Time has come today

I've been on this strange kick tonight watching time lapse videos, perhaps because I slept about three hours last night and woke up at the (for me, at least) ungodly hour of 7 a.m.

Since I'm still essentially living a college lifestyle - one filled with late nights and post-noon risings - doing the whole "early to rise" thing always leaves me exhausted but with a sense of fulfillment at having had a full day, and seeing a skyscraper erected before my eyes in 20 seconds or watching 24 hours pass over some pristine lake in a minute's time seemed tonight like a fine way to celebrate that.

While doing this, I also realized (while half-watching Comedy Central, for added effect) that as of mid-March, I will have been at The Gardner News for a grand total of 30 months, or a full 2 1/2 years. That revelation, needless to say, provoked a complex reaction in me - parts astonished, depressed, terrified, liberated - and perhaps in an effort to sort out those disparate emotions I threw myself deeper into YouTube's collection of compressed segments of time in hope of spiritual guidance.

The Web, of course, is home to virtually any and all media that anyone could ever want, and its selection in terms of time lapse video did not disappoint. Here's a pretty solid one of the Northern Lights, which makes for a good starting point:



This one's my favorite, at least in terms of what I found during my ::ahem:: "research." This dude displayed some definite dedication in order to bring aimless internet trolls like myself two minutes worth of entertainment, and for that, I salute him.


(Note: I'm not sure if the music makes the video more or less strange.)

This next one was billed as "powerful," and I'd tend to agree. Really well done, with some cool locations and some real heartbreaking strings to accompany the visuals. Plus, it feels like it should be a promo for "OK Computer," and I can't really turn that down.



I won't keep going on ... I mean, there's thousands of these damned thing on the 'Tube, I'll leave it up to you to keep perusing if you're interested.

So did I find the spiritual guidance I was seeking? Hard to say. Being able to see the illusion of time unveiled in a 60-second digital video clip is pretty anticlimactic in a sense, but the point - the stunning ambiguity of it all - gets across just fine.

The lesson, or the message, of seeing time for what it is can't be truly explained - it resonates on a very basic level, too basic to understand or convey effectively with language or other conscious expression. Chasing it any further than that, I think, simply gets in the way of appreciating it.

My aim tonight is to dream that I win the lottery, buy the Celtics, solve the energy crisis and spend my spare time gallivanting across the globe with supermodels. I also hope to get some quality sleep so I'm not a total zombie come the weekend.

That's my kind of time travel.

godspeed,
dk

p.s.
Check out The Sky in Motion

One word

Awesome.

And for further amusement:



And to complete the trifecta:

Well, that was a close one

And I thought for sure we were all goners ...



Since we'll be around post-2012 after all (and because it's never to early to start America's favorite parlor game) I figured I'd check out who the odds-makers have in the already-underway 2012 presidential campaign.

Here's the odds on the Republicans, and then on the whole field. Who you got? My money's on Sanford (for the Republican nomination, that is). Hell, if the Obamarama keeps going at this pace, the guy might serve five or six terms.

Another perk of knowing that Armageddon isn't just around the corner - the fact that I'll be able to watch faaaaaaaantastic NBA basketball well into my late 20s. Any NBA talk these days, of course, touches on the summer of 2010 free agent bonanza, the year LeBron, Wade, Bosh et al. hit the open market.

Given the age of the three superstars on the Celtics, I must say the prospect of signing one of the young guns to a long-term deal sits pretty well on this end. And wouldn't you know, Ray Ray's contract is due to expire just in time for that fateful summer.

As if you needed any more proof of Danny Ainge's genius. I mean, this is the man who brought us Planet Pollard.



I wouldn't trade last year's title for anything - honestly, I think I enjoyed it more than the '04 Sox team. But thinking back to the '07 draft, it's hard not to wonder what would have happened if the C's had gotten the first or second pick (as everyone, myself included, was praying for at the time).

Needless to say, I'm glad we didn't end up with Greg Oden's balky knees. But the other jewel of that draft ... well, here's all you need to know.

At least I have something to replace the 2012 countdown.

godspeed,
dk

P.S. - The 'longball' opus is still in production, because you can't rush perfection, by god

Posting is such sweet sorrow

Apologies to my faithful readers, I know I've been conspicuously absent from the world of virtual opinion lately. Take heart, though - I'm working on an epic, possibly multi-part treatise tying together virtually all elements of the American story (past, present and future). It's tentatively titled, "The Myth of the Longball."

