Happy Saturday!  I can't believe the NBA cancelled all of last night's games out of the blue like that, shortening the game to an 81 game season.  I got to the Rose Garden and was told the only entertainment of the night was a free concert for the Fish radio station.  Strange.  

In any event, it's secret Saturday.  I don't want your kinky secrets.  I just want to know what your hobbies are that your Bedge-friends probably don't know about.  Is Mortimer secretly into crochet?  Does Roybot have a secret welding fetish?  Is TIH the leader of the "Bring back Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman fan club?"  

When I was little I used to lock my friends in the toy chest just for fun.

via i113.photobucket.com

I don't do it anymore, though.  Nobody fits in that box!

These days I occasionally make these things like this (this is Bob's, not mine)

via www.bobross.com

And I also throw things like this

via www.innovadiscs.com

What's your secret hobby?

My wife is a speech language pathologist, and one of the ways she gets kids to practice their sounds is with a series of games and toys.  Since some of them are junior high and high school age, she decided to make life-life cut outs of various Blazers, with outfits to mix and match.  We've been practicing with our 2 year old, and she is getting good at "Joel Przybilla needs pants."    Here are some bad photos of the pieces of the game:

via i168.photobucket.com

via i168.photobucket.com

via i168.photobucket.com

via i168.photobucket.com

So we're taking the little one to the pumpkin patch on Sauvie's Island today.  Gonna rock the corn maze, make her bring home a pumpkin she can carry, etc...  

What are your favorite pumpkin or Halloween memories?  I remember one Halloween some friends and I TP'd the Mormon church down the street.  That was fun.  We also used to go to the haunted house at Eastport Plaza before the revitalization of the area.

Also, Sam Bradford just got injured again.

To quote author Jeff Pearlman

"... the night was going very well. Speeches were moderately short, the MC — an excellent Ernie Johnson — kept things rolling, Jordan and his gang made their waves. At approximately 8:20 pm, Doug Collins, also inducted as a media member, offered up an absolutely wonderful speech, crying as he asked his wife and children to stand.

And then, Vecsey took the stage.

He seemed to have no notes. No thoughts. No ... nothing. He began not by expressing his appreciation, but by rattling off all the shunned players he believed belonged in the Hall. From there, he just ... babbled. About this. About that. He seemed to be drunk, but I don't think he was. The man just, well, sucked. He used language one doesn't use in a Hall speech. He called out people's names ('Calvin Murphy! Tiny Archibald!'), and you could literally see the man squirming in their seats. I was sitting about 10 feet from David Stern, who — throughout the ceaseless banter — dismissively shook his head while checking his Blackberry. Jordan, the star of the weekend, walked out. Just left, and never returned.

The best part came, oh, 30 minutes in, when Vecsey took a breather between points. As if on cue, the entire room started to applaud — a very clear, very audible get-the-f^%$-off-the-stage command. Suddenly, music piped in from above — yet another get-the-f^%$-off-the-stage command. Oddly, Vecsey really paid it no mind. He kept talking until, I believe, his mic was turned off (either that, or he got the clue)."

 

The show just started!  Opine here!

The best day of my life was in the summer of 1992.  I was 12, and it was little league season, and I pitched a 1 hit shutout of the vaunted Yankees team.  In 7 innings, I struck out 12, and hit a triple off the fence.  The coach wrote all the stats on the ball and gave it to me.  It's still in a box in my closet.  Most significant days (weddings, births of children) can't really called the greatest because there is so much stress associated with them.  At age 12, nothing is stressful.  I'm pretty sure we finished the day with a team sleepover, and ate Otter Pops until the wee hour of midnight.

The Worst day of my life was my grandpa's funeral.  I wrote this awesome eulogy for him, but I knew I wouldn't be able to read it, so my mom did it for me.  I was all sobbing in the third row, and some distant cousin gave me a kleenex and it smelled like old lady perfume.  Crying uncontrollably into an old lady perfume kleenex.  Bad, bad day.

Smart people can spend days and weeks documenting the movings and the shakings of the important Blazer News.  Nerds can crunch stats and discuss PER and talk about per 48, adjuster for pace hockey assist numbers.  But what about junkers?  What can we do?  I'll tell you what.  We can junk.  And junk we have.

