And now let us turn to page 8 in the hymnal and sing our praises to our Lord and Savior, Tommy Maddox.
It's weeks like this that make Pittsburgh sports radio just so dang interesting to listen to, and then shut off. We're destined for an entire week of "Tommy Maddox should be the starter" intensified to the Nth degree (not that we weren't already there now.) Personally, I'm thankful for only one thing in this entire affair, that Phil Dawson got blocked in overtime. Otherwise I'd be able to cause the more psychotic of the Steeler faithful to suicide:
Random psychofan. "Tommy Maddox! Tommy Maddox! He healed my lameness. It's a miracle."
Me: "What about his interception? Didn't that cost us the game?"
RP: "Um. Um.." grabs IC light bottle, smashes it over the bar, and stabs himself in the jugular. with the broken shards.
I'm sure it's common in all cities to have the "backup quarterback as cruelly tortured holy figure", (anyone know if Joseph Campbell ever explored this?) but it's especially acute in Pittsburgh, and I can't remember a year when it didn't come into play. (I'm frantically trying to think of a year when Bradshaw didn't have someone calling for his head, but I'm failing)
At this point the QB situation is a nice problem number 4 on the radar, after the defense (which really wasn't tested against a full spread air attack as in previous weeks) the offensive line and the running game(which admittedly, if we have nothing coming from Bettis, et. al. , we might as well put in Maddox, and then put Kordell in at RB.)
Still, could be worse. We could be looking at Unfrozen Caveman Ball Coach's lot, or Mr. "I AM AN OFFENSIVE GENIUS!!!!!"'s situation
Random product placement of the week: Just before the game, we had just gotten an order of buffalo style chicken strips, which were very much on the Buffalo side, and I put them down on an empty stomach. As I tend to bellyache about my bellyaches, I made some comment about it feeling like someone was using a Dremel tool on my stomach, prompting Joe to respond "Maybe you could go for a refreshing Mike's Hard Lemonade." Maybe you had to be there, but that stopped me cold.
Meanwhile, the Pirates closed out the year in the most embarrassing way possible: Cracking open champagne in the locker room because they didn't lose 90 games. Dissing the Scouts, and cancelling Fan Appreciation Night. While I will freely admit that what they didn't have control of, they can't be blamed for, you have to look at this as the perfect trifecta microcosm of the season. Bad breaks, bad times, and bad attitude. And the only celebration they can muster honors the fact that they suck incompletely. Wow.
Day 11.
11A. American Musical Theatre History
11B. Worldwide Holiday and Festival Site
11C. Lephalophodon
11D. IUPAC Glossary of Chemical Class Names
11E. Fodors (specifically the mini guides)
Monday, September 30, 2002
Sunday, September 29, 2002
Edmund hit this one ahead of me. It's just interesting to see Senator Bulworth's social programs in action.
Almost, but not quite a question here.
1 This article just scares the crap out of me on so many levels.
2 Oh dear. Wall Drug has the bomb. I guess the ice water won't be free from now on?
3 Yeah, it's a niche market, but [lips keep moving] what... a concept... it is.
4 The future, as always, is foretold by Tekken.
Day 10.
10A. Hyperhistory
10B. The Laws List
10C. Baseball Reference.com
10D. HNH-Naxos Classicals
10E. Library of Congress Country Studies
Almost, but not quite a question here.
1 This article just scares the crap out of me on so many levels.
2 Oh dear. Wall Drug has the bomb. I guess the ice water won't be free from now on?
3 Yeah, it's a niche market, but [lips keep moving] what... a concept... it is.
4 The future, as always, is foretold by Tekken.
Day 10.
10A. Hyperhistory
10B. The Laws List
10C. Baseball Reference.com
10D. HNH-Naxos Classicals
10E. Library of Congress Country Studies
Thursday, September 26, 2002
Carey pointed out this site today. I just think this has the potential of being the most messed up The Price Is Right pricing game ever.
I really shouldn't be laughing at this, I really shouldn't. Hurts too much.
Light reading: Mob history is kinda amusing, and this is just kinda cool.
Day 9.
9A. Physics News Update
9B. The HistoryNet (was previously an archive of several magazines)
9C. Roll Call
9D. Cracksmoker.com (Not only good for finding out all about the intersection of crime and sports, it tests your nanny software!)
9E. NYCSubway.org (Mostly as it has maps and info on subways and rail in other cities.)
I really shouldn't be laughing at this, I really shouldn't. Hurts too much.
Light reading: Mob history is kinda amusing, and this is just kinda cool.
Day 9.
9A. Physics News Update
9B. The HistoryNet (was previously an archive of several magazines)
9C. Roll Call
9D. Cracksmoker.com (Not only good for finding out all about the intersection of crime and sports, it tests your nanny software!)
9E. NYCSubway.org (Mostly as it has maps and info on subways and rail in other cities.)
Continuing on an idea from yesterday.
Google's new news service might give us a better idea of the limits that our own sources will impose on us to differentiate questions. It will be interesting, this promises to give us all the reports on the same story at the same time. To me, this will be interesting because this will probably be the first time we get a fat pipe of source options, many interpretations and phrasings of the same information, at the same time. For a book, this would be the equivalent of having a single site search of Benet's, Oxford Dictionaries, Penguin Dictionaries, Cliffs Notes, and a set of web sites. It's a big step forward for quiz bowl writing, the closest thing I've seen previously is xrefer. Of course the other side of the sword is that we are the second tier of interpreters. There aren't really (taking an example from when I write this) 56 separate reports on the firing of this guy from Lucent for data falsification. A few reporters are on scene, but a majority of the articles are taking the wire and running with it, and some are buffing and polishing the feed. What does that mean for us? It means someone will have likely found the perfect words before we get there. So even if you find the right words, someone may claim you're just ripping off report X.
I'm not a big fan of the concept of rewriting by Roget because, often, the word that's there is the right one. Effective journalism, and effective question writing are highly similar disciplines. Both demand a rapid, concise delivery of the facts, using effective vocabulary in a place where nuanced rhetorical flourishes will fail.
So there's your new tool. Try not to break it. And try not to break others with it.
Day 8.
