And I'm moving where?

So I guess that line about "closing the state of Florida" from National Lampoon's Vacation isn't completely wrong. You just have to go up to the Garden State where a sales tax dispute had the governor "closing" the state of New Jersey.

Goodbye, coach

Goodbye, coach
Sometimes it's both good and bad that I currently live close to work. That really came into play when I caught the news of Randy Walker's sudden death on ESPN News when I got home last night. I eventually rushed back to the office to get that story up and then deal with a second fire of the latest Tour de France doping scandal.

But back to Walker. He provided lots of ups and downs for NU fans during his seven years at the helm, but at least he got the team to at least a certain level of consistent respectability, further building on Gary Barnett's legacy (remember that I was an undergrad during the Rose Bowl days) and then adding his own twists, especially the now much copied spread offense. While I'm a pretty avid fan no matter what, Walker kept things interesting, that's for sure. It's a huge loss for the university.

For more on Walker, you can also check out my colleague Stewart Mandel's take, which also talks about a whole spat of tragedies hitting the university in recent history.

On the road again

On the road again
Posting has been plenty infrequent lately as I prepare for the move to Gotham. I've been up here at home in Jersey for most of the past week -- my brother's birthday party served as a good reason to drive up a ton of my stuff and get ready for jumping into the fray in just under a month.

And in a few hours I'll be starting another 16-hour road trip back to the ATL. The drive up was actually very good until I got slammed with traffic on I-95 around Alexandria and parts of the Beltway (including getting stuck in some bizarro traffic line near Andrews AFB after getting smacked around on gas) before cruising into Baltimore to see Dave, Jessie, Justin and Kristin (major props and thanks for letting me crash there).

The car got awesome mileage despite zipping through much of the mid-Atlantic with a ton of my crap piled in the back.

Even better, I amused myself by playing all the songs I had on the WOXY Top 500 Modern Rock countdown -- I had 224 of the 500 songs, and I didn't finish it off until I was driving around New Jersey and traveling to the city. (I started the shuffle with Radiohead's "Creep." Anyone want to take a guess at what was last?)

The drive back will involve the Blender 500 greatest songs since 1980. I've got 201 of those already loaded on (with a few more hiding away on CDs back in Atlanta).

FWIW, I was reasonably productive in New York as well, seeing the U.S.-Ghana game at the ESPNZone in Times Square, followed by Pedro pitching against the Reds for a matinee at Shea. Then doing some stuff at the new office. In a way, it was practicing the commute to and from my folks' place, so I had that going for me as well.

Caption time

Caption time!
"Ah, crikey! It's another one of those candygrams again."

Now it's your turn.

The list

For your reading enjoyment, here's the 2006 WOXY.com Modern Rock 500 list. I've been trying to figure out how many of these songs I already have -- it looks like 200 with a few more not ripped from my CDs. Not a bad ratio, especially with a handful of artists/songs I'm used to seeing on these lists not mentioned.

Now to do a similar project with 99X's Top 1000 countdown from last year. At least this will give me some good long-term playlists for my upcoming long drives.

Slacking off

Slacking off
Time to get cracking on the updates. There are some good excuses, but laziness is the easy one ...
-- Played tour guide for my brother his fiancee over Memorial Day weekend. Good times all around, even if we couldn't make it to the aquarium (I hope to do that before leaving town). I'll need to really brush up on my places to go in New Jersey and New York when I inevitably have my first guests visiting me up north.
-- Also spent part of Memorial Day watching minor league hockey. For the second straight year, I've seen a finals match featuring a Thrashers affiliate. Each time was a loss, but each time was very entertaining. And hey, I finally got to see a game with my favorite hockey fan.
And while it's unfortunate the Gladiators were downed in the finals, at least they didn't have to make a return trip to Anchorage to finish the series. Talk about some rough road tripping. That also means I've seen teams from Idaho and Alaska play in the Atlanta suburbs. No wonder the EC in ECHL doesn't stand for East Coast anymore.
-- Speaking of fringeish sporting events, all of a sudden I've become a softball fan thanks to the alma mater reaching the NCAA finals. Of course, even though the women have now won a second straight lacrosse title, a doubles tennis title and possibly a softball title, all anyone will remember is the soccer hazing stuff.
-- Also got caught up in the prime-time National Spelling Bee where "Jersey represent!" While it's nice to see the "up close and personal" profiles, you can see it wreaking some havoc with the timing and pace of the competition. And of course, there's that odd feeling of "I've actually heard of that word" -- but that was only in the daytime ESPN rounds and supposedly were the "easy" words.
What I wonder, though, is when ESPN Classic replays these bees in a few years (either on its own or on Cheap Seats), will some of the competitors get the same attention as this girl.
-- Speaking of spelling, I've had to moderate a bunch of comments for a blog at work. And while I'm blown away by the words these kids have to spell, I'm similarly baffled at how badly people spell in these comments. Forget "ursprache," try spelling "backfield" correctly.
-- In some ways, I'd prefer if people just spelled in internet/text message shorthand. At least there's some rhyme or reason to it. But before you learn how to post on any message board, be sure to check this helpful instructional video.
-- While digging up a new icon for some IM applications, I stumbled across something I'm stunned I didn't know before since it's just a couple of counties away. Check out the Cherokee County school board. Yup, that's the Dog-Faced Gremlin and famed Michigan alum.

Casey Kasem on steroids

One thing that used to be a staple of major summer holidays was the Top 500 countdowns. I haven't seen much of it lately down here in Atlanta, save for the 99X countdown I linked to a while back. Well, it looks like there will be at least one Top 500 countdown that might be worth catching, and you can all find it online at WOXY.com (the "future of rock and roll" from Rain Man) over Memorial Day weekend -- it's another Top 500 Modern Rock tracks. You can look at last year's list to get an idea where they're headed.

Not sure how much I'll be able to catch, but at least it's good to see at least another "radio" outlet (since WOXY is now exclusively online) bringing back the holiday weekend countdown.

More random musings

More random musings
--I'm trying to get my stuff together for the move, and so far it's involved clearing out about 5-6 years worth of EWs and SIs. Next up is figuring out which books that I bought at Goodwill sales over the years will end up going back to Goodwill.
--Eventually I'll read The DaVinci Code, but instead I finished up reading this book, which was written by a former colleague from the college paper. It's a compelling and entertaining read, and it should be interesting if and when it gets made into a movie.
--Speaking of movies, I did see M:I3 the other day, and when you watch that and 24 in the same day, all the plot twists, chicanery and silly corruption will make your head spin. Still, it's good for what it's supposed to be.
--It's fun to see some old contestants return for the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions, but I can't help but feel a tad jealous that I couldn't get a second chance to be on the show. I will say that this is one of the first times where I've been familiar with almost every one of the TOC competitors by watching them on TV. But for now, I guess I can help others pass their auditions that are coming up.
--And how did I miss Leon getting traded for, what else, a bunch of cases of beer.

Start spreading the news. I'm leaving today

In a move that's a bit overdue, I'm being transferred up to the New York office, starting in mid-July. The details of what I'll be doing up there is still to be determined, but it's probably not much different than what I'm doing now.

I've enjoyed my nine years (yikes, has it been that long?) in Atlanta, but I guess you can go home again.

Austin City Limits

Talking points from a long weekend in Austin for TRASHionals 9:

-- Flew Southwest for the first time, having to go from Birmingham. The 2 1/2-hour ride from Atlanta to Birmingham was fine (first time in Alabama, shockingly), but the adventure parking was amusing because the airport still had signs for "Long-Term Parking," but the lane for it had a few extra speed bumps and a cone moved out of the way. After navigating that, I realized the machine wasn't working and I had to back out and into the "Daily Parking" lane (which is exactly the same price, etc., except that you don't realize that until you see a tiny sign mentioning price right at the gate to the parking deck). That confused both me and another guy with Georgia plates trying to come in. At many airports, there are three levels of parking, so blocking out that third (and usually cheapest) option just confuses the hell out of everyone.

-- I guess Southwest is like a bus or train since you invariably have to connect at least once no matter where you go. Going to, it was Birmingham to Nashville to Austin. With the layover and then delay in Nashville, I probably could've driven to Nashville and taken the flight to Austin. On the other hand, my friend Keith flew out of Nashville but through Houston to get to Austin, so who knows.

