Movie - "Prometheus"

In between The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises, this was one of the movies I was most looking forward to seeing this summer. The only thing was, it was kind of hard to figure out in advance what it was all about. With that being said, once it did come out, I didn't read any reviews so I could go into it blindly. So consider this a minor spoiler warning.

It essentially starts out very similar to "Alien," in which a ship is traveling through space and then the ship's android wakes everyone up out of their hibernation units. It's not due to a distress call, but they've reached their destination. A planet that may hold the key to how the universe was created. Yeah, a lot of mumbo-jumbo about a species, called "engineers" who may have created the earth and all that. But hey, this is science "fiction," it didn't do anything to shake my beliefs.

They check out the planet and find for the most part what they are looking for but aren't sure what it all means (is this where humanity began). Not a slow moving movie at this point, but not necessarily fast paced either. A windstorm hits the planet and a couple of the explorers get left behind on the planet while the others are safely back on the ship. Not sure how the movie is going to progress and then BAM! There's a little parasite the explorers check out, which turns out not to be a good idea and thus brings on quite the squirm inducing scene. It's kinda like that scene in "Alien" where the monster bursts forth from the guy's chest, comes out of nowhere.

Ah, speaking of "Alien," the director of "Prometheus" is Ridley Scott, who also directed that one. It was rumored before release that this was indeed a prequel to "Alien." So, is it? Well, kinda. It's not a prequel in that you will suddenly come across the grandmother of Sigourney Weaver's character. However, if you have seen (and remember) "Alien" you will recognize some things. If you haven't seen "Alien" then you won't be lost seeing "Prometheus" but you won't be privvy to the significance of some plot developments (and some very recognizable sights, especially during the concluding sequences).

Not really any major stars. Charlize Theron would be the biggest one. Also has Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace. Rapace's character is pretty laid back, then she has a do it yourself surgery scene that is squirm inducing scene #2 in this movie. This brings out the action movie heroine in her (as she displayed quite well as the original Lizbeth Salander).

Worth checking out, but I can understand it would not be for all tastes. I saw the 3D version, and this was very much worthy of the effect. Be forewarned, the two squirm inducing scenes I mentioned really are that.

Book Review: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Finished reading the Steve Jobs biography, as this week we had the usual hype attached to the launch of a new Apple product.

This biography isn't a hack job, but was authorized by Jobs himself and is the result of many interviews with the author, Walter Isaacson, who also interviewed just about everyone that came into contact with Jobs over the years.

He was certainly a complex individual, and absolutely a genius. It's a fascinating book to read and very fast-paced. One theme throughout the book is just how much of a paradox he was. He could treat employees very badly and saw no middle ground. He either said of one's ideas that they were (crap) or he liked it, but virtually never heaped praise on anyone. He was a bad husband, a bad father, and didn't take responsibility for his first child from a previous relationship until many years later. Many people in the book express their frustration as to why Jobs could be so mean-spirited.

Lots of employees left Apple in frustration . . . but many stayed, and while they say he was difficult to work for, they also admit he pushed them to do things they never thought possible. When Jobs didn't like something, even if engineers spent months on it, they had no choice but to go back and redesign it, but Jobs was always right and the finished product was much better. He was a micromanager of the highest degree. Every inch of every Apple product he fussed and fussed over. He was even meticulous about what the INSIDE of the Mac computer should look like. Who cares what the inside looked like? Hmm, but then along came the later computers with transparent covers where you could see inside. He got that from his father, a carpenter who always made sure the back of a cabinet, that no one ever saw, looked as good as the front.

Apple didn't realy invent anything, but they took what was already out there and made it much better. MP3 players were around, but the iPod, coupled with iTunes, made them very easy to use. One tidbit I liked was from Bill Gates. He was totally dumbfounded over how in the world Jobs got the music companies to go along with him on the iTunes Store. This was during the days of illegal file sharing and it was assumed it was just herding cats to get music companies to agree to something like this.

What many forget is that Jobs' tenure at Apple was disrupted in the late 80's. He was kicked out of the company and left to start another computer company, which was unsuccessful. But then he began dabbling in other things, such as, what's that animation studio called? Oh yeah, Pixar! When he came back to Apple in the late 90's, he was only there about 15 years before passing away last year. But wow, the things he accomplished while he was there (iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad).

Fascinating reading, and I highly recommend it. But you don't get any warm and fuzzy feelings from Jobs and I would never want to be the kind of person he was. But I sure do like my iPod and my recently purchased iPad.

U2 at MSU

Sunday night I went up to Michigan State University, along with about 65,000 others, to see U2 on their 360 tour. This marked the third time I had seen them in concert, the first time being over 20 years ago . . . .and I'd gladly see them again. They are an incredible live band.

