Saturday, March 06, 2004

Dear lord!

Elrock, did you see the Philly v Ottawa game last night? Damn, I missed it but I did see the highlights. Fights, Fights, Fights. A total of 55 penalties, 21 fighting majors, 397 PIM in the LAST TWO MINUTES. Crazy!

Rude: when do we want to throw down the gloves and have at it? I am fairly open. We could play Sunday night maybe? or Maybe Tuesday night? What say you?

All: I will be in Italy from the 20th of March to the 4th of April. This may cause a little SNAFU for the blood bowel sUparcUp gameplay flow. SInce we seem to be going a little faster than anticipated I am not sure who I will be up against at that point. Schedule says Ill be playing Johnny, but, it could be dennis or maybe even Ryan at that point.

Ortz
it's points to kick some blood bowl ass with!!! har har..

where is that Dennis guy.... seriously someone give me his number or tell him to get his lazy ass online. I need a confidence booster by tooling his team, my orcs will dominate this league!!!

Bring it!!!!

J

Thursday, March 04, 2004

BIRD FLU YAR!!

Congrats Jael! Now, what are these points for?

Anyone watch that new Stephen King tv show, KINGdom Hospital (... bibliotecha... hospitale...) ? It was a lot better than I imagined it would be. Still wasn't all that great - definately not something I'd mark on my calendar to watch every week, but for a S. Kingington work, it was sorta watchable.

I'll finish the da vinci code tonight sometime. It is a pretty fast read. Maybe 8 hours MAX to read the whole thing! Maybe less. Its ok. He seems like a pretty crappy writer, but I'm a suxor for secret society shit, and all that shit is always fun and interesting to read. His writing and characters and action and everything else seems SO BAD though. I guess thats modern day pulp-fiction for you, but sheesh. "Langdon was in his early forties and looked like Harrison Ford in a tweed jacket." Thats just lame. Oh well. It ain't HORRIBLE, but Jesus H. Gibson, it doesn't seem like he tries very hard. I guess the opposite end of the speculum is Quicksilver by Neil Stephenson. OH GOD, IT NEVER ENDS! I'm gonna finish that damn book though - invested way too much time into it already.

Ok, enron - tell me when u wanna lose, mmmk? thx

The relationship of Sex = 680-750 Death = < 670

Yay! more matches!

Dennis is never on the ICQ... I'll never get my next match
It'll test your brain, and your mind, and your head, and your dan - or - 690, is that good?

- Da Vinci Code was a perfect read while tooling about on vacation through Costa Rica. Quick, numerous and short chapters, interesting. Perhaps more interesting for Art Majors? Thumbs up!

- Is 690 good? If so, hooray!

- A great game was played between the Leather Chaps and the Costa Rippers, a stirring tie 2 - 2 was the result. Many unfortunate ones and double skulls were rolled, many heroics plays made, many elves sitting in the KO box (6 at once!). Watch the replay for some fun! The matches that remain are: Shh.. it'll be over soon vs. Tea and Crumpets, and Smoking Tacos vs. Weapons of Mass Corruption. We all eagerly await the results!
It'll test your brain, and your mind, and your head.

1. Da Vinci Code was a fun read. When it's over, you'll set it down and never look back.
1a. Although one of the "puzzles" is aggravatingly easy, and the characters spend an agonizingly long time on it. The biggest flaw of the book, by far.
2. I watched School of Rock last night and that was a funny movie. Not a "laugh all the time comedy masterpiece" movie like Big Lebowski or something, just... a really funny movie. I really liked Jack Black's character. He is utterly fixated on and devoted to rock. Besides getting the occasional hangover, throughout the movie he really expresses no interest in sex, drugs, or any kind of tangential hobby. He desires and lives rock.

Wednesday, March 03, 2004

Sweetness!!

Sorry, I'll read everyones post later, just wanted to share my euphoria! 690 baby! i still need to improve by about 20-30 points but other than that I'm pretty stoked on what I got.

