Wednesday, February 20, 2008
?
Does anyone watch SportsCenter anymore? I certainly don't. I can't even get through the intro after PTI is over. It's so sensational and hyperbolic I just can't stomach it. For example, yesterday the anchor mentioned Kobe's "transcendant" abilities in one of the teasers. Really? Transcendant? I don't think that word means what he thinks it means. Was it always this bad? Was I just insulated because I usually watched the morning version? Has ESPN become MTV for the sports crowd?
Sunday, February 17, 2008
I Want One
I'm not usually much for tools. I appreciate them, but since I haven't really had the need to do any woodworking in quite some time I don't find myself wanting any very badly. However, I just saw the CompuCarve Woodworking Machine from Craftsman advertised on TV and I definitely want one. It's basically a small CNC mill that can be used on wood and some plastics. It looks like it would allow you to make some fairly intricate designs that would be far beyond most of our capabilites with hand tools. It definitely doesn't look like the Haas lathe of woodworking equipment.*
*This joke requires explanation. Quite a while ago at work we bought a new machine, a Haas lathe. For various reasons the machine didn't perform as expected until months of tweaking and addition of some extra parts. In this time, being called the "Haas lathe of ____" became a common and particularly stinging insult.
*This joke requires explanation. Quite a while ago at work we bought a new machine, a Haas lathe. For various reasons the machine didn't perform as expected until months of tweaking and addition of some extra parts. In this time, being called the "Haas lathe of ____" became a common and particularly stinging insult.
Baaaah.... thud.
I received the first disc of the first season of Monty Python's Flying Circus this week and saw this sketch. It was too hilarious not to share. Of course, if you've never raised sheep you might disagree.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
"You want me on that mound. You need me on that mound."
According to Jonah Goldberg at the Corner, this text of Roger Clemens's testimony was going around earlier in the week:
Clemens: You want answers?
Congressman: I think I'm entitled to them.
Clemens: You want answers?
Congressman: I want the truth!
Clemens: You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has baseballs. And those balls have to be hit by men with bats. Who's gonna do it? You? You,Congressman? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for steroids and you curse HGH. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that HGH, while illegal, probably sells tickets. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, sells tickets...You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that mound. You need me on that mound. We use words like fastall, slider, splitfinger...we use these words as the backbone to a life spent playing a sport. You use 'em as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and falls asleep to the Sportscenter clips I provide,! then questions the manner in which I provide it! I'd rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a bat and dig in. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to!
Congressman: Did you order the HGH?
Clemens: (quietly) I did the job you sent me to do.
Congressman: Did you order the HGH?
Clemens: You're gddamn right I did!!
5 Pints
That's how much blood Richard Zednik lost after a freak accident where a teammate's skate cut his carotid artery. This happened back on the 11th, he's now been discharged from Buffalo General Hospital where he received life-saving surgery. You've probably seen the video by now, but I'm not going to post it because I had to turn away from the TV when they showed it on PTI the other day. The crowd's reaction in the photo in this article tells you all you need to know. I think most of the time we forget just how dangerous sports, especially hockey, can be. This was quite a reminder.
Friday, February 15, 2008
"...I thought that was closer."
Figured I might as well post this, since I mentioned it earlier:
If nothing else, the moment with the shadow of Indy putting on his fedora is perfect. I've found watching this trailer a couple of times has sparked a dormant interest in Indiana Jones gear: fedora, jacket, whip, etc. If you're interested in any of this stuff the place to go is, appropriately enough, IndyGear (which proves yet again that if you're even a little interested in something, there's a community of intense fans to be found on the internet). U.S. Wings also sells jackets here.
If nothing else, the moment with the shadow of Indy putting on his fedora is perfect. I've found watching this trailer a couple of times has sparked a dormant interest in Indiana Jones gear: fedora, jacket, whip, etc. If you're interested in any of this stuff the place to go is, appropriately enough, IndyGear (which proves yet again that if you're even a little interested in something, there's a community of intense fans to be found on the internet). U.S. Wings also sells jackets here.
Want to be a Detroit Tiger?
