My fantasy, my nightmare

For reasons that aren't relevant to this post, I am in the 11th week of my first fantasy sports experience. I've heard a lot of people talk about it, about how fun it is, how it makes sports come so much more "alive," that it re-creates the experience of playing — the nervousness, the anxiety, etc.

What a load.

Anyway, to get the experience I joined the fantasy league for Barclay's Premier League. Yes, English premier league soccer. Don't ask me why I thought I could do it, just go with it.

Well, as you can see by the picture, after 10 weeks, I am near the bottom, particularly for the month of October. To put this in a bit of perspective, there were about 1.4 million people who joined the first week (when I did), and about 200,000 more who have joined over the past 10 weeks. So, that means overall, I am about 150,000 from the BOTTOM of people who have been playing all 10 weeks. October, as you can see, has been a really fine month, with my 120 points 80,000 from dead last.

Dead last. Holey-Moley is right! My fantasy dream season has turned into a fantasy nightmare. Except without the whipped cream of my real nightmare fantasies (don't ask).

But no more. From this day forward, I plan to take a real interest in what I'm doing. To be honest, I chose my team on what little name recognition I could muster. The other nine players I chose just because their name sounded cool. That explains why I chose Kitson, from Stoke City. His 18 points over the past 10 weeks explains why I traded him.

So, to set the record straight, my fantasy is to struggle through a season in which the futility of my efforts is surpassed only by the futility of my understanding of the league, its team, its history, and its players.

(Note: This originally appeared in my other blog: 10 Minute Ramble, in case you're wondering.)

Pomepedia

So, my nephew’s band, The Pomegranates, has a entry in Wikipedia, the online user-generated encyclopedia of everything. (Here it is) I guess that means they’ve made it, on some level. It used to be that if you googled yourself and found yourself, you pretty much made it. Now, in this age of information, it’s probably Wikipedia.

It used to be that google was a noun, too. But that’s another story.

Sure, one of the band’s members, or the band’s label, created the citation, but still, it’s there. For any high schooler to try and use in a research paper. But don’t even THINK about using it in college. No way. Wikipedia is the devil.

Maybe.

But it IS a good place to start if you’re looking into something. I would bet that deep down, most professors who openly deride Wikipedia have used it at one time or another. Just to get a sense of things. It’s a starting point. You wouldn’t use it as a prime source for research, but it could point you to some prime sources for research

If we could put it in a hierarchy, here’s how I see it:

1. Primary Sources – what you should use


2. Secondary Sources – what you can use to point you to primary sources


3. Wikipedia – what you can use to point you to secondary sources

In this day and age, we need to use as many tools as possible to make sense of the world. To not is to fall behind.

Anyway, here’s a video of the Poms. My nephew plays the bass. He's not that good of a dancer, but I'm proud of him.

Pomegranates on Lujo Records.

William H. Macy in a new light

Well, this afternoon I found myself on the couch flipping through the channels when the remote found Berry Gordy's "The Last Dragon" (1985). Wow. Talk about a film that was firmly in the moment of the 80s. The sad (though, not really) part is, I can remember paying about $3.50 to see this movie with my oldest brother in Durham, N.C. I remember thinking it was cheesy then, but a lovable kind of cheese. Kind of kitsch-y, but with a wink, you know, as if it was joking all along.

Anyway, I was sitting and during one of the scenes who else do I see but William H. Macy -- Jerry Lundegaard himself -- playing one of his first movie roles. He was the assistant/manager to Vanity. To be honest, he looked pretty much the same and sounded exactly the same.

I like William H. Macy. I liked him in Fargo. I liked him in Mystery Men. I liked him in The Cooler. I liked him in State and Main. I liked him in Happy, Texas. Magnolia. Face it, the man's been in a lot of movies. He's a great character actor. And yet I can't imagine him, now, in a movie like "The Last Dragon." I wonder if he looks back to that time in his life and gets an embarrassed grin. Hey, you gotta pay the bills, right?




Anyway, in case you missed it, I found the clip on youtube. He'll appear at about 3:15.

And so that's my surprising Saturday. Though I don't know which surprised me more: seeing William H. Macy in "The Last Dragon," or finding the clip online ...

Probably the former. Not so much the latter.