she's just saying...

necks of steel

Yes, baseball season is over as of last night. I don't need any unattractive gloating from Yankees fans. Especially since they won by spending the most money. But I'm not bitter. I just miss baseball.

So, the biggest mystery in baseball (other than what the "Day-O!" song has to do with it) is what are those thick necklaces that a lot of players, especially pitchers, wear. I shall now reveal all.

Phiten X30 Necklace

"Phiten products work with your body’s energy system, helping to regulate and balance the flow of energy throughout your body. Proper energy balance helps to alleviate discomfort, speed recovery, and counteract fatigue. Athletes find that they tire less easily and recover faster from intense physical activity. Further benefits of Phiten’s exclusive technology are more relaxed muscles leading to less stress and a greater range of motion that can be of great benefit to an athlete or anyone in any walk of life..."

I got to get me one of these! Red Sox version, of course.

Al Gore is a big fat liar

I had to do that thing with today's paper like kidnappers do in ransom photos so those of you outside Central Oregon would believe me.

Autumn is for sissies, I guess.

I'm really looking forward to flag football tonight at 7 pm.

In-de-pen-dance

Giant step yesterday on the 10-year-old front. Henry and his best friend Gavin* biked home from camp by themselves. To those of you without kids: this is a big thing.

Camp gets out at 11:30 am (as usual ignoring working parents' schedules), at which time I'm down at the Museum and don't feel like driving 10 miles back to town to ferry them a half mile home. So after I installed and loaded the new bike carrier, we rehearsed using the bike lock (with eyerolls and sighs) and I left them to find their own way home. They had their helmets, the lock, water bottles, jackets and $20 to get them through a week of junk food at 7-11. Then, of course, they got to stay home without adult supervision til I returned at 5:30.

The first time they stayed alone during the day the house was covered in spilled cereal, sticky ice cream dishes, various unmatched shoes and socks, squirt guns, video game boxes and random plastic legos that hurt like a bitch when you step on them. With the threat of a babysitter looming, they've been working on clean-up and are actually starting to catch on.

I wrestle with bad-mommy guilt over leaving them alone, never mind letting them roam the westside on their bikes. Being in a smaller, safe, family-friendly town helps. But still. I've watched too many "Law and Order" episodes to feel really comfortable. Maybe it's the natural progression toward independence or maybe they'll soon be smoking cigarettes behind the 7-11 (or maybe both). There's no manual for single moms. All we can do is make lists, check in frequently and trust in the goodness of the universe.

*Gavin is staying with us for a few weeks.

I was feeling pretty independent myself, having researched, procured, assembled and mounted the bike carrier on the car. Another episode in the endless series of "Girls Can Do It!"

Confessions of a fangirl

LeBron was spectacular in the 4th quarter last night.

"You never want to disappoint the home crowd. It was win or go home,'' James said. "You have to do everything sometimes.''

I can relate.

But seriously...

It's weird to me that I'm so into watching professional sports. Not just watching, but following. I read Sports Illustrated. I stay up for Sports Center. I even listen to sports talk radio. Really.

Weird because I never played team sports growing up. NEVER, unless I was forced to in gym class. Always last to be picked (btw, how come everyone says they're the last? That's not statistically possible). I always swam, skied and took ballet, but never competed. Physical competition made me anxious. I think it still does; I don't know because I avoid it. It's not about fitness; I was a scuba divemaster and an aerobics instructor. But I won't even play volleyball at a beach picnic.

So why am I glued to the baseball game streaming on the computer, the basketball finals on TV and reading about the football draft? Where could this have come from? I was always the arts & crafts type (still am).

Watching the girls at Henry's meets and games, I'm envious of their unself-consciousness and their team camaraderie. I realize I missed out on an experience that would have been confidence-building and valuable. Maybe that's why I'm drawn to the culture of professional sports. Or maybe this is why:

Dancing fool

I'll have you know I was once really hip. I networked at Area with Jerry Rubin in NYC in the 80's (you had to be there), frequented underground after-hours clubs in LA, danced til 10 am at a gay club in SF, did the rave thing. And I'm not a klutz. I took dance and taught advanced step aerobics for years. Really. I'm cool. However, I suck at Dance Dance Revolution.