The first time I saw them was in 1987 at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. This was the year they exploded in popularity with the Joshua Tree album. For this concert, I paid a whopping $5.00 for the ticket. No, I didn't get a big discount, that was face value for any ticket that night. You see, they were filming for the "Rattle and Hum" CD and movie, so to ensure a packed house, they had the huge discount. If you listen to "Bullet the Blue Sky" on the Rattle and Hum CD, that was recorded live the night I was there. They played all but one song that night from Joshua Tree, still their best CD ever.

The next time I saw them was in 1997 at Chicago Soldier Field for the "PopMart" Tour. A big stage and light extravanganza that sorta worked, sorta didn't at times. The CD was so-so. But still, a great live show overall. The Edge lead the crowd in a sing along of The Monkees' "Daydream Believer."

In 2001, I TRIED to see them again at Chicago's United Center. Myself and 2 other friends, the same ones at Michigan State this past Sunday, bought what turned out to be bogus tickets on the street (we had also bought tickets on the street for Popmart with no problem). As we entered the arena, and they scanned the tickets, we were told to go stand against the wall and they filled out a police report. So, somewhere in the Chicago police department archives, my name is on a report. We then looked at the Michael Jordan statue . . .and went home.

Sunday night at Spartan Stadium, we had actual tickets (which, by the way, were a gift from our friend Peter . . .yeah, quite a guy!). The crowd in 1987 in Arizona was all young, as U2 had just burst onto the scene. But this past Sunday night, it was mostly an older crowd like, uh, myself. This tour, the "360 tour" had a massive set with a huge screen. But as they perform, they are a rather unpretentious group. The Edge casually does his thing. I've seen bigger drum sets in a church worship band than what Larry Mullen has. Adam Clayton kinda struts around with a sly grin. Bono, of course, is the more bombastic one.

U2 took to the stage and did 3 songs in a row from "Achtung Baby" and for the rest of the night did a mix of the old and new. Yep, you had "Pride," "Sunday, Bloody Sunday," "I Will Follow" and many more. They sang for just over two hours. For the final encore, they did "With or Without You" and then one of their all-time greatest songs, "Where the Streets Have No Name" amped up in a live setting with The Edge and his awesome guitar. There was also a neat tribute to Gabby Giffords, with a taped segment from the International Space Station with her husband, Mark Kelly.

A great concert by a great band that 30 years later, isn't really showing their age. Not sure if I'll get a chance to see them again anytime soon, but over a 24 year span, I've seen three awesome concerts by the lads from Dublin.

The Power of Forgiveness

On Tuesday at IU South Bend we had a speaker named Eva Kor on the topic of "The Power of Forgiveness." What made her qualified to give such a speech? Well, she was a survivor of the holocaust. Traumatic enough, certainly. But she also survived Auschwitz, the most infamous of all the Nazi death camps. But further yet, her and her twin sister were victims of Joseph Mengele's cruel experiments. Yes, if she can forgive after going through all that, I'll listen.


She was only 10 when she got off the cattle car at Auschwitz. She lost her father and brother in the crowd, never to see them again. Her mom held on tight to her and her sister. A Nazi guard went around asking who were twins. When her mom was asked if they were twins, her mom said, "Is that good?" The guard said yes, and took them away. Eva never saw her mom again.


All the twin girls, ages 2 - 16, were housed in a cramped barracks. On her first day, she went into the latrine and saw three dead children lying there. Eva said she made a vow at that moment to survive, no matter what. All that at age 10. Although she didn't go into great detail, she described one experiment she was subjected to when blood was drawn from one arm and some unknown substance injected into the other. This made her extremely sick and she vividly remembered Mengele laughing how she only had two weeks to live. But she did survive, both her and her sister. They hid in the barracks as the camp was being emptied out shortly before being liberated. Of the over 1,000 sets of twins that were at Auschwitz, only about 100 survived. Many of the other experiments were cruel beyond measure. Mengele was a true monster.

Through a long set of circumstances, Eva one day in 1993 found herself back in Germany at the home of a doctor that also was at Auschwitz and oversaw the gas chambers. He claimed that Mengele did not let anyone else know about his horrific experiments and, like many during this time, said he was only doing what he was told to do. But Eva was struck by the doctor's kindness and genuiness at what he claimed was the daily nightmare of reliving what he was made to do there (he was acquitted of war crimes at a trial in 1947). At that moment, she decided that she must forgive not only this doctor, but all those that had been a part of her cruel ordeal.

Eva is in her late 70's now, and the capacity crowd at IU was totally silent the whole time, mesmerized by her story. She has made it her mission late in life to travel around and tell her story and talk about how liberating it was to forgive those that many would say are beyond and completely undeserving of such.









