More Notes

First off, congratulations to my brother Jim, who recently got married. Jim lives in Kyrgyzstan (no, that's not where Borat's from, but it's close), so none of us have met his new wife yet. That will change when they come for a visit later this year. Congrats, bro!

I'll also offer congratulations, albeit much more guarded ones, to my nephew Jake, who by all accounts is getting married tomorrow. I think Jake just celebrated his 20th birthday about a month and a half ago; he's in the military and is about to be sent to Alaska, so he and his fiancee are having a quickie wedding so she can accompany him. In other words, to be brutally honest, this almost certainly will not have a happy ending, but maybe and hopefully I'm wrong.

While I was in Toledo last week for work, I finally received my Christmas bonus. The company owner hands out the bonus in cash right after Thanksgiving, and since that wasn't my time to be in the office, mine got set aside and forgotten. Sometime this past month, it ended up in the hands of his secretary, who managed to catch me and give it to me. So that was nice. The first $40 went toward rescuing Luna from the animal shelter. In celebration of the rest, I paid a visit to the bookstore. I didn't spend it all, but I did pick up a few items for myself. The one I'm most excited about is a book of short stories, mostly horror, called 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill. He's got some good genes, and I've heard great things about his writing, so I'm excited to check it out. If it's good, I'm sure I'll move on to his debut novel, Heart Shaped Box.

There was a time in my life when I watched Sportscenter religiously. I'd watch it in the morning, again in the evening, and chances were good that I'd fall asleep with it on at night. In those days, it was all about actual sports, and it consisted mainly of scores and highlights, or news that actually pertained to the games on the field--trades, injuries, coaching changes, etc. Now I almost never watch it. It's too cluttered. I want in-depth analysis saved for Baseball Tonight and Edge NFL Matchup and shows like that, and I want crap like the steroids brouhaha and the Kelvin Sampson thing shunted off to Outside the Lines. I just want Sportscenter to be entertaining and informative again, instead of overthought, overproduced, and overblown.

For that matter, what happened to West Coast sports? It used to be pretty standard to be able to catch baseball, college football, or college basketball on ESPN at midnight, but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. I miss it. I'm a night person, so I always liked the late games. Being able to catch those games out West that no one else was watching always helped me when it came time to fill out my brackets.

On the bright side, spring training begins this week. Pitchers and catchers have already reported for some teams, and the remainder (including the Reds) will get cranked up on Saturday. With baseball season coming up and college basketball heading into tournament time, this is a great time of year for sports.

I've been DVR-ing (and actually watching) Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I'd rate it as worth watching. It's a little on the mindless side, but it's definitely entertaining. It's been so long since I've actually gotten into a show, I had pretty much forgotten what it was like. I watched the most recent episode tonight, and I'm impatient for the next one, which will air on Monday.

Count me as someone who's excited that another chapter in the Star Wars saga is coming to theaters in August. I'm really interested to see how it translates into this different format, and even aside from that, I just can't get enough. I know I'm probably in the minority with that opinion after the prequel trilogy, but so be it. Jedi.