March Was Indeed Mad

So, since my alma mater won the MAC tournament and went to the Sweet 16, I was a little preoccupied with basketball for the last few weeks . . .

I went to all the tournament games (made some new friends and hung out with some old ones) and then organized a bunch of local game watch parties for OU alumni (and sang the school fight song solo on live local television).

We lost (although we totally could have won!) and I thought I'd get back to my usual routine  —  tv, movies, books, blogging, etc. — but now there's this big kerfuffle about the basketball coach possibly leaving the verdant hills of southeast Ohio for some other school, and I've spent most of the day hitting "refresh" on a bunch of Twitter feeds in hopes of being among the first to know anything for sure. Instead of, you know, doing any actual work. And since I'm already two weeks' behind because of all the event planning I was doing during office hours, I kind of need to get on the stick.

Sigh.

What else?

Oh! Speaking of goofing around at the office: I've been wearing a different pair of Chuck Taylors to work every day for about the last week or so. Why? Glad you asked. Allow this Facebook conversation to illuminate and elucidate:

So, here's a quick collage of what I've worn so far.

Exciting, eh?

MAC Madness 2012

I went to the OU-Toledo MAC Tournament game at the Q last night. It was supposed to start at 9:30, and I seriously considered taking a power nap between work and the pre-game party, but decided that I didn't have enough time.

As it was, I got to the pre-game event too late to see the band. However, I was part of a small but appreciative crowd that got to witness them marching out of the Q to the hotel, so that pretty much made up for that.

Here are some crummy cell phone photos taken from my seat at about the time OU finally got its act together and started scoring some points, much to the chagrin of Toledo.

 

 

Also: What's the deal with the Toledo fans wearing masks — ski and otherwise — as part of their superfan outfits? (I would include a photo, but the whole thing comes off as strange and somewhat creepy/unsettling, so I will spare you.) Is it like the Saints fans who put bags over their heads — they don't want anyone to know who they are?  (UPDATE: Apparently it's a secret society of athletic supporters: The University of Toledo Blue Crew. I give them points for the Chuck Taylors, but that's about it.)

After the game I was going to go out with some friends who came up from Columbus, but I forgot that they roll up the sidewalks early downtown — the Lizard was already pretty much closed at midnight, and the Harry Buffalo gave us the boot at one. I suppose we could have gone to Flannery's, but since I was supposed to be at work at eight, we called it a night. 


It's probably just as well, since my response to the alarm going off this morning was to slam the snooze bar and pull the covers up over my head. I did that for about forty-five minutes, then sucked it up and got going. 


Since I was already running late, I decided to swing by the Dunkin' Donuts for some caffeine and sugar in the form of an extra large hazelnut coffee and a doughnut with green and white sprinkles. Nom, nom, nom.


Tonight I get to do the whole thing over again: pre-game party at 7, game at 9:30-ish (depends on how long the Kent-Akron game goes). Here's hoping the OU team of Thursday's second half shows up for the whole game this time — I want to go to the championship game on Saturday!

Wednesday Timewaster: Celebrity Jeopardy

Yeah, so . . .

I should be doing some laundry and getting some stuff together for an alumni event I'm hosting tomorrow and putting in some time on my freelance project, but I'm too busy listening to the Indians and Angels in extra innings and Joe Tait calling his last game for the Cavs plus watching all of the Celebrity Jeopardy sketches compiled on Funny or Die.

My favorite? Penis Mightier. Classic.

Crummy video quality, but I guess you can't have everything.

SNL Celebrity Jeopardy 3-20-99 - watch more funny videos

The Bad Is Outweighing the Good Right Now

Happy nerd moment #1: Using some code I found on teh magic interwebs, I made a macro to create a monthly calendar in Excel. 

Happy nerd moment #2: Discovering the external hard drive I've been searching for off and on for the last month or so in the bottom of one of my tote bags. Next step: Double-checking that everything on my old laptop has been backed up to the EHD so I can move some things over to the new laptop.

Scary Cleveland fan moment that completely outweighs the happy nerd moments: Elbowgate 2010. 

When I woke up this morning, the sports report on the radio was filled with clips from LeBron's postgame interview in which he detailed the issue with the elbow. I thought it sounded like a pinched nerve or something, and started freaking out big time. 

Then at BW-3s this evening — enjoying the free wings I won at the MAC tournament while crabbing about things at the office — I saw the video footage of the same interview and was mesmerized by that cream-colored cardigan with the shawl collar. (What was with his initials on the left side? It reminded me of a letter sweater from the '50s, except with his monogram instead of the school's.) 

