Six Word Monotony

 

Could the Olympics be over already?

Super Dud

 

For me, the Super Bowl is never about the game.  Oh, sure, I usually have a preference of winners, but it doesn’t really matter to me. (And it’s a good thing, since this year, my preferred team took a beating.)  And, it’s not particularly a social event, like it is for some.  No, none of that; for me, it’s all about the commercials. 

But this year, the big game was pretty disappointing on all fronts.  The game itself was a boring blowout, but the ads were just about as bad.  They weren’t particularly funny, or dramatic, inspired or inspiring.  For the most part, they were just your everyday, run-of-the-mill commercials.  What fun is that?

But they weren’t all bad.  Here are a few of the ones I enjoyed.

I liked the Doritos time machine, though I’d already voted for it online, and part of the fun of the Super Bowl is being surprised by the newness of the ads.  (Though it was nice to have cast my vote for the winner.)

I liked the Volkswagen angel wings, though I thought it could’ve benefitted from just a bit more brevity.

I enjoyed the Coca Cola “America the Beautiful” spot, though I’m not surprised it stirred up some controversy.  You could tell when it was playing that it was the sort of thing that would fire up some folks.  Narrow-minded folks, IMO, but it was pretty clear it would create some talk.  More important, I usually love Coke commercials, but this one falls firmly in the “like” category.  It was nice enough, but didn’t give me that feel good feeling their ads so often do.

Budweiser, on the other hand, knows how to make people feel good.  Their welcome home ad definitely hit the right spot.

And, not surprisingly, Bud also had my absolute favorite commercial of the night—and it came so late.  Definitely a case of saving the best for last.  I always enjoy their Clydesdale ads, and this one was no exception.  The horse and the puppy bit was just adorable, and I hope it’ll get lots of air time.

So, those are the few Super Bowl ads that I enjoyed Sunday.  Sadly, there were far more that I’m hoping I don’t have to see making the rotation into my regular viewing.  And, I hope the ad agencies are already working on making next year better.

Super Ads

 

We’re less than two weeks away from the Super Bowl, can you believe that?  I have to admit that I’m really not that big a fan of the game itself—I mean, I’ve got nothing against football exactly, but mostly I watch because it’s on. 

And for the commercials, of course.  They’re the most fun, year after year.  And, guess what is supposedly coming this year? Commercials from the casts of Full House and Seinfeld!  Honestly, I’m not sure why this seems so exciting to me, but I can’t deny that it does.  Of course I watched both those shows when they were airing, but it’s not like I was a huge fan.  And I certainly don’t find myself wistfully remembering the days when they were broadcast.  But all that being said, I find myself looking forward to some ridiculous catch phrases or maybe funny faces or something. 

Oh, yeah, and maybe there’ll be some football, too.

 

Facebook Friday, January 3

 

Honestly, I would rather be having a Feel Good Friday post today.  After all, I’ve been having a pretty good week, including a relaxing day spent with Brian today, so it’s definitely a FGF here. 

But, while there have been a few things I’ve stumbled across lately that I might like to share, the thing that’s really on my mind today is a story that’s been making the rounds the last couple of days.  It is the story of Chris Kluwe, a former NFL punter who believes he was fired for speaking out in support of same-sex marriage. 

Now, let me say that I don’t follow the NFL games, much less the personal lives of the players.  So, how outspoken has he been?  I don’t know?  How was his kicking in the final season of his career?  I don’t know that either.  And I certainly don’t know if Kluwe is the kind of person who would make up such allegations, or even exaggerate them for some sort of personal gain.  I will say that I would hope no one is that kind of person, but there’s just really not much telling these days.

But, what seems undisputed is that Kluwe really has become a proponent for same-sex marriage.  And I think that’s a good thing, as well as a sometimes difficult thing.  It’s hard sometimes even for the “average” folks among us to speak up and say something that we know will not be universally well received, but certainly it must be more difficult for the celebrity types.  And maybe, though I certainly don’t know for sure, but just maybe this particular topic is even more difficult for the pro sports types, who are expected to be all he-man and macho, which seems contrary to the idea of believing in marriage equality. 

