The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

I used to consider myself as moderately religious, believing in some form of higher power, maybe from the Christian ideology or maybe not.

Now I have become much more jaded as time has passed. More harm than good has come from it. Religion is something that should be kept to yourself and not used as something to prove a point you want to make, or to claim that you're a better person than someone else. Those two sentiments have cause more pain and suffering in this world that anything else. As soon as an authority figure says, "My group is better than your group", and usually such a sentiment is based in religion, that's how wars start and blood starts to shed.

And to me it's odd that a lot of this fighting is for something that no one is 100% sure even exists. Be wary of anyone that tells you, "I know such and such God (or variant thereof) is watching" because bottom line, NOBODY KNOWS.

The only thing that makes me believe that some form of higher power exists is the complexity of nature and the universe that surrounds it. You have to look no further than the ability of our species to procreate. It starts from just one cell, and somehow it just 'knows' how to duplicate itself, where to go and what to build to 'construct' a human being. I am not sure if science can explain this form of intelligence.

I don't feel 100% comfortable labeling myself as an atheist, but at least I can admit I'm not sure what's out there, if anything at all, and I'm certainly not going to condemn those who might lean one way over the other. If believing in a religious god of some kind makes your life better, makes you a better person, how can I not be for it?

Most of the world isn't so open-minded though. And that's why I wonder if it's at all worth it.

Coming across this trailer for The Tillman Story enlightened me to the actual truth about a story that was first spread as a lie to the entire world. It was shocking to read, but not surprising at the same time.

At the Star Wars Celebration V convention in Florida, George Lucas announced all six Star Wars films will be released on blu-ray in the Fall of 2011. And to give the Star Wars nerds something to chew on, a deleted scene that I've included here was shown to the crowd that will be on this blu-ray set (better watch it now before they pull it).

The good news about this announcement is that Lucas isn't dragging his feet on releasing the movies on the latest format currently available. Remember how long it took him to release the movies on DVD?

The only downside is that only the "special editions" will be on the discs...the original theatrical cuts will not be included, even though the 50GB of space on each disc allows for both editions to be on there.

Now THAT'S the Lucas we know and love!

Before having seen this summer's hit Inception, the buzz on the flick was that it's complex, deeply layered, and you might get headaches trying to keep pace with the story. I didn't get headaches and I'm pretty sure I got most of it, but this is definitely a film to revisit. There are a handful of unanswered questions that I think a repeat viewing or two will help answer, and just marveling at the idea of being able to manipulate and explore dreams is a fascinating concept in itself (not to mention just watching it again because it's so well done is another good reason). If you've seen Inception and not sure if you "got" all of it, this helps sums up the primary objective the protagonists attempt in a cute, clever fashion. But as you know, it's a big chunk of the story sure but there's more to it, which what helps make it so good.

The intro for this 1980s TV Ontario show called Magic Shadows was, at the very least, inventive (and perhaps the animators were experimenting with LSD). As a kid, I would see this intro often after finishing up a different program (Dr. Who, Fables of the Green Forest, Dr. Snuggles I think was another) and it would FREAK ME OUT. I'm not sure much of it makes sense, for instance, the tiger wearing the business suit whose head would disappear, only for an octopus to then come flying out of the neck! What exactly does that mean? Anyway, the song and the smoking Marx Brothers were burned permanently in my brain, and I'm sure it may have been responsible for a nightmare or two growing up. But, I still look upon this program intro with nostalgia and just decided to look it up on YouTube for fun to see if it was up for viewing and luckily for me, it was there.

As an interesting sidenote, the host, Elwy Yost, had a son named Graham who went on to have a successful career as a Hollywood screenwriter, having written the screenplay for movies such as Broken Arrow and Speed. Speed would actually be the last film Elwy would host on television before retiring in 1999 on a different TV Ontario show, Saturday Night at the Movies.

Anti Niemi is the perfect example of why there is no loyalty in pro sports, why players are in the right to pursue the maximum value in contracts, and being an important piece of the puzzle in bringing a championship to a team who hasn't seen on in decades still doesn't guarantee you'll be sticking around.

Niemi just backstopped the Chicago Blackhawks to their first Stanley Cup in 50 years. His contract was up, and he deserved a raise, no question about it. As a restricted free agent, he wouldn't get top dollar in the open market, but would still get a substantial increase, and he held arbitration rights to ensure he got said increase.

He was awarded a $2.75 million dollar contract for one year in his arbitration case. An outrageous sum for us 9 to 5 folk, sure, but a very reasonable salary for a guy that had the moxy to backstop Chicago all the way to Lord Stanley.

So Chicago walked from the arbitrator's decision. They say it's too much, and Niemi is now unemployed.

I have read countless opinions saying Niemi is still "unproven" and showed how "loyal" he is to Chicago by forcing arbitration on the team. And some went further by saying it didn't matter who was playing in net, the Hawks would have won anyway.

Bullsh*t.

Niemi took over the #1 job from Cristobal Huet because Huet was playing like garbage and wasn't earning his $5.6 million a season salary. If he backstopped the team during the playoffs, they would have been done.

And compared to the other salaries around the league, $2.75 million for a #1 goalie is pretty reasonable. Just ask Ottawa how much they enjoy eating a $4.5 million cap hit paying Pascal Leclaire to be injured half the time.

The Hawks wasted no time signing Marty Turco out of Dallas to be Niemi's replacement. His play has declined in the last couple of years, and with just a few weeks away from turning 35 years old, isn't likely to get better. Their fans are supposed to be okay with this signing.

My point of all this is I don't blame players one bit for milking every dollar they can come contract time. Chicago could have made it worked, they could have held onto Niemi, but chose not to. Niemi's service of giving them a Stanley Cup was not rewarded. If that doesn't get you a new contract at a reasonable salary, what will?