Yesterday I was listening to WDFN 1130 The Fan during Stoney and Wojo and they were talking to a Tigers guy, not sure who, but he said the Tigers were holding "open tryouts." So, I did some research on the Tigers website and here is what I found:
Tigers to hold open tryouts
02/12/2008 10:46 AM ET
By Jason Beck / MLB.com
DETROIT -- The Tigers will hold an open tryout camp at their Spring Training complex in Lakeland, Fla., on Tuesday, March 4.
The tryout at Joker Marchant Stadium is open to players age 18 and older, with no pre-registration and participation fee necessary. Interested athletes must simply provide their own glove and workout equipment; wooden bats, helmets and baseballs will be provided by the Tigers.
Time to put up or shut up.
I've always wondered about tryouts for professional teams, a la "Invincible" but never understood how it was done. Especially for cold weather baseball teams like Detroit. Why would they wait until May to hold tryouts once the season has begun? I didn't realize they would do it during spring training. I guess that makes more sense.
Tigers to hold open tryouts
02/12/2008 10:46 AM ET
By Jason Beck / MLB.com
DETROIT -- The Tigers will hold an open tryout camp at their Spring Training complex in Lakeland, Fla., on Tuesday, March 4.
The tryout at Joker Marchant Stadium is open to players age 18 and older, with no pre-registration and participation fee necessary. Interested athletes must simply provide their own glove and workout equipment; wooden bats, helmets and baseballs will be provided by the Tigers.
Time to put up or shut up.
I've always wondered about tryouts for professional teams, a la "Invincible" but never understood how it was done. Especially for cold weather baseball teams like Detroit. Why would they wait until May to hold tryouts once the season has begun? I didn't realize they would do it during spring training. I guess that makes more sense.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Indiana Jones...
...and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull now has a trailer available at Yahoo. Despite the fact that I'm a big Indiana Jones fan, I haven't been all that excited about this movie. This trailer helps. I'm not sold yet, but I think I'll be checking it out. If nothing else, it gives me a great excuse to pick up a fedora.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Did you hear that meatbag? I'LL BE BACK!
I posted over a year ago that there would be a third Knights of the Old Republic game. Today we get more confirmation where the game is listed in an Electronic Arts investor report under Bioware ongoing projects. That's right, it's going to be developed by the original developer. Now, if you haven't played the games this isn't going to matter at all, but if you're a gamer it's potentially, well, just about the best news ever. This immediately jumps to the top of my most anticipated games of 20XX. (Hat tip: Joystiq)UPDATE: Apparently, this isn't accurate. The information presented was referencing PAST projects by Bioware, so they may not actually be working on KOTOR 3. Boo!
Redford Update
Brad Redford played again tonight (Tuesday), and oh yeah, Frankenmuth was there too. You may have thought it was just a shoot around between Essexville-Garber and Redford judging by the score of 100-58. Brad scored 53, school record, and also broke the record for most 3-pointers made in a single season, 116. Man, get some shooting lessons.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Welcome to Cass City
Has anyone else seen the shiny new Cass City homepage? I guess I can't say how new it is since I don't actually go to the CC homepage often, but it looks new. Is it just me, or does "Come for a Day - Stay for a Lifetime!" sound kind of sinister?
Football Quotes
There's some great quotes in this article about Bill Belichick by Geoffrey Norman at NRO, so I thought I'd share:
More in the article.
"The alumni are with you, win or tie."
-Duffy Daugherty
"We didn’t tackle well today, but we made up for it by not blocking."
-John McKay
More in the article.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
What is cool?
I'm surfing automaker websites tonight checking out some information (I'm at the earliest stages of thinking about considering maybe looking at a new vehicle) and I'm struck by the differences I've seen so far. I could quickly and easily customize a car and get info about options and prices on the Nissan site. It was pretty fast and simple. The Pontiac website? It took a lot more work, but they've got a TON of media, not to mention a music player playing catchy alternative rock. No, seriously, I looked up one of the bands on Amazon. Pontiac wants you to think they're cool. I don't know if they are or not, but the attitude is certainly different.
Uniform
Well, after I commented about uniforms on Haag's earlier post I kept thinking about the idea, so here's the uniform I'd design for CC baseball, if there were no limits:
I can think of one major improvement to this design: replace the Strong Hawk with a Strong Hawk holding a baseball bat. That would be sweet.
