The First One Goes Down...

Tomorrow is the birthday of one of my best friends from when I was young. We were a tight knit little group. There were the four of us... from elementary school through high school. We were Millsers through and through, and a part of that proud mini-society, but our small circle was pretty much the four of us... Me, DW, TR, and DR. We went to school together, played baseball and softball together, hung out together, got in trouble together...

Well, tomorrow DR hits the milestone birthday (One I'll never hit because I'm stuck at 28). I still play softball with DW and TR, but DR has kinda drifted away. I'm gonna see him tomorrow, and hopefully we will catch up then... We had a few disagreements that lasted longer than they should have because we are both kinda stubborn, but we were best friends for a long time, and that will always be there.

Elementary school (1st grade):

DR: "Kurt, I dare you to put your hand in this stapler"
Kurt: "Why, you ain't gonna do nothin' if I do"
DR: "Try it and see"

Ker-Chink...

A moment of awkward silence, followed by a pair of eyes quickly growing wide... then a boy realizing two of his fingers and a piece of paper were all stapled together. Next was a piercing hyena scream and the blur of a 1st grader running through the room and into the hall, hand in the air and the piece of paper flapping like a surrender flag in the breeze.

High School:

Setting - 4th of July... the day after we were all caught drinking, doing some stupid stuff, having the cops called on us, etc... At DR's house...

DR's Mom and Dad: "You guys have no idea how much trouble you are in. You were not using your brains at all. Do you know how dangerous it is to be drinking... (Blah Blah Blah... It all kinda rambles together at this point... then back to paying attention)... We are gonna make you guys sign a contract promising to never drink and drive..."

The guys all sign the contract...

DR: (To his parents) "Now that we've got that over with, will you buy us some beer so we can take it to the fireworks tonight?"

DR quite often didn't have his brain attached to his mouth, but that never really slowed him down much...

I could go on forever with stories about the good old days... God a time machine would be SOOOO handy... ;-)

Sorry...

Looks like I won't be able to put up much of a post today :-(

The Weekend (and Holiday) Roundup...

The Lions...

Needed to win just one of those heartbreakers earlier in the season, and they'd be right in the middle of the playoff race right now.

The Patriots...

Need to play to win next week, and play all of their starters for the whole game. Yeah I know the goal is the Superbowl and to not get anyone hurt in a meaningless game, but they have a chance to do something special.

The Weather...

Has been pretty crappy. 50 degrees on Saturday. Alot of snow melted. It's cooled off now, and we got about an inch last night, so let's hope it stays that way now.

The Holidays...

Are here. Everyone, please have a safe and Merry Christmas. Santa rides tonight, and as always, I'll be watching the horizon...

Some Christmas Thoughts To Ponder...

In "The Year Without A Santa Claus", Heat Miser and Snow Miser refer to each other as step brothers, but it is implied that Mother Nature is the real mother of both of them. So does that mean they are actually half-brothers? And if so, who has Mother Nature been banging? I figure Father Time is the dad of Snow Miser, because he's a little more calm and laid back than Heat Miser. You've got to figure he gets that trait from Father Time, who I'm sure can't be in a hurry for anything. I'm guessing Heat Miser is the result of a fling with some cabana boy while Mother Nature was on vacation at a tropical island.

Also, in "The Year Without A Santa Claus"... Kids, if a strange man is ever hiding in the bushes outside your house, don't invite him inside, even if he does look like Santa.

When I watch Rudolf, I wonder if I'm the only one that thinks that Santa and all of the other reindeer are complete jackasses?

In "The Grinch", on the day after Christmas when all of the cheer and goodwill wore off, do you think all of the Who's down in Whoville got out their ball bats and beat the hell out of the Grinch, and then locked him in a cage with a Bumble that had a tooth ache?

Weekend Ramblings...

I Am Legend

I saw it over the weekend. I'll start by saying that I liked it... however, it wasn't as good as I was hoping for. I guess I kinda have my own rating scale...

All Timers - These are my all time favorites... classics in my own little convoluted world
Really Like - Movies that I will buy and watch over and over again
Good - Movies that I might watch again if they are on, but not worth adding to my collection
OK - Movies that were entertaining at the time, but didn't make any type of lasting impression on me
Nothing Special - Just that... not bad, just nothing special
Ugh - A waste of time
Sucked - Self explanatory

This one lands in the "Good" category for me. I'm not gonna try to explain how or why it's in this category for me, it just is. I have a tough enough time trying to rationalize emotional responses, so I'm not gonna even waste my time with it here. I will say that I felt it could have been rated R, even though none of the violence was all that graphic. I'm sure I'm just a little over-protective of my Peanut, but I felt kinda bad when I had to remind her that it was all just a movie, and not real. I like to be able to discuss and rationalize things with her in a little more depth than that, but with a few scenes that was about all I could really do.

