Saturday, April 30, 2005

LA Angels of Anaheim Vs. New York Yankees 4/28/05

Another Yankees game, another loss. This wasn't as bad as some of the other losses, but it's still tough to see the Yankees get 8 hits, and score only one run.



My seats. They only cost $8.60.



Alex Rodriguez



Kevin Brown - I had expected much worse from him during the game.



Vladimir Guerrero - So good.



Hideki Matsui - I didn't get a chance to take a photo of my favorite graphic, "Hit-Deki."



Flash Gordon - Helped out my fantasy team, at least.



Fransico "K-Rod" Rodriguez - Filthy. Two K's looking in the save.

iBig Brother

I find this issue with the unauthorized biography of Steve Jobs an interesting one, because while I understand Apple is upset, I disagree with their move to ban all the other books by that publisher in their stores.

To begin, let's say that all I know about this story, the publishing industry and the book are from the articles I've read. Banning the book seems like just another part of Apple's desire to control everything about their computing. This is evident in the Mac, where the company controls every aspect of the computer (sales, software, hardware), and also with the iPod, where the company has full control over all the music, software, accessories and player. Their recent lawsuit trying to protect their technology also seems to indicate this. But at the same time, I associate Apple with the free-spirited artist and the independent-minded consumer (who wants to avoid the Microsoft hegemony). Isn't it interesting how marketing works?

The Apple lawsuit against the websites that were published leaks about new technology also shows the company's need for control. These examples of controlling everything makes it clear that even if the biography of Jobs were a beaming one (since it's "unauthorized" it probably is not), they would still ban it because of their lack of control.

Now, if a publisher wrote a book about your company you didn't like, would you ban ALL the books that publisher makes? Let's note that Wiley makes all the "... for Dummies" books, which are very popular. There's a few issues here. Is Apple trying to punish the publisher by banning the books? It turns out they're helping them, by adding publicity to the story. Did Apple think they could strongarm the publisher into not making the book? That's a possibility, but the publisher may gain more sales from a Jobs biography with a lot of press than from their help books at the Apple store. Finally, do consumers even know what company publishes what books? I had to do a fairly extensive search to determine the link to "... for Dummies" and frankly, it's never determined my purchasing patterns in the past.

Perhaps the publisher was trying to force Apple to carry the iCon book in addition to any of their other stuff? But the news items so far have not mentioned this, so I guess it's just another piece of evidence towards obsessive / compulsive Apple.

Kidnappings

CNN.com has driven me to yet another gripe.

The media (and the public) love kidnapping / abduction stories. Especially when they involve mildly attractive (white?) people or children. So it was no surprise when this woman's story made it to the front of their web site, but couldn't they have found a photo of her without such a creepy stare, and maybe before going crazy by reporting it, they could have let the police determine that she was actually missing.

She must REALLY have not wanted to be married.

Friday, April 29, 2005

Haiku for the Poor New Jersey Nets

The Nets don't have Shaq
The Miami Heat have Shaq
Nets can't beat the Heat

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Music News!

Three of my favorite bands all have big news at the same time.




Audioslave
The new album, "Out of Exile" is due in stores in May. I think this band is great, but I'm not liking their tyle of marketing. I signed up for news updates, and all these updates are trying to get me to pass on links to my friends to generate hype! It's almost like a pyramid scheme. The first song has been available on iTunes and is also available for free on their website. Now, a second cut is available, but first, one million people need to attempt the download before any of them can hear it! This is pretty absurd.

Pearl Jam
With a new album coming out later this year, they are heading to Canada. For the first time ever, I've started wondering about Canadian geography.




Dave Matthews Band
They've got a new album coming out in May called "Stand Up," but the biggest news is that first cut is available on iTunes.

Addendum: 4/28/05, 12:21am
I have just discovered that the Foo Fighters, another band that I have been growing fond of, have a new album coming up at the end of May. Thus far, I have purchased all my Foo music digitally, so perhaps I will continue this trend with the new album.

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

LA Angels of Anaheim vs New York Yankees 4/26/05

Wow.

There's a lot to say about this game.

