Is lack of sleep supposed to make me ranty?

I pounded through taxes--which I was dreading somewhat because of the move, but in the end, all doable and rewarding--refund! I also couldn't put down "Bossypants" and read 30% (according to Kindle) of it last night making it a near all-nighter. Unfortunately, this resulted in not getting much sleep. In years past, lack of energy and sleepiness during the day were just part of the fallout.

Lack of sleep and near delirium used to fuel my opinionated reasoning and power up rants, where exhaustion should instead be subduing them. In years past I would blow up about minutiae, like when Savage Garden's "Truly, Madly, Deeply" would play on the radio:

Me (groaning): UGH! What a waste of a clever name. I've said that before, right?

Paul (recognizing this rant, sighing): I know...

Me: I mean, I get that it's a popular song. I'm sure there are a bunch of young women hoping this is the song their groom chooses for their wedding...

P: uh, huh...

Me: But jeez, if your name is Savage Garden--shouldn't the song have a touch more depth?! I mean, I'm not asking for profound gravitas here!

P: sure...

Me: But for God's sake, how about NOT being full of cliches? "I want to stand with you on a mountain"?! PLEASE! Can this song use the word "wish" or "dream" MORE?! Is this song TRYING to be a Disney movie song? Hey guys, why don't you use "magic castle" or "chestnut ponies" in this song while you're at it?! ARGH!

P: right...

Me: Am I being ridiculous here?! The band's name is "Savage" Garden! There is nothing, NOTHING! "SAVAGE" about them! Not even complex or...YEESH! Is the name supposed to be doubly-ironic?! GAAAAAAH! You know what they SHOULD be CALLED?!

P: (sighing) wiener garden.
Me: (shrieking) WIENER GARDEN!

Anyhoo, I'm hoping that was then, this is now. But today I was really annoyed to hear so much snarkiness came from the picture of Scarlett Johansson (that I appreciated as being refreshingly "real") that her rep had defend against snide comments that "wondered" if she's pregnant.

Great. Have we just nailed the coffin that young women need to be constantly lithe and thin? Now is her rep going to convince Johansson to slim down, wear more flattering workout clothes, and more acceptable running shoes in the next photo op? I really hope not because I would bet good money that Sean Penn's rep is not phoning him to slim down, get a decent haircut, and wipe the "Curmudgeon McGrumpy" expression while he's running. You know why? Because his rep would just respond, "Hey, he's running, a$$holes!"

And though I get that this may not be most flattering pic of Johansson, it's totally reasonable not to look red-carpet ready when you're doing non-red-carpet things like grocery shopping and exercising. We accept that reality with him, why not her?

Okay, maybe I'm still extra-ranty with lack of sleep but I'll end there before I go on more. I'll go to bed early and hope that I'll be nicer (or at least more mellow) in the morning...

Cranking on taxes

Cranking on taxes (and by that I mean, I'm finally installing the 2010 version), which is a little difficult with this excellent distraction gifted to my Kindle:

Thank you to the Js for a welcome diversion!

Well let me just quote the late-great Colonel Sanders

who said..."I'm too drunk to taste this chicken."

Except for me instead of drunk it's sunburn.

I've learned that sunburn is scarily like baking--even when you take cookies out of the oven, they continue to cook and apparently, so does my body after it's been in the sun for a spell.  I don't know what the human equivalent would be to removing cookies from the pan onto a cooling rack to stop the baking, but my skin continued to get red through the night after the day at the beach.  And cruelly, it itches.  Cruel because trying to relieve it with even the gentlest pressure is like asking Wolverine to scratch it after you've pissed him off.  And then any material feels like sandpaper or burlap so even wearing clothes is painful.  Even my hair touching my sunburned skin is like a coarse broom scrubbing it.  I spent the past few days fairly immobile, hoping to hasten recovery by sealing myself in with Aloe Vera gel.

During these days, a few things broke through the haze:

- Can't wait to read Tina Fey's new book Bossypants.  Added to my Amazon wishlist.  Gaaaahh, love this woman.  Wish I had that book now to get me through the pain.

- Heard that Donald Trump is a possible Republican presidential candidate for 2012.  And that one of his big issues with Obama is whether he was truly born in the US (despite official confirmation).  Man, that is so 2008. 

