how-to: bandana

I found this helpful link via a Wikipedia external link, a how-to on tying a bandana that covers your entire dome (heretofore described as "dome steez")

I use a bandana not for fashion, but because my dome sweats profusely if I really do heavy cardio, like the ArcTrainer on level 10, or a 3+ hr all-court net rushing, lob-chasing tennis match. But I had always used the Federer/2Pac bandana steez. I tried the ArcTrainer with the dome steez, & it worked great. Better soaking of the sweat & less times I had to use the "wipe head with shirt sleeve" move.

ESPN2 Aus Open schedule

BTW, peep the Hewitt pic of dunny doing his classic "come on" gesture.

ESPN2 has stepped up their tennis coverage tremendously.

IIRC, it was just 3 years ago when ESPN was derided/ethered by Jon Wertheim as "Eternally Shafting Players Non-American". They would stay showing rerun blowouts of the Williams sisters & Roddick, while a live epic 5-set match was going on bt non-Americans such as M Safin v F Gonzalez or some such. The only exception was the Non-American they vag-rided even more than the few American stars, Maria Sharapova.

Sharapova is injured this year, so we don't have to bare her-shrieking unsportsmanlike anorexic ass this year preempting more interesting matches.

But ESPN2 aka "the deuce" (no scatalogical jic) is rolling mad hours of live coverage.

Well done ESPN.

Here's the ESPN2 sched (source tennis.com):

ESPN2 live schedule
Mon Jan-19 21:00-02:00
Tue Jan-20 03:30-08:00, 22:00-02:00
Wed Jan-21-Thu Jan-22 03:30-08:00, 23:00-02:00
Fri Jan-23 03:30-08:00, 19:00-21:30, 23:30-02:00
Sat Jan-24 03:30-08:00, 22:00-01:30
Sun Jan-25 03:30-08:00, 21:00- 01:30
Mon Jan-26 03:30-06:00, 21:30-01:30 QF
Tue Jan-27 03:30-06:00 QF, 21:30-02:00 QF
Wed Jan-28 03:30-06:00 QF, 21:30-01:30 W SF
Thu Jan-29 03:30-06:00 M SF, 23:00-01:00 WD F
Fri Jan-30 03:30-06:00 M SF
Sat Jan-31 03:30-05:30 W F
Sun Feb-01 03:30-06:30 M F

Chaognosis tennis GOAT analysis: Ken Rosewall

Chaognosis is a blog on tennis history.

Chaognosis has an interesting article, proposing an alternate method of counting "grand slam equivalent tournaments", which I will make up a term here for discussion as GSE (no Fannie Mae ReThuglican Corporate Welfare C-E-Ho disasters just in case).

Chaognois' method takes the most important UK, France, & USA tournament for a given year, chosen by Chaognosis' subjective analysis. It ignores the Australian, which was not taken "seriously as a grand slam" until sometime in the 1980s (as recently as John McEnroe's prime, McEnroe & many other top players skipped going Down Under [||]). Read the article itself for more detail.

Bottom line, by Chaognosis' analysis, Ken Rosewall has 17 GSEs, compared to Pete Sampras' 12 (7 Wimbledons, 5 US Opens) & Roger Federer's 10 (5 W, 5 U).

Personally, I'm not buyin it, on the account that the depth of competitors of the tennis game has in general been increasing dramatically into the 90s (Sampras' decade) & even more into the 2000s (Fed's decade). IMHO if Federer ties Sampras' 14 GS by winning 1 more GS tourney, I would vote for Fed as the GOAT.

It should be noted that any such comparisons are "apples-to-oranges". There has been significant change that even make it hard to compare the 1990s/Sampras era to the 2000s/Fed era. The synthetic type of tennis strings Luxillon "Big Banger" [||] which allow more spin, & the slowing of the courts for example. Sampras was dominant as a serve & volleyer, whereas in the 2000s there have been very few serve & volleyers in the Top 100 such as Ivo Karlovic, & none off hand I can recall that have made the Top 10.

Bottom line, Fed is the Illest. Sampras himself has admitted it. Prolly ol man Rosewall itself would also agree.

