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14 Jul, 2011

Google +1

By |2011-07-14T15:24:17-04:00July 14th, 2011|My Brain|1 Comment

So I’ve ventured into the Google +1 and I can already say this will present a challenge to Facebook. I’m sure the developers at Facebook are dissecting the site as you read this. I think the interface is clean and easy to use. It makes me comfortable from a privacy standpoint. I can see this ousting Facebook. Well done Google! Yes, I used an exclamation point to show you how excited I am. I believe it is invite only so if you want to join the fun of google plus, either comment on this post with your email address, or email me at tcs141@verizon.net. See you on the google side.

*edit – Yes this makes me feel important that I knew someone who invited me before most people got an invite. This is why I feel the need to exclaim how important I am. If you get an invite from me, never forget how important I am now making you feel.

13 Jul, 2011

A look at the NBA – 82′ to 11′

By |2011-07-14T09:24:08-04:00July 13th, 2011|Sports|0 Comments

I was watching some footage of the 82′ Sixers playing the Boston Celtics in the playoffs and the game looked noticeably different compared to today. Players seemed slower, less fancy moves, more defense, less 3’s and obviously more passing. This got me thinking to compare some of the stats of games in the 80’s to the present day. What I found was pretty interesting. Here are the league leading teams and their totals for the year. Take into consideration this is just the highest total of that era and not the average, thus making these numbers meaningless.

  • Total Points 82′ Nuggets 10,105, 11′ Nuggets 8,811 – I think this is pretty interesting that in 82′ they were scoring almost 15 points more per game. I guess my less defense claim is out of the question. Perhaps the Nuggets are just always run and gun?
  • FG % 82′ Lakers – 52.8%, 11′ Celtics – 48.6% – Higher shooting % makes sense considering they are scoring more points and taking better shots.
  • Asst 82′ Lakers- 2,519, 11′ Rockets – 1,953 (Heat had 1,639 this year) – This is pretty amazing in my opinion. A 566 difference means almost 7 assists more a game. This is essentially 7 easy buckets a game that were coming from good passes in the old days. Players were obviously not as selfish compared with “trying to get theirs”.
  • 3 pointers 82′ Spurs – 308 Attempted, 94 Made. 11′ Magic – 2103 Attempted, 770 Made – How the game has changed. In 2011, the team shooting the most 3’s are attempting 7x more then almost 30 years ago. These numbers are really startling and I guess this explains why FG% is down. Notice how the 3 point line doesn’t necessarily lead to more points put on the board. I think someone needs to clue the players in on this fact.
  • Blocks 82′ Hawks – 665, 11′ 502- Wizards – I’m not sure if this is relevant to anything.
  • Rebounds 82′ Sixers – 3930, 11′ TWolves – 3641 – I think this proves it was a faster paced up and down game with more shots being taken. Funny how Kevin Love’s O board’s swing this to the Wolves.
  • Steals 82′ Nets – 911, 11′ Grizzlies – 771 – More possessions I’m guessing.
  • FT% 82′ Nuggets – 80%, 11′ Thunder – 82% – No noticeable difference in shooting caliber.
  • TO 82′ Dallas – 1348, 11′ 76ers 1063 – More possessions led to more turnovers.
  • Attendance 82′ Lakers 648,244, 11′ Bulls 893,462 – Bigger arena’s is my guess as it seems the popularity of the NBA has actually gotten weaker.

    • So what’s the conclusion? It seems a bit counter intuitive that the addition of the 3 point line has led to less points being scored. However when a team is shooting 1800 more 3’s in a season and they make roughly 33% (in reality its 36% but for the example), they score 1800 points. With those extra 1800 possessions a team shooting twos will score roughly 1800 points (50% FG%). HOWEVER, the team shooting twos are more likely to get fouled whereas the team shooting 3’s almost never gets fouled. On 1800 possessions, you may get found 1 once every 7 possessions. This leads to getting fouled 257 times. This could be an additional 450 points? I think that may be some explanation why they scored more points 30 years ago. Anyone’s guess on how often they go to the line on a possession basis would be welcome.

    Blocks, steals and rebounds are all down comparably in present form. This is just because of more possessions by each team. The game back then must have taken shots earlier in the possession or ran the fast break more often. I think this makes sense as to why points per game are higher and FG% is up too. Notice TO’s are way down which pretty much proves the less possessions. I think people preferred basketball back 30 years ago because it was more run and gun. I’m sure the game was more physical due to teams constantly attacking the rim. I think the talent was also a little more diverse. Meaning the better players were much better than some of the scrubs on the roster. This maybe added to the excitement of having a “star” on the team.

