Mike Fireball's Thing Where He Writes Stuff

Your All-Star Break Update

2008-07-14T23:00:19Z

Hi!

I almost forgot Home Run Derby is tonight. Rootin' for Chase Utley and TV's Evan Longoria.

Here's how I'm doing so far. My picks on the right, current standings are in bold on the left

National League
East

Phillies — Phillies
Mets — Mets (Wild Card pick)
Marlins — Braves
Braves — Nationals
Nationals — Marlins

I underestimated the Marlins and overestimated the Tigers, but I'm not complaining. I do live in Florida now. 8)

Central

Cubs — Cubs
Cardinals (Wild Card leader) — Brewers
Brewers — Cardinals
Reds — Astros
Pirates — Reds
Astros — Pirates

Haha the Astros magically stink now, and anybody who proves my Wild Card pick wrong is OK by me.

West

Diamondbacks — Dodgers
Dodgers — Diamondbacks
Giants — Rockies
Rockies — Padres
Padres — Giants (picked 12th behind Floyd "Money" Mayweather)

Now there's the Rockies I know and love. Why couldn't they have sucked in, oh I don't know, October?

American League
East

Red Sox — Red Sox
Rays (Wild Card leader) — Yankees
Yankees — Rays
Blue Jays — Blue Jays
Orioles — Orioles

I love how everybody was like "Rays in third are you nuts?" Up until last week they were the best in baseball.

I don't usually like to make changes to my baseball predictions mid-season, but I'm calling this now: If the Rays don't win the AL East, they are taking the Wild Card and at least going to the ALCS. And I really, really want to see a Rays-Phillies World Series.

Central

White Sox — Indians
Twins — Tigers (original Wild Card Pick)
Tigers — Twins
Royals — White Sox
Indians — Royals

oh boy now there can be a curse of the jacobs brothers~!

West

Angels — Angels
Athletics — Mariners
Rangers — Athletics
Mariners — Rangers

Nobody cares about the AL West.

Oh boy I can't wait for tomorrow when the AL wins another All-Star Game.

Fun fact: Last time the NL won was in Philly, and I was there.

ATTN: Everyone else on LiveJournal

2008-06-17T21:36:34Z

You did not go to school at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Most of you aren't even British. Liar.

WII BEER PONG

2008-06-13T14:11:49Z

WII BEER PONG

RATED T FOR TEEN

hey wait a minute

A valid inquiry

2008-06-07T14:37:01Z

J: ever hear of ari hest?

M: No

J: well i won't forward you anything since you're at work

J: but he's worth checking out

M: OK then

M: You think he uses handcuffs during sex and then says "You're under Ari Hest"?

J: lol

J: that was really bad

Catsup.

2008-05-29T17:01:39Z

Well, since I managed to scare a few less observant folks, the last post was to point out that I'm back on my old username.

Come on guys there was a zombie hand and everything.

So let's bring you up to speed:

1. I moved to Florida in October.

I spent most of last year job hunting, and I'm now a full time Web editor for a local cable news station in Orlando. My "weekends" are in the middle of the week, but that's really one of the only things about that job that could be better.

I currently live literally down the street from SeaWorld. It's about a 10-minute drive to Disney property, and 15 minutes to Universal. When I tell people to come visit -- which reminds me, come visit -- I add "I live near a castle."

2. I will not be living in Orlando for much longer. Karen and I are moving in together in July.

We've been together for a year now and we're both pretty happy. In the you would probably vomit sort of way. Yeah, we're awesome.

We had our year anniversary May 14. I got her a spot for us on a tour of the Magic Kingdom, and dinner at the California Grill on top of Disney's Contemporary Resort. Both were excellent.

She bought me Mario Kart. What can I say? The kid knows me.

Currently she lives in Winter Haven, about 45 minutes away -- without traffic, and that doesn't happen much. So we found an apartment at a pretty nice halfway point between our jobs. The "town" is called Champions Gate, and it's very "golfy," but we still will live near a castle.

We've decided our new place is going to be beach-themed. It's going to be awesome.

