f2f2s

Josh Childress going to play professional basketball in Greece over playing for the Atlanta Hawks

The state of the air conditioning in the new townhome

RaSean Dickey leaving GT to go play pro basketball in Ukraine

Reggie Ball

This is a question I’ve been asking myself lately as I try to figure out what, if anything, I’m really trying to do here.  I write about pretty much anything I feel like, but the downside of that is that people come away thinking it’s too much soccer, too much about people they have never heard of, too much about books they’ll never read, blah blah blah.

There are definitely other options.  I could just start writing strictly about soccer.  Make up some rankings, post in the comments on SBI, WVHooligan, USASoccerSpot to build traffic pretty quickly, throw up a few ads and make a couple dollars (probably about $5.14 total).

I could write more about business stuff.  Give book reviews on whatever books are solving the markets this week, post cool graphs of stock prices, theorize about Microsoft taking over Yahoo and the expansion of Google into China.  Basically target a supersaturated niche audience who happens to be one of the most active on the web, and maybe have people read me.

I could even start making lists.  God knows I love compiling data and making lists out of it. And lists are so popular, everyone loves a list!  Whether it’s NBA Jam rosters for a 2008 version, the average age of national soccer teams, or the best possible album for a band, I’ll collect the data and tell you what’s right.

But man, HAVING to write about something sucks.  I just want to write about whatever I feel like.  Hopefully I’ll get a little better at the whole writing thing and entertain the dozen friends and eight strangers who read this.

Car fixed.  Total damage (including rental) $1650

Computer on its way back.  No idea if it’s actually fixed though.

My vaccination records don’t exist in my doctor’s records or any statewide vaccination database, which I find odd.  Should make getting my health forms completed for school quite interesting.

I’m 10 days behind turning in a project I didn’t realize I had to do.

There’s a new proxy at work which unblocks YouTube and gmail, but blocks f2f2s.  I’m so scandalous.

Just read Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis.  Really really good book.

Later homies.  Be back in a week or so, outside of the random short update from work.

I finally got Lenovo to take back my laptop, so they’ll have it for a while trying to figure out why I keep getting blue-screened.  Add that on to my $1500 of Audi repairs and I’m having a pretty sweet week so far, and it’s only Tuesday!

Of course, I do get to drive around in a pick up truck for the next day or two, so that makes it all better.  Oh wait, no it doesn’t.  Not at all actually.

Harmonix released the set list for Rock Band 2. I got this from the gizmodo post, but since none of my friends are nerdy enough to read that and all of them would love the information, I’ll post it here.

Here it is in full, with my top 10 in bold.

