Myspace

I've really grown to enjoy Myspace. I resisted for awhile but Amanda finally persuaded me to start a page. Well, a few days ago I searched for people I went to high school with and actually found quite a lot. It was nice to get in touch the people I was really close with then. Anyway, looking through their profiles, I found even more people. Two of those, were Dave Madden and Dave Stein, who had music pages. On their pages, you can listen to and even download their music. Both are solo acoustic guitar acts. So, if that kind of music interests you - check it out.

Dave Madden

I remember meeting Dave in junior high. I was in the band room after school playing the piano, probably trying to show off for a girl or something. Dave came over and completely showed me up by playing the theme to Peanuts and handful of other songs that I don't remember. Well, he ended up at the Berkeley School of Music where I heard he studied quantum mechanics and particle physics, just as he always had wanted.

Anyway, he's in Austin now but he tours around the country with just his guitar in hand (his trusty Taylor... wish I had one). You can go to his myspace page and listen to the music, and even download it if you want. I like every track he has but Anything Goes has been stuck in my head for days. I just keep singing the "woo-oh-oh-OH-oh" part over and over again.

Dave Stein

I meet this Dave in high school through Brian (Bryan? I forget) Fenn. Eventually Brian, Dave, another Dave (Dave Meyer), and I started a band called Justin Fields. We spent hours and hours in Meyer's basement rehearsing (oh and I remember his sister being really hot). I can't believe that his parents didn't seem to mind.

I remember at at almost every gig we were booked, the majority of the crowd thought we were a guy playing acoustic guitar named "Justin Fields". Oh well, such is life. Together with Jimson Weed, we were the only rock bands in the school. Everyone else seemed to do metal or some kind of hippie emo/punk crap. We did a mix of covers and originals, primarily written by Dave Stein. The ones that stick out in my mind were Horizon and Yellow. I still have a tape of Horizon that we recorded with a computer microphone. The quality is absolutely horrible and the drums sound like the crap but I love to pull it out every once and awhile and listen to it. Those were good times and I can't believe Meyer's parents never seemed to mind that we practiced in the basement well into the night and long after they had gone to bed.

I really dig his style, just as I always have. There is such like soft, delicate feeling to his playing, that I've never been able to reproduce. I especially love the harmonies he does. They remind me of Aztec Two-Step, a duo acoustic group that Dave had introduced me to. Unfortunately, I lost the CD a year or two ago. I think I may have to fix that problem.

Retarded

I sent a letter to the editor of the The Daily Collegian today because M&T Bank is retarded. Here's what I wrote:

I have a part-time job in town and my employer uses M&T Bank for their payroll checks. Typically, I mail my check out to my personal bank but once in awhile I need the cash and so I drop by M&T Bank to cash it. I've considered opening an account so that I could deposit them via the ATM but just haven't done it yet. Well, everything changed today. M&T Bank tried to charge me $5 for cashing one of THEIR checks because I didn't have an account. The teller informed me that this has been their policy since October (meanwhile, I cashed a check without any service charge two weeks ago). This charge is ridiculous. No other bank I've ever used have ever done this, because they shouldn't. Obviously, this policy is supposed to spur people to open accounts but it didn't work in my situation. This policy has prompted me to never use M&T Bank ever again. Your loss M&T.

PETA

I'm a big fan of PostSecret. I check it every once in awhile to see whats new. Here's one I really liked.

Douche

I just discovered my new favorite Facebook Group. Its called T.O. Is A Bag Of Douche. Pretty self explanatory but here's the description anyway:

Finally, something both Eagles and Steelers fans can agree on. Terrell Owens is a whiney little bitch who needs to learn his place in this world . . .

No one cares about you T.O.

If you hate T.O. and hope that he is working at Burger King by the end of the year than this group is for you.

Join Now! And share your angry thoughts on what you would like to see happen to him.

Moms

Moms just seem to love me. The Biz and I used to get hit on by moms a few years ago, whenever we went to the Saloon and hung out near the booths. Last night, it happened again (somehow without the presence of the Biz).

