Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Miami Dolphins: Mud Bowl

That game had all the makings for another major embarrassment for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Losing to the New York Jets one week and then the next week losing to the Miami Dolphins, two of the worst teams in the league, would have made the Pittsburgh Steelers the laughing stalks of the NFL. My concern with the Steelers is that maybe they’re a team that can get pumped up for the big game, but loses interest when playing weaker teams. The problem with this is that it could hurt their seeding in the play-offs. Of the three teams that the Steelers lost to, none currently have a .500 record or better – though admittedly Arizona and Denver might get there by the end of the season, but it would have been much tougher for these teams to reach .500 if the Steelers had actual beat them. I’m not saying that the Steelers should have an 11-0 record, but if they’d won just one of those games, perhaps they’d control their own destiny in getting the number 2 play-off seed in the AFC. Anyways, the game was sort of fun and frustrating at the same time. Seeing a punted ball land on the turf and just stick there was sort of funny. It was sort of funny seeing the Dolphins unwilling to try a second field goal attempt after seeing how poorly the first one went off – even with the fact that time was winding down in the fourth quarter. It was sort of frustrating seeing the Steelers unable to score considering how often they were given a favorable field position. Oh well, up comes Cincinnati.

Duke Football

Another losing season at 1-11. Ted Roof, the coach, has a record of 6-45. An article on wral.com reports that Roof is done as coach.

I like it when there is some longevity in the coaching spot. I think one of the reasons I love the Pittsburgh Steelers is because they stick with their coaches. So should Roof be let go after going 6-45 over the course of 4 plus years or should the school stick with their coach. I have to say yes. I hope that Duke goes ahead and replaces him. I just don't see how you can stick with a coach that averages less than 2 wins a season. There is the argument that 2008 is really the year for Roof, because this is when his top recruits will be upperclassmen. I find that argument compelling, but I also find the 6-45 record compelling (with only 2 wins in the last 3 seasons), especially for a BSC conference team.

Sometimes you've just got to start over again . . . even though it seems like Duke has started over again many times already.

Notes from Vivace

Television: Heroes

Could Claire really build that rock sign asking saying "Sorry" so quickly? (I believe it read "Sorry," I could be wrong.) It surely looked like a lot of rocks. And where did she find those rocks, anyways?

A minor quibble.

I thought Heroes started out really slow this year, but these last two or three episodes have been rather good.

Here's my question: who is good and who is bad?

Mohinder Suresh. I read this article on either yahoo.com or msn.com that said people who do good in society often have ethical shortfalls, because they attempt to cut corners for the "better good". I wonder if this applies to Suresh. Has he turned to the dark side, because he's sees certain short-term benefits to solving the virus riddle?

West. I have major doubts about this guy. I don't think he's a very good guy. I think he has issues. I dare say he might be a psychopath.

Parkman. Is he another Suresh type, a good guy seduced into short term gains of unethical behavior? Pushing people to do what he wants seems a tad unethical. I know the Jedi did this, but they did this to their enemies, right? I'm not the guru of Star Wars mythology, but I would think that controlling people's minds would be frowned upon unless you were dealing with the enemy. Or maybe he's just playing with his new found powers?

And this brings up the whole X-Files tagline: Trust No One. From the previews, it looks like Hiro and Peter are going to meet up with each having opposing goals. That should be interesting.

Heroes TV ratings have dropped -- though I guess it is doing well in other ratings. I hope the writers strike doesn't kill this show. It is the fault of the producers of this show for allowing it to start out so slowly, but is does feel like they're getting back to where this show was at the beginning of last season. I hope the strike ends soon so that this momentum doesn't die and we end up seeing the last true season of Heroes.

Notes from Vivace

Gossip Girl, like watching Melrose Place

I watch Gossip Girl. I said it. I'm a 30-something year old guy and I watch Gossip Girl and like it. I feel like I'm in a Seinfeld episode admitting I watch Melrose Place. At work, I don't even mention the fact that I watch Gossip Girl. With my friends, I'm more open about it. I will admit I think it is a little over the top, especially the parent/teenager relationships. Can teens really be so wise in making suggestions to their parents? I doubt it. Forget that small qualm that on occasion does irritate me, because I can't help but find the Nate/Jenny friendship fascinating. I hope it grows and then I can't wait until Nate's parents figure it out. They'll flip, of course. I love the friendship between Blair and Serena. I'd love to learn a bit more of the background story of Serena. The early episodes seem to indicate that she was hoping to change her life. I assume this was more than just sleeping with Blair's boyfriend, Nate. What sort of nasty personality did she have before and will it start to come out again?

