Wow

Look at the new watch and the poofy hair

Yum

Chick fil a is tasty good!!

Survivor Hoops draft recap

Ah, the beginning of the 4th season of Fantasy Hoops, Survivor Edition, where each month the lowest scoring team is eliminated and whose players are snatched up by the remaining managers. With perennial first manager out Scott Dollar taking a break from this series, Abe Lo is filling the void. Without further ado...

Round 1

1.	L. James	YAOMINGSEXYSEXY
2.	K. Garnett	PussyFooters
3.	K. Bryant	Dr. Julius...
4.	D. Wade	Vandelay Ind...
5.	A. Iverson	Last Comic S...
6.	S. Marion	Habanero Pop...
7.	E. Brand	Whoosh

Not a whole lot to say here as these were almost exactly my Top 7 guys. While Jer was deciding on the 7th pick, I tried to trade 1st and 2nd round picks because I think Brand has Top 4 potential in this format, but otherwise went pretty much to form. This may be a common theme, but if I had to choose a worst pick, I would go with the autodraft and Marion. While he is a beast in normal fantasy with all the peripheral stats, I am a little more nervous of a top pick in this format who does not get the chance to chuck the ball at the hoop all game long.

Round 2

1.	D. Nowitzki	Whoosh
2.	A. Stoudemire	Habanero Pop...
3.	G. Arenas	Last Comic S...
4.	C. Bosh	Vandelay Ind...
5.	T. Duncan	Dr. Julius...
6.	Y. Ming	PussyFooters
7.	P. Pierce	YAOMINGSEXYSEXY

Best would be the Dirk who was the one I had in Top 7 with Marion on the outside looking in (another reason I wanted to trade with Jer), not really fair at this point since the dropoff is so sharp so 1st pick of the round is almost guaranteed best. I would go with Amare as the worst... coming off a brutal injury scares me. I don't like it when the coach says, "We're going to somehow figure out a way to win in the meantime" referring to potential rust to start the season.

Round 3

1.	J. O'Neal	YAOMINGSEXYSEXY
2.	A. Kirilenko	PussyFooters
3.	D. Howard	Dr. Julius...
4.	C. Anthony	Vandelay Ind...
5.	T. McGrady	Last Comic S...
6.	C. Paul	Habanero Pop...
7.	S. Nash	Whoosh

I actually like all the picks in this round with a reasonable risk/reward tradeoffs for the most part. Most worried about AK holding up and most excited about Dwight Howard's prospects, particularly if/when he gets C-eligibility.

Round 4

1.	R. Allen	Whoosh
2.	J. Kidd	Habanero Pop...
3.	V. Carter	Last Comic S...
4.	M. Redd	Vandelay Ind...
5.	J. Johnson	Dr. Julius...
6.	B. Davis	PussyFooters
7.	L. Odom	YAOMINGSEXYSEXY

A nice pick here is Baron Davis, who is somewhat risky with injury history, but should thrive under Nelly's system and has the potential to stuff the boxscore across multiple categories. I don't really know how I missed him and ended up with Joe instead, probably just because I was upset Gerald took him in H2H. All the other picks seem fine here...

Round 5

1.	R. Lewis	YAOMINGSEXYSEXY
2.	B. Miller	PussyFooters
3.	R. Jefferson	Dr. Julius...
4.	B. Diaw	Vandelay Ind...
5.	C. Boozer	Last Comic S...
6.	P. Gasol	Habanero Pop...
7.	M. Okur	Whoosh

Worst pick is definitely Gasol in this format to carry deadweight that early in the season; failing that, I'm not as big a fan of Diaw in this format either (see Shawn Marion but a poor man's version), whereas he's a nice C for normal setups. It was my pick, but I love to get Jefferson here; considered taking him in the 4th but picked a PG in the hopes that he would still be around here.

Round 6

1.	A. Jamison	Whoosh
2.	C. Billups	Habanero Pop...
3.	S. O'Neal	Last Comic S...
4.	G. Wallace	Vandelay Ind...
5.	J. Richardson	Dr. Julius...
6.	Z. Ilgauskas	PussyFooters
7.	S. Marbury	YAOMINGSEXYSEXY

Shaq this late is pretty awesome; sure he won't play 82 games, but you don't need 82 games out of him in this league, instead just taking the monster games you get and filling the rest in with another C. Taking Ilgauskus here with Okafor still on the board was just plain silly...

