Rating the October Power Rankings

Most in-season rankings read a lot like the standings, which is boring, I'm gonna try something a little different and look at the rankings from over a month ago and see how right or how wrong I was.

W-L Record in parentheses.

1. L.A. Lakers (13-4) - This still seems about right, you could probably put the Spurs at 1, but I'd take the Lakers over them.
2. Miami (10-8) - Not looking like the second best team in the league, but have lost what little depth they had. Despite their apparent mediocrity now, I think they'll be among the best teams in the league around playoff time, even if their record isn't.
3. Orlando (12-4) - Howard is better offensively, but hasn't looked like as dominant defensively. I'm willing to bet he starts to. Right now they're the best team in the east and I think they'll get better.
4. Utah (14-5) - 14 and 5 with one of the toughest records in the league? Doesn't seem so optimistic now, does it? I'm still a little worried that they've needed to come from behind in all these games, but it's very promising, not to mention exciting that they have.
5. Dallas (13-4) - Who was right about Tyson Chandler? I was. They should only get better when Roderick Bubois or however you spell french gets back.
6. Oklahoma City (12-6) - Russell Westbrook has been amazing. If he can keep it up the Thunder will be making noise in the playoffs.
7. Boston (12-4) - Here's what I said about Boston "Still old, but KG looks healthier than last two years. Will climb if they stay healthy." They were healthy, then Rondo went down, then Rondo came back and Delonte West went down. Jermaine O'Neal hasn't been healthy since he was a Pacer. . . this team is still good, but still looks fragile.
8. Houston (5-12) - My first real whiff. Yes, I probably should have expected Yao to get hurt, but Aaron Brooks too? Their best player and PG going down is a big deal, imagine if the Jazz lost D-Will. That might just be a cop-out, they were losing before Brooks got hurt. In any event, they've been much worse than I expected.
9. Atlanta (11-7) - Have looked very good and very bad, but this is about where I expected them to be.
10. Portland (8-8) - It seems like being a blazer fan is like inviting repeated punches to the gut. Maybe it seems fun at first, but you end up dying from a burst appendix. This Portland team can still be good, not deep into the playoffs good, but make the playoffs good. But, (cue blazer rant)

the new lineup is further evidence that McMillan doesn’t know what he’s doing.

The problem with the Blazers offense for the last couple of seasons has been that everyone except Roy would be better off in an up-tempo offense. But, Roy is the best player on the team, so they force this purple drank pace on Aldridge and Miller and Batum and nobody can really get going. Then you have a second unit that doesn’t have anyone who can create.

Now that Roy needs his minutes limited you’ve got a perfect opportunity to kill both these birds. Miller, Matthews, Batum, Aldridge, Camby is a pretty damn good starting lineup, I’d say they could hang with most teams. Johnson, Roy, Fernandez, Cunningham, Przybilla is a pretty frightening second team too. Obviously you have Roy in there to finish close games, and he should always get the minutes he can handle, sort of like a Ginobili situation.

McMillan is so overrated. Remember this is the guy who was starting Steve Blake over Andre Miller until the FO was like, “enough! we’re trading blake.”

sorry, just me going off on McMillan.
11. Milwaukee (6-11) - Another team with injury issues that hasn't looked good. Looks like we have to temper expectations on Bogut and therefore the bucks for a while.
12. Chicago (9-6) - Have performed admirably without Boozer. They will likely cruise to a division title, although Indiana has looked good. . . .
13. Denver (10-6) - Denver is a tough team for me to figure out, they have had some good wins, but have never really looked great getting them.
14. Phoenix (8-9) - Turns out I was right, They are asking a lot of a Canadian who's closer to 40 than 30.
15. San Antonio (14-2) - Yes, a big miss on my part. Here's what I said about the Spurs, "They'll probably prove me wrong. It will still be boring." They are proving me wrong, and I am still bored by the team.
16. Memphis (7-10) - This team is going nowhere.
17. L.A. Clippers (3-15) - What I said about Clippers, "Blake Griffin has looked like a force, if he stays healthy. . . well, it's still the Clippers." They're still the Clippers even more than I thought they were.
18. New Orleans (12-5) - The Hornets are better than I thought they were, but their 11-1 start was a mirage.
19. Philadelphia (4-13) - Doug Collins is terrible. This team is better than their record, but they're still worse than I thought they'd be.
20. Washington (5-11) - The good news is that all their key players have played well. The bad news is that they've never done it in the same game.
21. Charlotte (6-11) - Blech.
22. Cleveland (7-9) - Crazy thing is that right now, Cleveland's the 8 seed in the east.
23. Sacramento (4-11) - Tyreke Evans does not look right. Sadly he is still Sacramento's best player by a large margin.
24. Indiana (8-7) - Ok, so I ranked Indiana low. In my defense I did say this, "I think they'll be ahead of Cleveland and Charlotte soon. Collison's the real deal and Hibbert will take a step forward. A lot to like here." The promising thing about Indiana is that Collison has been hurt and hasn't looked very good yet, yet they've been getting quality wins.
25. New York (9-9) - Ok, so I ranked New York low. In my defense I did say this, "I could see them making a jump similar to Indiana's." To D'Antoni's credit, he has adjusted his offense to fit Felton's strengths. I didn't know he could do that.
26. New Jersey (6-11) - Yep.
27. Detroit (6-11) - Uh huh.
28. Golden State (8-9) - After a quick 6-2 start they are 2-7 in their last 9. I guess I should reserve judgment until Lee gets back into the swing, but I'm pretty sure they're more 2-7 than 6-2.
29. Toronto (6-11) - Well, they're not quite as bad as I thought. But they're pretty bad. Reggie Evans broke his foot and Joey Dorsey is now starting, yep, Joey Dorsey.
30. Minnesota (4-13) - Darko Milicic and Michael Beasley have looked pretty good and yet the wolves have only won four games. Once Darko and Beasley (Is it just me or do they sound like Harry Potter characters?) remember they aren't very good things will get even worse for them.

