Smallville and Softball

So for those that didn't know, one of my most absolute favorite shows is Smallville. I own all four seasons on DVD and really enjoy the show. Last week's episode might have been the worst episode ever as I felt as if I was watching SAW the movie. So after last night's episode, the show is back on it's normal track. Last night, Clark found out about Lex and Lana, and he isn't too happy about it. I guess one of the things I like most about the show is the complexities of the relationships between all the characters. Clark is that guy that knows what he wants, is afraid to do anything in fear of hurting the one he loves, and has to realize that he can't control something that isn't his. Another thing Clark fights with this episode is something that I am sure that some doctors and other resuce people deal with. What do you do when you can help someone that goes on to hurt other people? The always informative Chloe tells Clark that he can't control whom he saves and it's not his decision to save them or not. That's another thing I like about Smallville. There always seems to be an underlying theme in the episodes. And one more thing, it appears Lex is up to something big in his talkings with Dr. Fine. It will be interesting to see what becomes of that in the upcoming episodes.

This is mainly for B McD, but for anyone else who cares also. So I am playing in two softball leagues out at the Sportspark in Karns. First off, that place is awesome. They take really good care of the fields and it's a definite improvement over playing out at West End. Since Laurel didn't field a team this year, I'm playing with some guys from Calvary Chapel. They're all really nice guys and we have a nice group of older and younger guys, which is different for me as I am used to being one of the youngest on the team. Anyways, last night was my third game I've played out there since I have had a total of 3 games rained out so far. But it was the first time I got on base. I had been hitting the ball fairly well thus far, just right at people. So BMcD, I was 2-4 with 2 runs and 3 RBI's I think. I finally hit the ball good as I hit one off the fence, and I didn't even hit it hard (by the way, the fields we play on are huge, 300 feet to left and right). So hopefully, I can continue to get my swing back. As for the other league I play in, I play for Scripps Networks in a Co-ed league. More about that to come as I have a couple of thoughts about Co-ed leagues.

Coasters

So I really haven't had much on my mind lately except for roller coasters. You see in two weeks the Young Professional group from West End is taking a trip down to Atlanta to Six Flags for the weekend. And a guy I work with is planning a trip to Cedar Point, located in Sandusky, Ohio on Lake Erie. So lately, I have been checking out Six Flags and Cedar Point to see what they offer now. For those that don't know, Cedar Point is considered by many to be the best roller coaster amusement park in the world. I went one time back when I was in 8th grade I believe and it was awesome. Located between Cleveland and Toledo, it's only a short 8 hr drive up I-75 from Knoxville. I suggest anyone that gets the opportunity to go, DO IT. And here's why:

First, it has the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world, Top Thrill Dragster. At an amazing 420 feet tall, and a record breaking 120 mph top speed, it is now my favorite coaster ever, and I haven't even been on it. Only a short 12 second ride, it launches you from 0 to 120 mph in 4 seconds, up a 90 degree lift hill, to the top of the ride, 42 stories above the ground, with a magnificient view of all of Cedar Point, which is on a peninsula surrounded by Lake Erie. It then drops you at a straight 90 degree angle 400 feet while completing one corkscrew on the way down. Talk about sweet. To learn more about the coaster and view pics and a POV video on the coaster, click here.

Second, Millenium Force. Voted the number 1 steel roller coaster in the world in 2005, Millenium Force was the first coaster built to rise over 300 feet. At it's apex, Millenium Force stands 310 feet tall with an 80 degree descent which allows it's riders to reach 93 mph. Force contains 310-, 169-, and 182-foot tall hills, two tunnels, and two 122 degree overbanked turns. With a vertical drop of 300 feet and a ride time of 2 min. and 20 seconds, it is a site to be seen. To see the Millenium Force, click here.

Third, the other 14 roller coasters that helped the park earn it's title as the best roller coaster park in the world. Yes, that's right, Cedar Point has 16 roller coasters, 9 thrill rides, and much more. If your interested, feel free to visit Cedar Point.

And for those interested, here is a photo of Millenium Force, background left, and Top Thrill Dragster, front right.

New Assistant

So some of the biggest news going on in the world of Tennessee basketball these days is who is going to take over the second assistant position after Scott Edgar left to be the head coach at Southeast Missouri State. It appears right now that the two main candidates are Rod Barnes, former head coach at Ole Miss who was fired this year, and Bob Sunvold, who is the GM and head coach of the ABA's Kansas City Knights. So given these two candidates, heres my opinion on the situation.