8A. Encyclopedia of British History
8B. A Science Odyssey: People and Discoveries
8C. Rotten Tomatoes
8D. Project Gutenberg
8E. Encyclopedia Mythica
Google's new news service might give us a better idea of the limits that our own sources will impose on us to differentiate questions. It will be interesting, this promises to give us all the reports on the same story at the same time. To me, this will be interesting because this will probably be the first time we get a fat pipe of source options, many interpretations and phrasings of the same information, at the same time. For a book, this would be the equivalent of having a single site search of Benet's, Oxford Dictionaries, Penguin Dictionaries, Cliffs Notes, and a set of web sites. It's a big step forward for quiz bowl writing, the closest thing I've seen previously is xrefer. Of course the other side of the sword is that we are the second tier of interpreters. There aren't really (taking an example from when I write this) 56 separate reports on the firing of this guy from Lucent for data falsification. A few reporters are on scene, but a majority of the articles are taking the wire and running with it, and some are buffing and polishing the feed. What does that mean for us? It means someone will have likely found the perfect words before we get there. So even if you find the right words, someone may claim you're just ripping off report X.
I'm not a big fan of the concept of rewriting by Roget because, often, the word that's there is the right one. Effective journalism, and effective question writing are highly similar disciplines. Both demand a rapid, concise delivery of the facts, using effective vocabulary in a place where nuanced rhetorical flourishes will fail.
So there's your new tool. Try not to break it. And try not to break others with it.
Day 8.
8A. Encyclopedia of British History
8B. A Science Odyssey: People and Discoveries
8C. Rotten Tomatoes
8D. Project Gutenberg
8E. Encyclopedia Mythica
Tuesday, September 24, 2002
A big bag of interesting stuff, while we all sit in the echo chamber.
First of all, looks like the Yahoo club is plagarizing its own arguments from the last plagarism debate, as once again morphed into a debate over whether one should have experienced a work to be qualified to ask/answer questions on the work. The answer to that question simply has to be no. While it's a nice ideal to target, every single writer who tries to do this will fail. Omniscience is impossible, and to achieve this goal you need to not only know the work, but know all the summaries of the work, summaries of summaries, references in other works, and so on. It doesn't matter the field, whether it's a play, a battle, a law of physics, or the events of a baseball game. On any subject, at any time, someone can get you, even if you do "know more about it." You can't have certainty that your own knowledge of a subject will win out. Your studies only invests you in probabilities. They're good odds, but you are playing against the house.
On the original issue, plagarism is bad. It is the third rail, like betting on baseball, the non-recoverable act. That said, what really worries me is the natural third act of the club discussion. After we scream about plagarism, and then it changes into the nice intractable debate, we'll see someone accused of plagarism in the next month or so. I urge caution for all, because I fear someone's going to get reamed on a false positive. It's only the natural extension of the Benet's bashing. (Incidentally I've always found this one completely insane: the idea that the primary reason one should browse Benet's has morphed from actually learning something, to playing 'gotcha' when someone uses the same words in a question.) Now my copy is collecting dust, but I can wager that I could take the other books in my apartment, combine facts, and reproduce some of the articles. Not all the articles, and certainly not perfectly, but enough to raise suspicions. Is it that hard to imagine the same idea applied to a question? Be careful out there.
(Note that in this case I'm talking about the single question, it's the patterns that form in people's writing over entire packets that will make cases for plagarism.)
Two quotes that just amused me:
On the Twins infield: "The ragging comes in four distinct languages: English, Spanish, Spanglish and Canadian."
On the Batt/Cage lawsuit "Mine is a much better silent piece. I have been able to say in one minute what Cage could only say in four minutes and 33 seconds."
MattB brought this one up last week, but it bears reading, as the implications for quiz bowl are, to my mind, staggering. One of the big things I see when people dismiss quiz bowl as irrelevant is that it doesn't really create deep understanding in the subject matter, it just teaches recall. (I dispute that opinion, but I recognize that the more homogenized questions appear, the easier that viewpoint is to take.) Looking at this article, I have to say if this becomes the norm (and I saw enough of this when I was in school), then quiz bowl looks better and better, not just for the top kids in a school, but for all of them.
Quick notes on other people's top stories:
Carey, Hadn't thought about it that way, but yes, the roots could well be the same these days.
MattB, the ultimate test of donut synergy will be when Krispy Kreme hits Rhode Island. Of course, that may mean there will be no businesses left in the state that aren't donut places, but these things must be tested before accepted as scientific fact. It might also lead to the first ever fatally clogged artery having four lanes..
Edmund, if it's good balsamic, that's fine, but if it's plonk, then it's the same problem as Mad Dog. And if you start using it as a mixer, that's usually another good warning sign. Condiment abuse is at an all time high in this country. Witness this.
Craig (and readers of Craig's), the most valuable thing from the cuthroat pool? We can actually translate your weblog a clef!
And leaving us with a natural transition,
Hunter's back. Nothing like the original. Besides, Simmons is going to be insuffrable talking about football until the Pats lose a game.
And, so everyone else can get the idea out of their head, let me break the ice and start the Bison Dele-Jason Mewes conspiracy theory. I don't really need to say anything at this point, it's completely ridiculous, makes no sense, and just plays on coincidence. Thus it will spread like wildfire.
Okay, day job stuff.
One of the things that makes my job interesting is that they want me to assign a percentage done to a project every week. The fun part of this comes this week when I have a project currently marked at 85% which I need to demonstrate progress on (there's been some). However, the introduction of this metric that they wanted to use noted that at 90% it's considered shippable. Now then, I can't be psychotically pendantic and move it up to 89%, but I don't particularly want it shipping now. Fun, fun, fun. 90=100. It would only be more amusing if they were asking me twice a day if the number can be moved up.
Day 7.
7A. Independence and Union Movements (previously mentioned)
7B. Biography Center
7C. Anthropology News
7D. College Football Traditions
7E. Major Battles of the Civil War
First of all, looks like the Yahoo club is plagarizing its own arguments from the last plagarism debate, as once again morphed into a debate over whether one should have experienced a work to be qualified to ask/answer questions on the work. The answer to that question simply has to be no. While it's a nice ideal to target, every single writer who tries to do this will fail. Omniscience is impossible, and to achieve this goal you need to not only know the work, but know all the summaries of the work, summaries of summaries, references in other works, and so on. It doesn't matter the field, whether it's a play, a battle, a law of physics, or the events of a baseball game. On any subject, at any time, someone can get you, even if you do "know more about it." You can't have certainty that your own knowledge of a subject will win out. Your studies only invests you in probabilities. They're good odds, but you are playing against the house.
