| D-Shap's Wedding |
[Oct. 13th, 2008|01:40 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Silver Spring, MD | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  cheerful | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Justin Timberlake - "What Goes Around" | ] |
Katcoff, Lou, Rudy, Jay Snyder
Bagel, Adam
Katz
D-Shap, Laurie
good times |
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| All dressed up... |
[Oct. 13th, 2008|01:41 am] |
For the second time this season, I didn't watch the Broncos game, and the Broncos lost. I also didn't wear the Jay Cutler jersey (4-0), and they lost. Clearly I'm to blame.
Sorry Broncos fans. Blame D-Shap for getting married on an NFL Sunday. |
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| Holy balls... |
[Oct. 10th, 2008|04:23 pm] |
Article in "The Sporting News"
Jay Cutler on his arm vs. John Elway’s: “I have a stronger arm than John, hands down. I’ll bet on it against anybody’s in the league."
Oh Jayabetes, why must you be so hard to love?
In fairness, John Elway's comments when asked about Jay Cutler:
"Joe Montana, Steve Young, Brett Favre—they all could get outside and make big plays. Cutler is either more athletic or has better arm strength than each of them. His arm is pretty special, might even be as good as mine when I was his age. Certainly, it’s better than mine was at the end.”
Elway on comparisons between himself and Cutler: “Some people have asked how he compares to me. He’s closer to me physically than personality-wise."
Ohhh snap! |
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| Shirts and Stadia |
[Oct. 8th, 2008|10:29 am] |
Know what's the best thing about brisk fall weather? Oh yeah, I guess we already do.
Okay, well...here's a list of professional sports stadia which don't have corporate names:
NBA Basketball (4/29)
Madison Square Garden
New Orleans Arena
The Palace at Auburn Hills
Rose Garden
Major League Baseball (11/30)
Angels Stadium
Camden Yards
Dodger Stadium
Dolphin Stadium
Fenway Park
Metrodome
Nationals Park
Oakland Coliseum
Rangers Ballpark at Arlington
Turner Field
Yankee Stadium
NFL Football (15/31)
Arrowhead Stadium
Candlestick Park
Cleveland Stadium
Dolphin Stadium
Jacksonville Stadium
Georgia Dome
Giants Stadium/Meadowlands
Lambeau Field
Metrodome
Oakland Coliseum
Paul Brown Stadium
Ralph Wilson Stadium
Soldier Field
Superdome
Texas Stadium |
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| Ah, high school |
[Oct. 8th, 2008|09:27 am] |
Yesterday during 6th period I was teaching Newton's Third Law. At the end of the period, I had up on the board:
"N3L: If object A exerts a force F on object B, then B exerts the opposite force F on A"
The bell rang, and one of my 7th period students came in, looked at the board, and said, "Is this some kind of riddle? I don't get it."
It was all I could do to stop myself from falling down laughing.
---
Unrelated, I got the following e-mail this morning from a fellow teacher:
Are You Missing A Table Leg?
One of my students came into class today and presented me with what appears to be a table leg. He said he took it from another student in the hall who was running around with it. So, if one of your tables is missing a leg, I have it.
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| Time for a Change |
[Oct. 7th, 2008|11:25 pm] |
Only one man has shown the courage and conviction to stand by his principles even in tough times.
Only one man has shown the tenacity to go eye-to-eye with the most powerful world leaders and not blink.
Only one man has demonstrated a consistent record of giving the American people what they want.
That man...is Tom Brokaw. And you WILL RESPECT HIS BLINKING RED LIGHTS!
I'm voting for Tom Brokaw. If nothing else, at least he'll make the trains run on time. |
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| I'm Stoked |
[Oct. 5th, 2008|10:04 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Silver Spring, MD | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | optimistic | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Football Night In America | ] |
When I play Madden 2009, I like to run the "Play-Action Bronco Boot" three times in a row and throw it to the same receiver every time.
Imagine my delight when today, against the Buccaneers, the Broncos actually ran "PA Bronco Boot" to Brandon Stokley three times in a row (one time with the play mirror-flipped).
Week 1 was Eddie Royal, Week 2 was Brandon Marshall, and Week 5 belonged to Brandon Stokley, the guy everyone loves 'cause he's white and goes over the middle. Every week, the Broncos are just finding new weapons with which to win. This offense reminds me of the great 1998-99 days.
It was soo delicious watching Champ Bailey wreck Brian Griese and knock him out of the game midway through. You suck, Brian Griese.
The Broncos won. Every other AFC West team lost. The Broncos have a full 2 game lead over SD in the division, plus the head-to-head tiebreaker over SD. Times are good!
The Penn Quarter Sports Tavern remains a godsend. 50 Broncos fans filling the place, clapping and cheering on every third down snap and first down conversion. Raucous! So far the Broncos are 4-0 this season when I'm wearing my Jay Cutler jersey, and they're 2-0 when I've watched them at the Tavern. The lone loss coming last week, when I was wearing a Mets shirt and not watching the game at all, due to the Mets needing my support more.
