A Hanukkah Miracle

The true measure of any holiday is not the time spent with family and loved ones, it's not the sharing of rich cultural tradition, and it's not the dispersal of happiness and good cheer towards all living things.

It's the sheer quantity of awesomeness that lies within the gifts we receive.

And on that basis, I had a pretty sweet holiday season so far.

I got Flight of the Conchords on DVD, which was a big win. I also got Mad Men, which I've never seen but have only heard good things about. I also got a bunch of books I've always wanted but never got around to buying for myself (and with four classes about to start, might not have much time to read them).

Oh yeah, and my brother got me a nice tie.

I wasn't sure what to think about that at first, but then I slowly realized that I'm at the age where ties start to make sense as a gift. So for future reference, the tie-gift virginity has been broken and established as acceptable. My future kids thank you for making future Father's Days much much easier.

Anyway, the title of this post was, 'a hanukkah miracle,' and right now you might be wondering where it is.

I found it out at the King of Prussia mall this past weekend...

Walking through the mall, my American cultural heritage welled up inside me, gently tugging at my wallet and begging me to buy, to purchase, to CONSUME. I must admit that for the first hour or so, I ignored the little impulses and chose to abstain from buying crap I didn't really need. Of course, that was until I saw what for many may be taken as a sign of economic hardship but to my eyes, a thing of beauty.

A movie and music store...going out of business.

Alright, so that got me a little excited, but I wasn't just going to fork over some disposable income that I'm not currently earning unless there was something special.

I started perusing the DVDs, looking for a hidden gem or two.

I passed on a direct-to-DVD Steven Segal flick that looked like he was in Japan. $10??? Not at that price.

I almost gave in to a Stallone 4-pack calling out to me from the shelf. "I'm only ten dollars" it cried. "Think of all the good times we could have!!! I've got 'Over the Top' AND 'Tango and Cash!!!"

But Sly couldn't get me to budge.

Even the new director's cut edition of Arnold's Commando couldn't convince me, and that's one of my all-time favorites.

The prices just weren't right (and I couldn't really look at myself in the mirror again if I paid over $10 for a third copy of Commando)

But then, when all hope seemed lost, I found my way past the abnormally large section of soft-core pornography, and stumbled onto a miracle.



1984's Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo!

For those of you who haven't seen it, it's a powerful tour de force pitting a team of rag-tag breakdancers against the evil greed of a rich real estate developer.

Their weapon??? Breakdancing!

I'll try not to oversell it, but it got robbed of Best Picture to Amadeus, although some still maintain the balloting was rigged.

Anyway, that movie, together with a copy of Action Jackson (starring Carl Weathers!), cost me eight bucks!

Miracles really do happen every day.

Sports Media

Just got back to Chicago for the last bit of winter break and am thrilled to see lots of snow out my apartment window. Someone needs to occasionally remind me that I really like school and being here when I'm shaking pounds of snow off of dripping wet socks over the next few months.

Anyway, over the last few months I've been actively obsessing over the Eagles' progress (like every year). And every time the Eagles did something horrendously inept, I proclaimed the season was over, O-V-E-R over. I did this a whole lot, after every Andy Reid blunder, every terrible offensive showing, every time I found myself agreeing with the Philadelphia sports talk radio crowd (which I always assumed would portend the apocalypse)

So when the Eagles entered play this weekend, needing a Tampa Bay loss to Oakland, either a Minnesota loss to New York or a Chicago loss to Houston, and finally, a win over the hated Dallas Cowboys, I wasn't anticipating a post-season off the golf course for Donovan McNabb and the guys. One betting site listed the Eagles at 25-1 to make the playoffs entering the day, other estimates gave them a less than 20% chance.

And of course, to completely make me look and feel like an idiot (albeit a happy one), the Eagles smashed the Cowboys after the Raiders upset Tampa Bay and the Bears lost to Houston.

