It could cover both men's and women's play. It would be great to get this going now so that we could build momentum in the community before the world cup. It wouldn't need to be a full time blog necessarily just a few posts about significant news and some game day thread. If so many MLS blogs can exist I am sure there would be interest in a national team blog. I would volunteer to run it myself but I am sure there are many much more qualified candidates to run the blog.

I love march madness and I know many around here do as well. I set up a Yahoo bracket league if anyone is interested in joining a McCoven only bracket competition. Scoring is standard where the amount of points you get for each correct guess doubles after each round.

League ID: 61643

Password: posey

Brackets get announced tomorrow so sign up soon.

Sbn nations bracket page can be found here http://www.sbnation.com/2012/3/5/2846518/ncaa-bracket-2012-printable

Courtesy of SoulBrother16

For anyone who wants a direct link

http://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/t1/register/joingroup
or
http://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/t1/group/61643

Fellow members of the McC book club, The month is up and so the time has arrived to discuss what we all thought of the book. I think a good way to do this would to have a few guided questions. feel free to answer any or none of them. 1) did you like the book? why or why not 2) Favorite scene? 3) Would you be interested in doing another book? This last book wasn't able to generate the in thread discussion and insight I think we are all looking for and depending on your responses we may or may not make the club a one and done.

This threads assumes everyone has finished the book so spoilers will be abound. Be warned if you have not finished it yet.

Personally I liked the book but didn't think it lived up to all the hype that surrounds it. The writing style for me was not a problem, nor the ending which are the biggest complaints I hear about the book. I think both were fitting and matched their setting and mood of the book. No to me the biggest problem was the lack of hope. I think McCarthy did a great job of connecting us with the father and son. We were glad when the father saved the son from the cannibal and glad when they were not captured but I never really felt like them escaping meant anything more than that eventually they were going to suffer some other horrible fate if not that one. I don't mind sad or depressing books but I do like at least to pretend that things might get better for the protagonist but McCarthy was just so good at creating a hopeless world that I believed him and knew the pair was doomed no matter if they reached their destination or not. Even when the son lived I didn't believe that things will get better for him really. And even depressing books shouldn't give you that feeling.

I would however recommend it to my friends. It really is brilliantly written and wants to make me read more McCarthy but I pray they are less depressing.

Hello McCoven book in common members. For our inaugural book selection the members of this fine site choose a book that in tone perhaps best surmises the giants off season. It is written by Cormac McCarthy a Pulitzer Prize winning author who famously also wrote All The Pretty Horses and No Country for Old Men.

Continue reading this post »

The book thread made me realize that there are a ton of books I need to read and I would love to read these books along with knowledgeable, funny, and intelligent people. Since I don't know anyone like that I thought it would be a good idea to read with you guys. The way this would work would be to read a book together every two months and have a discussion about it both as we go and a culminating discussion at the end of the two months. If you are interested feel free to comment in this thread. Also comment what you would like to be our first book. Write it in the comments and rec any books you would like for us to do. I will count the recs and then set up the book for the month selection for that month. In addition to just reading the book (this is what sets a book in common apart from a book club) I will also search out some interesting information/interview with the authors etc in order to make it a more enriching experience

I just got a kindle fire for christmas and am looking for some ideas on how best to fill it up

You guys are maybe the best read sports blog on the planet so trust you can help me out

a few specific questions

I am very interested in reading Stephen King's Under the Dome and his other new one about the JFK assassination. Has anyone here read them? I don't read much King and I don't want to commit to books that big if there is no pay off.

My second question is that I've been thinking about reading comics again for the first time since junior high. Has anyone here checked out the DC reboot? Which books are good from that?

Beyond that as far as recommendations from myself I suggest you guys check out His Dark Materials, The wheel of time (final book comes out this year!), and for a lesser known book A Painted House by John Grisham was something I recently read and really enjoyed

The year is almost up and you know what that means. Tons and tons of year in review specials or award ceremonies celebrating the best and worst of the year. I think now, with us struggling through a sluggish off season, would be the perfect time for one last music thread. I am going to share what I think is the best and worst music to have came out in 2011

Continue reading this post »

I was going to post this in Merope's Halloween thread but it would have been too long
This is the Carrot's households favourite time of the year. And each year we spend a good many hours trying to scare the shit out of each other with quality scary movies. I have seen a ton, many of them sucked, A few do not. Hopefully with this list you can avoid the suck and get honest to goodness terrified of your movies. I'm going to assume most of you are already aware of the classic like shaun of dead or the exorcist so I'm going to stay away from those and focus on some of the more obscure.

