More thotz on 2006

These thotz are partially inspired by the Olympics, but not all...

• How to improve, or at least make more entertaining, the Winter Olympics:

1. Allow elbowing in short track speed skating. Nothing to the head, but everything else is fair game. I'm imagining late in the race the announcers sounding something like this - "Oh boy Jim, I think we may be headed for a new world record in this event. It looks like this may be the longest it has ever taken a race to finish, because we currently have two of the four racers oddly contorted and unconscious in the corner of the track. Hope they can get some medical attention soon, but Olympic rules dictate that no one but the competitors are allowed on the ice until the race is concluded. However, as our other two athletes are engaged in a fistfight, I don't know how soon it may happen..."

2. Introduce the Winter Olympic Triathlon. Perhaps you've heard of the Biathlon. It's where the athletes cross-country ski from site to site where they stop, drop and shoot a gun at targets. The Winter triathlon is just like that except instead of just shooting at targets, it's combined with Aerials. So the athlete goes from site to site and stops, drops, and fires at Aerialists from opposing teams. Each gun-toting athlete gets 6 shots. If the Aerialist lands on anything but his/her feet, it's considered a hit. If the aerialist does land on his/her feet, wounded or otherwise, it's a miss.

3. Mixed Doubles Luge It's a fight to see who can make it to the finish least distracted.

4. Ice Pole Dancing Tanith, oh Tanith, I got yer gold medal right here...

5. Full Contact Curling It's just like the sport is now, only there is one guy from the other team trying to stop the rock from getting to the end. To fend him off is another player from the offense trying to push him back. The guys with the brooms and such are still there.



Ok, the day after Valentine's day is the official start of the Easter season, right? Hershey has what they call simply "Eggs." And I just can't get enough of them. They are not the kind where you unwrap the foil for the chocolate nugget, these are more akin to M&Ms, with a candy shell. They are dangerous, dangerous things. Those and KitKat bites are my favorite candies. Oh, and Halloween M&Ms, you can't beat those.


Audiobooks - Listen to them? I recently listened to The Da Vinci Code and I'm glad I did! Prior to Mrs. Dave being interested in it, I didn't really care much about it one way or another, it sounded kinda more High-falutin' than what I usually would go for, though I knew zilch about it. But she was interested, and I noticed that it has been on the bestseller list for about three years straight, so there must be something to it. I was very pleasantly surprised. It's a great audiobook if you've never given one a chance. I forget the guy's name who reads it, but he's a really good voice actor. I can't wait to see this movie. Of course, it will probably not quite live up to the book, a movie rarely does, but I have high hopes. Everyone keeps saying that Tom Hanks is miscast as Langdon, but I don't think so. He's not exactly how I pictured him, but he's not some huge jump that I can't believe they picked him. But the actress playing Sophie Niveau, purrrrrrr. Also not how I pictured her (for some reason, I kept picturing an actual human version of Mirage from the Incredibles (Syndrome's female assistant), but this actress will do just fine. ;-)

Dave