[Official] Harthan is more badass than you via ponies, magic, and stuff.

[Harthan]

You're doing Chem Eng. You want to have free, lazy days? Transfer to a humanities subject. Or art.

No, I get putting in the effort now. I just envision a future of a 40 hour work week. It's my dream.

It's just keratin who gives a fuck? Also, minoxidil.

I don't know if I could pull off being bald. Maybe. If I could get a decent goatee to grow in, I could go Walter White style. I can't seem to get anything better than a neckbeard going, though.

Right now I'm managing an Italian restaurant while getting classes in where I can to get my license.

Nice. Keep working hard for it, man.

 

[Remix]

I don't know if I could pull off being bald. Maybe. If I could get a decent goatee to grow in, I could go Walter White style. I can't seem to get anything better than a neckbeard going, though.

Minoxidil stops or reverses male pattern baldness in the vast majority of cases.

 

[DirtyJosé]

Also, stimulate blood flow up there.

 

[Harthan]

I miss MLB Network. MLB Tonight was the bomb. I got too used to bouncing from game to game that I find it difficult to focus on any one game. I could focus on an Indians game, probably, but they suck. Plus, with school, three hours has become a lot to dedicate to one thing. Again, MLB Network was good background material. I guess I'll just be waiting until the playoffs to really watch much of anything.

Speaking of baseball, I have a project planned for after regular season ends that'll aim to be my evaluation of how the Indians can use the current free agent class to contend in 2013. From a preliminary outlook it seems very possible. Off the top of my head, Melky Cabrera and Kevin Youkilis are guys that should be on the radar. Filling the positional holes is more difficult than getting a pitcher. Greinke is practically a necessity if they want to have any hope, but his price tag is gonna be big.

 

[Megatron]

Melky is a guy I want the Tigers to go after. If they can get him for 1-2 years at a relatively cheap price (due to the PED bust) and take RF spot. Boesch sucks and that would really fill in one of their weakspots.

I see Acta got canned. Who you think is gonna replace him?

 

[Harthan]

Melky is a guy I want the Tigers to go after. If they can get him for 1-2 years at a relatively cheap price (due to the PED bust) and take RF spot. Boesch sucks and that would really fill in one of their weakspots.

I see Acta got canned. Who you think is gonna replace him?

Melky is going to be a great sign. He's not a defensive wizard or anything, but he'd be an upgrade over a lot of outfielders, particularly if he plays right, which is why I want him. I'm the Indians looking at a big hole in left and saying, why the hell not? I'd also want a regular fourth outfielder as the Indians, considering I'd be planning on DHing Choo a good bit with his injury history and poor 2012 defense. At least once a week probably. Melky is definitely going to be good enough to be a fourth outfielder, and pretty cost effective for that even. Also worth noting is that while he's only got 600 innings in right, he has pretty good defensive results out there by UZR.

I'd say Alomar but there's a big pool of guys out there. Everyone who just interviewed for the Astros will get a go at it. Still, I'd say Alomar is probably the guy, and why not? He's as unproven as the rest of the pack, and he'll at least mollify the fan base. You're not going to find a pack of Cleveland fans willing to crucify Alomar the same way they did Acta.

I get depressed thinking about this team too much. I haven't crunched numbers, but it's going to take a lot of money to get them together in 2013. Nothing unreasonable, but probably so much more than the Dolans will spend. I mean, for fuck's sake, Shapiro has already started to downplay this year's free agent class which is strong in outfield and pitching, our two biggest needs. They're just trying to pretend there's nothing good for them to spend on, assholes.

It will be interesting to see how Antonetti does with his first major trade in Perez. Hopefully he's better than the Grade A moron who hired him.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

I remember a couple years ago when the Braves got Melky in the Javier Vazquez trade with the Yanks and I was excited. I though Melky had some untapped potential and getting out of the bright lights of NY would help him realize it. Then he had a rather middling season with them and then KC, then this year he breaks out big time, and gets caught with the PEDs. Makes you wonder.

Regardless he is a good signing if you can get him.

I say Terry Francona will be a name tossed around to bring to Cleveland. He played there for a year in the 80s, and honestly he should not have been fired from Boston.