Found money

A home owner found $182,000 hidden inside the walls of their house a few days ago...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071213/ap_on_fe_st/odd_house_hidden_money_2

$182,000... I found 72 cents in the parking lot at the movies and thought I was doing pretty good ;-)...

I'm not sure why the contractor thinks he's entitled to the money, or why the Ohio "finders keepers" law would apply here. The person that owns the house owns everything inside the house, don't they? If a painter is painting a house, and finds a ring or wallet under a couch that they moved, are they entitled to keep it? That doesn't make much sense to me...

Danger: Avoid Death

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071212/ap_on_fe_st/odd_wacky_warnings

Our legal system sure is screwed up. Nothing like having to legislate common sense, and hold manufacturers responsible for consumer stupidity. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for making sure manufacturers be held responsible for the safety of their products, but there has to be some limit to the level of stupidity that has to be taken in to account from the public. I guess "Danger: Avoid Death" are always good words of wisdom though...

Snow

8" of snow this weekend... Yay!!! That's also 8" of snow to shovel :-(... Now my body is telling me I should have kept working out a little harder after softball season ended, hehehe... I'm such a slug ;-)

PS... Notice I'm not even acknowledging that the Lions played this weekend... When does spring training start, anyways???

Recent Baseball Headlines...

Dateline... Recent baseball headlines arouse intense emotions in fans, while firm members of the baseball community give slow, deliberate, deeply penetrating responses to hard questions posed by the cunning linguists of the media...

For a deeper, more intense look at the details, here are the facts...

---Rangers to sign Japanese RHP Fukumori
---http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=txrangersfukumori&prov=st&type=lgns

---Cubs sign Japanese OF Fukudome
---http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=txcubsfukudome&prov=st&type=lgns

Fukudome... Fukumori...

Hmmmm, with this kind of activity, and a few strategically placed pauses in the pronunciation of these names, I suspect there will have to be a new type of TV contract, most likely a series of late night telecasts on Cinemax...

Ok, give me a second to regain my composure here... Sorry about that ;-)...

Oh yeah, on a side note... baseball also released the Mitchell report yesterday, too..

Clemens hit hard in Mitchell Report; Tejada, Bonds and Pettitte also named
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-mitchellreport&prov=ap&type=lgns

I already addressed this topic earlier, and in general it still applies...

http://chockssquawks.blogspot.com/2007/08/should-we-cut-little-slack.html

However, Bonds' current problems stem actually from the perjury charges, not so much from the drug use, so his problems are a little different from the rest of these guys.

I guess I didn't realize how deeply intense and arousing the off-season hot stove league can be ;-)

noznohog

snossicn
midwives absentia
netekarr
ijnug
Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona
Hermes Watches
rainwater reincarnate
commitment hammock

What do these all have in common? These are all phrases that spammers have put in their subject lines to try to get me to open their email. Who actually opens these things? Someone must, and they must end up buying this crap too, or spammers wouldn't keep sending out these emails. Obviously this goes against my previous theory... it doesn't matter how you market something because someone somewhere will be dumb enough to buy it regardless. On a related note, why do I get so many emails for watches? Are watches that big of an internet seller? I'm used to all the V1@gr@ and "magic growth" spams, but what's up with watches???

I'm waiting to get spam from someone actually trying to sell Spam... you know, the canned, processed meat-like substance... I mean delicacy ;-) At least that would be a somewhat creative spam email.

National Champions

ESPN has a web site that lets you set up your own college football playoff and simulate the games to determine a winner...

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/bowls07/bracket?lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos1

It's kinda cute, but if they want the real answer they can check my post from a few days back ;-) Anyways, I set up my own playoff using their bracket and managed to come up with a pretty cool National Champion...



YAY CLEMSON!!! How AWESOME would that be?!?!?

News Flash...

Pee Wee Herman to expose himself to a whole new generation

http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/reuben%20to%20return%20as%20pee-wee%20herman_1053148

I wonder if he plans on getting the whole gang back together... Chairy, Globey, Miss Eyvonne, Cowboy Curtis... Hmmm, I bet it would be a little tough to convince Lawrence Fishburne to reprise that role.