Rod Barnes would appear to be the obvious hire here. He has a few things going for him. He has experience in the SEC and knows all the teams and coaches UT plays in the league. More importantly, he has probably a deeper knowledge about the Western Division teams that he played against twice a year at Ole Miss. Second, his teams have always been known to play tough half court defense. Plus, they always play hard. Being able to get your players to play hard is a tough thing to do and something that is usually overlooked when looking for a new coach to hire. Luckily, UT lucked out in that category with the Pearl hire, and look at the difference it made. Third, Barnes has a lot of connections into the Memphis, Alabama, and Mississippi area. Being in his location, he had quick access to all those areas, especially Memphis since its only about an hour away from Oxford. Some might argue that he isn't that good of a recruiter. Well, first, ask yourself this question. If someone was recruiting you to go to school, and you could basically have your pick of any school in the SEC, where would you go? Now, given I would say UT, but look at all the other options. Every other SEC town is better than Oxford, except for Starkville. Yes, Oxford is a very historical town, with lots of huge plantation houses and a gorgeous campus, but it's not exactly the happenin' town that most top notch basketball players are drawn to. And given that the program isn't that strong, it's a hard place to recruit to. However, if Barnes is hired, it won't be because of his recruiting. I'm sure he can more than hold his own in that category. I mean, how else did he become a head coach? Almost every head coach you ever meet is at least a good recruiter. Some are better than others, but almost every head coach is a great sales person.

But like I said, he won't be brought in to be a great recruiter. He will be brought in for his defensive knowledge, X's and O's, and his coaching experience. Many people don't realize how great it is to have a former head coach on your staff that knows exactly what the head coach is going through. So, I guess I endorse Rod Barnes for the open assistant position. And take this for what it's worth, but last week at the Kingwood Classic in Houston (one of the biggest AAU tournaments) Barnes was spotted in the crowd the day before current coaches were allowed to be there. And who was he watching, Cameron Tatum and Corperryale Harris, two of Tennessee's high profile recruits.

Best night of the week on TV

So Monday is officially the best night of TV ever. I mean, you really can’t do any better than Prison Break and 24. If you have never seen any of these shows, then you are missing out. They are some high quality television. I would recommend you begin watching them, but don’t, cause the seasons are almost over. So just wait until the repeats start airing this summer. Hopefully, every Tuesday I will be able to put up my thoughts on Prison Break and 24 as well as posting about Smallville on Fridays. So anyways, here it goes…..

Prison Break – OK, so it seems as though this week was a setup show for the weeks to come. A lot happened but not much was resolved. We were made aware of a lot of stuff, such as Michael and Lincoln’s dad’s involvement in everything that has happened. Apparently, he used to work for the government and quit and thus they pinned this on Lincoln to keep the dad’s mouth shut. Also, Abruzzi makes an appearance after everyone thought he was dead when T-Bag slit his throat. Well, apparently Abruzzi is back in on the escape and has “accepted” God now, yeah right!, but he has something else up his sleeve. It looks like he is working with Nick, the guy helping Veronica, although this is unbeknownst to Veronica. And Tweener learns of Scofield’s (Michael for those that don’t know) plan to escape through Scofield. Scofield has intrusted Tweener into the plan. However, Tweener reveals the plan to Captain Bellick. Somehow, I think this was part of Scofield’s plan though. So anyhow, within the next few weeks, it looks like a lot is going to happen. Look for the escape in the near future and other twists that I can’t even expect.

So my rant on 24 went a little longer than I expected, so I went ahead and split this into two different posts. Sorry about that, but I didn’t want a post to be as long as a book.

24

24 – Now, for the best show on TV. So maybe this was a bad week to start the blog cause it seemed like 24 was really stretching this week. I mean usually there are only 1 or 2 things that make you say, “That would never happen.” But not this week. Jack continues to amaze me though. So on to the show. Kind of the same as Prison Break, nothing exciting happened, just setting up for the end of the season. One impressive thing about this show though, I don’t think Jack killed anybody throughout the show. If your not familiar with 24, then you might not realize that this might be a first. Anyways, Karen Hayes who is now in charge of CTU is getting very suspicious of how things are being handled by the president. She becomes more suspicious of him when Valerie who mistakingly helped Chloe escape, tells Karen that Chloe said that Jack said that President Logan was in on all the terrorist attacks of the day. Karen then calls and talks to Mike Novick about Logan and Novick isn’t sure what is going on either. Chloe is finally discovered after she has been hacking into CTU’s computers for almost the whole show (which means an hour for those that don’t watch the show). All I have to say is it’s about freaking time. I’m glad to see anyone can crack into a government agency’s computer for almost a full hour and not get caught til the end of the hour. Anyways, Karen decides to help Chloe and Jack and calls Buchanan’s house and tells him that Chloe needs to leave cause a tactical team is on the way to capture her.

