the halftime formerly known as interesting

  • so the NFL is going with Prince as their halftime show entertainment? Color me disappointed. Not that i had high hopes or anything, but Prince? What, was Celine Dion already booked? Could Meatloaf not carve any time out of his schedule? Did UB40 back out at the last minute? Were Boyz 2 Men not returning any of their phone calls? Was George Michael locked up in jail somewhere? Well, he probably was, but you get my point. How irrelevant is Prince? Yikes.
  • just listened to the LOST Writers Podcast from 12/6. Good to hear them again, despite more jokes about them being in love with each other. got me psyched for the rest of Season 3, that’s for sure. Sounds like they’re going to really move the story along and give some answers when we come back from the break. Not that I’m one of those people who only demand answers from this show, i dont mind when they stretch things out, i love the way they tell stories.
  • Cow farts, apparently, are doing more damage to the environment than SUVs. Not kidding. Read for yourself.
  • I spent 45 minutes on the phone with Comcast last night and it was well worth it. My parents are currently paying over $100 for their local phone, long-distance, and dial-up internet. yeah, dial-up…it’s terrible. there’s no DSL available in their area and they have Directv for TV. But the guy i worked with from Comcast was very nice and helpful. He offered me bundled high-speed internet and VoiP phone service from comcast for $70/month. (its a 12-month introductory rate that will go up to $85/month after a year). so 1 week from today they will finally get high-speed internet, and they’ll be saving over $30/month as well. very cool.
  • Don Miller’s Searching for God Knows What, my favorite of his books, was just translated into Korean. He wrote a new Korean foreword for the book, that i really enjoyed. You can read it here.
  • The Matsuzaka deal could go either way at this point. It comes down to how much power Scott Boras has. If it was the Red Sox and Dice-K dealing directly with each other, I imagine a fair deal would get done, because they both want the same thing: Dice-K in a Red Sox uni. But add Boras to the mix and it changes everything. Having Dice-K in a uni is not on his priority list AT ALL. He is only concerned with how he looks as an agent. He has sworn to get Dice-K the most $$ possible, and if he doesn’t get that done in his eyes, then he looks bad. He would rather walk away and say “i told you that no team is going to lowball one of my clients.” than “I know Matsuzaka is getting less per year than Gil Meche, but this posting system screwed us over.” I’m telling you, i just don’t see how Boras comes close to the Red Sox offer of 8mil per year without thinking he has failed. the only argument i’ll listen to is that if he doesnt get this done then no japanese players will ever want Boras as their agent…that could sway him to get it done. we’ll know soon enough. (although i just heard a report at 12:30pm that Boras and Dice-K are headed to Boston…that’s a good sign that this will get done.)
  • The way Billy King has run the Sixers for the past few years, is anyone actually convinced that he is going to handle this AI trade with cleverness and smarts? I’m not. Moving AI is a win-win-win for everyone involved, the way i see it. The Sixers are finally realizing they need to look to the future and move on, Allen gets to play for a franchise with a better future than his (unless he goes to the Knicks), and whoever gets AI will have had the distinct pleasure of brokering a deal with Billy King. Something that GMs in the NBA probably fantasize about with regularity.
  • Where do think AI is going? I’m guessing Boston, and I think it will happen after tonight’s Sixers-Celtics game.