I'm kinda distracted today, but I'll keep plugging along...

Winter!

This is what winter and Christmas time should look like...

The front of the building/parking lot

Across the road

Big, fat flakes... it's actually kinda cool ;-) It's been a while since we've had December's like this.

More Random Thoughts

Trying to get back in sync...

C64
I got my first computer when I was in high school. It was a Commodore 64, and at the time I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I came across an article about the 25th anniversary of the C64 which jarred my memories...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/12/07/c64/index.html

I know, it's amazing that I must have been in high school when I was about 3 years old ;-) Anyways, I taught myself how to program in BASIC and wrote all kinds of text based games and programs for it. For the first couple of years we couldn't afford a disk drive, so I had to save all my programs on tape. It was an audio cassette recorder that connected to the computer and saved programs on cassette tapes. This of course was just after the discovery of fire, and right before the invention of the wheel ;-) A couple of years later a program called Gamemaker by Gary Kitchen came out for the C64... I thought this was the greatest program ever made...

http://www.mts.net/~kbagnall/commodore/gamemaker/info.html

This program allowed people to make games on the C64 that had Atari-style graphics using a BASIC programming type language and some pretty cool tools. I spent a lot of time making all types of games, but my favorite was Sucker Spearin'. You see, for the first two weeks of April in Mills, the suckers (a bottom feeding fish) swim from the Saginaw Bay up into the little creeks and streams throughout the township. Millsers know about all about this. Back then, it was a right of passage to go out sucker spearin' all night long each spring. Well, I merged red-neck and high tech and made a sucker spearin' video game, and of course it included a digital version of me doing the spearing. Some day I'll have to see if that game still works and post some sucker spearin' screen shots ;-)

A cool website, but is it safe?
I came across a very cool website which has downloadable theme songs to just about any TV show you could imagine, so of course this caught my attention...

http://www.televisiontunes.com/browse.html

I just wonder if this can be legal, and as insane as the RIAA is anymore, I have to wonder if this is another MP3 lawsuit waiting to happen.

Speaking of being in Sync...
Am I the only one a little concerned that Microsoft is writing software that runs in vehicles? So are people gonna need anti-virus software for their cars now? I hope this doesn't give a new meaning to the Blue Screen Of Death.

Lions
At the two minute warning I said sarcastically "I know the Cowboys are gonna score... everyone knows the Cowboys are gonna score... Just let them score so we can at least get the ball back and have a chance to get a field goal." Guess what?!?! The Cowboys scored with 18 seconds left. Not that the Lions didn't have chances. There was a fumble that was right in front of a Lions player, and all he had to do was fall on it and the game would have been over. Instead he tried to pick it up and wound up kicking it right to a Cowboy. Ugh...

Completely Random...
Why does the knuckle on my left hand ache? I don't remember doing anything to it. Am I falling apart? I'm pretty sure it's not an old sucker spearing injury anyways. It might be an old sucker spearing video game injury though ;-)

Weird...

Things have been feeling a little weird and out of sync for me today, so this won't be much of a post, and I certainly won't be enlightening the world with any thoughts today...

Freebies...

The radio morning show that I listen to on the way to work is the Bob & Tom Show. Today is the last day that they are giving away free access to their VIP website, which is nice but not that big of a deal... but included in that is a free download of an entire copy of one of their comedy albums, which is kinda cool.

http://www.bobandtom.com/gen3/index.htm

You have to sign up for free VIP access, and the download is pretty big (about 90 MB), but I like these guys so I thought that is was pretty cool.

The Best Day Of The Year...

Was the day we would get the Sears Wishbook Christmas Catalog. I always turned straight to the back so I could drool over all the new the Atari Cartridges.



Here are four pages of heaven from 1982...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wishbook/327585232/in/set-72157594229749541/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wishbook/327585247/in/set-72157594229749541/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wishbook/327585271/in/set-72157594229749541/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wishbook/327585283/in/set-72157594229749541/

Weren't the graphics AWESOME!!!

It's amazing that I was 3 years old at the time and still I would play Atari all day long ( wink ;-) ) Is it bad to admit that I still play some of these once in a while... and I always buy them whenever I see them at yard sales and flea markets, but I don't find them very often anymore.

Driver's Education

Here's a few driving tips for all of those inconsiderate people on the road while I'm on my way to and from work every day...