I was at the Rathskeller sitting at a booth enjoying the fantastic performance of Kenny Volz (spelling?). If you haven't experienced Kenny on Saturday nights at 8pm, you're missing out. Anyway, about twenty minutes into his second set, I got tapped on the shoulder and five older women in the next booth pretty much demanded that I come over and talk to them. Except for the designated driver, they were a lively, drunken bunch.

So, I got up and sat down with them. Right out of the blocks, the really drunk hot one started telling me how cute I was (and this continued throughout the night) and kept asking me questions -- Where was I from, what was I majoring in, did I have a girlfriend, what did I want to do after graduation, etc. Then the hot one HAD to see what the shirt under my button down shirt said (it said Moosejaw), so she decided to undo the buttons and grope my chest -- awkward yet I can't say I didn't enjoy it.

All in all, it was an entertaining night, especially since they kept filling up my cup. It was too bad the hot one was married.

Nintendo

I found a website that hosts Macromedia Flash versions of old video games so that they can be played online. You have got to love technology.

Shit

From an article by Eric Bryant on AutoBlog.

GM reported its results from the fourth quarter of 2005, and things are not pretty. Including one-time charges, the company lost $4.8 billion ($8.45/share) on revenue of $51.2B.

The one-time charges included $2.3B for the company's health-care deal with the UAW and issues relating to the Delphi bankruptcy, as well as $1.3B for the restructuring that was announced back in November. Normal operating losses were $1.2B, which far exceeded analysts' expectations of $100M. GM's overseas units just missed breaking even, so the numbers basically represent the issues here in the US.

This brings GM's full-year loss for 2005 to a stunning $8.6B.

I don't know what to say. This sucks. Maybe its a good thing that I don't want to live in Michigan after graduation. If Ford & GM continue to get shitty, the local economy is going to go to shit.

This all sucks but GM isn't going anywhere. It reminds me of Chrysler in the 80s and they never went under. Of course, I can't mention Chrysler without mentioning the government bailout that Iacocca got from Reagan, but I'm not worried. Ok, I'm worried but not that worried. It won't stop me from buying Chevrolets.

As for bankruptcy, it may happen but don't confuse bankruptcy with going out of business. GM isn't going to go out of business anytime soon. They could run at a loss for a decade and survive. Of course, Buick, Saturn, Saab, and Pontiac might have been killed off by then, but they'd survive. They could simply just build trucks, Corvettes, and Cadillacs and have a very sustainable business.

One of the comments on the AutoBlog article had a great point. I'm paraphrasing but "GM could sell 4 cars for every 10 cars they sell today and still have larger sales than Nissan and Honda." Definitely true and could happen.

Arbor

No, not Ann Arbor. We all know she's a whore anyway. Here's a photo I took in my parent's backyard on Thanksgiving in 2004. Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Machinima

Have you never heard of the word? Neither had I until tonight. According to the Urban Dictionary, Machinima is

The art of using a pre-rendered gaming engine and making it into a film. The word is derived from: Machine and Cinema.

Its an interesting new medium that is chiefly the result of a video game called The Movies. The game revolves around the concept where the player takes control of a movie studio and produces box office films to succeed and beat the game. Although you don't actually need to create any films in the game, as you make your way through, its grants you access to certain features that permit you to do so. The game allows you to create films with animated characters that are reminiscent of The Sims.

So what's the point of this blog entry you may ask? Well, the point is a certain film that was created using the game. A 27 year old Frenchman named Alex Chan has created a 13 minute film about last years French riots entitled "The French Democracy". The movie has garnered so much attention that even The Washington Post did a piece on it.

I'm not sure about you but I didn't know much about the riots in France last year. Either the media didn't cover it well or I didn't pay attention. Regardless of which it was, I only knew that there was a riot in France and that its participants were mainly young adults.

The film, or rather machinima feature, is the direct result of Alex Chan's experience. He lives in a suburb of Paris, very near to where some rioting took place. According to The Washington Post article, Chan said "the main intention of this movie is to bring people to think about what really happened in my country by trying to show the starting point and some causes of these riots."

The film deals with the growing racism that is developing out of this "War on Terror." It primarily features the racism against blacks, and in particular, French-born black Muslims. It highlights France's techniques for fighting terrorism that have restricted civil rights and liberties, especially for those who look like "suspects."