- Wow.  I guess the Sean Penn and Scarlett Johansson thing is for real?  I saw this pic of them jogging and a number of things flew through my head: 1) I have less a problem with their actual age difference than the fact that his age is practically doubled by his latent grumpiness/sourpuss.  He's not an older Jeff Spicoli, he's a younger Wilford Brimley.  Remember him at the Oscars with his needless defense of Jude Law that just sucked the life out of that auditorium?  He was like the love child of Debby Downer and the old guy in Up before he flies his house off with balloons.  2)  Check out the footwear that Johansson is rocking--the principle of them is like running barefoot and my understanding is it's about cushioned as that glove you smack across the face of a scoundrel who has insulted your honor.  (The girl did a report on it last year so kind of fascinated it's taking off.)  3) Totally appreciating that Johansson has a real body not a crazy skinny one.  4)  What in Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon is Owen Wilson doing there?

- Holy crap--Rod Stewart's daughter, Kim, is pregnant by Benicio Del Toro?! Isn't she another of the one of the spoiled offspring of the rich and famous who gets to party, with an option to work? Yeesh, anyone else fall in love with Benicio Del Toro after Traffic? Anyone else fall utterly out of love with him after hearing this news?

- Finally--YIKES!  Taxes are due Friday and TurboTax is still sealed from the time I bought it at Costco 2 months ago. 

AAAAAHHH! Help me Tom Cruise! Tom Cruise, use your witchcraft on me to get the fire off me! 

I guess I should have gotten the Aloe Vera gel with Lidocaine...though watching Talledega Nights kind of eased the pain.

Spring break and Source Code

Spring break for the girl could be encapsulated by this picture:

Little scheduling or pressure, lots of relaxing.

I did manage to arrange a few get-togethers with her friends that made a few dents in the craft supply, including this necklace the girl made for her friend:

I also took the girl and three of her friends to the beach. I decided on Beachwalker Park on Kiawah/Jones Island. It reminded me a lot of Montauk - very unspoiled, no attractions or snack bar, just restrooms and changing areas and beautiful beach:

Yes that's my hand interrupting an otherwise sweet landscape shot of the beach

The beach was very uncrowded and likely populated by residents. The waves were very mellow which was perfect for a parent trying to watch over four middle-schoolers. We had a great time, despite a steady wind of 10-13 mph, that blew the fine sand everywhere. I'd get up from reading and see a reverse stencil of my body in sand on the blanket. I definitely no longer kicked myself for not charging up the Kindle because it just would have gotten trashed on this beach trip. As it was, so much sand blew into the book I brought, there were times it wouldn't even shut closed.

The only downside? Sunburn. Despite buying 3 tubes and sprays of sunblock, I hadn't warned the kids enough about re-applying, and the only kids not burned were the ones that would allow me to spray it on them myself. I had one kid who claimed that he only got sunburned on his ears and slathered it generously on the sides of his head. SPOILER Alert: he ended up sunburned everywhere else the next day. The cruelest irony is that I was probably the most sunburnt. I didn't bother asking any of the kids to help me with the sunblock and an obvious pattern of where I missed bloomed, including outlines of my hand over each shoulder where I was able to apply sunblock as far as I could.

And to cap off spring break, we squeezed in a movie, Source Code:

Source Code is about soldier who relives the memory of a man in the last eight minutes before the train explodes in an effort to find out who the bomber is and prevent an even bigger attack. It ended up being a great discussion in the car ride back, which to me is a hallmark of a good film, even if the discussion is with three 12-year-olds. We all concurred it was a like "Groundshog Day with Doom". And though the science was very arguable, the personal story of man looking to change his story as well as humanity's in eight minutes was an engaging one. I've seen the director Duncan Jones' other feature film, "Moon" and find a common thread between the two films--a story of isolated man fighting to get back home and re-connect with those he loved, but both were quite different stories. I give "Source Code" a B+ and recommend it.

The girl goes back to school today--hopefully well rested.

Congrats to Texas A&M Women's Basketball Team/Women & Sports

As I watched the women's basketball team of Texas A&M bring an exciting win in the NCAA tournament last night, Twitter was aflutter with remarks on what an enthralling game this was and how this championship game was more exciting than the men's game the night before (though unfortunately,this year's men's game ranked as one of the more abysmal wins, with one of the lowest scoring average of a team as one of its stats).  On the flip side, Twitter was also rich in comments such as "Network TV so lame on Tuesday nights, I'm actually watching the NCAA Women's game".