-- Austin is a very nice town, although the highways right around our hotel were a bit of a labyrinth and the map provided by the rental car company didn't help. I'd like to go back when I have more time to experience the city without other obligations. I did get to see the newly opened Blanton Museum of Art, though, on Sunday.

-- Congratulations to Phil, Tim, Rick and Josh for taking two straight games from Craig, Mike, Anne and Julie to win their first TRASHionals title. Some very exciting, well-played games in the finals. I was a bit relieved to see that the teams I had designated as top seeds (at least unofficially) did reach the final playoff group. Although it could say how predictable some of this could be. On the other hand, I was impressed with the Matt Levine-Simon Fraser combination finishing as high as they did.

-- The O'Reillys did well even though I read for three of their four losses and that one of their top players was missing to "spend more time with his family." (Congratulations, Brian and Christine, on the birth of their first child Lillian.)

-- Actually, as I'm putting this together am I realizing some of the better things that happened over the weekend. Unfortunately, most of my initial musings from the tournament were negative, and even worse, that seems to be the only way I can come out of running these events anymore.

Rob and Alma have already expressed their problems with some of the questions, for which I am immensely embarrassed, even though I didn't write any of the questions at issue.

And then there was an issue with another team (who I'm used to dealing with down here) who decided to rip me in front of any other team that was in the same food court as us for Saturday lunch because I didn't sufficiently address their protest when they came up to me with it as we were heading over for lunch. A combination of factors regarding that situation (that I won't go into here) got me very frustrated.

Then there's the array of bad or wrong questions that come up that we should've caught ahead of time. Unfortunately, it seems like those are the only things we hear about instead of questions people actually liked. Yes, we need to figure out where to improve, but after a while, I sometimes wonder if we do anything right. Maybe I take it harder since I do a lot of the little stuff that people probably don't realize I do for TRASHionals.

(I will say, however, that Kilby did tell me afterward that it was his favorite TRASHionals to attend -- unfortunately, I never got to read for him, and that it seems reactions like that are few and far between; although I'm not exactly soliciting them.)

-- But given some of the issues over the weekend, plus some other factors I am loath to discuss here related to all of it, this is my last TRASHionals (at least for now) in an official capacity I suppose I'll still be around to read and eventually play one of these days, but I think it's time to walk away. I do apologize to some of our regular players and customers, but sometimes you do have a take step backward before moving forward.

Drop it like it's pod

So in the midst of a lot of big things going on with me, I've spent a good part of the past two days trying to get that sad face of my iPod. After trying all the different "official" fixes, I finally got it to work by using an old staple -- dropping it on the floor. Since the iPod had gotten jostled a bit in my bag over the weekend, I eventually realized rejostling it might work -- and sure enough, after a handful of drops to shake the hard drive back into place, I've got operating once again and syncing up with my computer. Like one thread on the iPod boards discussion, it's almost like slamming a TV to make it work -- who knew something like that would work on something like this.

It's been a while

Yup, things have been quiet over here, mainly because of the prep work for TRASHionals. As a couple of noticed, certain blogs go quiet for fear of giving away answers since many of us post about cool things we see. Many times they go here, other times, it's question fodder. So be it.

But a couple of things (that likely won't be going into questions any time soon) ...
-- I've come across my fair share of infomercials over the years, but I'm still floored that there's one of Piccadilly. I thought I was imagining things when I saw at 2:30 a.m., but then the former PAX network affiliate (which shows infomercials until about 6 p.m.) aired it. It pretty much comes across as some mutant cross of corporate training video and Food Network special.
-- Went to the Thrashers home finale on Saturday (which would really be the case after getting eliminated Monday). Fun game to keep the team in the playoff hunt, at least for the time being. But what struck me most at the game was the text message board displayed on the scoreboard before the game and during intermission. If you sent a text message to whatever number shown, you could get your messages on the scoreboard.
Which then led to a couple of "Go Thrashers!" or "I love [fill in name of player here]." But most of the time it was Napoleon Dynamite or Anchorman quotes, or "I love [fill in name of significant other]." There were even a couple of, guessing here, mock marriage proposals (possibly mocking some of the marriage proposals at sporting events I've seen over the years -- although I did see a rather elaborate one at Wrigley Field years ago involving the center field bleachers).
-- If you've heard the song "Steady, As She Goes" by The Raconteurs, the Jack White side project, the opening bars of the song sound very similar to Joe Jackson's "Is She Going Out With Him?"
-- I finally found Andrews Upstairs, a small Buckhead music club, while driving around yesterday. What was amusing was that among the artists I've never heard of, as well as the Retro Night, was this band playing later this weekend.

Rites of Spring

Happy Opening Day, everyone. I'm getting that free preview of the Extra Innings package and pondering yet again if I should subscribe to it for the season. So far, it's been fun to watch everything, although I still haven't got all my teams in order to figure out which games are really worth my time.

And of course with Opening Day comes the end of the NCAA tournament, which I always thought was a weird 1-2 punch because baseball gets pushed to the back in many places by the end of what should be a celebratory day. But then again, that's what the new Sunday night opener does, sorta (although mostly it throws people off since you're not sure if it's an exhibition or for real; same goes with the new Thursday NFL opener).

If baseball is one way you know spring is here, the other would be the layer of pollen sitting on my car right now. Hopefully it didn't aggravate too many allergies of the fine folks who came into town this weekend for JD's wedding.

The ceremony was at a beautiful new church that opted to maintain a more traditional look in the sanctuary, while also doubling as a sort of Marriott almost everywhere else. The ceremony itself was very nice, and it was very cool to see a bunch of quizbowl folks in town as well.

However, the one highlight that many of us will remember is having the Easter Bunny join us for some of the groosmen photos. For whatever reason, the Easter egg hunt was last Saturday (two weeks before Easter), and thus the bunny and a lot of kids were milling about as we were doing photos. Eventually I'll get a hold of one of those photos.

Sports, geography and more

A couple of sporting notes ...
-- I was stunned, like most people, to hear that an IRL driver was killed, but that he was also a fellow Medill alum. However, despite the fact that he was just a few weeks younger than me, I'd never heard of him until today and that he actually graduated two years before I did. I will say that I dug out some of my old graduation stuff, just to be sure.
-- If your bracket is going to go all to hell, might as well have just a ridiculous Cinderella do it in the process. Every year it seems like a team I pick to lose in the first round goes to the Final Four, but this is ridiculous.

And a couple of reasons why Google Maps rule:
-- The Geography of Seinfeld, which maps out a bunch of different locations from the show.
-- Jacktracker, which now adds a geographic layer into the potential plot holes on 24.

Cheap birthday pop

If you're like me, after a while you get used to the list of celebrities sharing your birthday. Mine's an eclectic mix, ranging from Houdini to Alyson Hannigan to Peyton Manning and Mike Vanderjagt to the Undertaker. On the musical end, right now, I know of two notable ones because they're celebrated every year on the retro lunch hour radio show I listen to. One is Nick Lowe, who was recently feted on Coverville, and if it's an annual thing to hear "Cruel To Be Kind," that's fine by me. The other is Nena (or more specifically lead singer Nena Kerner), where hearing "99 Luftballons" every year elicits a different response, so it's interesting that VH-1 Classic is going to be a couple of days late in celebrating her birthday by playing her one big U.S. hit non-stop for an entire hour. It's actually part of a Katrina benefit, but you have to wonder who's really benefitting here?

I'm too old for this ...

So naturally I'm pretty much dead in my bracket pools after Duke and Gonzaga got bounced, both in spectacular ways. (Oh yeah, this photo is a winner.) Guess it's time to root on the Catholic schools to go all the way -- at least the Villanova-BC game should be fun for just that reason.

Other notes:
-- The Applebee's ad was seen just twice tonight, and only once during the basketball game. So I guess they've worn out their welcome.
-- Catching up on some of my DVR backlog -- Jimmie Walker is now Chris Rock's grandfather?!? Yikes!

And speaking of old, I turn 31 today. A couple of things come to mind at this birthday: I'm definitely not some newbie or junior member of groups in town. That hit home at an alumni club function this week where I definitely wasn't the youngest person there, not by a longshot, even though this event really brought in a lot of older alums to this really nice place.

I also felt slightly old a couple of weeks ago when a bunch of college kids came into the bar where I was playing trivia to celebrate one of the group's 21st birthday. I was probably a couple of steps away from pulling a Roger Murtaugh watching the kids come in.

