Fantasy Football: Playoffs: Week 2
01/14/2006 21:37
Since 2001, I've been part of a fantasy football league called the Kiss Of Death League (KODL). I was enlisted kicking and screaming by a former boss, but it's turned out to be pretty fun. I've made the playoffs in 3 of the 5 years, finishing 1st overall in 2001 and 2nd in 2004. Now, as the 2005 season is nearing an end and we are two weeks into the playoffs, each game means something - even if I don't care about the actual teams playing. The league is set up that 4 of the 12 owners make the playoffs, and refill their rosters from scratch with players in the post-season. Drafting from the 4th position, I made do with those available, and am doing okay - not outstanding.Today, I saw Matt Hasselback lead the Seahawks against the Redskins, winning 20 to 10. That was good. I've got Hasselback, and Seattle Defense to boot. The fact my opponents each had Redskins players means they won't get points from next week through the Super Bowl. That was followed by the evening match of the Broncos against the two-time defending champion New England Patriots. Once again, I didn't pick anybody from New England, but everybody else did. I wanted the Broncos to win, and they did. Good stuff.
Yet another great way to waste time and not be forced to leave the house. Tomorrow Indianapolis plays Pittsburgh, and Carolina faces Chicago. I want Carolina over Chicago (I've got Steve Smith), and the other game's a toss-up, at least as far as fantasy football is concerned. I have players on both teams. In theory, as I'm more weighted toward Pittsburgh than my opponents, that wouldn't be a bad thing if they were to pull it off, but I'll be half-heartedly rooting for Indy here.
|
Top Ten Bands or DJs
01/14/2006 11:43
This list is sure to see changes over time, depending on new songs or albums, but you can't go wrong with the following artists, who represent a good share of what I listen to. For real time statistics on what music I take in, try Music Mobs or Last.FM, both great services.1. DJ Tiesto
2. DJ Armin van Buuren
3. Underworld
4. ATB
5. DJ Irish
6. Depeche Mode
7. Blank & Jones
8. 4 Strings
9. Paul Van Dyk
10. Stereolab
Impatient Pooch
01/14/2006 10:43
It's Saturday. I was looking forward to getting some good rest and seeing the alarm clock stay off as I dozed through double digits after a tiring week at the office. It didn't happen - not because the alarm went off, or because the phone rang, or anything normal. It was of course, the dog. Molly, our 16 year old beagle, has a certain lifestyle she's used to. So when it gets past 6:30, she's sure it's time for breakfast, and surely, if I'm asleep, she'll wake me up and remind me that I messed up somehow.So this morning, her incessant whining and poking with her paw jarred me awake. I fed her, and there wasn't any way that I could go back to bed. Not that it bothered her any. She had no problem using the stepstool next to the bed, and launching herself into my spot, which was warm enough for her to begin her after-breakfast nap. She has a routine, you know.
2 Weeks to FanFest
01/13/2006 21:20
It's only two weeks (and a day) until Oakland A's FanFest, where in the darkest months of Winter, the most dedicated fans have a chance to mix and mingle with their favorite players wearing the green and gold. I've never gone, but I've held a spot for the A's in my personal psyche for the better part of two decades now, and we're fully committed.At the end of last season, as the A's came tantalizingly close to reaching the playoffs again, I put down cash to get playoff tickets all the way through the World Series. They didn't make it. So I took that money and placed it toward season tickets, and now my wife and I have a pair of field level tickets to every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday game. Should be a blast as the A's are going to be a lot of fun to watch in 2006.
As a perk to being a brand-new season ticket holder, today we received four tickets to FanFest, and free parking to boot. I can't wait. It's time to Play Ball!
Candorville
01/13/2006 20:36
When I was young, I don't remember sitting around and reading a lot of comic books. Sure, I read the comics each day in the paper, and enjoyed Calvin and Hobbes or Far Side collections that belonged to my brother or my dad, but I simply didn't have stacks of the latest from Marvel and DC Comics - just wasn't interested.Now older, I enjoy comics that spark intellectual creativity or thought. Doonesbury is good most days. FoxTrot is outstanding. But my two favorite comics are Tom Tomorrow's This Modern World and Darrin Bell's Candorville. Both are a little outside of the mainstream, but connect with me in some way. For Christmas, I got myself Tom's "Great Big World of Tomorrow", and enjoyed that a great deal. Yesterday, I received Candorville's "Thank God for Culture Clash", and read it all in one sitting. The stuff's great!
A special wrinkle in this note is that I've known Darrin since 1997, when we met in college at UC Berkeley. He contributed weekly comics and editorial cartoons to the school paper, where I worked, and every once in a while, we'd both be stuck in the same, boring Mass Communications course, where I would struggle to stay awake, and he'd be doodling caricatures of the professor in the margins - which was way more fun to watch. Darrin and I went our separate ways after school, but he's really done well for himself, and it's great to watch his progress. If you're not familiar with Candorville, and his other works, including Rudy Park, it's time for a new New Year's Resolution.
Top Ten Sites I Visit Each Day
01/10/2006 22:30
(This list excludes things like our corporate Intranet, My Yahoo!, Google, etc.)1. Athletics Nation
2. Slashdot
3. Engadget
4. TV Tattle
5. MacRumors.com
6. Drunken Data
7. Daily Kos
8. This Modern World
9. Drudge Report
10. News.com
I Have to Take More Vacation Time
01/10/2006 22:23
At the end of 2005, I opened up my "Absence and Vacation Form" at the office, with plans to take the week after Christmas off. To my chagrin, the dates were nearly identical, and all I had to do was change 2004 to 2005. I somehow managed not to take any time off through the entire year, and now I'm more than maxed out. We have a cap of 40 days, and I was all the way up to 53, before taking 2 days and 2 floating holidays.It doesn't make sense to keep putting work ahead of everything else, so we're going to change that in 2006 - starting with going to Spring Training and seeing the A's in Arizona this March. And we'll find more excuses to take time off. I even thought about asking to work 4-day weeks all year, and ditching all Fridays. I've got enough days saved up, I could actually do that. We'll see.