Rock Band 2 On-Disc Track List:
Artist Song Title Decade
1. AC/DC “Let There Be Rock” 1970s
2. AFI “Girl’s Gone Grey” 2000’s
3. Alanis Morissette “You Oughta Know” 1990’s
4. Alice in Chains “Man in the Box” 1990’s
5. Allman Brothers “Ramblin’ Man” 1970’s
6. Avenged Sevenfold “Almost Easy” 2000’s
7. Bad Company “Shooting Star” 1970’s
8. Beastie Boys “So Whatcha Want” 1990’s
9. Beck “E-Pro” 2000’s
10. Bikini Kill “Rebel Girl” 1990’s
11. Billy Idol “White Wedding Pt. I” 1980’s
12. Blondie “One Way or Another” 1970’s
13. Bob Dylan “Tangled Up in Blue” 1970’s
14. Bon Jovi “Livin’ on a Prayer” 1980’s
15. Cheap Trick “Hello There” 1970’s
16. Devo “Uncontrollable Urge” 1980’s
17. Dinosaur Jr. “Feel the Pain” 1990’s
18. Disturbed “Down with the Sickness” 2000’s
19. Dream Theater “Panic Attack” 2000’s
20. Duran Duran “Hungry Like the Wolf” 1980’s
21. Elvis Costello “Pump It Up” 1970’s
22. Fleetwood Mac “Go Your Own Way” 1970’s
23. Foo Fighters “Everlong” 1990’s
24. Guns N’ Roses “Shackler’s Revenge” 2000’s
25. Interpol “PDA” 2000’s
26. Jane’s Addiction “Mountain Song” 1980’s
27. Jethro Tull “Aqualung” 1970’s
28. Jimmy Eat World “The Middle” 2000’s
29. Joan Jett “Bad Reputation” 1980’s
30. Journey “Anyway You Want It” 1970’s
31. Judas Priest “Painkiller” 1990’s
32. Kansas “Carry On Wayward Son” 1970’s
33. L7 “Pretend We’re Dead” 1990’s
34. Lacuna Coil “Our Truth” 2000’s
35. Linkin Park “One Step Closer” 2000’s
36. Lit “My Own Worst Enemy” 1990’s
37. Lush “De-Luxe” 1990’s
38. Mastodon “Colony of Birchmen” 2000’s
39. Megadeth “Peace Sells” 1980’s
40. Metallica “Battery” 1980’s
41. Mighty Mighty Bosstones “Where’d You Go” 1990’s
42. Modest Mouse “Float On” 2000’s
43. Motorhead “Ace of Spades” 1980’s
44. Nirvana “Drain You” 1990’s
45. Norman Greenbaum “Spirit in the Sky” 1960’s
46. Panic at the Disco “Nine in the Afternoon” 2000’s
47. Paramore “That’s What You Get” 2000’s
48. Pearl Jam “Alive” 1990’s
49. Presidents of the USA “Lump” 1990’s
50. Rage Against the Machine “Testify” 1990’s
51. Ratt “Round & Round” 1980’s
52. Red Hot Chili Peppers “Give it Away” 1990’s
53. Rise Against “Give it All” 2000’s
54. Rush “The Trees” 1970’s
55. Silversun Pickups “Lazy Eye” 2000’s
56. Smashing Pumpkins “Today” 1990’s
57. Social Distortion “I Was Wrong” 1990’s
58. Sonic Youth “Teenage Riot” 1980’s
59. Soundgarden “Spoonman” 1990’s
60. Squeeze “Cool for Cats” 1970’s
61. Steely Dan “Bodhitsattva” 1970’s
62. Steve Miller Band “Rock’n Me” 1970’s
63. Survivor “Eye of the Tiger” 1980’s
64. System of a Down “Chop Suey” 2000’s
65. Talking Heads “Psycho Killer” 1970’s
66. Tenacious D “Master Exploder” 2000’s
67. Testament “Souls of Black” 1990’s
68. The Donnas “New Kid in School” 2000’s
69. The Go-Go’s “We Got the Beat” 1980’s
70. The Grateful Dead “Alabama Getaway” 1980’s
71. The Guess Who “American Woman” 1970’s
72. The Muffs “Kids in America” 1990’s
73. The Offspring “Come Out & Play (Keep ‘em Separated)” 1990’s
74. The Replacements “Alex Chilton” 1980’s
75. The Who “Pinball Wizard” 1960’s
Bonus Artist Bonus Song Title Decade
76. Abnormality “Visions” 2000’s
77. Anarchy Club “Get Clean” 2000’s
78. Bang Camaro “Night Lies” 2000’s
79. Breaking Wheel “Shoulder to the Plow” 2000’s
80. The Libyans “Neighborhood” 2000’s
81. The Main Drag “A Jagged Gorgeous Winter” 2000’s
82. Speck “Conventional Lover” 2000’s
83. The Sterns “Supreme Girl” 2000’s
84. That Handsome Devil “Rob the Prez-O-Dent” 2000’s

Since we live so far away from a Rock Band set now I can easily see us buying this for the townhome.

No, this isn’t a real game so calm down.  But thanks to a weekend of games on the Genesis, I started wondering what the rosters would look like for this game.

Since it’s a clearly superior game I went with the NBA Jam Tournament Edition style of using 2 starters and a sub.  If you’re a heathen who prefers the original then just look at the first two names, those are the projected starters.

