the center bring dancers out to perform on flatbed double-hulled canoes in the center of the main canoe lagoon. This is also apparently when they decide that any first-time canoe-poler should be impressively dunked in the lagoon, much to his annoyance.

We enjoyed a fine Luau with our dinner. Dinner was amazing. The philosophy behind a Polynesian Luau dinner is not that you should eat until you are full—you should eat until you are dizzy. It didn’t disappoint. I think I gained 5 pounds.

This was followed by an equally impressive show in the main theater. The highlight of the show was the fire spinners—and if you’ve never seen them, then let me just say that there are only a few things in life that live up to the hype that surrounds them—this was one of them.

(That's 9 different fire spinners performing there, some of them with 2 torches apiece. And they would often throw them back and forth.)

Spending a day at the Polynesian cultural center is expensive--the full ticket plus other expenses can easily cost over $150. However, while this place is a first-class tourist trap, it is for a good cause: Polynesian students from all ages from Kindergarten to old age attend school there. They get an education, learn to value their rich heritage, extract many dollars from tourist, and (hopefully) take their educations and skills back to their homeland to help others. And the fact that the tourists are entertained is merely a by-product.

Sadly, this was the last day we had a car as part of our package, so we were unable to really explore further by vehicle. We were left to depend on local transportation for the rest of our trip...

A Trip to Paradise, Part 2

Day 2 (Monday)

A trip to Pearl Harbor was on our itinerary. This was my first trip to the Aloha State. I wanted to see where the great cataclysm began. We began our tour with a walk through the permanently moored submarine USS Bowfin.
(In the foreground of that picture you can see 2 of the memorial plaques to submarines lost during the war.)

The United States submarine fleet in World War 2 completely decimated the Japanese merchant marine fleet, one of the primary reasons America won the war in the Pacific. It managed to do this despite continuous problems ranging from supply shortages to malfunctioning torpedoes to total lack of any support from the surface fleet. 52 American submarines were lost in WW2, and 3,505 sailors are known lost--"On eternal patrol". The American submarine fleet suffered the highest per capita mortality rate of all branches of the U.S. military during World War 2. WW2 submariners earned 7 Medals of Honor, 3 of them posthumously. Despite all of this, this part of history is not well known. There is a reason it is called the "Silent Service".

Then, we entered the USS Arizona memorial theater. We viewed a short film on Pearl Harbor, and then boarded the Navy launch to the memorial.

Once there, we saw the hull of the sunken ship. I entered the memorial. My eye immediately moved to the Johnson surnames, and I saw the name “E.R. Johnson” (My initials.) I was quite surprised. I looked over to my dad, who had seen it before, and he simply smiled at me smugly.

According to a National Park Ranger, the sailor’s name was Edmund Russell Johnson. I can safely say after a small amount of research that the man was no relation to me. It was still a bit freaky though. Other than the man’s name, I can find no other information on him. Apparently just one of the many killed on the ship.

1177 American servicemen died on the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. The hull of the ship lies on the bottom of the harbor, holding whatever remains of them. The U.S. Navy considers them all honorably buried at sea.


Currently only 21 known survivors of the disaster are still alive. Survivors, when they die, have the right to have their cremated remains interred in the sunken wreck with the rest of their former shipmates. The last one will die some day.

We then took a tour of the USS Missouri, the permanently moored Iowa-class Museum battleship that was one of the ones built to avenge Pearl Harbor. It was on this ship that Japan signed the documents of surrender that ended WW2, and the exact spot where it happened is clearly marked. The ship itself still contains the refits it was given when it was re-commissioned under the Reagan administration (Harpoon missile tubes, Phalanx AA gun mounts, etc.), refits that were performed even though the Battle of Pearl Harbor had graphically demonstrated the obsolescence of the Battleship 50 years before its re-commissioning. Still, it was quite a sight to stand on top of the ship’s flying bridge and gaze out over the giant 16-inch guns that now stand as silent guardians of the remains of the Arizona. The sunken ship, where 1177 men lost their lives in the worst disaster in U.S. Navy history, is where the war began for America. And the ship that served as the stage for the end of that war now stands permanent watch over them. I'm sure they are all resting a little easier knowing that.



Afterwards, we drove up the west side of Oahu. We managed a brief stop at the Dole plantation. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, it was too late in the day to really explore and it will have to wait until the next time I manage to make it out to the Aloha State to see what that is all about...

