help/advice

i am having somewhat of an existential/moral crisis.

i found a $20 bill on the floor in rooter's (a local bar).  i was playing blackjack and accidentally dropped a chip.  as i bent down to pick it up, it was lying directly on the andrew jackson.

throughout the entire time i was at the table many guys had come and gone at the seats immediately next to me, so it was pretty obvious none of them were missing the money.  it had clearly come from someone long before i got to the table and yet no one had claimed it.

had i not picked it up, i'm guessing that no one would have noticed it and some employee at the bar would have pocketed it.

so: do i keep it?  do i place it randomly somewhere for someone else to claim?  do i use it to pay bills?  do i put it on one hand of blackjack?  do i take my lady out for lunch with it?

your help would be appreciated.

sincerely,

ahmed.

great timing

so for those of you who don't know, (sorry for those who already read the stiche corner blog post and found out about it) the one and only tom "all day" day has his own radio show.

his show is from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. every wednesday.  the theme of the show today was black metal.  my boss came into my office at about 9:59 and had a long chat with me about a project we're working on.  (to make the long story short, we have this huge dataset that is comprised of 4 smaller datasets, all of which come from a separate state entity.  it gets very confusing coordinating 4 different organizations to make sure that they code variables in the same way.)  

so my boss was explaining the raw data to me until about 10:07 and then she took off.  at that point i began to livestream KNDS and catch the stiche hour.  

unbeknownst to me at the time, my volume was basically turned up all of the way.  i kid you not, when the livestream finally loaded it was at 3:39 of this song.

right at that split second my boss came back into my office to ask me one final quick question about how i had been coding and analyzing one variable in particular.

as the "aaahhh, Ahhhh, AAHHHH, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" came blasting through the speakers she just kind of looked at me with her jaw dropped.

i quickly hit the mute button on my keyboard and just kind of laughed.  

it was awesome because she just shrugged, shook her head, and said "the variable should be coded 1."  then she nonchalantly left as if nothing had happened.

i really love my job.

opera

fantasy update:

team 1: 5-2, 2nd place (out of 12) $10 buy in.
i had a few struggles with byes, and andre being hurt hasn't helped any.  either way, i'm a lock for the playoffs and likely a run for the money.  this team (despite everyone saying how bad it would suck) has more than held its own.

team 2: 3-4 6th place (out of 12) $25 buy in.
this team took a huge shat.  i've lost a lot of close games and been repeatedly outscored despite putting up big numbers.  this week my team is projected to just go nuts, so hopefully that will get me back on track.  all of my byes are over, so i'm feeling good about this team in the coming weeks when everyone else deals with week 8-11 byes.

team 3: 3-4, 8th place (out of 12) $10 buy in.
considering this team started 0-3, i'm pleasantly surprised.  matt ryan has started to play decently.  my receiving corps has really started to shine: nicks, aj green, and garcon have all been playing well.  i have decent depth at RB (rice and hillis) plus i still have the law firm.  i picked up demarco murray and he was a pleasant surprise.  i think this team just might keep going up...

team 4: 3-4, 8th place (out of 12) $50 buy in.
this team has been so hit and miss.  i spent over 25% of my budget on andre only to see him go down a few weeks ago.  that prompted a huge trade.  my starting lineup will be solid once andre is back.  however, in the mean time i have no depth at RB.  i have michael turner and MJD but they have bye weeks this week and next, respectively.  i hit up the waivers and picked up bernard scott, LT, and tashard choice.  woof.  scott will start this week opposite MJD.  next week?  who knows, it'll probably be turner and LT.  ouch.  i just have to hope i hit someone else suffering from the bye week blues.

in other news, i'm officially published a few times over and am loving it.

i've been asked to teach a class in spring semester.  i'm going to do it.  after all, i'd like to be a professor, so it's right down the path i want to take.

my thesis is wrapping up and i think it's finally starting to hit me.  18+ months of work are finally being rewarded.

i predict that texas will win tomorrow.

bockmed, i'm planning to visit the 4th-6th.  let me know if that's cool, i would never want to intrude.

