The problem with Potter

On Friday evening Beth got her grandmother to come babysit AJ and we went to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I love the books. I kind of like most of the movies. This one was made perfectly competently, but the ultimate problem is that trying to cram all of that rich, detailed writing into one two and a half hour flick always results in the same thing: the feeling that you've just had someone describe what it was like reading the Cliff Notes of that particular book. Prisoner of Akzaban seems to be universally viewed as the best of the movies thus far, and yet it's my least favorite. It might be great if you've never read the books, but I'll never know. Strangely, I think Chamber of Secrets is one of the best of the movies, and I'm almost positive it's my least enjoyable book of the series.

As for the recent offering, I've been writing a lot lately and that led me to watch it thinking about decisions that the writer made. There were some odd omissions and choices, to say the least. But really, it's a thankless task for the screenwriter. If he sticks to the material, the result invariably gets dubbed as "slavish to the source material," or some other nonsense. If the script veers too much in another direction, then it just infuriates the fans. There's no way to do it perfectly. Actually, there might be: film it as a cable series, with about a dozen episodes dedicated to each book. I think that could do the trick, and I really wonder if someone will attempt that some day.

Despite the fact that I think not one of the movies has hit it out of the park yet, they might have a shot of doing so with the upcoming, two part Deathly Hallows in 2010 and 2011. I'll be getting a baysitter then too.

Curt Schilling is a smart man

Schill with Five Red Sox Related Questions

This is the most painful part of the All Star break. It seems like the Sox haven't played a game in years, and they don't even get going again until tomorrow night. Sports writers inevitably mail in pieces like "keys to the second half" and "what to look for." Here, in his latest blog post, Curt Schilling hits on five points, with the difference between him and most baseball writers being that he clearly knows what he's talking about and his experience allows him a much deeper and meaningful insight on the topic. Case in point: in discussing the potential acquisition of Roy Halladay, he hits on how the move would also be a big one for the Boston bullpen, because it would require them to pitch fewer innings. In all of the Halladay conjecture so far--and obviously there has been tons--I don't think I've read one writer touch on that aspect of a potential deal. I also agree with Schill that all the Red Sox really need in the second half is health. He says:

"They don’t need anything if they have health because in my opinion if they stay completely healthy they are going to run away with the division. No team can match their staff 1-5 and certainly not in a five- or seven-game series."

I couldn't agree more.

A new blog and some fake baseball

Daddy Will Do It

This one's not going to be for everybody. It's a new blog I just started, and it is only going to be about my kid (soon to be kids!) and about me trying to be healthy. That's it. Don't click the link lightly. There will be sadness, sappiness, and pain there. But I hope there will be some good moments too. I've considered blogging about one or the other for a while now, so combining those two seems like a good idea. Feel free to check it out. If it's not your bag, I completely understand. No hard feelings. This blog will still be here, with way too much babbling about movies, TV, and sports.

Like my fake baseball teams, for example.

We're at the All Star break, which is a perfect time to assess things, and to pull a muscle giving myself a pat on the back for how awesome I am. I'm in one money roto league this year, the one with the first year auction draft, and I'm in first place at the break. This is great, because there was a cash bonus for this accomplishment. It's also nice because I'm in great shape to win this league and the big prize at the end of the season. I intentionally loaded up on offense and amassed a huge lead in steals, so last month I traded speedy Rays outfielder Carl Crawford for shaggy Giants ace Tim Lincecum. This move has worked out in a crazy good way. In the six starts since I acquired him, Lincecum has gone 5-0 with ungodly peripherals: a 1.29 ERA and a 0.80 WHIP, along with 54 Ks in 48.2 innings.

I was actually in first place at the time of the trade, with 102 points. A lot of owners would be satisified with this and simply stand pat, but I knew that my abundance of steals and my ability to move up in so many pitching categories made this trade a great one for me. I've moved up 2, 3, 4, and 2 spots in wins, Ks, ERA, and WHIP, to 113.5 total, good for a healthy five point lead.

