Pro Basketball Post-Season, Round 2

Surprises of the 1st Round: The Celtics looked much worse than predicted, and New Orleans (led by Chris Paul) looked much better.
So the NBA is kind of weird. You see, the 2nd Round of Playoffs began before the 1st Round ended. The Detroit Pistons (Eastern 2 Seed) won at home over the Orlando Magic (Eastern 3 Seed) in Game 1 and the New Orleans Hornets (Western 2 Seed) won at home over the San Antonio Spurs (Western 3 Seed) in Game 1 Saturday before Game 7 between the Boston Celtics and the Atlanta Hawks had even been played (the Celtics won at home on Sunday). Amazingly, Celtics-Hawks was the only series to go the full seven, and it pitted the team with the best record in the NBA with the playoff team with the worst record (not even .500); Neither team won a road game. And the Los Angeles Lakers (Western 1 Seed) beat the Utah Jazz (Western 4 Seed) in L.A. in Game 1 that same night. The Lakers were the only team to win a 4-game sweep (over the Denver Thuggets). In every series the higher-Seeded team won. So the two upsets I picked, the Phoenix Suns over the San Antonio Spurs and the Dallas Mavericks over the New Orleans Hornets were both wrong. Still coming up, Game 1 between Boston (Eastern 1 Seed) and Lebron James' Cleveland Cavaliers (Eastern 4 Seed) on Tuesday.

The only team to win Game #1 and lose the series was the Philadelphia 76ers (to the Pistons). The other 7 game one winners all handled their bidness, as I foreshadowed on April 21st.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/playoffs

Question: What if every series of every round in the West went 7 games, and each series of each round only went 4 in the East? Would the Eastern Finals Champ have 20 days to rest up before playing the Western Finals Champ?

Extra Point: Utah Jazz PG (Darrin? Deron?) Williams drops the f-bomb on a reporter he dislikes.
http://1280thezone.com/images/uploads/audio/DWill5-1-08.mp3http://www.thescoreboards.com/forums/utah-jazz/73605-deron-williams-i-hate-mother-f.html

The Invincible Iron Man

Everyone loves comic books! Personally, I have a big cardboard box full of them (I think of them as "a valuable investment", undoubtedly to be cashed in someday at some mythical store for a vast amount of money). I don't have any Iron Man comics though. He was always kind of lame. A rich guy who buys himself a metal suit. Blah. Like Batman (no real super powers), but without the cool nasty attitude and even more insulated from the outside world. And Tony Stark is a much snobbier rich guy than Bruce Wayne to boot.
To top off the lameness, the new Iron Man movie stars Robert Downey Jr. as the lead actor. Blech! He's better known by some for his many drunken benders and stints in rehab (for cocaine and heroin addictions, which he claimed started at the age of 8) than his acting skills (though he has been nominated for an Academy Award and an Emmy and is a Golden Globe winner). "It's like I have a loaded gun in my mouth and my finger's on the trigger, and I like the taste of the gunmetal" he once told a judge. Downey spent almost a year and a half in prison before hiring O.J. Simpson's lawyers. Funny to imagine that his first career role was voicing one of the Pound Puppies (long before his Saturday Night Live days)! And in an upcoming film he wears liberal face paint and portrays a black man. At least there's Jeff Bridges (Seabiscuit, The Big Lebowski, Tron, The Last Unicorn) to play the bad guy and Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love, Great Expectations, Emma, The Pallbearer, Se7en, Hook) as the love interest.
But Lo and Behold, Iron Man raked in an incredible $100 Million plus this weekend ($200MM+ worldwide- which is good, because the film reportedly cost $186 million to make). That's 65% of the box office, with the second-best film making a meager $15 Mil; Iron Man is only the second movie this year to break $100MM at the box office period (along with Horton Hears a Who). To compare, Batman Begins (perhaps the best comic book movie ever and the best film that year) only made $48MM it's opening weekend. Superman Returns made just $52MM. X-Men, X-Men 2, Spider-Man 2: All made less than $91MM. In fact, Iron Man made more money than any introductory comic book movie besides Spider-Man ($114MM), and is fourth overall in the comic category (Spiderman 3 leads the way with $151MM). Categories aside, it's good for 10th best of any movie opening. And ol' Robert sure seems happy!
But even terrible movies can make lots of money. Apparently, that is NOT the case with this one. Iron Man has gained some of the best reviews of the year, with a B+ from critics and an A- from Movie Go-ers. No other film from the past month has gained more than a B from either hard-to-please group. The Chicago Sun-Times says it's "one of the smartest superhero films to come down the pike in some time." E! Online says that "Downey has a great, manic energy about him, and it shines through even in the more casual moments." Rolling Stone says that "It's been years since a movie superhero was this fierce and this funny". And the New York Post adds that it is "One of the hippest, best-written and best-directed superhero movies ever." Plus Kain says it's worth seeing more than once. So I gotta go see it now, at least once. I'll take my girl with me though (Kain!).
Iron Man is the first movie produced by Marvel, as their other blockbuster hits (Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, etc) were made before they had created their own studio. Next out from Marvel: "The Incredible Hulk", starring Edward Norton (The Illusionist, The Italian Job, Fight Club, American History X, Rounders), due out in June of 2008. And, yes, Downey will make a small appearance in the film as Iron Man. After that, Punisher 2, Wolverine, Thor (June 4, 2010), Captain America (May 6, 2011), The Avengers (July of 2011), and Ant-Man will hit the theatres (with the new Spectacular Spider-Man kids cartoon hitting the WB tv network). Iron Man 2 has already been announced and is set to open April 30, 2010.

