A brief cameo of immortality

This summer was Katie and my tenth wedding anniversary.  We went up to Toronto (where we went for our honeymoon), saw some friends, and went to a concert- Rush, on their R40 tour.  Since Toronto is Rush's home base, they recorded a DVD of the concert, and well...

We're on the video!

Katie's headbanging- I'm the grey-haired goofy one standing next to her.

Survivor Series 2015

Survivor Series is upon us...

The WWE is in trouble.  Not only have they been clobbered with injuries and  people taking time off, they've spent the past year pushing the very people who are gone at the expense of those who are there.  The WWE has been using people who only wrestle on a part-time basis as their focus point- Undertaker, Brock Lesnar, the Rock- and that has diminishing returns.  The one active wrestler they've pushed to a long reign with the title- Seth Rollins- in out for months with a knee injury.

So they've held a tournament for the title, and the final four are the US Champion (Alberto Del Rio), the IC Champion (Kevin Owens), and two members of the Shield (Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns).  The winner will be crowned at Survivor Series.

Let's get to the matches:


WWE World Title Semi-Final match:  Alberto Del Rio vs. Roman Reigns

What should happen:  Del Rio is one of the few guys who works better as a smartass face than as a heel.  He needs to be returned to the character he was at Lucha Underground.  Reigns is the guy they are pushing to the moon, and should have a clean win.

What I expect to happen:  Reigns will win.  There's no way Del Rio gets to the finals

What I'm terrified will happen:  Del Rio advances to prove me wrong


WWE World Title Semi-Final match:  Kevin Owens vs. Dean Ambrose

What should happen:  Owens came in red-hot, beating Cena... then lost to Cena twice in a row.  Now he's treading water as the IC Champ- still an incredibly hot heel, but not as over as he was the first two months.  I think Owens should keep the IC belt until Sami Zayn returns (because those two can have one HELL of a match)- but Owens doesn't need the World Title today

What I expect to happen:  Ambrose wins to set up an All-Shield final

What I'm terrified will happen:  The Authority comes down, what appears to help Owens, but 'accidentally' helps Ambrose win to set up Ambrose's turn in the finals.


Tyler Breeze vs. Dolph Ziggler

What should happen:  Ziggler's been booked so poorly he might as well be called 'Cesaro 2.0'.  breeze has had great matches in NXT, and can easily be a workhorse.  Give these two thirty minutes and let the audience be begging for a rematch

What I expect to happen:  This is Breeze's PPV debut.  I think he wins

What I'm terrified will happen:  Ziggler wins.  Breeze goes to Superstars.  So does Ziggler


Kane and Undertaker vs. Bray Wyatt and Brau Strowman

What should happen:  I'm not sure how you restore Bray Wyatt's drawing power- he's lost too many times.  Maybe have his flock turn on him and have Undertaker take him under his wing as a protege to set up Undertaker's final match?

What I expect to happen:  The part-timers win.

What I'm terrified will happen:  Kane turns on Undertaker to set up their Wrestlemania match


Traditional 5 on 5 Survivor Series match

What should happen:  They haven't even announced who is in it, so who knows?  Either have Cesaro survive or the New Day survive, as both are the best people not on the card.

What I expect to happen:  Cesaro is the sole survivor on the face team (say him, R-Truth, Ryback, and the Usos vs. New Day, Wade Barrett, and the Miz)

What I'm terrified will happen:  Ryback turns heel and helps the heels win


WWE Divas match:  Charlotte vs. Paige

What should happen:  The WWE has botched the "Diva's revolution" so badly... and bringing up Reid Flair was low.  Forget that, have Paige win the title, drop it in two weeks to Sasha Banks, and begin the reign of the Boss

What I expect to happen:  Paige to win to set up her dominant heel reign.

What I'm terrified will happen:  Ric Flair comes down and turns on Charlotte to be at Paige's side


WWE Title match and Tournament Finale- Roman Reigns vs. Dean Ambrose

What should happen:  The story has been the Authority trying to find their new heel champion- so I would turn that around.  Have HHH approach Ambrose before the match and make it seem like Ambrose is open to it.  After a 15-20 minute match, the Authority comes down, distract the referee, hand Ambrose a chair- and Ambrose blasts HHH with the chair.  Ambrose and Reign chase the Authority from the ring, continue their match, Reigns wins cleanly, and the Shield celebrate

Now the Authority have two faces to go after- Reigns for holding the title, Ambrose for rejecting them.  Keep them as faces and at Wrestlemania, have Reigns face Brock Lesnar while Ambrose and HHH have a street fight.

