ケツ毛ボーボー（木村カエラ)

Listening to:
木村カエラ
Jasper

カエラちゃんの新曲を聞くとちょっとウキウキするぞ。本当に今まで出したロックのシングルとまるで違う感じだよね。ぜんぜんカエラらしくないダンス曲だから、別な意味でなんとなく面白い。ポップアーティストとして成長ってやつ？この間カエラちゃんの「Yellow」がオリコンの５位に入ったのもなかなか事だったしな。「リルラ」以来かな？言っておくけど、自分は随分前からカエラの大ファンだったぞ。「You」と「リルラ」以外のシングルは全部持っています。ほら：



新しいアルバムも今年の４月２日発売予定。楽しみっす。

Nike Zoom Flight 96

Remember these joints? I'm trying my damndest not to buy a pair. Nike was pretty much killing it with almost every basketball sneaker they put out during the mid-90s, and these were certainly no exception. I almost bought a pair back in the day because Penny was rockin' them during the 96 Olympics in ATL, but this retro colorway is crazy. They're only going for about $100 or so, but I'm trying to save for something a tad more practical. Like a new laptop. I went to the pet store the other day and spent 15 minutes staring at the $400 chinchillas. It actually took me that long to realize that I'd probably have more fun with a $400 Playstation 3.



Cold. The clear blue sole totally makes the shoe.

歌ドキッ！これはポップクラシック。まじで。

高橋の「揺れる想い」。ZARDのオリジナルには勝てないけど、このバージョンもいいっすね。なつかしい。



坂井泉水さん R.I.P.

Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool!

Looks like Ryan Reynolds has been cast as Deadpool in the upcoming Wolverine movie. It's interesting that the success of the Spider-Man and X-Men flicks has prompted all the Hollywood comic book geeks to come out of the woodwork. Nicholas Cage getting to play Ghost Rider was cool news, but Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool is beyond awesome. Although Reynolds already has the physical build of a superhero/villain, his delivery is so snarky and comedic in tone that it's tough to take him seriously in anything other than a comic relief role (see Blade: Trinity). With Deadpool, he can be his usual "Jason Lee w/ muscles" self and totally hit the character perfectly. Gambit is also slated to make an appearance in the film, so the X-Men loyalists will certainly have a lot to mull over in the aftermath of the X3 semi-disaster. Regardless, how do you not get up for Reynolds as Deadpool? Talk about perfect casting. And here I was excited about Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark.



Unfortunately, Kitty Pryde doesn't appear to be in the script, thus squelching any hope of getting to see her take a Deadpool Dragon Punch. Too bad.

The state of my Suns (and my chin)

Shaq:

"When we do get used to each other, we'll be the most dangerous team ever created."

Well. I dunno about that, but Shaq did look good in the loss to the Lakers. Boston and Detroit coming up, so we could conceivably be looking at a 3-game slide here. I still think that this team is a piece or two away from realistically contending for the title, so here's to hoping that the front office finds a way to land Quinton Ross and/or Brent Barry by the trade deadline tomorrow.

I actually shaved for the first time in about a month today, effectively getting rid of the beard that was threatening to conquer my face. You know, I'd recently been feeling that there was a void in my life, but I just couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. Upon shaving this morning, I immediately realized that the void was my chin. Who woulda thunk? Either way, common sense told me that the beardless, earring-less look was the way to go for my interview. Let's hope it paid off.

NBA Jam

I tend to get excited for the All-Star game in spite of myself, but this year's Slam Dunk Contest is looking like a hot one too.



Jamario Moon can really fly. There's that YouTube video floating around suggesting that Moon can take off from a good foot or so behind the free throw line and dunk...I'm skeptical, but you better believe that I'll be tuning in to find out. I'd actually put money on Rudy Gay taking the whole thing, but I think Dwight Howard could bring the house down if he gets a chance to break out his "kiss the rim" dunk this year. It could be an interesting showdown. When was the last time that the dunk contest actually felt like the highlight of All-Star weekend? It's definitely been a while, probably Vince's year, 2000.

１と９。。。まさに天と地の差

わしのモーニング娘ランキングはこんな感じじゃ。今年で２４才の俺なのに、すっかりオヤジ臭い事に楽しんでいる。



君もVOTE.

Anime and I. Strictly platonic.