I Flew Under the Lorax Nest

So I finished reading the book "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey this week. Now I need to watch the movie! Interesting Note: The author actually received electro-shock therapy before writing his book.

Upon reflection of the novel, I decided that had my wife never married she too may have wound up as a control freak imposing her iron will on others for their own good, whether they wanted help or not, ala Nurse Ratched.

And I could have ended up like McMurphy, sans marriage (I already have the hair)!

Instead I ended up like McMurphy, sans frontal lobe (just kidding):

On that note, I've been married 4 years now and never happier!! Happy Anniversary beautiful! Let's have another baby!!


Other Books I've read this week-
Thunderhead by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card (and he is writing another Pastwatch book, yet to be released- The Flood)

Other Books I've read by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child:
Relic
Reliquary
Book of the Dead (with Wheel of Darkness -the next in the series- just released)
Mount Dragon?

Other Books I've read by Orson Scott Card (and LDS author who also helped create the game The Secret of Monkey Island, writing the insult lines for insult sword-fighting... he also wrote an autobiography of BYU basketball star Danny Ainge AND the new Iron Man book):
Ender's Game (Which is currently being made into a movie, to be directed by the same guy who did The NeverEnding Story!)
Speaker for the Dead (The first follow-up novel to Ender's Game... Card is currently writing a new book in the series called "Ender in Exile")
Stone Tables? (Card is also writing a 4th book in the "The Women of Genesis" series, to be titled "The Wives of Israel")

Thought O' The Day

Some People are like SlinkiesThey're only good for the smile they put on your face when you push them down a flight of stairs.

Batman Begins Sequel and Other Cool Stuff Guys Like

MOVIE EDITION of The Blog!

Coming Soon to a Theater near YOU!!

DragonBall Z
Goku, in costume...

Indiana Jones 4
Google the Trailer online

James Bond 22
Blonde Bond is back

The Mummy 3
Featuring Jet Li

Hancock
The Black Superman with a Bad Attitude!
Will Smith fights Charlize Theron


The Dark Knight (set to open in Theaters July 18, 2008)

http://www.thegothamtimes.com/

Movie Posters (Official and Not)








And some Batman stills from the new movie!!!






BatBike!