During the day, they were led off to Mengele's laboratory. Many times, her arms were tied extremely tight with ropes and blood was drawn out of one arm and an unknown substance injected into the other. What that substance was, she never knew. But one day, she got extremely sick.

Oscar Yawner

Wow, that was a pretty boring Oscar telecast last night. I had a great time at the party I went to, but the show itself left much to be desired. Some random observations:

• James Franco and Anne Hathaway ventured into David Letterman/Whoopi Goldberg territory as all-time worst hosts. Franco in particular was really, really bad. The taped bit at the beginning was good, but once they were live, all downhill.
• I lost the pool because I was the only one to pick Hallie Steinfeld for "True Grit." The little punk lost and so she joins Amy Adams on my list (I lost the pool when I went solo on picking Amy Adams for "Junebug" and she didn't come through).
• The presenter/winner combination of Kirk Douglas and Melissa Leo was pretty weird and at times a little cringe-worthy.
• Our host, Carolyn, won the pool after a long drought (no one ever dominates, we all take turns winning). She also made some excellent shrimp!
• Oh to be like Randy Newman where you can sing so poorly yet reap such a long career.
• I was the only one to successfully pick "God of Love" for best live action short film. I have no idea what significance that holds, but figured I might as well put it out there.
• One of the biggest standing ovations of the night was when Billy Crystal came out as a presenter. Hmm, perhaps the Academy should take note and book him now for 2012?
• Humming any of the nominated songs from last night? Didn't think so.
• Best acceptance speech? Uh, I guess the old dude who won screenplay for The Kings Speech and the Director who thanked his mom.
• Worst acceptance speech? Pretty much everyone else, but Melissa Leo set the bar high with her F-bomb, rambling speech.
• Carolyn kept us informed of Tweets by Roger Ebert, Bill Maher, and others. These were as entertaining as anything on the show.
• They no longer allow the audience to clap during the dead people montage. So now, you no longer here the loud applause for the big movie star followed by a few random claps for the the costume designer from "Gigi."
• Why do the hosts announce someone to the stage, and then this person's sole reason for being there is to announce someone else to the stage to do the actual presentation?
• Cheesy as it often was, sometimes I miss the Oscar telecasts of old, complete with Rob Lowe and Snow White, endless clips, big production numbers, and Jack Nicholson grinning from the front row.

Oscar Movies, Part II

Some more of this year's nominees:

Best Picture Nominee: The King's Speech
Colin Firth plays Prince Albert, who becomes King of England when his brother abdicates the throne to marry his American mistress. Problem is, Albert has a major stammering problem, which wreaks havoc for someone that's expected to give public speeches. This is even more pronounced as this takes place in the run-up to World War II. So he seeks out the help of a speech therapist, played by Geoffrey Rush. Both Firth and Rush were nominated for acting awards, as was Helena Bonham Carter, who plays Albert's wife. Very good movie, one that seemed made for Oscars. This is considered the front runner, but I still believe The Social Network was better, but you won't go wrong seeing this one, it is still very good. Note: The movie is inexplicably rated R. This is basically for two brief outbursts of profanity, part of his "therapy," that is all done in a very humorous manner, not offensive at all. The rest of the movie is perfectly clean. Take away those instances and this is a very good movie for all ages.

Best Picture Nominee: Inception
Big summer movie that I missed when it was in theatres. Wasn't enticed by the previews, seemed too convoluted or another variation on The Matrix. But I was very wrong. This is an excellent movie. All about Leonardo DiCaprio who specializes in entering people's dreams and extracting info. But this time he is hired to enter someone's dream and plant info. I know, sounds kinda strange, but it is all easy to follow and the movie hums along quickly, even at 2 1/2 hours. Directed by Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins, Dark Knight). He knows his way around action movies. Very original concept, although movie buffs may recognize the basic concept from an 80's movie with Dennis Quaid. Highly recommended, and of the Best Picture nominees, I'd call this one my 2nd favorite behind The Social Network.

Best Picture Nominee: Winter's Bone
Obscure movie that no one saw when it was released. Young girl with a do-nothing mom is basically raising her little brother and sister. Finds out their house and land will be taken away if her dad (who long deserted them) doesn't show up for a court date. Quiet movie, rather bleak, but still well done. Oscar nominations for unknowns Jennifer Lawrence as the daughter and someone else who I can't remember as one of her uncles, who is quite good. It won't win anything, but it's worth checking out, but it's not the most uplifting movie you'll ever see.

Rooting Against the Steelers

It's not that I have anything against the Pittsburgh Steelers, it's just that, okay, yeah, I do have a LOT against them. Every team I've ever rooted for have had their aspirations one way or another thwarted by this team.

