Self Destruction (150.50 pts) defeated The Barrage (147.25 pts)
Butt Stompers (169.25 pts) defeated The Barrage (147.25 pts)
Well, I went and did it – I allowed emotion and affinity for my hometown team to cloud my judgement, and oh, it cost me (as you can see). Had I simply kept my head down and maintained Roethlisberger as my starting QB, I would have one, but noooooo!, I just had to pick up Brad Johnson.
Well, McNabb is back in my lineup for this week’s games, so hopefully I’ll be able to recoup some wins and keep myself in good position the playoff race.
Fantasy Football Results, Week 8
The Barrage (159.25 pts) defeated Soldiers of Fortune (103.25 pts)
The Barrage (159.25 pts) defeated The Man (142.00 pts)
Despite a horrendous performance from Donovan “Blowin’ Chunky Soup in Tampa” McNabb, I managed to roll to a 13-3 record, primarily on the back of Tomlinson’s 50+ points. I’m still in desperate need of some wide receivers and I could really use a non-damaged (*ahem* Roethlisberger) QB, as the Iggles have a bye this weekend.
I’m tied for best record in the league, although my power rankings are far lower (I’m about 200 points off the lead). This could mean trouble, come playoff time.
Fantasy Football Results, Weeks 6 & 7
And The Barrage uh… rolls on!
Week 6
The Barrage (170.00 pts) defeated Fifteen by Female (167.00 pts)
The Barrage (170.00 pts) defeated El Diablo (A Mexican Fighting Chicken) (161.25 pts)
I moved to a 10-2 record two weeks ago, defeating two teams by relatively narrow margins. 15xFemale actually should have beaten me, but for some unknown reason she started several players who were on their bye weeks. So perhaps that should be a 10-2* record. Once again, I was buoyed by stellar performances from my running backs and was sorely disappointed by my wideouts.
Week 7
TrophyTaker (180.00 pts) defeated The Barrage (144.50 pts)
The Barrage (144.50 pts) defeated Pink Panthers (132.75 pts)
Despite a stellar game by McNabb, I managed to lose a game last week and move to 11-3. Fortunately for me, this puts me in a tie with the other division leaders, record-wise. Most of them have the edge on my in terms of power rankings, so I really need to solidify my receiving corps before the playoffs in Week 13. I just need some trade fodder – perhaps DeShaun Foster could provide some incentive… Well, it’s too late for this week’s matchups, in any case. I’m playing this year’s commish (Soldiers of Fortune) and last year’s (The Man) as well. I think I match up fairly well. Here’s hoping for two more wins.
Fantasy Football Results, Weeks 6 & 7
And The Barrage uh… rolls on!
Week 6
The Barrage (170.00 pts) defeated Fifteen by Female (167.00 pts)
The Barrage (170.00 pts) defeated El Diablo (A Mexican Fighting Chicken) (161.25 pts)
I moved to a 10-2 record two weeks ago, defeating two teams by relatively narrow margins. 15xFemale actually should have beaten me, but for some unknown reason she started several players who were on their bye weeks. So perhaps that should be a 10-2* record. Once again, I was buoyed by stellar performances from my running backs and was sorely disappointed by my wideouts.
Week 7
TrophyTaker (180.00 pts) defeated The Barrage (144.50 pts)
The Barrage (144.50 pts) defeated Pink Panthers (132.75 pts)
Despite a stellar game by McNabb, I managed to lose a game last week and move to 11-3. Fortunately for me, this puts me in a tie with the other division leaders, record-wise. Most of them have the edge on my in terms of power rankings, so I really need to solidify my receiving corps before the playoffs in Week 13. I just need some trade fodder – perhaps DeShaun Foster could provide some incentive… Well, it’s too late for this week’s matchups, in any case. I’m playing this year’s commish (Soldiers of Fortune) and last year’s (The Man) as well. I think I match up fairly well. Here’s hoping for two more wins.
Oh, The Huge Manatee!
Memo to Brad:
If you are unable to convince your employer of the folly of their recent moves, I will hold you personally responsible. I mean, they can sell cigarettes, lunch meat and mac n’ cheese all they want, but when the mess with Miracle Whip, why, they’ve gone too far! They must be stopped, I tell you – it’s no longer a Miracle, but rather more of a “Striking Coincidence” or “One-In-Ten-Thousand” Whip.
Entertaining Geek Neologisms
I was talking to one of our engineers yesterday (let’s just call him “A.”) about a certain senior engineer (let’s just call him “C.”) when A. revealed a very funny set of circumstances surrounding C. revealed by a third engineer (let’s call him “D.”).
C. is a programmer from Ye Olde Schoole – until recently, he coded in `ed`, telnetted to a Solaris 7 box to compile and code up until we disabled the last one and continues to read his email using `mail`. He does not play well with others and has a near-allergic reaction to source control programs such as CVS, Subversion, SCCS, RCS, etc. His preferred method of revision control is to:
- GZip all source files.
