First Podcast! (this time it works =)

http://ia301539.us.archive.org/0/items/LincolnFreedTheSlavesPodcast/LFTSep001.mp3

Take 2! Fantasy Football Predraft breakdown from my self and Dr.Wang of wtfspaghetti

UFC 102

When I first saw this card announced I wasn't all that interested in it. It just didn't to seem to have the big fights to warrant me throwing down 50 bucks to watch it. I guess I have been caught up a bit in the UFC hype machine because I am contemplating buying the fight anyway.

Couture vs Nogueira was a compelling fight 4 or 5 years ago. Now it almost seems like the senior tour. I think that is what makes it work though. We know neither of these guys are in their primes but I think they are probably right about the same level.

I know it has been said before, but Randy Couture's age will have to catch up with him at some point. I think this could be the fight that does it. When is the last time you saw Randy beat up on a top notch grappler? Don't say Gabe Gonzaga. While he does have some decent jiu jitsu I have seen him tapped out by the much smaller Maia. I think Nog could give Randy fits on the ground. He also has show then will to withstand punishment while still working his ground game. Things could really turn in Nog's favor if he is able to sweep and get some sort of dominant position. Nog looked really bad against Mir but from what I understand he was not able to have much of a training camp for that fight due to a staph infection. I just think that at some point Randy's run has to come to an end and the beating he took from Lesner could be the end of Captain America's insane career

Nog by sub in Round 3

Maia vs Marquardt is the fight I am looking forward to the most. as Fish put it "The real main event"
Nothing more can be said of Maia's BJJ. So here are some highlights:


Marquardt is a well rounded fighter with a lot of experience, a good wrestling background, a black belt in jiu jitsu, and a solid striking game, I just think that Maia will be able to impose his game on Marquardt and turn this into submission grappling event.

Maia by triangle in round 2

Is anyone really interested in the Thiago Silva/ Keith Jardine fight?
I guess Jardine has fans. He seems to be the definition of a gatekeeper; if you beat him you get to move on to face the elite of the 205 division. All I am really hoping for is that at some point Jardine pretends to be the techno viking. Hopefully Silva will have learned from his last fight with Lyoto Machida and will remember that he is a jiu jitsu stylist and not a brawler.

I give this one to Silva via Sub in round 3.

The other fight I am looking forward to is the Krystof Soszynski v Brandon Vera fight. I always liked Vera for his vicious kicks but he never has seemed to live up to his hype. The polish experiment lacked the hype coming up that Vera did but worked through his season of the ultimate fighter with workman like precision. Having finished 3 of his last 4 fights via Kimura lock I look for him to do the same to Vera in Round 1.

I am 4-1 in fight picks so far (Damn you Forrest Griffen!) so lets keep it up!

Looking back at my predictions here I realize I picked all the fights to end by sub. That is extremely unlikely, but wouldn't it be sweet?

I have been trying to find out what the most number of submission victories ever in one UFC event, No luck so far but I think there is a chance that this event becomes the new submission standard in the UFC.

Podcast failings

I finally show my true technical abilities (none) by unsuccessfully posting a podcast. The free hosting I used cannot seem to locate the file (this is after they sent me an email with a link to said file) So hopefully sometime this weekend I can figure out where this all went wrong and get the podcast up and running. I know some of you are interested in some fantasy football draft advice!

Podcast Episode 1- Fantasy Football Draft 09

http://www.ourmedia.org/ia/details/LFTSep001

Not sure I got this right, I got a 45 minute podcast uploaded and I set a feed up, the question is are people able to listen to it? Is it even posted to the feed? Any insight would be wonderful

Reality

It's been a long time, I shouldn't have left you without a dope beat to step to, step to, step-step to... ANYWAY


Been a pretty busy week in my world. My wedding creeps ever closer and planning is being stepped up a notch. I also started school yesterday and just in general have had much to do. Things are definitely getting REAL.

Reality TV

At this point it is pretty ballsy to even call it that. What is real about gathering 25 attractive people, putting them in a house together, and telling them they need to all compete for the affection of some other attractive person.
I have been on a few dates in my time, even a few arranged by other people. Not one of them featured 25 people competing for my attention.

You want to know what happens in real life? In real life people are crazy. Not spit in your mouth or call you a bitch on national tv crazy. We are talking murder you and mutilate your body to the point they have to use the serial numbers on your breast implants to ID you kind of crazy. Those people are out there in the world. In fact they blend in so well that they could be put on a reality tv show.

