There are two fan bases that need to shut up – the San Francisco Giants and the Boston Bruins.
The Giants fans are still pissed their catcher, and best player, Buster Posey is out for the year with a broken leg because of a collision at home.
They want suspensions, fines and rule changes after Scott Collins ran him, but to be quite honest, if you look at the tape again, it was bad positioning by Buster that led to his leg breaking.
I like Buster, I think he’s one of the best catchers in the National League, but his leg got caught in an awkward spot and he fell even more awkwardly – that’s the truth.
Even Johnny Bench, the greatest catcher of all time, said so.
Now I feel bad for Collins who has apologized several times, saying he was just making a baseball play. It was vicious, he left his feet to make the hit, but this kid has been getting DEATH THREATS since the boy check he delivered.
No kid should be punished that way and you’d think after the Brian Stow incident, Giants fans may realize they are taking it a bit far.
----------------------------
The Bruins fans meanwhile are still hollering about the Alex Burrows “biting” incident and thinking the Canucks forward should be strung up from the Pesky Pole in right field at Fenway.
It’s pretty obvious there was some intent, but it sure doesn’t look like he was going to even get to the skin the way he was clamping down and let’s be realistic, the facewash is one of the most overused, wimpy ways of doing some agitating after the whistle – either be a man and hit him or don’t do anything. The putting your hand in his face like you’re smashing a whipped cream pie on him is overdone.
Fans SHOULD be upset with the hit by Aaron Rome – but justice is served in that case with the four game suspension for the late hit. He will not be back this season. And that will be yet another topic for the blue ribbon panel to discuss about Rule 48.
This headshot/late hit conversation has gone on too long, either ban checking and physical contact completely, or Police it so you’d be a damn fool to even put your toes in the water of that rule.
That’s why those two fan bases need to zip it – and that’s MDS.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
June 5
The Big Diesel is gone about 19 years and 15 all-star games. Shaquille O’Neal announced his retirement from the NBA and will go down, in my opinion as one of the most entertaining, witty and humourous athletes of all time. No one else is able to become a US Deputy Marshall, put out for rap albums, two horrible movies and give himself nicknames and make it cool. God love you Shaq, you’ll be missed.
------------------------------
The Heat are Enemy of the Basketball world and no one could be happier than NBA Commish, David Stern, this NBA Finals is on pace to be the most watched series in history. Sure people are watching to see Miami lose – but they’re watching. And in the end, that’s all that matters.
------------------------------
Vancouver is going to get a tough wakeup call in Boston. They win on a marker by 14 goal scorer Raffi Torres with less than 19 seconds left in Game 1 and on a fluke wraparound in Game 2…every shot Tim Thomas could have made in this series, he has. Remember, this is supposed to be a long series – and it will be. The Canucks will be lucky to go home with a split.
------------------------------
And on the first MDS, how about I do something I probably won’t do again – give the Toronto Maple Leafs a compliment. They found a way to trade a very overrated player and get quite the Pirate’s loot for him. Just like hundreds that have come before him, Tomas Kaberle was put on a pedestal higher than the rafters of the ACC themselves. Reality check: he’s not THAT good. He’s got 8 assists in the playoffs, in 20 games, and is only playing 16 minutes a night. That puts him 5th among Bruins defenseman. But the Leafs were able to parlay Tomas for a prospect and two high picks. Nice job Brian Burke. Unfortunately, once the draft comes they will end up picking my sister and a blind kid with those selections.
------------------------------
The Heat are Enemy of the Basketball world and no one could be happier than NBA Commish, David Stern, this NBA Finals is on pace to be the most watched series in history. Sure people are watching to see Miami lose – but they’re watching. And in the end, that’s all that matters.
------------------------------
Vancouver is going to get a tough wakeup call in Boston. They win on a marker by 14 goal scorer Raffi Torres with less than 19 seconds left in Game 1 and on a fluke wraparound in Game 2…every shot Tim Thomas could have made in this series, he has. Remember, this is supposed to be a long series – and it will be. The Canucks will be lucky to go home with a split.
