Just saw the Sounds and the Strokes and the Suicide Machines. The first opened for the middle; the latter was at a different show. Julian's voice was way off; he complained about being sick quite a bit - the result was way more talking from him than I've ever seen. Still a good show, though. Other than the openers who were, uhh, not exactly boring but not exactly good either.
Also I just saw Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind which was good but I was expecting something not nearly so easily comprehensible, this being Charlie Kaufman and all. I'm still looking forward to The 3 by Donald which they sure as hell better make.
I just changed the links at the top to point to the new PLUS league. I am not sure what to think with regards to the deletion of the old league. I half want the old league to be removed for the sake of clairy clarity but I also half want the old league to continue for that way we have two leagues. I, at least, plan on fully participating in both as long as I may.
In the Tourney pick'em I can still win if Xavier beats Duke.... maybe I should just stop there.
Good luck everyone! May you all get the players you want, especially if they're players I don't also want. Then again if there's anyone I want way more than he's worth, may he be taken by one of you even higher than I would have.
In other news, file this post away as a serious idea for next year's March Madness. (ZD you've already seen it and commented on it; given your seal of approval I feel comfortable taking the idea seriously.)
By the way, which IM thing are we using for the draft tomorrow? (Yahoo! or AOL?) Coincidentally I have a draft starting at 10 a.m. that'll be on AIM. I'll be trying to keep track of picks for both drafts while they overlap; watch this be the year I seriously screw the pooch. (What does "screw the pooch" mean, anyway? I've got two dogs playing outside my bedroom door, a big black rottweiler and a little white fluffy shi tzu. They're like blood brothers almost. Gizmo chews on Sammy's ears whenever Sammy's engrossed in sucking on a toy.)
Anyway, bedtime for me. Call (415) 305-8410 if god forbid I oversleep (but I won't; promise!).
The Pixies are reportedly playing V2004 in England, Bumbershoot on Sept 6 and a full US headlining tour playing venues of "2,500 - 10,000." Mesa Amp, please?
But speaking of the Bumbershoot date, wow, and I thought the line before REM and Wilco was big.
Speaking of Wilco, they are playing Flagstaff as well as Tucson - but not Phoenix. I guess I can hope I get to see their Coachella set. I mean, they're playing Saturday which for me is the less crowded - or at least more top-heavy - day.
Finally even though I already was aware of this on one level I still find it shockingly weird that Muse are headlining the mainstage at V2004 (with Dido and Pink). Well, that compared to the fact that they're about to start playing their first ever US dates playing places like the Metro in Chicago (1100 capacity) for $10 a head. Also their latest album was released (in the US) today. I really shouldn't go out and buy it. I don't know if I will or not.
I saw that a Throwing Muses related band was going to play Solar Culture; I will not, however, be making it down for the show. What with seeing Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers last night and working this morning and needing to see Godot either sometime this weekend or next and strongly leaning towards going to Solar Culture on Monday and all.
The everything bagels I'm eating right now from Einstein Bros are fresh and soft and thus absolutely wonderful.
I wouldn't mind changing the Formatting (found under Settings) so that it does. Would this upset anyone?
Wow. The current ad in my browser (after I sent a message via Y! mail) is for LAUNCHcast. It boasts various stations you can listen to, one being "alternative rock" which features "Linkin Park, Evanescence, Audioslave and more." I am salivating over who the "more" includes.
Kaito is coming to Tucson rather than Phoenix. I kind of expected this as March 22nd has been full on most appropriate Phoenix Metro venues for some time. I am currently debating driving down regardless. Basically I need to decide if 220 miles of evening/late night driving and only getting 3 hours of sleep are worth 40 minutes of seeing Kaito live. I probably won't be able to decide until Sunday. This is despite the fact that I probably will be going to non-Kaito shows in Phoenix Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and twice on Sunday.
First, ok fine. Second, when I say "logic" I am not referring to the justification, I am referring to the procedure.
Ok, fine. Please comprehensively state the logic to be followed when dealing with multiple players with identical K-values for a single year [the K-value is the theoretical draft pick (round) cost to keep a player in a specified year; these are used to determine D-values - the actual draft position for a player.] This should include both situations when there are multiple free agents, multiple natural or drafted keepers, or at least one of each.