I won't go into great lenghts over my brackets. Picked a few upsets (UW-Milwaukee, Texas A&M), just missed a couple (San Diego State, Winthrop [depending on the entry]), had scares with Final Four teams (BC, Gonzaga -- damn Jesuits). And I'm still alive with Bucknell in the Sweet 16.

(Oh yeah, it's still disconcerting hearing Verne Lundquist referring to today's big upset winner as Northwestern and not Northwestern State. Heck, so now we've both beaten Iowa this season.)

What is interesting, at least at home watching it during the day, is that my cable company is taking advantage of the extra digital channels to provide four feeds of games at any one point -- which is excellent for yesterday and today. Unfortunately, one of the channels is HD-only, which locks me out of one channel, but I still can get three at once for no extra charge. (Although given the price of my cable, I'd better get some value for it.)

Of course, while it's fun watching all these games, seeing the same ads over and over again can get a bit annoying:
-- First off, the in-game promos by the announcers for this show are amusing since no one can pronounce the star's name correctly.
-- Secondly, after watching the same Applebee's ad over and over again, my one thought is: So how many members of the Gilligan's Island cast are still alive? And are they as annoyed hearing that jingle over and over again as I am. That ad campaign actually has me longing for baby back ribs.
-- Voiced-over cell phone ads are fine. The ones with people acting in it have me looking for the phone with the "theft deterrent system."

Everybody in the pool
Like everyone else, I'm setting up my own bracket pool. No money, just pride on the line here. I might scare up a prize if you do win, though. I'm not trying to cannibalize on all my other friends' pools, just giving you another outlet to do picks. It could be a good test lab for your crazy bracket if you wish.

Yes, I'm using the SI Hoops Bracket Challenge.

League name: JQ's Bracketball
Password: narnia

Enjoy and good luck.

My brain hurts
Maybe there'll be some bracket talk on here. Not sure. I'm just wondering if I can get out of organizing the office pool again. I've got enough friendly contests to worry about anyways.

Instead, I spent a good part of a beautiful weekend here playing Team Trivia, albeit for a lot of cash on the line. That bar trivia group has been doing a "league" concept where your team amasses points over the span of a few months. So if you're going to a place seemingly every week (and score well), like I used to do, and a number of others still do, you'll have a good shot of qualifying for a final tournament where the grand prize is $5,000 (in actual cash, not just bar cash). In this case, the top 100 highest-scoring teams qualify (not sure how many teams there are, but given the company runs shows in about 150-200 places around town, there's bound to be a lot of competition).

My schedule precludes me these days from doing bar trivia on a regular basis, but thankfully my friend Dave had a team and was able (thanks to some holes in the qualifying process) to get into a play-in/consolation tournament on Saturday for the final 25 spots in the big tournament (and play for a $500 first prize). Only 22 showed up there, so we all made the big show, but we eventually finished like fifth or sixth (only three places pay off) after leading at the half. We played it conservatively in the final round, which cost us in the end. Then again, while $500 cash was the first prize, second and third prizes were $250 and $150 in house cash. For a sports bar, that's a bit much money to be playing around with.

The big show was at the 755 Club, the exclusive restaurant above left field at Turner Field. Given that the season hasn't started yet, it would seem it would be easy to park at the stadium and head in. Wrong we were. At the same time the tournament was to start, we hit traffic for a Hunger Walk around the stadium. It made for some interesting cell phone conversations with my teammates as we tried to figure out where to park without running over some of the participants.

We eventually got in, and it was an impressive setup. Once we got through some early registration snafus, there were 120 teams playing for the big prize. The amusing part of the whole thing, though, was that even at the 755 Club, we were still getting typical bar food but at stadium prices. But hey, chicken fingers look slightly better on nice china.

The competition was pretty intense and the questions were really tough. It really was trivia. And while my team was happy to have a sports person on board, I was consistently getting stuff wrong. Yet, through the half, we were tied for fourth out of 120 teams. And like the day before, we stumbled badly in the second half, falling down to a tie for 10th before the final question. However, we cleaned up nicely on naming People's Sexiest Men Alive (we named 12 of the 16 without getting anything wrong -- there are penalties for wrong answers) but ended up falling a point or two out of a tiebreaker for the money (name as many of the 15 American Idol contestants who had a hit on any chart). We didn't get the big cash, but it was a fun time and we got a cool view of the stadium.

But anyway, here are some of the best questions over the past couple of days to test your brain:

Saturday's questions
1. What state's entire eastern and western borders are both rivers? Iowa (Greg) -- We got this one. First thought Missouri, then realized Iowa would have similar rivers bordering it and have shorter borders.
2. At 3.75 pounds eaten per person per year, what is the country's most popular seafood? Tuna (JD) -- We missed with shrimp, but tuna makes a lot of sense once we heard it. That weight sounds like an average eight or nine cans per person per year.
3. Name either of the two teams that share the record for appearing in the most NCAA tournaments without winning the title. Notre Dame/St. John's [27 each] (Flax) -- I guessed Missouri, but the Tigers have the record for most tourney appearances without a Final Four. And yes, that's a tough question, but it's a great way to separate the field.
4. What composer could only write music and play piano in the key of F?

Sunday's questions
1. The snowglobe was first created to commemmorate the building of this structure. Eiffel Tower (Mark) -- My friend Alyson thought of this right away, but we ended up guessing the Statue of Liberty as we tried to associate it with something wintry. This would've vaulted us closer to the lead heading into the final bonus question.
2. Who is the oldest living First Lady? Lady Byrd Johnson (Mark) -- Jeopardy! helped and hurt me on this. We guessed Pat Nixon after all the hubbub over the sorta-hose on a Daily Double last week. Both Johnson and Nixon were born in 1912. Forgot that Nixon was dead. Whoops.
3. What is the only state whose capital contains none of the letters in the state's name? South Dakota [Pierre] (Mark) -- We got this one. Just have to go through all the state capitals. The question is: Can you do it in less the length of one song (and what song? Stairway to Heaven or The Letter or something in between)?
4. What day of the week is the only that's an anagram of another word? Monday [dynamo] (Mark) -- We tried to challenge our guess of Friday [fraidy], but otherwise, we couldn't jumble around Monday quick enough.

Terence Moore is yet another basher of the World Baseball Classic, and one of the reasons he cites is the same that got trotted out at the Winter Olympics for why people didn't care/watch -- there's no real "enemy" like in the past when it was the Soviet Union/Iron Curtain countries.

Well, actually, I think there still is an "enemy" when it comes to international competitions -- it's us, or if you wish, U.S. We're the Duke/Notre Dame/Lakers/Yankees of international competition since we're the only superpower left. Plus, politically, we're hated both outside the country and now, more than ever, inside the country. Of course, it's hard for us to be "patriotic" about our sports teams when we're not sure if we're patriotic in our own country based on what we believe.

I suppose when it comes to future world competitions, instead of thinking of looking at the competition as Russia, Italy, Germany or China, just pretend they represent other things (since more and more people can't identify where these countries are on the map). Use either Conan O'Brien's smack talk for other countries, or just pretend to call those countries "The German Republic of Bush," "The Russian Yankees," "China/Duke sucks," "The Liberals of Latvia," etc.

Going back to the WBC, I'm getting into it, even if the "Yankess" aren't. Granted, not all the games are going to be on TV live, or just on ESPN Deportes, but it's still an interesting concept that needs to be tweaked a lot. If anything, it's a PlayStation-like experiment come to life. And while there are plenty of critics of it, how do those anti-WTO protesters feel about it since Bud Selig says it's supposed to support the "globalization" of the game. Hmmm ...

Interesting Oscars telecast, with EW and Defamer both having decent blow-by-blow blogs.

Jon Stewart was pretty sharp as a host and did a good job of reacting to the events of the show without overdoing it. However, it never seemed like the crowd warmed up to him -- it's like they wanted to laugh at some of his jokes but were afraid they'd be painted in a bad light either by "the public" or by his show later on.

As for other awards, since I only saw a couple of the films nominated for the top honors, it was more figuring out if I picked the winners right. I did a good job of predicting Memoirs of a Geisha for the "pretty" awards, but flipping the cinematography and original score awards with Brokeback Mountain. Speaking of the pudding movie, I guess I don't have to run out and watch it since it lost Best Picture (kind of how I felt about The Aviator last year).

But what does it say that I've seen exactly one Oscar-winning performance -- Reese Witherspoon in Walk the Line? Although if Good Night and Good Luck had won anything, that would've made it at least two. And would've made Mark Cuban an Oscar winner, which would've been strange.