A Trip to Paradise, Part 1

Recently, I spent a week in the beautiful state of Hawai’i on vacation. I’d like to share with you the 3 readers of this blog my experiences there.

Day One: Sunday, February 14th: This was the day I flew to the state. My day began at 5 AM. I had a 9 AM flight out of Detroit, which meant I needed to arrive there no later than 7:30 to make it through security. If anyone has not yet experienced the new airport security checkpoint, let me try to describe it:

Take off your shoes. If you wonder why, I have two words for you: Richard Reid.

Remove all items from your pockets that have any trace of metal in them.

Make sure your carryon has no bottles in it larger than 3 ounces.

Remove your laptop from your carryon and place it in a tray.

DO NOT wear a sweater or a bulky sweatshirt. I learned the hard way that this is just an invitation to be pulled from the security line and wanded, at the very least.

Got a bottle of water on you? Drink it. The claim is that this is for security, but it’s really to make sure you have to buy one or more in the stores ($2.00+) past security. It won’t matter if the bottle is sealed or not.

Once we finally got on the flight, I flew from Detroit to Minneapolis/St. Paul for my connecting flight. I was on a DC-9. This plane is probably the smallest commercial airliner that can still be considered an airliner and not a commuter jet. We arrived in M/SP on time, but another plane was still at our gate, so we had to sit on the taxiway for nearly a half hour before we could pull up. And then, there was no one available to pilot the jetway to hook it up to our plane (the mind boggles at trying to figure out why). Combine all this with a severely claustrophobic female passenger who nearly had a full-scale panic attack while waiting to get off, and I had only 20 minutes to make my flight to Honolulu. Suffice to say that it was close.

The flight out took slightly over 8 hours, thanks to a strong (80+ MPH) headwind. At least it was on a big plane, with individual video monitors for each seat. Movies, music, TV shows, and other entertainment are available.

Upon arrival in Honolulu, the outside temp was over 80 degrees. I quickly shucked my long-sleeved shirt and gloried in the warm weather.

I arrived at the car rental agency, and was given a free upgrade to a convertible. Nice choice for Hawai’i, if you discount the fact that the stored car top requires so much space that the back end of the car is twice as large as a normal sedan, and trunk space is virtually nonexistent.


Traffic in Waikiki is horrendous. If you ever get out there, try to find somewhere else to stay...

What Does it Take?

To be an actor?

Let's list the few things we all know about, shall we?

1) Every day you work, you have to wake up, and then pretend you are someone other than yourself.

2) You must become a master of multiple languages and dialects, even if you don't have a clue what you are saying when you speak them.

3) You must completely transform your personality, to become someone totally opposite from who you are.

4) You must toil for days, weeks, months, or years before someone notices that you have the talent to do what you want to do.

5) You must develop a skin of iron, that is completely impervious to criticism.

6) You must be willing to awake at any hour of any day, and work for the entire day, with no guarantee that anything you do that day will even matter.

7) You must be prepared to wear a bathing suit, or even nothing, and work outside when the temperature is below twenty degrees Fahrenheit. You must be prepared to wear a full Arctic outfit in one hundred degree weather.

8) You must be prepared to be constantly photographed by every single person on the planet.

9) You must be prepared to accept the fact that your career may only last 5 years--if you're lucky.

10) You must be prepared to accept the fact that you may NEVER have a career in your chosen profession.

11) You must be prepared to accept the fact that you will have to constantly diet and exercise to maintain your fame.

12) You must accept the fact that if you manage to somehow achieve success, other people will constantly be jealous of you for that fact, and will never, ever say anything nice about you again.

13) You must accept that whatever success you do obtain will be fleeting. It will not last.

If, after reading this list, you have any complaints about actors who have managed to obtain twenty million$ + contracts, well, then, I would invite you to go back yo your high school years. I invite you to remember the times you auditioned for your high school plays. I invite you to remember the rejection.

Unless you're George Clooney.

Drop the Last Three Letters...

...and you get just exactly who uses TWITTER.

In a news story that should be a surprise to no one, it would seem that Twitter has lost the following of a considerable portion of its users.

I have to ask: Was this really a surprise to anyone?

This is a testament to the nature of the beast.

Twitter allowed no person to post a "tweet" that was more than 250 characters (character = letter)

In other words, this phenomenon encouraged people to have as short of an attention span as possible.

Is it any wonder they were a victim of their own success?

