THAT WAS AWESOME

Wow.

Going into the game, there were two things that I was hoping for.

1. A Win (obviously)
2. An Avs goal on our end

I got tickets on StubHub in January. The best value was seats behind a goal. I got two lower bowl seats, 16th row, for $15 each. There was $10 in fees (service and electronic delivery) but I had a $10 discount code. So final price for two awesome seats: $30. I went to the game with my friend AJ. I didn't charge him for the ticket--all he had to do was buy me a beer and we're even.

I got there early to watch warmups. He arrived one minute before they announced the starting lineup, holding two giant cups of Fat Tire (Colorado pride!).

I liked the seats. Yes it was hard to see the action on the far end, especially when there was a crowd in front of the goal. But when there was an offensive rush coming to our end, it was quite a rush. The puck movement on our end was awesome to follow, it felt like I was seeing everything from the goalie's perspective. From a sitting position, I could just see the near goal line over the boards and the crowd in front of me. So every time the Avs had a scoring chance I was leaping out of my chair. (Side note: Since I've gained a bit of weight since November, my Avs shirt was fairly tight and the people behind me were getting a great view of my lower back every time I jumped up.)

While at work yesterday, I was reading previews of the game and they said that the leading scores for both teams were game-time decisions: Anaheim's Corey Perry and Colorado's Gabriel Landeskog. Perry had suffered a hard hit in a recent game; Landeskog was battling flu symptoms. (One press tweet mentioned diarrhea, every one else just said the flu.)

I was already bummed that Duchene was injured, so I was really hoping to see Landeskog play. In warmups, I was scanning the ice looking for 10 in white and 92 in burgundy. And I was happy with what I saw. Perry out, Landeskog in. Landy is a rookie but our leading scorer and usually our hardest hitter as well.

Also, I made sure to get seats on the end where the Avs would be shooting twice--the 1st and 3rd period.

In the first it seemed like all the action was on our end. And about 10 minutes in, a puck bounced loose from a crowd on the boards and McGinn fired a shot that went top shelf from behind the faceoff dot on our left.

Toward the end of the first, Downie had two great scoring chances right in front of the net, but no goal.

In the second, Anaheim outplayed the Avs. The shot differential grew. Of course, since they switched sides, the action was still mostly on our near end. Landeskog, the one with flu symtoms, seemed like the only Colorado player who wanted to hit anyone. And with 1 second left in the period, the Ducks scored with a loose puck in front of the net.

In the third, the Avs started on a power play and a shot got past their goalie, but was flopping around the goal line and a Duck defenseman cleared it out. It was back and forth and I didn't have a good sense of who would score next. Around 8 minutes to go, I said "next goal wins."

With 6:47 to go in the game, a Colorado defenseman (Hejda) took a low slapshot from the point and Porter tipped it up and into the net, off the pipe. Bananas.

Now it was up to Colorado to hold on for 7 minutes. Then 6 minutes. Then 5 minutes. Then with 4 minutes to go, Colorado gets called for their first penalty of the game (each team only had one the entire game). And 16 seconds later, Teemu fucking Selanne scores on a rebound from the wing.

Tied up with just under 4 to play.

With 3 to go, our second leading scorer, Ryan O'Reilly got the only breakaway of the night. Just as he got the shot off, the trailing defender dove and slashed at his skates. O'Reilly got the shot off and ended up in the goalie's glove, who sort of fell and slid around the goal line. There was a review to see if the puck had crossed the line while in the goal. No goal.

So you know what that means. FREE HOCKEY.

The good part: The Avs were still shooting on the near side. Both teams had chances. And then this happened:



Right in front of us! Overtime winner! Two points in the standings. I didn't even realize it was Landeskog until a minute after he scored.

So I got the win. And not one, but three Avs goals right in front of me. In fact, 4 out of the 5 goals in the game were scored on our end.


And I didn't even mention the nachos! At the second intermission, I was on a mission in search of nachos. I feel like stadium food is always overpriced and usually not that good--but nachos are pretty reliable and a good value.

After passing up one concession which featured pizza and dogs but no nachos, I saw the concession stand title Jalepeno's Cafe. There for 7.50 they sold Monster Chicken Nachos. I'm in. AJ said he would buy them for me. He got a regular nachos (4.75) and a Colorado Native beer (7.50) for himself. The total? 12.25. The lady didn't charge us for the Monster Chicken Nachos. Free hockey and free nachos!

Oh and they were awesome. Sour cream, guacamole, salsa, beans, pulled chicken, jalapenos, covering a ton of chips. It probably took me 20-25 minutes to eat them all, and I can finish a burger in 2 minutes.

