The anti-hero

In case I had forgotten that I reside in Minnesota, this weekend slapped me in the face. Friday I was greeted with eight inches of snow. The rest of the weekend was weather in the single digits and low teens. Thank goodness there are only about SEVEN more weeks of winter. I had a pleasant, but quiet weekend. Friday night, I was pretty tired. I ended up staying in and watching the movie Choke. I didn't care for it. I give it a D+/C-. I thought the plot was under-developed, the comedic bits weren't that funny, and it was disturbing without being interesting. Saturday night, Mike came over and we ended up watching another movie, Changeling - starring Angelina Jolie and directed by Clint Eastwood. I give this movie an A. Jolie was fantastic as the mother of a son who was kidnapped. The plot was dour but captivating. I ended the movie nearly speechless. This is a great rental but keep in mind you will leave with a distrust of humanity.

1. I love Kevin Garnett. He is my favorite athlete in sports for myriad reasons. Besides being an excellent forward in the NBA, I personally know many stories of his work with the poor in Minneapolis, his volunteering with Big Brothers and Big Sisters, and giving millions of his own dollars to help out Minneapolis charities. In a league with few heroes, Garnett is one that children should admire. That is why all of last season, when Garnett was traded to the Celtics, Boston became my second favorite team after the Wolves. However, I became less interested in the Celts when they signed free agent Stephon Marbury. Starbury has been a cancer to everyteam he plays with. After trading Ray Allen for Marbury, the Wolves had great success with Marbury and Garnett until Marbury publicly demanded a trade saying he missed the East Coast and said he would rather be a star on a bad team, then be anybody's second fiddle. He actually said that. He has then destroyed Phoenix, New Jersey, and recently the Knicks with his antics, and poor attitude. I can understand why Boston signed a player of Marbury's caliber. The Celtics are loaded eveywhere except they are currently playing without a decent back-up point guard... and in steps Marbury. This just proves that as long as you have talent (think Chad Johnson, T.O., Randy Moss) then there will be teams that are interested.

2. Speaking of sports, wide-receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh is in Minneapolis as we speak talking with Vikings officials. I would love to sign Housh. I also hear the Vikes are talking with Denver about trading for Cutler. Those would both be great signs.

3. Six weeks after my diet started, I am currently down 8.4 pounds. I'm far from taking off my shirt and people claiming I look like Brad Pitt in Fight Club... but I'm on my way.

4. NBADraft.net now has Craig Brackins, power forward for the Cyclones as a top ten pick. Sigh...