    The only thing wrong with this analysis is that I could look at a year ahead or a year behind and the numbers could be completely skewed (I doubt it though). I still think its interesting to see how the game has evolved. The 3 point line is obviously the biggest change to the game. I think a fair answer to the question “what is the biggest change in basketball 30 years ago compared with today” is the 3 point line. After reading this post, now you can argue that with conviction. Comment if you enjoyed this.

    13 Jul, 2011

    How to Park

    By |2011-07-13T09:01:30-04:00July 13th, 2011|My Life|1 Comment

    This is going to sound obvious but, seemingly, most people don’t understand. I’m not sure that’s how to use seemingly but what the hell. I’ve enclosed a diagram to help me out with my points.

    I’m aware this is a crude diagram. I’m also aware this should be self explanatory. However, people seem to forget the simple rules to park between the lines. Let me explain what happens in both situations when you don’t park within in the line. In the parking lot, when someone is either on the yellow line or over the yellow line it does one of two things; 1) One person takes up two spots 2) Two cars try to fit in 1 3/4 spots, thus creating a squeeze effect. This is both problematic to the cars and a nuisance.
    When you are on the street and have to park back to front, there are obviously no lines (usually). This creates all sorts of problems because most people have a fear of parallel parking so spots start to become loose. What I mean is that there are spots that should be spots, but because the parking gets all out of whack from people not properly pulling up close enough to the person in front of them, there become spots that can’t fit cars. This is extremely annoying and selfish because the person who parks is only thinking about themselves and are happy to have a spot, fuck everyone else. I know this is pretty dumb but people can’t seem to understand how to park.

    On a side note, the WaWa on Belmont Ave is the worst parking lot I’ve ever encountered. It’s too tight and when it gets filled, they just lose customers because it’s such a nightmare. If you can find a spot, you essentially have to back out into 8 feet of space while avoiding all other people coming in and out.

    13 Jul, 2011

    Source Code and Adjustment Bureau Afterthoughts

    By |2016-11-02T00:08:47-04:00July 13th, 2011|Movies|0 Comments

    I’ve watched two movies in the past two days, Adjustment Bureau and Source Code (spoilers within), which spurred this post. To put things simply, sci-fi isn’t my cup of tea because they involve false realities and happy endings. Without really breaking the movies down, I find the concepts borderline stupid and I think people just say these movies are good because they don’t want to sound dumb because they don’t understand what’s going on. In the Adjustment Bureau, there are a group of special people, who wear hats mind you, that turn door knobs clockwise and can travel at rapid speeds through these doors. Matt Damon is supposed to be an important political figure and it’s these special peoples job to keep him on his “plan”. However, a strange love interest deviates from the plan and love wins in the end with a lot of drama for essentially nothing. In the source code, Jake Gyllenhaal (who did a fine job of acting for this movie) is borderline dead but his brain works, he can enter the source code which allows him to assume the role of a dead person and relive the last 8 minutes of their life. Now amazingly these 8 minutes are altered depending on his actions within the source code which is easily the stupidest part in my mind. He eventually finds the information of the bomber and prevents a terrorist attack which they show as the present. Then the directors even take it one step further for unnecessary shock value and as he goes in again, saves the train, starts sending emails and calling people, and then people in the present start getting his communication from the source code. Plus the ending plays it out like he saved events that apparently already occurred in the present. Seriously, WTF?

    I know it’s a movie and it’s supposed to be interesting but once it loses touch with reality, it loses me. I can live with some weird, far out shit in movies and still think it can be a good movie. Back to the Future is a perfect example of time travel that was a four star movie in my mind. The Matrix seemed like a reasonable, parallel universe. But once you start telling me that Jake Gyllenhaal actions in a fictional world, CREATED FROM A DEAD PERSON’S MEMORY allow him to gather NEW information, you lose me. I can’t overlook this and say this is a 4 star movie. Michael J. Fox can travel 88 miles per hour in a DeLorean and time travel, I’m fine with that, but don’t insult my intelligence. However, I ask the question was I entertained? Yes. The movie kept my interest but I’d still give it a thumbs down on Rotten Tomatoes. I’ve been on this authentic and truth binge for a while now and I’m sold that these ingredients make for superior results in just about everything. Make me feel like what I’m watching or reading is authentic and I’m much more apt to think it’s quality work.

