JerseySmarts.com

Start the Weekend Right Link Series – Volume #1, Edition #5

Joe — Sat, 28 Sep 2013 03:21:55 +0000

Here are another set of links to help you start your weekend the right way. Again, just a reminder that if you find that you visit several websites on a daily basis, then I recommend you consider signing up for a free Feedly account. I don’t get anything for promoting Feedly – I just love the service and I think that it’s really a great RSS aggregator (even better than the old Google Reader). And if you’re using another RSS aggregator, then please consider following JerseySmarts.com at http://www.jerseysmarts.com/feed/ or if you’re already on Feedly, then you can follow us by clicking here.

Now, enjoy the links! If you come across any interesting links, then please share them with us in the comments section below.

Start the Weekend Right Link Series – Volume #1, Edition #5
Monmouth Slated For Four Games on ESPN Family of Networks, Home Schedule Set, The Hawks Nest
After Tony Graham retired from the Asbury Park Press, a host of new writers were tasked with updating his blog following Monmouth University sports. One of those writers is Josh Newman. Josh recently posted an update regarding the upcoming basketball season and when you can see the Hawks in action. If you’re an MU basketball fan, then you’ll want to check out this update.

With Practice Opening Friday, Five Things to Watch at Monmouth, The Hawks Nest
Another update on Monmouth basketball from The Hawks Nest. This update focuses on what to look for now that the practice season is upon us. Check it out – Josh Newman did a good job of what to be aware of heading into the new season especially as it relates to which players to keep an eye on and what positions they are playing this year.

Rutgers-New Brunswick Named Among the Ugliest College Campuses in the Country, Long Branch-Eatontown Patch
As an alumnus of Rutgers University, this one is no surprise. Rutgers University ranked #26 on the list of the ugliest campuses in the nation – and that’s the truth. The New Brunswick campus is a wreck of buildings strewn all over the place in and around downtown New Brunswick and points north. There’s barely a “campus” feel to Rutgers, rather it seems more like you’re trying to navigate between college buildings and random buildings. Of course, it still looks better than Rowan University down in Glassboro… they were ranked as the #10 ugliest campus in the nation!

Kula Cafe Thriving on Springwood, Asbury Park Sun
Some good news coming out of the West Side of Asbury Park: it looks like the new Kula Cafe is doing great things for the residents on the West Side and the Midtown neighborhood of Neptune Township. If you haven’t heard of the Kula Cafe and you live in the area, then you should read the story above and check the place out. I had a business lunch there a few months ago and it was fantastic. The service was great and the food was phenomenal. It was a very enjoyable experience and I would go back again.

Symbols, DoghouseDiaries
This was just a fun little game to play. It’s not so much of a game as it is a memory test. Give it a look – I think you’ll really enjoy it!

The Worst Thing You Do Before Bed, Men’s Health
I’m always trying to learn more about getting better sleep. This short article in Men’s Health talks about the worst thing that we do before we go to bed. And it’s no surprise – the worst thing that we do is engage in electronic forms of entertainment that stimulate our brains when we should really be trying to relax and calm down. Check out this quick article – and get some sleep!

How Hyper-Threading Works (and When You Want It In Your PC), Lifehacker
As you may know, I’m writing this entry on my brand new laptop. One of the things that sold me on buying this laptop was the fact that it had every single bell and whistle that is currently offered on the market (except for a touchscreen, which I didn’t want anyway). Well, I’m aware enough to admit that most of the technology behind these machines has passed me by, but videos like the one linked here help me understand what these bells and whistles actually mean. So if you’re like me in that you used to be the king (or queen) of technology and now you find yourself more like a silent, somewhat knowledgeable observer, then you may want to watch this quick video to learn what hyper-threading means.

Don’t Cheer the Rise of the Adjunct, Minding the Campus
A recent study came out suggesting that tenured professors do a poorer job of educating their students and keeping young students in their disciplines than adjunct professors. As an adjunct professor, this is good news for me because it means that my services should be in higher demand! The results of this study really don’t surprise me because anyone who has ever been to college and run smack into a stodgy old professor who received his/her tenure decades ago knows how incredibly horrible they are at teaching. I can tell you story after story of horrible professors that I had to endure when I was going to college – many of whom are still teaching at the campus! For some of these professors I’ve been told in confidence that certain other administrators and faculty members have complained and tried to get the poor performers fired, but tenure is a pretty hard thing to break. Anyway, this study was interesting – if you like this stuff, then I think you’ll enjoy reading this one.