One final observation: Chicken Little actually came out to present an award, even though the movie itself was not nominated for Best Animated Feature, despite being just three nominees. Was it really that bad?

The real Deal or No Deal
It looks like NBC is at least trying to pull a WWTBAM-type of oversaturation of Deal or No Deal, although it's addicting enough to stay on at least for a little bit longer -- if only because there's enough eye candy to keep things slightly interesting. However, those tie-ins with NBC shows have to go -- Molly Sims showed up in her Las Vegas character to bring Howie Mandel to Vegas (while contestants are still there).

But anyway, I think I had my own version of the game "shopping" for gas the other day. My regular station has seen the price go up 11 cents/gallon since Wednesday. That day, I passed on going there because another place that's usually more expensive actually had it 6 cents/gallon cheaper that the normal place (they quickly rectified that the next day). So in the process, I've ended up saving 17 cents/gallon playing some sort of gasoline roulette. It really has become a game in predicting when gas prices will bottom out and filling up then.

Finally, is it really safe to be nostalgic for the '90s now? I know some of the I Love the '90s panelists mocked the notion on the show itself when it aired (especially when it got to 1999), but now VH1 Classic is teasing me for another weekend with a "Smells Like the '90s" block of all '90s videos. Just think, these are all videos that would not have been allowed on the network when it first launched. Of course, when you realize Madonna's "Vogue" is 16 years old, well I suppose it does fit under the "classic" banner -- even if it is followed by Wilson Phillips or Right Said Fred.

Good luck and good night
OK, so Bill Simmons is joining the rest of the fish at the World Series of Poker this summer, even though it seems like he doesn't realize it. And while he goes on about his story of winning money in Vegas after watching Rounders (phase one in the mainstreaming of poker) and seeing some young kids get smoked at the tables, it seems like he's completely overlooking the on-line phenomenon where millions of people can get lots of real action (see Franz Lidz's story about the 18-year-old WCOP champ) -- and get their way into the main event. Sure, they may be fooling themselves into thinking they're good, but does Simmons really think he's much better? (Thankfully, he doesn't.)

When it comes to the WSOP, experience only matters so much because the amateurs will do lots of weird things the seasoned pros wouldn't do. Sometimes the fish get burned, other times, they'll beat the pros. You just don't know. With the numbers growing each year, the odds that a seasoned pro is going to win the whole thing get worse.

However, he does make a good point that bad beat poker stories are just as repetitive and annoying as stories about people's fantasy teams. Which leads me to ...

The recently released book Fantasyland, a chronicle of Wall Street Journal writer Sam Walker's foray into Rotisserie baseball via the Tout Wars experts league.

As might be expected, some of the stories of how his players get hot or run cold before or after key trades can get tiresome (as was Walker's talking to players, coaches and scouts about his team during the season), but it was amusing to see his braintrust (a former NASA engineer now working for the Cardinals and a guy who's appeared on my site) battle over concocting draft strategy -- the clash between classic scouting and the numbers game.

Thankfully, getting a full season's worth of stories about the league's participants, including a couple of colleagues I work with extensively (Jason Grey and Matt Berry) does provide for plenty of entertainment, although I guess it helps to know them.

The most interesting part of the book, though, in my opinion, is seeing the very strange rift between Ron Shandler and SABR, which in a way is indicative of the odd feud between fantasy players/experts/etc. and the growing class of baseball statistical analysts, despite both relying heavily on numbers to reach similar aims.

If you're into the baseball numbers game, fantasy or otherwise, it's an interesting read, but I think it'd be hard to get into it if it's not your cup of tea.

Paging Alanis
If you're going to complain about a lack of floss in jail, you might as well deserve Isaac Yankem as your cellmate.

Couple of other notes:
-- With all the hand-wringing over Bode Miller's washout, remember that he struggled in World Cup competition this year (after winning the title last year). It appears he pulled a Summer of Bode after winning the title, and looks like he turned Turin into the Winter of Bode as well. Oops.
-- The NFL Scouting Combine has been some intriguing TV to watch, even if it is just guys doing drills. It's also stranger seeing it while working out at the gym, especially when the 40-yard dash is going on while I'm on the treadmill.
-- Speaking of the combine, my colleague Stewart Mandel has a good response to the Vince Young Wonderlic debacle.
This whole hubbub over Young, especially in relation to Jay Cutler's rise up the draft charts, shows again how all-over-the-place NFL scouting/evaluation can be. Tom Brady is often considered better than Peyton Manning, and Joe Montana over Dan Marino because they've won the big games. It's wins over numbers over physical tools, so goes conventional wisdom.
We know Matt Leinart has all three, and he's a very good, safe pick near the top of the draft. Young obviously has all the freakish athletic ability, but he too has both numbers and big wins (including a head-to-head victory over Leinart at the Rose Bowl). Cutler appears to have the physical tools as well as the stats, but he played at Vanderbilt, where wins were few and far between (although beating Tennessee last year was huge). And yet, Cutler is being listed above Young in a few mock drafts.
The Brady and Montana comparisons are somewhat applicable as both were lower-round picks despite winning some big games in college themselves. That is not to say winning is everything, or else that Ken Dorsey-Craig Krenzel rematch a couple of seasons ago in the NFL wouldn't have been considered a bit of a joke.
I guess winning in college can be a detriment until you actually win in the NFL, and then it's a wonder why these guys weren't drafted higher. Hmm...

Now that the Olympics are finally done, I guess the focus turns to college hoops (although the World Baseball Classic will be intriguing, to say the least). So tell me why the ESPN juggernaut is showing Duke-UNC on three different channels with different cameras, including one just on the Cameron Crazies?

Speaking of Duke, Mark Bradley of the AJC put J.J. Redick at No. 15 of his top 20 players in ACC history. There's not much I can offer here, so I'll leave the floor open for some of the other college hoops junkies to sound off.

But before then, one last note about the Tar Heel state (or at least one of its former residents) ... Ben Folds' "Landed" has found its way onto ads for Hilton Journeys. It threw me off as I saw the ad tonight, and it's also the song constantly playing on the main screen.

I suppose of all his more well-known songs (with or without the Five), it probably lent itself best for use in commercials -- although the thought of a few of them to sell stuff (maybe "Army" to sell Chik-Fil-A) is intriguing.

More adventures in wasting time
In recent months, VH1 Classic seemed to be sliding a bit since it started airing "regular" commercials and occasionally showing movies that "rock," but it's lured me in today, or at least giving the DVR a workout, with four hours of one-hit wonder videos. (The playlists for hour 1, 2, 3, 4)

Obviously, their definitions of a one-hit wonder are sketchy (I know the channel has shown the other Blind Melon video that's not "No Rain"), but it's still silly fun.

And on a similar note, while getting this entry ready, Blogger decides to put this blog as its featured site. I don't care how much money he's lost over the years, you'd think he'd still have enough dough to get his own domain name. Don't you think he's 2 Legit for 2 Use Blogspot?

Is it over yet?
Few more Olympics thoughts as it's almost done -- none too soon with baseball and the tournament on the horizon ...
-- Nice finish to the curling competition -- especially the six (and should've been seven) in the sixth end by the Canadian men to clinch gold over Finland. The Finnish skip looks like an acquaintance of mine, or at least the guy from Rent who was also in A Beautiful Mind and Road Trip. (how's that for a resume?) And congrats to the U.S. men for winning bronze; Bemidji is getting a medal after all.
(Side note: Finland's president caught the gold-medal match a week after finally meeting Conan O'Brien, who used the Olympic break constructively.)
On the women's side, the Swedes (complete with cheesy metal video) took gold over the Swiss team (whose skip oddly resembles Shaun White) with Canada taking bronze.
It's interesting how much of a hit curling seems to be stateside (or at least every four years), and I wonder if it's the fact that a whole match gets shown (live in many cases) and thus you feel like something is unfolding in front of you -- as opposed to the chopped-up runs, races and heats on NBC's prime-time or mid-afternoon shows. Or it could just be that we could do that if given the chance (sort of how poker seems to be taking off since it seems any schlub could win the World Series of Poker main event).
-- However, while curling seems to be doing just fine on the fringes, Salon's King Kaufman has a point in that hockey seems to be shunted to the same edges of the primary NBC coverage -- although it's front and center for me because it's something live during the day. It's probably the biggest event at the Winter Olympics other than figure skating, but you don't see much of it on regular NBC coverage (even though it would be a good way to promote its own NHL coverage). But I suppose it's hard to chop up a hockey game and present it in the same prepackaged bite-sized nuggets like they've done with other marquee sports like skiing, figure skating or snowboarding.
-- Speaking of the Flying Tomato (and I'll agree with Flax that two straight SI covers with him seems a bit much; then again, Jerome Bettis had two covers in three weeks last month), it was amusing seeing Bob Costas pressing Sasha Cohen into responding to White's request for a date or whatever after his gold-medal win. Even more amusing was her "I'm so flattered, but ..." response. (That response sounds familiar. Oh wait, I think I've heard that from at least a couple of women over the years.)
Of course, if things with Sasha don't work out, White probably has a few other options.
-- Oh yeah, what was up with Thursday night's head-to-head-to-head-to-head TV lineup of ladies figure skating vs. American Idol vs. Dancing with the Stars vs. Survivor? God forbid if you're a male who dislikes reality TV.

