What Saturday Meant....

Sorry to my female and male readership out there that aren't sports fans. I'm sure you're getting enough of this basketball stuff at work or home and you're probably trying to do your best to avoid it at all costs.

That said, can you believe what the Illini did on Saturday night? It was absolutely unbelievable. We were getting manhandled for the entirety of the second half with Channing Frye making us look like 6th graders playing on the high school playground. We were really exposed on the inside. Roger Powell is clearly our best rebounder and inside scorer that we have. He's constantly scored second chance points for us all year and come up with clutch rebounds. Of course, he stands 6-6. That's how tall Michael Jordan is, for those of you scoring at home. When confronted with the 6-11 Frye and company, he was clearly out of his element along with the rest of our squad. We had an answer for Salim Stoudamire, his name was Deron Williams. The big guys just ate us for breakfast though.

Fortunately, there is no quit in this Illini team. I've never been so proud of a single Illini team in my life as I was at the end of that game. I couldn't believe the steal that Luther Head made on a gimpy hamstring, or the rebound and tip in that Dee Brown came up with amongst the trees. I couldn't believe the whole thing happened. Shocking. Unbelievable. This is the defining college basketball game of my 28 years. It's that simple.

What this meant to me was that we are destined to win it this year. I think I feel something like Red Sox fans felt last year when they were down 3 games to none against the Yankees and then came back to beat them. Obviously, not with the whole rivalry angle. It's just that if we can survive that, who can beat us? This just has to be our year. Anything less than winning the whole thing would be a total let down.

What else did this weekend tell us? The Big 10 isn't as bad as people say. We have two of the Final Four and we had 3 teams in the Elite Eight, more than any other conference on both fronts. This includes the ACC which in the minds of some of the media is about the only conference that matters for at least the bulk of the regular season. The dreaded Pac 10 brought us one team in the Elite Eight and zero in the Final Four. If the Big 10 is so "weak", how did that happen? Still, you don't hear anything about the Big 10 and their strong showing in the media. I guarantee that if the Final Four had Wake Forest or Duke and UNC, you'd hear about how great the ACC is. If all three of them made it, it would be a non-stop onslaught. The bias against the Big 10 borders on ridiculous. You can expect absolutely no one to predict an Illinois/Michigan St. final this week. It's a mortal lock.

Anyway, congratulations to the Illini and all of my fellow fans and supporters and also congratulations to backers of the Big 10, the best conference in college basketball this year.

The Office - United States Version

First, let me say that the original UK version of the The Office is in my top 3 television shows of all time. It's so friggin' great, it's unbelievable. If you haven't seen this, go see it right away. It's on DVD and readily available. I've got the whole set so if you see me often, ask. I'll let you borrow. If you don't like British accents, that's your problem.

So anyway, as they often do, they made a U.S. version of the show with American actors speaking good ol' American English. I'm not sure who they are appealing to with this. I think there are two groups. The first are people that didn't see the UK version. The second is those that did but couldn't understand what the hell anyone was talking about. The first group should just watch the UK version. I don't know what to say to the second group. This second group bothers me a little. Are we this ethnocentric that we can't understand British for christ's sake? It's a real wonder that Europeans think America is populated with dolts.

I watched the first episode of the U.S. version last night. I think it's complete crap. They stole 84% of the dialogue and all of the plot from the UK version. It's not even remotely original. It's just a bastardized American version of the real thing. I couldn't have been more frustrated. Anyone who has seen the real Office shouldn't even consider watching this. The actors aren't nearly as good as the British version and this guy in Ricky Gervais' role just isn't going to get it done. That much is clear. Basically, the American version is triflin', plain and simple.

They got this show all wrong, as usual. The only thing that sucks about The Office UK is that they aren't making any more of them. What they should have done is taken the spirit of the show and made all new (Americanized sure) episodes of the show. This might have a shot at attracting fans of the original and new fans wouldn't know any better. Of course, that would require imagination. Instead, they just did a blatant copy/paste job on the show. It's truly disheartening. Of course, this is par for the course with the bulk of American networks. That's a post for another day though. For now, I just wanted to get my frustration with this mockery off my chest.

