T-shirt #270 - KUDL 2007 Retro Black Long-Sleeve

T-shirt #270 - KUDL 2007 Retro Black Long-Sleeve

Happy Monday to you all if you happened to stop by here on a Monday.

Grading robot is at full power plowing through two sets of final grades for three classes and then the normal week of grading all to be finished by Friday, though the final grades are due tomorrow. So this did not go up first in the morning because of Grading Robot's activity.

I just finished one set of final grades (due tomorrow) with one set to go, and as you can see, I am very excited for the Lions game tonight. Monday night football. GO LIONS!

Do I really need to discuss this KUDL shirt in any depth? It's the retro re-issue of our 2007 design that we did this year, like my T-shirt #237.

I may take an Ultimate hiatus. I am not sure how many Ultimate shirts I have left, but I am pretty sure that I am out of KUDL shirts. I have featured 29 such shirts (including this one), which is quite a few, especially since KUDL has only been active eight years.

Short entry today, but I have a few things already set up in tomorrow's entry, so it should be a good one.

I have shared about my fantasy sports play before.

I had a good week last week. I won in all six of my fantasy basketball games, with one I had a huge comeback victory on the last day of the week. I am inserting screen shots of the matchup going into Sunday and the final result.

I fell to a horrible 6-9 in picking football spreads for the week, while my colleagues all did much better than I did.

Fantasy football is not decided yet, so I may report back, but I had at least one HUGE win, so I am happy with that.

As you can see in this NO MERCY league, I was down 3-12 going into Sunday games. I had more players active than my opponent so I had hopes that I might pull out a close win. Given the small number of players he had going Sunday, I am surprised to keep under in the turnover and personal foul categories, in which the lower number takes the match. I did not think I would catch him in rebounds, but I was hoping to edge him in several other categories, which as you can see, I did. This was a good one and in large part due to my skill as a player in terms of my draft and my waiver additions. It's also nice to see a comeback as he had more games through the week, but I made it up on the final day.

The other thing I want to share today is a group discussion from Good Reads with Night Film author Marisha Pessl. I have already written about Night Filmas I mention in the message I posted to Good Reads. Marisha did not respond to my message, but I did not expect her to do so. Surely she read it as there were not that many messages. You can surely find the group if you are on Good Reads and you are interested. Once again, I want to promote Marisha's book. It was excellent!!



FROM GOOD READS --------------->

Ask Marisha Pessl - Monday, December 16th! discussion

This topic is about Marisha Pessl

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Featured Author Chat - 2013 > Ask Marisha! 

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message 1: by Cynthia, Goodreads Moderator

Dec 09, 2013 10:47AM

Welcome to the group! Marisha Pessl will be answering questions throughout the day on Monday, December 16th in this thread only. In the meantime if you have a question for Marisha, or just want to introduce yourself, feel free to do so in this thread. 

by Chris

0 minutes ago

I loved NIGHT FILM!! I don't have any questions, but assuming you get these all read, quite a task, and I wanted to add my voice. I wrote about Night Film on my blog, TWICE. :-)
My story about how my wife asked me to read the book as an anniversary gift to her is here
http://365-tshirts.blogspot.com/2013/...
My review of the book is here
http://365-tshirts.blogspot.com/2013/...

LOVED it!! And I think it's quite a rare thing to come to the book via my wife's request that I read it and start on our anniversary (as in immediately) as a gift to her. One quick download to my Kindle and off I went. We were in Hawaii on vacation at the time, so I managed to read much much more on long plane rides and soaks in the hot tub.
Thanks Marisha. You have added to my favorite books not just of this year but of all time.

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Back to Grading...

COUNTDOWN TO THE END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 98 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1312.16 - 19:07

T-shirt #252 - Poultry Days - Thanksgiving

T-shirt #252 - Poultry Days - Thanksgiving

Is it wrong to be more interested in football than Thanksgiving dinner?

Okay, that's not totally true.

I love the time with family.

Family time is very special.

But damn, can the Detroit Lions get a win?

I had wanted to feature a shirt today from Cornwell's Turkeyville because of Thanksgiving and turkey and all that. But they were out of damn shirts when I was there two weeks ago to review the annual Christmas show.


Alas, I am stuck sharing another Ultimate shirt from my one appearance at the classic Poultry Days tournament. Fun tournament. Miserable night trying to camp. Never again.