    The second part of this post is happy endings. I think they didn’t end the Source Code by shutting down his body and terminating him because they wanted to have a happy ending. I would have liked the movie more if that would have happened. Instead, the Source Code becomes a magic land that he can communicate with the present. I don’t need a happy ending to think a movie is good. Leave me feeling emotional and I can at least say the movie moved me. I’m part of a target audience who doesn’t care if the good guy always wins. I’m not a child anymore and I understand that not all movies are geared to emotionless realists like myself. I think I’m just really disappointed with the quality of movies that are coming out and also the way these critics review them. I read some moron on rotten tomatoes write “This movie awakened my seasonal urge to buy ice cream treats and turn my brain off for 100 minutes, so get ready for summer, everyone.” Any movie where I have to turn my brain off shouldn’t be considered good. I feel like I’m constantly being a harsh critic but for god sakes, someone has to do it.

    12 Jul, 2011

    Foster the People – Torches

    By |2011-07-31T11:27:08-04:00July 12th, 2011|Music|0 Comments

    You’ll notice that my first two songs of the day were by Foster the People. I recently bought the CD which was an experience in itself. I haven’t bought a CD in ages but I had a best buy gift card and had some money to blow. There was exactly one copy of Foster the People’s CD left. I found it very unusual what Best Buy was doing to try to trick customers into thinking CD’s still sold. They had a shelf of the most popular artists and there would only be 2 or 3 copies of the CD on the shelf to give the illusion that the CD was selling. I found this to be a unique, underhanded way of marketing but let me discuss this CD for a minute.

    Mark Foster is pretty much the band from what I understand. There are 2 other members but he seems to do everything (vocals, synthesizer, keyboards, guitar, programming). Torches is only 10 tracks but the CD only cost 10 bucks so I only felt slightly slighted. The 3 known songs, Pumped Up Kicks, Houdini, and Helena Beat are all overplayed at this point in my mind but still quality if they are new to you. I found two gems though in Wasted and Warrant. The other 5 songs all fall somewhere in the mediocre category but still worth listening to. Considering I don’t by many CD’s, I’ve found this one to be on the positive side. I also bought a CD by Best Coast, it was supposed to be one of Mark Hoppus and Hailey Williams favorite new bands, and I thought it was completely atrocious. I’ll stick with Foster the People. Their sound is just very unique and fun to listen to.

    11 Jul, 2011

    Celebrity Jason’s are No Talent AssClowns

    By |2016-11-03T15:29:19-04:00July 11th, 2011|Celeb|0 Comments

    I’m not sure why but the first name of Jason has produced some actors who seem to be overly popular for no good reason. These guys fall in my shit list of actors for various reasons that I’m happy to explain.

    Jason Segal

    Let’s start with Jason Segal being only 31. He’s only 4 years older then me and has accomplished more than I ever will. This is my first reason for resentment. Next, he’s not even very good looking. It’s difficult for me to judge this but he just seems so ordinary and goofy. He was decent in Freaks and Geeks and had some minor roles most notably in Knocked Up, then came his big break in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Here’s my biggest complaint, he wrote the script to the movie and then cast himself the lead where he got to make out with my favorite actress on the planet Kristen Bell. Let’s not forget his other love interest of Mila Kunis wasn’t so bad. His role in the movie just bothered me because she was supposed to be famous and how on Earth would she fall for such a klutz like him unless he wrote himself into the goddamn part. I actually didn’t think he did that bad of a job in that movie because he sort of played himself and didn’t over do it. Which brings me to my next problem with him in I Love You Man. He was cast as a suave, investment banker of sorts. I just thought this was so far from reality that he started to bother me. I still think he can be moderately funny but when I watch movies and the actor bothers me to the point that I can’t focus on the movie because I can’t stop thinking about how much he bothers me, that’s a problem. Now he has this new movie with Cameron Diaz where he is once again the lead. Where did this fame come from? I sincerely hope the movie tanks. Jason Segal, if you ever read this, I don’t dislike you personally and you do absolutely nothing wrong, but your writing of average scripts (Sarah Marshall wasn’t bad) and casting yourself to bang the lead females makes me despise you.

    Jason Bateman

    First off, look how smug he looks in that picture. Apparently he achieved prominence in the early 2000’s because of Arrested Development. I personally have never seen the show but I hear it has a cult following and I’d assume he was decent in it. However, I’ll review what I’ve seen. I watched the Kingdom and he didn’t get on my nerves at all, I actually thought he was good. In Dodgeball, he was the announcer with Gary Cole and he tried too hard. I know the character was supposed to be trying too hard but I didn’t like it. I watched the movie Extract which was a Mike Judge (Office Space) flick and he can’t carry a lead. He just isn’t that funny. I feel like he’s whining all the time. Next he was in Couples Retreat which sadly to say I saw. Once again this Jason found a way to lay his hands all over my girl Kristen Bell and that immediately puts him on my shitlist. He has Horrible Bosses now which is apparently pretty good but him getting leads just bothers me because he’s a no talent ass clown. Don’t forget that.