So, while I hope Mr. Kluwe’s stand on equality and social justice did not cost him his job, I commend him for his willingness to perhaps put that job in jeopardy in an effort to speak up for what he believes.

Six Word Bedlam

 

 

The underdogs pull off a win!

More Than a Game

 

I’ve been thinking about yesterday’s football game, and I’ve decided that six words just aren’t enough to dedicate to the afternoon, so I’m going to chat about it just a little bit more today.

First, let me just say that I was totally overwhelmed to simply have the tickets given to me, particularly by my boss.  Well, okay, technically by my boss’ wife, but still.  They’re a couple, there were two tickets, you gotta figure they at least halfway came from my boss.  Anyway, I thought it was very nice, especially since I still feel like something of an outsider at the office, even after almost six months.  So it was nice.

And, as I believe I may have mentioned, they were excellent seats.  Brian kept saying he was sure someone was going to realize we didn’t really belong and come kick us out.  Silly man.  But he really enjoyed the location.  And it really was a different perspective than from the cheap seats we usually inhabit.

But, besides the normal football playing, we got to see a couple of other things during the game, as well.  For one thing, there was the goofball who decided to run out onto the field during a commercial break.  Who ever knows what people are thinking when they do such foolishness, but the fans gave a roar of appreciation for the highway patrolman who brought the guy down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of more significance, though, was an event that happened earlier in the game.  You know those surprise military reunions that make the rounds of news clips and YouTube posts?  Well, we were treated to seeing one live, and if you ever think those videos are doctored or something to make them more emotional, I’m here to say that they are not. 

At each home game, OU has a military recognition moment; whether an active duty or vet, they recognize someone who has served.  So it didn’t seem all that strange when they were recognizing a man who was still serving in Afghanistan.  His family was on the field to accept on his behalf, and he had a taped message to play on the big screen.  But then the Sooner Schooner was coming out onto the field, and the crowd—and his family—realized what was happening.  It was great to see and there were giant smiles and misty eyes all over that stadium.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, all in all, free tickets and great seats weren’t anywhere near the best things about the day, and I’m really glad we were there to take it all in.

Six Word Trifecta

 

 

Good weather, great seats, nice win.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Six Word Victory

 

 

 

Great game today, plus ended well!

Six Word Boredom

 

 

Already too much football on TV.

Six Word Sloppiness

 

  

 

  Ugly game, but still a win.

The Path to the Walk of Fame (part 1)

 

One more post about Brian Keith, and a bit about how he came to achieve a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  It started like this . . .

Way back in 2004, I was dealing with a minor illness that had me off work for several weeks.  If you’ve ever been confined to your home for any amount of time, you know it can eventually make you go a little crazy.  Even for someone like me, who would use any excuse to get to watch a bunch of TV, it can get pretty bad.  And, since I’m not much of a fan of soap operas, infomercials, or drama-filled talk shows, daytime television didn’t really do all that much for me.  So I did what any television fanatic would do:  rummaged around my stash of old VHS tapes until I found something to occupy my time.

As it turns out, one of the things I dug out of that stash, was a tape (several, actually) of old episodes of Hardcastle and McCormick.  Now, remember, this was 2004, and H&M had gone off the air in 1986, so when I say “old episodes”, I’m not lying about the “old” bit.  Anyway, I had the show recorded because I always loved it, and because back in the day, I recorded a lot of stuff.  It’s like I knew I’d need to entertain myself some day.  The point is, I loved the show when it was on first run, still loved it when it was syndicated to the cable networks, and loved it still when I pulled out the VHS tapes in 2004.

Watching the show again after so many years made me wonder if there were any other fans around anywhere, so I got on the computer and browsed around a bit.  That ultimately led me to a Yahoo! group dedicated to the show.  Imagine my delight when I realized there were other people out there who still enjoyed a program that had faded into the sunset almost twenty years earlier.  Of course I joined up. I met some wonderful people there, and it was great fun, immersing myself in the small by excited fandom.

