The Eagles gave them a run for their money last night, that much is certain, but the New England Patriots are still undefeated improving their 2007 season record to 11-0. The toughest challenge of the remaining games still seems to be Pittsburgh, though Philly showed last night that not every game against the Pats is a blowout.
Who was the player of the game last night? Was it Wes Welker (13 catches, 149 yards), Jabar Gaffney (6 catches, 87 yards, 1 TD), or maybe Asante Samuel (2 interceptions, 1 runback for a TD)?
Of all of the questions, the ones that gained the most publicity (by far) were the questions asking students what they'd settle for in return for their right to vote (forever). I'm not sure if this was multiple choice format, but many headlines read something along the lines of "Students at NYU hapy to give up their right to vote for an iPod".
This is, of course, an oversimplification, but reading the article made me think about my own right to vote. I'd always been taught that voting was perhaps the most important thing I could do as a citizen of this country (right up there with jury duty!), and for all intents and purposes this teaching stuck; I make sure I go out just about every November and cast my ballot. However, I can remember some heavy discussions about recent elections (see election, presidential, 2000), many of which brought the actual value of my singular vote into question as well.
How much is my vote really worth? For the moment, forget monetary value...that is, does my vote really matter for anything? I'd like to believe the answer is "yes", but can anyone be so sure anymore? If, then, one's vote is worth nothing, why not take a million bucks or free tuition?
The answer is simple, to me at least. I believe that the right to vote is priceless, and is one of the reasons, nay, freedoms for which people want to come live in this country. Even if my one vote doesn't sway an election, I treasure the fact that I have the ability to choose who our leaders will be and how our laws will evolve...
TLM showed me this today, which I used as a basis for my post over at TRintuition. Somehow this has been around the net for a long time and I had never seen it until today. Still pretty cool...
You're supposed to see the figure spinning one way, then try to get it to spin the other way. Using the shadow underneath the figure makes this easier, and eventually you will be able to do it, trust me.
To commemorate this year's birthday of Baseball Joe, I'm including a clip from the "Baseball History Podcast", something I think he'd enjoy. Too bad most of this week's episode revolves around the Highlanders (soon to be Yankees) and their totally disreputable star, Hal Chase.
If you want to subscribe to the podcast, you can find it in the iTunes directory, or alternatively just subscribe to http://bhp.libsyn.com/rss. Happy Birthday Pop!
I found this comic on BoingBoing, and I think it's an interesting take on today's holiday, it's history, terrorism, and let's throw in illegal immigration (why not).
I'm not sure if it's a consequence of getting older, and it certainly has nothing to do with what the holiday is supposed to represent. It's everything else about it that makes me crazy. The people in the stores, the pressure to plan out tomorrow making sure to be as inclusive of everyone as you can, and of course then there's the actual family members. As far as I can tell, any plans you make with them prior to the day before Thanksgiving should always be disregarded; they always seem to change at the last minute.
Ah, how I miss the days of my childhood, never having to worry about where or when I had to be somewhere for a family event.
I found this on Joel Spolsky's "Joel on Software" blog...and it's pretty fresh. It's a Google Maps mashup called Walk Score, which, once you supply an address, gives you a list of stores, bars, restaurants, and parks in the area. and, as it's name implies, a "walk score". They are pretty big on getting people to walk places, and identify themselves primarily as a tool to "help homebuyers, renters, and real estate agents find houses and apartments in great neighborhoods."
Our place only got a 58 out of 100 (I believe that's just failing), not surprising since we now live in a suburb. My last place in Eastie got a 75, which leads me to believe whatever algorithm they use to calculate this score doesn't take into account personal safety while walking.
Bust out the Black Sabbath clips - Mike Lowell appears to have come to an agreement with the Red Sox for 3 years. Excellent. Things couldn't have worked out better.
Happy Birthday Al! Sorry the Celtics lost, but the Pats are still undefeated, A-Stupid stayed with the Yankees, and now Mike Lowell gave us some good news today.
We decided it was time to give our facelift, and so last weekend we went out, got some paint and some tiles and went to task. Who knew vinal tiling was this easy?
TLM even found a nice replacement for the whiteboard. Note the coat hooks, er, mega key rack on the bottom.
So it looks like A-Fraud will remain a Yankee after all, and the deal was done without superstar sports agent Scott Boras (haha). Good...he can hit all the home runs he wants, but as long as he's on the Yankees, they will never win a postseason series.
"I like to keep all the people I hate together, so I don't feel conflicted." -TLM on A-Rod staying with the Yankees
I agree. Needless to say many others called up sports radio today and shared the same sentiment. My big question is, why the rush? Wouldn't it have made more sense business wise for A-Broad to hold out until January, like Johnny Damon did? At least another month of shopping himself around was, I think, expected.
Some say he came crawling back because he always wanted to stay with the Yankers (maybe)...that it was his agent who caused all the friction (highly likely). Others will point out that not that many other teams would have been able to afford his hefty price tag (probably true). Still others will claim that he just wants to be on a winning team, a claim to which I respond "...so why is going back to play for the Yankees?".
I think something else is going on here. The Mitchell report is coming out within the next couple of months, and we already know that there are going to be some "big names" on the list, including over 10 current free agents. We also know that those free agents know who they are. Could it be that the big rush to sign a guaranteed contract with a team was, dare I say it, an act of desperation by a man who knows his value is about to go down? Is there a clause somewhere that will let the Yankees opt out of his contract if that's the case? Are purple lips a side-effect of using too many steroids?
Let him play on the Bronx so he can hold them back...while he is still allowed to play.
How cool is that title? "Aquatron" - is it some kind of underwater computer? Might it be an 80's game where you race fish? Perhaps it's a color most men have never heard of.
In fact, the Aquatron was a "Space Age" 8-track stereo put out by Brother in the late 60's / early 70s. I ran into one today when I went over to see Jaz's new place (finally, seeing as how he's been there a year).
The place was nice, and definitely lived up to the description he gave me, including lots of homemade art on the walls, a dance room, and an impressive ready-to-record music room. There was even an office (work is done between painting, dancing and playing music), complete with at least three Macs in sight - laptops and desktops - and it was in this room I saw the Aquatron sitting innocuously on the corner of a table.
It didn't really stand out at first, as there were lots of other interesting objects to look at in the room, but shortly after Jaz pointed out its suction-cup base and hide-away handle, he casually mentioned what I think is its coolest feature (and the reason I'm even posting about it): they have the Aquatron hooked up to play music through Airtunes.
That's right; one can port any music they want to hear directly to this stereo, (thus completely removing the need for 8-track tapes!). In a house where, and I quote, they "don't have cable, man", I find this to be the best use of Airtunes I've seen yet. Nice.
One of the classics is still the best, and is even available as a widget, though I decided to make it a post rather than a permanent part of the site in the name of productivity. Don't waste too much time, you have work to do!
I thought a little levity was in order today. TLM showed me a site a few days ago called icanhascheezburger.com, and I agree with how she described it to me: you may think it's stupid at first, but then you keep looking and you eventually find something hilarious. This is my recent favorite:
Content found on The Neoteric is of no particular genre, topic, or focus, other than it was all at some point, in some way, interesting enough to me to write about.