 

[Megatron]

It is times like this that make me glad the Tigers have an owner that is willing to open up his checkbook when applicable. I don't wanna kick salt in the wounds, but just imagine what Cleveland's staff could've been if they were able to keep their stars.

Sabathia
Lee
Lincecum (drafted by them but didn't sign)

A shame, but it's nice that those guys aren't anywhere near the Tigers (aside from CC once or twice a year).

 

[Harthan]

It is times like this that make me glad the Tigers have an owner that is willing to open up his checkbook when applicable. I don't wanna kick salt in the wounds, but just imagine what Cleveland's staff could've been if they were able to keep their stars.

Sabathia
Lee
Lincecum (drafted by them but didn't sign)

A shame, but it's nice that those guys aren't anywhere near the Tigers (aside from CC once or twice a year).

Lincecum is one thing, Sabathia and Lee are another. I'm disgusted by the notion that they couldn't hang onto either of them. The payroll hasn't ticked over $80 million in six years. They could have kept either Sabathia or Lee. Just disgusting that both of them are gone and for the combined haul we've got what, Michael Brantley to show for it? Pathetic.

 

[Megatron]

Have you read Jonah Keri's article on Grantland about teams keeping star players? An interesting read, and he's one of my favorite writers on the site (Simmons and Barnwell are as well but Barnwell is pretty much football only and Simmons sometimes brings cultural references I haven't seen yet).

 

[Harthan]

Today was my worst day of the semester. After freaking out all night over nothing and being unable to sleep until six, I overslept for a quiz that counts for a reasonable chunk of my final grade. My chances of getting an A are slipping and I hate that I constantly do this to myself. It should be simple to just sleep reasonable hours, wake up, and go to class, but I can't manage it. I hate it, and it makes me hate myself.

So I've spent the whole day thinking about what a terrible person I am. It's been just wonderful.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

Today was my worst day of the semester. After freaking out all night over nothing and being unable to sleep until six, I overslept for a quiz that counts for a reasonable chunk of my final grade. My chances of getting an A are slipping and I hate that I constantly do this to myself. It should be simple to just sleep reasonable hours, wake up, and go to class, but I can't manage it. I hate it, and it makes me hate myself.

So I've spent the whole day thinking about what a terrible person I am. It's been just wonderful.

I still love you brother. You are my second favorite neckbeard and brony 'round these parts, after myself of course.

 

[Harthan]

RTR prerelease is today. Going to do two of them. Nervous, but I've gotten a lot better since the M13 prerelease. I think the one at 5 today is at least a 16 man, so I hope to finish at least in the top 8. I've signed up for Golgari and Rakdos, though I'm really starting to wish I'd gone Selesneya for at least one. I think when I finally make a deck out of RTR it will be G/W Tokens. Not going to be the best in the format or anything, but I'll have a lot of fun with it, I think. Don't know what it is abut token producing that tickles my fancy, but it does.

 

[DirtyJosé]

RTR prerelease is today. Going to do two of them. Nervous, but I've gotten a lot better since the M13 prerelease. I think the one at 5 today is at least a 16 man, so I hope to finish at least in the top 8. I've signed up for Golgari and Rakdos, though I'm really starting to wish I'd gone Selesneya for at least one. I think when I finally make a deck out of RTR it will be G/W Tokens. Not going to be the best in the format or anything, but I'll have a lot of fun with it, I think. Don't know what it is abut token producing that tickles my fancy, but it does.

I'm doing two flights in Long Beach today. Going Golgari for one just because of my inner Rot Farmer, but second I'm thinking Azorious or Rakdos.

Best of luck to you, boss. Open bombs, draw threats, and see a doctor about insomnia/anti-anxiety stuff to help you get sleep when you need it.

 

[JGlass]

Today was my worst day of the semester. After freaking out all night over nothing and being unable to sleep until six, I overslept for a quiz that counts for a reasonable chunk of my final grade. My chances of getting an A are slipping and I hate that I constantly do this to myself. It should be simple to just sleep reasonable hours, wake up, and go to class, but I can't manage it. I hate it, and it makes me hate myself.

