Black Friday

I spent Black Friday in Maryland this year. Here are two photos from the day. This first one is from Circuit City around 4am, 1 hour before opening. The line was pretty long, and the green awning on the left isn't even the entrance to the store. The actual entrance was about 100 feet to the left. The scene got pretty bad once the doors opened, and people really ran around and formed a mob entering the store.

This second photo is from inside Staples, around 6:15am. Staples opened at 6am, but look how crowded it is!

November 20, 2006 - Houston Rockets at NY Knicks

I swore that this year I wouldn't give any money to the Dolans and Cablevision as far as the NY Knicks were concerned. But I couldn't help but notice that lately there was a lot more advertising for Knicks tickets, which meant that there were probably tickets available. So instead, I hit the streets, and got tickets to section 62, normally $100 each for only $60 each. In return, I got a great view of the Knicks and the Rockets. The game was actually fairly close, but the Rockets ended up winning behind strong efforts from Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady. Sadly for the home team, the best Knicks players at the game were Allan Houston, Patrick Ewing and Charlie Ward, all who were either watching the game from the sidelines (Houston, Ewing) or coaching (Ward). Amazingly, Steve Francis and Stephon Marbury hardly played any minutes at all, a fact that did not go unnoticed in the next day's tabloid papers.

Crabcakes

If you're ever in the Baltimore area, I highly recommend that you visit G&M, a restaurant that has some of the best crab cakes I've ever had. You can get a platter of two crab cakes that are 8oz each of lump crab meat. There's almost no filler and they are delicious. I took a photo of one that I brought home to heat up later but it doesn't really do justice to the cakes. You can order them and have them delivered anywhere.

Too Much Madden 2005

I should probably increase the difficulty to "All-Madden" level from "All-Pro." My team was the Jets, of course.

And yes, I'm still playing Madden 2005 (which came out two years ago).

Remember?

Remember this? A George W. Bush interview on salon.com with David Horowitz, May 6, 1999. I've been thinking about this famous response lately.

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Q: In a year when Republicans lost ground or had trouble holding on to it, you won reelection with 69 percent of the total, 49 percent of the Hispanic vote, and the endorsement of every major Democratic politician in the state. How did you do it?

A: First, I did in office what I said I would do. I campaigned on school reform, accountability, charters and choice. And I signed bills to that effect. I campaigned on tort reform, juvenile justice reform and welfare reform, and on all I signed bills. And shared credit. I didn't try to take all the credit, I shared credit with the people, both Republicans and Democrats, who helped achieve these reforms.

Second, I showed the people of Texas that I'm a uniter, not a divider. I refuse to play the politics of putting people into groups and pitting one group against another.

Third, during the course of the campaign, I didn't talk about the past; I talked about the future. I laid out additional plans for tax cuts, for school reforms like ending social promotion, by initiatives that would say to kids that if you carry a gun illegally there will be a consequence, and I think the people of Texas listened, because I had credibility, and had done what I said I would do.

Always Low Prices

I went to Walmart for the first time on Monday. There isn't a Walmart in any of the areas of New York that I've grown up or lived in, so I didn't know what the big deal was. We have Costco, Kmart and Target, but none of them prepared me for the spectacle of Walmart.

I had heard so much about Walmart, the way they do business, they way they screen products, the way they treat employees, and of course, the greeters.

When I stepped inside, there was a burly man in a blue Walmart apron in a wheelchair handing out shopping carts. "Ah! The greeters." I thought to myself, although I had imagined a pair of grandparents instead of the wheelchair fellow. Then as I stepped further into the store (or warehouse), I was taken aback by the giant supermarket that was connected to the giant everything else store. It was sort of similar to Costco, but at Costco you feel like it's "land of the giants" since everything comes in such large, bulk packaging. Walmart has individual items. And it was much larger than any Target or Kmart I'd ever seen.

The prices were so low, too. It's no wonder this company is so big and has such an impact on our country. I was so blown away by the enormity of the whole experience, I forgot what I had gone in there to buy (I had to go back the next day). I never did get a chance to consult the workers regarding their wages or health insurance. There was a Walmart greeter, however.

Quick Sports News

The Yankees will face the Tigers in the first round of the playoffs. The Tigers have sort of limped towards the post season, so it will be interesting to see if the Yankees can take advantage, especially with the possibility that Randy Johnson will be out. I wonder if the A's can knock off Minnesota, and make sure the Yankees won't have to deal with Santana. Also, I can't wait to see how Kenny Rogers does against the Yankees, a team he has had a lot of trouble beating in the past. The Tigers have some nice players but I think the Yankees can take them.

As for the NFL, I haven't been this excited after a Jets loss in a while. Normally, a Jets loss sends me into a tizzy, but this one was a gutty, aggressive game. The offense was able to move the ball quite well but the defense couldn't stop the Colts at all. In the 3rd quarter, with the score tied 14-14, Jets coach Eric Mangini decided to go for the TD on 4th down at the Colts 2 yd line over kicking a FG. The next play, Chad Pennington was picked off in the end zone. That would have never happened under the previous coaching regime. Between going for it in the close game, and then also kicking an onside kick in the second quarter when the score was tied 7-7, it's clear that Mangini is willing to play an aggressive style of ball. It almost paid off, as the Jets came very close to winning the game, but Peyton Manning was able to drive down field with no timeouts and less than two minutes left. Part of the reason that I wasn't too sad about the loss is the way that on the last play of the game, the Jets attempted an amazing circus play with multiple laterals and almost got away with it!

Here's the play

Hasselhoff

8/11/06 - LA Angels of Anaheim vs New York Yankees

I remember going to this game but I don't remember that much more about it. I think Corey Lidle started it and the Yankees lost. We had nice seats that I got on eBay and the weather was great.

