moneyball?

I dont follow the NBA very much, but I was a bit surprised to see this today.

I know Wilcox is athletic and young, but it seems like $8 Million per year is quite a bit for a player with a lot of potential. I checked his stats and saw that in his career he averaged 7.5 points per game. Yes it is true that he scored 14 points per game with Seattle last year, but also played 250% more minutes per game than when he was on the Clippers and averaged 4.5 points. He played in 29 games with Seattle and shot nearly 60%.

I dont know, it just seems like a lot of money for a guy who is unproven. When all he did was score a few points for a bad team at the end of the season when the team had little to play for. Then i checked the Sonics roster and he has the 5th most experience on the team. So you arent paying for proven production, and you arent paying for veteran experience. You are paying for potential. Yet he is entering his 4th season in the NBA.

By no means am I hating on Wilcox, I watched him play at MD and think he could establish himself as a force and go on to have a good career. In NBA world, it might even be a good deal, i have no idea. I was just surprised. And I saw that he earned like over a 100% raise. For what? Wouldnt it be sweet if you got a 100% raise because you didnt disappoint your boss in the first 3 years?

---

Since writing thatI have now done some quick research and remembered why I hate the NBA. If this is correct, Allan Houston makes $20.8 million per year? What? More than Kobe and Dirk? With the salaries listed on here, Wilcox kind of looks like a steal. Why are we paying these guys so much?

I sort of could understand why people get pissed about their contracts. Pride is a big thing with big time athletes and for you to be one of the best at your job and be getting paid a fraction of what others are getting paid, while out performing them, you have a semi-legitamite gripe.

Then again you have to just be glad you have a job as a professional athlete. I think the huge range of salaries for athletes is what causes all the problems. How many other unionized jobs are there where in a single year one worker can make 50 times that of another worker? Maybe in some sales or commission positions, but very few trades have that wide of a range. Its especially huge considering the subjectivity in appraising athletes [possibly potential] skill levels.

On a side note, I am sure if I investigated the MLB or NFL (two leagues I MUCH prefer to the NBA) that I would find similiar things. So while there may be some backhanded cheapshots at the NBA in my writing don't think that I am ignorant, just bias.

if you can beat it, you have to prove it

here is my best... for now

not quite links of the day, but...

not a good day for this guy.

dont ask me how i found this, just check it out and enjoy it.

if i had seen this sooner on craigslist, i may have applied.

i dont always watch america's got talent, but here is a performance worth watching.

if you have a few minutes at work and want to play a game, check out this game. for some reason i always go back to it.

its been a while

Dear Blog,

I am sorry I have not written to you in a few days. This weekend I was busy and then last night the power went out at my house due to the thunderstorms. Please don't be mad at me. You must be doing something right because your fans are still checking in. I hope we can still be friends.

Love,
Brian

PS Please dont think I sold out by adding advertisements to you. Maybe I can buy your something with all the free money I will make. Readers, don't be scared to click on those links and support my sponsors!

Grand Opening

To celebrate Man Beard Blog I told my face to unshave itself. Here is an update on how that is going. Not bad, but my face definitely has more hair near the bottom. I am pretty sure someone called me Michael at work today, And I knew exactly what they meant. Notice how the hair on my face is much darker than the hair on my head.

my favorite cereals

Since making a list is so hot right now in the world of blogging, i am going to make my first list. my list ranks something that i have never seen rated before. below you will find a discussion about my favorite cereals.

Count Chocula- this is one of my all time favorites. it combines the marshmellows from Lucky Charms with the texture of Honeycomb or Kix and the flavor of Cocoa Pebbles. when you take the best features from the best cereals and put them together, its a lock you are left with one of the all time greatest breakfast treats. the only negative i can think of is something i call raw roof mouth. this is when you are constantly smashing some food into the roof of your mouth and it gets raw. note: some like it that way.

The Pebbles Line - I think i prefer cocoa, but it seems the less i have fruity pebbles, the more i want it. often compared to the Krispies series, i like these cereals for a number of reasons. obviously taste is paramount, but beyond that i enjoy the small sized crispy flakes. i like to eat them very fast, so they dont get soggy, and i dont really like them without milk. the small pieces allow an eater to optimize the process. each spoonfull is heaping, and oral manipulation is a breeze. a good milk-to-cereal ratio is key for enjoying this type of cereal. another often overlooked benefit is that when you are finished eating you are left with flavored milk. one key negative that comes to mind is they are often trapped in frustrating locations including way under your tongue and back between your deepest molars and your cheek.

