Huh? The Avs are good?

I'm still getting used to the "new NHL", so I've been in observation mode thus far -- Keeping my trap shut in the interest of seeing what happens. That said, up until recently, my dear Colorado Avalanche have been nothing more than mediocre. The new head coach, Joel Quenneville went all psycho on the goaltending corps and nearly ruined all three candidates' confidence and ability to play. Superstars like Rob Blake and Joe Sakic had been severe disappointments. Blake still doesn't make the hits he's supposed to and his cannon of a slap shot from the point hasn't really been a factor as of yet. As for Sakic, he is consistently the shots-on-goal leader in each game, so you know he's working out there, but to watch him earlier in the season, you'd think he was skating through molasses. The loss of Steve Konowalchuk was a punch to the gut. Milan Hejduk was in such a dark doldrum I was worried he'd never come out. The only bright spots in the first half of the season were really Alex Tanguay, rookie Marek Svatos, and a couple/few over-performing grinders like Ian Laperrier.

Now, though, the Avs have won eight straight games and things are looking more correct on the scoresheet:

Milan Hejduk scored a pair of power-play goals 34 seconds apart to lift the Avs to their eighth straight win, a 5-3 victory over Toronto on Tuesday night that pushed them into a tie for the Northwest Division lead.

Rookie Marek Svatos scored his 27th goal of the season, best in the Western Conference, to help Colorado match its longest winning streak since Oct. 10-28, 2000.

And now, thanks to that win over Toronto, the Avs share the number one spot in the Northwest Division! Granted, they share that lead with two other teams (the NW Div is tighter than my Spiderman Underoos these days).

Matisyahu's New Joint

The new disc from Hasidic reggae sensation Matisyahu, YOUTH, is available for pre-order now.

Matisyahu's new studio album, YOUTH, hits stores March 7th, Pre-Order it HERE and receive the YOUTH DUB album FREE!

(Note that they now have a USPS Priority shipping option, Da Kine, not just FedEx. Or you can order it from Amazon and skip the free disc...)

You might also want to set your TiVos:

Monday, January 16th, Matisyahu will be the musical guest on the Late Show with David Letterman.

Kilt Controversy

Board: Principal wrong to ban student's kilt

The controversy sparked an international debate about personal freedom and cultural dress. Thousands of people from around the world signed an Internet petition seeking an apology.

In a written statement, school superintendent Dr. Ron Anderson said school officials had no right to bar the student from wearing a kilt to any school function.

Quote of the article: "Scots are very touchy about their kilts."

If anything, you can bet a high school senior who is interested in wearing a kilt to a dance probably isn't going to cause much ruckus. Unless, of course he's going "regimental" underneath. ;)

Oh crap, I need another home loan!

The one thing holding me back from dropping far too much money on an HDTV set (and perhaps an update to my stereo/home theater) has been my TiVo. I'm just plain sold on the thing and as long as my TiVo doesn't do HDTV, neither do I. Well, that's going to change perhaps as soon as this year.

Key bits:

  • Dual tuner -- Record two programs at once!
  • CableCARD compatible (2.0 or 1.0 -- if you have 2.0 you only need one card for the dual tuner action)
  • Up to "300 hours" storage (I assume that's non-HDTV content)
  • An SATA port for adding a hot little external drive with no warantee-voiding hacking needed.

Damn, that sounds like everything I've wanted.

I guess I'm doomed to continue to be the guy with the iPod, the TiVo and the stupid car with manual locks.

Sideways

Finally got around to seeing Sideways last night. Overall, I'd give it a B+ -- It certainly wasn't the best movie EVAR the hype made it seem, but it was definitely was enjoyable. At first all the wine talk made me desperate for a bottle (and I do think the film would move up to A-/A territory if I had been drinking along), but eventually the characters go through so much wine in a single night that it actually turned me off the idea of a glass of red.

And for those of you who might think Sideways just looks like a story about two miserable schmucks, the end does have some redemption in it.

I'd recommend Sideways as kind of a double date flick -- get some friends together, crack a bottle of Pinot Noir (or two), and watch the film early so you can keep the conversation and good times rolling afterward.

Hey man, nice sack!

