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That is exactly what the Boston Celtics did. They won 19 straight games, and then LOST two straight. They lost on Christmas Day to the LA Lakers, and then yesterday to the Golden State Warriors. I was at the Warriors game yesterday when they beat the Celtics, and it was an ugly game. The Celtics have lost just four games all year, and two of them were in the last three days. How could the defending champs win 19 straight, then lose two back to back? Simple: they are tired. The Celtics are worn out. It happens. They went on a great streak, but all good things must end. The Big 3 was just out of it, which was obvious yesterday. Paul Pierce played well, but the rest of the Celtics starters seemed lethargic, nonchalant, and relaxed. The Celtics took the Warriors for granted, and it came back to hurt them. Steven Jackson had his best game in a long time, with I think 28 points. All in all, it was a great game to go to. I was lucky enough to go; the atmosphere was incredible. Everyone was on their feet screaming and cheering for the Warriors. When CJ Watson hit those two big shots the place went insane.

 Note: I tried to post this the day after Christmas (the day of the game), but my internet was not working. I know this post is no longer relevant, but whatever. I tried. Thanks for reading

The Boston Celtics, reigning NBA Champions, beat the Philadelphia 76ers 110-91 to win their franchise record 19th straight game. However, despite making history the Celtics seem pretty calm about it all. The champs go for their 20th straight victory on Christmas day. In an interview, Doc Rivers stated that he thinks that the NBA champions deserve to be at home on Christmas, but they will not be. They will be on the road taking on a hungry Lakers team. However, despite the fact that they have the best starting record in NBA history at 27-2, the Celtics are not getting cocky. They say they would rather have something tangible, like a Championship ring, than a winning streak record. Still, winning 19 games in a row puts them amongst the elite Celtics teams of the past. If the Celtics win it all this year, they will be comparable to the great Celtics teams of the 1960’s and 80’s. Already, the Celtics have shown they are as good if not better than the Celtics teams of the 1970’s, led by John Havlicek.

The Celtics are winning so easily because they are playing unselfishly. The C’s do not have a single player in the Top 20 in the league in scoring, yet they are blowing teams out every night. They spread the wealth; everyone gets a chance to score. One night it will be Paul Pierce’s chance, the next night Ray Allen’s, the next Garnett’s, etc. Also, like any championship team, the Celtics are playing great defense. The Celtics are truly showing everyone why they won it all last year, and the Lakers just got embarrased. Look for the Celtics to show the Lakers who the champions are Christmas Day.

Like the alliteration in the title? That is my catchy intro to a discussion of the NFL playoff system. The NFL playoff system seems to have some definite holes. I am not usually one to complain about the way organized sports are run (i.e. College football), but this year’s playoffs could turn me into a complainer. The Patriots, if they win next week against the Bills, as they are sure to do, will finish the season at 11-5. That is pretty good for an NFL team. Ten wins is all it should take to get into the playoffs; winning eleven games should GUARANTEE playoff birth. Now, the Pats could win 11 and still not make it. The worst part is, if San Diego beats Denver and if the Cardinals lose to Seattle there will be two teams with .500 records. So, the Patriots will have a .687 winning percentage and not make the playoffs, but the Cardinals and the Chargers will have .500 winning percentages and MAKE the playoffs. That is ridiculous. The Patriots need to win at Buffalo and have the Jets beat Miami to lock the AFC East. I am not sure what they need to get the Wild Card, but that is irrelevant. The point is, the better teams should be in the playoffs. Case closed. The Cardinals aren’t good enough to be there and neither are the Chargers. The Patriots should be in the playoffs. Everyone knows it. They are doing this well even without superstar quarterback Tom Brady. Now that, is saying something about the Patriots team. They play to win championships. How can they win if a faulty system keeps them out of the playoffs?

I don’t have time to write a detailed blog today. I am pretty busy, with it being the holiday season and all. To start off, the Celtics beat the New York Knicks by about twenty points to win their 18th straight game and tie the all time Celtics winning streak record. Obviously, tying a record from the Celtics is going to be difficult, as they are the winningest team in NBA history. Now to football… the New England Patriots routed the Arizona Cardinals 47 to 7. That is pretty embarrasing for the Cardinals, who already clinched a playoff birth. How do they expect to win in the playoffs if they can’t get double digit points in a game? Matt Cassel, the stand in for Tom Brady, through for over 350 yards with three touchdown passes. Wes Welker scored a touchdown for the Pats and so did Randy Moss. The Jets lost to the Seattle Seahawks somehow, which was their third loss in their last four games. The Dolphins beat the Chiefs, which is not good for the Patriot’s playoff hopes.  The 49ers pulled out a 17-16 win over the Rams; it is always nice to see the niners win a game. Even Oakland won today, beating the Houston Texans. The biggest shock of the day was the Redskin’s victory over the Philadelphia Eagles. The Skins won 10-3, with a last second stop on literally the one yard line. Reggie Brown caught a pass from McNabb, but before he could turn to score, he was hit and held down at the one yard line. Tennessee Titans beat the Steelers, and the New York Giants pulled out a close win over the Carolina Panthers. That is all I have time to write. Thanks and check back in tomorrow.