But it's the only bird-themed shirt I have.

NEW SUBJECT! THE DINNER PARTY

I have a whole category devoted to my fantasy Dinner Party. Recently, I wrote about the Dinner Party in T-shirt #247 - Wonder Woman and T-shirt #231 - CBGB Lou Reed RIP.

The other night I had a dream that I was talking with Laurie Anderson at the Dinner Party. She is the most recent addition to the party. And Bjork was there, talking to us and sharing strange art in the dream. Not sure why or how this came to me in my dream. But it seems prophetic. I have to add Bjork to the Dinner Party.

Here's the most recent text about the Dinner Party from T-shirt #247 - Wonder Woman.

I have written many times on the subject of women and subjects related to women. In fact, most of the people at my fantasy Dinner Party are women: Suzanne Vega, Margaret Atwood, Erykah Badu, Laurie Anderson, and Marisha Pessl. I have recently written about my adoration of Veronica Mars (T-shirt #240), who would be at The Dinner Party if she were a real person and BUFFY, of course, in T-shirt #170. Also, it seems that I kind of forgot about my "Women" category, as it only has one shirt, featuring Katie Holmes, T-shirt #93. I could go on and on. Many shirts have featured women in some way or content about or created by women, such as one of my favorites in T-shirt #161 with TED talk videos by Susan Cain and Jill Bolte Taylor. And I have not even featured the two feminist shirts I own yet. So stay tuned.

GRATITUDE

Someone (Sarah Hale? She wrote "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and is supposedly responsible for making Thanksgiving a national holiday.) started a tradition of listing the things each of us is thankful for at Thanksgiving.

Obviously, I am thankful for my family, my jobs, my home, and, of course, my health. I am prostate-less and cancer free with an infinitesimal chance of recurrence. I have a wife whom I love (and who loves me, which is even more incredible), amazing step-kids, wonderful pets, great parents, an amazing sister, a kind brother-in-law, a courageous and loving cousin, and so on. I have a good home, good work, school, friends, Ultimate, comic books, and gaming. I am fortunate enough to live in a world of ideas. I am healthy and have the full use of all my senses and body parts (except the one that's missing).

But I am also thankful for you readers and this blog. When I began, I did not really imagine I could meet the goal of daily posting and certainly did not imagine that I would be writing this message on day 252 of 365 days. The blog has been a wonderful journey, and I am looking forward to where the remaining days take me, take us.

But even more important than the blog itself, I am blessed with readers. I am so honored and deeply touched that all of you take some of your valuable time to check out what I am doing. I promise to make it worth your while in the remaining 113 days. I will strive to keep the content as varied as possible, though true to my particular oeuvre (lots of comic books!!). Thank you for reading my blog.

It seems that every 70 or so days (I am a bit behind on this third one) I am compelled to share what I originally wrote in T-shirt #78 - Suzanne Vega (when I also started the ongoing story the Dinner Party) about gratitude. I presented it again in T-shirt #157 - Gull Lake. Here it is again. And then, after, between pictures, a reminder of what I wrote the other day in T-shirt #250 - Winnie the Pooh: Love, love is the answer.

I am very grateful for Suzanne Vega and all that she has given me in my life, all that I have shared with her through music, what seems like deeply personal music, without knowing her at all, though feeling like I do know her, know her music.

So, each morning, I run the list of things for which I am grateful. I am not always listing musical artists, like Suzanne Vega, because I focus mostly on my family and community. Though from time to time, musical artists will drift into my consciousness, and I will thank the universe for them, infuse the positive energy of my love into the fabric of the cosmos, because, after all, we are all connected.

LAST WORD ON THE GRATITUDE THING: I got the idea for the gratitude prayer (meditation, list, incantation, catalogue, rumination, reflection, or whatever you want to call it) from a movie calledThe Secret. I am not quite promoting the movie as a "true" exposure of an actual science. In fact, many of the stories in the film are a bit fatuous. However, I like watching it. I showed it to a class (my second viewing) about a month ago, and the idea of the daily gratitude thing struck me. In the movie, one of the interviewees (I forget which one and it's not important) explained how he had a rock in his pocket. At night, he would set it on his dresser with the other contents of his pockets. The next morning, he would retrieve it and remember to list the things for which he was grateful as a daily routine, like a prayer. He had a visitor from South Africa and told the man about his rock and gratitude practice. The man called it a "gratitude rock." After returning to South Africa, he wrote his American friend and asked for some gratitude rocks to be sent to him because one of his children was very sick, and he did not have the money to seek medical care for the child. The interviewee balked at sending "gratitude rocks" because, after all, "they are just rocks," he said. But he found three nice rocks and sent them to his South African friend. Months later, the South African wrote back. The rocks worked! His son was healed and recovered. They paid for his medical treatment by selling a hundred gratitude rocks. People believed in the power of the gratitude rocks.

