Google has a site where you can enter in a few items in a set of things, and it will try to predict the other items in the set.

So it's obvious this won't work for something as specific as the FiCB common bonds game that I posted last year, but let's try it anyway. Here are the only 2 sets that provided any results at all:

1) welcoming, service, transportation, outreach, publicity,...

Manufacturing
Academic
Retail
Energy
Business Operations
Water
Worship
Fellowship

Amazing. Fellowship is almost right since there used to be a fellowship committee, but the correct common bond was tech, as in tech committee.

2) Sylvia, Isabel, Tommy, Gee-Won, Haejin...

Focus II
Janis
House Of The King
Mother Focus
Elspeth of Nottingham
Early birth
Carnival fugue
Harem Scarem
Hocus Pocus
Focus III

On the other hand, this is way, WAY off. I don't know what any of this is, or how it relates to any of the names.

Public service announcement of the day:

Make sure to get the JPEG Processing (GDI+) Security Update from Microsoft.

The viewing of specially crafted JPEG images can compromise a user’s computer. This vulnerability is especially troubling as there is little warning that a compromise could occur – users are not being prompted to download or install anything.

Top 10 things that would be most difficult for me to fast for a week:

10) Cell phone
9) Blogging
8) Music/radio
7) Fantasy sports
6) TV
5) Browsing the internet at home
4) Browsing the internet at work
3) Following sports
2) Food
1) Water

Quote of the day:

"I think I've talked to my brother-in-law more in my lifetime than I've talked to my sister in my lifetime."

This quote comes from me. I've known my brother-in-law for about 4 years now and my sister for 22 years. And while I know this isn't true, it just seems that way because the past year I've talked to him about 2 hours a week, while I talk to my sister for about a minute a week.

What am I talking to him about? Sports, and in particular, fantasy sports...

I wonder exactly what John Kruk's role with ESPN is supposed to be. Is he supposed to be a guy who intentionally sounds like an idiot so that people will talk about ESPN-- and how much they need to fire John Kruk?

Maybe he just wants to be different and unique, and likes to see people's reactions to things he says. A lot of people in baseball do this, baseball MVP voters in particular.

I say this because of his picks for MLB Most Valuable Player and Most Valuable Pitcher:

Most Valuable Player: Chone Figgins
Most Valuable Pitcher: Brad Lidge

Family Matters Theme Song Lyrics
Title: "As Days Go By"
By: "Jesse Frederick, Bennet Salvay and Scott Roeme"

It's a rare condition, this day and age,
to read any good news on the newspaper page.
Love and tradition of the grand design,
some people say it's even harder to find.

Well then there must be some magic clue inside these tearful walls
Cause all I see is a tower of dreams
real love burstin' out of every seam.

As days go by,
we're gonna fill our house with happiness.
The moon may cry,
we're gonna smother the blues with tenderness.

When days go by,
there's room for you,
room for me,
for gentle hearts an opportunity.

As days go by,
it's the bigger love of the family.

So I don't really pay attention to politics, but this week's cover story of Time magazine interested me because it talks about how the presidential campaign is affected by political blogs.

If you need to deactivate multiple hyperlinks in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, here's what you need to do (as seen in the Help feature):

1) Type the number 1 in a blank cell, and right-click the cell.
2) Click Copy on the shortcut menu.
3) While pressing CTRL, select each hyperlink you want to deactivate.
4) Click Paste Special on the Edit menu.
5) Under Operation, click Multiply and then click OK.

This is most useful when you have a list of e-mail addresses or websites that you want to play around with. But isn't this counter-intuitive or what?

Yesterday after small group we played poker for punishments.

The 3rd loser (Frank) had to put Nutella on his face. Then the 2nd loser (Sarah) had to transfer the Nutella onto her face using only her face. Then the 1st loser (Jamie) had to lick the Nutella off Sarah's face.

I haven't had this much fun in awhile... For the complete story in pictures, go to Basile's pictures.

A couple Barry Bonds statistics, stolen from Baseball Prospectus:

-He's hitting .341/.386/.707 (AVG/OBP/SLG) with an 0-2 count. The NL is hitting .194/.235/.303 in this situation. So he could conceivably swing at the first 2 pitches when someone tries to intentionally walk him and try to see if opposing managers want to face him then...