First of all, there's clearly something wrong with the program. I step on the right arrow exactly when it shows the right arrow and I always get an "almost" or "boo." And when I dial down to beginner and start to get it right, the whole thing resembles a Frankenstein stomp in slo-mo. When does the "dancing" part come in?

Henry and I tried to double-team it: he took the left and up arrows, I took the right and down. We were pathetic. Meanwhile, on screen, they're gyrating and hip-hopping and krumping the moves. Us, we're just stomping around lamely and clueless and off the (non-existent) beat.

This is obviously a video game for people who have too much time on their hands (aren't they all). However, though I appear to have no funk in my trunk, I'm going to keep trying to crack this code. Anyone know of a Dance Dance tutor?

This is not me.

A lot of testosterone, and not just on the field

Am I becoming an old fogey? (Don't answer, really.) The Superbowl ads, with a few exceptions, struck me as gratuitously violent, demeaning to women and just plain incomprehensible. And I'm in the industry.

Women's clothes got ripped off on the street, they were spied on in the shower, they were verbally abused by flowers, they argued over their enhanced boobs, and Mrs. Potato Head's mouth was thrown over a cliff. Jeez. Of course, random men were hit by bats, snow globes (Henry's all-time favorite spot) and buses, skied into trees and got thrown out of windows. Oh, and a panda koala got repeatedly punched.

A lot of anger out there, folks!

Of course we had the Clydesdales, though they seemed a bit forced. The e-Trade baby came through again with a new friend (though I thought even he was uncharacteristically cranky in the golf spot), and the Dylan/Wil.i.am spot was truly a classic. A lot of imagery there - I need to find that one and watch it again.

The Ed McMahon and MC Hammer spot for Cash4Gold.com was horribly sad.

Meanwhile, I'm transferring my domain name from Go Daddy. They're just stupid.

 

And what the heck???

Get pumped up!

Lots of sports action tonight! The Phillies and Rays resume their battle to the death, and even more exciting, Henry has a flag football game under the lights! Go Rams!

(What were they thinking, scheduling a mid-week end-of-October game at 6:30 at night for third and fourth graders? Just don't be sniffing my travel mug beverage . . . )

"Legs" Hochschild

Check out those bones -

Here's the close-up:

I don't even like football much. But watching him is fun.

Baseball, TIVO and the eTrade baby

BIG baseball game tonight, if you just beamed in from another planet.

Unfortunately, it's the same time as Henry's Sunday Night Park & Rec League Flag Football Game. Oh boy. TIVO time! If you don't have a TIVO (or other digital video recorder), go get one. I'll wait. It will change your relationship to TV completely.

The advertising community was slow to grasp how TIVO and the like will soon wipe out the current broadcast advertising paradigm, built on :30 spots priced by ratings and daypart. They're beginning to get it now, but no one has an effective alternative. We still buy airtime based on the Nielsen books, hoping that our creative is so compelling, people won't fast forward through it.  Right. The only spot I slow down the fast-forward button to watch is the baby and Blackberry eTrade commercial. I could watch that repeatedly. And any beer spot with a dog, pretty much. And my stuff, of course. I don't have anything running right now, but stay tuned...

So, nobody text me about the game tonight, please. I'll stand far away from any dad with a cellphone, to avoid possible score updates. Then I'll come home, assume the playoff position, and watch the inevitable Bosox victory. Yes!

Beautiful day for some (flag) football

He caught it and ran for the TD! Someone got a video of it - it will show up on his highlights reel someday.

Shaky shot due to the photographer jumping up and down.

Big news, big changes

I've been working my consulting gig since the Big Globe swallowed us and spit us out, but we can't live balancing on that tenuous tightrope. So, back to the corporate world I go.

The big news tonight is that I accepted a new job as VP of Marketing for our local cultural gem starting in early Sept. I predict the quantity of blog posting here will drop precipitously.

Whoa! We interrupt this news update to say that those Jamaican relay runners are very FIT! Those green shorts make it all very clear.

Whew. 

Oh yeah, so work, it's gonna begin again. Good times.

Discus fever

I take it back!! They're showing the women discus throwers. Yikes. They're scary.

Today's donation

Today's Olympics donation goes to Amnesty International for their continuing fight for human rights and against repression, torture and wrongful imprisonment.

