30 November 2014
Flori-duh
29 November 2014
Eagle One
28 November 2014
A Good Defender
26 November 2014
Open Tomorrow?
25 November 2014
Carry On
24 November 2014
Ah, English
Seen here:
Many, many years ago I was teaching an ESL class and I completely confused them by using the word "javaney". As in, "Javaney questions?"
Many, many years ago I was teaching an ESL class and I completely confused them by using the word "javaney". As in, "Javaney questions?"
Labels: grammar
23 November 2014
Makes & Misses
22 November 2014
Microwave Safe
21 November 2014
Celebrity Tweets, part 8
20 November 2014
Linda Holmes Speaks The Truth
19 November 2014
Specialty Pizza
18 November 2014
Yup
As someone with a minor in classical studies, I can confirm that this is accurate:
Labels: random awesomeness
17 November 2014
Kelsey Plum
Washington lost their first game of the season (at Oklahoma), but sophomore guard Kelsey Plum broke the school record with 45 points. She got some nice recognition for her performance.
From ESPN-W:
And she was named Pac-12 Player-of-the-Week:
"Sophomore guard Kelsey Plum (Poway, Calif.) set a Washington single-game record with 45 points in the Huskies’ opening night loss at Oklahoma, 90-80. Plum shot 15-of-27 from the field, including 3-of-7 from three-point range, while making all 12 of her attempts at there free throw line, against the Sooners, a team that has made 15-straight NCAA Tournaments, Plum helped rally the Huskies from an 18-point deficit to get within three in the final minute. Plum also added a team-high five assists and brought down four rebounds. On the defensive end she added three steals and two blocked shots."
From ESPN-W:
And she was named Pac-12 Player-of-the-Week:
"Sophomore guard Kelsey Plum (Poway, Calif.) set a Washington single-game record with 45 points in the Huskies’ opening night loss at Oklahoma, 90-80. Plum shot 15-of-27 from the field, including 3-of-7 from three-point range, while making all 12 of her attempts at there free throw line, against the Sooners, a team that has made 15-straight NCAA Tournaments, Plum helped rally the Huskies from an 18-point deficit to get within three in the final minute. Plum also added a team-high five assists and brought down four rebounds. On the defensive end she added three steals and two blocked shots."
Labels: college basketball
16 November 2014
Thor's Hammer
15 November 2014
Earl Thomas AMA
14 November 2014
For-Profit Colleges
I've always seen commercials for these schools, but I never really understood what they were. Apparently they're just like regular colleges.... except they offer bad educations with non-transferable credits for more than twice the price!
The vast majority of Everest’s students have no prior experience with college — few relatives who attended themselves or high school counselors to help navigate the process. Sintia Lopez, a veteran, emigrated from Nicaragua when she was 12, unable to speak a word of English; she knew nobody who had ever gone to college. She believed her Everest [University] representative when she was told that the school was one of the best in Florida, and believed the representative’s claim that the high tuition was a sign of quality education that she wouldn’t get at a community college. She didn’t know that it was abnormal for a school to call you at all hours of the day, begging you to enroll.
The vast majority of Everest’s students have no prior experience with college — few relatives who attended themselves or high school counselors to help navigate the process. Sintia Lopez, a veteran, emigrated from Nicaragua when she was 12, unable to speak a word of English; she knew nobody who had ever gone to college. She believed her Everest [University] representative when she was told that the school was one of the best in Florida, and believed the representative’s claim that the high tuition was a sign of quality education that she wouldn’t get at a community college. She didn’t know that it was abnormal for a school to call you at all hours of the day, begging you to enroll.
Labels: random awfulness
13 November 2014
An Accurate Assessment of Abbie
From io9's review of this week's Sleepy Hollow episode:
"Abbie shoots the urn that [zapped Katrina] and finishes the incredibly dangerous incantation on her own, completing her arc of just naturally being as good a witch as Katrina, only with more common sense and a gun. (Abbie has literally never met a supernatural thing she was not willing to shoot five times just in case it worked.)"