ZOMBIE

Zombie are prolly my favourite genre of scary movie. They don't rely on gore for the scare but when it comes time to show gore they hang with the best of them. They can be funny, smart, or down right creepy depending on how the director wants to do it. So without further ado my zombie movie list:

Diary of the Dead

Romero is the Zombie movie god. Let's face it he revolutionized zombie movies with Night of the Living Dead and followed it up with another classic in Dawn of the Dead. However his other entries like Day of the Dead were well bad. Because of this some people missed out on a truly great zombie film of his called Diary of the Dead. Now be warned it is shot in that cloverfield/ Blair Witch style camera but if you can stand that it is a great movie. The scares are good and some of the situations are very unique to the zombie movie universe. And its got a british professor who shoots arrows at zombies. whats not to love.

[rec]

This movie scared the shit out of me to be honest. It is a foreign film so if you dont like subtitles you might want to steer away from this one ( and not into the shitty american remake quarantine staring dexter's debrah morgan).  However if you like subtitles than this movie should be near the top of your to watch list. Its about a news reporter team who is doing a puff piece on the local fire department. She goes with them on a call inside a apartment building and while they are in there the police show up and quarantine the whole building. They end up stuck in the apartment building with a few other residents and some zombies. I dont want to give anymore than that away. It also has the scariest last scene in a movie that i've seen in a while.

Monster

The Descent

This movie isnt really obscure but it is so good I had to put it on here. Its the perfect movie for watching with your girlfriend. The entire movie centers on strong female leads which your girlfriend will appreciate. And for the guy the whole movie centers on strong female leads. Whats hotter than a chick that could kick your ass? Nothing thats what. Anyway its about a group of friends who go cave exploring (splunking?) into some un explored cave and up getting lost and as they are like a mile underground that really sucks. Especially when the sound sensitive monsters attack them. MAKE SURE YOU GET THE EDITION WITH THE PROPER ENDING. If you watch this and the movie ends happily you did not get the right one and will have to youtube the good ending. I think the non unrated edition has the happy ending. try to get unrated if you can.

Feast

Feast is just an awesome movie. Its horror comedy. Its about a monster that wants to eat everyone. It takes place in the desert and it has Jay of Jay and Silent Bob fame playing Jay. Its a great movie. You should watch it. The nth sequals not so much.

Horror

Paranormal Activity

Just give it a chance. I thought this movie would suck big time. Instead I slept with my legs securely tucked under the blankets for about a month after watching this (you will know why when you see it). This movie is genuinely scary. It is slow. It takes for ever to get going but once it does oh man. Also it had a sequel that didnt suck and a prequel which I have heard didn't suck either. 

Devil

If you want a horror movie that isnt too scary. Like one you can watch and not be afraid then I recommend Devil. M Night's return to not being terrible is a decent movie. Like I said its not very scary but it is still surprisingly strong. Great to watch with the girlfriend as well cuz it wont scare her so bad she ends up hating you. As was the case when I showed my finacee the Marble Hornet youtube series.

Movies that I thought sucked but everyone else liked so you might want to give them a try.

Session 9

Boring. This movie is boring. Nothing happens. The location is scary, it takes place in an actual abandoned mental ward but it's just not good. I see it on a ton of top horror movie lists and don't understand why. Plus is stars david curoso as the fuck you guy. bleh

Insidious

If session 9 was boring this movie was just weird. I'll admit there were a few times during this film i felt freak out but on the whole it was just plain weird. The art style is not traditional horror and the movie shifts about halfway through from being a haunted house movie to being a hero's quest movie. A fucking lot of people say this movie terrified them. I wasn't one of them.

Hopefully that inspired you to go get scared

Please suggest more in the comments

have a happy Halloween.

Much like for Ice and Fire, McC is my go to place for doctor who discussion. In fact McC has become my go to online community for everything. And I really want to talk to you guys about the finale but because it is the finale I think it best to keep it out of the normal GDT/PGT/ETC and make it its own fanpost so as to avoid spoiling those who had yet to see it. So if you haven't seen it yet stop reading here

I really like Moffat. I really really do. Girl in the fireplace, blink, doctor dances/empty child,  all brilliant episodes and the list goes on and on. But I'm starting to have my doubts about him as a show runnner. This episode was good and we finale had a finale that didnt revolve a dues ex machina plot line. But the the arc is starting to remind me of LOST around the beginning of season 3. We keep getting more and more questions and not enough answers. Why was canton delaware the third invited to his death? Who was the voice that said "Silence will fall to river" in the pandorica opens? What were the scortch marks in front of amy's house? What took control of the tardis? I dont think the silence alone could have done that.