This was the first victory I've been to this season, and it was a dandy. Alex Rodriguez stole the show with 3HR (3 run, 2 run, GS) and 10 RBI. His 3 HR can only be described as "bombs" into left field (2) and the center field area just in front of the black seats. I have to say, I was quite skeptical about A-Rod in general, despite the fact that I know he puts up decent numbers.

The Yankees, for all their troubles this season have unloaded recently on teams with 19, 11, 11, and 12 runs in the span of eight games. It was much nicer to watch a game like this, as opposed to the games where they start off three or four runs behind by the second inning.

A new chant from the bleachers made me laugh...
"Box Seats Suck!" followed by the standard reply, "We've got beer!"
The bleachers followed with a good response of, "Al-co-ho-lics!"

There's some guy who walks around the stadium with a little pan and bangs it to get people excited. Another guy had a cowbell. I want to have a gong, and I want to have it way up high in the upper deck. Every time an opposing player strikes out, "gooooong!" and every time an opposing player is about to catch a ball, "goooooong!"

5th Inning - strange stat line - the Yankees had ten runs on five hits, three of which were A-Rod home runs.

I'm watching Yankees Encore on YES, and Ken Singleton says before A-Rod's first home run, "How often do you see a home run after a walk? Very often." I'm not sure if this is true, but it made me wonder, "Wouldn't it be great if for the 'encore' broadcasts if the commentators re-did their commentaries to seem like they were perfect? For example, if a runner tried to steal, the commentator could suggest trying to steal a base, and if it didn't work out, they could suggest that it would be a bad move to steal in that situation. Then again, I'm not sure if anyone else really watches Yankees Encore.

Enjoy the photos.


A-Rod. This photo answers the question, "What does a man who has just hit 3 HR's for 9 RBI look like?" He would get a single in this at bat for his 10th RBI.


As always, a shot of the view from my seats. The same seats for the Baltimore game.


Vladimir Guerrero. I once saw him in Montreal throw out a runner at the plate from deep in the corner on a fly ball. While I like Sheffield, it would have been nicer to have Guerrero patrolling right field.


Gary Sheffield.


Bernie Williams. See the Angels bullpen in the back? The name "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim" barely fits on the awning. These are the kinds of things I find funny.


Hit-dek-i. Actually, he was hitless today.


Tony Womack and Derek Jeter. I predict only one of these two players will be in the starting lineup in September (and his name rhymes with "meter").


Carl Pavano. He didn't get hit in the head with a line drive today, so even if he had given up ten runs, it still would have been a happier game than last time.


Bartolo Colon. I was expecting a pitcher's duel, and instead got a career game from A-Rod.


Colter Bean's Major League debut. Colter Bean is a pretty cool name.

In fact, it's been decided. This game featured the worst name in MLB, "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim" and the best, "Colter Bean."

Monday, April 25, 2005

Jets NFL Draft Analysis - Day 2

Round 4
Kerry Rhodes S/Louisville - Mel Kiper says he likes Gerald Sensabaugh from North Carolina better (he went one round later in the draft to Jacksonville). I get the feeling the Jets are trying to fill special teams here, as opposed to find a bonifide starter. On the other hand, Erik Coleman, who started most of the year at FS, was a 5th round pick. I don't understand why the Jets traded up for this pick with Jacksonville (unless this is from some old trade?).

Round 5
Andre Maddox S/NC State - I wonder why they wanted to pick another safety. They must not be too happy with McGraw and Tongue. Is he just here to fill in a bit for special teams?

Round 6
Cedric Houston RB/Tennessee - CNNSI makes it sound like this is a big guy who likes to run north/south but has never lived up to potential. Not a bad choice this late in the draft, and I wonder if this is the kind of guy who could do very well in those third and short / one yard line type scenarios.

Joel Dreesen TE/Colorado St - The CNNSI projection for him was "Late Third Round," so that seems promising. Now the Jets have three TE's, and considering Offensive Coordinator Mike Heimerdinger's reputation for liking double TE sets, and Doug Jolley's past injury woes, it's probably a very good value pick here. I'm not sure if there were other needs they could have filled here, but what was once a position of weakness now at least has a few options.

