Pandora Radio could simply be best source of music on the Internet. Besides being free, its best quality is that it finds music YOU like. In order to get started you create a “station” based on an artist or song of your choice. After picking an artist (Frank Sinatra) it searches its database to find songs similar to Frank Sinatra.

The first song Pandora threw at me was “You Make Me Feel So Young” by Frank Sinatra. The second song was “You’re My Girl” by Jack Jones. Why did Pandora choose Jack Jones?  Well, Pandora has the ability to “explain” why it chose a song. For the Jack Jones song it said the song had “smooth vocals, romantic lyrics, horn ensemble, light drumming, and a string section”.

So as great as the music finding feature may be, it can make certain selections too broad so you get music that doesn’t apply. But, once you start listening to a “station” for a long period of time, you build up a list of music that only YOU like which is what makes Pandora so powerful. You can “thumb up” songs you like, and “thumb down” songs you don’t like. Eventually you will have hundreds of “up” songs and you could easily have a great party mix by the end of a month.

Go to Pandora and create a station for yourself.

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Smoltz is a testament to what a real sports figure should be. Over a career that spans 20 seasons, he has played with one team.

ONE TEAM!

The way players are only interested in money, or rings, or trophies, Smoltz has accomplished everything short of an MVP -  though there were times throughout his career he was the Braves MVP.

Way to go to John Smoltz and his great career with the Atlanta Braves.

Some interesting facts about the 3,000 strikeout club:
There are only two lefties in the club, and both have over 4,000 strikeouts - Randy Johnson (4,629) and Steve Carlton (4,136).
As of 4/23/08, Baseball Reference considers six of the sixteen pitchers in the 3,000 strikeout club to still be “active” - Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux, Curt Schilling, Pedro Martinez, and Smoltz - although Clemens might still be in court.
The next two pitchers that have a shot at the 3,000 strikeout club are 31 year old Javier Vazquez (1842) and 29 year old Johan Santana (1409).  As long as both stay healthy they have a shot at it.  Santana would be the third lefty.

Once again, good for John Smoltz and the Atlanta Braves organization.

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Needless to say, I ended up shaving this morning as the Bruins were eliminated in a rather tame boring game seven against the Montreal Candiens.  The Bruins clearly don’t have the stud scorer that they need and people like Phil Kessel and Milan Lucic are a couple of seasons away.  The one thing the Bruins do have going for them is that their farm team, the Providence Bruins, is silly good and there is a good chance they are going to win the Calder Cup this year.  Growing from within can be painful and a long process but worth it in the end.  Next season should be interesting especially if Manny Fernandez is healthy.  A goalie problem is never a bad thing.

A few observations from the series:

The Montreal fans are just plain odd.  They say “Ole, ole, ole, ole, ole” - which is from overseas in England during many a football game.  When they score goals, they play songs from U2, when they are about to win, they sing an American song to rattle the opponent.

Do they have anything that is theirs?  Thieves.

The NHL will always be broken until it goes back to the 80’s and 90’s unfortunately.  The game is stale and the owners and committees have ruined completely that it isn’t even fun to watch any more.  I only think it is going to get worse before it gets better.   It’s easy to be a fan of the sport, but hard to be a fan of the league.

Ugh.

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I have had mixed results with my predictions in recent years.

In the 2003 Stanley Cup playoffs I mentioned to people that Jean-Sebastien Giguere was going to have a good playoffs and he would carry the Ducks.  Little did I know he was going to dominate the Red Wings, and the rest of the playoff field and get the Ducks to the finals.  I ended up falling just short on that prediction.

The following season, my dad’s work was talking about the playoffs and one night over dinner he said, “who do you think is going to win the cup this year?”  My response to him was that no one wanted to play the Calgary Flames.  As each round passed, my prediction got stronger.  My sister went to Las Vegas shortly before the finals and she asked me who I thought was going to win.  My response at the time was, Calgary, but if I were a betting man, I would bet my money on Tampa Bay because it’s the better bet.  So once again, I came close to being right, down to a game seven.

