Family Guy Star Wars Pt 2 Trailer

Extreme DagobahTourism Video

Stormtrooper Baywatch

Via: fuckyeahstarwars

The Droids We're Looking For

Via: fuckyeahstarwars

Stormtrooper At Home

Via: fuckyeahstarwars

Conjunction Junction

Animal Collective - "In The Flowers"

I saw a dancer who was high in a field from a moment
Caught my breath on my way home
Couldn't stop that spinning force
I felt envy
Everything around seemed to giggle
She walked up with a flower and I cared

So the dancer who gets wild to the deep reveling rhythm
But I am always away for weeks
That pass slow--my mind gets lost
Feeling envy
For the kid who will dance despite anything
I walk out in the flowers and feel better

If I could just leave my body for the night

Then we could be dancing no more missing you while I am gone
Then we could be dancing and you'd smile and say I like this song
And then our eyes would meet there--we will recognize nothing's wrong
And I wouldn't feel so selfish I won't be this way very long
To hold you in time
To hold you in time
To hold you in time
To hold you in time

And we're dancing, early hours drunken days finally ended
And the streets turn for pillowcase
And I fumble--awkward-like
Then the ecstasy turns the writhing light through our windowpane
Now I am gone, I left flowers for you there

-Animal Collective

Sonic Youth - "Teenage Riot"

Fat People From the Neck Down

Free $3 Credit To Amazon MP3 Store

Amazon.com is giving away a free $3 credit to their MP3 store. Type in the code MP34FREE on the page at the link below and a $3 credit will be applied to your account that will be automatically used next time you make an MP3 purchase from Amazon. Hurry, I'm sure it's for a limited time.

-Matt


Link: Amazon.com (via Slickdeals)

Pinball Number Count

Passion Pit - "Sleepyhead"

mattmaison.com email distribution list

As of Friday, November 20th 2009, I will be turning off the email alerts to this website.

The main reason I started this was because I found myself emailing too much crap to people that they didn't care about and that's what I feel this email list has turned into. Please continue to visit the site and you can also sign up for the RSS feed (if you're not familiar with RSS feeds, see my post about them HERE). You can also follow me on twitter (@mattmaison).

-Matt

Belichick Goes For It

On Sunday night, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick decided to go for it on fourth down with two yards to go, on his own 28 yard line, with a six point lead, with just over two minutes left in the game.

It's amazing how much attention this call is getting and that it's such a divided argument. No one is really on the fence, everyone talking about it either thinks it was a horrible call or the right call, not much in between.

When it first happened, I thought it was a bad call, but didn't think it was that bad of a call and didn't really disagree with it. I'm not one to second guess Belichick. After thinking about it more and seeing some statistics behind it, I think it was the right call. Belichick made the call to put the opposing team away and kept the ball in the hands of Tom Brady instead of giving it to Peyton Manning. Not to mention they almost pulled it off.

I think most people that are saying it was a bad call are saying it with the advantage of hindsight. I also don't think the argument of the NE defense being upset about the lack of trust from Belichick carries any weight. The coach made the decision that he thought gave the team the best chance to win and wasn't worried about hurting anyone's feelings.

Advanced NFL Stats has a great statistical breakdown that shows that by the numbers, it was statistically the right call.

Statistically, the better decision would be to go for it, and by a good amount. However, these numbers are baselines for the league as a whole. You'd have to expect the Colts had a better than a 30% chance of scoring from their 34, and an accordingly higher chance to score from the Pats' 28. But any adjustment in their likelihood of scoring from either field position increases the advantage of going for it. You can play with the numbers any way you like, but it's pretty hard to come up with a realistic combination of numbers that make punting the better option. At best, you could make it a wash. | Advanced NFL Stats

Those stats don't even take into account that the opposing QB was Peyton Manning and that he'd just driven the length of the field to score TDs on the last two drives. Opinions are completely divided on this, but I think he made the right call.

-Matt


See also:

Patriots Lead Colts At Halftime | The Onion

Belichick's 4th Down Decision vs the Colts | Advanced NFL Stats

Bill Belichick was right to have his New England Patriots go for it on fourth down against the Indianapolis Colts | ESPN

Failed fourth down call a stain in Belichick's record | USATODAY.com

Walt Whitman - "America"

Centre of equal daughters, equal sons,
All, all alike endear'd, grown, ungrown, young or old,
Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich,
Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love,
A grand, sane, towering, seated Mother,
Chair'd in the adamant of Time.

-Walt Whitman (1819–1892)

T.R.A.A.A.P.D.

Teens Raising Awareness About Awful Parent Driving

The Shins - "New Slang"

Kemp and Ethier Win NL Silver Slugger Awards

Kemp and Ethier become the fourth and fifth Dodger outfielders to win the award, which began in 1980, joining Dusty Baker (1980, 1981), Pedro Guerrero (1982), and Kirk Gibson (1988). The last Dodger to win a Silver Slugger was Russell Martin in 2007. The last pair of Dodger teammates to win a Silver Slugger were Mike Piazza and Eric Karros in 1995.

