back in the game?

A positive sign for online gambling. Of course, as far as I can tell, my online gambling hasn't really been affected. I believe I withdrew money after the new policies were completely in place. And the only difference I've noticed is that I have to deposit money using a debit card instead of direct bank transfer, which is basically the same thing.

And since we're on the subject: I like UCLA/UF under 130.5, and Georgetown -1. But what I really like is that I'm going to the games today. The fiancee's uncle asked me to chaperone his child and a friend. I've seen a lot of basketball games in the Dome and I fully expect this one to be on a whole different level of excitement. Early rounds of the SEC tourney can seem like a morgue, Friday and Saturday can be good depending on what teams are left, and Sunday is a lively bunch of fans but not a full house. The only NCAA tourney game I've seen there is the LSU/Texas Elite 8 game from last year, thanks to The Rail Bird, which was a pretty intense game. I'm already giddy about just walking around outside the dome before hand. When have I ever seen Georgetown fans before?

This will also mean that I've seen a Sweet 16 game (Auburn/Ohio St and St.Johns vs Maryland in Knoxville), the previously mentioned Elite 8 game, and now a semifinal. Just the first two rounds and a final left.

Now, the funny thing about those sweet sixteen games. Heading in to the weekend, it could be argued, that Chris Porter was the most hyped player, followed by either Steve Francis or Scoonie Penn, with Artest 4th, and Michael Redd only garnering conference wide notice as a freshman. At this point I don't know how to rank them other than putting Porter last. Francis, Penn, and Artest are all on the cusp of being able to lead a team by themselves but have failed for different reasons.

Double Clicking the Mouse

So somebody got thrown out of a fraternity house at Michigan for pleasuring themselves. Um..oh yeah, IT WAS A GIRL! Here's the story.

My favorite part: "Fraternity members said they will throw out two couches in the living room because of the incident, Nye said."

Yeah cause I'm sure those couches haven't experienced as bad or worse.

(thanks to whatevs.org)

Amazing Character Study

Jane magazine apparently went to Sundance and decided that a good idea for a photo shoot was to have celebs pose for fake mugshots and let them decide "What their crime was" and had them place their "charge" on a slate and hold it. You can see all of the pictures here (thanks to best week ever blog. What's funny to me though, is this broke down exactly like any time I've ever played board games like Loaded Questions or Balderdash. You can immediately tell who is funny, who is competitive, and who takes it as an opportunity to actually reveal info about themselves.

In the Jane shoot, there are some obviously funny people, some failed comedians, and then some absolute douchebags that respond basically how you'd expect them to. I don't know how much say they had in what photos got posted or what they wrote on the board, but most of these seem pretty dead on with assumptions about these people in the past.

Douche: DJ AM: I guess he's famous for dating Nicole Ritchie or something, and I suppose a DJ. And of course Josh Hartnett is a douche.

Failed Comedian: Danny Masterson. I think I first realized he sucked on an old episode of Celebrity Poker Challenge. Here's my problem. He's trying to be edgey by using a somewhat taboo reference. He's the same guy in your fantasy league right now whose team name is Camel Toe or something like that. The biggest fault to me though...is this term is dated by a few years now. Didn't SNL do a skit about Mom Jeans around 4 years ago?

Comedian: Ryan Reynolds I think he misses on the crime with "sobbing uncontrollably" because it's the kind of joke I'd predict him to say. But he absolutely nails the photo. Makes me laugh. I also really liked Patrick Fugit, kind of the exact opposite of Danny Masterson. Even though leet's been around for a few years, it's still not mainstream. Plus he now probably has a huge fandom of online gamers (if they read their little sister's copy of Jane). Paul Rudd always makes me laugh.

Crazy: Parker Posey: from all accounts I've heard, this chick is crazy. I think she decided that a national magazine was a good time to analyze herself. At the very least, she decided, making a statement that seemed factual would play into her indy queen lost soul persona.