Federer wins US Open, lucky GS #13

Guess who's bizzack! *does 2 step to that Scarface/Kanye West song*

Federer wins 5th consecutive US Open. Fed is now solely in 2nd place on the all-time GS title list with 13, 1 behind Sampras' 14.

last game


award ceremony

Micheal Phelps pwned the Olympics

I've been following the Olympics some, but mainly tennis, & some random highlights of other sports like football, team handball, & table tennis, thanks to the awesome NBCOlympics.com streaming internets.

I Wikipedia Mike Phelps because I read that he's putting up ridiculoid performances.

Damn, the stats are insane! 8 events (5 individual, 3 4-man team events), 8 gold medals, 7 of them being World Records! On the 100 m butterfly, dude "slacked" & got only an Olympic Record instead of the WR.

I'm about to say something shocking, given my inherently reasonable Federer stan stauts. Well, most hardcore tennis fans are fellow Federer stans, & many of the greats like John McEnroe already give Fed tennis GOAT status.

I'm gonna put Phelps as currently tied with Fed for Athlete of the 2000s Decade (AD) status. Fed has been running away with the AD, but I can't front on Phelps. There's still 18 months left in the decade, let's see what happens.

Oh what about Tiger Woods? Golfer, please. Phelps & Fed are real athletes, in Olympic sports, where you exert mad cardio & cannot wear a Corporate Uniform/Sunday church clothes to compete in. To put a golfer up as AD is an oxymoron.

BTW, speaking of Fed stans, Fed won the doubles gold medal with fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka, defeating serious doubles teams, like India's Paes/Bhupathi in the QF, & US' Bryan Bros in the SF. It would be great if Fed played doubles at the big Grand Slam tourneys, he could further pad his GS title stats that way.

man races zebra

This is absurd, yet interesting. Track sprinter Shawn Crawford runs 100m dash against animals.

Crawford beats the giraffe, but gets sonned by a Zebra.

Dude, people are good thinkers, but we will get sonned by animals on physical contests.

Youzhny hits himself in the head with racket

In a Lupe Fiasco-like self-ethering "Fiasco", Russian Top 20 tennis player Mikhail Youzhny hits himself in the forehead with his racket hard, causing bleeding & injury timeout, during the current Miami masters tourney. WTF. Youzhny still won the match.

WTF photo: NE Patriots dancing with US Soldiers

Random WTF pic: check this out.

Dancing with sexy half-naked cheerleaders in panty-butt shorts, while having some type an uzi on your back?

Damn son I just hope the wrong gun doesn't "prematurely ejaculate" [||]. We done already suffered 4K+ deaths of US soldiers in Iraq.

BTW: Props to the butt shorts-wearing NE Patriots cheerleaders at the Superbowl.

Australian Open update

Belize asked me for an Australian Open update. I've been following the Presidential Secondary (c) myself, process, but BAM! the AO is already in full swing. Here's some news.

Federer is cruising so far in the Aussie Open. If Fed wins, it will be 13 Grand Slam (GS) singles titles, closing in on the Great Pete Sampras’ 14 titles. It’s the 3rd Rd (Rd of 32) right now.

The top US guy Roddick went down [||] Down Under [||] in 5 sets to Kohlscreiber.

James Blake, 1 of the Dallas’ GOAT Light Skinted Brothas TM, is playing great, hopefully he can do some damage.

Dont sleep on Vinny “I Ain’t Afraid of Ya” “33 is the new 16″ Spadea either http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc4eNZPbOsc.
Spadea won 2 epic 5-setters.

Perhaps the real question, who’s a “better rapper” between Spadea & Lil Wang? My vote is for Spadea!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoXAAEYwnNY

The US womens’ hope are all Serena & Venus Williams, they both are playing well. They’re playing women’s doubles also, just beat the #2 seed team, so 1 of them might could take home 2 GS titles this month!

"Vamos David" Nalbandian is the truth

David Nalbandian has dominating the Fall Indoor circuit, winning the Masters Series tourneys in Madrid & Paris, being 5-0 against the Top3 players along the way, beating Federer twice, Djokovic once, & SONNING Nadal twice in straight-set beatdowns.