Back to the real world briefly, I hope that writers strike ends soon, because it would stink not to get a full season of Gossip Girl.

And another thing: Do people really live like this? I guess so, there is always the Paris Hilton's of the world.

Notes from Vivace

Homeless in an RV

I was heading to the Farmers Market and noticed this small, rundown RV parked on the side of the street. Someone had gone to the effort to level it out. Blocks were placed under the tires that were near the curb and the back of the RV was lifted up by a lift jack. I noticed that the windows to the RV were draped. It looked rather familiar and I am sure I've seen it at that same location on previous Sundays. I actually swear I once saw a man speaking through the window to someone in the RV.

So apparently a family is living in this RV in the streets of Los Angeles. I'm actually curious on how they're able to get away with it. I'd think that there are laws against people living on the side of the street. Of course, I think I read somewhere that people park their RVs in Wal-Mart parking lots while on vacation, so maybe there isn't any laws against this just as long as you obey the posted street signs. Either way, it is definitely better to live homeless in an RV versus living homeless on the streets.

Notes from Vivace

Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Cleveland Browns

I was so hoping this would be on television out on the West Coast. And so it was. The first half was depressing. I nearly turned off the television. First, Cleveland puts on a good opening drive. Then there is an impressive run back on a kick-off. Then a Big Ben interception. It was 21-9 at half time. I should learn that this team is a bit better than last season's and is able to make up these sort of deficits. The Steelers mounted their comeback and even after a touchdown by Cleveland's Cribbs I had gotten the feeling that the Steelers would win the game.

I'm not sure if the Steelers are good enough to beat the Patriots, but this is a solid team. I feel like this is a team that doesn't have to jump ahead and then play the ground game to win. This is actually a team that can fall behind and then rally behind Big Ben to get them back into the game. That is such a great feeling to have. I mean, this must be how it feels to be a Patriots or Colts fan, knowing that being down by a couple touchdowns early in the game doesn't indicate that the game is likely over.

Tamale Festival in Los Angeles

I headed down to the Tamale Festival at MacArthur Park. It was okay. I think there were only 4 stands selling tamales. Also, these four stands seemed to run out of tamales rather quickly. I showed up around 2 p.m. The lines for the food stands were long, like standing in a Disneyland line, but instead waiting for food instead of a ride. I think it took me about thirty minutes to get my one and only tamale. By the time I got to the front of one line, the stand had already run out of one type of tamale. I walked to another stand and it looked like they'd run out of about half of the various tamales. That stand had some fruit filled tamales, but those were gone so I didn't get anything from that stand. I suspect that either more tamales were coming later (since the ads said the tamale festival lasted till 9 p.m.) or a lot of people were going to be disappointed. I half suspect that more people came to the festival than were expected.

It was great weather, the perfect temperature.

I took the red line down. I love taking the metro, but on the way back I was a bit concerned about a couple of the characters on the subway. They were all talking about their gangs and such. I'm not sure if it was just a lot of talk or for real.

I was also approached about five times about buying a fake id. I was amused by this.

Notes from Vivace

Comparing myself to my MBA classmates

I got this e-mail from my MBA program, the Duke's Fuqua School of Business. Apparently, there was a salary survey sent out that I totally ignored, but now the data was published via the e-mail I read. So I took a glance through it -- I have to see how I compare to my peers. I am hardly one of the top paid graduates from my class -- that surely goes to the investment banking crowd; but I expected to be way below my peers in salary. I have an good job, but I figured most of my class would be paid much better. I was surprised that I'm only 15% below the average salary. I find this surprising, because when I graduated, I was likely 45% below the average salary. I am actually catching up to the average! Of course, I don't know how the survey was compiled. Perhaps some people who answered the survey have dropped out of the workforce and therefore are bringing down the average unfairly. Now when comparing to my class, the survey went across all the MBA programs, which includes those who went to Duke while working full time. If I just look at the salary of those who graduated from the daytime program (note: this was a survey done of reunion year alumni so this specific data point combines various years), I'm just 2% below the average salary.

