National League Divisional Playoff Predictions ‘08

Okay, it is that time of year again. I just love baseball playoff time. It is so exciting. Since the American League hasn’t fully decided on which of their teams will be representing them this year we will just go with the National League for now.

Philadelphia Phillies vs. Milwaukee Brewers

In the first match-up we will have the Wild Card winning Milwaukee Brewers pitted against the NL East Champion Philadelphia Phillies. When I don’t really think about the teams and just pick, my head says go with Philly. They have fought and scrapped all year and pulled out the division on the final weekend of the season. We all know how playing meaningful games right until the end tends to help. The problem with that theory is that the Brewers pretty much did the same thing. I think the series will come down to pitching. If C.C. Sabathia can get two victories and the Milwaukee bullpen doesn’t play much then I think it will be curtains for the Phillies. I think Milwaukee feels a bit slighted and may just play above their heads. I am going for a full 5 game series on this one with the team advancing to the NLCS to be a bit of an upset. My pick: Milwaukee

Chicago Cubs vs. Los Angeles Dodgers

In what I think is an incredible match-up initially will end up being a disappointment on the field. The NL Central Champion Chicago Cubs against the NL West Champion LA Dodgers should be the pitching of Chicago versus the hitting of Los Angeles. The Cubs rotation and bullpen will be just too much for the Dodgers. I will be fully surprised if this series goes beyond game four. My pick: Chicago

I cannot wait for the games to start on Wednesday. Go ahead and comment about how you think I am wrong (or right). I really would like to hear what others have to say on these series’. If we are lucky we will get a lot of close games and big home runs that will leave us standing at the water cooler for weeks to come. Play ball!

Melancholy Monday: Lover Tonight

Is it Monday again? GAWD! How did that happen? Aaarrgghhhh!!! Well, at least it is a short week for me as I head to Talladega on Friday morning. I cannot wait for a killer guys-only weekend. Anyway, with Will Hoge still in the rehab stages of his career all we can get are these wonderful little videos. Here is the heart-wrenchingly beautiful track “Lover Tonight” where he sings with incredible emotion from his soul…

How amazing that he sings the final lines walking straight out of the door.

Maybe this week will go quickly. Cross your fingers!

Seriously Creepy Commercial

I was just watching television and this incredibly disturbing commercial for Axe Dark Temptation came on. I present this foreign version for your perusal as it is extended with even more creepiness.

So I was right, wasn’t I? Creepy!

Hall Of Fame Birth Control

Last night as the wife and I was sitting and watching Dirty Harry movies on AMC a strange commercial popped up on the screen. It was for a birth control medication called Yaz.

First of all, I hate these type of commercials. It isn’t just the ones for birth control, tampons or douches (although, these are mondo uncomfortable) but for Cialis and Viagra as well. Yikes these are disturbing. The big issue I have with this Yaz medicine is that they named it after one of my sports heroes, baseball Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski!

Yaz must be rolling around in his grave…that is he would be if he were dead. Sheesh! It was probably created by a Yankees fan! By the way, I had read that he was ill lately. I hope you get to feeling better #8.

Hidden Gem: Turnstiles

This morning as the wife was busy making breakfast I thought a little musical entertainment should be in order. I rifled through my record collection and came out with this interesting selection by Billy Joel.

Joel’s fourth album, from 1976, runs through different listening aspects for me. We have the very good and peppy in “Say Goodbye To Hollywood“. I love the drum beat in this track, very infectious. We then have the ‘hey-it’s-a-nice-song’ feel of “Summer, Highland Falls“. It is a good track to sit and listen to but I’ll never need to hear it.

Ol’ Billy had a huge miss on the not-so-good of the raggae tinged “All You Wanna Do Is Dance“. There wasn’t much that I enjoyed in this song. It made me think, “All I wanna do is skip to the next track!” Although, the steel drums throughout do make me think of those Girls Gone WIld commercials on late night television.

These are all followed by a masterpiece of AM Gold. “New York State Of Mind” is one of those rare pieces of perfection in music. I have noticed over the years that the huge talent of Billy Joel has had more than his fair share of perfect songs. Anyway, all of these different musical turns all happen before flipping over the vinyl.

Side two is pretty much along the lines of nice tracks to sit and listen to but nothing huge or amazing seems to pop up. All in all, it is a nice record to spin early in the morning when you don’t want to get the blood flowing too quickly.

