2009

No long list of "Best Ofs"

No funny film clips today.

2009 was a weird, wonderful, awful, blur in a lot of ways.

It say Avi go from phone calls to "Head Start" to find out if her language was delayed, to her running through May's house Christmas Eve singing "Jingle Bells"...the whole song...at the top of her voice. She has begun spontaneously saying and doing things that I did not expect she would be doing at this point.

Part of me wishes I could bottle up 2009's version of Avi and keep it for ever. The other part of me cannot wait to see what 2010 hold for her.

2009 started with me single, weird, still married and confused. 2009 started with me really focusing on school and getting my first 4.0 of my academic career.

2009 ends with me sharing my house, my daughter and my life with a woman who I am going to spend the rest of my life with.

It has been a weird year.

2009 started with the innauguration of Barack Obama. 2009 ends with major questions about the direction of this country.

2009 has been a weird year.

I guess this is also the end of the decade, and it has been weird too. In 2000 I was still in High School.

In 2009 I am finishing up my Masters degree, I own my home, I have a 2 and 1/2 year old daughter, I am divorced.

It has been a weird decade.

I lead a wonderful life, one I would not change for anything. The bad times (and they were REAL BAD) are made infinately worth it by the good.

I am excited and a little scared for all that 2010 holds.

Rachel Takes on the Right

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Worth the 9 minutes. Happy New Year

Never Again...

Will I ever doubt Pixar.

I thought when I saw the trailers for Up I thought it looked kind of stupid. I don't really like old people, or fat little kids. So seeing a film that focused on an old guy, and a fat little kid was not something I was terribly keen to do.

Then people started seeing it, and loving it, and I said, I get to it when I get to it.

Well, Christmas night, The Girl and I decided to watch it after opening our (awesome) gifts to each other.

And this is me saying, I will never again doubt the awesome power of Pixar when it comes to telling a story.

They knocked it out of the park again. Up is awesome.

Bucs Win/Bucs Lose

So the Bucs win, finally. And the Bucs lose. This season is no longer about wins and loses. There is no such thing as a moral victory in a 2-14 season.

What would be a moral victory? Packing it in and playing for as high of a draft pick as possible...

So we can draft Suh.

I am glad Josh Freeman kept the Picks in the single digits this week? Sure. Do I need him to play so good that we win, by three scores? Nope and Nope.

Mark Wahlberg Talks to Christmas Animals

Hilarious

Milton Bradley/Carlos Sliva

This made me laugh out loud:

Jonah Keri again: "Jack Z is Seattle's most fruitful commodity since Shawn Kemp."

Which is made in reference to This...

Jack Zduriencik is absolutely wiping the floor with the opposition. Omar, are you talking notes?

Twitter?

So although I think that it is borderline pointless, I am officially on The Twitter now...@In_Terrys_Head

I am unsure how I feel about this still. But my sweet new phone (see below) makes it so easy to use that I thought I would give it a shot. I can easily follow of few of the baseball writers I like, a few blogs, and news outlets.

We will see how this goes. I was very Anti-Facebook for the longest time, and look where coming around on it got me (Hi Danielle).

This is an experiment, and like anything could blow up in my face. We will have to see.

I. Cannot. Wait

I thought the first one was brilliant. RDII has to be considered one of the best actors going.

Terrence Howard may regret the fact that he was a dick and didn't sign on for part two.

iPhone Syndrome?

If you know me at all, you know how I feel about the iPhone, and more importantly how I feel about iPhone users. It is a wonderful device that has completely revolutionized what we use our phones for and how we live our lives.

I don't think we have even begun to scratch the surface of what a "phone" will be able to do for us in the future.

Actually, as someone who lives in a pretty constant state of panic about the inevitable robot revolution, this thought is causing a fairly severe anxiety attack as I type this...but I digress.

I write this because I stumbled upon this... which references this and I found it interesting, and probably true to a degree.

Seeing as I live with someone who suffers greatly from iPhone Syndrome, I have first hand experience dealing with this.

The fact is, iPhone users tend to be snobby and irrational when presented with reasons why their phone does not represent the absolute pinnacle of what a phone can and will be.

I often wonder, what they hell is someone supposed to do with 100,000 apps? How much time would someone have to spend on their phone in a day to be able to appreciate all the apps they have available. They may "Have an app for that", but when are iPhone-ers supposed to use them?

