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Pujols does derby duty for hometown fans
Until further notice, the 80th All-Star Game is all about Albert Pujols, who's Mr. Cardinal, the Stan Musial of his day. He's baseball's best hitter in the nation's best baseball town, which happens to be the site of this year's All-Star proceedings.
His love affair with St. Louis fans parallels Derek Jeter's in New York, but the appreciation isn't exclusive to the Gateway City - Pujols received the most All-Star votes and will be the face of baseball for two days, from the Home Run Derby on Monday to the game itself on Tuesday.
The 29-year-old Pujols has been the majors' most consistent overall hitter since 2001, but he's appeared in just two Home Run Derbies. He wasn't about to miss this one, not with St. Louis hosting. He's the favorite to win, of course, with his 32 home runs eight more than the next highest guy.
"He's what everybody thinks he is, a clutch, professional hitter who takes pride in it and works on it, and he might be having the best year he's ever had," said A's reliever Russ Springer, Pujols' teammate in 2003, '07 and '08. "You don't hear much negativity around him. He's a guy you can be proud to have represent Major League Baseball at the All-Star Game."
In the 24-year history of derbies, only one player won the event in his home park: Ryne Sandberg in 1990 at Wrigley Field.
Barry Bonds was supposed to get that chance two years ago in San Francisco when the Giants were All-Star hosts. He was supposed to hit ball after ball into McCovey Cove in the made-for-TV event that would be a picturesque showcase for Bonds, the team and the city.
But Bonds took a pass. He skipped the derby, he said, to rest his 42-year-old body so he'd be at full strength for the following day's game, which he started in left field. The same night of the derby, however, Bonds and rapper Jay-Z hosted a party at a South of Market nightclub.
The Bonds-San Francisco love-fest waited until the game. Bonds received roaring cheers before and after both of his hitless at-bats. Afterward he said it was a great experience, but added, "I'm still tired from last night." He was referring to the party, not the derby.
At the time, Peter Magowan, then the managing general partner, said he was disappointed Bonds didn't participate in the home run contest because it would have been a nice way to thank Giants fans. When reached Thursday, Magowan said, "I was disappointed, and I still am."
In the history of the Giants' 10-year park, only Bonds consistently hit balls into McCovey Cove. Two left-handed hitters were in the 2007 derby, Ryan Howard and Prince Fielder, and neither came close.
"Barry was a little past his prime but still capable of putting on a great show," said Magowan, adding Bonds' absence "annoyed me because I think that's what our fans wanted to see. I understood his reasons, but he participated in those previously and won one.
"He knew what was at stake. Participating in his hometown would've given him a chance to show his best side in front of all baseball fans, and he chose not to do it."
It wasn't great PR for a main link to baseball's steroid scandal. One month later, on Aug. 7, Bonds became the all-time homers king. The following month, on Sept. 21, Magowan announced the Giants were severing ties with the seven-time MVP.
Asked Thursday if the derby snub played in the decision, Magowan said, "This was not to get even with Barry for turning us down. Barry did many, many other marvelous things that were appreciated, and a lot of these things never got in the newspaper. We were in last place. We needed to turn the page and get younger and more athletic."
Last year's derby was at Yankee Stadium, and fans wanted to see Alex Rodriguez's big swing, but he took a pass, like Bonds. Also like Bonds, A-Rod co-hosted a party the night of the derby. This one at a Manhattan hot spot - also with Jay-Z.
No word on any Pujols party plans with Jay-Z, but he did recently become the third youngest in history with 350 homers and is a threat to become the NL's first Triple Crown winner since Ducky Medwick in 1937.
"The kind of season he's having and the All-Star Game being in St. Louis, it's absolutely tremendous for Major League Baseball," National League manager Charlie Manuel said. "He's one of the greatest hitters in the game, of course. It's a good time for St. Louis."