Wow

Hey there you the three readers of this blog. I have a few questions for you:

Do you have an old website that you used to visit a lot?

Has it been a while since that website was updated?

Has that website recently been taken over by malware?

Well, I recently discovered a website dedicated to collecting and saving old pages from the web. They call it the Wayback machine.

Of course, the websites it collects are often incomplete and may contain unworking links. But at least someone out there is trying to save the world wide web from malware.

It may be a lost cause, but sometimes lost causes are still worth fighting for.

What Happened This Week

Well. It's been quite a week.

What may be the most progressive state in the country elected a REPUBLICAN to fill Ted Kennedy's seat for two years. Teddy is spinning in his grave.

The Supreme Court declared that corporations have the right to spend as much money as they want to elect candidates who will do whatever they say.

A court in Kansas began a trial that will no doubt end in a verdict that will announce to right-wing extremists that they have free reign to murder abortion providers and get off with only a few years in jail for doing so.

The world is going to Hell in a hand basket.

What do YOU think?

It is time for us to get off the dime.

"Somebody came along and said liberal means soft on crime, soft on drugs, soft on communism, soft on defense, and we're going to tax ya back to the stone age, because people shouldn't have to go to work if they don't want to. And instead of saying 'Well, excuse me, you right-wing, reactionary, xenophobic, homophobic, anti-education, anti-choice, pro-gun, leave it to beaver trip back to the fifties,' we cowered in the corner. And said 'Please Don't Hurt Me'"

From The West Wing, Season 3.

The Curse of the Twitter Generation

I recently received a message (I will not disclose the source), part of which was this:

"Your gf of 3 years has over 8,000 in savings and is having a hard time financiallly after her divorce but always pays her bills on time and has never defaulted. a company her and her ex hired to split their property left them holding the bag for 21000 with no project to sell after they failed to check on codes and my gf told them they don't have it until the house sells or if they had done their job and they had lots to sell, when they didn't check code they didnt know the land couldn't be divided so the company did all this work for nothing."

(This quote is copied word for word--no editing by me)

I simply have to ask: Is this some new foreign language that I was, up to now, previously unaware of?

Be aware that I recognize most of the words in the above quote.

Also be aware that the above quote contains over 100 words, and by my count, 2 periods, 1 comma (not counting the one in one of the numbers, and one apostrophe. If I need to point out to you where the missing punctuation should be, then you shouldn't be reading this blog.

Also worth noting is that only one word is capitalized, at the beginning of the quote.

I could go on and on, but I won't. To detail all of the rest of the spelling, grammatical, and syntax errors would take a much longer post than I am ready to right write now (I did that on prupose!)

Who or what is to blame for this rapid breakdown of communications skills in our society, a breakdown that is becoming more and more apparent every day?

One word: Twitter.

Twitter is the ultimate culmination of the natural progression of a society that has progressively learned to be as brief as possible in its communications.

Think about it. We went from writing letters longhand, to typing them, to word processors, to phone calls, to e-mail, to instant messages, and now to twitter. Our method of communication has progressed to the point where we must learn to be as brief as possible in hopes of keeping the attention of others.

Is there any wonder why the attention span of the current generation is so short?

Just because more is sometimes less does not necessarily mean the opposite is also true.

It Has Happened

They've done it. Those DUMBASSES in Massachusetts have actually decided to send a teabag Republican to the Senate to Ted Kennedy's former seat. Ted must be spinning in his grave right now.

And it's time for the Dumbocrats to do something about it.

It's time for them to get off their asses and stop acting like a bunch of battered women who don't know how to stand up for themselves.

It's time for them to stop believing in the myth of the "supermajority". The so-called "filibuster proof" 60-vote majority. The thing that that caused the Dumbocrats to give up so many of the things they wanted to do with the health care "reform" bill in order to maintain it. The thing that never really existed.

Note to Democrats: You need to take the gloves off. Republicans haven't played by the rules for the last 16 years. Time to return the favor.

Here's what to do:

Step One: Strip Joe Lieberman of every single committee chairmanship he has. He hasn't been a real Democrat for years now. Time to show him the price of betrayal.

Step Two: Stop acting like you're still the minority party.

Step Three: Start doing what you were elected to do--change things! Your party's leader, Barack Obama, rode a wave of popularity into a landslide election. The second after he was inaugurated, you began a program of business as usual.

Step Four: Start telling the Republicans to sit down and shut up. They've been doing it to you since 1994. If you keep letting them do it, you're going to find out how it feels to keep losing elections.

