To spoil or not to spoil?

So the question goes...as a diehard fanboy waiting for hyped flicks like The Golden Compass and The Dark Knight should I expose myself to all of the released information available to my resources or simply wait and see? As I see it, this is the biggest problem question for fanboys and one I have wrestled with for a wide variety of features that have been released in the last few years.

This all started with The Prequels (first of all, I love that the term prequels will always be associated with the Star Wars movies). Every fanboy worth his salt, including myself, leapt at every oppurtunity to know what the new Star Wars movies would involve. To my credit, after spoiling myself out for the first two, I went into Revenge of the Sith as spoiler-free as I could. This meant I knew about the Anakin-Dooku beheading and had seen General Grievous on a 12-pack of Mountain Dew: I swear to the Force that's all I knew.

Going into The Dark Knight I wanted to know just about everything: who was cast, the look of the characters, basic plot points, set pictures, etc. I am now rescinding that desire. I want to know nothing. Especially after the terrible shit I've seen in the last week or two. Heath Ledger as the Joker looks terrible, the Rachel Dawes-Katie Holmes-Maggie Gyllenhaal mess is just that, I'm not fond of the new Batsuit storyline, and Eric Roberts is a huge WTF!? casting. I no longer want to know anything about this movie, because I have been so disappointed with what I've seen. Hopefully Chris Nolan once again blows away my expectations, but I'm saving myself to see if that happens rather than expecting it.

So as of right now, I am done with spoilers for the moment. I know just about everything about the plot of Spider-Man 3 but beyond that I am keeping shit to myself. No more Golden Compass looks or news on Transformers. If you want it, find it out for yourself. Let's all just hope that Indiana Jones and the ____ turns out as good as we all think it won't.

The Sporting News

Well, after a long winter's wait and an exciting Spring Training for the Reds in Sarasota, baseball season if finally here. I could not be happier. I sprung for mlb.tv so I could watch Cincy games on my computer (listening to the game against the Bucs as I type; Dunn just hit a two-run homer off the centerfielder's glove!). It's been nice coming home after work to baseball, especially when I get home team broadcasts. Listening to Marty and all the UDF/Frisch's/Skyline commercials makes me yearn for a visit back to the Queen City soon. I hope to make it there for about 5-6 games at Great American this summer, including in August for my birthday when the Braves make the trip up.

I'm thrilled about this season; I think the Reds have a great oppurtunity to make it to postseason play and do some exciting things. Moving Junior to right was the right decision, Dunn has looked better at the plate, and the pitching is getting off to a hot start. Bronson and Harang should improve on their win totals of last year and I was very impressed with Matt Belisle last night. The bullpen should be a helluva lot better too. Should be a good race to the playoffs in the NL Central and I say it comes down to us and the Brew Crew. As long as the Cubs are exposed as the frauds I have prophesized they are all preseason.

So a couple of weeks ago there was a huge fracas about Pete coming out and saying that he bet on the Reds every night. Not a big deal, I repeat, not a big deal. I wish everyone would just let him alone. I don't care that he bet on them, least of all every night. If anything it shows his competitiveness and desire to win every game they played. Sure it was wrong and sure he probably deserves to never be involved in managing or baseball operations again, but I wish everyone would let it all go and let him in Cooperstown already. Obviously I'm biased with my sports hero worship here, but come on. Let it go.

And a few quick singles:

• I'm a big fan of the new look unis for the Reds. The sleeveless, black look was just not really working for this club. I like the traditional red and white style. And welcome back Mr. Redlegs!


• How disgusting is it that Florida won the basketball national championship again!? That is back-to-back-to-back championships now for them. Is it too much to ask that UF fail at everything they attempt? Florida should be limited to excelling at mullets and jean shorts. That big game in Jacksonville this year is just going to be that much bigger now.


• I would hate to be a Chicago sports fan. Bears management seems to be trying to run the organization into the ground and once again Mark Prior and Kerry Wood are nowhere to be found.


• As always, here's hoping that Barry Bonds shreds his elbow or both his knees simultaneously explode.

Back, but not in black

THAT FICKLE MISTRESS
It's a real beautiful day in April when it fucking snows. Honestly, last week I was wearing shorts here and now it looks like two weeks of garbage weather flirting around the 35-45 range with rain every day? I don't have a problem with Massachusetts winters, but this shit is completely uncalled for. Especially when it's in the 70s and two days later...

CLEARLY NOT IRISH
...it's fucking snowing 8 inches. Yeah, St. Patrick's Day in Boston officialy blew this year. Originally my cousins were coming in to celebrate like last year. They had to cancel this go around; no big deal. I had buddies coming in from Chicago and Georgia to replace them. After a "No Snow" winter who would have thought 6+ inches would have dumped on us deep into the month of March. Of course, American airports followed the trend of ineptness and no one got in or out of Boston. I said sayonara to my buddies and curled into a ball. In addition, my phone broke and I missed out on every piece of tin whistle/fiddle/uilleann pipe music there was in metro Boston. But I did get really drunk.

GEORGIA ON MY MIND
A few weeks ago I did visit Atlanta after a long absence from the town. I returned to find that nothing had changed and the place still sucks. Although it was nice to see cute blonde Southern girls in short skirts, including one of my very own. It was a vacation I sorely needed. Georgia was okay; I have missed the availability of Chick-Fil-A but couldn't have cared less about the smell of the dogwoods and the half inch of pollen covering the ground.