So I've been reading about Abby Sunderland, you know, the 16-year-old that tried to sail around the world by herself, boat broke and she had to be rescued. I originally thought, well, I wouldn't let my kid try it, but more power to her if her parents really believed she could do it. Well, the bill has come due and the family is saying they can't pay it and shouldn't have to. Really? I'm sure the taxpayers of Australia are super happy about that. I understand that sometimes s*!% happens, but if you put yourself out there in that situation against all advice to the contrary, that's your fault. I mean, they told the girl not to sail when she did because it would put her in the Indian Ocean in the winter (yes, it's winter in the southern hemisphere. Some people aren't getting that.) when the weather is roughest. Yet, she did it. It didn't work out, she had to be rescued and now you have to pay. That's the way the world works.
The dad is saying that they're broke and they can't pay the $300K it cost to rescue their kid. The mom said, "What price would you put on a child's life?" Well, apparently it's $300K. "We're not wealthy people." What I would like to know is where did the sailing yacht, yes I said yacht, come from and where did the money come from to fund her trip? I can't imagine it's cheap to stock a boat with supplies for roughly a year. Not only that, but she plans on taking another trip around the world. Why? She's not going to beat the record and it's not like she had a good outcome the first time around. Again, shouldn't you plan for every possible outcome? If my kid was going around the world by herself, I'd be coming up with some serious contingency plans, expecting the worst to happen and being prepared.
My husband seems to think she broke the boat on purpose. I'm starting to agree. Why so cynical, you ask? Well, to be honest, who had heard about this girl and her voyage before she became lost at sea? Her dad has been shopping a reality show since she left and her whole family, all 7 almost 8 kids of them, seem to want to cash in on this notoriety. Is anyone else thinking this is sounding familiar? (Jon & Kate Plus 8, the Duggars, Balloon Boy, and the list goes on) Her brother is planning a motorcycle trip from the top of the world to the bottom (paraphrasing that) since he's already sailed around the world on his own, and she wants to sail around the world again. Again, who's funding this? Plus she's writing a book. Of course she's writing a book. They all write books. I'm sure it will recount her harrowing ordeal in the Indian Ocean and dramatic rescue. I suggest the Australian government get with the U.S. government and freeze their assets until they can pay off the tab. If they want to leave the country, no. Pay the tab first. Kids can't leave either since it's their fault they're in the mess they're in. Harsh? Maybe, but I can't drum up a lot of sympathy for people pulling the "poor me" card when they knew what they were getting into in the first place and didn't plan ahead. You're broke? Maybe you shouldn't be letting your minor kid get themselves into trouble. If they're under eighteen, you're responsible for all their crap, including bills.
One poster suggested requiring a bond if they want to do something like this and I agree. An insurance policy of sorts. You pay for this policy to go around the world, or whatever floats your boat (no pun intended), if you make it back without incident, cool. You're out x-amount of money. If they have to come rescue your ass, it's covered. Why not? You have to have insurance for everything else under the sun, why not this? It may curb these daredevils desire to put themselves, and others, in harms way. Just sayin.
No more "reality" shows, please!!! at life.sa.laugh@hotmail.com.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
GOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLL!!!!!
The 2010 FIFA World Cup competition has started in South Africa today. This is one of the most highly anticipated events of the year (unless you live in the U.S.). I'm trying to get hyped up for this, but I'm having a hard time. I live in the land of football, not futbol. Yes, I know we are an arrogant group, us Americans, that everyone else in the world calls it futbol and we call it soccer. Why we have a sport named football when the ball touches anyone's foot less than 1% of the game, I'll never know, but I digress.
For some reason the United States has not embraced soccer/futbol in the same way as all the rest of the world. We're trying though. We can actually recognize a few players on our own national team now and more and more kids are playing the sport. Baby steps. Maybe it's due to the latter that I'm making more of an effort to watch. My youngest likes soccer even if, bless her heart, she's not that good at it. Hey, it gets her out of the house and she gets to make new friends. I'm all for that. However, I did not grow up watching this sport. We had the standard sports: football, baseball, basketball, volleyball, tennis and even golf. Yes, we had golf as a high school sport that you could letter in. That being said, I don't have any background on the rules, what's acceptable and what's not. The little bit of professional soccer I have seen seems like a bunch of guys running way too much on a field that's way too big and becoming major drama queens anytime anyone comes within ten feet of their person. Well, that and having seen Bend it like Beckham a number of times.
