The REAL Josh Anderson

If you haven't already, click here to see the latest trailer for "The Dark Knight". They certainly are capturing everything that is cool about Batman and his evil counterpart Joker. Any trailer that uses the classic imagery of Batman glaring over Gotham City from high atop a tower instantly has me hooked. Throw in some cool cape action, and I melt like a seventh grade school-girl at a Justin Timberlake concert.

Almost more importantly, Heath Ledger looks like he captured the true nature of Joker. Ominous, menacing, and just plain creepy. No more pudgy Jack dancing around in an art gallery. After all, Jack did nother more than played Jack with a little makup on in the first Batman movie (yeah, yeah, I know it wasn't hte "first" Batman movie, but you know what I am talking about).

Heath appears to be the maniacle killer that is our hero's foil. Every other villain in the comics serves as no more than a stand-in to occupy Batman's idle-time until Joker returns from some sentence, vacation, etc. I hope this isn't a one-and-done movie for Joker. Let's treat it like the comics, without each other, neither of them exist in their truest/coolest form.

They way I figure it, if Heath pulled off "Brokeback Mountain", Joker should be a breeze...

Labels: Batman, movies

Trailer debuts Sunday. Check back then for my impressions, if you care... :)

Labels: Batman, heroes, movies

John Folmer, the football committee chairman for the Sun Bowl, said Monday night that the Sun Bowl had decided to invite South Florida ahead of UC, even though the Bearcats beat the Bulls during the regular season.

"They may have lost to Cincinnati, but at the end of the day we thought USF would do a better job," he said.

I don't exacly understand his reasoning. The Bearcats certainly play a more "exciting" brand of football with our spread offense and the nations leading turnover-creating defense.

Here are some other "reasons" why we aren't going to the Sun Bowl:
The Sun Bowl expects to get Oregon State as the representative from the Pac-10. UC has already beaten Oregon State this season and bowl officials do not like to have rematches. - I can buy this one.

Folmer said the decision was based on USF being the higher-ranked team in the BCS standings. Both teams finished 9-3, but the Bulls are No. 21 with UC at No. 23 in the BCS standings. UC was ranked No. 20 in the Associated Press poll, USF No. 25. - How they are ranked higher in the BCS, I don't know. Is it the win over Auburn?

Regardless of all of the politics involved, I love Brian Kelly's response: "We'll be happy to play anywhere, anytime, anyplace." Please don't leave us Coach Kelly!!!

Labels: Bearcats, football

At the tail end of ESPN.com's current headline article there is a nice mention of UC and the Holy Grail of pizza sauce:

"When hungry in Cincinnati, The Dash recommends a slice of LaRosa's Pizza (40). The local favorite can be found about everywhere, and Cincinnatians will rhapsodize about the sauce. You won't find a leafy idyllic look on campus at the University of Cincinnati, but The Dash is impressed by the modernization efforts around the school's very cool, middle-of-campus football facility, Nippert Stadium."

Granted, I am a little biased, but having played in quite a few stadiums across country, Nippert truly is a one-of-a-kind experience. No other stadium that I have been to is dropped smack-dab in the middle of campus (literally 50 feet away from the student union, the College of Engineering, and other Univerisity buildings) like The Nipp.

As for LaRosa's Pizza comment, I totally agree. We now buy the sauce in six pound bags every time we go down to Cincy to use on our homemade pizzas. No store-bought sauce compares and we are too lazy to try making our own. But, really, could we come up with a sauce better than LaRosa's? I can't imagine it possible.

Speaking of pizza, can anyone name the pizza chain that this post's title came from?

Labels: Bearcats

Obligatory Fanboy Declaration: Amazon is staple in my household. Almost all gift purchases, especially Christmas gifts, are purchased there. The prices rock, delivery is usually free, and they have everything. If you ask me, and some have, Amazon.com represents the Mecca of modern commerce.

Labels: Kindle, reading

Labels: programming

Crazy, just crazy. I can't get over how excited I am about the direction that Bearcat football is headed. Can I buy my 2008 season tickets now?

As noted in a previous post, Demetrius Jones was considering UC as his new home for the next four years. The deal is done. Welcome DJ.

Here is some info on our newest "recruit" from the article:

Jones was rated No. 33 by USA Today on a list of the nation's top 100 prep players as a high school senior.

He would have to sit out this year and would have three years of eligibility remaining.

Labels: Bearcats, football

Labels: Bearcats, football

Labels: Bearcats, football

Labels: Bearcats, football

Labels: Bearcats, football

My dream home theater. Enough said.



Here is the slideshow of all the pics if you want to skip reading the article.

