My Favorite Pictures of 2014 – New Jersey Group
My Favorite Pictures of 2014 – New York City Group
My Favorite Pictures of 2014 – San Diego Group
Last year was an unusual year for me because I spent the first half of the year in San Diego and the second half of the year in the Northeast. As always, I took quite a few pictures, but in 2014 my pictures were more geographically diverse than they normally are. I usually start out trying to select 10 pictures that are my will comprise my group of favorites, but I don’t want to limit my selections to just 10 for 2014. I took too many pictures that I like to limit this group to just 10. I put together a group of about 40 pictures that were my finalists and I’ve divided them up by region. I not going to post them all at once, instead I’ve decided that I’m going to post each region’s pictures separately. I’m going to first post my San Diego group and I’ll follow that up with a New York City group, a New Jersey group and a Pennsylvania group.
The 2015 NCAA Tourney and My Final Four
Well, here we are, with the second round of the NCAA MBB tournament completed things get real interesting as the field as been reduced to the Sweet Sixteen. I’m in a pool again this year and I must say that I’m pretty pleased with my bracket at this stage. Which teams did I pick?……
Like most others who filled out a bracket this month I picked the unbeaten UK Wildcats to win it all. There several other teams that I would prefer to see win, but I could not ignore the overwhelming talent and the outstanding record of UK. About 65 percent of the people in my pool picked Kentucky to win the championship and I anticipated that. So, I considered two different strategies for winning my pool: 1) pick one of the 3 or 4 teams that might have a real chance of upsetting Kentucky, or 2) pick Kentucky to win and differentiate my bracket by picking a combination of other teams for the rest of the Final Four that would not likely be duplicated.
I decided that I definitely did not want to go against Kentucky and I opted for strategy number 2. That meant not picking any other #1 seeds. So, I picked #3 seed Oklahoma, #2 seed Arizona and #2 seed Gonzaga. All teams that have outstanding coaches in my opinion and teams that I thought could get past the #1 seeds in their respective regions. Well, so far, so good. All four of the teams that I picked to advance the Final Four are still alive. Ultimately, I really need Gonzaga to make it to championship game. Can they make it? We’ll see. I expect the Zags to defeat #11 seed UCLA. They would then play the winner of Duke vs Utah, which will probably be the Blue Devils. Gonzaga vs Duke could be an epic battle. Of course, Duke is always stacked with Blue Chippers and that is the case this season, but Gonzaga also has elite talent this year and I think they have the size that is needed to have a realistic chance of beating Duke. We’ll see soon enough.
Blogging Backlog
Yikes, it has been over a month since published a post on this blog! My lack of activity on this blog certainly hasn’t been due to a lack of topics to write about. On the contrary, I have once again found myself in a situation where I have sometimes chosen to not blog about particular subjects because there are so many subjects that I have wanted to address and I have lacked the time to do it in way that I think would adequately express my views. I think I’m just going to have become a bit economical in my blogging going forward. I will definitely be adding several posts this month. As the title of the this post indicates, I have a bit of blogging backlog right now, including several posts that I already drafted, but which I just need to put a few finishing touches on. Stay tuned, more to come soon…
My Prediction for Super Bowl XLIX: Patriots 27 Seahawks 24
Location: University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, AZ
Line: New England -1 over Seattle
Under/Over 47.5 pts
Well, I must say that I can toot my own horn a little bit even before the Superbowl has been played because I predicted that the Seahawks would meet the Patriots in the Championship game way back on September 4, 2014, in my preseason NFL blog post. Please feel free to check it out. Just go to my archives, select NFL and you will find it. the post ends like this:
Superbowl Champion: New England. I think the Patriots may be the only team in the NFL that can beat both Denver and Seattle. I think a strong case can be made for the Seahawks too. I think the Seahawks are definitely capable of repeating as Champ’s. I also think Denver is very capable of returning to the Superbowl. To be perfectly honest, I’m picking the Patriots based on a scenario in which everything goes right for them by the time the playoffs roll around. I don’t think there are too many coaches in the NFL right now that can figure out a way to beat both Denver and Seattle, but Bill Belichick is one of them. Maybe Jim Harbaugh too.
Well, as the excerpt above indicates, I expected the Broncos to face New England in the AFC Championship and I thought the 49ers might pose a serious challenge in the NFC. So, I was off on those two predictions, way off on the Niners, but I’m happy that the teams I predicted to go all the way to SB are here now. Although, I will also admit that picking SEA and NE was not exactly a high risk proposition because I think those two teams were two of about half a dozen teams that figured to be real contenders in the preseason. Now, if I had picked Indy and Dallas to meet in the SB and they actually made it, that would have been really impressive, but I had to be realistic about my selections. There can be only two teams and I got’em it right.
The Patriots made it to AFC Championship game last season despite losing several key players on both offense and defense (Gronkowski, Wilfork, Mayo, chief among them) to injury during the course of season. I figured if the Patriots stayed healthy this season they would definitely be capable of returning to the SB. Unfortunately, the Pats did lose LB Mayo again and they had to deal with a few injuries on the O-line during the course of the season, but this team was relatively healthy this season. Most importantly, All-World TE Rob Gronkowski avoided major injury and had a spectacular season. I think that was a major key to the success that NE enjoyed this season. I think Gronkowski and the other NE TE’s will pose a serious threat to Seattle’s secondary, the vaunted Legion of Boom. In losses that Seattle suffered to San Diego and Dallas during the regular season the TE’s for those teams did some real damage, scoring 5 TD’s in total. Gronkowski is the best at the position right now so he should do well. If Seattle concentrates on stopping Gronk other players should be open and Brady will find them.
