I'm going to refrain from actually blogging about my own thoughts on the health care "reform" debate currently gripping the country because (a) that would take a long time, (b) no one wants to read a 57-page blog post, and (c) talking about the subject usually gets me so pissed that I can't get any work done, and right now I really really need to get work done.
However, I read a fascinating article in the Atlantic about the subject, which I found to be very well-written, well-explained, well-reasoned, and it just plain makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately, the author's suggestions have about as much chance of actually happening as my winning the lottery tomorrow (actually, probably less chance), but it was refreshing to read an intelligent piece about health care since almost everything else I've read -- from both sides of the political divide -- has been anywhere between completely uninformed trash to completely ridiculous propaganda.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
The Paradox
Today was the first day of the 2009/10 season in the English Premier League. For those of you who are uninitiated, that is the professional football (read: soccer) league in England. So like MLS in the United States, except it's more analogous to the NFL and NBA put together in terms of stature, following, success, etc. Explaining to my American friends reading this how professional football works in England and Europe is way too ambitious a topic for this post, but maybe I'll get to it some other time. In any event, if you like football/soccer, you'd love watching the Premier League; it's the most exciting in the world in my humble opinion.
For now, I just wanted to discuss a curious phenomenon familiar to millions worldwide: the Fantasy Sports vs. Real Life Fandom Paradox (hereinafter, "The Paradox"). So imagine you are a NY Yankees fan, and you also play fantasy baseball. In your fantasy league, you acquire San Francisco Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum, one of the best pitchers in the league (and best haircut in the league, but that's a separate issue). You are understandably excited. Right up until the Yankees and Giants begin a three-game series against each other in interleague play. Lincecum will be pitching against your team. You want him to win the game, strike out lots of batters, and allow as few runs as possible, all so he can score lots of points for your fantasy league. But you also want the Yankees to win the game and score lots of runs (against Lincecum). To make it worse, your biggest fantasy league rival owns the Yankees' pitcher for that game, C.C. Sabathia, who you similarly want to do well but also poorly. You've been hit by The Paradox.
Fantasy sports aficionados know what comes next. You start hoping for insanely bizarre things to happen. For example, you hope that Lincecum strikes out every batter for the first five innings (15 strikeouts) but then gets a really painful cramp that takes him out of the game (and only this game). You hope that in the meantime, Sabathia strikes out no one and gives up 10 earned runs, leaving the game. You then hope that the Yankees score 11 runs in the last four innings while allowing zero runs to win the game. Of course that won't happen. But that's what you hope anyway because of The Paradox.
So I got hit by The Paradox today. My favorite Premier League team, Arsenal (from London), was playing Everton (from Liverpool). I have an Everton defender in my fantasy team, where defenders are penalized points if the other side score goals. It was a fantastic match to watch (unless you're an Everton fan). Arsenal absolutely dominated. So I see Arsenal score one goal. Fantastic, they might win. And my defender only gave up one goal so the penalty isn't bad. Then Arsenal scores another. Okay, still fine -- Arsenal have a two-goal cushion so they have a really high probability of winning this game, and my defender has a manageable penalty for allowing two goals. Then Arsenal score a third. Hmm, getting troubling. No need to pad the score fellas, you're going to win anyway. A fourth goal. Uh oh. A fifth. Crap. A sixth. Holy bajeezus.
The match ended in a 6-1 victory for Arsenal. Which I'm happy about, don't get me wrong. Everton are an excellent team, especially on defense (usually), so beating them is a very good thing, especially at their home stadium. And this was one heck of a win. It's as if the Indianapolis Colts (contender with a good offense, like Arsenal) beat the Baltimore Ravens (contender with a great defense, like Everton) by a score of 42-3. Problem is, my defender got hit with a HUGE penalty. So do I feel elated or depressed? Well, both.
That's The Paradox.
For now, I just wanted to discuss a curious phenomenon familiar to millions worldwide: the Fantasy Sports vs. Real Life Fandom Paradox (hereinafter, "The Paradox"). So imagine you are a NY Yankees fan, and you also play fantasy baseball. In your fantasy league, you acquire San Francisco Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum, one of the best pitchers in the league (and best haircut in the league, but that's a separate issue). You are understandably excited. Right up until the Yankees and Giants begin a three-game series against each other in interleague play. Lincecum will be pitching against your team. You want him to win the game, strike out lots of batters, and allow as few runs as possible, all so he can score lots of points for your fantasy league. But you also want the Yankees to win the game and score lots of runs (against Lincecum). To make it worse, your biggest fantasy league rival owns the Yankees' pitcher for that game, C.C. Sabathia, who you similarly want to do well but also poorly. You've been hit by The Paradox.
Fantasy sports aficionados know what comes next. You start hoping for insanely bizarre things to happen. For example, you hope that Lincecum strikes out every batter for the first five innings (15 strikeouts) but then gets a really painful cramp that takes him out of the game (and only this game). You hope that in the meantime, Sabathia strikes out no one and gives up 10 earned runs, leaving the game. You then hope that the Yankees score 11 runs in the last four innings while allowing zero runs to win the game. Of course that won't happen. But that's what you hope anyway because of The Paradox.