So what do you know? Crazy serial killer makes it on to dating show then gets caught and kills himself in shame. NOW THAT IS SOME REAL SHIT! People want reality tv, how bout that for a plot line. You cannot make that up. Yet when "reality" happens they cancel the show? How bout they show the reality that even in an artificial environment of suitors picked specifically to meet your criteria, there is a crazy fuck in the midst.

I realize the reason they do not continue with the shows is out of respect for the victim. I understand that. I just ask that the label these shows what they are, game shows. They didn't call "the dating game" reality, because people knew it wasn't.

In reality there are crazy sumbitches, and when they go do some crazy shit, No one has the power to cancel the show.




World of Warcraft

After a bit of a hiatus I am back in the world of Azeroth pushing hard to get my priest to the level cap. My DK sits idle with gear upgrades in bag, unenchanted and ungemmed, awaiting some sign of interest from me. The nerfs to deathknight tanking really took a lot of the fun out of playing him. We were overpowered for sure, I just wish they could have balanced us without killing the playstyle I so greatly enjoyed.


Ganja

I leave you with a link that you may have already read from my blogroll. This one in particular really makes you think. I don't care what your view on marijuana smoking is but couldn't we set any objections aside in order to cure cancer?

some highlights and sources:
Cannabinoids are chemicals found in marijuana. They were found to not only reduce the size of tumors, but also can prevent you from getting them in the first place.

Cannabinoids inhibit tumor growth in laboratory animals. They do so by modulating key cell-signaling pathways, thereby inducing direct growth arrest and death of tumor cells, as well as by inhibiting tumor angiogenesis and metastasis. Cannabinoids are selective anti-tumor compounds, as they can kill tumor cells without affecting their non-transformed counterparts.

- Source

Have you heard that smoking it could give you lung cancer? Not true, as we see from above the opposite is true.

The largest study of its kind has unexpectedly concluded that smoking marijuana, even regularly and heavily, does not lead to lung cancer. … “We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use,” he said. “What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect.”

- Source

Fantasy Football Draft Preparations

Its almost football season and with that comes fantasy football. Everyone has rankings and draft strategies to try win you your league.

What I am going to try and help with is draft preparation.

The most important part of draft preparation is gathering information. I tend to use a sponge technique, I read and listen to every possible source of information on fantasy football and make mental notes on how the fantasy community feels a given player is going to do. I read websites, blogs, listen to pod casts to try and get a varied view on the upcoming fantasy season. It's important to have multiple sources otherwise you will live and die by the advice of a single website.

I love the Yahoo fantasy sports guys. Evans, Funston, they all crack me up. When I first started playing they were the only resource I drew upon for fantasy advice. I had a few good seasons and a few pathetic seasons. If those guys had good predictions My team did will. If those guys were way off, my team sucked.

Since then I have expanded my roster to include Matthew Barry - The talented Mr. Roto. Writer of the Hollywood classic Crocodile Dundee II Crocodile Dundee in LA. Mr. Berry also provided the inspiration for Lincoln Freed the Slaves. I lifted the name from one of his articles about the most random text messages ever sent and received. He is also the co-host of a great daily fantasy focus podcast with Nate Ravitz. Always entertaining with good football insight I suggest you give these guys a listen.

Another podcast I have taken to listing to is The fantasy football guys. I like these guys because they don't pretend to have inside information but they have good discussion that get you thinking about players and draft situations that I find useful. These guys tend to ramble on (hour and a half pod casts, yeesh!), but they always have something to make you think.

During this time I am also reading peoples rankings and predictions to combine them all in my head to form some opinions of these players myself. I think through what has changed for them since last season and whether that should have a positive or a negative effect.

An example: Last season Jay Cutler was THE man. It was a no brainer he was going to be my keeper this year. Then he gets traded to Chicago. makes you re-evaluate what his numbers might be. Its probably a negative for his personal stats. HOWEVER, I think that overall this improves the Bears and Matt Forte gets a bump in my rankings.

That's a pretty simple one but the point is not to feed you information (it could be wrong!) it is to get you thinking about who YOU think is going to have a good season.

The next step for me has been Mock Drafts. I don't worry to much about the outcomes, but I like having the experience. I typically go through several of these trying out different draft strategies. I have already done one starting with drafting a running back, one with WR as my first pick, and one as QB at my first pick. It lets you see how the rest of the draft and your team changes depending on what you select first. These drafts also give you a decent idea of where different players may come off the board.

