People from My Hometown Continue To get Famous

Or is it infamous????

Folks, you wonder why I moved here 9 years ago? People like this is why

Catching Up

Good lord, I haven't posted in 8 days? Why? Oh wait, b/c I spent 3 days recovering from the Cavs playoff collapse, 3 more days being completely drunk and worthless, and 1 day at a wedding. So really, it's only been a day since I've posted. So, in interest of that, and the fact that nothing interesting has happened, I'll just throw a few things out there:

For Drew: Air Guitar World Champsionship Video

The girls in our group are going to Vegas for the weekend, leaving tomorrow, coming back Sunday, as Sarah already mentioned. As a public service, I'll make sure I compile some of the classy drunken text messages we recieve over the weekend, as I'll be with most of their boyfriends and husbands. I'll post them here for you as they come in.

The Indians (25-26) continue to flounder along like the team most likely to underachieve all season. When the season started I said I thought they'd win 95-97 games. I'm retarded.
At least I still have the Cardinals.

Also, I know this happened a week ago, but AJ Pierzynski getting punched in the jaw? File that under things most of us have been DYING to see happen. This is a great little reenactment. Trust me, you just have to see it.

Pistons 79-LeBron 27-Cavs 34

Well, the NBA got the outcome that I couldn't have imagined that it wanted.

LeBron is out of the playoffs.

I hate to sound like just another bitter Cavs fan, complaining about the refs, cursing ABC Sports, and hoping to attend the funeral of Rasheed Wallace during my lifetime just to spit on his grave, but that's what I am right now.

Fact is though, we still had no business being there. Our (alleged) second best player, Larry Hughes was a shell, getting his first significant minutes in over a week after the passing of his brother. Our (supposed) All-Star center pretty much seemed like he was part of a David Copperfield act, considering how many times he disappeared.

And quite frankly, I haven't seen a supporting cast this bad since the last season of the Cosby Show. I mean, really, Cousin Pam=Damon Jones. Neither of them are funny, nor do they bring anything but really odd fashion sense to the table.

The Cleveland Sports Tragedy montage was the epitome of class by ABC. Showing it once before the game wasn't enough. Showing it twice apparently was. If the game producers suddenly end up at the bottom of a lake somewhere, don't be surprised when it's Cleveland natives who end up being responsible.

The really insulting part of that is that those were all games or series that we were supposed to win. This wasn't really even a comparable situation. Yet, ABC decided that punching us in the stomach wasn't enough. They were going to steal our girlfriends and burn down our homes as well.

Hey, how about that Tribe? Oh, they're 22-22 and 7 1/2 games out already? Sweet.

At least I still have the Cardinals. I'm moving to St. Louis. Seriously.

Because He's LeBron James, and You Most Definitely Are Not...

It's almost 2 in the afternoon, and I think I'm just now coming down from last nights Cavaliers game.

If you don't follow basketball, or better if you live under a rock, you might not have noticed that the heavily un-favored Cavaliers just went up 3-2 in the best of seven.

When I say heavily, I mean Rosie O'Donnell after 5 days on a cruise ship heavy. The Pistons, they of two straight losses to the Cavs in Cleveland, went into the game as 11 point favorites.

Basically, the Pistons are a two time defending Eastern Conference champion. They have their bling, courtesy of an aging and decombusting Laker team in the 2003-2004 Finals. The Cavs have precisely one guy on the roster who's even been to an NBA finals: Eric Snow. Most of this roster hadn't seen significant playoff minutes.

Small problem: Apparently with all the fervor surrounding the playoffs, their win over the Wizards, and the unfortunate drama around Larry Hughes family, someone forgot to tell the Cavaliers that they didn't have any business winning even a game in this series.

The Cavaliers have won these games in a manor in which a team with limited experience, a young superstar, and a rookie coach aren't supposed to understand. They've played defense, limited possessions, maintained poise, and occassionally smacked Detroit in the mouth when necessary.

And sadly, most of the media is still just waiting for the other shoe to drop. For the Cavs to feel the pressure, Detroit to regain it's composure, and for LeBron and company to fold like a Walmart tent in a stiff breeze.

It still hasn't happened. It was supposed to go down last night. It didn't. The LeBronaires made their plays when they had to. Detroit looked scared, lost, and rattled.

And yet, the failures of the Pistons are still being attributed to the Pistons. They're beating themselves, making mistakes, not coming through. Here's my thought on that: By the time you get to this level, you've won a title, etc, you don't solely beat yourself. Someone has to make you do it.

By finally discovering that there ARE two ends of the floor in an NBA game, the Cavaliers are giving Detroit a taste of it's own heavy medicine. Ten blocked shots last night? Forcing Chauncey Billups to foul out? That's not just Detroit short-comings, that's the Wine and Gold exerting their will as an extention of that one man: LeBron.

Even if they don't win this series, which, being that it's a Cleveland team, I'm not going to rule out something bad happening. However, if nothing else, this has served as a notice: They're not just happy to be there to learn.

Scoop Jackson of ESPN.com said "Not only will the Pistons' 4-0 or 4-1 series win make LeBron face linear defeat for the first time in his career, the beatdown the Pistons will hand out will make him make sure he'll never go through anything like it again"

But, what if they win, what about the fact that they've taken 3 games from the "best team in the East". Isn't it possible that it didn't take a whole series of beatdowns, only a game and a half, for this young man to realize what needed to be done? LeBron's always taken to things ahead of schedule. Why should this be any different?

To top it all off, LeBron's been keenly reserved in his comments. Even after last nights game he said "This is just basketball, this isn't life or death"

It probably feels like it in Detroit.

