FRS

I’m Not Watching Or Listening

I was watching the MFY play Oakland on ESPN, but that was short lived as the Yanks took a lead in the 1st inning, so I quit watching that. I didn’t quit watching in time though as I caught the ticker on the bottom of the screen reporting that Baltimore was already up 4-1 on the FRS in their 1st inning.

How can my lip be numb from the pain pills, but I have a sore throat today? (instead of yesterday’s headache)

Can’t figure out what car? Here’s a hint:

Now if they can get their steering issues worked out…

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
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Now I Shouldn’t Be Listening

Last night the FRS had the night off and still lost ground in the standings (both Tampa & NY won.) Tonight they are getting their butts kicked by the second worse team in Major League Baseball. I hear the Fat Lady warming up.

You can’t even notice, but I updated the theme for the blog. Tomorrow I may even update the version of WordPress I’m running. Try and contain yourself.

How can you still have a headache when you are taking Ultracet for back pain?

We have pretty much decided to keep the current Emperor’s Dynasty going by buying a new grown-up car next year. Take a guess what the leading competitor is? And no it is not a Mini…

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I Can’t Watch

The FRS on on ESPN tonight and I can’t watch.

I’m sitting here listening to the game in front of the PC. This is the 3rd and final game in this series against the Tampa Bay Rays who are one of the teams ahead of them in the Sox’s road to the playoffs. They really needed to win all three of these games and they started right by winning Friday, but they lost last night. On Friday there were only 34 games left in the season and the Red Sox were 5-1/2 games behind both the Rays and the MFY. That means they will have to win 6 more games than either one of those two teams to make the playoffs. If the Yankees and Rays play at the same pace they have so far this year they will finish those remaining 34 games at a record of 21 wins and 13 loses. So to pull ahead the FRS will have to play 27-7 ball, and while that pace is not impossible, it is highly improbable.

According to Baseball Prospectus the Red Sox’s chances of making the playoffs, as of this morning, stood at 18%, 13.5% or 7.5%, depending on which version of their “playing the rest of the season a million times” you believe, regular, ELO or PECOTA. And they find themselves in the position that either Tampa, Baltimore or Toronto has been in for the last decade, playing good enough baseball to make the playoffs except for the fact that the Yankees and themselves were in front of them.

Update: After last night’s loss the FRS odds of making the playoffs now stand at 11%, 10% & 4.5%

Started down, still down.
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Happy 15th Birthday Windows 95!

Task bars & email & short cuts, OH MY!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GWQgb015Lc&start=105

Funny, I don’t remember this video included in my copy of the operating system. Probably because I had the 13 floppy disk version of it. I have thoughtfully cued the video up to the 1:45 mark so you can get right to the worlds first Cyber Comedy starring Jennifer Anniston & Mathew Perry. Let me know how many seconds you can take of it. My buddy Mark was still using 95 to run the CNC program upload/download system in the back of the plant until just about 6 months ago.

Its raining in Beantown so the FRS’s game against Seattle was postponed, they’ll play two tomorrow. This means quite possibly they will lose ground in the standings without even playing a game.

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111,000 Ways To Be Disappointed

We did our grocery shopping this evening and on the way to Kroger the Emperor passed the 111,000 mile mark. By the time we got home and I checked on the Red Sox they were losing nine to nothing after three innings. Didn’t bother to waste my time listening to the game, so I went into the living room and Donna and I watched the eighth and last episode of Series 1 of Life on Mars.

After that, hoping for some sort of miracle comeback I checked in on the FRS and was excited to see that they had scored two whole runs, unfortunately the Blue Jays had scored 7 more runs making the final score 16-2.

Oh, and Dustin Pedroia’s return to the starting line up lasted all of three games, he went back on the disabled list today. I don’t know what they will have say over at Baseball Prospectus tomorrow, but I’m marking down the Sox’s chances at the playoffs at about 10%. (This morning they stood at 20%)

Go Rays!

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Like Lindsay Lohan Coming Out Of Rehab

Today’s strip of the Soxaholic centers around a couple FRS fans chatting on the phone about how now that the Sox are starting a nice home stand after a rocky road trip they should have an easier time catching Tampa and making the playoffs. In the second to the last panel one says to the other, “We’re kidding ourselves aren’t we?” The punchline in the last panel is this post’s title, “Like Lindsay Lohan coming out of rehab.”

The way they have been playing lately I haven’t been kidding myself. Often when you are watching a baseball game you can pick the winner, sometimes it is really obvious, like one team having an eight run lead, while in close games the winner can be foretold by the intangibles, line drives just squeaking by fielders or bloops landing just out of reach, etc. This can be extrapolated to whole seasons as well, and in this Red Sox season they just can’t catch a break (as long as you don’t count Jacoby Ellsbury’s ribs.) According to the math wizards over at the Baseball Prospectus, as of today, the FRS only have a 26.98664% of making the playoffs.

Today at work I verbally threatened to stop listening to them to a couple people, but I guess I’m too much of a fan to jump off the bandwagon because here I am in front of the PC listening to the WEEI broadcast. And right now I’m glad I did because they are beating the Angels 6-0 in the sixth.

Also I might have totally missed a rarity in the baseball world. If you have ever been to a minor league baseball game, invariably the PA guy will play the sound of breaking glass when a player fouls a ball out of the stadium towards the parking lot, so the crowd will think the ball broke a car window. Well tonight, Red Sox outfielder, Darnell McDonald hit a home run over the Green Monster in left field and actually did break a window in a car parked on Lansdowne Street. Quick thinking announcer Joe Castiglione, after making the home run call said, “I guess he is going to have to call 1-800-GIANT,” giving radio broadcast sponsor Giant Glass, who’s slogan is, “Who you gonna call when your windshields busted?” an extra, but very appropriate plug.

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Zombieland

This is the explanation for those of you with puzzled looks on your face over the post titles this past week.

Last Monday the FRS had a day game, so in the evening, while Donna surfed her usual cooking, home or reality shows on TV, I decided to watch a movie from my Netflix queue. This movie was there because several of my co workers had seen it and were talking it up as something I just had to see, so to appease them I added it. Now I don’t watch a lot of monster movies to begin with and zombie ones are even at the bottom of that pile, but once I got watching it though, I was hooked. And it turns out it is more of a road trip slash geeky guy wins heart of attractive female romance flick than a zombie movie. Plus nobody told me it was a comedy!

The narrator of the movie is a college student that credits his survival of the zombie apocalypse to the strict adherence of a set of rules, which is where the last 7 titles came from. Not all the rules are actually in the movie, some came from trailers and other promotional items, and the list is not complete. I guess that is why they are going to make a sequel. So we can know what Rule #5 is and #10 and so on.

01. "Cardio"
02. "Double tap"
03. "Beware of bathrooms"
04. "Wear seatbelts"
06. "Cast iron skillet"
07. "Travel light"
08. "Get a kickass partner"
12. "Bounty paper towels"
15. "Bowling Ball"
17. "(Don't) be a hero"
18. "Limber up"
21. "Avoid strip clubs"
22. "When in doubt, know your way out"
29. "The buddy system"
31. "Check the back seat"
32. "Enjoy the little things"
33. "Swiss army knife"

On a side note, I thought that the lead actor/narrator, AKA Columbus, looked familiar and it turns out I had just seen him in another movie a couple of weeks prior. The title of that movie was called Adventureland. I wonder if every movie he will be in will have somethingland in the title? And Little Miss Sunshine is growing up nicely.

As long as you don’t have a weak stomach, sorry Donna, I recommend you see Zombieland. At least once.

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