On the original issue, plagarism is bad. It is the third rail, like betting on baseball, the non-recoverable act. That said, what really worries me is the natural third act of the club discussion. After we scream about plagarism, and then it changes into the nice intractable debate, we'll see someone accused of plagarism in the next month or so. I urge caution for all, because I fear someone's going to get reamed on a false positive. It's only the natural extension of the Benet's bashing. (Incidentally I've always found this one completely insane: the idea that the primary reason one should browse Benet's has morphed from actually learning something, to playing 'gotcha' when someone uses the same words in a question.) Now my copy is collecting dust, but I can wager that I could take the other books in my apartment, combine facts, and reproduce some of the articles. Not all the articles, and certainly not perfectly, but enough to raise suspicions. Is it that hard to imagine the same idea applied to a question? Be careful out there.
(Note that in this case I'm talking about the single question, it's the patterns that form in people's writing over entire packets that will make cases for plagarism.)
Two quotes that just amused me:
On the Twins infield: "The ragging comes in four distinct languages: English, Spanish, Spanglish and Canadian."
On the Batt/Cage lawsuit "Mine is a much better silent piece. I have been able to say in one minute what Cage could only say in four minutes and 33 seconds."
MattB brought this one up last week, but it bears reading, as the implications for quiz bowl are, to my mind, staggering. One of the big things I see when people dismiss quiz bowl as irrelevant is that it doesn't really create deep understanding in the subject matter, it just teaches recall. (I dispute that opinion, but I recognize that the more homogenized questions appear, the easier that viewpoint is to take.) Looking at this article, I have to say if this becomes the norm (and I saw enough of this when I was in school), then quiz bowl looks better and better, not just for the top kids in a school, but for all of them.
Quick notes on other people's top stories:
Carey, Hadn't thought about it that way, but yes, the roots could well be the same these days.
MattB, the ultimate test of donut synergy will be when Krispy Kreme hits Rhode Island. Of course, that may mean there will be no businesses left in the state that aren't donut places, but these things must be tested before accepted as scientific fact. It might also lead to the first ever fatally clogged artery having four lanes..
Edmund, if it's good balsamic, that's fine, but if it's plonk, then it's the same problem as Mad Dog. And if you start using it as a mixer, that's usually another good warning sign. Condiment abuse is at an all time high in this country. Witness this.
Craig (and readers of Craig's), the most valuable thing from the cuthroat pool? We can actually translate your weblog a clef!
And leaving us with a natural transition,
Hunter's back. Nothing like the original. Besides, Simmons is going to be insuffrable talking about football until the Pats lose a game.
And, so everyone else can get the idea out of their head, let me break the ice and start the Bison Dele-Jason Mewes conspiracy theory. I don't really need to say anything at this point, it's completely ridiculous, makes no sense, and just plays on coincidence. Thus it will spread like wildfire.
Okay, day job stuff.
One of the things that makes my job interesting is that they want me to assign a percentage done to a project every week. The fun part of this comes this week when I have a project currently marked at 85% which I need to demonstrate progress on (there's been some). However, the introduction of this metric that they wanted to use noted that at 90% it's considered shippable. Now then, I can't be psychotically pendantic and move it up to 89%, but I don't particularly want it shipping now. Fun, fun, fun. 90=100. It would only be more amusing if they were asking me twice a day if the number can be moved up.
Day 7.
7A. Independence and Union Movements (previously mentioned)
7B. Biography Center
7C. Anthropology News
7D. College Football Traditions
7E. Major Battles of the Civil War
Product Testing:
When I was an impressionable freshman up on Cornell's north campus, I made it my duty to examine all my beverage possibilities at the dining hall. And believe me we did have options, including three that I wasn't used to coming in fountain form. Birch beer was tolerable, but the other two, Mr. Pibb, and Fanta Red, were just plain nasty. Mostly because they never got the carbonation right, and you ended up with a big flood of syrup on ice. Well, tonight I got myself a bottle of Dr. Pepper Red Fusion. Not good at all. It manages to be an unbearable Tussin-y combination of prune and cherry early, but it seems to coat your tongue until you get no flavor for anything after the first five sips. The flavor was what I imagine combining Fanta Red and Mr. Pibb would taste like.
Also I picked up one of the Double Delight Oreos (Mint and Creme) Underwhelming (flavor is indistinguishable from Grasshopper cookies), and suffering from a fatal flaw of Oreo formation. That being you can't twist one of the cookies and get a clean break. You will always get one side with creme, one with mint. For those of us who go for the double DoubleStuf, this is unacceptable.
My mother would also be waylaid by this. She twists, scrapes one side clean and just eats the cookies. (Yes, this meant that late at night there would often be a plate sitting there with 30 milligrams of pure Nabisco crack. I'm sure there's a twelve-step for that, but I'm not interested.)
Not the facts: About C.M.Coolidge
Day 6.
6A. ArtLex
6B. The Victorian Web
6C. How Stuff Works
6D. Congressional Biography Guide
6E. Flags of the World
When I was an impressionable freshman up on Cornell's north campus, I made it my duty to examine all my beverage possibilities at the dining hall. And believe me we did have options, including three that I wasn't used to coming in fountain form. Birch beer was tolerable, but the other two, Mr. Pibb, and Fanta Red, were just plain nasty. Mostly because they never got the carbonation right, and you ended up with a big flood of syrup on ice. Well, tonight I got myself a bottle of Dr. Pepper Red Fusion. Not good at all. It manages to be an unbearable Tussin-y combination of prune and cherry early, but it seems to coat your tongue until you get no flavor for anything after the first five sips. The flavor was what I imagine combining Fanta Red and Mr. Pibb would taste like.
Also I picked up one of the Double Delight Oreos (Mint and Creme) Underwhelming (flavor is indistinguishable from Grasshopper cookies), and suffering from a fatal flaw of Oreo formation. That being you can't twist one of the cookies and get a clean break. You will always get one side with creme, one with mint. For those of us who go for the double DoubleStuf, this is unacceptable.
My mother would also be waylaid by this. She twists, scrapes one side clean and just eats the cookies. (Yes, this meant that late at night there would often be a plate sitting there with 30 milligrams of pure Nabisco crack. I'm sure there's a twelve-step for that, but I'm not interested.)
Not the facts: About C.M.Coolidge
Day 6.