I found this story inspirational. I do not use a rock, but every day, I make my gratitude list. I send energy into the universe. I focus on the positive and try to limit or dismiss the negative.

I think it's working.

Please check out T-shirt #166 - FAO Schwartz again if you have time and interest.

Love, love is the answer.

LOVE IS THE ANSWER VIDEO (again)

GO LIONS! COUNTDOWN TO THE END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 113 shirts remaining - chris tower - 1311.28 - 9:31

T-shirt #248 - Detroit Lions

T-shirt #248 - Detroit Lions

I am writing this as the Detroit Lions play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They are currently winning 21-17, but Stafford has thrown two interceptions.

I realized I did not have a Lions shirt, so I bought this one the other day.

This is a must win game as the Lions should have won last week against Pittsburgh, and they are in a tie for first in the NFC North with the Chicago Bears with the Green Bay Packers only one game back, though currently losing at home to the Minnesota Vikings.

The most important thing for me as a fan is for the Lions to win this game today. But the second most important thing is for them to win by 10 or more points.

You see, I pick games by the point spreads with a small group of friends, one of whom I have never met in person, and the group has never met each other in person. The common element is me as I know all of the core group of four, but there's a fifth guy who is a friend of one of the others, and he's the one I have not met in person.

The Bucs just took the lead on a heave of a pass by the rookie quarter back. Damn.

So far on the season, I am 74-82-7. I have won among our group four times but only once as a solo win. The leader, Jason, is 80-75-7, followed by my friend Dave Mandrick at 77-78-7, my friend Bill at 76-79-7, and I am tied with Bill's friend Jay.


Okay, so as I was saying, I pick by spreads. Here's my picks today. So far I am doing all right, though in the time it took my to write this, the Lions lost.

I hate missing that Thursday game.

On Tue, Nov 19, 2013 at 7:35 AM, Chris Tower <gmrstudios2@gmail.com> wrote:

2013 WEEK TWELVE SPREADS 1/2 Chris  Jason   Bill      Jay     Dave

Thursday game 

New Orleans [-8] at Atlanta - NEW ORLEANS :-(

SUNDAY 1 p.m. games

Tampa Bay at Detroit [-9] - DETROIT LIONS [I agree that this is a big number for Detroit but at home? I think they can]

Jacksonville at Houston [-10 1/2] - JACKSONVILLE [Another big number but I was tempted to go Texans to turn it around at home, but nah...]

Minnesota at Green Bay [-3 1/2] - GREEN BAY [I can see this going either way but at home I give Green Bay the edge]

San Diego at Kansas City [-5] - SAN DIEGO [I think the Chiefs win but this may come down to a field goal]

Carolina [-3 1/2] at Miami - PANTHERS [Though Miami surprised us last week the Panthers are too good for it to happen again this week]

Pittsburgh at Cleveland [-2] - STEELERS [Tough choice. I like the Browns at home and by only two? I almost went Browns]

Chicago at St. Louis [-1] - RAMS [yes, my sort of upset of the week. At home and favored because of what they did last week IN Indiana]

NY Jets at Baltimore [-4] - RAVENS [Jets just screw me over all the time]

4 p.m. games

Tennessee at Oakland [-1] - RAIDERS [I am tempted to go Titans but Oakland has been looking good and at home by one? yeah]

Indianapolis at Arizona [-2] - COLTS [Also tempted to go Cardinals as people undervalue them even though they are favored but after last week's beat down I expect the Colts to be pissed off]

Dallas at NY Giants [-2 1/2] - COWBOYS [They may not win but I am betting on this being close]

8 p.m. game

Denver [-3] at New England - BRONCOS [yeah, nuff said]

Monday game

San Francisco [-4 1/2] at Washington - 49ERS [This might surprise everyone with the Redskins keeping it close or even winning but I am not betting on it]

Here's my last message about our picks.

