Brief summary of what's been going on with me:
I'm really, really, REALLY ready for the school year to end. It's taking far too long for my taste.
I'm currently reading John Lennon: A Life by Philip Norman. It's pretty good, I guess. John is complex enough that he certain makes for a good book but on a personal level, he's actually probably my least favorite Beatle so sometimes I find myself disappointed when the book doesn't pursue things about the other Beatles further. Norman also seems a little dismissive of George which bugs me big time. Also reading A False Spring by Pat Jordan and The Iowa Baseball Confederacy by W.P. Kinsella.
Top ten most played songs in iTunes: Surrender by Cheap Trick (on a huge Cheap Trick kick right now), Wonderwall by Ryan Adams (love the original but also really love this cover), The Rainbow Connection by the Muppets, Thirteen by Big Star, Love Story by Taylor Swift (I do like the song fine but this is up so high because I sometimes let the kids use my iPod during free time and the two girls listen to this non-stop), Hey, Jude by the Beatles, Mmmbop by Hanson, So What by Pink, I Do Not Hook Up by Kelly Clarkson (I find this song to be refreshing), and Across the Stars (Love Theme from Attack of the Clones (the love story in AotC is brutall unconvincing but I love the song).
Don't want to spoil anything on Lost but if Jack effs everything up and Desmond gets stuck on the damn island, I'm kicking his ass. Friday Night Lights was much more up to par this season, 30 Rock is still the funniest thing on TV, and while I have nothing against Adam Lambert, put me firmly on the side of Kris Allen in the American Idol finale.
And finally, an exciting medical update! Long-time readers will recall that about a year and a half ago I had a violent run-in with some black ice and blew up my ankle. One of the screws that was installed during the initial surgery started coming loose (yeah, yeah... I have a screw loose). It was actually sticking out of the side of my ankle so even I realized there was a problem. I went to see the surgeon last Friday, resigned to the fact that I was probably looking at another surgery to get it taken out. The doctor looked at x-rays, said all the other hardware looked fine and announced they could take the screw out right there. And they did. I laid down, they rubbed in a numbing agent, made a tiny incision, pulled out a screwdriver, loosened the screw, stitched it back up, and sent me on my way. It took maybe five or six minutes. It was wicked awesome. I'm telling you, modern medicene is amazing. Very odd to see a doctor bust out a screwdriver and even odder to see a screw pop out of your body. Here's a photo of the screw in question. The finger offers some scale. For those of you who love watching medical things (weirdos :P) here's a YouTube video of the procedure. This is not my personal video but it's exactly the same thing.
The Goose's Roost recently linked to a conversation between Bill Simmons and Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell is a writer and sociologist who's written some pretty interesting books, my favorite being Outliers which is all about the various factors that contribute to huge success. The conversation is as long and all-over the place as all things Bill Simmons but they have a really, really interesting discussion about reverse-order drafts and how, because they reward failure and incompetence, they pretty much go against all the rules of human nature. They throw out the idea that all teams should have equal odds at the highest pick and that occasionally perhaps even success should be rewarded. Gladwell also talks about how neat it might be for players to interview with teams just like the rest of us interview with employers although he does admit he's only half-serious about that one. If you're looking to kill some time, you should check it out. There's some other good stuff in there too.
3 comments:
I'll take How I Met Your Mother over 30 Rock. Castle is funnier too (and it isn't even a comedy). 30 Rock is funnier than The Office though.
You need to add Burn Notice to the television shows you watch.
I've written articles about how dumb professional drafts are before. It makes no sense to reward the worst team with (presumably) the best player in college. I know the theory is it will even out the playing field but the losing teams still lose year after year.
I have way too much to say about Lost to write it all here.
That screw gives me the heebie-geebies.
Lee, the only reason I didn't mention HIMYM is because I'm going to have to catch up with it this summer. That's a tough TV night for us, especially during hockey season. I'm sure it's been perfectly delightful. I haven't seen anything about Castle since it started. I completely forgot about it actually. I'm glad to hear it's pretty good though... Nathan Fillion should be a huge star by now.
I might write a little more about reverse drafts at some point. Simmons and Gladwell were talking about it from a NBA standpoint but I think in every league there's a handful of franchises who are just really bad year after year after year no matter how high they pick in the draft.
Kate, I took the screw to school to show the kids and one of them asked me all day, "Was that really in your ankle? REALLY?" He could not wrap his brain around it.
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