What I expect to happen:  The Authority will come down and help one of them, turning them heel.  I don't know if the fans will boo Ambrose.  I think they will boo a heel Reigns (in fact, I think Reigns HAS to win, or risk being labelled as a Choker by the fans)- but what faces will he defend the title against?

What I'm terrified will happen:  Sheamus cashes in his briefcase and wins the belt.

My Dream Iron Chef card

So here's the challenge from discussions with my lovely wife.  Come up with a Dream set of Iron Chef America matches (Basically, Wrestlemania for the Food Network).  Here are the rules:

• Pick the opponent and secret ingredient for each current Iron Chef
• Each opponent can be anyone except the other current Iron Chefs
• Pick the matchups that appeals to you the best

Here's my choices:

• Iron Chef Bobby Flay vs. Tom Colicchio  Secret Ingredient- Onions
• Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto vs. Eric Ripert  Secret Ingredient- Bluegill
• Iron Chef Michael Symon vs. Kevin Gillespie  Secret Ingredient- Pork Belly
• Iron Chef Jose Garces vs. Jose Andres  Secret Ingredient- Rice
• Iron Chef Marc Forgione vs. Scott Conant     Secret Ingredient- Dried Pasta
• Iron Chef Geoffrey Zakarian vs. Amanda Freitag  Secret Ingredient- Peanut Butter  (Bonus points if Amanda's sous chefs are Madison Cowan and Lance Nitahara)
• Iron Chef Alex Guarnaschelli vs. Stephanie Izard   Secret Ingredient- Goat

NBA 2015-2016 Predictions

NBA Predictions

Eastern Conference:
Cleveland
Atlanta 
Washington
Milwaukee
Toronto
Boston
Miami
Chicago

Indiana
Charlotte
Detroit
New York
Orlando
Philadelphia
Brooklyn


Playoffs:
• Cleveland over Chicago, Miami over Atlanta, Washington over Boston, Milwaukee over Toronto
• Cleveland over Milwaukee, Washington over Miami
• Cleveland over Washington




Western Conference:
San Antonio
Golden State 
LA Clippers
Oklahoma City
Houston
Memphis 
Phoenix
New Orleans

Minnesota 
Dallas
Utah
Portland
Denver
LA Lakers
Sacramento

Playoffs:
• San Antonio over New Orleans, Golden State over Phoenix, Memphis over LA Clippers, OKC over Houston
• OKC over San Antonio, Memphis over Golden State
• OKC over Memphis



More notes:
• Really high on Milwaukee this year
• The West will be a dogfight. Golden State’s a great team, but they had phenomenal luck last year. I think they stumble sometime this year
• Lottery: (1) Boston (via Brooklyn) (2) Philadelphia (3) Sacramento
• The Clippers are the team that is the biggest Wild Card; I could see them win the title, I could see them blow up completely.
• The Finals: I thought Cleveland would pull it off last year. Despite injuries to two of their big three and one of their key roleplayers, they took a loaded Golden State team to 6 games. LeBron’s peak window is closing- he’ll still be a great player for another decade, but the era where he’s clearly the best player in the NBA has only a year or two left. If the Cavs are going to win a title with LeBron as the best player, this is the best year to do it. CLEVELAND OVER OKC IN FIVE GAMES.

MLB 2015 Playoff preference

MLB Playoff preference:

1.      Chicago Cubs- Yes, I stopped following them after the Soriano signing.  But they finally learned how to act like a smart team.  They hired Theo Epstein.  They drafted well.  They brought in Joe Maddon when he was available.  I’m sure Harry Caray is up in Heaven, drinking a Budweiser, and having a great time watching this team.

(Giant Gap...)

2.      Houston Astros- my rule; if a team I don’t actively root for can’t win it all, go for the team that has not won it all in my lifetime

3.      Texas Rangers- hence putting the teams from Texas as #2 and #3, with Houston ahead of the Rangers because the Astros are a more impressive story

4.      Pittsburgh Pirates- They won the World Series in my lifetime- but when I was seven. 

5.      Toronto Blue Jays- the only game I attended this year was in Toronto; this was before they had a huge win streak, but even then they looked impressive with their hitting. 

6.      Kansas City Royals- Pro:  Small-market team.  Con:  In the same division as the Indians

(Small Gap...)

7.      St. Louis Cardinals- I don’t hate the Cardinals, but they win.  All.  The.  Time.  It’s boring

(Large Gap...)

