The New Facebook

It's only fitting that on the night my beloved Facebook becomes "new", I dined over some great Chinese food with a couple whose combined age is 184. Fitting because right now I'm as confused about the new Facebook layout as they are about computers.

Facebook is a global brand. It's surpassed MySpace as the most popular social network on the planet. So why mess with a good thing?

Facebook claims they wanted to make the site clean and simple by reducing clutter. Personally, I'm overwhelmed by the new look. It's more cluttered than the Palin house. And why are my applications called boxes now?

This is like McDonald's deciding to put tofu patties in Big Macs. It's like when you find out that your friend Marvin isn't Marvin anymore. (S)he's Martha.

Now I'm sure Facebook's head honchos are convinced this will be a success. Remember the outrage when the Mini-Feed launched? After fixing some privacy concerns, that turned out to be a vital feature.

The New Facebook will definitely take some getting used to. And if all else fails, Facebook can always take the New Coke route.

Return of the Mack

When Entourage premiered during the summer of 2004, it was an envious, fresh, male-targeted comedy. But after gaining quite the following over the years, the HBO staple clearly lost its way. By last season, almost every episode seemed to follow a generic formula - Turtle and Drama team up for some idiotic scheme, Vince and E put themselves in predicaments, and Ari screams at Lloyd. No matter how bleak things looked, the crew would always come out on top. Nothing bad ever happened. Can't find a plane? Well Kanye will come save the day!

Couple the recycled story lines with the irritating Billy Walsh character, and you're stuck watching a show for old times sake.

So with slight apathy, I checked out Sunday night's Season 5 premiere, and to my surprise, saw everything that originally made Entourage great - Skinemax sex scenes, lavish living and Ari being Ari (I can't believe it took him this long to call Lloyd "Yoko"). Viewers were also treated to the music stylings of Mark Morrison's "Return of the Mack" when E, Ari and Drama went to Mexico to get Vince. It doesn't get better than that!

The first 2 1/2 seasons followed Vince's rise to fame. Now that he's hit bottom after the "Medellin" debacle, it looks like it's back to square one.

Vince might even need to get help from his publicist, Shauna. But considering she's done a complete Judy Winslow, it seems unlikely.

Nevertheless, Episode 55 had me continually looking at the clock on the cable box. Just like with the early episodes, I didn't want this one to end.

Election 2008: A Democrat's View - Part 1

A loyal reader sent this to me. It's my pleasure to pass it along.

This will be the most important election of my life.

Initially, I thought the stakes were on par with the two times W “won”. But after Wednesday night it became crystal clear. If my fellow citizens elect McCain/Palin, we are signing up for four more years.

I felt physically ill watching Rudy Guiliani and Sarah Palin address the hall Wednesday night. The negative speeches delivered with smiles, by both, were full of lies and served only to attack Obama/Biden/Democrats, not explain one single Republican plan.

Rudy proved Biden true by falling back on his crutch of 9/11, completely unable to sell his speech without fear mongering and reminding people of his moment.

In her speech, Palin showed no interest for the environment, the economically downtrodden, the uninsured and the underinsured, ending the war in Iraq in this lifetime, or an entire host of subjects that have been the focal point of this campaign and this country since she was elected Governor of Alaska. Her sharp attacks played well in front of the party. Yet her failure to address a single serious issue will hopefully not go unnoticed.

Bush/McCain/Palin promise everything and say you must surrender nothing. Balance the budget, but no taxes. End the dependence on foreign oil, but no need to fund alternative energy. Health care for all, but no government program. Protect civil liberties, civil rights, choice, equal protection under the law, but more Alito, Scalia, Thomas and Roberts on the bench.

After eight years, are we still buying this BS?

Barack Obama speaks of opportunity, but also of sacrifice. Under Obama, we will restore our standing around the world, attempt to balance the budget, rebuild infrastructure, curtail our dependence on foreign oil, get the troops home, insure our citizens and promote education.

But none of this will happen unless the American people are willing to make a few hard choices along the way.

We must end tax loopholes if we want to fund alternative energy. We must choose how to fund infrastructure repairs and health insurance. We must stop pretending that Social Security and Medicare are solvent and that we can stay in Iraq for 100 years.

Obama has brought a new generation of Americans into the political process. I hope that they speak truth to power and restore sanity in this election.

Thunderful

With the anticipation of a Vin Diesel movie release, the team formerly known as the Seattle Supersonics, officially announced their long unofficial name - the Oklahoma City Thunder.

It's only fitting that a franchise owned by oil rednecks chose a name befitting of a WNBA team (most WNBA team names do not end with a "s"). Along with stealing Seattle's team, OKC also stole the Charlotte Bobcats colors. Wonder what they'll use as a mascot? Youppi?

But congrats should be offered to the OKC oil men. They got what they wanted. It's an absolute certainty now. Has been for a few days.

