Liveblogging the Second half of KU-MSU

Kind of a wacky first half, huh? KU looked really good at times, yet whenever Aldrich went out, they looked terrible...even though it doesn't seem like he's playing that well.

And yes, I still hate that Big 10 thug-ball. I wonder how that's working...oh yeah, crappy. Of course, it works a lot better when you're deep, and KU is not particularly deep.

Watching a Rick Pitino interview. What a funny guy. Sounds like he's expecting MSU to win.

Ok! Second Half....ok...not yet I guess.

Somebody just said Aldrich was efficient in the 1st half. Were you watching the first half? 4 turnovers and a couple of bone-head misses. And he keeps trying to do that reverse layup that he did so well in the first two rounds. YOU CAN'T REALLY MAKE THAT SHOT COLE!!

Michigan State still doesn't have more FGs than Turnovers. Ha ha.

Suton has kept them in this game. Cole has to pull himself together here.

And now MSU is making a push. Of course.

Sheraton makes Duke and UNC fans turn into good friends? Wow. Can we get these guys in the Middle East?

Wanna hear a joke I heard yesterday? Ok, here goes:

What do you get when you add a Tuba to a Tuba?

A Four-Ba.

HA

Yeah, They Might Be Giants are the greatest band in the world. And if you didn't know, they make kids music now. Kids music that doesn't suck.

Gotta quit the blogging, must focus on keeping KU in front.

---

Amateur hour right now...MSU hammers KU on one end...no foul. That's actually fine, that's how the game has been called. Then the other way, MSU's Allen (?) gets caught with a crappy shot, and gets bailed out with a ticky-tack foul. After the free throws Eeboch (sp?) tries to take the inbounds pass. Now MSU is pushing after they can't get a rebound? Really MSU? Really?

And now a ridiculous moving screen to get Lucas an open three! They've called 3 (!) moving screens on KU and they didn't call that! I think MSU paid off the refs. This is stupid.

Why did Morris take a 3?

Argh...so frustrating.

The muffins didn't turn out too good.

Another uncalled MSU foul? Man.

And ANOTHER? Suton should have 4 right now.

Wow. They called a foul on MSU. Why did Walton or whoever think that was surprising? Because its the exact same thing they've done on the last five KU possessions that didn't have a foul call. I'm getting bitter here.

I guess that was obvious.

I will never buy a razor endorsed by video game characters. Never.

When I see that Miller commercial about adding the hops three times, I just think to myself: Given the final product, that is an incredible waste of hops!

And of course, now KU has a ton of turnovers. ALDRICH! Just pull it together in these last five minutes and we'll be ok.

Collins is a MONSTER!!! YES! Oh no he can't be injured!!!

Well, from what I've seen in the tournament, I wouldn't swap Collins with any other guard in the country. I wouldn't even consider it. The man is amazing.

Anyone else find that axe commercial with the sweat-spraying guy really disturbing? Especially the bit where the guy is eating a sandwich? Ug.

They gotta get Reed off the ball. He's just not a great ball handler.

Seriously. What are these crap fouls? Suton just got done shoving off on Aldrich on one end, and then Reed gets called for another ticky-tack foul, then Aldrich gets called for blocking a shot?

Lucas just made a good shot, but there was no foul there by Collins. By my count, there have been 7 inconsistent calls in the second half that went against Kansas.

Taylor didn't trip over his own feet. The guy in front of him kicked his foot out, which knocked Taylor's feet into each other. Idiot announcer.

And of course Collins misses a free throw.

Argh. That game sucked. I feel like the officials were extremely inconsistent, in both halves. Objectively, I think the officiating was inconsistent to KU's benefit in the first half, and to KU's detriment in the second half.

This was the kind of game that was going to kill KU though, because they just don't have the firepower this year. I said at the begining of the tournament that I thought KU would live or die based on Collins, but in this game it was really more about Aldrich. Cole had way too many turnovers and missed 2-foot lay-ins. He cost the Hawks 10 points, easy, in that first half. A third guy able to make something happen would have helped tremendously.

I'm going to miss this team. I'm pretty sure Collins is going to go pro after this season, and there's got to be a good chance Aldrich will as well (his stock is probably never going to be higher than it is now). Which means we're going to have a completely different kind of team next year, which will make 3 years in a row of really different teams at KU. Last year's championship team was so loaded it seems a little ridiculous now. This year's team had two stars and a bunch of role-players. Next year's team will be more like Missouri. The neat this about this year's team was the way they came together as the season went on. They played 5 away games that were super-promotion, super pep rally games for their opponents (K-State, Oklahoma, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma State) and won them all. The K-State game in Manhattan was the most aggressive, angry atmosphere that I have ever heard of at a basketball game. There were secretive punches thrown that nobody saw until video, K-State fans hacked the KU players computers and found their personal phone numbers and started sending threatening texts. Then after the game, the K-State blogoverse started rumors that the KU bench was shouting racial slurs at the K-State players. And that's the kind of atmosphere they played in at Mizzou and OU. And KU won those games. They were a vastly reduced team defending a title they couldn't have claimed on their own, and yet they did a fantastic job of defending it.

Cole Aldrich, Sherron Collins and a collection of freshmen made the Sweet 16 and won the Big 12? If you had told people that at the beginning of the season, you would have been laughed at.

So I'm going to miss this team, and I'm bitter that they lost in a game that was so poorly officiated, even though it wasn't really officiating that lost them the game. I really hope Cole and Sherron decide to stay for another year, but I think it would probably be crazy for them to do so.

Clarification: I just don't know anything...

...about college basketball.   Except, I do know that the Jayhawks are still the champs until someone knocks them out.

:)

Where have I been?

Our hero awakes in a white room with two rows of fluorescent bulbs hanging from wires in the ceiling. There is no floor or furniture, he is laying on the floor, which is painted white. He has forgotten...something...something important. There is no sound in the distance. There is nothing.

The baby:

Pneumonia. Yeah, not really that much fun. We've gone through a couple more rounds of sickness, with an ear infection and a round of antibiotics. But the boy is doing pretty well. He's sleeping through the night, by himself, pretty consistently. He's actually getting big enough that I'm starting to feel sad about the transitory nature of children. In less than two years we've passed a lot of milestones, and I honestly miss the crawling a little, and the laying there looking silly. Fortunately, he is now insane. When he and I play, we spend most of our time wrestling or chasing each other, I'm sure at some point we're going to hurt ourselves.

At this age, they are so much like a little puppy that it is impossible to be around him without thinking that.

We've been doing a lot of walks in the evening. To the lake, around a wetland, down by the river, around the block, through the grocery store, around dad's work. He's fascinated by birds and cats, and has no control when he sees one. He's gotten good, though, at the grocery store of staying close when you're checking out or doing something. Those places are the ones where I can barely imagine having a second child.


Work:

My wife pointed out that all I ever talk about is my next job. Clearly, I'm not entirely happy with what I'm doing. That isn't to say my job is terrible, and I'm not actually sure I could move. Not so much because of the job, but just because judas I do not really want to move again. We've purchased a house, added new furniture, settled in, and I am terrified by the prospect of moving again. But my job is dead-end, no possibility for advancement, with no window, no research, no possibility for something more. I don't really know how to work with some of the people I work with on 'research-light' kinds of projects, just because I'm not very good at not being in control.

I've spent quite a bit of time in the last week or so doing science. Writing papers, doing data analysis, learning R. I'm not sure if I'm actually any good at that stuff, but I feel like I am. I feel like I'm good at ideas, experimental design, and interpreting data. I haven't been writing much of anything lately, because I just having felt inspired, but what I have been writing is mostly science.

So I keep thinking about jobs where I can do more of that. But there aren't a lot of those out there that I could really get into without a major life change. It has been 2 years since I was in a lab environment...as my wife said "Could you go back?" That's a legit question...I like having a sense of smell again.


Music:

NPR is single-handily keeping my job interesting, if only because of the huge number of really interesting songs they have on their website. I recommend (you'll have to find videos/links yourself) Passion Pit "Sleepyhead", Lilly Allen "Not fair", "My 45" by someone I forgot, Blitzen Trapper's "Furr", "Skinny Love" by Bon Iver(?), and some others that I've forgotten.


Dam Removal:

This is supposed to be the kind of thing that should keep my job exciting and interesting. I'm working on getting some dams removed from the Neosho River. You might recall me getting some money from the fish and wildlife service to do this. Well....that's great and all, but I can't actually do any of the science to go along with it. Like, what the heck is going on in these low-head dams as far as nutrient cycling goes? How are we going to quantify the movement of fish before and after? What's going on with the sediments?

So yeah, I mean, this is more interesting than what I spend a lot of my time doing, but it isn't really all that interesting unless you can do the science as well. And I'm not going to be doing that. I'm just struggling to get permits in order, a good design, a plan everyone can live with, and a procedure for the next one. Great.


NCAA Tournament:

I'm so sick of the Big East talk. Look, these aren't that good of teams! This isn't the best conference ever, and it probably isn't even the best conference this year. There are three 'good' teams in the Big East, and UCONN isn't even one of them (did you see their non-conference schedule?). The Big East has three of the worst schools to play in a major conference this year (South Florida, DePaul, and Rutgers). This isn't the best conference ever.

