Soccer

EEE – Happy 2012

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Happy New Year to everyone.  Being bored as all get-out at my parents, I've decided to restart the EEE, at least for the time being.  Let's go ahead and recap everything since the Boxing Day matches, shall we?

On Boxing Day, Manchester United beat Wigan by a score of 5-0, while City only managed a 0-0 draw with West Brom.  This brought the two Manchester teams level on points, with City in first on goal differential.   A pair of WGOM Derbies as Fulham-Chelsea and Sunderland-Everton both ended 1-1.   The next day saw Wolves draw away to Arsenal, holding on to the 1-1 scoreline with only 10 men after a red card in the 75th minute.  A brace from Welsh wunderkind Gareth Bale saw Spurs dismiss Norwich 2-0.

New Year's Eve saw a surprising Blackburn win over Manchester United by a score of 3-2.   Chelsea lost 3-1 to Aston Villa.  Fulham, Spurs, and Wolves all drew 1-1, with Norwich City,  Swansea City, and Bolton respectively.  With a chance to go three points clear of United, Manchester City lost away to Sunderland 1-0 on  Ji Dong-Won's goal in the 93rd+ minute.  Everton beat West Brom by the same 1-0 scoreline.

In today's action, Fulham defeated Arsenal 2-1 by scoring to goals after Djourou was sent off in the 85th for a second booking.  Chelsea snatched all three points away from Wolves by winning 2-1, Wolves having drawn level in the 85th only for Lampard to score just before stoppage time.

Relevant Table

Position Team Games Played Points Goal Differential
3 Spurs 18 39 15
4 Chelsea 20 37 14
10 Everton 18 24 -1
12 Aston Villa 20 23 -4
13 Fulham 20 23 -4
15 Sunderland 19 21 1
16 Wolves 20 17 -14

EPL Prediction Contest

Place Player Points
1 Homer Dome 19
2 Freealonzo 19
3 Daneeka's Ghost 15
4 MagUidhir 12
5 Spookymilk 11
6 Buffalo 10
7 The Dread Pirate 9
8 DK 8
9 AMR 8
10 davidwatts 3
First Monday Book Day

First Monday Book Day: Summertime Blues

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Happy New Year (celebrated). I'll be heading to the office shortly, to get caught up a bit. I don't have ESPN anyway, so I won't be missing the bowl games (grrr).

The New Year is a traditional time to look backward and look forward. Today's selection, Joan Vinge's 1991 Hugo nominee, The Summer Queen does both of those things.

The book is the long-awaited sequel to Vinge's 1981 Hugo winner, The Snow Queen, based on a Hans Christian Andersen story. I read the original perhaps five years ago -- it was a masterpiece, but I've forgotten too much. This volume (I'm half-way through) is complex, confusing, and tantalizing. Moon Dawntreader, the hidden clone of the Winter Queen and heroine of the first volume, is the Summer Queen, presiding over an effort to drag her techno-phobic people toward modernity during the long "summer," during which her planet's wormhole gate to a wider human civilization is inaccessible. Her planet holds both a Spice-like life-extending substance and the secret to a civilization-wide information technology mediated through "sibyls" -- human computer interfaces. Meanwhile, outside, other characters are in a race to rediscover a long-lost technology for faster-than-light travel.

The characters and (most of the) relationships are interesting and compelling, and the action sequences well drawn. I'm hooked on this space opera. But you'll want to read The Snow Queen first.

New Year's is a time for lists, so here, here and here are links to NPR's top sci fi picks, of the year and for evah (thanks, Sean, for that third link).

I don't yet know where The Summer Queen will rank on my top whatever list, but it will be in the mix. What are you reading?

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–January 1

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Tim Keefe (1857)
Hugh Nicol (1858)
Webster McDonald (1900)
Ethan Allen (1904)
Hank Greenberg (1911)
Joe Reichler (1915)
Sherry Robertson (1919)
Earl Torgeson (1924)
Carl Scheib (1927)
Roy Majtyka (1939)
Bill Bethea (1942)
Rick Albert (1951)
Bob Owchinko (1955)
La Marr Hoyt (1955)
Fernando Tatis (1975)

We would like to wish a very happy birthday to mrs. bhiggum.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–January 1 →

Cup of Coffee

January 1, 2012: Cheers

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To the Trinket, to the Kernel, to famished pete and to the Calf. To Sheenie's fight. To socal's new gig. To the show getting picked up. To meat finding his place in Ireland after it beat him down. To Mag conquering another country. To The Boy getting accepted to the alma mater. To Beau & Stef, to nib & Linds, to Daneeka's Ghost and his wife and whatever he's going to nickname his kid. To those of you who passed the bar. To the memory of CarterHayes's stepfather. To E-6, AMR and anyone else who makes my taste in music better. To the many of you who play Werewolf and Spookymilk Survivor over at my other place. To Sean, who makes this website clean and quick, and who isn't quite as guarded in person. To Jeff's congregations - both the one he serves in his church, and the one he serves by doing such great work here. To ubes's return. To the semi-retirement of our Boss Emeritus, whom without we'd just be a bunch of nerds scattered about the country cheering for the same laundry. To all of us - the religious, the secular, the leftists and rightists, the college sports lovers and college sports haters, the married, the engaged and the still looking, to the kind, the surly, the sarcastic and the level-headed. To the World's Greatest Online Magazine.

I raise my bottle of Sierra Nevada Celebration to y'all. I love you guys.

Remodeled basement. Same half-baked taste.