I'm going to run away with this league.

My other fake baseball team is the mighty Chatham Bluefish squad of the computer-based SWBA Diamond Mind league. This is the simulation that uses actual statistics to play games. My Fighting 'Fish are the two time defending league champs and right now we are running away with our division, playing .700 ball and already looking ahead to October with visions of an unprecedented three-peat.

And that's not even all the good news. Since the computer uses all real-life stats, the game is always one season behind. That means my potential three-peaters are doing it with 2008's numbers. So how am I shaping up for next year? I have Albert Pujols having one of the greatest offensive seasons in the history of the game. My 2B, SS, LF, and DH all made the All Star team, as did a couple of my pitchers. The 2010 Chatham offense is going to be all-time good, and I'll have enough pitching to be in the mix to win another championship. And this is before even drafting anyone next year, where I always manage to work a little magic.

In other words, yes...I'm a big, huge dork. Enjoy the All Star game tonight.

All Star break

Good luck in St. Louis, boys. Dustin Pedroia will be sitting this one out, with good reason. But I expect a nice showing from the other five. My only real hope is that Wake gets into the game and has a nice inning. It's great for him to make the squad at this point in his career.

The Red Sox are sitting in first with a three game lead in the AL East at the break and I see no cause for concern the rest of the way. Our pitching is so good and so deep, occasional bullpen hiccups aside. I really think we're in great shape. We also haven't had the whole offense firing simultaneously all season--Jason Bay is hitting .215 over the past 30 days and Kevin Youkilis is batting .220 over that same span, which is why we've had trouble scoring runs lately. Meanwhile, David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia have carried the load in July. If the top and middle of the order gets hot at once and the pitching keeps doing what they've been doing, we're going to win the division going away. This club is really built for the postseason too, probably even better than the 2004 and 2007 championship teams. It should be a fun ride.

I love the decision to bring Clay Buchholz up for a start right after the break. This accomplishes a couple of things. Theo and Tito love to find ways to grab extended patches of rest for their starting pitchers, and this is a brilliant way to do that. It also lets Clay come up to the big club, albeit briefly, which is something he deserves after the season he has had in Pawtucket so far. I hope that he is so lights out that they have to consider finding a way to keep him on the roster. This is kind of an unbelievable situation to be in--having so many good pitchers that we literally don't know what is the best way to employ them. A lot of teams in MLB are one injury away from devastation, and it's very comforting to know that we are not in that same spot.

Bring on the second half.

Sporcle

Sporcle: Mentally stimulating diversions

This website is so fun I just leave it up on my browser all the time. It features tons of different quizzes on a number of subjects: history, literature, geography, movies, sports, you name it. Each quiz has a time limit and you have that long to name as many members of the selected category as you can. It's stunningly simple and wildly entertaining. Go check it out. You'll thank me later...much later if you get as hooked on these quizzes as I do.

Universal Record Database

Universal Record Database - The definitive site for human achievement

This website is really cool. At least I think it is. It allows anyone, anywhere to set any "universal record" that they want, as long as there is documentation and a witness. Site users vote on the validity and also the simple coolness of the record. No attempt is too ridiculous, no record to narrow or specific. That's it. That's the whole purpose of the site. I remember when I was a kid, probably around 10 years old, I thought that I should try to set the Guinness World Record for playing Monopoloy. I don't know exactly why I settled on that idea, or even what the record was, but it seemed like a really good idea at the time. It's worth mentioning that this is actually a category on the URDB, with the record time checking in at a robust 54 hours. I don't think I'm going to give that record a shot any more.

But I definitely think I should try something. As is abundantly clear after looking at the website, it can be anything. Almost literally. Cameron Diaz (yes, that Cameron Diaz) set a universal record for bunny snuggling in a hammock on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. I don't know what I like about this best: the record subject itself, the fact that Cameron Diaz, of all people, set it...or that her record has already been broken.