8.      New York Mets- Blargh.  Not a Mets fan.  Still think they are karmically paying back all of the luck they used to win in 1986.

9.      Los Angeles Dodgers- But at least the Mets aren’t as obnoxious as the Dodgers.  Or have anywhere near the payroll

10.   New York Yankees- oh, that’s right- they already lost.

Economics- a blinding flash of the obivous

I hate to just cut and paste what someone else wrote, but Kevin D. Williamson's comment about the deficit and taxes is so spot-on that I want everyone to see it:

Every Republican tax-reform plan should be rooted in this reality: If you are going to have federal spending that is 21 percent of GDP, then you can have a.) taxes that are 21 percent of GDP; b.) deficits. There is no c. 

If, on the other hand, you have a credible program for reducing spending to 17 or 18 percent of GDP, which is where taxes have been coming in, please do share it.  

The problem with the Growth Fairy model of balancing budgets is that while economic growth would certainly reduce federal spending as a share of GDP if spending were kept constant, there is zero evidence that the government of these United States has the will or the inclination to enact serious spending controls when times are good (Uncork the champagne!) or when times are bad (Wicked austerity! We must have stimulus!). So even if we buy Jeb Bush’s happy talk about growth, or Donald Trump’s, the idea that spending is just going to magically sit there, inert, while the economy zips forward and the tax coffers fill up, is delusional.  

There are no tax cuts when the government is running deficits, only tax deferrals. 

This applies to both parties and everyone's economic plan.  

NFL Predictions 2015-2016

NFC

East:
Dallas 10-6
NY Giants 9-7
Philadelphia 9-7
Washington 3-13

North:
Green Bay 12-4
Minnesota 9-7 (Wild Card)
Detroit 7-9
Chicago 7-9

South:
Carolina 9-7
New Orleans 7-9 
Atlanta 6-10
Tampa Bay 4-12

West:
Seattle 13-3
Arizona 10-6 (Wild Card)
St. Louis 8-8
San Francisco 5-11

Playoffs:
Arizona over Carolina
Dallas over Minnesota

Seattle over Arizona
Green Bay over Dallas

Green Bay over Seattle


AFC

East:
New England 11-5
Miami 10-6 (Wild Card)
Buffalo 7-9
NY Jets 4-12

North:
Cincinnati 11-5
Baltimore 10-6 (Wild Card)
Pittsburgh 10-6
Cleveland 4-12

South:
Indianapolis 11-5
Houston 9-7
Tennessee 7-9
Jacksonville 5-11

West:
Denver 9-7
Kansas City 8-8
Oakland 6-10
San Diego 6-10

Playoffs:
Indianapolis over Miami
Baltimore over Denver

New England over Baltimore
Cincinnati over Indianapolis

Cincinnati over New England

Super Bowl: Green Bay 34, Cincinnati 20

They say the first decade is the hardest...

Ten years ago today, Katie White and I were married by the State of Ohio.  

Since then, we've added one more cat, been in a few shows and several dozen Improv Jams together, lost one kidney, added several nieces and nephews, burned a few bridges, slaughtered millions of pixels in online games, won e-wrestling tag team titles together, lived, fought, cried, and loved.

It hasn't always been easy- you don't share two lives together without a few ups and downs.  But we've been together through a lot, and I can't imagine what live would be like without her.

We're both private people- Katie doesn't even a facebook page, and my philosophy is never to put anything online that I don't want the whole world to see.  But I'm good with the whole world seeing this.

I love you, Katie White-Sonby

Once,
Forever,
and Always

Finding humor where we can.

I don't really want to discuss the Charleston tragedy, because... I don't know what to say.  An evil person walked into a church and killed 9 innocent people.  In theory, I'm on the fence about the Death Penalty- but I won't be losing sleep if the shooter loses his life.

But the talk has gone from the tragedy to the Confederate flag (the shooter wore the flag prominently).  Since the flag is used as a symbol of the Confederacy (and therefore, slavery), there is talk to remove it from the flag of South Carolina.  

Governor Nikki Haley and several of the state's top politicians on both sides of the aisle are calling for the flag to be removed.  I think this is a great idea, and a needed one.  Too many people associate the Confederate Flag with Slavery.  The Swastika has several meanings in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Odinism- but to the vast majority of people, it is associated with Nazism and the Final Solution.  It is considered wrong to display the Swastika, and it should also be considered wrong to display the Confederate flag.

So myself and two friends (Don Mewha and Chris O'Brien) had a discussion of what should be on the South Carolina flag.  My first suggestion is a cartoon Calvin peeing on North Carolina.  But then my friend Don remembered a famous citizen from South Carolina, and this would be right up his alley.  

