The Office Mid-Season Report

With one-half of the fifth season of The Office done, here are my thoughts:

1.  Best Scene: Oscar and Andy in the Winnipeg bar.  Oscar, drunk, urges Andy to call Angela to find out "who do you think you are?!"  To his surprise Andy actually does.  Also, Andy tries to hook Oscar up with dudes.  Hilarious.  Uncomfortable.  Classic Office.

2.  Best Storyline: Jan and the baby shower.  I am beginning to think that they may have had this episode too soon and could have extended this out a little bit.  Jan has the baby without telling Michael, Michael throws a strange shower for "Ass Tred", Michael figures out that he has no connection to the baby, Jan forbids him from dating Holly, Michael finally gets the balls to stand up to Jan.  Incredibly awkward and great ending.

Runner Up - Angela, Dwight & Andy love triangle.  At first, I wanted Angela and Dwight to get together.  Andy was the clear bad guy.  However, they have humanized him with the Canada trip and the newest Christmas episode.  Ultimately, I think that Angela and Dwight are going to get together, but I am worried about how ugly it will get for Andy.  I cheer for Andy now (crazy what one drunken phone call will do to a guy). 

3.  Worst Storyline: Bringing Ryan back.  I know it was through a temp agency, but who in their right mind would rehire an employee who cooked the books.  They could have saved this mistake because Michael would rehire Ryan if corporate had no knowledge of it.  But it appears that they did since David Wallace came to the Scranton branch and made no mention of it.  On top of it, Ryan is annoying, and not in a good way like most of the other characters.  Finally, unless I missed something, he just disappeared in the last three episodes.

4.  Character I am Getting Tired of: Pam.  Is it just me, or is she more annoying this year?  The sad part about it is that she has hardly been on screen.

5.  Requests:

 

a. Bring back Holly.  Michael finally had something good happen to him, and it was awesome to see their respective awkwardnesses play off of each other.

b. The flashback episode.  As many of you have heard me say this before, the perfect flashback episode would be Jim's first day.  Pam is not annoying.  Jim falls in love with her.  Michael, Dwight and Packer are his fellow salesmen, and Ed Truck is the regional manager.  I think that they could do a half-season worth of episodes in flashback mode.

c. Bring back Karen as Ryan and Jan's replacement at corporate.

d. More Oscar and Andy becoming best friends.

Chick-fil-a

I have not had much to blog about lately, but I feel like you, the reader, deserve something.  So, I decided to write about my new love of Chick-fil-a.

Last week, I was at a friend's wedding in Knoxville, and while waiting for the ceremony to start, his parents bought a chicken nugget platter.  Now, I had Shoney's breakfast bar just two hours earlier (worthy of another post, why not in Missouri any more?!), and I had no desire to eat anything more.  But the aroma of those chicken nuggets were too much for my mind and stomach.  I proceeded to eat twelve nuggets with the variety sauces available, including the Honey Mustard and Polynesia (a little overrated if you ask me) sauces.  I thought that this would lead to disaster at the wedding, but luckily, my stomach of steel, once again, saved the day.  

Ever since then, I have had a craving for Chick-fil-a nuggets that just won't quit.  I have spent hours on their website and figuring out whether a nugget platter would be good for trivia night at one of the local Catholic churches and / or MVC.  But I don't know if I can wait that long.  Help me Je-bus!

Big Win for the Bears, MVC

Way to go Bears!  A win over an SEC team is real nice, especially over the near by Razorbacks.  They are exceeding my expectations with at least two wins from the first four games.  Next up, Utah on Friday.   I believe that the Bears can and will take them.  

Just looking at the box score from last nights game, here are some items I noticed:

1.  Bears kept there turnovers way down.  Only 10 for the game, against 17 for Arkansas.

2.  Sixteen total assists.  That shows great teamwork.  A far cry from the Terrance McGee - Dano Novak arguments on the floor in front of 6,000 fans.

3. Cooks - Weems - Jehle seems like the lifeblood for the Bears this year.  Jehle was huge off the bench with 8 points, 9 boards and 5 assists.

4. Free throw percentage was alarmingly bad, 56.3% (9-16).  The starters were 4 for 10.  And, I do not know how many misses were on the front end of one and one.  They will lose a lot of games if this does not get corrected.  

5.  The three point percentage was not bad: 34.6%.  I would say that this is an average performance, even though 26 attempts seems like a lot.  If they are going to rely heavily on the three and compete for a conference championship, this stat probably needs to be near 40%.

All-in-all, great win.

