Life on Mars and Other Random Thoughts

I finally finished watching ABC's version of Life on Mars and I'm not quite sure what to think yet! But let me give it a try...

The ending, well...I appreciate that there was an ending. Too many shows to list have let down fans by just stopping & never tying up loose ends (first ones coming to my mind are Las Vegas, The Nine & The Agency, two of which were also on ABC, one also starring Jason O'Mara). So ABC does deserve credit for finishing it, but that was the ending? ...(stop reading this paragraph if you haven't finished the show yet & come back another time)...A space trip to Mars with neurostimulated brain scenarios? The idea of it is somewhat fascinating in and of itself, but its an "empty" end to what was a pretty good show.

Which leads me to why it was canceled - I thought the Pilot was fantastic, then week 2 or 3 seemed to be a little too far out there, and it continued along like that for a few months. I know a number of people who gave up on the show during this time, as it was harder to follow, and had twists that just didn't make sense. In my non-TV critic opinion though, the February & March episodes knocked it out of the park. They had crisp story lines with "plausible" twists, while still being quirky enough to stand apart from other cop shows. Unfortunately, too many people had already given up on the show by then, and its fate was already sealed.

If you were one of the people who gave up on it, but liked it to start the season, I suggest going to iTunes & picking up the Feb & March eps. to see how it all came together - http://tiny.cc/iTunesLifeonMarsABC. It could be interesting to go back and watch again now that I know the ending too...I'm just wondering if the writers had decided what the ending would be from the very beginning.

Now on to the random thoughts:

• The Minnesota Timberwolves finished the season tonight with a loss to the Sacramento Kings, making their final record 24-58. As bad as this record feels, it is only the 7th worst record the team has had, though I wouldn't start bragging about that! The Wolves were 8 point favorites at home tonight, but even with some extra crowd support, they couldn't hang with the worst team in the league, who only has 17 total wins, with this being their 6th win on the road. Uff da (which is Norwegian speak for "good grief," or the equivalent of a really big sighing noise/exhale). Maybe having Senior Night (starting the 5 oldest players) backfired, but then they seemed to do better than the young guys. At least former Gopher basketball star Bobby Jackson, who never played for the 1997 Final Four team that never existed, had a nice night in the Twin Cities (14 pts, 5 reb, 1 ast & 4 stls)! The Wolves also only finished as the 6th worst team in the league, so they'll need some lottery ball help, which has never happened before. That means they are due, right? I have more thoughts about this T-Wolves season, but I'll save those for another day.


• Along the same lines, I'm wondering what teams think when they get rid of coaches who just couldn't "win the big game" only to find out without that coach, that they no longer get anywhere near playing in the big game! The T-Wolves experienced this with the still regrettable firing of Flip Saunders in 2005. All those first round losses in the playoffs look really nice compared to being mathematically eliminated from the playoffs while people still have ornaments up on the Christmas trees! Phoenix Suns may be going through that same feeling now. They didn't actually fire Coach Mike D'Antoni, but there was a lot of grumbling from fans, the media, etc., and the team allowed him to talk to other teams about jobs, which is not exactly the same vote of confidence as say, a contract extension. D'Antoni made the Suns so much fun to watch, but they just couldn't get over the hump and win that big game. In the previous 4 years, they lost in the 1st round once, the Conference Semis once & the Conference Finals twice. This year, the NBA Live 2009 video game is the only way this roster will even be playing any first round games. D'Antoni's New York Knicks aren't going to be in the playoffs either, but considering the mess he inherited there, even the prickly New York fans are not bickering...too much! A first or second round loss would sound mighty good to Suns fans right about now!


