The Official Off-Topic FanPost of the Day, 9.22.08

October comes after September (but I just wrote November so I’m not sure I should judge)
I have an exam Thursday night—clearly my professor was not thinking ahead
I’m finally on the Choose to Lose bandwagon, as it’s slightly less heartbreaking
I updated one this morning; what else would you like?
I’d prefer nsfw Morrow
SEA-HAWKS
Ok I tried and it just doesn’t work
Coffee is better for you

converting on 3rd and 22 than you are 3rd and 1?

I wonder if I buy an Xbox in Japan, can I play American games, or play it on an American tv when I bring it back to the States?

Her mom has been a UA football season ticket holder for about 30 years, and goes on one road trip a year, to a different stadium. This year’s trip was to Pasadena. We kept getting text updates. And then we found out later that ASU lost – my wife had a good weekend.

That is all.

I clicked on the ChooseVeg.com ad on USS Mariner out of irrepressible boredom and watched the video. Frak the heck!

:(

I said I’d update people today, and though I never received any follow-up information, I owe you an explanation.

Last Thursday I contacted Jeff out of the blue, as there’s been a growing negative sentiment among the mods and among a growing subset of members towards me over the last few months for reasons specifically unknown to me, but the tone of our interactions (and I’m not talking about arguments, but every interaction on this blog) made it very clear. The argument on Thursday about managers and Riggleman was one of the byproducts. (I’ll admit I let my thought process get off the rails and suddenly I was debating red herrings unchecked… and badly too)

But whether or not that had happened, there was a problem, and if I said nothing, eventually things would only get worse and who knows what would have happened. The blog’s also changed considerably since I first joined. The environment is a LOT more hostile, and not just because of how the team’s doing, but in general as to how people interact with one another. USSM may have described this place as the frathouse to their classroom, but at least this place was a friendly frathouse.

So I contacted him out of the blue Thursday and, instead of debating the state of relations and the blog, I simply offered to leave quietly, no questions asked, if he wished. I offered to, if he concurred, to keep things on the down low and, if anyone pestered me, to direct any inquiries to him and leave any formal explanation to the other mods.

After about a day, he contacted me with a carefully worded e-mail to inform me that he and the trimvirate decided to demod me, but that he would not force me to leave (he would only say that I may leave if I wish) because I have friends on the blog and that, having met me, they can certify I’m a ‘good person’. The official reason cited for demodding was that they hated some of the things I did and that they reflected badly on the triumvirate. No specifics were given beyond that.

However, he did not specify whether or not I would continue writing the wrap-ups (the original reason I was granted mod status long ago was to post them). I followed up with him and asked him to verify whether or not he wanted me to continue for 2009. I gave it the entire weekend, made a good faith effort to continue participating in discussion, and even volunteered to attend LL Football.

As of this morning, Jeff never responded about my writing status. With no statement of confidence, I can only assume it’s over.

I’ve wavered back and forth about whether I want to continue participating here. For one, I do have a lot of friends here, but on the other I do have a lot of enemies, and among them are some, if not all, of the remaining writers for this blog. I may be argumentative, but a lot of us, and to date I’m still not exactly sure how I rub some people the wrong way. I fear that, in light of how some hated members were baited and/or banned from this site (some of which were bigger asshats than others), if I continue to participate, people would still hold their grudges, things would only continue to slide, and things, one way or another, still would not end well, even on my best behavior.

So while I’m not ready to say goodbye, I’m probably going to cut back. I like the off topic threads and I’ve never had any real problems here, so I may continue to participate in these, but I think I’m done otherwise. Obviously, if there’s rich information within, you can’t just stop reading the writing on this blog. You’d do yourself a disservice to cut yourself off completely like that. Perhaps, eventually, I’ll fade out completely, and quietly. We’ll see, and we’ll see what direction this blog takes in the future.

To conclude, here’s a fun fact: I no longer have access to any of the wrap-ups I’ve posted. I can read them, but I cannot edit them, since only writers can edit them and, by being demodded, I am no longer considered a writer by SBN. The triumvirate could, if they wanted, deface all of them and turn them into Club LL Volumes 3 through 439 if they wanted to.

- The Office premieres on Thursday. Here’s to hoping that they don’t follow the F-R-I-E-N-D-S model and start sacrificing comedy for plot around Seasons 4/5 (uh-oh…) leaving only traces of comedic brilliance.

This assumes the Friends was 1) funny at some point, and 2) not a soap opera from episode 1

this is going to be a fantastic show.

Heaven in a bean!

http://vegaswatch.net/2008/09/evaluating-april-mlb-predictions-2008.html

the two people with which I share a cube are both gone today, so I have the whole cube to myself. It’s ridiculous how much more work I’m getting done today. Silence is a beautiful thing.

The above discussion about Smash Mouth and Kings Of Leon made me wonder what the worst opening band I’ve ever seen was. I came up with four:

1. Spin Doctors, opening for the Rolling Stones at the Kingdome. We showed up an hour late in an effort to miss them, but they were about an hour late taking the stage, so we saw most of their set.
2. Crash Test Dummies, opening for Elvis Costello at the Paramount. When “mmm mmm mmm mmm” is your most energetic song, you’ve got a problem.
3. Stabbing Westward, opening for KISS at the Tacoma Dome. I don’t like Nine Inch Nails, granted, but this band was a cheap NIN ripoff and really pretty much sucked.
4. The stream-of-consciousness hippie whose name I never got that opened for Peter Murphy at the Aladdin. It was like watching a 60’s beat poet, and not in a good way. And then after we sat through that, Peter Murphy never took the stage – he got sick. Probably from the smell of patchouli backstage.

National economy
Getting better Staying the same Getting worse Undecided
Sep 2008 – 13% 82% 5%

I have never seen a 0% on a poll before. My 401(k) is sinking.