Revitalizing the Church, His Eminence Timothy Cardinal Dolan
Recently, Father I. Michael Bellafiore wrote an article in the Washington Post about revitalizing the church. Father Bellafiore writes about ten ways to revitalize the church and those ten ways do not include the things that we normally hear from local reformers. I read the blurb through His Eminence Timothy Cardinal Dolan’s blog, which is linked above. You can go straight to Father Bellafiore’s article by clicking the link in this blurb.

Update a Vintage Boombox with a Line-In to Play Music from Your Phone, Lifehacker
To end this week’s update, I thought I’d provide a fun link for those of you who are looking for a cool do-it-yourself project. If I had the time and materials, I’d give this a shot. It looks like it could be fun to try to make this contraption!

Get your weekend started right by checking out these links, starting a new, free Feedly account, and/or adding the blogs above (and JerseySmarts.com, too) to your existing Feedly or other RSS aggregator account. Enjoy!

Monmouth Hawks Fall to Stony Brook Seawolves in Home Opener

Joe — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 17:55:04 +0000

Earlier this morning, the Monmouth University Hawks lost their home opener to the Stony Brook Seawolves in front of a raucous home crowd that was electric throughout the game. However, despite the home crowd’s roaring and cheering, the Hawks were unable to overcome a Seawolves team that looked okay and won the game in the last few minutes. I know it’s cliche to say that if there were only a little bit more time in the game, the Hawks would have won, but I really think that they were that close to taking home a victory this morning.

Hawks Fans Distract SBU Player

There is no word from either the GoMUHawks.com website or The Hawks Nest over at the Asbury Park Press on the total attendance for the game. From my perspective, I saw the entire lower bowl of the arena pretty much filled (maybe there were a few open seats here and there). It looked like there could have been between 1,500 and 2,000 fans in the stands today. The folks over at Monmouth University were promoting this game heavily because it was featured on ESPN this morning from 6am EST to 8am EST.

Overall, I thought that the Hawks played well this morning. There were moments when it felt like the team was ready to break out and go on a scoring run, but the momentum never materialized for a long enough period of time to make anything major happen. I’m sure that the fact the game started at 6am EST had something to do with the team’s inability to keep the momentum fueled for a long period of time, but then again they were playing against a decent Stony Brook defense.

I was impressed by the team’s new center, Phil Wait. In case you didn’t hear about it over the summer, Coach Dave Calloway recruited Wait from jolly old England. I was trying to think of something clever to yell out during the game to mimic what they might say over in England when someone does something good. I figured instead of yelling, “Good job!” maybe I could yell something like, “Jolly good show!” but it sounded too weak. Anyway, what do they say in England when you do a good job?

James Hett also played very well as did Will Campbell – two of the returning starters from last year. Those guys are great basketball players and it would have been nice to see Campbell play a little bit more in the last few minutes of the game. With respect to the last few seconds of the game where Monmouth opted to go for three point shots when they probably would have been better offer just going for a two point shot, Coach Calloway had the following to say to The Hawks Nest after the game:

We had one (a time out). We did what we normally do. I just think if you have an opportunity to go, six seconds is enough time to get down (court), kind of in a scramble mode. I think you have a better chance of getting a good look than if you let the defense get set. So we went with it. I don’t know if we got great look but we got a look. I don’t know if we would have gotten a much better look with six seconds left. Maybe, maybe not.

RJ Rutledge – the player who took the last shot of the game – had this to say about the final shot of the game:

It was a double weave and a hand off. That’s the side I like to shoot from. I came off the screen , the shot felt good, It felt like my best shot all day. Everything felt good, my mechanics, I got a look straight on. It just didn’t go my way.

Anyway, I took some pictures with both my camera and my BlackBerry during the game. They’re all listed out below for you to take a look at when you have a moment. As always, click on the picture for a larger view (and click again on the new page for an even larger view). Some of these pictures may look pretty small in size, but I actually have much larger versions saved on my computer – just in case anyone wants to see a much larger version of any picture. Enjoy!