The amazing thing I keep hearing is talk like the Big East is this always fantastic conference. Really? Hell, 90% of what the Big East accomplishes it does by just having more damn teams than everyone else. The conference has 16 teams! They keep putting 7-8 teams in the tournament. Big flippin' deal. From 1998-2008, the Big East has won 3 rings and has had 4 teams reach the Final Four. The ACC has 3 rings and 10 teams in the Final Four. The SEC has 3 rings and 5 Final Four teams. The odd balls are the Big 10 and Big 12, which have 1 ring a piece and 9 and 6 Final Four appearances respectively. The Big 12 even had the era of unrealized potential, when 4 teams made 5 Final Four appearances in 3 years (DAMN YOU SYRACUSE and MARYLAND!!).

And as for the ACC...good god. How many years are we going to keep giving Duke and North Carolina home games for the first two weeks of the tournament? Does this happen for anyone else? Duke isn't even a 1 seed this year! Arggh.


KU:

For the record, I predicted KU would win the Big 12. If KU hadn't won a championship last year, I would expect this team to make the Final Four. The bracket they are in is stacked with top coaches, but mediocre talent (yes, especially Louisville). KU is stacked with top tier talent, just really, really inexperienced. However, Sherron Collins has no ceiling in the college game (he is the best PG in the country, I won't even discuss this). As he goes, so will go the Jayhawks. So far in his career Collins has been ridiculously good during big games (he's the one who stole the inbounds pass from Memphis last year and hit a quick three to give us a bit of life). However, this is his first year as a starter, and when he plays bad (like he did against Baylor and Texas Tech), this KU team could lose to anyone. There is, literally, no one else on the KU roster who can propel them into a win at this stage in their career. I'm not sure they have a second player who can even run the offense at all.

As always I predict a championship. But that first round game scares the hell out of me.

Weekly Report #9

Our hero is trapped ok?  Trapped in a hospital bed.  You are going to have to save the world and all of human civilization on your own for once.

Baby Stuff:

The munckin is healthy, aside from a few sniffles, and he is a dancing machine.  He likes to break dance.  As in, he rolls around on the floor while the music plays.  What a nut.

Catchment Stoichiometry:

Yay!  I'm going to  be guest editing a special issue of freshwater biology on Catchment Stoichiometry.  Whoo!  Of course, this is all a little weird because a year ago I'd never heard the phrase, and I've really only thought about it at all for like 6 months and I honestly don't really understand how my co-guest editor or many of the authors are thinking about the subject.  I feel a little in-over-my-head in terms of my own development of the idea.  But maybe that's how everyone thinks when they are doing something totally new.  

Basically, this is a great chance for me to improve my CV despite working in a deadend job that doesn't value research at all.  And I don't think the special issue would have happened at all without me, so I feel good about it.  Yay science!

Sickness:

I used over 110 hours of sick leave last year.  I don't have any left.  One of the three of us has been sick (or wisdom teethed) since before thanksgiving.  Right now we're all just a little sniffly, so maybe we're finally past it.  

Basketball:

So one of my friends who I thought I could reliably know what was going on in the NBA told me the other day that he hasn't been following the NBA this season.  "I'm just more into NCAA hoops" was what he said (approximately).  I've heard this from a lot of people I know.  The thing is, I don't really get it.  I mean, I understand the appeal for college hoops.  There's no entertainment experience that is more viseral for me than watching the Jayhawks play basketball.  I feel like a little kid again, and increasingly that's a rare sensation.  I certainly don't get that with any other basketball experience (although I also get it with the Chiefs).  But unless the Jayhawks are playing, the predominant emotion I get when watching regular season college hoops is "awkward".  That's because they just don't play the game at a particularly high level 99% of the time. The appeal is that they play so hard, and when the games start to really matter (conference and NCAA tournament) it's pretty damned appealing to watch people try so hard.  Kinda like watching a whole bunch of game 7s in the NBA.  

 However, most teams in the NBA play a lot harder in the regular season, especially during the first and last quarter of the season.  And they don't play so stupid.  With all the restrictions on the NCAA teams in terms of practice time and studying, there's no practical way for those guys to learn to play together in a season, or usually even two seasons, so what happens is you get the odd teams that have stuck together for odd reasons winning it all (e.g., Kansas wouldn't have won last year if Rush had gone pro, and he only didn't go pro because he got injured in the pre-draft camp)  or you get teams that just have an overwhelming talent advantage taking control in the tournament (North Carolina a few years back, or even Syracuse with Warrick and 'Melo).  Meanwhile, the coaches are emphasizing a very few ideas, and they are primarily inspiring effort.  In college, you can fix everything with more effort.  In the pros, that doesn't work, because, aside from a few very miserable teams, there just aren't that many mistakes.  Those guys are paid to go out there and know exactly what they should be doing.  They spend 40-50 hours a week, all year long, trying to get better (not counting the games), and they are under immense public scrutiny to play better.

So yeah, I prefer the pro game, at least until March Madness, but I like basketball wherever I can get it.  I just can't imagine preferring the college version.  

Unless the Jayhawks are playing.

Economy:

I'm skeptical.  I don't really know if I like Obama's 'stimulus' package.  I just don't think it will work and I think it will make everything worse in the long run.  Parts of it are good.  Parts of it are awful.  Maybe I just need to read up a little more.

Anything else:

Oh probably, but I can't think of it now.

Weekly Report #6

Sure, our hero had been kidnapped, beaten, called nasty names, and left for dead in the snow. But he wasn't the type to hold a grudge. Especially when that had all been part of The Plan.


The Minnow Report:

Is it time? Maybe its time. I think it is getting close to time.


The Baby Report:

Such a cute little baby (toddler?). He's really developing an unstoppable engine though. Some days, we're just not ready to come inside. On Tuesday we went to Sears, and he wanted to run around the store. Ok...headache, but fine. Let's run around the store. The problem was, he didn't ever want to stop. So I ended up wrestling a small child into a car-seat. While he's crying. Sigh.

Of course, I also was able to successfully put him to bed (after making dinner for the next night) without any tears. I am a golden buddha!


Meat:

So I've gone so far away from my quasi-vegetarian mentality that it is hard to even see where I was. Does anyone remember how I didn't used to eat meat? I mean, at all? Yeah, what the hell was I eating?
The more I get into cooking, the more meat I cook. This isn't because I don't think you have to cook meat to be a good cook, far from it. Instead, I cook a lot with meat because I want to try a lot of different things. Also, being in Kansas, when you have conversations about food with people, you tend to talk about meat a lot. All this is made weird for me by my continued insistence to not eat beef. This is the last hold-out for me. The last vestige of me being an environmental vegetarian.
I told someone the other day that I act so weird that I'm approaching normal from the other side. This is a perfect example of that: First I was weird for not eating seafood, then I was weird for not eating meat, then I was weird for not eating meat because of environmental reasons (as opposed to ethical or health concerns), then I was weird for eating certain meats (chicken and turkey), but not others. Then, because I was dealing with such a limited diet, I started getting really interested in culinary science, which made me a weirdo male-in-the-kitchen in Oklahoma and Kansas. And now I'm weird because I'll pretty much eat anything except beef, provided you can tell me how you made it and its culinary history. I'm practically normal again.


Cooking (disasters edition):

Just a word of warning: No matter how good of an idea it seems like at the time, never put tomatoes and orange juice in the same dish. Especially if it is a breakfast casserole.


Cooking (anticipation edition):

My parents bought us an early christmas gift this week (THANKS!): A chest freezer. Why do I need a chest freezer? Well, hopefully next year's garden vegetables will be stored frozen (for starters), but also, I've got about 150 pounds of meat on the way (have I mentioned the meat yet?). That's a half a lamb and at least a quarter of a bison. I'm ridiculously excited about this: I've almost never cooked with lamb, and never cooked with lamb chops or leg of lamb. I've eaten plenty of ground bison, and I've tried a few roasts, but this is the first grass-fed animal I've had. I'm also excited because of aging. What's aging?
Well, after an animal is slaughtered, skinned, gutted and chopped into big chunks of meat, it is pratically inedible. That's not true, but it isn't far off. Especially with red meats, a critical step is letting the meat hang in a clean, cold, dark locker for awhile. According to the U. of Minnesota extension office, commercial cuts are aged 7 days on average, but according to everyone I know in Kansas, that is unlikely. According to some people I've talked to at the K-State Ag School, commercial operations often age their meat just 3-5 days. By comparisons, fine resturants purchase meat aged between 11 and 20 days.
I'm buying my lamb and bison from family farm operations, and they are/were butchered at local butchers. At this scale, meat gets aged a lot more (in both cases 10 days). The upshot is a much more tender cut of meat. This is especially true for bison, which are pretty much exclusively grown on grass (and therefore grow much slower than cattle). I'm hopeful that this will mean I will have more luck with my bison steaks than I've had in the past. We'll see.


