aaron c beals

BIGGEST COMEBACK EVER!

i never thought that any NBA game could beat the 2002 Eastern Conference Finals comeback by the Celtics… until tonight. down by 24 points in the first quarter (a truly unwatchable quarter, by the way), slowly climbing back to within 2 by the end of the third, and finally closing it out with authority.

there’s very little chance of me getting to sleep at a reasonable hour tonight.

i don’t remember how i found out about these guys, but Untravel Media has been doing some very cool things with self-guided tours. they’re Boston-based, and one of their first tours caught my eye because i love the notion of secret passageways.

their tours aren’t unreasonably priced ($6.99 each), but i think in order to get traction, they’re going to have to offer one or two of the tours for free, to give people a sense of what the tours are like. i also think they should charge less for the audio version (right now, the audio and video versions are priced the same).

watching the game at home (my 1/2-season tickets only have every other home game and we got to see Game 7 of the first round) and the only way i can keep myself from exploding is to blog while watching the game… i’ll keep updating throughout the game.

(if this gets posted to my Facebook page before the end of the game, click on the “view original post” link)

3:32pm - that intro never fails to get me fired up… i’m amped up enough to be in the starting 5 right now. in related news, i’m psyched that ABC decided to show the C’s pre-game announcements. ESPN miserably failed to pull this off.

3:34pm - yes, Mark Jackson, LeBron is very special. a very special flopper. i can’t wait to see his first crybaby moment. i’m betting it happens about halfway through the 1st.

3:36pm - clean tipoff. good start. and it looks like the refs are going to be hands-off this game. that’s a good sign, assuming they can keep their calls consistent.

3:37pm - PIERCE!! welcome to the playoffs, mr. 4th quarter!

3:39pm - i love Delonte, but he’s been doing that forearm move all series. nice to see him get called on it. Rondo’s putting great pressure on him.

3:40pm - Dear Ray Allen, please continue to play tough D on Wally, just like that. Thank you.

3:43pm - PIERCE!!!! i’m dying here. Seat #8 misses me so badly it’s probably trying to kick its current occupant out.

3:46pm - daily “kicking myself for not buying full-season tickets” count: 2

3:50pm - since i have to listen to Breen, Van Gundy, and Jackson instead of Tommy and Mike, i’m putting myself in charge of dispensing Tommy Points. i’m giving myself a Tommy Point for wearing my green headband even though i’m here by myself.

3:52pm - Rondo is en fuego right now.

3:53pm - my buddy Brant had a fantastic idea: “you’ll need a code for everytime KG passes or shoots a jumper instead of dunking on ben wallace.” i have an idea for a code word, but i’d like to keep this blog clean, so let’s just call it the “anti-confrontational” count. right now, it’s at 1.5.

3:55pm - if i was the NBA player in the Yukon Denali commercials, i would have punched that guy out by now. he has remarkable restraint.

3:59pm - i’m not sure what quality Mark Jackson is attributing to LeBron. “remarkable… Schrempf?” didn’t he play back in the late 80’s / early 90’s?

4:02pm - i’m so glad Doc’s finally playing House again. “gee, here’s a guy who hit big 3’s for us all season long … let’s bench him for most of the playoffs.”

4:04pm - end of the 1st… C’s up 18-13. i’m barely able to deal with myself right now. there’s a reason Laura doesn’t often watch games with me.

4:08pm - i like the side-by-side commercials. i think that more television should be done this way — especially political races. can you imagine Hillary and Obama side by side?

4:10pm - ugh. a 24-second violation with the ball in PJ Brown’s hands. PJ BROWN. why is he seeing more than 45 seconds per game?

4:13pm - i agree with Jackson. #34 is going up into the rafters. there is no doubt in my mind.

4:14pm - House MONEY!

4:16pm - i’d rather not waste the effort typing it, but i have to point out how terrible Coors is. “our beer tastes like watered down windshield washer fluid, so check out these gimmicks on the can!” if you’re going to waste your money on crappy beer, please give it to Miller or Pabst.

4:20pm - PIERCE! nice lefty layup.

4:21pm - PIERCE FOR THREE!!!!!! and then drawing the foul from Pavlovic the next time down the court. imagine if he played like this every night…

4:24pm - Tommy Point for House Money!! now that’s what the Tommy Point was invented for!

4:28pm - nothing like a little scrappy play to fire up the crowd. could’ve done without the double tech’s, though.

4:38pm - ok, got sidelined by an emergency “i’m lost” call from Laura. back on track now — she’s no longer lost and i’m watching the game.