I use to annoy an Argentino guy on my ALTA rec tennis team by screaming "vamos Dav-iiiid" when he was playing. But after this Fall, I doubt anyone would not want to be compared to Nalbandian. Funny story, in the playoff match this weekend, 2 Argentinos played line #2 & Schiavod the opponents 61 60, even though 1 of the opponents was a great 4.5 USTA player. Afterwards I said "I'm not surprised, no way the Argies gonna lose, after witnessing their paisano David. Olvidalo che! No mames buey!"

Nalbo ended up finishing 9th in the ATP Race, so he's 1st alternate for the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai which starts like Nov 11. I'm hoping someone withdraws from TMC, in order for Nalbo to play. Roddick is saying he might sit out to rest up/prepare for the Davis Cup final v RUS, which happens right after the TMC. I'd like to see A-Rod play, so hopefully someone else like Davydenko aka Phil Collins v3.0 will sit out. Nalbo is prolly the only 1 who could defeat Fed at TMC.

1 thing to note about Nalbo, is that he's basically the same age as Fed, & thus has played Fed forever, going back to the Juniors days. So Nalbo doesn't have the fear factor of Fed that the other players might.

2008 looks to be exciting, with Nalbo, Nadal & Djokovic all having a realistic chance to take Fed's #1 spot.

Finally, how happy is David in that picture? Son just pwned the ATP this fall, & gets the trophy surrounded by the Parisian half-naked ladies! What's the deal with the ladies' see-through shirts? Hey, I'm not complaining, just wondering if that's that common practice in Paris? I don't think a tourney could do that in the USA, without ReThuglican theocrats going ballistic.

Federer clincles 2007 YE #1

For the 4th consecutive year, Roger Federer clinches the 2007 YE #1 spot.

Fed stays sonning worldwide sports. I predict inevitably now that Fed will clinch

1 GOAT tennis player
2 best athlete, any sport, of the 2000s decade

Check back in late 2008, watch the MSM parrot my words.

The homie Federer is too Unbelievable, word to BIG.

DC SFs start today: USA@SWE, GER@RUS

Davis Cup Semis starts today! The USA @ SWE on indoor hard [||]. GER @ RUS on indoor clay. There's also several "playoff" ties, including the last match of the retiring GBR's Tim Henman. SUI's Federer will also be in action.

The draw looks great for the USA. SWE's Soderling is injured, so SWE is running 2 Johanssons, Joachim & Thomas against USA's Roddick & Blake. I can't see Thomas having the power to outhit, nor the footspeed to outrun Rod & Blake. Joachim might could win off the strength of his huge serve, but Joachim is coming off of an injury so I doubt it. In doubles, the Bryan Bros are always favored, but SWE's Bjorkman/Aspelin are both Top20 doubles players, so they're not an automatic win. Still, I don't see the Bros losing. Hopefully the USA will pwn SWE 3-0 & end the "live rubbers" [||] part of this DC tie on Saturday.

If USA can beat SWE, we'll prolly face RUS in the final at home in the USA. Like I said, the draw looks great. USA hasn't won DC since Sampras led USA to a win in 1995. Hopefully we can get-er-done. It would also be a great achievement for Rod & Blake, who may never get to win a GS title, since they routinely get sonned by Fed. It's also great for doubles, since the stars/MVPs of the USA DC team are the Bros. Doubs needs to get some shine, it's criminally slept-on, despite being the form of tennis that most rec players play.

Here's the TV schedule from tennis.com. Fire up your TIVO-type devices. Belize says nowadays, any big sporting event like this can be viewed gratis on the internets on sites like SopCast, but I don't know how that works.