I was so captivated by the fashion show that I almost forgot to be nervous about the Cleveland karma — much like Murphy's law, it essentially states that anything that can go wrong with Cleveland sports teams will  . . .  I mean, come on: The Indians lose because of a frakkin' bunt single with two outs in the ninth?! — until I watched SportsCenter's Top Ten on premature celebration, which actually featured the Browns game where they blew the win because of the penalty after that one guy took his helmet off early and thus set me off all over again. I mean, Cavs fans — your humble correspondent included —  have been thinking "This is the year! Ring for the king!" all season, and now . . . to be laid low by the same thing that has brought us this far — to wit, his amazingly accurate shooting arm — is beyond brutal.

Making a somewhat unsuccessful attempt to cheer me — and the rest of the "Only in Cleveland!" crowd —  up? 

The LeBron James Elbow Twitter feed, which was featured in the Plain Dealer (LeBron's Elbow Says He's Fine. Honest.) and the Fake Scoop section of SB Nation (LeBron's Elbow? No, the Elbow Patches Are the Problem). I guess I'll be biting my nails between now and Saturday afternoon while fervently hoping that this is all a big fake-out on his part to lull the Celtics into a false sense of security and then . . . Welcome to LeBron's block party! 

Friday Timewaster: Spring Training and Snuggies

I'm looking forward to today's sporting festivities. Of course, I'm usually somewhat optimistic at this time of day, before minor annoyances and petty grievances have conspired to alter my mood.


Let's see, the first broadcast from Spring Training is in  . . . . 

and the world record for Snuggie-wearing will be attempted in . . .


Well, I don't have a snazzy countdown clock for that, but the Cavs people should have put one on the site. Instead, you'll have to look at this:

Oh my.




On the plus side, I'm choosing to believe the AP reports that Z will re-sign with the Cavs in a few weeks. Yay! This being Cleveland, though, I'm sure the universe will conspire against me somehow. ¹
 


Things are looking up, though: The snow is melting and the sun has made an appearance. Maybe this will be the Tribe's year. . . .    




Don't laugh!  I just finished listening to a collection of short stories and poems about baseball (titled, imaginatively, Baseball!), so I am almost as pumped for the first game as if I had just watched all three Major Leagues.² 

Acclaimed actors from stage and screen perform tales from the baseball diamond in this newest, three-CD collection of stories from Selected Shorts. Both classic and contemporary works are featured, including a heartwarming piece on some fan habits during a players' strike, by W.P. Kinsella, and a sidesplitting account from T. Coraghessan Boyle of the longest game ever. Many of the readings were recorded during a historic broadcast of the show hosted by the late, beloved baseball commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti. From the first pitch to the final out, these short stories are a lively listening experience.

¹ I read this on Joe Posnanski's blog the other day, and loved it:

Cleveland is Cleveland. Cleveland is ethnic and sarcastic and covered in snow. Cleveland is optimistically pessimistic (or pessimistically optimistic) and bigger than you think and smaller than it used to be. Cleveland has a great symphony, a great art museum, a great playhouse and the vast majority of people in town (including me) would rather watch the Browns. Cleveland has potholes and abandoned buildings and has not won a championship since 1964. Cleveland has brick houses and close-knit neighborhoods and a lot of ice cream shops. The sky is often gray.

— Snuggies on Parade

The whole essay is great and I highly recommend reading all of it, but this snippet with the optimistically pessimistic/pessimistically optimistic struck a chord with me, especially at the start of the season when hope springs eternal. 






² Or just the first one, three times. 

I Was Afraid of This

My medium-warm enthusiasm about adding Jamison and Bassy is tempered by how super-bummed I am to see Z go. For the time being, I feel that this is yet another strike against Danny Ferry. (I'm still holding a grudge after twenty years!)


The guys on ESPN this a.m. were talking about the "wink, wink, nudge, nudge gentleman's agreement" that will let Z be cut by the Wizards so he can wait a month and get re-signed by the Cavs. I probably annoyed my neighbors by yelling at the television about how we had one of those WWNNGA's with Carlos Boozer, and where is he now? Utah, the m—f—er. 


Not that I care about him anymore, but still: It makes me nervous. I may not be un-nervous until Z is helping LeBron hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy this June. Here's hoping.

If I'm Depressed, It Must Be Cleveland Sports

So, yeah . . .

