Missing

If you’re coming here on a search, you’re probably not finding that one page you’re looking for. There used to be a 07/2003 list of all the search terms I had been hit with that month, but the page ended up annoying me more because it just magnified all the misdirected search queries. And since … Continue reading “Missing”

If you’re coming here on a search, you’re probably not finding that one page you’re looking for. There used to be a 07/2003 list of all the search terms I had been hit with that month, but the page ended up annoying me more because it just magnified all the misdirected search queries. And since I couldn’t get robots to ignore it, I pulled it. Google still hasn’t caught up, so there’s lots of 404 fun in my error log. That John Cena rap list may be next.

Lucha Times is updated, but nothing new and nothing interesting. I’m debating “sleep” vs “doing lucha news on the blog”. The thing is, I’ve read CMLL.com’s stuff already so I don’t really read it again and write about it to get anything more out of it at this point. Not that it’s bad news or anything.

It’s just – well, to me, we do this kinda stuff to amuse ourselves and amuse others and if you’re *special*, maybe you get paid for it, but we mostly do it to have a conversation. I don’t expect every Garrison Cade match or any weird digression on the value of a stolen base to generate discourse, but when I’m talking doing the same topic for months on end and get minimal to no conversation, maybe I ought to rethink things.

This is NOT a “please e-mail to to make up for it and prove your love” thought, because I hate when other people do that and I abhor when I do it and the problem isn’t really the day after you post self-indulgently, it’s every day after when it goes to normal. It’s more up to me (for my stuff) to decide if there’s a better way. Or if it’s worth continuing at all. Because it’s not working as is.

Here is good. Here is fine. All the comments make the bizarre drug related spam postings bots worth it. I can’t wait to see what kinda weird stuff I’ll get when they start spidering the GHB stuff. I really didn’t think I’d get much mileage out of the comments feature, so it’s blown me away.

Well, that was a mess.

Totally completely unrelated and I couldn’t even imagine how one could draw a line:

Top Articles Viewed This Month

  1. 05/08 IWA-MS
  2. 05/03 RAW
  3. 02/10/01 WOW (I dunno either)
  4. 05/16 Judgment Day
  5. 05/10 RAW
  6. 05/13 SmackDown (though it’d probably move up if I counted the two locations together)
  7. 05/22 Unemployment Guide
  8. 10/07/00 WOW
  9. 05/08 Velocity
  10. 04/25 Pride

Actual numbers upon request. Can be used as an alternate to prescription depressants. It’s logically biased towards the start of the month – people have had longer time to read it, think about it for a few days, and read it again. Plus the search engine fun, which doesn’t start happening till something’s up for a couple weeks (which makes the Unemployment Guide number look boffo. The good kind of boffo. Not the pumpkin head kind.)

Leader for the year is the first WOW entry on the list. I must’ve said something google friendly. Scott’s Vengeance recap from last year is close. Besides the WOW, A introduction to RollerJam outpaces any Heat/Velocity/CMLL recap I’ve done.

Unique Visitors Per Month, according to AWSTATS
Jan 2004 – 8320
Feb 2004 – 11663
Mar 2004 – 12158
Apr 2004 – 8412
May 2004 – 5853

If I could get a total of those who didn’t come via search, that’d be neat and moderately useful. I think I might actually know how to do that if I wanted to spend the effort. And, nah.

Those numbers MIGHT be influenced by illegal hosting of the last radio show of spots personalities.

I keep thinking someone doing an wrestling (and other stuff) variant of InstaPundit (or, say, Baseball Musings for people who don’t read all the silly political blogs but do read all the silly baseball things.): lots of links to stuff elsewhere with a quick take on it. Because as much as I’ve like to read Tuesdays! from all the different authors, it’s a bit Meltzer-ing in execution; you’re still spending time talking about things that happened 3 4 5 days ago, or you’re missing out on the chance to do so. I guess it’s “Event” vs “Timeliness”.

I keep thinking that should be me. So the snap judgments I make about things I know nothing about and have absolutely no credibility to be talking about – NJPW Super J! – get shared with the world. The world needs that.

I keep thinking there’s no way I’m spending that extra time doing that stuff while still doing recaps. And that I’m not very good at being concise. You might have noticed.