Round 7

1.	C. Kaman	YAOMINGSEXYSEXY
2.	E. Okafor	PussyFooters
3.	C. Webber	Dr. Julius...
4.	D. West	Vandelay Ind...
5.	R. Wallace	Last Comic S...
6.	J. Nelson	Habanero Pop...
7.	T. Parker	Whoosh

A little sad that YAO didn't make Gerald pay and snatch Okafor away, so in that respect the Kaman pick should have been Okafor by a wide margin. I am happy to get CWebb in Round 7 assuming he can keep playing on one good leg and put up his numbers. Otherwise, Tony Parker's not bad here; he usually kind of sucks without 3 ptrs, but that is no problem in this league.

Round 8

1.	B. Wallace	Whoosh
2.	J. Smith	Habanero Pop...
3.	R. Felton	Last Comic S...
4.	A. Harrington	Vandelay Ind...
5.	A. Miller	Dr. Julius...
6.	P. Stojakovic	PussyFooters
7.	R. Artest	YAOMINGSEXYSEXY

Ben Wallace this late is nice and solidifies Whoosh's pretty dominant looking frontcourt. Not as big a fan of Al Harrington; the entire Indiana team kind of scares me, although someone needs to get the stats, so might as well be him with Jermaine O'Neal.

Round 9

1.	A. Bogut	YAOMINGSEXYSEXY
2.	M. Bibby	PussyFooters
3.	M. Camby	Dr. Julius...
4.	K. Hinrich	Vandelay Ind...
5.	C. Maggette	Last Comic S...
6.	B. Roy	Habanero Pop...
7.	R. Davis	Whoosh

Worst pick is probably Bibby given he's out the first two weeks of the season. It would have been a calculated risk had anyone else done it, but I'm skeptical of Gerald's ability to avoid elimination, so this certainly doesn't help matters. Hinrich has the best mix of risk/reward, so he's probably my top pick for the round; hopefully Camby stays healthy and it goes to me instead.

Round 10

1.	D. Milicic	Whoosh
2.	J. Howard	Habanero Pop...
3.	M. Peterson	Last Comic S...
4.	M. James	Vandelay Ind...
5.	C. Butler	Dr. Julius...
6.	A. Iguodala	PussyFooters
7.	J. Terry	YAOMINGSEXYSEXY

Best pick is Josh Howard because I really wanted him this round and instead got stuck with Caron Butler. I have no idea why he's ranked reasonably highly, but I wanted Josh's athleticism and position flexibility... go autodraft! I don't like Mo Pete here... I don't like him in general, but he just gives tons of 3 ptrs, which doesn't have any value in this league.

Round 11

1.	Z. Randolph	YAOMINGSEXYSEXY
2.	M. Ginobili	PussyFooters
3.	R. Hamilton	Dr. Julius...
4.	A. Nocioni	Vandelay Ind...
5.	C. Villanueva	Last Comic S...
6.	S. Battier	Habanero Pop...
7.	L. Deng	Whoosh

Zach Randolph this late is pretty nice; he's crap in normal leagues since he literally only scores and gets rebounds with no other stats and poor percentages for a big man, but that's fine for this league. Deng's a nice player, but he's sharing time with Ben Gordon and the Chicago rotation seems like it always changes with only Hinrich getting consistent PT.

Round 12

1.	C. Frye	Whoosh
2.	T. Chandler	Habanero Pop...
3.	L. Hughes	Last Comic S...
4.	M. Williams	Vandelay Ind...
5.	T. Murphy	Dr. Julius...
6.	A. Morrison	PussyFooters
7.	B. Knight	YAOMINGSEXYSEXY

It was my own pick, but I really like Troy Murphy here... another one of the rebounding machines that scores with additional C-eligibility. Hopefully he'll come back in time from his broken nose to put up stats. As much as I enjoy the Stache, Morrison is awful here; Gerald has clearly stopped caring. I don't think he realizes we start 13 players and his Bibby is on the bench, so he's going to have to start these guys.

Round 13

1.	T. Ford	YAOMINGSEXYSEXY
2.	J. Childress	PussyFooters
3.	G. Hill	Dr. Julius...
4.	D. Gooden	Vandelay Ind...
5.	C. Wilcox	Last Comic S...
6.	D. Granger	Habanero Pop...
7.	M. Miller	Whoosh

TJ Ford stands out here with a lot of potential to put up numbers with points and assists; another one of those usually crappy PGs with not a lot of 3s, but doesn't matter in this league. I'll take Grant Hill for worst pick; could probably have gotten him later, but I'm always enamored with him and get a morbid fear that Andrew will steal the players I like. It worked out fine with Frank Gore, so maybe this will be okay

Round 14

1.	B. Gordon	Whoosh
2.	L. Ridnour	Habanero Pop...
3.	B. Wells	Last Comic S...
4.	D. Williams	Vandelay Ind...
5.	W. Szczerbiak	Dr. Julius...
6.	S. Francis	PussyFooters
7.	R. Bell	YAOMINGSEXYSEXY

Worst is either Gordon or Ridnour, both in danger of splitting minutes and you can't fill the boxscore from the bench. Surprisingly, Gerald came through with a solid pick of Steve Francis this late, but I like Deron Williams here as I really wanted to pick him up but instead got left with the guy who's name is hard to spell.