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Now that we have such a great data set, the top 100 Anime, it would be wise to analyze it and see what other conclusions we can reach. The first analysis is simple, when did these series come out? Is anime getting better or worse? More importantly, is it possible that anime, which has long been disregarded as an uninteresting niche product, has passed a critical threshold in quality in the recent past and become the greatest art form of all time? If this theory is correct, it means people who think they know all about anime and have already rejected its worth just haven't been paying enough attention to the changes going on in the industry. This isn't your parent's anime. This is a whole new entity that deserves a whole new evaluation. If almost all good anime has come out in just the past few years, then it stands to reason that momentum, and people's prejudices, have kept anime from receiving the recognition and popularity it deserves. If only everyone knew about the wonderful variety of new anime series of incredible worth that have just come out, the world could be revolutionized by anime's artistic merit.
It's easy to add a timeline to our previous rankings. This time we'll just put in parenthesis when these series or movies aired next to their names. If a series is still ongoing, I'll add a '+' sign at the end of the date. The beginning and end dates of the series do not imply that there were continuous releases between these dates, only that material began to be released at point x, and stopped being released at point y. If you see a series with an ending point before 2011, but still has a + sign, that means that the + part hasn't come out yet, so there still is a proper endpoint before 2011. If the + part had come out, the years would have been extended all the way to the present.
1. Clannad (2007-2009)
2. One Piece (1999-2011+)
3. Code Geass (2006-2009+)
4. Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha (2004-2010+)
5. Seikai no Monshou/Senki/Danshou (1999-2005)
6. Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni (2006-2009+)
7. K-On! (2009-2011+)
8. Naruto (2002-2011+)
9. Dragonball (1986-2011)
10. Haruhi Suzumiya (2006-2010)
11. Kanon (2002-2007)
12. Pretty Cure (2004-2011+)
13. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (2007-2009)
14. Fairy Tail (2009-2011+)
15. To Aru Majutsu no Index/Kagaku no Railgun (2008-2011)
16. Katanagatari (2010)
17. Angel Beats (2010)
18. Puella Magi Madoka Magica (2011)
19. Da Capo (2003-2011+)
20. Kobato (2009-2010)
21. Vandread (2000-2001)
22. Full Metal Panic! (2002-2005)
23. Working! (2010+)
24. Toradora! (2008-2009)
25. Record of Lodoss War (1990-1998)
26. Bakuman (2010-2011+)
27. The World God Only Knows (2010-2011+)
28. Sora no Woto (2010)
29. Cowboy Bebop (1998-2001)
30. Ef (2007-2008)
31. Hayate no Gotoku (2007-2009+)
32. Inuyasha (2000-2010)
33. Evangelion (1995-2009)
34. Basilisk (2005)
35. Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)
36. Galaxy Angel (2001-2006)
37. Saki (2009)
38. Uuchuu no Stellvia (2003)
39. Ranma 1/2 (1989-1996)
40. Samurai Champloo (2004-2005)
41. Major (2004-2010)
42. Air (2005)
43. Sailor Moon (1992-1997)
44. Rurouni Kenshin (1996-2001+)
45. Prince of Tennis (2001-2009+)
46. Hanasaku Iroha (2011+)
47. Ore no Immouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai (2010-2011)
48. 12 Kingdoms (2002-2003)
49. Utawarerumono (2006)
50. Kimi ni Todoke (2009-2011)
51. Mononoke Hime (1997)
52. Summer Wars (2009)
53. Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu (2010-2011+)
54. Battle Athletes (1997-1998)
55. Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai (2011+)
56. Zero no Tsukaima (2006-2008)
57. Berserk (1997-1998+)
58. Claymore (2007)
59. Bastard! (1992)
60. Amagami SS (2010-2011)
61. Valkyria Chronicles (2009+)
62. Akaneiro no Somaru Saka (2008-2009)
63. Negima! Magister Magi Negi (2004-2010+)
64. Macross Plus (1994-1995)
65. Read or Die (2001-2004)
66. Angelic Layer (2001)
67. Mahoromatic (2001-2009)
68. Sora no Otoshimono (2009-2010+)
69. Bleach (2004-2011+)
70. Card Captor Sakura (1998-2000)
71. Martian Successor Nadesico (1996-1998)
72. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
73. Break Blade (2010-2011+)
74. Spice and Wolf (2008-2009)
75. Alien Nine (2001-2002)
76. Fatal Fury (1992-1994)
77. Bakemonogatari (2009-2010+)
78. Iria: Zeiram the Animation (1994)
79. Guyver (1986-2006)
80. Sora no Manimani (2009)
81. Saber Marionette (1995-1999)
82. Shakugan no Shana (2005-2010+)
83. Gosick (2011+)
84. Macross Frontier (2008-2011)
85. Scrapped Princess (2003)
86. Lucky Star (2007-2008)
87. Hunter x Hunter (1999-2004)
88. Spirited Away (2001)
89. Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
90. Azumanga Daioh (2002)
91. Kanokon (2008-2009)
92. To Heart (1999-2010)
93. Ninja Scroll (1993)
94. High School of the Dead (2010-2011)
95. Gunbuster (1988-2006)
96. RG Veda (1991-1992)
97. Shamanic Princess (1996-1998)
98. Akira (1988)
99. Moshidora (2011)
100. Soul Eater (2008-2009)
Next up, we need to do a little arithmetic. How many series in the top 100 come from the 80's?
Answer: 8
How many series in the top 100 come from the 90's?
Answer: 25
How many series in the top 100 come from the 2000's?
Answer: 82
(The answer is over 100 because some series span multiple decades)
Does anyone see a trend here? Because I do. The 90's produced 3 times as much good anime as the 80's. The 00's produced over three times as much good anime as the 90's. Does that mean the 'teens' are going to produce 3 times as much as the 00's?? Surely not. But the trend is apparent in any event, anime is getting much better as the years go by. To prove my point, let's break things down even further. Let's take the years 2000-2005 and compare them to 2006-2011, 6 years in both cases, and see who has more quality anime:
2000-2005: 36
2006-2011: 63
Almost twice as many good series in the past six years as in the six years before them. It isn't possible to maintain this exponential rate of growth, but the trend is beyond dispute.
What is the take-away lesson from our Top 100 anime timeline? Expect good things in the future. Next, don't judge an old art form by its oldest art. There has been tremendous progress and innovation within the anime industry. Old anime can't hold a candle to new anime. There are over ten times as many good series from the 00's than the 80's. There's nothing at all from the 70's or lower. If people had tried to watch anime five years ago and decided it sucked, they would have missed the fact that anime has gotten twice as good in just the past five years.
Until this progress is taken into account, prejudices against anime are irrational. People need to give the anime of today, the anime of the here and now, a new chance. It's an incredible art form which has far surpassed Hollywood or anything being done in the western world. While the best movies of Hollywood are buried deep in the past, the best animes came out just recently or are still coming out as we speak. Anime is the art of the future. Its simply the superior medium. It's also created by a superior culture full of superior artists who are running rings around the rest of the world with original content. The gap between anime and 'everything else' is only going to widen with each passing year. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.

