Multiply 365 Day 319 - Dial M for murder (or at least mash this keyboard)

If this were Sesame Street, this blog might be brought to you by the letter M, except that it couldn't be. One of my blogging issues these days is simply the m key. Yes, my laptop is functioning without one of those, first it just would work part of the time, maybe every third or fourth time I would press it I would get an m, but the problem has gotten progressively worse, to the point where now it doesn't work at all.

Mind you, I can always just go over to my desktop and blog from there, all of the keys are functional on that piece of equipment, but there is something to be said for being able to blog from wherever, just by cracking open the laptop and typing away. And I still take the laptop to work with me every day, so not having an m key is a little bit of a pain in the ass. I could just buy a new laptop, or at least a new refurbished one. Checking Ebay the other day, the same company I bought this one from is now selling a newer version of the same model laptop (Dell Latitude) with Windows 7 (I am still running XP on this one) for around the same price as I got this one for. And I don't blame them for my laptop issues, I have had this one for a while now and it literally goes everywhere with me, back home when I visit the family, to work every day; it has definitely logged a couple of miles and plenty of usage in the time I have had it. And technically it is still usable, while the m key is gone, I am using a little workaround where I pull up the virtual keyboard and just point and click on the m whenever I need one. Which it turns out, is quite often.

I guess that is one of the problems with having a name like Matt, any time I write it I need that damn key. And I am pretty much guaranteed to be firing off a few email missives each day just for work. But not having the key just gives me another reason not to blog, it is hard enough to come up ideas on what to blog about, it is more of a pain to have an idea and know that in order to get it down on the page I have to go through some convoluted method to actually take an idea and turn it into a blog entry.

Not that that is the only reason I haven't been blogging as much recently, it isn't even the main reason, but it is just another one.

Multiply 365 Day 318 - Fantasy update

Sitting here watching the Pne - Islanders game and it is time for the first intermission, so I figured this is as good a tile as any to blog.  But what to blog about?   Hmmmm.  Well I haven't talked about my fantasy football teams in a while, so I might as well go ahead and cover that topic this evening.

For the record, I am involved in three leagues this year as well as one survivor pool.  The survivor pool is over for me, the premise o iyt is relatively simple, each week you take a look at the entire schedule of NFL games and pick one team yhou think will win.  If you lose you are done, if you win then you move on to the next week, the only stipulation being you can pick a team you have previously used.  The pool started with 44 people in it, I managed to make the final three before being eliminated.  But because it is like Highlander (there can be only one), technically I didn't win, though I will take a third place finish.

As for football leagues, most are either starting their playoffs or will do so next week.  Of the three leagues I am in, I made the playoffs in two of them.  Of course the one league where I didn't make the playoffs was the one league I actually paid to get in, the bar league that I have been in for around two decades now.  That team, well, let's just say it didn't do too well.  We are playing our last week of the season and my record is 4-9. which eliminates me from any talk of playoff consideration.  Admittedly I didn't have my best draft in that league, but I was killed with injuries as well.  I lost Fred Jackson (who I drafted in all three leagues) when he broke his leg.  Losing a starting running back who is set to rush for 1000 yards (he had 934 yards rushing when he went down with an injury) is a pretty big blow to most fantasy teams, but it was the quarterback carousel that I ended up being on that really killed me.  I started with Matt Schaub, who was decent when I had him, but he fell to the season ending injury bug when he hurt his foot.  That sent me scrambling to the free agent wire, where I picked up Jay Cutler, who lasted one week before he too fell victim to the season ending injury bug.  Back to the free agent wire, I decided to take a flier on Matt Leinart, Schaub's back up in Houston.  That experiment lasted about one quarter of one game before Leinart would end his season with a broken collarbone.  That's right, I lost three quarterbacks in three weeks.  That takes skill right there.  

In the other league I am in on Yahoo, I have clinched a playoff spot with a 10-3 record.  The only real question is what seed I will be in the playoffs, either #1 or #2.  There is one other team wioth an identical 10-3 mark, though they hold the tiebreaker (points scored), so I will need to win and have the other team lose for the #1 spot, otherwise I will enter the playoffs as the #2 seed.

Lastly there is the Madden/Facebook league, where our playoffs start this weekend.  Again I made the playoffs with a 10-3 record, but the league has 12 teams and 10-3 was only good for the #3 seed.  The top two seeds (and first round byes) went to two teams with 11-2 records.  But in that league you needed to be no worse than 8-5 just to get a playoff spot (6 of 12 teams qualify), it was pretty competitive for most of the year.  So I will start the playoffs against the 6th seeded team and go from there.  

Anyway, that is a quick update on the fantasy teams.  And now the hockey game is back on, so I am outta here.

Karaoke Friday - The hockey edition

I know, another feature that has slipped from the blog, but with me having a pair of tickets to Monday night's hockey game (Penguins - Bruins), it seemed like a good time to add this little ditty to the Karaoke list, since it is played every time the Pens score a goal



WOOHOO!
WOOHOO!
WOOHOO!
WOOHOO!

I got my head checked
By a jumbo jet
It wasn't easy
But nothing is,
No -

WOOHOO!
When I feel heavy metal WOOHOO!
And I'm pins and I'm needles WOOHOO!
Well I lie and I'm easy
All of the time but I'm never sure why I need you
Pleased to meet you!

I got my head done
When I was young
It's not my problem
It's not my - problem -

WOOHOO!
When I feel heavy metal WOOHOO!
And I'm pins and I'm needles WOOHOO!
Well I lie and I'm easy
All of the time but I'm never sure why I need you
Pleased to meet you!

Yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah
Oh, yeah