SB Nation User Blog: DrivetheLane

Junk Drawer - 12/8/09 - It Might Take a Year, But It Will Get Better Edition

DrivetheLane — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:42:35 -0000

Moods for a Blazer fan:

Let's be happy!

via thumbs.dreamstime.com

Let's be sad......

via thebsreport.files.wordpress.com

Let's ignore.

via www.guy-sports.com

Let's pretend it's not happening!

via image3.examiner.com

These are meant in jest. I don't want to belabor the point that the mood around here ranges from depressed to grim to optimistic, so I'll just say that I hope today we can attempt to be happier. It's not a game day, let's try to make each other laugh. We don't have to forget basketball all together, this is a basketball blog after all, but let's do our best to band together as a community of people who love our team, no matter what. I'll leave with a quote from Bill Cosby:

"Through humor, you can soften some of the worst blows that life delivers. And once you find laughter, no matter how painful your situation might be, you can survive it." - Bill Cosby

I wish a happy day to you all!

Poll

Funniest punchline

Junk Drawer - 12/4/09 - Holiday Movie Edition

DrivetheLane — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:10:01 -0000

One of my favorite parts of this holiday season is watching Christmas movies. Over the years I've worked up a Christmas movie rotation. These are movies I try to watch all of or at least most of (if I catch them on TV) at least once during the Christmas season. Christmas movies generally revolve around the same themes: family togetherness, the magic of imagination, warm fuzzies. Sure, they can be corny, but that's part of the fun sometimes.

My rotation consists of classics and modern day movies alike. A couple of them are getting harder and harder to catch on TV and some are pretty ubiquitous around this time. Without further ado, my rotation:

First, of course, is what I consider the greatest Christmas movie, A Christmas Story. It's not even so much about Christmas as it is about the time of year. And to me, it captures what it's like to be 8-10 years old right around Christmas time: the anticipation, the excitement, the spector of disappointment. Here's a clip that capture the general hilarity of the movie as well as the idea that the excitement doesn't just stop with the children at Christmas time.

Second, is Home Alone. I've watched this pretty much every year since I can remember. Hilarious. Some of the finest slapstick work you'll see. Plus, like George Costanza, that old man gets to me.

Next, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Maybe the best "Vacation" movie. HIjinks ensue. Chevy Chase does moronic, but good hearted, well intentioned stuff as well as creating the most tremendous exterior illumination display this side of Tim Taylor. And Cousin Eddy commits a traditional holiday kidnapping.

The other big one for me is a fairly recent Christmas classic, Elf. Will Ferrell knocks this out of the park. Here's the scene that slays me every single time and also kind of captures the spirit of the movie.

A quick rundown of a few others: the original Miracle on 34th Street, the version of A Christmas Carol starring Alastair Sim, Love Actually, the cartoon version of How The Grinch Stole Christmas, and A Peanuts Christmas.

Lastly, my Dad had a video camera. So we have pretty much every christmas recorded on home video from 1988 until the late 90s. My siblings and I all loved watching these together every year. Now, it doesn't happen so much as we're all busier, it's harder to plan a time, and no one has a VCR. One year, my brother attempted to transfer the tapes to DVD, but with little success. Still, these are probably my favorite Christmas movies to watch. I don't have a clip. But suffice it to say the first home video featurs me running around the living room in a circle at the age of six in my pj's singing Jingle Bells.

I'm not doing a poll because there is no way I will be able to fit every Christmas movie people would want to vote for so let everyone know in the comments. I encourage everyone to enjoy at least one Christmas movie this year if you're needing an extra boost of holiday spirit.

Junk Drawer - 11/23/09 - Where's the stamp for my letter to Santa? Edition

DrivetheLane — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:23:32 -0000

Christmas (or Xmas or Solstice, if you prefer) is just around the corner and it seems that there are some in our hallowed ranks who have been put upon to make their Santy Claus lists already.