Here is a video if the amazing track “New York State Of Mind“:

This is a track that does not appear on the record but is one of my favorites from Mr. Joel called “Captain Jack“:

By the way, how awesome that you can hear the hisses and crackles and pops of the vinyl in the video above? Also, hilarious how someone drew Ace Frehley make up on the cover photo.

Excused From Saving Universes

Have you noticed the names of some people’s blogs and thought to yourself, “Hey, that’s clever” or “Man, I wish I would have thought of that one” or “Uhh, I don’t get that but whatever“?

Twenty-three months ago as I created my original blog I had lots of brilliant ideas. I would write about my everyday happenings because funny crap happened to me. I would write about past stories because I really got into some pickles. I would write about my opinion on myriad of important topics because people care what I have to say. Well, as we know I really don’t too much of that but I thank the few of you that visit on a regular basis (and those of you who stumble upon me). Where was I going with this…? Oh, right!

Anyway, when I was creating my oasis of creativity that I call a blog I had a heck of a time coming up with names. There were things like LeBlanc’s Place and cliche one’s such as Random Ruminations or something with the word ‘cornucopia’ in the title. I really wanted something exciting and clever and easy to remember. I wanted to think of something that was so outstandingly awesome people just HAD to return and read my garbage. Well, I came up with the above title, A Natural Deficiency Of Moral Fiber. I am not so sure that it is clever but I think it states its purpose as far as I am concerned. It helped out a lot as far as traffic is concerned if nothing else. When most places/other bloggers are nice enough to list me in their blog roll I get to be first or darned close to the top. Most people with short attention spans, like me, are interested in finding new blogs but they won’t travel too far down the list.

Well, the name isn’t one that I came up with on my own. I searched and searched and thought and thought and mulled and mulled and then it hit me. I just knew that one of my favorite authors would have written something profound that I could straight-up pilfer. My first choice was the great British sch-fi/comedic writer (and Doctor Who/Pink Floyd/Monty Python fan), Douglas Adams. I wish that he was still alive as I know we could have been best of friends, I mean we like all the same things. Sad. Well, moving on. I browsed (on the internet) just about all of his books and finally found the perfect gem from the book Life, The Universe And Everything. Here is the exact quote:

“My doctor says that I have a malformed public duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fiber,” he muttered to himself, “and that I am therefore excused from saving Universes.”

Perfect, right? If you are interested in other spectacular quotes from this amazing writer you can click here but you really should read the books…all of them.

Basically, now that I have spouted off all of this tripe, what I really wanted to get to is asking a question to all of you, my fellow bloggers. How did you come up with the name of your place? Do you like it or have you considered changing it? Are there any other cool names you have thought of for use in your current blog or in a new one? I thought that Nashville With A Tan was an interesting sounding one. It’s from that song from that guy, none of which I can really remember…I really should go get my coffee now.

I May Be Bald But At Least I’m Not Chickenshit Like You

I was surprised when I heard that the great Paul Newman had died. Some people just seem like they are destined to live forever. Newman, although not my favorite actor, did star in a few of my favorite movies: Cool Hand Luke, The Hustler and Slap Shot. They just don’t make ‘em like this guy anymore.

Thanks for all of the entertainment.

Things We Do To Combat Boredom At Work

So at work this week Nelson has begun compiling a page of photographs. This display of imagery contains several (and more to be added in the near future) of those people that in our (our team at work) opinion should just “go away”:

So far it is only Clay Aiken, Johnny Rotten, Martha Stewart, Miley Cyrus and Jane Fonda. Please feel free to add to the list as needed.

**UPDATE** – This just in…Justin Timberlake added to wall of shame…

Boob-a-licious

I get the daily headlines from the Nashua (NH) Telegraph emailed to me everyday. I used to live there back in the 80s. Mostly I just check for stupid stories and the obituaries. I need to make sure that my family members didn’t die and someone forget to call me or whatever. In today’s email the following headline was presented for my reading pleasure:

Cold reception for PETA’s request to use human breast milk in Ben & Jerry’s

…People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is asking the ice cream maker to begin using breast milk in its products instead of cow’s milk, saying it would reduce the suffering of cows and calves and give ice cream lovers a healthier product.

Read the whole article here.

