And more...

OK, so I didn't get my Cardinals-over-Dodgers wish, but the rest went my way, and I'm still pretty OK with the Dodgers. I have to prefer the Dodgers over the Phillies now, because either a Dodgers-Angels-battle-of-LA World Series sounds fun, and so does a Dodgers-Yankees World Series. The TV networks just salivate any time they can get LA vs. NY in any sport.

I'm allowing myself some hope for the Notre Dame-USC game this Saturday, since ND's quarterback has been really good (as has most of the offense), the game is in South Bend, and USC is starting a freshman QB - they're not quite the dominant force that they have been recently. In past years I've just been hoping that the game wasn't a total blowout. It starts right after the end of an undergraduate math conference that I'm going to with some students, so I'll have to subject some of them to the game on the radio during the drive back from Detroit.

Look! Two posts within a week!

Spouting on Sports

So, what good is a blog that only gets updated once every two months, anyway? Oh well. What follows is all sports-related, so if you don't care, don't say I didn't warn you.

The sad Tigers of Detroit gave us hope, toyed with us, then went out drinking and let us down. There never should have been a one-game playoff, but the Tigers couldn't put together a decent win down the stretch to close it out. Boo. This season's end is a lot worse to take than last year, when they finished last in the their division.

So then, given who has made the playoffs, here's how things will go in my ideal world (these aren't predictions, just requests of the baseball gods):

In the NL, the Phillies beat the Rockies and the Cardinals beat the Dodgers, and then the Cardinals beat the Phillies to get to the World Series. I wouldn't totally mind the Dodgers making it all the way, but I want St. Louis in the World Series - see below.

In the AL, the Yankees beat the Twins and the Angels beat the Red Sox. I'm a bit burned out on the Red Sox and their rise to glory (as tainted by steroids as it may now be). Then, I'd actually hope for the Yankees to beat the Angels - I don't find the Angels particularly interesting, and even though I despise the Yankees, there's good reason for them to reach the World Series.

Now I would never hope for the Yankees to WIN the World Series - that's about last on the list of my desires - but if the Tigers can't represent the AL, then why not have the Yankees nearly meet their definition of success and then crush them? I'm requesting that the Cardinals win the World Series in five games, so they win at home, with a 550-foot home run in the bottom of the ninth by Albert Pujols, the studliest, most awesome, respectable and steroid-free player in the world. I'd prefer that it be a game seven home run, but then it would have to happen in New York, since the AL team gets home-field advantage this year, and I'd rather witness a series-ending homer (of which there have only been two - Joe Carter, 1993, Blue Jays and Bill Mazeroski, 1960, Pirates - Kirk Gibson's homer in 1988 was the coolest, but it happened in game 1). Also, throughout the playoffs I would prefer lots of exciting games, numerous game 7's, fewer commercials between innings, and games that end by 11:15ish, so I can get a respectable amount of sleep. It's the first postseason that I get to see in HD, so I'd like it to be a decent one.

Meanwhile, the wonderful football season's are motoring along, and Notre Dame looks decent so far. They might even beat USC in a couple weeks. We'll see. Hockey started too, but it gets lost amidst the football and baseball, and I can't get into it when the playoffs won't end until June. It's a bit ridiculous, really. I have plans for reorganizing the entire NHL, if they ever ask.

Yay, I posted again! While making chocolate chip cookies, no less. Until December...

...but hopefully not.

John Adams

Tonight I finished reading John Adams, by David McCullough. Being a biography, it was quite unlike anything I've read in recent years, but it was a powerful read for me. John Adams was an incredible American and contributed no less, if not more, to the formation of our country than both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. It's incredible that there are gigantic monuments and memorials attributed to Washington and Jefferson, but no such thing exists for Adams. After reading this book, in fact, I'm much more impressed with Adams than I am with Jefferson. I wasn't expecting to feel the need to "find out what happens next" when reading this, and I never developed the irresistible need to keep going that can surface when reading Harry Potter, but David McCullough writes so well that it felt that way toward the end of the book, and the fact that I was reading about actual people and events made it that much more meaningful to me. This book certainly goes on my "recommended" list. I also have a copy of The Path Between the Seas, his book about the Panama Canal, which I might read next, although it's long and I probably wouldn't finish it before school starts again. Besides, Lisa and I still need to watch the third season of Arrested Development.

