November 6, 2009

Iowa, team of destiny

Apropos of nothing: I disagree with all the hating on Iowa this season.  Sure, they’ve been short on dominating, whistle-to-whistle wins.  But you know what they’re not short on?  Wins.  Over good teams.  Over top-25 ranked teams.  Over teams with winning records.  Over teams, in aggregate, better than any other undefeated teams has played.  Winning ugly is still winning.

The columnati of college football seem to enjoy giving this year’s Hawkeyes nicknames (the “comeback kids” being the favorite), but I haven’t seen a lot of historical comparisons.  You know who these Iowans remind me of?  The Ohio State Buckeyes of 2002, aka that year’s national champions.  (Sure, champs on a bullshit PI call, but whatever, champs).  The sweatervestians of ‘02 seemed to win almost every game with a lucky bounce or two, but they racked up a classically lopsided win-loss total, all of one and none of the other, and they capped their season with an oh-god-they-did-it-again win over the invincible Hurricanes of Miami, Florida.

Well you know what?  “Buc Hawkeyes of the Big-10 pull upset against University of Florida team, wire-to-wire #1, champion of the Big South Eastern Conference, in national championship game,” seems plausible to me.  Even the QBs are similar: the ___keyes with their “I’m not sure if he’s great or terrible” guy under center, Krenzel / Stanzi, and [Florida team] with their “he’s the greatest ever!! (just won’t be in the pros)” player.  Gameday thinks the road to the Rose Bowl goes through Happy Valley, but they might be right only because are were so extremely wrong: maybe Iowa isn’t a factor for the Rose Bowl because it’s going to a bigger game.

I’m not the first person to think of this.

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November 5, 2009
“ The New York State Board of Law Examiners congratulates you on passing the New York State bar examination held on July 28-29, 2009.

NYS Board of Law Examiners

:D

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November 4, 2009
Bill Walton passes the mic

nbaplayoffs2009:

A nice Walton tribute from Kelly Dwyer:

It makes sense that Bill Walton would have to retire from broadcasting, years before everyone else has to retire from broadcasting … Because early, forced, retirement due to health reasons makes all the sense in the world for Bill Walton. Why? Because it isn’t fair. Why? Because it’s sufficiently cruel. Why? Because this guy has never, ever, been able to catch a break.
And, by extension, the people he’s been able to entertain effortlessly (even though he put in great effort) for years are left out in the cold again…

rajiv: It also makes sense that Bill Walton would have to retire from broadcasting years before everyone else has to retire from broadcasting because he is truly awful at broadcasting.  Walton was 1 of 2 announcers so terrible that I would literally change the channel if he was calling a game that I otherwise wanted to watch.

You’re on your own now, Dick Vitale.

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October 10, 2009
What do Americans do in Vietnam?  Fire M16s, of course. (via my flickr)

What do Americans do in Vietnam?  Fire M16s, of course.

(via my flickr)

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October 9, 2009
“ High adventure is unsustainable in the midst of stagnant security, and reveries of running away promise a freedom transcendent in its totality, a flee from security and into serendipity.

—Tony Vigorito, Nine Kinds of Naked

Good advice to get while on the road, I think.

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October 1, 2009

If typhoon Ketsana put Siem Reap under 2-3 feet of water, how should I feel about “super typhoon” Pepang approaching right now?

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September 22, 2009
Hong Kong pics (days 1-2) are up!  These are unedited - just converted from raw to jpeg.  Lots of pics of the Big Buddha on Lantau island, but due to the haze he looks pretty overexposed in most of them.  That’s pretty close to how it looked though. View the full set here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cosmicwonderful/sets/72157622435959904/

Hong Kong pics (days 1-2) are up!  These are unedited - just converted from raw to jpeg.  Lots of pics of the Big Buddha on Lantau island, but due to the haze he looks pretty overexposed in most of them.  That’s pretty close to how it looked though.

View the full set here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cosmicwonderful/sets/72157622435959904/

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September 18, 2009

I saw Geets’ post and immediately thought, there should be a parody of “I’m On a Boat” where the line is “I’m On a Goat.”  Thank you, internets.

Im on a goat (parody of I’m on a boat) (via Blizzardnz)

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September 14, 2009

unnamedplayer:

asadcomments:

g33ts:

im sure this will cause a pile on by the boys, but one of the most amazing/ridiculous sports moves ive seen.

federer makes me swoon.

Amazing as that was, he stole that move from Andy Roddick.

Who stole it from Agassi?

rajiv: More impressive than the shot is the fact that Geets was blogging about this instead of Kanye.

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Former Bear > Da Bears

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