Propagandarama

Do you ever wonder if people would pay to see that?

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:35:13 -0500

We have a bit of a drainage problem in our shower, so more frequently than I care to admit, I find myself plunging the drain. Today, after I’d undressed and when there was about 1” of water standing in the tub, I decided to take action. Buck naked, I got on my knees, and started plunging the drain, repeatedly and rhythmically. After approximately no time at all, I wondered “would someone pay to watch this?” The answer, disturbingly and unequivocally, is yes: people would pay money to watch me plunge my tub drain naked.

"[I]t is no exaggeration to suggest that since the turn of the year [Everton] have been the best team..."

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:58:07 -0500

“[I]t is no exaggeration to suggest that since the turn of the year [Everton] have been the best team in the Premier League…”

- David McDonnell, in the Mirror (via @KerryLouise87 on Twitter)

Twittereviews: Unionistas

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:13:00 -0500

At the time of the MLS expansion draft in December, I created a Twitter list (http://bit.ly/unionistas) that hopes to include the various players, coaches and execs that are gettin’ paid, gettin’ paid by Philadelphia Union. How do the various twitter streams stack up? Ranked best to worst, but worst is not really terrible. There are much worse streams in Philly sports (step right up, DeSean Jackson).

@Union2010 - The official front office feed. Updated frequently, often has breaking news. Maybe a step ahead of your email account. If you’re not a season ticket holder, this is the best way to get information on the Union.
@Tom_Veit - Tom Veit. The team president brings his loquacious personality to Twitter. You may well get heads up on upcoming announcements, such as when Veit hinted at the team’s agreement with 6 ABC before it was announced.
@bbknighton - Brad Knighton. Personable, looks to connect with fans. Shows the most potential for amusing his followers, and hopefully can give some insight into his upcoming training camp battle with Chris Seitz and Brian Perk.
@dannymwanga - Danny Mwanga. Danny got on to Twitter only after the draft, but he’s already established himself as among the most reliable folks on the team.
@speedsalinas11 - Shea Salinas. Hasn’t tweeted in a while, but seems excited about coming to Philly. Apparently unaware that he can tweet from his phone.
@amobisays - Amobi Okugo. Just an occasional tweeter, but keeps his followers updated on where he is and what he’s doing. Needs some more pop!
@perk89 - Brian Perk. Seems personable. I have no idea if he’s from southern California, but he looks and plays the part in his infrequent tweets. Seems stoked.
@nalu10 - Kyle Nakazawa. Still talking about midterms at UCLA (i.e. has not posted since October). I wonder if he finished his degree.
@JordanCHarvey - Jordan Harvey. Jordan’s feed is protected. I haven’t had a look.

Looking forward to seeing how these folks develop their direct line of communication with their fans. If you know of other Union personnel who are on twitter, please drop me a line at @rolando.

"I saw (Heitinga’s tackle) as nowhere near as bad as the challenge by Gary Caldwell on Louis..."

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:08:18 -0500

“I saw (Heitinga’s tackle) as nowhere near as bad as the challenge by Gary Caldwell on Louis Saha for the penalty kick that wasn’t given. When I first saw it I thought it might have been in (the box). But after seeing it again, I think he (Probert) has got it right. What I can tell you is - was Gary Caldwell’s pull in the first minute a sending-off? Stonewall. Was Louis Saha’s a penalty kick? Stonewall. Was it a goal that Fellaini scores? Stonewall, because Cahill cuts it back from the byline. So we’ve had a real difficult afternoon with the officials.”

- David Moyes

Is that Bix Beiderbecke?

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:26:44 -0500

Is that Bix Beiderbecke?

Ridiculous iTunes genres

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 11:05:40 -0500

I hate the default iTunes genres. I have over 100 genres (22,644 tracks). Here are a few.

