Scorsese scores, and I get to see my favorite band!

I've never been a huge fan of sitting through the whole Oscars, or any awards show for that matter. But I wanted to see how one movie that has quickly become one of my top 3 all-time favorites would do. How's Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, and Best Picture? Pretty decent. (Hint: I speak of The Departed!)

Here's a cool bit of news: I get to go see my FAVORITE band, the Dropkick Murphys, in 9 days. I love them soooo much but I've never gotten to see them before. Somehow, I don't have any quizzes or anything that day, so yay!

The previous two items are related, by the way, since "I'm Shipping up to Boston" by DKM was used heavily in The Departed. The following item, on the other hand, is not related at all, but is much more important.

My dad is having a big, horrifically painful ankle surgery tomorrow. Please pray for a successful operation and a speedy recovery. Thanks!

i LOVE people

The couple in front of me loaded item after item after item on to the tiny little counter, right beneath the sign that boldly proclaims "20 ITEMS OR LESS" (which is grammatically incorrect, I know, but it should still send a pretty clear message). I tried to be charitable, thinking that their cartload only looked like it was more than twenty items, becuase some of their purchases were large, like a big bag of Malt-O-Meal cereal.

Then they kept going; it was like they had a bottomless cart. They finally got their last groceries on to the counter, paid the friendly cashier and ambled away. I hoisted my five items to the counter and cast a long gaze at the couple who was walking away with their laden cart. The cashier did not say "Hello" to me. Rather, he said, "It was 44." He also told me that he's seen people buy seventy-five items in that lane.

Yes, the lane that is for 20 or fewer items. I love people.

Spring Training is upon us!

Pitchers, catchers, and players who were injured last season have reported to Spring Training sites all over the country. Hooray!

Some Royals pitching news:
Scott Elarton is ahead of schedule. The surgery Elarton had last season was his *gasp* third labrum surgery. Same type of surgery I just had 6 weeks ago. I wouldn't recommend having it even once, but he's had three of them? That's hardcore. I hope he has a good season this year; I really like him.


Gil Meche is ridiculously confident. Not sure how I feel about this one. This seems to be some big talk for an up-and-down pitcher who's never been in the spotlight before. For $11m a year, he'd better live up to some of that talk. For the moment, I'm still "meh" on him, and that's sad. I want to put all my trust in Dayton Moore, but something about Meche's acquisition and giant contract seems...off. Time will tell.

In another royals.com article (which I can't seem to locate right now), they said that outfielder Joey Gathright reported to the Surprise, AZ training facility a few weeks early to get accustomed to the sun. I just gained some respect for Mr. Gathright, whom I normally don't like.* It's good to see a pro athlete actually making extra effort to overcome a perceived obstacle, rather than being all whiny about it.


*I really have a lot of contempt for Gathright as a player. Here's why:
He was brought in because of his tremendous speed. So in theory, he should have stolen a ton of bases, all the time, right? Nope. He's also just average defensively, yet he took over center field, displacing my main man, David DeJesus. DeJesus has much better command of center field, gets better jumps on every ball, and is a much better leader and communicator. To me, Gathright doesn't cut it and DeJesus should have stayed in center. I'm still waiting for Gathright to be the superstar baserunner he was brought to KC to be, but honestly I'm not holding my breath.

My secret love for the entertainment world comes out

Man, I'm really lovin' the random stuff lately. Soon enough, there will be baseball about which to write, but until then I'm going to roll with random tidbits. See, I have this secret fascination with things like fashion, interior design, and celebrity gossip. I also have been watching TV lately, so expect some of that too. Here we go:

I'm a little worried about Paula Abdul's alcohol use. It's getting pretty darn bad; she can barely sit still, both on Idol and when she's doing TV interviews. Behold:
This drunken interview

And

This drunken interview

One morning, two interviews, one horribly drunken state.

Also, how about this one for mommy-government: Illegal to listen to iPod when crossing the street?
Surely this can't actually happen. How would they enforce it? Furthermore, if someone is so obsessed with their iPod that they can't look for oncoming traffic on busy NYC streets, then they might kinda have it coming. And I see this all the time on campus ... I'm amazed at how the iPod listening and phone-chattering really do detract from simpler people's ability to, say, look for cars. How have I not seen someone get splatted by a bus while rockin' out to their iTunes? I don't know.

Ahh, here's some good Royals stuff. My favorite Royals prospect this spring (besides Alex Gordon, to whom I would donate my soul if he asked) will be Billy Butler. He said some pretty cool things about gratitude for his abilities, waiting his turn for the majors, and interacting with young fans in this article. Very cool.

Lastly, Bravo's new interior design show, Top Design, has kind of been a letdown. When I watched the first episode, something was bugging me; the show just felt kind of...off. The boys who brought us Project RunGay also have a blog devoted to Top Design. They offered their opinions about TD's flaws better than I ever could.

Randoms

• This news story is near and dear to my heart, as I go by the screen name 'Chewbacca' on a number of forums. I extend my apologies to any tourists I may or may not have headbutted.

• In other news, the Super Bowl was kind of lame. I was hoping for...oh, I don't know... a good game, maybe? Instead, we got eleventy billion turnovers, boring commercials, and Adam Vinatieri missing a field goal (I didn't know that happened in the postseason). I'm guessing all the very loud and excited Bears fans I encountered in IHOP at 3 on Sunday morning are not nearly as exuberant today as they were at that time.

However, one good thing about the game was that Tony Dungy is a classy guy. I like that he throws down the G-Word (God!) in his post game speech and you can tell he actually means it. I really like both coaches involved; it's a shame that one of them had to lose.

• I have a new job, sort of. On weekends, I get assigned to various grocery stores around town and hand out free samples of new Pepsi products. It gets a little boring at times, but I still enjoy it. And by now, I could probably recite all the ingredients in Aquafina Alive Wellness Water. I can't believe the number (and variety) of questions people ask about the ingredients ... I get everything from the expected queries about calories to "My wife is allergic to [obscure substance I've never heard of]. Can she still drink this stuff?" Another thing I've noticed is that older people seem absolutely disgusted by the idea of flavored water. Parents with young kids are the best, because of course the kids see free stuff and just have to try it. One benefit is that I'm seeing parts of Lincoln I've never really known before, which is kind of neat. Also, I don't think I will ever turn down another free sample in a grocery store; it can be slightly disheartening.

• 55 days until Opening Day!