The most common refrain among iPhone users is that it is not their phone, but the network that is the problem. It turns out that may not be the case.

I hate iPhone users (except the one that I live with)but I love what the iPhone has done to the market place for phones.

I quit on my Blackberry Curve last week, which was a slightly traumatic experience, and purchased an HTC Droid Eris. I preferred this phone over the much hyped Motorola Droid for a number of reasons.

I could not be happier with this phone. It is basically a slimmer, sleaker iPhone available on the superior Verizon network.

The only thing my phone doesn't do that iPhone does is support iTunes, and with Pandora, and access to my music library at the touch of my finger, I think I will get over it.

If there is one good thing I can say about the iPhone, it is that they have set the bar high, and the competition is rising to the challenge.

Peter Says Goodbye

Peter Gammons officially said goodbye to ESPN.

I see this only as a positive. With the introduction of the MLB Network last year, the only reason I watch ESPN now is for the actual games.

I have no use for a network that is so hungry for ratings and total market domination that they have forgone sports journalism for TMZ.com and Entertainment Tonight.

I don't care about breaking developments in the Tiger Woods Saga. I want highlights, and injury news, and information related to what happens on the field.

I am not dumb enough to not know that this crap gets ratings, otherwise they wouldn't do it.

But I don't have to watch it.

So good for you Peter.

I was in Fenway days after his life threatening anurism. The place went crazy when they announced he was going to be ok.

Peter has been the reason I have watched Baseball Tonight for going on 10 years. I am excited to see what he choses to do in his life after ESPN.

Drew's New Life

Drew's new life.

Hilarious

(H/T to Drew)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

It is not Harry Potter.

Nothing ever will be.

But it is good. It is written from a first person perspective, and he is funny. The books are full of references to ancient mythologies that I either forgot, or never learned, which is awesome. They are fun to read and I am really looking forward to the first film. It looks edgy and funny.

The Princess and the Frog

Disney's "Princess and the Frog" marks a return to traditional animation and I couldn't be more excited.

Disney, in an incredibly short-sited move, killed thier hand-drawn animation department. They saw what Pixar and Dreamworks were doing and realized they were failing, epically.

The problem wasn't that people didn't want to watch hand drawn films, they didn't want to watch crappy hand drawn films.

Pixar is awesome because they make awesome films. The stories are rich and original. Yes they are visually breathtaking, but so are tons of 3D films that have come out (see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs), but that doesn't make up for a lack of a story.

Thankfully, someone at Disney realized that they were making a mistake, and now they give us this:



Thankfully, Avi will grow up talking about Tiana.

My Heisman Choice

The Major League baseball writers got it right this year.

They ignored arcane ways of chosing the major awards winners, chosing instead to look at actual stats to decide who was most deserving. In years past, we would have had the leader in wins in both leagues honored with the Cy Young, because in the past, if you won games, you were the best pitcher, because sports are about winning.

This year the writers decided maybe that isn't the best way to decide who is the best. Considering even in the National League, where pitchers hit, they have almost zero impact on the number of runs their team scores, and if their team doesn't score, they cannot win.

Wins are a borderline meaningless stat in judging the effectivness of a pitcher, a fact that it would appear the writers realized this year.

The problem is, as the BCS has shown, College Football is way behind the times.

There have been drastic changes that have taken place in recent years in College Football, and no factor has had a larger impact that the widespread broadcasting of games on Cable.

If you are determined, you can find virtually every game on TV on any given Saturday. This has been a major cause for recent success of smaller programs in Florida, Texas and Califorina to name a few. Why would a kid choose to go to College in Indiana, or Iowa, when they can play for South Floria and play in SOUTH FLORIDA, getting the same amount of major coverage, and having an equal opportunity to play at the next level (The Dallas Cowboys best defensive player went to Troy).

Because of this, we have greater access to players who are having HEISMAN type seasons that may have flown under the radar in the past.

This year, the two best players in the country were Stanford's Toby Gerhart and Nebraska's Ndamukong Suh.

But neither of them plays for Florida, or Texas, or Alabama, so neither of them will walk out of NYC with the hardware tomorrow night. Even if they deserve it more.

The Heisman voters need to do what the Baseball Writers have, and catch up with the times. Award the most deserving player, not the guy who plays for the best team.

VOTE FOR SUH



This is my guy.

Please Tampa Bay, Draft this dude.

