Leferd

Salud. Though like Picard, I don't know if I can trust a man who champions blended tea from the New World served in *shudders* tea bags for convenience. This is akin to serving pre-ground coffee or frozen orange juice concentrate. I understand yor reservations, Leferd, and you are right to doubt. I cannot presume you would take my truths... I am sorry, awfully presumptious of me, my teachings, as fact without trying the deliciousness, the glory, NEIGH, THE SPLENDOR of Bigelow Earl Grey tea for thyself. I do not doubt that the old country has teas to not only rival, but maybe even surpass what the fine folks in Fairfield, Connecticut put together for our refined drinking pleasure. However, us colonists can only strive to duplicate the sublime, fragrant, splendiforous bouquet of true Earl Grey flavour known... NEIGH, FAMOUS, throughout the old world. Here is the url. They may be new world, but the attention to quality is nothing short of the highest the old world has to offer. Lols. It's finally come out! Keyrock is a West India Company man!

Salud. Though like Picard, I don't know if I can trust a man who champions blended tea from the New World served in *shudders* tea bags for convenience. This is akin to serving pre-ground coffee or frozen orange juice concentrate.

I am pretty dismissive about tea from or about the East Indian subcontinent (and am grouping Ceylon/Sri Lanka) whose tea drinking traditions include mixing spices, herbs, milk, and sugar into a "chai" tea. *edit* although to be fair, I actually do enjoy chai, especially when it's offered by my in-laws and at Indian food establishments. But generally speaking, the finest East Indian tea leaves can't compare to the higher grade Chinese or even Indonesian teas.

In hindsight, I realize I shouldn't trust a man who likes his tea replicated and blended with all sorts of rubbish.

Ceylon tea? Bwahahahahhahah! You know, there is a reason why people add (milk/mint/sugar/etc.) with their "chai" teas right?? Earl Grey? Completely agree. I had my doubts first time I tried it, but then again Captain Picard surely knows what he's talking about...bah!

Pu-erh is my favorite. It's a hand selected Chinese tea that's left to age for years and has a rich, fermented taste profile. If you go to a fine tea shop in Chinatown, be sure to to ask the shopkeeper to open up a cannister for you to examine. You can immediately tell the difference. I take this tea as is -no milk, sugar, or lemon squeezes. But for lower quality, or everyday tea, then I'll mix it up.

Well if you want to count World Series trophies, the A's have won 9, third most behind the Yankees and Cardinals. Counting wins over the last thre seasons, no team has won more than the A's. Unfortunately, Billy Beane famously said "My s***t doesn't work in the playoffs." The A's are a small market franchise and are always at or very near the bottom of MLB's payroll list. This year, they are the highest they've ever been since Beane took over as GM, at 4th from the bottom. They can't afford to sign stars in their primes and are essentially a rag-tag team of garbage heap platoon hitters, young starting pitchers, and under valued middle relievers. The A's are built to get into the playoffs, but don't have the top tier talent to carry them over to win the whole thing. Basically due to their payroll limitations, they are forced to roll the dice when they get to the playoffs and hope they get hot/lucky in October.

Tampa Bay just avoided a sweep by Oakland with two outs in the 13th, but it's about time for the rest of the baseball to realize that the A's are the best team in baseball and have been over the last 3 year span.

The Spurs offense is team basketball pron. I'm giddy with excitement over how Steve Kerr is going to bring elements of Pop's system, The Triangle, and bring Run N Gun back to the Warriors next year.

No team can beat the Spurs when their offense is grooving like they were tonight. They run their system and just execute, execute, execute, like a Diablo 2 Mephistopho-Run bot. (Un)fortunately, they don't have too many bad nights.

We're a little more than a quarter of the way through the season and the Giants and A's lead the Majors in wins. Evidently this is an even numbered year and so Los Gigantes should make the playoffs. Also hoping that the A's don't burn through their run allotment and use up their supply before the start of August. Otherwise I'm hoping Billy Beane did a simple Maths error, because regression towards the mean...

Indiana took Game One over Miami 107-96. This is the best Pacers offense I've seen all year. There was some actual ball movement and...SCORING!

