D'Brickashaw

One of the coolest names ever!

United 93 Movie

As I'm sure you know by now, the movie United 93 is being released tomorrow (April 28). The movie is based on the passengers and their actions that took place aboard United Airlines Flight 93 on September 11, 2001. I feel the same way about this movie as I did about Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan in that I believe this is an important movie to see but you know it will be difficult to watch. My question to everyone out there: Are you going to see the movie?

SiteScore

There's a British web development company called Silktide that provides feedback about websites. I'm sure that the company charges a good amount of money, but they offer a free tool called SiteScore which rates how well designed, popular and accessible your website is. Here are my results:

Marketing - 7.5
Design - 8.7
Accessibility - 6.8
Experience (How satisfying the website is likely to be) - 7.7
Overall - 7.2

Good Points/Bad Points:

* A Google search for "Sean's Ramblings" finds this website as #2
* This website is not very popular (approx #4,832,127 in the world) Look out #4,832,126; I'm gaining on you!
* This website appears to be in violation of the British Disability Discrimination Act. Will I be arrested if I travel there?

I don't know what any of this means, but it was fun. If you want to see the results for this site, click here.

McClatchy's Money

According to this article on Yahoo, MediaNews Group Inc., publisher of The Denver Post and other newspapers, is acquiring four newspapers from McClatchy Co. for $1 billion. I realize that there are many people involved in the McClatchy Company, but I'm sure that Pittsburgh Pirates owner, Kevin McClatchy will get a nice chunk from the sale. How much of the money do you think he will use from the sale on the Pirates? My guess is none or very little.

Very Random Stuff

* Did you know that there are only two players named Marlon in baseball history? Marlon Anderson and Marlon Byrd and they both currently play for the Washington Nationals.

* My juror number did not get called for today so my jury duty is now done. My civic duty consisted of not being selected to hear a cocaine possession case.

* This is from The Washington Post Express (where I sadly get much of my news): Baylor University law students are angry after part of their library was closed Saturday so the dean's son could host a high-school pre-prom party. It's finals week at the law school, and students booted from the library protested outside, saying they pay tuition to use the facility and needed to study. The partying teenagers' parents, however, said the students could find something else to do. Unfortunately, I can see those same parents complaining to the university if their kids were the law students.

Penguins Bandwagon

I think that I may be a bandwagon Pittsburgh Penguins fan. I never thought I would say this for any team that I follow, especially a Pittsburgh team. One of the best experiences of my life was driving from Columbus to Buffalo and attending a Game 7 Penguins victory against the Sabres in 2001. Anyway, I think I’ll blame the team, former Penguins General Manager Craig Patrick, the National Hockey League, and cable TV for my bandwagoness. In the 2003-2004 season, the Penguins were the worst team in hockey. This was followed by the strike where there was no hockey for an entire year, and the 2005-2006 season where the Penguins “improved” to become the next-to-worst team in the NHL. It’s hard to support a team that has been so lousy and even harder to support to team when there was no hockey. Let’s go back to the beginning of the season. All Penguins fans including me were excited because Mario was going to be back, the team got Sidney Crosby, and Patrick signed high-profile free agents Ziggy Palffy, Mark Recchi, Sergei Gonchar and John LeClair. Lemieux had heart problems and retired, Palffy retired, Gonchar and LeClair did not live up to expectations, Recchi was traded and Patrick was just fired. Because of the strike season (and probably more reasons like poor ratings), ESPN decided not to broadcast NHL games this year. The NHL signed a contract with OLN instead, and OLN only showed hockey twice a week. After the first few months of the season, they stopped showing Penguins games. Therefore, it was extremely difficult for me to watch the Pens.

Anyway, except for Crosby’s statistics, I don’t think I followed the Penguins closely since the Winter Olympics. As I said before, part of the reason was because they were terrible and out of playoff contention. At this point, I don’t think I can name 1/3 of the team. Meanwhile, I can name almost every Steeler and Pirate player, and the Pirates have been dreadful since I was in high school. Is it possible that I don’t follow the Penguins as closely because I don’t participate in a fantasy hockey league like I do for baseball and football? While there may be something to this, I follow the Pitt and George Mason basketball team, and I’m not in any fantasy college basketball leagues. So I really don’t know where I’m going with all of this. I just wanted to share. I still consider myself a Penguins fan, but the team and league have made it difficult over the past few years. In Sidney We Trust!