So I got hit by The Paradox today. My favorite Premier League team, Arsenal (from London), was playing Everton (from Liverpool). I have an Everton defender in my fantasy team, where defenders are penalized points if the other side score goals. It was a fantastic match to watch (unless you're an Everton fan). Arsenal absolutely dominated. So I see Arsenal score one goal. Fantastic, they might win. And my defender only gave up one goal so the penalty isn't bad. Then Arsenal scores another. Okay, still fine -- Arsenal have a two-goal cushion so they have a really high probability of winning this game, and my defender has a manageable penalty for allowing two goals. Then Arsenal score a third. Hmm, getting troubling. No need to pad the score fellas, you're going to win anyway. A fourth goal. Uh oh. A fifth. Crap. A sixth. Holy bajeezus.
The match ended in a 6-1 victory for Arsenal. Which I'm happy about, don't get me wrong. Everton are an excellent team, especially on defense (usually), so beating them is a very good thing, especially at their home stadium. And this was one heck of a win. It's as if the Indianapolis Colts (contender with a good offense, like Arsenal) beat the Baltimore Ravens (contender with a great defense, like Everton) by a score of 42-3. Problem is, my defender got hit with a HUGE penalty. So do I feel elated or depressed? Well, both.
That's The Paradox.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
A Year Gone By . . .
I am the world's worst blogger. It's been over a year since my last post. I'm sure no one noticed, but still.
What a year it has been though. I changed jobs -- my clerkship ended so I am now back at my old firm. We have a new president (more on this in upcoming posts). I now own a Wii and the greatest video game ever made, Rock Band. Michael Jackson died. Our cats were put on a diet because the male, Cairo, is overweight -- much to his sister Nairobi's chagrin. The U.S. economy is, shall we say, a tad depressed. Interesting times!
Speaking of the economy, E and I were actually in Australia when the financial markets crashed last fall. I had just left my clerkship so we finally went on our honeymoon, which conveniently doubled as our first anniversary. What a fabulous trip -- if we could find jobs in Australia and get the red tape dealt with, I'd move there in a second. Sydney was so much fun. Of course, we'd have to sell our house before we could leave and so, well, even with jobs we ain't goin' anytime soon.
Won't belabor this post with too many details of our trip, but one thing I learned in Australia was that koalas make perhaps the most unexpected noise you'd ever think they'd make. This isn't our video, but I can attest that it is accurate -- koalas sound like a weird cross between a pig, a donkey, and a Harley Davidson. Bizarre!
What a year it has been though. I changed jobs -- my clerkship ended so I am now back at my old firm. We have a new president (more on this in upcoming posts). I now own a Wii and the greatest video game ever made, Rock Band. Michael Jackson died. Our cats were put on a diet because the male, Cairo, is overweight -- much to his sister Nairobi's chagrin. The U.S. economy is, shall we say, a tad depressed. Interesting times!
Speaking of the economy, E and I were actually in Australia when the financial markets crashed last fall. I had just left my clerkship so we finally went on our honeymoon, which conveniently doubled as our first anniversary. What a fabulous trip -- if we could find jobs in Australia and get the red tape dealt with, I'd move there in a second. Sydney was so much fun. Of course, we'd have to sell our house before we could leave and so, well, even with jobs we ain't goin' anytime soon.
Won't belabor this post with too many details of our trip, but one thing I learned in Australia was that koalas make perhaps the most unexpected noise you'd ever think they'd make. This isn't our video, but I can attest that it is accurate -- koalas sound like a weird cross between a pig, a donkey, and a Harley Davidson. Bizarre!
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Movie Reviews: 'Juno' and 'Iron Man'
Just saw 'Juno' for the first time last night on DVD. It had been hyped to an unbelievable degree by E and various friends and colleagues. I have to admit, it largely held up very well. It had been billed to me as an unexpectedly hilarious comedy. But what helped it meet or exceed expectations was that it is definitely not, in my opinion, a comedy.
The highlights for 'Juno' for me were the fantastic writing, fantastic characters, and fantastic acting. The writing was very witty, genuine, intelligent, sentimental, and refreshingly simple and straightforward. Funny, too, but it definitely wasn't through jokes or gags; again, a drama with funny moments, not a comedy. It also completely avoided being preachy, cloyingly sweet or sappy, or pretentious. The characters talked like real people would talk and only said things real people might say. But it was all stitched together seamlessly with a firm direction. The characters were beautifully developed. No stereotypes (I guess the adoptive husband comes the closest), no clear good guys and bad guys (again, husband comes closest), complex but genuine characters that you immediately care a lot about. And the acting was wonderfully understated, nuanced, and solid throughout. Ellen Page was justifiably heralded, though my close second was J.K Simmons as Juno's dad.
