Rants and Ranks

That inevitable day is now here for the Parenza house.  "Baby" Mya is now a kindergartner.  She said she was excited for it, so that is definitely better than her kicking and screaming her way there.  For me it's sad because every milestone makes you realize that you truly do have a deadline with them; that they won't be your baby forever. That school is full of fifth grade students that have parents that look back fondly on their now 10 year old going to kindergarten for the first time wondering, "Where did the time go?" It goes fast, we all know that.  Since baby Josie was born, things have seemed to have kicked into another gear.  When you have the little babies, you're always doing something.  If they're quiet, then something is wrong.  Their causing some mischief somewhere, somehow. I'm not worried about Mya at all from an academic perspective.  She seems intelligent (don't all parents say that?) and picks up on things quick eve...

For the first time since 2009, Breaking Benjamin released an album. There were a couple of reasons for the delay, but the main one being that lead singer Ben Burnley fired all 3 remaining members.  Obviously with that much turnover, there was going to be some regrouping involved.   Since learning this news, myself, and I'm sure all other BB fans were wondering, "How will this affect their sound".  Fear not because you're opinion on the sound of Breaking Benjamin will directly dictate how you feel about “Dark Before Dawn.”  Translation: they sound exactly the same.   This lead to a divide among fans.  (A "great divide" if you will.)  For people that wanted more of the same, you got exactly what you wanted.  For those wanting new and different, you're pretty much S.O.L. - with the exception of one track.   My personal thought is this: Breaking Benjamin's songs more often than not, have always sounded similar to each other.  Tha...

The 2015 season is now in the books.  Somewhat surprising how it all went down, if you look at the start of the season in comparison to the end.  First, let's look at my 20 questions at the beginning of the season. Unfortunately Nash's last season equaled 0 games played. 1. Kobe/Rose: are they injury-prone for the rest of their careers? I can confidently say for Kobe, the answer is "yes." It's a sad way to end his career, with yet another season-ending injury.  But Kobe has driven his body harder than most over the course of his career.  His goal for next season shouldn't be about scoring, or even winning (to a degree), he should try to limit his playing time and try to play as many games as possible. Derrick Rose is still a bit murky.  He did play the most games he's played (51) since his 2011 MVP year.  That's good, but still he was obviously hurt for a nice chunk of the year.  He did average 20, 5, and 7 in the playoffs (playing every...

My personal favorite awards have been handed out, and those awards are the All NBA teams.  We'll look at the other awards in a minute, but let's check these out first.  First team: LeBron James Anthony Davis Stephen Curry James Harden  Marc Gasol Second team: Pau Gasol LaMarcus Aldridge DeMarcus Cousins Chris Paul Russell Westbrook Third team: Blake Griffin Tim Duncan DeAndre Jordan Klay Thompson Kyrie Irving Unlike the all-star voting, which I bitch about constantly, the All NBA squads are usually pretty dead-on.  The most iffy guy to me though, is DeMarcus Cousins.  He definitely has the stats; statistically speaking, he is probably the best center in the NBA.  But, I feel it's hard to reward a guy on such a crappy team.  I don't have a huge objection to it though.   Here were my predictions that I made on the last day of the regular season (so I wouldn't be swayed by any playoff performances): First team Pau Gasol ...