http://disqus.com/by/ncroal/enMon, 20 Feb 2012 11:30:30 -0000http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/02/the-nirvana-that-is-nba-league-pass/253326/#comment-444092194<p>Longtime reader, first time poster.</p><p>Glad to see that you have discovered the glory that is NBA League Pass. I first got it a few years back because I'm a Laker fan living in Brooklyn (boo, hiss), but it's given me a greater appreciation for the game because I can drop in and out of watching other players and teams that I like.</p><p>Protip for other Horde members who want to jump on the NBAndwagon as inexpensively as possible: the iOS and Android subscriptions for League Pass only cost $39.99. I got it for my iPad this season and love it. Just be aware that if you have multiple iDevices, the subscription is tied to the device, NOT your iTunes account, so you would have to purchase a second subscription to have the option of viewing games on both your iPad and your iPhone.</p><p>Enjoy!</p>ncroalMon, 20 Feb 2012 11:30:30 -0000http://ncroal.tumblr.com/post/203481880#comment-18527725<p>It's not significantly more complex than any other beatmaking program that I've experimented with. The video tutorials are helpful as well.</p>ncroalSun, 04 Oct 2009 20:21:32 -0000http://ncroal.tumblr.com/post/203481880#comment-18393807<p>Glad you dug it...this isht is addictive!</p>ncroalSat, 03 Oct 2009 15:22:26 -0000http://ncroal.tumblr.com/post/202458967#comment-18364723<p>Thanks for the feedback, everyone. The hardest part about making a song out of loops is getting it to build into something explosive, as several of you pointed out. Especially without real vocals or a chorus. I will keep that in mind for future tracks.</p>ncroalSat, 03 Oct 2009 12:47:51 -0000http://ncroal.tumblr.com/post/133657051#comment-11992893<p>Ouch.</p>ncroalWed, 01 Jul 2009 15:39:28 -0000http://ncroal.tumblr.com/post/130352125#comment-11760089<p>Yep, a nice pickup for Denver. Meanwhile, my Lakers stockpiled cash: $3 million from the Knicks for our first round pick and $1.5 million from Miami for the higher of our two second round picks. We've got a lot of young talent, so if the money enables us to re-sign Lamar Odom, Trevor Ariza and Shannon Brown, our draft strategy will have served its purpose.</p>ncroalFri, 26 Jun 2009 01:25:01 -0000http://ncroal.tumblr.com/post/115804101#comment-10318490<p>I hear you...but most people should have looked at the Magic's record against the Cavs for the past two seasons--and that includes the sports commentators and columnists, most of whom picked Cleveland to win the series.</p><p>A closer examination of previous CLE-ORL games would have shown that the Magic posed huge matchup problems for the Cavs. Instead, Simmons just looked at the Cavs record against a bunch of other teams--including the banged-up squads that Cleveland steamrollered in rounds 1 and 2 of the playoffs--and assumed that LeBron and the LeBronnaires would just do the same to the Magic. Whoops.</p>ncroalSun, 31 May 2009 13:30:51 -0000http://ncroal.tumblr.com/post/103469518#comment-9010430<p>I would agree with you, were it not for the fact that a game-long full-court press isn't widely used in the NBA. The reason it doesn't work on professional players is that they're so highly skilled that a timeout and a refresher from their coach is enough to remind them of how to beat a press; after that proper and consistent execution will break a press every time.</p><p>The girls that Ranadivé was coaching against, however, were too inexperienced and under-skilled to deal with it. So how can we fit this into Gladwell's analogy? Is the press simply not "underdog" enough to work on NBA players? Would far more skilled soldiers--the military event of NBA players--have defeated T.E. Lawrence and his army? I'm just asking...</p>ncroalTue, 05 May 2009 08:35:08 -0000http://ncroal.tumblr.com/post/103469518#comment-8996400<p>Exactly. That's why I'm hoping that Gladwell will dig further into his basketball-as-business-as-war analogies to see if there's anything more to be gleaned from them. Rattling an NBA team with a full court press generally doesn't work over a 48-minute game. But there are other techniques that do work--like the Tom Thibodeau-era Boston Celtics, who routinely use moving picks and moving screens. As long as the refs don't call these fouls, a defense that's anchored by physical specimens like Kevin Garnett and Kendrick Perkins will gain a considerable advantage as they continually throw off the timing of the other team's sets.