The Sports Butterfly Effect
Today, Kyle Williams is learning the hard way that the Internet is an ugly, ugly place. Williams is getting death threats on Twitter due to his fumble during overtime in last night's NFC Championship Game between his San Francisco 49ers and the New York Giants. The Giants recovered the fumble, putting them in ideal field goal range, and three plays later, the Giants' Lawrence Tynes kicked the game-winning field goal to win the game and send them to Super Bowl XXXXIIIIII 46.
I say "ideal field goal range" because those aren't always guaranteed shots. Billy Cundiff and Baltimore Ravens fans know this first-hand, as Cundiff missed a 32-yard field goal - one yard longer than Tynes' kick - that would have tied their game with the New England Patriots and almost certainly put the AFC Championship game into overtime. Cundiff doesn't use Twitter (to our knowledge) so he at least doesn't get to see the threats from people who talk without fear of repercussion, hiding behind an alias behind a computer keyboard or smartphone.
Or worse, maybe they're not showing false bravado. Maybe they would physically attack Williams or Cundiff because of those plays. "Fan" is short for "fanatic" for a reason.
Great Moments In Disney-based Editing
ESPN.com has an article on the LA Clippers by Mike Downey that is featured on their front page as of the time I write this. It's one of those wacky "I write the way that I talk!" articles that only I think I'm good at, talking about how the Clips are an actual team that could potentially do well instead of being the inspiration for the Washington Generals. Despite the fact that I don't really like pro basketball, I'm reading through it anyway, and I get to this part:
Best Buy’s Geek Squad Being… Them.
Just recently I've spoken about some pretty good deals I've gotten through Best Buy. That's because Best Buy doesn't make their money from sales; they make it from preying on uninformed electronics consumers. From overpriced warranties to computer repair that consists of reboot/virus scan/reformat/get paid, Best Buy doesn't care if they sell you an electronics product for cost, because they'll make up their money (and then some) after the sale is complete. Quick Protip: if it says "Geek Squad", run. Quickly.
Adventures in Ninja Savings
My wife and I have both said that we'd make lousy rich people. Paying full price for things just seems wrong. Especially at Christmas, when retailers are desperately trying to one-up themselves in an effort to conquer the monster looming over their head that is Amazon. It's my goal to squeeze every dollar that I get to it's fullest potential. Inspired by my girl Mir over at wantnot.net, I saved some big money. [CHRISTMAS PRESENT SPOILERS AND RAMBLING AHEAD AFTER THE JUMP!]
Monday – Walking Dead, in the raw?
I feel bad just posting a link to my Pop Bunker Walking Dead recap, so I'll give you guys something else. If you're interested, after the break I'll post my "notes" that I keep while I watch the show that I later turn into my recap. I generally write them as I'm watching live and not go back for anything or pause, so there are typos and all kinds of crap that comes from me typing as fast as I can while still trying to pay attention. I also can't remember character names for crap, so I mark them with something to remember them by.
SPOILERS: there will be some for the current episode, so if you haven't seen it yet, watch it, then read my actual recap over at Pop Bunker, then read this gibberish.
R.I.P. 96Rock
When I moved to Raleigh back five years ago, one of the things I excitedly told people about the place I was moving was that they had a good radio station. I had been subjected to "adult contemporary" out in the Hamptons for way too long, and the closest thing we had to a rock station was WBAB, a "classic rock" station that wouldn't play your music if your band formed after 1984. 96Rock was different. It played current music, but it also played older music - not older as in "from the 60s and 70s", but older music as in from 10-15 years ago. Bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Oasis. This was the music that I listened to during my high school and college days, and when I worked in a music store. I never heard this stuff on the radio anymore, and I was happy to hear it on what would be my new local station.
Walking Dead & The Bunker
I do write other stuff, you know. Over at Pop Bunker, I started doing weekly recaps again - this time for the AMC show The Walking Dead, based on the comic series. A few months back, my wife and I started reading the graphic novels and got hooked. They are excellent and I highly recommend them. They're done in black & white, so if you're turned off by gore, that helps a bit, but keep in mind that they're still not kid-friendly. There's still a buttload of zombies in various states of decomposition, and that's not the worst part for kids. There is a lot of disturbing subjects that are addressed - subjects that I doubt will see the light of day in the AMC TV version.
Anyway, if you like the TV show, check out my latest recap here. It's in my usual recap style, so there are spoilers-a-plenty, and lots of random nicknames for characters.
UNRELATED NOTE: I know I haven't been updating frequently but work has taken over a decent amount of free time and I've been battling a cold for the last week or so. I'll try to update more frequently though in the future, especially with the baseball offseason coming up.
Jobs
When I was five or six years old, I touched a computer for the first time. It was a Commodore PET; a monochrome job with the monitor and keyboard and CPU all built together in one unit. It had no hard drive or internal memory; programs ran off of cassette tapes - the same exact kind of tapes music came on at the time - and since they ran so incredibly slow the cassette drives had a counter on them so you could fast forward to the spot on the cassette where the program was. The first program they let me play with was a math program, but I fell in love with an ASCII version of Galaxian. Within a year I was programming in Logo and BASIC and quickly becoming the geek you know today. My first home computer was a Commodore VIC-20, then a Coleco ADAM (no, really), a Commodore 128, a DOS-based "IBM clone", then Windows-based machines after that. Never an Apple device, until the 4.5"x2.5" device I write this blog post on now.
@MrWorkrate on Twitter
- @Bill_TPA they're Patriots - they buck your English customs, DUH. 2 hours ago
- @phenom1984 Shedding. 3 hours ago
- @ElwoodJBlues I was in the studio audience for S8E12. Granted, the final season, but still pretty cool. 5 hours ago
- @ECal15 I haven't gotten around to it - saw a lot of chatter about it though, so I'm curious. 11 hours ago
- @canadiancreed that would be awesome if anything I wrote got that kind of audience. 11 hours ago
Pop Bunker
- Doctor Who Recap: Season 1: Episode 13: The Brink of Disaster February 4, 2012 annieevett
- Doctor Who Recap: Season 1: Episode 12: The Edge of Destruction January 28, 2012 annieevett
- Doctor Who Recap: Season 1: Episode 11: The Rescue January 21, 2012 annieevett
- Doctor Who Recap: Season 1: Episode 10: The Ordeal January 14, 2012 annieevett
- Doctor Who Recap: Season 1: Episode 9: The Expedition December 24, 2011 annieevett
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