Rangers! Baseball!

Anyway, the sorta-discussion last night on Coldplay got me thinking about things I used to like and now don't like, and the reverse, being things I used to not like and now am fine with/do like.

So I'll direct the thought to LSB:

What things (from pop culture, sports, life, whatever) did you use to find bothersome/distasteful/hate-worthy, that you now kind of/really do like?

Another thing was that a couple of days ago I was reminded about the song below, which I used to find annoying back in 2004 when it came out and was being played all around the kangaroo lands:

Missy Higgins Scar (via nikita5452)

Hey look, 75 words!

So LSB was pretty talkative last night...

I think I might be more excited for Yu Darvish starts (at least for this season) than I was for Cliff Lee starts back in 2010.

That Kinsler extension was pretty cool as well.

And today is Neftali day!

Neftali Neftali Neftali Neftali Neftali Neftali Neftali Neftali Neftali Neftali Neftali Neftali Neftali Neftali Neftali Neftali Neftali Neftali Neftali Neftali Neftali Neftali Neftali Neftali Neftali Neftali Neftali Neftali Neftali

This Murray-Djokovic semifinal is pretty cray right now.

Additional random thought: I watched Four Weddings and a Funeral earlier, and to me, I think Loblaw's opinion of Andie MacDowell is only mildly validated by what I see in the movie.

Also, very tangentially, I remembered that in watching Being John Malkovich, it took at least twenty minutes for me to realise that John Cusack was the guy playing the main character. Has that happened to anyone here - where you've failed to recognise an actor/actress which you really should recognise?

There's 75 words.

Four weekend OT threads, guys. And me being out a couple of weeks means a lot of OT threads missed.

Anyway, I've got a couple of csbs out of my holiday:

1. Progressive Insurance apparently operates in Australia, so there's an Australian version of Flo.

2. On the cruise ship, I saw a young version of Medusa. Seriously.

3. I got to play basketball against tall black dude (a phenomenon which one really doesn't experience in these parts). Fortunately, he wasn't very good.

via i42.tinypic.com

Yep.

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That wasn't very fun. Just think about how much worse things could get!

Still, I got on the Mike E list of trolls, so suck on those teats, guys. I bet you're all jelly. Well, except for those already on the list.

Except I am mad about being unable to do the entire movie thread thing, because, y'know, the entire living amongst kangaroos and such.

There's a poll involved. Answer it at your own discretion.

Back in the HC draft discussion thread (and even before that), I made overtures about starting a fantasy baseball dynasty league (i.e. keep everyone) with minor leaguers. I got some commitments on that night, and also in the OT thread tonight.

Currently, the following guys are in:

vfn

LSU Ranger

LiamP

sprite

octoberty

Jobu.

That's The Way Baseball Go

kok

jonthefon

Panorama

philclark

dolphinpuncher

I think I'll set it at 12 teams, so that leaves 3 spots currently - unless of course, one of the people listed don't show up.

There's a lot to explain, so I'll attempt to do it without any particular layout. Again, the stuff I'm laying out is as of right now, but probably could change once I get the numbers:

5x5 rotisserie with standard categories (R, HR, RBI, AVG, SB); (W, SV, K, ERA, WHIP)

Player pool: both AL and NL

Roster spots: C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, CI, MI, OF, OF, OF, OF, OF, Util, P, P, P, P, P, P, P, P, BN, BN, BN, DL, DL

Inning limit: 1300

Max moves: 100 per season

Max trades: N/A

Minor league systems:

• The way the minor league system works, for those who haven't played in a league with one before, is that each team has a separate roster of 'minor leaguers', who they hold exclusive rights (i.e. other players cannot add them to their actual fantasy team off the waiver wire) as long as the minor leaguers are on their minor league rosters and fulfil the eligibility criteria, which goes as either:

1. <300 ABs
2. <50 innings pitched
   

• To start off with, the maximum number of players on any one minor league roster will be 15.
  
• At the start, there will be a snake draft for minor leaguers, with the draft order being the reverse of the draft order.
• During the course of the season, a minor leaguer can be 'promoted' (added off the waiver wire) to the big league team only by whoever owns their rights. Providing that they are not then taken off the minor league roster, they can later be 'sent down' (i.e. dropped to the waiver wire) without penalty or loss of exclusive rights, providing that they fulfil the above eligibility criteria.
• A player can stay on a minor league roster and have their rights retained even after exceeding the eligibility criteria - an owner is not obligated to immediately make a decision upon loss of eligibility, as to whether to add such a player to the major league roster or give up their rights (thus rendering them just a normal waiver wire player). Rather, this decision to keep or cut can be left until the offseason, up to the deadline for the following year's roster. However, any move subsequently before the end of the season, to add to the major league roster a player on the minor league roster who has exceeded eligibility, will render that player officially removed from said minor league roster, and available to every other owner if they are subsequently dropped onto the waiver wire.

Adding/dropping minor leaguers:

• Any player under the given eligibility criteria can be added by any owner, providing that nobody else holds exclusive rights to them, and that the owner has space on his minor league roster.
• An owner can make a maximum of 10 additions to their minor league roster during the course of the season.
• All minor league moves must be posted on the league website.
• Minor leaguers who become available as a result of the year's Rule IV Draft, or international signees who sign during the course of the year are not available for adding during the course of the season.
• In each offseason, each team will be granted one additional spot to their minor league roster, and a minor league draft, with draft order being the reverse of that season's league standings, will be conducted for new draftees and international signees from that past year, along with existing minor leaguers who had not been picked up during the course of the season. A team can select minor leaguers for as many rounds as they wish; while on the same note, a team does not have to participate in such a draft: they can elect to 'pass' at any time, and in ensuing rounds, their pick will be skipped.

