So, I've been alone all weekend. Marie has gone to her uncle Jim's 75th birthday celebration in Chicago, leaving me and Ellie the Cat to hold down the fort in her absence. Though nothing major has happened, I felt the need to write some of this stuff down, as this blog needs to reclaim its status as the place where I vent the random thoughts that enter my brain.
*Ellie has recently started drinking out of the sink. On the spectrum of adorable things that cats do, drinking from the sink is very close to the top. She just sticks her head towards the faucet, turns it sideways, and laps at the top of the stream. While this is super-cute, it also shows the difference between Marie and I in terms of how we believe kitty-parenting should work. Marie is from the "do things for the cat" school of thinking, so when the cat wants to drink from the faucet, Marie picks the cat up and puts her back down when she's done. I, on the other hand, believe that the cat needs to show that she really wants it. This means she has to jump up and jump down of her own volition, which I believe has the added benefit of giving the cat a workout (and every little bit helps). I don't know what this difference says about us as parents/people, but its probably significant in some way.
*Along with our Verizon package, we got 3 free months of Cinemax/HBO. As our cable package isn't as all-inclusive as our Comcast was, I spend a fair amount of my TV time watching movies, and have come to two realizations:
1. I have a very specific movie-categorizing system. There are movies I don't like/dont want to see, movies that I want to see, and movies that I'd be willing to pay for at the actual theater. Marie likes to give me grief when I (inevitably) like one of the movies that I told her I didn't want to go see at the theater (Get Smart and Yes Man being the two most recent candidates). The thing is, given that you have to pay for movies at the theater, I usually don't go unless I'm reasonably sure that it's gonna be good. This has managed to keep me away from seeing awful movies in the theater for the better part of my life; avoiding all Jack Black movies has also contributed to this, since he's been responsible for 2 of the 3 worst movies I've seen in theaters.
2. HBO and Cinemax have three distinct types of movies. First, there are the good movies. I've gotten a few movies off of my "I need to see this" list, including Gran Torino and Funny People, since I've had premium channels, which is super-helpful. Second, there are the BAD movies. I don't know who makes the programming decisions at these channels, but there is no reason that Bio-Dome, Meet The Spartans, or both need to be on at any time, much less at all times. Third, there's the interestingly named porn. I have yet to indulge in this, as there is no reason to be up at 3am, but the fact that there is a movie called The Devil Wears Nada (The Hills Have Thighs and Cleavagefield being the other best names) makes me smile inside.
*I'm not very good to myself when I'm home alone. I don't go to sleep until late, and worse, I don't eat well. Friday night's dinner was a sub I picked up at Harris Teeter, and I only ate lunch yesterday, though to be fair, I ate my weight in enchiladas at Shaun's house while watching the US-Ghana game. This is part of how i managed to lose 40lbs in a year; while I love to cook, I feel very little need to do it for myself. I'm trying to stop that for tonight, and I'm making a brisket which will hopefully make for an excellent picnic dinner tomorrow at the outdoor Star Trek screening. I'm banking on the fact that Marie (who doesn't have her computer with her) won't read this, so that the food will be a surprise, but I'm also convinced that she'll act happy and surprised anyway.
May all your hits be crits,
B
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Friday, June 18, 2010
Reflections on a Screwjob
Allow me to set the stage:
In the first half, Slovenia had surprised the US, who had somehow forgotten that being favored in a game does not mean that you are exempt from playing defense and trying to control the ball. Slovenia scored twice, no thanks to some lousy efforts by the US defense and midfield. Equally bad was the fact that we were unable to make any real headway against their defense, and I was legitimately worried going into the second half.
Fortunately, in the second half, the US remembered what they are really good at: coming back from deficits that are their own fault (let's hope we're this good when it comes to dealing with China). Landon Donovan, he of the incredible goal scoring and equally incredible receding hairline, scored a hockey goal (come in on the goalie, fake, then put it over his left shoulder) to make it 2-1. Less than 20 minutes later, Michael Bradley, whose only claim to fame at this point is that he's the US coach's son (I think this is all anyone knows about him), scored off a nice pass from Jozy Altidore to tie it up at 2.
Now at this point, the US is DOMINATING. Slovenia is not back on its heels; it's wondering if anyone got the license plate of that H3 with the TruckNutz that just reminded them that "superpower" doesn't only refer to our nuclear arsenal. Altidore is pulled down outside the box, and the US receives a free kick.
Slovenia decides to "defend" this free kick. By this, I mean that Altidore becomes an unwitting participant in some sort of medieval hand-fasting ceremony, Bradley is being grabbed in a way that would make most of us curl up into the fetal position and announce that we need an adult, and the rest of the US attack force is being impeded in ways that would be penalized in both American football and hockey. Somehow, out of all this chaos, Maurice Edu swoops in and cleanly deposits the ball into the back of the net. 3-2 US! One of the greatest comebacks of all time. Then the ref blows the whistle, nullifying the goal.
The mystifying part of all this is that there doesn't appear to be a foul on the US, everyone is onside, and the ref makes no indication of why he made the call that he did. Needless to say, this took all of the wind out of the US, and we didn't get close again in what ended in a 2-2 draw.