------------------------------
And on the first MDS, how about I do something I probably won’t do again – give the Toronto Maple Leafs a compliment. They found a way to trade a very overrated player and get quite the Pirate’s loot for him. Just like hundreds that have come before him, Tomas Kaberle was put on a pedestal higher than the rafters of the ACC themselves. Reality check: he’s not THAT good. He’s got 8 assists in the playoffs, in 20 games, and is only playing 16 minutes a night. That puts him 5th among Bruins defenseman. But the Leafs were able to parlay Tomas for a prospect and two high picks. Nice job Brian Burke. Unfortunately, once the draft comes they will end up picking my sister and a blind kid with those selections.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
I Hate - Jan 18
I hate the moment when you’re in a debate and you realize you’re completely wrong.
This isn’t because of any specific event that happened today, just something I recall being very annoying. You’ve got all your points lined up, you’re firing them back and forth at your opponent and then “click”…you know you’re wrong. Anything from actors that have starred in movies or ingredients in meals. That second when it hits you in the face that you’re way off – damn you.
This isn’t because of any specific event that happened today, just something I recall being very annoying. You’ve got all your points lined up, you’re firing them back and forth at your opponent and then “click”…you know you’re wrong. Anything from actors that have starred in movies or ingredients in meals. That second when it hits you in the face that you’re way off – damn you.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Blockbuster Bankruptcy
It seemed to fly under the radar, but since I have spent some time in this store recently, I thought I would bring it up again.
In case you didn’t hear, Blockbuster has filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States.
The Canadian operations are not affected by the move.
Blockbuster, which at one point was the #1 video rental retailer, is reportedly carrying 900 MILLION dollars in debt.
How did this happen, you ask?
Well in many ways, Blockbuster had an auto industry approach to business – specifically comparable to the Big 3.
There was an arrogance to Blockbuster – sure there was Jumbo Video in the past and Rogers Video as their only current retain competition - but they forgot something – the wonderful world wide web.
Netflix popped up, as did the ability to order movies off your satellite provider with a click of a button, and Blockbuster did not adjust until it was too late.
Then, when they did, their marketing ploy was vacuous (vak-you-ous) and negligent.
They offered no late fees – an excellent idea for families on the run who aren’t able to find two hours in a night to sit down and enjoy their flick.
But then realized late fees accounted for 16% of their revenue and brought them back.
In place, they have come up with the 2-night and 7-night rental…without changing the prices.
You can order a movie on pay-per-view for around 5 dollars, you can use Netflix for anywhere from $5-$25 dollars a month – and that’s for as many movies are you want.
Blockbuster is still $6+ dollars a rental, and even more for Blu-Rays.
Like GM, Ford and Chrysler – I think Blockbuster got it in their minds that they were irreplaceable.
But they aren’t.
Like Honda, Toyota and other foreign brands – alternatives like Netflix and Pay-Per-View have been stocking up their army and have unleashed a wrath of opportunities for the movie watcher.
As I mentioned earlier, Blockbuster Canada is not expected to be affected by bankruptcy protection – but that’s for now.
Netflix has just arrived in the Great White North, so how long can Blockbuster keep up the charade before they are left out in the cold?
Like the Big 3, Blockbuster needs to get with the times or they will be as extinct as a character in one of their high priced Science Fiction rentals.
In case you didn’t hear, Blockbuster has filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States.
The Canadian operations are not affected by the move.
Blockbuster, which at one point was the #1 video rental retailer, is reportedly carrying 900 MILLION dollars in debt.
How did this happen, you ask?
Well in many ways, Blockbuster had an auto industry approach to business – specifically comparable to the Big 3.
There was an arrogance to Blockbuster – sure there was Jumbo Video in the past and Rogers Video as their only current retain competition - but they forgot something – the wonderful world wide web.
Netflix popped up, as did the ability to order movies off your satellite provider with a click of a button, and Blockbuster did not adjust until it was too late.
