All posts tagged Rant

Super Bowl Preview 2009

By | 5 October 2009 | General, Rant | 2 Comments

Today at 16:00 was an event I have been waiting for since I started watching football thirteen years ago: Jets v. Saints. And, to make the matchup even better both teams are good this year.

The Saints ended up pulling off the win, but it was in an unusual manner. The Jets defense played well, holding the the number one in the NFL, Saints offense to a meager 10 points. It was an amazing feat in itself. The Jets problem was that their offense allowed 14 points…doh. With a final score of 24-10, the Jets kept it close, but those two critical turnovers proved to be their undoing.

Hopefully, in February when they’re playing each other again both team will play well, and the win won’t be decided a mistake one of the teams made.

Run, Run, Run, Punt!

By | 26 September 2009 | Rant | No comments

Arriving late in Rockford for the Grand Haven v. Rockford game, I made it just in time for the fireworks.

Last night most of my family went to the Grand Haven v. Rockford game. Sadly, I was the only one of us rooting against Grand Haven. I have three brothers, three of us graduated from GHHS, and one is still attending the dreadful school. My tenure at the high school included a couple of years on the football team, and a lot of misery. I did not then, and continue to disagree with the way that high school is run. To this day I continue to enjoy watching them fail.

Much to my surprise, it was half time when I got there, apparently both teams were exclusively running, and blew through the first half in nearly record time. The score was 0-0, so I didn’t miss anything good. And, by the time I reached the place my family was standing, Rockford scored their first touchdown. Soon thereafter they scored their second, and final touchdown.

Sadly, the final 14-0 score was not as nice as the 51-0 score at GH’s homecoming last year, but you can’t win them all. However, that was not the most amusing event of the evening.

Apparently, the GH football team is returning to the old formula that served them so poorly during the Horodyski era: Run, Run, Run, Punt. This is the first time that I have seen such an abomination in the Farley era.

I’m sure most of my readers don’t care about this, so rant complete. ;-)

Consistently Inconsistent

By | 22 September 2009 | Politics | No comments

Is it just me, or does the position of the current administration on health care seem inconsistent with their liberal ideals?

One of the core tenants of the liberal platform is the redistribution of wealth. The basic idea here is that the wealthy should shoulder the burden of pretty much everything, because they can give more without feeling it as much as poorer people. Then why do they have a problem with the way things are working here in the United States?

Basically, the way the system works, is that the medical  community extract value any way they can, not only to recoup costs but to earn profits. However, not all countries can afford their products on a level playing field, but it would be fairly heartless to deny the third world treatment. So, companies offers medication, and procedures to poorer countries and they make it up by charging richer countries more.

The United States is, for the moment, the richest country in the world, therefore it follows that we would have to pay the bulk in this system. The system has been getting progressively worse, as other rich countries have been exerting upward pressure on the system, so we see health care systems in the UK, France, Canada that are using their bargaining power to bring down their costs, this puts more pressure on the United States, as we have to pay a larger share of the pie.

Granted, this is an over simplification of the health care system, as there are many other factors that contribute to high costs in the United States. It is just this one issue that consistently acts as a driving force, and I have never once heard a politician talk about how great is it that we pay the lions share for poor countries can receive much needed medical attention.

One of the core tenets of all the health reform plans is bring down the costs of domestic medical treatment. This would put downward pressure on the system, and would force providers to drive up costs in other markets. This would likely annoy the allies of the United States, as we would make their health care more expensive, and it would likely costs many lives in the third world as fewer people would be able to afford treatment.

Good times.

District 9 (2009)

By | 15 August 2009 | Movies, Rant | 1 Comment

district9-posterDistrict 9 (D9) was easily one of the best movies of the year thus far. However, this is not saying much as the movie selection has been lack luster at best. Prior to District 9 I can think of only two films that I actually considered to be good. The first was Watchman, but it was too heavy handed and bombed in the box office. The second was Star Trek, which I still believe was an excellent movie and was enjoyable to watch, although the story was somewhat lacking. D9 falls right between the two.

While it is unfortunate that the Halo project fell through, it is nice to see some of the assets get reused, even though the good guys from Halo end up being the bad guys in D9. It was a treat to see the twist on the assets that would have been used, such as MNU battle rifles, the pelican that was the prawn command module, the modified warthogs, etc… Granted the movie in no way was billed as a recycled Halo. And, knowing nothing about it would not have hurt the movie. D9 is excellent in its own right.

There is an interesting mix of story elements, and gory violence. It works well without going too far in any particular direction. So, by the end of the film you feel full without leaving a bad taste in your mouth. All of the roles were played fairly well. It was nice to see some fresh faces that capably covered their characters. And, while this movie takes many queues from other scifi fair, it was relatively original.

One of the main reasons I really enjoyed this film is because it was not a sequel, prequel, or remake. I am so sick of the modern mentality of just remaking things. And not just good things, anything, so long as it isn’t original. And, to make things worse these shit films are being pushed by popular actors in order to pad the box office receipts. The era of the nostalgia film really needs to come to an end. But, I am not going to hold my breath, because these shit movies continue to rake in the cash. But, I digress.

The film was good, and I am recommending it to people. I am keeping this commentary short, because there are thousands of detailed reviews of the film, so this is just a general recommendation for my viewers. On my special undecim punctum scale, I have decided to give this film a solid 3. This means it was a pretty good film, but it is not one that I will frequently watch again in the future. Everyone reading this should go out and see the film and support something half way original.

Jimmy Johns Tried to Kill Me

By | 14 August 2009 | Rant | 2 Comments

…sort of.

Much earlier today I stopped at Jimmy Johns to get my usual, a number thirteen without mayo and avocado with djion mustard. I admit that three customizations makes it virtually impossible to expect it to be right 100% of the time at a fast food joint. However, if they forgot to remove mayo it was just be disgusting, no harm done. No djion just means its not quite as tasty, and a little dry. However, forgetting to remove avacado is dangerous.

I am usually pretty paranoid about it so I always check my sandwich before I eat any, but today I was preoccupied by other matters. It was not until my eyes started watering and my throat caught fire did I release what was wrong. Unfortunately, I am rather allergic to avacados so just getting the spread on two bites of the sandwich made me miserable. I don’t even want to think what would happen if I tried to eat the whole thing.

As soon as I released what the issue was I returned to Jimmy Johns and explain the situation to the person I placed the order with. For a few minutes she just stood there with that “so…what do you want from me” look. Eventually they offered to remake the sandwich, which I accepted. Even on the second attempt they did not get it right, but at least they remembered to remove the avocado the second time.

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