The first team I ever rooted for were the Dallas Cowboys, back in the Landry, Staubach years. Later on, after moving to Indiana, I picked up the Colts. The moving to Arizona, I was there when the Cardinals came to town and was a season ticket holder their first two years (so I can truly say I've been an Arizona Cardinals fan all my life). But woven amongst all three of those teams, have been the Steelers.

• 1976 - Super Bowl X. Cowboys v. Steelers. Lynn Swann makes an incredible acrobatic catch that Bradshaw threw from his own end zone. This got them out of trouble and lead the way to victory.
• 1979 - Super Bowl XIII. Another Cowboys v. Steelers matchup. Featured the most agonizing dropped ball in history as Jackie Smith, wide open, dropped an easy Staubach pass for a sure touchdown. Had to settle for field goal. They ended up losing by 4 points.
• 1995 - AFC Championship. Colts v. Steelers. The Colts had the game won so many times, but kept letting the Steelers back in. One play left, Jim Harbaugh of the Colts throws a Hail Mary pass to the end zone. The ball bounces up and comes down right on top of a Colts receiver. I mean, it lands right on his stomach. But he can't grab ahold of it and it fall to the ground. Game over.
• 2004 - AFC Divisional Playoffs. Colts v. Steelers. The Colts are about to lose as Pittsburgh drives for a touchdown to seal the win. Then Jerome Bettis fumbles at the goal line, Colts run it back to midfield. Peyton Manning drives them downfield. Time for a field goal to send it into over time . . . . not even close.
• 2009 - Super Bowl. Steelers v. Cardinals. The most agonizing loss ever for a team I've rooted for. Cardinals ready to go up by 4 points at halftime and Kurt Warner throws an interception. Time has expired. But wait, the Steeler defender is still running, still running. Somebody stop him!!! No one does. Touchdown, Steelers up by 10. But in the second half, Cardinals come back. Time running out, Warner hits Larry Fitzgerald running across the field and he scampers in for a touchdown. The kickoff pins the Steelers deep into their own territory. They just have to hold Roethlisberger. They don't.

Curse you Steelers and your six Super Bowl rings. Sorry, but here's hoping you don't win another. Yes, I'm a SORE LOSER!!

Oscar Movies, Part I

The Oscar nominations are out. Seen some of them, still need to see some others prior to the telecast in February. Here's some comments on the ones I've seen, more to come later.

Best Picture nominee: The Social Network
At one time was a shoo-in for Best Picture, but may have gotten passed up by some others. This movie is all dialogue, absolutely no action; yet it is very fast paced and very interesting. I loved it. Does it stay true to the facts? Don't know for sure, but Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg is great (and was deservedly nominated for Best Actor). According to this movie, Zuckerberg was a combination geek-nerd-outcast-genius-manipulator who took/stole an idea in his dorm room and became a billionaire. The script was nominated for an Oscar too, and should win. The dialogue is kind of Quentin Tarantino-esque and you'll be hooked in the opening scene. Kudos to Justin Timberlake in his role as the founder of Napster. Note: the actress playing Zuckerberg's girlfriend in the opening scene is the new Lizbeth Salander (if you don't know who that is, you're not interested anyway).

Best Picture nominee: True Grit
For a movie overlooked at end of year top ten lists, this one racked up a lot of Oscar nominations. I liked it, but didn't necessarily leave the theatre with a huge WOW factor. But the more I think about it, yeah, it was well done. Jeff Bridges was nominated for Best Actor but he just won last year. However, he certainly did a great job with Rooster Cogburn. Hallie Steinfeld as Mattie Ross would be my choice to win for Best Supporting Actress (even though she was the lead). Anytime she's on screen, you are definitely paying attention.

Best Picture nominee: The Fighter
A true-life movie in which I admired the performances but overall didn't really like it a lot. It's a loud, frenetic, Boston movie (if that description makes any sense). Mark Wahlberg is an up and coming boxer whose brother once fought Sugar Ray Leonard but has since spiraled into drugs. Christan Bale as the brother (Dicky Ecklund) was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. His performance is good, but boy is he hyper. Melissa Leo also was nominated as Best Supporting Actress. Again, I guess a good performance but it was very grating, if not downright annoying. Amy Adams also picked up a Best Supporting Actress nomination. She usually plays sweet characters, but not this time, and she is good. A very odd part of this movie were the boxers' 8 sisters, who usually just sat around and functioned as sort of a Greek Chorus, responding to everything else going on with "oh no you didn't" or "you go girl" comments or expressions.

Best Picture nominee: Black Swan
Okay, this movie was just downright weird. A psychological thriller/ballet horror movie. I guess I should admire Natalie Portman's performance, as she will likely win Best Actress. Suffice it to say she is a long way from Star Wars in this role. One of those movies where everything is not as it seems, so don't bother trying to figure it all out. More violent than you might be expecting and just an overall dark atmosphere. The only movie I've seen where even a fingernail clipping scene makes you squirm. Definitely NOT a movie for the little ones, especially if you ever want them to take up ballet.