"Abbie shoots the urn that [zapped Katrina] and finishes the incredibly dangerous incantation on her own, completing her arc of just naturally being as good a witch as Katrina, only with more common sense and a gun. (Abbie has literally never met a supernatural thing she was not willing to shoot five times just in case it worked.)"
Labels: Sleepy Hollow
12 November 2014
Salmon Cannon
11 November 2014
A Supernatural History
Excerpt from ‘Supernatural’ at 200: The Road So Far, An Oral History:
For me [creator Eric Kripke], the core notion behind “Supernatural” was to make a series about urban legends. I think they’re this incredibly rich mythology about the United States, and no one had really tapped into that, so when I started as a writer, one of the first ideas I ever pitched was an urban legend show.
A couple years later I tried to pitch, basically, a “Scooby Doo” rip off of a bunch of kids travelling in a van dealing with these urban legends. It was an idea that I never let go of and kept throwing there every couple years. Finally I had a deal with Warner Bros. and that incarnation was a reporter. Frankly, it was a rip off of “Nightstalker,” but I really fleshed it out and it had mythology.
I took it to Susan Rovner and Len Goldstein at the studio and they said, “We love the idea of doing a horror show,” which no one was really doing on TV at that time, “but we’re not into the reporter, that feels really tired. So no thanks and let’s get another angle.”
So in this moment, when they were basically passing on my idea, as you often do in these kinds of rooms, you start tap dancing. And I said, “forget the reporter, we should do this show as ‘Route 66,’ two cool guys in a classic car cruising the country, chasing down these urban legends,” and literally right on the spot I said “and they’re brothers,” because it popped in my head. “And they’re dealing with their family stuff and they’re fighting evil.” You just start making it up as you go. They were like, “Brothers, wow, that’s a relationship we haven’t seen on TV before.” And from there, “Supernatural” was born... out of a piece of improvisation.
For me [creator Eric Kripke], the core notion behind “Supernatural” was to make a series about urban legends. I think they’re this incredibly rich mythology about the United States, and no one had really tapped into that, so when I started as a writer, one of the first ideas I ever pitched was an urban legend show.
A couple years later I tried to pitch, basically, a “Scooby Doo” rip off of a bunch of kids travelling in a van dealing with these urban legends. It was an idea that I never let go of and kept throwing there every couple years. Finally I had a deal with Warner Bros. and that incarnation was a reporter. Frankly, it was a rip off of “Nightstalker,” but I really fleshed it out and it had mythology.
I took it to Susan Rovner and Len Goldstein at the studio and they said, “We love the idea of doing a horror show,” which no one was really doing on TV at that time, “but we’re not into the reporter, that feels really tired. So no thanks and let’s get another angle.”
So in this moment, when they were basically passing on my idea, as you often do in these kinds of rooms, you start tap dancing. And I said, “forget the reporter, we should do this show as ‘Route 66,’ two cool guys in a classic car cruising the country, chasing down these urban legends,” and literally right on the spot I said “and they’re brothers,” because it popped in my head. “And they’re dealing with their family stuff and they’re fighting evil.” You just start making it up as you go. They were like, “Brothers, wow, that’s a relationship we haven’t seen on TV before.” And from there, “Supernatural” was born... out of a piece of improvisation.
Labels: Supernatural
10 November 2014
Life Overseas
Really nice article about Bria Hartley (UConn, Mystics) and Kayla McBride (Notre Dame, Stars) playing together in Hungary:
Boris Lelchitski, an agent for Hartley and McBride, said smaller towns often had the best women’s basketball teams because they viewed them as a source of pride and would “gladly afford those teams out of the budget in the town.”
Recently, the W.N.B.A. created “time off” bonuses of up to $50,000 per team to give to players who limit their overseas competition to three months or less. But for Hartley and McBride, who, as W.N.B.A. rookies, had salaries that were among the league’s lowest, the extra money available from playing in Europe was difficult to eschew, even though other players had negative experiences in Sopron.
Shenise Johnson, McBride’s teammate with the San Antonio Stars, played here in 2012 and told McBride that she found the town to be boring, even though the residents were nice. Kelly Faris, Hartley’s teammate at Connecticut, and Tianna Hawkins, a Mystics teammate, had played for Sopron and did not enjoy it.