Wisdom Teeth:

Despite my drug-induced optimism on full display elsewhere, it turned out to be a pretty crummy thanksgiving week. The pain felt minimal on Wednesday of last week, but by Thursday I was in agony again. Eventually I got back on the serious pain meds again, and they combined to make me 1) extremely hyperactive and 2) a very poor thinker. As you might imagine, that's a combination that makes for a very interesting week. Hopefully I didn't offend anyone. The best story I've heard from the wife is about my ridiculous excitment upon purchasing some pants. Yeah.
I mean, I need pants, and they are nice + cheap. But apparently I was really excited.


The NBA:

The more I watch the NBA (and I'm up to ~10 games a week), the more amazed I am that the Lakers and Celtics are doing so well. Talent-wise, there are a lot of really good teams in the NBA. The Memphis Grizzlies spring to mind as a perfect example of a team with loads of talent, but no cohesive plan for putting it together on the court. The Cleveland Cavs, by contrast, seem to have no significant talent after LeBron, but they definitely have a plan.
The Utah Jazz are a better example of this. There's no reason the Jazz shouldn't be the best team in the league when healthy. Obviously that hasn't been very often this year, but this should have been the case last year as well. They have excellent big men, an extremely good point guard, quality shooters all over the floor, the most versatile sixth man in the game, overachieving role players, and they've all been together for years. Yet the Jazz are often miserable to watch, can't control games at all, and never seem to be cohesive.
Is it coaching? Is that the problem? I think Jerry Sloan's a good coach, but maybe he's not? The Lakers under Phil Jackson always have had an identity. They've always had a plan. When they almost beat the Suns in the first round 3 years ago, it was because they had a plan. Turns out, it wasn't quite a perfect plan, but you could tell they were committed to it (until Kobe quit playing in Game 7). The teams I've seen this year that seem to have that plan are: the Lakers, the Celtics, the Knicks (on the court), the Heat, the Cavs, and the Spurs (the Blazers might be on this list, but they have two plans: 1 involving Greg Oden, and 1 involving just winning games). But that sure isn't every team with a good coach: The Bucks and Dallas seem to have good coaching, and I really think Terry Porter is a good coach in Phoenix (although not for the Nash-Bell-Amare-Diaw group).
I don't quite get it. The talent gap just isn't that great. The Bobcat's Richardson-Wallace-Okafor combination isn't that much worse in terms of pure talent than Allen-Pierce-Garnett. But the Bobcats play some of the stupidest basketball I have ever seen in my life, while the Celtics play as if they are all operated by a single brain.

Oh, and D.J. Augustine is the best guard on the Bobcats. I think he's bulked up since college.


AND:

That's all I've got to talk about.

Weekly Report #4

Ahh Veteran's day. I have Veteran's day off. Yay.


The Minnow Report:

I once had a cat,
Who sat in a hat,
And rolled around on her back.

Eventually she got up,
And ate some sup,
And fell asleep on the heating vent.


The Baby Report:

Son. I hope someday, you read this, and you ask me about it, and I explain it to you.

Learn some damn patience. You have never been so close to being put in your crib and left there to cry all damned day for all I care. And that would require me to put your crib back together first!

It has been a long couple of days, and I have seen that screaming baby face too often.


Veteran's Day:

Just like every other damned holiday, somebody's sick. This time its the wife and the baby is probably coming down with it. I'm drinking OJ like a madman.


Walking in the cold and dark:

For some reason, my job has evolved into one where I sit in the office all the danged time. How did this happen? Regardless, in order to get any outdoor time at all, I'm taking walks at night. In any weather. Last night was cold, drizzly with a strong north-western wind. I've never been so happy to have my face chilled.


NBA- OK City Edition:

So Russell Westbrook is an exciting player who pretty much singlehandily gave the thunder their only win of the year (he also rallied them back in their first game of the year). But he's a 6-3 shooting guard in a point guard's body with no play-making abiliity. Can anyone think of another player that has been at all successful in the NBA with that formula? Does Allen Iverson count? He might be the only one, and it isn't like AI's teams have been constant playoff contenders. I'm not sure if I have a point, but damn, there's a long list of guys who fit that description and never made their teams better.


Music:

Before NPR, would anyone in the US have ever heard Mongolian folk music? Seriously Hanggai is awesome. I like all three of the songs on that page.


The Election:

Have I not talked about this yet? How strongly can I put this:

I have never, in my entire adult life, been inspired by any politician. Not even a little. The most I could say is that some politicians have convinced me that they wouldn't be complete failures (Nader in '00; Gore in '06...yes I realize he ran in '00). I've also been convinced for some time that a third party would be beneficial, but I've come to realize this is impossible in a psuedo democracy like we have (it would only be appropriate in a parlimentary system).

On the other hand, Barack Obama inspires. I don't think it is too little to say that he's the most inspiring politician of the modern era, and only JFK would be in the conversation. The reason is that he is an intelligent, motivated, articulate, principled person. He treats people with respect, he is opposed to all the things America ought to be opposed to, and, like a lot of us, he is dismayed with the way America has been run into the ground over the last 8 years.

I'm with you Barack. All the way.


And in closing:

The Kansas Jayhawks are beginning their quest to repeat as NCAA college basketball champions. The road is long. The road will have ups and downs, but mark my words, this will be a good team.

Weekly Report No 3.

We now return to our hero's residence, where he pens a short account of his week's travels and submits it to the internet. Where no-one will read it.

The Minnow Report:

Meow meow meow meow.


The Baby Report:

Fussy this evening. Probably exhausted after a weekend of playing with Grandma and Grandpa on the Lake and Grandma and Grandpa on the Farm. Pretty exciting stuff! Honestly, mom and dad were downright boring tonight.


Wal-Mart:

I'm not sure how to say this. I know I don't dress like a hippy, and I've never smoked weed, and I've never seriously pushed to adopt a communal living lifestyle...But damnit, ideologically, I'm the most left-leaning person I've ever met. And yet, I have to admit that I have been going to Wal-Mart. This is what living in a small town does to you: There are 2 grocery stores.

Here are some of the things that Dillons (Kroger) doesn't stock but that are available at Wal-Mart:
Garam masala
Coconut milk
Acorn Squash
Pie Pumpkins
Pork roasts (!)

And then there are things that are prohibitively expensive at Dillons, but affordable at Wal-Mart:
Wheat Thins (I'm 9/10ths Wheat Thin at this point)
Canning supplies (all of it!)
Organic chips
Vinegar
Olive oils

So what am I supposed to do here? I can't very well cook indian food without garam masala! And why doesn't Dillons have coconut milk? It's frustrating.


Oklahoma City Thundar:

Last week my uncle and I added to the list of NBA teams we've seen play in person. We were on-site for the first ever game of the Oklahoma City Thunder. I've had a long discussion internally about whether I could support this team because of blah blah blah: It was a good time and yay! it is now a relatively short drive to see the NBA!!


Places to Live:

One of the interesting discussions my uncle and I had was: "If you could live in any NBA city, where would it be?"
Oklahoma City was pretty spectacular while we were there. 70 degrees, Chicago style (and quality) italian food, a bar with 212 different beers on tap, a really good brewery. I'd say it probably vaulted into my top 5 just from that trip alone. The other two cities I would like to live in are Portland and Chicago (although Chicago is pretty cold for my soul), and I could envision living in New Orleans or Charlotte. The basic idea is the city has to have fun natural areas nearby, not be so big that I'm intimidated, be a nice climate, and have a 'weird' vibe. I actually can't think of an NBA city that fits all those criteria, but Portland is probably the closest.


Daylight savings:

This is stupid. Stupid stupid stupid.


Culinary Fun:

Did I mention I've been making a really easy squash soup? Half an onion, a slice of bacon, a smallish squash (softened with skin removed), and chicken stock. Cook the onion and bacon first, then add the squash and stock. Cook longer. Puree in food processor. Add a little pepper (Alton Brown would probably use white pepper). The original recipe called for sage, of which I have none, so whatever. The whole thing takes about thirty minutes to make. Delicious. 2 slices of bacon is too much.

Let's see, I also made chicken satay, cookies, lasanga, a tator tot casserole, cabbage soup (cream, canned tomatoes, and cabbage...w/ a little basil, that's it), tacos, and yogurt cheese spread. The yogurt cheese spread is actually really cool too. Just take some plain non-fat yogurt, wrap in a cheesecloth or tea towel and allow it to drain. Then chop up chives and onion (not too much) and set aside (or hell, use whatever spice you want...garlic can be a bit much). After the yogurt has drained for ~ 2-3 hours (longer = better), mix the spices and the yogurt (which could be considered 'greek yogurt' or yogurt cheese depending on the consistency), apply to Wheat Thins and enjoy.


Final thought:

"I wonder if making lasanga every other week is too much"
- Wife and I discussing our weekly cooking strategy. I made lasanga last week, but wasn't around to really eat it. On the other hand, she had it for 4 meals. Maybe every third week.

Music, Basketball, Maddox, Top Chef, bleh

I'm in Kansas City, again, and I wandered hot and humid through the steamy jungle that is the Eastern edge of the Ozarks.

Yay.

Let's just say that

So let's cover this:

MUSIC: At this point, I'm sorta seeing everything blend together into two categories: The Hold Steady and Everybody Else. Kings of Leon? Jonathan Coulton? Avril Lavigne? Angels and Airwaves? All the same...blend it all together and what do you get: Not the Hold Steady, and therefore, not the ultimate music. The Raconteurs "Hands" kinda sounds like the Hold Steady might have played a role in its creation, though.

