Fun Times, and well...
 
I picked up NCAA 2005 on Thursday, so needless to say, I've been playing it quite a lot lately and enjoying it. I started a successful dynasty as Michigan and am presently beginning my third year as head coach at Connecticut, where I just finished #2 in the country. The new features are very cool. For John, the X-Box version is equipped with X-Box Live capability, but since I have a PS2, I don't care. They've added some interesting little tweaks to last years game. EA added a measure of players "composure", for example freshmen are easily rattled while Seniors aren't. Homefield advantage is real, the controller shakes when you have the ball and the crowd is loud, and you can pump up the home crowd on defense. My favorite changes, though, are smaller tweaks. Discipline is now in the game, so if players commit infraction you can choose whether and for how long kids are suspended. Before the recruiting process starts, players can transfer from and away from your school, and you convince those who want to leave to stay. In recruiting, you can now recruit "ATH" or athletes, who have not set position. My favorite tweak of all, though, is the ability to switch player's positions. If I have too many linebackers, I can shift people to End to get them on the field and give myself a more athletic team. This is a really fun feature that I have enjoyed tremendously. Still, all of this is fake.
 
Obviously my congratulations to Jean and Kelly. I wish you both the very best.
 
I walked down to millennium Park on Saturday, just to check it out, and to make the walk, its 3 miles each way so its good exercise, no matter how much cheesecake I buy at the Cheesecake Factory. It really is a fabulous place, just this amazingly idyllic spot in the middle of downtown. Cloud Gate was a huge attraction, because apparently people can't get enough of seeing themselves in highly polished metal. I really loved the fountains they have. It's a different take on the fountain, video images of people come up on these large screens built ito the structures with are probably 20' high. Water goes around the sides of the structure when the images are on. Then the faces look like they're spewing water, and they do, because the "fountain" is built into where the mouths are. Then water comes down the front, soaking the kids underneath it. I really loved it, seeing all the kids and their families enjoying themselves at this really amazing and fun place, a place that's open to everyone.
 
I don't know if anyone saw this from last week's gay marriage debate, I caught it from Andrew Sullivan and Wonkette, but there was a rally of different "celebrities" to promote the amedment. Pat Boone was there, wearing an incredibly fluorescent jacket that made him look like he was the chairman of the Orange Bowl committee, and former Redskins corner Darrell Green was there as well.  Most ironically, Dean Jones was there. For those of you saying "Who the F*** is Dean Jones?", well he was the star of the Love Bug Movies and played the evil vet in "Beethoven". The weird, and sort of ironic part is, as few people, other than Sondheim and Alexis Snyder, know Dean Jones was the original 'Robert' in "Company" on Broadway. Obviously, and Alex, Chelsea Sadler and Rob Murdock will attest to this, Robert coming out for discriminating against gay people is just weird. 
 
Still Trying.......