I also recently saw 'Iron Man' in the theatres. Totally different film, obviously, but also fantastic. Favreau did a great job directing this. Robert Downey, Jr. was spectacular and really made Tony Stark his own. He was powerful, gripping, charismatic out the wazoo, funny, and very very convincing. It was impossible not to have fun watching him. That's the movie in a nutshell: very very fun. The special effects were great (his armor is badass!) but didn't detract or overwhelm. The writing was light and well done for the genre. The plot was very feasible as superhero plots go; you could follow it without too much need for willing suspension of disbelief. And it packed plenty of thrills while still staying character-focused. The only drawbacks for me were that the romance with Gwynyth Paltrow was a tad forced, her character was a tad lightweight, Terrence Howard was also a tad lightweight and one-dimensional, and while Jeff Bridges was awesome as a greedy corporate tycoon, he unraveled a little when he put on the armor suit and became a supervillain, a little too formula. But all in all, considering the genre and source material, this was an extremely fun film.
This summer is promising to be a doozy! Next on my list is the new Narnia flick, which looks a lot more exciting and action-packed than the first. And of course the new Batman and Indiana Jones movies coming up. Just the things to pick up business for Hollywood after a slow start to the year.
The highlights for 'Juno' for me were the fantastic writing, fantastic characters, and fantastic acting. The writing was very witty, genuine, intelligent, sentimental, and refreshingly simple and straightforward. Funny, too, but it definitely wasn't through jokes or gags; again, a drama with funny moments, not a comedy. It also completely avoided being preachy, cloyingly sweet or sappy, or pretentious. The characters talked like real people would talk and only said things real people might say. But it was all stitched together seamlessly with a firm direction. The characters were beautifully developed. No stereotypes (I guess the adoptive husband comes the closest), no clear good guys and bad guys (again, husband comes closest), complex but genuine characters that you immediately care a lot about. And the acting was wonderfully understated, nuanced, and solid throughout. Ellen Page was justifiably heralded, though my close second was J.K Simmons as Juno's dad.
I also recently saw 'Iron Man' in the theatres. Totally different film, obviously, but also fantastic. Favreau did a great job directing this. Robert Downey, Jr. was spectacular and really made Tony Stark his own. He was powerful, gripping, charismatic out the wazoo, funny, and very very convincing. It was impossible not to have fun watching him. That's the movie in a nutshell: very very fun. The special effects were great (his armor is badass!) but didn't detract or overwhelm. The writing was light and well done for the genre. The plot was very feasible as superhero plots go; you could follow it without too much need for willing suspension of disbelief. And it packed plenty of thrills while still staying character-focused. The only drawbacks for me were that the romance with Gwynyth Paltrow was a tad forced, her character was a tad lightweight, Terrence Howard was also a tad lightweight and one-dimensional, and while Jeff Bridges was awesome as a greedy corporate tycoon, he unraveled a little when he put on the armor suit and became a supervillain, a little too formula. But all in all, considering the genre and source material, this was an extremely fun film.
This summer is promising to be a doozy! Next on my list is the new Narnia flick, which looks a lot more exciting and action-packed than the first. And of course the new Batman and Indiana Jones movies coming up. Just the things to pick up business for Hollywood after a slow start to the year.
Baby Names Part II
So the top baby names of 2007 are in. Tops for boys were, in order: Jacob, Michael, Ethan, Joshua, Daniel, Christopher, Anthony, William, Matthew and Andrew. For girls: Emily, Isabella, Emma, Ava, Madison, Sophia, Olivia, Abigail, Hannah, Elizabeth. The list is a little skewed because alternative spellings are treated as separate names. For example, Jayden is the 18th most common boy's name while Jaden is number 76 (also Jaiden, 191, Jaydon, 415, Jadon, 423, etc.).
So how did our proposals fare? Well, the lists are:
GIRLS
Clara (228th, no alternative spellings in the top 1000)
Isabel (86th, but again, Isabella is 2nd, and 5 alternative spellings make the top 1000)
Ariana (73rd, with Arianna 70th and Aryanna 617th)
BOYS
Garrett (162nd, and on the decline; Garret is 938th)
Parker (108th, no alternative spellings in top 1000)
Donovan (replacing Devon; 198th, with Donavan at 904th)
Given that E is opposed to common names on principle (with the weird exception of Abigail, which she loves and I hate), I have a feeling that Isabel might be leaving the top three soon, and Ariana is shaky. We're thinking of possibly starting babymaking efforts next month so this is getting increasingly relevant! Fun stuff.
So how did our proposals fare? Well, the lists are:
GIRLS
Clara (228th, no alternative spellings in the top 1000)
Isabel (86th, but again, Isabella is 2nd, and 5 alternative spellings make the top 1000)
Ariana (73rd, with Arianna 70th and Aryanna 617th)
BOYS
Garrett (162nd, and on the decline; Garret is 938th)
Parker (108th, no alternative spellings in top 1000)
Donovan (replacing Devon; 198th, with Donavan at 904th)
Given that E is opposed to common names on principle (with the weird exception of Abigail, which she loves and I hate), I have a feeling that Isabel might be leaving the top three soon, and Ariana is shaky. We're thinking of possibly starting babymaking efforts next month so this is getting increasingly relevant! Fun stuff.
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