And then Drew Brees started taking off his belt…

May 7th, 2007

I feel good. Really good.

I just got back from my first vacation since I started coding last Fall and I genuinely feel great. I had skipped Thanksgiving, Christmas, and countless birthdays, but forced myself to take some time to go home and visit the family and friends, and I’m so glad I did. Five days full of homecooked Jamaican food, NYC subways, and drinking with HS friends was exactly what the doctor ordered. I’ll be tackling a couple big features in the next couple weeks. Stay tuned.

And oh yeah. I ran into Drew Brees in the security line at Newark Airport. I was thinking “That guy looks like Drew Brees but smaller”, when I realized his trademark mole…and then his trademark gorgeous wife. Realizing you’re as tall as Drew Brees? Kinda cool. Watching him waddle away from security as he struggles to put back on his belt? Strangely enjoyable.

Posted in NFL, Site | No Comments »

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

May 1st, 2007

Wow. There is an absolute revolt going on on digg.com right now. From what I’m reading, someone posted a code to decrypt HD-DVD copy protection, or something like that, and digg axed the story. Now all the 12-year-olds are going nuts.

Is this the death of digg? Doubtful. But it’s gonna be pretty fun to watch.

Posted in Site | 1 Comment »

Warriors…Come Out To Plaaaaaaaay…

May 1st, 2007

I don’t know about you, but my heroes come from Coney Island.

I waited for days to use “Come Out To Play” for a headline on RUWT? after a Golden State game. The line is pure gold, I thought. Wittiest man ever.

Except for the part where none of my friends have even heard of The Warriors. Rubbish. The movie is a classic! Rockstar (of Grand Theft Auto fame) even made a Warriors video game! Check this choice clip for YTT 13, and if you want more check out the trailer too. I’m going on a forced vacation tomorrow—I gotta go pack.

Posted in YouTube Tuesday | 1 Comment »

YouTube Tuesday Twelve

April 24th, 2007

There are a lot of “T”s in that title, so it’s probably a good time for a YouTube Tuesday Two-fer.

With a tip of the cap to my love for advertising, here is a pair of two great Gatorade commercials. Instead of bastardizing classics, agencies should be giving us more like these. Fittingly, both spots are featuring players that need to start shouldering more of the load. Quick.

Posted in MLB, NBA, YouTube Tuesday | No Comments »

Boris Yeltsin 1931-2007

April 23rd, 2007

Have you ever seen Boris Yeltsin and Don Nelson in the same room? Cause I haven’t.

A five-guard lineup? Reeks of Boris’ handywork to me…

Boris Yeltsin

Don Nelson

Posted in Site | No Comments »

Who said the NHL wasn’t fun?

April 23rd, 2007

Do you remember the “There goes the population in Convenville!” mystery? Well it turns out new RUWT? user jtlynchjr has the answer:

The reference is to Sabres second-year winger Jason Pominville. The running joke with the PBP team is that whenever he scores the population of “Pominville” increases.

And the play-by-play guy that rocked my world is named Rick Jeanneret, the longest-tenured announcer clocking in at 36 years straight broadcasting the Sabres. But don’t think Rick is a one trick pony—no, no, check out some more choice calls care of Wikipedia.

“Top shelf, where Momma hides the cookies!” most famous recurring call

“There have been more cheap shots in this game than in a Mexican Cantina during Happy Hour!” 2001 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals

“Pominville better open a Planned Parenthood ’cause it’s population is out of control!” reaction to Jason Pominville scoring two goals in a period

And since it’s a NHL lovefest today, the best sign of the playoffs so far.

Posted in NHL, Site | 1 Comment »

Alerts à la carte

April 19th, 2007

I’ve done some more digging into the Buerhle Blunder, and fittingly it seems that the code to make alerts better for everyone kept anyone from catching the no-no. I’m pretty annoyed that RUWTbot wasn’t able to pick up the lefty’s gem, but I’m still excited about this update.

Tonight’s site update has two main pieces (not including the no-no code fix). There are updates almost every night, but this pair has been in the works for a while.

Updated Root Rating – Scoring was pretty spot on for College Basketball and College Football, but over the past couple weeks it seems that a few sports needed tweaking. Going forward you will see higher scores for some sports, specifically the NBA and NHL. But what if you hate the NBA and NHL? Keep reading.
Alerts For Just The Sports You Want – Love Football but can’t stand Baseball? Love Baseball but you’re sick of Hockey? Along with choosing what level of Roots your want alerts for, you can now choose which sports you get alerts for, and ditch the ones you don’t care about.

Posted in Site | 2 Comments »

Buehrle, Buehrle, Buehrle

April 18th, 2007

Buehrle pitched a no-hitter tonight. And we missed it.

We’ve processed 21,328 games thus far, but this was the first no-hitter. There was a bad assumption in the code, and RUWTbot never picked up on what was going on. Worst of all? I could have watched it on my TV.

The whole point of RUWT? is to catch the big games, but tonight we blew it.

Posted in Site | 3 Comments »

FanNation: We’ll be right back…

April 18th, 2007

The first mention I saw of a FanNation retooling was a
random comment on a TechCrunch article, but the predicted relaunch on the 16th never materialized. If you visit FanNation today, you’ll see a splash screen explaining that they’ll be down until the 23rd.

Anyone that knows me well knows I have pretty strong feelings about FanNation, so I’m extremely curious to see what the site will look like on Monday.

Posted in Site | 1 Comment »

Duncan v. Crawford v. Stern, YTT11

April 17th, 2007

I’m not really sure why seeing Crawford eject Timmy made me so angry on Saturday, but not being able to send the NBA feedback through their website without creating an account pissed me off even more.

I thought Crawford definitely needed to be suspended for a game and kept from officiating any Spurs playoff games, but I was shocked when Stern pimp-slapped Crawford into next season. And to hear Stern say on Pardon the Interruption today that Crawford may never ref in the NBA again? Kinda stunning.