So I've spent the whole day thinking about what a terrible person I am. It's been just wonderful.

I think you're pretty cool. But yeah, I think you should probably sleep more. You should also probably just stop putting off seeing a psychologist or psychiatrist or someone that can help you with anxiety and shit. I say that as someone whose life has vastly improved since being medicated.

 

[Harthan]

I'm doing two flights in Long Beach today. Going Golgari for one just because of my inner Rot Farmer, but second I'm thinking Azorious or Rakdos.

Best of luck to you, boss. Open bombs, draw threats, and see a doctor about insomnia/anti-anxiety stuff to help you get sleep when you need it.

I'm doing Golgari and Rakdos, but like I said, I really wish I'd done Selesneya. I have no idea how to spell that word, by the way. Maybe even instead of Golgari. I have no idea how the guild packs work, but I went Golgari thinking it'd improve my odds of cracking a Vraska. But the more I think about it seems like they wouldn't pack Vraska into guild packs. But who knows? We'll see. Selesneya's promo card is awesome too, probably the only one that'll see play in Standard. Hypersonic Dragon is a maybe though for all those R/B Delver decks that'll come out.

Good luck to you as well. I probably won't see any medical professionals. I'm pretty sure I'm just an idiot sometimes, not mentally ill.

I think you're pretty cool. But yeah, I think you should probably sleep more. You should also probably just stop putting off seeing a psychologist or psychiatrist or someone that can help you with anxiety and shit. I say that as someone whose life has vastly improved since being medicated.

I don't know, man. I really don't feel like I'm sick or anything, I just do stupid things.

 

[JGlass]

I don't know, man. I really don't feel like I'm sick or anything, I just do stupid things.

Good point. I'm sure not sleeping, spending time beating yourself up, and getting anxious about things you shouldn't be anxious about will probably help correct the problem anyway.

Passive aggression level: Jewish

 

[Pepe Silvia]

I don't know, man. I really don't feel like I'm sick or anything, I just do stupid things.

Hit me up on Steam later and I'll tell ya what works for me; I'd post it here but the last thing I need is Remix being like "Fucking lol charlie you're going to die"

Sleep sucks

 

[Harthan]

Good point. I'm sure not sleeping, spending time beating yourself up, and getting anxious about things you shouldn't be anxious about will probably help correct the problem anyway.

Passive aggression level: Jewish

Spoiler

Yes, that sounds reasonable to me.

Hit me up on Steam later and I'll tell ya what works for me; I'd post it here but the last thing I need is Remix being like "Fucking lol charlie you're going to die"

Sleep sucks

Good man.

So I've returned from RTR prerelease. First go - Rakdos. I felt good about the deck going in but quickly realized my mistake. I had little removal or evasion and was focused too much on the low end of the curve. I went 1-4 with it. I then tried to switch from Golgari into Selesnya, was successful in doing so, then opened a box without a guild pack. Laaaaame. It was the last Selesnya pack, so I went Azorious. Was much more attentive in deck construction and loaded it with evasion (cheap flyers mostly) and had a solid curve, and went 3-1 with it, with my loss, ironically, coming to Rakdos, which was just too fast and didn't care that I had a small army of 1/1 and 2/2 flyers in the air. I considered splashing green to populate, but I would have been populating 1/1 flyers and 2/2 knights. Meh. I got 5 packs for going 3-1 (I don't know where I actually placed but it was probably 4th or maaaaaybe 3rd), 4 of RTR and one M13. The M13 turned out to be the best as I got a Thundermaw Hellkite. I also got a Dreadbore, so...not so bad. Not many good rares out of the prerelease packs themselves. I like the promos just fine, myself, for what they're worth (not much). I pulled ZERO shock lands which is really shitty, and my only foils were lands.

 

[Remix]

Gabriel vs Cesaro II is also good. Cesaro repeatedly gets to look like a beast, Gabriel doesn't look out of his league and the finish is pretty sweet.

 

[Harthan]

N-N-N-N-NECROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I decided that I wanted a thread to talk about the wrestling I'm watching over break. Rather than bore JGlass and pals in his thread, I figured I'd just bore everyone in my thread.