Croc Hunter

Sadly, the Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin, passed away yesterday after encountering a stingray. He was a pretty charming TV personality, and his programs were always entertaining. But I suppose that his line of work was also particularly dangerous. It always impressed me how fearless he was around the animals.

Jets Preview

I haven't been following the NFL too closely, but I have seen most of the first three Jets preseason games. It's going to be a long year for the Jets. While I think they are better than the four wins they had last year, they look like the kind of team that will take a few weeks early in the season before things start to really work out well.

On offense, it's been pretty miserable so far. They haven't been able to score points, and they haven't gotten much of a passing or running game together. The offense has also had a lot of drives killed by penalties. It looks like Pennington will be the QB and Barlow and Blaylock should be enough to be serviceable at RB. WR is surprisingly deep with Coles, McCairens, Cotchery, Dwight and Smith, but the issue will be whether or not anyone can get them the ball. TE was supposed to be a possible offensive option but the TE's haven't seen much preseason action. In general, there's some nice talent on this side of the ball, and a lot more speed than they've had in the past, but most of it's pretty raw, and they'll need to do better with sustaining drives if they want to win.

Players on defense have all been asked to make pretty major adjustments since the scheme now includes 3-4 and 4-3 formations. The defense hasn't looked too bad so far in the preseason, although it would be nice to see a little more pass rush. A number of players will need to improve in order to make the defense work, including Bryan Thomas, Shawn Ellis and Dewayne Robertson. Cornerback may end up being a position of relative depth with Dyson, Barrett, Miller, Strait, and Mickens. So far in the preseason, the first team defense seems to have held up well against the opponents, but I suspect that once the season starts, the Jets will have a lot of 3 & outs on offense, leading to the defense getting worn down.

Finally, special teams seems to be the unit that may be the best for the Jets. Unfortunately, special teams are so unreliable for point production that this may not make much difference. Justin Miller and Leon Washington have been excellent return men so far this preseason, and I think special teams had TD's in the last 2 preseason games. The one weak link may be kicker Mike Nugent, who has still been somewhat unreliable in the preseason.

All in all, I think the Jets could improve at best to about 8-8, and I think they will certainly improve on their 4-12 campaign from last year. That would be a respectable debut for Coach Mangini.

Yankee Mustaches

Three new mustaches sprouted up on the Yankees recently. They look kind of sleazy, if you ask me. Since they all showed up around the same time, I think that Damon, Giambi and Wright must all be in on it together.

Q: Is Jason Giambi Growing a Mustache?

A: Yes, and it looks VERY cheesy.

6/14/06 - Cleveland Indians vs. New York Yankees

Yeah, I know it's been a while, but enjoy this shot from the Yankees game over a month ago vs Cleveland. In this game, Randy Johnson hit Eduardo Perez with a pitch after Jorge Posada got hit. Always fun to see the players tussle a little bit.



As for the Bobby Abreu and Corey Lidle acquisitions, hopefully they'll work out. I don't think they gave up a ton, and Abreu likely replaces Sheffield in the OF for 2007. I don't really think the Yanks can win the championship this year, but they've been pretty resiliant. In the current format, just making the playoffs gives a team a good shot at winning it all.

Superman Returns

Spoiler free

I saw Superman Returns in IMAX 3D yesterday at 8am. The show was well-sold.

The parts I liked, I really liked in the movie - like Brandon Routh as Superman. The music and effects were also great.

The parts I didn't like, I really didn't like. Kate Bosworth wasn't a great Lois Lane. Lex Luthor in Smallville is a better take on the character. A few other plot points that spoil the movie.

IMAX made the movie better. The 3D less so. The landscapes looked spectacular but some of the action was hard to watch in 3D.

The writers definitely watched a lot of the 1978 Superman movie.

Overall, a nice film, although I don't agree with a number of the creative decisions. I think a few of these things have been brought up in other reviews.

Amendments

The proposal to ban flag burning in the Constitution failed. Now Congress should set its sights on something more useful: a Constitutional amendment banning stupid Constitutional amendments.

Larry Brown is Out

The New York Knicks are a disaster. What will make this firing even worse is that coming off a historic worst season, the team will almost certainly have a better record next year, which they will of course, then attribute to the new coach, Isiah Thomas.

Tags: basketball, Isiah Thomas, Knicks, Larry Brown, NBA

Misc Baseball Comments

Item #1
I haven't been reading Bill Simmons a lot lately, but he had a decent column today about the Mets / Dodgers game on Tuesday that featured the reunion of Nomar, Pedro and Derek Lowe.

Item #2
Jason Grimsley admitted to using human growth hormone. Was it working? His career ERA is 4.88! Up until now, Jason Grimsley was best known for stealing Albert Belle's corked bat.

Item #3
Greg Nettles had some comments about Barry Bonds passing Babe Ruth on the all-time home run list. He pointed out how Barry Bonds cheated. Nettles is one to talk (see #9 on this list). Someone GAVE him a bat full of superballs? Come on!
Tags: baseball, MLB

Pearl Jam: Life Wasted Music Video

Just trying out that handy YouTube embed feature again.

This is Pearl Jam's first music video in years, since the animated video to Do the Evolution. Artist Fernando Apodaca was involved in this process. I've also seen a video for World Wide Suicide out there, but for some reason that one isn't considered official?




Tags: Life Wasted, music, Pearl Jam, videos

Sink

This is the photo of a sink in a restaurant bathroom I was in recently. Isn't it strange? The water comes through the clear tube and drips down the large center hole. Then the water goes into a drain under those rocks. How unnecessary!


Tags: faucets, sinks