One seriously strange baseball game

Somehow the L.A. Angels pitched a no-hitter (that won't count as a no-hitter) against the Dodgers but lost the game anyway. An error was called against the pitcher, but it didn't look like an error. That led to a run for a team that didn't even record a hit. The pitcher throwing the no-hitter, Jered Weaver, got pulled from the game and didn't look happy about it. And to top it off, it won't even count as a no-hitter because the Angels only pitched eight innings since the Dodgers didn't need to bat in the bottom of the ninth inning. Weaver will get the loss even though he didn't give up a hit -- at least officially.

And this isn't the first time something like this has happened. Reportedly, there have been five games now where a team has won without recording a hit. You've got to love baseball.

Advance Batman tickets already selling out?

Apparently, in some places in the country, advance tickets for the Batman sequel, "The Dark Knight," are already selling out, particularly midnight showings. The movie doesn't hit theaters until July 17/18. Some theaters haven't started selling advance tickets for the movie yet.

The first movie in the new franchise, "Batman Begins," was successful at the box office, but it wasn't an early onslaught of activity. The movie became successful over time as word of mouth spread that it was actually good. The previous Batman series of movies had gotten increasingly silly. "Batman Begins" added edge to the new franchise.

A lot of folks, I suppose, also want to see the late Heath Ledger's final performance as The Joker. I hope interest in the movie goes beyond that one factor. I haven't been particularly impressed with this summer's movies so far. Perhaps Batman will turn out decent. It has a good director in Christopher Nolan, who co-wrote the script.

Rutherford County hit hard by storm

Rutherford County was hit hard by a storm. Duke Energy reports 1,786 power outages. Most of the outages are in the extreme western part of Rutherford. Right now Cleveland County is surrounded to the west and south by thunderstorms, which will make their way through here.

http://radar.weather.gov/radar.php?rid=gsp&product=N0R&overlay=11101111&loop=no

Power outages from the storms

After storms rolled through the area Thursday night, Duke Energy reported several dozen power outages in Cleveland County and more than that in Rutherford County. As of early Friday, power had been restored to all but five residences in Cleveland County (according to information from Duke) and power had been restored to all the residences in Rutherford County. The mapping data was incomplete on the map, so I couldn't pinpoint where the outages took place aside from the numbers themselves. Mecklenburg County was hardest hit. It was still reporting several hundred outages early Friday.

Interesting Fourth of July facts, including the number of hot dogs eaten

Here are some interesting facts about the Fourth of July, according to History.com, which used the Census Bureau as a source for a lot of the information:

– The estimated amount of hot dogs eaten by Americans on the Fourth is 150 million.
– The fireworks imported from China into the United States were valued at $216 million, in 2006.
– Japan purchases more fireworks than any other country.
– The number of U.S. residents was projected to be 302 million by July 4, 2007.
– There are five places in the United States with the word "freedom" in their name.

Source: History.com, Census

America's top choices in DVDs for 2007

According to information from the Entertainment Merchants Association (and my thoughts in parenthesis):
- The number-one DVD seller in 2007 was "Happy Feet" (Why?)
- "The Departed" led the rental charts (Cool, I own that one. It's great. But it's really violent and kids should stay far away.)
- "High School Musical 2" was the best selling TV on DVD title (I would rather eat tinfoil than watch this. I would rather have my fingernails ripped out one by one than watch this.)
- "300" was the leading high-definition disc movie (Too much yelling in this movie for me, but it would translate well to high-definition because the special effects were impressive.)

A second opinion on fantasy baseball

Emily Killian wrote this week about her fantasy baseball woes. I share her frustrations with this season, but it's too soon to give up.

I used to be a really good fantasy baseball player -- until this year. My teams all fell apart. I'm in three leagues, a keeper league that's been going for years, a head-to-head league and another league. I'm currently fifth out of 10 in two leagues and eighth in my beloved keeper league.

The biggest disappointment is that keeper league. I had built up a great team until this year. I was the one who got Chase Utley (pictured above) from the free agent pool years ago, before he was a full-time starter. He's a particularly valuable fantasy player because he plays second base, where the talent pool isn't that strong. I was the one who knew David Wright was going to be a star. I was the one who knew Adam Dunn was worth it despite the poor batting average. I still have all those players.

But I'm also the idiot who insisted that Andruw Jones was due for a comeback year (he's on the DL). I'm also the idiot who knew Paul Konerko was going to have another great year (he's also on the DL). Both of them have a pitiful batting average and their power numbers have taken a dive. I'm also the one who chose to keep mainly offensive players (we only protect 10 players from year to year) and let my pitchers go.