As far as the actual draft goes I tend to show up with more information than needed.

I have an overall ranking list. I usually steal this from espn. I usually don't alter this list at all as I use it more as a guideline than a strict map.

I then have page for QB, WR, RB, and K/TE/D share a sheet. These I do a bit more work on as far as arranging them according to my wants.

I also have a page that has some important stats from last year. Ours is a PPR league so I have a list of the top 25 in catches, along with their targets for last season. Another stat I keep is quarterback attempts and completions (We get points for a completion, crazy league, I know, but it makes it impossible to find a pre-made list to just print off and take to the draft)

I always feel like I am the most prepared person at the draft and even if I am not it gives me confidence. We all know confidence is key when it comes to shit talking, and we all know that when it comes down to it, Shit talking is the point of Fantasy football.

Miguel Torres vs Brian Bowles

In case you missed Miguel Torres get KTFO

UFC 101 Recap

Griffen vs Silva

WOW. Did I underestimate Silva or what? It was an insane display of dominance. Anderson Silva is the like the goddamn Matrix. The whole fight reminded me of the scene in The Matrix where Neo (Forrest Griffen) is being tested by Morpheus (Silva) for the first time after learning "kung fu"

"stop trying to hit me, and HIT me"

Forrest had nothing for Silva. Everything Forrest threw just missed the mark. Silva moved JUST enough not to get hit. At one point he put his hands down and just stands there and uses head movement to dodge a flurry from Griffen. Reminded me of Neo dodging bullets.

"you move like they do"

I will have to be honest, my first thought was WTF?!?! Did Forrest throw the fight? Good thing I DVR'ed the card. So I decide to go back and watch it. I was even more appreciative of it the second time. Anderson Silva and GSP needs to happen to determine the pound for pound king. Who is Fedor?

Penn vs Florian

Penn vs Florian went down much the way I expected it to. Kenny tried to exchange on the feet, got rocked, and would then run or try to take BJ down. The first three rounds were basically Florian desperately trying to take BJ down and wear him out.

BJ Penn seemed like he really went out to shut the haters up. People knock his cardio, but when it came down to round four BJ really took control. His first take down attempt he lands it and turns it into the end of the fight. Those elbows from half guard were short but mean. Kenny had a HUGE welt on his face, I wouldn't be surprised if that were a broken orbital bone. The finish of this fight was impressive as well. After getting mount and dropping some ground and pound, Ken-Flo wilts visibly and gives BJ his back gift wrapped with a nice bow. A rear naked choke is not that easy to sink in if the other person is defending it. Kenny was defending it well, two hands on one. Until BJ starts dropping heel kicks into his liver, after four or five of those Kenny drops one hand to defend and immediately gets choked out.

Kenny Florian literally pissed his pants!

UFC 101

Tonight we have a top heavy card at ufc 101. If it weren't for the quality of the main events I would not be getting this card. I mean cmon I like Amir Sadollah but his first fight since winning the ultimate fighter should not be televised on the main event of a pay per view. I could deal with him on a ultimate fight night card, but it seems he is just there to fill up a spot. I would probably rather watch Thales Lietes fight. Instead, he is buried on the undercard due to his last fight with Silva.

The main events make it worth it though.

BJ Penn vs Kenny Florian

I will go ahead and admit that I am pretty big BJ fanboi. At the same time, if I look at this fight with an objective eye I get the same vision. That of Kenny Florian getting demolished.


BJ has fought a who's who list of MMA fighers.
Din Thomas, Caol Uno, Jens Pulver, Matt Serra, Takanori Gomi, Matt Hughes, Lyoto Machida, Renzo Gracie, GSP, Sean Sherk, Joe Stevenson.

Kenny has fought Diego Sanchez, Sam Stout, Sean Sherk, Din Thomas, Joe Lauzon, Roger Huerta, Joe Stevenson.

Which of those lists inspires fear in you?

I really think this is going to be a beat down of epic proportions. I don't think these guys are really in the same league. I'm going with BJ in round 3 or 4.

The other big fight is of course Griffen vs Silva.
I will probably get flack for this, but I think Forrest comes through in this one. I never seem to give Forrest the respect he deserves. I didn't give him a shot against Rampage or Shogun and he really came through. I just think Forrest has the size and mental fortitude to push Anderson in ways he has not been pushed before. I look for Forrest to push Anderson up against the fence and make him carry his weight. He will probably do best to try and get Silva on the mat and do a bit of the lay and pray/ground and pound to try and wear Silva down. I am giving this one to Griffen by decision.