But back to the finale itself. I thought the robot was a bit of a copout. I said all along if they did the flesh doctor or something I would be pissed. Well they basically found an equally annoying way to get out of it. He being inside a robot suit somehow explains it all away? I thought the act of him dying was the fixed point not just him being there. Sort of like in waters of mars when DT tried to save the captain and she ended up killing herself. Not that I wanted matt smith to die, he is my favourite doctor but I just thought using an imitation was a cheap cop out. I also thought that the question being "Doctor who" was a little underwhelming but im interested in seeing where this goes. Like I said the series feels like the beginning of LOST season three and towards the end of Season three LOST became amazing again. I'm hoping the same will be true of Doctor Who. If moffat can pull it off next year then all will be forgiven.

Some quick theories/thoughts: The reason the tardis was attempted to be blown up in season 5 is because perhaps he was  on his way to the fields of traslanore?

Is river going to be the full time companion next year? I don't think they can bring amy and rory back full time after he dropped them off can they?

I like that Moffat is trying to return the doctor to not being famous universe wide. As much as I love tennant his god like status kind of stood against everything the doctor is supposed to be.

So there is the christmas special then no new who till next fall. :( not sure I'll be able to handle it. Especially cuz the 50th anniversary is going to be so awesome. I hope its a multi doc. I really want to see smith and tennant together. Paul mcgann too if they can.

So yesterday I was having a discussion with the missus about should I bring home some taco bell or some la comida (which is like local taco bell). We decided on La comida so I got into the left turn lane. There is one car ahead of me and two cars behind me. While we're sitting there waiting for the light to turn green I notice this red car is speeding down the hill at near highway speeds. Keep in mind this is a residential area. I'm just watching this car and it looks like its just going to blow through the intersection when at the last second it veers into the left turn lane and smashes into the car ahead of me and that car slams into me. My car accordions between the car in front of me and the car behind me. I dont have an air bag and I ended up slamming my head on the dash pretty hard. I was taken to the hospital (and checked McC) but luckily all I came out of that with was some serious bruising and whiplash. My car was totaled which sucks because we got an amazing deal on it an insurance wont give us money equal to how nice of car that was. The scariest part was that I drink from a glass giants world series commemorative glass and that became an airborne projectile during the crash and smashed into a bunch of shards. But luckily no one was hurt and my infant son wasn't in the car at the time thank god. So I just thought I would give you guys an update. And I'm sorry I missed glee night. McCovglee chronicles will return next week and stronger then ever :D

Ill post pics of the wreck as soon as I have some.

I'm looking for perfect albums, where not only are all the songs great but work well together to create not just music but art. We've had this conversations in GDT's before but they always become radiohead and Bob Dylan centric. Not that there is anything wrong with that. But I've decided to undergo a drastic music overhaul and am willing to try anything from any genre as long as its good. So I dont care if it's metal, rap, pop, dubstep or whatev just give me your perfect albums and I will try to listen to all of them.

My List: Flogging Molly: Whiskey on a Sunday

               Sublime: Sublime

               Jerry Garcia: Lonesome Prison Blues

               The Band: Rock of Ages

In honor of Halloween I thought we should make a list of scary movies for people to watch

One's that ive seen recently that people might not have seen already

- The Descent: really good. Plus its full of badass women. Always a good thing

-[rec]: watch the spanish version. please. Its amazing. The American remake has deb from Dexter and she's pretty awful in the role.

-Session 9: I thought it was pretty boring but some people love it

Classics that everyone should see:

the original Halloween

6th Sense

etc

Reds:    series remaining versus teams with a winning record:7
versus other contenders: Stl-2 La-1 sf-1 sd-1 CO-1
notes: Colorado is a 4 game series. They play San Diego second to last but 4 of their last 5 series are against Arizona, Milwaukee, and Houston. Very easy lst few games. Also plays Florida which is barely under .500

Cardinals: winning teams series 8
      versus other contenders: cin-2 sf-1 sd-1, co-1
notes:  season ends with two cubs series, two pirates series,Colorado 4 and a San Diego series,

Colorado: series versus teams with a winning record:13
    versus other contenders: sf-3, reds-1. stl 1, la-4, sd-2
notes:last 6 series are San Diego, dodgers, Arizona, giants, dodgers again, than the 4 games at STL. tough way to end a season.

