mr. blackandwhite

You're not going to believe this but..

I did not watch the Patriots game last night. I didn't see a single frame. Thursday night is when I showcase my lack of talent and rehearse with the garage band that I play in (technically it's a room over a garage, but, close enough).

And to be honest I really wasn't all that up for the game-that-we-have-put-firmly-in-the-past reminder-fest. So, yeah, kinda weak, I guess, but there it is. For what it's worth Brady didn't play either, so I really don't feel all that bad. Tom will be there when the real games start and so will I.

It will be interesting to see who's still on the team tomorrow (*cough -Matt Cassel- cough*).

Up next, The K.C. Chefs, I mean Chiefs. It's football season for real now.

GO PATS

New Hank III video..

Check out the video for Hank III's new song, 'Long Hauls and Close Calls'. You can watch it here.

Personally I think the video's a little weird, but then, III's kinda out there himself.. and that's what I like about him! The new song kicks ass though. I am fully stoked for his new album, Damn Right Rebel Proud, to come out in October.

Other albums I'm looking forward to:

The Supersuckers: Get It Together - Supposedly coming out 'soon', whenever that is. They played some of the new songs the last time I saw them back in February and they were really good and a-rockin', as I would expect from the greatest rock and roll band in the world.

Social D / Mike Ness: They were originally supposed to come out with something in '08, now they're saying to look for something from Social D or Mike in '09, so I expect to see something by one or the other the end of 2010. Feels weird saying 2010. It's like living in the future, or something. Shouldn't we all be wearing shiny silver suits and exploring Jupiter around then?

Metallica: Death Magnetic - Yes. Ok, yes. I like Metallica, still, even though they suck without Cliff and Lars is a dick and Jaymz doesn't play the white explorer.. yadda yadda yadda..  I've heard it all, and I'm looking forward to the new one just the same. From what I've heard it's sounding pretty good.

Also, Sept 12th look to find me at the following location:

Anyone know how to make Typepad Typelists display only on the front page and not on blog posts?

Consider this a call for help to all of the web-o-sphere magicians out there, particularly those well versed in Typepad or maybe Movable Type.

I'm getting killed by my site sponsors because my text advertising is displayed across the entire site; on the main page, in posts, archives, etc etc.

Over the past few months Google has decided that they don't like people who have site-wide ads (and are not using Google Ad-Sense) and they are punishing sites and advertisers who have site-wide advertising links by lowering their page ranking.

I need to somehow come up with a way to make a Links Typelist (which is where the ads are placed) appear only on the main page and not in posts or other areas of the site.

I've been in touch with Typepad support over this issue, and their solution for me was to upgrade ($$$), switch to an advanced template and then create separate page templates for each section of the site. Kinda kludgey and costly as well. I'm wondering if there might be an easier way to do it before I shell out to upgrade my account..

This has become a huge issue for me and I am sure it is affecting others who display ads on their sites as well. There are solutions to this problem for Blogger and Wordpress, anybody know if there is a solution to this problem for Typepad??

I'm trying to save up for a new acoustic guitar here peeps, and the angry Google Web God is putting a big kink in my plans. It's like being on Santa's naughty list. Nobody wants to be there. I need to make Google like me again.

Help!

Thanks web friends.

Back

Hey what's up everybody? Long time no typey-typey.. Well I've been on vacation and have tried to keep the computer turned off whenever possible.. Not just logged off, not just put to sleep.. Off. In fact if it were not to keep track of some gear I was selling on e-bay and the tides at Hampton Beach, I would not have turned the thing on at all.

Vacation was awesome, as well as much needed. I'm happy to tell you there were days when I had no idea what day it actually was or even what time it was, since I was not wearing a watch or paying attention to things date and time related the entire time. My kids would ask what time it was and I'd say, 'half-past morning' or 'time to fire up the grill' or 'almost dark'. Awesome.

Two weeks go by fast and my vacation is, sadly, over, and it seems that Summer '08 is quickly following right behind it. Wow, sorry I was just overcome by a wave of minor post-vacation, Monday funk. It'll be ok though.