(Note: My work on the piece marks the only time seeing Alex Rodriguez on television has inspired me to do something other than cuss or throw household objects at said television.)

Until my opus is complete, I'll tide you over with the below video. (Here's the back story to go along with it, for some added entertainment.)



godspeed,
dk

The sea was angry that day, my friends

In all quadrants, it seems, things are getting a little choppy.

Just finished watching the Celtics somehow pull out a win against Philly, a Ray Allen three from the corner with 0.5 seconds on the clock serving as the nail in the coffin. Aside from those last-second heroics, it was, I believe, the least entertaining basketball game I've ever watched. And that includes all the CLCF and travel league games I spent riding the pine.

First off, it was a total hack-fest. Just ugly, slow basketball with a seemingly non-stop parade of foolish turnovers and garbage fouls. The Sixers played with immense energy and physicality (with a little help from the jokers with the whistles) and led by 7 at their high point. The Celtics looked like they never got off the plane (19 turnovers, 7 by 'Ragin' Rajon Rondo) and ended up winning the game.

But it wasn't just the pace or style of the contest itself. At one point, one of the players knocked into some corporate scumbag sitting courtside and apparently knocked over the guy's beer. As the guy's idiot kid laughed hysterically, about a dozen ball boys descended on the spot with towels and mops.

TWO MINUTES LATER, play resumed. Seriously. And it felt even longer than that. Paul Piece was standing at the foul line just staring at them the whole time - not even angry or frustrated, just exhausted and incredulous. I was expecting a game of H-O-R-S-E to break out to pass the time and keep the crowd from falling asleep.

Wait ... the crowd was asleep. Or at least they were at the most critical moments. At the end of the first half - following a stretch in which the Sixers rallied from 15 down to briefly take the lead - the crowd went absolutely dead. All it took was a Rondo layup, and a deafening silence came over the arena. No parting ovation for the hometown team. Nothing.

Of course, the crowd was more than happy to get fired up when Andre Iguodala or Reggie Evans slapped the ball out of somebody's hands, ran down the court for a dunk and hung on the rim for about three seconds before dancing back to the bench.

What a sham. And I thought Philly was a quality, if disturbingly intense and angry, sports town.

At least the C's got the win, capping what had otherwise been a forgettable day-after-Groundhog Day. I was surfing the Web earlier this afternoon just in time to read that former senator Tom Daschle had withdrawn his name from consideration for the position of Secretary of Health and Human Services, by far the biggest stumble and most embarrassing moment of the still-young Obama Administration.

Why the hell can't these people pay their taxes? Perhaps even more unfortunate than Daschle is the case of Nancy Killefer, chosen to serve as the White House chief performance officer and deputy director at the Office of Management and Budget. As with Tim Geithner, it's another case of a person being entrusted with critical financial management responsibilities facing mortifying revelations about their apparent inability to fully manage their own finances.

I suppose if this is going to be the administration's big early unforced error, it's not such a bad thing. Given the enormity of current circumstances - and the appalling vacuum of leadership that preceded this president - one can understand some holes in the transition process, some missteps and oversights.

But given the importance this president places on symbolism, Tuesday must not have been a pleasant day for the White House's inner circle (and particularly whoever was in charge of the vetting process). With those pesky Republicans back up to their old tricks and gaining some traction politically, the president and his people will have to batten down the hatches and get back to being the Cool Express if they want to keep the inaugural afterglow working to their advantage.

Nominating New Hampshire Republican Judd Gregg as Commerce Secretary seems like a good start, a way to retake the mantle of bipartisanship while making a nifty partisan move and getting in John Boehner's head a little bit.

Although look out ... Sen. Gregg, in the words of a famous Cuban bandleader, may have some 'splainin' to do of his own.

Let's just hope this sideshow stuff doesn't get in the way of the president's progressive agenda. And let's hope that when he needs to get down and dirty - when he just straight up needs a win against the forces of Rush Limbaugh and his congressional minions - he can go cold-blooded like Ray Ray and hit the trey from the corner.

The sea was angry today, my friends. But I don’t think the hard stuff’s gonna come down for some time.