All Dressed Up With No Place To Go

I woke up at 8:00am this morning ready for my first games of the soccer season. Since it has been raining here in the DC area since yesterday afternoon, I called the "field closure" line. Of course, the message said that the games were on as scheduled and that it would be the referee's decision as to whether the games would be played. As the referee, I would have loved to say that the games were cancelled, but the expectations are that I would actually go to the field, check the conditions and tell the teams in person. Therefore, I got ready to go, ate breakfast, put on the uniform and got all of my equipment together. Throughout the morning, I continuously tried to call the field closure line but only received a busy signal.

Just before I left for the field (9:15am), I tried one more time. The updated message said that all games are cancelled for today. So now I'm very awake and have nothing to do.

Referrals

I am totally stealing/borrowing this idea from Sarah, but I don't have much else to write about besides that I'm back to eating normal food again. Here are real searches that real people used to find and visit this place:

What does Shakira's song "No" mean? I’m going to guess no.

cartoon, spring break shark attack The cartoon version could not have been as good as the original.

where do they sell "t-shirt throwers"? I don’t know, but if you find out, that would be cool to have around the office.

Long John Silver’s lottery Sign me up!

girls bathing sean's Was there another word missing? Actually, I don’t want to know.

pirates batting order songs Can’t help you here, but any songs that would help the team are welcome.

Please tell me how far is heaven Again, I can’t tell you. Ask Los Lonely Boys. They probably don’t know either but they won a Grammy asking the question.

My sean dress up game Is this sold in stores? It could be a big seller!

Stories From Home

We recently bought my parents a DVD/VCR combination so that they could join the 21st Century but still watch VHS tapes. For the first time, my parents rented a DVD over the weekend. After watching the movie, my dad, being the responsible consumer, wanted to make sure that the DVD was rewound for the next person renting the movie. You may be asking how exactly does one rewind a DVD. The answer: by hitting the back button. After an hour and a half (amazingly the exact same time the movie ran), the movie was done rewinding.

---

My mom has been invited to a bridal shower with a holiday theme. Each guest buys a gift for the bride relating to a specific holiday. My mom was given the holiday of Yom Kippur. The first question is why would you choose Yom Kippur as one of the holidays to celebrate an upcoming wedding? The second question is what do you get? I guess a bagel cutter and a gift certificate for bagels (to break the fast). Any other ideas?

Done (for now)

I have now partially completed my civic duty by participating in jury duty. Basically, I sat in the jury waiting room for approximately three hours before finally being called to a trial. After receiving instructions by the judge and, as a group, asked questions about our beliefs relating to the case, I was one of eight jurors out of twenty (not including alternates, I guess) told to leave. It may have been an interesting case since the defendant was accused of cocaine possession.

Anyway, I am done with jury duty for today. I'm actually going to go into work for a few hours. Next Monday evening, I must call the jury hotline to see if I'm needed to next Tuesday. Since I was not selected for a trial, I'm guessing that I will be called again.

Jury Duty Question

So I have jury duty on Tuesday. I have all the information I need but have one question. Is there a way to find out what cases may be considered? It seems like this should be public record. Of course, the court may not want jury members to look up information about potential cases.

Organization Weekend

I spent most of my weekend organizing. There were hundreds of bills and papers that needed to be sorted and filed at home. Except for paying them, I don't think I have touched any of the bills since last summer. Today, I went into work since I am moving to a new office. I spent probably four hours filing and recycling papers. If anyone out there works on one of those organization TV shows, I would be the perfect candidate (same with any of those clothes make-over/new look shows).