subset: commoncrawl


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I was wrong.
I have over estimated how interesting my life is and under estimated how lazy i am to upload photos. I am nowhere near as poetic as i want to be able to make my daily routine interesting through my words only. And i would like my blog to be covered in photos, if not from my LOMO, atleast from a digital camera. WORSE comes to worse, i would like to post a picture from something else, or EVEN a youtube link, to share my interest and things i think is interesting.
I was wrong, again.
This post is not gonna have any jpeg, gif, embedded video, sound, no. but hopefully i will get back on track, because it's quite an enjoyable thing to do.
ps: Happy Chinese New Year to whoever that stumbled across Chocolate College.


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I just got back from finally seeing The Muppets. All in all, I'm very pleased with the movie, and I'm really excited about the prospect of the show coming back full force.
Despite having been born in 1990, only a little over a month before Jim Henson died, he and his work have been a humongous influence on me. I was exposed to The Muppet Show and Fraggle Rock through reruns, and even before that, I had a healthy serving of some of the Henson fantasy movies (Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal). And of course, who can forget Sesame Street, arguably the most popular children's show of all time?
The more and more I look back on my childhood influences, the more obvious my academic pursuits become to me. In recent years, I've done a lot more "research" on Jim Henson, the man. I become so thrilled when I discover that someone whose work speaks so strongly to me turns out to have been an amazing person. I have a great deal of respect for Jim Henson, and in so many ways, I feel as though I know him through his work. And that is the kind of creator I strive to be all the time – someone friendly and relateable, someone whose being is in tune with the message they are sending out, someone genuine.
As I try to figure out the kind of work I want to do, I look at the incredible work of the Jim Henson company. I want to be able to create work that touches people, that makes people think, and that is honest.
Even in terms of aesthetic, the company has influenced me greatly. I love that their productions, while often ambitious, never take themselves too seriously. Corny jokes and flashy costumes are the norm, and it's absolutely wonderful. I don't know how they do it, but I wouldn't mind learning how to do the work and have the fun. I'm sure it has something to do with having people who think along the same lines.
Anyway, I don't feel as though I can talk more about Jim Henson and his company without just repeating how incredible I think the whole of it is. I opted out of posting a video this time because everyone knows The Muppet Show opening, and I wouldn't be able to pick just one or two really influential scenes from any of the movies or shows. Perhaps I'll post Henson-related videos one-by-one in the future, as I come upon them and decide that they are relevant to something specific.
For now, just know that I've been seriously weighing the possibility of sending in an application for employment to the Jim Henson Company for quite a while. The downside would be having to move, so it might have to wait for a while. But what I wouldn't give to be a part of something so incredible.


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Question about HP Pavilion DV6700T Notebook PC
I moved a seagate 160gb hard drive from a hp pavilion dv9500 my kids munched to a hp pavilion dv6700 that had a seagate 120gb hard drive. Everything works except for the wifi. I get an error message that says "windows needs to install driver software for your unknown device". Another error message is "windows media player network sharing service stopped working and has closed". How do I get the wifi working again?
Posted by roger_johnso on
Now it's asking for the disc that came with the network controller. What driver would I get for this?
it's looking for a driver for the network controller. Not sure what that is.
Hey there, go to the following link and tr to reinstall the driver. just enter your model numer (ie dv9074cl) then enter your operating system then it will bring up every driver for that laptop. Make sure you blow out the top left corner slots with canned air on a regular basis with these hp's or they will overheat and eventualy fail. Very important, the are notorious for this. Let me know if you need any thing else
Posted on Jun 27, 2009
OK, right click on my computer=> properties=> hardware=> device manager. click on the + next to network controllers. there should be a yellow question mark. which ones ARE there, that will tell me or you the one missing and the driver you need
Donwload here the exact driver of you laptop
Posted on Jun 27, 2009
SOURCE: I have freestanding Series 8 dishwasher. Lately during the filling cycle water hammer is occurring. How can this be resolved
Hi there,
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Posted on Jan 02, 2017
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