I keep thinking I should just blow off two weeks of recaps and the like to set up . And not to actually take a break and get of the very stages of funks I might be in.

I keep thinking I should never ever ever ever ever ever get a tape or agree to accept one because they can always be pushed off another day and they always will.

I keep thinking I should call the dealership and ask what the heck happened to my new CD player.

I know I need an editor. Or a mentor. Or a good psychiatrist. Or a prescription.

Or a problem solver!

No.

Looks like “embarrassingly ramble on the blog” won out. And the people were thrilled. This is what happens when I don’t get around to breakfast til 9PM.

I find it difficult to right these things in any kind of linear thought process, so if I dropped a thought while sprinting off to expel another before it got lost in the vast open spaces of my mind, I do apologize.

Runs Gained Via Stolen Base

I don’t know why I’m so stuck on this, but I just spend 3 hours collecting data and adding it up, so I post here again. (All the Stolen Base stuff together: http://thecubsfan.com/misc/sb.htm. Link will change when I come up with a better name.)

I don’t know why I’m so stuck on this, but I just spend 3 hours collecting data and adding it up, so I post here again.

(All the Stolen Base stuff together: http://thecubsfan.com/misc/sb.htm. Link will change when I come up with a better name.)

Continue reading “Runs Gained Via Stolen Base”

ps2 games

A list! My favorite kind of entry because it requires little effort. Although I’ll probably forget a couple. I could go look at the stack of disks but that’s all the way downstairs and eh. – Midnight Racer (one) – This was fine in the “look what this new system can do” sense, although I … Continue reading “ps2 games”

A list! My favorite kind of entry because it requires little effort. Although I’ll probably forget a couple. I could go look at the stack of disks but that’s all the way downstairs and eh.

– Midnight Racer (one) – This was fine in the “look what this new system can do” sense, although I never played it much.
– 3? Madden games. 2003 and 2004 I know for sure.
– NBA Live 2004 which I played like twice. The NBA died on me, I think. Or the Franchise mode wasn’t very enjoyable.
– FIFA 2002. We were dying to get this game and anticipated it’s release date and then it was available no where in North America for about or month, or at least it felt that way.
– NASCAR Thunder 2003. This was surprisingly playable when I rented it one time and I got hooked. Mike got 2004 and they made the cars quite a bit more loose on turns, and I have no clue if it’s more realistic that way or what, but it’s not nearly as fun. Which sucks because they really fleshed on the career mode from the looks of it.
– MVP Baseball 2004. I’ve talked about this. I’m back to being unable to hit, especially against humans. The way me and Mike are now playing is that we each take a team near each other rank wise, the other guy chooses who you use as your starting pitcher (the worst guy, of course), and you can’t use another starting pitcher unless the game goes to extra innings. Makes it a bit more realistic without the frustration of facing ace pitchers game after game.
– Tiger Woods PGA Golf 2004. I think I’ve mentioned this too. I was like 130% complete before I let Mike borrow the game, and now there’s no chance I’ll ever see it again. The upside is I’m borrowing
– NCAA College Football 2004 which is fine and all and has some parts better than Madden, but I have a tough time getting in to because my school doesn’t have a football team and while there are teams I hate, there’s no team I’m a big fan of. It is kinda fun making you non-football playing school into a National Powerhouse.
– Final Fantasy X. I was thinking those games were good when I rented them a billion times for the NES and I’m sure the PS games were good even if I never played them or got a PS, so maybe I should try them again. And this was good and stuff but I seriously wouldn’t have minded a couple of people on my own side dying off by the end. And then they DID. Sorta. Auron is/was my personal role model. I traded this to Mike for – hey, wait, he didn’t give me anything for this? I think we brought it up today and I promised revenge for the twelfth time. I must work on the revenging.
– Kingdom Hearts. I did my “these are so obviously aimed a different gender and a different age group that it made me feel old and silly for playing” rant at some point already. So let’s not do it anymore.
– Final Fantasy IX. Not a PS2 game! It was either this or FFX-1 and all the things I was reading were “If you liked FFX, you’ll loooove this” and since I didn’t and PS games are cheaper, I went backwards. Which is what I wanted to do in the actual game the last time I was on it – I passed a point of no return where I couldn’t do everything because I only found out about things (aka: read a GameFAQs FAQ) too late, so I was conflicted as to restart or to finish up. I ended up doing…nothing, and it’s been sitting there on my PS Memory Card for 4 months. Great move. I think I was digging it better than FFX up to the point.