Fast Willie Parker

On Tuesday, April 11, Steelers running back Willie Parker threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Pirates game. The magic of Willie Parker must have inspired the team since the Pirates actually won games on Tuesday and Wednesday. However, Willie Parker’s magic could only go so far as the team has lost the last two games to fall to 3-9 on the season. The problem: pitching. The Pirates are last in the National League with a 6.88 ERA and have only 1 win by a starting pitcher. Here is the pitching line for the Pirates starters over the past five games:

Friday: Victor Santos - 4 1/3 innings, 6 runs, 10 hits, 2 walks
Thursday: Oliver Perez - 4 2/3 innings, 6 runs, 9 hits, 5 walks
Wednesday: Paul Maholm - 5 2/3 innings, 5 runs, 9 hits, 2 walks
Tuesday: Ian Snell - 5 innings, 6 runs, 10 hits, 2 walks
Monday: Zach Duke - 5 innings, 7 runs, 8 hits, 2 walks

Not very good. Who would have thought that the team would really miss Kip Wells and Josh Fogg?

Mmmmmm.....Passover Food

I had my first Matzoh (is this the correct spelling?) Pizza of the Passover season tonight. I don't mean to brag, but I make an excellent Matzoh Pizza!

Apples and Oranges

To much disappointment to many, Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin named their new son Moses. Although many people (including myself) hoped that they would name their son after a fruit or vegetable, Moses is an appropriate name this time of year.

Speaking of Moses, has anyone watched ABC's new version of the Ten Commandments? I have not and have not heard anything about it. Why not show the original with Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner?

Finally, NBC has really been promoting the new show "Celebrity Cooking Showdown" which they apparently are showing every night next week. I hope one of their shows is a Kosher for Passover edition.

Your 2006 Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machines

That would be my fantasy/rotisserie baseball team name. We had our auction draft over the weekend, and this year marks the 15th year that I have been in this particular league. There are very few things that I have been involved with since high school, and I am happy that this is one of them. The main reason, of course, is the people in the league. I have known and been friends with many of the participants since high school, junior high and even elementary school. I have lost touch with many friends from my childhood, but the baseball league has been the primary way that I've kept in touch with these friends.

As for the results of the league, I have never won in the previous 14 years. Maybe the 15th time is the charm! After you see my team, you will probably disagree. In case you were wondering, this is a 12-team NL-only league.

C Mike Lieberthal - PHI
C Brian Schneider - WAS
1B Xavier Nady - NY
2B Rickie Weeks - MIL
SS Rafael Furcal - LA
3B Miguel Cabrera - FLA
CM Mike Lamb - HOU
MM Jeff Kent - LA
OF Luis Gonzalez - ARI
OF Larry Bigbie - STL
OF Dave Roberts - SD
OF Jose Valentin - NY
OF Craig Wilson - PIT
UM Ray Durham -SF
P Ben Sheets - ATL
P Oliver Perez - PIT
P Odalis Perez - LA (Yes, I have both O. Perezes!)
P Chad Cordero - WAS
P Carlos Zambrano - CHI
P Tim Worrell - SF
P Dewon Brazelton - SF
P Todd Coffey - CIN
P Sean Burnett - PIT

With three of these guys injured, I also now have the following players on my roster:
OF Skip Schumaker - STL
P Sergio Mitre - FLA (You know Sergio?)
P Aaron Cook - COL

There are also several other minor leaguers on my roster, but the only one of note is Atlanta catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia because his nickname is Salty.

Maybe the 16th time is the charm?

9 Months and 22 Days (or so)

For the faithful readers out there, I'm sure you've been wondering about the status of my Edge shaving cream. For those of you who don't know or remember, on Saturday, June 18th I started a new can of Edge "Economy Size" (9.5 oz.) shaving cream. I should mention that I shave just about every day; probably 13 of 14 days at a minimum. Anyway, today was the day that I reached the end of the can.

As I was typing this message, I realized I should probably find a new can of shaving cream for tomorrow morning. I bought a 3-pack of the Edge Economy Size at Costco last year. One small problem...I can't find the other can. I really don't want to buy a new can since I have a year and a half supply of shaving cream somewhere here. I'll use my travel size in the morning and then a full search after work.