Brett Favre to the New York Jets

Joe — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 04:51:22 +0000

Have you heard? Living Legend and resident NFL crybaby Brett Favre has moved from the Green Bay Packers to the New York Jets. There’s not too much commentary that I can offer on this trade in this forum, but I would be happy to offer a comment or two on how this story was reported.

In short, the video clips and video packages were great! The commentary over the packages and the anchors (on ESPN, at least) were abysmal! Stuart Scott may have the least acumen for dramatic effect out of anyone that I’ve ever had the displeasure of listening to on the television. Bro, here’s a tip – not every fucking word has to be dramatic. And stop trying to use big words because you don’t use them the right way and it sounds stupid. At one point last night Scott tried to wedge the word “pantheon” into a sentence and it was so horribly chopped up that the sentence does not bear repeating here.

But none of that matters. Favre is in New York and I wonder if there are any real winners here. The Jets get a future Hall of Famer…but you can’t build a young team around Favre. And remember, the Jets lose a future draft pick and salary money. And then there is Rodgers out in Green Bay. The first time that kid makes a mistake he’s going to be destroyed by the media. Same goes for Favre in the New York media. And of course there is the fact that Favre is a future Hall of Famer who wanted to finish his career in Green Bay (which he ruined on his own accord).

Anyway, what a mess. Go Giants!

More Garbage from ESPN

Former JS Writer — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:57:53 +0000

I like ESPN. I really do. But I take issue with the annoying tendency of their broadcasts to feel the need to deal in absolutes. Last night, the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Boston Red Sox to extend their AL East lead to 1.5 games heading into July 1st. In a division where outrageous spending by the Red Sox and Yankees made it seemingly impossible for any other team to contend, the Rays are defying all logic as they rip through the American League. Here come the lowly Rays- a team that never had a winning season, brutal attendance, and a team that has been an afterthought since its inception in 1997. It’s an underdog story and the public likes that. It deserves the amount of coverage that it gets from ESPN.

However, why does ESPN feel the need to ask questions on Baseball Tonight and SportsCenter like, “Next on SportsCenter: Are the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox the new “Sox-Yanks rivalry”? What the hell is that? The Red Sox and Yankees have been bickering back and forth and annoying to baseball fans across the country for decades. The Rays and Red Sox are battling in 2008 for the first time and played a close game on the last day of June. Calm down. Why must be everything be so hyperbolized? Fernando Vina and Chris Singleton are telling me that the Rays will definitely win the division. It’s 83 games into the season. The trading deadline is 30 days away. Way too much can happen to definitively assess a team’s chances moving forward and to do so is foolish. And anyone who puts stock into this drivel is an even bigger idiot.

Discuss what these teams may do moving forward, their strengths and weaknesses-that’s what these shows are for. But why, after 83 games, does ESPN feel inclined to talk about the Devil Rays like they are Big Red Machine of the 1970’s? The programming in Bristol is simply becoming more irresponsible and less educational by the day. It’s lazy, cheap, and says a lot about what they think of their average viewer.

I Can’t Believe Spain Won! Euphoria!

Former JS Writer — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:44:58 +0000

Apparently Spain won the Euro Cup 1-0 over Germany. Or Eurocup. Maybe it is the EuroCup. Whatever. That’s terrific. And I’m glad that the soccer people enjoyed it. I take issue, however, with the way in which the entire tournament was presented by ESPN to the American public. Prior to this year, I didn’t even know the EuroCup existed. Frankly, I’d like to keep it that way.

ESPN and ABC Sports broadcast the games and subsequently used SportsCenter to present the soccer tournament as if it was the most important thing to American sporting enthusiasts. The games didn’t even envolve America in any capacity. Yes, I know, soccer is a great game and you just have to try it and it is so fascinating and all of that shit. Great. I’m glad a small portion of people enjoyed the games, I’m sure you really went wild when that one goal was scored over 3.5 hours- but that doesn’t mean that I should have to sit and watch six minutes of highlights proceeded by 4 minutes of analysis by some British guy because ESPN wants good ratings for games that, to the vast majority of the American public, are meaningless.

The fact of the matter is, I, nor could most people name a single player that participated in the entire tournament. Is there still a Ronaldo out there? Was he in it? A word to ESPN, just because you decided to climb into bed with FIFA doesn’t mean you have to shove it down the viewing public’s throats like it was the fucking Super Bowl. Enough already.