Is anyone running a GT/OO/other fantasy football league this year?  I haven't played FF in a few years and I'd like to get back to it this year.

Actually the sharkskin suit thing was debunked:

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/02/a-swimsuit-like-shark-skin-not-so-fast/

Hostile Takedowns

And instead of teaching a style of martial arts, you teach a system: the SUITS system (Stopping Unwanted Invasion of Terminal Space).

Cool panorama of all of the LA Kings 'fans' at the parade/rally:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/hockey/nhl/kings/la-sp-kings-stanley-cup-parade-pano,0,2763238.htmlstory

Looks like they had to photoshop in some more fans.  I can tell from some of the pixels and from having seen quite a few shops in my time.

Nope, I'm not logged in.  I do have NoScript and Adblock, but disabling doesn't seem to do much.  It seems to be totally random.  If I close and reopen Chrome, one search term will be restored to normal, but then another one still returns gibberish.  Close and reopen again and they are reversed.

So I decided to try out Google Chrome.  I actually kind of like it except it seems to be screwing with my Google searches.  At some unspecified point (perhaps after I've already searched for a term) it decides to no longer show the same results.  At all.  For example, if I google James Berardinelli, a favorite movie reviewer of mine the results are completely different in Chrome and Firefox.  The Firefox ones are useful and relevant (the usual google stuff).  The Chrome results are a bunch of blog entries and stupid crap.  Any ideas?

Gogo VRWC!  I mean, Kings!

The Asus motherboard could go either way - I've had fantastic Asus boards, and I've had boards that make me want to rip my hair out.  Right now I'm rocking a Gigabyte board and I'm happy.  Is there a specific reason you picked that board? (features, memory capacity, etc.)

I've had good experience with other Asus products (although not a motherboard), so I felt comfortable with the brand.  Mostly I picked it because of price.  I was going to go with a Z77 model instead of Z68, but those were all around $50-100 more except for a few Z77's that either had poor reviews or only a handful.  I was suspicious of a cheaper, supposedly more advanced board without sufficient reviews to vouch for quality.  The particular motherboard I bought was specifically mentioned in the Hard Choices article and reviews held up, so I felt comfortable with it.  If I had a choice, I'd pick a board that didn't have any Realtek integrated components, but they all do so that's a non-factor.

Same thing with the SSD.  The price was low enough and the reviews supportive so I felt comfortable taking a chance on OCZ.

I'll be building a new gaming rig when I go home in two weeks and I just ordered the parts on Newegg today. I thought I'd show off my new purchases here for critique or for anyone else thinking of upgrading to get ideas from. For basic research I highly recommend RPS's new hardware series Hard Choices. The author boils down all the gibberish into just the essentials and offers a handful of recommendations if you really just need to be told what's the best bang for the buck. After that it just a matter of reading reviews on specific parts or using basic Google-fu to compare one option versus another.

For reference I will be upgrading a 4-5 year old PC that was running on Core2Duo 2.66Ghz, Nvidia 8800GT, 2Gb RAM, and Windows XP with a 500Gb hard drive. I'm keeping the same monitor, peripherals, case, power supply, DVD drive, and the hard drive for a backup. However, I may consider upgrading the case and/or power supply if I think it's needed once I get home. It's doubtful though. I also plan to do simple overclocking of my new processor and hope to do it with the stock cooler, but if I can get significant gains by using an aftermarket one I might do it.

Processor: Intel i5 2500K. Pretty simple choice. This seems to be almost universally considered the best for your money even after the new Ivy Bridge came out. Easy to overclock and will be the first CPU I do so.

Motherboard: This Asus Z68 board. Quite a bit cheaper than the Z77 options, well reviewed, and one of the boards mentioned in the RPS article.

Video Card: XFX Radeon 6950 2Gb. Very slightly cheaper than the other equivalent option Nvidia's GTX 560 Ti and heads-up comparisons seemed to give it a very slight edge in performance. Both were the top two choices in the video card RPS article.

RAM: Patriot 8Gb. The general consensus seems to be that 16gb isn't really necessary over 8gb and this was 1/3 the cost of a 16gb setup.

SSD: OCZ 120Gb drive. This will be my first SSD and I'm excited. Apparently OCZ doesn't have the established reputation of some other SSD brands, but this drive was well-reviewed and had the best price point at purchase. It also met all the checkboxes that the SSD RPS article said to check for. It will be my OS and games drive with my old 500Gb platter as backup.

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. The only thing about Professional I may have wanted would be the XP compatibility mode, but I already own XP so I can just do a dual-boot setup if I run into legacy issues with certain games.

Total cost after promo-codes and rebates: $750 with no tax and free shipping. Normally I aim for the $500-600 mark when I upgrade, but this includes an OS and a hard drive which I usually am not upgrading. Not bad. I can't wait to get home and put this baby together. Also, making my dad and brother jealous isn't a bad perk either. With the hardware slow-down that seems to be the trend nowadays I predict this system should easily last me another 4-5 years.

WOOOO!

Kings didn't earn it.  That was merely the VRWC at work.

Jeff Saturday is on a 2 year deal and behind him is Evan Dietrich-Smith AKA The Guy Who Got Stomped On By Suh, a 2009 UDFA who's probably not starter material, but likely a decent backup.  I guess we'll draft a long-term prospect next year.