NFL Tallies 2013

I love this close season with our picks!! I also love that I recovered from two horrible weeks to have a winning week, especially because I changed my Monday night pick to Carolina at the last minute. I should listen to the gut. That's the lesson here. Though the gut failed me with KC, the Chargers, the Packers, the Jaguars, and most importantly THE LIONS. Terrible.

Crazy ending. Jay, Dave, and I tie for first with records of 7-5-3 for the week. Bill and Jason tie at 6-6-3 for second. Three of us gain one game on Jason and Bill and we are all close, the largest margin being six games.

In points, Bill, Jay, and Dave are all tied with 43 with Jason and me just behind at 42.

Some good games for Week 12, especially an easy pick for Thursday night!

Smoodles Doodles!

-cbt

NFL Tallies 2013

You have read my comments about playing fantasy sports before. I would also like to share my Week 11 update from our KUDL football league as I beat the top team last week, and I am proud. 

Hey Christopher, You have just been sent the following note from Baby Fish Mouth (Christopher) in the Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football league named KUDL Football (70932)... Greetings KUDLers, Though many of the games from last week have playoff implications and good elements to feature, I have to lead this week with a big YIPPEE because my BABY FISH BEAT LOUNGING LEOPOLD!!!! My Baby Fish handed Lindsey's Leopold just her second loss of the season, and we clinched our PLAYOFF BERTH! Though I do not usually crib from the Yahoo recaps, it expresses our come from behind victory, so well. In short, going into Monday's game, Baby Fish were down 208-194. The Fish rallied and schooled to a 215-208 win. Yahoo: "Baby Fish Mouth (6-5, 2,420.00 points) stole one from Lounging Leopold (9-2, 2,564.00 points) 215.00 - 208.00 in a back-and-forth battle. They were led by Drew Brees who had 50.00 points. Baby Fish Mouth scored first and went into Sunday in front 26.50 - 0. They lost the handle after the early Sunday games and trailed 98.50 - 86.00. After the late Sunday games, the lead went back the other way 183.00 - 146.00. By the end of the Sunday night game, the lead flipped yet again and Lounging Leopold went up 208.00 - 194.00. Baby Fish Mouth finally took the matchup in a Mondaynight comeback, led by Brandon LaFell with 14.50 points. With this win, Baby Fish Mouth clinches a playoff berth. " First place doesn't change with this win. Leopold still regins supreme at 9-2. But Favre and Zissou (who both won) are breathing in her fur one game back at 8-3. My Baby Fish are solidly in fourth now at 6-5. Lightning lost this week to Favre, but Dave clinches a playoff spot in fifth place, just one game off Baby Fish at 5-6, and with the distinction of having beaten my Baby Fish two weeks ago. Other news from last week is Favre who logged the biggest margin of victory of the week with a 63 point win over Lightning. Though this victory does not win biggest margin for the season, which so far also goes to Favre for a 115 point win over Discount in Week Three. Mosquitoes are in sixth right now and can clinch a playoff spot this week despite playing Leopold. Seventh place Discount would need a win over my Baby Fish and Mosquitoes loss. Likewise, Foamy who plays Favre would be in the same position, though Foamy holds a tie break advantage having logged his second win of the season in a strong 275.5-218 win last week over Discount. Even with either Foamy or Discount winning, I think Mosquitoes are a virtual lock for the sixth spot. Playoffs start Dec. 3rd with six teams, five of which have clinched. Right now, Leopold and Favre would have first round byes with Baby Fish meeting Lightining and Zissou play Mosquitoes (assuming they clinch). But this could change. Zissou has a shot at second. If Leopold were to lose again (unlikely), things could get crazy. Lightning could flip with Baby Fish in the 4th and 5th slots, but this would do little to affect playoffs. As always, I hope you are all having as much fun as I am. New Orleans vs. Atlanta tonight. Make sure the players you active are active and VOTE MATCHUPS before the games are locked down. a KUDLy rapier of punster wit -tower Go to League --Fantasy Football Commissioner http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/f1

HUZZAH!

I wish the Lions had won. :-(

COUNTDOWN TO THE END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 117 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1311.24 - 16:15