Basketball: Did I mention that KU won the NCAA basketball title this year? For the next five years, I don't fucking care, KU won it all. I might just cling to that for the next 10 years. I really want to write about 10,000 words about how weirdly improbable that was, but I won't, because nobody else I know is as big a fan as I am. And no, I would have still remembered this team if they had lost.

NBA: Well, actually, I'll save this for the end so you non-NBA people (basically everyone) can ignore it easier.

Maddox: The best page in the universe. I've been reading through it again lately...man that guy's funny.

Top Chef: So....I watched the last three episodes and the new one tonight, and I could probably write another ten thousand words about this. Let's try, really hard, to keep this brief:

Richard and Stephanie: Richard spent most of the season being very non-critical of his fellow competitors, probably because compared to them, he's high class. In fact, there's probably only a couple of hundred chefs in the US who have more experience than him, whereas the rest of the Top Chef competitors are basically children by comparison. But once down in Puerto Rico, and to some extent in the last episode in Chicago, he's sorta taken off the gloves. I would say he was borderline insulting to Lisa. However, my wife pointed out that the whole season they've been playing up this "Is this the year a woman wins Top Chef?" angle. And it may be that they're creatively editing Richard to push the male v. female thing.
At any rate, I have a hard time imagining this contest coming down to anyone but Stephanie or Richard, and really, Stephanie is a long-shot. And that's how it has been since day 1. I think of Stephanie's cooking as more comfort and basic, whereas Richard's cooking is just plain spectacular. The one time Richard nearly got canned on the show was when he left scales on the salmon, at this point that seems more and more like the kind of thing that could hurt him: Details that he usually has underlings watch.

Lisa and Dale: Wow...talk about burning bridges and creating drama. The restaurant wars episode was hilarious. That was like open warfare in the kitchen between Lisa and Dale and I think it was so obviously a universal disaster. You could tell that they knew it too. As soon as Bourdain walked in to guest judge it was like Dale gave up, he just seemed to lose it. Really, in the Puerto Rico episode I would have preferred Stephanie paired Dale and Lisa together, because it would have just been so obviously ridiculous. The big question would have been whether or not Dale would have openly sabotaged Lisa. I think yes, but I could be wrong.

Spike: You have to bring up Spike's amazingly masterful performance in the Restaurant Wars episode. First, he figured out that he wasn't going to be able to cook with those two egomaniacs in there ignoring him. So he focused on the decor and the presentation, and did well at it. Second, when the judges asked who decided on the decor, he knew that they liked it, and so he deflected the credit to all three of them, but Lisa and Dale were on-edge and defensive, and their reaction immediately said "that was all Spike." Which is what Spike wanted, because the judges then knew that it was he who made those decisions. Meanwhile, he ended up with no credit (or blame) for the disaster that was the meal. Now, if Spike had been clever enough to toss the scallops in the steakhouse, he might have moved on to the final.
Overall I had mixed feelings about Spike. He refused the stupid game of assigning blame to teammates when the judges asked him, with one noticeable exception (when Zoi got eliminated). I think that by the end, he seemed like the least experienced competitor, and therefore got sent home. He never seemed quite as sure about what he should do as, say, Richard or Stephanie, or even like Nikki and Jen were. And sometimes he was kind of an asshole.

Antonia: I was really bored by Antonia early on in the competition, and she totally threw her teammate under the bus in one of the early episodes (Remember Valerie?). However, she just hid out in the middle of the pack on several episodes, bombed totally on an episode where she had immunity, and eventually turned up the skill level in the last three episodes in Chicago. However, I still think she's kinda weird in her food sense, and I can't really complain on the cooking side about her being kicked out before Lisa. Al dente beans? Really? Seems gross to me.
Oh, and I thought it was kinda interesting that Padme had to compose herself before telling Antonia to pack her knives, and afterwards Tom immediately whispered something to her. Did Padme want to see Lisa gone? Was she about to cry?

Everybody else: I think a number of the eliminated chefs really proved themselves to be excellent cooks on this show: Jen, Spike, Dale, and Nikki spring to mind. But I don't think any of those guys had a chance in hell at winning this thing. The requirements are too varied. For instance, I would probably love, love, love to eat at Nikki's restaurant because I love that rustic Italian style, but that doesn't mean she knows what to do when the contest is 'Classic Elements'. Similarly, I don't know if I'd trust Dale to make me a pirogi, but I bet the food at his restaurant would be pretty amazing.

On the other hand, I feel really bad for the first two chefs eliminated (Nimma and Valerie), since we really didn't even get to know them as cooks. I mean, shrimp scampi (that eliminated Nimma)? Who the fuck cares?

This show would be more interesting if the first 2-3 episodes were non-elimination, but scored, and then the bottom 4 were eliminated all at once. Ok, maybe not more interesting, but at least we'd get to see all the contestants.

Of all the contestants, I would have a hard time picking a chef to cook for me. Richard is definitely my favorite, but I'm not 100% sure I would like his food that well, since I've got so many things I refuse to eat (like beef, food heated in plastic, etc.). Stephanie would probably be excellent, but I am such a sucker for really amazing Italian, that I'd be hard pressed to turn down Nikki.

Now some notes about those judges: So Bourdain is a 'personality' and certainly has a lot of experience with foods from everywhere, but in the pantheon of guest judges they brought out, they included mexican chefs, steak chefs, french chefs, asian chefs, pastry chefs, gastronomists, and BBQ experts. Where the hell was the Italian guest chef? Didn't all that fancy French cooking come over to France from frickin' Italy? Where's the Italian guest chef?

NBA: Man, I've been writing for a while here. Let me just write one sentence about each of the eliminated teams.

Nuggets: This team has the worst chemistry of any talented basketball team I've ever seen and they should trade everyone but Melo.

Suns: Shaq killed these guys and they have to pay him for two more years.

Mavs: Gee, let's ask Kobe Bryant how easy it is for an NBA team to do well when there is only 1 legitimate scoring option.

Rockets: Nobody believes T-Mac and Yao are ever going to figure it out.

Hawks: That was a cute playoff run but you still suck.

76ers: With just a little more cohesion, this team could turn into the Pistons.

Wizards: Nobody is going to take you seriously until you stop acting like idiots.

2 sentences for the 2nd rounders:

Jazz: I have no idea why this team isn't in the Finals. What are they looking for at this point?

Hornets: Great talent and a good coach, but they need a young perimeter player. And they need to get rid of Pargo.

Magic: I'm not sure Dwight Howard is good enough to build a team around. And this team is the worst in the league at managing assets.

Cavs: If LeBron James played for the Suns last year he'd have averaged 50 points a game. Cleveland's offense is a crime against basketball.

3 sentences for the 3rd rounders:

Spurs: Manu and TP have to get more consistent. The Duncan Era is over, unless they find a real draft pick. I hate this team.

Pistons: They've had a good run, no matter what anyone says. People forget that Flip turned them from a brutal offensive team into an efficient offensive machine. They need to upgrade Rasheed.

And the finalists:

The Celtics: I've felt all year that this is the only chance this team will have to win it all (guys are getting older). They've come together so quickly that the league didn't have time to react, and they used their intensity to jump all over teams. They've certainly got the pieces, but since the playoffs started they've all seemed pretty awful. I have no idea why. They've survived because of Paul Pierce and sheer will, but unless the four days off allows them to regain their intensity (a possibility), they are badly outmatched in the finals. If they can win the first 2, I think they can win the series, if they lose either of the first two, it's already over for this group. The only way that happens if it Paul Pierce raises his game (as he typically does against the Lakers).

The Lakers: I'm not sure why, but nobody really wanted to believe this team was this good 2 months ago. I read a lot of articles about how they still "needed Bynum to return" or how Lamar Odum was the weak link that would become their fatal flaw. The reason that was all crap is that Pau was a huge upgrade over Bynum in the present even when Bynum was playing great. The reason Bynum was more valuable is because of his moderate skill level today combined with his probably great skill level in the near future, whereas Pau isn't likely to get a lot better. The only teams that were going to have a chance against the Lakers were cohesive teams that could take advantage of their very minor weaknesses (poor defense and Kobe's ball-hogging). You can't take advantage of the Laker's without an extremely well-oiled machine of an offense and a defensive philosophy that bends but doesn't break. Exactly how many of the teams in the league had that kind of combination? The Jazz did, but even so they couldn't quite get it done. The Spurs might have, but apparently Manu was hurt or something. The Mavs, and especially, the Suns, had that kind of team, and I firmly believe that the Suns with Marion would have been capable of handling the Lakers (but maybe not the Spurs).
But it isn't like those are huge weaknesses. And I seriously doubt the Celtics are going to be prepared to disect them. I'll be shocked if we ever even get a "Kobe's pissed off" face going in these Finals, because he's probably just going to shred that Celtics team.