I don't follow college football or prospects, but I do like what Green Bay has done this year.  Take arguably one of the best offenses ever that has changed very little from last season and a terribad defense that stemmed mostly from an anemic pass rush and do what?  Draft OLB, DE, CB, DE, S, and OLB through the first five rounds.  Even better, the consensus seems to be that most of those picks were BPA or BPA equivalents that also fit need.  If Nick Perry (Rd. 1 OLB) and Jerel Worthy (Rd. 2 DE) can provide even halfway decent contributions that should have a big impact on freeing up Clay Matthews and BJ Raji to make some noise.

And here's a salute to Nick Collins, whose career is most likely cut waaaay too short.

If the Panthers and Senators win tonight I'll have gone 8/8 at picking winners*.

*winning at losing that is

Hey guys, what's going on in this thread?

The better team definitely won that series.  Detroit looked mostly uninterested.  Even in an elimination game they didn't play with much, if any, fire.  Losing Helm hurt a lot I think.  Lidstrom obviously was not 100% and I don't think Datsyuk was either.  It's hard to believe Detroit is the first team eliminated though.  We certainly need some offseason changes.  This team has been relatively unchanged the last few years, and our playoff performance does not reflect well on the group.

Well that's probably it for Detroit.  They really should've won that game.  They got all the calls (intent to blow is bullshit no matter who it's on) and outworked Nashville for most of the game.  It's too bad the game was lost on a complete bonehead move by THREE skaters AND Howard.  Really?  Four guys to stop one opponent on a zero angle to the goal?

Like I said earlier, Lidstrom is a complete non-factor in this series.  How much is the injury and how much is the inevitable decline of age?

I'm kind of surprised, but Lidstrom has been a total non-factor so far these playoffs.  The last few seasons have definitely shown that he's fallen from superhuman to elite to merely good.  I know his bone bruise is keeping him off the PK, but it's done fine without him.  It's the 5 on 5 and PP where I'd expect him to show up more.

I don't hate the Pens, just the perception that they ARE the league.

Hmm...that must be a south-of-the-border thing. Up here in Canada the hockey brass very much hold the perception that the Leafs are the league, which is about as sad and hilarious at the same time as you can get.  

WTF does Mexico have to do with this?

Hate to tell you, but out of all the national origins of players, Canada still has the largest % - almost 50% of the league. So yeah, when I'm talking borders I'm talking in reference to the nation that counts, not borders based on the skewed economics of North America.  

Isn't Canada the 51st state aka Hat?

Well, we can be sure if Clowe isn't punished that the Sharks winning benefits the Wings and/or hurts the Blues in some way.

VRWC

VRWC!

I read in a recent interview that showrunner Steven DeKnight and Starz have pretty much agreed how many more seasons are in the tank, but they aren't revealing what that number is.  Given that they're jumping straight to Crassus next season I would guess 2-3 more.

With all our injuries and general suckitude, the VRWC really needs to step up its game.  Maybe send some goons to go after Blues players Nancy Kerrigan style? 

Cmon Sharks, you can't do us a favor and beat down those pesky Blues?

The arguments supporting the significance of the Wings' streak involve the restrictions of the salary cap and the general increase in league-wide parity.  But I think it just boils down to theohall being jelly.   

From HFBoards:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0qZYqdsYAg&feature=player_embedded

I have to admit, there was a brief moment where I swear I caught the scent of onions.

Courtesy of HFBoards, it's Columbus's season encapsulated in one picture:

Post-game handshake fight in college hockey:
http://www.totalprosports.com/2012/01/16/fight-breaks-out-during-post-game-handshake-between-north-dakota-and-minnesota-video/

I've seen a lot of Wings fans who want to play Toronto, but the thought is that NBC isn't going to want to lose out on a second city's ratings with a Canadian team.

http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2011/12/red_wings_in_talks_with_nhl_to.html

Old article, but Detroit should get to host one of the next two WC's.  Question is, do they do it in Comerica Park in Detroit or go for the big #'s at the Big House?  Also, who do they play?

Yeah I stopped listening halfway through.  So much for an evenly matched, exciting game.

Tilt of titans, clash of conquerers, battle of the best: the 5-0 Red Wings face the 6-0 Caps tonight!  Someone's staying undefeated, someone is going down!

Like a Bus!

Guess what? I did a search!
More
boss
busses

Wings are on pace to allow only 82 goals against this season! 

Sometimes it takes a couple of cocks to keep the bunnies in line. SFW

Great Taxidermy Commercial and the accompanying meme explanation.

It was great two and a half weeks ago, too

Damn, I'm really losing Hark points.

Great Taxidermy Commercial and the accompanying meme explanation.

Is that Chuck Norris?  He looks super old.

How about something a little more light-hearted?  Like Jonathan Toews decking some kid: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Video-In-which-Jonathan-Toews-accidentally-body;_ylt=AoDAOQf85rEYQxJPxL4XHi97vLYF?urn=nhl-wp12360

The Oatmeal's Minor Differences 4

This really needs a bump.  It elicits so much abdominal pain, but of the good variety.  Be sure to read all 4 parts.