Maybe you guys know of The Wrestling Blog, a blog, shockingly enough, about wrestling. I like the guy that writes it - I even did a guest feature once, despite having no blogging experience whatsoever. He's got solid opinions on wrestling, and also watches everything imaginable. He keeps a list of his favorite stuff from 2012 and it reads like a comprehensive must see of any North American wrestling in 2012. Needing something to occupy my time over winter break, and lacking any desire to do anything constructive, I figured I might as well just start watching some of that shit. The list is enormous, and has nearly 500 matches on it. I don't expect to be able to see them all before the end of my break, but I do expect to see some good wrestling on the way.

First on the list is Leo Kruger vs Damien Sandow from FCW on 1/1/2012. Remix, if you're reading this, I figure you'll be pleased.

[YOUTUBE]QKknT6LGoYc[/YOUTUBE]

Sandow is Sandow. He was as awesome here as he is now. I'd never seen or heard of Kruger before this, but I'm led to understand he's a part of NXT now - a show I really do need to get to watching. I find his African hunter getup a little weird considering he's a white South African, but he otherwise has a good look to him. There's maybe 30 people in the audience, as well, and maybe five of them actually look like they give a shit. It really hurts the match when the crowd doesn't even pop for a suicide dive. I've seen tiny crowds that bring enormous energy - this isn't one of them. That said, the match is still pretty entertaining. It's somewhat what you'd expect from two young guys trying to break into WWE by working the style. I had trouble investing in the match, between shitty commentary and a shitty crowd, and no real concept of what story there was between these two, but I was impressed with everything the two guys did. They both had solid movesets, looked good, sold well, were crisp, etc. I would say it never felt like it kicked into high gear until maybe the last minute or two, if that. I had some objections to Kruger pulling out an ankle lock without even setting it up at all. The finish was weak; for reasons that I can't understand, the commentators and Sandow were selling this stupid angle where he thought there was a time limit because he's the FCW 15 Champion, like he's some kind of idiot, when his whole gimmick is that he's one of the smartest men in wrestling. This led to him asking the timekeeper for the time and getting rolled up. Pretty lame. Ultimately, I'm not sure how this made it onto a MOTYC list, which I would think would include anything *** and above. This felt more in the territory of **1/2.

Stay tuned for more fun and exciting news about the random matches I'm watching.

 

[Remix]

Yeah, the commentary is shit. Saxton has sucked at everything since Barrett stopped being a colour commentator with him, and Chris Russo was a massive step down from Matt Martlaro, the previous PBP guy/FCW creative member who got moved to Stanford to tell WWE management who's good enough to call up and who isn't. But that's beside the point.

As for the match, it was at a really bad time for FCW in the main event scene. Sandow's FCW 15 reign was very uneventful, to the point that I remember only two title defenses. One against Seth Rollins and one against Steamboat (which he lost). For the FCW title Kruger won it while it was vacant, as the former champ (Bo Rotundo) was sidelined with an injury and he was in a long term holding pattern until he came back. His title run was dire for that reason. No feuds were built because Bo might have been back by the next taping, and talent capable of wrestling a 10-15 minute match are thin on the ground in FCW. The few that there were faces had been beaten by now or were occupied with their own feuds (and some that really weren't). Consequently a heel vs heel match was thrown in for one of the tapings. The two teamed up at another episode at this taping or the next as well.

As for the match, I can't remember it so I'll have to rewatch. I don't have any problem with Sandow confusing the stipulation though. If you've been defending your gimmick title three times a week in every singles match you've been in for the past few months it's going to put some habits in you that are hard to shake. It's like a hardcore wrestler having a match not under hardcore rules getting DQed because old habits die hard. Besides, it's a top heel vs second heel match. There was never going to be a strong clean finish.