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Labels: movies, Star Wars

Today really snuck up on me. It seems like just a few days ago that my head lost about 2 pounds of hair to help childhood cancer. I found myself searching for ways to get out of the painting over the past week, but I kept thinking of the folks that dished out their hard-earned money to see me with an orange and brown head.

The guilt took over and I ran to Wal-Mart at 5:50 AM this morning to find some face paint. As always, Wally World saved me by having their Halloween stuff front-and-center.

I know you don't care about the commentary, so here are some photos:



Let's just hope I can get this off my head before tonigh's big game!!!

1. I get called a lot of interesting names. Some of my favorites are Sloth (yeah, the guy from The Goonies), Humpty Dumpty, Bald Bull, and King Hippo. I am, however, a little disappointed that no one threw out Jabba. That one seemed so obvious to me.

2. Hair insulates amazingly well. I am constantly astounded at how much cooler I am without hair.

3. Breezes are way more noticeable now that my scalp is bare. This certainly helps with the cooling effect when I start to overheat.

4. My head is quite weathered. We found dents, scars, and odd nicks when the rug was removed. My shaver, Jeffery Paul (whose clients include Al Learner and other famous folk) even remarked at how much it appears my head had been through.

As previously blogged about, I volunteered to shave my head for childhood cancer. Many people stepped up to the plate and donated their hard-earned money to help support this great cause. I thank you all who helped me raise $650 in less than 48 hours. If only I had started sooner...

Well, I know you are all waiting to see what my massive melon looks like sans hair, so here you go (click on the image to see the scary image up close and way too personal):


Since I reached my "bonus" goal of $500, I agreed to have my head shaved again and painted brown and orange the Friday before the first Steelers/Browns game. That should be interesting, and I am sure those pictures will be even more eagerly anticipated.

My boys (The Bearcats) just inked a home-and-home deal with Oklahoma. Most impressive...

The Bearcats will travel to Norman on Sept. 6, 2008 to begin the series and will host the Sooners on September 25, 2010 at Paul Brown Stadium.

I really like the direction they are headed, and Coach Kelly seems to know the steps needed to get us to that next level: "If we expect Bearcats football to be a national presence and compete in the BCS, we need to play nationally recognized programs"

The big question on my mind is, how long will Coach Kelly stay around? Is this just a stop on the way to bigger and better things? I fear that it is, but I sincerely hope not. I like what he has done over his first few months. Whether they win or not, remains to be seen. But I feel good about the season...

Labels: Bearcats, football

My company has a long-standing tradition of supporting many wonderful causes helping childhood cancer patients (St. Jude, Wigs For Kids, etc.). Our latest endeavor is St. Baldrick's, and after receiving full clearance from the wife (I'm no dummy!), my head gets shaved on Wednesday morning.

So, exactly how much would you pay to see my with a shaved head? There is one way to find out. Please donate, anything you can (either online or the old school way by printing this PDF).

The boy must have seen the pride flowing through me as Leia garnered the lion's share of attention during the weekends ceremony. Not wanting to be out done, he decided to lay down the trump card and take his first steps.

Deuce never really seemed too keen on walking until this morning. He motored around wherever he needed on his hands and knees for months before even thinking of walking.

Knowing that out vacation to the beach may do even more damage to his poor, roughed up little knees, Renee and I began really pushing the walking subject with the little guy.

Dragging Joshua around the house dangling from our grip, he put up with our "lessons". Hardly interested, Deuce hung rather limp, not moving his feet very much until we finally released him back to his duties of drooling, screaming, and generally destroying things (hence the Godzilla nickname Leia and I dubbed him with).

For about two weeks, every time Deuce stood up on his own, we waited axiously and called for him to just take one step towards us. He was happy to comply, on his terms though. Plopping down on his hands and knees, he would scurry over with a massive grin.

This morning, going almost unnoticed, 1, 2, 3 steps. After alerting Renee to the big news happing right before our eyes, she screamed, Leia jumped and little Deucie clapped for himself after he dismounted. Over the next hour, stpes 4 through 50 occurred. Having realized the power of walking, nothing else was on his mind. Stumbling everywhere, he is determined to master this thing we call walking. That sand is gonna be hot in a couple of weeks buddy, so keep on practicing!

Daddy is proud of you.

I think the picture pretty much explains Proud Papa Moment #3.

Labels: fatherhood

Parenting whirls you through all kinds of emotions as you watch your children experience new things. Pride was the big emotion this weekend. Sure, I have been proud of my little ones many times before, but seeing one of them do their thing in front of a sizeable crowd, without missing a beat, marched this memory up to #1 on Leia's list of proudest moments for Daddy.

Labels: fatherhood