Mishmash Musings

If you follow college basketball, then you’ll be interested in this tidbit. Tyreke Evans, who attended high school at Aston American Christian in PA, will attend Memphis in the fall after weighing offers from Villanova, UConn, and Texas as well.

Evans is a 6’5″, 205-lb point guard who was ranked by Rivals.com as No.2 at the position nationwide. He announced his decision at a televised press conference, even though most everyone knew that he would ultimately choose to play for the Tigers.

Although there’s no question that Evans will have a huge impact on the Memphis offense, he doesn’t come free of baggage. He’s currently cooperating with authorities in a murder investigation after being identified as the driver of a vehicle from which his cousin shot someone. Evans is not being charged with anything for his participation, but… yikes!

Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see how he fares with the Tigers next season.

Edited to add press conference screen grab:

One of my resolutions for this year was to pay more attention to my overall health. Towards that end, I’ve joined a health club and now exercise three days per week, I’ve been watching what I eat and cutting down on my visits to fast food chains, and I’ve been taking vitamin supplements to help ensure my body gets the nutrients it needs. I am definitely seeing some improvements already, but know there’s a lot more I can do.

For instance, I’ve long been wondering if I should try colon cleansing. I’ve heard that there are numerous benefits to this procedure, as cleansing helps remove all the harmful toxins that build up in the colon over time. I’ve never done a colon cleanse before, so I can only imagine how bad things are in there!

Anyway, I’d would prefer to try an all-natural Herbal Cleanser over anything else. I remember seeing a commercial on TV for something called Dual-Action Cleanse a while ago, so I looked the product up and read more about it.

Dual-Action Cleanse offers all the benefits of a detoxifying colon cleanse in an all-natural formula so I don’t have to worry about any unwanted additives or side effects. Moreover, the product was far more affordable than I expected it to be, meaning that it won’t cost me an arm and a leg just to try it out.

I figure I’ve got nothing to lose here — except a bunch of nasty toxins — so I’ll probably place an order very soon!

Why am I posting about Cypress Bay High School? Am I an alum of the Weston, FL institution? No. Do I just want to tell you that it’s the largest high school in the nation, with an enrollment of more than 5,000 students? Nope.

It’s because Cypress Bay High School is the focus of a brand new MTV reality show called The Paper. The series takes a behind-the-scenes look at The Circuit, Cypress Bay’s award-winning newspaper. Apparently, being on staff of the paper at Cypress Bay is somewhat akin to being a star athlete at other high schools.

I didn’t watch the premiere of the show, which was last night, but I might check out the full-length ep over at MTV.com. I’ve seen previews and trailers for The Paper, and I have to say that it looks like it would get old quickly. I mean, there’s a bunch of drama about who gets to be editor-in-chief, then there’s a lot of infighting after the editor is selected, blah, blah, blah.

The trailer also showed some other high school stuff, such as pool parties and kids making out. Hmm, I think I’m a bit old to be watching that kind of thing!!

Anyway, I’ll at least give the first ep a try and see what the show is all about.

I was surfing around the Internet today looking for some of the latest NFL mock drafts when I came across a website I’d never been to before. It’s called Addict Sports, and features free message boards where registered users can talk about baseball, football, hockey, fantasy leagues, and more. There are even boards dedicated to nfl game picks to help you cover the spread, and original articles analyzing player or team performance.

All in all, AddictSports looks like a pretty cool place to hang out and talk about my favorite teams. I’m going to register and add the site to my regular rotation so I’ll have something to do during the baseball season. If you’re a sports fan, you’ll definitely want to check it out for yourself!

Have you been following the story about J.K. Rowling’s lawsuit against RDR Books? Apparently, RDR was set to publish a Harry Potter Lexicon, an encyclopedia-like tome containing all kinds of information and tidbits from the Harry Potter book series. Originally started as a website by librarian Steve Vander Ark, the Harry Potter Lexicon actually earned praise from Rowling a while ago. Once she learned, however, that a book was forthcoming, she changed her tune and decided to sue.

Rowling has said that one of the reasons for the suit is the fact that she wanted to publish a book like that herself, and since Harry Potter is her character and all the information contained in a lexicon of that sort would stem from her ideas, then she should be the only one to be able to earn money from the venture.

The other side is citing Fair Use, saying that copyright protection doesn’t extend all the way to these types of companion guides that are meant to help enhance readers’ understanding and enjoyment of literature. Think Cliff’s Notes and other such resources.

Anyway, the case, which has been pending for several months already, is set to begin next week in a NY court, with Rowling scheduled to appear.

I side with RDR Books on this one. I don’t pretend to know anything about copyright law or how far “fair use” extends, but there are so many companion guides out there that it seems like this practice has been going on for ages. Heck, there are even “definitive” guides to television shows and things like that. Unless all of those books are fully licensed by the original copyright holder, then I think Rowling will lose this one.

On a more shallow note, this type of lawsuit makes Rowling look incredibly greedy. What, being worth a billion dollars isn’t enough for you now? You have to try to squeeze every cent out of the HP series that you can?

Yes, they’re her characters and her events; no one is claiming otherwise. But for her to say that no one else can compile that information into a single reference work is ridiculous. I hope Rowling doesn’t win this suit.

My favorite place to read, by far, is in bed. I’m not the kind of person who can sit in a coffee shop and pore over a novel for hours on end. Instead, I’m most comfortable when I can fully recline while reading, so the bed or the couch work best for me.

The only problem with reading in bed is that I usually end up nodding off after a short time, especially if I’m not immersed in an exciting page-turner. Sometimes this is a good thing, like if I’m reading late at night right before going to sleep, but often it just leads to an extra nap during the day.

Maybe I need one of those adjustable beds so I can prop myself up a bit while still being in a comfortable place. This would work for watching TV and movies too (I’m the complete opposite with those, as I can’t watch TV while lying down), giving me the best of both worlds.

Hmmm, I wonder how much an adjustable bed would cost?!

I didn’t watch the Miss USA pageant last night because I find those types of shows to be incredibly boring, but I did read about the event in the Yahoo! news section this morning. The 2008 Miss USA winner is 26-year-old Crystle Stewart from Missouri City, TX. She was voted best out of all 51 (D.C. has its own representative as well) contestants by a panel of judges that included Heather Mills (Paul McCartney’s ex), Rob Schneider, Olympic swimmer Amanda Beard, and reality TV show winner Christian Siriano.

The 57th annual pageant was held in Las Vegas this year, and was hosted by Donny and Marie Osmond. The newly crowned Miss USA will next compete in the Miss Universe pageant, which will be held in Vietnam in July.

Here are a couple of AP pictures of the new Miss USA:

I guess this list is more for my benefit than for yours, since I’m pretty certain you don’t care what I have to do today! But I need to write this out to get everything organized in my head, so please bear with me.

First, I’m going to hit Blockbuster to rent a couple of DVDs for the weekend. It’s in the same plaza as my bank, so I can swing by the ATM afterwards and get some cash as well. Next, I have to go to the post office to mail an employee recommendation letter that I wrote last night, and then I’m going to head on over to the electronics store to see if they have the iPod Nano that I want. After that, I’ll stop by the grocery store to pick up something for tonight’s dinner before coming home to do my regular housework and stuff.

I’m sure this must seem pretty boring to you, but it doesn’t bother me a bit!