Tag: ek Holiday

Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers

(h/t Bluegal aka Fran)

Audio

With yesterday’s 1-0 win by Ramirez over the Atlanta Braves I can say, for what is probably the last time this season, that they have a share of the lead in the National League East.

It’s been a bad few seasons with team ownership caught up in the Madoff scandal, a situation that is not yet fully resolved, despite what The Guardian says (you’ll note they still owe in excess of $425 Million).  With the loss of Jose Reyes to free agency any objective observer can only call the team weaker.  They’ve moved in the fences by as much as 12 feet and lowered them by 8 for no good reason I can think of.  It’s not like they’re going to sell the extra 102 seats in what, with tons of luck, will be a .500 season.  Perhaps they will not finish at the bottom of the Division and there are worse teams, though not many of them.

It’s the 50th year for the Club and they usually get off to a good Opening Day start, winning in 33 of the past 43 seasons.  Only one other time have they done it 1-0.

But Santana is healthy for now, and spring is a time for hope and renewal.

Let’s go Mets!

Happy Bloggiversary to Me.

kos seems to think I joined on April 5, 2005 and while my memory is different (I contend it was April Fools Day) I can’t prove it.

That’s a total of 2557 days or 61,368 hours or 3,682,080 minutes or 220,924,800 seconds of my life I’ll never get back.

Including 629 days of unexpected absence, because I didn’t just sit on my ass feeling sorry for myself.

My character is static and fictional (diary #4, but who’s counting?).  I haven’t changed a bit or grown any more than Jerry, George, Elaine, or Kramer, my level of obnoxiousness has remained constant.  I’ve never pushed a noun against a verb except to blow up something.  I do hateful things for which people love me, and I do loveable things for which they hate me.  I’m admired for my detestability.

Nor am I likely to learn hugging in the future.  I’m over 120 years old and they’re still trying to ban evolution in Tennessee where the trees of knowledge are almost extinct and ignorance bushes thick.  I don’t miss Hillsboro, a mélange of Moorish and Methodist, it must have been designed by a congressman.

Since I’ve only ever been in love with the sound of my own voice I’ll spare you the trouble of actual research and direct you to some milestones-

• My First Comment
• My First Diary

When you’re as old as I am you pile up some numbers-

Daily Kos

• 4/5/05 (2,557 days)
• 46,147 comments (18 a day)
• 426 diaries (1 every 6 days)

DocuDharma

• 8/20/07 (1,690 days)
• 8,033 comments (4.75 a day)
• 1,974 essays (1+ a day)

The Stars Hollow Gazette

• 6/12/10 (663 days)
• 10,611 comments (16 a day)
• 1,797 diaries (2.7 a day)

Overall (2,557 days)

• 64,791 comments (25 a day)
• 4,197 diaries (1.64 a day)

I had never blogged before I came to Daily Kos, but I’ve always been a writer (and a critic, NOT a reporter Jim) even when it was just poetry for machines.  While I remain timeless I have taken my craft in different directions and I’m much more involved with the sites I manage and edit- The Stars Hollow Gazette and DocuDharma than I am concerned about minutia at the moment.  Still, I’ve not forgotten where I got my start and should I happen on topics of mutual interest I don’t hesitate to share.

I hope all of you enjoy your time online as much as I do mine.

Cardinals/Marlins.

• Senior League
• Rounders

Play Ball.

There is absolutely no reason Notre Dame should not win tonight.  They showed against Connecticut that they are willing and able to put other team’s players into foul trouble and Baylor is only half a team.  When Brittney sits they should be able to put it out of reach.

In the grander scheme I think one of the things Soapblox is best suited for is limited time event live blogging.  It’s unfortunate that there is no auto-refresh, but even dK has not been able to duplicate the immediacy of peeder’s Ajax Commenting System.  If there is sufficient volume and activity however this shortcoming is less pronounced.  Some even prefer the relaxed atmosphere where you are not subject to the expectation of instant defense.

The solution to all problems is to write more and often as TheMomCat suggests.  Frequently people complain about the lack of exposure and response, yet careful examination suggests that even at a high traffic site like dK actual page views of member submissions is not much higher than you can achieve here or at DocuDharma.