Out of AAPL too
01/10/2006 18:40
E-Trade is telling me I have a lot more cash now than how I started the day. Following up on my note this morning on exiting Salesforce.com (CRM), I saw the mid-day spike in Apple (AAPL) take the shares up to record heights, above the $80 level. While I'm unlikely to be out of AAPL for long, as it's a habit that's hard to break, it made sense to take profits above $81, and we did. So we're out. We'll see over time if that was a smart move or not, but I can't argue with making money.MacWorld Keynote
01/10/2006 18:35
I haven't yet seen the MacWorld Webcast, but as with every year, there were some surprises, and some rumors went wholly unfulfilled. iWeb - a new software tool to manage Web pages and blogs, was introduced as part of iLife 2006, which was no surprise, and Intel made its way into Macs for the first time - again not a surprise. But while those came through, there were expectations for new iPod shuffles (didn't happen) and the introduction of an Apple line of plasma TVs. That too was nowhere to be seen.While the new "MacBook Pro" (who names these things?) is interesting, one must note it is the first iteration, and things will only get faster from here. I've had just about enough of being User 1.0.
Now on to fulfill my geekly duty and watch the webcast.
Taking Profits
01/10/2006 07:14
On Saturday, a relative and I got into a discussion around the stock market. I told him that I'd had some good success in 2005 (as many did) by following the fundamentals - buying low and selling high. I only invest in those companies who I believe aren't fully valued, or have unique services. In 2005, I got lucky with Apple, Google, Baidu, Rackable, Transmeta and other tech stocks. That happens to be a market I know. But I also know when to get out.Saturday, he kept telling me that profits only mattered after you sold a stock, not in a one-day bump. Of course they do! But I already knew that. Just this morning, after holding Salesforce.com (CRM) for only a week, I sold it for a 10-15% profit. Now I have cash in the account again and can decide where to go next. That's how the market works. Just don't tell me my cash doesn't do any good if it's not invested.
Apple Adds SNL Skits to iTunes
01/09/2006 23:59
Ahead of the MacWorld Expo keynote set for later this morning, Apple posted Saturday Night Live content on iTunes for $1.99 per download, and collections for $9.99 - similar to their pricing of music albums.
The first sketch, issued freely a few weeks ago, "Lazy Sunday", was outstanding.
Saturday Night Live on iTunes
Top Ten TV Shows
01/09/2006 23:25
One thing I definitely intend to feature on this site are Top Ten lists. Ten's a good number, and since this site is self-focused, it's my job to let you know where I stand on the important issues. Today's list? Televison shows. What are the best today?1. West Wing
2. The Daily Show
3. 24
4. Law And Order, Criminal Intent
5. CSI
6. Law And Order, SVU
7. War At Home (Yes I admit it - the show is very funny!)
8. Late Night With Conan O'Brien
9. The Colbert Report
10. Law And Order
2006: The ANtics Take On the Off-Season
01/09/2006 23:07
It was only a few months ago that the A's promising 2005 season came to a close in remarkably familiar fashion - but AN is very excited about the 2006 season, and the last few months have seen a great number of changes - with the additions of Esteban Loaiza and Milton Bradley, and the hard, but understandable, losses of Hatteberg and others.We checked in with a few of the A's to see if they believe the change has been for change's sake or for the better - and when is it enough? Read on in the ANtics - 2006 style!
Click to See Larger Comic
ANtics Archive: 2005 Season ANtics
Follow The Money
01/09/2006 23:02
They say it's never too early to invest in your future, and that with every year you put off saving money, or deferring income into your 401k, you lose precious opportunities down the road. With that in mind, I've been putting what I can afford into the 401k offered by work, and trying to be smart through diversification, I split up the allotments to a few funds which Fidelity, our provider, claimed to be the most consistent.But mutual funds are made up of a collection of individual stocks. The highest growth funds are dominated by technology and healthcare stocks (Google, Apple and the like) - which I'm fine with. But this weekend, I looked at the breakdown of the "Fidelity Equity-Income II Fund", which is a middle of the road performer... doesn't go up a lot, doesn't go down a lot, and increases bit by bit over the year.
Guess what were some of the stocks in the fund's Top Ten holdings?
* Exxon Mobil
* Walmart
* Halliburton
* Microsoft
* News Corp (Owner of Fox News, enough said)
The top ten stocks make up 23% of the portfolio, and these are five of the top ten, but yikes! What is this? The crooks and liars fund? I'm out! So I went into the online records and moved all the money in that fund to a different one. I'll have no part in making those companies feel financially secure.
I guess it's one small step toward feeling socially responsible. But don't expect my change to "rock the markets" per se. I don't own a controlling share of any of these companies.
Macworld Expo Eve 2006
01/09/2006 22:39
Every year, just before MacWorld Expo, I swear I'm going to finally go again, and I haven't made it back. In 2001, a friend and I made it to San Francisco and saw Steve Jobs introduce iTunes (formerly SoundJam) and the Titanium PowerBook.But I haven't made excuses. Work seems to get in the way every year.
This year I'll be back at the office, and assuredly, watching the streaming Web archive the next night on QuickTime, reliving the ecstasy, and trying to convince myself that I really don't need any of those products that look oh-so tempting.
The rumors aren't as thick this year as others. Intel iBooks and Mac Minis. PVR software to replace Tivo. Apple Plasma TVs. But only from a few sources, and some aren't even trying. Check back tomorrow and see what's happened.