True Grit

Sweet, I recently read that Jeff Bridges is going to star in the remake of True
Grit. Nice choice. I think he can definitely be sufficiently gruff and bad to the
bone for the part of Rooster Cogburn. I wonder if they'll make him wear the
eye-patch though? Oh yeah, an added bonus is that this film will be directed by the
Coen brothers. Nice.

Wallet

I found my wallet. Yeaaaaaaaaaah! Well actually the police found it, and I just had to go pick it up. Man, the police station here is just like a maze. Tons of winding hallways that look the exact same, you could easily get lost in there.
It was kind of interesting, the 2 debit cards I had in my wallet were not taken, and neither were the 2 gift cards, or my driver's license. But for some reason two free movie ticket vouchers and my temple recommend were missing. Why would someone take that stuff and not the ostensibly more valuable gift cards, or debit cards? Weird.

Jerry Sloan is one tough dude

So, yesterday I read this story on Yahoo about Jerry Sloan almost getting in a fight with Chris Webber. In Webber's own words, this is how it went down:

"Man, one time I set a pick on (John) Stockton and I knocked Stockton to the ground and I gave him a shoulder. And I'm really cool with Stockton, but I was trying to show the rest of the team like I'm going to get the technical, you guys. I'll be the bad guy, come on. Well, Stockton kind of laughed. I laughed. I looked at the bench and Sloan looked at me.

"I said, 'You want some?' He was like, 'Damn right I want some.'

"He started walking toward me. So, you know, it's a good thing there was a ref there because, hey, he's one of the toughest guys in the league. I don't want to fight that guy. So, I'll tell you, when your team is led by one of the toughest guys in the league, your team is going to be tough."

Remember, at this time Chris Webber was like 26, and Jerry Sloan was around 60. That's a pretty fearless old man, especially since his gives up like 6 inches and 50 lbs to Webber. I looked for more stories about Jerry Sloan being a bad motha, and out of what I read this next one was my favorite. I guess many years ago when Sloan played for the Chicago Bulls(by the way, Sloan was the original Chicago Bull. Seriously, he was the first player they ever drafted.) it seems Wilt Chamberlain was physically beating the snot out of everybody on the Bulls team, when Sloan finally gets tired of it. He looks Chamberlain in the eye, utters some profanity at him and give him one hell of a shove. Chamberlain just stands there as Sloan starts to attack. Sloan is restrained, and is asked to leave the court.
In an interview later with Sloan about the incident a reporter asks him how silly it must feel to pick a fight with Chamberlain Sloan looks the reporter in the eye and says, "How do you know he even KNOWS how to fight, I do."
On top of Sloan being tough-as-nails, he's one of the best coaches ever. In fact, his only losing season in the 22 since he's coached the Jazz came the year his wife died of cancer and he had no Karl Malone or John Stockton. So on top of being a tough dude, he's a mighty fine coach too. That's the guy I want coaching my team, the man known as the human chainsaw.

Two things

Ok, the first thing I want to tell everyone is that I ate the new Double Down from KFC. It is delicious, lots of chicken, cheese and bacon(obviously), but the commercial makes it seem like it will be this HUGE thing. It was much, much smaller than I'd anticipated. They claim it has 590 calories with 31g of fat and 10g of saturated fat though, so maybe I've just become a fatso.

Secondly, I have to write something about the Jazz. Jerry Sloan is awesome. The Jazz roster is made up of ten players that were either drafted in the second round or undrafted. Talk about getting the most out of your roster. In fact, if you were to compare the starting 5 from the Jazz and the Nuggets(their current playoff opponent), you would see a huge disparity in their original draft position


JAZZ STARTERS

Deron Williams(3rd pick, 1st round)
Wesley Matthews(undrafted)
CJ Miles(34th pick overall, 2nd round)
Carlos Boozer(34th pick overall, 2nd round)
Kyrylo Fesenko(38th pick, 2nd round)

NUGGETS STARTERS

Chauncey Billups(3rd pick, 1st round)
Arron Afflalo(27th pick, 1st round)
Carmelo Anthony(3rd pick, 1st round)
Kenyon Martin(1st pick, 1st round)
Nene(7th pick, 1st round)

On top of this, the Jazz have two regular starters who were second round picks( Kirilenko, Okur) and their sixth man Paul Millsap is also a 2nd rounder. The Nuggets have Ty Lawson and JR Smith, two more 1st round pick who get significant minutes. In fact, the only player on the Nuggets that isn't a first round pick, and who gets regular playing time is Chris Andersen









Sweet!






So basically, the Jazz is a team filled with players that other teams didn't think too highly of, while the Nuggets team is filled with top draft picks. Just thought of that the other day.

Funny NBA pics

Hahaha, I came across some awesome NBA pictures that were hilarious today. Check em out.







Every one of these is priceless. I think the last is my favorite. Short shorts make everything more funny.

Freedom!

So the past few weeks have been pretty busy for me. I'm kind of taking care of a few places while the owners are gone, and that, combined with midterms, church callings, getting graduation stuff ready, and working was getting me all stressed out. Then today, I realized that I had left my phone charger at the house of the two that I didn't stay the night at.

At first I was a little worried about it, but I was feeling too tired after work to go and track the charger down, so I didn't. It has been one of the more relaxing days I can remember since I moved to Hawaii. Total freedom. In fact, I'm gonna leave it off for a few more days, and see how long it takes till I miss it. If I want to get in contact with someone, I'm just going to go to their house, and if they aren't there, tough luck. I'm not making any predictions, because it might only be one or two days till I come crawling back, but hey, maybe I'll love it and do this long-term. And if any of you need to contact me, just use Facebook I guess.

Tsunami, what tsunami?

Yesterday on the way to work I heard the first wail of the hourly sirens that were to warn everyone on the island that there would be a tsunami, likely to hit around 11:30.

Because I was cleaning a place up on the mountain work I noticed that the ocean was at low tide, and I saw probably hundreds of boats heading out to sea, where it was supposed to be much safer. Streets were closed, and except for one or two loonies, the beaches were evacuated. I was stoked to watch the huge wave come in, crashing against the 30 story hotels in Waikiki, and I was more than a little excited by the prospect of canceled school next week( I have midterms). I was a little nervous too, mostly because my dad kept sending me text messages reminding me to have a weeks worth of food and water ready.

I later found out that a tsunami is not a single, enormous wave, but a series of surges that raise the level of the water, and are coupled with waves. Interesting. Well, 11 o clock came and went. The tide rose within a matter of minutes, which was unusual, but no huge swells or surges affected our shores. Hilo, on the big island, had a bit of activity, but it caused no damage or anything. Our tsunami watch was lifted by 2:00 pm. Nothing. Is it wrong of me to say the lack of destruction and spectacle were disappointing? Because it was.