Cinnammon Toast Crunch and Golden Grahams- I am not sure these should really be grouped together, but I am doing it. honestly the only difference (i agree its significant) is the cinnammon vs. the golden honey flavor. in any case, these cereals are strong based on the crunch and flavor. i like the shape of the delicious morsels. they are even very enjoyable without milk, which is a very important characteristics. the biggest negative i can think of regarding these cereals is that they have a tendency to get soggy, at which point they are not as enjoyable as they are when they are still somewhat crunchy.

I thought i would make a list of like 10 cereals, but that took much longer than i thought it would. also, the bottom of the ninth is starting with ortiz and manny due up with the sox down by 1. i will add more about cereals in the future.

one other note, be on the lookout for a new webpage that was just launched by my friend sparks.

sometimes thinking of a title to a random post is difficult

at lunch a few weeks ago, myself and some co-workers went down to eat at the inner harbor. we were eating our meal of food, when we noticed a lady had silently crept up all in our stuff. naturally, we stopped and gave her our attention. i knew what she was about, but i could tell this new guy didnt know. she reached out and was offering something, although it was difficult to see what. i declined, but he didnt know any better so he accepted. he read the playing card sized piece of paper and was kind of excited [his body language screamed 'oh neat!] to see that the card had all of the letters with diagrams explaining how to make them in sign language. he then turned over the card to read the part that says the lady was deaf and needed a dollar. he did not give her money, but handed the card back to the lady. then he said, 'i know sign language' and flipped her the bird. ok, that last part didnt really happen. i do not like uncomfortable situations like that, but i guess when it comes to less fortunate people asking for money its better than just begging.

i met a 'freestyle poet' who created a rap on the spot and in his rap he said eric looked like he liked men because he was wearing a scarf. i also bought a list of the top 100 pick up lines from some guy one time. then there is the guy in georgetown who sits on the edge of the bridge and has a pole with a bucket hanging from it and in his other hand he has a stick with a giant arrow on it. when you walk by he hangs the bucket in front of you and then points at it with the giant arrow. its quite clever if you ask me.

i just watched a commerical and i am pretty sure the voiceover is done by jim from the office. the office is like my favorite show on tv so i immediately recognized his voice. but then i started thinking, i wonder how much he got paid for doing that ad. and i wonder how many people know it is his voice. i am not in the advertising business but it doesnt seem to me to be worth it for whatever website to pay jim to do the voiceover. even for people like me that know who it is, am i any more likely to check out the website [i think it was ask.com but i am not sure and i am not planning on spending time verifying that since i dont care] because i think jim was on the commercial talking?

so you think you can dance is on tonight and let me tell you, it is pretty awesome. for some reason, i love this show. i was pretty fired up last week when my favorite contestant from the beginning (allison) got eliminated. she was the best dancer. my favorite remaining contestant is benji. he crackes me up and is pretty good. travis is also a good dancer, but sometimes he can be annoying when he talks too much. plus whenever he does contemporary dances he cries. ivan is cool because he is a good hip hop dancer, which is probably the most fun to watch. my favorite girl left is natalie because she is the hottest. heidi is alright and i dont really like donyelle.

also, if you havent read the comments to these posts then i recommend you go back two posts to read this comment by brian d. it is a treat.

Good Times

Some baseball thoughts:

I think it would have been awesome if Clemens had been traded to the Red Sox.

David Ortiz is awesome.

If you like fun, I recommend that you check this out. I need to try to use these terms more often.

What?

This post is about something I have been meaning to write about for a while. I know that there will be future posts on this topic because there are many things I have to say about it. This was not one of them, but it is so interesting that I decided to post it immediately.

I was just in the restroom at work. A guy, who I have never seen before, walks in. He goes right past the urinals and into stall number 2, more on stall locations and preferences in a future post. He makes some noise and then begins going to the bathroom. He is still standing. Hopefully that clarifies what number he is going (no the story is not about some random guy going #2 while standing, although if that happened I would also post about it immediately.)

In any case, after what seems like 7-8 seconds he concludes his action and fastens appropriate clothing. It is at this point that I am now washing my hands. I am not one of those obsessive germ people, but I certainly wash my hands after I use the bathroom. I also dry my hands and always grab an extra paper towel to use to touch the door on the way out. Because it seems almost pointless to wash my hands and then touch a door that was just touched by some other guy who was just handling his... it is not my personal germs that I fear. I wash my hands more because of the entire bathroom experience, not just because of what I touched. Honestly, my hygiene is strong to quite strong.