Not saying these guys aren't athletes. Au contraire, mon frere. These guys are running back and forth on a futbol field the size of a football field. Everyone got that. That's a whole heckuva lot of running. I saw some article saying that the refs can expect to run some crazy amount over the course of a game like 12 miles or some such number. That's just the refs! That's about 12 miles too many for me. Well, you never see a fat soccer/futbol player now do you? So the media is trying to get us uneducated Americans into the World Cup by having stories about the players and whatnot. They even had a thing on msnbc about the 50 stars of the World Cup with the picture, name, age and a little blurb about each player. Know what surprised me the most about this? The majority of this 50 are around 27-34. Much older than I would have thought. I figured these guys would have to be in their early 20s to handle that kind of stress on the body. Crazy.
So all this leads up to the match tomorrow between England and the U.S. Should be interesting. I'm hoping they don't smear our boys all over the pitch (yeah, I said pitch). Taking bets on if the UK runs out of beer before the end of the match. And if we do happen to win this, major bragging rights which as an obnoxious American, I'm all about. :)
Good luck boys! at life.sa.laugh@hotmail.com.
For some reason the United States has not embraced soccer/futbol in the same way as all the rest of the world. We're trying though. We can actually recognize a few players on our own national team now and more and more kids are playing the sport. Baby steps. Maybe it's due to the latter that I'm making more of an effort to watch. My youngest likes soccer even if, bless her heart, she's not that good at it. Hey, it gets her out of the house and she gets to make new friends. I'm all for that. However, I did not grow up watching this sport. We had the standard sports: football, baseball, basketball, volleyball, tennis and even golf. Yes, we had golf as a high school sport that you could letter in. That being said, I don't have any background on the rules, what's acceptable and what's not. The little bit of professional soccer I have seen seems like a bunch of guys running way too much on a field that's way too big and becoming major drama queens anytime anyone comes within ten feet of their person. Well, that and having seen Bend it like Beckham a number of times.
Not saying these guys aren't athletes. Au contraire, mon frere. These guys are running back and forth on a futbol field the size of a football field. Everyone got that. That's a whole heckuva lot of running. I saw some article saying that the refs can expect to run some crazy amount over the course of a game like 12 miles or some such number. That's just the refs! That's about 12 miles too many for me. Well, you never see a fat soccer/futbol player now do you? So the media is trying to get us uneducated Americans into the World Cup by having stories about the players and whatnot. They even had a thing on msnbc about the 50 stars of the World Cup with the picture, name, age and a little blurb about each player. Know what surprised me the most about this? The majority of this 50 are around 27-34. Much older than I would have thought. I figured these guys would have to be in their early 20s to handle that kind of stress on the body. Crazy.
So all this leads up to the match tomorrow between England and the U.S. Should be interesting. I'm hoping they don't smear our boys all over the pitch (yeah, I said pitch). Taking bets on if the UK runs out of beer before the end of the match. And if we do happen to win this, major bragging rights which as an obnoxious American, I'm all about. :)
Good luck boys! at life.sa.laugh@hotmail.com.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
And it starts...
Everyone I know already knows that I love movies. LOVE movies. That said, I'm undecided on the new A-Team. Sure I watched some A-Team episodes, as I am a child of the 80s and 90s. Mainly, to be completely honest, because I thought Dirk Benedict was pretty hot. The rest of it wasn't as important. Also the reason why I watched some Battlestar Gallactica, but that's a different story. I like Liam Neeson, and Bradley Cooper is definitely easy on the eyes, but I have a feeling this may be one of those movies where they've shown you all the good parts in the trailer and previews. You know, the ones they've been showing for like a year.
On to The Karate Kid. In the interest of full disclosure, shouldn't it really be The Kung Fu Kid? I mean they are in China, not Japan, it's Jackie Chan, not Pat Morita and he's teaching him Kung Fu, not Karate. I'll say again, Kung Fu, not Karate. Just sayin'. I'm hoping because it was shot in China that we will get a little cultural interaction and education. Has to be more than in the original where the biggest point of contention was if the kid lived in the ghetto with his love interest (and the bully of the school) living in Beverly Hills (or thereabouts). Not that I didn't like the original one, but the culture shock of a Jersey kid moving to Cali doesn't really compare to an American kid moving to China. Props to Will Smith's kid though as it looks like he really went all out for this movie. He's not the biggest kid on the block but I'm pretty sure he could kick my butt. I think that may be a renter but my kid wants to see it so we may be contributing to Mr. Smith's trust fund. To be seen.
Toy Story 3 comes out next week and I will say that I really want to see that. I saw Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in the theater so why break a streak? Sadly, I saw Toy Story before my oldest was born, Toy Story 2 not long after she was born and now she's 12. Boy the time flies. Might even have to pony up the extra cash to see in Imax. I just love Mr. Potato Head and Rex. Of course, Slinky dog is now the dad from 50 First Dates (and the coach from The Waterboy, and insert all other Adam Sandler movie cameos here) which he does fine but not quite the same as Jim Varney (rest his soul). Michael Keaton as an evil Ken doll should be interesting though. Can't wait.