But it was a writer's response to the game got me thinking about how the media covers sports and why I get so fed up with it all the time (which for a large sports fan, is kind of a big problem)

Excerpted from Football Outsiders, which is a good site if you're a big football fan:

Bill Barnwell: Let's review an alternate scenario here. The Eagles play the Cowboys at 1 p.m. instead of 4 p.m. Every outcome is the exact same, except the Buccaneers beat the Raiders 31-24. The Eagles still destroy the Cowboys 44-6, doing so at the same time as the Bucs game, but because Tampa Bay wins, the Eagles don't make the playoffs.

The Eagles still have the best DVOA (Note: a stat these guys have invented to measure the true level of play) in the league on Monday morning; they're just not making the playoffs because something that was absolutely out of their control didn't get there. We look stupid, since the best team in the league didn't make the playoffs. The Philly media becries the fact that the Eagles' great game was too little, too late. Andy Reid likely gets fired, Donovan McNabb's out, and the Eagles probably start rebuilding.

If the Eagles make a huge playoff run, every columnist will be falling over themselves to make some sort of argument about how Week 17/the McNabb benching got their momentum going, but it's blindly groping for a narrative in a situation where there isn't one. The Eagles got astoundingly lucky on Sunday when the Buccaneers lost. It was one of the great upsets of the decade. What happens from here on out cannot be removed from that fact -- without that loss, the Eagles' regular season (as good as it was according to DVOA) would have been absolutely irrelevant and disappointing.

If this sounds reminiscent of my tone in the Giants chapter of PFP 2008, it's because it's the same sort of conflation of cause and effect that frustrates me as an analyst so much. The line between success and failure in the NFL is so impossibly thin as to be barely existent at points. The idea that a team is destined to win or a supreme conqueror of the other 31 teams as "the best" is flimsy at best. It's the same stupid logic I read all week about Lovie Smith going on a rant at halftime about the Bears refusing to go down like they were appearing to against Green Bay in Week 16. That was such a good motivator that the Bears needed a blocked field goal at the end of regulation to save themselves. (And for those of you [readers] who would say that it was Smith's words that caused the kick to be blocked, I wonder whether those same words inspired the other Adrian Peterson to commit that personal foul penalty on the kickoff.) Had the Bears not blocked that kick, would we have heard about Smith's words, or would they have rung hollow hours later? How many famous last words, to steal a phrase, do we get to hear? Were the Chargers really the BEST team in the AFC West? Probably shouldn't have had to rely upon an onside kick to give them a chance to prove it.

I think that the Eagles are a great team, one of the league's best this year, and that they'll show it in the playoffs. The fact that they'll get a chance to do so is in spite of their regular season performance, not because of it, but on the other hand, they would have been a great team regardless of whether the Buccaneers lost to the Raiders or not. The backwards definitions of their performance you're going to see because of what happened around them is exactly the reason Football Outsiders exists.

For me, that helped explain a) why I hate most mainstream sports media and b) why I can read any mainstream sports article in 2.5 seconds.

It's the process of taking the outcome from a sporting event, and shoehorning it into a narrative based on whatever stereotypical things have been going on. Reading most articles, teams don't often win because they executed more effectively, or because they were healthy, or god forbid, because of luck (it's never luck!). Teams win because coaches give fiery speeches, because team captains inspire, and because one team just has the will to win. It's not like the athletes have trained their entire lives for the opportunity to play sports and have millions of dollars at stake to ensure maximum effort, right?

I keep wondering exactly why the "analysis," using the term loosely, always falls back on cliches...I have a couple theories...

A - That's what the public likes to read and hear about, which makes a little sense, but seems way to easy. Plus, I'm tired of always assuming the viewing/reading audience is dumb and/or has no attention span.

B - Writers are under more and more time/cost pressure to get articles posted faster and cheaper as the pace of the media cycle speeds up and the investment in media goes down. I could see writers, on deadlines, hurrying to slap together recaps of games rather than provide deep and probing analyses.

Either way, I really don't like reading that stuff, or hearing it on a television broadcast. That probably explains why I prefer to read columnists/journalists who either talk much more about the intersection between sports and their personal lives or those who operate outside the traditional media sphere of influence.

