Month: September 2011

UFC 135 Denver: Jones vs Jackson

Posted on by georgefattell

I don’t make as many picks for UFC fights as I once did. I love watching the fights, but the sport has grown and there a lot more fighters around than there were several years ago and I don’t have to time to follow a lot these guys. I hate making picks when I’m unfamiliar with one or both fighters, which seems to happen more often to me these days. It is hard enough to predict a lot of these fights when you do know both fighters fairly well and reduces it to a pure guessing game when you don’t. However, unfamiliarity will not be a problem for me tonight, at least when it comes to the main event of UFC 135.

The main event pits newly crowned Light Heavy Weight (205 lbs) champ Jon “Bones” Jones vs. former LHW champ Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and it has the potential to be classic battle. The 24 year old Jones may not even be in his prime yet, but he seems to outclass every fighter in the LHW division. However, in MMA, just as boxing, there always seems to be a fighter out there someplace who knows how to beat a seemingly invincible opponent.

Rampage is a significant underdog in Vegas for this fight, and I would say that is justified because Jones has not revealed any true weaknesses against 14 previous opponents. The real question that remains about Jones is his chin. No one has really clocked him yet, because they haven’t been able to get inside on him or they quickly find themselves on the mat, eating
elbows on the way to a TKO. Rampage may finally be the guy that tests Jones’ chin because he is an exceptional striker who hits with a lot of power. Rampage has KO’d 14 of his previous 40 opponents. OTOH, Jones may have the most complete skill set in all of MMA. He wrestles and strikes extremely well, and he is a truly exceptional athlete with a 6’4″ frame that gives him an advantage against all other 205ers.

Rampage has a punchers chance of winning, but in the end I think Jon Jones will prove to be too much for Rampage to handle. I say Jones wins in the 3rd round, by submission.


POST FIGHT ANALYSIS

Jon Jones won by forcing Rampage Jackson to submit early in the 4th round (rear naked choke). So, this fight went pretty much as I expected. Jones dominated the fight, winning every round imo, by using his full arsenal of MMA weapons: strikes, kicks, elbows, and superior wrestling. Rampage tried to put himself in a position to deliver a KO blow, but just couldn’t do it, due to Jones elusive quickness.

Looks like Rashad Evans will be next up for Jones, and frankly I don’t think he will fair any better than Rampage. There doesn’t appear to be any UFC fighters in the LHW division that can deal with Bones Jones. I might be years before Jones loses a fight. That’s how good he is.

R.E.M. 1980-2011

Posted on by georgefattell

I was surprised, but not at all shocked, when I read the news that the great R.E.M. had decided to call it quits after 30 years of making some of the best rock music of all time. I saw R.E.M. live twice, at roughly opposite ends of their prodigious career. I first saw them perform in the early 80’s at the legendary Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ. About 20 years later I was fortunate enough to see them perform again, when they were one of the bands that played at Street Scene, in downtown San Diego in 2003. I consider this band from Athens, GA the best American band of the last 30 years and one my 5 favorite rock bands of all time (the others being The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and U2).

I will be adding a lot more to this post later. I just wanted to get it up on the blog now because I think it is appropriate to post a few thoughts on the day of their formal end.

Since the news of R.E.M.’s breakup hit I have been reading a lot of the comments posted on You Tube threads related to R.E.M. video’s and I have been a little surprised at just how diverse the band’s fan is now. They truly have a large international following and a fan base that now spans multiple generations. I think it is pretty cool that they have so many fans who are teens right now.

On a side note, yes, I am well aware that the members of R.E.M. are big liberals, at least Stipe is, that’s for sure. I don’t care about their politics or their activism. I separate that from their music. Many of my favorite entertainers hold political views that I don’t necessarily agree with, but that doesn’t influence my appreciation of their work.

Update: Here are a few of my favorite R.E.M. videos, including a couple from the 1984 show at the aforementioned Capitol Theatre. I discovered the videos from the Capitol Theatre show just a few days ago and I was very surprised to find them on YT. That is so cool. The Capitol Theatre no longer exists, but it was a very popular venue for many bands back in the 70’s and 80’s.

This article from The Atlantic makes the case that R.E.M. is the best American band ever assembled….

R.E.M.: America’s Greatest Band

Fact check: The wealthy already pay more taxes – USATODAY.com

Posted on by georgefattell

Fact check: The wealthy already pay more taxes – USATODAY.com.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that Associated Press has disputed Obama’s claim that the “rich” are paying less in taxes than they should be.

Am I “rich”? No, far, far from it. But as the saying goes, I have never worked for a poor person. I want the rich pay to keep as much of their own money as possible

It really irks me when someone such Warren Buffett goes out of his way to insist that taxes should be raised and the debt ceiling should be raised, but does not call for reducing government spending, which is totally out of control imo. Mr. Buffett seems to think that the vast sum of money the federal government spends is all spent wisely and that we should all support whatever tax increases he advocates without much of an explanation as to why, other than the fact that he is a BILLIONAIRE.

Fleet Week in San Diego

Posted on by georgefattell

It is Fleet Week in San Diego. The Navy docked a couple of Warships down at the new Broadway Pier and opened them up to the public. The ships were the USS Princeton, a guided missile cruiser and the USS Rushmore, a dock landing ship.

I took a walk down to the pier at lunch time today and took a tour of the Princeton.I was very impressed with ship and its crew. The tours were led were members of the Princeton’s crew and all conducted themselves in a very professional manner.

