USA Today's preseason football coaches poll is out, and the Terps come in at 20. Part of me is surprised people think of us, the other oart of me knows that's bullshit, what with the string of bowls, the string of ten-win seasons, etc. Of course, we're ranked exactly where we finished last season - 20.
Since this is Maryland's last year to play top-level football (it's time to start losing at least 5 games a season, thanks to Miami, FSU, and VTech, and therefore stop getting top recruiting classes, which means as a grad student I might even get to play) here's hoping good things happen in the era of the Under Armor.
I know on a few occassions we have attempted to figure out how the hell people play cricket. Wickets and bowlers and Rick's favorite - white pants. At one point we watched a couple hours of it, trying to decifer scoring and such. Anyway, it seems that an American Pro Cricket League now exists. 8 teams in different cities, and one of them in a DC team, playing in Bowie at Prince George's County Stadium. There is a game on Sunday at 1 (possibly the season finale). I will be asleep or drunk (or both), but just figured I would drop that on here. Check out the rosters, good luck pronouncing those names. $5 to anyone who buys a Garfield Wildman jersey.
Shocker: Cable news channels hate you. Unless you're rich, white, both, or waive little flags all the damn time and put "Support Our Troops" stickers on your car...while encouraging them to go die in a freaking desert. Anyway, this site is pretty cool...it's not always "Bush is a jackass," but it likes to share stories you wouldn't otherwise hear (like The Daily Show enjoys doing) and, when TV and print unite to make Democrats (well, anyone not Republican) look like asses - like the recent bashing if Kerry for touring NASA, and the beating they gave Sharpton after making a beautiful speach at the convention - the site gives a rational reaction. Anyway, not to get a bigass politcal thread going, but the site is cool.
Chris asked me to post some IQ calculations, and I had forgotten until now. He wanted to know the score that corresponds to the top 2000, 1000, and 40 scores, assuming 250,000,000 in the country. To say you scored in the top 2000 means that you scored better than 99.9992% of the people. To say you were in the top 1000 means you scored better than 99.9996% of the people. To say you were in the top 40 means you scored better than 99.999984% of the people. Now for one sentence of technical stuff. To find the IQ score one needs to find the inverse of the cumulative normal distribution (with mean 100 and standard deviation 15 - the IQ scale). To cut to the chase...
IQ for being in the top 2000: 165
IQ for being in the top 1000: 167
IQ for being in the top 40: 75000100
No, that is not a typo. Several things to note. First, these estimates are conservative in that they use the usual IQ scale (normal with mean 100, standard deviation 15). If the test you took is on another IQ scale (e.g., normal with mean 100, standard devation 16), the numbers would actually be higher.
Second, and more importantly, these values do not account for measurement error. As I very poorly tried to state in the original post, the reason why no one should tell you that you scored in the top 40 is not that it's impossible, but that the measurement isn't precise enough.
Third, and most importantly, these scores are based on the model that is used. It is possible that a score well under 75000100 is in fact in the top 40 IQ scores ever recorded. In fact, I'm sure of it, because no one (let alone 40 people alive in the country) has ever scored that high. The model of the normal distribution works well for many situations - IQ testing included - but usually not at the extremes. For example, many things that can't be negative (like IQ scores) are modeled with a normal distribution, even though the normal extends to values below 0 (in fact, to negative infinity). The model is not built for the extemes - it's built for the population as a whole. That is why claims like "your score is among the top 40 in the country" cannot be made on the model alone. It may be the case that your score is among the top 40 ever recorded, but just based on probability, I highly doubt it. If you'd like, I'd be happy to share an excel spreadsheet for doing these calculations.
Nate's boys are apt swimmers. It looks like I'm gonna be a daddy. Pat we'll have to wrestle for the name....
Looks like Groening had a lot to say at ComicCon. Happily, there won't be a movie until after the series is done, and the series won't be over for quite some time. But the big news was Springfield is soon to legalize gay marriage, and someone is stepping out of the closet. Of course, like all of you, I instantly thought of Smithers, but the story also points out the good money is on Carl and Lenny - which would rock. Plus, they've been boosting those two's "relationship" over the last few seasons, what with that oil fire one, the newspaper headline one, etc. Lots of people are talking Skinner too, and he has that whole dominated-by-his-mother thing going on, but he did Selma (or Patty) and Crabopple, so I think he's good. My money is on the dark horse: Comic Book Guy (remember Mr. X? Exploring the "final frontier?" Maybe that got his warp drive running, or whatever).
Discuss your nomination for gay Springfielder in 100 words or less, then pass your papers forward.