Round 15

1.	S. Cassell	YAOMINGSEXYSEXY
2.	V. Radmanovic	PussyFooters
3.	D. Stoudamire	Dr. Julius...
4.	I. Diogu	Vandelay Ind...
5.	S. Jackson	Last Comic S...
6.	R. Alston	Habanero Pop...
7.	R. Foye	Whoosh

Foye stinks the most; rookie who likely won't start not really all that useful for the first month of the season. As much as I like Ike, I don't know how much PT he'll get with Nelly as the latest I heard from the Chronicle is that he was struggling to learn the plays... silly Ike. I don't like Damon Stoudamire here either... someone has to score for the Grizzlies with Gasol out, but probably not him. But... I do like Stephen Jackson just because he's worth the risk here and easy to drop if he gets thrown in jail.

Round 16

1.	A. Bargnani	Whoosh
2.	J. Przybilla	Habanero Pop...
3.	M. Williams	Last Comic S...
4.	G. Diaz	Vandelay Ind...
5.	T. Prince	Dr. Julius...
6.	M. Dunleavy	PussyFooters
7.	N. Mohammed	YAOMINGSEXYSEXY

Best pick is definitely G Diaz pickup by Chang; he could probably fetch a KG in a trade with Gerald. Trade value aside, I like Nazr's performance so far in the preseason and his prospects of putting up steady stats for Detroit. The Bargnani pick just baffles me.

Summary
Hard to pick out a winner/loser as most drafts were fairly solid through the 9th round and it is a matter of personal preference after that. Arguably Andrew and Gerald's drafts have the most solid Top 6 - 7 rounds, which is what is most important since those are the players that will be kept between drafts.

Let's call Gerald's the worst draft because: 1) he has the highest chance of getting eliminated and not making me eat crow and 2) he missed out on G. Diaz

We'll call Andrew's the best draft because: 1) his Top 6 are really really solid, 2) it would be too arrogant to call my own draft the best draft, and 3) this way he'll likely crumble under the expectations and fizzle out. :)

Good luck, everyone!

Runner runner...

So I'm back in NYC again for work, but am now without the occasionally beloved, but much maligned PokerStars. Maybe it's just my imagination, but I seemed to consistently place in the SNG tourneys whenever I dabbled in playing outside of California (Texas, New York, Europe). But alas, it became too much of a distraction and the new online gambling bill didn't help, so I ended up just withdrawing all my cash. According this poker news article, I qualify as prudent while the uncouth masses went on gambling sprees.. what self-restraint! It was fun while it lasted...

Without that distraction, I had to find something else to do while here, so I went to try for lottery tickets to Wicked, a Broadway musical about two witches in Oz, their story, and how they became the Wicked Witch of the West and the Good Witch of the North. These lotteries have contestants show up ~2 hours before the performance, write down their name and choice of 1 or 2 tickets, and winners can purchase front row orchestra tickets for a nominal fee. By the time the drawing rolls around, there are about 150 people out there. With 28 tickets available and most people putting down their name down for a pair, I had about a 10% of winning. I'm terrible at these things (historically 0 for 2, but managed to go with people who won both times), so I wasn't expecting much as the unknown names were rattled off. But lo and behold, I spiked it on the river, getting the last pair available! I ended up going with Steph Kwan, one of Ruth's high school friends, and had a blast! The writing and singing were both great and pretty amusing how it gets woven in as both a prequel and the story behind the story to the Wizard of Oz. Check it out if you get the chance!

Fantasy or reality?

I think I'm in too many fantasy football leagues. I have a total of 13 leagues, of which I really only pay attention to a single one. Once each week, I go through the rest of the leagues and set lineups, but it ends up being more a chore than anything else since there's usually somebody else paying attention and picked up all the good players from the previous week. It's a good thing it only involves once a week maintenance or I probably would just get demolished. In fact, I think I can only safely commit to things that require once a week attention; like plants that require watering only once a week. I somehow always manage to forget or get consumed in other more pressing matters like playing poker, watching tv, or surfing the web. So the plants that require watering once a week survive, the aquarium would do okay until I started only paying attention a couple times a week... I wonder how the heck I'll ever manage kids??

Fresh off of finishing an exam, Ruth came for a quick visit to town this weekend, also as sort of a late 5th year dating anniversary. We did the usual lots of eating out, sleeping, shopping, and watching tv... fun stuff! I even managed to not watch too much football when she was here. :)