Rock: Classic (Rock music that you’d hear on WMMR) - 1307 songs
Rock: Punk (Cacophonous music from roughly 1976-1980) - 508 songs
Rock: Post-Punk (1978-1980, all non-American) - 190 songs
Rock: New Wave (1980-1990, all non-American) - 256 songs
Rock: Hardcore (all American) - 223 songs
Rock: College Rock (nearly all American, 1982-1990) - 1050 songs
Rock: Indie (late ’80s to present) - 3330 songs
Rock: Alternative (1991-present on a major label) - 1080 songs

This doesn’t count my utterly ridiculous “Auteur” and “Auteuse” (really, douche?) genres, for so-called singer songwriters like Bruce Springsteen and Bryan Adams.

I rawther enjoyed @lbelgray’s post about old-fashioned...

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 17:21:00 -0500

I rawther enjoyed @lbelgray’s post about old-fashioned procrastination, and wanted to share a tip. When I need to write, I shut off my MacBook’s network connection. I can do 99% of my work offline, so I set aside chunks of time for that. When I do it, it works.

Everton's squad: Run to Europe

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:08:00 -0500

A year ago, Everton finished fifth in the Premiership and made it to the FA Cup final. This year, they have stayed in the Europa League, but have been wretched for the first half of the Premier League season, and on Saturday were eliminated from the FA Cup. Nevertheless, with the return of Mikel Arteta from injury, the Everton roster looks far better than it did at the end of last season, when Arteta and Phil Jagielka went out with long term injuries.

Back then, fans complained every week about the perceived inadequacy of Leon Osman and Tony Hibbert, fixtures in the starting lineup. These days, we are worried about the players David Moyes will be forced to leave on the bench when Arteta and Jack Rodwell return.

Marouane Fellaini and Steven Pienaar have both improved greatly over the course of the last year. Screech looks like the best box-to-box midfielder in England, while Peanuts continues to play the inspired football that made him a fan favorite last spring. Rodwell has also been excellent, and the imminent pairing of him and the in-form Fellaini makes me nearly giddy.

Furthermore, this year’s signings have been largely successful. Landon Donovan, in his first few games, has been an immediate threat on the right side. Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, despite his defensive limitations, is always likely to score or create a shot. The versatile John Heitinga has, after a shaky start, become an unerring tackler, while Sylvain Distin has also been solid in back.

Rather than griping week in and week out about the inadequacy of players like Osman and Hibbert, the returns of Arteta and Jack Rodwell now force us to ask whether Tim Cahill deserves to start over the short-timer (?) Donovan, or which of David Moyes’ many capable defenders (Heitinga, Distin, Joseph Yobo) will have to sit. Players like Billy and Yakubu may well be on the outside looking in.

These are all good problems to have. The one downside is the slowed development of players like Seamus Coleman and James Vaughan.

Had Everton not had such a terrible start to the season (Hull? Really?), they might well be in the mix for the fourth Champions League spot. Right now it looks like a tough road to get back to the Europa League. But with this roster, Moyes might be able to make it happen.

Updated my academic web page. Someday I’ll have more there but for now that will have to do....

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:11:27 -0500

Updated my academic web page. Someday I’ll have more there but for now that will have to do. Tried to make it look like a LaTeX paper.

These are the worst jerseys in the NBA. All these teams have...

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:08:00 -0500

These are the worst jerseys in the NBA. All these teams have good-to-great historical designs they should use. Do it!

Visualizing my Premiership projection. If I were smart or could...

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 23:32:11 -0500

Visualizing my Premiership projection. If I were smart or could suck in data more efficiently, I might make something of this, but instead I’ll continue to overcomplicate the league table by putting it in two dimensions.

Starting from the top right, you find the front runners in the Premier League: Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester Utd. The next group of four seem nearly certain to seal up the rest of the English league’s European places: Tottenham, Aston Villa, Manchester City and Liverpool. Then come the hopeful monsters: Fulham and Birmingham City. The next group of three is Everton, Sunderland and Stoke City. After that, it’s a mess.