I went to see “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, a scifi movie about the destruction, or near destruction, of the Earth. If you haven’t seen it and you are planning on seeing it, you might not want to read this. I will try to not give away anything important, but basically the theme of the movie is that humans are slowly killing the earth with all our technology and waste, carbon dioxide, etc. The aliens have come to save the Earth itself, not the humans. As Keanu Reeves put it, “If the Earth dies, humans die. If humans die, the Earth survives”. I think playing an emotionless alien was the perfect role for Keanu Reeves. Obviously, expressing emotion, or simply having a soul, is not his strong point. Therefore, playing a role in which he was supposed to be void of a soul was great for him. I think he did well as an alien (his name was Klaatu). The acting was pretty good overall I guess, although there were a few actors that were weak. A lot of the military figures were pretty bad actors (I don’t know their specific names). There were a few blatant plot holes but I do not feel like going into all of them. An ironic part of the movie is when Klaatu, the alien messenger, says that there are only a few planets that can support life like Earth, so in order to save this life-bearing planet, they must wipe out all life on the planet. I did not really understand their thinking behind that. I also thought it was stupid that after Klaatu and the aliens come determined to wipe out mankind, all it takes to change their minds is the lead woman, Helen, to tell them that humans can change. She tells Klaatu that humans will change, and, just like that, he is on her side and he stops the extermination of the human race. At least now we can rest assured that if aliens ever come to wipe us out, we can just tell them not to and they will leave. Thank goodness. All in all, I would give the movie about 2.5 stars. It was very visually appealing. There were great special effects. However, the movie was just a little slow at times and there were a few plot holes that were difficult to circumvent.  It is worth seeing though, since there do not seem to be many great movies out, although “Seven Pounds” starring Will Smith got some good reviews. Thanks for reading and continue to check in.

Reportedly, LeBron James, perhaps the most popular player in the NBA, and Ice Cube, a rapper/family movie actor, are teaming up to produce a TV show. The show is supposed to be about LeBron’s life as a high schooler. The story will be similar to the football show “Friday Night Lights”. The idea was pitched to ABC  and could come out as early as fall of 2009. I think that the show won’t be hugely popular; LeBron is a big name to basketball fans, but will people really want to watch a 15 year old LeBron doing his Algebra homework? Why would that interest people?

Also, Eddy Curry who plays for the New York Knicks is supposedly getting sued by a men’s clothing company, “Casual Male”. Curry reportedly purchased $41,000 worth of clothes two years ago, and still hasn’t paid the tab. That is ridiculous. He is in the NBA, I think he could afford to pay a clothing bill. And why is anyone spending $41,000 on clothes in one day? How many clothes can one person have? As Forest Gump would say, that’s all I got to say about that.

I read an interesting article that stated that the possibility of there being alien life is pretty good. This may or may not be true, but some of the evidence was pretty compelling. The article stated that there are so many solar systems that are similar to ours, and so many planets out there that we do not even know about, that there is a great chance that there is intelligent alien life. I think it is a bit of a stretch to say that just this fact means that there are probably aliens, but it does leave room for the possibility at least. Also, there are several planets that have evidence of water or of once containing water. While the presence of water does not necessarily mandate the presence of life, it is one of the things all life requires. There were several other reasons that supposedly proved the presence of life out there, but I do not feel like summarizing each and every one. The point is, there could be life out there. We do not know if there is, and we probably will never know. The nearest planet that could even POSSIBLY support life is 50 light years away (that is what I read at least), which is obviously an insurmountable distance for human technology. Based on that, it is kind of irrelevant if there is alien life, because we will never know. That is all I felt like saying today. Oh yeah and the New York Knicks came close to beating the Lakers, which was cool. They lost 114-116 though on a basket in the final minute. Thanks for reading

