Serious question time: What one story from your life do you want told at your funeral?

Malcolm Gladwell on Steve Jobs: (via kottke.org)

Jobs's sensibility was editorial, not inventive. His gift lay in taking what was in front of him-the tablet with stylus-and ruthlessly refining it. After looking at the first commercials for the iPad, he tracked down the copywriter, James Vincent, and told him, "Your commercials suck."

"Well, what do you want?" Vincent shot back. "You've not been able to tell me what you want."

"I don't know," Jobs said. "You have to bring me something new. Nothing you've shown me is even close."

Vincent argued back and suddenly Jobs went ballistic. "He just started screaming at me," Vincent recalled. Vincent could be volatile himself, and the volleys escalated.

When Vincent shouted, "You've got to tell me what you want," Jobs shot back, "You've got to show me some stuff, and I'll know it when I see it."

Also, who's watching Hell on Wheels? Any good? Deadwood ripoff?

Who gives a fuck?

via kottke.org

"What the hell? Is the sky still blue?

As a general rule, do not use the serial/Oxford comma: so write 'a, b and c' not 'a, b, and c'. But when a comma would assist in the meaning of the sentence or helps to resolve ambiguity, it can be used -- especially where one of the items in the list is already joined by 'and'.

The kottke.org style guide still advocates the use of the Oxford comma, but take that with a grain of salt; I also misuse semicolons, use too many (often unnecessary) parentheses -- not to mention m-dashes that are actually rendered as two n-dashes in old-school ASCII fashion -- use too many commas, and place punctuation outside quotation marks, which many people find, in the words of Bill S. Preston Esq. and Ted "Theodore" Logan, "bogus". Oh, and in another nod to the old-school, I also use "dumb quotes" instead of the fancier and, I guess, technically more correct "smart quotes". (via, who else?, @tcarmody (or should that be "whom else?"))

Update: The document I linked to above is from a branding style guide for Oxford University. It recommends against using the Oxford comma in most cases. The Oxford Style Manual, meant for the general public and last published in 2003 by Oxford University Press, "a department of the University of Oxford", recommends using the Oxford comma in all cases. So basically, Oxford is telling us to use the Oxford comma but isn't going to use it internally. Oxford gone schizo, y'all! (thx, @rchrd_h)

Update: Further clarification comes in the form of this official statement from Oxford University Press...they are definitely in favor of the Oxford comma."

So, I'm making my first ever trip to Green Bay this weekend. I thought I'd see if anyone here had been, and , if so, had any suggestions or warnings.

The Dad, the brother and I are flying into Chicago tomorrow for a Blackhawks/Leafs game and then driving up to GB on Sat.. We're staying in Manitowoc, which is where the team stays, or so I hear.

From what I've heard the Packer fans are pretty hospitable. A friend of mine compared it to our trip to Lincoln for a Nebraska game: the nicest people you'll ever meet.

So, how bout it? Places to eat, drink tailgate? Must see/do?

Well, this is certainly interesting. I think a lot of it is stuff that we've heard rumors about before, but this is the first I've heard this snippet:

From that point on, Nelson testified, he was phased out of personnel decisions. At the 2004 draft, he thought he was in charge of the Mavericks’ selections until he spoke with his son, Donnie, the team’s president of basketball operations, during a men’s room conversation that night.

Cuban, in his testimony, denied keeping Nelson out of the loop, saying personnel matters were group decisions.

The hearing testimony also brought out how Cuban and Nelson remained at odds even after Nelson turned over the coaching job to Avery Johnson late in the 2004-2005 season.

 Of course, that was the Devin Harris draft, about which I have my own feelings, but I think the more important point is that we're continuing to see a pattern of dysfunction when comes to Cuban's personal relationships within the organization and the league. I'm so tired of hearing how great it is that we have a passionate owner who cares about winning and cares about the players and fans. Those things, if true, are all worth a bucket of piss if his "passion" leads to his unintentional sabotaging of this team and its future because of his ego.

That said, barring unforeseen events (SEC investigation?) I think we're stuck with Cuban for a long time.  So my question is this: Could Cuban ever drive you away from the Mavericks? There are a lot of Clippers and Bruins fans who have vowed to put their fandom on hold until Donald Sterling or Jeremy Jacobs are gone. Could Cuban push you to that point?

Just got finished reading the Cowboy-related content in this year's installment of Football Outsiders Almanac.

For those of you who aren't familiar with FO, they're a football analytics site that uses unconventional and advanced statistics.  I highly recommend visiting their site and buying the Almanac ($12.00, PDF download).  Even if they are occasionally off-base in their analysis, their publications are gold mines of well-organized statistics.

Continue reading this post »

Mike Maddux was on the Ticket this morning. It wasn't too terribly interesting, but I'll give a quick rundown as best as I can remember for those who care.

- He talked about pitcher durability and pitch counts. It was basically the same things we've already heard about pitch counts not being the best gauge and "the hitters will let you know when you're done"

- Spoke very generally about the conditioning program. Light on details, heavy on cliche. Said that depth will be important , and that's a good thing because we have...wait for it....."the best minor league system in baseball".

