May 30, 2008

Why is Oil going up so much?

Excellent post on the rise of oil prices on The Big Picture. I of course am really happy about the rise in gas prices as MAYBE it will get us to finally do some of the things which we should have done long ago about this issue.

Posted by aarondf at 04:14 PM | Links | Comments (0)

Celtics - Pistons: Game 5

Just a quick note to thank Ray Allen and Perkins for excellent games after their noshows or worse in some earlier games. Perkins in particularly played a GREAT first half when for much of the half the rest of the team was playing horrendously, with ridiculous turnovers and horrible foul calls (this was largely on the refs).

Posted by aarondf at 04:11 PM | Sports | Comments (0)

May 19, 2008

Game 7 Celtics - Cavaliers

Well, amazingly good game yesterday and what a performance by Pierce (and James too of course). Still, an odd game to me in that I felt only 5 players combined on the two teams played really well - West for the Cavs, and House and Brown for the Celtics in addition to James/Pierce - couple others, like Garnett, played solidly but still probably below average for their skills. I really felt both Allen and Perkins were negatives on the Celtics and they would have been better off with neither of them playing. If they want to move on beyond this, that has just got to change - Allen has got to get out of his slump. I went into these playoffs thinking the Celtics had the plurality best chance to win the title; certainly don't feel that way anymore. I think they will be lucky to beat Detroit and then against the Lakers (most likely Finals opponent imo) would be a significant underdog but we'll see how it goes. Thank heavens for home court.

Posted by aarondf at 04:14 PM | Sports | Comments (0)

May 15, 2008

Movies: I am Legend (Blu-ray)

Well, largely thanks to my brother's encouragement (and actual buying of in the end), I got a Playstation 3, primarly as a Blu-ray DVD player. It actually also turns out to improve playing of non-Blu-ray movies too as it interacts better with my TV. Anyway, I yesterday watched I am Legend (from Netflix) which was only ok as a movie but really did look good ***. My brother sent along 300 which I have seen before and loved but really want to check out on Blu-ray (of course I originally saw it in Imax so will be about the only movie where the Blu-ray is actually a reduction in quality over my initial viewing).

Oh, and on the Playstation games front, if anyone has any games which they wouldn't mind loaning me for a week or so and think I would like, let me know. My brother sent along Lair (great visuals but not very good gameplay) and MotorCross (good gameplay and visuals but I am not that into racing games, especially playing solo) and so far those are the only two I have tried.

Posted by aarondf at 04:06 PM | Movies | Comments (0)

May 07, 2008

Celtics - Cavs Game 1

Wow, strange game last night. Clevelands shoots just over 30% and almost wins!!! Ray Allen scores ZERO and Pierce is 2 for 14 but made up for by James not being able to hit anything either. Great game for Garnett, Rondo, Cassell and a couple big 3s from Posey but except for a couple shots from Perkins, the rest of the team was almost useless - team actually would have been better off if Ray Allen hadn't shown up at all which is pretty amazing. And 23 turnovers! That is crazily bad. Hopefully people get on track for the rest of the series.

In the end, I'm just glad they won. I think a loss in a game like that at home might have been devastating.

Posted by aarondf at 11:48 AM | Sports | Comments (0)

May 01, 2008

Sweet story

Super-sweet story about an incident at a Division II college women's softball game.

Link via Eric Berlin and Kottke.

Posted by aarondf at 04:16 PM | Links | Comments (0)

The idiotic Gas tax vacation idea.

Excellent post on the Clinton/McCain idiotic gasoline tax vacation idea. In particular

We have no energy policy, and none on the horizon. Candidates serious about the issue of high energy prices should be discussing increased CAFE standards, capital gains tax waivers for alternative energy investments, greater offshore drilling, Pigou taxes, rapid nuclear plant approvals, a huge increase in the basic R&D the government does on energy -- a Manhattan project for energy and transportation science.

This all seems so damn obvious and yet none of it gets done. So frustrating.

Posted by aarondf at 04:12 PM | Links | Comments (0)