• When the stoplight turns green, that means GO... don't sit and admire the pretty shiny green light
• When there is no one behind me, don't wait until the last second to pull out in front of me and then drive 10 mph below the speed limit... ESPECIALLY in a no-passing zone!!!
• In a parking lot, park BETWEEN the lines. If you can't maneuver your vehicle between the lines, either your vehicle is too big for you, or you just shouldn't be driving
• If you are driving in the fast lane, you have an obligation to drive faster than the people in the slow lane... otherwise, just GET IN THE SLOW LANE AND GET OUT OF THE WAY!
• Don't drive in my blind spot. Get past me or get behind me already.

Sorry... just had to vent for a minute there ;-)

So Sad

Omaha, Nebraska... My heart goes out to the friends and families of the victims, along with the entire community. Such a senseless tragedy. These types of things always make me feel so sick inside, and I haven't been doing all that great as it is, so I'm sending my sympathy and condolences.

Why I don't watch the news... Headlines from the last 24 hours:

Mall shooter's suicide note: Now I'll be famous
2 moms, 8 dead kids: Are officials to blame?
Mother suspected of killing her five children
Germany children killed
Mom and daughter shot
Mine explosion kills 46 in China
Thieves steal donations

How depressing. It shouldn't be called news, it should be called BAD news, because that's all that gets reported. This, along with the Middle East, the economy, idiot politicians, oil prices, terrorism, Britney and Paris... Ugh, I'm making myself sick.

We now interrupt this regularly scheduled chaos to go back to my place with nice happy thoughts... Ahhh, much better. Thanks ;-)

Now for a few updates on a lighter note...

Fantasy Football Update

I made the playoffs in all three of my leagues, even though one was by a technicality ;-) I guess it's ok considering I haven't been following it very closely this year. Too distracted I guess.

Weather Update

Cold, windy, a little snow on the ground... so far so good :-) We're supposed to get a couple more inches tonight. I hope it keeps up like this.

Try to keep those happy thoughts going, we need all we can get right now...

Wow...

Our Tigers are making things exciting. They pulled off a big trade with the Marlins, and I'm kinda excited about it, but we sure gave up an awful lot.

Yahoo Report...
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=ArDQFcPJCVtuNwPBZ0BnXXcRvLYF?slug=jp-tigerstrade120407&prov=yhoo&type=lgns


The Tigers got 3B Miguel Cabrera and Pitcher Dontrell Willis in exchange for 6 players with ALOT of potential.

Miguel Cabrera - 24 Years old and already been to four All-Star Games.
Dontrell Willis - 25 Years old and was second in the Cy Young voting two years ago, although last year he didn't do as well.

After giving up Jair Jurjjens for Edgar Renteria and then this trade, we sure don't have a lot left in the minors any more. A little bit about the players the Tigers gave up...

Cameron Maybin - Maybe the best minor league prospect in all of baseball. Has been compared to Griffey Jr.

Andrew Miller - A hard throwing left hander with a lot of potential. Was in the Tigers rotation last year, and kinda sucked during the second half of the season, but once he figures out his control problems he could be really good

Mike Rabelo - Switch hitting catcher. Probably wont be a star, but could end up being pretty solid.

Eulogio De La Cruz - Can throw 100 MPH

Burke Badenhop - Don't know much about him

Dallas Trahern - Good looking prospect in the lower minor leagues, but too early to tell still

Everyone will look at the trade and think the Tigers got a great deal, but we gave up a lot for these guys. Still, it will make us much more competitive for the next two years, so I like the deal and I'm excited about it. It's nice to see the Tigers making moves and trying to improve, after all those years of sucking and doing nothing about it.

The Tigers will have one of the toughest lineups now, and a great rotation too...

C - Ivan Rodriguez
1B - Carlos Guillen
2B - Placido Polanco
SS - Edgar Renteria
3B - Miguel Cabrera
LF - Jacque Jones / Marcus Thames
CF - Curtis Granderson
RF - Magglio Ordonez
DH - Gary Sheffield

P - Kenny Rogers
P - Justin Verlander
P - Jeremy Bonderman
P - Nate Roberson
P - Dontrell Willis

SWEET!!!

I don't know what they are gonna do with Brandon Inge. He's my favorite Tiger, but like I said before he's not much of a hitter, so I can understand that they needed to make a move to improve production out of the 3B spot. There's still a chance Cabrera gets moved to LF and we keep Inge at 3B.