Second Avs Game in person

The first time I entered the Pepsi Center was back in November.

It was the Avs 14th game of the season. And it was a good thing we were in our seats when the puck dropped. Colorado scored 34 seconds in. And then never again. Lost 2-1.

Colorado is 7-3, Anaheim 4-6 in their last 10.

The Ducks are out of the playoff hunt, but the Avs are still clinging to hope. 4 teams are within reach of that 8th spot.

Anaheim's leading scorer is day-to-day and I'm hoping he sits this one out.

Go Avs.

Brackets, Calcutta and other Madness

Since we already completed our calcutta and I don't really care how our bracket contest ends up, I'm going to go ahead and talk about my March Madness thoughts.

My Elite Eight looks like this:
1-3, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2.

Boring and wrong. I know it won't end up with that much chalk. So why pick it? Because in each case, I think those teams have the best chance of getting that far.

In considering which teams to get to the Elite Eight (and which teams to advance to the title game) I looked at the strength of the 3's and 4's in each region. So let's break it down by section.

SOUTH

Kentucky
Indiana
Baylor
Duke

Kentucky is the #1 overall seed, but I think Indiana can beat them.
If Kentucky is the #1 overall, that should mean that Duke is the worst #2. I like Baylor. I don't like Duke.

So I've got Kentucky meeting Baylor. But I picked Baylor to win the region, because I think they have a better chance of beating Duke than Kentucky does of beating Indiana.

WEST

Michigan State
?
?
Missouri

Louisville (4) could be a trendy upset pick to Davidson. A 5-12 is a tossup.
So I've got Michigan State easily to the S16.

On the bottom, I don't know anything about Marquette. So I just assume they stink. I've got Murray State in the S16. And I really like Missouri. So I've got them in the Elite Eight.

So I know that Izzo somehow always gets to the final four, but I think Missouri is super strong and I think they have an easier road. (Louisville may be picked to lose in the first round, but that doesn't mean they can't advance and possibly beat Mich. St.)

EAST

Same sort of thinking in the East.

I like Syracuse and Ohio State, but think that Ohio State has an easier road.

Wisconsin could be a tough out.

So I've got Ohio State beating Syracuse.

MIDWEST

I've got Temple beating Michigan. Either way, UNC has an easy road to the E8.

While the bottom half looks like a slugfest. Kansas, Georgetown, even SDSU could all get to the E8.

Just reaffirming that I like UNC to win the region.


FINAL FOUR

So here's my final four. In parens, I'm putting the number of tough games I expect each one to face to this point.

Baylor (2)
Missouri (1)

Ohio State (1)
UNC (1)

Based on that, there's a good chance that Baylor isn't in the final four at all. So advancing them another round is a serious risk.

And I knew in October I was going to pick UNC to win it all. Shit happens.

UNC over Mizzou.

Calcutta

Mark has the best team based on seeds. Niraj looks likes he has the worst. But they don't play games on paper.

Here are the teams I think have a good to reasonable chance to get to the Elite Eight:

Kentucky
Indiana
Baylor
Duke
Michigan St
Missouri
Murray St (half chance)
Syracuse
Wisconsin (half-chance)
Florida St
Ohio St
UNC
Gtown
Kansas

Here's our Calcutta rankings based on who has those teams:

Mark: 4
Niraj: 3.5
Dave: 3
Savan: 1.5
Matt: 1

Let's go one step deeper: Teams with a realistic shot at the Final Four:

Kentucky
Duke
Baylor
Mich St
Mizzou
Syracuse
Ohio State
UNC
Gtown
Kansas

Mark: 3
Dave: 3
Niraj: 2
Savan: 1
Matt: 1

Obviously, I don't know how things well shape up, and whoever owns the winning team will be the winner. And I like my chances of that being UNC.

But at the start of Final Four weekend, my best guess at the standings is:
Mark
Dave
Niraj
Savan
Matt

AD Bracket: Sweet 16

Here's the bracket that everyone's talking about!

Notes from Round One

You can't have a sweet sixteen party without Ice!

The Literal Doctor: I'm sorry, but I'm afraid there's nothing more that I can do.
[everyone gasps]
Michael: Let him keep talking.
The Literal Doctor: Because Dr. Stein has been assigned to your case.

Ann and Stan Sitwell suffered from the same problem. They were in a lot of funny scenes. But Michael and George Michael made Ann's scenes funny, not her. Same for Sitwell with GOB and George getting the laughs.