-He has an .825 OBP with a 2-0 count. (Much of this is due to intentional walks, but .825 is still .825!)

Hurricane Ivan forced the postponement of the Cal-Southern Miss football game that was supposed to be on Thursday.

This was taken from the SF Chronicle:

Southern Miss coach Jeff Bower said Cal was premature in announcing the postponement, adding that his school wanted to wait another day before making a final declaration. "They were dead set on not wanting to come,'' Bower said. "Very unprofessional.''

OK, so maybe the Cal athletic deparment could've gone out of their way to make sure that Southern Miss was OK with Cal not having to travel across the country to a place that's expected to have a hurricane... but how did the phrase "very unprofessional" make its way into his comments?

Yes, Cal was dead set on not wanting to come, but that has everything to do with the fact that the school cares about the safety of the team and coaches. I know Southern Miss probably lost out on a lot of money and national recognition by having this game postponed, but so did Cal, a top 10 team that will go 3 weeks until its next game at Oregon State.

What possessed a major league baseball player to throw a chair into the stands?

I've now been working for over a year now.

Top 10 things I've learned from my first full year of work:

10) Some people aren't very good at replacing the water cooler.
9) Check your mug every now and then. See my post on August 9th.
8) When moving an important document, copy and paste it, instead of cutting and pasting. See my post on May 4th.
7) I now understand why people are so dependent on coffee (fortunately, that's not me yet.)
6) There are more people who are vegetarian than I thought.
5) Co-workers are much funnier when they're drunk.
4) Nobody really cares if you waste time at work, as long as you get your work done.
3) If there's free food available, people will eat it. No matter what it is.
2) Sit in the back during seminars, or drink lots of coffee.
1) In many tropical countries, people have siestas, where they take naps after lunch. America needs siestas.

My top 10 favorite TV shows:

10) Any show involving sports trivia
9) Wildboyz
8) MXC (Most Extreme Elimination Challenge)
7) Chappelle's Show
6) The Simpsons (not the newer episodes though)
5) Any show involving poker
4) SportsCenter
3) Family Guy
2) 24
1) Seinfeld

I hope I'm not missing something obvious. I almost forgot 24!

I'm a really big sports fan, but I'm going to be consumed by sports even more than normal the next month or so because of the following:

-Going to A's-Red Sox game tonight (Hudson vs Pedro)
-Baseball pennant races and playoffs
-Start of pro football season (and of course, fantasy football)
-I got season tickets for the 12th-ranked Cal football team
-Planning to go to the Cal-USC game in soCal on October 9th

Busy weekend:
-A couple BBQs
-SF Museum of Modern Art
-Walking through Chinatown and eating cheap food
-Saw Tae Guk Ki: The Brotherhood of War, AKA "the Korean Saving Private Ryan"

Here's one of the paintings we saw at SF MOMA:



Of course, there was another exhibit with 3 canvases that were completely white. The explanation to that painting was that it could be repainted over. Modern art... I just don't get it.

Probability that each baseball team will make it to the postseason, according to Baseball Prospectus:

Pretty much a lock
Cardinals 99.9998%
Braves 99.3%
Yankees 98.7%
Dodgers 97.1%
Red Sox 93.3%
Twins 93.3%

Probably
Athletics 86.0%
Cubs 63.7%

Still a fighting chance
Giants 20.8%
Angels 16.0%
Padres 10.5%

Barely in it
Rangers 5.7%
Astros 4.6%
Indians 3.8%
Marlins 3.8%
White Sox 2.6%

Mathematically alive, but there's no hope
Tigers 0.2%
Phillies 0.04%
Mets 0.0001%
Pirates 0.00008%
Reds 0.00003%

Now you might be wondering why the Red Sox (who have a 4.5 game lead on the Angels and a 6 game lead on the Rangers) are just as likely to make the playoffs as the Twins (who have a 9 game lead on the Indians and a 9.5 game lead on the White Sox).

It's because these percentages were calculated by doing a million simulations of the rest of the season. The Twins play the Indians 7 times and the White Sox 6 times, while the Red Sox won't play the Angels or Rangers after this weekend.

While we're on the subject, KCPC is officially taking over Hotwire.com.

First Sammo, then Basile, now Allen, and there might be more...