A New (hesitant) Beginning

Well, I know I've been a little bit light on the posts of late. I apologize for it, I really do. What could I have possibly been doing? Well, I'm working on becoming the next Daniel Negreanu. He's probably my favorite player. Actually, I probably have about a 0.001% shot at ever getting close to his level of play, but that's not what matters. By the way Daniel, bring back the hockey jerseys, would ya?

Anyway, what matters is that I'm working on it. I've been playing poker somewhat sporadically for a while now. I had a fairly regular weekly game for a while but with that on the way out, I was telling myself that I needed to go to the casino more. My reasoning for this is fairly simple.

1) I think that real poker is only played face to face. If you play online, it takes part of reading the player out of the equation. If you ever want to be a world class player, it's this ability that truly separates you from the pack.

2) I didn't want to start playing online because it's too readily available. I really like poker a lot and I can get sucked in for hours. If you've ever been in the Monte Carlo poker room with me, you are keenly aware of this. I've got too much stuff that I'm trying to juggle in my life already to have something else taking hours of my time each and every day.

3)I'm one of those all or nothing people. I either do something all the way, or I just don't do it. That's just kind of how I am with most of the things that I do. Poker definitely has the potential to cause me some problems here. It could take away from the other things I'm trying to do too much of right now, like exercising and even blogging.

But anyway, it was inevitable that I would start playing online. I still study the game quite a bit via books, videos, and whatever I can find on the web. I can't spend time doing that and just not practice it. It just doesn't make sense. I wouldn't work on my tennis serve for 10 hours a week and then never play tennis would I?

I just love the game of poker. It combines two things that I really dig - math and psychology. The whole culture of it fascinates me too. Is there anything else that has made more overweight middle-aged white men famous these days? I can literally name 25 professional poker players at this very moment and that might be a low number. I can probably tell you pieces of their primary style of play also. I know more about the lives of professional poker stars than I do about NBA players, and I'm a big basketball fan. It's almost unbelievable to me.

On top of my love for the game, I feel like I'm good enough to win consistently online. So far, I'm right about this. I'm starting at the bottom though, and working my way up through various limit games and what not. This is the path of most of the professionals and regular joes who play seriously. The skill that I lack at the moment is extreme discipline. It's good to acquire this with little cash on the line.

Really playing online is the only way for me to get the experience that I need to progress. I can't really justify driving an hour to Indiana a couple of times a week to play poker for hours and hours. I don't think I really want to be that guy anyway. I'm not quitting my day job, that's for sure.

So anyway, what's the point of this post? Basically, it's yet another excuse for me to babble about poker. There's never anything wrong with that.

Bracket Issues

Well, last night marked a first in my tournament picking career. I had one of my Final Four go out in the first round of the tournament. I can't recall this ever even coming close to happening before. Thank you Bill Self. Traitor.

Really, I'm glad Kansas lost. Here's the scenario that could have played out. Bill Self doesn't take the Kansas job, and he stays at Illinois. He has the number one team in the country that Bruce is coaching now. But not just that, he also has Charlie Villaneuva on that Illini team. Charlie went to UConn instead of Illinois because Self left for Kansas. Now, if you've seen a UConn game in the past two months, you'd have to agree that there is no way in hell Self and the Illini lose in this tournament with that roster. I just know that if this season ends early for the Illini, I'm never forgiving Self for it. It's not happening. Not only that, but now his team has wrecked my bracket prior to the Sweet 16 round.

How do you get the ball to your best player, Wayne Simian, inside the free throw line with a good look and the season on the line and he misses? How does that happen? He's one of the best players in the nation! I'm not drafting this guy, if I'm an NBA GM based on this one play alone. The guy isn't a closer. He just isn't. He came up short in the 1st round to Bucknell! It's a mortal lock that Wally Sczerbiak would have led his Miami (OH) team over this Bucknell team by about 15. Am I right, or what? Bottom line....Wayne Simian is no Wally Sczerbiak. If you can't measure up to Wally Sczerbiak, what are you doing on an NBA roster? Riding a lot of pine, that's what.

Tournament Insanity

It's on like Donkey Kong in the NCAA tourney. My brackets are a little behind so far, but it's all about the late rounds. This year there were some agonizing choices. I've already made a few bad ones. The first was betting against Bobby Knight in Round 1. This usually is a no-brainer. It's like betting on the Colts to cover when they're playing on turf. It's just a given. Well, not this year. Where is the Bobby Knight tournament jinx? I also bet against UAB knowing they have a tremendous, pressuring D that often confuses opponents in the early rounds of the tournament. My gut was telling me to take them, but I used my brain instead. Bad move. I don't even want to talk about Iowa.

