Crazy week

I thought it would be an appropriate time to update as a couple of dramatic things have happened recently:

1) Alyse and I are splitting up
2) I am leaving Baltimore and moving to Delaware
3) I'm switching jobs momentarily

The breakup wasn't purely mutual (and I doubt that most "mutual" breakups really are because someone has to bring it up), but it was fairly close. I always anticipated that we would break up shortly after I left law school but I didn't think it would be this painful or as sudden as it was. Broken down pretty simply, we have completely different agendas and began to have less and less in common other then the same house and similar friends. She has one career path and perspective of what is important in life and I have a different one. Its much better to do this now then later. I of course wish her the best of luck and hope she finds happiness i apparently failed to provide her.

It sucks we still live together for the moment but I think it should all be civil. With the twins leaving, and Alyse staying in Baltimore, I decided to get out of town and head to Wilmy. I looks as of this moment I'll be living with Dave in a Dave-like pad in Trolley Square. There are few things I could think of being a more dramatic life change then going from living with a girl for four years to living with Dave in Trolley during the summer. On that note, I would certainly be willing to provide any female readers of this blog free bone, unless its Alyse, because it would then become emotional bone.

Few sports thoughts of the last couple months:

1) Terrible NCAA tournament save the Vill -Pitt game and its sweet +280 ML.
2) Who doesn't love Kenny Perry going into Saturday of the Masters tied with Chad Campbell at -9 with Tiger at -2? The lines +300. Love it. Kenny Perry is the leading all time PGA tour money winner never to win a major.
3) When are the Eagles going to get that WR? There has been talks of a "definite" Anquan Boldin acquisition (or his retarded brother Chad Johnson) for weeks and nothing has moved. Andy needs to start fucking hustling because the NFC East is going the be better than it was last year.

Media related notes:
1) Resident Evil 5 - not so good. World of Goo - super fucking awesome
2) In Treatment is appointment television. The funny thing is that the reason I didn't watch it was because I thought it would be an overly dramatic "adult" HBO with lots of pretense and pained looks on Gabriel Byrne's face. And it is. And its awesome.
3) Michael Scott Paper Company (MSPC) needs to continue for at least three more weeks. How is the black guy from the wire going to leave Scranton? My guess is he is framed for something by Michael and then fired, although I'd put moving on to a new company due to more attractive offer (like Scott going to Staples) or inability to cope with Scranton is 2.
4) I don't know if I mentioned this before but thanks to Chris, Blayze's friend, for the tip on www.popurls.com. It consolidates 4 to 5 sites on your internet surfing roster onto one page. Check it out.

Why Andy Reid is a "special" coach

Mark it. 12/22 was the worst day of football in recent memory. Reasons:

1) As an Eagles fan, I am used to bullshit and disappointment. McNabb throwing up, Ronde Barber eating up our offense, Deuce McAllister's career game, etc. But for some reason, yesterday's failure was the worst. And this isn't "what have you failed for me lately?" The Eagles uniquely disappointed thier fans in a sadisitic way no other team could.

Tell me this doesn't sound like a bad sports movie with the wrong ending. The Eagles look awful vs. the Ravens, which may not have entirely been thier fault as the Ravens defense can make any team look awful. Andy Reid figuratively does something completely crazy and benches his franchise QB with the season hanging in the balance because he was losing by three points. Now, this sounds like an "I'll show everybody I'm not crazy because something unanticipated and awesome will come of this" move.  After the game, the media and fans want Reid fired.

 Of course, true to script, that unanticipated, awesome result comes about in the form of a 4 game win streak with McNabb playing incredible ball and a jacked up defense. This would be about hour deep in the movie where the defensive lineman would be saying cool, macho stuff to each other after monster tackles during the win streak. 

After everything was thought lost a few weeks ago, the Bad News Eagles can only get in now if a a good team (TB) improbably loses and the Eagles play a tight, last man standing game against their arch rivals, the Cowboys, withMcNabb's flamboyant archenemy. Of course, the good team (TB) loses a winable game at home to an underdog, and now its on to the death battle???

No. If this was the Giants,   the TB loss would get the nervous, beaten up Giants team a burst of life that would manifest itself in hard rock pounding and vicious-defense against WAS for its upcoming winner take all battle against Dallas. But its the Eagles. 