Hi. My name is Jake, and I have an unhealthy obsession with messenger/shoulder bags. (Hi, Jake.) Luckily, though, I generally don't allow myself to purchase all the man-bags I think I want. In fact, until recently I've been kicking the same made-for-squares Eddie Bauer model since midway through college (more than a ten year run!). I did finally decide I needed to get something new a few months ago. The brother-in-law got a particularly swank bag (that I had already been eyeing, in fact) for his birthday while we were visiting in September, so I followed that lead, purchasing a Manhattan Portage Dana (Medium).

The bag is pretty bomb-proof with its heavy duty Cordura and "waterproof" vinyl lining. It has slightly odd proportions, though, and I don't really carry that much stuff on a day-to-day basis, which makes the bag seem even more wonky. This plus the fact that the auxiliary pocket arrangement doesn't meet my nigh-impossible-to-meet desires has made living with the bag less than optimal so far.

So, of course, I'm looking at other options. Currently the front-runner in my "I can't rationalize this purchase, but I'll do the shopping anyway" comparisons is the Chrome Citizen. It seems to have the more typical messenger bag shape plus a padded shoulder strap and a sweet little seat belt buckle detail. The main detail I use to talk myself away from the "Add to Cart" button is the extra pocket arrangement again. The Chrome bag seems to have even fewer options than the Manhattan Portage offering I already own -- this is so important to me because I simply must be able to separate and arrange my bag contents as I see fit.

'Tis a conundrum. One upon which I doubt I will act. I'll probably continue to window shop for at least another year or more...

Just thought I'd share. ;)

Bose SoundDock: The best thing you can do with your iPod

This Christmas I got a Bose SoundDock for "Team Sutton", and I have to say, it's the best $300 I've spent since getting the iPod from my mom last Christmas. In all seriousness: It's fucking amazing. The sound that comes out of that thing is better than my headphones (either Shure E2c earbuds or my Grado SR-60 over-ear headset -- both of which are supposed to be on the low end of what would be considered the "audiophile" range...). You can hear much more detail than I've ever heard from an MP3.

Not only is sound quality good, the quantity (volume) is fantastic, as well. When I plug my iPod into my stereo via a Y-cable, I end up turning the iPod's volume to max and I still have to crank the volume on my receiver. Not so with the SoundDock. Volume and clarity are simply off the charts.

Even though I have never heard any of the competitors, I just can't imagine any of them being this otherwordly in their goodness. I can't recommend the SoundDock highly enough.

Also, if you have an iPod and haven't sorted out your in-car options, I currently use, enjoy, and recommend the Monster iCarPlay for automotive listening with simultaneous charging joy, though the new iTrip Auto looks very interesting.

The only shame in all of this, of course is the amount of money a little gizmo like an iPod can make you burn... Ah, well, such is life, eh? ;)

Lolita at 50

Is Nabokov's masterpiece still shocking? (Short answer: YES.)

Lolita turns 50 this year, and having stayed so perverse, it remains fresh as ever. To fully appreciate its perversity, though, one must first appreciate that it is not obscene. Your run-of-the-mill obscene masterwork—Tropic of Cancer, say—demands that you, enlightened reader, work your way past the sex and excrement to recognize how beautiful it is. But with Lolita, you must work past its beauty to recognize how shocking it is. And for all its beauty, for all its immense ingenuity and humor, one easily forgets how shocking Lolita is.

I think that's really the genius of the book: wrapping such disgusting subject matter in some of the finest literature ever produced. I suspect that may have been the challenge Nabokov set for himself, too, and somehow he pulled it off.

Effective Playlist Management

Since a lot of you either got iPods last year during this time of year or may be getting one from Santa this year, I thought I'd share my system for song management using iTunes (the ubergeeks out there who think iTunes is teh sux0rs can ignore this, obviously). iTunes does have its deficiencies, but it actually is great at playlist management. Personally, I have the 20GB fourth generation (click wheel) iPod, but I have about 60GB of music in my iTunes library. Given that, my first step is based on a tip I found somewhere or other (I totally forget where...): I have a normal playlist (the kind you have to physically drag songs into) that I call "_General". This playlist serves as my iPod library. I fill that playlist up to about 18.5GB, which is the iPods actual capacity -- at least that's what I've seen with mine.