They won't tell you that though. It's hard to say it when you've got your hands wrapped around your own collective necks.

Viva the LeBrons!

Note: I know that Grey's ended last night, and that 24 is getting all kinds of crazy out of hand, but really, I have plenty of time to talk about those two things. The Cavs, on the other hand, play Game 5 tomorrow night in Detroit. AND, they aren't playing to stave of elimination persay.

Why do I bring all of this up?

Because, the Cavaliers have been written off as too young, to inexperienced, too reliant on LeBron James, too soft and too over matched by the Detroit Prisonball Pistons to compete.

Because we live in Cleveland, and we're not supposed to exceed expectations, we're supposed to be set up for disappointment, for failure even. We're supposed to have our dreams crushed.
In this series, the relatively average, competent fan didn't even bother with dreaming. We figured 1 win, stealing a game somewhere, would be good enough. This team wasn't expected to win more than 5 games in this playoffs. Past that, it feels like one big bonus round. We're playing with house money.

The main reason I bring this up? Because it comes at the expense of Rasheed Wallace, that big mouthed, overrated, petulant, team killing piece of garbage. He runs his mouth like he's the one carrying that team on his back. Let me tell you, when you shoot 3 of 13 after shooting your mouth off like that? Priceless. You couldn't carry my left effing shoe, let alone a world championship team. Remember, this is the same guy who "lead" multiple playoff meltdowns against the Lakers as a member of the Portland JailBlazers.

Even better? He's STILL talking! Direct quote:

"I ain't worried about these cats," he said. "There's no way in hell they beat us in a series. They played well. I give them credit. We lost. We shot 30 percent and they had to play their best to beat us."

The Cavs had to play their best? Let's see. The Cavs barely out rebounded them (by 2), had more turnovers, (18 to Detroit's 14), and LBJ shot a rockin 8 of 23, and a bonus 5 for 10 from the line. That's the Cavs best game? If that's the Cavs best game, we don't win more than 35 games this whole season. We certainly don't beat San Antonio once in the regular season, and we sure as all hell don't take two from the "almight" Pistons. Oh, did I mention that we didn't have Larry Hughes for two games?

The moral here? Rasheed Wallace is a piece of garbage.

Because Someone has To

Disclaimer: If you don't watch, or haven't watched last night's Grey's Anatomy, then I wouldn't bother reading this. I'm just going to bore you or ruin things.

Okay, Let me start this by saying that I feel like someone has to play devil's advocate, or defend the writers, or something like that.
Both Sarah, and well, Sarah, have basically slandered this show, for the story lines, the poor choices by the characters, and the general loss of control that seems to have taken place. I had two people tell me seperately that the show has jumped the shark already. Mind you, we still haven't hit the end of this season.

Here's the thoughts. And such:

1) Listen, I dislike the Izzie and Denny storyline thing as much as anyone. I think she's way over the line, and etc etc etc. But here's the thing. She hasn't gone completely crazy. Is she being completely immature? Absolutely. She's totally crossing a line that they're supposed to know not to cross. But they're interns! They haven't learned not to cross the line. We forgive Meredith and Christina for sleeping with their attendings (also a big no-no, remember?) but we're going to slander Izzie for CARING about a patient. Granted, it's more than she should care, but the fact is, she sees something in Denny. What that is, I'm not sure, but the fact is, we forget that Izzie is as damaged and scary as the rest of them. She's got a daughter she gave up for adoption, she comes from total total white trash and is competing against these kids who have no idea what it's like to grow up like that. Then, lest we forget, her hockey player boyfriend (who appeared for all of 5 seconds) dropped her b/c he couldn't handle it. Oh, did I mention that she was stupid enough to fall for Alex for a minute, who treated her like he treats everyone, and that really, at this point, she doesn't have anyone.
So she's feeling alone. Denny doesn't make her feel alone. He needs her. And she needs to be needed. So, when he goes to sign the DNR papers (for his own, very valid reasons), she sees another person leaving her, bailing out. She can't handle that. She chose him over Alex, and then for him to have the audacity to give up the fight in her eyes is unforgivable.

Then, the heart might not come through. And she knows he signed the DNR. Does she freak out more than she should? Maybe.

Someone said something to the effect of "oh, and now she suddenly loves him?" Um, she was knitting him a sweater, fighting tooth and nail to stay on the case, and doing everything she could to keep him alive. Was some of it selfish? Absolutely. Her little "what about me" speech proved that she had no business being his doctor anymore. Besides, sometimes traumatic or dramatic events bring out emotions that normally wouldn't be there. There's that possibility too....

All that being said, I think we make the mistake of wanting these people to be nothing but black and white to us. This situation, if it were happening in real life, which given the way we react to it, makes it seem like it is, has a lot of gray area. We seem to forget that when writers create these characters, they take a lot of stuff that maybe we never see into account, then give us these little details that try to explain the choices they make, and leave it to us to decide.

The other thing is, everyone's freaking out about what's happened, and we haven't even seen the resolution yet. Sometimes, the writers have to paint someone into a corner to give them a chance to redeem themselves. Think about it that way.

With all that off my chest (finally) There's a lot of other crap going on in that show, to say the least. I think Burke getting shot will teach both him and Christina a lesson. He's not going to die, I really believe that.

Meredith and Derek? Yeah, it's definitely the opposite of done.

In a way, you have to feel bad for Addison. But remember, she started it.

Guess What?

I don't care if you're moving back to Pennsylvania.

In fact, I figured you were already gone. Even more, I hoped for it.

I certainly didn't need a text message from you, after a crap day at work, and a depressing day in general, to remind me that you existed.