Instead of pound the rock, Reid called 12 running plays. And 48 pass plays. Remember when the Giants game was really close and the Eagles insisted on running a tough, 5-9 running back against a great D-line and he finally broke a 30 yard TD run? That was two weeks ago. Instead, Reid decided that winning was too stressful and did exactly what caused him to fail in the past; throw to uninspired, 3rd string WRs and TEs who are notoriously unclutch. Had they had even 20% clutch in them, Jackson would have caught that pass with 1:03 left or Avant would have found a way to break the plane.

McNabb played a good game. Andy Reid is 100% to blame for his. And he won't be fired. And when TB beats Oakland by 30 (ironically w/ Jeff Garcia), the Eagles will beat Dallas in relaxed, thank-god-we-don't-have-to-win manner next week. 

My theory is that, from a business perspective, Jeffery Lurie will never get rid of Reid even though Reid A) has a great framework of talent on his roster b) has terrible clock management (what if there was a TO left after the Avant catch?) and c) calls plays like a 12 year old playing Madden 98' . Why not? Lurie doesn't care if we win or lose; as long as there is conflict and extreme brilliance/idiocy, Eagles fans will keep watching/talking/loving/hating. As long as we aren't boring, we're profitable. 

2) Vinnie and I come up with a new way to bet this weekend. Both of us write down out our picks against the spread, compare, cross out shared picks, and then bet $20 a game on whats left. After comparing, the only game out of 16 we didn't agree on was MNF GB(me) @ Chi (-4). FOr the sake of entertainment, we decide to bail on one pick a piece to create more action and pick the other end. Vin goes from PIT(+2) to TEN(-2), I go from ATL(+3) to MIN(-3).  

I've lost 2/3 and am watching CHI defense shit on GB in subzero weather as we speak. $60 gone on a nearly coinflip basis. Speaking of which.....

3) Alyse plays Vinnie in FF. 

Roddy White+Deion Branch+Robert Mathis+Adrian Fucking Peterson=7.5 points. 

Larry Fitgerald on one pass with ARI down 42-0 in the fourth quarter and Kurt Warner inexpicibly playing=14 points

Seriously.

4) The only rewards of the weekend were Farve choking (wahhhhhh) and Baltimore shutting down the Cowboys in awesome style.

My NFL playoff predicitions

WC: Den v Bal, Bal. Mia v Ind, Ind. TB v Ari, TB. Atl v Min, Atl.

Div: Bal v Pit, Pit. Ind v Ten, Ind. NYG v TB, NYG. Atl v Car, Atl.

Champ: Pit v Ind, Ind. Atl v NYG, NYG

SB: Nyg v Ind, Ind

Things I've learned on one-call close selling in the last two months:

1) Do not use a "superior authority" or "talk to my manager" negotiation-close unless absolutely last resort. I've close all my sales myself and have lost sales by confusing people by forcing them to negotiate with the higher authority.

2) Do everything possible to avoid "mud-wrestling", or back-and-forth objection closing at the end. Mud wrestling sucks, creates cancellations, and can make you seem unprofessional. Close objections and resistance unfront by creating a non-confrontational close.

3)"Closing" is just coming to an agreement. Persuading is a unilateral activity. Mutually coming to an agreement by creating benefits to solve problems is a cooperative activity. The latter is much easier, positive, and profitable. 

4) If you get objections, the person either 1) doesn't like you or 2) is just nervous about something. If its the former, you fucked up. If its the latter, then its just a matter of find out the anxiety and quelling because you are just a consultant trying to help. 

5) Be whoever they want you to be. If they go to church, I go to church. If you have a kid, I have one on the way. If you like McCain, I like McCain. If you are Zorostrian, you wouldn't believe it, but so am I. 

Of course, this is based on real small sample of sales; however, the same issues keep coming up and these are principles that just explain issues I've had.

Damn right and picks of the week

From today's NYT following Palin's "you have cooties" speech last night at the DNC:

Three days into the Republican National Convention, it is clear that the G.O.P. has settled on a message: “Washington is not working.” The phrase is included in virtually every speech and every statement in St Paul.

We agree completely that Washington is in desperate need of renewal and reform. We’re not even going to quibble about the fact that Barack Obama said it first. The problem is that American voters have yet to hear — from John McCain or his warm-up acts — any serious ideas on what, exactly, is wrong with Washington, apart from the fact that a Democrat might win the White House, never mind how to truly fix it.

The difficulty for the Republican ticket in talking about change and reform and acting like insurgents is that they have been running Washington — the White House and Congress — for most of the last eight years.

Sarah Palin, the vice presidential nominee, was a combative and witty relief at a torpid convention. But it was bizarre hearing the running mate of a 26-year veteran of Congress, a woman who was picked to placate the right-wing elite, mocking “the permanent political establishment in Washington.”

