My Thermos

aka: Crap, has it really been a week?

I can't believe I haven't posted since my last Fantasy Baseball update but a quick glance at the site confirms that it's true. No excuse or explanation is forthcoming. Let's just move on.

It was a good week for Team Thermos in the Blitz league as I move to 4-4 for the season. I'm still tied for 3rd in my division but as my point totals continue to rank in the top 2 or 3, I feel good going into each week's match-ups. I just need to have good weeks against my strong opponents to stay competitive.

It's the usual suspects leading the way, Derrek Lee & Prince Fielder accounted for nearly 20% of my points - but I'm also picking up decent numbers from Shane Victorino, Ryan Ludwick, and Robinson Cano. The return of John Lackey has been promising as well.

I continue to tweak the team and look for ways to improve but am feeling strong. I think pitching is still my weak spot but it's getting better as well.

SB

Very tough week for Team Thermos as a disappointing loss brings my record down to 3-4 for the season.

It's particularly frustrating as I was once again near the top of the board with my 678.7 point week, led only by Team Zwartz at 697.6 and Team Cubbies at 723.9. Unfortunately I was up against Team Zwartz so the good performance was all for naught.

What makes it even more frustrating is that I was swapping out players, adjusting lineups for maximum playing time etc.. while my opponent has 2 guys on the DL still in his starting rotation. If I can't compete with my strongest team, it's time to do really look at what I can do to bring things up a notch - or concede that the team I have just isn't good enough to be a contender.

I'm going to list my team after the fold if anyone cares to take a look and offer any suggestions.

SB Continue reading "Fantasy Baseball Update - ... »

One of my favorite quotes is:

When you have a number of disagreeable duties to perform - always do the most disagreeable first.

Josiah Quincy

I have this printed and hanging in my office.  I try to do this in my work, getting the tasks I dread out of the way so that they stop looming over me and I can get on to other work. It seems to work well for me.

For my BYOBO series, I've created a rather lengthy list of artists I want to feature and each week when I go to choose the artist for the week, there is one that I pass over knowing that it is an impossibility to narrow down a list to just 15 tracks. Their name mocks me when I view the list, each time I hear a song of theirs on the radio I cringe at the thought of trying to decide whether to include it. As much as I love The Beatles, they were wearing me down.

Enough is enough - it's time to bite the bullet and get at this.

So once again inspired by Nat at Mini-Obs, the idea is (almost) the same as always:

Pick one of your favorite bands / artists and list 10-15 songs by that band / artist to compile your own best of compilation.

This week, I'm changing the rules a bit. I decided that to just pull 15 songs from their collected works was going to be impossible, so instead I'm going to take advantage of the fact that there were 15 original CD releases and choose one song from each release. Considering how much they evolved from the first notes of Please Please Me to the end of Abbey Road, this also seems like a good way to make sure the full evolution is represented.

So here goes - The Best of The Beatles as compiled by me: Continue reading "Build Your Own Best Of - The ... »

I'm all tied up 3-3 after a resounding win 603.3 to 531.1 over Team Barker. I continue to do well overall point wise with a strong week from Fielder, Lee, and Varitek - while Bannister finally redeemed himself with a strong outing after two disastrous ones.

I still don't think I can beat Team Cubbies or Team Spiller though who continued their undefeated streaks, but things are progressing and I continue to try and tweak the team as I go along.

I seem to be ignoring my pitching and that could be an opportunity for big improvements. If anyone considers themselves an expert and wants to help out, let me know.

SB

You may recall that last week I declared each and every Friday here on My Thermos to be Muleday. This was in honor of Gov't Mule finally announcing a Chicago date for their summer tour. Fast forward a week, the presale was a bust so still no tix - MusicToday be damned.

But I still love this band - so let's get on with the jammage:

Wednesday night the Jammy Awards were awarded in New York. The Jammys recognize artists and performances in the Jam Band community and this year Gov't Mule won for Best Live Performance (which is no surprise to me, or anyone who has seen them really)

The winning performance was their set at the Bonnaroo Festival which was star studded and featured John Paul Jones of Zeppelin fame on a couple of tracks to round out the evening. I wasn't there but it was a scorcher - the tapes prove it.

Unfortunately the video isn't quite as good so the best I can find is this clip from way way in the back. Maybe it will make you feel like you were there. So here goes Gov't Mule / John Paul Jones w/ Since I've Been Loving You:



Enjoy - and happy weekend.

SB

I don't often write much about my business here on My Thermos. While it's not exactly a secret who I am or what I do, I do like to maintain at least a cursory distinction between the personal me and the professional me, as blurred as that distinction often is.

The outlet for my professional writing has come from my contributions to TechFires and now Web Worker Daily. There I get to discuss all the geeky stuff, the cool web apps and services that I love. Here I get to write about my other passions, my wife, my music, my family, etc...

Sometimes though, that blurriness rears it's head and something happens to bridge those worlds, something cool that I want to write about, something that is sort of business related but not really suitable for my other gigs. For example, a week or so ago I entered and won a contest run by the fine folks at BatchBlue who make small business software, particularly the BatchBook Contact Manager which I am currently evaluating. Continue reading "I'm A Small Business Super Hero" »

AKA - I'm a big loser!!

After winning my last two H2H matchups, I was optimistic heading into this one against Team Spiller but it wasn't to be and I now fall to 2-3 for the season.

It wasn't a horrible week, I actually was the #3 point-getter with 621.7. Unfortunately I was up against the #1 for the week and just couldn't match his 697 points.

There are still two 5-0 teams in the league and while I am now routinely falling right behind them in the point totals, not being able to beat either of them doesn't bode well for my long term success.

The season is still young though - this week seems like a pretty fair matchup against Team Barker so wish me luck.

SB