Movie: "True Grit"

Saw the remake of the classic John Wayne movie today. I was somewhat hesitant to see it becaue it's directed by the Coen Brothers, who tend to make odd, off-center movies (some are good, some not so good). I was afraid this would follow that pattern, but it doesn't. It's far and away their most straight-forward movie I've seen from them (their movies include Fargo, No Country for Old Men, Big Lebowski, Barton Fink, and others).

My memory of the John Wayne original is somewhat fuzzy, but this seems to be a faithful remake. I think the focus may be more on Mattie Ross, as she seems to have more scenes, especially at the beginning. But the actress playing the part is wonderful, echoing the toughness of the Kim Darby role years ago. Although sometimes her dialogue in this version seems a little too poetic at times. But overall, it's a great performance and likely to secure a supporting actress nomination.

Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn doesn't make you forget John Wayne, but neither does he make you long for him either. He does just fine, neither adding or taking away anything John Wayne did. Matt Damon is much better in the role played by Glen Campbell, who was a terrible actor; definitely an improvement there.

As I said, I don't completely remember everything about the original, but certain scenes seemed to play out exactly as they did before (for example, the final 1 against 4 battle on horseback). The movie is rated PG-13, but foul language is minimal and although a couple bursts of violence, nothing too gory. Definitely worth seeing.

Rosa Parks

December 1 was the 55th anniversary of when Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus. Recently, IU South Bend hosted a speaker, Nikki Giovanni, who wrote a children's book about Rosa Parks and shared many insights into Parks that I hadn't heard before, or explained in detail (Giovanni knew her personally).

• Contrary to the myth, Rosa Parks did not refuse to move because she was tired from working all day, she moved because she was "tired of giving in." She was already very much an activist within the NAACP so she was very much aware of the repercussions of her actions.


• She sat in the blacks only section. But when the white section was full, the bus driver ordered her to give up her seat (in essence, expanding the whites only section). The bus driver was the same one who, 12 years earlier, sped off and left her in the rain when she initially refused to enter through the back of the bus.


• Parks wasn't the first to refuse to move. Nine months earlier, a 15-year old girl refused to move and was arrested. So why didn't this spark a boycott? Well, the treatment of blacks on the city buses had been an issue for a while. But if a case was to be made, they needed a claimant above reproach. This girl, shortly after her arrest, had a child by an older, married man. The NAACP figured she'd be vilified in the press and so they didn't pursue a case (and charges against her were later dropped). Parks fit the bill as above reproach, similar to how Jackie Robinson was selected to break the color barrier in baseball.

But the most fascinating anecdote Giovanni shared was one that I had never heard before. Rosa Parks was not the only one asked to move. There were a couple other black men that were asked to move, and they did. They were never heard from again and Giovanni speculated that they were likely ashamed of their actions and would probably be seen as cowards for abandoning this woman.

But Giovanni said these men absolutely did the right thing and wish they could have been commended for doing so. In those days, for a black male to put up such resistance would have had dire consequences. Their refusal to move likely could have resulted in violence and certainly a much different outcome. The bus boycotts may never have happened.

So when these men sitting next to Rosa Parks moved, this allowed her to sit there all alone, determined to hold her ground . . . and the rest is history.

Book: "I, Alex Cross"

The latest in the Alex Cross series by James Patterson. All of these books used to be based on nursery rhymes, such as Along Came a Spider, Jack and Jill, Roses are Red, etc. But I guess Patterson used all these up, so now the novels are all different variations of Cross (the last 4 novels have been Cross, Double Cross, Cross Country this one, with Cross Fire due for release shortly).


Nothing new or earth shattering in this one. As always, Cross is on the hunt for a creepy killer. More or less the same as in other novels, but this one, as is usually the case, is quite good. Although, it might spend a tad too much time on Cross' home life and Nana Mama.

This always had the makings of a great movie or t.v. series, but they botched it when they cast Morgan Freeman in the two movies that were made. Way too old for this character. Never quite sure why they did that. Always figured a Denzel or Wesley would have been the way to go.

Anyway, for an enjoyable, quick (and I mean quick) read, you can never go wrong with James Patterson. He has a couple of other series going. The Women's Murder Club, which has 9 books now. I only read the first one, which was quite good, not sure why I didn't keep going. Also has a series about teens with wings, which always sounded a little weird. Patterson then also churns out random books with other authors that seem to come out monthly. I've read a few of those and there have been some good ones.

Dos Buen Peliculas

I think my Spanish is accurate in that the title of this post means "Two Good Movies." Both are in Spanish and subtitled, but don't let that scare you away. These are very good.

