‘What the heck?’ I hear you say. That’s what I said at first too. Jiu Xi Yan Shu (direct translation: Misty Trees by Nine Streams) is one of the most [...]
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“What would Jesus do?” has now been applied to high school basketball.
Covenant School is a private Christian high school in Texas. Micah Grimes, coach of Covenant’s girls basketball team, was fired after his teamdefeated Dallas Academy 100-0 on 13 January 2009.
Following the game, Covenant posted the following statement on its website last week: “It is shameful and an embarrassment that this happened. This clearly does not reflect a Christlike and honorable approach to competition.” Apparently, the school was ashamed that their team was allowed to run up the score against their obviously out-classed opponents.
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards have been announced!
The winners are (in bold):
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture:Slumdog Millionaire (other nominees: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Doubt, Frost/Nixon, Milk)
Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actor:Sean Penn (Milk) (other nominees: Richard Jenkins (The Visitor), Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon), Brad Pitt (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)
Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress:Meryl Streep (Doubt) (other nominees: Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married), Angelina Jolie (Changeling), Melissa Leo (Frozen River), Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road)
Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actor:Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight) (other nominees: Josh Brolin (Milk), Robert Downey Jr (Tropic Thunder), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Doubt), Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire)
Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actress:Kate Winslet (The Reader), Amy Adams (Doubt), Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), Viola Davis (Doubt), Taraji P Henson (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
The SAG Awards are all about the actors (notice the big award is for the ensemble cast rather than best picture). I’d probably put it behind the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes as the third biggest award in the Hollywood awards calendar. It’s typically another indicator of how the Oscars may turn out next month (notice how close the nominations are).
However, I’m still sticking to my original picks of Mickey Rourke for Best Actor and Kate Winslet for Best Actress (albeit for The Reader). If anything, I think these results only reinforce the now widely-accepted view that Heath Ledger is a lock for just the second posthumous Oscar in history (the other being Peter Finch in 1976). I also think Slumdog Millionaire just got another boost for Best Picture odds.
Lastly, I must again complain about Kate Winslet being in the Supporting Actress category for The Reader. If she’s the lead actress in two movies and she deserves both nominations, put BOTH of them in the Best Actress category – none of this fudging business! And Dev Patel – I know his character was split between 3 actors, but he’s undoubtedly the Lead Actor of Slumdog Millionaire. Just my 2 cents.
The Indiana Pacers began their relatively ‘soft’ part of the season schedule by holding on to beat the surging Charlotte Bobcats yesterday, 98-93. It was also good to see them hold an opponent under 100 points for once. I was also surprised to learn that it was their 5th consecutive home victory.
Danny Granger led the way again with 27 points on 11-25 shooting, but it was Jeff Foster’s outstanding 13 rebounds (including 10 offensive boards) that made the difference. The understated veteran really doesn’t get enough appreciation for doing the Pacers’ dirty work for so many years.
Time to make a move
The win moved the Pacers up to 17-27 but they remain second last in the East. However, right now there are four teams just ahead of them with 18 wins apiece (New York, Chicago, Charlotte and Toronto). If they can just pull themselves together and land a few more victories then things might start to get interesting.
The problem is, a lot of the teams around them are also beginning to find their feet again (the Bobcats was one of them), so gaining ground in the standings is going to be even harder than it already looks. But the Pacers don’t have time to worry about other teams anyway – focusing on themselves has been hard enough as it is.
The next stretch is going to make or break their season. As I noted in a previous post, the majority of teams they play next (12 out of 16) are going to be teams at 0.500 or below. Tomorrow, however, they visit the Magic in Orlando, and it’s going to be tough to expect them to pull out that one. But the Magic have shown a tiny little bit of vulnerability in their last few games, so a miracle is not impossible.
Looking ahead, they’ve got 4 straight home games, against Milwaukee (who just lost Michael Redd for the rest of the season), Miami, New York and Minnesota. Let’s hope they can get a clean sweep of those games to give themselves more confidence for some of the later road games.
Granger All-Star watch
I think it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that Danny Granger is going to make the All-Star team this season. Just about every team they play these days is heaping praise on this young man. Today, it’s Raja Bell, who had this to say:
“It’s not surprising that he’s playing as well as he is. When you play against him, you realize how good of a player he is. I think he’s definitely deserving of an All-Star spot. He is one of those guys that can do a lot of things. He can shoot. He’s long and can defend and can draw a lot of fouls. He’s a tough cover.”
Granger’s really established himself as one of the premier offensive players in the game this season. His defense hasn’t been too shabby either. Hopefully in the remainder of this season and the next he can take his game to the next level and become the type of leader that makes everyone else better around him. Only then can the Pacers start dreaming of elite status again (or landing Lebron).
