A Birthday Conspiracy

Jenny and my parents arrived at my office Friday around noon, with my sister Em as a special surprise guest! (Jenny had flown her in from Charleston) We proceeded to the National Zoo - my Mom's idea, she's a panda fanatic - and that evening Jenny and I trekked back to the Charm City for a fantastic birthday dinner at Sascha's. Little did I know then, that the festivities weren't yet over....

Saturday - my parents and Em were going to come out to Baltimore for dinner with us that night; a dual celebration of mine and Em's birthdays (hers is today, happy birthday Em!!!), or so I thought. Jenny claimed that she had to go into the office that afternoon, since she was out all day on Friday. Very plausible; I didn't think twice about it. Nor did I think twice when she claimed early that evening that she left her cell phone at the office; again, very believable, since she's been known to forget or misplace things from time to time. I also wasn't suspicious about Barry & Helen wanting to watch the end of My Cousin Vinnie on TV instead of heading out to eat earlier than planned (everyone was already hungry around 7, reservations were for 8) - after all, they love that movie.

But then again, I didn't have any reason to be suspicious! I had thought that something was going on for the last few weeks, with Jenny on the phone with my mom a few times per week, but when Em showed up I figured hey, that was it. Nope. Most everyone who's reading this knows the rest - I show up at DuClaw in Fells Point, everyone's there, I am genuinely surprised, we drink, eat, mingle; a good time is had by all!

Now for the second round of birthday thank-yous! Thanks again to the whole family - Barry, Helen, and Em for helping out with the planning and the photo album, and Dave, Amy, and Matt for all your love (I know you all would have been there if you could; get well soon Amy!). Thanks to everyone who showed up, especially the LTIers who made the journey from DC - special thanks to Scott for coordinating with Jenny to make sure I didn't inadvertently spoil any plans - and our Patterson Park neighbors for taking time to celebrating with a guy that they don't know too well. Finally, to the wife of the year, Jenny - what can I say, you pulled it off marvelously, babe. It's gonna be tough to top that in another year-and-a-half, when it comes time to celebrate your second 29th birthday....I'm up to the challenge though (mwaahahhah!!).

Thirty, Google Video

Today's the day, the big three-zero. Ze Germans call it dreissig. The Romans would have known it by the letters XXX (how naughty). I'd like to thank my parents for making it all possible, and myself for staying alive for all these decades.

In other news, Google recently launched its video service, and already we have a few winners. For you cat-lovers out there (or even for you alleged cat-haters who secretly love cats, you know who you are), here are cats doing weird and crazy things. And here's an alternate music video of the Electric Six tune Gay Bar featuring everyone's favorite transatlantic couple, George and Tony. No, it's not a homophobic song (at least not that I can tell), it's just plain bizarre - other Electric Six originals include Electric Demons in Love and Vengeance and Fashion. Don't take the song too seriously, but be impressed with the editing of the video.

Terps: State of the Team

As some of you know, the Terps lost leading scorer Chris McCray to academic ineligibility this week. His basketball playing days at Maryland are now over. There are columns in the Sun and the Post today by John Eisenberg and Mike Wilbon, respectively, that put the blame squarely on Chris. Still, not exactly one of Gary's best recruiting classes.

Now it's time to see what the guards on the bench will do with much more playing time, beginning with Mike Jones, who moves into the starting lineup. We'll also see how interested Gary remains in coaching this year's team; will he let them coast and just wait it out until next year's supposedly-stellar recruits arrive, or can he push this team back into the tournament? Time will tell, but I wouldn't be surprised if they go on a bit of a winning streak. That Mike Jones guy can really shoot the ball, if he starts playing 30 minutes a game, who knows what could happen?

Meanwhile, former Terps are acquitting themselves nicely (or at the very least, showing up to play) in various pro leagues:

• Juan and Steve are still in the Blazers' starting lineup, and each scored 20 the other night.
• Drew Nicholas is starting for Italy's top pro team, Benneton, which is currently leading the Serie A standings. And if I'm reading this table correctly, he's actually leading the team in scoring, assists, and minutes!
• Sarunas gets 24 minutes and 9 per game in Indiana.
  
• Lonny Baxter is getting some playing time in Houston.
• Terrence Morris averages about 9 minutes a game in Orlando.
• That punk-ass John Gilchrist is the second-leading scorer on his Israeli team.
• Mike Mardesich is evidently starting for some French team. I guess you can't teach size...

There are other players who are also hanging out in the NBA, guys like Joe Smith, Laron Profit, Chris Wilcox - I just decided to highlight those players that you might not hear too much about, and also players that I particularly like (Drew, Lonny, Juan, Steve).

Are ALL Political Talk Show Hosts Right-Wing?

I thought Chris Matthews worked in the Carter administration, how exactly does he end up sounding just as reactionary, slanderous, and just plain dumb, as a Sean Hannity or a Rush Limbaugh? Matthews doesn't deserve a viewing audience any more than the windbags on Fox "News", the only thinking he does before he opens his mouth is about how loud he's going to shout. Unfortunately, he passes for a moderate among the talking heads, but it's discouraging when even the so-called moderates buy into the propaganda that anyone who opposes the backwards foreign policy of the US is a terrorist sympathizer.

Mr. Moore, of course, is more than capable of defending himself.

Now That's Some Good Mileage

I found this company through WIRED News' Autopia blog; they're building a hybrid car that gets 330 MPG. Sure beats the hell out of the Prius!