Running commentary:

Spoiler

• Both guys start things out with a hand shake, and feel each other out. Smart on a few levels. Shows both heels respect one another as people and competitors.
• The two have a grappling exchange, another handshake. Kruger releases a hold on 4. Odd sequence on the ropes, they're locked up and turn one another into the ropes. And now we have a standoff. Time to take the gloves off.
• Sandow takes control with strikes. Kruger endures and after going "lol no" to a floatover attempt locks in a sleeper (at this time, his finisher) but it's only 5 minutes in, so Sandow gets to the ropes.
• Kruger maintains control, applying holds and blocking an attempted dirty break from Sandow. He seems to be playing the "ring smart veteran" role. Which he does very well. Mounted punches get a two count.
• Attempted kneelift by Kruger reversed into a rollup (gets two). Double leg takedown leads to a half crab. Kruger makes it to the ropes. Clothesline to the outside leads to the typical ringside beatdown spots. Only good for a 1count though. Bret Hart elbow misses allowing a momentum shift.
• Elbow to the head from Kruger leads to a fun little spot where he rams Sandow's head into all three turnbuckles and choking him out with his foot. Whip across the ring leads to a missed shoulderblock so Sandow can do his half crab to Kruger while he's trapped there. After this, it's adbreak time.
• Sandow's still in control when we return, maintaining it with a snapmere and a chinlock. Kruger (oddly) plays babyface for a moment and feeds off the crowd to get out of the hold, lariating Sandow once he does. Both men sell exhaustion and damage.
• Sensibly, Sandow recovers first and drops some elbows on Kruger, kicking him to the outside. The African gets sent into the steps, which he takes like a man. Kruger gets skurfed on the steps before we go back into the ring.
• No pin attampt by Sandow, instead opting for a hold before sensing Kruger into the corner. Kick is blocked and Sandow gets rolled up into the corner. I love that spot. Only good for two though.
• Irish whip leads to a sleeper hold, which means Kruger's just been told that it's time to go home. Reversed into a side suplex. Kruger applies another, Sandow gets the ropes, and rolls to the outside after the break. Suicide dive from Kruger knocks down Sandow. He's thrown back into the ring so Kruger can try for a crossbody. Only good for a nearfall though. Corner clothesline sets up a corner powerbomb. Again, only gets 2. Final Destination (Fisherman's neckbreaker, Kruger's former finisher) gets two as well.
• Odd but awesome pumphandle sidewalk slam takes Kruger down, but Sandow's slow to cover die to tiredness and thus gets two. Attempted half crab is reversed into an ankle lock. I disagree with Harthan here. It's a nice touch. It's a plausible counter to the hold and it shows that Kruger's trying fucking everything, even moves he's never used before to try and get the win. It's good psychology from where I'm sitting. Sandow escapes the hold by rolling though.
• Facebreaker gets two for Sandow. He stops to ask the timekeeper how much time he has left and gets beaten with an inside cradle. Good finish there because neither could really afford to lose in anything other than a fluke loss. A distracted Sandow losing by getting rolled up is better than Sandow tapping out to Kruger's sleeper hold.

I really liked the match. It probably doesn't deserve to be a MOTYC in general. An FCW/NXT MOTYC, sure. But it doesn't belong on the same list as something like Cena/Brock or 'Taker/HHH II.

 

[Harthan]

I really liked the match. It probably doesn't deserve to be a MOTYC in general. An FCW/NXT MOTYC, sure. But it doesn't belong on the same list as something like Cena/Brock or 'Taker/HHH II.

Yeah, there's this thing I'm sure you're aware of where people will make threads/lists of "MOTYC"s but it's really just "Some good shit I saw", though sometimes they use it to create a top 25 or a top 100 or whatever, so obviously the stuff at the bottom wouldn't come anywhere close to the real MOTY. I wish people would just say "Good Shit From 2012", but oh well. This isn't really even in stuff I would recommend people see, unless they wanted a look at some kind of early Sandow, even though it was only a few months from his debut.

 

[Remix]

Also, I wouldn't label Kruger young. He's 31 and wrestled for over a decade in South Africa. Also badass enough to take a sitout double underhook gourdbuster with a broken neck.

 

[Harthan]

Also, I wouldn't label Kruger young. He's 31 and wrestled for over a decade in South Africa. Also badass enough to take a sitout double underhook gourdbuster with a broken neck.

I really had no idea about him, I guess I just equated FCW to young. I was impressed enough to want to see more. When I get around to some NXT I assume I'll see some of him. He looks good for 31, but I guess he is in show business.