My toughest decisions this year came with who was going to the final four and ultimately who was going to win. Clearly, if Illinois is ever going to win this thing, it's this year. I'm cheering for them to a ridiculous extent, as always. I couldn't take them to win the thing though for really two reasons. The first was that I couldn't escape the feeling that we were going to channel Lou Henson and the '89 team and disappoint. It just feels destined to happen. It's like when the Cubs get close to the World Series. You just sit there cheering with a heavy dose of dread in your veins wondering what sort of completely unnatural disaster is about to come along. It's not a question of if the wheels are going to fall off, but when. The second thing, is that if Illinois wins this thing, that's reward enough for me. I don't need to win my tournament pool to feel good about that. It's basically like hedging my bets. It's like taking the under on Peyton Manning's passing yards when you pick the Colts to win. Was that two Colts references? Wow, I'm lacking originality.

Anyway, I picked Duke. I equate this to cheering for the Yankees. My boss says it's even worse and that I am in fact "cheering for the Russians". I can't help but agree wholeheartedly. Still, I think they can win this thing and that's why I'm picking them. Their bracket is soft and they have the best coach and pure shooter in the tourney (side note: Salim Stoudamire might be the next Gilbert Arenas, if he's lucky). If in doubt, go with strong coaching. So anyway, I picked a Duke-Illinois final, so I didn't completely dog my Illini. I think they are good enough to get there, but they don't have the killer instinct. I've watched them all season and that's just how I feel. I hope I'm wrong. I really hope I'm wrong.

The key to my whole bracket is taking Iowa State over UNC in Round 2. I think that UNC doesn't show up for that game. Iowa State has shown up to every game for the past 2 months. They're a handful and just good enough to beat a choking UNC which I am sure is destined to happen. I just feel that UNC team folding it's tents. That left me with Bill Self and Kansas making the Final Four. There couldn't be a shakier prediction to make. My stomach is turning just thinking about it.

Anyway, I'm glad for the madness and I'm dreaming about Vegas again. I guess I do that routinely now around big sporting events. It's just so much fun to be in the book talking smack to complete strangers. I don't know how things get any better as a sports fan and gambler.

I hope that your bracket is going better than mine.

The Wonders of the Internet

The internet is a many splendored place indeed. Remember the hysteria of the late 90's? The internet was going to replace books(ebooks, etc.), magazines, the post office, your electric company (utility.com), music distribution (napster), and pretty much everything else. Most of this was just complete jive.

Still, I can't imagine life without the internet. Even if I didn't blog and what not, my whole livelihood revolves around the internet and so do many others. While it didn't exactly conquer the world, it's definitely a channel to be reckoned with in just about every industry.

The point of this post though is just to call attention to some cool stuff. The first is ebay. I know a lot of hardcore internet users in my age group that have never used ebay. I just recently got hooked myself. Where else can you find a killer Karate Kid belt like the one above. Just click the picture to place a bid. Shockingly, there are none so far. Ebay is sort of great and evil all at the same time. For example, if you are looking for something hard to find (like say, some old karate kid action figures) and you search for it, you can often times find it. You can also find many things that you didn't even know existed though. Next thing you know, you're waiting to find out if you've won an autographed, lifesize, cardboard cutout of Ralph Macchio for $65 or if you are going to have to go higher. Clearly, you couldn't let this slip away.

Another cool emerging thing is called "podcasting". This allows you to blog audibly, which I equate to sort of having your own radio show. This is one of my dreams in life, so while I don't podcast now, I might in the future. People can then toss your podcast on their iPod and walk around listening to you. Anyone can become a part of the I do like to listening to some podcasts. My favorite right now comes for Rick and Rose from an old favorite band of mine The Poster Children. They used to do their show from their basement. They have since moved to the studio of The Planet, which is supposed to be the indie rock station in Champaign-Urbana (Chambana). It's cool listening just to hear commercials for stuff like That's Rentertainment, from my college days. If you are interested, you can get there from here. The show is essentially about nothing, as most good shows of this type are, at least in my opinion.

Anyway, this internet thing could really take off some day.