The end result is a team with lots of power, no steals and no pitching. I've won this league twice in the past four or five years. This year I'm battling to stay out of the cellar. But I'll never give up. That's the good thing about fantasy baseball. If you're in sixth place, just set your new goal at fifth place and celebrate the small victories, kind of like the Atlanta Braves have to do.

Despite the frustrations, I'll never quit playing fantasy baseball. It's not as popular as fantasy football, but it's more fun and a lot more challenging. If this is Emily's first year, she should give it another try next year. You can't predict injuries and it takes a year or two to get a feel for it. I've also seen teams skyrocket from worst to first after the All-Star break. It's a marathon, not a sprint. And just like the Mets, there's always next year.

There's an industry springing up around fantasy sports. The hobby is also becoming more mainstream in nature, particularly NFL fantasy football.

Inmates working

I had a lot of driving to do this morning and noticed it's a big day for inmates working. There was a fairly large crew working along U.S. 74 between Shelby and Kings Mountain. I've seen them in this area fairly often. When I got back to Shelby, there was a team working near a park area off Graham Street, along the creek area near the basketball courts.

People actually eat this stuff?

I had to evacuate The Star building at lunch. Jackie Bridges had some kind of chicken and spinach mess in the breakroom. The smell was starting to melt the computers. It looked like some kind of frozen dinner surprise. It makes me nostalgic for the days when people would simply burn the popcorn in the microwave.

I miss those plastic CD covers

I realize that more and more people are getting their music in a digital, online format. I have my iTunes account and buy songs that way from time to time. But I like a hard copy, so to speak, of my CDs. That's why I find it annoying that more new releases are using cardboard slipcovers as the only CD packaging. What happened to those nice plastic covers that break all the time? I miss those. Are they going away completely?

Tragedy out of Haywood County as a trooper was killed in the line of duty

Some really tragic news came out of Haywood County, where a trooper was shot and killed. This is just west of Asheville.

Here is the press information from the N.C. Highway Patrol:

Trooper David Blanton Jr. (pictured above), 24, was shot and killed in the line of duty last evening during a traffic stop on Interstate 40 in Haywood County.  Trooper Blanton joined the North Carolina Highway Patrol on May 11, 2006.  His most recent assignment was to Haywood County.
 
Trooper Blanton is the 59th trooper to die in the line of duty since the formation of the Highway Patrol in 1929.  He is the first trooper to be fatally assaulted since 1997.
 
Trooper Blanton grew up in Sylva, N.C., where he graduated from Smokey Mountain High School in 2002.  His first North Carolina Highway Patrol duty station was Waynesville.    
 
Trooper Blanton leaves behind a wife and child.

Here is further press information on the suspect in the case:

Law enforcement officers have charged Edwardo Wong II age 37 with First Degree Murder in the death of Trooper David Blanton Jr. 

Wong has an Ormond Beach, Florida address and told officials he was traveling from Tennessee.  He has a lengthy criminal record that includes convictions for felony assault on law enforcement officers, felony drug violations, felony possession of a firearm and others. 

Wong is being held in the Haywood County Jail without bail. 

How do you rent your movies?

Some folks use stores such as Family Video or Blockbuster to rent movies. Others use Netflix to rent by mail. Video on demand through cable or satellite services is starting to offer more and more movies the same day they are released on DVD. Some people just buy the DVDs. Some people buy on iTunes. Set-top box, TV delivery and computer delivery are seen by some as the future. The market is in a state of flux right now. There are also kiosks and rentals at many grocery stores. For now, options abound.

We're still in an extreme drought, air quality easing

According to the N.C. Drought Monitor, we're still in an extreme drought. This classification includes Cleveland and surrounding counties. We're not in the worst classification, which is exceptional drought. On a brighter note, the code orange days in air quality appear to be behind us for a little while. We're now forecast to be in a code yellow, although frankly, I can't tell the difference.

Here's a link the the drought determinations:

http://www.ncdrought.org/

'We have multiple Dradis contact'

People make fun of me, but I don't care. I like the new version of "Battlestar Galactica," which just concluded it's mid-season finale on Friday night.

It's a good show that hides political commentary from today's headlines in a science fiction show. It gets away with things other shows can't because it's all masked in a science fiction show.

I agree that the show ABC aired decades ago was garbage. But this new show is entirely different. It's moody, thought provoking and well written.