If you wanna see what the inauguration of President Sarah Palin looks like (shudder), please keep doing what you're doing.

Breaking the Barrier

Yesterday, I listened to the NPR program All Things Considered's coverage of the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti. One of their reporters, Jason Beaubien, was detailing efforts of doctors to treat the injured outside a hotel operating as a makeshift aid station.

At this point, some context is necessary. This was the day after the quake. Mr. Beaubien, who at this point had obviously been seeing tragedy after tragedy unfold right in front of him, happened upon a young girl. She was badly injured, wrapped in bandages, and unable to speak or even move, such were the extent of her injuries. It's a scene that is impossible to describe over the radio, but he did his best. And then his voice began to break, and he was barely able to continue his report.
(You can hear his account here.)

I realize that professional news reporters are supposed to be able to erect a barrier between themselves and the news that they are reporting. To report the news without being affected by it. And, to a certain extent, they are able to do that. They have to, if they want to be able to continue their chosen profession.

But being a reporter does not and cannot mean you can turn your emotions off. Emotions are, and have always been, more powerful than intellect. We as a species have always been slaves to our emotions. We can no more shut them off than we can switch off individual sections of our brain.

And yet that's exactly what we seem to expect most of the people who report the news to us. We expect them to be emotionless automatons, reporting on the worst tragedies without so much as batting an eyelash.

I for one was touched to hear a professional news reporter demonstrate that the news affects everyone. Even those who report it.

An Extraordinary Woman

Miep Gies died yesterday at age 100.

If you have no idea who she was, I'm not surprised. She was not a celebrity by any stretch of the imagination. But there was one thing she did that may be one of the most defining literary moments of the 20th century: She saved The Diary of Anne Frank.

(I should mention at this point that my own mother died on that very date eight years ago. A coincidence, I'm sure, but a significant one to me.)

Perhaps more importantly, of course, was the fact that Miep Gies, along with a few others, hid Anne, her family, and their friends from the Nazis in a secret room for over two years.

She did not have to do this. It would have been much simpler--and safer--to do nothing. She could have, like most non-combatants of Nazi-occupied countries, simply kept her head down and gone about her daily life. But instead, she helped hide these people, brought them supplies, and kept them informed about events of the war. And, after they were discovered, she attempted to bribe the authorities to release her friends, without success.

Of course, as was typical of ordinary people who do extraordinary things, Ms. Gies did not believe herself a hero for her actions. Mostly because she believed she didn't do enough, and could have done more.

Human history is full of examples where great tragedies have occurred because otherwise good people stood by and did nothing. Miep Gies was a hero because she tried to do something to stave off one of those great tragedies. And, when she finally couldn't do anything more to hold back the tide, she made sure to preserve an important piece of evidence detailing that tragedy, perhaps in the hope that she could keep something similar from happening again.

It was an act that forever changed the world.

My mother, in her own way, was a hero too. While I know of nothing that she did in her lifetime that changed the world on a similar scale, I do know that she taught school for most of her professional career. The schools she taught in were often in some of the worst neighborhoods this city has to offer. She often fought an administration that was more concerned with politics than educating students. And, when her cancer finally progressed to the point where she had to give up teaching, she volunteered as often as she could for various charitable causes. Believe me when I say that it wasn't easy for her.

And yet, nothing my mother ever did probably changed the world on the scale of Ms. Gies' actions. And yet she was a hero to me. And I have to say this: Miep Gies, you were and are a hero, if not to yourself, then definitely to the rest of the world, even if they don't know it. I hope that somehow, somewhere, you and my mother are able to meet and spend a few hours together. If you had ever met in this world, I think you would have liked her. I know she would have liked you.

The Simpsons

I guess The Simpsons turned 20 yesterday.

I didn't watch it.

I haven't watched it for quite a few years now.

I will admit, I was a regular viewer a long time ago. I'm not any more.

Still, I have to respect the achievement. A half-hour animated sitcom has managed to survive 20 years. 20. Years. Most TV shows are lucky if they manage to last seven. Few get past the first season. If nothing else, the shows suffer from the fact that the actors in them age past the point where they can be believable in the roles they play (See Beverly Hills 90210 for possibly the most egregious example).

I considered it a major achievement when E.R. went 15 seasons. Of course, the show, like many others that lasted so long, underwent major cast changes throughout its run, to the point that none of the original cast members were in the last four seasons as regulars.