Saw Sex and the City 2 over the weekend. Eh. It was alright. About what I expected. What I did not expect was the plushness of the theater we went to. It's call Silver Spot at Mercato in Naples, Florida. The seating is all assigned (yeah, I know it sounds weird but it turned out not too bad) and the seats are huge, leather, overstuffed chairs. Super fab. Plus you get armrests large enough that if you have to share with the person next to you, it's not so bad. Armrests for everyone! Plus, and I did not partake, but I like the idea, they serve wine and drinks at this theater. Yes, they have a wine bar where you can get drinks to go into the theater with. Pretty sweet. This theater is located in an upscale shopping center that has a bunch of restaurants (I'm a big fan of AZN and Capital Grille) and stores to include a Whole Foods. Yeah, we don't get down there too often because we are not of the affluent set, but for a once in a while thing, not bad. :) Pricing could be better. An adult ticket costs as much as an Imax ticket at our local theater, but I guess that's the trade off. And the ticket prices are the same throughout the day, no deal for matinees. They also don't allow kids under two so if you want to bring the toddler, think again. Oh well. May have to go back there sometime soon.
For all you Twilight nuts out there, that Eclipse movie is coming out at the end of the month. Gasp! Yeah, I don't really get it. I read the books and they were okay and then I saw the first movie and thought it was pretty crappy, but maybe I'm not the audience they're looking for. I was a teenager once and I liked some pretty bad stuff (New Kids on the Block, need I say more?) but I don't remember going quite so ga-ga over a movie/book series. The acting is just so bad (or maybe it's just the script) it's distracting. And the whole periods of time that they just gaze into each other eyes? Gag. That was at least half an hour of my life I can't get back just in the meaningful gazes. Oh well. One less movie I have to worry about seeing this summer.
I do want to see The Last Airbender. My kids got me hooked on the cartoon and I'm hoping that M. Night Shyamalan doesn't douche it up. I've been disappointed by his movies before and I'm hoping this breaks the streak. The effects look pretty good and the characters look pretty close to the show. Well, as close as you can get for a cartoon. Again, may be a renter.
Think that's about it for now. I'm sure I'll have updates to come. Til then, have a great summer at the movies (look for the requisite PSA before the previews).
On to The Karate Kid. In the interest of full disclosure, shouldn't it really be The Kung Fu Kid? I mean they are in China, not Japan, it's Jackie Chan, not Pat Morita and he's teaching him Kung Fu, not Karate. I'll say again, Kung Fu, not Karate. Just sayin'. I'm hoping because it was shot in China that we will get a little cultural interaction and education. Has to be more than in the original where the biggest point of contention was if the kid lived in the ghetto with his love interest (and the bully of the school) living in Beverly Hills (or thereabouts). Not that I didn't like the original one, but the culture shock of a Jersey kid moving to Cali doesn't really compare to an American kid moving to China. Props to Will Smith's kid though as it looks like he really went all out for this movie. He's not the biggest kid on the block but I'm pretty sure he could kick my butt. I think that may be a renter but my kid wants to see it so we may be contributing to Mr. Smith's trust fund. To be seen.
Toy Story 3 comes out next week and I will say that I really want to see that. I saw Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in the theater so why break a streak? Sadly, I saw Toy Story before my oldest was born, Toy Story 2 not long after she was born and now she's 12. Boy the time flies. Might even have to pony up the extra cash to see in Imax. I just love Mr. Potato Head and Rex. Of course, Slinky dog is now the dad from 50 First Dates (and the coach from The Waterboy, and insert all other Adam Sandler movie cameos here) which he does fine but not quite the same as Jim Varney (rest his soul). Michael Keaton as an evil Ken doll should be interesting though. Can't wait.
Saw Sex and the City 2 over the weekend. Eh. It was alright. About what I expected. What I did not expect was the plushness of the theater we went to. It's call Silver Spot at Mercato in Naples, Florida. The seating is all assigned (yeah, I know it sounds weird but it turned out not too bad) and the seats are huge, leather, overstuffed chairs. Super fab. Plus you get armrests large enough that if you have to share with the person next to you, it's not so bad. Armrests for everyone! Plus, and I did not partake, but I like the idea, they serve wine and drinks at this theater. Yes, they have a wine bar where you can get drinks to go into the theater with. Pretty sweet. This theater is located in an upscale shopping center that has a bunch of restaurants (I'm a big fan of AZN and Capital Grille) and stores to include a Whole Foods. Yeah, we don't get down there too often because we are not of the affluent set, but for a once in a while thing, not bad. :) Pricing could be better. An adult ticket costs as much as an Imax ticket at our local theater, but I guess that's the trade off. And the ticket prices are the same throughout the day, no deal for matinees. They also don't allow kids under two so if you want to bring the toddler, think again. Oh well. May have to go back there sometime soon.
