With friends like these, who needs enemies?

I grilled outside yesterday. It feels so good to say that. After a terrible winter, this past weekend we had absolutely gorgeous weather in Minneapolis. It felt so good to eat outside and smell swordfish and burgers grilling nearby. I tried my best to enjoy the outside but I also had some fun indoors as well. On Friday, I had a bunch of people over and we watched the indie movie Death at a Funeral. I absolutely loved it and I give it an A. When was the last time I gave a movie an A? It was so funny. Normally, I don’t enjoy British humor (except for The Holy Grail) but this was also fantastic. Please go rent Death at a Funeral when you are in the mood for a fun comedy. I also borrowed the movie Lars and the Real Girl from The Rhythm of One. I don’t know about that movie. I will probably give it a C+/B-. It is not terrible and I would even recommend renting it. But, It was not a comedy, and it was quite odd. But not in the fun, quirky, kooky way… No, this was just strange. The last three movies I have seen have all been all indie movies. I guess it was time.

1. Conspiracy theory alert. To me, I have always felt that the NCAA is a corrupt organization. No, I am not one of those conspiracy theorists out there who feels that Bush planned 9/11 or Rove caused Katrina. But when I read the story that the NCAA is no longer allowing coaches to recruit high school players in the spring, it was just another sign of how corrupt the NCAA is. This rule will only help coaches from big time schools like Nebraska, Texas, USC, et cetera. Coaches at those schools don’t have to recruit that hard because they have five star recruits begging for a scholarship. I guess the coach pushing for this the most was Mack Brown, the head football coach at Texas. Here is what he said in an ESPN story, "We've done it the same way for 10 years," Brown said. "… If I go into a school [to recruit], being the head coach at the University of Texas, a lot of kids would want to talk to you and it could put you in a difficult spot because you can't talk to them. We decided it would be impossible to enforce because we couldn't do it properly.”

Basically, he’s being lazy. He doesn’t want to leave his office when he knows that the top players will just come to him. For a smaller program like Iowa State to ever get a top recruit, they would have to out recruit programs like UT. The NCAA put an end to that for one reason only. The NCAA cares about TV ratings and they want to keep the big programs doing well and the little programs doing poorly. There are a lot of good stories online about this as well. Here is one I quickly found: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/notebook?page=Big12notebook080429

2. Nimit sent me a really interesting piece from New York Times journalist, Thomas Friedman about how the future of America. The article is a quick, easy read. I normally find Friedman to be a bit pretentious but I really enjoyed this article. I feel it is an important read: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/opinion/04friedman.html?_r=3&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

3. I have been praying a lot recently about the future and I really feel there will be some major changes in my life in the future. I was not given a timeline but I can just sense something. To have more doors open for me I will first have to shut some doors. That is the message I have been given and it is up to me to decipher what it means.

4. For those of you who like Family Guy and American Dad, the writer/producer of the show, Seth McFarland, has inked a huge deal to keep him with Fox through 2012. In addition to being in charge of the comedies Family Guy and American Dad, I am getting excited for the FG spin off, The Cleveland Show. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24458901/