We're All Going to Fashion School/Happy Birthday to my Sis

This post was originally going to go up earlier, but alas, Blogger was down. Added the Big Ben picture because Bobby hadn't seen them. This also should have been posted on my sister's 18th birthday, and many happy salutations to her.

Lots of stuff to touch upon, as I’ve been sleeping busy the last few days. We’ll just roll for a bit, as its t-minus 90 minutes until Game One of the NBA Finals start.

A Big-Time Shout-Out To Our Favorite Waste of Life: Who else would this be but Heidi from The Hills? At one point last night, I thought to myself “This is too inane and pointless for me to be watching”, but after discussing the merits of Heidi afterwards, it really made me feel better about watching it. Heck, even Simmons mentions her today in his NBA Finals preview. Incase you missed her BEST ADMISSIONS INTERVIEW EVER, TVGasm has that on lockdown, along with the recap from last night’s thrilling episode – OMG, is LC fired?! – and some mocking of The Hills cast at the Movie Awards red carpet.

Come for the Shaq; Stay for the Dirk and Dwyane: As stated previously, the NBA Finals start tonight, and it’s about time. These playoffs have been fantastic so far, with the rise of LeBron and Dirk, the Mavs/Spurs series, the Heat congealing at the right time and Steve Nash (sort of) validating his MVP, and now it’s time to close things up. A lot of non-sports/basketball sites, such as Yahoo and MSNBC, have had “What you need to know about these Finals” on their main page, so there is obviously some popular interest out there, which is most buzz they’ve had since the Lakers got turned upside down by the Pistons in 2004. As fun as that series was in the dismantling of a hated dynasty, its lasting effect will not be as important as these Finals, which will be responsible for propelling both Dirk Nowitzki and Dwyane Wade into the mainstream sports stratosphere. I’m still taking the Mavericks in six, although I’ll be rooting for the Heat, and considering they have two of the best three players in the series, they have a good shot at it.

Keeping up with Big Ben's offseason....

Have you had your truth today? I haven’t kept up with my Daily Show/Colbert Report since coming home, but in honor of Livey naming his new cat “Colbert” – I love asking it if it’s scared of bears – I present to you Colbert vs.Phillips in their “gravitas” rematch. I find that when I’m flagging at work, reciting the final tongue-twister really helps pass the time.

And more importantly, have you had your Norah today? We’ll stay on YouTube for a bit longer, just because this is one of my favorite Norah Moments, as she displays her full range of humility and sweetness in this interview with Jon Stewart. The fact she hasn’t been on US tour since the summer of 2004 when we saw her at the Opry is a crying shame.

(And the vow I made to revisit Nashville when I turn 21? Six months away…)

Start getting your old man hate on now: Despite the fact JoePa probably hasn’t actually coached the Nittany Lions since Sandusky and Lavar left back in the 20^th century, you’re still going to need a proper amount of disrespect for him come September 9^th when he hobbles into Notre Dame Stadium, led by pothead quarterback Anthony Morelli, to battle the Fighting Irish. Everyday Should Be Saturday, which is returning to its status as “Essential Everyday Reading” as the college football season approaches, digs up a fantastic old radio clip that compares JoePa to Darth Vader.

Get used to this picture. I love it so.

Jessica Alba is modeli…actin….wait, she’s hosting something?: Now, I love Jessica Alba in a “How is she so unbelievably hot?” sort of way, but I have to wonder if her personality can carry an entire awards show, even if that show is the MTV Movie Awards, where there are lots of shiny objects (popcorn) and drunken celebrities to distract from the actual host. It’ll be interesting to see how she does tonight, not that it’ll make her a better actress or any less smoking.

It's almost the weekend. Yes.