For all you Twilight nuts out there, that Eclipse movie is coming out at the end of the month. Gasp! Yeah, I don't really get it. I read the books and they were okay and then I saw the first movie and thought it was pretty crappy, but maybe I'm not the audience they're looking for. I was a teenager once and I liked some pretty bad stuff (New Kids on the Block, need I say more?) but I don't remember going quite so ga-ga over a movie/book series. The acting is just so bad (or maybe it's just the script) it's distracting. And the whole periods of time that they just gaze into each other eyes? Gag. That was at least half an hour of my life I can't get back just in the meaningful gazes. Oh well. One less movie I have to worry about seeing this summer.
I do want to see The Last Airbender. My kids got me hooked on the cartoon and I'm hoping that M. Night Shyamalan doesn't douche it up. I've been disappointed by his movies before and I'm hoping this breaks the streak. The effects look pretty good and the characters look pretty close to the show. Well, as close as you can get for a cartoon. Again, may be a renter.
Think that's about it for now. I'm sure I'll have updates to come. Til then, have a great summer at the movies (look for the requisite PSA before the previews).
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Catch Up Time
Been way too long since I posted last. What has happened in the last 6 months or so? Well, the Saints won the Super Bowl. I'll say it again, THE SAINTS WON THE SUPER BOWL!!! Yeah, I put it all in caps and extra exclamation points because it was that spectacular. Of course, at this point it's old news and you would have to be living under a rock to not have seen this. Fully awesome!!! That pick 6 by Tracy Porter was fantabulous and the defense played so well. Of course, Drew and the receiver boys were great and the running backs were not shabby either. All in all, a great game. My one complaint? Can we get someone slightly more relevant for the halftime show? I like The Who's music as much as anyone else, but do they need to headline the halftime show? I think not. Get someone semi-popular and not a group graduating into Geriatric Town.
Then there's the business of the oil spill in the Gulf. This is some major crap that could seriously bankrupt a number of people along the Gulf Shore. Half of New Orleans (or maybe more) restaurants rely on seafood from the Gulf (not to mention a good chunk of LA, MS, and AL) and if they have to pay more to ship in seafood, this could seriously affect them. Not to mention all the fisherman whose livelihoods are directly tied to the Gulf waters. Whatever the case may be, they need to get this fixed and soon. Regardless, the region will probably not be the same for years, if ever. Sad.
On a lighter note, saw Shrek: The Final Chapter (or whatever the heck it's called) and it was okay. Typical ending, saw it coming a mile away and while it was an okay movie I have to ask, was it necessary to make it 3D? Probably not. It's not like making a movie 3D suddenly turns a craptastic movie into an Oscar contender. More than anything I'm just annoyed that I have to wear those stupid glasses and my eyes end up not knowing what to do resulting in me with a headache. Yeah good times. Thanks. Might end up seeing Sex and the City 2. Why? Well, there's not a whole lot else to see right now and might be having a girls day out for my b-day this weekend. The first one wasn't too bad so I guess I'd be willing to see the sequel.
Sidenote: Totally sign up for birthday stuff at various websites. I already have a free burger from Red Robin, a free entree from Moe's Southwest Grill, a free scoop from Ben & Jerry's and Baskin Robbins and a free "Like It" creation from Stone Cold Creamery. Nothing says "Happy Birthday" like free stuff. :)
Then there's the business of the oil spill in the Gulf. This is some major crap that could seriously bankrupt a number of people along the Gulf Shore. Half of New Orleans (or maybe more) restaurants rely on seafood from the Gulf (not to mention a good chunk of LA, MS, and AL) and if they have to pay more to ship in seafood, this could seriously affect them. Not to mention all the fisherman whose livelihoods are directly tied to the Gulf waters. Whatever the case may be, they need to get this fixed and soon. Regardless, the region will probably not be the same for years, if ever. Sad.
On a lighter note, saw Shrek: The Final Chapter (or whatever the heck it's called) and it was okay. Typical ending, saw it coming a mile away and while it was an okay movie I have to ask, was it necessary to make it 3D? Probably not. It's not like making a movie 3D suddenly turns a craptastic movie into an Oscar contender. More than anything I'm just annoyed that I have to wear those stupid glasses and my eyes end up not knowing what to do resulting in me with a headache. Yeah good times. Thanks. Might end up seeing Sex and the City 2. Why? Well, there's not a whole lot else to see right now and might be having a girls day out for my b-day this weekend. The first one wasn't too bad so I guess I'd be willing to see the sequel.
Sidenote: Totally sign up for birthday stuff at various websites. I already have a free burger from Red Robin, a free entree from Moe's Southwest Grill, a free scoop from Ben & Jerry's and Baskin Robbins and a free "Like It" creation from Stone Cold Creamery. Nothing says "Happy Birthday" like free stuff. :)
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