So let's all pitch in and talk about what we want on our lists. This way, we can give each other ideas. I'm sure we've all been good little girls and boys so none of us should have any trouble receiving what we so desperately hope to attain.

As for me, at the top of my list (as I've made known to my brother and sister multiple times) is the New Super Mario Brothers video game for Nintendo Wii. This is because I'm nostalgic and just a kid at heart. Plus a little bit of a nerd. Hellllllooooo, ladies! There are also always numerous DVDs (films and TV shows) I want every year but I won't list all those.

So have at it, junkers. Spill your lists to the wide world and give us all extra ideas. But remember this: it really is better to give than to recieve, so if you know someone special that really really wants something, get it for them and watch their face light up like an overzealous person's front yard decorations.

Poll

What's at the top of your Christmas list?

Clothes

2 votes

Toys!

1 votes

Video Games

2 votes

Movies

1 votes

A Blazers win on Christmas Day

13 votes

Other (explain in comments)

2 votes

21 votes | Poll has closed

Junk Drawer - 10/20/09 - The Cookie Edition.

DrivetheLane — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:24:14 -0000

Everything after the jump

Remember when Lucille Bluth was all stressed out so Michael decided to try and be a good son and asked his Uncle Oscar to, perhaps, give his mother some Afternoon Delight? But Oscar got confused about what Michael meant and then said that perhaps he could put it in her cookie and Michael became a little disgusted? I don't get why Michael overreacted.

With that in mind, let's talk about afternoon del.....i mean....let's talk about cookies. I was quite fortunate in my childhood to have homemade cookies all the time. Not factory dough squeezed out of a can and then shoved in an oven, but actual cookie dough made from staple ingredients and mixed together. I ate many types of cookies: from chocolate chip to sour cream to chocolate crinkles and several others.

But now, sadly, homemade cookies are few and far between what with me being lazy and not a good baker and all. But oh how the memory of a fresh, warm cookie in my mouth takes me to such a joyous place.

via antimarc.flashrapid.com

Poll

What is your favorite cookie?

Chocolate Chip

22 votes

Peanut Butter

12 votes

Sugar Cookie

6 votes

Ginger Snaps

0 votes

Keebler with Fudge Stripes

0 votes

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip

6 votes

Cookie Monster

2 votes

Oreo

3 votes

Oatmeal Raisin

5 votes

Snickerdoodles

3 votes

White Chocolate Macademia Nut

6 votes

65 votes | Poll has closed

Junk Drawer-10/23-Less Than a Week Edition

DrivetheLane — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:23:34 -0000

A short 5 days until the season opener versus the L*kers! I don't think I need to say anymore about that.

Great Game 1 of the World Series last night with the Phillies winning 3-2. But I didn't get the impression they can dominate the Rays. This series could be a classic. I'm thinking 7 games with no game decided by more than 2 runs.

I didn't get to see highlights cause I couldn't find them (post em if you got em please) but it looks like Oden showed everyone who was only whelmed by his performance thus far with a nice double double. How as the game for those who attended on those cheap tickets discussed yesterday? There's already one nice game report from PoliSam. Any other thoughts?

And finally, to insert the randomness that sometimes ensure discussion I'll pose this question:

You're starting a band. For the sake of brevity, you get 5 members. All the members have to be Blazers. Who do you pick and what instruments do they play? Personally, I'd go with LMA on bass, Oden on drums, Roy on lead guitar, Rudy as lead singer, and Blake on harmonica, because I like random instruments in bands.

Have a great Thursday everyone!

cheap laughs

DrivetheLane — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:54:41 -0000

cheap laughs

i found the link on True Hoop. Brace yourselves.

Martell has surgery

DrivetheLane — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 22:17:14 -0000

Martell has surgery

the relevant thing is that he's out 8-10 weeks.

OT--Brett Favre and what if this was a Blazer

DrivetheLane — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:06:37 -0000

This whole Brett Favre situation is interesting, annoying, and a bit sickening to me. The guy retires while crying big big tears, leaves Green Bay under what seemed like good terms and all was well. And now, a few months later, he wants back after Green Bay has already commited to moving on.