6A. ArtLex
6B. The Victorian Web
6C. How Stuff Works
6D. Congressional Biography Guide
6E. Flags of the World
Monday, September 23, 2002
The good case for IM's
This Saturday was the CMU Intramurals. I do love IM's, and I think they're absolutely essential to growing a team. First it's one of the few opportunities a team has to draw in additional players. You also get good training for your players in the untaught arts of moderating and tournament management, without crazed coaches or intolerant college teams attacking them. Also you have the benefit of actually presenting your organization as doing something other than sponging student activity money. Finally, it's just a good thing to get a clear view of exactly how much knowledge is internal to quiz bowl. Stuff that is "obvious" in quiz bowl, that is unheard of outside of it. There's so much of that that's out there in the game, and unless you actually see that in action, you make the false assumption that new players are either stupid or ignorant, when it's just that they haven't had the opportunities you have had.
I was happy with the set, having done the first edit on it. It wasn't perfect, we found a few bugs with it, and we've already fixed them. It did, however, do exactly what an IM set should do. Give people a good time, present them with a feeling that they can do this, and encourage them to come to practices or to subsequent IM's. NAQT IM's had previously gotten the rep of being inaccessible to new players, but it looked from the stats that even the newest of players were getting the handle of the game. And of course, since we didn't have to have the existing team compete in the tournament, we didn't scare anyone away by having them be crushed. All in all, I think everyone enjoyed it whether playing or helping to run it. And though it was a financial loss, it wasn't something that will cripple the team from going to other tournaments, and if we get a few more people from it, I think that's worth it.
Day 5.
5A. CNN
5B. Book-A-Minute
5C. OurSportsCentral
5D. The Avalon Project
5E. De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors
This Saturday was the CMU Intramurals. I do love IM's, and I think they're absolutely essential to growing a team. First it's one of the few opportunities a team has to draw in additional players. You also get good training for your players in the untaught arts of moderating and tournament management, without crazed coaches or intolerant college teams attacking them. Also you have the benefit of actually presenting your organization as doing something other than sponging student activity money. Finally, it's just a good thing to get a clear view of exactly how much knowledge is internal to quiz bowl. Stuff that is "obvious" in quiz bowl, that is unheard of outside of it. There's so much of that that's out there in the game, and unless you actually see that in action, you make the false assumption that new players are either stupid or ignorant, when it's just that they haven't had the opportunities you have had.
I was happy with the set, having done the first edit on it. It wasn't perfect, we found a few bugs with it, and we've already fixed them. It did, however, do exactly what an IM set should do. Give people a good time, present them with a feeling that they can do this, and encourage them to come to practices or to subsequent IM's. NAQT IM's had previously gotten the rep of being inaccessible to new players, but it looked from the stats that even the newest of players were getting the handle of the game. And of course, since we didn't have to have the existing team compete in the tournament, we didn't scare anyone away by having them be crushed. All in all, I think everyone enjoyed it whether playing or helping to run it. And though it was a financial loss, it wasn't something that will cripple the team from going to other tournaments, and if we get a few more people from it, I think that's worth it.
Day 5.
5A. CNN
5B. Book-A-Minute
5C. OurSportsCentral
5D. The Avalon Project
5E. De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors
Friday, September 20, 2002
Day 4.
4A. Napoleon
4B. Information Please Almanac
4C. Operabase
4D. Literary Kicks
4E. The Nine Planets (mentioned previously)
Wednesday, September 18, 2002
Today, Salon did a reprint of the item on blogcritics on the American Idol impressment contract (mentioned as part of "I know there's a question in here" from two weeks back.) But we can juxtapose this with the word out of Australia, which fills me with all the righteous rage I can muster.
So as a result of reading these, what comes into my head? The Ramones, mangling their own lyrics, singing "I'm a teenage commodity!" I think we need to fill in the whole original song: Teenage Lobotomy, with appropriate lyrics. If you want to pile on, [my last name] at naqt dot com.
Day 3.
3A. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
3B. Bartleby.com
3C. Presidential Biographies
3D. Scientific American (specifically the archive of past issues)
3E. Food Network Encyclopedia
So as a result of reading these, what comes into my head? The Ramones, mangling their own lyrics, singing "I'm a teenage commodity!" I think we need to fill in the whole original song: Teenage Lobotomy, with appropriate lyrics. If you want to pile on, [my last name] at naqt dot com.
Day 3.
3A. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
3B. Bartleby.com
3C. Presidential Biographies
3D. Scientific American (specifically the archive of past issues)
3E. Food Network Encyclopedia
Tuesday, September 17, 2002
It's getting silly.
The Ren and Fishy show, otherwise known as the Pennsylvania governor's race only gets weirder. The latest dustup is a war of who's going to get property taxes reduced faster. Rendell's camp is claiming if the legislature doesn't reduce taxes before the end of its current session, he will on his first day. (How this will be done, as the legislature controls the purse strings in this state, is left as an exercise for the voter. Not to be outdone, Fisher's latest ad has him stating that if the legislature doesn't do something before his first day, he'll lock the legislature in session until they reduce taxes. (This on the other hand is giving me way too much of a final scene of "The Day the Clown Cried" vibe for my taste.)
Speaking of Jerry Lewis, I thought it was a simple mistake, and all the tabloids were running pictures of Jerry Krause (made sense, could have been adjacent folders in the clipart.) Whoops.
If you were watching Monday Night Football, didn't this immediately have you looking at your clock and counting back days?
LaPlaca update: Let's see how this develops, at the very least it could be the first ever case of putting a series on hiatus before it ever shows. However, if it never airs, you can't score it in the LaPlaca.
Light Reading: Questing for other planets
Day 2.
2A. The Oyez Project
2B. Poets' Corner (previously mentioned here)
2C. Eric's Treasure Troves
2D. Human Anatomy Online
2E. AllMusic Guide
The Ren and Fishy show, otherwise known as the Pennsylvania governor's race only gets weirder. The latest dustup is a war of who's going to get property taxes reduced faster. Rendell's camp is claiming if the legislature doesn't reduce taxes before the end of its current session, he will on his first day. (How this will be done, as the legislature controls the purse strings in this state, is left as an exercise for the voter. Not to be outdone, Fisher's latest ad has him stating that if the legislature doesn't do something before his first day, he'll lock the legislature in session until they reduce taxes. (This on the other hand is giving me way too much of a final scene of "The Day the Clown Cried" vibe for my taste.)
Speaking of Jerry Lewis, I thought it was a simple mistake, and all the tabloids were running pictures of Jerry Krause (made sense, could have been adjacent folders in the clipart.) Whoops.