Tuesday, March 02, 2004

Fantasy’s Inability to Overcome Reality !

The Relationship between Sex and Death !

Dependence on Men !


Hehe - I just did a quick search, and some weird study guide for the play came up. Those are the headers for some of the "themes" from the play.

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/streetcar/themes.html

I haven't seen it in awhile, and I'm too pooped to read what I found, but it looks interesting. :)

I'm reading that book the Da Vinci Code right now. Its pretty good. Very commercial and EASY as all hell to read - it looks like font size is like 14 or 18, hehe. But, the story is *semi* interesting and a lot better than watching friends and wil and grace reruns on tv right now, which is what i probably would be doing.

Quicksilver - finally got past page 350 to "book 2" which is about the Shaftoe character - waaaaay better than the 1st section of the book, but still a little dense and boring. HMMM.
No Shit!

Marlon Brando was quite a striking handsome man in that movie. Very James Dean looking. I had to look at the movie cover to make sure I wasnt smoking crack. What happened to him? He turned into a HUGE slob. What I didnt get was why she just completely lost it. I mean what did the husband do to her in the scene with the mirror and the broken bottle? I know she was a bit on the edge before that but did she just snap, or was there something implied?

Bortz

Street Car Named Desire. I liked it. It is definately different. It's tennessee williams, right? Brando is cool in it - thats when he was a hunk, now he is jaba the hunk of sick fat fuckness. EWW! I think the message I got from the movie is, its ok to beat your girlfriend, as long as she has a crazy sister visiting (and you cry like a little baby afterwards.)

I dont like Toe Jamb

Ja -eL: I am sorry if I misunderstood your comments. Also, it was not my intent to make it sound like you were making a complete blanket statement about the game and strength scores. What I meant, and what I think everyone was trying to show in our own ways was that the game has a lot of facets and that there are some teams that TEND to dominate (Chaos Dwarves) and some that TEND to suck ass, read gobbos and halflings. But mostly that a lot of the game is decided by how well a strategy is matched with the inherent skillset of a team. That and what team you are playing against. I think your choice of dropping the Dark Elves is probably a good one. That team seems to be a pretty advanded team to play. Personally I find finesse teams quite difficult to play; yet, brutish teams are easier since the strategy is more clearly laid out before me. Rudy had some key points to go with. Re-Rolls and at least one backup player, maybe two.

Believe it or not, my goal this tournament is to win one game. If I can do that, I will consider the Suparbowl Cup a sa'sess.

Has anyone else seen the movie A Street Car Named Desire? I just watched it for the first time today and I am not really sure what to think about the movie. I was a bit confused on a few bits in the movie. Anyone have any thoughts on it?

The greastest news eVAr: According to the unemployment office person I spoke with yesterday, working professionals in the bay area have an average unemployment period right now of 8.5 to 9 months. Stale. I think after I get back from Italy I am going to go back to pissing away my time in the Temp agencies because I wont make the average time alive. Ill be eating saltine crakers and raw top ramen out of a card board box.

George W. Bush is a boner

PS I think I might be developing Carpal Tunnel. YEAH! My right hand really hurts when I type, use the mouse, or use other fine hand motor skills. It even hurts when I rest it a certain position. This has been going on for weeks and when I dont use the computer for a few days it starts to feel better. I have been try to limit my typing and I am trying to train my left hand to use the mouse. tough. :(
:(

Sorry I destroyed your team Johnny! When we were all playing BB a few months ago, I also had a Dark Elfz team, and they're hard to play. Some of the lessons I learned way back then were:

*Buy Re-rolls
*Buy an Apothecary
*Have at LEAST one guy/gal/lineman in reserve

One of the main reasons I created a Norse team was that most of the players come stock with BLOCK, which I learned the hard way is an important skill.

Another reason for my utter and complete domination of your team was that you got some crummy rolls. Blame the godz, greek. The "Hairy Box" formation I used in destruction of your team really isn't the most sound strategy. Your defense against it was a line of guys who were afraid to engage my norse. They moved back while I moved forward. Have some elfan ballz dude! I possibly could have been stopped.