Good lord I look like shit today. At some point this morning, through some fogged up mirror & blurry eyes, I decided I could go to work without shaving. I've done it before, I could just pass it off as some stubble, I thought. As it turns out, I have made a serious miscalculation. Instead I look like a derelict. In fact, it looks like a homeless person broke into my office, took whatever (wrinkled) clothes were hanging on the hook on the back of my door, put them on, and sat down at a computer. My sideburns are growing at a rate that is not consistent with any other part of my head. Pretty soon, I will appear as though I have dirty blonde gills. It is within the scope of reason that at some point during the day that I have been fired and no one has the heart to tell me. It does not help that while I believe I am wearing a blue shirt with gray pants, it is possible that I am wearing a blue shirt with some off-shade of green pants. Blue shirt, green pants, black belt, socks & shoes. Not a pretty picture. Furthermore, my pants have a button and inside the waistband a clasp thing. On this particular pair of pants, the button is missing. If I was not wearing a belt, it would looks as though I was walking around with some kind of rayon-polyester blend erection. As Chris & Pat know, I smashed my sunglasses with my emergency brake on Friday night so now I am wearing a pair of sunglasses that would be servicable were the frames not red. I do not take much solace in the fact that my sunglass frames match the 11 year old paint job on my car. Do you contest the fact that all the cool people have sunglasses that match their car, no matter how repulsive the shade? Well obviously you are not operating on the same lurid fashion/hygiene, showered but unshaven spectrum that I am, buddy. And for that I envy you. Thus commences this rant.
From the CNN article, and I quote:
"Among DVD extras are a tutorial on how to give a lap dance and audio commentary titled 'The Greatest Movie Ever Made.'"
Quite possibly the worst thing I've ever heard of someone doing to another. Seriously, short of killing one's own child, what worse act could a person in a position of power/authority/trust do? Ugh.
Highlights
- Sleeping in on Friday
- Giving blood without passing out. It is much easier if you don't get smashed the night before. Should not have taken me 4 years to learn this.
- The fortuitious urination before the O's game.
- Being a cheap date Friday night.
- Covert Ops at Chucky Cheese.
- Going to Wendy's with Paige.
- Sleeping most of the way to Philly
- Tailgating before a baseball game.
- Seeing Philly's new stadiums.
- Remembering to take off my shoes
- Philly Cheesesteaks
- The continued hospitality of the Levy household
- Burke's
- Chad @ Burke's
- Chad playing darts
- Chad playing pool (sort of)
- Wawa after midnight
- Chad going down the slide
- Chad going down the slide again (& again)
- Remembering to take off my shoes while drunk
- Chad's jimmy arms & legs & neck & torso
- Tailgating before a baseball game
- Hey Norm!
- Broadcasting the 6th inning as Harry Caray.
- Almost seeing a no-hitter by a terps alum.
- Parking lot baseball with crushed beer cans & an umbrella
- Chilling with the guy who was fired from Lowe's.
- The guy from Lowe's not being able to head west with his friend because he just got his friend a job at Lowe's.
- The Lowe's guy's friend driving off without him, watching the car turn around and come back so he could pick him up.
- Umbrella racing.
- Sleeping most of the way back from Philly.
Lowlights
- Witnessing the 28 point-turn parking job at the O's game.
- The abomination that is the Orioles floppy hat.
- The Orioles stink.
- Wendy's only serving coffee, juice & danish.
- Roy's underwhelming performace re: High Life.
- Missing Denise's BBQ
- Being reminded that I was going to miss Denise's BBQ
- Near miss on witnessing a no-hitter by a terps alum.
- Having to go back to work.
I went down to Ft. Worth this past weekend, and hung out with my brother-in-law Saturday night. We went out to another brother's-in-law bar, and the first brother-in-law got talking with one of the waitresses. She invited us back to her place for an after party. So we get there, and it's her and a few guys. We got into the introductions, and my brother-in-law, joking around, said something about being a cop. Apparently, one of the guys didn't think it was too funny. Got up and started walking towards us till we assured him that we weren't cops. Anyway, about five minutes later, we were asked to leave because the guys weren't comfortable hanging out with us. So, I've now been kicked out of a party for suspicion of being a narc.
Sucks to be Nate. Arrests in the off-season like they were the TrailBlazers, changing GMs more often then I change underwear, and now the best player on the offensive side calls it a day. Heh.