Then, when they did, their marketing ploy was vacuous (vak-you-ous) and negligent.
They offered no late fees – an excellent idea for families on the run who aren’t able to find two hours in a night to sit down and enjoy their flick.
But then realized late fees accounted for 16% of their revenue and brought them back.
In place, they have come up with the 2-night and 7-night rental…without changing the prices.
You can order a movie on pay-per-view for around 5 dollars, you can use Netflix for anywhere from $5-$25 dollars a month – and that’s for as many movies are you want.
Blockbuster is still $6+ dollars a rental, and even more for Blu-Rays.
Like GM, Ford and Chrysler – I think Blockbuster got it in their minds that they were irreplaceable.
But they aren’t.
Like Honda, Toyota and other foreign brands – alternatives like Netflix and Pay-Per-View have been stocking up their army and have unleashed a wrath of opportunities for the movie watcher.
As I mentioned earlier, Blockbuster Canada is not expected to be affected by bankruptcy protection – but that’s for now.
Netflix has just arrived in the Great White North, so how long can Blockbuster keep up the charade before they are left out in the cold?
Like the Big 3, Blockbuster needs to get with the times or they will be as extinct as a character in one of their high priced Science Fiction rentals.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Sept 3, 2010
Well there goes summer.
In the blink of an eye, I found myself at home, watching the start of the NCAA Football season, planning my tailgating party for tomorrow and turning off the air conditioner for the evening, wondering if I’ll ever even need it again this year.
Ok, that’s a little dramatic, but really – it’s September now.
We are expecting a nice, warm fall, leading into a reportedly mild winter – which I’m perfectly fine with, but did it seem like this summer went by faster than most?
Maybe it was because it was so nice, most people’s monthly plans were filled by the time the calendar flips.
It’s not officially fall, but this long weekend really does seem to be the final chapter in the thriller that was the summer of 2010…and it was a good one.
=========================
Hey, it’s been four months since the explosion that resulted in the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history. I guess it’s time for another:
Luckily, a fire on an oil production facility 100 miles off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico appears to have ended without disaster.
Houston-based Mariner Energy Inc. reported that it was able to shut in the wells connected to the oil and gas production platform, averting leaks.
Do you think they have any pamphlets on how they did that? I know a company that could get good use out of reading that manual.
==========================
Have you heard about the 10 month old Chinese Michelin baby? At 10 months he weighs 44 pounds – the average weight of a 6-year old! That’s all.
=========================
You know when life is unfair to you when you are stuck in a mine in Chile – and could be there for another three MONTHS – have been denied some of the necessities of life.
The 33 men, who have each lost at least 22 pounds each, are being given something like tuna and water every day. They have been sent down cards, music and fresh clothes to help cope with the “discomfort” of being stuck 23-hundred feet under the ground.
But they have now been denied booze and cigarettes. Now, how unjust is that! Is there really a better way to pass three months than drinking yourself to sleep? Poor guys, I feel for ya.
So just for you tonight, I’m going to get completely annihilated on Cerveza Cristal and fill my lungs with Marboro’s just for you guys.
Cheers!
In the blink of an eye, I found myself at home, watching the start of the NCAA Football season, planning my tailgating party for tomorrow and turning off the air conditioner for the evening, wondering if I’ll ever even need it again this year.
Ok, that’s a little dramatic, but really – it’s September now.
We are expecting a nice, warm fall, leading into a reportedly mild winter – which I’m perfectly fine with, but did it seem like this summer went by faster than most?
Maybe it was because it was so nice, most people’s monthly plans were filled by the time the calendar flips.
It’s not officially fall, but this long weekend really does seem to be the final chapter in the thriller that was the summer of 2010…and it was a good one.
=========================
Hey, it’s been four months since the explosion that resulted in the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history. I guess it’s time for another:
Luckily, a fire on an oil production facility 100 miles off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico appears to have ended without disaster.
Houston-based Mariner Energy Inc. reported that it was able to shut in the wells connected to the oil and gas production platform, averting leaks.