Here's where it gets fun...

The next step is to create some "smart" playlists based on the "_General" playlist. Be sure to set "Match *ALL* of the following rules" for all of them.

Examples:

  • "_Unheard"
    • Playlist is _General
    • Play Count is 0
  • "_Recent & New"
    • Playlist is _General
    • Year is greater than 2004
    • Date Added is in the last 6 months
  • "_Favorites"
    • Playlist is _General
    • My Rating is greater than 3 stars

I also recently started using the Comments meta field (Select a song and do "Get Info" to edit the meta data.) to tag my music a la Flickr, del.icio.us, and all those other Web 2.0 cool kids. The "smart" playlists for those look like this:

  • "_Cool Kids"
    • Playlist is _General
    • Comment contains coolkids

And yes, that's a real example.

Another modification I'm thinking about trying is to use two "normal" playlists -- one for my stand-by stuff that I just have to have on my iPod at all times and another high flux playlist for stuff that might only be on there for a little while -- and then have "_General" be a smart playlist that combines the two.

Anyway, once you have the playlists set up, you go into the iPod settings and tell it to only update using your fancy new playlists (including "_General").

So, yeah, if you're looking for a better way to organize your music, you might try this method.

--- [Totally off topic, but if you have a blog, I highly recommend checking out Performancing for Firefox... This post was my test run, and it's the bomb. Although, it does make for some hairy markup, now that I look at it...]

Hot Flashes in the Mist

Study: Gorillas go through menopause

A study of gorillas at 17 North American zoos, led by Chicago's Brookfield Zoo, is the first to document gorilla menopause, according to researchers who were not involved in the study.

The findings may help zoos improve how they care for aging female gorillas and change the way evolutionary biologists think about menopause in humans.

Researchers think this may serve to refute the "grandmother hypothesis" which posits menopause evolved to give grandmothers time to help care for the grandchildren. Gorilla grandmas don't hang with the young'uns, so it might just be a result of living longer.

[Thanks to Mike for the link.]

Stalin: "Give me Simianistas!"

Somehow, this is in the Scotsman rather than the Onion... Stalin's half-man, half-ape super-warriors

The Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ordered the creation of Planet of the Apes-style warriors by crossing humans with apes, according to recently uncovered secret documents.

Moscow archives show that in the mid-1920s Russia's top animal breeding scientist, Ilya Ivanov, was ordered to turn his skills from horse and animal work to the quest for a super-warrior.

This sounds like an issue of Hellboy or something... Jesus!

Obviously, Stalin was a stone-cold nutter. I can't believe Lenin was the only one with syphilis rumors surrounding him... (Ah, there are Stalin-Pox ideas after the fact, it seems.)

I wonder if he also had a separate Sleestak breeding program.

T-Minus: 25 days

(I honestly considered saving this post until tomorrow so the title could say 24....) I can't even tell you how super-psyched I am about the return of 24. The idea of a two-part, four hour premiere makes me need a change of underwear.

Despite my love for the show (and my man-crush on Mister Kiefer -- whose birthday is today... how about that?), I have heretofore avoided purchasing the DVD sets for the past four seasons. Now, though, I read this:

This loaded 7-disk set includes the ground-breaking Season 5 Prequel bridging seasons 4 and 5 shot on location exclusively for the DVD.

Well, shit.

It'll have to wait until after the Saturnalia, but I may have to consider grabbing it before the January 15 premiere...

------ Bonus: Top 30 Random Facts about Jack Bauer (I love these things.)

Joe Mesi Sneaks in the Front Door

Judge allows Mesi to return to the ring

Heavyweight Joe Mesi, sidelined since suffering bleeding on the brain after a 2004 bout, won a chance Monday to return to the ring when a state judge ruled his medical suspension expired when his Nevada boxing licence expired.

Wha-huh?! I have stated previously that I had high hopes for Joe Mesi and that I wished he'd be healthy enough to return to boxing, but getting to come back by way of a loophole the size of a Mack truck... Well... I just hope his brain holds up is all I'm going to say.