I was going to say that I was really looking forward to the Cavs season right about now — given that, at this rate, the Indians are mathematically eliminated from the 2010 postseason and that the Brady Quinn era has started not with a bang but the whimpering of a team who got its a$$ handed to it by the frackin' Broncos (I still hate John Elway with the passion of a thousand burning nuns!) — but then Delonte got nailed on weapons charges, and if he winds up suspended or cut, Shabron has one less dude to pass to, not like they had that many producers on the floor in the first place.

And I'm totally blaming the West shenanigans on the new marketing person, who totally jinxed us last week when she launched into a mini-soliloquy at lunch about how great the guys on the Cavs are, not just as players but as nice guys, upstanding members of the community, if you will, who don't get arrested or otherwise get publicity for unsavory reasons, etc. and so on. I said, Knock on wood, and did, but obviously my mojo was no match for the universe's perpetual F You! to Northeast Ohio.

Sigh.

I Totally Want This: Shabron

This could be the year — …SHABRON shirts are here!


We were so excited about the recent "Shaquisition" that we just HAD to release a brand new 10x design to celebrate the coming together of this dominating duo. Available in Wine & Gold only.

Also:

When I was in Akron over the weekend, I spotted a banner for Just Stay along the route of the King for Kids Bike-a-Thon (aka the Tour de LeBron). Subtle . . .

Shaqtastic?

I'm hoping this Shaq thing doesn't turn out to be Sean Kemp 2.0: Overpaid and injury-ridden.

On the plus side, it's given us something to talk about besides our football player who hit someone with his car and our baseball players who can't hit anything.

Memo to Dwight Howard

Yo, Dwight! C'mere a minute. I got a message for you . . .




In case you haven't noticed, TPTB (David Stern, ABC, Nike, etc.) want a Kobe-LeBron matchup in the finals. I present Exhibit A:









You may be saying, So? What's that got to do with me? Lemme break it down: You're supposed to take a dive, Superman. I mean, take a page from Carmelo and make it look good, but don't think that you're more than a speed bump on the way to LBJ's first ring.

This is nothing against you or your mad basketball skillz or your posterboy-for-Crest smile. At any other time, I would be glad to root for you. Right now, however, I wish you had more free time in which to film hi-larious cell phone commercials with D-Wade and the Round Mound of Rebound.







So, tell your teammates (Especially Turkoglu — seems like that dude's been killing us all series!) to knock it off with making the three-pointers and triple-teaming LeBron and whatnot. Ask them to go on summer vacation a little early, and to just coast for the next few nights. Tell them what Northeast Ohioans have been telling ourselves for decades: There's always next year.


Except we're not saying it this time. This year's our year. Believe it, Leon Bibb!

Picked the Wrong Week to Quit Drinking

Man, last night was not good to the front-runners: Glambert, the Cavs, and the Royals all lost. Bummer, dude. Oh wait: I mean, Go Tribe!

In other news, I followed through on my threat to call in to my friend's book club meeting and have him put me on speaker so I could give my (low) opinion of the book (Last Night at the Lobster).

Basically, I thought all the characters were a bunch of sad sacks, the whole thing was depressing, and it's a good thing it was short. Apparently a few people agreed with me.

Sadly, since my attendance was virtual, I missed out on those awesome Red Lobster biscuits. Maybe I'll talk the 'rents into going out to eat this weekend.

Burning question: What's the appropriate foodstuff to accompany the next discussion, which is about the zombie version of Pride and Prejudice?

Friday Timewaster: Spot Bowl 2009

To help you prepare for Sunday . . . .

Spot Bowl 2009

Steelers, shmeelers. Go Cardinals!

P.S.

Yeah, so, I was going to do a different meme each day this week, but my natural laziness reared its well-fed head and I didn't. Besides, I had some actual stuff to do on Tuesday and Thursday nights, and I got involved in a project at work that didn't involve sitting at a desk all day trying to look busy, so that cut into my usual blogging time.

So, now it's Friday. Woo. I might go to the Cavs game tonight, which would be great, even though it's just the Clippers and the seats might be closer to the rafters than the court. I'm hoping that there's no carryover from last night's road loss and they stay perfect at home. (What's the longest home court winning streak in the NBA? You would think you could quickly Google that and come up with a statisfactory response, but no.)

Hmm. If I go to the game, that would make three weekends in a row that I attended an event at the Q: Monsters hockey, the figure skating championships, and Cavs basketball. That's probably a new personal record. Yay, me?