Padres: series versus other teams with winning records: 13
    versus other contenders: reds-1, cards-1 Rockies-2 dodgers-4 giants-3
Notes: with the exception of a 4 gamer vs. the cubs and one game vs. the dbacks all of their September/October are versus winning teams.

dodgers: series versus teams with winning records :15
     versus other contenders: reds-1, co-4, padres-4, giants-3
    notes: finishes season with 2 dbags series, 2 Colorado series, and a padres series

giants: series versus teams with winning records 14
    versus other contenders: reds-1, cards-1, rockies-3, padres-3. dodgers-3
Notes: Finish season with series against brewers, cubs, rockies and diamondbacks with the last series of the season a pivotal one against the padres.

Observations: Wild card is probably going to go to a nl central team due to their easier scheduling. Giants are going to have to make a change and start beating up on the division to have any sort of shot.

I'm sure most of you tire about hearing how if the giants were in a real division like the NL East that they would have shot of cwinning. Here is a recent SI article about how the NL East is the best division in baseball because 4 teams have a chance at the post season and the quote "David Wright, Roy Halladay and Hanley Ramirez also play in the NL East". All the while the top three contenders for the wild card as of  today all come from the NL West. They may have David Wright, Roy Halladay and Hanley Ramirez  but the NL West is just if not more loaded with stars. Every team in the division except san diego has a true number one type ace and san diego makes up for that in quality. No other division in baseball can claim to have to deal with the amount of quality pitching that we do. But it;s our co aces that truly separate us. Philly has Halladay, The mets have santana, marlins josh johnson, nats have strasburg, and the braves have hudson. But after that its alot more shakey while in the Nl west we have matt cain, billingsley, and brandon webb when healthy. Bullpen wise too I think we have the other divisions beat. Broxton, Bell, Wilson, and Street are all great closers. Hell half the padres bullpen could prolly close. The dbacks are horrible in that regard yes but the NL Central and East combine to have that many great closers: Lidge, K-rod, Cordero, and Wagner.
And the bats arn't that shabby either. Colorado and Los Angeles are among the top ten in the MLB in runs scores but no NL East team is. There are two NL Central teams also in the top ten, the reds and brewers, but
neither of them have the pitching that the dodgers or los angeles has. In fairness the Dodgers and Reds have almost the exact team era but the dodgers have almost 120 more strikouts than the red leading me to believe the reds numbers are a little more fluky. And its not just recently either. The NL west is the only division in BASEBALL to have all five members make it the world series in the past 25 years. We also have the most NL Wild card winners with 6 to the Central's 5 and the East coming in Last with 4. Top to bottom the NL West is easily the best division in the league and I would argue has been for some time.

My other love besides giants baseball. Are you guy's satisfied with the ending? Heavy with character but little on answers. I personally loved it. Although my friend thinks because it ended with the shots of the plane crash during the credits it means that they all died on the crash and this was jack's personal purgatory rather than a meet up spot before he big jump. Also what was up with jack being his own grandfather?

I tried to make some original hockey ones instead of just copy and pasting chuck norris jokes. Though i did some of that too

In case of a pending asteroid collision, the pentagons plan of attack is Chris Pronger's Elbows.
Chris Pronger is the reason why Waldo is hiding
Chris Pronger is the reason Cindy Crosby cant grow a beard
Chris Pronger is the real reason players are going to the KHL
Chris Pronger can divide by zero.
The owners heard that Chris Pronger was going to be made the head of the players union. They quickly signed a 20 year extension before selling their franchises

        With all the talk today about the proposed trade with Toronto, I was wondering what Sanchez's value is versus our top prospects in terms of trade value, specifically Alderson and V. The no-no showcased the improved Sanchez and what stood out was an increase in velocity and control. If he can keep that then is he better then either Alderson or Angel? I know Alderson has begun to be devalued on other blogs because of his lack of velocity and some see him now as only an average of even tail end of the rotation guy but before the no-no Sanchez floor was much lower, a late innings reliever or even lefty specialist were being mentioned.

  Angel has been slumping lately but still has 80 power and is very young. But how long will that be an excuse? I'm still not giving up on Angel but a lot of people around the league, especially readers of John Sickels fellow SB blog seem not so high on him. Too many K's, poor defense, etc.

   Anyway what I'm getting at is in the hypothetical Rios and Halladay trade, which two of the three would you be most willing to give up: Angel, Sanchez, or Alderson

Usually during this time of year, fans of poor teams focus on player development and on the shiny new call ups. However I think the most important thing for the remaining portion of the giants season is to determine if Zito's so called resurgence is for real or not. I know its only been three games, but if he can come close to matching his last performance, it will be much more important to the future of giants success than if Pablo or Ishi show of their talents. The last few months will play a huge role in how zito is treated in the offseason, whether he is demoted, traded, or even cut (never gonna happen but a man can dream). So whats more important the rest of the way, watching zito or pablo/ishi?