I used to think that Crazy Train was the best but if Reddick continues to rake like this, I'll add Wham to my already extensive George Michael catalog.

Not exactly a news flash, but Kevin Love wants out of Minnesota. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/sources--sam-mitchell-emerges-as-minnesota-candidate-with-kevin-love-s-future-undecided-074004019-nba.html I keep hearing grumbling here in the Bay Area about proposing David Lee and Harrison Barnes for Love - which is absolute bollocks. Why would Minny ever agree to that? But then, if Love is threatening to walk, it may appear more palatable- otherwise risk getting nothing in return.

R00fles. Well it's definitely true now.

Ezeli definitely missed out a year of development. He's still raw and relatively new to organized hoops. That said, he's got size and athleticism. He's also vey sharp. (His fall back if hooping doesn't work out was being an MD). As a rookie, he could defend, grab boards, and block ****s. That said he has no hands and will give you nothing offensively. He'll have a nice long career as a backup 5. Still, he is ideal as a 3rd stringer, and not as the primary backup to an injury prone Bogut.

You really think so? They took the Clippers to 7 without their top center, and the year before they competed well with a Spurs team that swept two teams and made the finals. What do you think needs to change on their roster? A structured offense would help. The Warriors were 30th out of 30 teams in passes per possession. Dead last. And it's not like this is a team of ball hogs. Curry, Bogut, Lee, and Iguodala are all ++ passers for their position. For all their offensive firepower and skill level, the Warriors were the 12th ranked offensive rating in the league. This lies squarely on the coaching (and lack of depth beyond their top 6). ISOs left and right all day. Lineup rotations were terrible. Substitution patterns resembled hockey line changes. Kerr will install some elements of the Triangle with him. Ideally, I' d like to see a hybrid of The Run N Gun in transition and flow into the Triangle for their half court sets (in addition to include HORNS, Curry pick n roll/pop, and Elevator Door sets). This hybrid offense takes advantage of their strength in perimeter shooting, BBALL IQ, passing big men, and ball handling skills. To Volo's point, The starting 5 is arguably the best in the NBA: plus/minus and pts per possession scored/allowed is the best 5 man unit in the NBA. http://i.imgur.com/Wa7hpYm.png That being said, the bench outside of Green is weak. They will still need to find a reliable backup for Curry and a two way big to backup Bogut. I'd like to see growth for Harrison Barnes in his third year and an increase to 24-28 minutes for Draymond Green. That dude is a PLAYER.

What have you done to funcroc??

I'd pay to see the post practice shootaround with Curry, Klay Thompson, and Kerr.

Tony Brothers and Chris Paul can take solace in the fact that the other guy blew it and cost the game.

Wow.

The Blue Album is twenty years old today. http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/the-blue-album-at-20-looking-back-at-weezers-debut-track-by-track/

Yes to a certain degree that's correct. Its the same as the laws in your country and mine that prosecute people for racist comments or comments about rape using mediums like Twitter. So you should take this issue up with the UK justice department? Let me know what they say I would absolutely hate to live in such a country. We have the NSA mining our every communication but sure as hell the Feds won't come knocking whenever I quote hardcore gangsta rap (without due citation) on Twitter. Wow its funny you think that in the USA you can just say what you want with no consequences. What happened to Donald Stirling recently? The government had nothing to do with Donald Sterling. The NBA policed the matter on their own. First Amendment only protects individuals from government prosecution for voicing opinions/beliefs. The NBA is not the government. US laws protect your right to free speech, but doesn't protect you from acting like a moron and not suffer the consequences from your community or employer should you be in violation of company rules. Any quibbles about such alleged violations can be settled in court.

Yes to a certain degree that's correct. Its the same as the laws in your country and mine that prosecute people for racist comments or comments about rape using mediums like Twitter. So you should take this issue up with the UK justice department? Let me know what they say I would absolutely hate to live in such a country. We have the NSA mining our every communication but sure as hell the Feds won't come knocking whenever I quote hardcore gangsta rap (without due citation) on Twitter.

I'm already in offseason mode. Hmm...looks like the Warriors need a new coach...and what? No draft picks this year? Swell.