An odd childish spirit has been plaguing me recently. It’s causing me to crave Disney movies.

For instance the other night, I curled up in my bed with my computer and watched The Little Mermaid. I still got scared by Ursala just like when I was a child. Though this time I wasn’t screaming and crying. When I was a kid I was freaked out by the wizard and the witch in The Wizard of Oz, The Little Mermaid, and all the scary witches/people in cartoons, but I would still cry (aka throw fits) to watch them, and then cry and throw fits when the scary parts came, even though I knew they were coming.

I suppose my parents hadn’t learned the art of fast forwarding, it was always “Just close your eyes!”.

I learned some things from watching the Little Mermaid that I hadn’t caught before. 1. That Ariel was 16 years old. She got married at 16 people! 2. It’s really not a kids movie. 3. Kids like to think that they understand the concepts but they are really clueless…I’m thinking of lil 8 year old girls here. 4. Eric kills Ursala…by ramming the front part of a boat into her. Talk about cruelty.

It was enlightening to say the least.

But what was not a cool find was that growing up I (and it turns out Boo as well) were told that Brad Pitt and Vanessa Williams did the voices for Pocahontas and John Smith…well upon wiki and imdb searches, turns out we were taught wrong. Mel Gibson (the same year that he produced the epic classic Braveheart) and some umm…un-famous girl did their voices.

We were lied too!

It was a crushing blow to the brain.

*Sports*

How much would your National basketball career mean to you even if you would still be relatively unheard of? Would your citizenship be enough?

Over the weekend there was a goodbye party for Dan and Gin. It was sweet and classy. Classy is always a good thing.

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I’m going to miss D&G. But on the brightside, the internet is still around so we’ll still be in touch and stuff.

I’m excited about fantasy football. Yep, it’s happening again this year, and this time around I’m going to be a little braver and smarter. I’ve been doing my reading thanks to ESPN the magazine, so maybe I’ll have an edge…unless everyone else has read it too, then I’m kinda stuck.

Being stuck isn’t usually a good thing.

So we’ll see how it all works out in the end. I’m still looking for partners for the league anyone interested?

Tim Donaghy also officiated game 3 of the Mavs/Warrior series.

What’s with him and game 3’s?

Dallas got 3 technicals that game, to the SFW zero.

Now Dallas fans should be doing the What if’s? We have just as much reason as the Suns, because we all ended up losing in the end.

This is just a frusturating conspiracy. I want answers and reasons.

I don’t know much about baseball. I suppose I liked it as a kid, evidenced by the fact that for Christmas (or maybe it was some other holiday) during my 4th or 5th year I received a baseball glove, bat (aluminum), and ball. My dad showed me how to oil and personalize my glove, and then we went to a few Pirates/Orioles games.

But then I grew up and put childish things away.

Now I routinely go to ESPN just to read the headlines. Since the sports that I’m interested in have been on break or having complicated scandals, I’ve been reading more about Baseball…and baseball is pretty much all about Bonds right now. Though from what I’ve gathered it has been for the last few months.

My thoughts on this matter.

If the guy took steroids, well he’s still darn good. If he didn’t, he’s grand. We are in America and technically there is innocence until proven guilty…and there really isn’t a way to prove that he was taking them, unless he still is, and that would be retarded.

Ironically, he has a degree in Criminology, so we would assume that he would have some sort of knowledge about how the judicial system works and what is and isn’t lawful.

I can’t wait until he breaks the record, and I hope he breaks it in a professional manner (such as hitting it out of the ball park).

*****

What did the guy ever do to make people and the media so hostile? It’s not like he murdered dogs for pleasure, or wagered on the outcome of the games he was involved with. Gosh…

Morning Border traffic. Starbucks. Country music. Energy drinks. Winding Mountain Trail. An over played mixed cd (going on it’s 30th round). Foodbank sorting. Being forced to bag the produce and bread from the afore mentioned foodbank for the 3rd week in a row (yeah…I hope you read that Jer.) Seeing long time no see office pals. Forced silence in the truck (forced by me this time) Shopping. Oh…did I mention my chauffeur/shopping buddy Michael? Nope don’t think so. Yeah, we had in…ter…esting discussions, U-Turns, niiiiice breaking jobs, special parking jobs, and and…actually he’s a decent driver. I’m just joking. (heh…yeah, really I am) Carl’s Jr. Passport paperwork being sent off (YES!). Smiles from all cashiers when reading my last name (I’ve decided it’s my calling in life, my little way to make people happy…what else could it be?).

I don’t think I’ll ever know the full power of my strength. Almost everyday I’m discovering it a little bit more. (Nadia, I’m sorry about your toes.), (Michael for your elbow.), and (anyone else who might have suffered some blow from me.) I don’t mean it intentionally I promise.

Michael and I have a song that we christened to our very unusual situation and personalities. It describes the inner turmoil that we experience frequently, the outer struggles that we often face. Upon my request and his consent we have decided to share it with you. I Told You So- By Keith Urban.

The bottom line is…that we need each other to cut down on gas prices. Car pooling is the way of the future. We are pro-actively saving our environment. High five!

I was gone for two days, no internet, no ESPN.

Now I’m back and I find that an NBA ref was caught for betting on games. We all knew it was happening, now Stern knows too.

