I've signed up for another season of Fantasy Basketball. Although I know only marginally more about the sport and players than I did last season, I have a much better feeling about the outcome this time around. I've employed my inner nerd as assistant coach and statistician in order to better plan my weekly lineups.

This illustration shows the comparison between my team, the Decepticons (top) and Cameroon Robusto, my week 1 opponent. Unfortunately, the only stats I have for comparison are last season's totals, which I don't think are going to be very representative. However, using the function and conditional formatting features of Excel, I can get an idea of how my team will fare. According to this chart, I should win every category the first week. I don't think that's likely, however, because of the unrepresentative data.

Once the season gets into swing, though, I can use the weekly numbers for each player, which will be much better indicators of performance. Since the totals are automatically calculated, I can instantly see the effect of swapping a player in my lineup with one from my roster's bench (or from a trade/free agent).

I recognize that numbers are only part of the story, though. I still need to keep up with the teams and players. An injury or trade (in the real-world) could certainly affect a player's minutes, and thus, my projections.

Ahhh... The temperature has finally dropped into comfortable levels. Although I enjoy it when the mercury is in the 40-60 F range, people who have lived in Atlanta a while don't seem to be as welcoming of the cool air. When people complained about the "cold," I used to respond by saying how it's really nice and that cold is when your face hurts as soon as you step outside, or cold is when your spit freezes before it hits the ground, or cold is when air loses its ability to hold any moisture at all (-40 F/C), and then tell stories of riding to school in said conditions with studded tires on my bike. Or walking 3/4 of a mile to class to the U. Park building with many layers of clothes on but without my glasses because they got too cold to wear, etc. Lately, though, I've been holding my tongue. I've kind of gotten tired of all those anecdotes, and I don't want to appear to be a one-note conversationalist, so I'll only mention them if asked, which I invariably am when someone finds out I'm from Alaska. Even when I see people wearing wool hats and heavy jackets in the very pleasant fall climate.

I went to a drive-in theater for the first time. It was kind of a surreal experience -- I've only seen drive-ins in movies and TV shows. For the most part, it's a lot like going to a traditional theater. Visually, it was just the same, but the audio wasn't as good (no surround sound in the car). We saw Wallace and Gromit, which was great.

Dad and I went to see Nickel Creek last night. It was a really fun show. The band's new album features an ode to Stumptown in Portland, which mandolinist Chris Thile called his favorite coffee shop.

I just ordered a couple of new shirts from Threadless. At left is Tomorrow's Already Friday and the one on the right is Flower Power.

After crunching some numbers in my head, I decided that a pre-paid cell plan would be a bit more cost effecient. I went to the T-Mobile store in the mall and asked if I could switch from my monthly plan to pre-paid. I was told I could, but I would not be able to keep my phone number. Not acceptable.

I wasn't entirely confident in the employee's knowledge, though, and I called customer service. I told the customer service representative that I wanted to switch to pre-paid as long as I could keep my number. I was forwarded to a pre-paid customer service rep and explained that I was interested in the pre-paid plan as long as I could keep my number. He said it was possible and forwarded me to an activation rep, who I told that I wanted to switch and keep my number. I was then forwarded to someone else because my request wasn't just a simple activation, it was a transfer. After she filled out the requisite form, she asked if I had any other questions about pre-paid service, which I did, so I was transfered back to pre-paid customer service, where my question was answered and I was off the phone.

Although on first reading it probably sounds like a horrible experience, it was actually quite pleasant (for a customer service call). My hold times were minimal (less than a minute for each transfer), all the representatives were friendly and my request was taken care of. It just seemed weird to get transferred so rapidly.

And with that short (and likely pointless) story, I leave you with this: Fees, shorty, fees.

Update: Here's the cost comparison: My monthly plan was about $50. $40 for the main plan (600 whenever minutes, free nights and weekends), $3 for 300 text messages (incoming and outgoing) and $7 in various fees and taxes. I've never come anywhere close to using all 600 minutes in a month.

With prepaid, I can get 1,000 minutes for $100 ($.10/min). I get free incoming text messages and outgoing messages cost $.10 (1 min). If those 1,000 minutes last more than 2 months, which shouldn't be a problem, I come out ahead.

This is one from the archives, circa 2002.

What is it about Chuck Taylors? Every pair I can remember owning begins to squeak after wearing them for a while.

Right after the heel touches the ground and my foot begins rolling forward, the shoe squeaks. It doesn't matter whether the floor is soft, like grass or carpet, or hard, like hardwood or concrete. Squeak, squeak, squeak, every step.

Things have changed around here once again. Creating WordPress templates is a bit harder than MT templates, but I've managed to get pretty far today. There are still some style and content elements to take care of, but I have the layout pretty much set. I'm particularly proud of the photo section at the bottom of the page (Go ahead and scroll down, I'll wait).

Once I put the finishing touches on the presentation, I'll work harder on providing actual content since that seems to be why most of you visit the site (based on the public outcry). The curtledoodles.org domain is available, though, if anyone is still interested.