But, its all good. Live and learn. :)

Will the "Shmokin' Tack-O's" be the next team to feel the Nor-dick Musall Fawk? Maybe. MAYBE NOT! Muahahahahaah! *cough* *cough*

I don't know how relative the sets of empirical data is to my point...

First of all, I didn't say anywhere that the game was flawed and that would be the incorrect assumption. I did state however, I felt the game was based heavily on strength. According to how FUMBBL calculates the strength ratings,

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
MA -6 -6 -4 -2 -1 0 2.5 4 5 8 13 15
ST - 6 -3 0 6 9 12 18 20
AG -4 -2 0 2 6 8
AV -5 -5 -5 -5 -4.5 -4 -2 0 1 3

the strength stat at 4 is valuated at 6 points versus any of the other stats. The fact is, excluding movement, blocking is the most used action in the game making strength by far the most widely used stat. Because of that fact, it can be argued that strength is the one most vital? perhaps "desireable" statistic in the game.

Now, whether strength, agility, skills, or armor value determines the outcome of a game is a separate issue and very debateable. To evaluate what team performs better than others, you can look at it two ways. Practically, there are many crucial and intangible factors, for instance, coaching, luck (die roll), individual strategy and player selection. (as enron points out). These are factors that cannot be weighted, and hence can throw any game off.

If you want to look at empirical data, despite the fact that that empirical data is flawed since there are no control parameters, which causes unecessary inaccuracies, is that based on both sets of datas, you can see a relationship. Some teams are ranked better than others. Chaos dwarves, Wood elves, Lizardmen are consistently ranked high, Dwarfs, orcs and lizardmen in the middle, and halflings, goblins on the bottom.

The only thing for certain is that the teams clearly are not balanced. Goblins and Halflings will never match up statistically to their counterparts of the game. The reason is that each teams start off with different skills, stats, and cost. Some teams are better in the long run, and others are better at the gate.
Another set of Stats..

More emperical data to chew on. Based on 7998 Coaches playing 41353 teams in a total of 128765 matches @ Fumbbl Race Stats. You will find the elves do very well as well as lizardmen and other finesse teams. In fact the Norse have one of the worst records. Losing more than they win. Moral of the story, coaching style and player selection needs to match the team and one game does not make emperical data.

The data they keep on the FumBBL site is very indepth actually and very cool. Gives a real corss section of races, players, and even better, long term race development stats. I.e. how well a race will fare over time as a team becomes more experienced. Check out all the stats at http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=stats.

Yo Joe
Opinions, Shmopinions

Okay, to further disprove my claim that all the teams are balanced and it's the coach, other coaches, tournament structure and myriad other factors that effect the success or failure of any team, here is a short listing of the NAF official rankings and the first representation of each race in the rankings, of 748 teams:

1 - Chaos Dwarfs
2 - Wood Elves
4 - Undead
8 - Lizardmen
10 - Humans
11 - Norse
12 - Orcs
14 - Dwarfs
15 - Skaven
22 - Amazons
26 - Necromantic
31 - Dark Elves
48 - High Elves

(Goblin and Halfling teams don't count, cause they are played to lose!)

I don't know what this proves, but it is interesting to look at. We all know what they say about statistics...

PS Hey Jon, like that use of myriad?

PPS Blood Bowl is fun even when you lose

PPPS Teh Supar ACtion Cup I is the first iteration of said tournament, and we can change the teams and rules between leagues, so if we feel there are changes that need to be made to the structure, we can!
Disagree with the nature of the game being pro-strength

I watched the game, and that tactic works for everyone, the cage is a great method of moving the ball downfield. IMHO, I think you may have over spent on blitzers which left no room for reserves, or an apothecary (I think). Also, the DE's have that great 4 AG, and need to be played as such. They just can't play a bashy style, and should play to the strength of the team rather than the strength of the opponent, ie bash vs. norse. Admittedly, the norse are tough to play against with their blocks across the board, but they are slow (MA 6), soft (AV 7), and predictable. I have had my ass handed to me by the norse and other bashy teams, and I have beat them too. Some people even argue that finesse teams dominate bashy teams...
Flaws?