Meanwhile, Jack tracks down Henderson thanks to Chloe’s help and captures him, but Henderson doesn’t have the recording. Therefore Jack leaves Audrey with Henderson, dumb move Jack, and leaves to go get the recording. Curtis is called to come pick up Audrey and Henderson, but somehow, Henderson’s men get there before Curtis does. Audrey goes and hides, and is grabbed, but by get this – CURTIS!!. Never saw that coming, please. Anyway, Curtis’ men kill Henderson’s men and recapture Henderson. Jack has tracked the recording down to a plane that is preparing to take off from the airport they were just at. This is where the show goes a little over board. The plane is a diplomatic plane and is being heavily guarded as expected. However, Jack is able to park his stolen police car next to a fence, and run and jump on a tanker truck and climb on top as it goes to fill up the plane. The truck pulls up to the plane where Jack jumps off onto another truck. He then climbs down onto the ground and notices the plane being loaded. Before the luggage loaders pull away, he sneaks over, grabs two bags off the luggage cart and climbs on the plane without being noticed. HELLO!!!!!!!! Where are all the heavily armed men that are guarding this freaking plane? Apparently, they are all blind. It just blows my mind. Well, next week’s episode looks to be promising as Jack is going to take over the entire plane to find the recording, so hopefully next week’s episode will be a little better.

I want to apologize for my little rant at the end, but I just felt that needed to be said. As noted above, this show is usually REALLY good, and was tonight, but I felt like it reached just a little too much. So hopefully, my reviews have spiked your interest a little and you will check out Prison Break and 24 on Fox, Mondays from 8-10. You will be pleasantly surprised.

Minesweeper

So most that know me would agree that me and numbers get along and I would agree with them. And I realize that some people just don't get math. I have no problem with that. What blows my mind is when people won't even try something because it has numbers in it. For example, take one of my favorite games of all time, Minesweeper. Yes, that Minesweeper. The one that comes on almost every computer ever made. I have met a lot of people that have never even tried Minesweeper because it contains numbers in it. Or they have watched me play and just don't understand it. HELLO!!! It's not that hard to learn. I mean seriously, all you do is click on a square and either a number appears or a bomb blows you up. And there is basically no math invovled.

I have been playing for a while now, and while I think I am pretty decent at it, my fastest time ever on expert level is 92 seconds, there is a little strategy to it. Basically, Minesweeper is like anything else. The more you play, the better you get. And Minesweeper is basically all about patterns. The more you play, the more patterns you recognize. Thus, the more you play, the faster you get. So, my suggestion of the day, go sit down at you computer, and just try a game of Minesweeper. I know not everyone will enjoy it, but at least try it. And if you have any questions about it, just holla at me.

New to this Blogging thing

So I guess I finally gave in and decided to do this blogging thing. I'm really not sure how often I'm going to be able to keep this updated, not because I don't have the time, cause I do, but because I don't know if I'm going to be able to come up with that much to say or share. I'll try to do my best though.

So for my first post, I'll comment on my happenings last night. Saturday night I got to go the Tennessee Theatre to hear Ralphie May. Now first thing, if you ever get a chance to go to the Tennessee Theatre, DO IT. That place is freaking awesome. It probably doesn't belong in Knoxville. It's way too nice for K-town. Anyways, I wasn't real familiar with Ralpie May before going to the show. I knew he had been on Last Comic Standing and I heard him a couple of times on Marc and Kim and Frank in the Mornings on 102.1 driving to work. He's actually a very funny but crude guy. I listened to a couple of his performances on his website and was kind of reluctant of going, but decided to go anyway. So I went with Cody, and we laughed for like an hour and a half straight. It probably helped that he was being filmed by Comedy Central so he couldn't be as graphic as he usually is, but he was freaking hilarious. So to end this post, I leave you with Ralphie's helpful hints for guys in relationships.

Guys can only be two things in a relationship: 1) right and 2) happy.