Alice in Wonderland

I've seen three 3-D movies in my life...and two of them came in the last month. I'll just say this, 3-D technology has come a long way since Captain Eo.

The effects are better, the experience is better and the glasses are better. I can understand the first two, I mean my laptop has more computing power and a better graphics card then the entire special effects team had for Captain Eo. But what the hell took everybody so long to improve upon the 3-D glasses?

Not only did the old ones look terrible, but they gave me a migraine headache. That's a real bummer for a 10 year old kid at Disneyland, believe me.

So kudos to the post-production team that improved upon the 3-D effects of movies like "Avatar" and "Alice in Wonderland", but if I ever meet the guy who got rid of the Blue and Red cardboard glasses...I'm buying him a beer.

Floatopia

You tell a bunch of 20-somethings that the Medicare system in the United States is in dire need of reform...no one bats an eye. You tell them there's an alcohol ban at the beach..you get a revolution.

In 2008 San Diego City voters passed a law that effectively made the city's beaches dry. It was a pretty simple rule that basically stated there was no drinking alcohol on the beach at any time. It didn't however make any mention of not being able to drink while being out ON the water in a boat...or a floaty.

By 2009 thousands of people had discovered the loop hole and decided to exploit it with a mass rally of sorts...and giant floating party if you will. The first one was called "intertubepalooza"...now it's called "Floatopia" and it's spread all the way to Santa Barbara.

Today's event in San Diego attracted an estimated 6,000 people to Mission Bay, all in the name of getting drunk and peeing in your bathing suit. Now I'm not old enough yet to say that I don't understand the allure of an event like this. I definitely get it. I am too old though to go traipsing all over town looking for a raft just so that I can drink crappy luke-warm beer in the bay. I'd rather just drive by and take a picture of it. So that's what I did.

As far as I'm concerned though, God bless the little buggers for getting motivated and mobile...now if we could just get that fired up for Health Care reform.

Just One of Those Nights

I own a real bow tie for one reason and one reason only...so that I can unfurl it at some point in the night and pretend like I'm the 6th member of the Rat Pack. Tonight however, the tie was unfurled for reasons other then fashion...tonight it was out of necessity.

From time to time I get asked to emcee different events...usually charities. Most of the events are pretty similar. People get dressed up, they eat, they drink, there's usually an auction and we end up raising a bunch of money for a good cause.

Tonight's event was different.

Don't get me wrong, we still raised a bunch of money and there was definitely copious amounts of food and alcohol, but the feel of the event was..how should I put it...unique. The crowd was less "Hey we're going to the theater" and more "I hope Stone Cold Steve Austin puts the Undertaker in a sleeper hold". To put it simply...they were a ROWDY bunch.

I kind of felt like the piano player in some old Western during a bar room shootout...I was just up there doing my thing while bullets flew and glasses broke. The good news is, no one got shot and everybody had a blast. That's usually my goal when I emcee an event, nobody dies and everyone has a good time.

Hey, any landing you can walk away from is a good one.

Matty V

Today was my last full day in the desert covering Spring Training for the Padres, and we saved the best for last. Today my camera man (actually my photo-journalist, they hate when we call them camera men) and I headed to Maryvale, AZ to meet up with our old friend Matt Vasgersian.

He was there covering the Brewers for MLB TV's 30 in 30 and was nice enough to talk about the N.L. West with us for Channel 4. That was the good news, the bad news is where he picked the Padres to finish. If you didn't see it on Channel 4, here's how Matty sees the division shaping up.

1st Giants
2nd Rockies
3rd Dodgers
4th Diamondbacks
5th Padres

After we stopped taping Matty looked at me and said, "Did I really just pick the Padres to finish last?" Ummmm...yeah you did. See the problem for Matty is not so much the Padres (he actually thinks they are going to be better this year then they were last), the problem is everyone else.

Let's not forget that the wild card came out of the N.L. West last year. That means it was a pretty good division...and he obviously thinks the Giants are improved, so that doesn't leave much room for the Friars.

There is a real tendency to get tunnel vision when you're around just one team as much as I am. I understand that, but I'm still going to choose to be a bit more optimistic. I'll pick the Padres to finish 4th, with a chance to challenge for 3rd place in the division.

Just one man's opinion.

Everybodies Irish Today

You know how we always hear that St. Patrick's Day in Ireland is kind of like Cinco de Mayo in Mexico...no one really celebrates it in those countries and we Americans just use it as an excuse to drink in the middle of the week? According to my research (thanks Wikipedia) that's not necessarily the case with St. Patrick's day.

In the interest of brevity I'll spare you all the historical details of the actual St. Patrick and get right to the modern day celebration of Ireland's most recognized patron saint.

In 1903 St. Patrick's day became an official public holiday in Ireland, full of feast and merriment. So much merriment in fact that there was a law passed that required pubs to be CLOSED on March 17 because things were getting a little out of hand. That law wasn't repealed until the 1970's...to much merriment I'm sure. Still, even with the pints flowing, St. Patrick's day in Ireland is much less a secular holiday and much more a religious observation.

The same can most definitely NOT be said about our observation of March 17th. So every March we put on our green hat and go streaking through the quad to the gymnasium, all in the name of the man who helped bring Christianity to Ireland.

Make perfect sense to me.

A Bicycle Built for Four

I don't travel very much for my job...only a couple of weeks out of the year at most. As a result, I'm not all that used to being on the road and the havoc it can play on your system. I don't know why but whenever I come to spring training my fried food intake (and alcohol for that matter) increase by a generous amount.

That's one of the reasons I was really looking forward to having dinner at my friends Bryce and Melissa's house tonight. I needed a home cooked meal, some good conversation and a night off from the sauce. 2 out of 3 isn't bad I guess.

Aside from being one of the best looking couples I know, Bryce and Melissa are also one of the funniest. Turns out they are pretty pushy too. The menu tonight consisted of Mexican food, an episode of Lost and some heavy handed rum and Coke's...the latter of which I was hoping to avoid. Like I said though, the Kartler's can be pretty persuasive.

Well it turns out, if you have enough rum and Coke's, quadrupling up on a dirt bike seems like a hilarious proposition...not to mention a great photo op. Whether or not I'll feel the same way in the morning is up for debate, but what the hell, we're not curing cancer here. Just trying to have a good time.

I Love Spring Training

I tell every baseball fan I know, "Go to Spring Training!" Even if you're only kind of a baseball fan...spring training is the best.

Now there are a lot of reasons to love Spring Training...the weather, accessibility, day baseball, the night life, chain restaurants...but for me the number one thing is getting together with the boys after a Channel 4 spring game. The reason it's great is because this is the only time of the year it happens...it's the only time it CAN happen. We get everybody there...Padres PR staff, the writers, the broadcasters and the crew. This year Matty V even made it out to the Fox and the Hound for a couple of pops.

It's great camaraderie for sure, but the stories are what make it awesome. You get that many guys with that much baseball experience in one room together and you hear some whoppers. Unfortunately I can't get into the details here, but like I said, that's why you need to come to Spring Training.