And holy god is Crispin Glover creepy.

Also, I can't decide if Mandy Moore is hot

Of course, to be fair, I would have debated over what to write for about 30 minutes, until they made me go ahead and do it, I'd write something hate it, take a photo with a fake smile and my eyes closed, and then obsess over it for the next 10 years like i do with my yearbook quote.

Travel?

An excerpt from Jay Bilas' column today. This was heavily discussed at my apartment on Saturday night and I heard several people mention it on sports talk radio the last couple of days:

"Take a Walk to the Rulebook: I was in San Jose for the West Regional, so I watched the Georgetown-Vanderbilt game in the East Regional from afar. When Jeff Green hit the game-winning shot for the Hoyas, I did not believe that he traveled. When I heard different commentators from the different networks say with a great degree of certainty that Green had walked and the officials had missed it, I disagreed.

What Green did was a legal move and is, in fact, taught by many coaches. Green did a simple step-through move that is used in up-and-under moves and in the use of a hook shot, and is legal. I went to the Rule Book, to Rule 4, Article 66, Section 4(a), which states that once a player establishes his pivot foot, the pivot foot may leave the floor as long as it is not brought back to the floor before the ball is released. Green established his right foot as his pivot foot, pivoted, and went up for the shot off his left foot. All of that was completely legal under the rules.

It may have looked like a traveling violation to some, but it was not. When such a move is called as a travel, most coaches argue to the officials that it was a missed call.

The only argument regarding a violation that has any merit, in my judgment, is the view that Green moved his right pivot foot well before he got into his move. However, that was only visible super close-up and in slow motion. It was nearly impossible to see in real time.

I have heard some say the officials couldn't call a walk in that situation because the players are supposed to decide the outcome of the game that late in the game. I disagree. If Green had walked and it was called, the players would have decided it. But Green did not walk. What he did was a legal move under the rules. Not everyone, including me, knows the rules as well as they perhaps should, but the officials generally do. I think they got it right in the Georgetown-Vanderbilt game. "

War Snorg

I followed a link to Whatevs.org and I'm reading through the posts. I scan down and stop at a post on the Snorg T's girl (pictured on the right). If you've surfed the internet enough over the last year or two you've probably seen her. Well it turns out that she is/was an Auburn student, is from Marietta, and went to Wheeler. You can check out the whole post or her myspace page. As for the t-shirts themselves, they would have been right up my alley in middle school or 9th grade (when I was buying the same type thing at Gadzooks). Now? I'm just looking for t-shirts that comfortable and don't draw attention. It's almost impossible for me to find a good t-shirt these days. Back in the day I could just roll into Champs Sporting Goods and fin 3 Nike shirts I wanted at any time. Now I'd feel like a tool. The only consistent source of understated t-shirts are bars. How many bar t-shirts can you own before you start looking like a degenerate?

Also, the Falcons just traded Matt Schaub for Houston's early 2nd round pick. That gives the Falcons the 10th, 39th, and 44th pick in the draft. That's a lot of value. See if anyone on offense completely drops several slots to you at 10, otherwise take Landry. Then with the two 2nd round picks you can address either defensive end, offensive line, or wide receiver.

I'll be at the Hawks game tonight in the pimp seats. It's always fun sitting that close to Shaq. At the last Heat game I went to, at the end of Kiss Cam, the put Shaq and Wade on the screen (who were both sitting out the meaningless last game of the year) and unlike any opposing player I've ever seen, he just rares back and plants a big ole kiss on Wades forehead followed by 2 minutes of laughter. Good times.

Updates

- So I finally changed the layout to something I like a little bit more. Still some kinks to work out.

- How has Short Circuit never made it into the TBS/TNT movie rotation? I haven't seen it since I was about 11. I'm curious if it's retained some nostalgic charm. I watched Howard the Duck on Comcast's On Demand a couple weeks ago and that's as solid I remember it. Plus, a young Holly Robinson Peete plays the drummer in Leah Thompson's band.