Round 7
Harry Williams WR/Tuskegee - I could not find very much information online about this player. This article ranks him as the #7 HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) player in the draft. It sounds like he returns kicks.

I'm a little surprised that the Jets haven't tried to settle their offensive tackle position here in the second day. I haven't been paying too close attention to the prospects who are available in the position on Day 2, but I can't help but wonder if they passed up some decent prospects for some of these players.

Sunday, April 24, 2005

Jets NFL Draft Analysis - Day 1

The Jets did not have a first round pick this year. Instead, they traded it to Oakland for TE Doug Jolley and a pick 20 spots lower.

As it turns out, this may have been a good move, as not only did they net a pro TE, they also gained a first-round level talent at CB.

After waiting seven and one-half hours, the Jets picked...

Mike Nugent PK/Ohio State - After waiting this long, picking a kicker was certainly a bit of a letdown, but it's an area of need. I don't watch a lot of college football, but I think I remember this guy from the 2003 Fiesta Bowl and that he was considered a top talent then. They say he's the highest picked kicker since Raiders kicker Sebastian Janikowski went in the first round. His accuracy in bad Ohio weather is encouraging, let's hope he doesn't have the quirky kicker personality (Mike "big mouth" Vanderjagt, Janikowski).

Ten picks later, the Jets selected...

Justin Miller CB/Clemson - I've heard of this guy because a few months ago, I was reading up on potential first-round pick CB's (since that was an area of need for the Jets). It was surprising to see him in the second round, but I guess he has some issues when off-the-field. Let's hope these troubles won't be troubles next year. If he can play well, he'll validate the Jolley trade and fill both the return game void and CB need.

By the end of the day, the Jets also had...

Sione Pouha DT/Utah - The Jets have had a need at DT because of Jason Furgeson's departure to the Cowboys. This player, however, seems a bit questionable based only what I've read on the internet. He is rated lower than a number of other DT's who were still available in the draft, so I'm curious why the Jets liked him in particular. According to both the Daily News and NY Post, he saved a woman from a smoke-filled apartment and did a three year church mission. While interesting information, this also seems like filler material to use while discussing a player.

So to sum up, the Jets have gained:
Doug Jolley TE (from Raiders)
Mike Nugent PK/Ohio State
Justin Miller CB/Clemson
Sione Pouha DT/Utah

Not too shabby in terms of filling needs. They'll probably look for an offensive tackle with their six day 2 picks.

It seems to me that teams generally draft much better these days. ESPN would never show it, but I would love to see them show a reel of Mel Kiper's biggest mistakes, just as they show a number of his accurate analyses. The analysts and sportswriters tend to be very excited about draft picks on draft day, a day of optimism, since it's all about looking to the future.

Saturday, April 23, 2005

Darth Vader's Blog

I guess since his life story will be completed soon, Vader felt it was necessary to start a blog.

Emails Make You Dumb?

If this is true, me stupid very must be.

Wonder Woman TV Show

I had never seen a full episode of the Wonder Woman TV show starring Lynda Carter, so I figured I'd give it a shot with my Netflix subscription. It seems like it's very campy and goofy. Was the series aware of its over-the-top humor, or is this unintentional comedy?

Friday, April 22, 2005

NFL Draft 2005

Draft day tomorrow
Ready for analysis?
There will be a lot!

Thursday, April 21, 2005

Stick Around For A While!

According to my sources, 79% of people who visit this blog stay around for less than five seconds. Less than five seconds! Is there nothing on this blog worth seeing that within five seconds, one can decide to move on?

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Accountability

I want to start an accountability section on this blog. This would allow me to keep track of statements I've made predicting the future.

Examples:
"That movie, Hitch, is going to end Will Smith's career"
"This could be the year it all comes apart for the Yankees"
"Marv Albert will work for the YES Network"
"I'm going to start an accountability section for my blog"

On a similar note, I've been wanting to do an experiment where I map the data from weather predictions. My hypothesis is that the forecast for more than one day in advance is more often wrong than right. In particular this relates to predicting instances of precipitation, and that the 2-3 day forecast probably only correctly predicts < 50% of instances of precipitation.