I don’t have anything interesting to write about, nor the will to write much at all. I am pretty tired from school and stuff so I will just give a quick wrap up of today’s sports news. Today was monday, although this post will count for tuesday. Monday means Monday Night Football. The Philadelphia Eagles continued their impressive play to beat the Browns 30-10. It was a pretty easy game for Philadelphia, who beat the reigning Super Bowl Champions the New York Giants last week. In the NBA, the Celtics beat the Jazz by nine for their fifteenth straight victory. The Celtics have a record of 23-2, which is obviously incredibly good. Rajon Rondo was one rebound and two assists away from another triple double. Rondo is having a great season. The Phoenix Suns beat the New York Knicks by about ten. All the Suns starters scored double digits, which is one way to guarantee a win. The Miami Heat lost again, which is their third straight loss. I was happy that the Heat were doing so well earlier, they were over .500 for the first time in a LONG time, but their current losing streak brought them back down to a 12-12 record and third in their division. The Warriors obviously lost to the Orlando Magic, although I suppose it is good that they only lost by eleven points. Belinelli had 19 points for Golden State; he has really improved lately. I am impressed with his development. No longer does Marco just sit in the corner spotted up to miss a three, now he is cutting and slashing to the hole and making plays. Not only is he moving on offense, but he is actually playing defense, which is shocking to anyone who follows the Warriors. Hopefully the Warriors will pull out some wins eventually…that is all I got for today. Thanks

As many of you may know, George Bush was attacked at an Iraqi press conference earlier. He was not shot at, however, or threatened by a bomb. Our lame-duck president was actually attacked by a pair of shoes. A journalist at the press conference that Bush decided to drop in on stood up in the middle of the crowd, and threw first one shoe, then another. I was impressed with George Bush’s reflexes, which are considerably better than his political abilities. I thought I was watching the Matrix for a second as I saw our great president duck beneath “size ten” (as Bush quipped) shoes. The strange thing about this, besides the fact that a man threw shoes at the President of the United States, was that after the journalist threw the first shoe, no one did anything. The man had time to bend down, pull off his second shoe, aim, and take fire again at Bush. Where was the security? Someone should have realized between the time the first shoe was launched and the second shoe was about to be thrown that something was going on. Everyone seemed to be in shock. Secret Service? MIA. They were nowhere to be seen. Perhaps they are better at taking bullets than size ten Iraqi sneakers. I thought it was interesting. If you want to see the video it is on youtube.

In sporting news, the Cowboys beat the Giants, which gave the reigning Super Bowl champs their second straight loss. The Cowboys managed to avoid the soap opera drama for today and pull out a nice win. The Patriots destroyed the Oakland Raiders today in Oakland, which was of course no surprise to anyone (I hope). The Falcons beat Tampa Bay in OT, which is a great win for this successful young Falcons team. Indianapolis, unfortunately, beat the Lions, although that was kind of a ‘gimme’. The biggest game of the day though was the Texans 13-12 victory over the Titans. The mighty Titans have now lost two games, and are showing their weaknesses. Granted, they already locked in playoff birth, but they are showing everyone they can at least be beaten, and by not-so-stellar teams. Thats all for now. Thanks

this is the final installment of my continuation of chapter 1 of a book called the Burn Journals, by Brent Runyon. Read my previous posts to catch up.

Brent opened his eyes halfway, the lights in the ceiling temporarily blinding him. His body hurt all over. Where was he? What was going on? Why did his skin feel like he had been bitten by fire ants all over his body? He tried to lean forwards but his neck exploded with pain. He tried to cry out but he couldn’t find his voice. The lights started swirling overhead. Who were those people standing around him? He heard voices. He recognized those voices. Was that Mom? He tried to call out her name, but nothing came out. Was that Craig? Craig. His brother, his kid brother, was there. He was always such a jerk to Craig even though he could tell how much Craig looked up to him. He tried to apologize, but he couldn’t get the words out. His dad was even there. He realized now how much he loved them all. All of a sudden he remembered what he had done. Why had he done that? He tried to take his life just because of an incident at school. He felt his eyes watering up, the tears stung his face so bad it took his breath away. He started gasping for air but he couldn’t breathe. He heard beeping, was that his pulse? The nurse rushed into the room, and held his gauze  covered hand. His mom whispered to him that everything would be all right. And in that moment, despite the burns covering 85% of his body, Brent Runyon found peace. It didn’t matter that he was in trouble at school. It didn’t matter that his dad was always away on business or that he had screwed up so badly already. The only thing that mattered now was that his family was around him, and they loved him. His family forgave him for what he had done and he was finally happy. He closed his eyes, and despite the pain that spread like wildfire across his skin, smiled.