“They were like, ‘Good luck,’ ” Hartley said.
Hartley, who is from North Babylon, N.Y., and McBride, of Erie, Pa., became friends in high school at the 2010 McDonald’s all-American game, but competed at rival colleges: Hartley at UConn and McBride at Notre Dame. They had offers to play for separate teams in Turkey, but they chose Sopron in large part because of each other.
Boris Lelchitski, an agent for Hartley and McBride, said smaller towns often had the best women’s basketball teams because they viewed them as a source of pride and would “gladly afford those teams out of the budget in the town.”
Recently, the W.N.B.A. created “time off” bonuses of up to $50,000 per team to give to players who limit their overseas competition to three months or less. But for Hartley and McBride, who, as W.N.B.A. rookies, had salaries that were among the league’s lowest, the extra money available from playing in Europe was difficult to eschew, even though other players had negative experiences in Sopron.
Shenise Johnson, McBride’s teammate with the San Antonio Stars, played here in 2012 and told McBride that she found the town to be boring, even though the residents were nice. Kelly Faris, Hartley’s teammate at Connecticut, and Tianna Hawkins, a Mystics teammate, had played for Sopron and did not enjoy it.
“They were like, ‘Good luck,’ ” Hartley said.
Hartley, who is from North Babylon, N.Y., and McBride, of Erie, Pa., became friends in high school at the 2010 McDonald’s all-American game, but competed at rival colleges: Hartley at UConn and McBride at Notre Dame. They had offers to play for separate teams in Turkey, but they chose Sopron in large part because of each other.
Labels: UConn basketball, WNBA
09 November 2014
No Appeal
UConn reporter John Altavilla jokes around on Twitter with Rebecca Lobo at a basketball game:
Labels: UConn basketball
08 November 2014
Scifi Through the Decades
07 November 2014
"Are We Putting Bargains On Trial Here?"
06 November 2014
"The Luxury of Solitude"
From this essay by Linda Holmes:
We have a certain cultural mistrust of solitude, I think. It is for weirdos and lost souls, spinsters and misfits. But in truth, I can't tell you what a luxury I think it is to be entitled to it. Most of the time, I want good company, like most people do. But the experience of earned, voluntary aloneness is, among other things, instructive. I don't think you can really understand how accustomed you are to being scheduled and operating off an internal to-do list at almost all times until you think to yourself, "My goal will be to get to Providence by 4," and then you think, "Why is there a goal?"
And then it begins to make you internally rebellious: What if I drove with no goal? What if I had nowhere to be all day until it was time to sleep and I discussed with no one where to stop and take a picture, where to have lunch, what shop to go in, or which way to turn on the trail? What would I do if I could do anything — in this micro-environment, in this moment, at the point of this particular pause, what is my wish?
We have a certain cultural mistrust of solitude, I think. It is for weirdos and lost souls, spinsters and misfits. But in truth, I can't tell you what a luxury I think it is to be entitled to it. Most of the time, I want good company, like most people do. But the experience of earned, voluntary aloneness is, among other things, instructive. I don't think you can really understand how accustomed you are to being scheduled and operating off an internal to-do list at almost all times until you think to yourself, "My goal will be to get to Providence by 4," and then you think, "Why is there a goal?"
And then it begins to make you internally rebellious: What if I drove with no goal? What if I had nowhere to be all day until it was time to sleep and I discussed with no one where to stop and take a picture, where to have lunch, what shop to go in, or which way to turn on the trail? What would I do if I could do anything — in this micro-environment, in this moment, at the point of this particular pause, what is my wish?
Labels: Linda Holmes, travel
05 November 2014
Head of Household
04 November 2014
Voting in Sleepy Hollow
03 November 2014
Huskies
ESPN is counting down the top 25 college basketball players. I expect Breanna Stewart to be #1, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple other UConn players on the list. But today I was (pleasantly) surprised. They listed 21-25, and a familiar face showed up:
Labels: college basketball, UConn basketball
02 November 2014
Mo'ne Davis
01 November 2014
Blow Out
