Terrapin Tables

New Orleans

From everything I can gather, what is going on in New Orleans is a disaster of notable scale. I don't want to be one of those people that somehow sympathizes with others as if I knew what it was like. And the only thing sort of generous I can think to do besides giving some paltry sum, is to donate blood, which I know several of us can't do for several weeks. Anyway, the ramifications of the whole thing seem pretty significant. Who knows if the city will ever be the same, if the water will recede to prior levels, if the geography of the area has been permanently changed. Gas prices will likely rise. I have heard that this may even be the end of the Saints tenure in New Orleans (not like that matters to much). Maybe things like this have happened before, but I can't say that I remember. I guess the death toll for 9/11 is about 3,000. I hope the city returns to it's previous form, as it is a place I'd very much like to visit. And I wish the best for everyone down there.

Here we go...

Saturday at 6 pm, we kick off the new football season. As usual, we'll do the same thing for tailgating that we usually do. Click on the Tailgating page and follow your normal steps. Read the top part of the Navy page, it will give you the low down on where we will be.

Check back later in the week for some Locks of the Week, including the Paige Burton SLAM of the Week.

If you are interested, feel free to join some of us on Friday morning for Breakfast with Fridge.

Also, since this isn't simply walking across a campus, but possibly a long walk through the city (depending on where you park), if anyone wants to bring anything over to our place before hand, we will make sure to bring it with us. See you Saturday. GO TERPS!

UPDATE: FYI, here is more Game Day Info, including parking and light rail stuff. Actually, light rail might not be a bad bet. Cheaper and easier.

For Roy

NY Times Review of Pirate Books

I am aware that poker . . .

. . . ends in "er".

This year's "mindset" list

So every year, Beloit College puts out a list of facts to show the mindest (and inexperience) of the incoming freshmen. Since this year's students were born in 1987, there are items like:

• The federal budget has always been more than a trillion dollars
• Bill Gates has always been worth at least a billion dollars
• Pixar has always existed

A neat little read for those that can't wait for the inevitable email forward.

Sounds like something we would do

Drink a lot of wine and take notes, even if they are embellished.

Springhill Lake

Courtesy of Tunde, WPGC 95.5 is running a contest where you can win a car and a one bedroom apartment at SPRINGHILL LAKE!!??, rent free for one year. Now at one time or another, at least 6 of us lived in Springhill Lake. During this time, a guy shot himself in the head while trying to shoot the police, Roy was asked if he would like to buy weed, we were suspected of being "5.0," and Pat & Chad had their cars broken into. Sort of like finally coming to the top of the organ donation wait list, and ending up with one of our livers.

Lions & Tigers & Bears

I wonder what type of a dumbass it takes to come up with this idea. Basically, some people are proposing bringing endangered large game from Africa, like lions & elephants, and letting them loose in the American midwest. Nice to see we've learned our lessons about invasive species. Let's not try to solve the root of the problem - habitat loss in Africa. Instead, let's see what else we can fuck up here in the Americas.

UMD

So it seems the Princeton Review has their rankings list out for the year.
Maryland finished #20 in the party school rankings, but #1 in the category of "Students Pack The Stadiums: How popular are intercollegiate sports?." Notre Dame finished 2nd, and Duke finished 15th. The Diamondback finished as the 7th best newspaper. Ranked 7th as most dissatisfied with financial aid, and 17th on students who almost never study. Clearly we have our priorities in order. We are drunken sports fans who are broke and pissed about it, but never study; with some writing skills. Clearly the priorities are in order. Actually, that sounds a lot like us. Save for the writing skills thing, as this website certainly hosts evidence to the contrary. So, um, Go Spret?

Good times

So, from what I remember, it was good times at Chad's bachelor party this weekend. And since my arm is sore, apparently throwing a baseball around for an hour or two is too much excercise for me. I wish Gatorade had alcolol. i'd be sittin' pretty then.

Oh, random. Overheard in New York is pretty funny.

Also, it just took me like 10 minutes to write this. I'm drunk, but not like super drunk. I can still proofread and find the backspace button. Go me.

But what about hats about mullets?

Apparently, hairstyle banning in schools is in. But not for our favorite hairstyle: it's mullet time!

I've been lied to

Even condoms can't help me...ugh.

Kidding, but for what it's worth, who remembers to hold the base? At that point in time, my mind is pretty much blank. Except for the sandwich-wanting. And, I've never had one break. I am endowed like a squirrell, though, so that probably helps.

Further kidding. Everyone knows I've never had sex.

