Sunday, August 31, 2008

Where did the cash go?

Had a good day shopping with Trip and I managed to refrain from buying an LCD television once again. I still spent way too much money, but shorts were on sale, so was Deadwood Season 3 and I needed new socks and underwear. Cest la vie, I suppose.

I am beat tho. I've gotten a mere 4 hours of sleep and am feeling the effects. I'm debating a nap, but that never works out to my advantage. So I may just have to be fuckin tired for a while. What else is new.

Ohh and for those of you interested in how mature my friends and I are about fantasy football, click here to see it demonstrated. This link is completely not safe for work, quite juvenile and completely hilarious. This is what happens when Mike has too much free time.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Highly erroneous ratings

So today was the Techmo Lucky Breaks Fantasy Football League draft and The Evil Penguin emerged from nefarious antarctic depths to take part. As such, I now offer my opinion on who navigated the treacherous waters of the TLB draft onto eternal glory and who was pulled down to the murky depths of fantasy ignominy.

This is completely based on my opinion and in no way intended to offend anyone. There is a lot of parity in this league, top to bottom so I'm going purely on which team seems most complete and has players I believe in more than others. Things can change fast in the NFL with an injury here or there and clearly my fallibility is undeniable after my lackluster showing last season. So a grain of salt is called for in this situation. Anyway, on to the rankings.

  1. Dallas Danglers - You have no idea how much it pains me to rate the dreaded Danglers first. I really don't want to do it, but in the interest of honesty I must. On paper his team is complete. His big concern would have to be what happens if SJax, Torry Holt and St. Louis in general can't bounce back from so many injuries last season. Also, will Frank Gore shit the bed in Mike Martz's new offense? If those two don't produce do the Danglers will be flaccid at best. Still, a bevy of talent at WR could be enough to penetrate into playoffs.
  2. The Zors - Another team without any major weaknesses coming out of the draft. Solid RB starters, including one LaDainian Tomlinson and backups with lots of upside. His WR depth could be an issue, but he could make it work with only two and his stable of RBs. Also, I'm not really sold on the Colts's undersized defense staying healthy all season long, but that's nitpicking.
  3. The Evil Penguin - I debated rating myself first because I do like my draft. The first three rounds went exactly as I hoped, aside from Drew Brees not falling to me. I feel like I did a solid job despite picking 10th overall and came up with a nice mix of dependability and potential. I'm worried that I reached for the Jacksonville D when I should have went with someone else. Also I may regret Larry Johnson, but the value was too good to pass up when I got him. If one of my sleepers wakes up The Evil Penguin may reign in unholy glory.
  4. Team Vipperman - Nick never has a bad draft and I honestly could have given him the top spot. I debated it, as a matter of fact, but some questions came to mind. Like the durability of Brian Westbrook and Andre Johnson. Also the fact that Laurence Maroney and MJD will have to deal with sharing the ball. Having lived throughthat very thing last season with MJD, watching as Fred Taylor stole the spotlight, I have concerns. That said, who can doubt our inaugural champion will find a way to stay competitive. The Lucky Breaks never seem to fail him.
  5. St. Nick Kringles - The Kringles draft scares me. That Brady to Welker thing could be huge. Add to it a solid group of proven WRs and Christmas may come early. (Yes I'm aware of how horrible that word play is.) The only coal in the Kringles' stocking is questions about how his RBs will play. Reggie Bush has yet to really break out and while he got real value on Julius Jones, who knows how he'll play in Seattle.
  6. Leesburg Leghounds - The more I look at the Leghounds' draft, the more I like it. It's an interesting strategy, going for top flight WRs and a stellar QB and then picking up lots of mid-to-lower tier RBs. If those RBs can bring in decent scores each week the Leghounds could be in the hunt once again. That said, there is a lot of risk here and that's why Adam is lodged in the lower half of this ranking.
  7. Heaven's Own - Had a hard time rating Heaven's Own. He has some players I made a point to avoid, but those guys could pay off. For example, Brandon Jacobs scares me with Ahmad Bradshaw and Derrick Ward both waiting in the wings. I also hate Willis McGahee But that may have as much to do with him being a Raven as anything else. Still, I think Kevin did find some very solid value in those later rounds of the draft, picking up David Garrad, who I think could be a sleeper, and Ricky Williams.
  8. Who is that guy? - The rookie comes in swinging and leaves with a decent team. Hard to find a lot of fault with his draft. May have reached out for an injured Antonio Gates a little early, but who knows. Gates gets healthy and he looks like a genius. Also having Heath Miller on the bench makes it easier to swallow. His WRs are the main cause for concern. Ocho Cinco is an unknown property this season and how many balls will Patrick Crayton be taking? Couple that with a bunch of meh backups and problems may arise.
  9. Innsmouth Fish Eyes - The Fish Eyes did a decent job early on, despite reaching for a few players. Then in the later rounds even Greg admitted to wishing he had done a little more research. His final roster didn't turn out too bad, but the presence of Muhsin Muhammad does not assuage my fears any. Still, don't sleep on the Fish Eyes, they have a solid core, with a few potential surprises.
  10. Hudson Street Hellraisers - Apparently there were some IT difficulties for the defending champs and his draft did not go exactly the way he planned. That said, his running backs don't inspire me much. He liked Adrian Peterson so much he actually drafted him twice! Not much else I can say, hard to rip someone for computer trouble during the draft.
So there it is, my in depth analysis. Hopefully not too controversial. Nobody likes being picked last, I know, but someone has to. I can avoid it by doing the picking, so it works out for me. Of course, there is solace in knowing that this rankings mean absolutely nothing in the end. The only thing that matters is who holds the dreadfully named Lamar Hunt trophy at the end of the season. Good luck to all.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

I'm not a monster, I'm just ahead of the curve


Here's the moment you've all been waiting for, the unveiling of the new 2008 version of the mighty evilpenguin9000 logo. Copyright infringers will have a pencil jammed into their eye.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Notes from the nerdery

Some quick notes instead of an actual post. Enjoy...