3. On the Internetting front, I started playing with ExpressionEngine this week. It's a content management suite similar to Movable Type, only I had to pay for it so it looks like it'll be able to do backflips for me instead of me having to do backflips for shit like Wordpress. I can run multiple sites from it, so my plan is to run Progressive Boink, celebdeathtoll and my own portfolio.

I expect that to take a while for me to set up, especially since I'm moving in July, but once I do, it looks like it'll make things a lot easier on me. The problem with P-boi is that it has become largely dependent on me to keep it updated, and it wasn't always that way. I was my freshest, I believe, in 2005, when I still made things pretty, but that was usually a few times a year deal. It showed across my other accounts online -- LiveJournal, MySpace -- hell, even e-mailing people. I've been longing to get back to that, but I've had a hard as hell time trying to get back to that happy place online, so I can merge it with my happy place in real life.

4. BASEBALL!

I'm still only halfway finished chronicling Mike Fireball's Fucking Insane Grapefruit League Tour, but right now my mind is currently busy being blown away by the fact that the best team in baseball as of this morning is the TAMPA BAY RAYS.

I moved down here expecting shitty baseball, and both Florida teams are currently at the top of their divisions.

I live closer to the Rays, so they're my new home team. They still don't feel like home like my Phillies still do and will continue to do for a very long time, but the fact that they are in first place in the same division as the Red Sox and Yankees is helping a lot.

It may take 20 years for me to ever root for the Marlins over the Phils. Maybe longer, since they're going to officially be the Miami Marlins in 2011, but it's still nice to have them around as bragging rights. Suckas.

That's it for today. Come visit. I live near a castle.

BAD END

2008-05-27T23:15:07Z

Overheard in AIM

2008-05-03T18:42:25Z

J: i had a really awful pregnancy dream

M: I had a dream involving Karen and Mario Kart.

J: that sounds much nicer

M: Not really. We were losing.

J: oh

Opening Day Predictions: 2008

2008-03-31T21:15:26Z

Here, real quickly, are my predictions for the 2008 MLB season. Provoke me to discuss in the comment thread.

NL East

Phillies
Mets (Wild card)
Braves
Nationals
Marlins

NL Central

Cubs
Brewers
Cardinals
Astros
Reds
Pirates

NL West

Dodgers
Diamondbacks
Rockies
Padres
Floyd "Money" Mayweather, Jr.
Giants

AL East

Red Sox
Yankees
RAYS
Blue Jays
Orioles

AL Central

Indians
Tigers (Wild card)
Twins
White Sox
Royals

AL West

Angels
Mariners
Athletics
Rangers

World Series

I want: Phillies over Indians in 7. Chase Utley completes the MVP Triple Crown.
More likely: Red Sox over Mets in 5.

Spring Training, Game 2: Phillies @ Tigers

2008-03-06T16:52:48Z

Spring Training, Game 2: Phillies @ TigersJoker Marchant Stadium — Lakeland, Florida

http://forums.progressiveboink.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3758&p=132442#p132442

mikefireball @ 2008-03-01T18:04:00

2008-03-01T23:06:25Z

Eventually I'll get around to changing my name back because I like having a unique name instead of sharing a given name with some other guys on Google like a rocket scientist and some baseball player and apparently the Michael Moore of Republicans (seriously, check it out), but for now:

Spring Training, Game 1: Astros @ Indians
Chain of Lakes Park — Winter Haven, Florida

Voice Post

2007-10-14T14:50:36Z

Voice Post

2007-10-13T20:16:44Z

Voice Post

2007-10-13T16:06:08Z

Voice Post

2007-10-13T12:50:05Z

Voice Post

2007-10-12T18:48:30Z

So long, sucker.

2007-04-02T02:50:21Z

I bought MikeWestfall.com and copied all my LiveJournal entries there.
It doesn't look pretty or anything yet, but content is king. Right?

And I've started with my Opening Day baseball predictions.

If you insist on following along on your LJ friends page, you can add the RSS feed mikewestfallcom