Bowling Update

So after a ridiculous hiatus, Sandy and I got bowling this weekend. This time we went with my brother and my grandparents. I made it home for some of the weekend despite a truly disturbing illness at the end of the week. This is about illness #4 in 2005. My doctor is at a loss and so am I. It's just ugly.

Anyway, in Sandy's defense, she was working on a hook in game 2 and 3. My grandparents were trying to teach her how to bowl like a pro. This is definitely a process, as you can see from my scores. I allegedly already do what they are teaching her. Anyway, here are the scores....

Chris: 150, 107, 163 Avg. YTD: 139.6
Sandy: 117, 68, 79 Avg. YTD: 105.6

Birthday Talk

So today was my 28th birthday. Ugh. Anyway, it's my tradition to not work on my birthday. I try to avoid even discussing my birthday, as it isn't a whole lot of fun getting older these days. Still my 28 years have been great and I have no complaints at all, so I should probably celebrate.

I did that in my own way today. I mostly just hung out with my family. I hadn't been home in a couple of months so it was just what the doctor ordered. I got to spend a bunch of time with my mom today and play basketball with my brother on his new hoop. I had a good burger and my mom made me a german chocolate cake. It was great.

I also spent some quality time listening to Usher's Confessions which sort of makes me laugh. I also got through Life in 1472 which is probably my favorite rap album ever. I've recently come to this conclusion after much contemplation. Underrated album, to say the least. I'll have to Top 5 this soon with my thoughts. I'm too tired tonight though.

Anyway, I just wanted to send a quick thank you to everyone that sent along birthday wishes in one form or another. I especially enjoyed hearing from many people that I rarely hear from anymore. I had no idea that some of you even knew when my birthday was, or had the inclination to holla at me. Most of all, thanks to you.

I believe that there are truly two types of people in this world. There are those that remember or otherwise record and keep up on when everyone's birthday is and those that don't. I generally, don't. Those that do are basically better people than I. It's a weakness. I'm going to try and remedy it soon. I was truly touched today.

Here's is the entirety of my favorite birthday email today:

"Milone
You made it another year. Keep up the good work. -Adam"

This was perfect on a lot of levels. Thanks Adam!

Stream of Consciousness (or something)....

So, I don't really have a formal topic for a post and I know I've been slacking for the past few days. I apologize. There's a couple of reasons for this.

1. This weekend was kind of busy. I was at Trader Todd's for some brilliant karoake and some birthday celebrations. It was a great time. We met the illustrious Jordan who ate our buffalo wings and kept pointing out that he was from Michigan. No one is too sure how he ended up hanging with us, but it was interesting. He also got free drinks for an hour with his wristband so he kept giving my table half cups of beer and rum and coke. Impressive.

Anyway, I didn't sing. I think that I needed Leheney there with me and "Blame it on the Rain" as an option. Alas, maybe next time. I mean, how do you have two Milli Vanilli songs and not have "Blame it on the Rain"? There has to be a criminal element to this.

2. I've been diligently working out after work and on the weekends.

3. There's just too much to do and not enough time to do it. Sorry for the lame excuse.

Anyway, how about some other updates as they occur to me...

1. I caught the Illini game on TV this Sunday, along with all other self-respecting college basketball fans. I really can't believe we lost the game. We had the lead from about the first 12 seconds until the final five. If you didn't see it, Ohio State was led by a tall white man with a Babe Ruthian first step. Somehow, this man was able to get to the rim against us. Ohio State employed bad strategy, was overmatched, and poorly coached, yet they robbed us of history. I still can't believe it.

Now, if you think some other team other than the Illini deserves to be #1 in the nation today, you are insane. We have one loss on the season. We've beaten quality opponents. I won't get into all the details. Still, there are many that have tried to tear us down all season. I hope they come out in full force now. I'll love to replay it all in my mind as we are cutting down the nets in St. Louis. Go Illini!

2. The Bulls are starting to self-destruct. Eddy Curry is whining again. This isn't good for him or for us.

3. Martha Stewart got released last week! It's about time. I'm sure she is rehabilitated. Please. Do prisons really rehabilitate? Hell no. Anyway, I don't think she had anything to be rehabilitated from. I'm just glad she got out in time to get her gardening in. That's key. I want a garden very badly myself, but there's barely a blade of grass where I live. Maybe one day, I can get a 128 acre estate though. Anyway, Martha seems to be taking it all in stride. She's got two shows now, one being The Apprentice and the other being a typical Martha style show. The stock is up 200% in the past 6 months. She'll be better off than she was pre-prison. That's karma coming back around.