Today's the Day

Since I fell asleep at 11 last night, despite my desperate attempts to stay awake for the Cavs-Lakers game, I woke up at 3 a.m. with the TV showing Ali and the radio blaring some nonsense about aliens. 

I switched over to ESPN long enough to find the final score on the ticker (Damn! What a blowout! It's probably just as well that I fell asleep when Cleveland was just a few points behind, and not twenty.) and then, since I was awake and annoyed, flicked through the channels for a bit.

I came across the last episode of The West Wing on Bravo. You know, the one where the youngish ethnic candidate with the pretty wife and kids gets inaugurated, having beaten an experienced senator in the general election and yet having asked that same senator to be his secretary of state. . . . 

After that was over, I caught the rerun of Olbermann, broadcasting from somewhere on the Mall, and did not envy the crowd out there freezing in the cold one tiny bit. I'll be here in my warm office, watching it online.

Brace Yourself

Can't wait to find out what this is all about . . .











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Now playing on iTunes: DJ Moule - Black Sabotage (Beastie Boys vs. Led Zeppelin)
via FoxyTunes

Tip-Off Tuesday

This is actually kind of depressing. . . .

Not only do I not make 50 grand a year, but even if I did it would still take me a bizillion years to earn what LBJ pulls down in one season.

Compare your salary to what LeBron James and the other Cleveland Cavaliers are paid

Take our 2008-09 Cavs Salary Machine for a spin. You can compare your annual salary to what LeBron James, Ben Wallace, Mo Williams and the other Cleveland Cavaliers will be paid this season. Enter a salary and choose a player.

LeBron James' annual earnings off the court were estimated by Forbes magazine at $14 million.

He will be paid $14.4 million this season by the Cavaliers, second highest on the team behind Ben Wallace.

Cleveland's payroll of nearly $90 million is estimated to be the second highest in the NBA, behind only the New York Knicks.

The Story That Will Not Die [Updated]

OMG. The comments on this story are freaking hilarious.

Hey, Cleveland! Here's how to get 23-cent pizza

My favorite? "'Poop on a stick' is called a corn dog."

Posted by Amy at 10:03 PM 5/7/08

Updated near lunchtime on Thursday because I was getting hungry and wondered how things were going ....

• Long lines reported at Papa John's pizza locations; Latest reports
  
  
• Papa John's: 23-cent pizzas in NE Ohio now includes Toledo, Youngstown

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Now playing on iTunes: The Twilight - It's Such a Drag
via FoxyTunes

Guess What I'm Having for Dinner Tomorrow?

CLEVELAND — Papa John’s Pizza issued an apology to Cleveland and the Cavaliers for making T-shirts with LeBron James’ number and the word “crybaby” under it.

To apologize, Papa John’s will sell Cleveland residents a large, one-topping pizza for 23 cents on Thursday. The 23 is an homage to James’ jersey number. The company also will donate $10,000 to the Cavaliers Youth Fund.

The pizza chain’s T-shirts were featured during the Cavs’ games against the Wizards on Friday in Washington. Wizards fans taunted the Cavs, who won the payoff series that night in Game 6.

The shirts started after James complained about hard fouls, and Wizards center Brendan Haywood called him a crybaby.

— Associated Press

I watched the last game of the Cavs-Wizards series in New York, and since a jazz combo was wailing away on the other side of the bar (and some rowdy archivists were shooting pool in the next room), I couldn't hear anything about the "Crybaby" t-shirts a local Papa John's franchise handed out. (Assuming anybody said anything about them during the game anyways, of course.)

At my parents' house on Sunday, I saw the article in the paper and the in-depth report on FOX 8. Brave Astronaut helpfully sent me a link to one of the many, many news reports on the topic. After a little Googling, I came across this comment on the pizza blog The Slice:

Obviously this was not a nationally issued opinion and as the Director of Marketing for a very large franchise with 28 of our stores in Ohio, we are deeply saddened by this judgement call that put all Papa John's stores in jeopardy. I hope that people will see this as something done without consent of every Papa John's owner. PJ Ohio stands firm and supports LeBron James. We are sorry this happened.

The 23-cent pizza offer was also mentioned in the Cavs Insider e-newsletter sent out on Tuesday. Some of the comments in the Cavs' online forum are hi-larious. I like the signatures, too. Some clever graphics:








Here's hoping it goes our way in the rest of the series.