TC = Tennis Channel, DISH #400
Vs = DISH #151

Friday, September 21
RUS @ GER 5:00 am - 12:00 pm TC
SWE @ USA 12:00 pm - 6:00 pm Vs
Replay SWE @ USA 8:00 pm - 1:30 am

Saturday, September 22
RUS @ GER 7:00 am - 10:00 am TC
SWE @ USA 12:00 pm - 3:00 pm Vs
Replay SWE @ USA 8:00 pm - 11:30 pm TC

Sunday, September 23
RUS @ GER 5:00 am - 12:00 pm TC
SWE @ USA 12:00 pm - 5:00 pm Vs
Replay SWE @ USA 8:00 pm - 1:30 am TC

fwd - HS tennis tournament Sep 27-30 in ATL, full college scholarships available

FYI, my team mate Shondria from my USTA mixed doubles team in Atlanta, sent this e-mail below

Basically it sounds like the HS seniors & juniors that play HS varsity tennis, may be able to cop full scholarships, by going to this event Sep 27-30 @ Sugar Creek TC in Atlanta

Pls fwd this to any kids that may be interested.

ALTA internet directions to Sugar Creek TC:
2706 BOULDERCREST RD, Atlanta
(404) 243-7149
I-285; EXIT 51, S ON BOULDERCREST RD; APPROX 1/4M, LT ON SUGAR CREEK GOLF DR; FOLLOW TO CTS.

Never forget that El Gringo Colombiano is for the children (c) ODB. No Mark Foley.

---
Shondria's msg:

FYI......If you know someone who can benefit from this please pass along.

Historically Black Colleges host a Tennis Tournament at Sugar Creek Tennis Center off of Bouldercrest Rd each year. This year the event is being held the last of this month.

18 colleges are expected and the coaches are looking to give out full tennis scholarships. Last year they gave away scholarships to some young men but there were not enough girls to so they left without giving away an additional remaining 8 full scholarships.

The do not have to play like the Williams sisters or James Blake, just play tennis competitively. Please share with any high school juniors or seniors that you may know who play and may be interested.

-------

HBCU Nationals Tennis Tournament

Calendar of Events

September 27th-30th

THURSDAY - September 27th, 2007

8:30A.M. – 9:00A.M.: Player Reception/Match Play Starts

12:00P.M. – 1:00P.M.: Lunch provided for Players and Coaches

9:00A.M. – 6:00P.M.: Tournament Play

FRIDAY - September 28th, 2007

8:30A.M. – 6:00P.M.: Daily Match Play

12:00P.M. – 1:00P.M.: Lunch provided for Players and Coaches

6:30P.M. – 9:00P.M.: College Pro-Am Fundraiser

* Round Robin Play
* Hit for Prizes and Giveaways
* FREE Food, Beverage, and Live Entertainment

SATURDAY - September 29th, 2007

9:00A.M. – 5:00P.M.: Final Rounds of Tournament Play

8:00A.M. – 12:30P.M.: Kids Day

* Kids Hit for Prizes
* Round Robin Competition for Jrs seeking exposure
* Free Light Refreshments

Roger Federer = Undisputed KOAS & Sept. 11 Champion

So is the big question today who won Sept. 11, since several albums & news video mixtapes have been released by the following:

Kanye West?
50 Cent?
bitch-ass Kenny Chesney?
sociopath murderer & Bush family crony Osama Bin Laden?

fock all them also-rans!

The Sept. 11 winner is
the KOAS = King Of All Sports
ROGER FEDERER

Fed just copped Grand Slam title #12 at the US Open. Fed is only 2 titles behind [||] the great Pete Sampras, & only 26 years old.

Tiger Woods? Tiger is relegated to being the weed carrier of his homie the Great Fed.

You say my words on Fed are borderline stannery? I say "ha ha, you can't tell me nothing!" (c) Kanye, who also "bows in the present of greatness" with respect to FED!

Justin Gimelstob retires

NJ's Justin Gimelstob is retiring from tennis. It looks like he'll do well as a tennis commentator, check out this Jay Leno clip.

fwd - Notes of a Federer Watcher

Even literary critics have become fellow Fed stans! Nice article, where the authors describe Fed & words & back it up with youtubery, to show what can't really fully be described with words.

is Reminder: Sunday 4:30p CBS: USO Final Fed vs Djokovic. Fed is gonna cop his 12th GS title & be the 1st 4-time consecutive USO men's singles champ since BILL TILDEN in 1923! Djokovic is finna "get Serbed".