And we couldn’t imagine what Mitt Romney was thinking when he denounced “liberal Washington” and then, at the convention of the party that brought you unimpeded presidential spying, declared: “It’s time for the party of big ideas, not the party of Big Brother!”

As hard as he tries, Mr. McCain cannot escape the burdensome shadow of President Bush because his policies offer no real change. On the all-important issue of the economy, Mr. McCain has no prescription for ending the mortgage-driven crisis or for fixing the huge fiscal problems Mr. Bush has bequeathed the nation. He wants to make even deeper cuts in corporate taxes, eliminate the alternative minimum income tax and make permanent the Bush tax cuts that vastly favor the wealthy and that he once correctly opposed.

His only idea for balancing the budget seems to be controlling earmarks, which Republicans now denounce with the sort of single-minded fervor they used to reserve for Democratic-appointed judges.

Permanently extending the tax cuts would reduce tax revenue by $1 trillion over four years. If Mr. McCain eliminated every earmark (including money for the gas pipeline that Ms. Palin wants to build in Alaska), the savings would total about $18 billion a year. He hasn’t offered any idea of where he’ll get the rest of the money.

He has not explained how he plans to rein in out-of-control financial firms and avoid a repeat of the mortgage disaster. Mr. Bush’s ideological opposition to sound government regulation is in large measure to blame for the economic crisis, but when Mr. McCain talks about fixing Washington, that subject never comes up.

Mr. McCain also has yet to explain to voters how he intends to go on paying for the war in Iraq — and also fix a dangerously stretched and overburdened military. Mr. McCain talks about energy independence. But his primary solution is not a solution: drilling and more drilling.

Mr. McCain says he is the candidate who will better protect the country from terrorism. But about all he has to offer is his pledge to continue the war in Iraq. We have yet to hear an explanation for how he plans to do that while also salvaging the war in Afghanistan — the real front line in the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Now that everyone agrees that Washington needs fixing, we hope Mr. McCain will offer more than partisan boilerplate when he addresses the convention on Thursday night.

Picks of the week, all of whom are suprisingly favorites:

NYG +4.5 over WAS: Not sold on Jason Campbell or Washington yet. Not until they can show consistancy. And you better believe that Eli and the gang are going to be fired up at the Meadowlands after all the press shit talking about them in the offseason.

Steelers +6.5 over the Texans: I have heard all kinds of reasons why the Texans will cover this spread, counterintuitively. Well, I'm going to use my intuition. The Texans suck. And Pittsburgh is good, especially in the beginning of the season when they aren't all banged up from the physical football they play. I don't see the Texans scoring more than 10 points in this game.

Eagles +7.5 over Rams: See above. Rams suck.

Detroit +3 over Atlanta. See above. Falcons suck.

Jets +3 over Miami. See above. Miami sucks.

Vikings +2.5 on MNF against the Packers. I know its Lambeau and Roger's will be fired up, but until Rodgers shows me anything, there is no reason to believe Minnesota won't just play a "bruise and run" game and control the football the whole time. Almost like a control deck in Magic against a deck predicated on some big, fancy new card thats tough to integrate the first time playing.

I have my phone back btw.

Palin

Have people lost their fucking minds? Beyond all the other reasons to abhor the republicans right now, what happens if McCain dies (72)? Is Ms. Housemom from Alaska going to deal with tough foreign policy issues with Iran, China, and Russia? Could she stare down Putin at the G8? What the fuck are 48 percent of America thinking? Is latent racism really that widespread? I really mean it at this point that if the republicans get elected, I'm getting an MBA in Canada and just moving to Vancouver. No kidding. And I'm staying there. Fuck this bullshit.

FF aftermath and musings

My new ffootball rankings:

1) Mike
2) Alyse
3 and 4) Kaufmann and Brian
5) Rodney
6) Me

I had a good draft but several injuries have made my team much worse on paper than it was. Bobby Engram, my surprise stud WR from last year, is out for 7 weeks. Cleveland's right guard is out for the year, therefore fucking Earnest Graham. Jerry Porter is gametime decision for the first game.

Mike looks really strong. Steven Jackson, Maurice J.D, Steve Smith, Garrard, Wittnen, and Cotchery makes him the team to beat. I give myself about a 30% chance to beat him in week one.

The beach this weekend is going to be nuts. Feel free to come down for a bit and check out the scene.