The Road To The Playoffs
-Beat Oakland (in Denver)
-Beat KC (in Denver)
Beat 3/5 of these mediocre (.500 or lower) teams:
-Miami (in Denver)
-Jacksonville (in Denver)
-NY Jets (in NYC)
-San Diego (in SD)
-Cleveland (in Cleveland)
Beat 2/4 These Good (above .500) Teams
-Buffalo (in Denver)
-New England (in NE)
-Atlanta (in ATL)
-Carolina (in CAR)
That's 11 wins and at least a 4-2 division record. In the last 10 NFL seasons, every team with 11 or more wins has made the playoffs. That's so do-able! Beat 2 really bad teams at home, play .600 against mediocre/losing teams, and split the 4 games against the good teams! |
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| Running Playlist |
[Oct. 4th, 2008|12:06 pm] |
Toon's Non-Subtle Running iPod Playlist for Non-Subtle People (because I am totally a non-subtle person):
"Gonna Fly Now" - Rocky soundtrack
"Born To Run" - Bruce Springsteen
"Heart of a Champion" - Nelly
"Catch Me If You Can" - Angela Via
"I'll Make a Man Out of You" - Mulan soundtrack
"Don't Stop Me Now" - Queen
"Stronger" - Kanye West
"Still Alive" - Jonathan Coulton & GlaDOS
*This is actually one of my iPod playlists, called "Power" |
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| Burn After Reading |
[Oct. 4th, 2008|10:59 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Silver Spring, MD | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | cheerful | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Boston - "More Than A Feeling" | ] |
Saw it last night with Robin. Classic Coen brothers hilarity. Totally recommend.
We had planned to see "Blindness" -- but the theater was being picketed by a dozen blind people outside. |
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| God bless car dealership advertising... |
[Oct. 1st, 2008|09:32 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Silver Spring, MD | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | amused | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Pussycat Dolls - "Buttons" | ] |
e-mail I got tonight from a local car dealership:
Great deals on minivans and supersized pickup trucks?! Basically free money?! Yessssss!
(The wrong form of 'its' just makes it perfect) |
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| Fundrace fun |
[Oct. 1st, 2008|03:06 pm] |
So I'm sitting at home this afternoon, eating lunch, watching "The Colbert Report" and filling out my Maryland Presidential General Election absentee ballot. I have the Huffington Post Fundrace Map open to get some information about candidates for things like judges and board of education -- people I don't know anything about. I figure that candidates might say a lot of things, but where their money is going is probably a more reliable expression of their political leanings, and many of them have indeed made contributions to the national campaigns.
Anyway, I stumble across this:
I wonder what Christmas is like at the Meltzer house. |
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| Juuuust a bit outside (of the playoffs) |
[Oct. 1st, 2008|01:12 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Silver Spring, MD | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | amused | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Jesse McCartney - "Leavin' " | ] |
Onion article from last year:
Mets Vow To Win One More Game Next Year
After a record-setting collapse which saw the stunned New York Mets squander a seven-game lead with only 17 games left to play in the season and allowed themselves to be eliminated from the playoffs by a single game, manager Willie Randolph vowed that the Mets would in fact win "one more game" in 2008. "Our problem was clearly that we won only 88 games while the Phillies won 89," said the visibly agitated Randolph moments after a season-ending 7-1 loss to the lowly Florida Marlins. "Next year, we'll just win 89 games, not 88, which is not enough wins."
The Mets indeed finished with 89 wins in 2008, but that proved once again to be one game too few. If only they could win 90...! |
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| HOORAY FOR JI |
[Sep. 30th, 2008|09:49 pm] |
Oh man, I'm so rooting for Jim Thome and Ken Griffey Jr. in these baseball playoffs.
If you are looking for a team to root for this year, and the longtime-suffering Rays, Brewers, and Cubs are not to your liking then go read this Dugout and then you will surely agree that everyone needs to root for the White Sox this year.
I'm hoping for a CHW-CHC series, with the Sox winning in 6 games, just so they can lord it over those damn North Siders for 100 more years.
Of course, if you are of the opinion that you can never root for the White Sox after what happened in 1919, then I totally respect that as well.
Frankly, as long as the Phillies, Red Sox, and Angels all lose, I'll be happy. |
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| Shea Goodbye, part 2 |
[Sep. 29th, 2008|12:06 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Center Field! | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | cheerful | ] |
| [ | music |
| | "Meet The Mets" | ] |
Pictures!
Waiting behind the CF wall during lineup introductions
Walking with the group onto the field
Me on the field! ZOMG!