Flash forward just a little over two years, it’s May of 2006 (the ladies who would become my two best Hardcastle friends had joined by now) and we’re scheming and planning about how we could put together a convention devoted to the many programs of Stephen J. Cannell.  Sure, it was a crazy huge idea, requiring more details and planning than we could ever have understood, but one of my only regrets about pursuing the star was that we completely set aside the convention idea somewhere along the way.  But, in the midst of these planning conversations, someone posted a comment that neither Brian Keith nor Daniel Hugh Kelly had a star out in Hollywood, and wouldn’t it be great if we could spearhead a campaign to get that situation rectified.  Oh, and by the way, in addition to applications and finagling and such, let’s not forget that once someone was selected for a star, there was a $15,000 fee.  If we were going to do this thing, we had some serious fundraising in our futures. 

Well, as it turned out, we decided we weren’t going to let a measly fifteen grand keep us from going after what we wanted.  After all, Brian Keith had been an actor a really long time, and he was the first reason a lot of us even tuned into Hardcastle and McCormick to begin with.   Surely we wouldn’t be the only ones who thought he deserved a star.  And, ultimately, we were not . . .

Okay, it’s almost midnight, and (as usual) I am wiped out.  I can barely keep my eyes open, so I’ve got to head off to bed.  More on the strange process of getting a star on the Walk of Fame tomorrow. (See part 2.)

 

Another Step for Equality

 

A week or so ago, I mentioned that Law Day is coming up on May 1, the day we celebrate the rule of law in our society.  Our campus Law Day event was actually today, and we had a speech from John Raley, who holds the distinction of being the only US Attorney to ever be appointed by both a Republican and Democratic administration.  It was interesting to hear him talk about the morality possessed by the best lawyers, and even more interesting to hear him tell a short story of his son—following in the legal footsteps—who worked with the Innocence Project to have an innocent man freed after 25 years in prison.  It gives me hope for the profession I intend to work in, even if peripherally. 

I also mentioned in that earlier post that the local paralegal organization was sponsoring an essay contest with a theme of Equality for All.  At the time, I didn’t expect to be selected as one of the winners, but I’m glad to tell you today that I was wrong about that.  So, Wednesday the other winners and I will be visiting the courthouse and chatting with one of the judges, as well as attending the state Bar Association celebration luncheon.  It should be a nice afternoon, and I’ll tell you all about it later this week. 

But today I want to share with you my essay.  Actually, I was going to combine both the essay and the recap of the official day’s activities all into one post, but something happened today that made me decide to talk about the equality essay today:  Jason Collins, NBA player, publicly came out as gay.

  Honestly, I don’t particularly follow the NBA (except to know if the OKC Thunder are winning or losing—and it’s a lot of winning this year!), and I’d never heard of Collins before today.  But I have to say that he gained a lot of respect from me today, and I admire the courage it took for him to be honest about himself.  Not that such a thing should take courage, of course, but the world we live in is not always accepting of those who are “different”.  And, as the first active athlete in one of the major professional team sports to come out, he’s definitely going to fit into the “different” category.  I’m glad that the initial responses have been primarily positive, and I hope that Collins—a free agent—gets to continue to live his dream as a professional basketball player without any negative repercussions for his honesty.

And that’s what the essay contest was all about—equality for all.  I think it’s a dream that we’ve not yet achieved, but I still believe it’s a dream worth having.  And I believe that brave people like Jason Collins will help make that dream a reality.

And, finally, here’s what I had to say to the essay committee:

Liberty and Justice for All

In America, fundamental equality for all seems to exist as some sort of ideal condition that we believe we have achieved, so little conscious thought is given to the veracity of that belief. It is only when faced with a challenge to the status quo that we begin to question this theory at all.

If asked in 1863, the average American would likely have said that the country was operating in full accordance with the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, that all men are, in fact, created equally and entitled to certain unalienable rights. Yet the Emancipation Proclamation was necessary. An entire race of people was receiving unequal treatment, but justifications had been made and the nation was existing in a strange state of duality, cherishing equality while condoning slavery. Even after emancipation, more years would pass before slavery was fully outlawed, and years more before black men would be allowed to vote. People had to fight and die for the foundational equality this country is known for. And history shows that the fight did not end with slavery’s demise, nor has it fully ended yet.