Watching:
Eureka Seven vol. #11

Over the past few years, I've really managed to stay afloat financially by drastically cutting back on the amount of anime I'd been watching as a teen. It's really a painfully expensive hobby, one that I probably would have never taken on had I not been working during my high school years. At its peak, my anime collection was well over 300 DVDs strong, with my overall library totaling something near 600 discs. I've recently resorted to selling off a lot of my DVDs, mostly because I simply don't have the room for all that stuff, but I think the other reality is that the vast majority of anime titles really fail to engage me nowadays. There have really only been a couple of television series since 2000 that I would actively classify as "great." The first, naturally, would be Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (both seasons), and the second would be the brilliant Rahxephon. I have no idea how Eureka Seven ends because I made it a point to stay away from its run on Adult Swim, but pending on the conclusion, Eureka would probably be on that list as well. Other than that though, the new millennium has delivered a lot of good titles, but scant few truly great shows. The mid to late 90s were probably responsible for my initial enthrallment with the medium, with Evangelion (1995), Escaflowne (1996), and Cowboy Bebop (1998) all coming out at the time. Even the period's marginally great niche shows like Cardcaptor Sakura (1998), Kare Kano (1998), and Berserk (1997), were better than almost anything on the market today. It's mostly an issue with the standard 26 episode shows, because we can always pray for an enigmatic OVA like FLCL, or a feature length offering from Studio Ghibli, but overall, it's just really tough for me to get excited about the genre like I used to. Perhaps the scene itself just has me a little jaded, because given the sustained brilliance and sharp writing exhibited in some of these shows, I don't think that I'll ever consider myself too "old" or "mature" for anime. Maybe the new Eva movies and Kite: Liberator will help with this rut. Given the expensive nature of the hobby, perhaps it's in my best interest to just let it die quietly, but I guess it's only natural to secretly cling to things that we were once passionate about. At the very least, I imagine that I'll always be a casual fan.

Since I more or less spent the entirety of last month sick, I've been taking one of those One-A-Day Men's Dietary Supplements in an effort to make sure that my body gets all the vitamins that it needs. My mom calls the pills "the Man."

週末

土曜日、午前８：２０。仕事前。



ねむっ。毎週こんな感じです。



クマくん：ニヤ　＝）

仕事終わったら一日中ダラダラしてます。少し退屈だけど、ある意味幸せかも。

Diesel a Sun

For better or worse, it's official. Diminishing athleticism or not, Shaq's still an icon and undeniably the most charismatic figure in the league. As a result, it's tough to not get at least a little excited about the trade.



1996 (when Chicago swept Orlando out of the ECF) was the last time I could actually root for the guy. I must have been in the 6th grade.

伴都美子ーVOICE２〜cover lovers rock〜

ちょっとびっくり。まさか毎年カバーアルバムを出すつもりじゃないでしょうね？でもまあ、伴ちゃんなら別にどんなCD出しても直ぐ買っちゃいますけどね。２００８年３月５日発売予定。私の誕生日に近いです。なんとなくうれしい。





オリジナルの方にもちろん期待してるけど、伴ちゃんのカバー曲もやっぱりいいよね。去年のVOICEも大好きでしたし。少しわくわく。

...what's all this noise?

I like and Shaq and all, but in PHX? More thoughts on this later if there's any validity to all the scuttlebutt.



edit: Looks legit. Can Shaq run with the Suns? I think the easy answer is a fairly resounding "no." At first glance, it's a pretty bizarre trade. Shaq can screen well, but he won't be able to slip picks and finish ala Marion, nor will he be able pick & pop like Kurt Thomas. He won't be able to run the floor with the rest of the team, and his lack of a jumper means that he'll be largely ineffective as a trailer on the break. He tends to camp out in the paint, which means that he may clog the lane (in that bad way: on offense), effectively killing the spacing when Nash and Hill are slashing. He's a defensive presence, but he certainly won't be able to guard anyone at the 1 and 4 spots, a void that Marion will inevitably leave. Furthermore, he's not only aging, but he's injured, so there's no guarantee that he'll even get out on the floor for the 20-25 minutes that he'd ideally provide. Perhaps most importantly, why mess around with the roster when you're 34-14 and in first place in the West?

It's a huge risk, but that doesn't mean that there isn't a certain degree of upside to the situation. The trade moves Amare back to his natural power forward slot, where he won't be required to guard bigger centers on a nightly basis. Unlike in Miami, Shaq will be surrounded by shooters (Nash, Bell, Barbosa), which means that he'll have room to operate on offense. Phoenix also won't have to rely as heavily on the pick & roll, because Shaq gives them a legitimate post presence. Contrary to popular belief, Amare's plethora of fallaway jumpers do not make him a good post-up player. The only guy currently on the team with any sort of a back-to-the-basket game is Diaw. But shortcomings aside, the Amare/Shaq tandem is fairly imposing. They won't kill anyone on the offensive glass, but conversely, opposing teams won't hammer them so much on the boards either. I'm torn on the trade. Though it makes Phoenix a much more traditional team, I do like what a healthy Shaquille O'Neal could potentially bring to the table. Unfortunately, it also means the departure of Shawn Marion, by far my favorite Sun of all time.

I'm skeptical, but I'm willing to give the experiment a chance. If nothing else, the Odom/Gasol/Bynum frontcourt out in L.A. looks a tad less intimidating now.

Brock taps, Lakers lucky, Giants win (FATALITY!)

