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… upon further review, that does not say what I thought it said.

What Dad wanted:

What Dad got:

What Dad thought he saw:

Love gut explosions. These strings were what I was using when The Magic Night happened (a tennis Magic Night of Sublime Awesomeness, not one of those romantic Magic Nights). Yes, I will be using this setup again.

Main: Tecnifibre Black Code @ 52
Cross: Gaucho gut @ 55

After a loooong time between breaks (winter has cramped my schedule), I broke 3 in one day. The other two looked pretty pedestrian, so no need to display.

Side note: taking off the headtape on one of the other racquets took off the graphics with it. Boo in that cheapass decals come off/aren’t underneath a layer of lacquer and boo that its resale value was just trashed, but yay in that the graphics just became much less embarrassing. Don’t quite know how to feel about that one.

Yeah, the aughts have sucked donkey dong, and here’s TIME with The 10 Worst Things About the Worst Decade Ever … but I’m pretty sure 1929-1939 was far worse than what we’ve gone through lately.

The TIME piece is, however, more evidence that we’re the biggest collection of whiny ass babies in our country’s history though. So we’ve got that going for us.

Is there any current band with a bigger disparity between awesomeness of the music and craptacularity of the vocals & lyrics than Muse? They’re Queen 2.0.

I thought they were going to be a what-if-Kid-A-never-happened version of Radiohead, but instead appear to be closer to Rent fans who happen to have an electric guitar handy.

… mine involves Danger Squirrel, a tree rat so daring, so determined, so mutated that it can hang by it’s rear toes from a branch while it pilfers the bird feeder. Behold!

Maryhill Winemaker’s Red 2006. ~$15

Well rounded blend of reds, the resulting wine was full, smooth, and tasty. Not too acidic or harsh, it was a perfect compliment to salad and marinara pasta. It was a complex flavor without being overbearing, without any real variation in sensation from early taste to aftertaste.

This is old, but here’s some great tennis:

I fully enjoy both Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal (who, along with Federer, are my favorite 3 to watch), but the player I most enjoy is Murray. His court movement is fantastic (it’s better now than in the video above), his 2-handed backhand is the best I’ve seen, and as you can see in the above clip, his down the line forehand is monstrous. Plus, I think Murray and Fed are the best strategists currently on tour (watch the above when Murray starts throwing in soft shots amongst all the pace), which is fun to watch and think about. Like a great jazz soloist or chess champion, it becomes apparent down the road what the setup was all along. Fed has better technical footwork, but Murray glides … like a dancer. There’s a grace there you don’t see often. I’m absolutely jealous of Murray’s footwork. And backhand. And talent.

Here’s their 2008 US Open match (Murray won). Watch Murray’s footwork:

Watch Murray’s movement, court coverage, and return of serve preparation – all way above where they were a year before. He’s still improving and will be, I think, the next new #1 player in the game (Fed may retake it again, I don’t see Rafa having a multi-year stranglehold on the spot, and I don’t see Djokivic in the top 3). Unlike Rafa, Murray’s serve is a strength (Rafa’s is merely adequate), which is a great help on hard courts and non-2008 Wimbledon (which was slower than in previous years, to Rafa’s benefit and Federer’s detriment). As a side bonus, unlike Rafa, you can actually learn from and attempt to emulate Murray’s technique.

Rafa’s one of those singularities – an inimitable freak of nature (among other things, he’s actually a righty who plays lefty). He’s all energy and enthusiasm and fun, and he’s no slouch in the strategy department, but to-date he’s never really had to strategize as his sheer physical skills and refusal to give up on any point keep him matches that could be a bit shorter if he thought ahead a couple more moves. I think he’s a great player, but until he gets a better serve he’ll be limited in success on hard courts. He seems like a really genuine, nice guy … with OCD, some mania, and a supreme focus on tennis.

Federer is, of course, amazing and probably the best player of all time. But that’s for another day. Or another writer.

Back to Murray. Here he is practicing groundies – notice the footwork and the pace even when he’s just practicing. That he probably has 6″ precision throughout is standard for the good pros, but still a sight to behold for someone like me. Good times.

This entire aughts have been a rough, not so very good happy fun sexy time for most. So you know what that means, bitches – time to turn this decade around and rescue its reputation by having a majorly kickass year.

Get to it.

Too funny to not post

Managed to get the lens right on the bastid’s face wut killed ya

… actually, I’m calling fake, but it’s a good un.

One graphic nicely sums up our age of irrational and overcontrolling fear. We’re doing it to ourselves, people.

The Humphrey Estate is on the market. For a mere $48 mil. (outside of Atlanta, of all places)

Check it out, though, it’s … remarkable.

(their widget sucks, so you’ll just have to go there by clicking)

I can go to 11. Best location was 13 8 4 3 km from the target (St. Petersburg) The map needs to be bigger (in terms of pixels), for sure.

Update: Finally made it to level 12 (traveler IQ of 130, 553,000 points). Hooray for me!

Texas has wildly variable weather and highly accurate forecasts.

Washington has highly consistent weather and wildly inaccurate forecasts.

Discuss