Monthly Archives: April 2005

two things i dont understand

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two things, of the many things, i don’t understand this morning.

1. Cingular has a deal to release, as ringtones, songs from artists. They’ve lined up Coldplay to release their first single as ringtone prior to releasing as a single. So here’s what i don’t understand, and this is not a novel/original thought. Cingular charges $1.99-$2.49 for their ringtones. So do they REALLY think that people are going to pay more for a ringtone (even if you get it earlier than full release) of 30 seconds than they would the full song (most download music sites are $0.99)?

2. All this talk about TO and his contract situation. Yes he’s well within his rights to ask for a new contract, he definately outplayed the existing one. I don’t think it’s right to do so in year 1 of a 7 year deal, but whatever. What I don’t understand is all this talk about how the team never honors its obligations (e.g. it can ask a player to restructure or cut him at will) and does so carelessly. It’s not like the teams don’t suffer a penalty for doing so (e.g. immediate cap hit and payment of “dead” money further restricting cap space). I mean unless I’m completely off in my understanding of NFL contracts and salary cap implications. So it’s not like they just up and cut a guy carefree. Yes, the teams look out for their own best interest and players are free to do so (and should) as well. Just the perception that teams just up and cut guys and don’t suffer any kind of repercussion is kind of weird to me.

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my future

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opinionistas: Bad Medicine

haha, a personal post. i dont really like to post things about me. i like link-comment. which this follows, but i had to blog this. because one way or the other this is my foreseeable future. and the description seems dead on. though currently i work in the legal field and the atmosphere is MUCH more laid back.

friendster tries

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so now friendster is sponsoring tv shows. maybe they have been for awhile. i dont really follow friendster all that much. i have a profile, etc, but i don’t do much on it. but now you can check out a friendster blog from the cast of the fox show “stacked.” pam anderson, paget brewster, chris lloyd all have them. i’m sure others do too, but i didn’t bother to click and read.

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Google Video Upload Program FAQ

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Google Video Upload Program FAQ

i dont know if i’d ever take advantage of this, but i find it neat that you can charge ppl to download/watch the video.

oh and yes i have noticed that 99% of my posts fall in the “???- random” category. this weekend i’ll make up some new categories so as to better organize the posts, if only for myself, bc as of right now i cant imagine anyone reads this mindless drivel

“cellphonies” haha

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The New York Times – Reach Out and Touch No One

how many ppl do you know that actually fake the phone conversation, for any reason (not wanting to talk to ppl around them, getting a point across, have some sort of fake excuse for some behavior)?

me, my social isolation tool of choice is the ubiquitous ipod. love me some ipod. put on the cans and block out the world. nevermind that for some reason ppl continue to talk to me even when they see my earbuds in. it makes zero sense.

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unfortunate headline

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ESPN.com – NBA – Pacers’ O’Neal: Racism behind age-limit proposal

okay, not going to discuss whether i think this argument has any merit (institutional racism, etc etc etc). i don’t think kids should jump straight to the nba from HS. i don’t think 99% of them are ready (menatlly, physically, skill-set). yes there are always exceptions (e.g. lebron). what’s crazy is how much of a chance these kids get. if someone who is a HS prep star, with nba teams considering drafting him (maybe not high, maybe not in the lottery), goes to college, leaves after a year, and then stinks it up his first year in the league, he’s done. he might not get another chance. that same kids leaves straight from HS to the nba, GMs will keep him around forever just in case he ever develops. of course this is an argument for allowing the HS players make the jump, but there has to be a better way (let teams draft them, make them play in a mandatory “minor” league for 3 months, i don’t have a solution, but it’s crazy as it is now).

anyway, i’m moving off target. the whole point of this post is to comment on ESPN’s headline for this story on the main page. it says: ” Pacers’ O’Neal: Age limit is racism.” i read that, and the very first thought in my head (not having read the article yet) was, “hmm, straight from HS player says ‘man, age limit? that’s racist!’ what a perfect example/reason to make them go to college! haha”

of course the article is not about o’neal thinking age limits are an example of racism in a simpleton sort of way that i comedically imagined, but still, at least a little amusing.

btw, while i’m on basketball, is anyone else wondering what exactly happened to shooting? why is it getting to be more and more acceptable for all players (but particularly guards) to shoot worse and worse from the line? and who cares if some tiny 5’11”-6’1″ kid is a slasher who can drive to the basket at will? in the nba, that kid won’t finish a good amount of the time, will get fouled, and is what? an upper 60 to 70% FT shooter? what the hell is that?

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impatience?

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okay, so there are a lot of reports this morning about a certain memo about making things shorter, etc for the nytimes. and there are varying angles of analyses about it. one is that even the times is getting caught up with the fast news, straight to the point, etc reporting style. one theory floated on some blog somewhere is that it might be a reflection of web users hating to click to page 2 for the story lead (after a page of some anecdote to contextualize the story).

now i don’t have a problem at all with the current times’ layout, but this bit of information got me to thinking about my biggest problem with the internet which centers solely on one of my favorite sites: espn. why oh why did they move to a multipage format for stories. i mean fine some are long, but does it save that much load time? does it generate that much more ad revenue to have an extra page to place ads on? some stories are literally 2 lines post break. check out the article by len pasquerlli about TO – 3 pages, the 3rd page is nothing. and it’s annoying nonetheless. on any story, my first move is always find and click “single page view” if it’s an option.

second post linking to this guy, originality, lists

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Undisclosed Location: lists

you know, everyone loves to think they are an original and all that, and everyone is. but damn, a lot of crap on these lists i definately agree with. i wonder if i made a list of 100 things i think (or to use a Peter King of SI phrase/feature: X things i think i think, which i like a ton) how much of it might be very similar to this.

hmm, maybe this will be one of my new tasks. every day i’ll make a list of X (i’ll have to figure out the number, don’t know if it’s better to have a static number or fluctuate as i go daily) “things i think i think” (thanks Peter King). of course you can add this to the huge number of things i want to do (e.g. practice my nearly non-existant piano skills, keep writing my “book/manuscript,” doing my best to keep this blog going).

longhand

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okay, so my last post got me thinking about pens, which i like a lot. i also like pencils, but only regular pencils. mechanicals are blah to me, though i like that they are constantly sharp. i love regular old number 2 pencils. anyways, i’m roaming, back to pens. i’m a fan of fountain pens. but i have to say, my fave every day pen, if only for ease of use and not worry about it at all is the pilot g2. but next to that, my fave daily pen (which would be my overall fave daily pen if it weren’t just a tiny bit inconvenient in random instances) would be the pilot varsity, which is a “disposable” fountail pen. then my favorite pens would be pelikans, if only because it was the first brand of fountain pen i purchased. plus i have a friend who knows a lot more about them and he tells me they’re good. and they look good. and they write really smoothly.

ha, then of course there’s the matter of ink. lots of inks, lots of colors. i couldn’t possibly have, or want, enough pens to have all the colors i might want at any given time. but cannot go wrong with a black, a blue, and a blue-black.

then paper, a really nice pad is the docket diamond. moleskines. rhodia pads. there are 3-5 more paper pads that i like. i like a variety of sizes from legal, to 8.5×11, to pocket pads. and i prefer, as i stated below, grid paper over blank or lined (college/narrow over wide rule).

hmm, perhaps i should link these things. to the respective sites or amazon or office max or something. not that anyone who actually reads this can’t find it for themselves, or that anyone actually reads this…