TV Licences

Top ten reasons why a TV licence (The UK, specifically) is better than a bunch of commercials.

1. No Zach Braff water commercials
2. no adverts for things that are nowhere near you, Boston Market
3. no miniature cliffhangers in shows, only real ones between episodes
4. no getting sick of what used to be a good song because you hear it sung by a phone and bluetooth earpiece that's attached to it
5. less chance of seeing Larry the Cable Guy accidentally
6. free
7. credit
8. report
9. dot
10. com
    

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Now playing: MSNBC Rachel Maddow (video) - 10-27-2008-194906
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The team plays awfully after Tuesday lunchtime - a question of the usefulness of sports statistics

With how much I like politics, I'm kind of wondering why I don't pay more attention to sports. Not so much the actual sports themselves but the broadcasting and coverage thereof - sport coverage and political coverage have very similar tactics.

One of the main tactics I've recently noticed is the "inane statistics" tactic. In politics it almost makes sense, such as "sitting republican congressmen in heavily democratic constituencies tend to win due to name recognition" or "the bradley effect", and don't even get me started on polls which I, nor you, nor anyone you've ever met, have been involved with. But between last night's ALCS game six between Boston and Tampa and this afternoon's ass-whoopin' (if you'll forgive the term) of the Colts by the Packers, there's quite a bit of statistics going on.

For the baseball game there was nearly every batter's record against a right/left-handed pitcher (whichever it may have been), and when the pitchers changed, it would have the pitcher's record against Lefty/Righty batters. ESPN.com's live streaming, um, thing, had the likely winner for a long time before the end of the game, and the percent chance of said team winning. They also had percent chances of the batter hitting the ball into each area of the field.

I didn't think these statistics were inane per se until a few minutes ago when the CBS announcers for the Indy/Green Bay match commented on Indy being simply demolished by Green Bay by citing a statistic - Indianapolis haven't lost an October game since 2004.

Indianapolis have not lost a game that happened to take place in the month of October since 2004. Exactly what insight does this provide us about their playing in today's match? Is October the magic month in which Indianapolis can do no wrong, and this match could signal the end of a perfect October record? What's next, "Indianapolis haven't lost a game held on a Thursday since 1987"? Exactly WHAT RELEVANCE does this have to how they are playing today, apart from the fact that they are LOSING? Last I checked, people were more interested in such things as "Indianapolis haven't lost a game since October 2004", if they had a four-year winning streak that was about to break with this game. That frankly makes more sense than what was said.

But hey, I haven't seriously watched football in years now. I may have missed a shift in the fanbase where everyone started caring about the month, week, day of the week, and what time of day the match was held. I personally prefer the classic data: The weather, the location, injuries, and any sort of personal animosity between players on both teams (or fans of both teams). Those are the ones that I think actually have the possibility to affect the outcome of the game.

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Now playing: Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
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Cars, buses, and books

I'm officially sick of cars.

In honesty, I think I was sick of cars some time ago. Driving to Indianapolis roughly once a week, followed by driving across Evansville each day, will do that to a person. This is it, though. I'm avoiding driving whenever I can.

As I type this, [pause to make myself not a liar] I changed my wake-up time on my phone alarm clock from 8:30 a.m. to 6 a.m. This should give me time to do my usual morning routine, read the news, shit, shower, shave, eat, and get out to Green River and catch a bus around 7:30. I really would prefer if the bus routes were more direct to USI, but this town is a worse hell-hole than Scranton.

If nothing else, this new and brilliant form of transportation should give me time to read. I've recently started the Dune series, on the advice of a friend, and likewise on said friend's advice, started with The Butlerian Jihad by Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson. It's an extremely pre- prequel to the original Dune, but it was fairly good, and I enjoyed it. Yes, Jerry Holkins of Penny Arcade absolutely lambasted it as crap, but since I only read Dune and Dune Messiah this summer, I think I'm coming at it from a different angle than he is. Plus I like the author and think he's a great guy.

The main reason a bus ride would help me read the Dune series is because the Dune books are incredibly long. The Butlerian Jihad was over 600 pages in hardcover. I'm used to 600 pages in paperback, but outside of Harry Potter I read few 400+ page books. There was a time I would've been saddened to read someone else say such a thing, but frankly I don't have the time to sit down and read that much anymore. Being gainfully unemployed has a few, very few, benefits. One of them is time to catch up on the thousands of sci-fi novels I've wanted to read over the years but didn't get round to. This isn't to say I don't want a job: in the unlikely event someone is reading this and is hiring for a position in Evansville, my contact information is listed. I'm interested and have a largely open schedule.

I can't think of a better year to have time to read though: my favourite authors are putting out quite a lot of work this year and a few of them I haven't got a chance to read yet. I still haven't picked up a copy of Karen Traviss's Order 66, and I haven't even read the final of her Wess'har series, Judge. Meanwhile, my first favourite author, Matthew Woodring Stover, has two books coming out: Caine Black Knife, the third of four Caine books, is out Tuesday. Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor comes out on Dec. 30. Yes, I'm not sure about the title either, but it's Stover, and even his least favourite of my novels, Shatterpoint, was fantastic. Besides, there's nothing I look forward to more than Luke Skywalker and some Moody Introspective Self-Loathing.

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Now playing: Charles Darwin - On the Origin of Species
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