    Jason Lee

    You’ll start to see a trend here. This numnut was romantically linked to Jennifer Love Hewitt in Heartbreakers which was totally not OK. Pictures below to see why Jennifer Love Hewitt in Heartbreakers was the absolute prime of her (physical) career. I’ve always had a problem with Jason Lee though. He was Brody in Mallrats and was ok. He got run over in Enemy of the State. I thought he was really good in Almost Famous. I was happy Stealing Harvard failed. It looks like he got a huge payday from Alvin and the Chipmunks which was probably god awful. Jason Lee doesn’t bother me as much as the other two Jason’s but I don’t really see a huge list of accomplishments. My name is Earl? Somehow I doubt this show is that great as I notice it’s ratings got progressively lower with each year. Sorry Jason, you just happen to be the third Jason I could think of because I certainly wasn’t using Jason Alexander (or Jason Kidd for that matter).

    Jennifer Love was my number one for a while back in the early 2000’s. I do like Kristen Bell now but if I gave it some thought I could probably top her if I wanted. I still don’t have much that are better than JLH in her prime years.


    11 Jul, 2011

    Makeover Monday

    By |2011-07-11T17:26:00-04:00July 11th, 2011|My Life|3 Comments

    As you can see, this blog looks completely different from previous visits. I just decided that this was a good time for an upgrade and I’m hoping you, the readers, will find this as an improvement. I would be grateful for any comments on what you find better or worse with this current layout. I have the ability to shift things around so I just was curious on any thoughts. Most likely no one will have any and I will decide what I like the best, but I suppose that’s not so bad either. I’m not really sure what type of an effect I’m expecting this to have but hopefully it will be positive. Hopefully you will see that my dedication to rnningfool.com is high and continue to check from time to time.

    11 Jul, 2011

    Root, Root, Root for the Home Team

    By |2011-07-11T01:01:47-04:00July 11th, 2011|Sports|2 Comments

    So I’ve got a hard on for Chuck Klosterman and I pretty much consider him to be smarter than all of my readers so I want to share with you some thoughts about some things that we agree on but he can actually explain better than me. I’ve written how I don’t like the Phillies, baseball in general really, and I’m not just going to jump on the bandwagon because they are good. Here’s Klosterman’s wording on rooting for the home team just because.

    “I hate the idea that rooting for a team without justification somehow proves that you are traditional, loyal, and a “true fan”. All it proves is that you’re ridiculous, and that you don’t really consider the motivations that drive your emotions, and that you probably care more about geography and the color of a uniform than you do about any given sport.”
    People basically just like things because they feel like they should to either fit in because they are insane.

    I thought another interesting line from this essay was this:
    “Whenever I meet someone who openly identifies themselves as a Republican or a Democrat, my immediate thought is always, well, this person might be interesting, but they’ll never say anything about politics that’s remotely useful to me… If you want to truly deduce how intelligent someone is, just ask this person how they feel about any issue that doesn’t have an answer; the more certainly they express, the less sense they have. This is because certainty only comes from dogma.

    He goes on to write that “life is fucking confusing. I don’t know anything, and neither do you.” I think a large part of being a person is trying to convince yourself you know what you’re doing. I’m rooting for the Phillies because I like baseball. No, you’re rooting for the Phillies because they are the best team and baseball and you want to feel a part of it. Tell me how many of you would still be watching every game if they were as good as they were back in 97′ when they went 68-94. I know I’m right about this. I understand why people do it too. It makes life “better”. It gives you something to look forward to. I’m not saying this applies to everyone because I’m sure there are die hard fans who actually like watching baseball for the baseball but these are far and few between compared to all the faux fans out there. People can say I’m being a complete sourpuss on this topic but at least I know I’m for real. I’d rather have my own identity instead of being one of the lemmings about to fall over the cliff.

