marklee’s posterous

Super Bowl 38

I'm still getting me a Panthers t-shirt. What a game! And my boys gave them a run for their money and made a game out of it. I'm sure there's been some whining and general banter surrounding some of the coaching decisions on Carolina's part, but hey, if they had worked, everyone would be talking about what great decisions they were. So hats off to Brady and the Patriots for proving that they are the best team in the land. But congratulations also to the Panthers for showing what they were made of. A couple of general observations:

1. It's pretty awesome that teams from the NFC South, also known as the NASCAR South, have gone to the Super Bowl for two years running. Now, if the Saints and my Falcons can get it together, we could have a really solid division next year.
2. Other than the ridiculous last three seconds, I actually dug the halftime show. Too bad that a great performance was overshadowed by a ridiculous publicity stunt...
3. My vote for the best commercial goes to the Jimi Hendrix Pepsi commercial. I'm sure accordionists the world over were deeply offended. On a side note, did you know that none other than Tommy Lee started out on accordion?
4. They need to figure out a way to shorten the Super Bowl. But at $1 million a pop, who can blame them for showing all those commercials?
5. I also wouldn't mind seeing them get rid of the bye week in between the conference championships and the Super Bowl. It's kind of anticlimactic, if you ask me (yes, I realize you didn't).
6. I don't know what I'm going to do for the next 6 months until the preseason starts.
7. Oh yeah. arena football starts next week.

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Georgia Tech Basketball

It's about midway through the season, and I think I'm starting to get a feel for what this team is all about. They are a very good team, capable of beating just about anyone

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Cultural creatives

There is a book I'm about to start reading. And if my hunch is correct, it may not be a bad idea for you to read, too. It's called Cultural Creatives, by Paul Ray. It's basically a sociological/psychological look into the segment of our population (about 25%, including yours truly), who don't seem to fit into the traditional modern/traditional, liberal/conservative worldviews that everyone gets pigeonholed into. It's really quite fascinating, and, of course, there will be a review coming soon. And maybe a pop quiz.

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Super Bowl Prediction

The Patriots are favored by 7. In the world of NFL odds, that's the closest they're going to come to saying that the Patriots are going to blow them out. And I find that highly ridiculous. The Patriots probably are a better team right now, but if this game is close, and I think this game will be close, the Panthers have a great chance. They are the kings of the close game this season. And just like I've been saying the last couple of weeks, what are the Panthers going to have to do to gain any respect? My prediction? This game's going to be close, and the Panthers are going to win by 3 points, maybe in overtime. And the Panthers still won't get any respect.

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Updated Book Lists

If you'll focus your attention to the right, you'll see that I have finally updated my "what I'm reading" lists. I'll be honest - I haven't had much time for reading as of late. But I got some good books for Christmas that I'm excited about reading. A couple of books have gone away from the lists that never got finished: Soul Tsunami and the Ralph Nader book. Sometimes you're just not in the mood. I do plan to read Soul Tsunami in the near future. The first few chapters are awesome, and I'm sure the rest will be equally good. Now it's on to the bio page and the music lists...

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Water

As you may or may not have picked up on, I am seriously trying to cut back on the Diet Coke. To accomplish this, my goal is to go the entire month of January with narry a Diet Coke.

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Moratorium on books

I've got to chill out on the books. Not reading them, just, well, not reading them. You follow? No? OK, let me explain. I love books. I love getting them, I love reading them. It's just that my acquistion happens at a faster clip than the reading. Hence my massive backlog in books. Today I counted 28 books that I need to read before I purchase or check out another. So I'm not buying another book until I - eh, who am I trying to kid? I'll buy more. And I'll read them all - one of these days.

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Comcast

So just when I get home and get ready to do some work on this here site, there's some major interruption of service with Comcast's internet service. That's actually not a slam on them - this is the first problem I can remember in the 18 months that I've been with them. It's just one of those things you can chalk up in the "It Figures" category. UPDATE: I was having breakfast with some other guys this morning, and we discovered that we all used Comcast for our internet service. This led into a pretty interesting discussion about how much we've come to rely on the Internet. A few years ago it was kind of a novelty. Now it's such a part of life that you don't know what you did without it. Everything's up and running smoothly now...

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Tennessee sounds good to me

Well, I'm finally home for a while after several weeks in the studio. Hopefully, I'll be able to post a little more, and maybe do a little housekeeping on this site while I'm at it. Things went really well, and I'm excited for people to hear the new material soon. As of now, this new record is slated to come out in May. So I am a little tired, but feeling good about the record...

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Panthers

As Jon Kasay lined up to kick a potential game winning field goal against the Rams last week, I half-joked to my wife that I was going to pull over and buy a Panthers t-shirt if he made it. Well, he missed it. But you know what? I'm going to have to go out and get a t-shirt this week. They've definitely earned it in my book. Now it's on to Houston.

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