And the Band Plays On

And this... in a nutshell describes everything that I think is wrong with the New York Mets.

Matt Cerrone is always talking about how the Mets lack a clear focus, which they do.

They have a serious failure of communications both within the organization and with getting thier message out to the fans.

There are times where I seriously wonder if they think at all before making moves.

My judgement of Omar Minaya would be considerd on the negative end of the "How Much Do You Love Omar Minaya" scale.

I think that he is a bumbling idiot. I really do. I do not think that Omar is an idiot because he botches the English language. I think he botches the English Language because he is an idiot, and would botch any language. I have never heard translations of him speaking Spanish, but my guess would be that he sounds like an idiot in any language, because he is an idiot.

My record on how I feel about Omar has been document pretty throughly, here, here, and here...I hate the guy.

I think that he has had opportunites fall into his lap more often than he has made smart moves.

The fact is, had the Yankees and Red Sox not dropped out (partly for fear of Santana's arm falling off, which it did) there is no way Omar gets him.

He has done one thing well, and that has been spending Jeff and Fred's money. He goes out and gets big free agents. Which I think he will do again this winter.

I believe we will end up with Matt Holliday or Jason Bay as well as John Lackey and possibly Jason Marquis, all of which I would be ok with.

What he wont do is use his finacial clout the way Brian Cashman does to spin two prospects into an All-Star Center Fielder or the way Theo Epstein uses his superior ability to manipulate other teams into taking his garbage.

Omar does none of this, because he doesn't know how to.

When the book is finally closed on the Omar Minaya era in Mets history, it will be a story of missed opportunity and failure.

The sad thing for me is that we are going to have had a tiny window in which to enjoy David Wright, Jose Reyes, Johan Santana, Carlos Beltran and Francisco Rodriguez all in their prime. We are going to waste that opportunity because although Omar had the brain to put these players on the same roster, he has failed miserably to manage the other 20 players on the roster.

I have done a good job of managing my expectations this winter.

I still think (see how I didn't say believe, I said "think") that he will land a few of the biggest names out there this winter.

I think that in the past he has done a good job filling major holes with big-time free agents (see Beltran, Pedro, K-Rod, Santana, Delgado, etc. etc..) and our two biggest needs right now are Left Field and Starting Pitcher.

It would not shock me to see Matt Holliday and John Lackey as Mets next year. If Jason Bay goes back to Boston, it really only makes sense. I just don't see teams having that kind of money to spend, whereas Omar is looking at around 20-30 million in payroll flexibility.

If they went cheeper, signed a few of Jason Marquis, Doug Davis, John Garland as SP and Mike Cameron or someone like that for LF, I could also live with that and see it happening.

Either way, I have ZERO faith in this guy.

Really Quickly

I just listened to the Director of the BCS on the Scott Van Pelt show on ESPN Radio

Both Scott and his co-host Ryen are all for a playoff, and they pulled no punches with their questions for the BCS douche.

I was happy to see that all of his reasons for why the BCS is the greatest thing ever were exactly what I cited Here...

He had the "It will ruin the most exciting regular season in sports" excuse

He had the "We talk to the commishoners of the conferences and this is what they want" excuse"

He had the "No system is perfect but this what we have" excuse

I have two points in response...

a.) How effing exciting was it knowing for the last 3 months that if Texas won out they played the winner of Alabama/Floria in the National Championship game.

b.) Why don't you ask Boise State, or Cincinnati, or TCU how exciting their regular seasons were, because they could have sent out the god dammned JV team the last 6 weeks for all the difference it made in their ability to control their own destiny and play meaningful games in November and January.

This system is a joke, and the morons who cling to it, continuing to parrot the same b.s. excuses for why this is what we have and there is nothing we can do about it can blow me.

How do I explain to my child in 30 years when someone finally wises up and allows teams to Play Out who is the best in the country "well Avi, you see, back in 2009, we thought it would be better to maintain an arcane, nonsensicle bowl system because of the nostalgia of it, than to do what made sense (AND MONEY) for everyone"

I'm in a foul mood.

People Scare me

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"Dude, it's YOUR BOOK"

More...

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Scary, scary stuff.

Take a group of people who are already feeling conflicted about the disconect between their sexuality and their religion. Then use their confusion and insecurity to make a profit all while promising a "Cure".

Like I said, scary stuff.

Peter Gammons

Welcome to the light Peter...