Also please apply this logic to the following non-hypothetical situations soon enough before the keeper submission deadline so I (and others) may decide who I keep. For the purposes of these situations all slots not mentioned may be considered open. This should not be taken as any indication of the actual keeper decisions for the teams mentioned.
Situation 1 Broken Face in 2004 has four players to be kept:
-Matt Clement, K(2004)=9,
-Mark Prior, K(2004)=9,
-Vernon Wells, K(2004)=8,
-John Smoltz, K(2004)=7
That is to say two scheduled for round 9, one for round 8 and one for round 7. What four draft picks must Broken Face yield to keep these four players?
Situation 2 [This is not my team so I don't know if this is something the manager is contemplating but other managers are also currently in the same situation (with two other players, that is) and in the future the situation will come up as well]
Channa Batura has two players to be kept:
-A.J. Pierzynski, K(2004)=12
-Brandon Webb, K(2004)=FA-12
That is to say two players both scheduled for round 12, one a natural or drafted keeper and one free agent. What two draft picks must Channa Batura yield to keep these two players?
Hmm. I like the libertarianism/egalitarianism/protestantism of having each and everyone be an admistrator. And, really, I don't think we have anything to fear concerning a coup.
There has been discussion of the draft of the Down with Baseball Rules via the Y! Group.
The Universal Deadline was convenient but that doesn't matter; I didn't like the concept of a Universal Deadline but that doesn't matter either. Keith is the one who has been gathering all the information at the end of the year; he is the one who has been preparing the available keeper lists. I trust his memory on the subject better than mine. Plus there's that message later than the ones I quoted, which I skipped when I did my search because the Subject field concerned football. Oh well.
The result is that I'm revising my draft of the rules taking this and the corrections/discussion posted to this blog by the Greed/Gel/Adam and Zuff into account.
Also I'd like to point out that I enjoy the semantic simplicity in referring to a population that is wholly male; I can write "you draft a player and then you cut him" and have that statment be as accruate as one that ends "you cut him or her," which is to say for me personally I don't have to use the plurals ("you cut them") that I prefer to use for ambigous-/irrelevant-gender situations (the negative being that it such use is considered not grammatically correct by ... uhh, pretty much everyone.)
Ok, cool, I will start using strikethrough copiously. But not in anyone else's post, partially because that's uncool, the rest of it because I don't have the ability. It would make sense that the administrator would have additional powers to use in extreme situations. It would also make sense that said adminstrator use such powers both judiciously and conservatively - I'm not too worried there.
In other blog issues is there something we should do with the First Name Only method of identifying posters? I'm not sure last names are the answer but we have now had posts from two people named Brian; and it has been stated elsewhere that we have several other name pairs - namely Adams, Jasons and Johns. Suggestions?
2. On Concerts
Z writes "the five of them were nearly as animated as Isaac Brock" (emphasis added).
Sweet, Chris Funk is back. For a while they have been a four-piece because Chris has been recovering from injury, I can't recall what happened. SE (my older sister) might remember; she went to the show at Modified as well [scroll down to the entry under 10/15/03.]
I though they were great and all with four; members of the band, however, said that they weren't very happy with how everything sounded when playing understaffed.
Well I have felt a bit uncomfortable with the whole Manage Posts feature.
The first time I used it I was just trying to see how it work and I assumed it would add a note that said "Edited 03/13/04 11:32pm by John" or somesuch; it didn't work that way but I was hooked! For editing minor points at least; I really despise getting things wrong.
As noted previously the text of the Down With Baseball Rules draft will remain as is; when we get something better written incorrect/misleading statements may be crossed out if either someone lets on how to do that in html or I find out somewhere on my own.
3),b),ii) “Originally Drafted”: This is reset in the off-season when a player is not kept. This is also reset when a player drafted later than the 13th round is cut. This is not reset by a trade or by cutting a player drafted in the 13th round or earlier. (emphasis added.)
Maybe a more clear version of this section would be: The R-value (Round Originally Drafted) is only reset by the two following occurances: the player in question is not kept (during the off-season); the player is dropped at any point during the season and has a 14 or greater K-value (round kept for that year), or D-value (round drafted that year). The R-value is not reset when the player is dropped during the season and has a 13 or lower K-value or D-value. The R-value is never reset by a trade.