So here is the question--what does it take to get women's sports elevated to the same level of interest and well, respect, as men's?  To begin with, I understand that not all sports are equally popular.  Here in the US, the NFL generates much larger revenue than the NHL.  And likewise, as much as we were glued to the "Final Four" in basketball, the NCAA Ice Hockey championships run nearly concurrently and feature a "Frozen Four" that goes comparably unnoticed unless you live where ice hockey is hugely popular, i.e., in a state that borders Canada.  So I am not wondering why each sport that women play doesn't get airtime or respect, but more on a corresponding level--why is women tourney dissed in regards to men's?

I also recognize that female athletics have more viewership, interest, and respect on an individual level. According to Forbes, in 2010 top earners for female athletes were Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Danica Patrick, Kim Yu-Na, Annika Sorenstam--all tops in individual sports such as tennis, racing, figure skating, and golf.  To that end, endorsements is one of the more objective measures of popularity--the corporate bottom line isn't interested in generating interest in a particular athlete or gender, it's meant to profit from one that is already a celebrated and in-demand winner.  On a tangential note, despite these ladies making millions in endorsements, there is still a huge gap between the female top earners and male top earners like Tiger Woods and LeBron James.

I can't help but point out a key exception of success of females in individual sports are those in the typically "male" sports that have contact. Wow, still a huge, huge uphill climb. There have been some inroads to rising above the novelty aspects of women's wrestling in the 70s and "foxy boxing" in the 80s with athletes like Laila Ali, Gina Carano, and Cris Cyborg bringing legitimacy to the ring.  The irony is that for the most part, the women participating in the sexified versions, as well as in today's Lingerie Football League, were, and are, true athletes who would rather forgo the costumes and salacious dynamic and just play the sport, but there appears to be a natural disinclination to seeing women get physically hurt without a coat of prurience to wash it down.  I had mentioned in a post a women's MMA fight that I had reckoned would almost send women's MMA back in the closet--it was such an uneven match, that it was stomach-churning to watch this one woman get literally beat-up (albeit by a woman).  To be fair, it would have been equally nauseating to view a comparably uneven male match and see a man pounded to an equivalent pulp.

Ironically, even as a woman who wants to promote women in sports, I only watch women's sports for "the big ones" like this tourney and I have yet to watch a full WNBA game (though frankly, as Paul pointed out, I haven't seen a lot of full NBA games either) or lots of other women's teams or events unless it's for a title.

I can make general guesses at the popularity of men's sports over women's (e.g., baseball over softball, mens's basketball over women's):  the men's games are faster, stronger, and more bombastic and dynamic with the home runs and slam dunks with the entertaining accompanying of chest bumps and roars.  And in a similar vein of women in full-contact sports, it seems that folks in general aren't extolling similar behavior in women, whether they are ripping off their jerseys or chest-bumping (in non-sexy ways, mind you).  But watching the women's Final Four NCAA games was just as exciting as any of the men's tourney games--with lead changes and clutch shots at the end.  I confess that the earlier rounds, however, were much less exciting with double digit point spreads winning out.

So then does it come down to depth of field?  Does women's sports simply lack the depth of field to make it more exciting, where there are a handful of dominating players divided among a handful of teams?  Does it border on becoming a joke or just plain boring that it's always Tennesse, UConn, and Stanford that is expected be crowned national champion in women's basketball?  Gary Blair, Texas A&M's coach, had it right when he said his team winning was one of the best things to happen to women's basketball.--a win by an unexpected team, specifically a team that never even made it to the Final Four before, add a much-needed shakeup to this tournament.

And I agree.  What the women's tourney needs is some more madness.  As one who was not raised in sports, I would say that one thing that has played a big part in increasing my viewership has been the gambling aspect. If I wasn't in a football pool, I highly doubt I would have watched and followed so many NFL games.  I know with the proliferation of fantasy leagues and other pools, I am not the only one.  And what makes the March Madness pool so engaging is that there are so many upsets (yes, I know, REAL upsets). If the Women's tourney ever reach that level of madness, I think the brackets would be more exciting to gamble on and watch.

I realize I kind of rambled in different directions on this (and I have more thoughts) but I'll close out for now, hope I've given some food for thought, and say this:  Congratulations to the Texas A&M Women's basketball team on their NCAA championship win.  I hope this is a sign of exciting seasons to come for women's sports.

