Plenty to blah-g about

1st, On Friday May the 1st I reached the ripe age of 30. I really don't feel any older. Things like my sister graduating college and my son turning one and a half have aged me way more than existing for a third decade. Life experience at this age is similar to being a police officer. In policing, the more years of service you have, the more you realize you don't know. Of course you gain experience and knowledge over time, but your maturity seems to reveal your distance from mastering your discipline. The same applies to life. At thirty you can think and function like a normal person (well...most of us) but your age reveals that you are far from fully understanding the idiosyncrasies of life.

2nd, the NBA playoffs (all women begin zoning out now). I have hated Labron James since the day his hype invaded my consciousness. Anybody close to me knows that I hate things that are "popular" or "trendy". King James came to the NBA straight out of High School and was supposed to be the next Michael Jordan. I called BS on that crap and vowed to hate him until he proved himself. Well, I can now easily say that Labron James has surpassed all of my expectations and I am now a fan of his amazing talent. The Cavaliers are racing through the playoffs with a strong momentum. I believe that they are the front runners to win it all this year. I know that the west is always strong and is the conference to beat, but this year it is the Cavs championship to loose. If you have seen the bench of the Cavs you know why I say this. The Cavs are tearing people apart and are having fun doing it. No other team has this continuity to their group. The Cavs have the unpredictable and intangible "team" quality that no other team in the playoffs possesses. They will win it all unless the western conference winner is playing their absolute best come finals time.

3rd, I would like to give my first summer movie review. I love huge budget summer movies because they show us the potential of Hollywood. Of course I have no love for the liberal propaganda machines of the west coast, but I do love when hundreds of millions of dollars are spent for my simple 2 hour amusement. I'm so poor that I had to use change from my car and bedroom change jars to see this movie, but it was worth it. X-men Origins: Wolverine is the subject of review - Wow, I had high expectations going into this movie and they were surpassed. The intro was action packed and was developing characters from the start. Several new mutants were introduced and they all had some impressive skills. The movie takes an expected lull afterward to further develop the Wolverine character. At one point I was turned off because of the use of a terrible movie cliché. When a character dies, why must somebody always scream "Noooooooooo!" while the camera angle fades away. It has been done so many times that I roll my eyes when it happens. I'm sure there are more creative ways to invoke strong emotion on film than to use that cliché. Anyways, the transformation into the Wolverine character was awesome and the movie kicked into overdrive at that time. Blood, guts, explosions, screaming, fighting, and general manly stuff ensued. Just what I paid for. The special effects were terrific and the movie had one heck of a twist at the end (I won't spoil it). The final battle was a worthy crescendo to the action and I also loved the cameo at the very end of the movie. This movie would be entertaining to someone who has never seen any X-men movies, BUT to get the most out of it, like I did, you have to have seen all the prior movies. I am not a comic book guy so I can't give any critique on how much the old school Wolverine was represented. I just know that I like what I saw. This movie is really not for women, so guys don't take your significant others (not to say that they are not wonderful company at all times).