I can't wait for the season to start :-)

BCS - Bowls, Chock Style

The college football bowl system is screwed up, that's a given. Here's a good article by Gene Wojciechowski of ESPN.com explaining it, for anyone that cares:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=wojciechowski_gene&id=3138383&sportCat=ncf

Football is the only sport in Division I-A athletics that doesn't have a championship determined on the field, but rather through a vote. I'd be a lot more interested in college football if there was a real champ determined at the end of the season. I know there's a plan for a "Plus-One" system after the bowls, but that will still suck, especially for the smaller schools. So, here's my plan for a real playoff system...

The Chock Plan is a 12 team playoff (This leaves room to expand it to 16 later after it becomes a huge success). We can use the BCS Poll to determine the 12 teams, which this year would be:

1.Ohio State
2.LSU
3.Virginia Tech
4.Oklahoma
5.Georgia
6.Missouri
7.USC
8.Kansas
9.West Virginia
10.Hawaii
11.Arizona State
12.Florida

The first two rounds would take place now... four games this weekend and four games next weekend at the home field of the higher ranked seed. The losers of these games could still go play in whatever bowl games, so those bowl games don't lose any revenue. The top four seeds get a first round bye, so this weekend the games would be:

#12 Florida at #5 Georgia
The winner of this game would play at #4 Oklahoma next week

#11 Arizona State at #6 Missouri
The winner of this game would play at #3 Virgina Tech next week

#10 Hawaii at #7 USC
The winner of this game would play at #2 LSU next week

#9 West Virginia at #8 Kansas
The winner of this game would play at #1 OSU next week

After these two rounds, there would only be 4 teams left. The winner of the Oklahoma game would play the winner of the OSU game in the Orange Bowl. The winner of the Va Tech game would play the winner of the LSU game in the Fiesta Bowl. After these two games, the final BCS Championship Game would be a week later.

Here are the current bowl matchups that involve these 12 teams:

Holiday Bowl: Arizona State vs Texas Dec. 27, 8 p.m.
Cotton Bowl: Missouri vs Arkansas Jan. 1, 11:30 a.m.
Capital One Bowl: Michigan vs Florida Jan. 1, 1 p.m.
Rose Bowl: Southern California vs Illinois Jan. 1, 4:30 p.m.
Sugar Bowl: Hawaii vs Georgia Jan. 1, 8:30 p.m.
Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma vs West Virginia Jan. 2, 8 p.m.
Orange Bowl: Virginia Tech vs Kansas Jan. 3, 8 p.m.
BCS Championship Game Ohio State vs LSU Jan. 7, 8 p.m.

So, as an example, lets say the playoff games go as follows...

This way, the final 4 would be

Orange Bowl: OSU vs Oklahoma
Fiesta Bowl: Hawaii Vs Missouri

All of the other teams could go back into the bowl mix, maybe something like this...

Gator Bowl: Virginia Tech vs Kansas Jan. 1, 1 p.m.
Holiday Bowl: Arizona State vs Texas Dec. 27, 8 p.m.
Cotton Bowl: West Virginia vs Arkansas Jan. 1, 11:30 a.m.
Capital One Bowl: Michigan vs Florida Jan. 1, 1 p.m.
Rose Bowl: Southern California vs Illinois Jan. 1, 4:30 p.m.
Sugar Bowl: LSU vs Georgia Jan. 1, 8:30 p.m.
Fiesta Bowl: Hawaii vs Missouri Jan. 2, 8 p.m.
Orange Bowl: Oklahoma vs Ohio State Jan. 3, 8 p.m.

BCS Championship Game Ohio State vs Hawaii Jan. 10, 8 p.m.

Texas Tech and Virgina were originally slated for the Gator Bowl, so they would have to be shuffled down to one of the lesser bowls like the Weedwacker Bowl or whatever.

Oh, and by the way, I like the underdog, and I like the Run -n- Shoot offense, so in my little fantasy world, Hawaii beats OSU for the National Championship. In the current system, they will never get a chance to prove themselves.

How cool would this be??? ;-)

Redneck Retaliation

Since my parents are so keen on sharing their redneck thoughts with me, I came up with a few of my own for them. I know they don't read this, but I'll let them know about it later ;-)...

A few I came up with...

You might be a redneck if...

• Your cars are covered with cat paw prints
• During hunting season anyone has ever said "Open the window so I can get a clear shot"
• Raccoons think your back porch is their playground
• The mailman wont come down your road during the spring thaw
• Any part of your car is held together with duct tape (Ok, I've been guilty of this one too)
• You have to honk your horn before you start the car to scare out all of the animals

And a few from Jeff Foxworthy...