NY Sports Update - Nets, Yankees and Jets

Nets
The New York Times has to stop reading my blog. Their headline today was, "After 82 games, Nets' Real Season Will Begin," a statement very similar to one made a few days ago in this very space about how the NBA season really begins with the playoffs.

Yankees
It's nice to see them string together a few hits in order to score runs instead of the home runs. The team had been in a funk but they've put together pretty impressive offensive outbursts in two of the last three games. It's pretty feast or famine, however, which is concerning.

Jets
My friend called me about the Jolley trade to the Jets, saying it was a horrible move. I'm a bit surprised by this move, since it takes them out of the first round, but the last two years of draft and personnel moves for the Jets have been fairly sound, so I'll wait and see where this goes before judging it outright. The Mel Kipers of the world seem to think there are a ton of defensive backs available (the main need for the Jets) so maybe dropping about 12 places in draft position isn't such a bad thing to get a TE who has started in the past. The new offensive coordinator, Heimerdinger, does like having good pass catching TE's. Let's see how the whole thing plays out. A John Abraham trade would also affect how this draft turns out for Gang Green.

4/20/05 - Tampa Bay Devil Rays vs. New York Yankees

I saw the Yankees lose to the Devil Rays earlier tonight. If you had told me that Johnson, Gordon and Rivera all pitched in a game for the Yankees versus the Devil Rays, and that Johnson had 8 K's, I would have definitely expected that it was a win. It wasn't. Could this be the year that it's all fallen apart? Or are the Yankees just flat? I will have the opportunity to see the Yanks lose to all four AL East rivals on 4/29 when they play the Toronto Blue Jays.

Enjoy the photos.



These seats cost $8 (I spent more on food than for the ticket)



Yet another experiment with the photo mosaic



Randy Johnson - The Big Unit - Even from up high he looks huge. He throws very hard.



Jorge Cantu, Tampa 2B at the plate, he's on my fantasy team



Hideo Nomo - I kept trying to get his funky delivery but kept mis-timing it



Just a bit inside to A-Rod



Eduardo Perez - Can you believe he hit 2 HR off Johnson? Who is this guy?



Mariano Rivera pitched an excellent 1-2-3 inning. Where was this Rivera two weeks ago?



The Stadium looks nice at night

Monday, April 18, 2005

Sucks to be John Madden...

NBC gets Sunday Night Football and Monday Nights move to ESPN. It's probably a smart move by NBC, who now has one less day of the week to worry about prime-time programming. They can hope that NFL gives them synergy with Arena ball as well. ABC's prime time entertainment schedule has been pretty strong this year, so maybe they don't want the interruption of sports.

Since the NFL schedule is already out, I guess Monday nights have more marquee match-ups while Sundays. Strange, since NBC has a bigger market that ESPN. I wonder if the NFL will change the scheduling after next year to reflect this, but I suppose part of that also depends on whether or not ESPN pays more for the Monday Night package. It's not clear what will happen to the "Thursday Night Football" games that used to be part of the Sunday package.

The biggest loser here is John Madden, who left FOX so that he could do Monday Night Football on ABC, and now finds himself without a gig. Al Michaels is a slight loser here as well. I wonder if Marv Albert would return to NBC to do the Sunday night games or if Bob Costas gets a crack at it.

Why Men and Women Have Trouble Communicating

A REAL conversation between my friend and a waitress.

The waitress is fairly attractive and there were three of us (male) sitting at a cafe. My friend went inside to pay the bill.

Friend: Aren't you a little cold?

Waitress: My shift ends in a half hour.

About 30 minutes later, my friend, unclear if he missed a signal or not from the waitress, returned to the cafe to inquire about the waitress's availability. The waitress says she has a significant other. "My shift ends in a half hour" is only a normal answer to a limited number of questions, most of them asking when one will finish working.

Sunday, April 17, 2005

Too Early To Tell?

I don't want to get too riled up about the Yankees getting swept by Baltimore this past weekend, nor do I want to worry too much about the 4-8 Yankee start to the season.