Today I finished my first action sequence! Of course, it also meant that I’ve fallen further behind in my already insurmountable readings.
After literally years of procrastination and months upon months of planning, I finally feel like my fantasy novel has gotten off the ground and onto some type of track. Yes, I’m only about one-tenth through the plot (if that) and unsure as ever about how good the writing is, how my characters are developing, whether I’m using too much dialogue, etc etc - and on top of that it’s just the first draft, so I know the real hard work has yet to start. But for now, I’m happy.
To give myself a chance of finishing before I have to return to the dreaded life of full-time work (kill me now), I have to keep to my target of at least 10,000 words a week. I’m glad to say that in the first week since setting this goal, it’s so far, so good. I’ve had a couple of mammoth days, but I’ve also stuck to the rule of writing at least a little bit a day.
My primary concern right now is the progression of the plot – yes, I am pumping out a lot of words, but it just feels like things aren’t moving as fast as I would like. I’m worried it will turn into a massive, slow-moving bible.
Nevertheless, my protagonist has finally had his first sword fight – hopefully the first of many to come!
PS: just thought I would share this article about the benefits of blogging on writing - which a friend (who happened to introduce me to blog writing) was kind enough to share with me today.
I was very excited to see that the Indiana Pacers managed to hold on against the Houston Rockets at home, 107-102. This meant a season sweep against the Rockets (!), and improved their record to 16-27, still second worst in the East.
However, it was far from an impressive win at home. The Rockets are a good team, but they were already missing stars Tracy McGray and Ron Artest, and the Pacers caught another break when remaining star Yao Ming injured his knee and sat out the second half. Still, the Pacers shot poorly and almost managed to lose control of it towards the end. If it weren’t for some accurate free throw shooting, they could have very easily lost the game.
The highlight was of course Danny Granger’s end-of-game stuff of Von Wafer’s dunk attempt that pretty much killed off any chance of a Rockets comeback. Do yourself a favour and watch the video again and again below.
Can they make a charge? Upcoming schedule says maybe…
Talk all season has been about how tough the Pacers’ early schedule has been. There is some truth to this – but when you’re as bad as the Pacers, pretty much every game is a tough one. Really – if you run through their schedule game by game, you’ll notice there aren’t many games where you can say ‘they should win this one easily’ (and they sometimes lose those ones too).
However, this has not stopped recent chatter around the water cooler that the Pacers are finally to make a run for a spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs. As of today, they are 16-27, 14th out of a possible 15 teams in the East. In the 7th position is Philadelphia with a record of 20-21, and rounding off the top 8 is Milwaukee with 21-25. New Jersey is 9th with 19-24.
So it’s not that far-fetched that the Pacers could make the playoffs. For some reason John Hollinger’s Playoff Odds constantly have the Pacers within striking distance of the playoffs. Currently they are ranked 9th in the East, just out of the picture, with a 23.4% chance of still making it. Are the Pacers really that much better than their record indicates?
Let’s look at their upcoming schdule (next 17 games): Charlotte, @Orlando, Milwaukee, Miami, New York, Minnesota, @Philadelphia, Orlando, @Washington, Cleveland, @Milwaukee, Philadelphia, @Charlotte, @Minnesota, Chicago, @Knicks, Memphis.
If this isn’t the time to make a run, then I don’t know what is. Take out the 2 games against Orlando and the games against Cleveland and Miami – and you’ve got 13 upcoming games against sub-0.500 teams. You’ve also got 10 home games against only 7 away games. On top of that, Mike Dunleavy is starting to round into form, and TJ Ford and Marquis Daniels are supposedly almost recovered from their respective injuries.
However, Pacers fans need to keep their expectations in check. What can be expected from this ‘soft’ patch? 12-5? 11-6? 10-7?
Out of the teams they play in this period, only Minnesota and Memphis actually have worse records than the Pacers. Therefore, I would consider anything equal or better than 10-7 during this bunch of games a moderate success. It’s not going to get them back in playoff contention just yet, but they could at least give themselves an opportunity down the home stretch. Besides, you never know. Momentum is a strange thing, so if the Pacers can string together a few victories early on they could easily move further up the ladder than anticipated. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
I like to write about stuff. Books, film, food, travel, games, sport, whatever. Currently working on a few books. Hoping to finish one some day. Maybe.
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards have been announced! 
Pacers beat Bobcats
Today I finished my first action sequence! Of course, it also meant that I’ve fallen further behind in my already insurmountable readings.
Talk all season has been about how tough the Pacers’ early schedule has been. There is some truth to this – but when you’re as bad as the Pacers, pretty much every game is a tough one. Really – if you run through their schedule game by game, you’ll notice there aren’t many games where you can say ‘they should win this one easily’ (and they sometimes lose those ones too).