Thus for a situation like Z describes (if R(2001) = 8 for Kirk McCaskill, then K(2003) = 4. [Then] he's cut and then later picked up) the R=8(2001) does not change and K(2004)=1.
Another example: Dave Bergman has R=11(2007) [that is Dave was originally drafted in 2007 in the 12th round] and Dale Murphy has R=18(2007); both Dave and Dale are cut during 2007 and then picked up before the Universal Deadline and remain on their respective teams until the end of the season. Both players are eligible to be kept. Dave Bergman retains the same R-value thus his K(2008)=10; Dale Murphy is counted as a Free Agent, he now has R=FA/13(2007) thsu his K(2008)=12.
Thus we have three values:
R-value = round originally drafted.
K-value = round kept for a specific year
D-value = round drafted for a specific year.
Let's discuss Bill Buckner. He is originally drafted in 2000 in the 19th round. He is not cut in this time period and is kept for 2001 in the 18th round and for 2002 in the 15th round.
For 2000: R=19(2000); D(2000)=19; K(2000)=n/a [he was not "kept"]
For 2001: R=19(2000); D(2001)=18; K(2001)=18
For 2002: R=19(2000); D(2002)=19; K(2002)=15
A few things this was meant to illustrate:
(a) R remains the same until it is reset.
(b) D=R for the first year
(c) D=K for until R is reset.
If all that is clear then we merely need to fit those clauses into the Rules.
Ahh, ok, I see it. Keith had this in his message Friday "12, 13, 11, 14, 10, 15" where my system said for the same situation "12, 11, 13, 10, 14, 9" [see 3) b) iii) including the examples in sub-sections (1) and (2)]
Keith was specifically speaking for the case of Free Agents; I think we have been treating other situations differently - or, rather, that was my understanding [or, even more rather, my understanding was that FA's followed my progression so I could be wrong.] My main memory used to back up the progression I used was that two players slotted for the 1st round [or, put another way, two players with K(2000)=1] could not be kept.
My best guess as to what the system has been/the best way to proceed in the future is that keith's system is correct for both Free Agents and non-Free Agents; this would mean that in the situation described in my rules draft in 3),b),iii),(2) both Kirby and Sweet Lou would be able to be kept for 2004 and they would collectively take up your 1st and 2nd round picks.
In all good and useful feedback; we need to find a way to make this all more clear (1a) and to pick out the errors (1b).
Response 2
"Fell in love with a boy" is by Joss Stone. Just don't tell nobody I sent ya. Or, better yet since the official site sucks, go to Amazon.
Response 3
Hope you enjoy the show. Or, at this point in time, enjoyed the show. Or was there another one?
Future Response
When I used Bill Buckner it was because I couldn't think of Eric Plunk or Jay Johnstone; I really did intend to refer to the player stated again but I modified my approach to enhance clarity.
Also I hope everyone is enjoying the "Greatest Hits of the 80's" approach for my examples. I find this fun but more importantly I'm choosing players that are (to the best of my knowledge) no longer active and thus we can later refer to these items saying things like "the Dave Parker situtation" or "the Wally Backman clause seems to indicate otherwise."
Also I'd like to note that I'm coming up with names of these players off the top of my head and without cheating. For most this probably would not be difficult and you would be able to come up with a more entertaining assortment; for me I'm trying my best to not always use players that either played for the Tigers or went to a World Series in the 80's (or both) but I'm not doing very well (are there any that don't meet at least one of those criteria?) because those are the players I remember best and my memory is terrible.
Also yes, the winner of the Pac-10 gets an automatic bid to the dance; thus if Washington beats Stanford they're in. My guess would be that both teams (plus Arizona) are in almost no matter how the game goes.
When was the last time only 3 Pac-10 teams were selected? What about only 2? What about only 1?
First off I started an NCAA Tournament group and sent out invitations that hopefully got to y'all. If not let me know and I can send you the group ID# and password.
Gel - the last two managers to join the baseball league, Greg and John, were the people I was going to send blog invitations to; though this may have already been done. I also would've checked who else was in the league but not signed up for the blog; though some may've chosen not to head here.
