(Fantasy) Football football football!

I had my fantasy football draft last night.  The Factory of Sadness picked #6 out of the 10 team league, and our roster ended up as: 

QB Matt Ryan ATL

QB Jay Cutler CHI

QB Tim Tebow NYJ

RB Michael Turner ATL

RB Trent Richardson CLE

RB Frank Gore SF

RB James Starks GB

WR Calvin Johnson DET

WR Vincent Jackson TB

WR Reggie Wayne IND

WR Michael Crabtree SF

TE Tony Gonzalez ATL

TE Brent Celek PHI

DEF Baltimore

K ??? (had to leave before last round; told the man running the league to pick a kicker)

We have to play 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 'flex' (RB/WR/TE), 1 Defense, 1 Kicker

For once, I'm really thrilled about the team I drafted.  I think Calvin Johnson is by far the best WR, fantasy wise.  Turner/Richardson/Gore are three very good RB, and if Richardson stays healthy (always a big "IF"), they should put up some points.  And between Matt Ryan, Michael Turner, and Tony Gonzalez, I've now converted to being a Falcons fan. 

And hey- I have to power of Tim Tebow on my side.  How can I possibly  lose?

Crowning Moment of Awesome- 08/24/2012 (part 2)

The last CMoA was humorous.  This one is serious.

A few days ago, I vented about how we lost ambition to create bigger, better things.  So finding a counter example is a great thing.

A 17 year old who build an artificial brain to diagnose breast cancer counts as a great thing.

Congratulations.  Fantastic job.  May you build a dozen more systems just like this one, and be obscenely rewarded for doing so.

Crowning Moment of Awesome- 08/24/2012

If North America had more music videos like this, MTV might be worth watching...

 

A call to arms

Preach On, Brother O'Rourke!

We used to do great things.  Nowadays... we don't try to reach as high.

For crying out loud, people are going nuts that NASA sent a rover to Mars.  And... I know, that's nice.  Except that we already did this back when Disco was still cool, so I don't know what the big deal is about going back now.  Let me know when we can plan a weekend trip to the moon- then I'm interested.

It's easy to come up with reasons that we don't strive like we used to.  But I'd rather find the next generation of goals to shoot for, the next mountains to climb, the next set of impossible tasks to achieve.

We have the tools.  We have the talent.  We just need the ambition.

Crowning Moment of Awesome- 08/21/2012

In a perfect world, I'll keep posting on this blog until I hit upon something that catches people's attention and get them to visit regularly, by writing opinions that other people want to read.

In other words, I'll do something like my buddy dboy does, with his sports columns on TalkBackFans.com

Go.  Read.  Enjoy

Crowning Moment of Awesome- 08/20/2012

A classic sketch from the Improv Show "Whose Line Is It Anyways":

 

Crowning Moment of Awful- 08/17/2012

We'll end this week with something that's a bit of a downer, but I think needs to be pointed out.

One of the great advantages of the US Political System is its resiliency.  We've survived a Civil War, foreign invasions, Watergate, Monicagate, scandals and crimes, and have changed policial leaders from one party to another without a punch being thrown. 

Our economy has prospered, we've outlasted the Great Depression, blasted through a multitude of recessions- the overall trajectory of the United States has been upward.

As long as we don't muck with the foundation, we can handle quite a bit.

Unfortuantely, with the deficit and debt, we're eating our seed corn.  We're writing IOUs that will have to be paid, with interest, by our children and grandchildren. 

We either go through pain now to control it- or someone else goes through a lot more pain in the future.

So here's a reminder of how bad the problem is.

Crowning Moment of Awesome- 08/16/2012

Keeping things simple today- an awesome live performance of "La Villa Strangiato" by a band I'll be seeing in Octboer, Rush:

Crowning Moment of Awesome- 08/15/2012

I shouldn't just rely on youtube for CMoA.  Instead, I direct you to one of the best webcomics out there- Order of the Stick.  It started out as just a joke per comic, but has developed into one of the most intricate storylines I've ever read.

Crowning Moment of Awesome- 08/14/2012

For a long time I was into Stand-up Comedy, and this remains my favorite 'bit' ever.  Larry Miller is an underrated genius:

Crowning Moment of Awesome- 08/13/2012

Apologies for being late... here is today's video.  It probably won't mean much unless you've played World of Warcraft since before the first expansion, but (a) it's a great video and (b) if you know the storyline of Lady Katrana Prestor, it's amazing to see:

 

Romney/Ryan

So Mitt Romney has selected Paul Ryan as his running mate.  I both love this move and am slightly terrified of it at the same time.

Paul Ryan's one of the few people in Washington who has actually been treating the debt as a serious issue.  He put together a serious plan to reduce the deficit and the debt, and it didn't pull punches- his ideas include reforming both Medicare and Social Security.  