The reason I bring this up is because of the direct correlation between this situation and the present one in the US. Our civil liberties are continually being threatened for the basis of "preserving" freedom and fighting terrorism. Whether it is the Patriot Act or illegal wire tapping, we are allowing the reduction of our liberties in the name of safety. In my opinion, this isn't good. Benjamin Franklin put it best when he said, "they that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." I believe in what he said and I think supporting his idea is needed more today than ever before.

Watching this film, and recognizing the racial discrimination, I'm reminded of the growing situation at home in Detroit. For those who don't know, Detroit has one of the largest Arab and Muslim populations outside of Arabia. During my time at home, I've noticed the growing hostility and racism against people of Arab decent. But, it’s not only in Detroit, it’s everywhere.

Through the acts of the current administration and the media, our society has been scared into fearing Arab people, unjustly. I remember the question that circulated many discussions directly after 9/11: would you feel comfortable sitting on a plane next to an Arab? My answer: yes I would completely feel comfortable. You simply cannot judge an entire race by the actions of several dozen suicidal maniacs.

If we are going to do that, why not go all the way. Lets start hating white people who attended the University of Michigan because of the Unabomber (ok, lets just hate University of Michigan graduates). Lets hate the Irish because of the IRA. Lets hate all Germans because Hitler was Germ... um, Austrian. See, it sound ridiculous when it’s a white person, but yet our society doesn't seem to see the connection when it's people of a different race. We think we're colorblind, that the race card shouldn't be thrown anymore, and that affirmative action is no longer needed, but we are only fooling ourselves. Racism is alive and thriving in our country and many others.

Landscape

Just a photo I took one September morning on the way back to Penn State from the "Chuck's Farm" hippie jam band festival about forty minutes away. Click on it to enlarge.

Four

Four jobs I've had

* Line Cook at Indianwood Country Club
* Boy Scout camp counselor
* Design Release Engineering Intern
* Software Debugger

Four movies I can watch over and over

* The Shawshank Redemption
* Rudy (I know its Notre Dame... sorry)
* Das Boot
* The Stargate

Four places I've lived

* Robinson Township, Pennsylvania
* Troy, Michigan
* Downingtown, Pennsylvania
* State College, Pennsylvania

Four TV shows I love

* The Daily Show
* Colbert Report
* Family Guy
* Band of Brothers

Four places I've vacationed

* Salzburg, Austria
* Ocean City, New Jersey
* Tempe, Arizona
* Mackinac Island, Michigan

Four of my favorite dishes

* Cheesesteaks
* Reuben Sandwich
* Chicken Curry
* Scrapple

Four sites I visit daily

* Facebook
* Google News
* Slashdot
* Myspace

Four places I would rather be right now

* A place where it's warm
* A place where it's sunny
* A place where I can see Munich & Syriana
* A place where the beer flows like wine

Four bloggers I am tagging

* Sitting on Pineapples
* Jersey Idiot
* Andrew Sullivan
* Maddox

That is all.

Batteries

Apple iPods have become ubiquitous in our society. You can’t walk around campus, meander through an airport terminal or even visit your technology-impaired parents without coming in contact with these products. They are fantastic little devices that have shaped society and the music scene considerably. Together with the iTunes Music Store, they have revolutionized the music industry.

These devices are comprised of five core components – a miniature hard drive, LCD panel, scroll wheel, logic board, and a rechargeable battery. They are confined to a plastic and metal case that is not supposed to be open. Special tools are required to open it, and doing so voids the warranty. But, why would you want to open it? The battery is housed inside the case and it is the limiting factor in its reliability and longevity.

The Apple iPod and similar devices from the likes of Creative, Samsung, and Dell use lithium ion batteries enclosed in cases that is not supposed to be replaced by the user. Although lithium ion batteries have a higher charge density than other batteries, their great disadvantage is they have a shelf life that is independent of charge and use. They begin to degrade as soon as they are manufactured. As a result, the batteries in iPods and other handheld music devices have had an industry average lifespan of 12 to 18 months.

Apple’s response to this problem is a $99 battery replacement program where the consumer ships in their device; Apple replaces the battery (and sometimes the entire device) and ships it back to you. The problem is that $99 for a new battery is much too expensive.