I would like to mention a comment that I heard made by Michael Kay, YES Network play-by-play man. He stated that the start by Kevin Brown was "better than his last start" against Baltimore, where he punched a wall and broke his non-pitching hand. In that game, Brown struck out 7 in six innings and gave up three runs. In yesterday's game, he struck out three in six innings, and gave up six earned runs, including a grand slam to Miguel Tejada. Was it better because Brown didn't break his wrist this time? Even for the most faithful Yankee fan, that's not an easy question to answer.

Steinbrenner blew his stack after the loss, and hopefully it gets the team playing better. At least, I hope they start getting things together in April. After all, I'm scheduled to go to four more games this month, and I'd like to see them win a few of them!

NBA Playoffs

This cynical sports fan reports that the NBA season is about to begin, and since his Knicks won't be participating, he has decided to root for the local Nets and Rockets (aka Knicks South).

There are a number of surprises in the Eastern Conference this year. While I would like to see LeBron in the Playoffs, I'm pretty impressed by Allen Iverson's recent play, and I can't root against "my" Nets!

In the West, a Houston / Dallas series would be great, although the outcome might not be so good for "my" Rockets. I think the recently cold Seattle team may be the easiest to pick off here, but a lot of these teams have a good chance.

The NBA is looking a little more level this year than in years past, the shift of Shaq to the East has certainly changed the landscape.

Google Maps

I am becoming obsessed with the google maps satellite feature. They have a blog that links to some interesting satellite views, but I'm just enjoying looking up various things on my own. I especially enjoy looking for places near where I grew up. This blog has some interesting "famous" sites, too.

Airscooter

Airscooter is apparently close to releasing their next product, the Airscooter 2 (here's an article about it). You don't even need a pilot's license to fly it, and it will be estimated to cost less than $50,000!

This product has found the perfect mix of totally cool and super-dangerous.

Saturday, April 16, 2005

A-Rod Saves Boy

My Red Sox fan friend commented on the story saying, "He probably rehearsed that a few times."

Excellent!

Comedy Central is showing Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure right now.

This has led to three personal questions:

1) Whatever happened to the actor who played Bill? Ted became quite famous.

2) Why did they settle on George Carlin for Rufus, Bill and Ted's guide? Carlin is such a foul-mouthed comedian but this movie is geared for kids.

3) What sort of phone booth was their phone booth based on? Have you ever seen a phone booth that could comfortably hold three grown adults?

Party on, dudes!

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Implant Hearings

In what is an obvious and transparent attempt to "one-up" the Kitchen Fresh Blog's suggestion that wrestlers testify regarding steroid use in front of Congress in the name of entertainment, the FDA has decided to hold hearings regarding breast implants.

While this hearing will likely involve medical professionals, it could go in the total opposite direction and turn into Washington DC's version of "The Howard Stern Show," or in the most extreme case, the opening to a bad pornographic film.

Sunday, April 10, 2005

Baltimore Orioles vs. New York Yankees 4/10/05

I attended yet another Yankees game today. This one was a debacle from many perspectives.

From the baseball perspective, the Yankees played quite poorly, with SP Carl Pavano getting hit in the head by a line drive, 1B Jason Giambi losing an easy pop fly in the sun, and the Yankees being no-hit into the fifth inning.

From the personal perspective, I had hoped to get some nice shots of my favorite steroid controversy players, such as Gary Sheffield and Sammy Sosa from the perch in right field. Unfortunately, my camera's battery crapped out (I didn't realize how often it needs to be charged) so I only got this one shot.

One small victory, as I got a free 2005 Yankees calendar.



Gary Sheffield in RF, before my camera died.



The view from the seats I had, as shown on yankees.com.

Not to Belabor a Point...

...but wouldn't it be great if Congress called up the WWF (er... WWE?) wrestlers for steroids testimony? After all, they're "role-models" for young people too, and they are totally ripped. The "World's Strongest Man" crew doesn't get the kind of muscles we see in pro wrestling. It would make for great television on C-SPAN. These wrestlers, popping out of their suits, screaming at the Congressmen. Hopefully someone would throw a chair! They could introduce some sort of snively Congressman-like character into the wrestling plots. It would be terrific.