Hey ladies???
It was a pretty disappointing morning/afternoon with USA's Olympic coverage with both the U.S. women's curling and hockey teams falling in dramatic fashion, and taking the air out of both competitions (curling is pretty much out of the medal hunt, a bronze medal is the best hockey can do).

Nice comeback by Cassie, Jamie and the gang (although they had their chance for four in the 10th end to win), before yet another extra-end loss. It was interesting, though, that the AP story mentions how popular the team has gotten during the Games (OK, so it's not just me). But when you get some cute-looking competitors not overly made up (see figure skating) or bundled up (see snowboarding), it's easy to get some attention.

As for hockey, at least the talk of just two teams dominating that competition can stop for now. The U.S. blew a 2-0 lead to Sweden, then failed to convert on a bunch of other opportunities, before falling in a shootout (where just about anything can happen). However, Sweden's goalie was brilliant, and might give Canada fits (assuming it advances to the gold-medal game). Now I wonder if the men will even be in medal contention.

And before the U.S. women's teams crashed and burned, there was Lindsey Jacobellis pulling a Leon Lett in the snowboard cross (a cool addition to the Games -- nice to have an "extreme sports" race, instead of yet another variation on figure skating) with one of the hills playing the role of Don Beebe.

While there appear to be two medals coming out of it (Jacobellis did win silver; U.S. women likely to win bronze), just doesn't seem like a good day for the ladies.

I say Turin, you say Torino
I can be an Olympics geek when need be, and so it is that I've done a decent job trying to follow the Winter Games (despite the lead-up columns to the Games that we had pretty much saying the Winter Olympics suck -- great, we're not even waiting to be snarky).

If anything, I get my quadrennial interest in curling revived. It helps that there's usually a match on one of the NBCU networks at 3 a.m. when I'm getting home from work and/or trying to get to bed. And for a bigger plus, the U.S. women's team, or at least the Johnson sisters, is a rather photogenic bunch; however, the early returns are rather disappointing, and we really can't give them medals for just being cute. That could explain some of the saturation coverage, albeit during off-hours. With that said, it's fun picking it up again, and like Cooch mentioned, we pretend to be at least reasonably informed viewers rather quickly. I think part of it has to do with the announcers, and part of it comes with having an open mind (and not quickly mocking it).

As for the rest of the Games, I'm getting ready for "real" hockey to begin, although the U.S. women did have a scare against Finland, trailing 3-2 going into the third before winning 7-3. At least now, most of the games blanketing the coverage on the non-network arms will seem meaningful, as opposed to any women's game featuring non-North American teams.

All the cool speed events like luge, speed skating, skiing, etc., lose a bit of its magic in NBC's tape-delay format, mainly because any competition where you're competing against the clock, you have to edit out some of the spontaneity that comes from hoping if an early competitor's time can hold up. Unfortunately, I have to manufacture my own "live" drama by refreshing the results page on the Web. (NBC sorta tried that years ago with the Triplecast, which was a flop for the most part, by my brother enjoyed watching tapes of some of those events since you got to see everybody.)

What is intriguing to me with the ratings for the Games (naturally, down from Salt Lake City) is figuring out what the public's TV-viewing patterns are these days, and how to appeal to each of these different demographics:
-- First off, you've got sports fans like me who want to watch things live, and so the packaged stuff and tape-delayed drama does nothing for me, especially if I already know what happened.
However, the numbers of fans who watch "mainstream" sports who are also interested in the Olympics seem to be waning. If some of the pre-Games stuff that was written is an indication of the sports-viewing audience today, it's not even worth "expanding our horizons" to watch luge, speedskating, etc. (Maybe it's more magnified during the winter since there is more of a disconnect between sports and reality. We've all run a race or taken a swim in the pool. Not as many of us have ridden a bobsled.)
-- The extended coverage of curling and hockey might be showing that there is a market for The Ocho or Obscure Sports Quarterly. And with those two sports, it's much harder to show the event without showing a full game. Highlights work, to an extent, but it's not like other speed events where you can show a gold-medal run rather quickly.
-- Figure skating, for the most part, draws in a crowd that's not sports fans. But since it has the potential to draw the most ratings (mostly because of the often mutual exclusivity between sports fans and Olympics fans), that's where the bulk of the value of the Games comes from. So it's interesting that while Michelle Kwan's withdrawal does put a damper on things, there hasn't been as much hype over Sasha Cohen (especially if that picture is any indication, and even Shaun White mentioned he really wanted to meet her after he won his gold). Are we to think that just the thrill of the competition is enough to draw people in those extra viewers, or have they just given up on getting the male demographic (who's probably watching 24 anyways)?

And just where are the Mulkey brothers these days?
I'm not as rabid a fan as years ago, but I figured it was worth checking out the WWE Raw show since it was downtown, and the whole scene (both in and out of the ring) is always an interesting sociological experiment.

I will say, though, that the experience really deserved having Crow and Tom Servo, or at least a Sklar brother next to me. Nonetheless, it was still an entertaining time, if only because I think at times, it turned into I Love the '80s and I Love the '90s (even though Chris Jericho wasn't around).

The '80s part came in the form of this Peter Gabriel song being the theme song for the upcoming Wrestlemania. Very strange, since it's usually some hard rock song by a band who was in nursery school when the above song hit the charts. The other part came when this guy suddenly appeared, and the middle schoolers nearby looked on in utter confusion, whereas I was getting a tad nostalgic.

The '90s part kicked in a bit when the crowd was surprisingly lively for this guy, who was on the "other" show that no one ever sees. There were a lot of the usual suspects as well who have been with the company for a while, plus an ECW chant when this guy wrestled (he also got the second-best pop of the night). Plus, he showed up at the end of the program to set up next week's big matchup (and wish everyone a nice day).

The matches weren't anything spectacular for the most part, but the Triple H-Ric Flair showdown was fun for nostalgic purposes -- thankfully it was a clean finish and no sledgehammers were involved. And the whole idea of a tournament was good, if only because there were at least the concepts of solid matchups.

Finally, I got to see for myself the oddly mixed reaction for the current WWE champ, the proof that most rap music is bought by kids in the suburbs. A good portion of the crowd went nuts for him, but there was a good amount of booing for him as well. He does have charisma, but he still pales in comparison to The Rock, for instance.

One last note, I guess today's kids don't need cigarette lighters to produce light when the arena is darkened. Instead, I saw a ton of backlighting from everyone's cell phones. A rather surreal look, to be sure.

Some observations and linkage:
-- A letter to the AJC actually brought this up, but the Thrashers have embarked on their latest losing streak after announcing they wouldn't sell opposing teams' jerseys in the arena store and offered an exchange of some other team's sweater for one of those blue jerseys (I think). Karma might be at play. Earl Hickey would be so proud.
-- I suppose when you're now on the outside looking in, you can be a little harsher on the state of journalism these days. That's what Aaron Brown and Ted Koppel are doing here. Interesting stuff, although Koppel seems to think there's actually hope for the business, whereas Brown seems to blame the viewing public. Me, I sometimes wonder why anyone gets into the business when you hear everything is so horrible.
-- And for a little bit of fun, here's a site that's tracking Jack Bauer and poking tons of holes in the continuity of 24 in the process. And of course, it's using Google Maps (Double True).
-- Speaking of Lazy Sunday, somehow real New York bakeries have propelled themselves into the national conscience lately. First, it's the Magnolia Bakery (with all the bomb frostings). Then the Buttercup Bake Shop shows up as a major plot point in How I Met Your Mother -- although the episode in question takes a lot after another movie that also prominently features a scene where baked goods are consumed.
-- One of these days, I might compile a side page or blog with music charts, but for now, here's a link to Blender's list of the 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born (i.e. 1980-2005). My ABD teammates and I were playing K-Tel Hell with it on the way back from Michigan after the tournament. Interesting stuff, although obviously tons of questionable choices, but that's what these things are supposed to do. Right now, I've got 143 of the songs on an iPod playlist, with a few more that I never ripped from my CD.