Anyways, back to the stranger. I am still washing away, using soap that actually smells pretty good. But not nearly as nice as the stuff they have in the womens bathroom. Dont ask me how i know. So mystery guy walks up to the other sink (there are two) and turns it on. Normal so far, except for the private number one-ing in the stall, which isnt that strange. I could understand that. So the water is running. I am nearly finished washing my hands and now am just checking out my game (hair) for the day. Doesnt look that good, and I could use a haircut. My eyes move slightly to my left as new-guy is also looking at himself in the mirror with the water on.

He is moving again. He is leaning forward. He reaches out with his right hand and makes it into a cup. He is having a drink. He sips twice, refills his hand, and repeats. He went to the bathroom, touched the stall door, the toilet, his unit, the sink and is now drinking. There is a water fountain 3 feet from the entrance to the restroom. There are also 2 different water coolers in our office. Then he turns off the water and moves towards the paper towels. At this point I have made eye contact with myself in the mirror and am cracking up. I try to make a fake deep breathe/sigh to cover it up but I am not sure if it worked. I turn off the water, dry my hands and follow him out smiling. Is this guy for real?

random thought

i wanted to post that its a goal of mine to attend the golden globes.

not as a fan, but as a guest, for having achieved something. because no matter what it is, you know its a big deal. you will be able to look around and think to yourself "this is it. i am awesome."

WSOP Update

From CardPlayer:

All-In Called with 8-High
On a flop of 10c 7c 5s , Tim Rod bets $300 and his opponent raises to $600. Rod calls and the turn puts the 3c on the board. Rod again bets out with $1,500 and is again raised by his opponent to $4,000. Rod calls and the river puts the 3s on the board. Rod pushes all-in and his opponent immediately calls. Rod flips up Kc Qc for a turned flush. His opponent says, "Do I have a straight flush? Oh, no I don't" as he shows 8d 6s for 8-high.

How can you CALL with 8 high? Nice way to blow $10,000. I can understand maybe trying to represent a full boat and going all in and getting called by the non-nut flush. But that is just a terrible play in my opinion.

Annoying McBadass, F.T.J.S.

I was reading an email at work today and i realized that it is annoying to me when people list letters after their name. I understand the obvious ones, like MD, PE (atleast in my profession its pretty significant), even PhD, but what bothers me is the other ones that in my opinion are not significant enough to add the letters.

For instance masters degrees. I have one. I dont need to put a bunch of letters at the end of my name to tell everyone. Like hey everyone, I am so awesome I went to school for an extra year(or two). I paid extra for this! It doesnt make you better than someone else. Another is a member in a society (this is the one that motivated me to make this post). A society that you pay to join. Oh hey co-worker, i pay money to join this professional club. And not only that, but I am so old and have been in it so long and paid so much money that they bumped my status from associate to member.

Anyways, i am considering editing my email signature and adding the following after my name:

MCE, SM ASCE, M ASHE, SC CSX, EIT

So if we are going to go that far to brag about ourselves but try and act like we are not, we might as well think of some others that people can start adding. Some I thought of:

APA (Amateur Pornographic Actor/Actress)
DIC (Dislikes Ice Cream)
VT (Very Tall)
L2B (Loves Bunsen Burners)
KHE (Keeps Hamsters for Entertainment)
WG (Wears Glasses)
BR (Big on Rules)
AD (Administered a Dagger)
BAMF (depends on context, either from Samuel L Jacksons wallet or Bet Against Matt Frese)

Wouldnt that make my roommate Eric Mack D.I.C.K.H.E.A.D.?

take your shirt off...

greetings from NC. in case you were wondering, it seems journey is so hot right now down here.

other random thoughts:

i love the plethora of chic-fil-a's in NC
download and play Chowder! some SAT fun...
college brian:Snood::brian::Chowder!
i dont love the 10" of rain we got in the last few hours
raleigh-wood airport reminds me of wings. too bad helen wasnt working today (also there wasnt not snizzle at the el aeropuerto.)
waking up due to touching down while on a flight is sort of scary
it seems there is a higher percentage fo SUV's in NC than in other areas
check out the silt fence. its gone.

this blog is like the washington post, if you dont get it, you dont get it.

what?

one the funniest things i have seen

This person
Wearing this

I promise, I actually saw this. Priceless.

ouch

have you ever started a blog because you think they are really awesome, and been so excited about your blog that you posted too much and the quality of your posts suffered? then you read your first couple of posts and realized that they suck. i have.

insulting phrases? [spoken like "illegal channels?]

sometimes (ok, almost always) it is fun to play a little game that i just named the implication game. those of you who know me have probably experienced at one time or another. and you probably loved it. the implication game can be played by yourself or with friends. but to play, you need at least one other person to be the subject of the game.