4:43pm - PIERCE! another great three; there’s no reason the ball belongs in anyone else’s hands right now.

4:46pm - nice flop, Verejao.

4:46pm - welcome to the game, Ray-Ray.

4:48pm - hard foul on Pierce, and my heart just stopped. he looks ok, though — he’s certainly had worse.

4:51pm - wow, did not realize that — if you get fouled and are too hurt to make the free throws, you’re done for the day. (unless it’s a flagrant 2) makes sense, i guess.

4:53pm - Pierce has over half of the Celtics points for the 1st half (26 of 50). outstanding.

4:57pm - i know it’s terrible, but i can’t help chuckling through the WNBA “sarcasm” commercials.

4:59pm - ok, time for a rant. Michael Wilbon summed up what a lot of people have been thinking: “when you hear the Big 3, you assume it’s KG, then Ray Allen, and then Paul Pierce is the 3rd”. and then he went on to voice his surprise at Pierce’s stepped-up play. yes, Mike, you thought that. yes, other people around the league thought that. C’s fans who have either just re-joined or appeared this season thought that. but those of us who have stuck with the C’s through the last 14 often-painful years know better. as KG has repeatedly said in interviews: this is Paul Pierce’s team.

5:08pm - i think i need more Sir Charles in my life.

5:09pm - oh, summer television programming, you’re so terrible.

5:13pm - i know that Tom T used to be an assistant coach for him, but JVG is all but openly fawning over the C’s right now. interesting — i wonder if he was gunning for Doc’s job last off-season.

5:15pm - a last-second “chucker” shot followed up by his 4th foul — this is not Wally World’s tonight.

5:19pm - ah, the refs finally decided to call Big Z for traveling. it only took 20 cumulative extra steps over 5 plays.

5:24pm - PIERCE!!! thanks for waking up the guys with that huge 3, buddy. the C’s have been lethargic so far this half.

5:25pm - Bennett Salvatore, you remind me of Steve Martin, only without the humor … and the banjo.

5:26pm - the “anti-confrontational” count has been reset to zero because of KG’s last rim-shaking dunk through traffic.

5:27pm - if #34 keeps this up, Laura’s going to have her work cut out trying to convince me that our first son shouldn’t be named Paul Pierce Beals.

5:35pm - that’s right!! jaw all you want, Ben Wallace, you’ve been pushing off on rebounds all day.

5:40pm - we’re up by 7, guys. why do we need to run 3-point plays?

5:41pm - ugh. there are days that i miss having Delonte on the roster. today is one of those days. not that i want last summer’s trades reversed, but i think i’d give up Cassell for West. heck, i’d even throw Scalabrine in the deal.

5:45pm - 73-68, Celtics at the end of 3. i’m sitting as still as a 4-year-old who’s just washed down a bag of cotton candy with a 64oz Mountain Dew.

5:53pm - nice assist by Pierce to Rondo. that’s about as unselfish as it gets, folks.

5:54pm - think my yelling at LeBron made him miss that free throw? i’d like to think so.

6:02pm - i take back some of my earlier ribbing of PJ Brown. good play, old man.

6:04pm - Pierce just schooled LeBron. sit down, son!

6:10pm - Pierce is a one-man wrecking crew. draws two quick fouls and the assist to KG!

6:18pm - it’s just a game it’s just a game it’s just a game it’s just a game

6:19pm - oh, who am i kidding?

6:22pm - PJ BROWN! i take it back, man. i take it back. those are some serious veteran nerves of steel.

6:25pm - PIERCE!! Paul Pierce for President! and somebody get that man a Tommy Point!

6:29pm - up by 3, 18.8 to go, and we have Ray Allen shooting free throws!

6:30pm - 1…

6:30pm - 2…

6:31pm - ok, i’m not even pretending to sit anymore.

6:32pm - LEBRON MISSES A FREE THROW!

6:33pm - missmissmissmissmissmiss… d’oh.

6:34pm - house … money.

6:34pm - dammit. dammit. why was Pavlovic open???

6:35pm - pierce shooting free throws. wow, my heart stopped when that ball hit the rim. NAILS THE SECOND!

6:37pm - 5 point game. 7.9 seconds.

6:37pm - HOUSE STOLE THE BALL! HOUSE STOLE THE BALL!!

