Draft Day Prognosticating

I think Winston is a semi-bust. He'll last longer than JaMarcus, but I think he'll have success on par with RG3. He'll show flashes of brilliance but not be a Pro Bowl or find playoff success and be out of the league in 5-6 years.

I think Mariota is solid but not spectacular. I think he'll find a roster spot over the next 10 years in the same vein as Alex Smith.

Best of Jake and Amir

Jake and Amir have been making funny web videos for a long time. They posted their last episode a month ago, so I thought I would compile a collection of my favorites.

NFL Rest Advantage

Some guy on Reddit analyzed the entire 2015 schedule to see which teams have to face teams on extra rest vs having extra rest themselves.

Seattle has to play three teams coming off a bye while Tampa Bay, Carolina and Oakland don't do that once. Super interesting.

Two Days in Austin

A couple years ago, I did the research on a Texas barbecue road trip, just for fun. I noted that I’ve always wanted to go to Austin. It seemed like a cool town, good music, good vibes, good food.

As luck would have it, my company needed to send me to downtown Austin to edit a commercial for two and a half days, two nights. I left bright and early Tuesday and returned Thursday afternoon.

I quickly learned through yelp and talking to people that the one barbecue place I had bookmarked for Austin, Franklin’s, is indeed the most popular place. So much so that you have to get in line around 9 in the morning if you want to get food around 1pm. I’m sure it’s fantastic. But even if I could—and I couldn’t—I’m not going to wait in line for 4 hours.

The first night I went with my co-worker to dinner at Stubb’s. They had an all-you-can-eat meal. 3 meats. 3 sides. All you can eat. We got brisket, pork ribs and sausage. Mac & cheese, fries, and fried okra. We called it the king’s feast. All of it was pretty good, but the ribs were phenomenal. There was very little meat on the bone. Which usually is not a good thing. But in this case, that meant a fantastic ratio of delicious, heavily seasoned outer bark to meat. And because it was all you could eat, I didn’t mind plowing through rib after rib.

On the whole I had a great time in Austin. I would absolutely come back, try some more places, see some shows. But I don’t know that I’ll ever make it to Franklin’s.

I attended two Avs games in person this year. I saw one win, a comeback on my birthday. 

In that game, I saw the only top ten goal or save recorded by the Avs (as deemed by the league): The #7 save by Pickard.

NHL Goals of the Year

Playoff Hockey

My team for the 2015 NHL Playoffs is whoever is playing the Wild.

So, first up, I'm pulling for the St. Louis Blues. I get to root for Paul Stastny again, who was huge against the Wild in the first round last year. 

If the Wild get by them, then I get to root for the Blackhawks or Predators and I can't imagine the Wild getting past them. Feel pretty good about my team this year. 

Rockies and Royals are both 3-0.
Book your World Series tickets now.

And I'm Done with FanDuel

I just withdrew my $24 before I lost the rest of it.

FanDuel

So I signed up for FanDuel and put $25 real dollars into it. In case you're not familiar, it's fantasy sports than you can put real money in, but instead of leagues that take 6 months, each day offers a huge selection of games that payout that day. I was good at Home Team Challenge, and that's basically what it's like.

They entice you with the promise of matching your initial deposit. But they do it very slowly. They will transfer the matching funds, 4% of each wager. So today, I put $1 on the line with the hopes of winning $1.80. FanDuel is transferring 4 cents to me as part of the match program. Which means that I would have to put $625 on the line in order to fully earn the $25 match. And even then, that $25 is not able to be withdrawn, it has to be played first.

They offer giant contests with big prizes, but obviously you could play for months and never get any return.

What interested me is a 50/50 league. If you finish in the top 50%, you get paid. As I said earlier, it's just winning a regular bet, although their cut is more like -115ish than -110. If there's 100 people, I don't feel like it's realistic to place in the top 5, but I can get in the top 50, right?

I realized that I really have only ever played fantasy football, so don't feel comfortable with anything else. But since that doesn't start until September, today I did a NBA 50/50 one-day league. The games are half over and I'm currently 21st out of 100. I've been fluctuating between 21 and 50 over the last 10 minutes.

Back to the matching...let's say that every day I did 25 different $1 bets. I would have to get 14 wins just to break even. If I did that 25 days, then I would earn the $25 match. Then I would have to do it one more time to turn the matching funds into withdrawing funds.

If I can't maintain a 56% winning percentage, then I'll run out of funds before I earn the match. If I exceed it, I'll make a profit on top of the matched funds.

- - -

I fully recognize between the beers and the gambling, that I'm potentially opening the doors to addictive pastimes. Hopefully I can play fantasy football in the fall and then withdraw some funds. One of my favorite things to do playing poker, was whenever I was over my starting amount, to set aside the starting amount so I know I would at worst break-even. The equivalent would be if I get up to withdraw my original $25 to paypal, so I can play with house money.

If you want to sign up, here's my referral link.

Big Ten team losing to a team from North Carolina in the National Championship? Where have I seen this before?

Beer Reviews and Wish Lish: Untappd

Thanks to Niraj, now I've got a place to keep track of the beers I've tried and want to try. You can even click on the date of the review and see my tasting notes.

Reviews

Wish List