Enjoy the fights and your weekend!

The power of Bas

Ever wonder what it would be like to get kicked by Bas Rutten?



Worse than a car crash...

How about rupturing a spleen with a punch?


This just gives you a bit of the idea the type of beating these guys absorb to entertain us.

Make a Statment...

White people are supposed to be scared of minorities

It is just one of those things. What do you call them? Oh yes, stereotypes. Some of the common white people stereotypes are that we can not dance, we listen to 60s swing music, and that we are afraid of minorities.

When I say minorities, I am talking about everyone that wouldn't be considered a cracker. Those minorities know/think this about us and some of them act on it or attempt to "act hard" or "punk" you into thinking that they actually will do something. Kinda like a scare tactic.

What you have to do to counter-act this scare tactic is to act like a crazy, insane, inbreed, white mother fucker so they know that you are one of those white serial killers types. Therefore, they will not mess with you. Ask any minority, especially a brother, about fucking with a crazy white boy.

There response will be something along the lines of....

"Fuck no...you ever see a brother serial killer? You ever seen a brother kidnap someone, put them in their basement, and scream at them to PUT THE LOTION ON THE SKIN!!! No way I'm messing with one of those crazy white people."

Its stories like this that they get that opinion of us.

5 dead, 10 injured in gym shooting

White dude goes into a LA Fitness gym. Goes to the Latino dance class. Puts down his gym back, turns off the lights and unloads 20+ shots with his gun.

FUCK

White people are nuts....and this story is a true tragedy.

Use this stereotype to your advantage

Anyway, when I first moved into my apartment complex, I noticed that my girlfriend and I were a small percentage of the white people that lived there...maybe 5%. The rest of the complex was either black or hispanics.

So one day I pull up to my apartment and notice about 5 brothers standing outside, just hanging out. I made eye contact and they gave me that look like "What you lookin at fool?"

I immediately put my phone up to my ear and pretended I was having a conversation with my girlfriend. Now...this was a total stunt...my phone wasn't even powered on...I was using it as a prop in this stunt.

I get out of my car yelling, screaming, cursing, make death threats to her and her family, and basically trying to act as insane as I could. This group of brothers were about 15 yards away and after about 30 or so seconds of having this fake conversation I start walking towards them.

Making eye contact with them the whole way (still having my pretend, insane phone conversation) and ask them for a lighter.

The look on these people faces was fucking priceless. I almost started laughing and ruined the whole thing, but I kept it together and lit my cigarette. I gave it back to him, turned around and started walking away saying the following...

"Bitch I wish you would take me to court...I will fucking kill you and your kids! Think IM PLAYING!"

I then hung up the phone and stormed inside my apartment laughing my ass off for a good 5 minutes.

Oh yes....

Take that in for a second
.
.
.
Misson completed - Message sent

Now these people think that I am some crazy white boy and they are not going to mess with me. I have lived there for 2 years and I didn't have a problem until just a few weeks ago...

The Message in action...

I walked outside my apartment a few weeks ago because I heard alot of people right outside and I wanted to see what was going on. To my surprise, there was about 20-25 black people standing around bull shitting and acting a fool. I would have to say the average age was around 17.

Right when I get to my car, one of them breaks from the group and jumps on my trunk. I immediately flip out, but not as much as I wanted too...I mean hell...there was like 20 of them and I didn't want to get jumped.

The guy claimed that someone else was chasing him with a gun...unlikely story in my opinion. He was just trying to punk me. Lets punk this white dude so I look cool in front of my friends. Well, I started cursing at this dude and walking towards him.

IMMEDIATELY, three guys from the crowd (the same people that I played my crazy white boy trick on) jump in saying that they don't want any trouble and that he was just playing around.

"My bad cuz, my bad cuz, that dudes retard homie"

Is what they were saying to me to try and defuse the situation. I didn't say anything....I just got my cigarette and sat down on my patio looking pissed as hell.

A few minutes later the police showed up and broke up the crowd.

What did we learn today class?

Stereotypes are everywhere, you can't get upset when someone throws you into a category, its human nature. No matter how true stereotypes are, we are all individuals and we are ALL different.

So if you know you are going to be in a situation where you think that you are going to get labeled a certain stereotype....make a statement.

Strip Club Adventure, Blogging difficulties

Strip Club Adventure
This past weekend was pretty wild. One of my best friends was without his significant other and wanted to go crazy. Drunkenness ensues, followed by a 2am trip to the titty bar!

