Playoff Odds

With the Cubs winning the World Series last year and the Nashville Predators in the thick of the Stanley Cup playoffs, I put on my Math Hat this morning and started thinking about any given team's chance of making the playoffs in their respective sport.

Major League Baseball has 30 teams, and only 8 make the playoffs (I'm not counting the single game Wild Card playoff - that should really be considered game 163 of the regular schedule). With those numbers any MLB team has just under a 27% chance of getting in. Only the absolute best teams make it.

The NBA and NHL both have 30 teams and 16 playoff spots. So every team has a 53% chance of playing in the postseason. Before the first puck is dropped in November THE ODDS OF MAKING THE PLAYOFFS ARE ALREADY IN YOUR FAVOR. You can have a losing record and still get in.

The NFL has 32 teams, 12 of which make the playoffs. That equals a 38% chance of making it.

What does all of this mean? Baseball is damn near impossible, the NHL and NBA have way too many teams in the postseason but the NFL seems to get it right.

This is just some of the random shit that flies around in my head.

Stickin' It To The Man

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Goodbye giant, morally (and legally) corrupt banking institution, 

I've moved all of my money to a local credit union and couldn't be happier. I'm helping to support the community I love and not padding the wallet of some mega rich asshole CEO. 

Rediscovering Vinyl

I've joked about hipsters and vinyl for as long as it's been a thing. It's an outdated format. Unweldy, impractical and by it's very nature designed to degrade. I hauled a half dozen milk cartons full of records around every time I moved until I was 28. Then I just abandoned them. Other than Aerosmith and the Black Crowes I left probably 300 albums in my Mom's garage when I sold her house. I didn't want them anymore and saw no future where I ever would. I only kept the records I did as a collector with no plans on listening to them. A few years later the flood of 2010 happened and I lost those too.

Fast forward to this year and there were actually a few special Record Store Day releases I really wanted, all the while hoping they'd come with download codes so I could throw them in iTunes and forget those 12" pieces of plastic existed. None of them did. I was stuck with 5 records and no way to listen to them. So I did what any sane person in 2017 would do - I had Amazon Prime Now deliver me a turntable in less than an hour. I hooked it to my receiver, dropped the needle...

And instantly remembered why vinyl is so fucking great.

For so long I never listened to records. I was just forced to store them and move them and completely forgot why they have the appeal they do.

The artwork, the inner sleeves, the liner notes, devoting time to sit down and actually listen, not having 25,000 other songs in your pocket to distract you, that sound when the needle first hits the record. Not to mention Aerosmith 'Rocks' (one of the greatest albums ever made by anyone) just sounds better on vinyl. Maybe not scientifically/technically better, but it sounds the way it was intended to.

I won't be growing a beard or wearing skinny jeans anytime soon, but count me as part of the resurgence.

Just don't fucking call them vinyls.

AHCA

You fucking morons have had 7 years. 7 years where all you've talked about, dreamed about and lived for is repealing the Affordable Care Act. 7 years to draft legislation that could actually improve the pieces of Obamacare that need fixing, all while keeping the most vulnerable protected. Instead you quickly throw together some bullshit that fucks everyone but the very young and very rich (the GOP's wetdream) and still can't get it passed.

This entire administration (and I'm including Congress in this as well) is an embarrassment both to our political system and our country as a whole.

Isbell Reviews Are In

Perusing the iTunes store and after pre-ordering the new Jason Isbell album 'The Nashville Sound' I took a look at the reviews.

The majority are rightly 4 and 5 stars, but these 3 stood out.

While not as overtly political as the last Drive-By Truckers album, Jason's newest single makes his stance perfectly clear. And as these reviews prove, he's pissing off exactly the right people he needs to be.

Good work sir. Keep on fighting the good fight.

#Resist

  • Donate to the ACLU.
  • Donate to Planned Parenthood.
  • If you can't afford to give money, volunteer your time and energy to these (and other) amazing organizations in anyway they need it.
  • Call your elected representatives EVERY SINGLE DAY
  • Speak out when you see racism, sexism or bigotry of any kind. Stand up for the rights of those not strong enough to stand up for themselves.
  • Vote! The 2018 midterm ballots have suddenly become one of the most important elections in our lifetime.
  • Make your world the world you want to live in, or as hippies used to put it - be the change you want to see. Love, kindness, respect and compassion really can change the world.

Interesting Perspectives

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As a tried and true member of Generation X I can't argue with the results.

A few things that that stand out:

  • September 11th is the biggest event in the lifetimes of people born 3 generations apart. That says a lot

  • Despite our current Idiot In Chief's insistence that his inauguration was the biggest of all time, it will be remembered as a shameful day in America. Obama's on the other hand was one of the defining moments in our culture's history.

  • If there's one thing that ties each generation together it's the presence of war. WWII, Vietnam, the Gulf War and Iraq/Afghanistan all feature prominently on each respective list. We as a society should try and change that.

  • The lists are evenly split between some of the darkest days in our history and events that brought about amazing positive change. WWII and the Civil Rights Movement. Iraq and Gay Marriage.

Maybe in 20 years the next generation will have a list of nothing but things to be proud of. The way we're headed right now though I fear it will be exactly the opposite.

10 Years Ago Today

It's hard to believe it's been a decade since everything changed. Everything

Until January 9, 2007 "smartphones" were clunky pieces of plastic junk with unwieldy styluses, hardware keyboards and operating systems that were both slow and prone to constant crashing. They were also filled with carrier branded crapware and the idea of apps didn't exist. Web browsing? Anyone not old enough to remember can never understand what it was like trying to look at non-optimized web pages on a postage stamp sized screen. Email? POP access with manual sync. Wifi? Unheard of. Multi-touch? No one had even bothered to try.

The iPhone was the culmination of everything Steve Jobs worked for. It's hard to imagine our lives without it. Even people on Android have to give respect to the 1st iPhone. It made everything since possible.

People complain that Apple is no longer "revolutionary". There were 23 years between the introduction of the Mac and the iPhone. Both changed the history of personal computing. The Mac introduced the GUI that continues to be the basis for every computer made since. The iPhone shaped the mobile age.

What will be next? No one knows, but I'm sure somewhere in a hidden lab in Cupertino they're hard at work figuring it out.

This Is Why Mobile Still Sucks

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I'm trying to read an article on Rolling Stone's website and no matter what I try I can't get past this giant fucking ad for a book I couldn't care less about. There's no obvious way to close it, refreshing the page just brings the ad right back up and waiting for it to disappear has done nothing.

This kind of user hostile experience is to be expected on the "OMG! 30 FACTS YOU DIDNT KNOW ABOUT LADY GAGA" sites, but Rolling Stone?