Of course, until those guys figure out a way to make some money, I guess they'll remain a minority.

NFL in 3D

There are three really really exciting developments going on in the NFL world right now.

Number 1 - The Eagles could actually make the playoffs (and prove me wrong for declaring their season was dead three or four different times over the earlier part of the season)

Number 2 - A potential fantasy football championship for me this year (and the potential for a large cash prize that would give me all the excuse I need to buy an iPhone)

Number 3 - NFL games will soon be broadcast in 3D!

Granted, that last one is probably the most exciting for everyone that's not me or an Eagles fan.

Just imagine sitting in a theater and seeing a Donovan McNabb pass come out of the screen and look JUST LIKE it's going to hit you in the shins! Or maybe you'll see Bill Belichick as if he's cheating six inches in front of your face instead of on a TV screen.

It's got potential, that's for sure.

http://dvice.com/archives/2008/12/nfl_game_broadc.php

"It's amazing ... technically they obviously have a little ways to go, but once they work out all the kinks, it's definitely the new era of television." Said another reporter, "The experience wasn't jaw-dropping, but it was noticeably better than a conventional broadcast. The game was drama-free, yet the novelty of 3D made it hard for me to take my eyes off the screen... The effect was subtle at times, but just as compelling as in "U2 3D," 3ality's concert film of the Irish rockers. The most striking thing in both cases was how much more you could see in three dimensions than in two."

Who knows how it's actually going to look. I know I wouldn't want to watch an Eagles game for my first 3D broadcast (too much risk of a technical mishap) I'd have to watch some random AFC match-up or something.

But, I'm also reading that the company is planning to roll out its initial theater experience for this year's BCS championship game. ( http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/3ality-Digital-Follow-Groundbreaking-Live/story.aspx?guid={B1739B26-D8FE-4C3E-9DA0-D453F6F6FB83} ) That game will feature....umm....well.....not Penn State (thanks Iowa)

But because Penn State will be occupied with the Rose Bowl, and because I couldn't care less about the outcome of the BCS game, that would be the perfect opportunity to check out this technology. I can't figure out if it'll actually happen (my guess is it could), or if it would be in Chicago (my guess is it would), but I'd really want to check it out.

3D NFL cheerleaders? How could you go wrong???

Embarrassment of Riches

I'm three days into my winter break, and it's quickly become apparent that I'm going to return to Chicago having seen about three dozen movies and with three dozen extra pounds.

I love coming home to Philadelphia and seeing the family, don't get me wrong, but its pretty clear that all I'm really going to do while I'm around is eat, sleep, eat, watch TV, and eat some more.

As one of four brothers, there's always been a lot of food around the house. But now that we're all in college, working, or in my case, college 2, you'd think my parents would dial the quarterly grocery spend down a notch. Not the case.

Come to think of it, that's probably why our dogs are a little overweight...

I've also been doing a lot of TV watching, primarily because I can't get over the sheer number of options when you order Comcast's super deluxe premium package. I thought I had a lot of choices in Chicago, but it's really hard to turn off the TV when there are 8 HBO's, 5 Cinemax's, 7 Showtimes, 8 Starz', plus multiple Encores and Movie Channels. And that's not even scratching the surface of the basic tier.

Then there's On Demand, which gives me just about every premium network show (including Flight of the Conchords...woo-hoo)

So I've started to catch up on some of the movies that I meant to see or had a passing interest in but never got around to. It's no wonder Netflix is working so hard on developing its streaming technology options...DVDs are dead (which I probably figured out two years ago when I stopped buying them)

Saw The Invasion...the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers...not great. I also checked out Clerks 2, given that I really liked the first one and never saw the sequel for fear of legacy tarnishment. Also not great, but a couple of pretty funny bits, the Kevin Smith over-writing is always a little tough to deal with given that's not how people ever talk. That and I don't really get why people like Rosario Dawson...maybe it's just that I saw her in Alexander...which remains in my opinion the worst movie in the history of cinema.