• Your favorite beer company can't afford to advertise
• Directions to your house include "Turn off the paved road"
• You've ever found a car after mowing your lawn
• Getting a package from your post office requires a full tank of gas in the truck.

And oh yes... a couple for my sister as well...

• You've ever killed a duck(venomous or otherwise) with your cooking
• You've ever driven your baby sitter to the store

The Long and Winding Post

Four in a row and counting...

Four weeks ago I started to put together a post about what the playoffs would look like if the season had ended, with the Lions in at 6-2, and I was gonna show how they could make a miraculous run and make it to the Super Bowl. Once I started writing it, reality set in... I mean come on, this is the Lions we're talking about. I was holding out hope, and I wasn't gonna give up on them, but I've been conditioned after all these years to expect the worst. Well guess what... welcome to the world of the Detroit Lions fans. Now, four weeks (and four loses) later, here we are with the same old Lions. They can still win three of the last four and make the playoffs, and I'm holding out hope, but the schedule is gonna be tough...

Home against the Dallas Cowboys
At the San Diego Chargers
Home against the KC Chiefs
At the Green Bay Packers

Ugh... It looks like Jon Kitna's prediction is gonna end up being a little off. But hey, even if they can finish 8-8 it will be a huge improvement over the past many years. It's just a disappointing way to end the season after seeing a ray of hope. I'm trying to keep it in perspective though.


The loss of an American Icon...

On Friday Evel Knievel passed away. He was a defining part of pop culture during the 70's. It was always a big deal to see what kind of stunt he was gonna pull off next. I had all the Evel Knievel toys... the action figure, the motorcycle with the rev up crank that would shoot across the floor doing wheelies, the Evel Van that I kept all the stuff in...

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/12/01/1196394688218.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evel_Knievel

Losing part of my childhood is just a small reminder of how cruel time is... it's always moving forward, and it seems to keep moving faster. That time machine just hasn't shown up, no matter how hard I wish for it.

Washington Redskins...

That was a nice gesture by the Redskins over the weekend. They opened their first defensive play with only 10 players on the field. Since Sean Taylor couldn't take the field with his team, they left his spot empty. My heart goes out to them and Sean Taylor's family, as well as everyone else dealing with a loss or difficult time right now.

Another loss over the weekend...

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island is my favorite Mario game, and I still play it a lot. Friday night however, it decided that it wasn't feeling well, and took a little nap for a few minutes. When it woke up, all of my saved worlds were gone. I imagine that after 12 years (God is it really that old) the internal battery is starting to give out. Anyways, I had finished the game a long time ago, so I could go back and play any world I wanted. Now I have to start over from the beginning. I've made my way back to world 3-1 so far, but it's still disappointing to lose all of that work. I just hope the battery doesn't give out again, but I'm sure it will, so I'll try to enjoy it while it lasts.

Too many losses this weekend, and I've been having kind of a tough time today, so...

To get away from the loss theme for a bit here...

I was channel surfing over the weekend, and I can now say I've seen the dumbest infomercial ever... Zorbeez - The Amazing Multi-Purpose Cloth

http://www.asseenontv.com/prod-pages/zorbeez402.html?gid=

This is just a pile of rags, people. I guess if you market it right, you really can sell anything. P.T. Barnum knew what he was talking about. On a side note, the commercial claims that they are machine washable. I guess you would have to wash one rag at a time all by itself, because if they are as amazing as the commercial claims, these rags will absorb all of the water in the washer ;-)

Sparty Power...

MSU is going bowling... YAY!!! Sure, it's just the weedwhacker bowl or something like that, but it's been a while since we've been to any kind of bowl, so I can't complain. Actually, it's the Champ Sports Bowl on December 28 in Orlando against Boston College... so the Sparty's are going to a bowl AND Disneyworld... how cool ;-) Also, congrats to CMU for winning the MAC and earning a trip to the Motor City Bowl against Purdue.

How About a Brew, Eh?...

While in Frankenmuth over the weekend I noticed that the Frankenmuth Brewery is closed and for sale. I'm not really a beer drinker, but that got me thinking... I should buy it so I could make a new brand... Whoopass beer. That way, when the guys are sitting around drinking, it would give a whole new meaning to the phrase "I'm gonna open me up a can of Whoopass tonight." If I market it right, people would buy it ;-)