I'm not sure if I'm bragging here or not. I'm rather shocked that I've caught up with my peers. It is possible that one of my classmates will come across this and they'll just think I'm a loser for just being average -- or more honestly just below average. I guess why I'm shocked by this is the fact that I always felt that my classmates were far superior to me. While at Duke, I always felt that I was likely in the bottom 25 percentile, that is 75 people were more qualified than me while 25 were less qualified. I guess the fact that on the surface of things I'm right in the middle of my class sort of gives me a pleasant surprise. I will say this; however, even now so many years after the fact I still think that 75% of my class was way smarter than me.

Pittsburgh Steelers v. New England Patriots

I've never liked the New England Patriots. It probably has something to do with the fact that I'm a Los Angeles Lakers fan and therefore have a problem with any team from Boston. But I found myself cheering for the New England Patriots on Sunday. Why? I want them to have a perfect record when they match up against the Steelers. Why? Because I want the Steelers to be the team that beats the New England Patriots. I think that based on this weekend, a good defense can keep the Patriots scoring machine down. I think that based on Monday and actually other games this year as well, the Steelers have a decent offense. I think the Steelers have a chance of taking down the Patriots. Maybe not as good of a chance as the Colts, but a better chance than other teams. Based on an Internet poll I saw on Foxsports.com, about 1/3 of the people thought the Steelers had the best chance while 1/3 felt that the Patriots would go undefeated. If both teams keep rolling along, Dec 9th is going to be the second biggest game of the season.

Notes from Vivace

A Dream

I’m talking to a co-worker who’s scheduled a meeting and I say something like, “You’ve got to stop setting up these constant meetings.” And where was this meeting? In Kansas. And where in Kansas? In the Kansas City Royals’ stadium. I doubt that in my dream I actually visualized the correct stadium, but for some reason it was the Royals’. I started walking through the stands and ran into a lady who said with disgust, “In the back, there are stores that cater to those beauty pageants for little kids. I just can’t believe it.” I walked out the doors of the stadium and ended up in front of a hospital and then started heading to the back to see this interested sight that the lady mentioned. I walked into the small passage and on each side of me was stores filled with tiaras and dresses and whatever else is needed for a pageant.

And then I woke up.

I have no clue what that all meant. I sort of understand my co-worker playing a role in this as he always likes to stop by to give updates, even when I’m eating lunch at my desk. But the Kansas City Royals, I haven’t a clue. I don’t even like baseball all that much any more. I only watched about 3 innings of the recent World Series. And the last time I really thought about KC was when George Brett was around (he was KC, right?) And the hospital, I don’t think I know any friends or family that are currently in a hospital. As for the pageant, I was looking through a magazine where the kid actor from Little Miss Sunshine was mentioned briefly so perhaps that is the connection there. It wasn’t necessarily one of those strange outrageous dreams, but it was different.

Notes from Vivace

Celebrity and inappropriate comments

Halle Berry recently made what was viewed as an inappropriate joke on the Tonight Show. She brought some computer distorted pictures of herself and said that one picture made her “look like my Jewish cousin.” The Tonight Show made sure the comments were editing out of the actual airing.

Duane Dog Chapman had his phone conversation released to the National Enquirer where he used the N-word. I haven’t heard the full tape, but from what I heard he used the N-word multiple times.

My commentary: I’m getting tired of these “gotcha” moments. (I will admit that Halle Berry’s comments are rather mild compared to Duane Dog Chapman’s.) The problem I have here is that we’re trying to hold celebrities up to this gold standard of behavior when we know that we’re not all that perfect when it comes to racial bias. I live in a city which has a large minority population. Whenever someone says “those drivers are crazy” everyone knows it is code word for the minority population. Yes, Chapman’s comments are offensive, but those comments were made in a private conversation and shouldn’t have ever been released. And yes, you can argue that what he said is what he truly believes. And based on those two issues, you can argue he should be punished in some manner. I think that our society needs to show more forgiveness and shouldn’t demand more from a celebrity when the very fact is that we’re almost all guilty of it.