Also, Matt Kemp won a Gold Glove yesterday and last week Andre Ethier won the Pepsi Clutch Player of the Year award.

-Matt


Link: Silver Sluggers a mix of old and new | MLB.com via True Blue LA

Solar Roadways

Solar Roadways is a company that's developing technology to turn all of our roads, parking lots, and driveways into solar energy collectors.


Let’s imagine the number of roads, parking lots, driveways and sidewalks that are out there in the world being bathed with sunlight - that’s a lot of clean, potential energy for our homes. Solar Roadways, a company based out of Idaho, conservatively estimates that if every paved surface in the United States was fitted with solar panels, it could almost supply electricity to the entire world.

Of course there are a lot of obstacles before this technology is a reality, but this is a great idea and much better than blanketing untouched land with solar farms.

-Matt


Link: Solar Roadways via NOTCOT.ORG

See also: Solar Roads | Vidafine

Rules For My Unborn Son

Rules For My Unborn Son is a collection of traditional, humorous, and urbane fatherly advice for boys. From the sartorial ("If you are tempted to wear a cowboy hat, resist") to the practical ("Keep a copy of your letters. It makes it easier for your biographer") to sure-fire hangover cures ("There is no better remedy than a dip in the ocean"), the book of rules and accompanying quotations is quite simply an instruction manual for becoming a good man--industrious, thoughtful, charming, and of course, well-dressed.

Links:

1001 Rules For My Unborn Son

Rules for My Unborn Son | Amazon

Interview with Rules For My Unborn Son Author Walker Lamond | Wired

YouTube's Most Hardcore Screamers

Lego | xkcd

BYU and New Mexico Womens Soccer Fight

Stats They Tell You Because Baseball Is Slow

Things I Want To Do in New Jersey

Content of Transformers

Sergio's White Hot Top 5: Newest, Dopest Jams

Best Photoshop Hoaxes

Below we present some of the most striking, interesting and controversial fake photos, most of them produced with Photoshop in the last five years. Some were created to amuse, some to mislead, while others were an attempt to rewrite history. | Weird News Files

This is over a year old, so I'm sure you could add at least a few others to the list by now.

-Matt


Link: Best Photoshop Hoaxes - A History of Doctoring History | Weird News Files

The Middle

It's rare a family comedy comes along that's worth watching, but if you haven't seen ABC's new show The Middle, you should check it out.


The show stars Patricia Heaton, from Everybody Loves Raymond, as a middle-class Midwestern mother of three married to a town quarry worker played by Neil Flynn, the janitor from Scrubs (and Cleveland Indians fan). The show also features SNL alum Chris Kattan and Atticus Shaffer (the creepy boy from the movie The Unborn).


It isn't just another sitcom put to laugh tracks and kinda makes you want to move to Indiana. The show airs Wednesdays at 8:30/7:30c on ABC, and you can watch episodes and clips online at ABC.com and Hulu.

-Matt


Link: The Middle | ABC.com

V

The series V returns tonight at 8pm EST/PST on ABC. Here is a sneak peak of the first 8 minutes of the pilot episode:


An image of Anna, the leader of the V's, is projected worldwide as she talks about people joining together; the V's are Tyler's ticket to being a part of something big; egotistical newscaster Chad gets an exclusive interview with Anna.

I liked the original series when I was younger, but I don't really remember it, so it probably wasn't as good as I remember it to be. We'll see how this one turns out.

-Matt


Link: ABC.com | V

Spike Jonze - "We Were Once A Fairytale"

A few weeks ago I saw a series of short films and music videos directed by Spike Jones called Spike Jonze: The First 80 Years, at the The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). I didn't have a video for it when I did my post about it then, but here is one of the short films that were in it.


Videogum describes it as "a typical night in the life of Kanye West: a boorish, blurry, endless evening in an anonymous night club," and supposedly it began as a music video shoot.

You can read more about the film and see the video (if it doesn't show up above) on the links below.

-Matt


Links:

Kanye West Is Just A Broken Down Piece Of Meat | Videogum

The Kanye West and Spike Jonze Video - We Were Once a Fairytale | TwistedSifter

Bizarre Spike Jonze Short | Neatorama

Spike Jonze Explains His Kanye West Mini-Movie, "We Were Once a Fairytale" | The New York Times

Spike Jonze's Kanye West Film Is Leaked Online | The New York Times

Spike Jonze: The First 80 Years | mattmaison

2009 ING New York City Marathon

Today is the running of the 40th annual New York City Marathon. I'm volunteering with the Red Cross for the event. There will be about 43,000 runners this year and I'm helping the medical teams spot runners that may need medical assistance at the finish line.

I took some pictures of some ads that have been put up in the subways, they're posted to my tumblr here:

Hello New York, Goodbye Baggage
Hello New York, Goodbye Quit

I'll try to take some more pics during the race, but if you're watching on TV look for me at the finish line!

-Matt


Link: The ING New York City Marathon