And that sucks, but you know what: At least this isn't like the 01-03 Lakers teams that featured Shaq. I don't know if you remember, but in those days Shaq was getting every stupid call, he couldn't dribble or shoot from further than 3 feet away, and basically he was annoying in every way. I hated those teams, because it seemed like the best play had less basketball skills than me, and was just getting by on being huge. This Lakers team is different. Guys like Lamar and Pau and Ariza are freaking players. Sasha and Farmer and Derek Fisher are all bringing something to the table, and guys who are sometimes amazing (like Luke Walton and Turiaf) are going to be coming off the bench. The only ball-hog is Kobe, and he's efficient enough when he needs to be that it isn't as bad as it used to be.

Which doesn't mean I'm in favor of the Lakers. I'll be rooting against them. Go Boston, city of idiots.

I can ride my bike...

There's only 5 months down in 2008, and we already have a winner for the "Best Song of 2008" award. This one is, of course, in the running for All Time Greatest Song Ever award, which I will be handing out when people quit making music.

Meanwhile, here's the Flobots with Handlebars....actually you're going to have to type that into google, because I'm sending this post via email, and i can't embed video or links in the ole email...or can I? I also like this song, although I think the singer is trying to be weirder than she really is...how weird can you be with perfect studio editing? If you listen to the song without the video, it doesn't sound weird at all, but I still kinda like it. I think this is me admitting that I've been listening to too many absolutely hideous radio stations since I moved to the middle of the country. Pretty much anything sounds amazing when your options have been Metallica, ANOTHER spin of "Life is a Highway" or that stupid Alicia Keys song again (just shoot me). If there's one thing the main-stream music radio stations have got down, it is how to turn a perfectly fine song like this one into a reason for me to drive my truck into a ditch. Other good music? What, there's other good music out there? How about the fact that I still think Jack White has resurrected Kurt Cobain (girl....you got those hands...that heal!)?

I'm alone right now, in the center of the country, with wife and child slightly to the left on the map of USA, but I will soon be soaring over their heads and moving slightly N, to arrive at the home state of Mormon-ville. Aside from inland salt waters, that's about all I know about where I'm going, so I guess I don't know anything. Oh, and I still haven't practiced my talk...so lucky people in my audience. Fortunately, my talk isn't until the last day...so no one will be there anyway.

When I'm alone, I tend to play the music really loud, and I just started up another song...you know how volume is on youtube (variable from song-to-song)...wow. I almost got knocked out of my chair....that was a little too loud.

Other stuff

- What, I've been away from Webcomics for too long? I'm just going to point you at this bit of awesome (that everyone's probably already seen), this surprising poignant bit of observation, of course the cool three-parter from Penny Arcade, I'm kinda interested in trying this sometime, I think this is about the whooping cranes, and is probably pretty honest. And I know its the in thing right now, but here's another comic about the semi-hilarious war between hang-glider pilots and helicopter pilots.
Of course, nobody is more scornful of cliche than I, and this is why.

- The NBA. I'm torn, I really am. On the one hand, I've hated Kobe Bryant for so long I'm not even sure I remember why it began. Oh yeah, it was when he was such a whiny baby over the course of his entire career. On the other hand, I hate the Spurs tremendously. There's nothing I wanted to see more in their first round series against the Suns than Shaq accidentally breaking Tony Parker's hand in five places ala Bobby Jackson. But no...we couldn't have that happen, could we. And then we couldn't have the most exciting semi-finals imaginable with a Derron William/Chris Paul matchup. And we couldn't even get the Paul-Kobe supermatch. No...we have to watch the freaking Spurs and Lakers, again. And frankly, the Spurs are huge underdogs. I don't know how they managed to beat the Hornets, cuz I didn't get to watch those games, but they've got no shot at all against the Lakers.
Which sucks, because nobody else has any chance against the Lakers either, unless Tayshaun Prince suddenly turns back the clock 3 years.
So who am I rooting for now? The Spurs and Pistons? Excuse me? The worst Finals imaginable. A Finals that would remind everyone why every summer I decide: That's it, I'm done with the NBA. A Spurs are, in general, a crime against basketball, and the Pistons are borderline ridiculous. So I guess I'm rooting for the Lakers-Celtics matchup, which would bring out so much 80s nostalgia that I might have to ignore the Finals anyway.
Did this ramble get anywhere? No, probably not. I guess I'm rooting for the Lakers, because Pau and Lamar have always been awesome, and it would be cool if they ever got recognized for how good they are (not to mention Farmer).
But let's just keep this straight Spurs. There was a time when I was in your corner, when I rooted for your team against the dreaded Lakers, when I believed your triumph meant the chokehold of the NBA dark ages was over. But you spoiled that by turning Bruce Bowen from a solid defender to a cheap-shot artist, when the Duncan face became more important to your success than anything else, when you hired Robert f***ing Horry. While the Lakers are like some kind of damned vampire that can't be killed, only wounded, you are more like a zombie. You are hard to kill, but that doesn't mean you're alive.

All of this brain cyclone

The loss begins now:

- I'm finally going to admit the truth to myself, I don't feel comfortable going through a round-about.

- Ticks..ticks are back. They're back. Screw you stupid f***ing ticks. 10 ticks! This means war!

- We've still got no internet. And no cable, but I'm not really missing the cable (other than the NBA and Top Chef)

- Does anyone else think this Boston team has to win it this year or never? (I'm in a hotel room watching the game) Ray Allen looks dead. Rondo has to get better, and maybe he will.

- So we moved into our house and it is pretty awesome. The kitchen rocks. We managed to put stuff into every cabinet, but none of them are really full. We've made some neat stuff, some that didn't work: Pumpkin tortillas...which ended up more like flatbread, but heavy. And chicken with shallots and garlic, allegedly Alton Brown's favorite recipe of all time (according to I'm just here for the food), which I have to admit, was pretty astoundingly good. The kitchen is just amazing. We've actually set up a card table, IN THE KITCHEN, and we eat there. I think of it as the Chef's Table for the house. The boy thinks of it as a place to eat puffs while dad cuts up smelly stuff.

- I'm getting frustrated about this: There appears to be a widespread perception that high gas prices are somehow something the President can directly influence. I'm skeptical that this perception is anything close to reality. Presumptive Hypocritical Party Nominee John McCain's suggestion that Congress should temporarily life the Federal Gas tax makes me think he's borderline senile. I mean, yes, it is the President's stupid policies over the last 8 years that have resulted in ever-increasing consumption (demand) within the domestic and international energy markets. I'm not disputing that. If this Administration had done what the previous administration had done (consistently push policies aimed at reducing consumption, improving relations with oil producing countries, setting reasonable limits for greenhouse gas admissions, and develop alternative power sources), then we would not be in a predicament where every random approach to producing more gas seems like a viable economic policy (I'm looking at you idiot-biofuel movement).
So yes, the President ends up affecting the price of gas, but not because he wakes up in the morning and decided: Screw you America, this year gas is going to hit $4 a gallon just to benefit my oil company plans. No, its because the President got up every damned day of his term and said: Screw you America, today I will ignore all rational thought and just do whatever my old college buddy says to do. With that policy, predictably, everything is going to pot.

- The Cavs and Celtics engaged in two of the chippiest (firefox spellcheck doesn't like that word!) first round first round series I ever saw just a few weeks ago, and yet now they are both playing like dead men. BORING!!!!!!!!!

- This drive to KC is getting longer. Wow...today's drive sucked.

- So about the Neosho Madtom: My new boss at work may have just totally won me over this week, and now I'm kinda wondering what the limit is...or if there is one. Meanwhile, I'm getting to the borderline of time to prepare this NABS talk...especially considering it is on a subject I've never spoken on before. Saying I've got a lot going on is sorta ridiculous. I've got so much happening I'm having a hard time keeping it even organized in broad categories. I need to sit down just to figure it all out, except I don't have time.
Of course, this is fun beyond all expectations. If we can accomplish something here, I'll be happy. Even if I do have to keep reading the letters of the ignorant and bitter.

Bleh

What's been going on? I don't even know. Go check out Analyze
Everything for pics of Kansas waterfalls and stories about asian
clams. And hopefully a picture of the first wild black-footed ferrets
in Kansas in a long, long time.

Otherwise:

- We're buying a house. Four bedrooms, 2 baths, in town, nothing
much happening in the yard, no garage but a 2 car carport. Across the
street from a Catholic school (Am I ever going to get away from
Catholics? I'd convert but I loathe religion). Best positive of the
house is that it is in town, but number 2 is the incredibly huge
kitchen. Ok, incredibly huge is an overstatement, but this kitchen is
easily twice the size of our kitchen in grad school, with tons of
counterspace and a huge pantry (wow...just...wow). We move in April
23rd, and I can't wait. I'm borderline desperate to quit driving so
much all the damn time. We're going to turn the yard entirely into
natives and garden. I've actually got all kinds of plans involving
solar heating and geothermal and damn near every other crazy scheme
you can think of (using greywater maybe?).

- Morel Hunting. So who's been doing this? Sightings are starting
to come in from Missouri and Kansas, so I thought I'd do a little
hunting last weekend, but I was totally shut out. I suspect finding
the first one will be the hardest, because I'm not even sure if I'm
looking in the right places. Basically, native woodlands with some
moisture. While I think we'll definitely get in on the morel action
this year, I think we're also going to buy a 'mushroom log'. They
sound fairly easy to maintain, and the prospect of having an abundant
supply of shitake mushrooms is pretty appealing. Let me know if
you've done this and how successful/easy it was.

