Coming down with something

again... This is really getting annoying now. After two solid workouts at the gym in the past few days I am once again coming down with some sort of sickness. I first noticed myself getting affected by short dizzy spells while sitting in front of the computer last night. Soon thereafter, it was followed by muscle aches all over. Routine soreness from the workouts became excruciatingly painful. Allergies are magnified 4 times. This sux.

Please go away whatever you are.

Fantasy Football '04

This past friday we held our annual draft for BJT keeper league. Here's the six players I held over from last year:

QB Tom Brady (the two time Superbowl MVP that produces mediocre fantasy numbers)
RB Travis Henry (Willis please get traded)
RB Corey Dillon (This guy's future is in Belicheks's hands)
WR Chad Johnson (el capitan of my squad)
WR Hines Ward (my 2nd most valuable player behind Chad)

Needs:
Obviously I'm hurting at running back like I am every year. I swear.. any RB I touch touch turns to bust. This year I put an end to this by drafting a solid RB for years to come. An alternate QB would help tremdously as well.

Draft Results and Analysis:

1.05 RB Deshaun Foster ~ After KJones, CBrown, QGriffin, SJackson went (in that order) I had to grab him. I'll admit it was a bit of a reach and I heard it from the haters soon after but this is my gem... this is my keeper for years to come. Yeah I got trumped with the SJax pick right but now I truly believe it was a blessing in disguise. I also toyed with the idea of taking Andre Johnson or Julius Jones here too.

2.05 RB Charlie Garner - After getting trumped once again (AJ taken at 2.04) I had to go with value. Garner happened to be the next dood on the list. The man was expected to in the first round. I have no qualms taking value here.

3.05 WR Jerry Porter - Yup, another dood I had on both teams last year. He suddenly finds himself Oakland's WR1 and is due for a breakout year. Bow down to the best WR corps in the league: chad/hines/jerry.

4.05 QB Byron Leftwich - In my mocks I was drafting this guy in the 3rd round. I decided before my 3rd pick that he had a better chance of lasting until the 4th. I was right. This guy is my gem QB who loves to throw downfield. He's got one of the best Offensive lines in the league and is extremely proficient in the red zone.

5.05 WR Deion Branch - I could've had Brandon Lloyd at this spot since I had both him and Branch ranked equally but opted for Branch for the Brady-Branch connection. I hope I don't regret it.

6.05 WR Kevin Johnson - I had this guy ranked higher that most. While others may not have even had him on their draft sheets I had this guy bumped up pretty high. He enters the regular season as Baltimore's WR1. My boy's got sure hands and Boller is much more confident and accurate. From watching the first preseason game, it's apparent that they've developed some chemistry already.

7.05 RB Justin Fargas - I originally draft Famous Amos here but swapped him out for Fargas soon after the draft concluded. He's somewhat of a longshot but this guy can flat out run and he's got a nose for the endzone. He currently sits 2nd on Oakland's depth chart behind Wheatley, who I feel cannot last as a every down back for long.

8.05 K Sebastian Janikowski - My drunk homie... still has the strongest leg in the NFL.

9.05 DEF RAMS - According to my rankings, these guys have the easiest first 3 games. They just might be the component that gets me off to a strong start.

Last week in a Nutshell

To celebrate our 1 yr wedding anniversary K and I spent 3 days down in Arroyo Grande (just south of San Luis Obisbo) at the majestic estate of a local winery. Although we have stayed at a friend's small winery up in Napa before this one was unreal. I'm talking 1800 acres of lush vinyards. The estate was a gorgeous villa atop a hill with 360 degree views of the countryside. The pool appeared to fall off the edge hill into rows and rows of lemon trees. And to top it all off, the gameroom housed a sweet brunswick regulation pool table. Talk about heaven.

We spent most of the two days relaxing by the pool, drinking wine (only me), eating at local restaurants in nearby Pismo Beach, and playing alot of pool. We were even crazy enough to drive down to Santa Barbara for literally a few minutes. The sky was overcast and frankly the place looked like any other generic California coastal town. That's what we get not planning the trip i guess...

On the way back, we stopped at a strange Danish village called Solvang and grabbed some pastries and stuff. I was a little bitter about wasting an entire afternoon on the road but I got over it as soon as I was swimming in the pool back at the estate.

On our way back to da yay we decided to check out Hearst Castle. Now this place was the most extravagant pimp home I've ever seen. William Randolph Hearst... a muthafuckin big baller.

A couple things to note though... I wish there was a sign that stating it would be in your best interest to head south on 1 to get back on 101. That 80 mile drive along Hwy 1 from San Simeon to Monterey was treacherous and it really took alot out of me. And yes, I really need to take it easy on the caffeine during long drives. Paranoia seems to result from excessive alertness.

Inside Al-Qaeda's Hard Drive

Fiending for some Madden

So I woke up late this morning. Thursday, the day where meetings fill my entire schedule. Usually, I would've jumped into the shower then quickly into the office on my most stressful day of the week. But oh no.. not today. Today, Madden 2005 was released. So instead, I jumped into whatever clothes were laying on the floor and drove like a madman to my local Best Buy to cop my muthafuckin copy. Woohoo!!!

And now here I sit in my cubicle counting the minutes until I can go home and play...

werd 

UNIX is sexy

# who |grep -i blonde |date; cd ~; unzip; touch; strip; finger; mount; gasp; yes; uptime; umount; sleep

SF vs LA

Another awesome post from Rok of comecorrect.net about the differences between SF and LA. I agree 100%:

"LA has hotter girls, but their hotness comes with a price: more fakeness. From boobs to style, LA women are unhealthily superficial. Because the weather is much warmer, there's more skin. Summer in LA is sexier than summer in SF."

"SF has a funkier and more eclectic culture, but LA produces 100,000 times more exportable culture. LA and New York are in their own league in terms of culture production. It's where the money the money is; it's where the talent is; it's where the action is. That said, SF's lower profile makes it a better breeding ground for certain underground and indie cultural manifestations."

Right on the money... I couldn't agree more.

What's Been Crackalackin

I told my boss about our new FTE that will be arriving around Feb/Mar. I just wanted to giver her a heads up in case she notices i suddenly less visible and responsive these upcoming months.

I've beens suffering from extreme upper and lower back pain. Most likely, it's a direct result of sitting on my ass all day eating baby back ribs and bread. It doesn't help that I've been avoiding the gym either. That old adage that a father-to-be usually puts on around ten pounds during the mother's pregnancy is completely true. I gotta turn this around.

Going through a bit of a hacker revival as of late. That desire to hack and quench my thirst for systems knowledge is strong once again... real strong. Although I've been lazy for the most part, haven't been lazy about learning new things. Thanks SANS. Thanks Authors of How to Own a Continent (awesome book).

Last but definitely not least: Football season is here. Tonight the Hall of Fame Game kicks off in Canton, OH. DEN (-1) vs WASH. Finally.. my favorite time of the year.

No Way

# uname -a
AIX grudnick 1 5 000103314C00
# uptime
02:43AM up 6424 days, 1:25, 4 users, load average: 0.08, 0.05, 0.05