So now it's time to catch up and come back to reality. I have a ton of returnable beer bottles to cash in and I have to try and remember what my passwords are at work. What do I do for work again? It's something to do with computer-y stuff..

You know it's been a good break when you don't remember what you were doing when you left.

One thing I did follow while I was away was The Patriots, of course, and I must tell you, even though it's only pre-season, I'm a little worried about them. Just a little. The Pats have not looked that good in any phase of the game to this layman's eye.. It's only pre-season though (that's what I keep telling myself).

Pats / Ravens: Some worthless thoughts on a meaningless game..

It was good to see the Patriots back in action last night, even if it was only an enhanced practice session vs. The Ravens, and I must say it was great to hear ol' Gil Santos and Gino Cappiletti calling the game once again.

And now onto the worthless thoughts:

When given their first shot to impress the coaches and grab the job as Tom Brady's clipboard holder / 4th Quarter take a knee guy, neither Matt Cassel nor Matt Gutierrez seemed to do much with the opportunity, to me at least. Cassel never got into any kind of a groove. Gutierrez looked a little better than Cassel but I thought his play was still pretty erratic, though that could probably be partially blamed on the play of the O-Line, which did not look all that great either.

Kevin O'Connell seemed to do the best of the 3 QB's competing for the backup spot. He was also playing against the Ravens scrubs, whereas Cassel and Gutierrez started against the Ravens' starters and backups, something to keep in mind when comparing the QB's performance.

Receiver Chad Jackson did not seem to do much to improve his position while I thought that Jabbar Gaffney came in and did pretty well.. I'm really not sold on Chad Jackson at this point. Whereas Gaffney seems to generally make the catch when the ball comes his way, or is at least in position to make the catch, Jackson seemed to run the wrong route on several occasions last night and when he was in the right spot to make the catch, had trouble hanging on to the ball. 

I thought the running game looked good. All the backs seemed to run well when they got their chances. I like LaMont Jordan's straight-ahead, plow over defenders running style. I think he will make a good addition to the team. With Maroney, Faulk, Morris, Jordan, Evans and Ekel, the Pats are loaded at RB. I like it.

I thought the defense looked good. No complaints in either the d-lines or secondary. I really liked the way rookie linebacker Jerod Mayo, wearing the old Brian Cox #51, came out and was making plays. He seemed to be all over the place back there, batting balls and making tackles. I was impressed with his performance and hope that this was just a glimpse of what we will see in the future from Mayo.

Special teams did not look good. Poor kick-off returnage, puntage and coverage. 

As far as the overall game, it's pre-season game one, so you you can't expect too much from a game that's only a step above a scrimmage between two different teams. Thankfully the game did not go into overtime, which nobody wants to see during pre-season, and hopefully the Patriots who left the game with injuries are all ok.

Well that's it, a fan's perspective. Take it for what it's worth.

Next up Tampa Bay. The Pats won't play their next game till Sunday the 17th, so they'll have plenty of time to get m-f'd by the coaches and work on making improvements before we see them again.

GO PATS

(drop.io)

Pats / Ravens: So what if it's pre-season. It's football!

I am so looking forward to the Pats / Ravens pre-season extravaganza tonight. Yeah, it's only pre-season game 1, but who cares? It's Patriots football and it's back.

I don't really expect to see much from the starters tonight, maybe a series or two, before the backups and rookies take the field. There's a lot of evaluatin' that needs doin' by The Pats' coaching staff. It should be fun to watch, even though I'll probably find myself often wondering exactly who the players are on the field at any given moment..

In true pre-season form, I had a major Patriots apparel gaffe this morning. I was walking into work and realized that I had forgotten to wear my Patriots socks! Ack!! That is a pretty big fuck up, as the Patriots socks are a key ingredient to the Patriots Apparel Game-Day Combo, but, thankfully, it's only pre-season and that's what these games are for, to get ready for when it counts.

It will be good to hear Gil and Gino again.

In other news, in case you had not heard, Brett Far-vre has un-retired. He's so fickle that guy. Anyway, he's traded in the green and yellow for the green and white after being traded to the New Jersey B Team today.