- The baby decided to be extra cute this weekend, which was pretty
good timing, because both grandma's got to see him. For some reason
he's not really crawling yet. Almost seems like he's just unable to
get good enough traction on the ground, because when he's in my arms,
I'm pretty much his own personal jungle gym. The kid loves, loves,
hanging upside down. He's kind of a little monkey.

- Top Chef. I never thought I would watch this show, but I have
been, and despite the unbearable awkwardness of it (as compared to the
professionalism of Iron Chef's similar competition), the show is
fantastic. I can't help but compare Top Chef to "The Next Iron Chef"
and find Top Chef inferior. The competitors are less confident, less
experienced, and the judges seem very unprofessional. Also, some of
the competitions are pretty bogus. I'm rooting for the guy with the
weird mohawk-type hair.

- The Darjeeling Limited. In my opinion, this was probably the worst
movie Wes Anderson has made. Which actually sounds bad, but isn't,
because this movie is fantastic. This guy just makes unbelievably
good movies. I didn't think Royal Tenenbaums could be topped, but
then The Life Aquatic happened. I'd actually probably put this movie
as dead-even with Bottle Rocket, but since Bottle Rocket was the first
indie film I 'discovered' on my own, I still like it more.

- I am Legend. Disappointing. Will Smith can act, really well, and
unfortunately a pretty lame script killed what was a good film. The
next sentence is a spoiler, so stop if you want to watch the film. In
particular, I think every single thing that happened after he was
knocked unconscious kinda sucked, and everything before that was kinda
awesome. The script-writers should have read World War Z.

- The NBA: I don't care about the seeding in the West right now.
There are 5 legitimate contenders for winning the Western Conference:
Phoenix, San Antonio, L.A., New Orleans, and Dallas. Yes Dallas! Are
you kidding me? That's the last team the Spurs want in the first
round.

- College Basketball - Well, Tyler "Mr. Will"
Hansbroughuruhgoghghrogh showed his true colors against KU by playing
like ass and falling down a lot. That guy winning a national player
of the year award is an embarrassment to those awards. Yes, the guy
plays hard, but he's TERRIBLE!!! I'm starting to think Mark Madsen is
getting embarrassed by the constant comparison. Who honestly thinks
this guy is better, in any way, than Beasley?

KU in the Final Four...again

Dear Roy Williams,

I'm not rational about this, and I know that. That doesn't change anything.

Kansas can't beat you badly enough on the basketball court next week
to satisfy me. If we win by sixty, destroying every record in the
book during our rout, and move on to win it all, it won't be enough.
I want to see your entire program smashed to the ground by defeat. I
want to see an annual KU-UNC game, and I want to see KU win them all.
I want to see everything you touch in your basketball career from this
moment forward to turn to dust.

This isn't a game, it is revenge.

Sincerely,

Kansas Fans

Basketball

This is the greatest NBA season ever played, and simultaneously, one
of the best seasons in KU basketball history. I've been thinking
about this a lot as I drive around, and here are my thoughts:

- Michael Beasley: This guy should be the player of the year in
college basketball. I'm hearing a lot of talk about how Tyler
Hansbrough will probably win it because he's got "will" and "heart"
but the real reason is because he averages 20 ppg and 10 rpg and yet
totally sucks. Everyone agrees Beasley is a better pro prospect, but
what everyone seems to be missing is that he's a better college player
too!!! There isn't a single coach on the planet (other than maybe,
maybe, Roy Williams) who wouldn't take Beasley over Hansbrough in a
heartbeat. Beasley gets more points, more rebounds, more assists, has
3 pt range, hits his FTs, guards all 5 positions, and (trust me, I saw
this against KU) cannot be defended by anyone at the college level.
Tyler plays on a better team, and for some reason this is also used to
support his candidacy. Excuse me? If you put Tyler on K-State, that
team wouldn't have made the tournament, wouldn't have beat KU and
wouldn't have won 50% of their games. If you put Beasley on the Tar
Heels….well, if they lost a single game all year it would be the most
astonishing upset of the past twenty years. Beasley has dragged a
perennial loser with a lousy coach and not one teammate who could get
on the floor at a power school into the NCAA tournament. I watched
Beasley play probably 5-6 games this year, and he never once made a
mistake. Not once! He doesn't take bad shots, he doesn't make bad
fouls, he doesn't miss rebounds, and he is the best player on the
court at all times.

- KU: This KU team is bizarre. On the one hand, they've got no
stand-out scoring threat, their best big men are short, and you could
never convince me their coach isn't a disappointment. On the other
hand, Brandon Rush sometimes looks like a dominant NBA 2 guard, they
have the best defensive backcourt I've ever seen, and they've got an
amazing amount of versatility and depth. I sorta think this is the
best KU team since the squad featuring Jacque Vaughn, Paul Pierce,
Raef LaFrentz, Scott Pollard, Greg Ostertag went 30-1, but I also
sorta think these guys don't always know what to do on offense. I
could see them going the distance, or I could see them flaming out in
round 2.
But you know how I'm going to fill out my bracket. KU winning it
all! This is the year baby!

- The NBA: No, wait…too much to talk about here, how about:

- The Rockets: Awesome. And anyone who's actually watched them play
knows this isn't about an easy schedule. There's no way they can't
beat the warriors in the first round.

- The Suns, Spurs and Mavs: Despite all we've seen this year, I have
a hard time believing these three teams won't be in the second round.
The Suns and Mavs are as good or better than they were last year, and
the Spurs are the Spurs. Yet if we see these three teams in the
second round, it might be the most upsets in a first round NBA
playoffs ever, since these guys sit 5-6-7 right now. Does anyone
honestly think the Suns won't beat the Jazz in a 7-game series, or the
Spurs won't beat the Hornets? Right now the Mavs would play the
Lakers, and I could see the Lakers winning that, but if the Mavs end
up playing the Rockets…who's the favorite?

- The Sixers: This is like Rockets-lite. Neither of these teams is
being lead by a transcendent superstar (although McGrady might have
once been one), but both of them fill up the rosters with a lot of
strong role-players. The Sixers would have a legitimate chance
against the Cavs (and maybe the Magic), but will get destroyed by the
C's or the Pistons.

- Shawn Marion: At this point, I can't imagine the Heat offering him
a big contract after this season, and here's why: Marion doesn't want
to be the third option. No matter how great your success, he will
sabotage it with self-centered talk off the court if he isn't the #1
or 2 man on your club. We saw that with the Suns! So in Miami
they've got Dwayne Wade as the #1 guy, and probably whoever they draft
(Beasley?) as the #2 guy, and then Marion may not even get as much
love as the much beloved Udonis Haslem. Would you resign him? The
best-case scenario for Marion is probably Minnesota for a couple of
reasons: 1) They've got a stellar #1 guy, but no clear #2, 2) Kevin
McHale makes stupid decisions and might throw 20 mil a year at him,
and 3) he won't have to worry about not getting enough credit for a
perennial contender. Oh, and they could use a good defensive player
and rebounder. (the Clippers would work too).
Of course if Shawn has learned from this awful Heat season, he might
decide he waits to get back on a contender, no matter what his status.
In which case it would make a lot of sense for him to sign up with
the Nuggets, who desperately need a defensive-minded perimeter player,
and seem willing to throw money around.

- The Lakers: The Lakers are the NBA version of the Yankees, in that
they totally suck and I hate them and I couldn't wish any more for
harm to befall them. Which is why I'm frustrated by their annoying
habit of collecting players that I like (Lamar Odum, Pau Gasol, Jordan
Farmer, Luke Walton, Caron Butler [freed at least], etc.) and putting
them on the same team with guys I hate (Kobe, Kwame Brown, Kobe, Derek
Fisher, Kobe, Smush Parker, Kobe, and..uh…Kobe). Pau is just the
latest to join the ranks of pure evil, against his will I hope, and
now I'm forced to hate him.
Putting aside my hatred, this team is really really good IF they're
healthy. Nobody seems to have noticed, but Kobe is not nearly the
player he was two years ago. He's gone from the most potent offensive
perimeter player in my lifetime, to one of the best offensive players
in the league. He's also a lot worse on D, but is still better than
80% of the guards out there. Watching him dominate T-Mac on the
defensive end on Sunday was embarrassing, because McGrady clearly
wasn't prepared to deal with that kind of defense.
Kobe is the biggest liability to the healthy Lakers. After 10 years
in the league, he still doesn't understand when to pass the ball. So
long as he's on the team is almost unstoppable. If he's just playing
so-so, well, they can definitely be beaten.

Mind dump

Response to comments:

-  So apparently "Konrad" took issue with my statement: "And not one of the Republican candidates have the moral integrity or intelligence of a garden slug."  Specifically, he seemed to think that I should have more precisely defined what a garden slug is.  "Konrad" then went into a long and detailed explanati--- I'm going to spare you the details and just defend myself by saying A) a garden slug is a slug in a garden...duh, and B) Konrad, you're an idiot (If that's even your real name).  But thank you for commenting!