Here’s the list I came up with taking in to account skill, star-power and name recognition.  Sorry players like Mehmet Okur and David West, AK47 and Tyson Chandler would sell more games.

Eastern Conference

Atlanta Hawks
Joe Johnson
Josh Smith
Al Horford

Boston Celtics
Paul Pierce
Kevin Garnett
Ray Allen

Charlotte Bobcats
Jason Richardson
Gerald Wallace
Emeka Okafor

Chicago Bulls
Ben Gordon
Luol Deng
Drew Gooden

Cleveland Cavaliers
Lebron James
Zydrunas Ilgauskas
Daniel Gibson

Detroit Pistons
Chauncey Billups
Rip Hamilton
Rasheed Wallace

Indiana Pacers
Danny Granger
Mike Dunleavy Jr.
T.J. Ford

Miami Heat
Dwyane Wade
Shawn Marion
Michael Beasley

Milwaukee Bucks
Richard Jefferson
Micheal Redd
Andrew Bogut

New Jersey Nets
Vince Carter
Devin Harris
Josh Boone

New York Knicks
Jamal Crawford
Zach Randolph
David Lee

Orlando Magic
Dwight Howard
Rashard Lewis
Jameer Nelson

Philadelphia 76ers
Andre Iguodala
Elton Brand
Andre Miller

Toronto Raptors
Chris Bosh
Jose Calderon
Jermaine O’Neal

Washington Wizards
Gilbert Arenas
Antawn Jamison
Caron Butler
Western Conference

Dallas Mavericks
Jason Kidd
Dirk Nowitzki
Josh Howard

Denver Nuggets
Allen Iverson
Carmelo Anthony
Marcus Camby

Golden State Warriors
Corey Maggette
Stephen Jackson
Monta Ellis

Houston Rockets
Tracy McGrady
Yao Ming
Rafer Alston

Los Angeles Clippers
Baron Davis
Cuttino Mobley
Chris Kaman

Los Angeles Lakers
Kobe Bryant
Pau Gasol
Lamar Odom

Memphis Grizzlies
Rudy Gay
Hakim Warrick
O.J. Mayo

Minnesota Timberwolves
Al Jefferson
Mike Miller
Rashad McCants

New Orleans Hornets
Chris Paul
Tyson Chandler
Peja Stojakovic

Oklahoma City
Kevin Durant
Chris Wilcox
Earl Watson

Phoenix Suns
Steve Nash
Amare Stoudemire
Leandro Barbosa

Portland Trailblazers
Brandon Roy
LaMarcus Aldridge
Travis Outlaw

Sacremento Kings
Kevin Martin
Ron Artest
Brad Miller

San Antonio Spurs
Tim Duncan
Tony Parker
Manu Ginobili

Utah Jazz
Deron Williams
Carlos Boozer
Andrei Kirilenko

Come on stuff, stop breaking please!

Company whose presence may be required to help me out with all of this:

I’m about go into Aaron-Haight-debt, baby.

I was linked to a very good blog detailing one part-time poker player’s experiences in this years WSOP.  If you’ve got the time and like poker, I would recommend going back and reading through the entire thing.  It has some good stories about busting Phil Hellmuth, bubbling out of tournaments, and just trying to survive a month in Vegas without going insane.

Anyway, the point of bringing this up today was that he’s made it through to day 3 of the main event and recently wrote something a little different than he normally does.

The entry is called “Why play poker, especially tournaments?”

Link to the full post.

Poker itself is highly debatable, but the case against poker tournaments is trivially easy to make. They are extraordinarily stressful (it’s like having your testicles squeezed in a slowly tightening vice for a week), exhausting, time-consuming, and only marginally profitable at best. At least 80% of the time you’ll put in a lot of hard work for absolutely no return. You spend hour after hour with a bunch of mostly sleazy characters whose idea of love is hookers, whose idea of culture is sports betting, whose only goal is to take as many of your chips as quickly and efficiently as possible. Repeated exposure ruins one’s attention span, messes with your dopamine balance, and makes conventional work pretty much unthinkable.