Sin Nombre
This has two story threads. A girl traveling with family members from Guatemala to try and ente the U.S. Evidently, it's common for people to hitch rides on the top of trains en route to the U.S. border. The other thread is a teen trying to escape his gang life, and of course the two meet up. Features a very creepy villain with one of the gang leaders. Puts the immigration issue into a different light. Not everyone trying to cross our southern borders are drug dealers. Some are desperate for the better life they know they can get here.

The Secret in Their Eyes
This won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film last year, and wow, this is a good one. Can't really describe it too much because I don't want to give anything away. The story begins what is in effect 25 years later, as former law office colleagues are reunited. He's retired and is writing a novel, she has become a judge. There's a case from the past that he's now writing about. Thus, the story goes back and forth between the past and present. Don't let the subtitles scare you away, this is a very absorbing movie from start to finish, one of the best foreign films I've ever seen. A word of warning, there is a brief scene of assault early on that is a bit jarring because the movie starts out with a rather meloncholy tone. But I highly recommend this one. Also, I don't usually notice camera techniques, but there is an unbroken shot in a soccer stadium that I'm not quite sure how they filmed it; that is, where exactly the cameraman would have been at.

Election Ramblings

So now instead of wall to wall campaign ads, it's wall to wall analysis of the meaning of the election. The meaning is this: the Democrats received a "shellacking" (Obama's own words). It's a massive repudiation of the last two years, just like 2008 was a massive repudiation of the previous several years, and so on. Wait until 2012, probably more of the same.


My election ramblings as I was up to 1:00 a.m. watching the returns:

• On my Facebook status, I identify myself as a "Right Wing Evangelical Republican Wacko." So yes, I liked the results. I've always identified myself as a Republican and always will. I have cheered many times for what Republicans have done over the years, and cringed just as often. But I'll keep sticking with them. However, I have never voted straight ticket, and never will either. Nor do I embrace the term Independent, which means you don't have to stand for anything and can claim credit for whoever wins.


• How DID Democrats snatch defeat from the jaws of victory so quickly? I mean, flash back to November 2008. The Republicans were exiled to the political wilderness and it seemed like a long, long time before they'd ever be back. It's amazing how it turned so abruptly. I still think it was Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts that started it. Democrats fell asleep on that one and from that point on, Republicans got momentum and a huge boost of confidence and never let it go.
  
• The young voters that propelled Obama to power in 2008 stayed home in rather significant numbers. Older voters that voted Democrat in 2008 made a huge swing to voting Republican this time around. Those changes in voting patterns were very detrimental to the Democrats.
  
• I know you can't stand her, but Democrats, quit underestimating Sarah Palin. Also, don't think we Republicans will embrace her as a candidate for President. Polls clearly show we like her as a campaigner, but absolutely not as a candidate.
  
• Republicans all over have absolutely dreamed of the day when Pelosi has to hand over the gavel (I don't think a lot of Democrats will exactly miss her either).
  
• Hey Meg Whitman, was it worth the $140 million of your own money?
  
• Hey California, Jerry Brown was a little wacky when I lived in California while he was governor, and that was 30+ years ago. You may be in for a ride.


• Laugh at you want at the Tea Party, but they did make a difference, both good and bad (I mean yeah, they probably caused the Senate to stay Democrat). But the voters discerned very well in keeping Angle and O'Donnell out. They had no business there and were poor candidates. Still, gains were made in the Senate anyway with Dan Coats here in Indiana and a huge symbolic victory by taking Obama's former seat in Illinois.


• The only cable channel I get is MSNBC, so it was sometimes painful and oftentimes borderline hilarious watching and listening to Rachel Maddow, Chris Mathews, and Keith Olberman report on the Republican landslide (sorry, tsunami has been used enough).


• The best election night news is NBC. ABC is okay, but CBS should just shut down operations on election night.


• As I expected, Jackie Walorski lost Indiana's 2nd Congressional District in a close contest. The Libertarian got over 9,000 votes, so that could have been a spoiler. His name was Mark Vogel, one of my former student workers. My boss, a Democrat who is on the South Bend City Council, said he has a future in politics, and I would agree. He held his own in the debate with Walorski and Donnelly. Donnelly is a good guy, and he likely got a lot of well deserved Republican votes. But he won in 2008 by about 15,000 v0tes and Tuesday night by just under 3,000, so Jackie put up a very good showing. She says she'll be back in 2012, but who knows, she may decide life outside of politics ain't so bad.
  
• I like the tone John Boehner set in his speech. No balloons, no cheering, kept it subdued, unlike Gingrich in 1994. The only question is if he'll cry when he gets the gavel from Pelosi.
  