Gender equality was the next real challenge to the status quo, with women rising up to demand equal status, fighting for equality in suffrage, jobs, military service. With glass ceilings still present in many organizations and wage equality still just a dream, it’s clear that this challenge also continues.

And, most recently, the matter of sexual orientation has become a battleground for equality, with those in the minority fighting for rights and recognitions that the majority take for granted. It is safe to assume that most members of the LGBT community do not yet feel that they are being granted access to their unalienable rights.

So though the nation was founded on the basic presumption of equality, society has shown time and again that it is not always freely granted, nor fully given. As we mark the anniversary of one of the great moments in the fight for equality, perhaps we should remember a few words of President Lincoln: “Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves”.

Six Word Activities

 

My day: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Football, family, fake Elvis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Linking up with Cate for Six Word Saturday. 

Worth the Price of Admission?

 

As I may have mentioned from time to time, we watch a lot of football around our house.  Well, to be more accurate, except for the Sooner games, mostly Brian watches, and I do homework or read or something, while keeping half an eye on the game.  But either way, this past Sunday, we joined another hundred million or so folks and tuned in to the Super Bowl.

The game was fine.  My uneducated guess had been that the Ravens would emerge victorious, so yay for my guessing skills.  Beyonce was also fine, though I’m not really a fan.  And, the blackout made for some amusing memes.

Still, everyone knows that the point of watching the Super Bowl is to see the commercials, right?  Of course.  Though I have to admit that I was a little bit disappointed this year.  All in all, I really thought they were just a little bit blah, and, given the millions of dollars the advertisers have to pay to get their spots on during the big game, you’d think they’d make sure blah was not on the menu.  Even so, there were a few that I did enjoy.

 

  It’s not all that often that I end up with a car commercial on my faves list, but this one amused me.

 

  It might not be common to have a car ad in my top list, but it’s downright traditional for Budweiser to land there.  This year is no exception.  Incidentally, the baby in the ad is now named Hope.

 

  Seriously, this cracked me up.

 

  Look, it’s another car commercial! But any parent who’s ever been caught unprepared for a childhood conversation can relate to this one.

 

 

And that’s about it.  Sad that I can’t even come up with a top 5, but these are the only ones that really stuck out for me.  Like I said, a pretty sad lot, and if I was an advertiser who’d shelled out four million bucks for my moment of fame, I’d be sadder still.  But none of that will keep me from tuning in again next year.

Did you have any ad favorites?

A Year Begins, a Season Ends

 

The fun thing about beginning a new year is that everything gets to start over again.  So, this is not only my very first post of 2013, but also the first entry into the Ultimate Blog Challenge, and my first Tube Day Tuesday.  Everything old is new again.  I love how that works out.

But I know what you’re thinking: what could possibly be on TV these days worth chatting about?  Isn’t everything in reruns during the holiday season?  Well, yeah, pretty much.  It will still be a week or two before everything is completely back to normal, but tomorrow will see a new episode of Chicago Fire, and then on Thursday, the full CBS prime-time lineup will return.  I’m glad about that; I find that I miss those boys on The Big Bang Theory.  And Person of Interest and Elementary.  Thursday is a very good day. 

But in the meantime, the television in this household is tuned to that time-honored holiday tradition: college football.  Yes, it’s the time of year we gather to watch the NCAA football season draw to a close.

There are, I believe, 35 bowl games these days, and while many of these match-ups wouldn’t rate airtime during the regular season, put the teams together in the post-season and it seems to become an event.  And, of course, I’m married to a football-lovin’ guy, so we’ve seen just about all of them.  (Thank goodness for the few games that are scheduled simultaneously!)  I did have to laugh at the commentary following one of the early games, though.  In the evening wrap-up segment, while showing highlights from a previous game, the commentator said something along the lines of, “You just watched a good football game.  This, however, was not a good game.”  LOL.  I like it when the “talkers” call it like it is. 