- Tar all gzipped files into a single .tar*
- Name the resultant .tar according to his versioning scheme
- Dump the .tar into a directory named after the particular project or code module
*Yes, I know this is an inversion. When asked why he didn’t use the preferred method of first tar’ing the files and then gzipping the resulting .tar, C. declared that older versions of Windows incorrectly handle/rename files with dual extensions (turning a .tar.gz into a .tar, for instance). When asked why he didn’t simply label the files with the acceptable alternative “.tgz”, developed specifically for just such circumstances, C. maintained his ignorance of such an alternative.
A. and D. were discussing a current project and the possible reuse of some older code when D. mentioned that he had remembered C. composing something that might be useful to the project at hand and thus felt compelled to “get down into the ‘tar pits'” to look for that which he sought. “Tar pits” (named for the endless directories filled with endless .tar files, any one of which could contain the desired, nay, prized! information in question) – haw! What an excellent coinage of phrase!
Happy Birthday, Brad
Another year gone by, buddy. Hope this year was better than most.
My best to you and your wife.
Draft Night 2006
September through February is my favorite time of the year, for one reason and one reason only: NFL Football, baby.
Last night was the draft for my fantasy football league and I’m even more confident this year in my draft selections than I was going into my two leagues last year (seeing as I finished 0-12 in one league and 2-11 in the other, my confidence was obviously misplaced). I believe I learned my lessons from last year’s debacles: I was too sentimental in my picks, favoring Vikings and players whom I liked over the talented and productive ones. Well, not this year! I was bound and determined to pick wisely; I was ruthless in my selections. Nary a bit of ruth was to be found in my body, no sir! I was a veritable desert of ruth, baby.
This year’s league was quite a bit bigger than either league I played in last year; there are 4 divisions in the league, each with 10 teams and each drafting independent of the others. In other words, each 10 team division had access to the full NFL roster, so cross-divisional games could conceivably see identically constituted teams play each other (although it’s highly unlikely). The draft went for 15 rounds, with each roster needing:
- 1 quarterback
- 2 running backs
- 3 wide receivers
- 1 tight end
- 1 “utility” player (RB/WR/TE)
- 1 kicker
- 1 defense
- 5 bench players
As I said previously, I feel as though I came out of the draft in an excellent position. I drew the third pick and, in serpentine draft fasion (picks 1->10 followed by 10->1 followed by 1->10, etc.) I picked up:
QB
- Donovan McNabb, PHI
- Ben Roethlisberger, PIT
RB
- Ladainian Tomlinson, SD
- Willie Parker, PIT
- DeShaun Foster, CAR
- Mewelde Moore, MIN
WR
- Chad Johnson, CIN
- T.J. Houshmandzadeh, CIN
- Keenan McCardell, SD
- Antonio Bryant, SF
- Matt Jones, JAC
TE
- Heath Miller, PIT
- Dallas Clark, IND
K
- Ryan Longwell, MIN
D
- Giants Defense, NYG
I’m pretty confident in those picks (although Moore just dropped to 3rd on the Vikes’ depth charts, so I may have to make a move to replace him…) and, best of all, we’re no longer using Yahoo! for our league.
The Cognitive Momentum Of Names
Prompted by a conversation that I had with a few of Andy II‘s college buddies, I’ve observed the following:
Unless one puts a concerted effort into doing so, it is well-nigh impossible to call a friend or acquaintance something other than what they were introduced to you as.
Case in point: one of our assistant pastor’s name is “David”, yet he was introduced to me as “Dave”. I’ve called him Dave ever since meeting him, although his wife adamantly refers to him as “David”, he answers the phone as “David” and most people newly-introduced to him call him “David”, yet I can’t bring myself to do it. He just doesn’t look like a “David”, if that makes any sense at all. Further, Andy’s college friends know him as “Drew” and I know for a fact he isn’t a “Drew”. The list goes on.
Am I alone on this one?
Modest Legislative Reforms
Aron and I have been discussing some simple reforms that would go a long way towards reducing graft, corruption and complacency in Congress. While by no means complete, we think that they could help the average American citizen greatly by handcuffing Congress.
- Federal legislation shall become a zero-sum game. For each new law passed, an old one must be dropped/nullified. Make the Congresscritters choose if passing that “DMCA for the new millenium” is worth dropping some environmental protection act.
- The entire tax code must consist of no more than 1,000 words.
- “No Legislation Left Behind”: all laws passed MUST be comprehensible to a C-average graduating high school student, chosen via lottery from one of the continental 48 states. If they can’t understand it, the law must be taken back into committee where Congressmen must consult with 10 randomly-selected high school students from the D.C. public school system.
Feel free to add your own.