That long-awaited article on the quiz-bowl phenomenon seems to have finally made its appearance (at least in some form) -- albeit on a site that's about to go dark today, although everything should still live on until they let the registration on the domain name lapse.

I guess the LaPlaca Open will get slightly tougher next season now that UPN and the WB will merge into one network, meaning you'll have a pretty decent lineup by combining the best of the two netlets -- in fact, my DVR does have a handful of shows from those two in regular rotation. But it is a boon this year for the flotsam and jetsam that's on the network right now (although Smackdown is sticking around, likely, killing my hopes of winning the contest this year).

(However, I'm still trying to figure out why, in Atlanta, the local UPN affiliate decided to show this movie at 3 a.m. the other night. Is that going to be the future of the channel should it not get chosen to take on the new network?)

What day is it anyway?
So in a weekend full of great playoff games, I saw only significant parts of just one contest (Broncos-Pats) primarily because I was traveling for my apparently every-other-year appearance at the Ann B. Davis tournament.

This time, I teamed up with Team O'Reilly and continued my winning streak from Trashmasters (and Big Lots/FOGHAT, for that matter), taking this title as well. It's a crazy run that I can't totally figure out (winning two of the big three trash tournaments, with two completely different sets of teammates, going undefeated both times) -- especially since I somehow also took home a neg crown in addition to leading my team (a very balanced one, in my opinion) in scoring. Mike and Craig ran an excellent tournament, although I had wished to see a few more heavy hitters from the region take part as well.

It was fun to see some of the usual suspects again, and messing around with the iPod both ways made the car ride a lot more fun.

One other note -- Atlanta has a new classic rock station, which is somewhat similar to this station. So similar that at the same time this afternoon, both stations were playing this song. It was a tad freaky when I switched stations realizing I had the same exact song on.

Do you have a problem with that?
So fresh off Atlanta's silly rebranding campaign (Every day is like Opening Day? Does that mean we'll have our hearts broken six months later?), now comes New Jersey's new slogan. It seems fine, although a bunch of the rejected suggestions were pretty good too, even if they might come up short for even those snarky t-shirts. Of course, I'm still waiting for this ditty to be the official state song -- inspiring something actually funny from Robert Wuhl (i.e. not Arli$$).

I missed this a little earlier, but here's an interesting list of the most played song on a variety of different radio stations in Atlanta in 2005. Not a lot of surprises, save for the Blue Merle song and, oh yeah, "Sara Smile."

Happy new year
For the first time possibly in a long time (and possibly ever), I actually spent New Year's Eve working. It was interesting trying to sample the variety of New Year's Eve celebrations on the tube:
-- Happy Boo Year (ESPN): Looks like a decent year-in-review show mixed in with Stuart Scott (hence my name for the show) and Little Steven (what, no Clarence Clemons?) introducing some musical acts.
-- Regis Philbin (Fox): Seemed like a train wreck. If Fox wanted to draw a younger crowed, why did you have Regis sing?
-- Anderson Cooper (CNN): Decent stuff, plus some decent musical cut-ins (James Brown, Kool and the Gang, Barenaked Ladies).
-- Carson Daly (NBC): Not too shabby, plus Melissa Stark was the on-the-ground reporter in Times Square. Plus, they got in and out quickly -- do the ball drop, then off to an SNL rerun.

Then there was the return of Dick Clark to ABC, and boy it seemed like watching Ali light the torch at the Atlanta Olympics (10 years ago! Yikes!). It was great to see him there, but boy, it was slightly uncomfortable to watch. He seemed to be in good spirits, but the stroke has taken its toll on him. At least we know he's mortal now, I suppose.

ABC also did a good job in keeping the show focused on the live stuff and then going to that hokey musical revue taped a couple of weeks earlier (still best lampooned in a Friends episode) after midnight. I guess having Mariah Carey perform live was a huge coup -- and it was fun seeing Ryan Seacrest trying to get her to kiss him when the clock struck midnight. And later on in the studio, I would've sworn she was getting ready to work at Scores after the show was done.

As for the canned musical stuff, I wasn't paying close attention except for when they brought The Bangles out of nowhere to perform. Susanna Hoffs still looked really good (and she'll be 47 in a few weeks); the rest of the group, not so much. And at least they avoided "Walk Like An Egyptian."

It did get interesting leaving work at 2 a.m. as it appeared the Widespread Panic show was letting out as we finished up -- we could smell the pot smoke wafting up to the walkway from the office to the parking lot.

I was also intrigued that my local alt-rock station opted for a top 99 party jams of all time (perfect for that New Year's Eve party) instead of a top hits countdown. So while the Beastie Boys were there no matter what, there were other songs you would never, ever hear on the station. Then again, with their recent "Shuffle" weekends (the music director's iPod goes on shuffle for the weekend), anything goes -- I've heard "Billie Jean" and "Piano Man" along with some deep Death Cab for Cutie tracks, for instance.

Happy, merry
The holiday season went pretty well, although I'm now in the midst of a long stretch of days in a row at work, but I guess it's fine since it's also coinciding with bowl season.

The time back home in Jersey was fine. Had XM on both ends of the AirTran flight, which is always nice. Hung out with the family (and future family members, as the case may be). Had a sort of "Jeopardy victory tour" visiting friends and relatives over the holiday season, but also dealt with a very wonky wireless connection from somewhere in my old neighborhood -- renovations in my parents' house limited some of the cable access.

Also got hooked, slightly, on Deal or No Deal, which seemed to be an overdone version of a Price Is Right game or even the old Treasure Hunt game show, replacing that creepy butler guy with 26 hot women -- nice upgrade.

Oh yeah, there was also that Sun Bowl game today, which was fun to watch with the local alumni club (and even running into a guy who used to live in my dorm) but then seeing what I thought might happen (defensive collapse) and even some weirdness (NU returning two picks for scores and UCLA returning two onside kick attempts for TDs to make sure the game covered the over).

That game, and the subsequent Independence Bowl, rode my bowl picks losing streak to six, although LSU is helping matters in the Peach.

I'm back home in New Jersey for "Holiday," and interestingly enough stumbled across public-access TV coverage of the town's tree lighting, featuring the most famous celebrity to grow up there. BTW, never saw her around town growing up. (For what it's worth, I'd imagine, this guy is the most famous to die there.)

Oh yeah, despite some major inefficiences in the check-in process (checking in baggage after using the kiosks needs to be much faster), AirTran does do a good job of making flights go fast when there's XM Radio on the plane. At least you don't have to shut that down during takeoff and landing (like I'd have to do with my iPod).

Speaking of transportation, the current New York City transit strike may end up affecting trips to see friends in the city, although I always wonder what people in other cities think about this strike -- especially in places reluctant to install mass transit.

The rest of the story ...
Since I've got the platform at work, here's Part 1 and Part 2 of the Jeopardy! experience.

And speaking of offbeat stories landing on the site at work, here's how longtime SI hoops writer Alex Wolff bought an ABA franchise. At least he seems to be more with it than a bunch of other teams that came and went without playing a game.

I think I did a good job in picking this game for my first foray into live NHL action since the lockout. Just a ridiculously fun game. Oh yeah, there were chants of "Fire Millen" late in the third period.

One last quick Jeopardy note before I end up concocting the grand write-up: The last show of the week/taping session, which I watched in the audience with my parents after being deposed as champ, features the categories "Bizarre MLB Injuries" and "Chicago." Serves me right for taking a guess on carnauba, eh?

Couple of other notes:
-- As I pointed out to Craig, the World Cup draw actually features the Continental Soccer Association battle between Mexico and Portugal.
-- And on another Simpsons note, this is a brilliant comparison between college football teams and the denizens of Springfield.

TPS ... in song!
Too bad it sounds like the Office Space musical will be done by mid-January, when I may be coming through town.

One hit wonder
Hope I'm not spoiling it for my West Coast friends, but I'm one and done despite playing a much better game than my actual victory. But them's the breaks, I suppose. Eventually I'll have some major long wrapup thing. But thanks to all those people that have contacted me since my shows have aired (and who I didn't prod into watching in the first place).