Draft of the League Rules
I put a note to check league settings (i'll change that to an actual link after I post this) when I was first writing it; I had meant to actually list out the roster positions and stat categories used but didn't. (I'm only going to make formatting and linkage changes to the Draft [I'll even leave alone the Ron typo - be honest now; who caught this before just now {or several hours from now}?]; we can post a dated Final Revision when it's ready.)
The R-value which I refer to is always the very original draft position. But yeah, it might make things more clear if we defined say, K, as the keeper slot for an individual year.
Then we can say stuff like if R=7(2001); then K(2003) = 3. Now that is clarity.
And yes, "Universal Deadline" should be the opening phrase of 6) b). That sentence will have to be restructured.
Also it might be fun to redo the outline numbering scheme; or, rather, to refer to things as Article 6 section b and so on. Though this would further the notion that this needs to be serious; a notion which otherwise would be fully dispelled by references to the likes of Geoff Zahn and Wally Backman. I merely decided that there was a need for a comprehensive list of rules (with examples) anyone can consult at any time; I don't want this to get out of hand; hopefully there will be no need to go any further.
Ok, now I am going to go read fully the Law of Administration for the State of Iraq for the Transitional Period. I'm not sure how to say what I feel about this without (a) being horribly misunderstood and (b) starting another huge discussion on how things were/are being handled but I can say that my feeling is reservedly positive.
UPDATE 03/16/04: I struck through everything which I consider misleading or that has been decided to be wrong. No attempt has been made to replace what has been struck. Also I added a link for ESPN's Top 200 Overall Rankings which is probably what I meant.
1) League Settings
a) This is a 5x5 rotisserie league. Roster Positions and Stat Categories are listed on the league page under League Settings. Also listed is the trade deadline (this is the Universal Deadline, see below.) For 2004 this is August 15th (a trade must be completed [i.e. approved by the commish] on or before this date.)
2) The Draft
a) Draft order is assigned randomly.
b) It is acceptable to trade draft positions.
c) The draft is conducted via Y! Chat.
i) We may implement a clock. Regardless:
(1) Draft quickly.
(2) Draft players who have not already been drafted.
(3) Draft players who were not kept.
(4) If you are taking too long (this will be defined) you will be assigned a player selected from the official approved draft list (usually ESPN’s average picks.) UPDATE: What I think I meant was ESPN's Top 200 Overall Rankings.
d) Players not within the Yahoo! system may be drafted.
i) You do not get stats from such players until Y! adds them to the system (they are usually quite quick) and they are on your roster.
ii) A team waiting for such a player must keep an empty spot on their roster to hold the place of the drafted player.
iii) The rights to the player drafted are lost in one of two ways:
(1) The manager with rights to the player fails to keep an empty spot. This will not happen immediately; everyone forgets every once in a while.
(2) The player does not make it to the manager’s roster by the Universal Deadline (see below.)
3) Keepers
a) Up to six eligible players may be selected as keepers.
i) To be eligible a player must be on your roster the entire time from the Universal Deadline (on your roster for August 16, 2004; see below) to the end of the season.
(1) Example 1: Goose Gossage is picked up July 8, 2004. On August 19, 2004 Goose Gossage is cut so you can pick up Don Mattingly. Neither player may be kept for 2005 even if Goose Gossage is picked later on.
b) The cost of keeping this players is a draft pick
i) An R-1, R-4, R-9, R-16 system is used where “R” is the round in which the player was Originally Drafted. For the first year kept a player costs R-1; for the second year kept the player costs R-4; for the third year kept a player costs R-9; for the fourth year a player costs R-16. No one can be kept a fifth year (would be R-25 and we don’t have a 26 round draft.)
ii) “Originally Drafted”: This is reset in the off-season when a player is not kept. This is also reset when a player drafted later than the 13th round is cut. This is not reset by a trade or by cutting a player drafted in the 13th round or earlier.
(1) Example 1: Johnny Ray was Originally Drafted in 2000 in the 10th round by Manager A. He is cut during the season and picked up before the Universal Deadline (see below.) He retains his R=10 and thus can be kept in 2001 in the 9th round.