Banger in the mouth!

Confession: I never really liked Oscar (.com!) And I love Larry Middleman.

Lucille:Well we figured you know best, and who are we to interfere, and you love this girl, and the rest will just be little happy surprises along the way. Like you said.
Larry: Yeah, with the exception of the retard thing.
George, Sr.: Oh, God.
Larry: Tell me you didn’t just say that.

Another Confession: Maeby has her moments, but I never thought that her, Lindsay, or Lucille were nearly as good as their male counterparts. Sorry. Also, Steve Holt!

It's not easy being white. It's not easy being brown. All this pressure to be bright. I got kids all over town.

Now wait a minute. This is just purely a social call. You know, just two adults getting a stew on, man.

And that's why you never go up against J. Walter Weatherman in a bracket.

Gene!


Looking at the Sweet Sixteen matchups

All four 1-seeds advanced. As well as all 6-seeds.

Perhaps the best matchup this round is Tobias vs Mrs. Featherbottom.

But the real matchups loom large in the elite eight. Can't wait.

And as for my commenters, feel free to play out the bracket with your round one picks. It will be interesting to see how closely our final fours matchup.

Curling: Week Three

We lost.

A game that we really should have won.

We were up 5-3 after five ends.

In the 6th end, we had one in scoring position with a guard. But they had the hammer. And their skip threw the perfect shot, a draw that curled around our guard, knocked ours out of the four-foot and stayed right there. That shot scored two for them--a three point swing.

Now it was tied.

The 7th end was a disaster. In a tie game, somehow they got three. I felt like we had outplayed them on the whole, but they had enough good shots to score points when it mattered.

In the last end, we actually had a chance to win or tie. We had two in the house when our skip came up. Both shots came up short. Though it was a tight window and I don't think I could have threaded that needle.

So we lost 8-7.

We're 2-1 now and the team we just lost to is now 2-0-1 with a tiebreaker against us. And I'm sure there's going to be some other 2-1 teams now. So our championship game hopes are still alive, but on the ropes. I think we'll need to win the last two games, and even then it's not guaranteed.

listening to dashboard + drinking whiskey sour alone = ...

What people like in Autopilot

This stopped me in my tracks. It's one thing to say that I sold 250 copies of a book in 2011. It's another to see that people are reading it, highlighting passages they liked, and that multiple people highlighted the same stuff.

It's weird. Even if it's only 3 people, it's a strange feeling to see that people are independently liking certain sections that I've written.

Popular Highlights of Autopilot 

I wonder how much of my life has been lived on autopilot. Some days I’m having lunch and I don’t even remember taking the train to work that morning. We only remember what we want to remember. 

Highlighted by 6 Kindle users

What Santa Claus is for kids, Jesus Christ is for adults. 

Highlighted by 5 Kindle users

What if dreams are just memories that haven’t happened yet? 

Highlighted by 3 Kindle users

We spend so much time devoted to the trivial. So much energy put into things that don't matter. That when something like this happens, it's hard to react. It's hard to function. I cry over playoff losses. I curse when drivers cut me off. I actually care about so much bullshit that it's hard to find the emotion necessary at times like this. 

Highlighted by 3 Kindle users

No matter what we’re talking about, my wife and I find ourselves being contrarian, if only for the sake of being contrarian. People call it playing devil’s advocate. But really it’s just that after spending so much time with someone, you just want to be right. 

Highlighted by 3 Kindle users

The Arrested Development Bracket

It's March. I'm taking inspiration from Grantland, but this time beating them to the punch. And I found out how to make better looking brackets in Excel.

So without further ado...

I already filled out the entire bracket. I know who wins it all. But I figured let's do it a round at a time.

Sweet 16 Results: Monday, March 12
Elite 8 Results: Wednesday, March 14
Final 4 Results: Friday, March 16
Championship Game: Monday, March 19
Winner Revealed: Wednesday, March 21

- - -

I based the seedings on polls that I found online. And carefully constructed the bracket so that at each round my favorite characters would advance. And I tried to pair characters that shared something in common where I could.

Let's look at some tasty round one matchups:

Michael vs Rita (Mr. F)
Stan Sitwell vs George Bluth
GOB vs White Power Bill
Barry Zuckercorn vs Maggie Lizer in a battle of lawyers
Carl Weathers vs Lindsay
Steve Holt vs Maeby
Gene Parmesan vs Lucille

I'm posting these round by round so if Mark and Burnsy (or Kirat--don't think I forgot about my 4th reader) want to weigh in they can. But rest assured that your votes won't change anything.