Because if you were enjoying Labor Day Weekend, you probably missed that former Sonics owner, Howard Schultz, sereptitiously dropped his lawsuit against Clay Bennett and Co. In a last minute attempt to save his coffee soiled rep, Schultz provided an inklining of hope that the Sonics could possibly come back. But as he did when he originally sold the team, Schutlz yet again screwed over the city. At least we can still enjoy those delightful Starbucks breakfast sandwhiches!

Possessing a baseball team poised to acheive the first 100-loss/$100 million payroll season, a college football team that will win 2-4 games and no NBA franchise, I think it's safe to say that Seattle, Washington is TitleTown USA.

A Tale of Two Coaches

Washington Huskies football fans have had some bad luck since the school canned Rick Neuheisel back in 2003. Over the last five plus years, a whopping total of 18 wins can be attributed to the team. The once dominant football powerhouse is now a Pac-10 doormat. And while current coach Tyrone Willingham seems set on surpassing Keith Gilbertson for the worst winning percentage in UW history (Willingham's .440 mark narrowly beats out Gilby's .438), Neuheisel is doing what he does best - win.

Critics argue that Neuheisel is great at coaching player's he inherits, but mediocre at coaching his own players. They'll say he is directly responsible for soiling the image at his previous two head coaching stops, Colorado and Washington. But what can't be criticized is his ability to coach.

In 2000, Neuheisel won 11 games and lead the Huskies to a Rose Bowl victory. Willingham has won 11 games total at UW.

Do you think Willingham could have coached UCLA to a win over #18 Tennessee as Neuheisel did Monday night? He would have probably needed a few more bullets for that.

Willingham is about as friendly as Solange Knowles. He's college football's answer to Bill Belichick. The only diffrence is Belichick wins. Neuheisel is Willingham's polar opposite.

The UW football program is undoubtedly graduating more players and compiling fewer police reports than during the Neuheisel years, and Willingham deserves credit for that. But as fundamentally wrong as it might be, winning is the only thing that matters in college football. And if last week's 44-10 thumping to former rival Oregon is any indication, Willingham once again will be winning very little in 2008.

Neuheisel on the other hand will build upon UCLA's upset victory. No, they won't make the BCS, but don't be surprised if Neuheisel leads them into a bowl game. If only the same thing could be said about UW.

Play It Again

Steeped in tradition, Major League Baseball is generally slow to make changes. Ask a baseball traditionalist about the designated hitter and after a 30-minute rant, you'll understand what I mean. But in recent years, new trends like baggy pants, steroids and Jose Guillen have come along and made the game far more entertaining.

So yesterday's announcement that baseball will start using instant replay on questionable home run calls should be looked at as a positive. The game is evolving, and so are the stadiums. With fans closer to the field, making the right judgment on home runs is as important as ever. As evidenced throughout the last 15 years, umpires are routinely confounded on balls that don't clearly get over the fence.

This is like when Sega added trading players as an option for World Series Baseball 95. Sure, the game play was identical to the 1994 version, but the ability to trade players resulted in hundreds of more hours spent constructing the greatest video game lineup ever (who knew completing a trade for Marty Cordova would be so hard?).

Critics will argue that the human element is being taken away. They'll say it slows down an already slow game. But by limiting the replays to "boundary calls" - basically any uncertain home run call as determined by the game's crew chief, MLB got this one right. It's subtle enough where it will rarely ever impede on a game. Yet having the option could drastically alter the outcome for this year's postseason and beyond.

Team Redeemed?

Back from a near month long bout with writer's block. Wish I had a better excuse than that. Maybe something like announcing my retirement, changing my mind, contemplating taking a $20 million memorabilia deal with Facebook, only to decide I was coming back. But alas, my life is not nearly that exciting.

Luckily, the team known as Redeem stoked my literary fire.

After watching the U.S. Men's basketball squad's gold medal game against Spain, I couldn't help but liken this team to MJ's "Bad" album - over hyped and certainly no "Thriller".

While the Redeem Team sported a roster that featured at least the four best players in the world (Kobe, LeBron, D. Howard, CP3), to frame this team as one devoted to redemption is ridiculous. The scary thing is, the Redeem Team almost gave the gold medal game away to Spain. Early in the fourth quarter, the score stood at 91-89, Redeem Team.

Under no circumstances should the best NBA players ever lose against international competition. There is just too much talent. Most people chalked up the U.S. failures in 2004 and 2006 to clashing egos and teams hastily put together. But the truth is those teams lacked the patriotism needed to excel on an international level. They simply didn't care enough.

As far as international basketball has progressed since the original Dream Team dominated the 1992 Olympics, it still isn't anything to brag about. Take the silver medal winning Spain team. Their best player, Pau Gasol, is a fringe all-star at best. He's no superstar. Aside from Jose Calderon, no other player on Spain would even crack an NBA starting 5. The same goes for every other team that played in the Olympics. No superstars. Not Dirk. Not Yao. Not Vaginobli. Some very good players, yes. But mostly guys that couldn't cut it in the league.

Unless USA basketball wants to get cute and put together a team consisting of Ricky Davis, Melo, Birdman, Robert Swift and Ron Artest, there really should be no scenario where the US men's team doesn't come home with gold. Redemption? More like a duty.