If you were watching Monday Night Football, didn't this immediately have you looking at your clock and counting back days?
LaPlaca update: Let's see how this develops, at the very least it could be the first ever case of putting a series on hiatus before it ever shows. However, if it never airs, you can't score it in the LaPlaca.
Light Reading: Questing for other planets
Day 2.
2A. The Oyez Project
2B. Poets' Corner (previously mentioned here)
2C. Eric's Treasure Troves
2D. Human Anatomy Online
2E. AllMusic Guide
Monday, September 16, 2002
AAAAAAAUUUUGGGHHHH!!!!
The worst part of the game was the feeling I kept getting throughout it. The feeling that sometime before the game started, the zombie corpse of Al Davis entered in L2-L1-circle-square-L2-R2-X. If you watched it, this seemed to make perfect sense. It was like the defense was automatically giving all the Raiders recievers two yards around them to make every catch. Very annoying. The less said about the game the better. Bye week this week. I'm concerned, but not as much as I probably should be. We've seen bad starts by the Steelers before, but this one should rattle us to the bones, as it's basically taking our best aspect, run defense, and rendering it of null value. Eeek. And memo to the offense, hold on to the ball, or Bill will unhinge his jaw, and swallow you alive like a python. We've seen it happen before, notice how we haven't seen Norm Johnson around. Just FYI.
Other football news, got to test out Sunday Ticket while waiting for Sunday Dinner. A more perfect timesink has not been invented.
Attention Seattle Seahawks, next time you choose a color, please take it out on the field before you sign off on it. The combination of the glossy helmet finish, the nearly invisible solid greenish-blue unis, and wearing the same color for helmet, jersey, and pants made it look like the Cardinals were playing numbered versions of Mark Knopfler's glowing headband from the Money for Nothing video. The really bad thing is, if they weren't playing on grass, the uniforms would probably look fine. Either that or we put them on the blue turf in Boise.
Attention NFL, way to either play favorites, or cause a stink. Because he asked, Peyton Manning wasn't allowed to wear the black hi-tops, but because he didn't bother to ask, and because no one wanted to watch Ravens-Bucs, Chris Redman was allowed to. Let us not throw a bone to Art Modell, and let him steal Baltimore's history. Johnny Unitas was a Colt, not a Raven.
(Incidentally, seeing the caption under Peyton Manning's name "was not allowed to wear black hi-tops during game" was easily the high point of ridiculous ESPN captioning.)
Minor Fantasy Football update: tied entering tonight, however I have 2 RB's in the game, while my opponent has nothing. Okay, now, everyone root for both guys to get only 9 yards, just to jinx me.
Still the Pirates: I ask you folks, how do you manage to lose a game in 10 innings, 1-0, ON A FIELDER'S CHOICE?!?!?
Light Reading: Why Bulgaria don't need no steenkin' navy. They have umbrellas.
No relation to quizbowl: This just is frickin' amazing.
A couple years back I put together a set of 100 websites useful for writing questions. Today begins my attempt to update that. The original idea was to give a new writer a choice of each of five locations every day for 20 weekdays, and then they could build up to 2 of the five for the four weeks afterward and so on. Up to you what path you follow.
Day 1.
1A. U.S. Historical Documents
1B. Links to Board Game Replacement Rules
1C. xrefer (previously mentioned here)
1D. Encyclopedia of the Orient (guys, get this place a better name)
1E. ArtDaily
The worst part of the game was the feeling I kept getting throughout it. The feeling that sometime before the game started, the zombie corpse of Al Davis entered in L2-L1-circle-square-L2-R2-X. If you watched it, this seemed to make perfect sense. It was like the defense was automatically giving all the Raiders recievers two yards around them to make every catch. Very annoying. The less said about the game the better. Bye week this week. I'm concerned, but not as much as I probably should be. We've seen bad starts by the Steelers before, but this one should rattle us to the bones, as it's basically taking our best aspect, run defense, and rendering it of null value. Eeek. And memo to the offense, hold on to the ball, or Bill will unhinge his jaw, and swallow you alive like a python. We've seen it happen before, notice how we haven't seen Norm Johnson around. Just FYI.
Other football news, got to test out Sunday Ticket while waiting for Sunday Dinner. A more perfect timesink has not been invented.
Attention Seattle Seahawks, next time you choose a color, please take it out on the field before you sign off on it. The combination of the glossy helmet finish, the nearly invisible solid greenish-blue unis, and wearing the same color for helmet, jersey, and pants made it look like the Cardinals were playing numbered versions of Mark Knopfler's glowing headband from the Money for Nothing video. The really bad thing is, if they weren't playing on grass, the uniforms would probably look fine. Either that or we put them on the blue turf in Boise.
Attention NFL, way to either play favorites, or cause a stink. Because he asked, Peyton Manning wasn't allowed to wear the black hi-tops, but because he didn't bother to ask, and because no one wanted to watch Ravens-Bucs, Chris Redman was allowed to. Let us not throw a bone to Art Modell, and let him steal Baltimore's history. Johnny Unitas was a Colt, not a Raven.
(Incidentally, seeing the caption under Peyton Manning's name "was not allowed to wear black hi-tops during game" was easily the high point of ridiculous ESPN captioning.)
Minor Fantasy Football update: tied entering tonight, however I have 2 RB's in the game, while my opponent has nothing. Okay, now, everyone root for both guys to get only 9 yards, just to jinx me.
Still the Pirates: I ask you folks, how do you manage to lose a game in 10 innings, 1-0, ON A FIELDER'S CHOICE?!?!?
Light Reading: Why Bulgaria don't need no steenkin' navy. They have umbrellas.
No relation to quizbowl: This just is frickin' amazing.
A couple years back I put together a set of 100 websites useful for writing questions. Today begins my attempt to update that. The original idea was to give a new writer a choice of each of five locations every day for 20 weekdays, and then they could build up to 2 of the five for the four weeks afterward and so on. Up to you what path you follow.
Day 1.
1A. U.S. Historical Documents
1B. Links to Board Game Replacement Rules
1C. xrefer (previously mentioned here)
1D. Encyclopedia of the Orient (guys, get this place a better name)
1E. ArtDaily
Friday, September 13, 2002
Never a good sign to see at work: The developers finding out about the feedback from the beta customer, from the testing department, and not from the marketing people who solicited the info in the first place. Surf's up, kids.