Me standing near the 338ft sign in RF
Dad on the warning track
Watching Johan Santana warm up
Another one of me
Mr. Met and Jerry Koosman
A sign on I-95...and a preview of the Mets offseason
Regarding Sunday:
It was sad to see the Mets lose and miss the playoffs, but it wasn't devastating like last year.
This season, the Mets started flat and never looked like a playoff team all during the first half of the year. Then they unexpectedly poured it on in the second half, and gave the fans an exciting playoff race which came down to the last few innings of the last game of the season. I was dancing on the couch after Beltran's HR tied it up in the 6th.
The Mets gave me way more good times than bad this year. They finished 16 games over .500, and a game better than last year. I'm feeling confident about next season, with Johan and Pelfrey and Wright and Reyes and Beltran and now Daniel Murphy. As a fan, all I really hope for is that the last games of the season will be meaningful. Any playoffs on top of that is just gravy. So, I'm content with this season, and I'm hopeful for next year. This wasn't a collapse, this was just a good race in which the Mets finished just a bit behind.
I really, really liked Shea Stadium. All my sadness about the game disappeared during the closing ceremonies, with Tom Seaver throwing out the final pitch to Mike Piazza, and then the two of them walked out into center field (right where I had been standing the day before!) and each of them closed one of the large CF gate doors, and they turned out the overhead lights. That whole ceremony just reminded me of why it's so great to be a Mets fan. I haven't taken my lucky cap off yet. |
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| Shea Goodbye |
[Sep. 27th, 2008|10:01 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Flushing, NY | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | euphoric | ] |
| [ | music |
| | "Meet The Mets" | ] |
Since 1987, I have been to a Mets game at Shea Stadium at least once every year with my father.
We went to the game this Saturday afternoon, for likely our final father-son trip to Shea. (There's still the possibility of playoffs!)
We sat in the Picnic Section in the outfield bleachers. The picnic section tickets had been purchased by the "Gary, Keith, and Ron" charity organization established by the 3 Mets broadcasters. They resold the bleacher tickets at a marked-up price, with the extra money going to charity. As an incentive for buying the tickets, the picnic section ticket-holders were treated to an all-you-can-eat BBQ and ice cream bar before and during the game.
Plus, our section got to walk onto the outfield during the National Anthem.
It was a day I will never forget. Walking through those large outfield doors into center field. Looking up at 55,000 fans cheering back at you. Standing about 6 feet away from Johan Santana as he was warming up in the bullpen and cheering for him to have a good game. Getting pieces of warning track dirt in my shoes. Standing next to Mr. Met and Jerry Koosman (the real "Mister Met"). Seeing Endy Chavez catch the final out right at the left field wall under my nose.
And then the game! Wow! Johan Santana in his Willis Reed/Schilling bloody sock moment, coming back on short-rest, going to the manager the day before and demanding the game ball for Saturday, after a 125-pitch outing, totally dominates the Marlins, pitches a complete game shutout, and gets the Mets right back in the playoff hunt after the Mets seemed totally out of it about 16 hours earlier. I was literally in tears, it was so beautiful.
It was the best game I've been to at Shea, ever. My dad rated third best of the Shea games he's been to (coming in behind storming the field in 1969 and seeing Tom Seaver strike out 19 Padres in 1970).
I have some awesome pictures to upload soon.
This is going to be an amazing couple of weeks for me, with two of my lifelong dreams coming true.
Goddamn I love Shea Stadium. It's been the only constant place I've returned to every year for my whole life. It's gonna be a weird world when it's gone. |
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| GUI...but not so much with the G |
[Sep. 23rd, 2008|09:17 am] |
I have a blind student in one of my science classes this year. She has a laptop computer with a refreshable Braille interface, like Whistler from "Sneakers" -- except her computer doesn't have a monitor because, well, duh.
Anyway, so, today's a test day, and while the rest of the class gets a paper test, I give her a USB flash drive with the test file as a .txt for her to complete on her laptop.
It's just really weird to see someone using a computer and search through Windows file directories and edit and save files and such...all without a monitor.
I'm like...but where's the computer? Amazing. |
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| On Batman... |
[Sep. 22nd, 2008|03:02 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | amused | ] |
| [ | music |
| | MIA - "Paper Planes" | ] |
The greatest aspect about Batman is that he's essentially just a guy that's really bad at coping with his parents' death. He presents the reader with the extreme version of dealing with grief. Rather than mourn like a normal person, he becomes a crazy-awesome ninja.
If Batman's parents had died of cancer, I'm pretty sure Bruce Wayne would have cured cancer by now, which is kind of a shame when you think about it. Instead of becoming an obsessive medical researcher or parachute safety inspector, he rails against violent crime, which isn't really all that high up on my list of social problems.
Some of my favorite ruminations On Batman:
1) Dinosaur Comics
http://www.qwantz.com/archive/000198.html
2) PVP Comics (soo good)
http://www.pvponline.com/my-parents-are-dead/
3) Andrew Goldenberg
4) The ISB
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