The Hopp Stop

For my two readers, apologies if you’re thrown off by the frequent appearance changes. I’m playing around with much of the site in its nascent state, so things may change a bit until the site matures.

…Island Jerk! I’ve already forgotten what my favorite flavor was. I think it was Twisted Chili Lime. Maybe Rob Thomas can comment in the Comments as to his favorite.

Also, unrelated, the SF Chronicle is now publishing podcasts of crackpot reader voicemails. Here’s the first audio file. This answers who has time to call up a newspaper and complain.

So, I haven’t yet figured out how to embed YouTube videos into my blog entries. I know I can using this blog platform, but I haven’t had a chance to implement it via a necessary plugin or whatever. In the interim, you’ll need to click on the links below to view the videos.

First up is one of the funnier SNL skits I’ve seen in a while, about Michael Vick and the concealed weed water bottle. Here’s the YouTube link.

Next is an M Zone (Michigan football blog) post w/two YouTube videos showing some real amateurs at the art of beer bonging. Make sure to have the audio on for maximum enjoyment.

Hopefully he won’t mind, but I found his e-mail re: NPR’s All Songs Considered podcast (which includes a clip of the new Mouse song) hilarious:

Thanks for sending that - that's a great podcast. Here's my stream of
comments on that podcast. The new Clap your Hands sounds great.  Holy crap -
Marr really is part of the band/songwriting. I could probably only be this
discombobulated if Danny White started quarterbacking/punting for the horned
frogs. I'm on a mailing list of The Mother Truckers which just moved from
San Raphael to Austin. The recent one had a picture with Lucinda Williams
who looked like she was dressed up as Courtney Love for Halloween. She
sounds a little like that too. That song also sounds like she writes her
songs like I write my emails.

Overview of what’s now known about Apple TV (I ordered one last night) is now found at MacWorld.com. Ars’ Infinite Loop journal also takes a look at the internal components. Also, I have had good experiences over the weekend using VisualHub to convert video to the 640×480 H.264 format supported by Apple TV and the current video iPod. I just hope it looks good on my big TV, given the resolution reduction versus a DVD.

McSweeney’s (the Eggers-related site) has access to an excerpt from the iPhone manual. The best (serious) FAQ up right now is found in two parts on David Pogue’s NY Times site: part one and part two.

M Zone has a hilarious excerpt from an Alabama news story about Nick Saban’s arrival, regarding an enthusiastic Alabama fan of new coach Nick Saban.

The Hardball Times analyzes Zumaya’s fireballs and provides a little recent historical perspective. The net: park effects matter a bit (such as location of gun mount), but Zumaya’s arm is unbelievable. Let’s just hope he doesn’t get Guitar Hero 2 for the 360 this year.

Good take on the Rose Bowl (and the writer has an awesome name for his blog–The Wayne Fontes Experience).

Webber is coming home to Detroit. We were talking about this Friday night. The Dice Roller, sad to say, appears on the steep part of his decline curve. Nazr Mohammed is a bust, although that’s not a surprise (c’mon Dumars!). (And note that the Mark Stein story linked to here says that the Pistons may trade Mohammed to the T-Wolves to free up some minutes.) So if Webber can come in and spell ‘Sheed for a reasonable price, I think it’s a good move. This situation reminds me, however, of when the Mavs used that one-time escape clause to buy out Michael Finley and a number of top teams, including the Pistons, were amped up to sign him. He signed with the Spurs and has done very little since.

Pete Carroll is chatting with the Dolphins. I guess I shouldn’t say lying, since at this point he hasn’t made the kind of unequivocal statements that Saban did that proved untrue. He admitted to meeting with the Dolphins’ owner, says he likes the setup there and still plans to stay with USC. Given how successful Carroll has been at USC versus what a failure the New England tenure was (or is my view colored by the Sports Guy’s negativity?), you would think he would want another shot at the NFL challenge.

We’ll see where this leads. I’m rooting for him to move on to the NFL, so that Michigan isn’t guaranteed a beatdown every time they play. Even though I’m in the Lloyd Carr camp based on overall success and how he runs the program, I don’t think he has a chance to beat Carroll if talent levels are close due to Carroll’s coaching superiority, especially if Carroll has a month to prepare for a bowl game.

As an aside, I saw the Sports Guy at the Rose Bowl while I was waiting in line for the port-a-john. He was walking briskly somewhere with his lackey, no doubt to a VIP section. Not a bad life…