The evil Cylons have also changed. They evolved from the robots from the first series to the woman pictured above in the current series. Now that's progress.

"Hulk" wins, but "The Happening" performs well

Following up on my last post, "The Incredible Hulk" finished the weekend at almost $55 million. That's good but it'll need another good weekend to finish ahead of the last attempt at this franchise. I missed my prediction by $5 million, which isn't too bad.

"The Happening," (pictured above) the film critics are begging people to hate, finished at almost $31 million. That's a good number that proves people like to decide for themselves what to see. It'll also need a good second weekend to keep any momentum going.

"The Incredible Hulk" vs. "The Happening"

This weekend at movie theaters it's a showdown pitting "The Incredible Hulk" vs. "The Happening," M. Night Shyamalan latest.

Buzz is bad on "The Happening," and a little better on "The Hulk." I'm predicting "The Hulk" pulls in about $50 million from Friday to Sunday. I also think it will roughly double what "The Happening" brings in. After all, some folks are dubbing M. Night as "Shyamalamabigbomb." Although frankly, I'm more interested in seeing his film than "The Hulk" right now. I liked the first attempt several years ago to bring "The Hulk" to the big screen. It was stylish and moody.

Plus, I always get suspiscious when critics seem to want to line up against a movie, like any movie M. Night makes. It's almost like they're are scared to say anything good about him for fear they'll look bad to other critics.

Help, he's killing this plant

City Editor Graham Cawthon won this plant at the recent United Way banquet. He was a big part of The Star's successful campaign. Now they are sitting on his desk, dying. At some point plants need water to live. Of course, I only have plastic plants in my house because I don't like watering things either. There's a plant in my office (I don't know who put it there), but Donna Roddy at The Star keeps it watered because I never will.

What happened to my ice cream?

I've eaten better in Cleveland County than I ever did when I lived in Gaston County. More specifically, I eat more in Cleveland County than I did in Gaston County. I really have a weakness for ice cream, so perhaps it's a good thing that my ice cream is shrinking. I bought the larger container two weeks ago and when I went back to get another container last week, well, there was a little less ice cream.

Hey, there's a food crisis going on. And the ice cream was still good.

You won't find 'Swingtown' here -- ever

A watchdog group is taking aim at the TV show "Swingtown." That's why I've gotten about 20 identical, word-for-word letters from residents accusing us of violating our FCC license and urging us not to air future episodes. There are just a few problems here. We're not a CBS affiliate, we're not regulated by the FCC and we've never aired "Swingtown." And I can promise this: We'll never, ever air "Swingtown."

Here's one of the letters:

Dear Shelby Star:

I am offended by the content of the CBS program "Swingtown." The
offensive content clearly violates our local community standards and does
not reflect your license obligation "to serve the public interest."

I urge you to refuse to air future episodes of "Swingtown."

I also ask you to place a copy of my complaint in your files according to
FCC regulations.

Spotty rain and more power outages

The rain, at least in Shelby, was bizarre on Tuesday afternoon. It started with the sun shining. As I was driving up U.S. 74, it was raining on one side of the road, but not the other. Some parking lots were getting rain. Others a few feet away didn't get anything. Then came the thunder. Duke Energy reported a couple areas of power outages. One area was located between Shelby and Fallston. A second area was between Patterson Springs and Earl, but closer to Patterson Springs. In total, there were 59 outages from Duke Energy in Cleveland County. It could have been worse. Chester County in South Carolina reported 1,165 outages on Tuesday. This all follows Monday's outages in the Grover area. There were more than 1,200 without power. Those have since been restored.

The infamous snake, of course, led to a large outage in Shelby on Saturday night.

I can hear that helicopter

I had a great day off on Monday. But crime never takes a day off. I can hear the search for the escaped man as I write this. "A helicopter is being used in the search," according to our story.

The helicopter is making circles over my neighborhood and then moving north before circling back. It kind of makes me not want to let the dogs out to use the bathroom. They might just have to wait until morning.

Clint Eastwood's Josey Wales: A libertarian?

Just saw "The Outlaw Josey Wales" for the first time. I can't believe I had skipped this Clint Eastwood classic up to now. It's Eastwood playing the tough-as-nails guy who really isn't all that bad. He just can't keep the government, and its agents, out of his life.

To demonstrate that Josey Wales had some libertarian thoughts:

Josey Wales: Dying ain't so hard for men like you and me, it's living that's hard .... Governments don't live together, people live together. With governments you don't always get a fair word or a fair fight.