-  For those of you who wondered and commented (that Konrad character again), my friend is apparently going to get out of the hospital soon.  

Music coolness:

 I get bored an unproductive in hotel rooms, so here's the music I've been cramming down my ears, you might not have heard of all of it:

 -  Rilo Kiley  Silver Lining and Portions for Foxes.  I really dig Jenny Lewis, she did some solo stuff that was awesome too.  Both of these songs have good sounds, but I don't necessarily understand all the lyrics to Portions for Foxes.  Are foxes a metaphor for composters/decay?  I don't know.
  
 - White Stripes  Icky Thump and You Don't Know what love is.  Is there any real doubt that the White Stripes are the greatest mainstream musical act currently in existence?  I guess it depends on whether or not Modest Mouse qualifies as 'mainstream'.  I think not, since most of their really good stuff is pre-Float On.

-  Paramore Misery Business (and acoustic!).  Probably my biggest guilty pleasure is pop-punk bands.  I really liked Blink 182 and Less than Jake and now Paramore and essentially the entire
lineup from "Fueled By Ramen" is filling that gap.  Paramore essentially sings the same songs as Britney Spears (in terms of topics), but apparently guitar and attitude count for a lot in my book.

-  Dashboard Confessional  Vindicated.  I forgot about this song, even though I really like it, then I stumbled upon it last week.  I hoped this would lead down an interesting avenue of new music, but it turns out Dashboard Confessional are border-line incoherent and sort of a bunch of losers.  So that sucked.

-  Sparklehorse Sick of Goodbyes.  Actually, I could have picked a bunch of songs from Sparklehorse.  They're part of the Cracker-Camper Van family, and they are weird and beautiful.

-  Cute is What we Aim For Curse of Curves.  That's just a stupid name, but the song isn't bad.

Other stuff:

 -  Apparently there is no pretense internally that the Guantanamo Bay detainees are real people.  There are a lot of people who like to divide the world into *good* people and *evil* people.  If you're one of those people, then you can't possibly refer to the Bush presidency as anything but evil.  He has overseen the widespread kidnapping, imprisonment, and torture of people from all over the world.  That's either evil or you don't believe evil exists.  That's all the options there are.

-  Apparently the movie Jumper sucks.  So much so that someone had a 'Dead Poets Society' moment.  I'll be honest, that's kinda what the first three years of graduate school did to me.  

-  So I've been trying out Opera on my work laptop for the past couple of months.  I've got to say, it kinda sucks.  Everything that's in Firefox is here too, but everything seems to run slower, and right now, as I type this, the browser seems to have real problems dealing with the Blogger "edit post" window.  Things keep re-arranging, and shifting and damnit if I am not getting real close to ditching it altogether.  Other stuff is just more annoying to use, like the password wand or the history.  

-  NBA:  This is supposedly the greatest season in NBA history.  So why am I losing interest faster than at any time in the last 5 years?  Because the model franchise for great basketball (the Suns) threw it all away.  Look, Shaq is everything that is wrong with basketball recently:  He whines when he doesn't get enough shots, he can't dribble or shoot, he has no team loyalty, he takes credit for the success of everyone he plays with, he slows down the game, he has always benefitted from ridiculous officiating, and he takes off half the season.  Why would the Suns want to get that?  The Spurs lead this wave of up-and-coming basketball teams that focused on skilled basketball, great on-court chemistry, and planning for the long-haul, but it certainly seemed like the Suns were on their way towards succeeding the Spurs as the best team in the league.  How bad could the off-court chemistry with Shawn Marion have been?  The two teams most poised to rip the West out of the hands of the Spurs were the Mavs and Suns, but now, purely by default and raw talent, the Lakers are clearly the best team out there.  And I hate the Lakers.  No wonder the NBA is losing me.

Kind of a lot of tears today...

So this wasn't really my son's best day ever. For the past two mornings (the weekend) the boy has been pretty much an unholy terror unless dad is taking care of him. Yesterday morning I was gone for maybe half an hour before I got a call from mom that was borderline frantic. I came home, and the boy immediately turned on the charm...big-time. Big smiles. High-pitched squeals. The works.

But only for dad. And it isn't even like I was doing anything. I just sat there and stared at him. Maybe I sang "Amazing Grace" (one of the two songs I can remember at any given time).

Today, same story. In the morning the boy was borderline hostile to mom, but totally smiles and giggles to dad. This is a bad trend, since dad isn't around in the mornings most days.

Part of the problem might be that mom is the one wielding the snot-sucker. What? You don't know what a snot-sucker is? Here's one, apparently the correct term is aspirator. All I know is that my son views it as a highly developed torture device. I don't know if I've ever heard him scream the way he did this morning. And that brought on the tears. This was actually a lot worse than the shots he got at the doctor's office.

(yes, you have to use an aspirator on a baby. They don't blow their noses! And it seems like all babies have a ton of mucous build-up overnight. The boy is so bad in the morning that he can barely breath through his nose at all. You try nursing a boob without the ability to breath through your nose...ok...you probably won't want to actually try that. That's gross.)

Baby tears are tough on mom and dad, especially because you know the kid is fine. There's nothing painful about the damned snot-sucker. There's nothing painful about waking up. There's nothing painful about being alone for ten minutes. But that doesn't mean the baby doesn't feel like crying whenever those things happen.

Is this becoming a blog about my kid? Are the only interesting things that happen to me lately kid-related? What has happened to me? Here's the other stuff that happened this week:

- My good friend J and I rented an XBOX 360 and Halo 3 on Saturday. You know, to see whether those video games the kids are always talking about were worth anything. Well, the game is good, and the system seems good, but $400 good? Has inflation really gone up that much? The most I ever spent on a video game system was on my DreamCast, and that was because it came with 2 games, 2 controllers, and it was the Sega Sports all-black edition. My XBOX cost less than $200. And I'm going to have to pay $350 just for a system with 1 controller for the 360? No. No.

- I went to a hibachi bar for the first time in my life on Friday. I was pleasantly surprised. The only really memorable things about the food were the sauces (an intense ginger/soy thing and a mild mustard sauce that was referred to as 'spicy') and a ginger-rice vinegar dressing on the salad. But the overall atmosphere was fun, and I like seeing my food cooked. As far as I could tell it was all pretty simple.

- Nothing makes sense in the NBA. The Boston Celtics played amazing on Sunday against the Magic, but lost because Hedo Turkoglu hit an amazing shot over near-perfect defense by Paul Pierce. And am I the only one who thinks Pierce looks thirty pounds heavier than he did three years ago. Is that muscle? Last year Ray Allen scored 30 ppg for the month of January and averaged 26 ppg, 4 apg, and 4.5 rpg. What happened to that guy? Meanwhile the GS Warriors (whom I loathe) aren't as awful as they ought to be, and the New Orleans Hornets are, without a doubt, the best team in the West. Nobody else is even really close. They demolished the Spurs on Saturday.

Maybe I just have less to say these days...

Well, I have been quietly waging my own personal war against social networking sites that look like bullshit pyramid schemes for the better part of the last ten years. What actions have I taken in the pursuit of this war? Ok, basically I just wished anyone who used Facebook, Myspace, and god forbid, YTMND, would become a miserable idiot.

In retrospect, this was a bad strategy. For one thing, these sites now boast something like a hundred trillion users all over the freaking world. Assuming my wish were granted, we'd have a world where total idiots get elected on a regular basis. And since we're winding down our second Bush administration, I guess I'm a freaking wish-maker.

The other reason this was a bad strategy is that it turns out I actually know a lot of people who are on Facebook and/or Myspace (I pretend I don't know the people on YTMND). At first I just made vomiting noises every time someone mentioned they had a Myspace or Facebook account, but eventually I realized that was just making me look like an idiot.

Even after realizing everyone I know is involved in this stuff in some way, I've generally snickered to myself every time I hear anything about these sites. After all, everything I've ever heard is bad. I mean, every damned MySpace page I've ever seen is a poorly designed wasteland that starts playing some stupid song without any prompting. And Facebook? Facebook stole their code from another company (and don't get me started on Secret Crush)!

So it was with a certain amount of glee that I read an article posted to reddit with the title: "Why I Will Not Be Using Facebook - Fierce yet detailed attack on the social networking site." However, upon reading the article, I realized a few things:

1. The author is an idiot.
2. I have no basis for my own dislike of this idea.
3. reddit titles kinda suck.

But basically, I realized I was falling into the same stupid trap that everyone falls into with music. You learn about something in a particular way, and you tend to start dismissing the new stuff without really thinking honestly about it. My internet life began before the web, when basically the interactions were through message forums and bulletin boards. Web-versions of those kind of interactions (i.e., IM, blogs, link aggregators, etc.) make sense and seem cool, while stuff like Facebook and MySpace just seem like more annoying versions of Geocities (and for those of you who don't remember Geocities, well, let's just say this is probably the coolest website for NBA 2k1 ever created!).

So anyway, if you're on facebook or myspace or orkut and I made little cough*idioti*cough sounds when you mentioned that: I'm sorry.

And no, this doesn't mean I'm going to create a facebook account.

Other stuff:

- I stayed at a hotel the other night that had a free-alcohol "happy hour". A FREE ALCOHOL HAPPY HOUR. And I worked through half of it!