Phil Gordon is tall

So I went up to the ESPNZone in Baltimore last night to go see poker pro/celebrity basher Phil Gordon. He gave a little lesson to 200 people on risks to take while playing Hold 'Em. It was a neat little lesson, and there was free food and beer, which always makes things better. And he did private Q&A as he walked around, so kudos to him.

I was also there in an attempt to win a WSOP 2006 seat, since they were giving one away to one of the people there. I didn't win anything, but it was worth a try. It was a $10,000 prize and you didn't have to play a single hand of poker; also Phil Gordon said for all the winners, he'd come visit them every day they were in the tournament and look at their stacks and their competition and give them personal advice on how to play. Neat.

Ooh, and the guy that came in 2nd in this year's WSOP was there, as he's from Severn. So good times.

And for anyone that plays poker with me already knows, apparantly I don't raise enough. I've made a note to be more of a asshole while we play :)

4 Steps to Fun!

1 - Go see naked girl.

2 - Go see the FARKian response.

3 - Find "Crappy Jack" and read his response.

4 - That post smacks of John. So, go smack John. See how fun it is to smack John!

Stupid Duke Conspiracy

He lost, and there's no mention of him in the article, but you just KNEW he was gonna get to be in the photo...not the guy that put up 40 in a big upset. Fuck Duke.

Drunken Fruit Flies

From the News section on Nature, here's an article on getting fruit flies drunk. I suppose there's some valid scientific reason for it, but I still thought it was funny, "the researchers placed the flies in a column containing several platforms. When they were exposed to ethanol vapour, the flies tended to lose their balance and fall off their platform to the next one down, until they finally landed with a drunken bump at the bottom of the column."

Stupid Photo-Hunt

So, me and a guy from work went out drinking last night, and ended up playing Photo-Hunt for half the night. It's a pretty new bar, so we got to set all of the high scores on the machine, and apparently, Photo-Hunt has an algorithm to filter out what they consider to be inappropriate words. Plus, there's a limit to how long names can be, but there's no warning that you're at the limit - you type in that last letter and it instantly goes to a different screen. I was a little drunk, so I cant remember all of the stupid names we put, but I remeber having to do "Homer Sesual" instead of "Homer Sexual," only being able to type "Amanda Hugin" instead of "Amanda Huginkiss," and having to spell balls with a z for "Suck my ballz." Oh well, at least we found a decent bar with NTN Trivia and Photo-Hunt since our regular bar burned down.

Heaven Forbid . . .

. . . you ever grow bored at work. For example, I learned I am supposed to live to be 82 are so. For the sake of full disclosure, there were no questions regarding bus encounters.

Another Log on the Fire

Apparently the cover story for the upcoming Time Magazine is to be titled "Evolution Wars." Here, four "experts" debate the question of evolution. Plus, the discussion filled up the webpage real good last time.

Interesting

So, I'm in a hotel in West Virginia...pretty gay, except I'm coming from somewhere pretty badass. Anywho, I'm driving through Kentucky earlier, and we see a sign for "Simpsonville." And I'm all, "hey, the Simpsons are allegedly from Kentucky...". Then, the next exit: Shelbyville. That's right, a real Shelbyville is right next to a Simpsonville, right about where Springfield may (or may not) be. Word.

Another sign that the apocalypse is upon us

So it appears that some asshat Congressman wants to rename 16th Street in DC "Ronald Reagan Boulevard". Do the Republicans really believe that since they control Congress and the White House that they can just rename anything they want?

Hip/Hop artists and the schools wanna be them.

Good stuff. I wonder if Chad taught "The Game" that sign.

Miscellaneous

Random crap of the day.

Jon Stewart is going back on MSNBC.

Roy was in "New Jersey."

This is a little movie that has some audio.

The next time your partner doesn't want to cuddle, be happy you got off with a simple "No."

SAVE THE BEER PONG

Have your voices heard! Do not go gently into that good night! Rage, rage against the dying of the beer pong! Booooooooooo New Jersey!

Why We Have Migraines

This guy is either:
- Too stupid to be put in charge of anything,
- So disingenuine that he allows a small but powerful bit of the populous to control him,
- A liar desperate to be liked,
- An asshat of the first degree.

Seriously, how does anyone allow this entire "movement" a bit of credence? Why can't people stand up and say. "I'm sorry, you are nearly certainly wrong, and, in this country especially, your choice of faith cannot be allowed to color the educations of the entirety of the nation's children." Please? That's all I want, at least on this matter. Some mag wheels would be pretty sweet...

Beer

If we choreographed a scene in Lord of the Rings.

I take batting practice, I take fielding practice, I take . . .?

Palmeiro suspended.