That’s it. I think. I play Madden and NCAA online, but all but one of the games have been against Jake – that was the reason why I did the Golf for NCAA switch if I remember right. Playing Human people (when there’s no visible sign except from them trying to break game rules) isn’t really any better than playing Computer people when the Computer isn’t being an easy to outhink AI, and even then it’s a toss up. I don’t know what’s the next game I’m gonna get (assuming I don’t get a new game before Madden, which is always possible); looking for something good multiplayer, I guess.

I’m like 3 or 4 games away from completely filling out my EA Bio, which annoys my friends greatly. They don’t see that having no point to filling out your EA Bio is the point. What’s wrong with them. I dunno.

That killed the time till this poker tournament started quite nicely.

Link of the Day

http://www.projectghb.org/what_is_ghb.htm This isn’t because YOU might now know what it is, it’s because five other people besides you have been completely clueless and I’m surprised at the masses.. When I’m the recreational drug expert, something’s off. GHB is now being used on a wide scale for drug-induced rape. Rohypnol, or Roofies, has had most of … Continue reading “Link of the Day”

http://www.projectghb.org/what_is_ghb.htm

This isn’t because YOU might now know what it is, it’s because five other people besides you have been completely clueless and I’m surprised at the masses.. When I’m the recreational drug expert, something’s off.

GHB is now being used on a wide scale for drug-induced rape. Rohypnol, or Roofies, has had most of the limelight as the “date-rape” drug of choice, but the incidences of GHB being used as such are on the rise. It is easily slipped into someone’s drink. When added to a drink, the salty taste of GHB is masked. It is for this reason that the news media often call GHB “The Date-Rape Drug.”http://www.projectghb.org/rape.htm

They’re a face team. It’d be in questionable taste (even for wrestling) if they were heels. I’m pretty sure obvious vitamin supplement fans Bob Holly and Billy Gunn know GHB has other meanings besides Gunn Holly Bomb. Unless it was all DeMott’s idea, which would make me wish Konnan actually gets that job annoucing Velocity; Konnan got real bad real fast on Worldwide and I’m not looking forward to him calling Jindrak a Natural Born Cranberry again, but DeMott’s already a wackjob.

That is all.

the value of stealing

One of the ongoing debates between myself and my friend Jim is “Why do you keep calling for Hit and Run and Steals in MVP?” Seriously, he had Ichiro on Tampa (don’t ask) and got 30 SB but 40 CS. My point (besides pointing out that CS number) is to drop the “75% success rate … Continue reading “the value of stealing”

One of the ongoing debates between myself and my friend Jim is “Why do you keep calling for Hit and Run and Steals in MVP?” Seriously, he had Ichiro on Tampa (don’t ask) and got 30 SB but 40 CS. My point (besides pointing out that CS number) is to drop the “75% success rate = break even” sabermetric line. Which works until he questions “Why 75%?”

It’s 75% because, well, because other people who’ve looked more into this than me say it is? I’m smart enough not say that out loud, but it’s what I’m thinking. It is a good question, I’ll give him that.

This came up in my mind this morning because I saw an article on the ChicagoTribune article hitting this topic in reference to wacky Ozzie and his wacky tactics. It’s the usual “introduce a sabermetric idea only because we’re having other people shoot it down” stuff, but it got me thinking about this again and wanting to come up with a better case for my reasoning.

What helps is BaseballProspectus ran an article a few weeks ago about run expectancy (in the context of “is there a good time ever to sacrifice and what are they?”), helpfully giving a chart of how much runs people scored in various people on base/outs combinations last year. The important numbers to me are

  None 1st 2nd 3rd
None .531 .919 1.177 1.380
1 out .282 .535 .706 1.032
2 out .109 .237 .341 .384
3 out 0 0 0 0

From there, all it takes it is a simple probability formula…

Breakeven point (the runs expected if you had done nothing)
= the probability of succeeding * the runs expected if the steal is successful
+ the probability of failure [in other words: 1 – the probability of succeeding] * the runs expected if the steal fails.

and some high school algebra to solve by the probability of succeeding

probability = (break even run expected – failure run expected) / (success run expected – failure run expected)

Plugging in the numbers:

  1st to 2nd 2nd to 3rd
None .712 .815
1 out .714 .647
2 out .695 .888

In the situation Jim usually steals in, the percentage is actually lower than 75%. Not by much, but enough to make a difference on strategies. I’m quite stunned stealing 3rd base with one out is the best option of all by far, but I’d guess all the man on third/one run strategies inflates the worth of getting a man there with one out. If that number isn’t a particular year variance, teams really ought to be thinking about stealing third more often.