Apple needs to design a case that has access to the battery so that the consumer can replace the batteries by themselves. Given the iPods market share, an entire market would rise up to fulfill the need for replacement batteries, further reducing the Apple’s economic risk of getting into the replacement battery industry.

Dogma

I typically don't agree with the Catholic Church. Their stance on hiding pedophiles, birth control, and several other topics make me question their capability of rational thought, but today is different. According to an article from CBS News, the Vatican has come out against Intelligent Design, calling it not science. Here's a exerpt.

The Vatican newspaper has published an article saying "intelligent design" is not science and that teaching it alongside evolutionary theory in school classrooms only creates confusion.

Congratulations Catholic Church. Your stock just went up as a creditable source of insight (it's still not creditable, just slightly higher than before).

Abstinence

In a BBC article, First Lady Laura Bush said: "It sort of irritates me when I hear people act like abstinence is not a real choice because it is, and it is 100% effective."

Excuse me, but you're an idiot. While staying abstinent is 100% effective for reducing AIDS and HIV, abstinence is not sustainable. Look at the statistics and its clear that pledging to stay abstinent does not decrease level of sexual activity one will have. Studies have shown that high school students who take "virginity pledges" are more likely to have premarital sex and even more likely to engage in oral and anal sex. The increase of oral and anal sex is so they can remain virgins, vaginally. I'm sorry but if you're taking it in the butt, you're no longer a virgin.

The claim that abstinence is 100% effective is like saying that quitting smoking is 100% effective in reducing smokers. Sure, if you quit you won't smoke, but that doesn't mean you won't relapse.

Promoting abstinence is noble for high school students but it should never be the sole educational tool. Sexual education is vitally important for our youth. The misconception that teaching our youth about safe sex does not automatically correlate to teens running off to have sex as soon as possible. I was taught about safe sex, stds, and other sexual education topics in junior high and I never had sex until my sophomore year of college. I wasn't running off to have sex. I made an educated decision and used my education to reduce my chances of problems - I used a condom and she was on the pill.

Purely promoting abstinence is a losing cause. Human beings are sexual creatures and are biologically programed to have sex. It's ingrained as much as University of Michigan fans are programmed to be assholes.

The topic of abstinence in this article is in regards to the horrible AIDS/HIV epidemic in Africa (oh if you remember my penchant for conspiracy theories, there's one that AIDS was developed by the CDC and CIA to kill black people... no I don't believe it). Groups have been promoting abstinence in Africa for decades and the epidemic has only gotten larger. Something needs to change. I think it should be proper sexual education and promoting safe sex. These people will continue to have sex and only with proper techniques for safe sex, will the epidemic decline.

Mistakes

Saturday night, while dropping off a sandwich to a friend in the dorms at Michigan State, my brother tripped, fell backwards and sliced his wrist open on a window. Whether the window was broken already is unknown. We think it was because his elbow doesn't hurt.

So supposedly, while removing his arm from the window, he sliced open his wrist. Mind you, the mass quantity of alcohol in his system didn't help him. Luckily, my other brother and a friend of his were waiting outside the dorm in a car. The friend hadn't had a drink that night and was able to rush him to the hospital.

I posted pictures on my server so that people who don't wish to see them, don't have to.

Open wound photo
Closed wound photo

As for now, the doctors think he sliced a few tendons. He doesn't have feeling in his ring and pinky finger. He also has limited rotational ability in his wrist.

Later this week, he'll most likely be having surgery to reattch the tendons, where hopefully he'll recover mobility. The feeling should return in his fingers. Its common to lose feeling for a few days when anesthesic is applied to tendons.

I'm really worried about him. His major is Turfgrass Management and will be a Superintendent's Assistant at a country club after graduation. Safe to say, hand dexterity is required.

He's lucky he's alive. Had he lost enough blood while in the elevator trying to get back to the car, he could have passed out... alone. Likewise he barely missed slicing the major vein in his wrist. He's really lucky.

Taint

Two nights ago, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart covered Rep. John Shadegg's comments regarding the Abramoff scandals. He said that, compared with other involved, he has a lower "level of taint." Yes, he said taint. The Daily Show had a field day with it. Here is the link. Scroll down and select "Level of Taint." Enjoy.