    10 Jul, 2011

    Life Update

    By |2011-07-10T23:29:03-04:00July 10th, 2011|My Life|2 Comments

    My list of things to do is long and time consuming but its importance is minimal. I’ll give you an insight into my life and current thinking about tasks at hand. First off, I want to finish Chuck Klosterman’s IV. If you keep up with my blog you’ll wonder why I seemingly can’t stop writing about this guy. His observations and thoughts on topics from sports, to music, to stupid tasks (example is eating only chicken nuggets for a week) are wildly amusing. If I met him in real life I’d be intimidated because he’s too smart. He probably wouldn’t admit that, maybe he would, but I am on the Chuck Klosterman band wagon. I’ll finish answering the questions again too which I got sidetracked doing. I make recommendations from time and his books come highly regarded from me. So, ANYWAY, I still have his book to finish which will take me another day or so.

    After that I want to start the second Game of Thrones book. I got two comments asking me how the first read was and it was phenomenal. Even knowing what was going to happen only took away a little bit from the enjoyment. I can’t wait to get started but it’s sort of a mental thing that I have to get geared up to begin because it’s some 700 pages. I also bought the Soprano’s second season which I want to watch. It’s been a few months since I finished the 1 season and I’m looking forward to that as well. I also have the first season of Mad Men which came recommended by Mr. Klosterman himself which I want to watch.

    I also dvr’d all the Star Wars and intend to watch them because I’m not sure I’ve seen them fully. I know that’s a pretty terrible thing to admit but I feel like it’s my purpose as a human being to at least see I’ve seen all the Star Wars movies. I watched the first one today to moderate delight. I know I’m probably being tough here because this was done 30 years ago but it seemed like it took a long time for nothing to really happen. Plus once the Death Star blew up, I feel like that would have set the Empire back financially and I’m not sure how they can really recover from that big of a hit. Mark Hamill was driving me mad because his acting made him look like such a whiny bitch. I’ll watch the other two in near term.

    I didn’t really do much today except read and watch Star Wars and TV. True Blood is starting to get sloppy I think. The storylines are all over and starting to take on really weird turns. Just a tad too far out I think. Curb your Enthusiasm also premiered and I was entertained but wouldn’t say it was tremendous. Larry’s schtick is sort of tired because I feel like it’s been done before, like 7 seasons worth. I’ll still tune in every week though because he does have some funny moments undeniably.

    I also had a few observations from the weekend which are amusing. I wore a blue band aid on my finger to a party on Saturday and every single person commented on it. Attracting attention to wounds doesn’t make a lot of sense and in hindsight I should have spent the extra buck for skin colored band aids. On another note, playing beer pong with water is sort of dumb. Yes it’s better for germs and the health of the table but it turns a drinking game into a non-drinking game. I also was initiated to a “no airball” rule where every airball that’s wrong results in a cup being taken away. I have mixed feelings on this rule but in the course of 8 games, it only happened to Jess Baker and I twice during a 7-1 run. I also noticed when we were playing Matt Baker, he commented that I had a few more games of beer pong under my belt than him. This got me thinking how many lifetime games I’ve played of beer pong. I estimated somewhere between 1,000 and 5,000. If I’ve played for ten years, I’m pretty sure I’ve played at least 100 a year and probably more like 500 some years. My guess is that my lifetime record is something like 1500-1000. I win more than I lose but I’m nothing special. I have a few more ideas for posts that I’ll save for another time.

    10 Jul, 2011

    Who sings that? – The originals

    By |2011-07-10T23:04:09-04:00July 10th, 2011|Music, Top 25 Best Bands|0 Comments

    I think it’s funny when people say things like “I love that song by so and so” and it turns out that the song they love is really just a cover of the original. Here is my list of ten songs that I think you might be surprised to know were covers. I’m going to embed the original and I’ll just have a link to the version that you probably are more familiar with. No particular order either.

    10. Respect – Otis Redding

    Aretha’s version

    9. Love Rollercoaster – Ohio Players

    RHCP version would be my guess of who people think sing the song.

    8. Tainted Love – Gloria Jones

    Fairly obvious Soft Cell version.

    7. All Along the Watchtower – Bob Dylan

    Jimi’s version would be what I suspect most people think.

    6. The Man Who Sold the World – David Bowie

    Undoubtedly people would think Nirvana created this.

    5. Last Kiss – J Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers

    I have a feeling most people think Pearl Jam owned the original.

    4. Big Yellow Taxi – Joni Mitchell

    Here’s the Counting Crows version

    3. Istanbul – The Four Lads

    Most people would know the They Might be Giants cover.

    2. Twist and Shout – Isley Brothers

    The Beatles cover is infinitely more popular.

    1. Take me to the River – Al Green

    The Talking Heads did not create this song.

    I hope this list educated some of my readers so they don’t have to look foolish thinking that some songs are the originals when, most likely, they are just covers that were done better than the original. I hope some of you found this interesting.

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