Baby Talk

Some of my Baby Lingo:

"Toofer" = Tooth
"Toofers" = Teeth
"Ba" = Bottle
"Socky-Loos" = Socks
"Wiff" = Wife
"Baff" = Bath
"Nudities!" = Naked Baby
"Diapo" = Diaper








Carly's Nicknames --

"Graby" = Baby Girl
Carly the Grabe
Garly
Garlic-Face
Cindy Lou
Carly Lou
Cutie Carly
Carly-Maru
Cutie Bootie
Flying Carly!
Bougar Baby
Snarly
Sharptoof
Chomper
Creeper
Kiddo
Monster
Sweet Fart
Sweetness
Fart Face
Little Wiper (when I change her Diaper)
Stinky
Stinkyface
Stinky Binky
Carly-Kin
Daddy's Little Muggle
Little Ruggle-Duggle
Chunkle-dunkle
Minky Boodle (she's got a doodle in her noodle)
Smuckle
Mucklemouth
Little Bit
Sweet Pea
Drooly
Sweet Potato


3 Good Things:
Onesies
Baby Socks / Leggings / Headbands
Gooey Chocolatey Brownies

Overrated- Baby Talk

NBA 1st Round "Over"

78% of the NBA Playoff teams that won the first game will win the series. With each series having the first game over and done with by now, let's check whom the odds say will win, and whether there have been any upsets...

W1-Lakers
W4-Jazz (at Houston)
W3-Spurs (in double overtime... I think the Suns will become part of the 22%)
W2-Hornets (though the Mavericks played a great 1st half)

E1-Celtics
E4-Cavaliers (fun game)
E3-Magic
E7-76ers (a surprise 2-point win in Detroit by the underdogs, after being down 15)So there you have it. No upsets in the West, though Utah did get a road win and Phoenix blew a huge lead on the road as well, even with Shaq in foul trouble. New Orleans (the Western 2 Seed) looked much better than most thought, due to their perceived lack of Playoff experience (mainly Chris Paul, who is awesome). Cleveland had their hands full in the East with the Washington Wizards, and the Pistons played with no heart before losing at home to a worse team. Then there were the typical first-round blowouts, not to mention a couple breakdowns, such as the back-to-back technical fouls that got the Denver Thuggets' Allen Iverson thrown out of game #1. Good times.


3 Good Things (Carly inspired):
Teeth
Love Bites
Baby Gates

Overrated- Haircuts

The NBA Playoffs are HERE and The West is the best!

Follow the NBA Playoffs HERE:
http://www.nba.com/playoffs2008/series/index.html

WEST:

1 Seed (57-25) Vs. 8 Seed (50-32)
Los Angeles Lakers (Home Court Advantage) Vs. Denver Nuggets

2 Seed (56-26) Vs. 7 Seed (51-31)
New Orleans Hornets (Home Court Advantage) Vs. Dallas Mavericks

3 Seed (56-26) Vs. 6 Seed (55-27)
San Antonio Spurs (Home Court Advantage) Vs. Phoenix Suns

4 Seed (54-28) Vs. 5 Seed (55-27)
Utah Jazz Vs. Houston Rockets (Home Court Advantage)

EAST:

1 Seed (66-16) Vs. 8 Seed (37-45)
Boston Celtics (Home Court Advantage) Vs. Atlanta Hawks

2 Seed (59-23) Vs. 7 Seed (40-42)
Detroit Pistons (Home Court Advantage) Vs. Philadelphia 76ers

3 Seed (52-30) Vs. 6 Seed (41-41)
Orlando Magic (Home Court Advantage) Vs. Toronto Raptors

4 Seed (45-37) Vs. 5 Seed (43-39)
Cleveland Cavaliers (Home Court Advantage) Vs. Washington Wizards

Notice that the 8-Seed in the West (the Thuggets) has a better record than the 4-Seed in the East. Then again, that Eastern 4th Seed has LeBron James. All Denver has is recent DUI moron Carmelo Anthony. On the other hand, the 8-Seed in the East, the Atlanta Hawks, are in the post-season despite losing 8 more games than they have won.

Further note that my Sacramento Kings suck (and have since infamously stupid Chris Webber blew out his knee, back before Peja Stojakovic left), have fan-punching thug Ron Artest on the roster, and aren't in the playoffs at all.

Poor Houston. The Rockets had won 22 games in a row before losing their star 7'6" Chinese center Yao Ming to a season-ending injury. They were #2 in the NBA in team defense, but that's hard to continue after losing such an impact player. Tracy McGrady is a cry-baby who can't do it all by himself.