Kitsch

I came across a music video today that is supposedly a tribute to 9/11 and America, but fails miserably. Words cannot describe it. It's so bad that half of me wanted to laugh at it, the other half made me want to move to Afghanistan.

Most tribute songs and videos are horrible (except for the country song in Team America) but this one takes sappy patriotic sentimentality to new levels. Furthermore, how can this song be about 9/11 when the singer was plucked directly from 1987?

Seriously, he looks like the offspring of Steve Perry and Howard Stern. His 80s basketball jersey, ripped jeans, and god necklace make him look cool though. Makes me want to break out my Members Only jacket.

Training

Ok, here's a little story for you all about the incompetency of Best Buy employees. This pretty much applies to Circuit City and other big box stores. None of them know anything. Let me stress that again, they packed full of shit. Whenever they speak and try to give advice, only vomit comes out of their mouth.

I've had experience working for Best Buy. I worked at the State College, PA store for about eight months. In that time as a computer salesman, the amount of product training I received was .... ZERO. They don't train their employees regarding product knowledge. The only training I received, typically twice a week, was on selling products faster, worthless service plans, and how to lie to customers so that they buy more useless accessories.

Never take any advice from these people. Its about on par with taking medical advice from the McLanaBob (the homeless guy in State College).

Tonight, my friend, Amanda, was the victim of crappy Best Buy employee advice. Her current computer mouse had ceased to work, so she went shopping for a new one. The employee told her that optical mice need mousepads, which she hadn't used. She went on to say that her lack of a mousepad was what caused the optical mouse to break. So, she suggested a ball mouse, because it would work without a mousepad.

Here's the truth. Optical mice do NOT need mousepads. They work on tables, your leg, and pretty much every other opaque surface. On the other hand, certain material surfaces with a low coefficient of friction do not work well with ball mice. Without enough friction, the ball can't move. Mousepads solve this issue. So basically, the employee's advice was the complete opposite of the truth.

Never trust these idiots. You're much better off asking McLanaBob.

Zaghawa

I'm going to a party tonight and invited my friend, Cheryl. Being that tomorrow is MLK , she wondered if the party was MLK themed. I said that it was (its not) and that everyone was going as black people and that I personally was going as Louis Farrakhan. Her response was "who is Louis Farrakhan?" So, I googled to find a picture for her and came across a great new website.

Its Louis Farrakhan's African Name Generator. The website can be found here. All you have to do is simply enter in your "white man's label from which you wish to unshackle yourself and a true name for our brothers and sisters shall be granted to you."

Interesting to say the least. Hilarious to say at most. My results were:

From this day forward, you shall be known by all your brothers and sisters as:     Zaghawa

Bettis

Congratulations Jerome Bettis. You came ridiculously close to screwing up the last play in the last game you'd ever play. Wouldn't that have been a great career finish? Your fumble almost blew the game that looked to be completely wrapped up with a little more than a minute to go. I hope you're thanking your lucky stars for Mike Vanderjagt's wide right field goal attempt.

Eavesdropping

In the recent weeks, Mein Fürher has come under attack on the topic of privacy. Specifically, his ability to order eavedropping on Americans without a court order, even though Congress did not authorize the program.

Bush has strongly come to the defense of his actions. He has been quoted that the process is an "obligation to protect you." Those who disagree are worried of the slippery slope of the decision of who will be spied on. He's also said "this is a different era, a different war." While this may be true, our constitution still disagrees with his actions.

I'm very worried about and more importantly the Bush Administration's (Cheney) stance that the Executive Branch should have more power. Once again, this goes against the Constitution. Recently, he was quoted saying something to the effect of "stop throwing the Constitution in my face, it’s just a goddamned piece of paper!” Interesting stance Mein Furher. Why don't we just get rid of our democracy, which we supposedly are trying to spread, and just make you the dictator now.

But, at the same time, I question the negative response to the eavesdropping. Haven't we had ECHELON for quite some time. In case you are unfamiliar, Wikipedia states that "ECHELON can capture radio and satellite communications, telephone calls, faxes and e-mails nearly anywhere in the world and includes computer automated analysis and sorting of intercepts. ECHELON is estimated to intercept up to 3 billion communications every day."

