Random Thoughts 8/7/13

• After a month of resting my knee, I'm going back to play basketball late tonight.
• My wife got a phone call today asking if we would be interested in having our children do a medical study (flu-shot study for children as young as 3 years) for $500 each.  Hmmm…  My gut reaction (and Shannon's) is that loads of bad parents are going to risk side-effects and inflict pain on their children for cash.  Yikes!  First of all, I wouldn't consider even asking my younger two (ages 4 and 7) because I can't picture explaining it to them in a way they could understand.  It would feel so unethical.  Second, though my older boys (9, 11, and almost 13) can understand the benefits, both personally and generally, i.e. even if you get a placebo your involvement helps other people, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I took a single penny of their fee for myself.  I'd like to think that lots of other parents feel the same way.  Somehow I doubt it…
• KU will play on ESPN on Monday nights four times this year, twice at home.  Games are Jan 13, Jan 20, Feb 10, and Feb 24.  Oklahoma State gets four dates as well; Texas, Texas Tech, TCU and West Virginia were not included at all.
• For the second time this summer, KU coach Bill Self has been asked about eventually going to the NBA.  And, for the second time, he hasn't denied interest but apparently hasn't been offered a situation worthwhile enough.  I think KU fans should feel nervous if Self wins another championship and/or his son graduates in three years.
• I watched King Kong (1933) last night.  It's not a bad movie but, yikes, the special effects are almost comically bad now, 80 years later.  Additionally, the acting was painful to watch at times but that's a harder thing to judge after this much time has passed.  After 80 years there's a bit of a cultural gap that creates distance between the actor and the viewer.  Things like tone, movement, inflection, etc. can be as specific to a time and place as fashion is.  I think if you created a script and sent it back in time to various decades to be filmed the same way with the same costumes and props and technology, that you could still identify the decade in which it was filmed by the average actor's acting style.