Tonight’s game of choice is the Orange Bowl, and it’s a little bit bittersweet in these parts, because it’s the game everyone thought our local team would be invited to.  But, with the much-maligned BCS rankings, automatic qualifiers, etc., we got beat out of the invitation by Northern Illinois University.  With my limited knowledge of the game, I would never go so far as to say any team didn’t “belong” in any game, though many of the commentators (and my husband) did say it in this instance—loudly and often.  However, sitting here watching, I’ll say that they haven’t played any worse than some of the other teams I’ve seen this month, and better than quite a few.  I mean, they are losing, but they’re not getting quite as thoroughly trounced as everyone seemed to believe would happen.  I have a good friend who has NIU as her alma mater, so I can’t entirely wish bad things on them, but her daughter graduated from the opponent—FSU—so I figure she won’t be entirely displeased whichever team emerges with the W.  And, though she doesn’t particularly follow football, she says no one was more surprised than the alumni to find the school invited to a major bowl game.  Hah.

The game I want to attend some day is the Rose Bowl.  I like Pasadena, the stadium seems really cool, and the weather is decent out there this time of year.  And, most important, they have a spectacular parade.  They don’t call it the Granddaddy of Them All for nothing.  Anyway, as things stand, our team is unlikely to play in that particular game, but the National Championship will be out there next year, so cross your fingers that we get our act together and make it out there for that.  I’d be more than willing to go out a week early to take in the parade. 

And, speaking of the parade, I haven’t seen it this year yet.  It’s on the DVR, since I was cooking and cleaning this morning for the traditional ham and black eyed peas lunch, but I’ll for sure get around to it before the week is out. 

So, yes, tons of football has been on the viewing schedule for the past couple of weeks, and there’s still another week to go.  Even my beloved Thursday night line up will have to wait for delayed viewing, since Brian will almost certainly be watching the Fiesta Bowl that evening.  And, then, on Friday will finally be the OU bowl appearance, the Cotton Bowl.  Honestly, I don’t have anything in particular against football, and it can even be fun and exciting to watch, but every year I seem to forget just how many post-season games there are, and if it were up to me, there would probably be just a few less.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* Football image courtesy of Idea go at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Six Word Longshot

 

Strange, cheering for Sooners and Longhorns

 

Linking up with Show My Face for Six Word Saturday.  Which six words describe your world today?

Six Word Competition

 

 

 

Bedlam today; fingers crossed for Sooners!

Linking up with Cate at Show My Face; join in and tell your story in six words.

Six Word Photo Project

 

 

Ten on Ten first timer today.

 

 

 

   Linking up with Show My Face for Six Word Saturday, and A Bit of Sunshine for Ten on Ten.

Snapshot Sunday #12, with a Side of Sports

 

  Before we get to this week’s pictures, let me tell you what’s on my TV mind today:  sports.  I suppose it’s not all that surprising, at the end of the weekend.  After all, weekends are practically synonymous with television sports, right? 

  I live in a college town with a pretty good football team, so fall Saturdays around here are all about NCAA.  We lost yesterday, which was a bummer, but we—and thousands of others—watched it all unfold in horrendous living color from the comfort of our living rooms.

Late in the game, the local channel put a crawler across the screen that one of the most popular players on our local NBA team had been traded, so that’s been quite the topic for the past twenty-four hours or so.

Today, of course, it was the NFL all afternoon (including a game from Wembley Stadium, no less), and then tonight saw San Francisco complete the sweep of Detroit to become World Series Champions.

It’s been a busy couple of sports days.  Like most weekends.  But watching the baseball post-game hoopla, I was amazed—as I always am—by the Giants pulling on their Championship tees and hats.  What I can never figure out is what happens when a series goes best of seven and both sides print up the winning apparel and one of them is left with a bunch of worthless material?  What do they do with all those clothes?  That is a lot of money to waste, and I figure there’s probably some sort of league rules about having them out floating around with the wrong winner on them, so I always think they probably can’t even donate them to homeless shelters or anything.  I like to envision some poor guy in a basement at the stadium, waiting until the last out to start running the screen press machine, churning out just enough for the winning team, but I can’t quite convince myself that’s the way it really works.

At any rate, that train of thought invariably leads me to wondering about the basic state of money in sports.  Of course, I think we’ll all agree that unless you happen to be a Buffet or Gates, the numbers are simply staggering.  So today I wondered just about TV money, and I thought I’d do a quick Google search.  I was not much less staggered by that amount.