it is played by doing or saying something that may be interpreted as offensive. but the real key to the action, as the name of the game indicates, is to simply imply something about the subject. you cant actually insult them, thats rookie league stuff. a good player of this game can say something to their subjects and make them think of why the comment was insulting. its kind of like at work (this doesnt happen to me at work but i think it does for others) when you think of an idea, but when its your idea your boss doesnt like it. so then you have to sort of manipulate your words to trick your boss into thinking he thought of it. it might not be exactly like that, but you get the idea. the best players can non-chalantly drop a comment so matter-of-fact-ly, and act completely unaware of the negativeness implied by the remark.

my go-to phrases for this game include "you would" "you know what they say about that" and "shocker".

the next time you are talking to a co-worker that you dont know very well and they tell you something that they did, just say one of those phrases (preferably "you would"). you wont believe the amount of offense that person will take. if they are just getting to know you, they probably wont like you very much.

Who is no longer on first...

i am sure everyone has been called the wrong name from time to time. well it is no different for me. in fact, because i am called by my middle name, it happens quite often. i am sure there are many memorable situations i have encountered, two of which i would like to share.

the first began when i entered college. i lived in a dorm and when we arrived the RA had posted signs on everyone's door with their name and their hometown. mine had my first name. there was a guy that lived across the hall who was a real friendly guy. he was real talkative and would sometimes hang out in or around my room. i guess he was just being resourceful the first time we talked, because he already knew my name. i failed to correct him when he kept not hearing other people call me by my middle name. months later we ordered a pizza. he ate half the pizza faster than even frese could. my first semester of college was half over, and i still hadnt corrected this guy. i felt bad. well, sort of. it was entertaining.

anyways, i was playing in a poker tournament while writing that paragraph so that should sort of explain why that portion of this post was so weak. i appologize to both of my loyal readers and will try and devote part of my full attention when writing entries from now on.

back to the second story. i have worked at my current company for 3 years. it has been an enjoyable time, highlighted mostly by the characters that i work with. it would not surprise me if at a time in the future there are more posts devoted to the people i work with. anyways, our office is in a high rise building that is not very wide. the lobby/elevator entrance is in the center of the floorplan and so our office is sort of circular. (side note, we actually switched buildings about a year ago, but the point is the same, narrow building with the lobby in the middle.) well, people who sit on the other side of the main lobby portion i like to call the others.

notice saying i like to call them the others sounds like i do it often. i dont not do it, but i also dont do it as much as it sounds like i do based on that word choice. but that doesnt make what i said wrong. in fact, its the truth. regardless, calling the others is one of my more favorite things to do on my way back from getting candy at the secretary's desk.

one of the others (i cant give away their gender, because, due to my occupation it will narrow it down real quick, and i prefer to keep coworkers unknown) is also talkative and usually goes out of their way to say hello. also, they were out of the office for a few months when i started so i was never formally introduced to them. well one day i was in the elevator with said person and they said something and told chris to have a good weekend. neither my first nor second nor last name are or resemble the name chris. clearly she called me the wrong name. well partly because i am jerk, and partly because it was funny, i never corrected her.

well for two years she called me chris. i never said anything. it was funny. plus, it had been so long that i thought it would be too awkward to try to correct her. because if i were her i would ask me why i never said anything. and i would have nothing to say except, "oh im sorry, i thought it was funny so i never corrected you."

the point of this never-ending story (such a good movie, along with the goonies one of my favorite childhood movies) is that today she said my real name. someone told her. she now knows that i am not named chris. i am not called chris. so i guess that little fun is over with for now.

but my favorite part is that she knows she called me the wrong thing for a long time. and better yet, she knows that i know that she knows.

poll

kellie pickler or katharine mcphee

merry christmas

I have no readers but thought in case someone stumbled upon this blog that I should still wish all the readers a Merry Christmas.

nice work

it seems erm has qualified for the WPT $25K event. nice job.

yikes

I was posting a comment on a different blog, and it seems firefox decided to remember to store my blogger user name and password. I am not sure why this has never happened before. Anyways, after typing my comment and submitting it (after using the word verification) I realized that there was a link on my name that I had never seen before.

I generally post as Brian. I just select "other" and type in my name. Then it seems it is always displayed as brian. Not sure why. In any case, this time there was a link and when i clicked on it it took me to my sweet blog. I hadnt checked it out in a long time. I am pretty positive no one has ever read it before because I have never even told anyone it existed. Perhaps so power bloggers with a lot of free time or a stalker has come across it. But its unlikely that anyone who knows me has seen it.

Maybe this will motivate me to actually update it from time to time. Or maybe it wont.