Congrats to Joe Biden for being our V.P, repping DE. I really didn't think Obama would take that kind of chance, since Biden has a history of running his mouth and his state is irrelevant, but I think it really reinforces Obama's idea campaign of running a principled campaign without political regard. On Bodog, Mitt Romney is a 2-3 favorite to be McCain's running mate; I think there is a good chance it'll be Tom Ridge though, a moderate who will secure PA.

BTW, can anybody explain to me why someone should vote for McCain? I mean that to contrast the popular and most frequently answered question, why not to vote for Obama. When I asked my parents why the would vote for McCain, they said because they don't trust OBama. Whenever McCain campaigns or makes a press release about the campaign, it is a knock on Obama. I haven't heard one argument from a McCain supporter why one should vote for McCain, only why one shouldn't vote for Obama. It seems to me that if that is the popular position, anti-Obama rather pro-McCain, the right thing to do for anti-Obamites is just to not vote unless they have a reasonable belief that McCain's policies and adminstration will affirmatively better for the country. Its quite intellectually and politically irresponsible otherwise.

Time for a little bragging. I took the GMAT last week and got a 710 (92% percentile). The average GMAT at Harvard is a 705. I studied for about 20 hours. It was quite a bit easier than the LSAT, but at the same time, law school conditioned me to take highly analytical, high pressure, three hour tests.

The problem is my character history on paper is poor. In reality, I have absolutely no remorse or guilt for any of the crimes I committed (with the exception of my DUI at 17). All of my transgressions were non-violent intoxicant related crimes against myself. While illegal, I dont believe for a minute that they were immoral. Most western nations other than the U.S would consider my "crimes" acceptable. Alcohol and marijuana use is not only socially acceptable in most western socieities but the real irony is that most of the people judging me are guilty of the same "crimes" but weren't caught.

Regardless (boo fucking hoo), the pros and cons here are:

Pro
Good Gmat score
Hispanic
Good law school grades

Con
Bad character history
Average undergrad grades
Little work experience

Obviously the biggest obstacle is the character thing. If anybody has any clever ideas about the most painless and rewarding way to cure my character issues, or belongs to a volunteer or nonprofit group that needs help, let me know.

Rock Band= Awesome. While the guitar work is not nearly as fun as guitar hero, the group ethic is fucking awesome.

Book recommendation: Scott Turow's "Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyer's Reflections on Dealing with the Death Penalty". It is an incredibly insightful look at the complexities of the death penalty. Turow worked on a commission to suggest reforms for the Illinois Death Penalty, and had unlimited resources to create a broad picture of all of the considerations that go into creating a just, predictable, and consistent capital punishment policy. His basic conclusion was that while everybody has heard of crimes that scream for the death penalty, it is so unwieldy as a whole that it should be abolished.

Movie recommendation: The Counterfeiters. A nazi death camp French movie about Jewish counterfeiters who were forced to manufacture American dollars as a way to destro the American economy. Riveting.

Wish you saw it: Gold medal basketball game. A real classic. Spain played out of its mind and way above its means, but the U.S proved too talented. There is no question now that we have the best basketball players in the world (if there ever was one). I also think we have the bess athletes in the world, regardless of the golf medal count. Shooting and ping pong gold medals don't mean shit.

Article of the week:

Bush Told To Sign Birthday Treaty For Someone Named 'Kyoto'

WASHINGTON—Enlisted by members of the House and Senate, presidential aide Rebecca Tandy brought a copy of the international climate-change treaty to President Bush's desk Monday and asked him to sign a birthday document for a Japanese dignitary named "Kyoto Protocol." "Mr. Protocol really likes treaties, so we got him this treaty instead of a card, so if you could just—all the other countries have already signed it," a nervous Tandy reportedly said to Bush, who quickly scrawled his signature on the treaty and told her to tell Kyoto he said "hi." "And now, if you could just initial here, and here, and here, and, oh, you can ignore all that stuff about sulfides. That's just an inside joke." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi later attempted to get Bush to sign a "bar mitzvah stop-use agreement" for the son of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Clusterbomb.

Olympics, Fantasy Football, and Dewey

Dewey has been quite exhausting recently. The constant ebb and flow of friends coming to the beach is better than being lonely but can take a considerable toll on your body if just from the drinking. The way we describe it, and this not meant to be targeted, is that whenever people come to visit its "their weekend". By that I don't mean that they require being the center of attention or are being selfish in anyway, but I mean that they are full of saved up alcoholic energy which tends to be infectious. After say three groups of people come down over a week or weekend, each with their own agenda, we (and by we I mean the housemates) end up putting in more hours socializing and boozing then we probably should. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing; you only live once, but at the same time, it is very difficult to focus, particularly in a transition period that I and everyone else in the house is facing with various career goals and changes from the previous status quo. Its definitely a signal I've been going too hard if I'm yearning for some kind of productivity.

