"You laugh now, wait till you get home."

Today's title is a direct quote from a recent "fortune" cookie I had the indignity of receiving. My local Chinese food provider is now threatening me with sadness.

I've been slaving over my motion for summary judgment for the past week. Yesterday I turned that SOB in and it felt good. If anyone is dealing with a false light invasion of privacy case in Delaware, talk to me. I now know more about that subject than I ever wanted.

While I was distracted, Wake Forest sports have been playing pretty well. In football, we bounced back from a horrific loss in Clemson for a nice win over NC State. That puts us at 7-5 and ensures us of a bowl. Whether we beat Vandy will determine if we go somewhere interesting like Nashville for the Music City Bowl or get the Honorable Mention Bowl in Charlotte.

Basketball got off to a good start with wins over Fairfield and NC Central. We shot a LOT of 3's in this first games: 14 of 29 and 4 of 21 respectively. Each of our starting five can makes shots from beyond the arc, so look for that as a theme thorough the season. James Johnson has been great on D with five steals and two blocks already.

By the by, if you want a real blog devoted to Wake Forest sports than check out the Old Gold and Blog. It's pretty much what this place would be if I had the proper time/energy/intelligence.

Tomorrow I'm gearing up for a new challenge: the biggest travel day of the year at a major airport (Philly). God be with me.

stuff from all over

Gaming: I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of Assassin's Creed. You get to play as a Muslim assassin who terrorizes the Catholic Church. That won't be awkward at all.

Technology: My not-that-old Creative Zen MicroPhoto mp3 player suddenly died, so I got a new toy. Props to Amazon and UPS for delivering it to me a mere 50 hours after I ordered it.

Baseball: The Red Sox might have quite a boring off-season. Schilling already re-upped to an extremely reasonable deal, and progress is being made on Lowell. The only thing left is trading Coco (to make room for Ellsbury) and sorting out the back end of the bullpen. Still, I'll always take "boring" over a reality-altering signing of you-know-who.

Word is Boston is thinking about a six man rotation. This actually makes some sense. Forty-somethings Schilling and Wakefield could use the lighter schedule, Daiskue obviously wore out at the end of last season, and Lester and Buchholz would have an easier transition to full-time starting duty. The biggest downside would be less Beckett, but there's no rule saying he couldn't be used on four days rest while everyone else gets five/six days.

The Strike: It's only been three days and the writer's strike is already taking a toll. The Office only has two completed episodes left to air, Fox won't start airing 24 unless they know they can film the "full day," and Heroes re-shot some scenes to work as an early season finale. At least Scrubs said they've already shot 12 of the 18 ordered episodes.

Even though I generally dislike unions, and strikes even more, I actually agree with some of the writers' complaints. As I understand it, they don't get any residuals for online revenue (iTunes downloads, ads shown during episodes streamed online, etc.) whereas producers, directors and actors do. Supposedly they're also getting shafted on DVD residuals, but I don't know enough to have a stand on that. Irregardless, picketing will always be stupid and pointless. Woo hoo, you put a sign on a stick and rhymed something with "1, 2, 3, 4."

I couldn't help but think of some ways for shows like Late Night to work around the strike. Obviously the interviews and musical guests could be done without writers. As for the monologues and "desk segments," they could try user-generated content. Get people to submit jokes over You Tube or something, and use the best ones on-air. Also, Conan has often said he wanted to do a show where it was just him dancing with the audience for an hour. What better time then now? The problem is, even if these ideas are feasible, a lot of actors and directors are supporting their writer buddies by "declining to come into work." Grrr.

Wake Forest: On Monday the Deacons had their first game since Skip passed, an exhibition win over Mars Hill. Get used to the name of James Johnson. He might be pretty special. Plus, my parents got "lower bowl" season tickets this year!

hilary (unlike hillary) goes wide right

That was a heart breaker. Our million dollar baby kicker missing the game winner. Argh!

unions suck

Some cold hard truths...

• The writer's guild will be going on strike Monday at 12:01am.
• The last time writers went on strike it lasted six months.
• Our favorite sitcoms and dramas have already taped enough episodes to get by, but...
  
• Late night talk shows can't function without writers.

This means tonight might be the last time I see Conan until the summer. Gulp.

Couldn't we just have Conan improv for an hour?

once more with feeling

What is there to say? You know, other than that Jamey Carroll scared the crap out of me.

In my lame attempt to be objective, I kept finding reasons for this team to fail. The Rockies were impossibly hot. Coors Field is the ultimate equalizer. Youks is forced to the bench. Ortiz is forced to the field. Colorado is a different team at home. Our 3 and 4 starters are too fly-bally (yes, fly-bally) for that “rarefied air.” Maybe I subconsciously wanted the Sox to stumble a little just so they could win it at Fenway.

This team would have none of it, and won an extremely well-earned championship. Coming back down 1-3 against Cleveland was obviously no small task, and Colorado put forth an incredible effort that wasn't reflected in the 4-0 outcome of the series. This was no ordinary sweep. Game 1 was a blowout, but the remaining three were all close contests that Boston had to fight tooth-and-nail to win.

On a final note, Lowell had a great series, but how does Papelbon not win the MVP?