Be glad you didn't go to school with them.

As many of you know I am occasionally taken with strange thoughts running through my head. This weekend proved to be a unique experience in that phenomenon. As I was watching the conclusion to the Discovery Channel Mini-Series "When We Left Earth", which is about the history of the NASA and the Space Program, and the thinking about my 10 year class reunion, which is next year, I thought to myself about how much it would have sucked to be in the same class as some of the pioneers of this Program.

So this post is dedicated to those men and women, and for those of you who don't know here are the names and accomplishments of the special fraternity of those who were the firsts.

1.) Alan Shepherd- First American In Space.
2.) John Glenn- First Man to Orbit the Earth.
3.) Ed White- First American to Walk In Space.
4.)Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders- First Men to Orbit the Moon
5.) Neil Armstrong- First Man to Walk on the Moon.
6.) John Young and Robert Crippen- First Men to Fly the Space Shuttle in Orbit
7.) Sally Ride- First American Woman in Space.

How would you like to go to their class reunions?

Til we meet again

Paul

A great weekend of Sport.

Hello there all of my faithful blog readers. Today I write to you about this weekends magical, nay almost mystical adventures of the sporting kind. By far one of the greatest weekends of sport that I have ever seen.

It all started on Saturday evening with an amazing round of golf by this man right here........

Two incredible eagle putts on the 13th and 18th holes of the U.S. Open put him in the lead going into the final 18 holes on Sunday, all while playing with a knee problem that would put any mortal golfer on the sidelines.


Next came the opening round of the College World Series with my beloved #8 ranked University of Georgia Bulldogs, taking on the #1 ranked Miami Hurricanes.

In a game that was a nail biter until the very end my Bulldogs upset the #1 ranked team in the country due to some timely hitting and some even more timely errors on the part of the canes. It made me very happy.

Then came Father's day Sunday. I got up wished my dad a happy father's day, ate some breakfast, and watched as Dale Earnhardt Jr. finally win a NASCAR race after 76 tries.

It was at Michigan which is normally a pretty boring race, but this year turned out to be pretty interesting. What made it even more special was the knowledge that my big brother was there to see it. He is a huge Dale Jr. fan.

Finally the creme de la creme. It was time for Tiger to work his magic again. After an absolutely atrocious round of golf, by his standards, he found himself on the 18th green needing to sink a birdie putt to force an 18 hole playoff against Rocco Mediate today. The putt was about an 8 footer with a slight drop to the left. Not a particularly difficult putt for a man with Tiger's skill but clearly not a gimme. It was at this moment that I realized that Tiger Woods does not need the help of the Golfing gods in his rounds, HE IS ONE!

Needless to say he nailed it!

Well that's it for this post. I hope those of you who read it enjoy it as much as I enjoyed watching the things that inspired it.

Til we meet again,

Paul

A long time in coming.

So yesterday I sat down and watched 3 movies that I have not seen in over 10 years. Now this may surprise you but I am referring to the Star Wars Trilogy. How is this possible you ask, since most of you know that I watch those movies at least twice a year. Well that is true and yet not. I say this because the movies that I have been watching these past 10 years or so are not the Star Wars Trilogy, but the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition.

It was incredible. My new lady friend, (you know who you are), that I have been spending a great deal of time lately, brought over the DVD's that were released a few years ago that have both the Special Editions and the original theatrical cuts over, and we spent the whole afternoon watching them.

While doing so I had and epiphany. These movies are perfect just the way they are. Sure most of the extras in the Special Editions are cool but not necessary at all, and some of those extras (i.e. the lame ass musical number in ROTJ) are a blight upon movies that did not need these things.

I came to the realization that the reason that I fell in love with these movies in the first place is a reason that I do not believe Mr. Lucas has ever even considered. That reason is that the human imagination is capable of creating a greater landscape than anything that can be put onto canvas, celluloid, or any other medium of art that we know. I didn't need to see the whole of Mos Eisley in A New Hope to know that it was there. I did not need to see the dewbacks move and make noises to know that they were alive. My imagination took the basic format that Lucas gave me and filled in the rest of the areas that I could not see.

It was truly a remarkable experience because in a way I was seeing these movies for the first time again, a feat that is considerable because of the sheer number of times that I have seen them both altered and unaltered.

So does this mean that I will never watch the Special Editions again. No I still enjoy them, but it does mean that the first chance I get I will be buying those other editions and when presented with my first choice I will probably watch them as they were when first released.

Anyway this is a pretty stupid post but, it is what is on my mind right now so I hope it wasn't boring at least.

Til we meet again,

Paul