Brett Far-vre as the Jets QB should make things a little more interesting in the AFC East, but I'm a little skeptical as to how much help he is going to be to that team. He's an upgrade over Pennington, in that he probably will not be hurt for half the season like Pennington usually is, but I think over the last few years in Green Bay we've seen that Farve can't do it all on his own. He needs to have a decent team around him, as do all QB's, and I'm not sure how decent the Jets are at the moment, having not paid attention to them at all since last season.. 

Like I said, it will be interesting to see how much help Far-vre provides and how much of an improvement he is (or not) over Pennington for The Jets. It might prove to be interesting next season as well depending on Far-vre's decision to continue to play or not.

Looking at the long term picture, it's kind of an odd move to me for the Jets to bring in Far-vre. He might provide a one year boost to the team, but what happens next year? How many years are left on his contract? Hmm, maybe I should pay more attention during the off-season.. I imagine the Jets cold probably get a #2 pick for Pennington and maybe they use that next year to land a QB.

And what about Pennington? Where will he end up? The AFC East is kind of hurtin for QB's outside of New England. Maybe Pennington will go to the Bills! Nah. The Jets would never send him somewhere in the AFC East.. or would they?? Hmmm..

I would think the Jets would be more interested in finding a QB that is going to help them long term and Far-ver certainly is not going to do that. Do I see Far-vre bringing the Jets into the playoffs? Nope, not really, but then you never know. There's always one surprise team every season..

Really, I could give less than a fuck because hey, it's the frikkin Jets. I just want to see a Far-rve smoosh-fest twice a year by Seymour, Willfork, Thomas, Harrison, etc etc etc. As long as that happens, I'm good.

GO PATS

(hey don't forget about my drop.io!)

Manny's gone to La-La land..

I was all ready to enlighten you with my thoughts on the Manny Ramirez trade to the La-La Land Dodgers, but then I read Angela's post over at Boston Brat and as usual, she has pretty much completely summed it all up very succinctly and much better than I could have done, so go over and check her post out.

As for my own thoughts on the matter, I like Manny. As far as I am concerned, Manny = Awesome.

Aside from the shoving incidents a few weeks ago, Manny's 'antics' or whatever you want to call them never bothered me. In fact, most of the time I found Manny being Manny to be entertaining. I never really understood the uproar that often ensued following one of his exploits and I am sad to see him traded away for a player that might give the Sox some of his productivity at the plate, maybe, if we're lucky.

Yeah, looking over his RBI and HR stats at Baseball Reference, outfielder Jason Bay has somewhat comparable numbers to Manny, but also comes over from the NL, which is literally an entirely different league, the league that old pitchers generally escape to in order to extend their careers when they can no longer hack it in the American League. So I guess all I can say is, we'll see what happens. It took J.D. Drew a little time, but he seems to have figured it out.

In reading about the trade, it seems that Bay liked being a Pirate (Arrg. (sorry had to do it)) and may not be exactly thrilled about being traded to pressure-town. I hope Bay is 'media scrutiny friendly' or we may have another disgruntled outfielder on our hands.

I can't go without saying something about the hypocrisy of the Boston press, who have done nothing but rag Manny and call for him to be traded away for years and who are now falling all over themselves to explain to us, the uninformed and unwashed masses, why this trade is a good thing. I have no doubt that if the Sox do not make it into the post season, these same writers will point directly to the Manny trade as part of their opening salvo against Theo and the Red Sox. (I'm not a big fan of the Boston press, for those who are unaware.)

I have often thought that The Sox should try to operate more like The Patriots and in these kinds of situations I think to myself, 'If this situation had occurred on The Patriots, what would Bill Belichick do?'

I think we all know that Belichick would not have put up with a star player who was not putting out 100% when it came time to take the field, or at any point for that matter, and in that vein, if Manny was determined to dog it for the remainder of the year, then maybe this is for the best and I give credit to Theo for having the guts to let go of a player of Manny's caliber.

Baseball savvy and smokin', on-the-verge-of-bursting-into-flames, hot Dodger fan who helps starving kids and has her own clothing line, Alyssa Milano, is very excited about the trade, I can tell you that. I wish I was but in the end, I just root for the laundry.

GO SOX