How serious is his plan?  President Obama delivered a cheap shot to him on it.  He invited Paul Ryan for a front seat for a "major fiscal policy speech"- then spent the speech attacking Ryan's plan, with Ryan in the audience and unable to respond.

Now, the President hasn't offered any real alternatives himself.  The Senate hasn't passed a budget in over three years, even though the Constitution requires one.  But it's easier to attack another person's solution to a problem than come with with a solution yourself.

But that's both the risk and the reward by selection Rep. Ryan as the Vice President.  He's committed to fixing the economic problems.  But his solutions shake up the status quo- and are therefore going to be pegged as attacks on Medicare, Social Security, the poor, etc.

He's going to be demonized over the next three months like few others ever have been.  My only request, when you read what a monster that he's been, is to listen to him and read his plan yourself.  It may not be your ideal solution.  But it's a serious approach to a serious problem- one of the only ones I've seen.

Personally, while I like Ryan, he wasn't my top choice- partly because I wanted him in Congress leading the charge, partly because I know he's going to be such a target.  Then again, I suppose anyone running for President or Vice President is going to be a target.  But I am confident that he's capable of stepping in as President should the need arise, and that is the most important job as the Vice President.

  

 
 

Crowning Moment of Awesome- 08/10/2012

What's better than having the best voice actors read the Star Wars Radio Play?  Having them read the Radio Play in the voices of other characters.  Long, but a masterpiece.

Dwight Howard goes to the Lakers.

Well, they did it again.  They always pull it off. 

The Los Angeles Lakers made a trade that netted them a top-10 NBA player for a few players.  From their point of view, they get Dwight Howard in exchange for Andrew Bynum and a restricted draft pick.

The entire history of the NBA is of the smart franchises taking advantage of the dumb franchises.  The Lakers have made trades for Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Kobe Bryant, and Pau Gasol. 

I'm not even mad at the Lakers and with the exception of the Miami Heat, there is no team I enjoy seeing lose more than the Lakers.  If anything, I'm annoyed that the Cavaliers couldn't take advantage of the situation- they tried but couldn't swing the deal.

The Denver Nuggets made out well- losing salary but gaining a great defender in Inguodala.  The 76ers are taking a risky move, trading a lot (and taking in salary) for Bynum without a guarantee, but it's a calculated risk. 

The Magic, however, were out-and-out swindled.  They were never going to get a great deal for Howard, but they didn't bring in any of the top players in the trade, all of the draft picks are restricted, and they only lost one of the three players that are killing their salary cap.  They would have been much better off taking the deal with the Nets. 

I don't cry that the Orlando Magic Front Office chose to be this dumb.  But really, did they have to benefit the Lakers?

Crowning Moment of Awesome- 08/09/2012

I don't know the song, I don't know the story- but damn, is this beautfiul.

Crowning Moment of Awesome- 08/08/2012

Reason #412 why CHIKARA is my favorite wrestling federation to watch:

Crowning Moment of Awesome- 08/07/2012

Two great tastes that taste great together- rap battles and economic legends:

Crowning Moment of Awesome- 08/06/2012

TV Tropes has a subsection known as the Crowning Moment of Awesome- basically the moment in the book, tv show, movie, comic, etc that makes the reader want to stand up and cheer 'YES'.

We need more of those.  Life's been stressful lately.  Actually, life is always stressful.  But it sure as heck feels harsher than normal. 

And there's a lot of great moments out there, in all forms of media.  And youtube is a wonderful library of holding a bunch of those moments. 

So here's a place to showcase some of them.  Enjoy today's.

See, here's the thing about Americans from the United States: We really, really HATE to be told what to do.

We revel in our Independence. In D&D Terms, we're Chaotic Good (OK, bordering on Chaotic Neutral). We make fun of our leaders- doesn't matter what party they come from. Every night, you can see comedians tearing the very people we elected to run the nation apart. Hell- the whole country started when the thirteen colonies flipped King George the middle finger.

Now, you need to keep that in mind when we're talking about Chick-Fil-A.

Now, the owners of Chick-Fil-A is against gay marriage, and that's riling people up (for some reason, those same people weren't upset when Barack Obama was against gay marriage- but I'm going off on a tangent). So people started a boycott. Great. Fantastic. It's the Free Market in action- people expressing their opinions with their dollars. It's beautiful- I'm ready to cry.

But then people went overboard. Mayors in places like Chicago and San Francisco decided that it wasn't enough to boycott, that they were going to use the power of their offices to throw the evil and vile Chick-Fil-A out of their town and make sure such a horrific business never operated in their town.

In other words, the mayors were going to tell their citizens what they could eat.

Now, remember what I said about Americans hating being told what they could do? Well, Chick-Fil-A is getting a lot of business today.

As for me? I'm for gay marriage. I like Chick-Fil-A's food, though it's a little too expensive for my tastes. And if someone tries to ban Chick-Fil-A from Cleveland, I'm eating there for a week straight.