Walking Dead Season 2 Recap, Mad Men & Game of Thrones Forthcoming

In my opining on the written word earlier this month, I mentioned how books, specifically fiction novels, were being replaced by television series.  Grantland talks about the Golden Age of television this week, claiming Mad Men to be the last series of the age.  I do not have cable, but I still manage to follow a number of quality series, and I much prefer watching them sans commercials, which are quite annoying on the AMC shows.

Walking Dead season 2 recently wrapped up, with the group leaving Hershel's farm in a state of duress.  Rick Grimes had to kill his best friend Shane and as he let out in the season finale, he felt he had to do it, even though I am sure he believed there was another option.  This signifies a change in Rick's character, and him saying that this is no longer a democracy foreshadows a much colder and crueler Rick to the one we've seen trying to push democracy and equality in spite of Shane's Machiavellian views on the world as they know it.  The group is right on the brink of discovering a large new community and Andrea has already encountered a new character, who has some serious blade skills and what appears to be two zombie pets chained to her back.  I am looking forward to season 3, and hope that the in-fighting and bickering will be outweighed by zombie killing action in the forthcoming episodes.

Mad Men is in my top three favorite shows all time, following The Wire and The Sopranos.  I really enjoy the character of Don Draper, who is really only a character created by Dick Whitman.  The fact that Don works in advertising, selling a false image, is all too ironic, considering what he did in his past life.  With the passing of the real Don's wife and Dick/Don marrying the French-Canadian secretary and a new advertising agency being formed, this season holds a lot of surprises.  Will this be the season everything is revealed and Don falls from grace?  I look forward to these well-crafted episodes and can't wait to dig into the first episode now, which just finished downloading.

Finally, Game of Thrones first season was excellent, lots of intrigue, an abnormal story twist, a broad range of excellent characters, and great production means a quality show.  I am a huge science fiction book fan, and the Game of Thrones is adopted from George Martin's book series, which are considered the best science fiction books out there, although they are very long and the plots are quite circuitous.  I look forward to Arya and Tyrion who are very unique and intriguing characters, and can't wait to see the fight between House Stark and House Lannister.

Celtics Update @ NBA All Star Break

Halfway through this shortened NBA season and the All-Star break has come and gone.  Two Celtics, Rajon Rondo and Paul Pierce represented the East in Orlando, where a valiant late game comeback was not enough to overcome the West; Kobe Bryant.  The Celtics are below .500, but thanks to the Bobcats and Wizards-laden Eastern Conference are on track for a 7th or 8th seed, with surprisingly good rookie Kyrie Irving threatening a game and a half behind.  This most likely means elimination at the hands of the Heat or Bulls.  The Big Three has run its course in my book, and the NBA Finals ring and several playoff runs is a pretty good return on the investment that the Celtics and Danny Ainge made.

KG is too old and immobile to be the impact MVP player that he was in the past.  Ray's shooting is still stellar, but his struggles handling the ball and aging knees show that his age is also starting to catch up.  Pierce started the season of out shape, coming off an injury, but he is also in the end of his prime.  Rondo is still exciting, but his poor shooting (and fear that comes with it) and his bad attitude (see video of him throwing a ball at a ref) are hurting the team.  Weak bench play, save the injured Brandon Bass, and the lack of a solid, healthy center spell mediocrity for Celtics nation.  Seriously, we picked up Chris Wilcox and Keyon Dooling in the offseason and thought we had a chance?

Bill Simmons, the sports guy, advocates blowing up the team in his latest column, trading Rondo + JO for Pau Gasol, although I think the Lakers would balk at trading him.  He also suggest maximizing value on KG and moving him to Dallas for Shawn Marion and Lamar Odom.  Finally, trading Ray to the Clippers for Mo Williams and Eric Bledsoe, although I don't see a ton of value in this move.  This plan is feasible, but it involves a lot of moving pieces and ifs, which means its not gonna happen.

I have little confidence in the Celtics for the next 3 years as Miami/NYK/OKC and whoever gets Derron Williams/D.Howard will dominate for the time being.  If the Celtics bottom out and acquire some draft picks, they have the ability to come back strong, but the short to medium outlook is not great.

Tuesday Link Dump

I think I am going to start posting interesting links from the previous weeks on Tuesdays.  These are some of the articles that I come across in my daily internet surfing (its not all blogging on ATerrificLife and ThinkActProsper) and I would like you to check out too!

Giuseppe is hosting his 4th bi-annual Top Shelf Flea Market at Somerville's Davis Square VFW.  There are a number of small vendors all specializing in those of us who like to dress well, but affordably.  I am a huge fan of this blog, please check it out.

For those of us who are feeling overworked and/or underpaid, do not lose faith.  Here are some tips on how to ask for a raise. I believe its important to make yourself indispensable, so specialize in something you are good at, and learn it better than anyone else.  This will add value to your team.

Zero Hedge is one of my favorite blogs, talking all things financial, as this is my industry, it is quite relevant.  They are obviously a little harsh and overly pessimistic, but they dig up tons of good tidbits. This clip from a European trader on BBC claims "Goldman owns us all".

Bill Simmon's Grantland has been pretty solid so far, tons of good writing and media.  With the NBA lockout looming, which incidentally might not be so bad to my Celtics, here is an article related to the business of basketball owners.  Commissioner Stern claims that Ratner lost several hundred million on his sale of the New Jersey Nets to Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, but fails to mention the potential $1,000,000,000 in profits for his company on sales of apartments as well as the new Brooklyn stadium. The moral of the story is that no one should feel bad for the owners.

JD Drew is one of my favorite personal finance writers.  He writes on either saving money or making more of it to increase your wealth.  His writing on personal debts and banking is some of my favorites.  Not to mention his garden project.  Here he comments on a familiar problem, grocery shopping when you are hungry.

Bill Simmons rolls out Grantland.com

Bill Simmons has launched his new website today Grantland.com named after Grantland Rice, a writer known for his elegant prose. For those who aren't familiar with Simmons, he is arguably the most popular personality in the ESPN stable, at least in my neck of the woods. Simmons was born in raised in New England, went to college at Holy Cross, and is one of the most vocal Boston sports fans of all time. His columns, podcasts, and twitter are account are among the most read throughout the internet. His writing style is often crude and he is not known for conciseness, but he is really funny and he hits on a lot of topics that I am interested in. I think he overdoes the popular culture aspect, but I can't really blame him, as that is his passion, especially living in Los Angeles.

Grantland is supposed to be an outlet for more creative, unfettered sports and pop culture writing. It has been advertised as free from the corporate overlords, which means everything will be a little more raw. This will not be Sportscenter, and if you have read anything by Simmons, you know there will be mentions of betting on sports, Simmon's friends, and certainly never less than 1000 words per article. I am actually currently reading his book on basketball, which I do recommend if you are as big of a basketball fan as I am. I look forward to following this site, and its promise of podcasts in addition to the B.S. Report is very appealing for me, as I listen to podcasts regularly during the day job and working out.

In other matters, Bruins are going to need to continue the offensive effort of Game 3 tonight. I am looking forward to Tyler Seguin being effective, in replacement of the injured Nathan Horton.