- If you haven't checked out The Winner on Fox yet with Rob Corddry of The Daily Show fame, I think you should. They've aired 6 episodes so far and I've been entertained. Basic premise is that a guy has been coddled his whole life, and at the age of 33 (in 1994) he starts to emotionally address puberty and becomes best friends with the teenage son of the woman he's loved since middle school, who happens to live next door. For those that watch it, "Cat Aids" and the songs/scenes from Streets of Philadelphia were classic. As well as Rob renting Kramer vs. Kramer to deal with his parents getting divorced.

- And if for some reason you've been sleepin on it, 30 Rock has rebounded from it's so-so start to become possibly the funniest show on NBC's Thursday night lineup. Get ready for the new shows in April. Also, the premiere of Andy Barker P.I. with Andy Richter wasn't too shabby. It's on Thursdays on NBC as well.

- I guess I should point out that I'm a sucker for sitcoms. I can sit through and enjoy just about any comedy. It's crappy dramas that lose my attention. As a point of reference, I've had Tivo season passes for Andy Richter's last two failed shows.

- I've downloaded some bad ass music recently from iTunes. The best of which is probably Ben Harper and The Blind Boys of Alabama collaborating on the gospel album There Will Be a Light. It's just fantastic. Bluesy acoustic soulful goodness. And like most black gospel music, you don't have to be religious to enjoy it. This would be a great album to listen to while drinking beer on a porch.

- Just discovered a music blog I'm digging by some local guys. It's called That Truncheon Thing, and somehow like all music blogs, they get away with posting free .mp3s. I don't know if it's legal or not, but they seem to be getting prosecuted. Anyways, here's a post with some great New Orlean's tunes that they did for Mardi Gras. I actually found the site because they did a review of the Gillian Welch show I went to. Good stuff.

Beware the Ides of March

For real dog. Today is March 15th. Keep an eye out. You never know who's going to try and sneak up on you and stab you.

Here is the listing of what time games are on

I honestly wouldn't be that surprised if I didn't get a single Final Four team right. And I took a 2 #1s, a #2, and #3.

In addition to the standard bracket challenge, my Auburn friends and I participate in a different NCAA pool. 8 guys $50/piece. Picking in order 1-8 and then snaking back, each person picks a team. So everyone ends up with 8 teams. Person with the most total wins takes home $350 and 2nd place gets $50. Winning score is usually between 10-12 wins. I got Texas A&M, Wisconsin, Washington State, Boston College, Nevada, BYU, Miami(Ohio), and Weber St. Which is risky, but I have a chance for 6 round 1 wins. If either Texas A&M or Wisconsin makes it to the Final Four I'll be in the money.

And I'll leave you with a picture to sum up my Gin Weekend

Gin Weekend Part Deux

Gin: It makes a man mean, and a woman a lesbian.

So it's the weekend before St. Pattys, so that means it's Gin Weeked. You can find the oh so classy official announcment here or my post from last year. For a quick recap of the first Old School Nasty edition of Gin Weekend...here ya go: gin, Zazel, Sapphire Gimlets, long jump competition, "it tastes like pine trees", lunch at the Lodge, "I think I'll have 6 chili cheese dogs for lunch", Nascar, Sopranos, "so I'm actually losing money by not subscribing to 3 magazines?". There you go.

Not quite sure what this year has in store for us. I'm getting ready to go apply for a passport, hit up the liquor store for supplies, and then see where the weekend takes me. Who knows. I am glad to say that we have two fine young ladies who made the trip from Nashville down to the ATL for the occasion. And also I received a text message at midnight from our scruffy friend stating "i just bought a bottle of gin" and considering he can't make rent, that's a lot of dedication.

Here are directions for making a Gin Gimlet. Though I can't really endorse using any type of gin other than Bombay Sapphire for such a drink.