• I really like the diverse field of Republicans that won office, such as Nikki Haley and Tim Scott in South Carolina, Susana Martinez in New Mexico, and others. No, it's not widespread diversity, but definintely a change from how it's been in the past and something the party absolutely has to do.

This was not a vote based on anti-incumbent fever. It was clearly a vote against the Democrats, because very few Republican incumbents lost and a slew of new and long-time Democrats went down. However, it also was not necessarily an embrace of the Republican Party. They have been given, extraordinarily, a second chance after an epic squandering of a political opportunity by the other party. But come 2012, they could just as easily be on their way out as power no longer lasts a generation, but a mere 2 years.

So, we'll see what happens . . .

Voting for Jackie

While I am very interested in pretty much all the national races taking place tomorrow, one that has my particular attention is that of Indiana's 2nd Congressional District. This pits incumbent Joe Donnelly against Jackie Walorski, who has served as a State Representative for the past several years.

Jackie at one time was the director of development at IU South Bend, so I knew her as a fellow employee. Her parents at one time attended our church in South Bend. She also married Dean Swihart, a longtime friend and colleague of Dorene's, who is also a music teacher in the Mishawaka school system (he plays a mean saxophone, maybe him and Bill Clinton could have a jam session if he gets to Washington).

But the time I most remember about Jackie was when we heard her speak at a previous church we attended. Her and her husband talked about their missionary work in Romania. This was long before she was even in the political arena. She spoke of their work and it was by far the most inspiring talk I've ever heard about missionary work overseas. They were very committed and very passsionate about their work with Romanian youth. Hey, I was ready to head over there myself after hearing her speak.

I always said she was one of the best speakers I'd ever heard, so when she decided to throw her hat into the political arena, I figured that was a good fit. Sure enough, she ran successfully for the Indiana Statehouse in 2004. One of her most "controversial" moves was when she missed the vote that could have possibly stopped our move to Daylight Savings Times, which for me is still one of the most absurd controversies in the history of Indiana politics, as you would have though we were talking about seceding from the Union. But she got through that and in 2006 when pretty much every other Republican went down in flames, she was reelected. In 2008, when every other Republican statewide and nationwide also went down in flames, her and Mitch Daniels bucked the trend and stayed put.

After a few years in the Indiana State House, I knew she would someday go national, and this year was definitely the time to give it a shot. Do I agree with everything she's done? Absolutely not, but that's okay isn't it? Not sure why we have to expect 100% personal compliance from all our elected officials. She is definitely not a lightweight (paging you Ms. O'Donnell) and deep down Rep. Pat Bauer probably would love for her to be gone.

My gut feeling, however, is that she will NOT win this year, and that's okay. Joe Donnelly is quite moderate and has actually done just fine. He was at IU South Bend once for an appearance and I happened to walk through before it began and he approached my to introduce himself and was very personable. He's not one that you can pinpoint any big missteps during his 4 years in office. The campaign against him is basically that he's tied to Obama and Pelosi, which I don't think will work for this race (and Donnelly, like any politician who's party is seen as vulnerable, has done a lot to try and distance himself from the party and Obama/Pelosi, which may or may not be good strategy).

While I will cast my vote for Jackie, I think it'll be a tight race but she'll come up short. But she'll be back again. Is a good portion of my reasoning to vote for her personal? Yep, it certainly is, and why not? When you have personal attachments to a candidate, kinda makes it easier to cast your vote that way, whether or not you agree with everything they do.

Thoughts on Competing Against 7-Year Old Kids

Okay, so there's this table tennis wonder kid named Michael Tran. He is from Minnesota and is in the second grade. He recently won an event at the U.S. Open Table Tennis Tournament back in July, against adults much older than him.

I myself played him at a tournament in May of this year. I won the first two games quite easily, then he won a game off me. I then took the next game to finish him off. But my oh my was it strange playing this kid. For one, he attracted lots of onlookers, so here I am at 45, having to play pretty hard to beat this kid. His parents were also right there watching. Nice added pressure that I then had the responsibility of eliminating him from the tournament in front of mom and dad.

You look across the table and it's like all you see is this paddle sticking up, he's very short (which is how I beat him, with quick shots to his forehand that he just couldn't get to). But the fact that I'm talking about how I managed to come through to beat a 7-year old kid is just very bizarre.

By the way, his parents were wonderful. Very nice and supportive, and not "little league" parents. Competitive yes, but they will have him well grounded. I just fear that by the time he's 8, my time will have passed that I can still beat him.

Governor Daniels at IUSB

Governor Daniels made a trip to IU South Bend recently to talk to a group of Business students. It was special invite only, but on the day of his visit, I asked the Dean of the business school if there were any tickets left. He said he did have one so I was able to go.

