...Potter Movies...

I haven't seen the 7th movie yet - and I'm sad it's broken up into 2 parts. I wish we still had the ability to sit through an epic 3-3.5 hour movie like we once did. Movies like Giant, Laurence of Arabia, and Gone With The Wind were partially what they were because they were such an emotional commitment from start to finish...

But that isn't my point, I mostly wanted to just rank how I feel about the Potter movies after rewatching 1-5 in the past week:

1. HP & The Prisoner of Azkaban
2. HP & The Sorcerer's Stone
3. HP & The Order of the Phoenix
4. HP & The Goblet of Fire
5. HP & The Chamber of Secrets

As far as reading experience goes, this is how I rank all 7 (in terms of how much I enjoyed reading them, while reading them:

1. HP & The Sorcerer's Stone
2. HP & The Prisoner of Azkaban
3. HP & The Goblet of Fire
4. HP & The Half Blood Prince
5. HP & The Deathly Hallows
6. HP & The Order of the Phoenix
7. HP & The Chamber of Secrets

...CBS Crew...

I was driving home tonight from Football Sunday at Bree & Tori Tavares' house, and I heard the press conference that is shown a handful of seconds into this clip attached. My reaction was, "that is an awesome clip - this guy is pissed, he is upset, and he cares about the fact that he let the team down."

We were watching the Bills game live when Johnson dropped that pass, and I am not going to lie, I laugh and I shout when a guy drops a pass, b/c that's my right as a fan. I am allowed to have those emotions. However, if I were a broadcaster, I'd like to think I'd control myself. I don't see myself thinking differently if I had a different role, or if I made millions mocking current NFL players like the dimwits in this clip do.

I wanted to post the press conference to my twitter/facebook b/c I really think this Bills team is awesome - Justin asked if they were a playoff team if they didn't screw around at QB/RB early in the year like they did, and the fact that they lose to good teams by so few points is evidence they are not far at all from being exceptional.

When I searched youtube , I found the clip of the CBS clan mocking Stevie, and acting as if they have never suffered, never felt bad, never showed an emotion other than flat out cockiness, and in a few moans and groans and giggles, showed they have no idea what humility is.

Dan Marino, Bill Cowher, Shannon Sharpe, and Boomer Esiason. If you have followed football all your life, or in the last 30 years, you'd be able to answer this question very quickly, without much thinking: Would you have any desire to spend 30 minutes in a room with any or all of these men? Your answer would be an emphatic, "NO!" Only Steelers fans, Bengals fans, Dolphins fans, and fans of complete A-holes would appreciate what these guys have contributed to the league.

Marino is the Charles Barkley of the NFL - the guy who may have been the best to never win - except nobody longs for his lost championship. People wish Barkley won, and appreciate what he gives to the game now. Marino detracts from it. Cowher & Boomer aren't even worth talking about. Also, for some reason, refs refused to call a false start on him when basically on every snap he moved his right leg before the ball was ever snapped, b/c he was too old and slow to play by the rules, and too arrogant to think the rules applied to him.

Cowher is a maniac who can't control his saliva, and had an up and down career that was rejuvinated by a Super Bowl victory in what was not only the most boring Super Bowl ever, but also the Super Bowl victory against the least threatening opponent of all time.

Shannon Sharpe...I don't even know what to say, I don't know what kind of person you need to be to think, "That Sharpe is an admirable person...I really respect him." First of all, he is a murderer of proper diction - an assassin to the English language, but I won't even hold that against him b/c he spent the first 38 years of his life perfecting pass-catching, blocking, and running his mouth...but the list of people in this world who think they are fantastic because they were near John Elway is insufferable, and continues to grow.

And Jim Brown was once a great voice in the NFL, but I fear that TV producers and the CBS "Show" of NFL football have stripped him of integrity, thought and real insight. Instead he is relegated to be the ringleader of a circus whose clowns have clearly taken control.