Light Reading: Harper Lee
There's a question in here somewhere:
1 If only it were more than This hurricane in 19xx caused damage in [location].
2 Fundamental problem, these are all going to sound the same about 5 minutes after you read the article.
3 Craig mentioned this yesterday but I just have to say. "Great... they're cuter than us, cuddlier than us, and now they get to make us feel inadequate... Thank you science, thank you so bloody much."
Actual question material:
Independence and Union Movements
Liberation Movements, Terrorist Organizations, Substance Cartels, and Other Para-State Entities
And finally, Fun with RealAudio
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
Light Reading: Harper Lee
There's a question in here somewhere:
1 If only it were more than This hurricane in 19xx caused damage in [location].
2 Fundamental problem, these are all going to sound the same about 5 minutes after you read the article.
3 Craig mentioned this yesterday but I just have to say. "Great... they're cuter than us, cuddlier than us, and now they get to make us feel inadequate... Thank you science, thank you so bloody much."
Actual question material:
Independence and Union Movements
Liberation Movements, Terrorist Organizations, Substance Cartels, and Other Para-State Entities
And finally, Fun with RealAudio
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn.
This one's gonna hurt when it happens, actually it hurts now. Outside of the fact he writes some of the best darkly humorous lyrics out there, he wrote the closest thing I've ever found to a perfect song. (See MattB's weblog from last month) When he goes, I'll probably sit down and play The Indifference of Heaven a couple of times.
If nothing else, he's written his own epitaph or he's trumped P. T. Barnum and written his own obit. His last two albums really summed it up. Life'll Kill Ya, and My Ride's Here. "It has to happen to the best of us." "Requiescat in pace, that's all she wrote." I can only hope he goes into it with these sensibilities intact.
If you want a one stop summary of his work and life, look here. But ignore all the generational analysis bull. The lyrics tell the better tale, the truer, darker, more painful and funnier one.
This one's gonna hurt when it happens, actually it hurts now. Outside of the fact he writes some of the best darkly humorous lyrics out there, he wrote the closest thing I've ever found to a perfect song. (See MattB's weblog from last month) When he goes, I'll probably sit down and play The Indifference of Heaven a couple of times.
If nothing else, he's written his own epitaph or he's trumped P. T. Barnum and written his own obit. His last two albums really summed it up. Life'll Kill Ya, and My Ride's Here. "It has to happen to the best of us." "Requiescat in pace, that's all she wrote." I can only hope he goes into it with these sensibilities intact.
If you want a one stop summary of his work and life, look here. But ignore all the generational analysis bull. The lyrics tell the better tale, the truer, darker, more painful and funnier one.
Wednesday, September 11, 2002
Tomorrow the big day comes, and I really have been beaten down by it.
This day is one where the media and politicians have told us we will remember. I find that ironic, given we haven't been given time to forget, and it's not like we could forget. We marked time at 3 months, 6 months, and it seems as though we've had people worrying about this date for at least 6 months. Can't have political ads, a baseball strike, any number of smaller things.
The problem for many of us, is that the memory of September 11 is one of numbness. I was sitting in my cubicle, trying to get audio feed for most of the day. That was all I could do, sit in shock. I was too far away to have any effect, save for confirming for people that flight 93 didn't land on top of me (early reports mistakenly put it coming down southwest of Pittsburgh.) I didn't even realize that a friend of mine might have been in the Pentagon until the 12th, and I didn't make contact with him until the 14th. That was the gap, really. Four days where I couldn't even put emotions together. More than anything, on the personal scale, the thing I blame the terrorists for is taking away my sense of humor. They took that away, and I had no balance. I fell into rage, hatred, and frustration at what little I could do to change the world those days, and for me, those are the worst things, that which I have fought in myself for years. I won the battle, I didn't let those feelings consume me, but at the cost of cutting all the responses off.
Like anything, it lifted, and it was something simple and surreal. The last sentence of this article just suddenly cracked me up.
I guess for me that is the problem. I don't want to remember the events, because I don't need to remember them as events, they're out in plain view all the time. I don't want to remember them as emotions, because that leads to the hatred that brought this to happen. Tomorrow's gonna be a long day.
This day is one where the media and politicians have told us we will remember. I find that ironic, given we haven't been given time to forget, and it's not like we could forget. We marked time at 3 months, 6 months, and it seems as though we've had people worrying about this date for at least 6 months. Can't have political ads, a baseball strike, any number of smaller things.
The problem for many of us, is that the memory of September 11 is one of numbness. I was sitting in my cubicle, trying to get audio feed for most of the day. That was all I could do, sit in shock. I was too far away to have any effect, save for confirming for people that flight 93 didn't land on top of me (early reports mistakenly put it coming down southwest of Pittsburgh.) I didn't even realize that a friend of mine might have been in the Pentagon until the 12th, and I didn't make contact with him until the 14th. That was the gap, really. Four days where I couldn't even put emotions together. More than anything, on the personal scale, the thing I blame the terrorists for is taking away my sense of humor. They took that away, and I had no balance. I fell into rage, hatred, and frustration at what little I could do to change the world those days, and for me, those are the worst things, that which I have fought in myself for years. I won the battle, I didn't let those feelings consume me, but at the cost of cutting all the responses off.
Like anything, it lifted, and it was something simple and surreal. The last sentence of this article just suddenly cracked me up.
I guess for me that is the problem. I don't want to remember the events, because I don't need to remember them as events, they're out in plain view all the time. I don't want to remember them as emotions, because that leads to the hatred that brought this to happen. Tomorrow's gonna be a long day.
Tuesday, September 10, 2002
Well, I cursed that one right proper, didn't I?
Grrr. Not a good effort by anyone. After the first four minutes Kordell actually showed he hadn't forgotten how it worked last year, and I'll give him a free pass on the third interception, which was a bad tip by his own reciever. However....Ugh. Remember what I said about the Browns, Bills, and Cowboys? I don't have a good feeling at all. While I think I won the week in the fantasy league, I really didn't want to win it this way at all.
I actually went to the stadium for this, they were showing it on the Jumbotron, but I got so frustrated my hat bounced on to the field. Not good. Not good at all.
Grrr. Not a good effort by anyone. After the first four minutes Kordell actually showed he hadn't forgotten how it worked last year, and I'll give him a free pass on the third interception, which was a bad tip by his own reciever. However....Ugh. Remember what I said about the Browns, Bills, and Cowboys? I don't have a good feeling at all. While I think I won the week in the fantasy league, I really didn't want to win it this way at all.