Are you kidding me? Has PETA run out of ideas to get themselves in the news? What an absolutely absurd concept. Unless, of course, they need people to work the udder pumps….

Feel Good Friday: Honky Tonk Night Time Man

It…is…finally…Friday!!! This weekend couldn’t get here fast enough. This week just dragged and dragged and dragged and…well, you get the idea. Anyway, with a visit to a nice wholesome country bar last weekend and hearing the new Darius Rucker track the other day, I decided to point my musical selection in a different direction…sort of.

I took one of my favorite country songs by the legendary Merle Haggard done by one of the greatest southern rock bands in history. This came from the final album by Lynyrd Skynyrd before their tragic airplane disaster.

Wow, that just doesn’t sound too uplifting or ‘feel good’ but listen to the song, I think it rules! Happy weekend everybody!

Things Are Looking Up

I have been sitting at my desk all morning dreading a day of listless malaise. I feared having nothing of interest to keep me awake when a letter came across my desk that perked me right up.

There are many instances in which a client of our financial institution requests to have their name changed in our systems. Today brought a new reason. Here is the beginning of the body of this spectacular letter:

In conjunction with my recent gender change surgery, I obtained a court ordered name change on September 8, and last week I also updated my Social Security records with my new name and gender.

Okay, I think that is really all we need to know. He/she was also nice enough to provide the legal documents. Unfortunately, no before and after photos were included. Damn!

Just when I thought this little bit of interest would be the only entertainment value for the day I discovered a new blog. Apparently, one of my all-time favorite guitarists, David Gilmour has his very own blog just like me. Well, not quite like me as he is famous and talented and rich and I am…well, I am me. Anyhoo, go visit his site here if it interests you.

Also, Nelson, my cube neighbor over here at the work-stead, has discovered this nifty little website that will keep me busy for a bit. It’s called Overthinking It and is chocked full of stuff that people have looked into and/or researched way too much in regards to overly inane subjects. Sounds like a hoot, right?

Oh, and one more thing. It is the world famous Ms. Newscoma’s birthday today. Go say your well wishes right now.

If you find any other interesting items to keep from pulling my hair out please do not hesitate to send them my way.

A Blogger Party

This past Saturday was my first Blogger Meet-Up after a couple years of writing this moronic blather and I had a great time. The wife came with me and we dragged Uncle Grizz with us since he was playing bachelor this weekend. After getting past the Dalek we found a nice room where we were segregated from the scrubs in town.

There were tons of people in there. Some faces I recognized and even more that I did not. My main concern was getting the parched feeling out of my throat; the beer maid Jasmine (yeah that’s what she said her name was…sounds like a stripper name to me) couldn’t get my Harp fast enough. As I stood there talking to my crew I felt a bit awkward until our cruise director Ginger came up for the introductions and helped introduce me to other people that I “knew” from blogging.

I wish that I remembered all of the people I met. Obviously Ginger, but also I think Holly, Jag and CJ. I cannot forget meeting the wonderful Ms. Newscoma. By the way, if you were there and we met (or didn’t meet even) and you actually read this please leave a comment so I don’t leave you out.

After several minutes of the drinks flowing and the cigarettes burning the conversations turned into those between old friends. What an amazing phenomenon.

Here my wife takes one of her many smokes from my (not-so) secret stash. Eventually the gloves came off and everything was fair game. Some people, not to mention any names (CJ’s wonderful wife) had issues with spelling and writing:

What exactly is a ‘punb ass’ anyway? Also, the inevitable political conversations were everywhere…even in our drinks!

Eventually it was decided that a trip to Robert’s was in order. What a great idea. On the walk from the parking garage we saw some of the locals sleeping on their boots…

…as well as seeing Uncle Grizz falling from the Batman Building!

Robert’s was packed to the gills so we ventured upstairs to listen to the decent honky tonk tunes. Unfortunately for us smoking is not permitted in this establishment. Blah! I had to sneak out the back door but could not bring my beer with me! Give a brother a break. Interestingly enough, hanging outside brought some fun times.

The above is a glimpse at the back door of Robert’s as I lean my backside against the Mother Church of Country Music. How cool to think some of the legends snuck in this way for a little picking and drinking.

To my right side was a hubbub of activity behind Tootsie’s. They had a rock band out there that was loud and horrible.