We got our NBA action of the summer right here, right now.

A few prized paragraphs from Bill Simmons blog.

Before we worry about justice, let’s get some answers. Especially for Game 3 of the Spurs-Suns series. I left that series believing that the Spurs were better, that their offensive execution was unparalleled, that Tim Duncan was the best player on the court, that they would have figured out a way to win that series whether the suspensions happened or not. Now? I’m not so sure. What if an allegedly crooked referee hadn’t been working Game 3? What if the Suns won that game? What then?

More than any other professional league, an NBA referee can directly affect the outcome of every game. We’ve seen it happen time and time again, only we always assumed that the refs in question were working for the best interests of the league, that they were following orders like Luca Brasi (even if there was no definitive proof) — like the guys who worked Game 6 of the Kings-Lakers series in 2002, or Game 7 of the Suns-Sonics series in 1993, or the infamous Hubert Davis Game in 1994. After Dwyane Wade and Miami received some Vince McMahon-level assistance in Games 3 and 4 of the 2006 Finals, I wrote an angry column about the “officiating crisis” (my words) that prompted Mavs owner Mark Cuban (tired of being fined) to post the link on his blog along with the sentence, “I never have to say a word again.” After Dallas squandered that series, Cuban was so traumatized by the officiating that he nearly sold the Mavericks before family and friends talked him out of it.

It feels good to be back in action.

Dear Readers,

I implore you, beg you, plead for you to vote on ESPN Who’s Now.

Shaq or Michael Phelps?

I’m trusting you to know who to vote for.

Sincerely,

Muddle of Pudd

P.S. I’ll give you Lebron James’ Bobby Brown/ Broadway impersonation in turn for your votes.

Well last Friday Sam, Tammy, Natalie, and I went witnessing. In Tijuana. Witnessing = Only one of us four spoke Spanish. That one being Speck.

He was a swell pimp.

Though originally we were on our way to the states, to witness to our english speaking counterparts, but as it was Friday afternoon the border was being it’s usual Friday self. So we recanted (oh, oh!) and stayed on this side. Nats and I were a team and Speck and Tams were the other.

We hit the streets. Hard. And stuff.

“Hola, Esta Para Ti. De nada.” Those were my phrases that I said over, and over, and over again.

Hmm…at least I spoke more Spanish than Nats. Okay?

Nats and I also happened to get our picture taken with some Korean tourists. The dude asked for a picture with us…

“Can I take a picture with you? uhh…we’re americans… I know, it’s okay”.

We’re going to be famous!

After getting all those lovely tracts out, we got ice cream. The ice cream made us do funny things.

Oh, I’m sure Speck didn’t tell all his faithful readers (He knows you are out there…I beg to differ though) that he got a new DSLR camera. Yep siree…he sure did. It’s really nice.

He’s still working on his photography skills, so what’s better than to have some nice young girls to practice with, who also happened to be on a sugar high? So practiced he did. The out come is that he still needs more practice, which means that I get more time being a model. (Unfortunately I don’t see a career coming out of this.)

Ever so excited to see Michael Phelps.

Multiple advertisements at once. Viva Mexico!

Score! (But we all know looks can be deceiving)

The Sports world is quiet.  Well, the cool sports of the world.

Besides finding a newfound appreciation of tennis, it’s ultra quiet for me.

Nascar?

Nope…it’s to…uhh…southern for me.

Golf?

Doesn’t capture my attention, though I have been noticing Tiger Woods hasn’t been winning too many tourneys lately. (at least not first place)

Tour De France?

Lance is gone.

If only there was a way to fast forward time.

On the brightside the Mens U19 World Championship is starting. USA Women just won gold in the U21 World Championship against Australia…which really shouldn’t be that surprising. In fact I don’t even think it made ESPN headlines…amazing.

In 49 Days EuroBasket 2007 will start. I chronicled Dirk Nowitzki and the German Team’s plight to the Finals and the Silver medal in 2005.  I’m looking forward to doing that again. Hopefully gold will come of it this year.

Tonight we (Philonious, Nats, Boo, Mich, and I) went out on a merry dinner time bonding/freeday/freenight excursion to Monster Taco…or a name similar to that. We chose the third upper floor. It was our main mistake of the night. The sound system and speakers were up there blaring so the rest of the restaurant and street could hear the barrage of music. (there was no speakers on the other floors. Figures) It started off okay…Santana’s mean drums and guitar were screaming in our hears, but then it switched to hip hop. In the words of Philonious “I can feel myself getting dumber”. Besides not being able to hear what each person was saying, and each song lasting a rough 6-10 minutes, it really wasn’t that bad. The food was decently good, large portions and cheap price, and from what we could gather from the semi conversations I think we bonded nicely. Grand, just grand.

I got my long awaited package from my dad in Thailand. I was greatly anticipating the arrival of my Jonas and Christy Luk Thung cd. However it was not in this package. I’m supposing next time it’ll be there. (I’ll have you know that I like odd music and good music as well.)

There’s too many max contracts being signed right now to decently well but not great athletes. It’s depressing. Mainly because in a few years, all these teams are going to regret it, fans will then become angry, and the team will hit loser status. But then again, that is the story of sports. Chances are always taken, and the fans still cheer for them in the end (though sometimes for the worse.)