Anyway, I have to set a universal record. Any great ideas?

Yeah 'Sheed!

Rasheed Wallace to sign with Boston Celtics

This is going to be a tough one for me, at least at first. Admittedly, I root for the laundry. I always have, and I always will. But let's not sugarcoat this one: I hate Rasheed Wallace. I think I started disliking him in college, and then I grew to downright loathe the man when he started racking up technical fouls in the NBA at a rate that would shame a crack baby with Tourette's. 'Sheed was the only player ever ejected from the McDonald's All-American game. That's an All-Star game, in case you are wondering...for high school kids. He demolished the NBA single season record for technicals with 41 in 2001. That's not a typo. That's 41 Ts, or a rate of one every other game over the course of a full schedule.

But now that he's going to be wearing the Celtic Green, I dug a little deeper. I always thought 'Sheed was just a crybaby, but it turns out he thinks he is misunderstood and treated unfairly. Guess what? He has been! Wallace was suspended for seven games for confronting a ref after a game about said unfair treatment. Just hothead 'Sheed out of control, one would think. Well, what if I told you that the ref in question is currently serving time in the federal pen for rigging games? A-ha! Maybe poor 'Sheed was right all along!

Oh, who am I kidding. This one's going to take me a little while. I haven't felt like this since the Red Sox signed David Wells, who I hated with a passion. I found myself yelling "Yeah, Boomer!" during his opening start and I couldn't even get that out with a straight face. I'm sure it will be the same with Rasheed for at least a while this fall.

But I'll be well over that issue when the playoffs roll around and we grab banner number 18.

The List - #19 completed

#19. Watch a Lord of the Rings marathon.

Admittedly, this is not a big, life-altering item from The List. But it sounded like a lot of fun, and as a movie fan it is definitely something I should do at least once. I didn't know when I would get around to this one, since I have found that the older A.J. gets, the tougher it is to sit down and watch a single flick uninterrupted, let alone an epic trilogy. And I certainly didn't think it would take place this past weekend. But that's exactly what happened.

My brother's wife and kids are on the Cape right now, so since he was home alone he came down to visit for the weekend. We grilled up some burgers and dogs for the 4th and settled in to watch the Red Sox. Except that didn't happen, as we were screwed yet again by the ridiculous FOX Saturday blackout rules, despite paying pretty big bucks for the Extra Innings package. Thus, without baseball, we had to do something else. Somehow the possibility of doing this came up, and before we could talk ourselves out of it I grabbed the extended edition DVDs and loaded them into the player. Total running time: 681 minutes. We started shortly after 2 PM. It also warrants mentioning that we started drinking immediately.

The first crisis came before we even began when we realized we were low on ice. I don't want to throw all the blame on the wife, but I don't know anyone else in the house that fixes 64 ounce cups of ice water. Anway, she later rectified the situation by running out to the store. Not only did she get ice, but she completely loaded us up with mixers, snacks, and even a cooler so we could keep everything within arm's reach. This was huge.

Early on during Fellowship I decided I had to update our progress somehow, so I made a Facebook post announcing that we were embarking on the trilogy, and then I followed that up with Twitter updates. This was a much bigger hit with some friends than I anticipated, as nearly immediately a couple of buddies chimed in, excited by what they thought was a great idea. They also insisted on running commentary via Twitter, and I was all too happy to oblige. Overall, the trilogy viewing was a lot of fun, although it was also more grueling than I imagined. I hit the wall about halfway through ROTK but I battled through to the end.

I don't know if doing this with all six Star Wars movies will be easier or harder, but I will definitely try that too at some point.

Picture quality

The pizza pictures I posted looked pretty crappy and it is completely because of the process I used to get them here on the blog. I won't bore you with the technical details, but in the future I promise that any photos I post will look better than those did.