Check back on Monday for the Sweet 16.

Fixing the NHL Standings with a 3-Point System

Current NHL Standing System
Reg Win/OT Win/SO Win = 2 points
OT Loss/SO Loss = 1 point
Reg Loss = 0 points

The first flaw in this system is that not all games have equal points. If St. Louis beats Nashville in regulation, two points are awarded to St. Louis. If St. Louis beats Nashville in overtime or the shootout, two points are still awarded to St. Louis, but Nashville has earned a point as well. This just became a three point game. It doesn't really make sense that some games are more valuable than others.

The second problem is even bigger. For games tied late in the 3rd, both teams have an incentive to play cautiously. Just getting to overtime, assures both teams half credit. With the good possibility of earning full credit.

This system doesn't make sense.

Let's look at two options.

Proposal A: Conventional Wisdom's 3-point plan
Reg Win = 3 points
OT Win/SO Win = 2 points
OT Loss/SO Loss = 1 point
Reg Loss = 0 points


This solves the first problem easily. All games are worth 3 points.

This also solves the second problems. Teams have an incentive to win in regulation (thought teams still could play cautiously to make it to overtime, at least insure earning a single point).

In a recent ESPN post about this, someone criticied this plan as such:

"You could have a tie game with five minutes to go in regulation and suddenly a team pulls their goalie because they desperately need those three points to move up the standings late in the season," the GM said. "And then they get an empty-net goal scored on them and the other team gets handed three bonus points instead, which could have a huge impact on whatever club was chasing that team. Get it?"

Yes that would be a shame if a team desperate for three points pulled their goal in a tied game. But if you look at the numbers, I doubt it would happen unless it was the last game of the year. Because the chance to get two points in a overtime win, is much better than the risk of getting zero in a reg loss.

This plan solves a lot of problems and makes a lot of sense. But here's a question...should winning in the five minute overtime be less valuable than winning in regulation? Imagine if winning in extra innings or overtime in the NBA or NFL was worth less than a regulation win. Also imagine, that just getting to extra innings helped you in the standings.

It seems contrary to just about everything else we know about sports.

So let's take a step back. Why don't we just count wins?

The answer, clearly, is that now with the addition of the shootout, it would be too arbitrary to award a full win based on winning a three-shot shootout.

Right? Isn't that the answer? So why should we penalizing overtime winners and rewarding overtime losers in hockey, but not in any other sport? Even currently, if you win in overtime, it's a win.

So let's take a look at an alternate idea, one that I haven't seen talked about at all.

Proposal B: Hoagie Central's 3-point plan
Reg Win/OT Win = 3 points
SO Win = 2 points
SO Loss = 1 point
Reg Loss/OT Loss = 0 points

Let's look at the problems with the current system.

Yep, all games are worth the same amount of points.

Now what about teams tied in the 3rd playing cautiously? I think this would work even better than Proposal A. There is no incentive to get to overtime. If you make it to overtime, you still haven't earned a point yet.

So teams would play hard in the 3rd. And I think it would make overtime even better as well. For a team that is excellent in the shootout, like Colorado (7-1) or Detroit (7-2), currently they have an incentive to play cautiously in overtime. But with an overtime win being worth 3 and a shootout win being worth 2, I think all teams would play to win in OT.

And it makes sense, according to the reason why we don't just count wins in the first place. Because the shootout is sort of arbitrary and winning the shootout isn't really the same as winning the game in regulation or overtime. So the fans still get a winner or loser. And if your team loses in the shootout, at least you still got a point out of it.

I really don't see a problem with this idea.

I think Water Basketball should be an Olympic sport

But it the shallow end. For lots of dunks and alley oops.

And a circle around the basket where defenders can't go. For lots of dunks and alley oops.

Goaltending is allowed if you can reach it.

My Favorite Wire Characters Bracket

So once again, Grantland came out with a non-sports bracket:

Now, I'm not a Wire-fanatic. But I have watched the entire series. And I couldn't help myself.

So I put together a 16-character bracket. Why not 32? Well, just think of these as the first round of winners from the Grantland bracket. Why would I need to seed the people that couldn't win one matchup? Of course, it wasn't as simple as playing out the Grantland setup. Because some of my favorite 16 include people in first-round matchups from Grantland's bracket (McNulty and Cedric, Mouzone and Bunk, Snoop and D'Angelo, Avon and Prez). But also because I wanted to carefully construct this. More on that after you see it.

But the biggest question is what is your criteria for selecting your favorite character? I based it simply on this: which characters would I rather watch a scene of?