• To update my short text blog yesterday about Minnesota Twins reliever Luis Ayala...well, it got worse. If you need a reminder, I wondered why the Twins signed Mets free agent relief pitcher Luis Ayala to fill the Neshek/Reyes void, when I had consistently watched Johan Santana leave Mets games with the team holding a lead, only to have every member of their bullpen collapse to send the team on their way to a loss. Yesterday I wasn't happy that Ayala's ERA was around 7. Silly me. After tonight's appearance vs. the Blue Jays, his ERA is a nice round 9.00 (for those of you who don't follow baseball stats, this means that if he were to pitch 9 innings, the length of a game, he'd average giving up 1 earned run per inning/9 runs for the game - which wouldn't include any unearned runs, generated with the help of things such as errors). His WHIP (Walks & Hits per innings pitched) is 2.17. The goal is to be around 1.00. Opponents are batting .429 against him. Even a healthy Joe Mauer can't hit .429...unless he got to bat against Ayala. The majority of Twins games are played at night, and on turf...his ERA on turf is 10.80 & at night is 11.25. The Twins won't be winning games when he appears. In fact, the Twins have only won 1 of the 6 games that he pitched in, a 6-5 win over Seattle in which he was the winning pitcher after they scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th. Of course, if he hadn't given up a run in the top of the 9th inning, the Twins would only have needed 2 runs to win. Yet the writers of the stats rules say he's the winning pitcher, because he was the last guy on the mound before they made their comback. I am rarely the critical fan about players, and usually give them the benefit of the doubt too much (I'm still sad that Juan Rincon is gone, even though I had gotten to the point that I no longer wanted to see him in games, but I still had a hard time saying anything bad about him!), but Ayala is not a long-term Twin that I'm pulling for out of loyalty. So far he just looks like a bad free agent signing!


• Finally, speaking of relievers, why did the Twins let Bobby Korecky get away on waivers? I thought he was back on the Triple A Rochester Red Wings, until I saw stats from him pitching for Arizona, suddenly appearing on my phone. During the time that he failed to clear waivers, I had a personal family issue going on, and wasn't paying much attention to those details, so I was surprised to learn that today. Korecky did much better than Ayala in his first attempts at pitching in the big leagues when he came up with the Twins a few times last year! I was really hoping that the multiple time Triple A All-Star closer could get a spot in the Twins bullpen for the long term, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. At least I was there at the Dome when he got his first major league hit last year, in what should stand as the one and only hit recorded by a pitcher in an MLB game at the Metrodome! That was pretty fun. He pitched pretty well too in that extra inning game, coming in to a very tight situation & shutting down the Rangers, picking up his first MLB win the same night he got that first hit, all of which allowed the Twins to have the celebration pictured below! I'll miss you Bobby! http://tiny.cc/BobbyKoreckyNight
  

I watched the 2008 Mets bullpen consistently blow leads handed to them by ace Johan Santana. So exactly why did the Twins go after Mets reliever Luis Ayala???

My Top Priorities While I Have no Income

Like many others around me, I am currently unemployed. Mine is a result of post-concussion syndrome/Mild traumatic brain injury issues, not the economy (as my job is still being held and performed well by the person who replaced me!), but regardless, I am in that position that many are familiar with right now. I decided to think about what my top priorities are for the $ I do have. Thank heavens for that 201k...I mean 401k, that I could siphon some $ from now!

The obvious things are paying for health insurance, car insurance, family related things, etc., but that's boring. Yes, I will be doing all that, but my list of top priorities does not include those obvious things, just like your to-do list for the day likely doesn't include "Brush My Teeth," "Take out the dog before leaving for work" or "Visit the bathroom if the need arrives rather than investing in Depends." So that being said, here are my top priorities while I have no income (in no particular order):

• Keep my Minnesota Twins Season tickets. When I've mentioned this to people, some have said something about "keeping my priorities straight." Yep, I am. And as you can now see, this is a top priority! I decided to join the season ticket family, a dream I have had since I was a little kid wearing my Twins spring/fall weather jacket, on the same day that I punched myself to start this whole concussion adventure. It was when I tried to read the benefits of being a season ticket holder, that I noticed that all the words were fuzzy. But nonetheless, I joined up! I want to be in that new stadium, enjoying outdoor baseball (on opening day and then in May, June, July & early September...I might pass on cold April & hot August, but I hope October is part of the package!), no matter what it takes. Even if I need to walk out the door of my temporary home at Mary's Place across the street, I will be a season ticket holder next year (when I do have an income again though, I will be sending donations Mary's way, even if I never need to use her services!) Twins have proven to me the past few years how much they care about and appreciate their fans, and it is an honor to be a season ticket holder for my favorite team among all the sports teams that I love a lot!


