It's Dai Time

Katie & Scott & Simon & Cecily.

Tag: football (Page 1 of 2)

Day 361: google ad

February 7, 2010 / / 0 Comments

I was watching the Super Bowl today, not really rooting for one team in particular (although I have some allegiance to the Colts simply because they’re an AFC team).  And watching the commercials, of course.

I find some of them amusing (I just can’t get enough of that eTrade baby!), some of them dumb (how long can GoDaddy live on manufactured controversy?), when out of nowhere, a sublime Google ad appears.

Here it is, in case you didn’t watch the game:

It was the best advertisement I’ve seen in a long time, because it actually made me stop what I was doing and watch it with my full attention.  It featured the advertised product extensively throughout the commercial, it tells a story, and it hits us where we’re most vulnerable: by showing us that Google isn’t some nameless brand that we buy into because of superior absorbency or better handling.  It’s message is that Google is a part of the story of our lives.

And it does all of this with text and environmental music.  It’s one minute of absolute genius.  I don’t often feel like I’ve been blown away by something, but this really did a number on me.

Day 326: steel this nation

January 4, 2010 / / 0 Comments

The regulation football season ended today, and despite the Steeler’s best efforts, they will not be playing the postseason and will not get an attempt to defend their Super Bowl title.

Of course, our defense has had trouble closing out games all season, giving up fourth quarter leads to mediocre teams and the 5 game losing streak that included the Browns and Raiders was a large reason that we missed the playoffs.

And even on the other side of the country, there is a great sadness that emerged after today’s definitive end to the season for the Steelers. It’s an odd thing, to have – year after year – so much of your spirit and heart invested in something like a football team.

But somehow, as a byproduct of living in Pittsburgh for most of my life, I’ve attached myself to this team and this sport, more than any other team in any other sport. At some point (during high school or college? Or subconsciously before that?), I became a Steelers fan for life.

It’s tough to make sense of a season that showed such promise but somehow got sidetracked. It’s tough to admit the faults of something you believe in, to see the fallibility of those you put your faith in. It’s even tougher to put those feelings of anger and disappointment aside and realize that without the lows, the highs wouldn’t feel as good.

So, there’s always next year, eh? Six rings should keep us warm for a while.

Day 291: flashforward

November 29, 2009 / / 0 Comments

After that depressing end to the Steeler game today, Katie and I caught up on the last couple FlashForward episodes that we missed.  While the show itself is a nice LOST replacement until 2010 rolls around, I find the premise pretty intriguing.

Barring all the grisly death and disaster that the blackout caused, what would life be like if we had a brief flash of our future?  What if we saw a relatively true vision of what we were doing for a little over 2 minutes on April 29th?

There’s an interesting facet of human nature that the show portrays through several characters, and that’s the fact that by even being given a small glimpse of the future, the future has already changed.  There are people throwing parties on April 29th because the date was significant due to the flash forwards.  There are chance meetings that are already written because of the flash forwards.

There is a set of future events that are opened up as possibilities by the simple fact that the future has been seen.  This idea is fascinating to think about.

Of course, equally interesting is the simple question of what I personally would expect to see in my flash forward.  Most of our lives are relatively simple; I assume my flash forward wouldn’t involve people trying to kill me or seeing people I had presumed dead.  But I would get to see my baby, which would be rewarding enough for me.

Would seeing that future change my daily actions?  Would I try to drive towards that future?  Let it manifest itself?  See if I could change it?  It’d certainly be a fascinating conversation topic for the next six months.

Day 249: goods and bads

October 18, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Good: I put new wiper blades on the car today, we fixed our broken headlights without having to take the car in to a shop, and there are new tires waiting for us at CostCo.

Bad: My HDMI switcher that I bought not so long ago has decided to stop working.  It’s still well within warranty, so I should be able to get a new one, but it’s a hassle and a pain.

Good: I knocked out King Hippo today.

Bad: He knocked me out once.

Good: The Steelers won today, with Troy Polamalu playing.

Bad: I didn’t get to watch it because the NFL hates me for living in California.

Good: I actually kind of like FlashForward.  And Dominic finally showed up in the episode we watched today!

Bad: Balloon boy was all a hoax!

So, as you can see, today has been a roller coaster of emotions.  Don’t even get me started on the expired yogurt experiment.

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