Mars' Picks:

Best Series in the 1st Round: New Orleans-Dallas

2nd Round-
WEST:
Lakers(1)-Jazz(4)
Mavericks(7)-Suns(6)
EAST:
Celtics(1)-Cavaliers(4)
Pistons(2)-Magic(3)
Best Series in the 2nd Round: Celtics-Cavaliers

Division Finals-
WEST: Lakers(1)-Suns(6)
EAST: Celtics(1)-Pistons(2)
Best Series of the Division Finals: Lakers-Suns (Rapist Kobe Bryant Vs. Former Teammate Shaq)

Championship Game-
Lakers(1)-Celtics(1)

Winner-
Ex-BYU Star Danny Ainge's Boston Celtics
MVP: Kevin Garnett

3 Good Things:
Home Court Advantage (especially if you're a PAC-10 football team)
Many foreigners' (like Peja and Dirk Nowitzki) work ethic, solid fundamentals, and humility
Yard Sales

Overrated- The NBA's New York Knicks (including Stephon Marbury, who I relish personally seeing being hit in the groin). You probably think they're horrible, but in actuality they're even worse than that. Thank you Isaiah Thomas!

Tit for Tat

I got home from work at 8:00am this morning and went to bed. My wife woke me up at 10:00am very upset. We had recently got a baby gate from KMart for $59.99 and she wanted to return it and get another one, but she couldn't find the receipt. That's because it was left on the counter in a pile of trash and I threw it away. Without the receipt, KMart would only give us the current sale price for the baby gate, $53.99. That made my wife angry. She decided that since I had thrown away "her personal property" (the receipt) without asking, that she should do the same to get even with me. So to gain proper revenge for the $6.00 lost, she unplugged my Nintendo Wii and threw it in the garbage.The Wii controllers she didn't throw away... she just threw them outside.

Random Stuff

My last day in Arizona, I took the PFD (Phoenix Fire Department) written Exam. Phoenix is the 3rd-largest fire department in the United States, and the #1 most advanced department in all of North America. Some departments do personality exams, some test basic math and English, some test on general firefighting knowledge. The PFD tests your knowledge about... the PFD. What percentage of the PFD's calls are fire related? 20%. What is the PFD motto? "Prevent Harm, Survive, and Be Nice". See? The exam was held in the Phoenix Convention Center, just across the street from the U.S. Airways Arena where the Phoenix Suns play all their home NBA games.About 4000 people showed up in all to take the test. I find out in 6 weeks or so how I did. That's a whole heck of a lot of competition.

Now for something completely different! Have you ever thrown up so hard that you puked out of your nose? I have. Just last week actually. You see, I was never sick before my daughter was born. But I'm not immune to her in the slightest, and she's not immune to anything. So now I'm sick all the time. She was sick while I was out of the state, and so I thought I missed it. But change a couple of diapers and breathe in maybe a little too deeply and WHAMO! I felt it coming on while I was at work, so I called out sick and headed home with a garbage bag seated next to me in the car, just in case. I made it to my driveway. As soon as I parked and got out, KABLAM! It was one of those times where you throw up so hard that you can't catch a breath in between retches. Lightheadedness was among the least of my worries though. My poop smelled like seafood that night, and I don't eat seafood. Dirty, salty beaches and dead seagulls, that was the odor perfuming from me for the next 12 hours. No es bueno. Moving on, quickly.

GOOD NEWS! I heard back from the Gilbert, Arizona Fire Department today. And they invited me to come back to INTERVIEW with them! I already passed their physical requirements by having a current passing time on my CPAT from within the last 12 months (I took that test on my birthday). My passing score on Gilbert's exam was an 85.5%, among the top 11% of the approximately 400 test-takers. The interview date isn't schedules yet, and probably won't be until July or so.


3 Good Things:
Passing a Test
Little Caesars Pizza
Predator

Overrated- Standing in Line

Two College Football Spring Scrimmages

So in the past week I've been to two different college football spring scrimmages.