The summer has so far been a success. We have a good blend of roommates with relatively limited drama. Most of the drama has come from fairly predicatble situations (relationships + off schedules + alcohol). All of our friends who have come down have been generally generous and low maintenance, with a few glaring exceptions. Molly's going away boat was in her words "fucking awesome" and some of the June weekends were memorable.

Random thoughts:

1) The Brett Farve Saga has been absolutely disgusting. Shame on ESPN for perpetuating this bullshit. This whole thing has really left a bad taste in my mouth about following the ESPN "soap opera" wagon.

Last year, when I drove every day to Harrisburg with only FM and AM (Alyse had the Sirius) and I listened to ESPN radio consistently, I realized how incredibly predicatble and formulated the ESPN machine is. Every news program on ESPN is almost perfectly coordinated to have a day-rank of 5 stories and shove them down your throat via every medium possible. Next time you watch Around the Horn, check the first five stories on PTI, the first five links on ESPN.COM, the stories Jim Rome is "burning on", and what is being discussed by Tirico or Mike and Mike on the radio. All the same. Not only are they only the same, but they often pitch the exact same perspective. The Farve thing was the worst example. Its a monopoly of poor commerical sports journalism. The only guy I still respect there is Bill Simmons

2) . .. . which leads into my next point, that the Olympics is really pretty refreshing. Real sports fans can appreciate the pure competitiveness of "off sports" like tennis (See Nadal/Federer Wimeldon), golf (Tiger at the U.S Open), swimming (Phelps), and even stuff like volleyball and MMA. Its so much more interesting than Farve's text messages or Pacman's new name (Adam!).

3) I've gotten into books on tape recently as my Sirius broke and I was bored driving for work. I've gotten through 1984, Don Quixote, The Old Man and the Sea, and My Life (Clinton's autobiography).

1984: Absolute must read, entertaining to read and more intellectually stimulating and political than Atlas Shrugged. Can't believe i was never required to read this in high school.

Don Quixote: Cultural artifact thats amusing if not relevant

The Old Man and the Sea: Beautiful book thats whimisal, non important, but generally pleasant to listen to.

My Life: Fascinating. Must read/hear. Regardless of how you feel about him its a very revealing recap of the most important events of the 90's.

4) Common social wisdom dictates that really hot girls are not nice and uglier, bigger girls are nice and have good personalities out of necessity. I think this is in fact total bullshit.

5) I'm really pretty excited for fantasy football. If your reading this your probably in the league. My preseason playoff 6 picks:

1) Me
2) My brother
3) Brock
4) Ari
5) Rodney or Brian but not both
6) Blayze

7) Republicans really make me fucking sick. Not the identity or political preference but the political campaign inner circle itself (Newt, DeLay, Bush, Rove) . Hearing about some of the travesties during the Clinton era of Republican moral politics in his autobiography and experiencing how the current campaign is being conducted is reprehensible. How can Obama be blamed for going to repair foreign relations in his European tour? The only logical progression would be a video of Obama saving a baby and making a three pointer and then ending with "OBAMA: HE'S BLACK!".

Come visit Labor Day weekend.

MId Summer

So I got a job as a delivery boy last week. Pretty far fall from taking the bar and sitting second chair in October for a capital murder. The other option was to be a bouncer, and I figured I make twice as much this way. Talk about a cush fucking job. No open, no close, no clean up, just me, Howard, my G.P.S, and italian food. BTW Casa DiLeo has slamming food.

The "senior" driver was fired my first day because he couldn't cut it. Seriously. Apparently when he was out on a delivery he called his customer for directions, she started explaining to him where to go, and he flipped out on her. She called the owner saying she didn't want the food and that her husband was about to beat the driver's ass. HA. Poor guy was bipolar though.

Random thoughts:
1) I've never enjoyed a 40 basketball victory more than Game 6, particularly in light of all the Donagy shit and the light shining on Game 6 of the 2002 Kings-Lakers debacle. Everybody knew it was fixed and it has to be particularly vindicating for Sac fans.

2) Who the fuck cares if Obama takes public money?

3) If anybody is interested in September tickets for the Phillies in a divisional game, let me know. I'm sure the Mets or Atlanta will be in Philly and the race will be close.

4) Is it more of an accomplishment to marry a 9 who doesn't speak English or a 7 that does?