I did however, also check out Zodiac. That was really good. It almost made me want to invent a time machine to travel back to 1970's San Francisco...of course the Zodiac killer would be on the loose, but I think I'd be alright.

What a Difference a Global Economic Shutdown Makes

Ugh, such a long time since my last blog post. If this blog were a plant, its leaves would be all shriveled, stem wilting from neglect. If this blog were a fish, it might be floating upside down in the tank, no longer content to hang out with the little scuba man instead of eating.

Fortunately for us, the blog doesn't have feelings or physical needs. Starve it or leave it without water, and it will have no idea.

Anyway, now that I'm on winter break, I'm thinking it would be a good idea to really get back to blogging consistently, maybe even to the extent of a 12-days of Xmas type blogging marathon. Only instead of calling birds and french hens, you'll get curse-filled diatribes on people/things/life philosophies that get me riled up. Might happen, might not, it really depends on whether there's anything good on TV.

But with that said, I thought that since it has been quite a while since our last chat, I'd let you all know how my fall recruiting process went. (In a word: underwhelming, with a little sprinkle of soul crushing)

You'll be happy to know that I'm past the point of being sad that I couldn't get any of my "dream" jobs. I also blew through denial, anger, and acceptance. Where am I now? I'm in what I would describe as a post-acceptance re-attribution state, where I take absolutely no responsibility for failure and instead blame macroeconomic conditions for my situation.

It's quite nice, just try it yourself, say things like the following:

It couldn't possibly be MY fault...

Companies were really just interviewing to keep up appearances...

Alan Greenspan should personally write me a check for screwing up my livelihood...

Anyway, to keep a series of long stories relatively short, I only applied to five other firms this fall after my internship in management consulting. I really liked my internship, but had a couple of concerns that precipitated dropping a couple of resumes. Of the five first rounds, I got final rounds for four of them. At the time, it seemed like a pretty good start.

Then, as is usually the case with me, when things start going well, the wheels completely fall off.

I nailed my first final round, but the firm refused to listen to my preferences and offered me a job in a location that I wasn't hoping to work in. The reason I came to business school was to have opportunities that really interest me, and while the position would be nice, it was clear the firm wouldn't do anything to accommodate me (something about having hundreds and hundreds of newly interested consultant wannabes makes them less inclined to bend over backwards for you...weird).

Following that, I had three more final rounds with various firms in various locations...ok, two. But every time I flew out to those locations and met with people, things did not go as well as I needed them to. That was unfortunate.

So I'm left with going back to the firm where I interned this summer, and while I'm certainly excited to go back, it's not exactly how I envisioned this whole thing playing out. With that said, I could definitely be in a worse position given friends that have dream jobs that no longer exist. Of course, that explosion caused a trickle-down effect that I think was reflected in my results this year compared to last year ( Last year: 4 final rounds, 3 offers...this year: 4 final rounds, 1 offer...do the math)

But again, I'm not upset...in fact, I'm taking away a lot of positives from all my unsuccessful interviews...

- The opportunity to get much closer with my Ipod on long flights and airport waits. In particular, I used a lot of those flights as a chance to rent ITunes movies I always wanted to see but never got a chance to (e.g. Bullit and After the Thin Man) As an aside, the Thin Man movies always convince me to switch careers and become a rich detective that goes around solving mysteries, drinking like crazy, and firing off one-liners.

- The chance to sample a whole bunch of different podcasts, with the eventual goal of working them into a rotation once I start work and begin ignoring the general public on long train rides/commutes. Rotation currently includes Talk of the Nation, MSNBC Countdown, Filmspotting, ESPN's B.S. Report, and Kevin Smith's smodcast.

- I got to sample a number of hotels...which is always fun. One hotel in Los Angeles actually put a robe in the closet for me when I got out of the shower...what? you say that's normal??? Well, this one was a leopard print robe. Obviously, I had to wear it, even though it felt weird, like I should be in a 1970's porn movie with a giant mustache. I didn't take a picture, but I kind of looked like this guy...


Sweet right?