But The Simpsons has endured. 20 seasons, with all of the original cast members present, and unaging (only possible with a cartoon.)

It's quite an achievement. Unequaled in Prime Time TV. And while I don't watch it, I respect it.

New Garbage Cans

In case you didn't know, I live in the city of Toledo, Ohio.

There's not much to know about it. It's the home of the Toledo Mud Hens, possibly the most famous minor league baseball team in the world. It's also the home of Tony Packo's, the most famous Hungarian hot dog restaurant in the world. It's also the home of Jamie Farr, the actor famous from M*A*S*H, from which show the above mentioned things derived their fame.

I might also add that Packo's deserves its fame (you GOTTA try the Hot Dog Sauce). The Mud Hens, maybe not so much. Seriously. How much fame does a Minor League baseball team (even a Triple-A team) deserve?

(And I would also add that Jamie Farr sold out his home state by being a spokesman for the amendment that allowed casino gambling to invade our state. I will never watch another episode of M*A*S*H).

But my beloved city is suffering under the current economic crisis. Jobs are scarce. Tax revenues are down. And there is a flight from the city to its suburbs.

But we have new garbage cans!

The city is hard at work giving every house two new garbage cans that can be emptied by automatic trucks.

These cans are huge. They are over four feet tall, and made of very hard plastic. No normal human can possibly lift one of these things when it's full.

This situation is lose-lose. City sanitation workers that lose their jobs to these automatic trucks will no longer be able to pay taxes that, among other things, help maintain these trucks. And when they break down, there won't be workers to clean up the overflow of trash that will result.

I have NEVER been able to understand the rationale behind basing economic recovery strategies on REDUCING the number of available jobs.

If you can figure it out, I'd appreciate if you'd explain it to me.

The Bowl Nobody Cares About

For those of the 3 readers of this blog who care, the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl is playing right now.

That's right. It started at 8 PM on Monday, January 4th. It's also on Fox, and is up against the new season of The Bachelor on ABC, Heroes on NBC, and some popular CBS sitcoms.

It features two teams: The TCU Horned Frogs (that's really their name) and the Boise State Broncos.

Both teams are undefeated. But no one really cares.

Boise State is a member of the WAC, which might as well be short for the Weak Athletic Conference. of the nine teams in this conference, 5 have losing records this season and only two (Boise State and Hawaii) have winning non-conference records.

TCU plays in the Mountain west, whose 9 teams have a combined record of 61-51 overall. Not exactly what you would call football powerhouses.

But the two teams in the bowl are both undefeated, and since neither conference gets an automatic BCS invitation, they were given the two at-large BCS invitations. Mostly so both conferences would shut up about wanting a playoff system in the top college football division and go home with the huge payoffs they get for playing in a BCS bowl.

Now all the BCS has to worry about is some MAC team going undefeated...

The Insidiousness of Movie Piracy

There is a certain website out there--no strike that--there are dozens of websites out there--that allow recently released movies to be viewed--very easily--on-line.

Most of these movies are very poor quality, often featuring copies of movies filmed by illicit video cameras snuck into theaters, and they often feature poor sound quality and terrible pictures. I don't watch them mostly for that reason (among others). Recently, however, I came across a website that allowed full viewing of the new movie Avatar. The FULL movie, with all the bells and whistles, including not too bad quality sound and picture. The only thing missing was the 3-D.

I didn't watch it. I won't watch it. I can't accept that it should be watched. I paid good money to watch it in a theater, with full surround sound and real 3-D. And I CERTAINLY won't link to the site. I don't imagine it can be too hard to find, if anyone is determined enough.

I have accepted that this kind of outright piracy is what is and will be killing movies. Seriously. Why bother to expend the time, money, and effort to make a blockbuster movie when less than a day after it comes out in theaters, it can be viewed on-line for free?

I realize that these concerns, or some like them, have been raised before. And will be raised again. My point is that it seems like this has been happening more frequently in the last few years, and it is getting worse.

If anyone has any idea what to do about it, I'm listening.

O-H!

And may I say, I-to-the-fucking-O!

Ohio State = Rose Bowl Champions!

Life is good.

I think we may have an early contender for best sports moment of 2010.

And now, may I present: Carmen Ohio, featuring the late great Woody Hayes. Woody, you would have been proud of your team yesterday!



(No, you weren't seeing things: Woody was a good friend of Richard Nixon. I don't hold that against him.)