finally, i just have to say.  one of my all time favorite bands, someone still loves you boris yeltsin, released their new album.  it's not so much "new" as it is songs that didn't make their first 3 albums and EPs.  still, they have some stuff from "broom" which has the original sound that came straight from their grandma's basement where they recorded (not even making that up).  they also have a ton of stuff from "pershing" and "sink/let it sway" where the studio work is flawless.  itunes has the entire 26 track (seriously, 26 tracks!) for $9.99.  i already had a partial album from a few single releases, so i got 24 songs for $8.99.  what a steal!

if you get a chance, check out the song "new day" here.  it is hands down my favorite song from the album.  absolutely flawless.  they stuck to their original feel by including tracks like "bigger than yr yard" and "go upstairs."  they also branched out in a totally different direction with "sweet owl" and "yellow missing signs."  additionally, hidden in the album are a bunch of original demos.  just incredible.  for anyone who is even on the fence about SSLYBY, you absolutely must own this album.

that is all for now, blogosphere.

Updates and Stuff

The big news is that I started a co-op (for those out of the loop: an internship that takes place over multiple, usually rotating, semesters) yesterday at Delta Air Lines in propulsion engineering. So far everybody has been very nice. I've already learned quite a bit in my new workplace, but I have sooo much more to learn. Mostly acronyms. Seriously, these people use so many acronyms... To describe engine parts, official documents, procedures, regulations... Everything has an acronym. My only complaint is that I have to get used to waking up at a time resembling a productive human being 5 days a week again. The commute and business casual dress code I can deal with.

On to fantasy football. We've reached the end of week 6 and a lot has changed.

League 1: Family Feud ($20 buy-in), 4-2, 4th place out of 12

My team is very solid. My only weak spot is QB and I have a feeling Roethlisberger is going to start cleaning up his act, and I can always throw in Hasselbeck based on matchups, so even that isn't so bad. I executed another trade. I gave up Ahmad Bradshaw and Pierre Garcon and received Jason Witten and Mike Tolbert. I know I gave up too much, but frankly I was sick of sitting star players and getting jack shit out of my TE. I'm really only going to be a hair weak on my RBs bye weeks. Seriously check out this team:

QB: Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Hasselbeck
RB: Lesean McCoy, Arian Foster, Mike Tolbert, Brandon Jacobs (and hopefully Ben Tate. Yes he's available. Don't ask why. It's the family league)
WR: Roddy White, Vincent Jackson, Hakeem Nicks, and Santonio Holmes
TE: Jason Witten (and currently Fred Davis)
K: John Kasay
D: Detroit

I love this team. I get to start 2 top 6 picks at RB, 3 quality number 1 WRs, and now the most consistent TE in football every week. Well, almost every week. Stupid byes. And my backups and QB situation aren't bad either. I just wish I had the old Roddy White. He just isn't as good this year, and sadly I expect it to continue.


League 2: The keeper league with some friends ($10 buy-in), 3-3, 7th out of 12
I should be in 10th place. We've played six weeks and I am one of 3 teams yet to break 500 points for. This team is looking like an absolute failure. My theory of taking quantity over quality with running backs and letting a quality air attack carry the team is absolutely backfiring. My wide receivers and running backs have been ravaged by injury. My team is so thin and so terrible, I was able to fill 7 bench spots with players who, due to bye or injury, weren't playing and my team put up only an embarrassing 51 points. Really Vernon Davis? 8 yards? I don't know what to do about this team. The worst part is that I only see one player as being worth keeping, given that we have to give up the pick two rounds higher than where we took a kept player. Eric Decker. There's always next year. (Or is there? Honestly, I don't like the way this league is running. We failed in putting together a clear set of rules, there's very little incentive to actually keep players, several team managers seem quite disinterested and one has failed to set his lineup two weeks in a row. *sigh*)

ttfn

i left my pelkmed in san francisco

last friday (sep 30) i took a short vacay to san francisco to visit pelkmed.  i was there 6 days, although only 4 were fully days (got there late friday, left early wednesday).  ill briefly sum up some highlights:

saturday: went to a free bluegrass concert at golden gate park.  800,000+ in attendance over the weekend...it was a haze of pot smoke and beer.  i got to see one of my favorite bands of all time, broken social scene, play live...albeit from about 1/2 mile away.  still, pretty cool.  after that we had a double date where i got to meet pelkmed's woman.  she's great, i give a resounding thumbs up.  we had afghan food for dinner at this little hole-in-the-wall place.  it was delicious.  i had mater challaw (lamb shanks over rice) and the meat sauce was to die for.  we ended the night with a das boot at some german bar that i can't remember the name of.  great day.

sunday: woke up early and watched the vikes kick off at 10:00 am local time.  we were at a sports bar with nfl sunday ticket and were about only 4 vikes fans watching the game.  the chiefs fans had about 5 there, but they were all VERY loud.  still, it was fun.  later that night we went and saw the golden gate bridge and took a few touristy pictures.  at night we drove up the coast to a restaurant that has (according to the today show) the best sandwich in america.  it was a lobster roll with about 1.5 lbs. of deliciously cooked lobster.  i'm not a huge fan of lobster, but apparently this was the best lobster either pelkmed or alimed had ever had.

monday: slept in a bit and had lunch near the mission (home of the mission style burrito).  went to a tortilleria and had an authentic mission style burrito.  about 2 lbs. of solid burrito for only $5.  great deal.  after that we walked around the mission and then proceeded to the castro neighborhood (the gay part of SF).  we went to a gay bar which had ridiculously good deals.  and very homoerotic art.  after that we went out on another double date for dinner at gordon biersch brewery.  i wanted to try something delicious, but pelkmed's woman lives in the hilliest and curviest neighborhood in america.  my motion sickness kicked in and i just felt awful.  too bad.

tuesday: alimed and i slept in and then went downtown to shop for a bit.  we met pelkmed for lunch and saw his corporate life.  after that we had the world's greatest crepe and then proceeded to do a bit more shopping.  we ended our night at the happiest place on earth: a restaurant simply named "beer zone."  they had 101 beers available and over 50 on tap.  also: they had dogfish head!  so i finally got to try my first ever dogfish head beer.  i had punkin' ale, palo santos, and 90 minute ipa.  plus whatever else pelkmed and alimed bought me.  the good side: they were delicious.  the bad side: i was on a very empty stomach.  after getting quite tipsy we went to scoma's, a classy restaurant on the bay that has the world's best seafood.  in my inebriated state i ordered the penne pasta bouliognese because i didn't remember it was a seafood place.  i ate all of it (which was likely meant for 4 people) and had a drunken/food coma experience.  i was basically a wreck the rest of the night with a mixture of nausea from too much food and nausea from too much alcohol.  apparently we walked through chinatown and little italy, although i remember none of it.  heck, i don't even remember leaving the restaurant (which is a long commute back to the apartment) but somehow i woke up the next morning.

wednesday: i got up at about 7:00 am and felt like i had just competed in a hotdog eating challenge....i was still VERY full from the night before.  it was quite strange.  we hopped on the train around 8:00 and made it through security with hardly any time to spare boarding the plane.  all in all, it was a great vacay.

one other note: in my big money fantasy football league, i learned that andre johnson is made of toothpicks.  with his injury, i was looking at the foreseeable future (due to byes/injuries) of starting bess, floyd, and thomas jones every week for the next 3 weeks.  desperate, i made a huge trade.

i gave up: lesean mccoy, daniel thomas, ronnie brown.

i got: dwayne bowe, maurice jones-drew, matt ryan.

ryan becomes my starting QB.  new lineup:

ryan

maclin

bowe

turner

MJD

bess

pettigrew

bess will be replaced by andre once he is healthy again.  i had to make a move, i just had to.  i have no RB depth at all, but i'm looking to trade a QB (i still have freeman and flacco, too, i can't justify dropping one of them) for some depth at RB.  who knows what will happen.

that is all.