I actually went to the stadium for this, they were showing it on the Jumbotron, but I got so frustrated my hat bounced on to the field. Not good. Not good at all.
Monday, September 09, 2002
Notes from the weekend.
1. The folks enjoyed the meal. I'm off the hook for another year.
The Menu:
Cheese and Sausage appetizer (A cheat on my part)
Pesto Bruschetta (Not a cheat on my part, ground the dang pesto myself last week)
Green salad (Spinach spiked with a variety of items from the window boxes, including two types of basil, nasturtium, and
Marinated Green Beans with Roasted Red Peppers
Swordfish (preparation previously mentioned)
Lemon rice
A very random dessert which I cannot adequately describe here. Suffice it to say that it involves pineapple, rum, oranges, ice cream, and several things that you wouldn't expect to work together. It's also ridiculously good, but I need to actually work out the whole procedure before publishing here.
2. Notes from football.
Joe and I ended up watching the tail end ot the Chiefs-Browns game. There's a common running gag about certain Ohio teams among Steelers fans, mostly involving the Bengals, but it applied so nicely yesterday. Every year someone picks the Bengals to suddenly put it together, correcting almost two decades of collapse, and every year, they screw it up almost immediately (as seen by losing to SD). S' anyway, immediately after the (utterly stupid) penalty that put the game down to a field goal attempt by the Chiefs, Joe and I just looked at each other and said the exact same thing. "Nope, they're still the Browns."
I have a theory that incredible emotional letdowns on opening day are especially hard for teams to correct for, and with the fun of this weekend, I've immediately marked off the Browns, Bills and Cowboys as primed to implode this year.
To be sent to the Sports Guy: "At what point did we start calling him 'the finally healthy Eddie George', like 'the virgin Connie Swail' in Dragnet.
MarkC pointed out a scenario I would love to see between PIT and STL. However, I expect something similar tonight, involving a backfield of Ward and Steward with Randle El at QB and Bettis at TE. Immediately followed by Belichik frantically calling a time out. Then the MNF cameras pan over to the Steelers sideline to see Bill Cowher doubled over with laughter, saying "gotcha!"
Stuff to feed your quiz bowl tastes:
The Periodic Table of Mathematicians
1. The folks enjoyed the meal. I'm off the hook for another year.
The Menu:
Cheese and Sausage appetizer (A cheat on my part)
Pesto Bruschetta (Not a cheat on my part, ground the dang pesto myself last week)
Green salad (Spinach spiked with a variety of items from the window boxes, including two types of basil, nasturtium, and
Marinated Green Beans with Roasted Red Peppers
Swordfish (preparation previously mentioned)
Lemon rice
A very random dessert which I cannot adequately describe here. Suffice it to say that it involves pineapple, rum, oranges, ice cream, and several things that you wouldn't expect to work together. It's also ridiculously good, but I need to actually work out the whole procedure before publishing here.
2. Notes from football.
Joe and I ended up watching the tail end ot the Chiefs-Browns game. There's a common running gag about certain Ohio teams among Steelers fans, mostly involving the Bengals, but it applied so nicely yesterday. Every year someone picks the Bengals to suddenly put it together, correcting almost two decades of collapse, and every year, they screw it up almost immediately (as seen by losing to SD). S' anyway, immediately after the (utterly stupid) penalty that put the game down to a field goal attempt by the Chiefs, Joe and I just looked at each other and said the exact same thing. "Nope, they're still the Browns."
I have a theory that incredible emotional letdowns on opening day are especially hard for teams to correct for, and with the fun of this weekend, I've immediately marked off the Browns, Bills and Cowboys as primed to implode this year.
To be sent to the Sports Guy: "At what point did we start calling him 'the finally healthy Eddie George', like 'the virgin Connie Swail' in Dragnet.
MarkC pointed out a scenario I would love to see between PIT and STL. However, I expect something similar tonight, involving a backfield of Ward and Steward with Randle El at QB and Bettis at TE. Immediately followed by Belichik frantically calling a time out. Then the MNF cameras pan over to the Steelers sideline to see Bill Cowher doubled over with laughter, saying "gotcha!"
Stuff to feed your quiz bowl tastes:
The Periodic Table of Mathematicians
Friday, September 06, 2002
Armed with my limited oracular powers...The NFL season:
NFC End of season seedings
1. STL
2. PHI
3. CHI
4. TB
5. SF (probably tied in record with STL, but I'm assuming they didn't change the whole wildcard seeding deal.)
6. GB (probably tied in record with CHI)
AFC End of season seedings
1. PIT
2. IND
3. NE
4. DEN
5. NYJ
6. TEN
Playoffs:
WC round: SF over TB, CHI over GB, NYJ over DEN, NE over TEN
2nd Round: STL over SF, PHI over CHI, PIT over NYJ (Hello, Vinny!), IND over NE
Conf: STL over PHI, PIT over IND
SBXXXVII: Not going to pick it, though you know what I'd do. Let's try not to jinx anything.
I know there's a tossup in here somewhere (things that almost could be used as question fodder, but just don't work out):
1 Okay, if this is the exact opposite of "Crisp and Clean and No Caffeine" shouldn't it be promoted by a tinny-voiced white guy? Also, more soft drinks should have evil twins.
2 D'oh! Who sneezed on the lens?
3 Remember kids, like Ted Nugent says, if you don't kill it yourself, you can't be sure it's wasabi.
4 Lessons on fame for all in this.
And finally, Fun with RealAudio
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16
17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24
NFC End of season seedings
1. STL
2. PHI
3. CHI
4. TB
5. SF (probably tied in record with STL, but I'm assuming they didn't change the whole wildcard seeding deal.)
6. GB (probably tied in record with CHI)
AFC End of season seedings
1. PIT
2. IND
3. NE
4. DEN
5. NYJ
6. TEN
Playoffs:
WC round: SF over TB, CHI over GB, NYJ over DEN, NE over TEN
2nd Round: STL over SF, PHI over CHI, PIT over NYJ (Hello, Vinny!), IND over NE
Conf: STL over PHI, PIT over IND
SBXXXVII: Not going to pick it, though you know what I'd do. Let's try not to jinx anything.
I know there's a tossup in here somewhere (things that almost could be used as question fodder, but just don't work out):
1 Okay, if this is the exact opposite of "Crisp and Clean and No Caffeine" shouldn't it be promoted by a tinny-voiced white guy? Also, more soft drinks should have evil twins.