Trebekie Monster
To those of you searching for me after appearing on Jeopardy!, welcome, yup, this is the guy you're looking for. I'll have more thoughts on the war of attrition later, although I will say it's amusing that the J! site started putting pictures of contestants appearing this week on the front (instead of just on a special page) and, well, I'm not one of them. Then again, that shouldn't be a surprise -- who wants to see my mug front and center?

The countdown continues
Just hours before the Jeopardy airing (unless you're in L.A., San Francisco and Seattle). As I've mentioned before, check your local listings. Be there. Aloha.

On a completely unrelated note, you can tell how different some of today's churches are when they're going to be closed on Christmas. On the other hand, it'll be tough to find a seat at the Catholic church on Christmas with the twice-a-years showing up.

The waiting
Just a couple of more days until my brush with TV fame, but for now, you can see everyone who taped the same week with me over here.

I guess I head into this interesting week on a roll by winning my third Trashmasters title, teaming with JD, Julie and Rebecca, and going undefeated in the process. Not sure how we did it, but I guess we were sharp all weekend long, and I think I'm even more surprised to lead the team in scoring. But it was cool to get Julie her first TM title after so many years of playing the event. And as usual, it was fun seeing all the usual suspects.

Oh yeah, I also took my second K-Tel Hell title. When Charlie makes things "more accessible," it means I've got a fighting chance with the speed. Of course, having to battle Craig down the wire for it was both fun and nerve-wracking. Now waiting to get the belt back, although I wonder if it looks like Cena's belt.

Couple of a movie reviews here as well:
-- Walk The Line: Solid film, and I guess I'm really buying both Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon singing (I believed Reese first). I think Reese has better Oscar odds than Joaquin, but both are solid.
-- Jesus Is Magic: After going to matinees for long films for stuff like Walk the Line, Harry Potter, etc., I suppose what goes around comes around as I pay full price to see a 70-minute film that probably could've worked as an HBO special. But it was you expect from Sarah Silverman, along with some silly musical montages in between (although she did look pretty good in the '60s get up).

Woooooo!
Not sure how much stylin' and profilin' he was doing when this mug shot was taken.

Yes, it's been a while since I've posted. Part of me has been busy, part of me has been lazy. I guess I'm counting down the days before my Jeopardy! appearance, and getting some viewing parties set up. Plus, there's the annual trivia contest/barbecue (which is now the best way to describe Trashmasters) next weekend, so that'll be good -- also a good time to tell even more people I'll be on TV.

Thanksgiving was nice with Victoria, Phil and the Norasaurus coming back into town, and I even got suckered into some Black Friday shopping and survived -- but then again, when you know what you want (a bunch of dirt-cheap DVDs), it just seemed like another day. And now I guess I can accept the Christmas season being here (it was strange seeing all the trees up at work by last weekend), although it was odd hearing Alvin and the Chipmunks being used to sell Sopranos DVDs.

Other random thoughts:
-- RIP, Mr. Miyagi. Although I guess I would've expected him to be older, but I suppose he never really aged a whole lot in the 20-plus years since the movie came out.
-- The local pop station is doing a "lost hits" weekend, so it amusing to hear this song or even this song, but this song should've been lost for sure (you realize Adam Sandler wrote similar lyrics to be funny).
-- My schedule for New Year's is up in the air, but if things fall the right way, a trip to Nashville for a bowl game would be just fine for me. Just too bad Vandy had to lose to both MTSU and Kentucky, or else that could've been NU's opponent.
-- Yes, I've watched the final tables of the WSOP a few times. It really is like the I Love The '80s in stuff that oddly holds up in repeated viewings. But I can't help but think that when I see Andrew Black on TV that it's really a slimmed down Paul Giamatti with Alan Rickman's voice.
-- And speaking of Snape, the latest Harry Potter movie was pretty good, and even the Dawson's Creek-type storylines came across pretty well.
-- It's weird that in baseball, pitching wins are an official stat, yet there are eight jillion ways to crunch the numbers to prove it's an overrated stat (see Roger Clemens' stats this season). Yet football has a rather complex formula to determine quarterback efficiency/rating/etc. but wins get brought up all the time as the number that matters over any other stat. (e.g. Joe Montana and Tom Brady vs. Dan Marino and Peyton Manning).
-- Late in posting this article from Romenesko, but it's curious to see schools where the white kids are the dumb ones. You might even want to cue up the part in The Cable Guy where Ben Stiller says the people who killed his brother were speaking Asian.
-- If you read this story about trying to rename a road after Rosa Parks, you'd think "diverse" would mean the same thing as "urban," especially when the spokesman refers to Clayton County as "a predominantly diverse community."

Congratulations to Gobo and Sarah on the birth of their first son.

So in the span of just a few days, I've had one friend from college get married (dot-com) and another enter into fatherhood. And I'm just observing from afar, possibly trying to dodge the next stage of adulthood/being a grown-up.

I think it's safe to say that my generation (or at least just among my friends) live primarily for references to anything pop culture, especially when one of the funniest moments on TV I'd seen in a long time was no more than a two-second interstital bit on Robot Chicken with that had just one word of dialogue: "Leon!?!?"

Ten years after
One thing that dawned on a bunch of us this weekend is that it's been 10 years since the core of the "cult" first met. Funny how time flies. Even odder is how some of the stuff that tied the group together all that time ago has suddenly come back in vogue.

I suppose it shouldn't be a coincidence that MTV aired a bunch of Beavis and Butt-head cartoons over the weekend to promote the new DVD collection. And then there's that pseudo-ECW revival marked by the thrilling pay-per-view over the summer and now the addition of Joey Styles to the RAW broadcast booth.

Congratulations to Steve and Melissa on their wedding over the weekend. It was a very nice ceremony, and I was thrilled to see plenty of old faces once again -- really felt like college all over again.

The wedding took me up to East Lansing, where I hadn't been since my last official quizbowl tournament representing Northwestern back in 1997. Ironically, Steve was one of my teammates that weekend -- and it would be years before he met Melissa and then eventually get married (dot-com).

Nice enough college town, although even the allure of cheap clothing at Steve and Barry's could get me to buy some MSU gear. However, I did get to see a very good Spartans hockey game after some crossed signals with other wedding plans during the weekend. When the hockey arena is just a short walk from the hotel, it's hard not to pass it up.

Couple of scattered World Series notes ...
-- The Thrashers game pre-empted the World Series on local Atlanta radio, or at least the primary station. It might've been on a much lower-powered station, but I couldn't pick it up driving around tonight. However, I could pick up the game on Chicago's ESPN Radio station and White Sox flagship. Even with satellite radio around, it's still fun playing with the dial and seeing what you can get. On the other hand, not everyone is as curious as me in trying to find the game on the radio.
-- The "Don't Stop Believing" theme song for the White Sox is amusing. (Remember, it landed in the Top 100 on iTunes because it appeared on Family Guy.) But then they brought in Steve Perry? But shouldn't he be a Tigers fan if he was "born and raised in south Detroit" (aka Windsor)?
-- Nice to see Dustin Hermanson pitching like he did when he's been on my fantasy teams in years past.

Tap the bottleneck
It's close to the perfect storm over here with trying to get a program done for a banquet next week, plus working on TRASH regionals questions, a wedding next weekend in Michigan after that, plus the usual and unusual stuff at work.

And despite that, still had time to play most of Big Lots (the UTC mirror of FOGHAT). I actually got to play most of the scheduled round robin, leaving before the final round to go to work. At that point, we were undefeated had a two-game lead over the field. I guess I've been so used to the strangeness of the tournament, which would explain the ridiculous margins of victories (smallest was 100 points in the first round).

Oh yeah, I've been meaning to write that Northwestern-themed packet for the longest time, so that was just the best excuse/platform to do so. Some of the stuff seemed forced, and I suppose if you don't me (and even if you do), the theme would be very annoying. One team grumbled about that theme just before playing us (I'm not sure if they connected me with the packet) -- it was a Christian college and we played them on Round 9 (for those who know, it's too silly). But if you guys have any other comments about my packet, let's hear them ...

And besides the quiz bowl foray, I went to my first ever Monday Night Football game, and, oddly enough, my first ever Jets game. It was great to have my friend Alyson along for the game because the rest of it was pretty surreal.