Saturday, April 09, 2005

Ben Broussard and JD Drew Are Killing My Fantasy Team

It's only the first WEEK of baseball, but JD Drew's season-starting 0-17 slump, combined with Ben Broussard's 1-12 are absolutely DESTROYING my fantasy baseball team.

Friday, April 08, 2005

Tax Dollars At Work

Tax dollars at work
Saving a duck and her eggs
Duck is fun to eat!

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Boston Red Sox vs. New York Yankees 4/5/05



The view from the seats I got on Craigslist. I tried to do one of those photo monatge things.



Jeter at the plate



Mike Mussina on the mound



Hideki Matsui at the plate

A good game to watch, but the result wasn't too great for the Yankees. Rivera had no control at all and blew another save today, exited to some boos (although it's hard to know if he was being booed by Yankees or Red Sox fans) and A-Rod made a critical error in the field that might have lessened the damage. Mussina pitched out of trouble all day, Wakefield was dominant and the weather was spectacular. While the fans got pretty excited about the game, it was still clear that this is only the third game of the season and that there's a long way to go.

This should be the first of five games that I will be attending in April. Future dates: 4/10 vs Baltimore, 4/19 vs Tampa, 4/26 vs LA Angels, and 4/28 vs LA Angels.

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

Craigslist is My New Friend

Many thanks to Craigslist for providing the opportunity for me to purchase tickets to tomorrow's Yankees / Red Sox game in the Tier Box section, right by 3rd base.

Daylight Savings Nightmare

Daylight Savings Time is wrecking havoc on everything in my life right now. Not only was I late on Sunday because my cell phone alarm did not adjust automatically to daylight savings (the time is automatically set), but today my cable box was programmed to tape 24 and somehow the timer programs were set to adjust to daylight savings and my MS Outlook has automatically adjusted a bunch of my 9am appointments to 8am. What the heck is going on?

Strong Bad

I was reminded earlier this evening of Strong Bad, an amusing little animated series that can be found here. The Dragon is one of my favorites.

Monday, April 04, 2005

Weekend Recap: Boston, Sin City, Final Four, Lost Phone Charger, Yankees

Here's a brief recap of my weekend.

I went to Boston and visited some pals up there. It was a good time filled with a bunch of media, including the Sin City movie.

Sin City is a good movie based on a good comic book. I will avoid spoiling anything about it here, except to say that it is based on three Sin City stories, The Big Fat Kill, The Hard Goodbye and That Yellow Bastard. They're all gritty, black and white comic books. If you like to read the books that movies are based on in general, then be forewarned that the Sin City movie is as well adapted from the source material as the first Harry Potter movie was, that is to say that the movie's lines and shots are exactly the same as dialogue and frames from the comics. Personally, I usually prefer to read books after seeing movies based on them, as the books are usually deeper. In this case, this is fairly true, but to some degree it felt like I was just reading the storyboard for the movie.

Updated 7:30AM:
I forgot to mention that, in what is now a disturbing trend for me at the movies, I was forced to watch most of this movie from the corner seat in the front row. I have seen several recent movies like this, including Spider-Man 2. It is not fun to watch from this perspective. Also, to my surprise, the 1:30 showing was a matinee. I'm not even sure if I've seen a matinee in Manhattan anytime recently.

We watched the two Final Four games on Saturday night. Both games started out with close first halves, and they both finished out with lackluster finishes, with the favorites winning. The Monday night championship game should be rather interesting with Illinois and UNC, the regular season #1 and #2 seeds facing off.

On the drive home, I realized I left my phone charger at my friend's place. An annoyoing inconvenience considering my phone gets about one day charge time. This will make me incommunicado via phone for two or three days, at least.

The Yankees played earlier this evening. While it's exciting, and they won by a lot, I think the reports that it "felt like October" were a bit overrated. In October, every pitch and run could be the one that sends a team home. Not so in April, there's still another 161+ games to be played! It was, however, cold, just like October.