Let's face it- Stephen Colbert redesigning the South Carolina flag would be fantastic.

And since we live in this virtual world, we can start up a petition to push this idea.

Click here to encourage Stephen Colbert come up with the new design of the South Carolina flag

2016- Presidential Candidate's Net Worth

Thought I’d check out the Net Worth of the 2016 candidates and see where they were.  I couldn’t find anything on O’Malley:

Candidate	Net Worth
Fiorina	$120,000,000.00
Clinton	$21,500,000.00
Jeb Bush	$10,000,000.00
Carson	$10,000,000.00
Warren	$8,750,000.00
Santorum	$5,000,000.00
Huckabee	$5,000,000.00
Christie	$4,000,000.00
Cruz	$3,500,000.00
Jindal	$3,000,000.00
Perry	$3,000,000.00
Paul	$2,500,000.00
Walker	$2,000,000.00
Rubio	$1,200,000.00
Sanders	$500,000.00
O'Malley	unknown

I’ve heard different amounts of Net Wealth needed to be in the top 1%.  Some show the number needed as 2.5 million, others almost 8 million.  It looks like most of the candidates are right around the 1% mark, but only Clinton and Fiorina are really in the stratosphere.  

Wrestlemania XXXI Predictions

Here are my predictions for Sunday's WWE event of the year:

Tag title match
What Should Happen: Tyson Kidd and Cesaro are a fantastic team, and should hold the titles for six months before losing them, splitting, and feuding.

What Will Happen: The Usos are the current Smoking Gunns- the tag team the WWE can always rely on to provide good matches against a variety of opponents. They lose the belts one PPV, win them back the next. Lather, rinse, repeat.

What I am Terrified will Happen: I like Kofi Kingston, and think Big E is a fine power wrestler. But the New Day is an awful gimmick. So naturally, they win.


AJ Lee and Paige vs The Bella Twins
What Should Happen: AJ and Paige have a huge falling out and start a blood feud that dominates the women's division.

What Will Happen: The Bellas win, AJ retires, and Paige gets shuffled off to the side. THe next night, Nikki throws out an open challenge and Charlotte answers to win the title.

What I am Terrified will Happen: Same as the above scenario, only replace 'Charlotte' with 'Stephanie McMahon'


Andre The Giant battle royal
What Should Happen: Finn Balor makes his Wrestlemania debut, causing the entire audience to mark out at his entrance, and wins the battle royale as the announcers rave about his debut.

What Will Happen: Ryback wins.

What I am Terrified will Happen: Kane and the Big Show obliterate everyone, then argue over who should win, leading to a 'comedy' bit where both men claim to hold the trophy for nine months.


Intercontinental ladder match
What Should Happen: Match of the night. Daniel Bryan or Dolph Ziggler take the title and begin a six month reign defending it against a variety of opponents every RAW.

What Will Happen: Wade Barrett retains.

What I am Terrified will Happen: Shaemus attacks R-Truth and joins the match, winning the title and joining the Authority


Triple H vs Sting
What Should Happen: Ric Flair comes down to ringside with the new version of the Horsemen- Dolph Ziggler, Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes, Miz- and they lay out both men. HHH for humiliating Flair, and Sting... "Just Because"

What Will Happen: HHH dominates the match, a face (guessing Ziggler) distracts him, Sting gets the pinfall.

What I am Terrified will Happen: HHH dominates, HHH pins, HHH stands tall for the WWE


US title match: Rusev defends vs John Cena
What Should Happen: Rusev wins cleanly as Lana returns and positions himself as the next #1 contender

What Will Happen: Back and forth match with Cena hitting a AA out of nowhere to win the title.

What I am Terrified will Happen: Cena dominates the match completely, Rusev bails to keep the title but looks like a coward


Bray Wyatt vs The Undertaker
What Should Happen: Wyatt wins as the announcers wonder if the baton has passed

What Will Happen: Wyatt dominates, but the Undertaker makes the comeback to pin him

What I am Terrified will Happen: Undertaker dominates, Wyatt gets next to no offense in


Randy Orton vs Seth Rollins
What Should Happen: Surprising match of the night. The Authority come down early, but Orton RKO's everyone to remove them from the equation. Back and forth 25 minute match that has Orton his a RKO that Rollins slides a foot under the rope at the last second, then hits a Curb Stomp for a win.