Favorite iPhone apps: Words With Friends

I've managed to reference my favorite iPhone game, Words With Friends, plenty, but I wanted to give it it's proper due. First, if you enjoy Scrabble, you're going to love Words With Friends. But instead of sitting at a board for an evening, you're wirelessly playing with someone through your smartphone for a few days (unless both of you are unemployed or have some serious downtime). Each has a set of tiles like Scrabble, and you lay down a word (yes, like Scrabble) and submit it. Then you just wait for your friend to play his or her word.  You can also use a turn to swap tiles or skip a turn straight up if you have nothing (usually done at the end).  It's at a go-at-your-own pace feel, but f you let a number of days (9? 12?) go by without making a move, it'll forcibly resign you.  But overall it's a fairly relaxed pace unless you're addicted to making words. That's where having multiple games going fills that need. Color me addicted.

Second, WWF lets you "try" words: you can put down some letters and if it's a word you'll see it "sending" it or if not, it'll tell you that's it not an "acceptable" word and not let you submit the word. I've learned some surprising acceptable words like "fiz" and "axon" this way. And it negates the need for challenges and dictionaries.  The "dictionary" it uses won't allow words that may be deemed objectionable and I have been frustrated that it took another player's "joyed" but not my "cryer".  Hello, WWF, ever heard of a Town Cryer?!

Finally, it's free!  The downside is you'll see an ad every time you play. Truthfully, given how many games I have going on at once, it was so worth the 99 cents (or $1.99?) at the time to get rid of the ads that sandwiched my moves.

Similar to Scrabble, it slays me when I have a great word and nowhere to put it:

Oh, Ddub..., I'll get you on the rematch.

E-mail me if you want to play me.  I'll be gentle.  At first.

Madness came to Women's NCAA Tourney

As I've mentioned before, I would love to see the Women's NCAA basketball tourney get more attention as the Men's tourney does. One of the keys to that would be some more "madness" in the Women's brackets. I'm guilty of expecting the predictability myself. I started watching the Women's Final Four expecting the two 1-seed teams (Stanford and UConn) to win out and pretty much looked forward to a rematch of a game that broke UConn's NCAA record-setting win streak.

But last night featured two fabulous upsets. The first one being Texas A&M's Aggies crazy win over The Stanford Cardinal. It was an arduous game where Stanford were just not connecting, with plays simply not panning out, bordering on sloppy at times. For Texas A&M, what was clear watching the two teams play together was how much bigger the Stanford players were on each position and on top of that, the long shots that brought the Aggies to the Final Four were not yielding the 3 points they stubbornly aimed for. Still it looked as if Stanford was going to win out, with a lead of up to 10 points in the 2nd half. But in the last 2 minutes, the Aggies narrowed the lead to 1 point. Then in the last minute, came the gripping back in forth as the clock ticked down--the Aggies go up by one on 2 free throws, then back down by one by 2 free throws by Stanford. With 19 seconds to go, the Aggies go back up by one with a lay-up. In the last 9 seconds, Stanford goes back up by one with a lay-up which the Aggies, jaw-droppingly drives it back down and answers back with a lay-up at 4 seconds to go with a final winning score of 63-62.

I tweeted it:

And to add to the unbelievability of it all, Shannon Cross read my tweet LIVE on the air after the game:

Needless to say, I couldn't help but wonder if this was a sign for the next game:

The next game between UConn and Notre Dame was much more polished and it was straight back and forth of great plays and scores being made--I swear there were at least a dozen lead changes in the first half. At half-time, though UConn was up 32-26, I could only picture the coaches saying, "uh, keep doing what you're doing but more of it". The picture changed in less than 10 minutes through the second half when Notre Dame took the lead, and UConn started missing shots and getting fouls called on them. Notre Dame gained a wider lead--at one point, up by 12!--that UConn wasn't able to catch up to. Another upset in the making though everyone was waiting for UConn to pull through. Notre Dame didn't let up and they won, 72-63.

So that leaves a very exciting matchup on Tuesday between Notre Dame (previously an NCAA champ) and Texas A&M (first trip to the Finals). Can the underdog Aggies pull it out one more time? You know I tend to root for the underdog, but this time, for the sake of the NCAA Women's Tournament, I'm also rooting for Madness.