Do you think they have any pamphlets on how they did that? I know a company that could get good use out of reading that manual.
==========================
Have you heard about the 10 month old Chinese Michelin baby? At 10 months he weighs 44 pounds – the average weight of a 6-year old! That’s all.
=========================
You know when life is unfair to you when you are stuck in a mine in Chile – and could be there for another three MONTHS – have been denied some of the necessities of life.
The 33 men, who have each lost at least 22 pounds each, are being given something like tuna and water every day. They have been sent down cards, music and fresh clothes to help cope with the “discomfort” of being stuck 23-hundred feet under the ground.
But they have now been denied booze and cigarettes. Now, how unjust is that! Is there really a better way to pass three months than drinking yourself to sleep? Poor guys, I feel for ya.
So just for you tonight, I’m going to get completely annihilated on Cerveza Cristal and fill my lungs with Marboro’s just for you guys.
Cheers!
Monday, August 30, 2010
Sleep Patterns
Sometimes – and only sometimes – I follow a chain of thoughts in my mind that connect to a fairly interesting topic.
Follow me through the 6-degrees of Matt’s mind to the point of my world according to today.
I was lying on my couch yesterday afternoon, drifting into my much-deserved dreamland, when I was startled by the fire alarm in the hallway.
I noticed it had only been about 15-20 since I saw the clock last and didn’t feel all that refreshed.
But my first thought was to go through the rolodex of Seinfeld episodes in my brain to find the one where Kramer goes on the DiVinci sleep pattern – sleeping 20 minutes every 3 hours.
I found it, through a little online research, on The Friars Club episode - #128 of the series.
So after my nap I had to throw it in and have a few laughs as Kramer explains how he’ll get an extra 2.5 days a week by using this sleep pattern.
It ends with Kramer being tossed into the Hudson River after falling asleep on top of a woman, who of course thought he was dead.
At the conclusion of the episode, I dug a little deeper on that DiVinci sleep pattern, and was quite intrigued.
Polyphasic (poly-fey-sic) sleep refers to the practice of sleeping multiple times in a 24-hour period—usually more than two, in contrast to biphasic sleep.
An example of polyphasic sleep is found in patients with irregular sleep-wake pattern, a circadian rhythm sleep disorder which usually is caused by head injury or dementia.
There was a guy by the name of Dr. Claudio Stampi who tested systematic sleep as a result of his boat racing hobby.
He ended up writing a book in 1992 called Why We Nap: Evolution, Chronobiology, and Functions of Polyphasic and Ultrashort Sleep about his findings, concluding that polyphasic sleep can actually ”improve prolonged performance” in some situations.
The US Military has studied sleep patterns and in their Air Force reports it says “Each individual nap should be long enough to provide at least 45 continuous minutes of sleep, although longer naps (2 hours) are better. In general, the shorter each individual nap is, the more frequent the naps should be.
On the other side of things, biphasic sleep is sleeping through the night, getting up, napping mid-day and then repeating.
Before the advent of electric lighting in Europe, sleepers awoke from their "first" sleep for an hour or more during the night, before returning to their "second" sleep.
I found this topic fascinating, but I gotta tell you…all this talk about napping is making me a little…*yawn*…tired.
Follow me through the 6-degrees of Matt’s mind to the point of my world according to today.
I was lying on my couch yesterday afternoon, drifting into my much-deserved dreamland, when I was startled by the fire alarm in the hallway.
I noticed it had only been about 15-20 since I saw the clock last and didn’t feel all that refreshed.
But my first thought was to go through the rolodex of Seinfeld episodes in my brain to find the one where Kramer goes on the DiVinci sleep pattern – sleeping 20 minutes every 3 hours.
I found it, through a little online research, on The Friars Club episode - #128 of the series.
So after my nap I had to throw it in and have a few laughs as Kramer explains how he’ll get an extra 2.5 days a week by using this sleep pattern.
It ends with Kramer being tossed into the Hudson River after falling asleep on top of a woman, who of course thought he was dead.