6:48pm - i just picked myself up off the floor. see you Tuesday.

i realize that i haven’t posted anything about my new job, but the organization i work for is very closely tied to Partners in Health. this past weekend, 60 Minutes did a segment on the man behind PiH, Paul Farmer:

starting off, as so many web 2.0 addicts do, with Gmail, i slowly started to gather more and more web-based-applications, and now i have a core group that i use regularly:

1. Gmail (personal)
2. Gmail (work)
3. Google Calendar
4. Google Docs
5. Google Groups
6. Facebook
7. LinkedIn
8. Google Reader
9. Remember The Milk
10. Joes Goals

for a long time, i used Firefox’s tabbed interface to manage multiple applications at once. on the plus side, all of my webapps were in one convenient location. unfortunately, this also meant that one application could dominate/crash the browser (i’m looking at you, google docs). i also like to alt-tab through my list of applications. the one flaw that really sent me searching for a solution was how difficult it was to log into two Gmail accounts at one time. the ietab plugin worked well while i was in Windows (ietab uses a separate set of cookies), but i’m running Kubuntu full-time at work, so that option became less practical.

eventually, i found an under-hyped offering by Mozilla Labs: Prism. web 2.0 applications have removed the need for many of the typical “web” features — link bars, navigation buttons, etc — and have started to look more and more like desktop applications. the goal of Prism is to start bridging that gap, and to achieve that goal they have provided a “browserless” browser interface in which you can run your webapps. it’s ultra-fast, clean, and each Prism instance provides its own cookies/cache/etc. the only vestige of a web browser that remains is the status bar at the bottom, but that’s just a good idea, as you’d like to see where you’re heading when you click on that link.

pretty much everything you need to know to get going with Prism is in their wiki (and there’s not much to know). give it a try and let me know what you think.

i stumbled across this article on the habits of productive, creative people, and found it inspiring: 10 ways history’s finest kept focused at work. how are you spending your afternoons?

not unlike Bob and his love for soft rock ballads, i’ve gotta admit … i am a Mythbusters fan. recently, i have been keeping myself entertained by watching a lot of old episodes, but haven’t been able to put a finger on why the show draws me in (other than the obvious “they blow stuff up”).

much to my dismay, many people have maligned the show for skirting the finer points of the scientific method, to the point of discrediting anything and everything Jamie, Adam, and the crew uncover. yes, it’s low-calorie science, but it tastes much like real science — and frankly, the fact that the show is sparking such heated discussions about scientific approaches is welcomed.

this week, my friends over at xkcd set the naysayers straight and uncovered the source of my affinity for the show — i have been a longtime admirer of the late Richard Feynman and his legendary ability to make scientific information accessible to the unwashed masses. i’d like to think that the man who put himself through sensory deprivation in an experiment to explore consciousness would appreciate the Mythbusters’ approach.

last Saturday night (before the Oscars), we watched the movie “Once” on the recommendation of my buddy Lou. now if you know me well, you know that my feelings toward traditional musicals are not remotely charitable (OK, that’s underselling it. i flat out hate them. who just bursts randomly into song?!?). however, “Once” isn’t a traditional musical — yes, there’s music, but music is the point of the movie, not an alternative dialogue delivery mechanism.

the story is engaging and emotive and if even if you’re not a musician, you’re going to walk away wanting to start writing music immediately. oh, and to top it off: the night after we watched it, the lead actors beat out the atrocity that is Enchanted for the best original song Oscar. rent it now, i implore you.

over the years, i’ve tried many (many) different ways of keeping track of the things i need or want to do. personally, i’m a huge fan of the list, which can take many forms: paper, emails, tasks in Outlook, tasks on a Palm Pilot, etc. however, what usually ends up happening is that my brain manages to circumvent the current method of task tracking, forcing me to switch tactics. finally, i believe i have found a method that works consistently because it’s right in front of me most of the day — rather than using individual emails to track to-do items (those emails scroll away as new ones appear), i have a to-do list that sits right next to the emails.

my to-do list of choice is Remember the Milk. unlike other web-2.0-ish online to-do lists, they don’t require you to visit their site to check your list (though you can if you’d like). they have built a Firefox plug-in that modifies the layout of your Gmail page to insert a collapsible to-do list right next to your email. you can add, edit, and complete tasks right from the interface — pretty much anything you need to do — and it’s all very seamless. if you’re in the habit of starring important emails, you can even automatically generate tasks for them.

anyhow, give it a try. it’s certainly helping me (until my brain finds a way around it, anyhow).

i lost track of my friends over at Get Fuzzy about a year or so ago, around the time they started a long streak of re-running old comic strips. i loved the comic, but as i had already read all the old ones, the site dropped off my daily radar… until today, thanks to the TrueHoop blog over at ESPN.com. (nice knock on the Knicks, Conley…)

now, thanks to Google Reader, i’ll once again be hanging out with Satchel, Bucky, and Rob every day.