The combination of working from home, living in a new neighborhood where I don’t know that many people and the weather being disagreeable [Kurt Andersen of Spy Magazine/Studio 360 fame weighs in on this], I have had to find ways to cope with the mounting cabin fever.

As my last few tweets have indicated, I have found a set challenge [post 5278] in hundredpushups.com.  This site has a simple premise: follow a set regimen and in 6 weeks, you’ll be able to do 100 consecutive pushups.  The regimen calls for set break intervals in between, but I haven’t owned any device with a stopwatch feature since I rocked a sweet-ass Casio calculator watch in junior high.

Alas, it was time to get with it and get a stopwatch, but this time with my current device that is way more powerful than it needs to be: my BlackBerry.

After looking around for a bunch of sites using the Google search term “free blackberry stopwatch“, I found a promising lead at BlackBerryToday called StopWatch 1.0.   Unfortunately the hiccup is that the download link is a ZIP file, which a mortal BlackBerry cannot handle.  After a bit more Googling, I found that all I had to do was put the JAD file in the same web-accessible directory as the COD file and to navigate to the JAD file on my BlackBerry.  OTA [Over-The-Air] install begins!   I celebrated with a tweet [post 5279] and left the OTA install available to anyone else that may have been following me.

With the help of Google Analytics (of course I emedded a tracking code, why wouldn’t I?), it appears that 7 unique users actually clicked through, making it actually the most trafficked portion of my site other than the homepage.  The power of Twitter…

Now that I have this new-found power, I can also subject myself to a new form of time-based exercise routine, the plank:

Reasons [FOR] supporting HOU: 1. I hate LA, 2. Validates POR defeat; [AGAINST]: I know too many Indo guys from HOU that would yell “H-TOWN!”

Tags: twitter

When the NBA announced that the 2008-2009 Rookie of the Year was Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls, Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love had this to say, regarding finishing 6th in the voting:

“Pardon my French, but it’s the second time I’ve gotten screwed.”

The first time, presumably he believed he was snubbed was when he was not selected as a participant in the Rookie-Sophomore game.

While I don’t mean to re-open old wounds, I think that this is the THIRD time he got screwed.  In this now famous article regarding his then pending rivalry with OJ Mayo, it was revealed that he wasn’t even selected as the top athlete at his HIGH SCHOOL.

The Loves still can’t fathom why the stands at Lake Oswego High games were usually half empty until the state playoffs, why out-of-state crowds were more supportive of Kevin than his home fans, or why Kevin would be chosen the Gatorade national high school athlete of the year but didn’t win the top athlete honor at his own school.

Perhaps what Love isn’t lacking is respect; perhaps it is likability.

I’ll admit, I’m a bit geeked up about the Blazers, my hometown franchise that hasn’t been to the playoffs in a few years.  Without fail, I end up talking to my friends about the most recent game, so it just makes more sense to do a quick write-up, make my friends read my thoughts and then go from there.

The Blazers got a prime-time ESPN game against the defending World Champion Cs, and things didn’t go so well - the Blazers lost 98-73, with the game being mostly decided midway through the 3rd quarter.  By then, the Celtics went on a run of about 21 straight points.  The Blazers, to some extent, got exposed.  I wouldn’t say they’re completely fradulent, but it was demonstrated that they’re just not physically and mentally tough enough yet.  They are, after all, the second youngest team in the league with an average age of 24.  

In bullet point format:

• LaMarcus Aldridge finally went hard to the rim.  Unfortunately, it was in the second half when the game was already decided.  I’ve caught significant portions of about 5-6 of the first 20 games of the season, and this is the first time I actually recall him trying to dunk despite inevitable contact.  Way to remember you’re 6′11″ … when you’re down 20 and KG has out-yapped and out-muscled you all game.
• The Blazers offense in half-court sets, to some extent, been like the Suns offense in the D’Antonio and pre-Shaq era, as described in the book Seven Seconds Or Less by Jack McCallum.  [Disclaimer: I didn't read the book - I don't read books, I read reviews.]  In any case, it involves floor spacing, making open shots and somebody getting into the lane.  Playing the starring role of Steve Nash has been Brandon Roy, who has done it brilliantly, though at times during this particular game, there was very little motion and it looked like both teams were content to see if Roy could break down the defense with everybody staring at him.  Tonight, he couldn’t.    
   