The JD has reached critical mass this year.  What are your favorite moments and storylines?  I've got a few moments that stick out like Prez at a swingers club:

-Prez and Roodie deciding to convert downtown Portland during a midnight Junk

-Roybot and cloudydays.  Duh.

-Multiple fanboys crushing on galacticlove and her blue hair, only to be crushed when she bailed the country.

-He who shall not be named and his unfortunate banishment.

-tominhawaii asking Shav which Blazer has the best "shower presence."  Not a JD, technically, but close enough.

-LTrain's insomnia

-Miles mania hits, and the Junkers are fed up

-tominrehab forces a choice between tominhawaii and dragline

What junk moments are so junky that you will never forget them?

And finally, the Blazers current offseason metaphorically captured in a photo.

Got my fifth anniversary coming up next month.  Past anniversaries have included me going to Sportfight at the Rose Garden, and doing the anniversary thing the night before.  I'm also fairly confident we once spent it camping with no air mattress.  So, this year, I need a game plan.  Something guaranteed to not be terrible.  For conversation's sake, let's assume money isn't an issue, but the plan has to be possible within one day.  i live in Vancouver.  

What would you do for the day?  Anyplace in particular you'd take the lady/guy?  

If you are without skill in this area, I have a different question for you:

If you had to lose one of your sense (sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch), which would you choose?

Link for reference

I am an NBA fan.  I am not a college basketball fan.  Why?  Because it sucks.

I do not want to have to learn and develop opinions about 895 different teams.  I don't want to watch 6'1 white kids running around for 40 seconds per possession.  I don't like my tax money paying for coaches who don't win.  I don't like having halves, instead of quarters.  If I wanted soccer, I would watch soccer, and soccer is boring, therefore college basketball is boring.  Q.E.D.

Seriously, each team has maybe one guy who MIGHT make the pros, and even less of a chance to make it on my team.  Why should I care? 

Be honest:  most people only care when the tournament comes around, and then only because they can win the office pool. 

Anybody actually watch regular season games with interest?  Do you ever watch a team that isn't your alma mater? 

The link above is a good one, assuming it works. 

And always remember:  A stated opinion is a fact, and any disagreement is wrong because the other person is rooting for the terrorists to win.  I learned that on Fox News.

(maybe next time someone will write a worthwhile junk drawer before 11:15!)

Here's the link to the Blazers web site regarding donations for Nathan's accident.  The basic facts are Nathan has Down's Syndrome, got separated from his supervisors, and tried to cross I-5, presumably on foot, and was hit by one or more vehicles.

Kudos to the organization for helping.  Please post updates if you hear any.  Since this may be the only time I have work-related knowledge of something relevant to the Blazers, here's some info I posted in the game thread way way after the game ended.

In Oregon, if a person is hit as a pedestrian and does not have insurance, they can claim the medical benefits available to the driver of the vehicle that hit them. It's called "no-fault medical," meaning insurance will pay even if the policy holder did nothing wrong.  Since no-fault medical is mandatory for auto policies in Oregon (meaning if you have auto insurance, you have medical coverage on the policy), the minimum amount available to him would be $15k, and could be up to $100k depending on how much insurance the vehicle (or vehicles) had. In addition, for medical providers in Oregon, there is a cap on each charge that is legally allowed for each service (much like your health insurance is allowed to "cut" the bill due to a pre-arranged agreement with the provider, except this is state mandated, and only applies to workers comp and auto claims). So, his bills will likely be reduced by the Oregon fee schedule when the car insurance pays the bill, and the provider would not legally be allowed to balance bill the kid. That, in addition to the donated money, should help out a lot. If he was hit by two vehicles, he would have two different policy limits available to him, even if neither of the drivers did anything wrong.

I hope that makes everyone feel a little bit better. I worked in auto-medical claims for a few years recently before switching to 3rd party claims, and Oregon has the 2nd best medical coverage in the country for autos (Michigan has no limit on their medical coverage, and no time limit for how long they will pay.  Oregon's medical statute is one year).

All this is assuming that the cars that hit him have insurance. Fingers crossed!