I Love Gold

Bunky got her first paycheck from the law firm today, and it was pretty impressive (especially considering she is just a summer associate). For a brief moment, the hours of stress and piles of work that had to be taken home every day seemed worth it. Golden handcuffs straight ahead!

Watch Out for the Fat Ones

There was this article on CNET recently that discussed new scanners that can see through clothing. This isn’t exactly very surprising news, and of course there is the usual hoopla about privacy and concerns over the abuse of the technology. I guess it would be better than an invasive strip search, but they both sound bad, blah blah blah. What I really want to call to attention is this blurb:

Thwarting body-scanning technology would be simple, he argues. Because of concerns about radiation, body scanners are designed not to penetrate the skin. All that’s needed is someone heavily overweight to go through the system, he said. I won’t quote him directly on the details; suffice it to say he posits that a weapon or explosives pack could be tucked into flabby body folds that won’t be penetrated by the scanner.

Awesome quote! I can see the gym ads now: Get in shape, because you wouldn’t want to be mistaken for a terrorist! and We want you… to lose some weight!

Drop It Like It’s Hot

While walking to the parking lot, there was this robin that was standing right in the middle of the sidewalk blocking my path. Although he had a mean look in his eye, I didn’t let his presence break my stride, and I kept on going straight at him, with a defiant spring in my step. He must have sensed my determination, because at the last minute he hopped out of my way, and proceeded to crap himself just to the side of the sidewalk. As in he created a mini-Christmas scene on the mulch with his digested lunch. I have the same effect on humans sometimes, too.

The Contender

I caught the 2-hour live finale of The Contender last night, and it was great to see Sergio Mora take home the $1 Million and yet another Toyota Tacoma. I’d followed much of the season with Bunky, and although I thought Peter would win (prior to the match), I was rooting for Sergio. Surprisingly, Peter managed to execute his gameplan flawlessly, and yet it was completely ineffective. Despite being cinched and tied up by Peter for much of the match, Sergio actually did his best work up close with his back against the ropes. The flurry of body shots and combinations really wore Peter down, and by the last three rounds, it looked like he was barely standing. I think a few more rounds and Sergio would have knocked Peter out. I guess the combination of Sergio’s impressive elusiveness, his range, quickness, and unorthodox style really took made it hard for Peter to land powerful blows.

The undercard bout of Alfonso against Jesse was quite good as well, and Alfonso did a great job landing body shots and taking advantage of Jesse’s complete lack of a game plan beyond trying to land a lucky uppercut. As one of the smaller boxers, Alfonso usually absorbs a lot of damage even in his wins, but by the end of the 5 round match, he looked virtually untouched. Jesse’s spastic trainer was good for a laugh.

The rest of the show was somewhat botched. The cuts to commercials were handled really badly, and they really messed with the flow of the show. The other three “fan-favorite” bouts looked really pathetic, and thankfully were shown for only a total of about 20 seconds. It wasn’t until halfway through the second one that I realized that this was new footage. Anyway, I hear there won’t be a second season, and in some ways I’m glad. Sly and Sugar were affable hosts, and the fights were pretty interesting, but I’m not sure it would have worked more than once. The general campiness of the show was funny, but the challenges were really stupid, and the last few episodes really struggled to fill the whole hour with interesting information (towards the end there were not as many challenges, since the matches had been decided). In spite of that, I did enjoy the season, and the last fights in the finale were entertaining, even if the extraneous bits were rather sloppy. If you want a play by play for the final episode (well… sorta), check out what the Sports Guy had to say about it.

By the way, I’m really looking forward to Making the Band: Season 3/Part 2 or whatever they are calling it!