- Speaking of that trip: You know what's worse than spending two and a half hours walking around in semi-freezing rain? Trying to explain to two skeptical consultants the difference between abundant and common in terms of leaf litter at the same time. I drove for an hour with the heater on full blast before I got warm. Why the hell didn't I try to get a job in Mexico?

- the NBA: Just off the top of my head everything we thought we knew about the western conference should be tossed out the window. Just forget it all. The three best teams right now are the Hornets, Blazers and Lakers (well, before Bynum got hurt). The Mavs and the Suns are apparently trying to pull a "spurs" by sucking early and getting great late. You know what they're missing? Tim Duncan. As for the East: Nobody in Miami should feel bad...they won a frickin' championship! You think I wouldn't trade a year or 3 of Dallas being miserable for a Dallas championship. And hell, Miami'll probably end up drafting Beasley, turning them right back into title contenders.

- If you like Carcassonne, you can play it online here (called Toulouse). And yes, we've probably played 60 games in the past three days.

This is just another reason why K-State sucks

Funny, I've never seen a KU basketball player piss himself on a basketball court. According the the interwebs, Bill Walker is from Ohio. I can't help but wonder if he's really from Boston.

All Hallow's Eve

Well, Alton's first Halloween was fairly boring. We didn't even leave the house, Grandma and Grandpa came over and we made some Emu tacos.

Yeah, Emu. I think the list of animals I've eaten in my life goes like this (in approximate order of frequency):
Chicken, cow, turkey, pork, bison, deer, tilapia, catfish, bass, walleye, crappie, sunfish (various spp.), crayfish, rabbit, pheasant, quail, dove, shrimp, elk, ostrich, oxen, _emu_, alligator, and I can't think of anything else right now, but I might have had a fried grasshopper once.

We were walking through the farmer's market and I saw the emu stand and couldn't resist. Very red meat. Wife and I couldn't tell any difference between it and bison (maybe a little less fat), but my parents didn't like it as much as beef (I, of course, haven't eaten beef in years, so no basis for comparison). My parents could have been reacting to my 'taco' recipe, which included red bell peppers and potatoes, as opposed to just meat and onions.

ANYWAY, here's what I've done this week:

- Visited Manhattan, home of _the_ Kansas State University. Met up with a friend of mine there and got some good advice on various aspects of a talk I'm giving. Good encouragement as well. This was an official work trip, because I needed to dig out papers on heavy metal pollution, but I brought along the whole family. I think the family had a good time (wife says yes!).

- In my mind, college campuses should have crazy people. When you go to college, you should end up experiencing diverse viewpoints and ideas. KU is like this, KSU...not so much. Notre Dame wasn't really like that as much as KU, but there was at least some oddity. Manhattan's sea of people who all looked like the preppy bastards I knew from high school made me think up a few possible slogans for the school:

"Kansas State University: Why would you want to learn anything anyway?"
"Kansas State University: Conformity is happiness....right?"
"Kansas State University: Comfortable with ignorance."

- In all seriousness, K-State has a nice library and some really good profs, so I shouldn't make fun of them.

- Manhattan drove home a reality I've always realized but never thought about: Driving in college towns sucks. After thinking about this, I can actually modify it a little: driving in state college towns sucks. The reason, I assume, is the fact that college admissions have sky-rocketed over the past 40 odd years, resulting in a great demand to expand buildings, but also a sky-rocketing price for nearby real-estate. So roads become expensive to build, and colleges are somewhat committed to the "walking campus" mentality anyway, and so road organization doesn't keep pace with the traffic load. This isn't really a problem if you're living on campus, and it isn't too much of a problem if you work there (usually with easily accessible designated parking), but for visitors it is a pain in the ass.
By comparison, Notre Dame, which has maintained a fairly even class size for decades while systematically eliminating ALL road traffic on-campus, has funneled traffic to large roads that can handle the load, and built parking lots in easily accessible locations near the edges of campus (eliminating the need for drivers to get on-campus at all). But of course Notre Dame is under no obligation to allow more students, as state schools often are.
I would love to hear of an example of a state-college town that doesn't suck to drive in (at least around the college). Here are the ones I have seen this effect in up-close:
Lawrence, Manhattan, Norman, Athens, even Golden, CO (even though School of Mines isn't a huge population). Ann Arbor's probably the best driving experience, and I was almost in a huge accident the last time I was there!

- NBA!!!!! Watched the first two nights of NBA action and here's my thoughts:
The Mavs are going to be better than last year.
The Spurs are going to lose this year.
The Celtics aren't going to be that good.
The Bulls will, ONCE AGAIN, start the season horribly.
The Suns and Bulls will face off in the Finals.
Mostly though, I'm just happy we're back in the NBA universe.

Writing and blogging and something

So I'm trying to not write so much about depressing stuff. Someone recently referred to my blog as an "emotional roller coaster". Frankly, I don't know what to think about that, but I'd like to hear this blog described as "moderately informative" and "not suicide-inducing."

Which is why I now share with you the sum total of the positive, work-related feedback that I've received during the past few weeks (since, say, April). You know, to demonstrate that I'm not a complete failure.

Dear Dr. XXXXXX,

Thank you very much for your review of manuscript "XXXXX".

We greatly appreciate your assistance.

With kind regards,
Journals Editorial Office
Springer

Hmm. Roller coaster probably isn't the right word is it?

Other stuff:

- For some utterly incomprehensible reason, I've been playing this game about an hour a day. In fact, after finding that link I was 'forced' to play it for about twenty minutes just now.

- I went fishing this weekend. I should set this up a little better:
When I was a kid (grade-school, middle school) I was, in all humbleness, the greatest fisherman I knew. I could damn near catch anything with any kind of bait. I mean it. I caught carp, catfish, crappie, bluegill, green sunfish, walleye, largemouth bass, white bass, whiper (striped bass, white bass hybrid), and smallmouth bass using a little yellow jig from a lake that no one knew even had walleye and smallmouth. All in one summer. From the shoreline.
As I've gotten older, I've gotten worse. In my freshman year of high-school Star Trek 'Next Generation' went off the air, so I began having a social life that didn't revolve around Tasha Yar and Wesley Crusher. That social life meant that I spent more time going to movies and chasing girls than fishing.
But all I had to do was pick up a pole and I'd still be able to at least catch some fish.
This weekend I went back to the very lake that was the site of so many of my fishing conquests. What happened?
I caught 1 fish.
1.
Uno.
Singular.
I'm going to have to figure out how to fish again, aren't I?

- Want to drive yourself insane? Try this 'impossible' quiz. I have to admit, I failed miserably.

- The NBA Finals: Really? The excellence that was the Western Conference playoffs has lead to this pathetic show? If I were, in any way, associated with the NBA, I'd be looking for a new job.

Kobe Bryant

I realize that 90% of the people who read this blog (my parents, my siblings, my friends) do not follow the NBA very closely.

You guys are just going to have to deal with some NBA news for a moment.

Kobe Bryant is widely acknowledged as the most prolific scorer in the NBA. He's a fair to good defender. He's a good to excellent late-game player. And he's one of the only guys in the league who seems to really, passionately, care about winning. This week he's gone on a rampage about the ineptitude of the Lakers' front office, then today announced that he wants to be traded from the Lakers. This is so ridiculous that I had to invoke my "two source" rule.

I'm not sure if anyone else is aware of this, but Kobe Bryant is also one of the most widely reviled players in the league. Even before the whole rape trial (charges were dropped), Kobe had the reputation of being a colossal jerk whose arrogance was Jordan-esque without any of the accomplishments. Then he racked up 3 rings as Shaq's side-kick and became the 'too-successful' guy that everyone loves to hate. Then he threw Shaq under the bus while being interviewed by the police. Then he appeared to orchestrate Shaq's departure from the Lakers.

Kobe has become the lightning-rod for everything NBA-related. The Blogoverse screams constantly that he was robbed from the MVP award the past two seasons, and at the same time the MSM (who votes on the MVP) didn't even let him get close to the award. On a hundred NBA blogs you will find one group of people saying that if you don't like Kobe, you don't like basketball. At the same time you'll see other people saying Kobe represents everything that is wrong with basketball. These people tend to not get along, with increasingly escalating rhetoric.

So now that Kobe is demanding a trade, expect all coverage of the NBA playoffs to disappear from the blogoverse or the MSM. Remember when Allen Iverson got traded earlier this year, and we didn't hear anything else about it for weeks (lame)? This is bigger. Whoever acquires Kobe is going to have to gut their team to get him, and then they are going to be surprised when he really doesn't make them much better. Oh, and for the record, I think he'll end up in a Lakers uniform next year.

I think this says something about how the NBA is being perceived: Everyone is looking towards the future. Nobody cares about the present. Why? Because the present sucks. The Spurs are the best team in the league. They are lead by the greatest PF of all time, but also by a guy dating an annoying actress and another guy who could be described as a 6-6 version of Vlade Divac without the popular appeal.

I think this is crazy. The NBA has completely lost it. I'm at the point, as a diehard fan who will probably never really give it up, where I just don't care. The rules are enforced asymmetrically, the officiating is awful, and most of the teams were trying to lose this year.