Carrying the Four (Loko)

No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes. So, he whispered to the Loko. I have you.

Urban Homesteading for Brooklyn Reporters

When I heard yesterday that Mark Shurtleff and his team of tee-totaling hand-wringers have effectively castrated Four Loko I was immediately worried about a certain member of our hideous world.

Stick it to the man.

Jerry's Kids

The last five Jazz games have been, well, remarkable. Although I am one of the realists who will point out that you can't win a championship if you only play two quarters a game, I think it's great for a different reason: They are playing like a Jerry Sloan team.

During the Carlos Boozer era, the Jazz were not been known for being, to use Logan's favorite condescending adjective, scrappy. (Perhaps pugnacious is a better fit for the Stockton-Malone era Jazz.)

Instead you had players who missed games with phantom injuries. Players getting called out by Deron Williams for giving up in the playoffs because they had vacation plans over the summer. And a team that was psychologically smashed by the Lakers year after year, before they even had a chance to lose the games.

Instead we have a team that seemingly-perennial Jazz-supporter John Hollinger says has "once again established the never-say-die attitude that has made them among the league’s perennial overachievers."

That said, I'm sure Jerry Sloan isn't happy that Jazz have had to come back from double-digit deficits to win the last five. But in the words of the classic player-interview cliché: A win is a win.

The new plan

NaNoWriMo isn't really happening. Unsurprisingly, I've been very busy. (Also, I have wanted to play a lot of Halo: Reach.)

I wasn't expecting to get a Zombie virus... err... cold. Or the number of other little things that happened to distract me. (On the bright side, I did finally hit Captain in Reach.)

Rather than just throw my hands up in the air, I decided to drop the clever gimmick of NaNoWriMo and create a more workable schedule. A schedule from today until Dec. 31 that only demands 1,250 words per day. (Roughly two single-spaced, size 12 Times New Roman pages in Word 2004.)

So the schedule begins again today. That means I need to have 1,250 words written by the end of the day. And that I also have to play less Halo: Reach overall. (That's harder... the first map pack is coming Nov. 30. And I'm only 200,000 credits from earning my final achievement.)

The story, if you're curious, is about war, time travel and people with super powers. No zombies. No werewolves. No vampires. Some unrequited love.

Economies of Scale Part Deux

Has anyone else noticed movies being released on iTunes before they appear in theaters, let alone on DVD? Not blockbusters like Jackass 3D mind you, but smaller independent flicks like Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer which I watched for a cool $6.99 a week before it was scheduled to be screened in Portland.

After Netflix sandbagged us with 30-day delay windows and studios talking of $30 on-demand rental services, I feared we were entering The Empire Strikes Back phase of the digital distribution trilogy. Yet this seems to be a win-win for all parties involved -- well, besides the independent movie theaters.

It's also a pretty nifty exercise in the the psychology of pricing. I would balk at having to pay so much money for an on-demand rental at a hotel, but with four people in my living room, I would have been a fool not to rent Client 9 at $1.74/a head.

Gorillaz, Key Arena, 11/2/10

I won't bury the lead: Gorillaz' "Escape to Plastic Beach" was quite possibly the best concert I have ever seen. 24 hours later and I still can't wipe the smile off my face.

It was a veritable 12 Days of Christmas:

1 Damon Albarn
2 Former Clash Members (Mick Jones and Paul Simonon)
3 De La Soul MCs
4 Back-up Vocalists
5 Fictional Band Members
6 Guest Cameos (Roses Gabor, Bobby Womack, Booty Brown, Little Dragon, Basky, Kano)
7 Piece String Section
8 Person Hypnotic Brass Ensemble

And to top it all off: members of the Lebanese National Orchestra who played an entirely Gorillaz-unrelated music interlude halfway through the set.

The only downside: after this spectacle, I am seriously questioning why I should see another concert ever again.

nanowrimo isn't a word

I guess this is a cry for peer pressure.

I'm going to try NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth this year. And a little push from my family and friends would help. I need to average 1,700-2,000 words a day. (Though I'm confident that, once I get going, I could overshoot that.)

Anyway. Day one. 1,300 words to go.