Stevie Johnson should be criticized for dropping 5 passes, including the bomb to win the game. He is a pro, and deserves scorn for failing on a big stage like OT against a perennial powerhouse like the Steelers. But he should be applauded for caring, for wanting to win, for voicing concern that he let teammates down, and he doesn't need a collection of has-been's who falsely think they played in a better league, and whose only validation in life is to constantly attempt to drag down the young stars who they know will soon trump their importance in the most powerful sports league in America.

...Reggie Jackson v. Frank Drebin...

I am going to do the impossible, the thing that nobody says anyone can, or should do…and I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it is actually possible that both sides are right on an issue…(GASP!)

So here it is, Thanksgiving weekend and everyone is travelling. On a side note, how do people travel on Thanksgiving at the airport? They jack ticket prices up so high I cannot imagine spending that kind of dough to fly anymore. It was always expensive, but over the years, things have gotten nuts. Trust me, I follow these things. I go on kayak for fun, I am not kidding. I think looking at flight prices is interesting.

Anyway, millions flock to the airport and have to go through security, and every single one of them is inconvenienced, without question. The insane rules that seemingly make no sense actually may make no sense. Some airports require you to do certain things, and we’re more strict on domestic flights than other countries are with flights coming into the US, so you have to ask yourself, “what the hell are we doing?!”

People are freaking out b/c a scanner can tell if you have big feet or not, but whatever, at some point you’d think that looking at thousands of body-scans an hour would cease being interesting, and personal freedoms in this sense are under attack only in the mind of the person being scanned – its sort of a “get over yourself” type of thing. But I get it, I see how it’s something uncomfortable, and I understand that the inconvenience of it all is there, I wouldn’t argue that.

However, there are a few things. First, flying isn’t a right. Don’t fly, then. Don’t get on a plane if you don’t like the rules. I say this over and over again, consumers in this country think they are slaves to the developer/seller of the goods – we aren’t! WE HAVE ALL THE CONTROL!!!!

If you don’t like what airlines are asking of you, you don’t need to write a letter or protest violently, you simply can stop using the airline and convince your friends to do the same. It’s that easy. It really is. Short of that, then what you’re protesting is a personal dislike for a policy, and why would a Company change it’s policy b/c a vocal minority doesn’t like the policy? It has to grow to the majority stage.

But beyond the annoyance of it all, and beyond the fact that people are acting as if they can expect 100% convenience from every single thing they do in their lives, I feel like the bigger issue is that we are convincing ourselves we are stopping the next 9/11 from happening because we make me put my laptop in a separate bin.

These policies aren’t secret, we know what they are, and so do the terrorists. The people who orchestrated 9/11 weren’t aliens who guessed right and got “lucky”, they knew our culture, our rules, our methods, and understood how to circumnavigate the system. They will do the same next time, if there is a next time.

Yes, we’re making it more difficult for the terrorists who aren’t skilled to get things done. But the TSA regulations, in my view, aren’t going to prevent a years-long, well devised, intricate plan from happening. I am sorry if that makes people uncomfortable or angry, I just don’t see how pat-downs will change anything except catch the obvious terrorists.

At the end of the day, it reminds me of The Naked Gun. Watch this scene, and my view is Frank Drebbin is TSA (from about minute 4:20 on) and our National Security Administration. Reggie Jackson is the next terrorist, and #20 on the Angels with the nail file on the mound is the underwear bomber or the unsuccessful buffoon in Times Square. Sure, we’ll catch the obvious, but good old fashioned luck is the only way to stop Reggie from poppin’ out of the pile and attempting to kill the queen.

...Who does this?

The Fishers do, that's who...

...By Month....

I am not yet tired. That's bad. So, to fill the time, I'm going to post a year-deep retrospective: The most important thing that happened to me this year, each month. It only counts if I have video and/or pictures of it. Keep that in mind.

January:












February:












March:












April:



















May:


June:












July:




August:










September:













October:














November:

...Thanksgiving Menu...

I think this is where we stand for Thanksgiving. There may be changes, but it's going to be a GOOD ONE!

...Vanilla Sky...

Stripped of all expectation, and 10 years (rather than a few months) removed from my personal Almost Famous euphoria, I think that Vanilla Sky is actually a very, very good movie.

That's all I got.