(This doesn’t really affect MVP, since it exists in a different universe. And also, I really do love this post following the last one.)

unimportant notice

Watching Aqua Teen Hunger Force while hanging upside down off your bed makes it even better. I don’t know if this is a pilot-only thing. But Adult Swim should try it so I don’t have to hang upside down off my bed. Thank you

Watching Aqua Teen Hunger Force while hanging upside down off your bed makes it even better.

I don’t know if this is a pilot-only thing.

But Adult Swim should try it so I don’t have to hang upside down off my bed.

Thank you

guide to unemployment

Tanvir’s got a new article up. I thought it needed it’s own post for comments Also, I actually had a zero day turnaround on lucha (first time – ever? maybe not) but didn’t update the links. So there you go. Glavine’s got a no hitter through 7 2/3rds as I type – wait, no. Cursed … Continue reading “guide to unemployment”

Tanvir’s got a new article up. I thought it needed it’s own post for comments

Also, I actually had a zero day turnaround on lucha (first time – ever? maybe not) but didn’t update the links. So there you go.

Glavine’s got a no hitter through 7 2/3rds as I type – wait, no. Cursed him, oops.

compete for the speedway championship

Waking up… Tanvir: Ew. Sorry. This is why I talk to no one when I’m downtown, because you’ve got a 50% chance of getting a complete nut job (percentage may soar at night near bars.) But at least you did a good thing. Justin: I think I started at 2 AM after having stopped doing … Continue reading “compete for the speedway championship”

Waking up…

Tanvir: Ew. Sorry. This is why I talk to no one when I’m downtown, because you’ve got a 50% chance of getting a complete nut job (percentage may soar at night near bars.) But at least you did a good thing.

Justin: I think I started at 2 AM after having stopped doing Velocity three different times the night because I was bored with recapping things. I spent five minutes laughing like a pothead after I stumbled upon my first line for the Jacqueline segment and it continued to spiral from there.

Recaps You Should Read, Even If I Knock Them Off The Main Page
Feely does SmackDown!
– Joe’s long form ROH review
Scott’s Judgment Day Recap – and his star ratings are over in Tuesday, where he’s also very right about TNA on FSN.
– And Scott watched Raw too.

The post last week with me wondering “What possibly could be GAB’s main event?” looks exceptionally dumb in retrospect, because it’s not obvious they’ve been thinking a No DQ match (or maybe a title change on DQ match) since the angle with Eddie’s Grandma; Eddie’s anger is out of control so he’s going to cost himself the match, and a brawling no rules match works better to Bradshaw’s strength. Should’ve seen it, taking away points as a penality. Now, they may change their mind because the story of the match ended up being the excessive blood loss rather than Eddie getting himself DQed but from the tapings, it still seems to be the direction they’re going.

I’m not exactly sure why I felt compelled to add the TV logos to the unoffical upcoming schedule down there, but it looks nice for something I spent fifteen minutes on.

I was going to get some general lucha stuff done tonight, but I fell asleep again and then watched the end of the Cubs game and now I’m watching the NBA Game 7. So maybe after? Although I owe Jake a no-hitter in MVP. Not sure if it’s me or him with the no hits. Anyway, lucha times for this week are up and there’s no news and no comments about matches I should see what else do I have to do? Right, the TV and the tape.

I think I might already otherwise be done with MVP, though. I put together an Expos team (second lowest payroll but probably a lot easier than the Brewers since you have better parts to start with) with a Livan/Orlando/Zach Day/Toma Okha or Johnan Santana (managed a four man rotation for most the year – the rest was a three man) and Rocky Biddle closing and a whole of spare pieces hitting, and yet, I won the division by about 20 games and easily won the World Series. Scott Podsendik, picked up by me, was the MVP. Day won 25 games and the Cy Young. If I can pull that off, is it really work the administration work of signing AA and AAA free agents and all the other trival off season work?