Sounds about right.

Someone mailed a postcard looking strikingly similar to the one above (from the Muir Woods in the Golden Gate National Parks) to a person who I have never met or heard of.  It had our address on it though, and the name matches none of our neighbors, most of whom I’ve met.

Since I can’t give it back to anyone, I’ll go ahead and give it to everyone.  I don’t know why, but reading this postcard and looking at that picture made my day.

C,

I put my hands on one of these big trees, said a prayer and left my sorrows there!  Thank you for ever loving me - and being there whenever - for whatever!  I love you!

- L

I’m imagining this story in my head of this tormented person taking a journey across the country to see the redwoods of northern California.  A vision quest, if you will.  Maybe their father or mother was from that area originally and had a similar story of overcoming life troubles.  Maybe they grew up out there and lost their way and needed to find something to get them back to what they remember as normal.  Maybe this was an attempt at restarting a previous relationship that broke down for whatever reason.

I don’t know what led to this postcard being sent, and I’m not sure I want to.  I’d rather just sit back with that picture and those words and get to make up the story myself.

Congratulations, L, on everything.

The quaterfinals for the US Open Cup happened last night, and again the MLS teams did … meh.  Kartik from American Soccer Spot has a solid post about the USL/MLS competition over at his CSRN blog.

It was an exciting night all around as 3 of the 4 games went to extra time, with 2 of those ending in penalties.  MLS teams went 2-3 on the night with DC and New England moving on to face each other in the semis while Chicago, KC and FC Dallas are planning for next year.

On the one hand this is good for MLS as these are pretty clearly the best 2 teams in American soccer at the moment, and both have a great chance at winning the thing.  I do see two big negatives in this situation though.

1) They play in the semis, not the finals.  It’s a shame that the best game is going to be for the right to play in the finals, but I guess we’ve been through that a lot lately with the AL dominance in baseball, the AFC championship games in football, the Western Conference finals in basketball.

2) The two teams who made it through already have a super-congested schedule.  DC and New England are both in the Superliga coming up this month.  They are both in the CONCACAF Champions League that begins in the fall.  And they’re both on track to make a deep run in the MLS Cup playoff.  That’s a lot of games for a squad to play, especially a squad that can only be so deep with the salary cap restrictions.  I guess it’s for the best then that the semis won’t take place until August 12th, and the finals are 2 weeks after that.

The other semi will be between two USL-1 sides, Seattle and Charleston.  Charleston is the class of USL right now, averaging almost 2 points per contest, and Seattle is a consistent power currently 4th in the league.  Interestingly enough, the two teams just played 4 days ago with Charleston pulling out a 1-0 win at home.  Quick aside here, the USL web page is set up about 350 times better than the MLS page.  It is wonderful to navigate, quick to load, full of information, and very intuitive.

If I had to pick a finals matchup I’d like to see, I’d go with DC/Seattle as I think those two fan bases would lead to the most electric atmosphere.  Also, while I have no basis for it, I feel like these two teams would be more likely to play fast and go for it all rather than hang back and hope to slug out a win.

All of the USOpenCup match reports can be seen on the main page here, so no more links on the scores.  All 8 city papers had a write up this morning, so great coverage on that guys.

DC United (MLS) 2 - 1 Chicago Fire (MLS)  extra time
Seattle Sounders (USL-1) 0(6) - 0(5) Kansas City Wizards (MLS)
New England Revolution (MLS) 1(5) - 1(3) Crystal Palace Baltimore (USL-2)
FC Dallas (MLS) 1 - 3 Charleston Battery (USL-1)

What a bane you are on the existence of respectable civilization.

So a guy puts up sign saying Obama is a monkey, had a previous sign calling Michael Jackson a certain “we can say it but you can’t” n-word, and holds Klan rallies behind his restaurant.  Nope, not a racist.

link from WSB

My dad lives in west Paulding County, so I’ve been lucky enough to stumble across this subset a time or two.  They almost manage to make Coweta County look worthwhile.