At the conclusion of the episode, I dug a little deeper on that DiVinci sleep pattern, and was quite intrigued.
Polyphasic (poly-fey-sic) sleep refers to the practice of sleeping multiple times in a 24-hour period—usually more than two, in contrast to biphasic sleep.
An example of polyphasic sleep is found in patients with irregular sleep-wake pattern, a circadian rhythm sleep disorder which usually is caused by head injury or dementia.
There was a guy by the name of Dr. Claudio Stampi who tested systematic sleep as a result of his boat racing hobby.
He ended up writing a book in 1992 called Why We Nap: Evolution, Chronobiology, and Functions of Polyphasic and Ultrashort Sleep about his findings, concluding that polyphasic sleep can actually ”improve prolonged performance” in some situations.
The US Military has studied sleep patterns and in their Air Force reports it says “Each individual nap should be long enough to provide at least 45 continuous minutes of sleep, although longer naps (2 hours) are better. In general, the shorter each individual nap is, the more frequent the naps should be.
On the other side of things, biphasic sleep is sleeping through the night, getting up, napping mid-day and then repeating.
Before the advent of electric lighting in Europe, sleepers awoke from their "first" sleep for an hour or more during the night, before returning to their "second" sleep.
I found this topic fascinating, but I gotta tell you…all this talk about napping is making me a little…*yawn*…tired.
These are words??
What has happened to the English language.
I’ve always been a bit of a word and grammar geek, even to the point that I signed up for the dictionary.com “Word of the Day” feature.
I read a fair amount, in a number of different genres, I’ve flipped through vocabulary books and thesauruses and even write in my spare time – some for local magazines and some just side projects.
And I cringe every time I see stories like this.
Every year, the Oxford English Dictionary adds new words that have entered pop culture and are supposed to pass as legitimate English phrases.
Over 2,000 new words were added this year, and there are a few that are prime examples of how the human race is getting DUMBER and DUMBER.
Here are a couple of the words, and their definitions, that have been added to the Dictionary.
--VUVUZELA. "Long horn blown by fans at soccer matches."
--BROMANCE. "A close but non-sexual relationship between two men."
--CHILLAX. "Calm down and relax."
--BUZZKILL. "A person or thing that has a depressing or dispiriting effect."
--CHILL PILL. "A notional pill taken to make someone calm down." (???)
--CHEESEBALL. "Lacking taste, style or originality."
--WARDROBE MALFUNCTION. "An instance of a person accidentally exposing an intimate part of their body as a result of an article of clothing slipping out of position."
--HATER. "Negative person."
--DEFRIEND. "Another term for unfriend (remove someone from a list of friends or contacts on a social networking site)."
I’ve always been a bit of a word and grammar geek, even to the point that I signed up for the dictionary.com “Word of the Day” feature.
I read a fair amount, in a number of different genres, I’ve flipped through vocabulary books and thesauruses and even write in my spare time – some for local magazines and some just side projects.
And I cringe every time I see stories like this.
Every year, the Oxford English Dictionary adds new words that have entered pop culture and are supposed to pass as legitimate English phrases.
Over 2,000 new words were added this year, and there are a few that are prime examples of how the human race is getting DUMBER and DUMBER.
Here are a couple of the words, and their definitions, that have been added to the Dictionary.
--VUVUZELA. "Long horn blown by fans at soccer matches."
--BROMANCE. "A close but non-sexual relationship between two men."
--CHILLAX. "Calm down and relax."
--BUZZKILL. "A person or thing that has a depressing or dispiriting effect."
--CHILL PILL. "A notional pill taken to make someone calm down." (???)
--CHEESEBALL. "Lacking taste, style or originality."
--WARDROBE MALFUNCTION. "An instance of a person accidentally exposing an intimate part of their body as a result of an article of clothing slipping out of position."
--HATER. "Negative person."
--DEFRIEND. "Another term for unfriend (remove someone from a list of friends or contacts on a social networking site)."
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