Ja -El: Maybe... But not the way you are describing them. I have seen Elrocks finesse teams make a fucking nightmare out of the games against me (Not that I am a great coach mind you). You need to have a suitable strategy to suit the team. The finesse teams are a little harder to play and in the long run, like in tournys they can be slowly eroded away with injuries. In some cases huge differences in ST and AG can be a problem, take the Halflings as an example. However, the Elves are more capable then you give them credit. Of all the teams, I hate the teams with Wardancers, more than anyother creature. Whoredancers were always little bitches. More star player points were racked up with them than any other single player type.

Jon: I thought you always told your Uncle that your cock is Huuuge. I checked out the Grey album. It is interesting. Im not a big fan of Jay-Z so it isnt well suited for me. The sound was not all that great even for an mp3. I presume the sound quality problems were as a result of capture/ripping and less from compression. It was cool how the two were mixed so cleanly and seemed to belong together. SHame on the RIAA and EMI as usual though. Fuggers. Some day they will wake up and smell the coffee.

Blah
Yeah I would agree. I would have...

loved to continue with the dark elves. Unfortunately, I don't intend to fight against the designed nature of the game. The designers un/intentionally? weighed the advantage towards strength rather than finesse and this instance was particularly vivid when Rudy pulled the infamous Statue of Liberty play by surrounding all his brute fighters around his ball carrier and inching toward a sure touchdown and killing the clock. In all honesty, the game should not allow those kinds of tactics or make it so easy to deploy.

But looking forward to dishing some major painage. Remember, bashing teams can foul too ;)
Disappointed, yes

Can't say I'm not disappointed with the decision to abandon Tiny Bubbles for an Orc team, but hey, whatever works. 3 bashy teams and 3 non-bashy teams.... should be interesting. Those of us that are NON bashy are going to have to foul a lot more to keep the number of casualties suffered even.
1. I've been reading everything, even though I haven't been posting a lot.
2. I'm enjoying reading about the BB results! Do you guys have war stories to tell? Particularly thrilling moments to describe?
3. Coffee is good, even when it's from McDonald's, where the hamburgers are the worss.
4. I want to hear the Grey Album, but I suspect downloading it on my narrowband connection would be difficult.
5. My cock is 6.25" long.
BB Announcement:

Tiny Bubbles is no more. The Dark Elves, picking up what's left of their broken pride, after suffering a crushing loss against a weaker and laughable opponent, Weapons of Mass Corruption, have decided to return back into the dark woods. Taking the Dark Elves place amongst the blood bowl competition, the orcs from the deadliest caves have sent a new band of bloodlust challengers... "Shh.. it'll be over soon"...

Eric... Teams under approval. (That's the name of the team BTW)

Jael

Monday, March 01, 2004

The Results Are In!!!

First week of Teh Supar Action Cup results are in!

Check em out! (uses excel)

Sheet one is the Leader Board, and sheet two are the standings and results...

Sunday, February 29, 2004

Stuff...

Well the Smoking Tacos got threshed pretty good, by Elrock's team. 2-0. Rain = Bad.

Jon: You are probably aware of this but the new Thief 3 site is up w/ trailer.

Back to chores.

The Grey Album

This DJ from here mixed the beatles "white album" with jay-z's "black album." Thus, the grey album. Obviously it isn't legal, but its pretty damn cool. My friend knows the dj who did it, but I also found it for d/l here:

http://www.illegal-art.org/audio/grey.html

Grab em while you can! It's pretty cool... I know u can get it at kazaa and those kinda places, but here it is all nicely laid out, spy/ad/viri-free.

Rock On...