- Talked about growing up with Greg and their development as pitchers and their childhood. Pretty interesting story. Growing up, they traveled around with their father, who was in the Air Force and then met up with a guy that Maddux called "an old baseball soul" who I assume is Ralph Medar.

Overall, nothing ground breaking. Blah.

So, despite specualtion of mergers and show shuffling, 1310 the Ticket's big announcement this morning is that they'll be the Dallas Stars flagship for the next 5-years. Bob Sturm 's little hockey pants are going crazy right now. 

I like this for the Stars. For all their failings, I feel like KTCK has always done a fairly good job with hockey. I'm also assuming we'll get more Razor, which is great. Not so sure this is a great move for the Ticket, but that's a discussion for another time.

I'm fairly sure that Bob Dylan isn't a Cowboys fan, but never have the troubadour's words seemed more prophetic in my tiny little sports universe than they do right now.

Continue reading this post »

Well...I always wondered why Jones didn't reach his potential last season, and now I think I have a pretty good idea. I know he was supposedly injured last year, but, as I recall, those were sometimes referred to as "unspecified injurries". Makes me think maybe he had a strained nostril...

It's really a shame. As much as I despise Arkansas, I had loads of respect for the kid after he torched us (Texas) in back to back years. I remember hoping that we would make a move in the '05 draft to slide up to grab him.

Jacksonville reached on the pick, but I really thought that eventually the kid would start to produce. His second season was solid (41-643) considering the offensive mess the Jags were in.

Ian Kinsler's numbers in June obviously put him in the running for AL player of the month, but Gordon Edes at the Globe thinks that JD Drew is a lock:

J.D. Drew is a cinch to be named the American League's Player of the Month for June after hitting .337 with a major league-leading 12 home runs and 27 RBIs, tied for most in the bigs. Drew also led the majors in slugging at .848, was third in on-base percentage (.462), and tied for first in extra-base hits with 21.

What he fails to mention is that Drew finished the month in a Shelton-esque 4 for 30 slump (and that's not counting his 0-fer last night against TB). I understand he's crushing the ball right now and getting on base, and I think he'll end up getting it, but can we change his title to "AL Player of the First Half of The Month"?

So, I've been away from Austin for a few years, but I'm back now and I heard that  the pre-game tailgating/parking situation changed recently. I've searched the posts, but couldn't find much. I'm used to setting up camp around SanJac and 18th, but not sure if that's still an open lot.

Can somone update me on the scene? Is it still on a first-come basis? Does BON have a spot?

The Ticket is reporting that the NFL has reinstated PacMan Jones effective immediately for OTA's, training camp and pre-season games. The determination on the  rest of the season will be made at a later date.

Hopefully I'm not being duplicative in my post here.

"This limited reinstatement is a step in the process," Jerry Jones said in a statement. "Adam is aware of the things that need to be done in order to take the next step."

 So, it's not the whole enchilada, but I think it's definitely reason for optimism. Please, for the love of Landry let him stay out of trouble.

Here's the DMN blog link

Here's the DC.com story

So...I'm headed to Chicago in late July-Early August for a quick vacation. The sad-sack Pirates will be in town, and I was hoping to get a little advice from any Wrigley veterans.

1) Any rec's on seat location? Obviously the bleachers are where the party is, but is it worth it to miss the game in a drunken stupor?

2) Should I go ahead and grab tickets now or wait until closer to gameday and try to snag 'em from someone trying to dump his seats to the Paul Maholm-Jason Marquis showdown?

Obviously, I'll be spending a few hours at Murphy's. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. 

Just got word on the little Ticket that Hambone is going to be the cover story for the upcoming issue of Sports Illustrated. I can't find anything else to confirm it, so this all rests on the suspect word of one Cobra Davidson. I assume it 's going to be the feature that Albert Chen did. Decent read.

Hopefully this will help up the kid's terrible all-star voting numbers. I've already voted for him four times...and Richie Sexson 12.

So biting your fingernails and picking at scabs constitutes OCD?

"That’s what was wrong with me because I always used to pop my jaw and used to pick at my skin, bite my nails,” he said.

Yeah, you and every teenager I've ever met. Look, I don't want to trivialize what is a very real and very debilitating disorder, but something tells me that the only OCD symptoms this kid exhibits is being a compulsive douchebag.

Just wondering if anyone has had any experience sending their kids to Barnes' basketball camp. My little brother (a full 16 years my junior) is coming down for the day-camp and staying with me and my wife. If anyone has sent their kid/relative to the camp, I'd love to tell him what to expect.

Is it helpful? What's the general skill level of the campers? Is there much time for perrsonal instruction?

Thanks.

Great piece on Memphis' Dribble-Drive Motion Offense and how Calipari came to change his scheme. It's fun to listen to guys like Larry Brown talk about it like they do.

Continue reading this post »

I'm not trying get all political up in this joint, but is anyone so privileged as to be attending the most anticipated live Austin-area event since Wade Miller made that rehab start for the Express a few years ago?

Continue reading this post »