• Steve Blake was exposed as being way too slow to stay in front of Rajon Rondo and not fast enough to challenge him on the other end.  While Sergio Rodriguez and Jerryd Bayless didn’t exactly look good defensively, they both got into the lane.  
  • Speaking of Bayless, he is the only reason I watched the 4th quarter.  I was remarking the other day to a friend and fellow Blazers-fan that of the 4 rookies the Blazers have on their roster, the only one not in the rotation was Bayless, after averaging an unheard-of 29.8ppg in the Vegas Summer League.
  • More Bayless hype - I was remarking to my roommate about how I love his balance, jump and release.  Within a minute, Bayless made a quick dribble move and dropped a picture perfect 17-footer.  I really enjoy it when players cooperate with my comments.  I have really high hopes that he will be a very good defensive player - he certainly has the size, the feet and (seemingly) the coachability for this.  
• The two question marks going into last season for the Celtics were Kendrick Perkins and Rajon Rondo.
  • After watching the game, I checked into YardBarker and saw that somebody had written the game up already.  The first line? “Perk definitely won this round with Greg Oden.”  This is the reason I never wrote about sports on my blog before - sports bloggers are insanely good at watching a million hours of game and having no clue.  This is why I never got involved.  There should only be two types of sports writers - professionals and bloggers that make the crass comments that respectable journalists can’t.  WithLeather does this well.  
  • Honestly, I like Perkins and always have - his blocks/48 minutes have always been blistering - but you’re comparing two players that are role players at this point in their careers.  The difference is that Oden has a chance to be more than a role player and Perkins really doesn’t.  
  • Rondo on the other hand, is the new media darling and sudden king of playground-esque cool.  He did this really tacky head-bob thing before he made a move against Rodriguez.  While he has exceeded expectations, he does have a certain amount of, I don’t know, HALL OF FAME talent surrounding him. I’m not convinced that Rondo is substantially better than other super-fast penetrating point-guards that have a reputation of not being able to shoot - say Sebastian Telfair or Rafer Alston.  I’m kind of curious what God Shammgod would do in this system.    
  • [First God Shammgod reference, not the last.]
• The announcing was awful.  
  • I liked Mark Jackson as a player.  He successfully stretched out the usefulness of his never impressive body, but as an announcer he sounds completely distant and clueless.
  • Jeff Van Gundy is a complete buffoon, going off on a really useless diatribe about how the only field goals in football that should be attempted are those of 50+ yards.  I now envy Marcus Camby for having “accidentally” punching him.  
  • Mike Breen - guilty by association.
• On emphatic teammates…
  • I think it is really funny how Kevin Garnett seemed to bring Glen “Big Baby” Davis to the verge of angry tears.  What do you call it when something is so fitting that it doesn’t seem like it should be happening?  Is that irony or unironic irony?  I can’t decide.  
  • I think it is awesome when people suck up to KG for yelling at his teammates.  You know who yells at his teammates?  Rasheed Wallace.  You don’t see the announcers sucking up to him…
• On other double-standards…
  • I recall one particular instance when Tyler Hansbrough ran at a shooter at the top of the key and fouled him on a 3-point shot.  The announcers, possibly involving Vitale [I don't exactly recall] commented about his intensity and ferocity.  I never hear this same type of reaction when a black guy runs at a shooter out of control - the announcers usually label that as a lack of discipline.

Tags: blazers

All unusable comments are on clearance! They must go, go, go!

 

• World record for leaving a high-five hanging: Sweet, got a mention on my friend’s blog for spotting poor Jeff Foster left hanging.  Fans of How I Met Your Mother may recall a similar issue in season 4 episode I Heart NJ.  Now to Google Analytics to watch the traffic spike!
• Iraqi Refugees Find Michigan Is No Land Of Plenty [NPR; 2008-11-11]: I feel bad for these Iraqis - it seems like a terrible joke to plant these people in the only place in the US that might be worse than where they came from.  Is it possible that they couldn’t infer enough about Detroit/Michigan from the failure of the US auto industry, RoboCop, the 0-9 Detroit Lions and the bowl-ineligible Michigan Wolverines?  
• Dear Gene Keady, thanks for winning the most games in the history of Purdue basketball and serving the school for 25 years.  Unfortunately, Google Suggest thinks your legacy is this: 
  

  20081108_genekeady_crop