• Continuing the annual tradition of going to Sarasota, FL every August (hence the word "annual") to the timeshare my parents bought back in 1979. The maintenance fees cost enough to make a down payment on a cabin in Northern Minnesota, but this is about memories and having a very special place that feels like home, except the Gulf of Mexico is right in front of me when I sit on the lanai & stare out the ceiling to floor windows. My sister hasn't been able to go there as much lately due to her job, which is very disappointing, but I'm hoping she can get there some this year, and I'm hoping when she gives me nieces & nephews down the road, that I can take them down to the beach if she has to stay home and work (with the full-time babysitter that she'll obviously be sending along with them, as I would just be there for the fun parts!) There is no other place that has been in my life for that long. My childhood house was sold when I was a senior in high school, grandparents moved from their house where we spent so many holidays, and even my high school/middle school is finishing up a long process of upgrading & improving to the point that I would not even recognize it if not for the "Minnehaha Academy" signs outside on the lawn. Sarasota Sands is that one constant, a place where I can completely relax as soon as I walk through the doors & throw down my bags. A place where I know the options of where to eat and shop, even better than I know those same things in most of the Minneapolis suburbs. The only place where I am fine with showing off my white Minnesotan legs by wearing shorts all the time.


• Dingo bones. If you have a dog, and haven't discovered these yet, please do your dog a favor and go to http://www.dingobrand.com/ and order some treats! They are rawhide bones that have real meat (with a rawhide like texture) mixed in them. They are like crack for my dog, Cookie. My sister's dog Keesha loves them too, so whenever I got money for whatever reason, I always place an order on their website to be shipped to my house & my sister's place. Taking care of the dogs is extremely important! My only suggestion might be to invest in a gas mask. Sometimes, well, as the dog is digesting it all, it doesn't smell so good, but that's a small price to pay for their extreme happiness!!


• DirecTV w/sports pack & Tivo service...I keep hearing that getting rid of cable or satellite will save money, and that sounds great, but its not happening. I'll go for the pity factor. I used to be an extremely avid reader. After reading an average of 10-12 hrs a day at work, I would read at least another 2-5 hours at home. Books, magazines, web sites, emails, etc. I love reading. Unfortunately, that aforementioned head trauma thing has affected that. I am up to being able to read an average of 2 hours a day, spread out at different times. On a really good day, I might hit 4 hours, but then I tend to pay for it with reduced cognitive function a few days after that. So if I can't read like I'd like to do something other than stare at the walls and slowly move toward complete insanity...TV is definitely a necessity! The Sports pack is required because Gonzaga's regular channel for their games is Fox Sports NW (Seattle), which is part of the Sports Pack. I believe I only missed one game all year on TV, only because it was shown on delay on FSNW. Every other game was on FSNW (or one I caught on FS Pittsburgh), or one of the three ESPN options. I would say Gonzaga games fall under the "need" rather than "want" category! : ) Then, without DirecTV (or crappy cable) I wouldn't get 90% of the Twins games, or any of the Gopher basketball games. Yeah, we're keeping the TV!


• Internet/Cell Phone - Gotta get on the web...I don't see people often away from the house anymore, but I get to stay connected with friends through Facebook, text messages, etc. Plus I get to post tons of photos for people to laugh at, which serves an important purpose of enriching people's lives and improving their mental health & inner balance! Oh, and how could I write this blog without my DSL or unlimited data plan on the cell phone?? Case closed.

I'm not sure what would go first if I got to a place where I had to start eliminating them, but there is no question that the #1 priority would always be to take care of the little 4-legged princesses in my life, so Dingo Bones top the list! Now I need to start googling to find that gas mask...

Random Thoughts for a Friday night/Saturday morning

Here are a few thoughts that crossed my mind recently:

• Due to injuries, Minnesota Wild Forward Marian Gaborik has only played in 13 of the teams’ 78 games to date. He has 9 goals & 5 assists in those 13 games, for a total of 14 points. The 9 goals make him 10th on the team, even though he’s only played in 17% of the games. He’s one of only 5 members of the team to have a positive +/- number for the year (and two of the other guys have spent half the year in the minors). His 1.08 points per game far surpasses anyone else on the team (Captain Mikko Koivu is 2nd with 0.84 points per game). The Wild as a team are currently on the outside looking in for the Western Conference playoff race, needing to probably win 3 or 4 of their final 4 games, and get help from some other teams, in order to sneak in to the post-season. They’ve won 47% of their games this year, and had 9 games where they earned 1 of a possible 2 points with an overtime loss (22% of their losses were OT losses). With Gaby in the line-up, they’ve won 62% of the time, and 40% of their losses were OT losses where they earned that 1 point and didn’t go home completely empty-handed. Basically what all of this stats mumbo-jumbo is saying (and the numbers are a lot simpler than they may look!), is that if Marian Gaborik had stayed healthy this year, the Wild would be trying to play for home advantage in the playoffs right now, rather than crossing their fingers & hoping that enough other teams lose for them to slide in to the second season. What I don’t know, is if that’s an argument for the team to try to hold on to him whatever it takes, or an argument for the team to cut ties, and try to find a difference maker who might be on the ice a little more often than the frequently injured Czech all-star. Wild fans saw what happened last year though, when he stayed on the ice for the essentially the whole season – the team won its first Northwest Division Championship. Hmm…
  