It turns out that MLB is making about a billion dollars a year on television contracts.  A billion.  With a B.  And they aren’t alone in raking in big bucks.  The NBA is somehow managing to squeak by with $930 million a year, and even our local collegiate conference (schools/conferences negotiate their own television contracts because the NCAA was barred from making all broadcast decisions years ago) is reportedly making $200M annually between football and basketball airtime. 

But, as you might imagine, the NFL is the king of the heap when it comes to collecting the dough.  They’re currently making $1.9 billion dollars a year, with that figure set to increase after next season to $3.1 billion. 

Am I the only person astounded by these numbers?  And this is just broadcast revenue we’re talking about, not ticket sales, or concessions, or any sort of merchandising.  Strictly TV money.  And that’s strictly the “big” sports.  I haven’t even checked on things like golf, auto racing, tennis, or the occasional billiards tournament and what-have-you.  The networks are shelling out just insane amounts of money for these games.

So who pays for it all?  Well, advertisers pick up a big chunk of it, of course, but a lot of it is also coming from me and you.  I saw one report that said the average television subscriber (cable/satellite) is paying $4.69 per month to have ESPN included in their lineup.  And that’s just the start of the sports channel costs.  They estimate that sports programming is responsible for roughly 50% of the average television bill each month, even though it’s only about 20% of the viewing time.  That seems a little out of whack to me.

As I said, there is a lot of sports watching that goes on in this household, so I can’t say that we’re not getting some return on the money we’re being charged, I’m just saying maybe we ought to slow things down a little and consider whether these dollar amounts seem reasonable.  I mean, after all, these are just games we’re talking about here.  Maybe we just need a little perspective, and could start dialing back the sports budget just a little bit.  And maybe start by putting that guy in the basement to work, and making sure there isn’t any money wasted on championship tee shirts that never see the light of day.

But, enough of that.  Let’s move on to this week’s photos, shall we?  After all, it is Snapshot Sunday.  As always, prompts are provided by Chantelle, entertaining us from over at Fat Mum Slim. 

  Prompt:  Calm.  A peaceful moment on my neighborhood walk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  In Your Town.  Truthfully, I have no idea what this is.  It’s been sitting in the front yard of a house here in town for my whole life.  I believe it’s a spaceship of some sort.  How or why?  Who knows?  My dad told me the owner was once an engineering student or something over at the university, and it was built as a school project.  But he didn’t know the guy; it seemed like just pretty much town lore.  And it seems perfectly reasonable, too, but I prefer to imagine some sort of ET-type of encounter and the owner kept this as a memento. 

 

  Prompt: The View From Here.  Here is sitting at the top of my road, waiting on traffic so that I may get on the highway.  No one likes waiting on traffic, but the clouds were pretty.

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  Weather.  It was dreary and overcast most all day.  The clouds finally broke up just in time for sunset, and we never did get any rain.  Fine by me.

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  People.  It turns out there really aren’t very many people in the library after 8:00, which was when I remembered I hadn’t yet taken my picture for the day.  But at least there were a couple.  When my study group and I arrived, I think we at least doubled the population.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  Listening To.  Come On Eileen, one of the best one hit wonder songs ever.  I’m not sure how I managed to download it from an exercise album, but it seems appropriate, because that’s when I listen to it most.  It’ll really help get you moving.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  Morning.  Saturday morning at the campus, and not a lot going on.  Turns out there aren’t too many people goofy enough to sign up for an 8AM weekend class!

And that wraps up the photos for today.  Tomorrow begins a brand new week, and I think it might be a little more settled.  I’ve fallen completely behind on the fun things lately, like blog reading, exercising (well, maybe not entirely fun), more picture taking.  Going to work on carving out time for that stuff again, starting Monday.  Oh, and I have a phone interview tomorrow, too.  Some sort of contact center for a logistics company, so we’ll see how that goes.  Here’s wishing you all a pleasant new week, too.

Six Word Rivalry

 

Red River Rivalry, watching with family

 

 

Linking up for Six Word Saturday.