Fed stays winning!

Novak Djokovic's imitations

Here are some Novak Djokovic's imitations of other tennis players. Geez, if Djok ever falls off as a a tennis player, dude could be a stand-up comedian or join SNL. His imitations are hilarious!

Watch Roger Do His Thing

Must see TV this weekend: Turn on CBS Sat 3p ET, & Sun 4p ET.

You need to "Watch Roger Do His Thing" (c) Main Source off their 1991 album Breaking Atoms

Roger Federer
aka the 2000s GOAD (greatest of the decade) athlete
aka the future tennis GOAT
aka Fed

is finna cop his 12th Grand Slam title at the US Open (USO).

Yes, at age 26, Fed is gonna be only 2 GS titles away from Sampras' record 14 titles. There's a real chance that Fed could break Sampras' record at the 2008 USO! Barbaric!

The final four is looking mighty meh in terms of having a real chance at beating the mighty Fed

In the semifinal on Sat, it's "deja vu all over again" (c) Yogi Berra. Fed is playing Davydenko aka Phil Collins v3.0, in a repeat of the 2006 USO semi. Don't be surprised if Fed's homie/hypeman/weed carrier/non-GOAD Tiger Woods is chillin in Fed's box [||] along with Fed's girlfriend Mirka, just like in 2006.

Fed pwns Davydenko 9-0 in the head-to-head [||] record

In the final, Fed will either face
Yung Djok aka Chia Head aka Novak Djokovic. The H2H is 4-1. Djok beat Fed in August in the Canadian Masters tourney, but that was a 3-setter where Djok won 2 tiebreaker sets. Anyone that's played tennis knows that tiebreakers are 50-50 crapshoots. I seriously doubt Djok can beat Fed in a best-of-5-sets format.

Djok could lose the semi, in which case Fed will play David Ferrer in the final. The H2H again is total sonnage, 9-0 for Fed.

Fed seemed to be "in full flight" in the Quarterfinal match vs Andy Roddick. Roddick played great tennis, but Fed was too Fed-like, so A-Rod lost in straight sets, although sets 1 & 2 were close tiebreaker sets.

So watch "dat shyt" (c) Belize. Hey in 2040 your grandchildren might want to ask you what is was like to see the greatest athlete in the last 50 years, "live & direct" (c) Phife Dawg. Sorry basketball stans, your future grandkids will NOT be referencing Jordan!

Wikipedia > Britannica, Case Study 1 John Isner

I have heard a FEW folks complain that Wikipedia hurts the prospects of "real encyclopedias" such as Encyclopedia Britannica, & that Wikipedia has more errors than Britannica.

As a case study, I looked up John Isner on both encyclopedias. Isner is 1 of the biggest stories at the US Open.

1 Isner just graduated in May from U of Georgia, being 1 of the only ATP pros that go to college for 4 years & graduate

2 Isner is quickly showing results in his first few tourneys, making the final of the Washington warm-up tournament & losing a close match to Roddick

3 Isner beat #26th seed Jarkko Nieminen in the 1st Rd of the US Open. Isner's next match is in the 3rd Rd against the possible GOAT Roger Federer

4 Isner is 6 foot 9 inches, & has an awesome serve. Extremely tall players with great serves are very dangerous, because they have a chance to beat anyone. Isner's service games are extremely hard to break, so even if Isner can't break his opponent's serve, there's a chance Isner can still win a match via tie-breakers.

5 Isner might end up being the best American player of his era of mid-1980s born players.

I feel these reasons are strong enough to satisfy the "notability guideline" & have an encyclopedia article. Let's see what the encylopedias think:

Wikipedia

Britannica nothing!

Geez, whose more "ACCURATE" here, a decent article from Wiki, or NOTHING from Britannica.

My conclusion:
1 The Wisdom of Crowds effect > a small group of expert writers

2 Wiki is the truth. Anti-wiki naysayers are elitist, non-democratic haters.

Davydenko being investigated for match-fixing

Davydenko being investigated for match-fixing. Not good.

Say it ain't so Phil Collins v3.0!