I can think of one major improvement to this design: replace the Strong Hawk with a Strong Hawk holding a baseball bat. That would be sweet.
He Missed?
Frankenmuth's Brad Redford has finally missed a free throw. The Senior stud, who will be playing for Xavier next year, recently broke an MHSAA record for consecutive free throws made in a season. In Friday nights game against Vassar, he connected on 10 for 10 from the charity stripe giving him 102 straight free throws made. He is #1 in the MHSAA record books and SECOND in the national record!!! Redford is a freak on the basketball court. He has started for 'muth since his freshman year.
I've had the privilege of seeing Redford play over the years. I watched him his freshman season in the district finals against Cass City. At the time, he was just a pretty good player for a freshman. There were two twins on the team that kinda overshadowed him. Then I watched him his junior season beat up everyone in the disticts, including Cass City again. In one particular game his junior season, he put up 48 points in a losing effort to North Branch. With his domination of the Tri-Valley conference, there have been rumors the last few years that Redford would transfer to a bigger school to get more attention from larger colleges. The kid is probably not even 6 foot tall.
Anyway, I had not had a chance to see Redford play this year. Just highlight after highlight on the local TV sports stations. Oh, I forgot to mention that Redford toasted Vassar with 50 points on Friday night. I think that was his career best. He had a game a few weeks ago where he scored 27...in the FIRST FREAKIN' QUARTER! (6 3-pointers in the first quarter.) He only finished the game with 44 points. North Branch and Muth were supposed to play last Friday. Since my cousin coaches the North Branch team, Mandy and I were going to go watch the game. However, because of the weather, the game was postponed until tonight. So, Mandy and I went tonight instead. Side note: Frankenmuth was entering tonights game 16-0.
We got to the game with about 3 or 4 minutes left in the first quarter, Muth having the early edge. As the quarter went on, Redford was being his usual self...draining 3-pointers with hands in his face...well beyond the 3-point arc. Well, Redford was driving to the paint and got fouled. Two shots coming up. These were his first two attempts for the game. 102 stright. Dribble...dribble...release...BRICK. Yup, he missed his first shot of the night. It seemed like an eternity before the whole crowd and NB student section realized that he actually missed. I was sitting in the 3rd row, right across from the free throw line. In my opinion, as soon as he stepped to the free throw line, something didn't look right. The magic wasn't in the air.
After the miss, the Muth coach called a timeout before he could shoot his second attempt. Again, it took the crowd a few seconds to realize what just took place and why the coach would take a timeout. Eventually everyone realized and stood up to give him the standing ovation he deserved.
102. Gone. Done. But that's not all. In the 4th quarter, he missed again.
The final score was 90-65. I'm not sure how many points he finished with, but since he is averaging 35/game, I'm guessing he got around 30. In just his 3rd game of the season, he set the school record for most points scored in Frankenmuth history. In that 3rd game, he passed the #2 and #1. The #2 guy on the list...his coach.
You can check out the link of the MHSAA basketball record books if you like. It appears nothing has been updated for the 2007-2008 season. But, you can be amazed at how many records Drew Neitzel is involved in.
In my opinion, Redford is the best I've ever seen at the high school level. Incredible. His range is the half-court line. He has Reggie Miller's shooting ability off the screen and "Rip" Hamilton's endurance to run, run, run, and run some more until his opponent quits. Brad plays usually the entire game unless they are winning by 20 in the 4th quarter. If you give him 1 cm of space, you are finished. He's so quick on the dibble, if he gets any room, you are toast and might as well get back on offense. I thought Jordan Bitzer was the best, but even though Bitzer and Redford play two different styles, I have to edge in favor of Redford. I predict Muth to cruise thought the Districts, but will struggle in the Regionals. I expect them to finish undefeated, as they have beat all their remaining opponents by +15 points the previous time they played. Muth has absolutely no height and no large size. Everything they have is speed. If they run into team with some size or height (which you would think at the class B level), they will be in trouble. But, when you have the best player on the court, it doesn't matter. He can shoot lights out. I believe they lost in the regionals last year by one point...a close miss by Redford at the buzzer. Oh, Redford is also a "Mr. Basketball" candidate.
