Tag: football

Feb 07 2010

Super Bowl!

What a great game! Sure I was excited that the Saints won, but even if the Colts had won, it would have been an enjoyable game to watch. 

One thing that surprised me was how disappointing the commercials were this year.  Not really a stand out among any of them.  For as much money as these companies are spending on these things, put a little work into them.  I did however have two interesting connections to commercials this year.

First, the main guy in this Budweiser spot goes to my church…in fact my girlfriend and I sat next to him and his wife this morning:

And in this spot, one of my friends from church in High School is mentioned by name (turns out the writer of the spot is a buddy of his):

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2010/02/super-bowl/

Nov 19 2008

Sketch 46

Friday was the big opening of the new Bond movie.  I went with a group of about ten folks to the 8:30 showing at the Cinerama Dome at the ArcLight.  The movie was full of action, but in the end a little disappointing.  Unlike pretty much every other Bond movie, this movie was a sequel of the previous movie (Casino Royale).  The movie doesn’t really stand up on its own, unless you’ve seen Casino Royale, and that is a problem in my opinion.  A big let down after the promise of the direction of the franchise given by Casino Royale.

With the fires in the surrounding areas of LA, the air quality was pretty poor over the weekend.  I ended up staying inside watching football all day on Saturday.  The Ducks held on in their game, the Beavers rolled over Cal, and the Trojans pulled away in the second half against Stanford.  So good results all around for my friends and I.

I’ve got all the ingredients to make my first batch of beer in LA, but haven’t gotten around to brewing yet.  I do need to figure out where I’m going to put the carboy while it is fermenting though.  I’ll prolly move some stuff out of my tiny closet as my room is generally pretty cool.  I’m going to try and motivate myself to brew tonight.

I also need to figure out what, if anything, I’m doing for Thanksgiving since I am not going home.

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Nov 12 2008

Sketch 45

It’s been a full week since last week’s sketch (at least its felt that way).  Thursday night, I went to a screening of the movie Slumdog Millionaire (Trailer) with a friend.  It is the story of a guy from the slums of Mumbai who has made it to the final question of the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.  I thought the movie was great.  Plus the screening was at the Fox Studios lot, which was kind of cool to see.

Saturday night, I went to a LA Kings game at the Staples Center.  The game was fun, and I got to watch it from my companies luxury suite.  It was my first time seeing an NHL game live and seeing anything at the Staples Center.  Though the evening wasn’t without problems…I just didn’t know about them until Sunday. (see my post about it)

Other good notes from the weekend:

  • I think the AT&T U-Verse technicians have finally fixed my connectivity issues on my TV and Internet services.
  • The Ducks managed to pull off a last minute drive to beat Stanford.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2008/11/sketch-45/

Oct 15 2008

Pac-10 Football and TV

I pretty much agree with this post from the Oregonian’s Duck Football blog:

The Last Thing You Want Is For Fans To See The Games
Posted by

Bob Rickert October 15, 2008 07:10AM

Man is the Pac-10 screwed up. I could use harsher language, but I won’t. Brutal. Brutal leadership is what I’ll call it. Brutal in every way.

Now comes word that the Pac-10 won’t allow the Ducks to televise their own football game. And when you hear it’s ‘contractual’, because you know they’ll find an excuse/reason of their own, remember, these are the networks that quite honestly, are treating the conference like a little child anyway. The networks with very very little respect for the Pac 10. I’d put it on the same level as Conference USA actually. In all sports that’s the level of respect that Tom Hansen and his guys have sunk the conference to. Pathetic leadership.

Let’s see, if Tom Hansen had any guts, a clue about 19th century marketing, or any vision at all, THE PAC TEN WOULD HAVE IT’S OWN NETWORK AND EVERY SCHOOL WOULDN’T HAVE TO BE OUT THERE PLAYING COWBOY ON THEIR OWN.

Funny how all the USC games are on television, even when they stunk. Funny how that works for UCLA.

Incredible.

Well, I’ll be there in person. So I’m one of the lucky ones. I’ll fire reports as much as possible.

Ha, also makes me wonder.

What about instant replay? With no cameras, or only one or two cameras set up for the schools themselves, is it valid to even use it? Do the rules change because the teams playing aren’t in the national title hunt 5 games into the season?

Do the fans matter less because they’re not rooting for USC?

Yes. And, yes.

Thanks Tom Hansen. Well negotiated.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2008/10/pac-10-football-and-tv/

Oct 08 2008

Sketch 40

Well much of last week was taken up with finishing up packing and getting ready to move on Saturday.  The move went well…I’m still far from being unpacked completely, but I’m getting there.

I went to the Oregon/USC football game Saturday night.  Wasn’t such a good game for the Oregon fans…but I still had fun at the game.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2008/10/sketch-40/

Sep 23 2008

Sketch 38

Sometimes I feel like I’m doing nothing, even though I feel like I’m quite busy at the same time.  I think I’m just at one of those points where I need to get away from the city again…but I won’t be able to until after the pending move.

Friday night I finally made it to Tropic Thunder.  Funny, funny movie.  Go see it.  Even if you normally can’t stand Ben Stiller movies.  This one is good.

Saturday, I headed down to Mr. Pocket’s in Manhattan Beach to catch the watch party for the Duck game.  Amazingly enough, the game (UO vs. Boise State), wasn’t on TV except for the Oregon’s local production.  Because of a new TV rights deal, Oregon games not carried by the Pac-10 contracts (ABC/ESPN, FSN, and VS.) are aired on the new Comcast Sports North West (also the new home of the Portland Trailblazers).  The problem with this is that since CSNW is owned by Comcast, most of the other cable/satellite/etc providers, do not carry the channel.  Normally, this would mean we were out of luck for watching at the bar, but the folks at Mr. Pockets hooked up the streaming feed from the internet, so we could watch it live after all.  The game was good (in the end), even though we lost.  Oregon played pretty cruddy for 3 quarters and its hard to win games like that (even though we almost came back).

I spent some time going through things in preparation for packing on Sunday.  Nothing is packed yet, but I’m pretty much ready to pack.  Just waiting on the rental agreement from the landlord to sign and I’ll be completely official.  I’ve already started changing my address with the various powers that be.

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Sep 04 2008

Sketch 35

Ahh, Labor Day weekend.  Also, my birthday weekend.  Yes, I am now Double Sweet Sixteen.  My birthday was pretty low key.  I ended up just walking over to Miss T’s Barcade with a friend, playing some old school video games and having a couple beers.  Then we walked further down Western and got some Pho for dinner. 

Saturday, I went over to my friends place to watch the USC game (if you could call it a game).  I fell asleep before halftime and pretty much missed the second half of the game.  What I was looking forward to was the Oregon game later that night anyway.  For the fifth year in a row (a first for the series), Oregon beat Washington (the rival we dislike even more than Oregon St).  The defense looked really good and the offense looked good as well (especially for being so young).  Should be an interesting season.

Sunday after church, I met up with an old friend and his fiance, who recently moved down to Los Angeles from the Bay Area.  It was cool getting a chance to catch up on life and things.

It was kinda weird having Monday off for the holiday, I’m already used to being at work M-F now.  I went to a beach, and then just hung out with a friend later that night.

Work has been good this week.  My Asia boss has been in the office for a few days, so lots of work getting done while he’s in LA.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2008/09/sketch-35/