It was held in our smaller auditorium, so I was up pretty close. Daniels talked for a little bit about the state of the state, basically bragged on what a good job his administration has done and how we're in much better shape than other states (which we are). He then took quite a bit of time to field a number of questions from students, which he answered thoroughly. He was asked directly if he is running for President. Daniels said he's not "currently" running for President, but was straightforward that he hasn't decided one way or the other yet.

I was impressed by his demeanor the whole time he was here. When he entered the auditorium before the speech, he bypassed all the administrators and other dignitaries and went right to a group of students and began talking to them. The Business Dean later told me that he did the same thing when he arrived in his car. Basically ignored him and walked over to a group of students. I like that.

He didn't seem to be in political mode and was very down to earth and eager to talk to us common folk. But at the same time, he was all business. He didn't disguise his disappointment with Obama and his policies and said we're heading in the wrong direction with the current economic policies. Make no mistake, Daniels is all about running things efficiently and he says bigger government is definitely not the answer (he remarked that in Indiana we have 300+ school districts and that we could easily get by with 1/3 that many).

I'm not sure how well Daniels would do on the campaign trail for President, especially against a master campaigner like Obama. But, who know, maybe we'll find out someday.

Seinfeld Reunion?

"Seinfeld" is easily one of my all-time favorite shows. There are few shows where 10+ years after it went off the air, I'll still watch at any given moment when it comes on. It was a true masterpiece. It's also famous for having one of the all-time worst series finales. Yep, they really botched it. Always wish they'd do a reunion show, but that's never to be. Or is it?

You may not know, but the cast did indeed get together for a reunion episode, sort of. On the HBO series, "Curb Your Enthusiasm," starring Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, there was an episode arc last year featuring the original cast as themselves getting together to do a reunion show. On the last show of the season, that "reunion episode" aired.

It's not a full episode, just a few minutes long, but the cast picked up right where they left off, they didn't miss a beat. You can watch it here.

Why I (still) Don't Like Soccer

Okay, so it's the Netherlands v. Spain in the World Cup final. Alrighty then. If I'm by a t.v., I guess I might check it out, but if not, no big loss.

I've been engaged in some friendly back and forth with some of my student workers, several that are international, in just how boring soccer is and how it'll never be as popular here in the U.S. While I certainly gave it a try for this World Cup, and started getting a little excited when the U.S. advanced, I just can't embrace this game. Here are a few reasons why.

It's Boring - One of the biggest arguments for the pro-soccer side is that soccer is non-stop action and a typical NFL game only has about 12 minutes of actual play time during a 60-minute time span. Okay, technically that's true. But just because there is sustained movement going on doesn't mean it's exciting. They kick the ball this way, they kick it back the other way, they kick the ball this way, and so it goes. Think to any recent last-minute touchdown drive in the NFL and how exciting it is when every play is huge. Very, very exciting.

Stoppage Time - I don't get this rule. Time runs out, they keep playing, making up for injury time or something else. Think of your NFL team kicking a field goal as time expires, but the ref says, "Uh, we still have 3 more minutes to play."

Referees - This recent World Cup could mark a change in how the game is officiated. When the U.S. played Slovenia, we kicked a goal and it was disallowed. However, the ref did not say why. Nor is he required to ever explain his reasoning. Nor is the league office required to explain it.

Furthermore, in baseball, there are 4 officials on the field at a time. In the NFL, there are several. In soccer, there is only ONE to cover a very large field. How could they possibly get all the calls right, or even close sometimes. That makes no sense. But this all could change this year as there have been many questionable calls.

Low Scoring - A 3-1 game is considered a blowout. More often than not, scores are 1-0. Yeah, exciting stuff when they ALMOST score often.

Television - Soccer seems especially dull on t.v. Maybe being there live helps, I don't know. But to watch it, with the continuous play, just doesn't make for very exiting t.v.

Would I be watching the final if the U.S. was in it? Absolutely, but that doesn't mean I'd ever watch soccer again for the next 4 years (kinda like the Olympic sports you only watch when they're on).

So world, enjoy the futbol on Sunday.

#1 at the Table Tennis Club

It took a while, but last night I made it to the #1 table at the South Bend Table Tennis Club. But I didn't stop there. I not only made it to the top, but I won the table outright. You can check out the results here.

Okay, there is a catch. It just so happens that this week is the U.S. Open Table Tennis Championship up in Grand Rapids. Thus, all the top players in the club were gone, which is the reason I even got to play at the top table.

Next week, I'll be at the #1 table again, but all the top players will be back and I'll get absolutely squashed, thus ending my 15 minutes of fame at the Club. But for one night only, I'll get to hear the coach, Dan Seemiller, say, "Table 1 winner Rick Dennie starts off tonight against . . . ."

Allie @18 Months

My little girl is already a year and a half! Where's the time going?