  • The Wire, Season 4 continues to deliver the awesome. I really like the character Omar, who is a gay gangster that makes his living by robbing drug dealers. Definitely not your standard effeminate gay man on television.
  • Hating my computer and how poorly it handles video, as I find myself wanting to watch more things online lately and they all suffer from bad frame rate and skipping. Sucks.
  • Watching this documentary on chiptunes, i.e. music made on 8-bit systems like the NES or old school Gameboy. Interesting sounds that I actually like, despite the fact that I almost never want to listen to the music in a game I'm actually playing.
  • Any fast food that describes itself as "cheesy" is completely rancid and should be destroyed on sight.
  • Saw Tropic Thunder. It's good, not a must see, but entertaining. In an odd twist I think Tom Cruise's crazy ass was the best part of the movie.
  • Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 is incredible. Twin stick shootery goodness.
  • While I was at the beach I noticed I was less depressed. Whether this was due to actual interaction with friends or actually being in the sun I'm not sure. But I figured that absorbing Vitamin D could have been part of it, so I bought a supplement and have been taking those. I think it's working. While I still have a tendency toward depression, for so many reasons, the mood swings seem to hit with less force and are easier to get over. We'll see if it keeps up.
  • Fantasy football is right around the corner with the draft taking place on Tuesday. Planning on hitting Nick's for that. Still feeling a little unsure of my preparedness, but I think that's a result of how bad my draft turned out last year.
  • In order to get in the football mood I watched Invincible, the Vince Papale story about the random dude who made the Eagles. Not bad, standard underdog movie, but I'm a sucker for those.
That's about it. I'll be unveiling a new 2008 version of the Evil Penguin logo soon, as designed by H.R. Tripenstuff.

Friday, August 15, 2008

excuses and half-truths and fortified wine

Man, returning to work after vacation really sucks ass. Particularly this week, where three preseason football games have to be broadcast. It's just irritating. Plus all the shit that I normally don't worry about is getting on my nerves, just because there is nothing to look forward to for a while. Tonight was especially annoying as the Panthers/Eagles game was delayed by lightning. Grrrr.

Trip and I did have a good time seeing The Hold Steady on Tuesday. Chapel Hill makes me feel old these days, especially as there were a ton of freshmen coming in with there parents that day. Also we sw a scary crack lady that was insanely thin and unclean. I'm not one to rag on the destitute, but damn she was disturbing. We saw some cops clearly prepping to take her in by putting on rubber gloves, which seemed like a good idea for them. Yesh.

Anyway, the show kicked ass. The lead singer, Craig Finn, just does not look like what you expect a band's frontman to look like. He looks like he'd be better suited for working in a cubicle and being picked on by his boss. That said, he does know how to fucking rock a crowd and seems to adore every minute on stage. Gotta love em.

Finally beat FFTA 2, after 145 hours of game play. That's probably inflated, as I watched lots of The Wire while playing and may have been distracted. By the way, finished the third season of the Wire last night, while beating FFTA 2. Great stuff. Only two more seasons to go.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

back to the usual

So I'm back from the beach, have been for a coupla days. Just too lazy to post. Had a great time at the beach. Made a concerted effort to stay away from the crap I usually do and actually take a break and enjoy some of the other things life has to offer... like sunlight, conversation and whatnot.

But yeah, great time. Good to see the gang and hang out, drinking many beers. I miss having a bunch of people to hang around on the regular. Managed to never get ridiculously sunburnt, which is a feat. Talked a lot about fantasy football, which is no surprise. I ended up with the dreaded 10th pick in the draft and so am left with the dregs. Ahh well. Anyway, great time at the beach and it sucked to leave.

Did quite a bit of reading at the beach, which was good. I finished Anthony Bourdain's A Cook's Tour. Lots of descriptions of delicious food and weird behavior. I recommend it to anyone who likes travel and eats meat. Also read David Schwartz's Superpowers, which is about college kids with superpowers. Kinda pulpy, but entertaining. Deals more with the real problems superpowers would cause, as opposed to supervillains and whatnot.

But now I have returned home and am having trouble getting back to my nocturnal schedule, which will bite me on the ass when I head back to work tomorrow. Did manage to manhandle Trip at Soul Caliber 4 after spotting him a week of practice. It's brutal how much I own him.

Speaking of Trip, tonight he and I are going to see The Hold Steady in Chapel Hill. Looking forward to that, although I'm not looking forward to the drive. Kinda over car trips at this point.

Saturday, August 02, 2008

14 hours and counting

I'm a scant few hours away from the official beginning of my vacation. I can hardly wait. If only I didn't have to suffer through work first all would be better. Anyway, when I don't update this week it's because I'm at the beach. Not like normal where I'm morbidly depressed and/or lazy.