(2) Example 2: Geoff Zahn is Originally Drafted in 2003 in the 7th round (R=7.) He may be kept as a 6th round draft pick for 2004 (R-1 = 6). He would be a 3rd round draft pick for 2005 (R-4.) He is not able to be kept (by anyone) for 2006 (R-9 = -2.)
(3) Example 3: Milt Wilcox is Originally Drafted in 2002 in the 18th round. He remains on his team all year and is kept for 2003 in the 17th round. He has a few rough games to start and gets cut in late May. He has a resurgent June and is picked up (it doesn’t matter by whom) during the All-Star break. He is now treated as a Free Agent.
(4) Wally Backman is Originally Drafted in 2005 in the 23rd round. He is kept in the 22nd round for 2006, the 19th round for 2007, the 15th round for 2008, the 7th round for 2009.
iii) If multiple players are slotted for the same round (let’s say 12 for ease) they go this wise (though they all are treated as if they were kept in the 12th for future considerations): 12, 11, 13, 10, 14, 9
(1) Example 1: You want to keep Dave Parker, Will Clark, Buddy Bell and Wade Boggs for 2006 and they are all Free Agents which normally come in the 12th round. You cannot have more than one pick in the 12th round so they follow the snaking pattern 12, 11, 13, 10. The cost for keeping these players is the draft picks 10-13. It does not matter who goes where as the R for all of them will be 12. Thus if any of them are to be kept for 2007 they would cost an 11th round draft pick; if more than one of them are to be kept the process is repeated.
(2) In 2003 you picked Kirby Puckett in the 2nd round. During the season you traded for Lou Whitaker whom another manager drafted in the second round. You cannot keep both of these players for 2004 as they would each cost a 1st round draft pick.
iv) A “Free Agent” is either a player not drafted or a player drafted in the 14th-24th round that is cut.
(1) An FA can be kept at the cost of a 12th round draft pick.
(2) If multiple Free Agents are kept they all are treated as if they were drafted in the 12th round for the following year’s keepers.
(a) Example: Neither Ron Cey nor Harold Baines were drafted in 2001 but Manager A picked them both up before the Universal Deadline (see below.) They may both be kept for 2002; one will taken in the 12th round, the other in the 11th. Both will have an R (Original Draft) value of 12 and an Original Draft Year of 2001; that is to be kept for 2003 both will cost a 9th round draft pick (R-3.)
v) The keeper submission deadline will be well before the draft so that there is adequate time for draft prep knowing who is already taken. A final list of players to be kept must be submitted by this deadline.
4) Trades
a) We have a trade deadline (see Universal Deadline below)
i) Trades are not allowed from after this deadline until after the keeper submission deadline for the following year.
b) We have a commish veto for trades
i) If you see a trade you think is unfair you may explain why to the message board.
ii) If your trade gets vetoed and you don’t know why (sometimes it is very, very clear) you may argue your case on the message board.
5) Claims
a) After the draft is completed players not within the Yahoo! system may be “claimed.” These players are treated as Free Agents with respect to keeper rules.
b) A player is claimed by a clear post to the message board and by dropping a player to make room. “I claim Paul Molitor. I have dropped Rob Dibble to make space.”
c) The Commissioner’s Note will include a list of all players under claim (including those drafted); check this list before making a claim.
d) A player under claim may only be picked up the manager who has the claim.
e) The claim is lost in two ways:
i) The manager with rights to the player fails to keep an empty spot. This will not happen immediately; everyone forgets every once in a while.
ii) The player does not make it to the manager’s roster by the Universal Deadline (see below.)
6) Deadlines
a) There is a keeper submission deadline; this is before the draft (see above.)
b) The trade deadline, claim deadline and non-in-Available-Players-list deadline are all the same. This deadline is referred to herein as the Universal Deadline and it occurs in August of each year; the specific date varies with the baseball schedule.
c) For a player to be eligible as a keeper for 2005 they must appear on your Yahoo! Roster for August 16, 2004 (and through to the season ends.) This means that trades and pick-ups must happen the day before.
i) Example 1: Gary Templeton was drafted in 2004 by Manager D but was not on the Yahoo! Available Players list. Manager D kept an empty slot on their team all season long but Gary Templeton was not called up to the majors until September and thus was not on the AP list until September 7th. Anyone can pick up Gary Templeton at this point but no one may keep him for 2005.
ii) Example 2: Bret Saberhagen was claimed in June 16, 2004 by Manager F. He is added to the Available Players list on August 12th but Manager F doesn’t notice him until August 16th and picks him up then. Bret Saberhagen thus does not appear on a roster on August 16, 2004 (he does not appear until Aug 17, 2004) and thus is not available to be kept for 2005.