I based the seedings on Grantland's seedings. Which allowed for upsets. Which is key. If I just ranked my favorite characters 1 to 16, that wouldn't be a very good bracket at all.

So for example, Marlo didn't even crack my top 16 and Avon was out in the first round. I just didn't find them that enjoyable to watch.

So how do I construct a bracket like this, where I want to control how far each character advances? I do it in reverse order. And in tiers.

So Omar was my favorite. Then I wanted String to face him in the final. Lester and McNulty round out my final four. And then I picked my elite eight: adding Bunk, Clay, Carcetti and Cedric in that order. Then it's just a matter of juggling the seeds. Originally I had McNulty as a 4 and Lester making the Final Four as an 11 over the 3 seed Bunk. Then I realized I hadn't placed Avon and based on Grantland's seedings he needed to be in the top 4.

I was happy that I got to place McNulty vs Bunk. And the final four featured two street vs cop matchups, with the street winning both times.

- - -

Of course, this is just a personal preference. And like I said, I'm not a Wire fanatic. I'd love to hear what Mark's favorite characters are, at least a final four, if not an elite eight.

my cbssports.com account

This year's work March Madness is being run through cbssports.com. So I had to make an account. when I tried to register "Fymbo" as a username it said it already existed. So I logged-in and found my account details.

Curling Standings through Week 2

I've posted screenshots of standings before. But always as a fan. Never as a member of one the teams. Here's our remaining schedule.

Week 3: Blazing Brooms vs Rock Stars
Week 4: Blazing Brooms vs Junior Men
Week 5: Blazing Brooms vs Full House

Week 6: tbd (Championship Week (or Bowl Week, I suppose, if you don't make the championship.)

Luck of the Draw is a really, really good team. I subbed for them in Rookie Winter A League in January. They won it all with a 5-0-1 record. I'm very surprised that they lost last week to Full House, a team that lost in Week 1 to the Junior Women.

- - -

To make the championship game, you have to be in the top 2, you don't have to be #1. A win this week would be huge.

Bullshit

Let's see. Triple-letter F is 12 + 2 + 4 + 5 is 23. x3 is 69. 

Plus 12 + 1 + 1 + 2 for fern is another 15. 

That's an 84-point fuck. 

Thanks a lot Words With Friends. Fuck is neither misspelled nor a proper noun. And I'm pretty sure it get's used more than ern. 

Curling: Week Two

So the first thing that happened tonight was I found out that last week's game counts as a win for us. Even though we lost by one, since they only had two players and I curled for them, it was a forfeit. So our run to the championship is still in play.

This week our opponent was three high school girls...and the club president. Here's how most ends went. The first two girls couldn't get their stones across the hog line. The third girl could but wasn't very accurate. And then the president would come in and thread the needle to the button.

We were red. I was second again.

1st end: Red 4
2nd end: Yellow 1
3rd end: Red 1
4th end: Yellow 1

At this point, the team with the hammer (last stone) had scored every time. In the second end, I played two great shots and we had three or four in scoring position, but the yellow skip's hammer throw was perfect. But after being up 5-1 after three and with the hammer coming again in the 5th, I was thinking blowout. I was hoping that maybe I could skip the last end if it was garbage time.

5th end: Yellow 1

Even though we had the hammer, yellow scored. But we would have the hammer in the 6th. And the 6th is a good one to score in. That gives your opponent the hammer in the 7th, setting you up to have the last stone in the 8th.

6th end: Yellow 1

Crap. After being up 5-1, it was now 5-4. We couldn't lose to high school girls. My shots weren't as good anymore. A few short, a few long.

7th end: Yellow 2

Are you serious? Now we're down 6-5. After the first four ends where the team with the hammer scored every time, yellow had scored three ends in a row when we had the hammer. But we still had it for the 8th. We were down. We needed 1 for a tie, 2 for the win.

8th end: Red 2

Hell yeah. This was serious curling. My first shot (3 of 8 in this end) knocked a yellow out of the house and rolled into the house, behind a guard. It remained one of two red stones in the house at the end. Clutch.

So now the Blazing Brooms are 2-0. There's 5 rounds of league play (10 teams), and then the top two teams are selected to play for the championship, a la the BCS. Last season the two teams selected were 4-0-1 and 4-1.

I don't think we're the best team in the league. But that doesn't matter. We only play 5 of the other 9. If we can catch a few breaks, it's not out of the question.

Of course, it's not all about the championship. I'm playing quite a bit better over the last two games then I did when I subbed. It's a lot of fun.