2006 Steelers Schedule

The Steelers schedule was released today. My goal for this year is to attend two games like I did for the 2005 season. Looking at the schedule, the annual trip to Cincinnati could be tough since the game is on New Year's Eve day. I was also thinking about going to Jacksonville, but I'd need to take off two days of work (Monday night game). Anyway, here's the schedule:

Thursday, Sept. 7: Miami, 8:30 p.m.

Monday, Sept. 18: at Jacksonville, 8:30 p.m.

Sunday Sept. 24: Cincinnati, 1 p.m.

Sunday, Oct. 1: Bye

Sunday, Oct. 8: at San Diego, 8:15 p.m.

Sunday, Oct. 15: Kansas City, 4:15 p.m.

Sunday, Oct. 22: at Atlanta, 1 p.m.

Sunday, Oct. 29: at Oakland, 4:15 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 5: Denver, 4:15 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 12: New Orleans, 1 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 19: at Cleveland, 1 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 26: at Baltimore, 1 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 3: Tampa Bay, 1 p.m.

Thursday, Dec. 7: Cleveland, 8 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 17: at Carolina, 1 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 24: Baltimore, 1 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 31: at Cincinnati, 1 p.m.

Winnie Cooper Knows Math

* One person probably disappointed with the result of the NCAA Championship game was UCLA graduate Danica McKellar. You may know Danica as Winnie Cooper of the Wonder Years. Anyway, she has a website and is available to answer any of your complicated mathematical questions.

* Is anyone following the Pittsburgh Penguins these days? I have never considered myself to be a bandwagon fan, but I have no idea what they have done since the Olympics. Most of my sports attention has been on Pitt, George Mason and the NCAA Tournament and now on the Pirates and the start of the baseball season. Have the hockey playoffs started yet?

Text Message

I received this text message yesterday:

(Wuz up eSa?) Eh, wuz up? Itz Michelle, sorry i cant go 2 ur protest. If i do den i gota go 2 court, eitheRr way im gona try2 convince my dad 2 xcuse tha absence. g

I don't use text messaging, so this was obviously sent to the wrong person. Several thoughts...Is this common texting lingo or is this a poor showing of someone's grammar? What kind of protest could it have been that if Michelle went she would "gota go 2 court?"

I just hope I don't get charged for this!

Two Commercials

Thanks to the NCAA Tournament, I have watched hundreds of commercials over the past few weeks. Correction: I have watched 10 about 50 times each. There are two commercials in particular I wanted to point out. The first is the Burger King with a guy dressed in a chicken costume and a guy riding him like it was a rodeo. It is a stupid commercial, but I like the song. Feel free to sing along if you would like:

Big Bucking Chicken
You are big and you are chicken.

Again, this is a very stupid commercial and does not make me want to eat at BK, but the song does stay in your head. The second commercial is Subway Dinner Theatre starring Jon Lovitz. I never thought I would say this but I miss Jon Lovitz. He was always great on SNL. Anyway, Lovitz is great yelling, "The blond boy is an idiot." I may have messed up the line but it's funny. Eat Fresh!

Wasted Hour

Earlier this evening, I watched the Flavor of Love reunion show. I'm not sure what else to say except that I wasted an hour of my life. I haven't watched Jerry Springer or any of those types of shows for many years, but the reunion show was almost exactly like it. All that was missing was Jerry's final thought. The show was basically an hour of the women yelling and swearing at each other. What we learned is that Flavor Flav and Hoopz are NOT TOGETHER! Are your surprised by that? Of course not. Because of that, Flavor is receptive to having another season of Flavor of Love(meaning that he still needs more money and VH1 wants to capitalize on their monster hit). If you are interested in dating Flav and being on the next show, call 1-877-HLP-FLAV. And please let me know if you make the call.

GMU

Go green, go gold, fight, fight, fight!!

GO MASON!!


UPDATE: Oh well. Florida just was too much on the boards and seemed to hit every three-point shot they took. It was still an amazing run by Mason and brought a lot of excitement to George Mason, the entire DC area and to all college basketball fans across the country.