Another key to the Patriots return has been the improvement of their defense. The Pats defense is not in the same class as the Seahawks, of course, but it is very solid. I think NE’s D should be up to the task of keeping Seattle from scoring 24 points or more and if they can do that they should stand a very good chance of winning the game because I just don’t think Seattle’s D, as good as it is, even with the Legion of Boom, can shut down the Pats passing attack. Yes, Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch and QB Russell Wilson present serious challenges on the ground, but I think they can be contained. Lynch may run for a hundred yards or so, but don’t think we will see Russell Wilson running wild, at least not beyond the line of scrimmage. I think the Pats will definitely assign a spy to Wilson and keep him under control.
Coming into this season I thought the Seahawks had dynasty potential. They essentially kept their core group of stars together and they are not an old team. I think the Seahawks could be a SB contender for the next 3 to 5 years. If Seattle wins this game we will immediately see all sorts of stories in the sports media about the Seahawks becoming a dynasty team and that will be justified if they repeat here. I admire the job head coach Pete Carroll has done with team and I like many of the players on this Seahawks team, even the braggadocious CB Richard Sherman. I really don’t mind players who talk, if they can back it up and Sherman does most of the time.
With 37 year old QB Tom Brady in final stage of great career the window to win a championship for Pats may only last a couple more years, unless Pats 2nd string rookie QB Jimmy Garoppolo turns out to be a star (he might be, he’s displayed flashes of superior ability in the few short periods he has been on field). However, I think just one more SB win will significantly impact the legacy of both Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. They will both be going into the Hall of Fame regardless of the outcome of this game, but another ring here will bolster the arguments for them to be considered, respectively, the greatest coach of all time and the greatest QB of all time. Another Lombardi Trophy win for New England would give them 4 and that definitely would put them in the upper echelon of teams that have won multiple championships in the NFL, joining teams the Giants and Packers, who each have 4. The Steelers have 6, the Cowboys and Niners have 5 each, so that will give the Patriots something very big to shoot for if they can win it all today.
I think this game will end one of three ways: Big win by the Patriots (victory by 14 pts plus), Narrow win by the Seahawks (3 pt victory) or Narrow win by Patriots. I think a narrow win by the Patriots is the most likely outcome.
Final Score: Patriots 27, Seahawks 24
POST SUPER BOWL COMMENTS:
Final Score: Patriots 28, Seahawks 24
Wow, what a game! I’m happy that the Pats won and that my final score prediction was pretty darn close, although I’m perfectly willing to concede there was some luck involved. Seattle was clearly in a position to win in the final minutes and they blew it, but those are the breaks of the game.
All in all, it was a great game between two pretty evenly matched teams. It was what you hope the SB will be.
A few thoughts on Winter and the New Year
I start this blog in 2015 at the same place the I left off in 2014, on Northampton Street, in downtown Easton, Pennsylvania, although there are a few differences. This picture was taken as the sunlight of early morning was emerging vs stark darkness of nightfall and the view is facing west vs facing east. It reflects my optimistic view of the year ahead. I tend to try to look at the bright side of things, but there is another part of me that is a sober realist. So, I recognize that our country faces a wide variety of serious challenges, but I still have a lot of faith in America.
I thought this scene captured the look of winter here very well. I took this picture shortly after dawn and particularly liked undisturbed snow on the sidewalks. I haven’t lived in the northeast since 2003, when I moved from New York City to Southern California, so it has been a while since I experienced a full Northeast winter. I did return this area to visit friends and relatives during my time in California, so I had some brief exposures to true winter weather during a few of those trips, but nothing close to living several consecutive months in the cold and snow. Now, to be honest, we really haven’t had too much snow so far this winter, but there have been plenty of sub 30 degree days, some with biting wind chill that makes it feel like 10 degrees or less. That might not sound like very appealing weather to most people, but I’ve enjoyed it. I think it is invigorating.
Downtown Easton, PA on a Cold December Night – My Last Picture of 2014.
Looking down Northampton Street, Easton PA, at about 10:00 pm on the night of December 30th, 2014. In the distance you can see Easton’s Center Square and the illuminated Peace Candle, which covers Easton’s Civil War Monument during the Holiday season.
Views of San Diego in HDR
I the past several months I have posted a few of my favorite HDR pictures of NYC, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Los Angeles, but the city that I have the most digital pictures of is San Diego, where I lived from 2003 until July, 2014. I have finally selected a few of my favorite shots from America’s Finest City and applied the Snapseed HDR filter to them. Frankly, it was hard to pick just a few pictures and declare them my favorites, but I will say that these five are among my favorites for sure…more to follow at a future date.
La Jolla’s reputation for seaside beauty is certainly well deserved.
I took this picture from Shelter Island as an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, which I believe was the USS Higgins, was headed out of the port of San Diego and toward the Pacific Ocean.
This picture captured the waves rolling into Pacific Beach from the Crystal Pier in PB, where you can sleep above the waves if you want to. There are bungalows built right on the pier that are available for rental.
Newport Avenue is the main drag in the Ocean Beach section of San Diego. OB is one of my favorite neighborhoods in San Diego. Gritty, bohemian, unconventional, working class, it is quite different than many of SD’s wealthier neighborhoods, but what it lacks in wealth it makes up for in character.
The view of downtown San Diego from Coronado.
gmf journal 