For a long time, Peter has been the only reason to watch baseball coverage on ESPN.

If he comes to the MLB Network, they will continue their way towards being THE place for Baseball coverage.

The Winter Meetings

So yesterday kicked off Major League Baseball's annual Winter Meetings. Which basically consists of a bunch of old guys haning out in a hotel (this year in Indy) talking potential trades and free agent signings. I emphasize potential becuse for all the HTML that is going to be spilled over the next few days, a lot less is going to be accomplished.

I am cautiously optimistic about the Mets' offseason plan. I think that Omar Minaya has an opportunity to rectify a lot of the mistakes he has made in the past. And given the current financial climate, a team in NY has a decided advantage over teams who do no currently have that type of financial flexibilty.

So far, I have like a lot of what I have heard.

The Mets need a Starting Pitcher, a Catcher (that won't block Josh Thole for the next 3 years), a first baseman (who won't block Ike Davis for the next three years, a second baseman (if Omar can unload is second worse signing, Luis Castillo) an everyday Left Fielder (and unless this person is Matt Holliday, I want someone who won't block Fernando Martinez for the next 4 years).

And we could use help in the bull-pen.

I realize that this is a ton to ask, and most of these areas will not be addressed until January of February if at all.

The fact remains, if the Mets can get their core players healthy, they will have a solid lineup, regardless of what Omar does with position players.

Reyes
Castillo
Wright
Beltran
X
Francouer
Murphy
X
X

is a solid foundation. A big bat for either First Base or Left Field would be clutch.

There is a real possibility of the Mets entering 2011 with a completely home-grown infield (Wright, Reyes, Reese Havens, Ike Davis, Josh Thole) which would be clutch.

The Mets finally have some up and coming players in the upper levels of the Minor Leagues

The rotation is a completely different animal altogether.

Right now it stands at

Santana
Pelfrey
Maine
Perez
X

This simply is not good enough. We could use a legitimate #2 and #3 starter.

If Omar could bring in Randy Wolf, along with one of Jason Marquis, Doug Davis, or John Garland, this would be a start.

I would be all for a trade that sent Luis Castillo to KC (sorry Drew) and brought Gil Meche to NYC.

A rotation of:

Santana
Wolf
Meche
Pelfrey
Perez

would be something I could live with.

The Pen is going to be an issue. Beyond K-Rod and Perpetual Pedro Feliciano, I have no idea what we have down there.

Needless to say, Omar Minaya has his hands full, and I have almost no faith that he has the capacity to get this done. I will say that I am pleased to see and hear almost nothing from him in recent weeks. Lock yourself in your office Omar and fix this mess.

Let Go Mets

If you are as interested in following this as I am...

MLB Trade Rumors
Matthew Cerrone's Mets Blog
Circling the Bases

I can't imagine someone caring as much as I do

Heisman Candidates Announced

Last night the Heisman trophy candidates were announced. There are some familiar names, as the ESPN headline reminds us.

It would be safe to assume that I think that Timmy is the least deserving candidate for this year's trophy.

I love Colt McCoy and Mark Ingram, but I do not think either of them are the best player in the country...

My vote (as if anyone would care) would go to either Toby Gerhart:



or Ndamukong Suh:



who I also hope is the first pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers next April.

Of course I will be watching Saturday. Any chance to see Gods Chosen Quarterback© cry is a win for me.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

So I tried this once already, and it did not work. I cannot find the Video on Youtube, even if Carly claims she found it no problem.

If you want to see a first look at Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part one of which comes out at Thanksgiving of next year, you can see it here...

Needless to say, I am unbelievably excited about this. Count me among those who have thoroughly enjoyed films 5 and 6. I think they are finally starting to understand which parts of the books to trim away and which are absolutely critical to be left in the films (I am speaking directly at you, guy who cut out any explaination in film 3 of the relationship between the map and James Potter, or why Harry's Patronus was a Stag, or who the effing Marauders were) except for that stupid scene in Half-Blood Prince with the attack on the Burrow, which made no sense and was simply a waste of time and money.

Let the countdown begin. I guess I'll have to read book 7...again.

BCS, B.S

One nice thing about the continued existence of the BCS is that there is a ton of new images that I can use for my yearly "The BCS Sucks" post.

This time a year ago I wrote This which stated in no uncertain terms my hatred of the system that we have.

This year is no different. In a way, this year is worse.