Indian chief: It's sad that governments are chiefed by the double-tongues.

There are enough good lines in this movie to keep Gabe Whisnant (who speaks in movie lines) in business for a month. My favorite lines:

- "Not a hard man to track. Leaves dead men wherever he goes."

-Josey Wales: When I get to likin' someone, they ain't around long.
Another character: I notice when you get to DISlikin' someone they ain't around for long neither.

- Bounty hunter: You're wanted, Wales.
Josey Wales: Reckon I'm right popular. You a bounty hunter?
Bounty hunter: A man's got to do something for a living these days.
Josey Wales: Dyin' ain't much of a living, boy.

There are even better lines, but the language prohibits its inclusion here.

Outlandish theory on the power outage

Officials weren't exactly definitive or detailed on the reason for the power outage on Saturday night. As we sat in the dark wondering if we were going to actually get a newspaper published, someone joked that perhaps an angry, homeless squirrel threw himself into a transformer to protest the loss of his tree, cut down by work crews, ironically, to prevent such power outages.

Hey, it seemed funny at the time. I guess you had to be there.

A promising new album arrives

One of the best reviewed albums so far this year is a self-titled debut CD from a band called Fleet Foxes. They are based out of Seattle, the city that brought us Nirvana. But this album has various musical influences and I believe is more indy in nature. The Guardian says, "It all adds up to a landmark in American music, an instant classic." Rolling Stone says "the Foxes stuff their free-form songs with rich, swirling melodies; billowing clouds of organs, tom-toms, bells and assorted stringed instruments cloak group vocals whose ... suede-fringed precision owes plenty to Crosby, Stills and Nash."

I've only heard a few songs, but I've ordered it to see what all the fuss is about. I've been disappointed with much of the music of 2008 so far. This one gives me hope that the year in music can be redeemed. It might be on the arty side, but at this point I'm willing to risk it. I'll let you know if it's good or just fizzles out like everything else this year.

Summer movies: The theaters are cool. Are the movies?

Here's what upcoming the the parade of summer movies:

June 6:

Kung Fu Panda: It's animated. The kids might love it. And it does feature the summer's funniest movie title.

June 13:
The Incredible Hulk (pictured): Everyone hated the last attempt at this franchise. I thought it was pretty good -- kind of a thinking person's superhero movie. This new one promises more action and less brooding.

The Happening: M. Night Shyamalan was the "it" director after "The Sixth Sense" and to a lesser degree, "Signs." Many people hated "Lady in the Water." I really liked the "The Village," which drew mixed reviews. This new one is rated R. I don't really know what to expect with this one. But I think Shyamalan is a good director who doesn't deserve some of the things that have been said about him and his movies.

June 20:
Get Smart: No thanks, I'll pass.

June 27:
Wall-E: It's Pixar ... and Disney. It'll make a fortune. I'll never see it.

July 2:
Hancock: It's a different take on the superhero movie. It looks funny with Will Smith playing the reluctant superhero. The trailer looks promising. This will be the big holiday movie.

New albums (or CDs) headed to stores

There are some decent music releases coming out in the next month and some questionable ones as well.

June 10
- Jakob Dylan, “Seeing Things,” former member of the Wallflowers and current son of legend Bob Dylan
- Alanis Morissette, “Flavors of Entanglement.” Remember when she was cool? Didn’t think so.
- My Morning Jacket, “Evil Urges.” This band is about as cool as it gets. I can’t wait for this one. (band pictured above)

June 17
- Coldplay, “Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends.” They used to be cool, then they cooled off. This album might make them cool again. It’s a toss up.
- The Offspring, “Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace.” This band is so 1994 … and they tend to scream a lot.

June 24
- Nelly, “Brass Knuckles.” It will sell well.

Am I addicted to this stuff?

Ever since I was a little kid, I've had chapped lips to some degree. I've gone through every lip balm and product on the market. I think I'm now officially addicted to the stuff. This picture is just from my medicine cabinet. Any opinions about what's best? And no, I'm not going cold turkey on the Chapstick. But it does seem like I've gone a bit overboard.

Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth: The opera

Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth," the award-winning but controversial documentary on global warming, is being turned into an opera. Regardless of how you felt about the original documentary (my boss, for instance, isn't a fan), this clearly might be the worst opera ever produced. A stiff documentary just doesn't seem like good source material for an opera. What's next? Michael Moore sings the classics?

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jgUbEEXuh301jjs3gwfNHt4OfdYgD91055U80