Weekend sports musings

UFC 81 - Mir gets Lesnar to tap to a kneebar in the first round. Lesnar's strength and ridiculously massive arms really stymied Mir from securing an armbar in any shape or form, but Mir eventually managed to pick Brock's ankle and roll into the leglock for the submission. Brock looked good though, taking Mir down at will and pretty much dominating the entire fight until Mir got his ankle. I think we can chalk this one up to inexperience on Brock's part, but his raw ability is pretty frightening. There was one point in the fight when Brock secured half guard and absolutely abused Mir with a flurry of fast hammer fists (I'd hate to see what he'd to do guys in full mount). Perhaps more importantly, the typically brash Lesnar showed a ton of class after the loss, rightfully calling Mir the better fighter and just being all-around gracious. If he fully dedicates himself to fighting and takes his training seriously, Brock definitely has all the tools to be champ sometime down the line. Best of luck to him. Elsewhere on the card, Nog gets his face properly destroyed for 2 and 1/2 rounds before choking out Sylvia for the interim title. Thank God.

The Grizzlies giving Pau Gasol to the Lakers for practically nothing is pretty sickening. I hate to even consider the notion, but on paper, the Lakers could arguably be the best team in the league once Andrew Bynum comes back. The worst part is that Kobe is now surrounded by guys who are either too young (Bynum), too comfortable as sidekick (Odom), too classy (Fisher), or too passive (Gasol) to step on Bryant's toes. Meaning? In spite of the almost unfair collection of talent, the chance of team implosion is fairly minimal. I was looking forward to seeing Phoenix kick Los Angeles out of the playoffs for the third straight season, but if the Gasol experiment works out and Bynum comes back healthy, I'm not entirely sure I want a piece of the Lakers this year. We'll see.

Obligatory Super Bowl XLII thoughts: My distaste for both teams has been fairly well documented, but I have to admit that I was rooting pretty feverishly for the Giants by the time the 4th quarter was halfway through. What can I say? I enjoy seeing Brady hit the turf. I'm happy for Plaxico Burress though. He's the one guy that I wish were still a Steeler, especially in light of Roethlisberger's recent requests for a taller receiver. Oh well. In the end, I do feel a little indebted to NY for saving me from this nightmare of a season. I'm going to use a variation of the "several kicks to the groin" analogy again, because it's what I feel most accurately describes the overall experience of watching the New England Patriots nearly ruin the NFL this year. It was like the strongest, most deadly fighter in the world ruthlessly kicking you in the balls 18 times, but then for some inexplicable reason, you muster the fortitude the block his 19th kick, protect your balls, and finally, in a moment of infinite glory, you rip his heart from his chest like you're Kano and pop the thing like a f***ing zit. Indeed, the New York Giants are much like Kano; he's kind of lame and you wish it were Sub-Zero in there instead, but a win's a win. Well done.

平泳ぎ／ぎよおらひ

I don't know if it's the strangely appropriate B'z song that's playing in the background or what, but this clip never fails to crack me up.



I retired my goggles quite some time ago, but this video actually makes me want to learn how to swim backwards. Interestingly, when I was much younger and swimming competitively, I amassed a rather alarming collection of 1st place ribbons with this very stroke. Had I decided to continue to pursue swimming, I think a backwards (or sideways) breaststroke might have been a natural progression. After all, if you've got an unbeatable stroke - which at the time, I certainly thought I had - why not do it backwards to change things up a little? =) I think swimmers probably go a little crazy from spending too much time in the water, but as a former swimmer myself, I can totally understand this guy's train of thought.

The Next Big Thing?

It's Super Bowl weekend, but given that it's also New England vs New York, apathy doesn't even begin to describe how I feel about Sunday's game. I'm not saying that I won't watch, because Super Bowl Sunday is more or less Christmas to us sports fans. After all, you might hate your gifts, but you'd never be able to justify skipping Christmas itself right? Either way, I'm much more intrigued about Saturday's UFC 81 card, which features Brock Lesnar's debut in the octagon.



Questions about Brock's striking game aside, the more I think about his match-up with Mir, the more interesting the fight becomes. Mir is a noted Brazilian jiu-jitsu guy, but I can't help but feel that Lesnar's freakish frame and strength will make him tough to submit. He has virtually no neck to speak of, which means that it's going to be difficult to choke him out, rear-naked, guillotine, or otherwise, and if Mir attempts a triangle from his back, it's likely that Brock will simply lift him off of the ground Rampage-style and put him out via a slam. Mir is no small dude at 255, but given that Brock made a name for himself by executing absurd feats like running powerbombs on the 400+ lb Big Show, the one thing we can't question - along with his NCAA pedigree - is Brock's freakish strength. I hate to use something scripted like pro-wrestling as a basis for determining one's shoot fighting ability, but in this case, it paints an accurate picture of how legitimately strong Brock is. Throw in his speed and agility, and Lesnar is the definitive blue-chipper. He might not beat Mir on Saturday due to his inexperience, but I definitely think that Brock will eventually make some big time noise in the MMA world. Maybe it's the pro-wrestling fan in me, but I'm really pulling for him. People might question Brock's mental aptitude, and though he might not always give the most eloquent interview, I'm fairly convinced that you can't compile a 106-5 amateur wrestling record by being nothing more than a powerful idiot. At the very least, the arrival of Lesnar provides certain intrigue, something that the UFC's heavyweight division has sorely lacked after Couture's departure.