Meanwhile, the Olympics is on just about 24/7 here. My eyes glaze over during the unending swimming, beach volleyball and gymnastics events. Interesting that those have been basically the only sports NBC covers during prime time. Could it be due to the skimpy uniforms? Nah - how cynical! But why should they give us coverage of the fencing, the mountain biking, the shot put, the skeet shooting? Not so sexy. Low ratings. Now if they had skeet shooting in bikinis, that'd be the ticket!

Who wouldn't want to watch this?

The Donation Olympics

As the Olympics medals count begins, I'm going to run a donation count, sending money to various organizations that support international human rights, ending hunger, the environment, the Tibet and Darfur struggles, The Sichuan earthquake victims and the Special Olympics.

Today's Olympics donation is to savedarfur.org.

The opening ceremony,which I normally find tacky and trite, was a mind-blowing mix of conceptual art, military-like choreography, film special effects, historical opera and patriotic pageant. I must admit that the spectacle of the 2000 precision drummers was a little scary. Hordes of mechanistic marching soldiers came to mind, but maybe that was just me.

Meanwhile, Henry has found the 100% 24/7 Olympics channel, so we're plugged in day and night. We just watched a badminton match. Now women's weightlifting. It's going to be a long month.

(image courtesy of www.brownielocks.com)

Here's a solution

Now I can watch and feel virtuous at the same time! Letter from International Campaign for Tibet:

Dear Melissa,

I recently wrote to you about an exciting opportunity we've been given to help the people of Tibet: a generous ICT donor has agreed to match all contributions that we receive — dollar for dollar — up to a total of $100,000!

Starting tomorrow, world attention will be focused on the Beijing Olympics.  Despite the official story most of us will see on television, we know there is an additional truth that cannot be ignored — that tensions in China are at an all-time high and Tibetans are paying the price. Please send a generous gift today, so we can make the most of this remarkable opportunity to help.

Make a gift today — and it will have double the impact for the people of Tibet.

Since March and April — when entire towns across Tibet rose up in protest against almost a half century's worth of Chinese oppression — the crackdown by Chinese authorities has been brutal. But even before the protests, Tibetans were suffering injustices every day that Westerners would consider appalling:

	The Chinese government detains and often imprisons Tibetans for "splittest" activities like owning a Tibetan flag or offering a prayer for the health of the Dalai Lama.
	The Chinese have a clear history of torturing Tibetan political prisoners they have detained without charge.
	Tibetan monks and nuns are sometimes forced by Chinese authorities to sign statements denouncing their beloved spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
	Chinese border guards have shot at and even killed unarmed Tibetans — including children — as they flee across the border to the freedom of Nepal and India.

The International Campaign for Tibet needs every dollar of this match to help Tibetans — and this is your opportunity to make your gift go twice as far. Please don't delay. Make a generous gift today.

Thank you for standing in defense of human rights and democratic freedoms for Tibetans.

Sincerely, John Ackerly President International Campaign for Tibet

Olympics - to watch or not?

       

The Olympics start tomorrow, and I'm weirdly anxious about whether to "support" by watching or not.

The opening ceremony and most of the coverage is a mind-numbingly boring network spinfest, IMHO. But the actual sports moments are moving, exciting and real.

China is a repressive state who blatantly stomps on human rights. (But so do we, frankly. Gitmo, anyone?) The crackdown in Tibet is getting more vicious by the day, they have ruined their environment and continue to do so despite their supposed reforms, they have made a sham of free trade, and they have not only ignored the Darfur conflict, they're supplying arms to support it.

But what does that have to do with us turning on the TV for some sports entertainment?

My watching or not will have zero impact on China or the networks, who've already gotten their advertising dollars for these games. Since I'm not a Nielsen household, my actions won't even affect future ratings. So what's the point? Taking a moral (but meaningless) stand? Better to stop buying Chinese-made merchandise; nearly impossible but somewhat economically relevant.

Is it better to support and pressure change from within, which our govt is supposedly doing?  A convenient excuse for knuckling under China's economic clout.

Henry loves the whole shebang, as most kids do. To him it's an innocent, entertaining, exciting time. Do I bring up the confusing political issues or let him watch happily?

How are you approaching the games? Supporting, boycotting, don't care? I'd love to hear your thoughts.