There are two things I think are a shame, which is that people get discouraged and that they don’t proliferate and promote their work.  I can’t do much to change the perception that comments equate to attention (though it’s not at all true), but I would urge you to consider the effect on your readership and impact of publishing at multiple places over a span of time on the issues you are passionate about.  Each site has its own audience and each posting gives you the opportunity to re-promote.

We’ll continue our coverage of special events here at The Stars Hollow Gazette (my next nightmare is the Summer Olympics) and you are more than welcome to contribute pieces about your particular interests.  It’s really not that hard.

Hype starts at 7:30 pm on ESPN.  Game @ 8:30.

Semifinal Results-

Tonight’s Action-

Let me be the first to say it-

I.

was.

wrong.

And so we are left with 2 teams that I really couldn’t have less interest in- Kentucky and Kansas.  I don’t even know which one to hate more.

Still, when you embark on these long term sports projects you have to stick with them even when Lance Armstrong is out of the picture lest you brand yourself a mere partisan fan instead of a student of the game.

Semifinal Results-

Tonight’s Action-

Zap2it says coverage starts at 9 pm on CBS.

So professional handicappers look at it this way.  I agree with some but not all of their analysis.  Notre Dame is without a doubt the worst team UConn could face and they will have to play very hard and carefully to win.

Baylor on the other hand is not a team that presents an unsolvable problem.  Brittney Griner is without a doubt a phenomenon, but you send your bench at her inside and get her in foul trouble.  Stanford is a premier program and has the depth and discipline to do this.

It’s been a bad season for the Lady Huskies, the worst in years, even so they are capable of going all the way against any team in the field.

Regional Final Results-

Tonight’s Action-

I find myself otherwise engaged tonight as does TheMomCat.  I’ve asked BobbyK to check in from time to time, please be nice to him and make your own fun.

My predictions so you can point and hoot are Louisville over Kentucky and Ohio State over Kansas.  I like Louisville because of their Big East connections, Ohio State I don’t like at all but I like Kansas less.

Joe Nocera wrote a piece that everyone is talking about-

Orwell and March Madness

By JOE NOCERA, The New York Times

Published: March 30, 2012

Athletes are “student-athletes,” a phrase coined by Walter Byers, the man who turned the N.C.A.A. into a modern powerhouse, because he feared that some states might try to classify football and basketball players as employees. College sports follows “the collegiate model,” a term coined in 2006 by one of Byers’ successors, Myles Brand. Realizing that amateurism was becoming outmoded, he needed a new concept that would allow athletic departments to continue exploiting athletes while denying that is what they were doing.

The essence of “the collegiate model” is that college athletes are students first, and that college athletics is secondary to academics. One can then ignore the fact that during this three-week tournament, the N.C.A.A. will reap around $800 million, while the players who make that possible will get nothing. They’re students, after all.

…

Calipari, complained Emmert, was “throwing away the collegiate model.” But, he’s not, because in the big-money sports of football and men’s basketball, the collegiate model is a fiction. Rather, Calipari is dispensing with the hypocrisy that everyone else goes along with, including our basketball-mad president, who allows himself to be interviewed while filling out his March Madness brackets, but can’t bring himself to utter a word on behalf of the athletes that college sports so ruthlessly exploits.

Regional Final Results-

Tonight’s Action-

So the big local story is that Geno had a blistering team takedown after the 77-59 victory over Penn State.  They didn’t play hard enough.

That’s how he rolls folks and why UConn is arguably the #1 program in the country.

Do they have enough this year?  The regular season was not outstanding and they’re not exactly laden with stars, but they do have a program and tradition and even if unsuccessful tonight are easily the best Basketball team in Connecticut.

As in they would kick the Men’s team’s ass if they let them.

To me the great threat is Notre Dame who are lean and hungry and not intimidated by Geno and the Huskies so if they go down tonight, hey… that’s how you play Survivor.  Alas I expect they will advance which will cause me anxiety in the Championship.

Did I mention a cappela?  Both games on ESPN.

Yesterday’s Results-

Tonight’s Action-