Now, EPSN calls Ricky's career "one of the most unusual NFL careers in recent history." I ask, who's goofier? Barrett Robbins' disappearing act and mental illness? Shockey getting so many props for four TDs in two years? Emmitt Smith bailing on his franchise for...the Cardinals? Seriously, who playing today/played in the last five years is gonna go down as a bigger basket case than Ricky Williams?
I just heard about this. Of course, there's no way I'd go out like that. I'd have a heart attack upon eye contact (or if she didn't see it coming, first recognizing what was happening), long before the pond, the rescue, and the unfortunately unsuccessful surgery.
So, if my math is right -- according to this article, I drink as much in a month as the average US person does in a year (I am assuming that when they say pints, that 1 pint = 1.33 12oz beers). Perhaps more....
Thank god the rest of you are a bunch of damn dirty drunks, or else I may walk home to an intervention some day.
Actually, I will just go on the assumption that the average person in the US is a pussy. I am right and they are wrong.
Can't believe I'm the one bringing this up - maybe I earned that NOTY victory - but today was the 20 yr anniversary of the first human death at the hands (claws?) of a robot. It is only a matter of time before we "scorch the sky" because they run on solar power but then they put us in pink bubble dealies and plug us into some virtual reality where everyone wears sexy black leather and knows kung-fu (show me) and then this one guy that used to rob banks in President masks and stop runaway buses comes in and is like "whoa" and he kills some fake goverment agents with Desert Eagles and then kills himself because he's not a guy but a mathematical remainder and then the bad guys all die, or something.
So boo robots.
So a few of the usual suspects saw the movie last night. I am glad I saw it, it was worth my $8.50 or whatever. Much better than Bowling for Columbine, in my opinion, largely due to the fact that Moore is not as omnipresent. At times a bit hokey & slow, it was powerful & thought-provoking nonetheless. There is an overt bias that permeates the entire movie, though I doubt this comes as a surprise to anyone. The film approaches, if not surpasses the line between a documentary & propaganda. Also, there are a few quite gruesome scenes, so while it may not bother the doctors-to-be, I imagine it will be unsettling to most. As for the rest of you who have seen it, I am curious as to what you think.
I was watching TV last night, and saw a commercial for this product. The commercial looked just like a normal drug commercial, with a guy standing there talking to you, telling you that if you had the same problem as him, then this pill was for you. Only his problem was hangovers. The pill is supposed to keep them from happening by preventing absorption of some byproduct or something. I was watching Comedy Central, so at first I thought it was a spoof commercial, but it's a real product. So, any of you ever heard of this before/tried it to know if it works?
...to hate Duke. Freaking queers, I hate them so much. It's not jealousy, it's hate. I hate them. Bastards.
A church had a mass baptism at a water park in Wichita Falls, TX last Sunday. Is this what your people do for fun, Fatty? Anywho, I just thought it was funny. And you don't see much news coming out of Wichita Falls. Which I just realized needs a cool nickname. Like "W-town", but a lot more clever.
...for you haters to watch Adult Swim. Starting (I think they said) next Sunday, they will be showing a "Seth's favorite Family Guy episodes" countdown, hosted by the man himself. That, and the commercials for said countdown show an upper-crust Seth resplendent on a pimp leather armchair in a wine cellar or something, in what I'm sure is a $1000 dollar suit. Also, he breaks out such clever taglines as "as the teenagers say: watch it, scumbag" and "watch that piece of shit." Seth rules, Adult Swim rules, I'm a nerd that watches exponentionally more cartoons than news, sitcoms, and sports put together.
When they show a commercial again, I'll update the dates of the countdown. Perhaps we should get together for the Family Guy drinkng game, since you guys want to get loaded on a Sunday. Phhft - jobs.
so i went to artscape this past saturday. it was awesome. again an event for next year. free admission, live music, artists of all types everywhere. faves from the day include the dunk tank filled with either a milk/water mixture or a paint/water mixture; jazz and blues at the value city department stores stage; yards full of smoothies (k, i know they are more valued with beer in them); wine tasting tents; dunkin donuts van with free coolattas; artwork; the BSO practice; free posters of ravens/orioles for buying a Sunday Sun for $1.00; free books; riding the lightrail for the first time. next year we'll have to go and make sure we see the bigger named bands that included this year Wyclef Jean, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, the Commodores, De La Soul, and Isaac Hayes.
We'll call it the Terrapin Tables All-Star Break...so let's see who is leading the way in the Nerd Of The Year voting.
Here are 4 "favorites". I don't believe some of us would win, so why water down the voting. I picked these based on:
- the previous poll and the lobbying efforts
- random posts about China's power, internet browsers, computer viruses and such
- the fact that this is my post and I can do whatever the hell I want