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Now playing on iTunes: Bob Seger - Rock and Roll Never Forgets
via FoxyTunes

Wednesday Timewaster: Music Intelligence Quiz

I was actually looking for new ways to kill time last Friday, and an e-mail from eMusic arrived, inviting me to take the Music Intelligence Quiz.


With 111 points, I just squeaked into the Mix-Tape Master category. There are a suspicious number of perfect scores, but I answered everything off the top of my head.

Mix-Tape Master (109-144 points)
You are a music evangelist: the person in your network of friends who always has the coolest new song, the one whose iPod gets picked to DJ every party. You understand the art of the segue, how the key to the best mix-tape isn't just the songs you pick, but how they interlock with each other. You also know who the up-and-coming acts are and are quick to recognize where their influences lie and whether they will make it big. You work hard at the pursuit of this knowledge, scouring music blogs, magazines and record stores. Most importantly, you are generous with your passion – and your friends should be very, very grateful. Still, it’s always good to get new inspiration for your latest mix.

I agree with "the key to the best mix-tape isn't just the songs you pick, but how they interlock with each other" but not so much with knowing who the up-and-coming acts are. I am fond of figuring out influences and soundalike songs/melodies, though.

I have to pick out some good CDs or iTunes playlists to take with me tomorrow. I'm taking a long weekend and doing a little road trip with my mom. (Read: She's tagging along while I go to a conference.)

If it were just me in the car, I would just cue up all the songs that help me drive fast and enjoy them at top volume. However, I don't want my mom to crab at me for speeding. (This from a woman who loves to announce that she can make it from Kenmore to Wadsworth in fifteen minutes — it's a little like making the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs.) (Oh, and I've been tipped off about a speed trap in a specific spot — the person who warned me got three tickets in the same place, so it sounds legit.)

Back to the music: I'm kind of tired of all the CDs I already have in the car, of course, so I'll have to swap those out for something awesome. I do have a gizmo that charges the iPod while broadcasting it over the radio, but it can be a pain to switch frequencies while driving. I did build a whole bunch of new playlists, though, and have some ideas for some new ones . . . Hmm.

First, though, I have to tie up some loose ends on a freelance project. Plus, I should really concentrate on bigger issues like, oh, I don't know, packing my clothes and checking the air in the tires.

Off to send a permission request, so I can check something off of my work to-do list before I leave ....

At least the Cavs game starts mondo early. I'm hoping they'll clinch tonight and get that out of the way.




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Now playing on iTunes:
Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers - Blue Jean
via FoxyTunes

This Is So Wrong

New York for Lebron

I came across this site about a month ago. I cannot, in good conscience, support these people. But they do have some mildly amusing t-shirts, one of which I will reproduce here for your amusement.



Before the Cleveland-Washington series started, I was sort of agreeing with a lot of media types who thought it was going to go to seven games and the Cavs would be lucky if they came out on top. But now that two games are in the books, I'm hoping we wrap it up in four. I don't even care about winning the series in a fifth game at home.

Of course, that assumes that the Cavs continue to bring it like they did in Game 2 and that the Wizards continue to lay down like they did in Game 2. And then that means we have to go up against Boston in Round 2, and our chances don't look good in that at all. Sigh.





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Now playing on iTunes: Indigo Girls - Fill It Up Again
via FoxyTunes

Mmm, Doritos!

I was too tired to watch Bones last night, so I taped it for future enjoyment. Instead, I had the Indians game on the radio and the Cavs game on the TV. Sports overload! (There's probably a balls joke in there somewhere, but I'm not going all the way there ... which leads to a whole new round of smart remarks, but you'll just have to make them to yourselves and/or post them in the comments!)

After the insanity that was the final seconds of Cavs-76ers and the ninth inning of Indians-Red Sox, I came across Stephen Colbert on Larry King. I dozed off maybe about halfway through (I'd had a loooong night on Sunday) but the parts I did see were hilarious (Stephen) and awkward (Larry), much like any episode of The Office.

Since I have nothing better to do at my office today besides try to come up with generic catch-all categories for my time log to disguise how much time I spend cruising teh Interwebs, I'll be YouTubing the show.

Oh, and here's my new desktop wallpaper, courtesy of Dustin H. in the Colbert Nation:

I was actually looking for that new flavor of Doritos at the store the other day but couldn't find them. Apparently this is going to be Americone Dream all over again — it's going to take forever to get to Ohio. Maybe I'll be able to buy a bag by the time the Democrats pick a nominee.




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Now playing on iTunes: The Hives - Well All Right!

via FoxyTunes