4. I know I'm a little tardy on The Arcade Fire. I'm behind all of the other indie kids, as usual. That's just my style. I've really taken a liking to this Funeral album though, but obviously just recently. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up. By the way, they are from Montreal. Many of you know how I feel about Montreal. It's my 3rd home behind Chicago and Vegas. Je me souviens.

5. Lots of people these days talk about the best sports movie ever made. I don't know why this is so important. But anyway, what do you think it is? Hoosiers? It's a good movie, no doubt about it. I think it's Rocky without question. For me though, I think I have to go with Blue Chips at #2. It's a film that was clearly ahead of it's time, and for that I give it some mad props. Also, I even enjoyed Shaq's performance. Any movie that can do that is pretty solid. I also really liked He Got Game, but they would have to remake the ending for it to get serious consideration. Rudy is in 3rd place for me. That movie gets me every time. Based sheerly on viewing volume though, I've seen Major League about 2000 times, so that has to count for something. A few other thoughts on this....

Rounders is not a sports movie.
Karate Kid I, II, III are all not sports movies.
Any movie that includes figure skating should not be considered in this area.
Happy Gilmore is not a sports movie.
Remember the Titans was not that good. It was just okay.
NASCAR is not a sport, hence no movies involving NASCAR should be considered ever.


6. Do you think that the show The Contender with Sylvester Stallone is going to make for good tv? I definitely do, on a lot of levels. In fact, it's got me really wanting to call Comcast and hook up the DVR that I've been thinking about for a while now.

I might have a problem...

So, I'm on the slippery slope to 30. I'm dealing with it alright. I mean I still feel like a youngster most of the time, so I guess that's the best that you can hope for.

So what is the problem? I'm not even really sure that it is a problem, but for some reason I think that it might be. I basically watch two television shows with any regularity. I don't have TiVo, so in old school fashion, I actually get home in time too see these shows. I schedule my evening after work around these on both Tuesday on Thursday.

Now, Thursday night's show I can easily justify. I play poker. I read about both the game and culture, which is a growing phenomena. Subsequently, I watch the show Tilt on The Worldwide Leader. It's not a great show and I'll readily admit that. However, it's better than Celebrity Poker which I can't even watch anymore. It just makes me ill. Anyway, I'm the target market for this show. I usually feel like I should watch something even if it's not great if it is made for a niche that I consider myself in. So anyway, that's show #1.

The other show I watch, and this is where the problem comes in, is One Tree Hill on the WB. It's one of those teen dramas on the WB, similar to Dawson's Creek. I tune in religiously to see what's happening with Lucas (Chad Michael Murray) and Nathan (James Lafferty), in addition to the female characters. Is this a problem? Is it okay for a late 20s male to watch this show? I just don't know. I even talk about this show regularly with my 15 year old cousin (female). I mean, it's not like I have children and I'm watching with them. I live alone. Is this somehow wrong?

When I was younger, I loved watching Beverly Hills 90210, and I still do. My favorite show was Party of Five. Then, I went of to college and got into Dawson's Creek. This was probably excusable at the time, as I was just out of high school. It was a high school drama aimed at basically the same demographic as One Tree Hill. I then stopped watching this. I watched a little at a later time though when coincidentally, when Chad Michael Murray (now on OTH) was on for a while as one of Jen's love interests. I essentially stopped watching this show and sort of graduated to Felicity which was a college drama. This was fairly fitting, as I was IN COLLEGE.

Now though, what is my excuse for getting into this show? I have no idea. I've even visited the set in Wilmington, NC. This is also where Dawson's Creek used to be shot. This didn't get me into the show though, so I can't use that as an excuse. I was already way into it by then. I even saw Sophia Bush (she plays Brooke) at a local restaurant but couldn't bring myself to go talk to her. What am I 14? Maybe, I just couldn't talk to her because I feel ashamed for liking this show at my age.

So I guess this post is really about two things. Number one was that I just had to get this off my chest because for some reason I feel guilty for liking the show. Number two, is to get some input on whether or not you (my readers) believe this to be a problem. Let me know your thoughts via comment or just verbally. I'd love to hear them.