The first was at Arizona State.
Stadium: Set in the side of a hill to provide maximum shade and protection from the hot sun, Sun Devil Stadium is truly a scenic and unique setting to watch some football. The stadium actually has 3 tiers to it, with the middle tier sitting only about 5-6 rows of seats. It wraps around in a complete horseshoe, seating 75,000 fans total.
Game: Here's the thing about spring scrimmages- Coaches don't want their star players to get hurt. So true to form, ASU held out their star QB Rudy Carpenter. And his back-up looked like... what's the word? Crap. Here is a summary of how things went- Dropped pass just out of bounds. 1-yard pass from the backfield. Tipped incomplete pass (too high) across the middle of the field. Wide-left field goal attempt. Bad pass out of bounds. Dropped pass across the middle. False start. False start. Long-bomb interception. Good 6-yard pass, receiver completely laid-out by a hard hit from the middle linebacker, slow to get back up. Nice run by an RB (the only running play of the day). False start. QB sack. Interception. Another interception. Way too high pass incomplete. 3-yard pass across the middle. Long bomb bobbled and finally dropped along the sideline. Hey, the defense looked great!

BYU was the second scrimmage I attended, the Blue & White game. It was a beautiful April day in Provo, Utah, and I actually even got a little sunburned! Plus I got a classic Cougar pulled-pork sandwich (though for some odd reason it was served in a sliced bagel). Nearly 17,000 fans showed up for the event.

Stadium: Lavell Edwards Stadium seats 65,000. It is an incredible place to watch a football game, especially if you sit on the west side with an amazing panoramic view of the Wasatch mountainside. There's only one level on seating, but it reaches high up into the air. And the stadium has a solid 4 sides to it, but the corners are not connected.Game: BYU followed a similar scrimmage style to ASU. The starting QB, Max Hall, came out for offensive drills but didn't play in the scrimmage itself. Same with WRs Austin Collie and Mike Reed, RBs Harvey Unga, Manase Tonga, and Fui Vakapuna, TEs Dennis Pitta and Andrew George, and others. That opened the door for the back-up quarterbacks (Brenden Gaskins and Kurt McEuen) and talented youngsters such as RBs J.J. DiLuigi and Wayne Latu, and WRs Spencer Hafoka and Luke Ashworth, among others. The defense didn't use nearly any 2nd-stringers like I thought they would, keeping mainly to 3rd and 4th-stringers like DB Jameson Frazier (who I had never heard of before). We did get a peek at some talented, athletic new guys though in the drills beforehand... guys like Andrew Rich, G Pittman, Brandon Bradley, and others. Overall, the offense dominated, looking very good, very sharp. The defense is my main concern for the coming season, but they look to be reloading very smoothly as well. Both sides of the ball should be strong in the coming year. Top 10 offense and Top 30 defense are good goals for the team in their BCS-busting-goal year coming up.

3 Good things:
Hot Dogs
Mustard
Ramps (as opposed to stairs... like for pushing a baby stroller up)

Overrated: Trying to judge how good a team is based on seeing them play themself. If the offense looks good, is the defense that bad? Gotta wait for game #1 unfortunately, and even then it was just the first game of the season.

Climbing the Camel's Back

At 2704-feet, Camelback Mountain is the largest in Phoenix Valley. So when I was in the big AZ, I thought I would hike up the trail. Sound like fun? Well, it was. Brutal, backbreaking fun...

Here is some more cellphone-documentary work:

Looking up












Starting off












Things Get Steeper












Then they Really get Steep











Halfway Up












The Last Scramble












Life is Good at the Top!













3 Good Things:
A good pair of hiking boots
Moleskin
Regular Exercise

Overrated- Marathons (named after a guy who died running one)

Who Wouldn't Want to Live in Arizona?

EVERYONE would love living in Arizona! Everyone besides freakish sun-hating vampires that is (they would live in Washington or Alaska, or perhaps even Canada if they're self-loathing enough).

Let's go on a photo-journey through "The Grand Canyon State"!

The Gilbert, Arizona Fire Department Office Building:Awesome "Man Down" Firefighter Tribute Statue in front of the Fire Building:Public Park Two Blocks Away from the Fire Office:The Public Swimming Pool:Local Church Building:A Downtown Phoenix, Arizona Park:A View from the Outdoor Shopping Mall in Phoenix:

3 Good Things:
The NBA Playoffs (The Phoenix Suns have Shaq now!)
Major League
Wild Thing

Overrated- Winter