The USS Princeton at the Broadway Pier in San Diego

The view from the bridge of the USS Princeton

Fantasy Football Week 1

Posted on by georgefattell

Here was my roster for Week 1:

QB T BRADY NE
QB P RIVERS SD
RB J CHARLES KC
RB J KUHN GB
RB J HARRISON DET
WR V JACKSON SD
WR C OCHOCINCO NE
WR J NELSON GB
TE R GRONKOWSKI NE
K S JANIKOWSKI OAK
DE CHARGERS SD


My team this was good in week one, but far from great. Fastpoint, the company that offers this game via Facebook, ranks all teams in terms of their Global Performance Percentile and my team finished with a rank of 85 PCT.

My QBs played very well, especially Brady with 4 TD’s. I paid up for my QBs and they paid off. The challenge in this game is finding players who may not be top tier players, but are still good values because they are capable of posting good stat’s, which equate to good fantasy point totals.

In this paticular game you receive 4 trades each week. All trades that you do not use are carried over to the following week.

I used all 4 of trades this week.

The San Diego Blackout 09-08-2011

Posted on by georgefattell
Trouble in Paradise

I arrived home about 5 minutes before San Diego lost power at about 3:40 pm PST. Thankfully, the blackout only lasted 10 to 12 hours. I went to bed at about 10:00 pm with the expectation that power still might not be restored in the morning because SDGE had warned that it could take 24 hours or longer to restore power. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the gird was back up by the time I woke up at about 5:00 am.

I took the picture above on Laurel Avenue, facing west, toward San Diego’s major airport, Lindbergh Field. The runway lights remained on at Lindbergh, but operations came to a halt because the terminals lost power and the TSA could not properly screen passengers.

Before I called it night I took a walk around some of the neighborhoods surrounding my building on Cortez Hill, including Bankers Hill and the Gaslamp. The people that I encountered in those neighborhood handled the situation with complete calm. Most of the bars in the Gaslamp closed, but a few remained open, operating by candlelight, and they were packed in some cases.

It was reassuring to see several San Diego PD cars stationed in the Gaslamp. As I noted earlier, I did not see any signs of unrest, but it was good to see San Diego PD officers on patrol.

AFTER ACTION REVIEW

The blackout gave me a chance to assess how well prepared I was for a catastrophic event such as a massive earthquake or large scale terrorist attack that would cause a loss of power and/or water for several days.

I had enough bottled water to last for several days. Good to go there.

My food stocks were a little low. I think I am going to buy some MRE’s. I purchased 12 MRE’s back when I lived in Manhattan, in the aftermath of 9-11, but I never replenished my supply when I moved out to San Diego. Time to purchase some new MRE’s.

I used my battery-operated Radio Shack emergency radio for the first time. I’m glad I bought that item. It finally came in handy. It has a hand crank for recharging and is also equipped with a built in flashlight.

I had a Mag Light flashlight, a AA Krill Light and a portable lantern ready to go, as well as back-up batteries. I used all three items. I will probably order at least one more Krill Light.

Fortunately, my iPhone was fully charged at the time the power went out, but my iPad only had a 40% charge, although I was able to boost the charge to 63% by plugging it into my MacBook, which I totally drained. I didn’t mind doing that because my iPad is 3G equipped and my MacBook is not. The iPad proved to be a valuable tool for keeping updated on the latest developments, especially via Twitter. SDGE, to their credit, used Twitter to keep the public informed.

Another lesson I learned from this event is that I should have an external battery capable of recharging my iPhone and iPad. There are several good ones out there and I plan to order one soon.

Fantasy Football 2011

Posted on by georgefattell

I must say I had my doubts a few months ago that there would be a full NFL season this year, but here we are. I’m pysched about putting my “team” into action in my Fantasy Football League. Rotohog moved their Salary Cap Fantasy Football game to Facebook this year, so you have to play via FB. I’m not real happy about that because I don’t particularly like FB, but the Rotohog version of Salary Cap FF is quite good imo, so we’ll play there.

At the beginning of the season I always feel like I’m relying more on intuition than real analysis of player performance, but I’m pretty comfortable with my line-up. I think I’m rolling the dice on a couple of guys, but I don’t think any of my players will get totally shut out on the stat line.

I will reveal my entire team after Sunday and I will post my global ranking (my rank among all players on FB) from week to week during the season.

Gehry New York and the New World Trade Center

Posted on by georgefattell

I always enjoy taking a look at new buildings in New York whenever I visit because there is always something new going up in that city. During my visit this past July I was able to make my way over to 8 Spruce Street, in lower Manhattan, to see Frank Gehry’s new 76 story residential tower. I then took a walk over to the site of the new World Trade Center.

I have been a fan of Gehry’s buildings for long time and I was most impressed by this addition to his great body of work. I think this tower already stands as one Manhattan’s most unique and distinctive structures and will stand the test time well. I would rank it among Gehry’s top 10 buildings right now. Here are a few pictures I took of the gleaming skyscraper.


I have visited the Ground Zero several times in the past few years to see the progress being made on the new skyscrapers that will form the new World Trade Center, but my visit this past
July was the most impressive yet, because WTC 1, the tower which will replace the iconic Twin Towers had finally surpassed the many tall buildings that surround it in height. WTC 1 was over 70 stories when I saw it. The pictures below show WTC 1 from different angles.