Defenders of the BCS will state that it has accomplished its ultimate goal of pitting #1 vs #2 in a battle that will end all battles. In this sense, yes they succeeded.

But in their success, we see the failure of this system, the short comings that define why we need a playoff.

Are #1 and #2 playing each other, yes. But are the two best teams in the country playing each other, I do not know.

The BCS claims that if we had a playoff, the "most exciting regular season in sports" would be ruined (Roo-eeend of course). I say bullshit. I say this year's regular season was boring, we knew 5 weeks ago that if Texas won out they would be playing either Alabama or Florida in the National Championship Game. There has been zero drama (until Saturday when both Pitt and Nebraska threatened to throw the whole thing into chaos).

Really, the regular season means nothing, because if you are not one of the anointed teams, one of the chosen few who if you win, you go, you are going to be left on the outside looking in.

TCU, Boise State and Cincinnati might as well have not played a game this year, because winning all of them meant nothing. It meant NOTHING. And what if Texas looks like it did Saturday (which was terrible) but squeaks out a win over Alabama. And TCU crushes their opponent in their game. What then? Is Texas the National Champion because a computer says so, or does TCU, or Boise State, or Cincinnati deserve a share?

The system is a joke and it does not work. I am thrilled that Penn State did not go 11-0 this year, because you can bet your ass if they had, I would be screaming my effing head off for the next month about how we got screwed, because there is no way they would be playing Alabama instead of Texas.

We need an 8 team playoff. It simply has to happen. Thank good I am not the only one who thinks so

I enjoyed this season. I am disappointed that PSU (I am looking at you Daryll Clark) crumbled under the national spotlight.

I am looking forward to New Years Day, Penn State plays LSU (yes Kate, LSU) in the Capital One Bowl (so at least I know where all my money goes with those insane interest rates). I am also excited for the Rose Bowl, which is traditionally my favorite bowl (my second favorite Civil Engineer...sorry, random movie quote) and watching Oregon complete their comeback from their opening Thursday night embarrassment at the hands of Boise, you remember this one for this:





I will be looking for Oregon to embarrass Ohio State in yet another BCS meltdown for the sweater vest.

Because everyone knows, if there is one thing I hate...It's Ohio State.

I am happy for Oregon, and I really hope that LaGarett Blount has turned his life around.

And yes, I realize the irony of my loving Penn State in part because they have remained true to their very boring, very traditional uniforms. While at the same time, loving Oregon, whose uniform changes are borderline schizophrenic.

The next few weeks will be interesting. No doubt about it.

Colt McCoy wins the Heisman, even though Mark Ingram and Toby Gerhart are more deserving.

Interesting Read

Interesting article Here, which presents some interesting points about ESPN and its dominace of the Sports News Market.

If you know me, you know how I feel about ESPN. My complaints are not new or original, but they are valid.

Because there is no competition, they set the agenda for what is and is not a story in sports. They have had entirely too much influence for way too long.

I will get behind any legitimate challenger to their Empire any day.

I watch ESPN for the games only at this point.

Something, Something, Something Dark Side

Too bad they used "Blue Harvest", which was the working title for "Empire" for part one. I think this is so funny because of how good of a job they do with these visually.

(h/t to Jeremy)

Thank You Portia

It's not about words. It is not about your religion. It is about basic Civil Rights.

adding... can someone tell me how to fix my blog? I don't know how the left hand sidebar got bumped to the bottom of the page, but I don't know how to fix it.

603- What My Grades Mean to Me

At first, upon reading this assignment, I thought this was going to be a fairly easy assignment. I was very wrong. The more I have thought about it the more I realized that my grades mean many different things to me.

My grades mean that I am accurately evaluating the level of understanding that my students are demonstrating, while at the same time giving my student's the greatest opportunity possible to display their true academic ability.

It will not be my goal to trick my students, or play "gotcha" with their grades.

My grades mean that my students are synthesizing the information that I am delivering to them, and are able to internalize it and display to me that they have understood what has been taught.

My goal is for my grades to be an accurate and reliable representation of what my student's have learned and what they understand.

My grades should reflect what I have been successful in teaching as well as those areas where there continues to be confusion within the student body.

I can be counted among those who are uncomfortable with assigning grades to my students, this is an area where I have room to continue to grow and learn.

My grades mean that I am doing a good job imparting knowledge and understanding to my students and that knowledge and understanding is reflected in valid grades.