I also would like to tack on to this post a commentary about MVC scheduling.  The Bears have the best non-conference win this year so far.  This caused me to take a look at other MVC teams schedules and I am disappointed with the number of games against quality and BCS programs.  I think it is key to schedule these games, whether home, away or neutral, in order to obtain multiple bids in the tournament.  Some of the fault lies with the BCS programs as they are afraid to play the MVC teams.  However, it hasn't prevent several MVC teams from scheduling tough teams.  Here is a breakdown of "quality" / BCS programs MVC teams will be playing this year:

Bradley - Florida, Michigan State, Butler

Creighton - New Mexico, Nebraska

Drake - Butler, Iowa, Iowa State, Vanderbilt

Evansville - Butler, North Carolina

Illinois State - No one

Indiana State - DePaul, Louisville, Purdue

Missouri State - Auburn, Arkansas, Utah, Tulsa

Southern Illinois - Duke, UCLA, St. Marys, Nevada

University of Northern Iowa - Marquette, Auburn, Iowa State, Iowa, Wyoming

Wichita State - Georgetown, Texas Tech, Texas Christian

What concerns me is that Creighton and Illinois State, the two teams that you would think are the best teams in the conference (preseason), have such a weak non-conference schedule.  It will be easy for the committee to dismiss either one of these teams because of schedule.  Hopefully, those teams that schedule decent clubs will (1) pull off an upset here and there; and (2) the other whoopings they take will toughen them up for conference and lead to conference success.  

Movie Reviews

The past two weeks I have seen three movies: Mr. Woodcock, The Happening and Role Models. Here are my thoughts:

1. Mr. Woodcock - This movie has a great premise: Son comes home to find that his mom is dating his torturous junior high school teacher. There should be tons of laughs, but there really isn't besides the flashbacks of Billy Bob Thorton's character kicking the asses of Seann William Scott's character and other kids. It just wasn't funny and disappointing because it could have been hilarious. My recommendation is to avoid.

2. The Happening - M. Night Shymalan's newest flick, which is R-rated for violence, deals with an epidemic that causes people to kill themselves. I will spoil this movie because it sucked. It turns out that the plants and trees are releasing a pollen causing people to self-destruct. Whenever the wind blows, you know someone is going to kill...his or herself. Somehow though, it doesn't effect Mark Wahlberg and company and the explanation makes no sense ("if we are in small groups, we won't be effected"). In the end, the plants just stop killing people and movie over. To top it off, the acting is horrible. I like Mark Wahlberg, but this is the worst acting I have seen from him by far. My recommendation is: this is a Clint Baer approved movie...yes, that bad.

3. Role Models - Finally, a great movie. If you have seen a preview, you know the storyline. Two idiots get in trouble with the law and have to do community service. Seann William Scott redeems himself from Mr. Woodcock and plays a slightly smarter Stifler. Paul Rudd, Independence, MO, native, plays a guy who is stuck in a mid-life crisis and whose frustration leads both characters in front of a judge. The kids (McLovin' and a 9 year old black boy) are hilarious and everything just clicks in this movie. People who know me that one of my complaints about the Judd Apatow movies (Anchorman, Superbad, Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) is that the movies start out funny and about 2/3 through turn serious and there are few to no laughs in the last 1/3. Role Models, like Step Brothers, does not have that problem. Even when Role Model comes to the usual "serious" moment, director David Wain (The State, Stella), manages to put in enough laughs to avoid the quicksand traps. My recommendation: fan "freakin" tastic. Go watch and laugh...and there is good nudity, which should keep the Baer brothers attention.

Update, Sunday at 9:17 p.m.:  I forgot to mention a movie preview before Role Models.  "The Unborn" looks like a freakin' scary movie, a lot more so than The Happening.  I was impressed, intrigued and scared.

Update, Monday at 5:47 p.m: Role Models gets the Official Justin R. Meyer Seal of Approval.

MVC - Mountain West Challenge

If you haven't heard about it yet, click here. I think this is a brilliant move. It gives the Bears another quality non-conference game with potentially national exposure. A win over a nationally recognized program like Utah, BYU or UNLV could push the Bears off the bubble and into the Tournament. Fred Eck "Eck the Cat" and I have been advocating a conference v. conference match up for the MVC for years. We generally thought that the MAC would be more likely, but the Mountain West is a better conference.

I do have two concerns though, both media related: (1) no television contract yet; and (2) with the Mountain West, by definition, on the West Coast, will anyone east of Evansville care about the "Challenge."

Let me the first to ask: WHO WANTS TO WATCH THE BEARS IN VEGAS?

For Hardcore Chiefs Fans Only...

The season has been tough so far, and there is no light at the end of the tunnel. However, this will make Chiefs' fans smile (in case the video doesn't work, click here):

Ready for MVC Basketball

Earlier today, I purchased tickets to see the Bears go up against SIU in Carbondale on Wednesday, January 28. I will be traveling to the game with some guys who I work with who are SIU fans. It is going to be so sweet watching the Bears light up SIU on their dump of a home floor. My excitement level for this season has just gone up a couple of notches.

As an aside, word from SIU fans that I know is that the SIU arena is going to be renovated within the next couple of years. Something tells me that they are going to be ripping off a lot of the primo extras of JQH arena.