MVP is the first console baseball game I’ve owned since – hmm RBI? (which I loved just because I could pinch hit for Benito with Tony Gwynn and all the sudden you’ve got a .370 guy hitting 8th – also, Joe already talked about all except I *think* the Baseball Simulator 1.000/2.000 games where batters and pitchers had special abilities like the super jump and earthquake ball and it ruled and I rented it about 40 times) and MVP is fine and all, but I think if I sat down with a piece of paper and a pen while I played, I could probably come up with at least 20 flaws of various seriousness within an hour. (#1 – somehow, base runners score from third when the last out is a groundout at first.) And it’s not nearly as fun to play as Madden or Golf even. So, I dunno. Should go finish up FFIX or something.

As a complete surprise, I got an iPod as a birthday gift. Totally something I would’ve wanted to get but wouldn’t ever committ myself to buying it, which is the best kind of gifts. 15 GB, which is probably far more than my small MP3 and 3CD collection actually needs, but it’ll allow me to create all sorts of wacky play lists without burning a new CD every time. And no more burning a CD to only realize that one of the songs was faked or corrupted or mislabled, which is awesome.

I figure I want to get the Cassette Adapter so I can hook it up in my car, and I still haven’t gotten any tapes, so when I was supposed to be doing things today, I kinda figured out a $200 budget for buying stuff via still yet to be deposited tax refund.

$20.00 Sony CPA-9C Car Cassette Adapter (iPod)
$39.00 iPod Carryling Case
$11.87 Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers (amazon.com)
$16.98 Saving the Pitcher (amazon.com)
$20.00 general iMusic Usage – BUY MUSIC? What the heck.
$26.99 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Anthology (26.99)
$10.00 CMLL 01/14/04 and 01/24/04 (Ultimo/Rey vs Park/Shocker – the TV we missed)
$10.00 CMLL Arena Coliseo de Guadaljara 3/21/04 (Cibernetico! I’m a mark)
$10.00 EMLL 1999 Vol. 6 (Various good stuff)
$10.00 Best of Lucha ’97 (Felino Cibernetico)

But then do I really want the carrying case? Because I don’t like my phone one that much. And spending money on online music, have I gone MAD. Two books too, I’ll probably buy something with James/Neyer regardless but reading one’s blog isn’t always enough to get you to buy the book. I may need to rethink all of this. All the tapes would be from Alfredo because he’s good.

The one thing I realized and someone also pointed out to me, is that I now have
– TiVo
– Laptop
– Wireless (G) Card
– iPod
– Website w/blog

So either I am the greatest ever or a huge tech dork. It may be possible to be both.

I also got Cartoon Network Speedway for the Game Boy Advance (because it has Johnny Bravo on the cover and someone thought that’s IT), but I can’t find my Game Boy Advance right now. The pictures look nifty though. The parental warning on the back says “Comic Mischief”, what a warning that is.

Wolves won. That’s it. And now I’ll edit this twice because when you put things off for a week, you remember half of what you wanted to say really late.

sleepy

Hey, happy birthday Tan. Hope you got to do something besides work. Forgot to say it yesterday, but I did get done the Best Of CMLL – which just reminds me how little I’ve seen. And how matches used to be longer on average back in the day. Joe on ROH on WO. More later.

Hey, happy birthday Tan. Hope you got to do something besides work. Forgot to say it yesterday, but I did get done the Best Of CMLL – which just reminds me how little I’ve seen. And how matches used to be longer on average back in the day.

Joe on ROH on WO. More later.

hey SCOTT

Because I can’t believe anyone besides you is up right now (that includes myself), let me explain that the link on the side there that’s been up for all of ten minutes isn’t working for reasons that beffudle me. Maybe it’ll make sense in the morning, but for right, the link to Feely Does SmackDown … Continue reading “hey SCOTT”

Because I can’t believe anyone besides you is up right now (that includes myself), let me explain that the link on the side there that’s been up for all of ten minutes isn’t working for reasons that beffudle me. Maybe it’ll make sense in the morning, but for right, the link to Feely Does SmackDown is http://www.thecubsfan.com/guest/20040513smackdown.htm, and I’ll shortly change it over there too.