Now I understand that the ref is part of the game, and that human error plays a part in sports. However, this whole thing could have easily been avoided if they had just chosen a referee with some sort of experience. I mean, Tamsen Burke (who ran the IM department at Chicago; you could have trained a monkey to do her job, do it better, and look better while doing it) had the whole thing figured out: if your team makes the playoffs, you provide a ref; if you don't make it, no ref necessary. This is why the Dominican Republic doesn't send a judge to the figure skating in the Winter Olympics; it's not that they can't do it, but someone decided to leave the job up to countries more familiar with the sport. I'm sure the good people who run the soccer federation of Mali would have been happy not to pay for the referee's travel, and we all would have been better for it.
May all your hits be crits (and not be disallowed),
B
In the first half, Slovenia had surprised the US, who had somehow forgotten that being favored in a game does not mean that you are exempt from playing defense and trying to control the ball. Slovenia scored twice, no thanks to some lousy efforts by the US defense and midfield. Equally bad was the fact that we were unable to make any real headway against their defense, and I was legitimately worried going into the second half.
Fortunately, in the second half, the US remembered what they are really good at: coming back from deficits that are their own fault (let's hope we're this good when it comes to dealing with China). Landon Donovan, he of the incredible goal scoring and equally incredible receding hairline, scored a hockey goal (come in on the goalie, fake, then put it over his left shoulder) to make it 2-1. Less than 20 minutes later, Michael Bradley, whose only claim to fame at this point is that he's the US coach's son (I think this is all anyone knows about him), scored off a nice pass from Jozy Altidore to tie it up at 2.
Now at this point, the US is DOMINATING. Slovenia is not back on its heels; it's wondering if anyone got the license plate of that H3 with the TruckNutz that just reminded them that "superpower" doesn't only refer to our nuclear arsenal. Altidore is pulled down outside the box, and the US receives a free kick.
Slovenia decides to "defend" this free kick. By this, I mean that Altidore becomes an unwitting participant in some sort of medieval hand-fasting ceremony, Bradley is being grabbed in a way that would make most of us curl up into the fetal position and announce that we need an adult, and the rest of the US attack force is being impeded in ways that would be penalized in both American football and hockey. Somehow, out of all this chaos, Maurice Edu swoops in and cleanly deposits the ball into the back of the net. 3-2 US! One of the greatest comebacks of all time. Then the ref blows the whistle, nullifying the goal.
The mystifying part of all this is that there doesn't appear to be a foul on the US, everyone is onside, and the ref makes no indication of why he made the call that he did. Needless to say, this took all of the wind out of the US, and we didn't get close again in what ended in a 2-2 draw.
Now I understand that the ref is part of the game, and that human error plays a part in sports. However, this whole thing could have easily been avoided if they had just chosen a referee with some sort of experience. I mean, Tamsen Burke (who ran the IM department at Chicago; you could have trained a monkey to do her job, do it better, and look better while doing it) had the whole thing figured out: if your team makes the playoffs, you provide a ref; if you don't make it, no ref necessary. This is why the Dominican Republic doesn't send a judge to the figure skating in the Winter Olympics; it's not that they can't do it, but someone decided to leave the job up to countries more familiar with the sport. I'm sure the good people who run the soccer federation of Mali would have been happy not to pay for the referee's travel, and we all would have been better for it.
May all your hits be crits (and not be disallowed),
B
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
The Degrading Parade
So, as part of my RA duties this summer, I'm reading cases from the European Court of Human Rights to figure out their definition of torture. While all the really obvious stuff has been found torture (rape, beating, etc...), there are some people who have decided that the relevant provision of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is a legal blank check.
Which brings me to Efstratiou v. Greece. The petitioner, a young Jehovah's Witness (yea, them again. These people pop up in every religion-related lawsuit ever) refused to march in a parade with her school to celebrate the Greeks going to war against Fascist Italy. As punishment for her refusal, the school board suspended her for two days.
Now, I believe there is a lawsuit in here somewhere, and one that would likely win in this country. Compelled speech is a no-no, which is why we don't force students to say the Pledge of Allegiance (or at least we don't suspend them for refusing). However, the Efstratious decided to argue that this was a violation of Article 3 of the Convention, which states:
"No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."
Yikes. Stripes. REALLY??? Suspension from school is torture or inhuman and degrading? The social stigma and permanent record status aside, not going to school for a day is hardly the worst thing that could happen. While the reasoning of the school was wrong (and was found to be a violation of the student's rights on other grounds), and while I grant that you're allowed to plead however you'd like, there needed to be someone in that lawyer's office to say (in the words of the AEPi Risk Management speech) "What the Fuck are you Thinking?"
May all your hits be crits,
B
Which brings me to Efstratiou v. Greece. The petitioner, a young Jehovah's Witness (yea, them again. These people pop up in every religion-related lawsuit ever) refused to march in a parade with her school to celebrate the Greeks going to war against Fascist Italy. As punishment for her refusal, the school board suspended her for two days.
Now, I believe there is a lawsuit in here somewhere, and one that would likely win in this country. Compelled speech is a no-no, which is why we don't force students to say the Pledge of Allegiance (or at least we don't suspend them for refusing). However, the Efstratious decided to argue that this was a violation of Article 3 of the Convention, which states:
"No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."
Yikes. Stripes. REALLY??? Suspension from school is torture or inhuman and degrading? The social stigma and permanent record status aside, not going to school for a day is hardly the worst thing that could happen. While the reasoning of the school was wrong (and was found to be a violation of the student's rights on other grounds), and while I grant that you're allowed to plead however you'd like, there needed to be someone in that lawyer's office to say (in the words of the AEPi Risk Management speech) "What the Fuck are you Thinking?"
May all your hits be crits,
B
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