Three fumbles in 20 minutes by Vinny Testaverde where all I could do is shake my head; a Jets kickoff return for a touchdown negated by penalties; Brooks Bollinger playing all of the fourth quarter; three Michael Vick interceptions -- strangest part was that the biggest exodus of fans came in the middle of the fourth quarter after the third Vick pick while the Falcons were ahead and the Jets down only two scores.

The buzz in the dome was weird. A couple of times on defense, the place was amped. But on offense in the middle of the third quarter, it was like a church (topped off with a guy in front of us wearing a choir robe done up like a Falcons jersey). And to top it all off, I saw the debut of an Atlanta anthem, which is part of a new city branding campaign. Good artists involved (Monica, T-Boz, 112, etc.) although we could barely pick them out or the lyrics. But I guess it's a tossup whether to show that on the Monday night broadcast or Tim McGraw. That means I've now seen the debut of an official team rap and an official city song. Oy.

Been a bit behind with updates, but for now, check out one one of the most innovative rap covers ever made. (Yes, it's a free download.)

My spite-y senses are tingling
I'm not too surprised the Yankees are gone; disappointed sure, but not surprised. Just seemed like a not-so-good matchup. Funny thing is that if Bernie Williams were in center, he probably wouldn't have made it to the gap as quickly as Bubba Crosby and Gary Sheffield catches that fly ball, instead of two-run triple. Also, it's interesting to see Darin Erstad make the final play with a nice stop on defense after his offense was absolutely trashed during the series (Al Leiter as the designated stopper for Erstad, are you kidding?)

But now that both the Yankees and Red Sox are gone, the main motivating force for many to watch the playoffs this year -- hate -- is gone. Since y'all can't be hypocrites anymore and actually root for someone to win the World Series, here's a little guide for who to root against the most for the rest of October (in rough order of most hateable to least, in my opinion):

1. White Sox: Hawk Harrelson isn't calling games in the playoffs, but if you're not a fan of the team, he's a big reason to root against them. If not now, but think of what he could be next season if they win it all. ... There's that "cursed" thing, which was annoying with the Red Sox last year (even among their own fans) and is just tired this year. ... The legions of Cubs fans still have many reasons to hate. (see below)
2. Astros: Haven't we had enough of wild-card teams winning it all? ... Depending on your political persuasion, there's that Texas thing. ... If you need your fix of Yankees hate, Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens are among Houston's best pitchers.
3. Angels: They won in 2003, too soon for another championship. ... The whole Los Angeles of Anaheim thing. Which reminds me, is the name of the city now "of Anaheim," given how many things in the city are named "of Anaheim" -- the hockey team, the baseball stadium, the baseball team. To go with the California theme, maybe the city should be called "de Anaheim." ... Rally monkey and thundersticks are back.
4. Cardinals: Best record in the majors. Default is to root against the favorite. ... The Cubs fan factor. What would happen to Cubs fans if the White Sox and Cardinals meet in the World Series? ... St. Louis fans often regarded as the nicest in the league. When we root out of spite, we just can't have that.

Lots of things to do, which means more reasons to procrastinate. Case in point: The N is now going old school, literally, with late-night reruns of Degrassi Junior High. It even surpasses the old reruns of The Electric Company that used to be on in the middle of the night when all it had was old PBS and Nickelodeon shows.

The DVR Chronicles
Now that the fall season has started, the new DVR is working overtime actually recording stuff other than Jeopardy and movies. (Eventually I'll have to clear out those old Jeopardy! episodes, save the ones with my some of my colleagues on them. I've already done my taping, so there's no need to watch old episodes as study guides.)
Here's what I've gleaned from some of the newer shows I've tried out:
-- How I Met Your Mother: Now that Friends is off the air, we can have more shows about 20-somethings hanging out and not feel like it's a ripoff. Besides, the bar is less pretentious than the coffee shop. Of course, Willow is the reason I'm watching, and I'm impressed with it, maybe because a lot of it feels familiar; however, I wonder how long the Bob Saget gimmick will work.
-- Everybody Hates Chris: See, they can still do a "family" show that's still hip. Obviously, Chris Rock taking over the Daniel Stern narrator role helps, and who knew he could work relatively clean? What I find funniest is that I last saw the mom on Chappelle's Show on one of the "Keeping It Real …" segments.
-- My Name Is Earl: I like Jason Lee's stuff, even though he seems to play some of the same psycho-type characters each time, including The Incredibles, which I saw on cable this afternoon. The show is still taking time to grow on me, and it doesn't help that it's on against House. (But my DVR can record two things at once, which is huge.)
-- The Office: I recorded it the first week after Earl, but I could never really get into it. I'd like to, but just couldn't.
-- Veronica Mars: I know it's a year old, but I've only caught bits and pieces of it last year, so it's time to watch a show or two. I like Veronica Mars the cute sleuth, not as big a fan of the soap opera stuff (competing boyfriends, etc.). Of course, while I keep fawning over Kristen Bell, in walks Charisma Carpenter and well, that's just not right. On the other hand, the Stonecutters have returned to bring Steve Guttenberg back on TV.

A date which will live in infamy ...
I'm still in L.A., but for those who know why I'm out here (and if you don't, I'm just following in her footsteps) ...

December 7, check your local listings, especially out in the West Coast. Be there, aloha!

I think Tyler covers some of my same thoughts about the Emmys, but here are a couple observations from someone watching the ceremony the same time as the Chiefs-Raiders game:
-- I loved the Zach Braff-Hugh Laurie pairing. A New Jersey native who plays a doctor along with a guy who plays a doctor working in New Jersey. Plus, Zach acting surprised over Hugh's accent was fun, if predictable.
-- There was some sensory overload in the middle of the ceremony in that for about a 10-minute stretch, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Lauren Graham presented an award, then Kristen Bell's musical performance, and finally Alyson Hannigan presenting an award with Doogie Howser (or the NPH, if you will). If I weren't on the phone dealing with some other stuff, I would've been completely useless.

I haven't updated here for a while, but that's because of the onslaught of the NFL season, plus some other stuff that will be discussed later. But for now, here's a fun photo off the wires:

I suppose it's a civic duty now to at least mention how to help Katrina victims especially in the midst of the narcissism that is this blog. At the same time, it's getting tougher and tougher to read and watch coverage of the aftermath of the tragedy. Not only is it hard to fathom all the death and destruction, but the contentious political climate we're living in means that the pure sadness and negativity is just exacerbated since everyone else is to blame, whether they're trying to help or not.

Boulevard of Broken Dreams (and Empty Wallets)
The things I do for my job: This week I was in Vegas for a conference where I ended up meeting for the first time a bunch of people I had been working with on a handful of projects for a number of years. Such is the nature of the Internet, I guess.

A trade conference is a trade conference: a handful of speakers, some panels worth watching, others worth heading to the tables, some impossibly gorgeous sales reps for businesses which may or may not be around next year. Plus, there were a handful of fantasy drafts and even a poker tournament (where I finished sixth out of 60 and got a little money that quickly went elsewhere).

There was a Seinfeld moment at one point when Mitchell & Ness gave out bags with shirts and caps. Unfortunately, they were fitted hats, which prompted some rummaging through bags to find the right size. I just stopped bothering trying to find one for my Barry Bonds-like melon and just stuck with the hat.

The Vegas experience this time around was interesting since I really beat up my feet the day before the conference by walking the length of the Strip from Excalibur (where I was staying) up to Stratosphere. Granted, it took all day and I stopped at almost every casino along the way, but it was still a blast. Of course, when you do something like that, most of the really nice casinos just start blending together. Everyone asked me how nice Wynn was, and all I could think was that it was similar to Paris or Venetian or Bellagio; and that I may or may not have won some money on video poker there. After a while, that Green Day song does come into play when you consider the cash being thrown around.

Unlike last time, I wasn't so lucky at the roulette and blackjack tables, getting smoked at both nice places (MGM Grand; New York, New York) and not-so-nice (New Frontier, Boardwalk). Eventually I'll have to learn how to lose my money at those other table games. On the other hand, I did get a nice view of the city from the top of Mandalay Bay.

Another strange thing about this trip was how I somehow ended up working on East Coast time, even though my schedule is usually a West Coast one. How else to explain getting up at 6 and 7 in the morning? On the other hand, it made that 3:30 a.m. trip to the diner at Excalibur after a night at the tables seem reasonably normal.

There's still more to see in town, and maybe one of these days I'll go without having conference duties hovering over me.