2 D'oh! Who sneezed on the lens?
3 Remember kids, like Ted Nugent says, if you don't kill it yourself, you can't be sure it's wasabi.
4 Lessons on fame for all in this.
And finally, Fun with RealAudio
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16
17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24
Thursday, September 05, 2002
Four conversations about one thing.
In the past 24 hours I've had this discussion four times over. Namely the question of whether the circuit is healthy right now. I've got reason to wonder at this point, as we're already past the first of September and there's still plenty of open weekends on the board for the fall, in this area, and nothing really targeted at new programs or first-year players. That, and the yahoo club hasn't moved out of August discussion doldrums. Here's the question, are people waiting for tournaments to mirror? Or are people afraid to run a tournament without a side event with it? Or are we afraid of failure? Of not getting enough teams? If that last one's your question, can I ask why you chose that number of teams as "enough"?
An odd notion that was kicked around in Chicago: If you controlled the concessions at a quiz bowl tournament, which would be more profitable, the tournament or the concessions?
Pitt opens the door on practices tonight, we will see.
My own mortality: Yeah, I whiffed the bacon quote, I know. Minus five.
In other news:
Well,... This makes the MLK weekend in Ann Arbor a religious experience. (Obviously this is not a good source for question writing)
These, however, are:
The Nine Planets
xrefer Just go here, and think of a topic...
In the past 24 hours I've had this discussion four times over. Namely the question of whether the circuit is healthy right now. I've got reason to wonder at this point, as we're already past the first of September and there's still plenty of open weekends on the board for the fall, in this area, and nothing really targeted at new programs or first-year players. That, and the yahoo club hasn't moved out of August discussion doldrums. Here's the question, are people waiting for tournaments to mirror? Or are people afraid to run a tournament without a side event with it? Or are we afraid of failure? Of not getting enough teams? If that last one's your question, can I ask why you chose that number of teams as "enough"?
An odd notion that was kicked around in Chicago: If you controlled the concessions at a quiz bowl tournament, which would be more profitable, the tournament or the concessions?
Pitt opens the door on practices tonight, we will see.
My own mortality: Yeah, I whiffed the bacon quote, I know. Minus five.
In other news:
Well,... This makes the MLK weekend in Ann Arbor a religious experience. (Obviously this is not a good source for question writing)
These, however, are:
The Nine Planets
xrefer Just go here, and think of a topic...
Tuesday, September 03, 2002
A three day weekend with little to report, unless you're into carpet cleaning, moving furniture or editing questions.
After analyzing the settlement, I'm wondering if it will have any more effect than simply continuing the status quo. For very cheap owners, they will just pocket a lot of the extra revenue. The way the cap sets up, you're going to see a lot of contracts laid out to take complete advantage of the "if you don't violate the limits until 2006, you can abuse it all you want in 2006 with no penalty." So teams get a capologist, big deal. Also, we still have major draft issues.
Giving props to EricS and his culinary weblog, a couple of notes.
The local grocery store had a special on swordfish steaks, prompting me to grill a couple up on Saturday. I'll give the slight recipe, since my method of cooking is much more of a flying blind approach. Dry rub on the steaks: Paprika (x2), black pepper, salt, pinch of sugar, pinch of citric acid (reading up on swordfish indicated an affinity for sour flavor, and allowed me to cut back a little on salt), with small amounts of, coriander(crushed), thyme, and rosemary. Rub lightly and grill. Served with steamed rice. For playing it on guts, having never done swordfish before, pretty good stuff. Oh, and Eric, yes, you do need an herb garden. I used the coriander and thyme from plants my mother had planted, while I had the rosemary in house. I'm on the hook for my parents' anniversary dinner this weekend, so I need to start figuring out something, more on this later.
These people, however, scare the crap out of me. Eat what you like, fine. To quote Jules Winnfield: "But, bacon tastes good."
Websites for quiz bowl:
Epitaphs from the last words people, I guess.
News for quiz bowl:
Lego continues to rule.
I keep waiting for this continuing story to get quiz bowl airplay, we'll see.
Meanwhile this story leaves me vexed, terribly, terribly vexed.
The bad side of this is that the whale has been totally screwed up by all sides in this mess.
For the couple of you who wondered: I'm perfectly cool with having other quiz bowlers reading this thing for ideas. So I'll try to keep the page freshman-friendly (and probably down into the high school ranks.) I'll try to include something useful for quizbowl with every entry during the year.
After analyzing the settlement, I'm wondering if it will have any more effect than simply continuing the status quo. For very cheap owners, they will just pocket a lot of the extra revenue. The way the cap sets up, you're going to see a lot of contracts laid out to take complete advantage of the "if you don't violate the limits until 2006, you can abuse it all you want in 2006 with no penalty." So teams get a capologist, big deal. Also, we still have major draft issues.
Giving props to EricS and his culinary weblog, a couple of notes.
The local grocery store had a special on swordfish steaks, prompting me to grill a couple up on Saturday. I'll give the slight recipe, since my method of cooking is much more of a flying blind approach. Dry rub on the steaks: Paprika (x2), black pepper, salt, pinch of sugar, pinch of citric acid (reading up on swordfish indicated an affinity for sour flavor, and allowed me to cut back a little on salt), with small amounts of, coriander(crushed), thyme, and rosemary. Rub lightly and grill. Served with steamed rice. For playing it on guts, having never done swordfish before, pretty good stuff. Oh, and Eric, yes, you do need an herb garden. I used the coriander and thyme from plants my mother had planted, while I had the rosemary in house. I'm on the hook for my parents' anniversary dinner this weekend, so I need to start figuring out something, more on this later.
These people, however, scare the crap out of me. Eat what you like, fine. To quote Jules Winnfield: "But, bacon tastes good."
Websites for quiz bowl:
Epitaphs from the last words people, I guess.
News for quiz bowl:
Lego continues to rule.
I keep waiting for this continuing story to get quiz bowl airplay, we'll see.
Meanwhile this story leaves me vexed, terribly, terribly vexed.
The bad side of this is that the whale has been totally screwed up by all sides in this mess.
For the couple of you who wondered: I'm perfectly cool with having other quiz bowlers reading this thing for ideas. So I'll try to keep the page freshman-friendly (and probably down into the high school ranks.) I'll try to include something useful for quizbowl with every entry during the year.
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