Nirdu is The House

As I watch Hurricane Katrina get massive news coverage, I am pleased. Yes, usually I'm one of those that bitches about the media sensationalizing news and latching onto one thing and pushing it down our throats. Yet I do enjoy a good natural disaster. I love watching the preparations, the evacuations, the aftermath, the destruction, the people who defied all warnings and paid for their pride with loss and death. I love disasters because they defy the norm of the world, they throw our peaceful little society into upheaval. Americans are so very unprepared for anything but the absolute, idealistic, 1950s style best that they are never ready for a disaster. Oh sure, we'll be warned by those "learn-ed" types but we ignore their warnings as upsetting. So when a something major happens, I watch with quiet joy as the norm is destroyed and we are sent into maddening, panic-driven chaos.

This storm hit my sister's area in Florida and caused a small amount of damages, but now since it... uh... stormed into the Gulf of Mexico it's picked up intensity. New Orleans has issued mandatory evactuation orders. Mandatory! I don't know that I've ever seen that in my lifetime. No offense to those of you in the path of the storm, but I hope Hurricane Katrina utterly destroys your town so that I may be entertained for a short period of time.

Hurricane Katrina vs New Orleans, who will win?

Oh yeah, Iraqi constitution... that is also some news. This isn't a political blog, though. So I won't talk about it.

I've spent all morning writing an opinion piece that a friend of mine wanted after hearing what I thought of that Live 8 bullshit and this end poverty nonsense.

Essentially it stated my opinion that the burden of providing food and a better lifestyle to Africa doesn't fall on the West, but on Africa itself. That and I believe that those 'celebrities' involved in this Live 8 concert only participated out of a need to feel good for themselves and to boost their self-importance. Oh yes, clearly America and Europe are at fault for the famine, corrupt rebel-dictator governments and plagues in Africa.


Credit for this image goes to the Filibuster comic by JJ McCullough, who I am in no way affiliated with.


Now what to do with the REST of my day? Oh, the usual nothing...

Brother!


Stolen from SA.

The winner of the G1 Climax was


MASAHIRO CHONO

He pulls out a surprise victory to make it 5 wins in his career of the G1. He really earned his nickname, Mr. G1. Everyone thought Nakamura or Crap Fujita would win, but to everyone's delight it was Chono. Sometimes it's just good business to put the most popular guy over.

Goodbye to you CM Punk, and thank you for making me love wrestling again.



CM PUNK BLEEDS RING OF HONOR

YES YES YES! The greatness of the ROH Championship continues, as the man that absolutely HAD to win the title won the thing. James "By God" Gibson won the four way match against CM Punk, Samoa Joe and Chris Daniels.


I've believed that it was James Gibson's destiny since the show in Boston earlier in the year. He had "it", the crowd was pulled into his excellent match against Aries and really got behind him. At that point he had only been with the company for 2 months. A wrestler with that kind of support in only 2 months was destined for something big, you could tell. Go back to the beginning of the year and I would've doubted very much about Gibson, I would've called him Jamie Noble Boy and I would've remarked "Oh yeah, he was in Japan, I heard he was good". Now I can safely say that he IS good. Oh and he IS the champ.

Now we're in the same place, a champ that is going to the E. In this case he's going back. The crazy title-can-change-any-time-because-I'm-leaving scenario stays in place, which is great because it was the most exciting thing ever to happen in ROH during Punk's reign.

So today is CM Punk's official last day in Ring of Honor. He goes to the E tomorrow. Here's to a true great of the independants, with fans that will praise him until he dies and those that will pray that he dies. He could be an excellent face or a smarmy heel. Punk will reach great heights in the WWE... as a manager. But still, here's to the career of a key player of Ring of Honor's rise, Chick Magnet Punk!

"Ah this is boring, put it back to that infamy guy" - Homer Simpson

Today is my birthday and I turn the ticker up to 22. I put little stock in birthdays, as all it does is measure how many times I've spun around the sun. It was great when you were a kid, since it meant massive toy dumping time and huge party with all the kids you know. Now it means some money and an ice cream cake with as few people as possible. This MAY be my last birthday in America for a while, I COULD be spending my next one in Japan. Still, that seems to be a pipe dream if I can't get my academics sorted out. I may make a post about that, as it is a source of increasing frustration.

Happy birthday to me.

TRIPLE H. Had to get that out of the way, those four letters were too powerful. I managed to secure myself a tripod today. It turns out that the camera my brother-in-law bought us several years ago also had a tripod included. It's just been sitting in the storage room on the second floor for two years. He took it out to have my uncle look at it, and I saw him coming back carrying the tripod. I asked him if it would fit my camera. He didn't know so we tested it out and it damn sure did. So he gave it to me and I now have a tripod. Saves me 20ish dollars down the road, probably worth 50 since it's quite a nice one.

The greatness that will become the Battle of Red Cliff, y'know the Romance of the Three Kingdoms movie, continues to grow. First we have Chow Yun Fat and Jet Li playing roles. Now I know who is playing Cao Cao. It's Ken motherfucking Watanabe. Holy shit right? Good movie right?


Oh, and the actor playing Zhuge Liang is Tony Leung, the guy from Hero. You remember him right? He played Broken Sword.


That's about as much as I'm going to post about this movie for a while. Check out www.monkeypeaches.com for updates on this, and other films of Asian Cinema.

First off, at the Tokyo Dome Show in October it's said Antonio Inoki will return to the ring! I'm so going... nah.

Will we see another Muhammed Ali kickfest?

Yeah, I know it's New Japan's big tournament and I recently went off on them for being crappy. Still, this is the big tournament of the year. Some big names in this one, but their crappy champion is likely to get far. Anyway my predictions for the semis and the final.

Kazayuki Fujita (the shitty champ) beats Shinsuke Nakamura in semifinal 1
Hiroshi Tanahashi beats Hiroyoshi Tenzan in semifinal 2

Hiroshi Tanahashi beats Kaz Fujita in the final

However it goes, AJPW and NOAH are both better. KOJIMA! KOBASHI! MISAWA! KAWADA! AKIYAMA! MUTO! MUTA! TAUE!