(Haven't posted in a while b/c I've been bothered by a cold over the past week, and thus haven't felt suitably inspired. Almost back to 100%, so entries should be back to their usual frequency, whatever that may be.)

Losing Focus

It's so hard to concentrate on work on a Friday afternoon when you've got a sore throat, the day's work is excrutiatingly boring, and there are about a dozen emergency vehicles on the street below my office window - not to mention the flock of reporters and cameras clustered around a D.C. Fire Marshal(?).

I guess someone isn't feeling well over at the Mayflower Hotel, someone important by the looks of it. More breaking news as it happens, here at the CCB!

Charm City Blogger, One Year Later

It's been one year (to the day) already, and I'm still not bored with this whole blogging thing! Amazing. Actually, I'm having more fun with it now than I was back when I started, believe it or not.

Big Brother Welcomes You to the U-S-A

Have a nice time, speak your mind, relax! But we're watching you.

I don't know about you, but I sleep better at night, knowing that someone's keeping an eye on these freedom-hating bastards.

An Ugly Viewing Experience

Of course, I'm referring to being forced to listen to that sycophant Dick Vitale while he fellates the Durham-based college basketball program, its coach, players, alumni, and fans, for the entirety of the Terps game this evening. See, I can't mute the TV and turn on Johnny Holliday because we have DirecTV, and there's a 1-2 second delay between the terrestrial radio signal and the satellite TV signal. Next time, I'm hitting mute and cranking up some tunes on the stereo. Thankfully, they only play the Durhams two, maybe three times per year.

As for the game? Not much left to say. Twenty-nine turnovers and six assists will usually lose, I don't care who you're playing. I'm starting to doubt that Gary will stick with D.J. Strawberry as his starting PG for the entire season (1 assist, 5 TOs from D.J. in the game).

A Little More (Deep) Conversation

I can't say that I'm too surprised, that writing about sex, violence, politics, moral hypocrisy, et al, elicits more response from the few regular readers that I have (by my count...nine) than Terps basketball. The number of comments to the last entry indicates to me that in 2006, I need more of those types of posts, so I'll do my best.

So how about this Abramoff scandal, eh? Too bad that most of the public is so jaded about the workings of Washington politics, that it won't hurt the Republicans that badly. When your average voter already believes that ninety-percent of Congress is corrupt, is discovering that ten or fifteen members are really corrupt going to make that much impact when it comes time to cast a ballot later this year? Probably not. The larger issue, which I've never understood completely - maybe a constitutional law expert can explain it to me - how does free speech, 'the right to petition the government to address grievances' or whatever they used to call lobbying before paid agents started hanging around in the lobby of the Willard, equate to showering elected representatives with money?

Free speech = cash. Free speech = golf trip to Scotland. Et cetera. I know it's more complicated than that, legally speaking, but why? Making political gifts and donations a form of free speech just means that those who can't afford to give aren't heard by their government, simple as that. And we (we being US voters) keep voting to perpetuate this system, sure we'd like it to change, but it's futile to even try so oh well! Would more political parties help? Maybe, but I don't think Italian politics, for example, are all that corruption-free, and they have dozens of parties.

Maybe we need to pay these guys in Congress more, so they don't need to take the money. You know, Washington is an expensive town. I'm sure some representatives find that it's hard to get by on six-figure salaries alone. Then again, since you need to be very wealthy to even run for Congress these days, maybe that's not that much of an issue.

Misplaced Morality (Sex v. Gore)

Jenny and I caught John Waters' latest, A Dirty Shame, last month via Netflix. It carried an NC-17 rating, which evidently fit the story of a group of sex addicts in the Harford Road neighborhood of Baltimore, as they searched for a brand new sex act. Never mind that the movie itself was fairly innocuous, and probably won itself the taboo rating due to one brief episode of dreaded full-frontal male nudity. Yes, the horrific spectacle of the penis caused this otherwise average comedy (funny mainly due to Tracy Ullman as the lead, but defintely not Waters' finest work) to be branded with an NC-17.

Why bring this up now? When I see the trailers for a horror-gore splatterfest like Hostel, I wonder what's going on. A movie that features the male genitals for a few seconds gets the NC-17, but one that graphically depicts humans torturing other humans with power tools gets an R rating? Have the puritans who run this country's ratings boards really lost their way so badly? It's confusing to me - extreme gory torture, OK as long as you kiddies have an adult with you; naked middle-aged couple in a John Waters film, forget it children, that will warp your minds, and we at the MPAA know that better than your parents.

That is simply fucked up.

"In the kiteboarding community, they call it a kitemare"

It's amazing, the strange things people do for sport. From the article:

He was pulled about 15 feet into the air and hit the roof of the bathroom facilities here at the Cape Canaveral park and put a dent into the metal before coming down on the other side.

Sounds like fun, except for the part about denting the metal roof with his body.

The Entertainers

When you receive a home bar as a gift from your (always generous) family, and when you finally buy a dining room table, you've gotta put them to use, right? And so we did this weekend, for our 2nd New Year's party, for the final 2005 chapter of the family Christmas - featuring the southernmost enclave, Em & Dave - and for poker with Cal & Greg yesterday (2nd losing game in a row for me, what's up with that). That's just the beginning though! We are now fully equipped for maximum merriment, and we plan to take full advantage.