What Will Happen: If Rollins is cashing in the MitB within the next month to win, he loses to Orton. Otherwise, he wins with the help of the Authority

What I am Terrified will Happen: Big Show and Kane come down to ringside, turn on Rollins, and Orton is welcomed back to the Authority with a full embrace.


Main Event: Brock Lesnar defends vs Roman Reigns
What Should Happen: Lesnar and Reigns have a back and forth hard-hitting slobberknocker match with Reigns getting several close two counts. The announcers point out how worried Heyman is as the match goes on and on. At 15 minutes, Reigns hits the Superman punch and ALMOST gets the pin- but Lesnar hits the F5 for the three count.

Both men are laying on the match, exhausted from the match- and the Authority's music hits. Rollins comes down with the briefcase. The announcers don't notice, but the camera picks up Heyman whispering something to Roman Reigns as the Authority comes down. 

Rollins cashes in, enters the ring, the bell starts the match- and Roman Reigns delivers a Superman punch to Rollins to cost Rollins his MitB briefcase. Reigns walks out with Heyman and Lesnar.

Over the next weeks, Heyman says that Roman Reigns was the only man in the WWE that was even in the league of Lesnar- but the fans and the WWE made him weak. Heyman would bring out the killer in Reigns- and Reigns goes on a rampage of destruction over the next year. With Lesnar on a part-time schedule, Reigns becomes Heyman's weekly man, and we start getting the crowd wanting to see the rematch.



What Will Happen: OK- there are only two possibilities. Either Reigns wins the title- or he turns heel (or both). He CANNOT lose this match and still be a face. If the WWE really thinks Reigns is the guy- pull the trigger and push him, or have him lose and be forced to rebuild him.

You can rebuild him as a heel- joining the Authority to get another title match. And there's enough faces to have him as a heel.

But I think they are going all-in. I think Reigns beats Lesnar, and Rollins doesn't cash tonight. They'll have Reigns-Rollins and Reigns-Rusev matches until Summerslam and see if they can get the fans behind him.


What I am Terrified will Happen: Reigns beats Lesnar, Rollins cashes in to win the title, and we hear nothing for the next six months except how Reigns is the 'real' champion.

A Waste of Time: House of Cards

I tend to go on long, extended rants about tv shows- partly because it's a topic that is safe to discuss and disagree with, and partly because I end up spending a lot of time watching a show.  So when it disappoints me, I feel like all of the time that I've spent watching the show has been wasted.

The king of rants for me is Battlestar Galactica (BSG), which was so brilliant the first year and a half, and then nosedived into a preachy, whiny self-righteous show that made no sense whatsoever.  They spent the first year proclaiming that the Cylons had a plan... and then decided to drop whatever that plan was.  I don't know what happened halfway through season 1, but whoever ran the show lost everything that made it so appealing.  And...

But, I digress.  This post is about House of Cards, on Netflix.  I finished season 3 today, and... it's not as awful as BSG.  The last episode isn't quite as frustrating as the final episode of the Sopranos.  But it was disappointing, to the point that I may not watch a season 4.

First, the good parts.  Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright are fantastic.  Michel Kelly has been great as Doug Stamper.  And finally, in season 3 they have competent foes, both at home (Heather Dunbar) and abroad (the Russian President).

But the season was disappointing, for the following reasons (spoilers after the jump break):

* I have a rule- I'll root for a bad team but not a stupid team.  As a longtime fan of the Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, and Cleveland Cavs- I've rooted for my share of bad teams (and my share, and your share as well).  But I'm at the end of my rope for the Cleveland Browns.  Drafting Johnny Manziel was defensible- I wouldn't have done it, but it was defensible.  But chasing off your Offensive Coordinator by having 'the front office' text him plays is... well, stupid.  The Browns are a poor organization that make stupid moves.  Do they have bad luck?  Sure- but they also run the team so poorly that they invite bad luck to happen to them.  As much as I want to root for Cleveland to succeed- quite frankly, I don't deserve to be stuck rooting for such a stupid, rotten franchise.


* So the Conference finals will be New England-Indianapolis and Green Bay-Seattle.  Both should be excellent games.  Even though the game is in New England, I suspect the cold weather may favor Andrew Luck over Thom Brady.  Indianapolis is getting hot at the right time.


* As for Green Bay against Seattle, Seattle's defense looks impressive as hell- but so does Green Bay's offense.  That's going to be a fun game. 


* Regardless of who wins, I can promise you that <a href="http://profootballmock.com/">Pro Football Mock</a>  will have a blast with whoever goes to the Super Bowl.


* As for the Browns, my sentiments can best be summed up as: