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13 years 10 months
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Date Title Body
Brian, I have nothing…

Brian, I have nothing substantive to add other than I find your writing beautiful and your prose clever. Carry on. 

If the only thing this kid…

If the only thing this kid does is stick to a practice squad, he's gonna make small 6 figures.  That is better than probably 95% of fresh-out-of-school Michigan grads.  Dude played his heart of for this school, only people of special needs should be upset he skipped a meaningless bowl game.

After the Jake Butt injury,…

After the Jake Butt injury, I'll never look down on a kid who's looking out for his future and skips a meaningless bowl game, NY6 or not.

Wasn't he injured at the…

Wasn't he injured at the time?  Dude was on the field when Jake Butt tore his ACL in a meaningless bowl game, gotta think he's just looking out for his future.

Well the state of Michigan…

Well the state of Michigan hasn't had a professional football team since Barry Sanders retired.  We need someone to root for.

Assuming Bama, Clemson & ND…

Assuming Bama, Clemson & ND hold set, if Oklahoma wins out they'd definitely be in the conversation.  I think we still get the nod with a stronger strength of schedule, but it's nowhere near 100%.  If Texas wins out we should be solid due to their Maryland loss since the committee does consider common opponents.

Nobody on this site was…

Nobody on this site was complaining when Brian, alums & students were protesting on Mark Schlissel's doorstep after the Shane Morris debacle.  No one was complaining when the writers of this site were calling for Dave Brandon's & Brady Hoke's head.  If you think that that wasn't politics, you are fooling yourself.  An AD and head coach of a publicly funded university are political positions at a ton of levels.  That protest was about leveraging public sentiment against the gross mismanagement of the Michigan Athletic Department.    

This post is not about partisan politics.  Ann Arbor is democratic through and through, so this isn't a left versus right argument. This is about leveraging public sentiment to make Ann Arbor a more livable city that has nothing to do with democrats or republicans unless you are hell set on making it partisan.  

Yeah cities that bus their…

Yeah cities that bus their homeless off to other cities are just assholes pushing their responsibility onto other tax payers.  And those 'types' are primarily mentally ill people that need help, not bus rides.  Get a fucking conscience man. 

Well not all chicks.

Well not all chicks.

Hey I might have to stop by…

Hey I might have to stop by here, not too far from where I live, right down the street from where I work,  and the Mrs. loves bottomless mimosas.

Los Angeles checking in here…

Los Angeles checking in here.  Austin traffic is great.

Digital Volume Controls

Why anyone thought this was a good idea is beyond me.  On most digital volume knobs you have to crank the knob 3-4 time to go from zero (muted) to full volume.  On old analog volume potentiometers, it was less than a 360 degree turn to go from mute to max volume, and the continuous control versus the shitty discrete digital voume steps was more accurate.

There's also muscle memory

After you've driven your car for a while your hand remembers where all those knobs are so you can change temp, volume, etc. without looking--good luck doing that on a touch screen.

Not limited to cars

Appliance failure rates are much higher these days too.  With digital controls on intergrated circuit boards, when they fail replacement of the entire board is usually the only option, and in the case of appliance likely more than 50% of the cost of the unit.

Certainly Possible

Much of the editing on this would've been happening during the late season, but revisions they've had the last 4 months to finish to focus the narrative of the story they are telling.  If they decided to cut down on Drev & remove Frey completely it seems like a conscience decision, whatever the reasoning. It's a delicate balance.  The producers of the show have to balance the drama that creates 'compelling TV'  vs. pure documentary while also considering the fact that if they presented U of M in a disfunctional or otherwise poor light, no other team is going to let them on campus to try the same thing again.  Also, depending on the contract, U of M may have had some amount of oversight or final say as to what is being shown.

I'd guess Frey was left out because U of M abandoned zone blocking early in the season and Amazon didn't want to bog down the show in too-technical football schemes that would detract from the story of the players, and that's what this series really nails.  Probably similar for Drev, when he was shown outside of the booth it was one scene in the film room and the other was the dinner he hosted for the o-line.  At some level this is a bit of a fluff piece on U of M because they could've shown a much nastier or mean-spirited version of the team on the sidelines/practice/film room.  I think they could've put the screws to the coaches much more so (since they are paid adults) without throwing players under the bus.

In the end, the first audience for this series is U of M fans, so instead of focusing on disfunction & drama they focused on positives like team building, player/coach lives & relationships.  The disfucntion angle would work great editorially for every other team not U of M, but again, amazon has to consider their relationship with U of M, and their access to other schools.

This is to the heart of the matter

Anyone with a conscience or a child who was in the decision making tree at either USA Gymnastics or at MSU (post the 2014 investigation) should've been triggered to act, whether that be going to the authorities again or just telling parents of gymnasts about the accusations.  There is a basic moral imperative in society that we protect children, and every person with knowledge about Nassar failed that in tragic fashion.  Are the all criminally neglegent?--That's for the courts to determine.  But none of these people should be able to retain their positions in any way, shape or form.  As they are stating it, it sounds like they are covering their asses legally.  How about having a fucking conscience?

So yeah, apparently it needs to be codefied in law for these people to act.  Oh wait, it is law!  Many of these people are legally obligated to report.  I hope a rain of inditements extracts all of these enablers from both MSU and USAG.

https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/manda.pdf#page=2&view=Professionals required to report

 

 

I mean,

say what you will about the tenets of national socialism, at least it's an ethos.

As someone who will never have 5000 points

I completely agree.

All the shitposts in this thread

are reason enough to require >10,000.  Bring back the fully disabled comments!

"Leftover Pulled Pork"

What is the ingredient you speak of?

Here's the kicker

"Olmsted noted that its success in collegiate ice croquet is diminished by any Ohio State use of its colors."

 

Can't argue with that logic.

 

EDIT and I'm dumb.

Is this the guy...

who ran gobluemichiganwolverine?  I bet he's the coach that answered all those real questions.

Coach Harbaugh is elite, but just how elite?

More elite than Lovie Smith.

Less elite than Nick Saban.

Boom, saved you a wasted click.

You've asked the wrong question

The Choice is Wealth or a sex life.  In the choice of wealth or celibacy everyone take wealth.  Assuming you asked the correct question, you also left out the possibility that the askee is of the LGBT orientation, so for anyone in that group the choice for wealth is easy too.

 

So given your intended question, I'd take the money and go gay.

The Boneyard (1991)

I'll just leave this here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSrgRy6VxW8

Fancy Post Work

Just a basic speed ramp from 30fps/100% (technically 29.97) to 15fps/50%, back to 30fps/100%.  The shots that look stuttery are using duplicated fields to generate the slomotion, the shots where reality looks like it is warping around him is a fluid motion/vector-based slowmotion effect that is better suited for shots where the subject is moving so fast (and preferably a static background).

/nerdery

If you've got a 5.1/7.1 Audio Stream

You could just turn off/unplug the center channel and the announcers would be gone entirely unless networks are doing funky stereo imaging with announcers these say.

Thanks Seth, you give good mod

Here in lies the rabbit hole that is mgoblog.  Softball may just be my uncany valley when it comes to Michigan sports. This should probably be a 'dear diary' question:  at what point does it get weird caring about university sports teams that you have little affiliation with?

The answer is likely stop reading a sports blog dedicated to U of M sports, but I like my mgoherion.

By the by, as a never-poster-always-lurker, you guys do great work on this blog.  My knowledge of the game of football has increased 1000 fold thanks to your analysis.

I did the research, I still don't get it...

Checked the softball tag, searched pizza, found the wide shot of the stadium in this gif basically resembles the stadium:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8782/17610915654_e3600ec7db_o.gif

But whoosh, right over my head on this one. 

If you like Austin, Great...

But it's similar to living in Berlin during the cold war.  You are surrounded.

I'll play devil's advocate

Not sure where you are, Phoenix is blah, but Tuscon is pretty nice--still bloody hot though.  I grew up in GR, left MI in 2000 after graduating from U of M, and I would never move back.

Downsides to Grand Rapids:

- Winter. 4-5 Months of grey skies with no sunshine, that's depressing.  You & your wife will suffer through the first few winters until your blood thickens up.  If you are active outdoor people you better get into cross country skiing or half the year is a wash.

- If you live in or like big cities & urban living, you're gonna be dissappointed.  Downtown in nice, but small.

- Outside of downtown, it's kind of a generic city of big box retail, strip malls & suburbs.  

- People who have never left Grand Rapids/West Michigan think it is amazing.  And they can't stop talking about it how amazing it is.

- If you are going to the midwest Chicago is 3 hours away and a proper big city, why not live there?

- Small regional airport, no direct flights, flying to and from during the winter is no fun.

- Say goodbye to real mexican food (except for a few spots north of downtown).

- Culturally & ethnically, it's going to be pretty homogenous compared to the southwest.

- Amway & Amway people.

- Optional depending on your politics:  it's pretty conservative compared to the east side of the state.

 

 

Malzone

His read progression appears to be #1, scramble, see if #1 is open now, run it.

Anyone know who the #1 reciever is?  He catches everything thrown at him and constantly has seperation from his defender(s).

I'm not sure football is more

I'm not sure football is more difficult--beyond lessons, practice & performance on your prinicple instrument, the music school requires music theory, music history, piano performance (for everyone), composition, orchestration, etc.  Adding to that, very few music students 'make the pros,' i.e., getting a job with an orchestra or equivalent, so most will be taking education classes so they can teach.  Come to think of it, making the pros may be as hard in music as in sports, as there are more orchestras nationally but the performers retire at 65 instead of mid-30's.

 

At any rate, it is a great parallel.  Except you'll never have the NCAA investigating music students for practicing too many hours in a week. 

Sex on Stage at the Power Center

Worked on a version of Cabaret in the sound department, after a late night of drinking post-show ended up with one of the MT leads back at the Power Center and decided to go at it on stage.  The set happened to be the Kit Kat Klub, similar to this scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5SLGipH-cA#t=1m15s

 

As we are, ahem, finishing, all the phones on stage start ringing and some intrictate light show starts happening.

 

Apparently the lighting designer & electrician had come back for some reason or another and decided to have some fun with us.

 

Oh, NO ENTRY.

It appears the gist of the article is

Strength train with barbells and practice your sport, everything else reduces the effectiveness of athletic gains.  D1 S&C coaches get good results with other methods because they have freak natural athletes whose bodies are already filling out into adulthood and would show mad gains under any system.

 

I dunno, I guess to some extent but since most athletes can't practice their sport everyday some supplimental excersises would increase gains (which he acknowledges).

 

When I was doing P90x, I got really good at doing P90x, though I made hella quicker gains doing Ripatoe's starting strength.  But since tennis is my main sport, P90x was better for increasing on court performance.  Though I suppose playing tennis 6 days a week would give me better performance than P90x, which I guess is his point.

Toddman Fumbles

So he's cut right?

Radius seems to imply as the

Radius seems to imply as the crow flies but it's the NCAA so who knows.

The Most Impressive Part?

0% body fat.  Because, every other human being with such a measurement is dead.

He's not famous for a 50/50 guess

He predicted 49 of 50 states correctly in the 2008 election and 50 of 50 in 2012.  That's quite a bit more challenging.

Gutsy call.  Can't believe it

Gutsy call.  Can't believe it worked!

Schedule Has Nothing to Do With it...

App State

Miami OH

Utah

Minnesota

Penn State

Indiana

Maryland

 

That is the crappiest home schedule I've likely ever seen.

Balls

Balls.

Who are you Spock?

Chittown2 or some other banned member?

Whoever you are there is probably a wife, maybe kids at home who matter more than posting on this website.  Maybe you should spend some time with them and spare us all your conetrarian posts.  You seem like an intellgient person, so rationally you should: 

 

A.  Move On

I hate Christmas

Hearing Burl Ives makes me want to hit someone with a folding chair.  My favorite month is an 11 way tie between the months of January through November.

If you are in the 6th arrondissement

(Which is just south of the Seine River from the Louvre & Notre Dame) Check out Le Comptoir, great food, though I still found it to be pricey for what we got (welcome to Paris in general).  I'd avoid the more famous Cafe de Flore & Les Duex Magots unless you are down paying €15 for single glass of brandi.  

https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Le+Comptoir+du+Relais&aq=&sll=48.851938,2.338693&sspn=0.008232,0.01929&vpsrc=6&gl=us&ie=UTF8&hq=Le+Comptoir+du+Relais&hnear=&ll=48.85256,2.338253&spn=0.004087,0.009645&t=m&z=17&iwloc=A&cid=1428069540531025966

The Latin Quarter is pretty cool and has cafes that are much friendlier on the wallet (numerous prefix menus for under €20).

https://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF-8&q=paris+latin+quarter&fb=1&gl=us&hq=latin+quarter&hnear=0x47e66e1f06e2b70f:0x40b82c3688c9460,Paris,+France&cid=0,0,10576968076829218649&ei=4xzvUZGrJcfxiwKUlwE&ved=0COUBEPwSMBI

We were generally happier when we stuck with the basics (croissants, baguettes, croque messiers, onion soup, crepes, steak frites).  Kinda like getting a good slice in New York or a good taco in L.A.

If you are drinking, most cafes and brasseries have crap beer selection.  Heineken, Leffe & 1664 are pretty much standard.  Stick with the house wine, it's cheaper and better.

If you are into farmer's markets, check out the St Germain covered market.  Awesome food to be had.

No rap performance,

But the music school does have the Performing Arts & Tech Program 

http://www.music.umich.edu/departments/pat/index.php

The music theory & piano performance requirements are pretty rough on a non-formally trained musician (reading music and all, if you can't do it you're behind the ball).  But if he's a smart kid it's doable.

.12 is a percentage...

Hence why it is a relevant measurement for some whose 220 or 105 lbs.  What you are really arguing then is that someone whose 220 has to drink more to reach .12.  However, talking on a cellphone causes people to drive with the equivelant impaired skills of a .12 blood acohol level.

It's all about the TV ratings

How many other FBS vs. FCS matchups will get bumped up to network TV?  There will be more pregame hype for that game than many FBS conference games, and instead certainly more than any other teams playing FCS oppenents whose games will be relegated to the Big Ten Network (or regional equivelant). 

That being said, I'm not sure if ABC/CBS/NBC picks up the game how we financially benefit from it since we are already tied into our TV contract via the Big Ten Network.  I suppose the BTN gets a nice pay out to broadcast the game on the network and we might potentially get a bump along with the rest of the Big Ten schools.

If nothing else, it certainly gets us more national exposure than any MAC school, and probably as much exposure as playing a middling BCS team without as much risk of loss.

Obivously

Christopher Polyblend

Hmm.

Probably because Kilgore Trout was Kurt Vonnegut's reoccuring protaganist.  Now, if sparty signs Ford Prefect I will bust out a towel...