Off to the left was Jack’s. A long line grew out there. The most interesting character I saw was a young lady wearing an incredibly plunging neckline dress. Directly between her boobs was one of those ‘Hello My Name Is…” stickers that read like so:

Hello My Name Is…BITCH

How classy, right?

Anyway, before we left I got to have my picture taken with my blogging mentor, Newscoma. I can’t wait to hang and drink with her again.

Our night didn’t end completely harmlessly as a Franklin cop pulled us over on our way to the house. Of course he asked if I had been drinking but he said he pulled me over for having my license tag displayed improperly. I mentioned to him this story of having our tag stolen multiple times and we were let go without a warning. Odd night.

You can read a bit more of our night over at the wife’s place here.

Yesterday I spent the morning hurling and fighting a headache and whatnot. It could not have been from the drinking as I only had a small amount. Apparently I should not order red meat from a redneck bar on Broadway after midnight. Go figure.

Melancholy Monday: Still Got The Blues

After an interesting and fun weekend it is Monday again. That alone gives me the blues. I have decided to pick a song that emotes sadness in its lyrics yet pumps me up and possibly will energize me at the same time. This amazing song by former Thin Lizzy guitarist, Gary Moore, is one tremendous piece of music.

I hope everyone can get through today with minimal damage. I know it will be a struggle for me.

EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!

On our way through the parking lot last night into the Flying Saucer for the blogger meet up we ran into this guy:

Yep, it was Dalek. I seriously considered turning the other way or at least calling for the Doctor. If we were lucky Martha Jones would have shown up as well. *wink* *wink*

Random Thoughts In Sports This Weekend

Lots of stuff has kept my interest in the world of sports this weekend. I am glad that I am getting back into sports again as I had been straying away with an amazing lack of interest. Here are a few of the things that grabbed me:

- The Chicago Cubs clinched their division. This is exciting for me. I like to think that I am a student of the history of baseball. The concept of seeing the Red Sox, White Sox and Cubs all win the World Series not just in my lifetime but all in the same decade is mind boggling. Obviously, I am still rooting for my Red Sox but how sweet would it be for the Cubbies to pull it off this year?

- UT loses to Florida. This is a story that makes me sad, then makes me happy, then makes me sad. First the sad: I hate Florida. Anytime they win it is a travesty. Now for the happy. I also am not fan of the Vols. I tire of all the hype every year and how all other Tennessee college teams get put on the back burner. Also, I am happy again because I predicted (yeah, like I went out on a ledge for this) that they would be horrible this year. The sad again: My dad and G-Man are UT fans and I hate to see them have football struggles all year long.

- Vanderbilt won again. That makes them undefeated (even though against lackluster opposition) and solidly in this week’s Top 25 College Football rankings at number 21! I love it. Please Vandy, let us break this long draught of post season bowl games. Hopefully the morning and afternoon talk shows will focus more on Vandy and their good season instead of the poor one by UT this week.

- The US wins the Ryder Cup. How great it is to see the US team win back the Ryder Cup from the Euro team and not need golf’s greatest player in Tiger Woods to accomplish the task. U-S-A! U-S-A!

- Yankee Stadium is closing. I will be honest, I hate the Yankees. I was born into it so I can’t be faulted for that. The question I have about closing Yankee Stadium is this: How can an iconic building that is 85 years old, a historical landmark, get torn down? If they did this in Boston or Chicago, heads would roll.

- This week in the NFL. Okay let’s start with my guys, the NE Patriots. They finally lost. It was inevitable with Tom Brady’s injury that they would lose sooner or later. I don’t blame Matt Cassell for it but the putrid defense. This will also let Nelson bust my tail at work tomorrow since he is a Dolphins fan.

The Titans just keep proving me wrong. I told the G-Man during pre-season that the Titans would not only have a losing season but would finish last in the division. I am happy to say that as things look right now, that may not happen. As a matter of fact, it also makes me happy that if they keep winning with Kerry Collins we may not have to be stuck with the boring cry-baby Vince Young this season.

Jay Cutler and his Bronco teammates just keep finding ways to win. I think I will also be proven correct in having said that when he was drafted he would become one of the great quarterbacks in this league. It is nice to see a Vandy alum do well on the big stage. They may just be the team to beat in the AFC.

I think that about does it for sports for me. I am too pooped to talk any more about them today.