The strip club is a funny place. Huge contrast between the enthralled face of the customers and the bored face's of the strippers themselves. I hadn't noticed this as much the first time I went. Also never noticed how quickly they snatch money from your hand =). I remember a couple of priceless moments from the evening.

My friend Tom is there getting a lap dance from a very talented young lady. He is fully engrossed in this lap dance. I don't think a fire in the building would have taken his eyes off that shaking rack. I guess she was propositioning him for a private dance when she said "you remind me of Drew Carey"

He snapped out of his trance so fast I thought he was going to fall out of his chair.
I think this was the same stripper, who after guiding his hands all over her breasts, decided to take her turn and massage his...
"That's not hot" he barked.
He seemed kinda pissed, After the Drew Carey comment she tried to back track and said.
"I mean I think you look like Drew Carey and I find him attractive"
needless to say, he did not pay her for a private dance.
Strippers... not known for the quick wit.

It really was a funny scene.

The other moment that comes to mind was one of the lap dances my fiance got. Have you ever noticed the girls always get a better lap dance? After an extensive lap dance for 4 dollars this stripper takes my fiance's glasses off so that she can rub her tittys in my fiance's face. After some hot motor-boating she goes to hand my gal's glasses back to her. Before that happens though, she rubs both lenses all over her breasts and nipples! That isn't hot. Not only is it not hot, but as anyone who has worn glasses before will tell you, its kind of a dick move. Human skin is greasy, even more so when you have spent the last four to six hours dancing and grinding on people in a smoke filled room. Grease, coincidentally does not come off glasses all that easily.

Speaking of grease, here is a funny picture I took before the strip club adventure began.
File this one under found porn.

What is the purpose of a blog? What is the purpose of YOUR blog?

With my previous work on blog's it was always very focused. A warcraft II strategy site. A World of Warcraft gaming site. It was very easy to come up with topics that my readership would enjoy or at least find interesting(at the very least, relevant.) Having that niche made it very easy to know what articles would drive traffic to the site and what would get comments. Every patch, a spec article would generate tons of hits from google. With this blog things are a bit different.

It is a good thing and a bad thing. One of the reason's I started it was I felt a bit too pigeon holed into what I had to write about. This blog gives me and others the opportunity to post about whatever happens to be on our minds. The downside of this is the fact that there is no built in readership. I am struggling to find an identity for this site. I have written and deleted a few articles because I didn't think they fit the cloudy vision I had in my mind for what I wanted this place to be. It's interesting, I don't blog for hits, I blog because I enjoy writing. Lets face it though, there is something gratifying in knowing people read what you had to say. When I was doing my gaming blogging I got so many ideas from comments and other gaming blogs. That sense of community, of shared interests is lacking a bit, hopefully it comes in time =)

This week's asshat poll is simple. Have you ever been to a strip club?

Honeymoon thoughts

When I bring up the fact that I am getting married soon, a lot of people respond with "Are you freaking out?"

Not really, why would I? If I was freaked out by it I don't think I would be getting married. In fact if you are excessively freaking out months ahead of time about your wedding and marriage, maybe its not the right time for you.
I will clarify that. If you are freaking out at the prospect of spending the rest of your life with the person, or even with any one person, then its probably not the right time for you.
If you are freaking over trying to plan a massive event for your friends and family, that I can understand.

I guess its easy enough for me to say I am not freaking out. I have very few responsibilities for getting the wedding planned. My main responsibility is the honeymoon, and that I do freak out about a bit.

I mean this honeymoon will cost more than my last four vacations combined.

There seems to be a few main things to decide. The one I am struggling with is length of stay, and with that, niceness of hotel. The options are between staying four nights at a top of the line resort with over the top service and anemities, or downgrading the resort a bit and staying five to seven nights.

I have gotten a lot of input from people and there really is no consensus. Some people think 7 nights would be to long, Some think 4 would be to short.

At first I just wanted to stay in the nicest place possible and who cares if it was only four nights. Lately I have been leaning towards a 5 or 6 night stay. Realistically we are going to do a lot of drinking and laying on a beach. How nice does the hotel have to be to do that? Then again, after four days in the sun and four nights of partying we will be so drained the last few days would just be spent in recovery.

We are definitely looking for all inclusive. I really like the idea of not having to pay for anything while I am down there. There are just so many options. You don't want to end up down there in some shitty hotel where all inclusive to them means you get a continental breakfast.