HP6

A sixth Hewlett-Packard? Of course not...

Lisa and I saw the sixth Harry Potter movie the other day. I think they've mostly improved since the first one, mostly in terms of the presentation of the characters and story. I thought this movie had the best dialogue and character interaction - there wasn't anything that I thought was really cheesy and made my eyes roll all over the place. Some of the lines from the previous movies were excruciating. However, this far into the series I'm taking the special effects for granted, and given that there wasn't anything spectacular in terms of action (it was all very good, but nothing way better than every other movie out there) I don't feel the need to see it again. As good as it was, the movies just can't compete with the richness of the books. It'd be fun to watch all the movies again, but not as rewarding as reading all the books again. The Lord of the Rings movies mean much more to me than the HP films. And...that's my big grand opinion on it all.

Praising Pixar

Discussing the greatness of Pixar's movies may become an annual tradition for me, right after seeing their latest film. In the past I ranked them based on how much I enjoy them, but they're all so well done that I feel bad leaving any of them at the bottom. So, instead, here they are in groups, not based on which ones are my favorites to watch, but just based on my assessment of their quality as films. They are all wonderful, really, and beautifully animated, but some are better than other. So, here it goes:

THE GOOD ONES

Cars - one of my favorites to watch (and I've done so with the kids a lot) but not the best as a film.

Monsters Inc.

A Bug's Life

THE GREAT ONES

Toy Story - this was the landmark first movie, and that almost pushed it into the next category, but I left it here.

Toy Story 2 - possibly better than the first one.

Finding Nemo - do ya? Do Ya? DO YA?

Up - a nice addition to the family.

THE REALLY GREAT ONES

The Incredibles - my favorite of them all, too

Ratatouille - underappreciated, I think, since it didn't have the marketing appeal that Cars or Finding Nemo did, but wonderfully original (as they all are)

Wall-E - it's incredible what they were able to do for the first half of the movie without dialogue.

And here's what we get to look forward to for next year.

National Anthems

It's game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals tonight, with the Red Wings playing the Penguins, a rematch of last year's finals (they're ahead 3-1 as I type). In honor of hockey, here's a video. Sometimes I think it would be cool to be Canadian, just for the national anthem, which I think is way better than ours (God Bless America is better than the national anthem too). And, I've never been to a sporting event where the crowd removed the need for someone to sing the anthem.

Top Ten Aerosmith

Developed while eating lunch and listening to the Big Ones album, here are my top ten favorite Aerosmith songs, albeit without a good knowledge of their 70s stuff:

1. Cryin'
2. Angel
3. What It Takes
4. Livin' on the Edge
5. Janie's Got a Gun
6. Walk This Way
7. Love in an Elevator
8. Dream On
9. Dude (Looks Like a Lady)
10. Rag Doll

Thanks for caring.

Don't call it a comeback

Mostly, it's an attempt to get out of last place on the blog list on Nick and Beth's blog. It's hard to return after five months off with something awesome, so here's this:

I was on the radio today, due to a piece of sports trivia that I know. A local sports talk show does a quick trivia quiz at the end of the show and I happened to be in the car at the time, driving up to Ferris. They ask five questions and then take answers from anyone to any of the questions. The theme was "Stanley Cup goals," and I could only think of one significant goal (my hockey history knowledge is not as expansive as my baseball history knowledge) - that Uwe Krupp scored the gamewinner in overtime to clinch the Stanley Cup for the Colorado Avalanche (in 1996, it turns out). I managed to balance driving, talking on the phone, and controlling the volume on the radio all at the same time, and due to the radio delay I managed to catch the end of what I said on the radio itself. I mostly remember this goal because I was working a physics research project at Calvin that summer and I downloaded the replay of it from the Internet. It was one of the first videos I ever downloaded (it was 1996!). It took forever and the quality was crappy, but it got me on the radio 13 years later. I didn't win anything, unless I answer more trivia questions this week and get the most right for the whole week. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow.

In other news, I gave my last final for the semester today, and I start a decent load of summer teaching in a couple weeks. And I'm going to try and read John Adams by David McCullough this summer too. It's about time I read a book instead of watching reruns of Family Guy.