I think that's all I need to cover for now: I'm thinking of conducting the entire business on a Yahoo Groups website, unless there's a better alternative for things like basic text/spreadsheet filesharing, a simple messageboard system, etc.

I have very little to say due to continued rage over 'Community' being stopped

fuckity fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck

very very very mad mad mad mad mad

Dallas @ Memphis nope

On a different topic: favourite literary insult ever? I ask this because for some reason I just started laughing out loud randomly today in the middle of a law exam because I thought about James Joyce being called a 'supercilious streak of Irish puke' in Tom Stoppard's Travesties.

Apparently "the #1 ranked team in the country played the #2 ranked team in the country" on the weekend. I don't really know what that means, but I know that one of them won.

And that entire Penn State business is really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really appalling stuff.

Fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win fucking win

Editor's Note: Front paged because everything jonthefon writes is worthy of your time.

Bad, Caron...

While the lockout remains ongoing, we'll have no idea about what Caron Butler's NBA future holds. The combination of CBA uncertainties (mostly the part which will affect the value of contracts earned in free agency) and Butler's personal status as a 31 year old returning from a serious knee injury, will make it quite difficult for anyone to forecast the type of contract he may end up receiving - anything from a one year show-me offer from a team with temporary cap space, to a multi-year deal from a team gambling on his health allowing for sufficient return on investment.

However, what I want to talk about here regards how Mavs fans will consider Caron Butler's time with the team, whether or not he returns to Dallas. Of course, there were countless impacts stemming from the Mavs finally climbing the championship mountaintop. For me, the most major impact was the dramatic change in how I perceive everything now - not only in now looking forward to the future without having to uncomfortably consider the ticking clock, but also in perceiving the effect of past events. Nowadays, I don't look back at past playoff failures with such pain; nor do I look back in anger at questionable (non)-moves made; now, I don't really care at all that Shawn Bradley was paid handsomely to dawdle around the court in a Mavs uniform. Somehow I now construe (and yes, maybe I'm irrationally construing) all these hiccups and self-immolations to merely be representing a part - a necessary part - of the strenuous process required to make the final triumph possible.

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Random indie music tangent (of course a few of you will get what I mean):

So I was listening to Stars the other day, and I realised that although I generally am fine with the kind of music they do, there's nothing I incredibly love about their work except for "Your Ex-Lover is Dead", and then maybe a couple of things from "Heart".

So the question I'm posing in general is:

Which bands do you consider to have only one song which you like and the rest of their discography merely average or mediocre? I'll extend this question to particular TV series where you've only found one episode interesting, or a particular author with only one book worth reading, and so on of that ilk.

Here's an uninteresting tale for y'all.

So I was totally mad when I realised that I wouldn't get to watch the Cowboys' first three games because I'd be in Scandinavia. Then I realised that I was sort of getting my priorities wrong there. The end. Cool, right?

I guess I'll use this thread to solicit advice from those who have been to Scandinavia, to tell me good things I should attempt to do while I'm there.

In keeping relevant to the ongoing theme right now on LSB, describe a few of the times where you irrationally panicked over something only to realise afterwards that there wasn't actually anything worth panicking about. a

Also, favourite urban legends? Every now and then I spend way too much time at Snopes.com. Personally, I like the one where a person gets shot by a hammer*

*Not actually an event considered to be an urban legend

Shit's going down in Libya, yo.

What is the most nondescript thing ever?

White paper is pretty nondescript, but who really knows if it is nondescript.

Also, what song is currently stuck in your head? That's a question which can always be recycle as an OT question.

I think starting from now on, only those who have StumbleUpon should be making the OT threads, posting random links they've been forced upon. If they turn out to be bad, then they're forbidden from posting any more OT threads.

I've got nothing.

Just wait until Jerrah signs two mediocre safeties, and not even Elam!

There are a couple more spots in the LSB Yahoo FF league. The league id is 257421, the password is the four letter first name of some guy who is really good at basketball. No capitals required.

I could expand it out to 14 if there are still more interested after it fills up.

Fun fun fun fun fun fun fun

Do unreccings of previous thread and reccings of this one, of course.

Everybody's still a'tweeting about Nnamdi, of course. And the Cowboys still need a safety or two, so things would still be a whole lot of penis even if the Asomugha signing actually happened.

In terms of FF, I'm thinking about creating a 10 or 12 or possibly 14 team Yahoo! league, just a standard league in terms of scoring and positions (I guess suggestions for PPR, flex spots, etc will be considered). From the previous thread, Arson55, Drew, Tyler, GB all expressed sort of firm interest. I don't know about kok's league, but I'd happily nab anyone who volunteered for his, and he won't mind because he supports Barcelona and he should get used to losing every now and then.

I'll end this thread as always, with a Kermit picture. I think it's appropriate:

via i51.tinypic.com

Note: All stats referenced go up to but not including the Minnesota Twins series, beginning on 7/25.

After watching Derek Holland poop things up again against the Angels on Wednesday, I felt compelled to take a pretty amateurish statistical look at his inconsistency. I perceive a common complaint made about Holland (although of course, it might not actually be a common complaint) – apart from his erratic start-to-start form – is regarding his tendency to give up big run-scoring innings. So I went back and tracked each start made by the Rangers’ five main starters this season, marking down the actual number of runs they gave up on each instance where they allowed a run-scoring inning.

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