</p>ncroalMon, 04 May 2009 19:08:39 -0000http://ncroal.tumblr.com/post/103469518#comment-8994098<p>Now that's a David vs. Goliath tactic. Gladwell addresses that kind of approach when he writes:</p><p>"This is the second half of the insurgent’s creed. Insurgents work harder than Goliath. But their other advantage is that they will do what is 'socially horrifying'—they will challenge the conventions about how battles are supposed to be fought. All the things that distinguish the ideal basketball player are acts of skill and coördination. When the game becomes about effort over ability, it becomes unrecognizable—a shocking mixture of broken plays and flailing limbs and usually competent players panicking and throwing the ball out of bounds. You have to be outside the establishment—a foreigner new to the game or a skinny kid from New York at the end of the bench—to have the audacity to play it that way. George Washington couldn’t do it. His dream, before the war, was to be a British Army officer, finely turned out in a red coat and brass buttons. He found the guerrillas who had served the American Revolution so well to be 'an exceeding dirty and nasty people.' He couldn’t fight the establishment, because he was the establishment."</p><p>Perhaps that's what Robert Horry meant to achieve when he hip-checked Steve Nash during the 2007 NBA playoffs. The resulting suspensions hurt the Suns far worse than they did the Spurs, who went on to win the NBA title. Just a thought.</p>ncroalMon, 04 May 2009 18:16:46 -0000http://ncroal.tumblr.com/post/103230050#comment-8984178<p>Gladiator came out in 2000, I believe.</p>ncroalMon, 04 May 2009 12:13:06 -0000http://ncroal.tumblr.com/post/103230050#comment-8984144<p>Good additions, Jeff.</p>ncroalMon, 04 May 2009 12:11:02 -0000http://ncroal.tumblr.com/post/103230050#comment-8982568<p>I have a soft spot for 1996 as well: Fargo, Breaking the Waves, Thieves, Chungking Express, Trainspotting, Bound, Shanghai Triad, Secrets and Lies, Jude and Scream. But 1999 is pretty tough to top. When I have more time, I'll do a year by year analysis.</p>ncroalMon, 04 May 2009 10:52:46 -0000http://ncroal.tumblr.com/post/96366180#comment-8228982<p>I haven't seen "Vengeance" yet, so I can't predict how it will go over at Cannes. But based on the Johnnie To films I have seen, I'm pretty hopeful.</p>ncroalWed, 15 Apr 2009 11:37:33 -0000http://ncroal.tumblr.com/post/93855411#comment-7943660<p>Tetsuo, I've added a YouTube link above. Enjoy.</p>ncroalTue, 07 Apr 2009 14:18:45 -0000http://ncroal.tumblr.com/post/83045871#comment-6833923<p>Thanks much. McG is starting to make me a McBeliever, particularly the cinematography. Maybe the DP was onto something, twiddling with those lights during key emotional scenes.</p>ncroalTue, 03 Mar 2009 02:46:27 -0000http://ncroal.tumblr.com/post/83045871#comment-6830476<p>I have not. Do tell.</p>ncroalTue, 03 Mar 2009 02:16:11 -0000http://ncroal.tumblr.com/post/67257952#comment-4826134<p>@Tessie: Thanks for bringing the Dina Gottliebova Babbitt to my attention. I googled her name, and her story is both fascinating and complicated. I'm surprised that it hasn't yet been made into a movie.</p><p>As for the Rosenblat controversy, we can only hope that, having been burned several times now, both Oprah Winfrey and book publishers will start doing background checks and fact checking on memoirs and non-fiction. But I wouldn't hold my breath.</p>ncroalFri, 02 Jan 2009 01:01:52 -0000http://ncroal.tumblr.com/post/67436518#comment-4792598<p>Thanks for commenting on my tumblelog, Marci, and best of luck!</p>ncroalWed, 31 Dec 2008 00:18:16 -0000http://ncroal.tumblr.com/post/66416315#comment-4591961<p>What Samit said...when it comes to Fox, it's inevitable.</p>ncroalTue, 23 Dec 2008 12:33:32 -0000http://ncroal.tumblr.com/post/64745275#comment-4395677<p>Don't hate the player, hate the shame.</p>ncroalSun, 14 Dec 2008 03:19:01 -0000http://page110.tumblr.com/post/42302338#comment-3697958<p>It was part of the trailer as Epic produced it.</p>ncroalWed, 12 Nov 2008 00:34:20 -0000http://ncroal.tumblr.com/post/54459061#comment-3049145<p>Point taken, sir.</p>ncroalTue, 14 Oct 2008 16:17:55 -0000http://ncroal.tumblr.com/post/50260460#comment-2365330<p>The Shirley Manson T-1000 merely confirms the insidiousness of Skynet. Not only is this model lethal, it can sing too.</p>ncroalMon, 15 Sep 2008 18:04:23 -0000http://ncroal.tumblr.com/post/49881178#comment-2304106<p>It sure is. I just ordered my phased-plasma rifle in the forty watt range on Amazon. So when Skynet sends its legions of T-1000s back through time using the hadron collider, I'll be ready.</p>ncroalFri, 12 Sep 2008 13:33:55 -0000