What iTunes tells me about the music I like

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 10:04:19 -0500

I am a somewhat obsessive rater of songs in iTunes, and I use four stars (★★★★). Based upon how many four- or five-star ratings a given artist received in my iTunes, here are my favorite artists:

Bob Dylan
The Beatles
Uncle Tupelo
REM
Bob Marley
Ted Leo/Pharmacists
Minutemen
Will Oldham
The Clash
Magnetic Fields
Hüsker Dü
Wilco
Freakwater
Fugazi
Beck
Belle and Sebastian
Neil Young
Sleater-Kinney
Nirvana
Stereolab
Velvet Underground
Elvis Costello
Leadbelly
Elliott Smith
Bruce Springsteen
Arsenio Rodriguez
Jack Logan
Mountain Goats
PJ Harvey
Woody Guthrie

I believe this reveals me as a lapsed hipster.

Post-Boxing Day Premiership projector

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:12:00 -0500

What my Premiership projector says after Boxing Day. Yes, United is/are only two points behind Chelsea, but Arsenal has/have a game in hand and their goal differential is off the cheese.

Right now, it looks like there’s a top three separated by six points, followed by four more, separated by seven. After that, Birmingham and Fulham are looking strong. Then there’s a muddle. Hello, Everton.

Yes, this is almost exactly what the current table says, on a points-per-game basis. Goal differential and points are so closely correlated that this analysis can’t tell us much. Right now, the only meaningful thing it predicts is that West Ham will survive.

Projected points in parentheses:

1: Chelsea (84)
2: Arsenal (82)
3: Man Utd (78)

4: Spurs (71)
5: Man City (67)
6: Villa (65)
7: Liverpool (64)

8: Birmingham (58)
9: Fulham (56)

10: Sunderland (46)
11: Everton (45)
12: Stoke (43)
13: Bolton (40)
14: Blackburn (39)
15: West Ham (38)
16: Burnley (36)
16: Wigan (36)

18: Wolves (35)
19: Portsmouth (34)
20: Hull (32)

Likelihood of NFC playoff seedings. All independent. There are...

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 07:58:00 -0500

Likelihood of NFC playoff seedings. All independent.

There are three relevant games. All are between teams in the top half of the NFC. Assuming there’s a 50/50 chance of a win for either team, this is what it looks like.

"In Marouane Fellaini, we have probably got the best midfield player in the country at the moment."

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 13:45:31 -0500

“In Marouane Fellaini, we have probably got the best midfield player in the country at the moment.”

- David Moyes

My dirt-simple premiership projector

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 09:43:00 -0500

I use goal differential to predict the final premiership table. I like to think it’s simple but awesome. It’s definitely the former; probably not the latter.

It just regresses points on goal differential and adds the projected points over the remaining games to the points the given club has already earned.

Right now, I have Chelsea winning the league by a cool six points (on 85), followed by Arsenal (79) and Manchester United (76), with Villa and Spurs locked on the final Champions League spot at 71. Everton’s goal differential has been far better than the other teams at the bottom of the table and I think this bodes well for the new year: I have them finishing 12th, on 42 points.

That said, 42 points is not far from the drop zone: I have nine teams within three points of 18th position (though on the basis of goal differential, Hull looks doomed).

Have a lot of things in my to-do list before I get to this.

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 09:01:46 -0500

Have a lot of things in my to-do list before I get to this.

Really, @geni? I call bullshit.

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:27:00 -0500

Mythical being.

Historical being with mythical bits.

Really, @geni? I call bullshit.

“You can call me Ray, etc.” Was this ever funny?...

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:56:21 -0500

“You can call me Ray, etc.” Was this ever funny? When I was in first grade, I performed this bit for the whole class (maybe 100 kids), at my teacher’s insistence. Bravo, me. Bravo.

Apparently Molly and I are locked in an epic (sic) battle for...

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:15:36 -0500

Apparently Molly and I are locked in an epic (sic) battle for Twitter supremacy (sic). Only it’s taken me 2.5 times as many tweets to get exactly where she is. Wow, she’s a lot better at this than I am.