Well, I better stop man-loving on Redford before "Mike and Mike" play Chad Pennington and Brady Quinn music. (Probably only Adam will get that.)
Oh, I almost forgot the best part. After the game, Redford was signing autographs for at least 10 minutes and doing side interviews. He's worth the $5 admission price.
I've had the privilege of seeing Redford play over the years. I watched him his freshman season in the district finals against Cass City. At the time, he was just a pretty good player for a freshman. There were two twins on the team that kinda overshadowed him. Then I watched him his junior season beat up everyone in the disticts, including Cass City again. In one particular game his junior season, he put up 48 points in a losing effort to North Branch. With his domination of the Tri-Valley conference, there have been rumors the last few years that Redford would transfer to a bigger school to get more attention from larger colleges. The kid is probably not even 6 foot tall.
Anyway, I had not had a chance to see Redford play this year. Just highlight after highlight on the local TV sports stations. Oh, I forgot to mention that Redford toasted Vassar with 50 points on Friday night. I think that was his career best. He had a game a few weeks ago where he scored 27...in the FIRST FREAKIN' QUARTER! (6 3-pointers in the first quarter.) He only finished the game with 44 points. North Branch and Muth were supposed to play last Friday. Since my cousin coaches the North Branch team, Mandy and I were going to go watch the game. However, because of the weather, the game was postponed until tonight. So, Mandy and I went tonight instead. Side note: Frankenmuth was entering tonights game 16-0.
We got to the game with about 3 or 4 minutes left in the first quarter, Muth having the early edge. As the quarter went on, Redford was being his usual self...draining 3-pointers with hands in his face...well beyond the 3-point arc. Well, Redford was driving to the paint and got fouled. Two shots coming up. These were his first two attempts for the game. 102 stright. Dribble...dribble...release...BRICK. Yup, he missed his first shot of the night. It seemed like an eternity before the whole crowd and NB student section realized that he actually missed. I was sitting in the 3rd row, right across from the free throw line. In my opinion, as soon as he stepped to the free throw line, something didn't look right. The magic wasn't in the air.
After the miss, the Muth coach called a timeout before he could shoot his second attempt. Again, it took the crowd a few seconds to realize what just took place and why the coach would take a timeout. Eventually everyone realized and stood up to give him the standing ovation he deserved.
102. Gone. Done. But that's not all. In the 4th quarter, he missed again.
The final score was 90-65. I'm not sure how many points he finished with, but since he is averaging 35/game, I'm guessing he got around 30. In just his 3rd game of the season, he set the school record for most points scored in Frankenmuth history. In that 3rd game, he passed the #2 and #1. The #2 guy on the list...his coach.
You can check out the link of the MHSAA basketball record books if you like. It appears nothing has been updated for the 2007-2008 season. But, you can be amazed at how many records Drew Neitzel is involved in.
In my opinion, Redford is the best I've ever seen at the high school level. Incredible. His range is the half-court line. He has Reggie Miller's shooting ability off the screen and "Rip" Hamilton's endurance to run, run, run, and run some more until his opponent quits. Brad plays usually the entire game unless they are winning by 20 in the 4th quarter. If you give him 1 cm of space, you are finished. He's so quick on the dibble, if he gets any room, you are toast and might as well get back on offense. I thought Jordan Bitzer was the best, but even though Bitzer and Redford play two different styles, I have to edge in favor of Redford. I predict Muth to cruise thought the Districts, but will struggle in the Regionals. I expect them to finish undefeated, as they have beat all their remaining opponents by +15 points the previous time they played. Muth has absolutely no height and no large size. Everything they have is speed. If they run into team with some size or height (which you would think at the class B level), they will be in trouble. But, when you have the best player on the court, it doesn't matter. He can shoot lights out. I believe they lost in the regionals last year by one point...a close miss by Redford at the buzzer. Oh, Redford is also a "Mr. Basketball" candidate.
Well, I better stop man-loving on Redford before "Mike and Mike" play Chad Pennington and Brady Quinn music. (Probably only Adam will get that.)
Oh, I almost forgot the best part. After the game, Redford was signing autographs for at least 10 minutes and doing side interviews. He's worth the $5 admission price.
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