Woohoo!
Also, this is a draft. Please comment upon clarity and also accuracy.
Last week he sold his stake in the D'backs (but is not out of the picture entirely); now Jerry Colangelo has hired somebody to sell off his share of the Suns.
To clarify my suggestion:
A Protected player is one that may not be drafted by an expansion team. A kept player is selected after the (still hypothetical) expansion draft. I'm assuming all protected players will be kept; all kept players will not have been protected.
My prefered scheme is still this:
Existing Managers: Select 4 (or 3) players to protect (and, unless either you're a moron or one of your protected players gets injured, keep.)
New Managers: Each manager drafts a total of 6 (or 5) players to be their keepers. These players come from the pool of all those not protected (an no more than one player taken from each continuing team)
Exisiting Managers: Select 2 more players to Keep from their remaining roster - this gives a total of six (or five) keepers.
That is to say that keepers are not limited to three (or four.) That I would definitely vote against.
The following is Copied from the message board: Tait has suggested Ben Lauritsen who was in a basketball leauge (and maybe other leagues) with several of us. Kevin has suggested his co-worker, who I'm sure has a name (and if they eventually get in, hi person I'm talking about, all this is certainly nothing personal.) So we have two additional managers.
That being I can understand 14 and I can understand 16 but I don't get 15.
I was going to object to the 5 keepers bit but if all teams have exactly one player removed from them (as would happen with 3 expansion teams picking) then this would be acceptable.
The Starlight Mints are coming back to the Mason Jar. Hopefully I'll make it before the show is half over like last time. All I can say is I've learned my lesson: when normally good information sources give conflicting information as to the start time, the day or the venue then (a) this is all very bad news and (b) call the stupid venue. I don't have the phone numbers of local venues in my cell phone just to make it look like I have contacts (that's one reason but....)
I might've posted this already but I wasn't as excited then as I currently am owing to the fact that I've just learned that Dressy Bessy are opening. Woohoo!
Ahh, cleaning. You can never talk too much about cleaning. Or maybe people figured it was time to let the homosexual marriage/Kerry/etc run die after two of us linked the same statement to demonstrate opposed points.
I'd like to point out that I really like having multiple contributors to this blog. When other blogs I've read (and that's not many and those not very thoroughly) have had rants/commentary on moral/political/etc issues they are - not surprisingly - very one-sided. Some have a space for comments but that doesn't cut it; that's random people taking pot-shots away from their home turf.
At any rate this is a good blog and if anyone has come across any other (more focused, I suppose - I like the random thoughts and various bits since they're either from me or people I know and have heard from for several years [at the least]) multiple-user blogs please post links; I will refrain from complaining.
At least apparently, as Gel is still alive. I still think I'd look carefully at what is in the Comet, even though it probably won't say.
Bleach mixes very badly (i.e. producing poisonous gas) with many other cleaners such as vinegar, ammonia and, since we're on the subject, most toilet bowl cleaners.
Yes, this is something you want to advertise. Or rather someone selling cleaning (etc) products would want to advertise. I find white vinegar useless for cooking/eating but it is a natural fairly broad-spectrum cleaner.
Vinegar is acidic and cuts things like grease, soap, fats (yeah, I know they're pretty much the same thing) and whatever the hell that buildup on coffee makers is (it smells nasty but brewing a pot of say apple cider vinegar cleans it out - though then you have to clean out the vinegar by brewing blank pots of water) and various other buildups. I've seen suggestions for using vinegar in other ways - to deoderize, in the laundry, washing windows - but may let's not get carried away just yet.
They also make toilet cleaners but there is a limit to how much they can take off at any one time.
Now a nice balsamic or red wine vinegar is probably not your best bet for cleaning but they are your best bet for eating. As long as you can mask the smell.