• Life on Mars on ABC. Poor Jason O’Mara never seems to get a show that lasts long. He was in The Agency, In Justice & now Life on Mars. The Agency lasted the longest at 22 episodes. In Justice was 13 & Life on Mars has been canceled after 17 eps. (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0641816/) I have watched Life on Mars all season (but don’t tell me how it ends since I am 3 episodes behind on my iPod), and haven’t been sure what to think. I thought the first couple episodes were great, and they hooked me in, but then the next one was just odd, and it seemed to alternate between a fun & different cop show, to too bizarre to really watch. All the ones from February have, in my opinion, really clicked and demonstrated what the show could be, but it had already lost too many viewers by that point, and was canceled. I loved the concept of the guy being stuck in 1973 & not knowing if it was a dream, a coma, time travel, etc., but they just experimented with making it too many different kinds of shows early on. Disappointing. Good thing Burn Notice comes back in June for Season 3 (and I’m following @jeffrey_donovan on Twitter in the meantime- he plays Michael Westen - as gives little updates on the filming & even some fun photos from the set).
  


• My latest sports rant is about slam dunk contests. They need to change. I think after years of stagnant, boring type competitions, the dunks have gotten much creative again, from the high school level, to college, to the pros, but the judging needs to change. One, get judges that have a clue. Jon Secada doing the high school one? Calvin Johnson (Detroit Lions wide receiver) doing the college one, and giving a 7 on a dunk when everyone else gave it a 10 might show that he didn’t really know what defines a good dunk. Two, let them use video replay in their voting! With some of the creative dunks that kids come up with these days, its sometimes hard to catch all of what they did when watching it in real time as it happens. Some dunks don’t look quite so impressive until you see the replay, and then I often find myself thinking “How on earth did they do that?” I realize this is not quite as important as improving the economy & establishing world peace, but this has a much easier fix too!



• Congrats to Gonzaga basketball seniors who had some fun this week in Detroit. While it wasn't for the Final Four, as they would've wished, they made their presence felt in the College All-Star competitions. Jeremy Pargo & Micah Downs were two of the eight participants in the slam dunk contest. They each had some of the best dunks in the first round, and advanced to the semis, but failed to get their dunks down in the Semis, so hence, didn't advance to the finals. One of Pargo's dunks made the Sportscenter highlights though: http://tiny.cc/2009CollegeDunk and one You Tube site showed all the 1st round dunks http://tiny.cc/09DunkRd1 and here are a couple other good Pargo dunks from real Gonzaga games: http://tiny.cc/PargoatSMC, http://tiny.cc/Pargo360, http://tiny.cc/PargoAkron. Unfortunately, even though Micah Downs had one of the best game dunks I've seen last year, which was #1 Top Play on Sportscenter, I can't find a video of it online, so you'll just have to take my word for it, but I did find one little dunk video I took last year, which is at the end of this post. I haven't figured out how to edit videos yet, so after Micah's dunk there is a lot of nothing, and then a fairly routine Ira Brown dunk, so just watch the beginning! Then in the Hershey's All-Star Basketball Game, big man Josh Heytvelt played a big role in team Reese's coming back to win, as he hit a go-ahead 3 pointer late in the game, finishing with 17 pts & 11 rebounds, in another opportunity for him to show off to the scouts his ability to play inside & outside. http://tiny.cc/HeytveltReeses



• Jeremy Pargo also did his part earlier this year to help promote the "Coaches vs. Cancer" fight for the Spokane area chapter. Zags coach Mark Few has had many fundraisers, which have made him the #2 money raising coach nationwide for Coaches vs. Cancer. Pretty impressive for the smaller school in a very small media market! Here's a video that Jeremy Pargo did, and yes, this text number is still applicable to make $5 donations to the cause! http://tiny.cc/PargoCVC
  


• Finally, those of you reading this on Facebook, you should take a look at what will be a continuing series of a photo diary, where Sleepy (as in the 7 Dwarfs) shares the picture story of his life, traveling with me for work trips & vacations, including his thoughts and comments. He got started yesterday, but I'm only letting him do a few pictures at a time, so you'll have to keep checking in on him! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=67181&id=533074373&l=26b89ea2fd.