Usually summer sports are boring.  There’s baseball and….well, baseball.  If you follow MLS like I do then there’s that too, but that’s still just a few games a week.

Well, this weekend was a great distraction from the usual lull.  The finals at Wimbledon were both spectacular.  Venus beat Serena for the first time in a grand slam finals since their first meeting, and then Nadal and Federer put on the best display of tennis I’ve ever seen.  A great match that I would buy on DVD right now without hesitation.  In fact, I wish they would put more sporting events out of DVD.  I would love to rewatch the US Open from this year, or this Wimbledon final, or the ‘06 British Open where Tiger broke down after losing his dad, or even the 3 home games for the Hawks against the Celtics in the playoffs this year.  Somone get on this.

Secondly, the US trials were going on for both the Olympic track & field and swimming teams.  Jim Caple has an amazing article up on ESPN here that talks about the pressure and emotion of the trials.

And congrats to GT grad Chaunte Howard on making her first Olympic team for the high jump by winning the event.

Happy day-after-your Birthday America.  Please excuse my tardiness, but I’m not sitting around a computer when I can go grill out by a pool and watch fireworks.

After not watching any fireworks last year, the first time i can ever remember doing that, we made the last minute decision to walk down the street to the Agnes Scott area to watch the Decatur fireworks.  It was a pretty good show, even if the finale was a little weak.  Peachtree City puts on a better display and they don’t have near the money Decatur does.  It’s America guys, do it right.

And yes, we do own that flag you see flying atop this post.  Thanks for the gift Dekalb.

My new goal is to get my name in the Guiness Book of World Records.

I picked one up at Barnes and Noble earlier today to peruse through.  So far I’ve found about a half dozen records that should be beatable with minimal effort.  Unfortunately, I don’t think growing a nipple hair over 4.5 inches long is one of them.

I’ll put up a list of the 10 most likely to be broken by me and/or a group of friends in the next couple days after I get through the whole book.  And remember, look out for my name in the 2009 edition of the book.

Ah, round 3.  This is where the MLS teams come to play.  Well, 5 of them came to play at least, the other 3 were not so ceremoniously dispatched by lower level clubs.

Chivas can feel the “best” I guess, since Seattle is the class of USL, but still.  Giving up 2 goals to a USL side with Guzan in net is baaaaad.  Houston should be ashamed of themselves.  They lost to the same Charleston Battery side that took them out in last year’s 3rd round.  So now for two straight years the defending MLS Cup champ has been eliminated without a win in the competition.

In fact, the only saving grace for Houston this morning is New York.  They were beaten 2-nil by an expansion USL-2 club.  Absolutely terrible.  How can you consider yourself a professional team when you’re losing to the equivalent of a double-A team.

The rest of the matches went more to form for the MLS sides.  It took Kansas City about 70 minutes to get started (they had gotten down 2-nil), but they ended up winning 4-2 after slotting home two goals in overtime.  I watched a decent bit of this game and you really could tell that once KC turned it on they were head and shoulders above Carolina.

Once again, here are the match reports.  A link on the team leads to a local paper’s article, the link on the score takes you to the USOpenCup.com summary.

Congrats to Baltimore for finally getting some ink in the Sun.  And way to go NY and LA papers; nobody has a writeup on the home team losing.  LA did manage to post the AP story on their website at least.

FC Dallas (MLS) 2-1 Miami FC (USL-1)
Charleston (USL-1) 1(4)-1(3) Houston (MLS)
D.C. United (MLS) 2-0 Rochester (USL-1)
Carolina (USL-1) 2-4 (aet) Kansas City (MLS)
CP Baltimore (USL-2) 2-0 New York (MLS)
New England (MLS) 3-0 Richmond (USL-2)
Chicago (MLS) 4-1 Cleveland (USL-2)
Seattle (USL-1) 2-0 Chivas USA (MLS)