Some youtube videos

Some youtube videos I love.  Shout out to jack for the first one.

NFL Draft

Thoughts from this years NFL draft:

• Its amazing how much crappier the draft coverage gets after the first 20 picks of the draft.  For most of the first round the anaylsts have a pretty good sense of who will get picked, but by the end of the round it there is a noticeable drop off in the number of insightful comments.  I imagine that round 2 will be even worse.
• Im happy there was no Brady Quinn/ Aaron Rogers situation this year.  Ray Maualuga looked like he had the potential this year, but there must not have been a camera crew with him.  He dropped from being a mid first round pick to early second round and they never showed him.
• There is a noticeable delay on videos from the draft picks homes.  ESPN will show the draftee getting a call from the team selecting them, we then see the commissioner announce the pick, but its like a 3- 5 second delay before the draftee sees there name get called.  I wonder if this is a delay ESPN builds in for safety reason in case they need to censor anything.
• Why in the world is Keyshaw Johnson a full time analyst?  He was a number one pick, he was a pretty good reciever, he talks a lot, but am I really supposed to beleive he knows anything about these college kids.
• Why have i been watching this for 3 hours???
• Imagine how cool it would be if all employees were chosen like this.  With the 1st pick in the 2009 draft Altman Vilandire and Co. selects ___.  (Cut to aweome graphic in business casual clothing with stats about excel modeling)

The End of an Era

Today was a pretty sad day for the MIT athletics department as 8 sports were cut from varsity ranks.  The sports DAPER dropped to club are Alpine Skiing, Golf, Men’s Ice Hockey, Women’s Ice Hockey, Men’s Gymnastics, Women’s Gymnastics, Pistol, and Wrestling.  I don’t think it was really a surprise to anyone that these were the sports DAPER decided to cut, but its still a huge deal to the department.  Not only do the athletes on these teams no longer have the opportunity to compete at a varsity level, but this decision also affects the coaches livelihood.

MIT’s actions also could have far reaching effects on other division III teams.  One of MIT’s criteria for cutting sports was allegedly the amount and distance of competition.  Without MIT’s pistol or Golf program other local colleges have less teams to compete against.  How will this affect them?

Men’s division III just met the minimum requirement of 50 teams and could possibly have its own NCAA DIII tournament by 2011. If other schools cut mens volleyball this tournament will never get off the ground.

For now at least the men’s volleyball team is safe.  It may seem a bit counter intuitive, but I think the mens team has the womens team partially to thank for this.  Im sure the womens volleyball team would be one of the last to be cut because 1) they are very good 2) they are a womens sport so it helps with title IX and 3) they are one of the oldest womens programs.  Since both the programs share a full time coach, I doubt the department would save much money by cutting mens volleyball.

Hopefully these really were a one time cut by DAPER and nothign like this has to happen again in the next few years as DAPER continues to cut budgets.

Digg shows us what is really important

I started cracking up when I saw the top articles on digg today.  It’s  a little sad what people think is important and interesting.  You will get the same impression if you go to the front page of cnn.com.

#1: A blury picture of some chick with a low cut top on google maps

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# 8: The acting CFO of the one of the country’s largest mortgage lenders commits suicide in the middle of the worst US recession in decades.

My new table

I was going to buy a new desk…then I realized I already have one!

Asiri would be proud.

Re: New Years Resolutions

So its march and about time to check in on my new years resolutions…. =/ I haven’t done a good job on keeping up with them but at least I can now remember what resolutions I’ not accomplishing…

Call my friends from home at least once every 2 months:

• I am yet to call anyone, but writing my new years resolutions post did get one of them to call me.  I count that as a success!!!!

Write thank you notes:

• I  bought some but haven’t used any
  

Keep my weight under 175:

• I don’t know…its been too long since I’ve actually been to the gym

Stay aware of my investments:

• I am aware that they suck

Leave Boston at least once a month;

• Pretty much my only successful resolution so far

1 for 5 ain’t bad

Winning and Losing

So volleyball season is underway and the MIT volleyball team is off to a slower start than usual.  One of the guys sent out an email asking people to respond with how they feel when they are in the zone.  The following is a little bit of what his question got me thinking about…

…We so often let winning and losing define who we are instead of defining ourselves in spite of winning or losing.

It took a long time for me to figure this out, but in the end if you let yourself rise and fall with how you perform, you will never be able to play at your best.  If you don’t already know you are the best then you never can be the best.  If you let the outcome affect you, the game has already been lost.

Michael Jordan was not afraid to take the last shot because he knew he was the best.  Whether he made or missed he was still the greatest of all time and would remain that way.  He didn’t doubt, no one else doubted, everyone just knew.

For the past couple years Ive been telling my teammates on the court (and in beirut)that these aren’t games of skill, but rather games of CONFIDENCE.  So of course it finally just occurred to me after years of calling these things  “games of confidence”, that the root of that statement is my central theme here.  Only if we can define ourselves in spite of winning or losing will we ever reach our goals, win the game, become the best.

Its easy to believe that you are the best when you win.  It’s much more powerful if you continue to believe you are the best when you lose.

In volleyball this means making the play that YOU KNOW is right…it means running an offense YOU KNOW will allow the team to win, rather than just keep you from getting into trouble with the coach…it means swinging to tool, tipping a ball, or looking to bounce not because someone told you to, but because YOU KNOW it is the right play to make…it means passing 3/4 of the court because YOU ARE the best passer on the court…it means knowing YOU ARE good enough to serve tough with the game on the line…it means reading you hitter and committing to where YOU KNOW the opposing setter is going with the ball…

But most of all it means being able to accept the consequences of your actions.  You were the right person.  It was the right play.  If you were put in the same situation, you would do exactly the same thing again.

Dont eat at Max & Erma’s

I’m usually not too particular about my restaurants but I just ate at Max and Erma’s in the Cleveland airport, and it was quite the experience.  Lets keep the short and I’ll just make a list of items the place was out of…

1. Lettuce
2. Ham
3. All Soda
4. All Beer on tap
5. Salsa

At 6:45 the waitress told the table next to us that the kitchen was closed.  6:45!!!  No BEER!!!

I might be rich!!

The head of the Offshore banking division at Nat west Bank plc London sure doesn’t spell very well.  Good thing he (Mr. Peace Roger) was nice enough to notify me via email that someone with no next of kin has died.  Presumably he is looking for someone to give the money to.  I’m sure all I need to do is send him my SSN and bank account number so he can transfer the funds… got to following email today

Before the introduce of this transaction, i wish to introduce myself
to  you I am Mr Peace Roger a staff of Nat west Bank plc London.I am
the head of the accounts department at Nat West’s Offshore Banking division.
I ran a search for late Mrs Mora William, and I count 100% assure you that
this Woman did  not declare any next of kin. Please send your confidential telephone
and  fax number Email

Oh and the fact that he wanted me to email him back at a yahoo email address also instilled a lot of confidence.

You know you are getting ripped off when…

(There is a $0.89 price tag still on some Skittles in a vending machine charging $1)