October 16th, 2004, I had my dad’s retirement party and we ended up taking a bus to Foxwoods with several of his co-workers.  On the ride down there while we talking about the Red Sox-Yankees series, I said to them that if we don’t get swept, the series will go seven games and we will win it.  Well, wouldn’t you know the jokes and BS started and all the guys on the bus told my dad it’s obvious that I am his son because I am dope.

Well, we know how that turned out.

I think my best one yet though was my call on April 29th, 2007.  The very day the New England Patriots traded for Randy Moss I said the Patriots would go undefeated.  We were talking about it at my second job and one person agreed with me where another disagreed.  The person that disagreed, offered a bet to the person who agreed with me.  The person that agreed with me, declined and I jumped at the opportunity for that bet.  We are in a football pool, and we agreed that whoever won would pay for the other.

Yet again, we know that turned out.

So after watching the Boston Bruins dismantle the Candiens last night, my prediction is this - I think this series is over.  I think that Carey Price as stellar as he has been all season and series is broken.  I think this game is going to stick in his head because he is so young.  There is a good chance the Bruins have a clear and legitimate shot at taking this series.  I think Jack Edwards on NESN is a complete and utter moron with how he calls hockey games, but he did make a point that rings in my mind.  He said that Claude Julien led another team down 3-1 against a rookie goalie and number #1 seeded team and won.

This time, we have the right coach behind the bench.

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Our team ended up winning our second round game to make it to the finals against our dreaded rival “Steve’s Pin-ups”.  The results have been mixed the last three times we faced them.  The first two times we faced them, I was away on a cruise, and the second time, there was a death in the family and bowling was the furthest thing on my mind.  We ended up losing all 8 points against them those two weeks.  The third time we faced them, I just missed throwing the league high triple against them (ended up with a 349) and we swept them.  The odds looked pretty good in our favor since it is apparent we bowl better against them when I am there.

The thing that we had going against us was the handicap.  We were giving up 73 pins because our average was that much higher.  We battled the whole game and ended up falling short by about 15-18 pins or so.  Our anchor didn’t bowl well both games and that certainly didn’t help us at all.  I guess there are rumors that they are going to an 80% handicap and/or creating teams based on average, so next season could be different.

Falling short on 400 Tuesday.

Making up 50 pins and losing.

This is getting old.

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I ended up throwing a weak 102.  I raised my high triple to a 388 which is nice and all, but I was right there.  I should have done it.  I feel like if I do it once and get it out of the way, the rest of those games will come more consistently.  I have been around it - but not this close before, until tonight.  I guess I should be pleased with the awards (season high triple, team high single, 1st place overall), but I would trade them all in for a lousy 401.

Almost there.

Eventually.

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I started bowling more seriously in 2002 when the Massport bowling league needed one more bowler.  When a friend of mine found out I bowled in a league he added me to his summer league, and I have been bowling both leagues ever since.  My average was around 90 pins when I stared back in 2002.  I currently carry a 104/105 average depending on the league in question.

My two league roll-offs are tonight and tomorrow respectively.

My Tuesday team took first place in our division the last week of the season backed by my 353 as we swept the second place team.  We will place the first place team in the other division this evening.  My Wednesday team managed to finish in second place this season.  The Wednesday league is different because we have a one string “knock-out” tournament.  We get the always valuable first round bye, so we will see how tomorrow goes.

More information can be found below.
Boston Bowl
Woburn Bowladrome
Massachusetts Bowling Association

I will update soon!

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Here you will find information related to whatever is on my mind at the time. You could come here one day and read about the computer lab and then come here another day and read about the Boston Red Sox and how they are doing on the season. There is a good chance this blog will be like as Forrest Gump says: “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get”.

See you soon!

Root

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