I've never been a big Favre fan. I thought he was reckless, made stupid throws, too many interceptions. But he did play with some of the highest levels of passion I've seen any athlete play with. But at this point, he seems to be obviously past his prime. And now that he wants back, he's put Green Bay in a no-win situation: either they take him back and start him (because how couldn't you) and maybe make the team a little weaker (this is very debatable, I realize), or you cut him and he plays somewhere else which would just be strange and wrong, or you trade him and alienate your fan base (which is one of the most loyal in all of sports).

So let's pretend this is happening with the Blazers. Imagine that 15 years from now, after having a Hall of Fame career, winning some championships, biggest PTB icon in their franchise history (cause he won a ring(ok, 10 rings) and played here his whole career) and all that, Brandon Roy decides to retire. He's obviously on the downside of his career, not as effective, has good young kids ready to start playing behind him, etc. After retiring, and then the draft, and then free agency, he decides he wants to come back. How would we feel about taking him back? We definatly wouldn't want to see him with another team, we don't want to make our team weaker, he's a beloved local icon who we'll miss after he's gone, etc etc.

Personaly, I wouldn't want to take him back and I would maybe be a little upset he decided to unretire because he puts the team in a bad position. What do you guys think?

ps. i hope this wouldn't qualify as a junk drawer post, so don't kill me if it does.

The case for inactivity

DrivetheLane — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 04:55:24 -0000

Is there one? Talking about trade possibilities is fun and all, but if we step back and take a closer look, might it be that standing pat is the way to go? Now, obviously we've got one more roster spot to trim to fit in Rudy and, fairly obviously in my opinion, Baron Von Wafer won't be returning. So that's that. Now, everyone is bandying about names like Devin Harris, Jose Calderon, Kirk Hinrich, and others and it's fun thinking about it, but think about this: the biggest problem we have with the PG is turnovers right? Jack just finished his (I believe) 3rd year in the league. 3rd year. Think about that. It's not a long time. Might it be conceivable that he will develop further? All he really has to do is learn to make better decisions and we'd all love him. He drives to the basket consistantly and his little floaters are getting better all the time--he can score. His defense will improve (along with Webster's and Outlaw's). Might he end up being the PG we need? It's at least conceivable right? And isn't the SF situation the same? Webster and Outlaw can both improve to be the guys we need them to be: great defenders who can spot up (Webster) or create (Outlaw). I'm not advocating standing pat neccessarily, but with the freakishly good chemistry this team has (most people don't get along with their own families as well as these guys get along) is it worth the risk of upsetting a situation where each guy is accountable to another for making each other better, where each guy is competative and driven to win for the sake of what we think is an upgrade? Can the team as it sits now (taking in to consideration adding Oden and Rudy) win a championship? I have a feeling they could if given one or two more years to work together (which is the same time frame as if we got an "upgrade.")

Let's talk about the draft

DrivetheLane — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 05:47:25 -0000

With all the talk in here about what PG to get and by what means, it might be interesting to address what should be the top priority: who to draft and why?
In my opinion, the guy to draft (provided he declares) is Tyler Hansbrough. All I needed to know about him I learned last year in the game when he got his nose broke (or maybe just bloodied) and looked like he wanted to fight someone. That's the kind of heart and toughness this Blazers team needs now and for the future. Plus, his pure hustle makes him a rebound machine. He'd be a great second unit player at the 3 or the 4, despite size (he's listed at 6'9 but is likely 6'7 or 6'8.
The guy we should avoid at all cost: Kevin Love. I really hope he doesn't end up in Portland. He could end up the size of Oliver Miller. yikes.

Poll

Who Should the Blazers draft (assuming they all declare and are available in the 10-15 spots)

E. Someone else

30 votes

A. Darren Collison

9 votes

B. Tyler Hansbrough

13 votes

C. Kevin Love

7 votes

D. Chase Budinger

4 votes

63 votes | Poll has closed