Now, here's the catch, ECHELON is not permitted to intercept communications within the US in order to satisfy the constitution. But, the UK, Australia, and I think a few handful of allied countries have their own ECHELON systems. Like the US, these allied countries do not spy on their own citizens. Once again, here's the catch, it has been often documented and theorized that the members of the ECHELON share their information. Its a loop hole, because the US isn't spying on its citizens, only receiving intelligence from other nations.

So, my question is - where is the outrage over this system?

Firefox

I really prefer to use Mozilla's Firefox browser instead of Microsoft's antiquated Internet Explorer. I'm an addict for Firefox's tabs. I have it loaded on all my machines, including my Linux server at home. Here's the problem though, the computer lab I spend the most time at (the Mechanical Engineering lab in Reber) still has not installed the program, yet all the general computer labs on campus have it.

I found a solution though. Another organization has compiled a portable version of the application, called of all names, Portable Firefox. I have mirrored the application on my university ftp site here.

The program is able to work without any installation. You can put it on your desktop or a usb drive and run it on any windows machine, even locked down work computers where installing programs is not permitted. I do recommend creating a shortcut though. The folder names once extracted from the zip file really don't like their names changed and the application file is buried two folders deep.

Initially, the program was taking forever to open. I clocked it at about 80 seconds, but after a reboot of the machine, it was down to 6 seconds on my 3.6 Ghz machine. I'm really not sure if a reboot is necessary. I think the computer was just bottle necked up and needed a restart anyway.

In any event, I really recommend checking it out. Enjoy.

CAFE

Although 2005 has come and gone, this month many car manufacturers have to pay for their previous sins. In an Detroit News article, the car industry has been fined $32 million for violating fuel economy regulations.

The fines are a result of the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations that were instituted by Congress in 1975. The regulations mandate fuel economy ratings based on a sales weighted average. The current edition states that the average must exceed 27.5 mpg for cars and 20.3 mpg for light duty trucks. Vehicles over 8,500 pounds are exempt (Ford Excursion, Limosuines, Hummer H1, Hummer H2, etc).

This years biggest offender, with total fines coming to $12 million is BMW. Second place went to DaimlerChryslerAG at $8.5 million, and Porsche, Volkswagen, and Ferrari finished out the top five at $6.4, $3.5, and $1.5 million respectively. All of the fines are paid directly to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The question is whether or not these fines affect the industry and actually promote companies to develop more fuel efficient vehicles. I contest they don't and are simply a small cost of doing business.

Lets take a look at DaimlerChryslerAG, or DCX as it is commonly abbreviated (its stock ticker), and how their fine of $8.5 million compares to their other costs. DCX has 384,724 employees. Now lets assume a cup of coffee costs $0.10, because GM used to charge me $0.15 when I was an intern. Now lets assume on average that each employee has one cup of coffee a day and that there are 300 work days a year. Using these numbers, DCX spends $11,541,720 a year simply on supplying their workforce with coffee. Furthermore with an annual income revenue of $192.319 billion, both of these costs together are still a very minor cost to the company (0.01%).

Therefore, how can the NHTSA actually think they are succeeding when these fines are equivalent to $5 parking tickets to the average citizen. State College has $5 parking tickets and I still park illegally and forget to pump the meters with money.

If Congress and the NHTSA wants to affect change then they need to dramatically increase the level of fines. Otherwise they should simply throw the towel in and give up.

Conspiracy

I have always had a strong penchant for conspiracy theories. I love them. In a word they're "fun" and it doesn't even matter if they make any rational sense. I think I actually like the crazy ones that no one believes even more. Favorites of mine include:

• General Motors Streetcar
• Pearl Harbor - Advance Knowledge
• Apollo Landing
• Philadelphia Experiment

But, I believe I have found a new favorite. I was randomly looking through Google Video when I came across a documentary by Dylan Avery called "Loose Change 9-11". The theory is the government was behind 9/11. Not only is this breaking news to me but it reminds me of the Operation Northwoods conspiracy theory.

This documentary is an hour long. I know what you're thinking ("screw that, I'm not watching an hour long bullshit documentary") and thats how I initially felt, but the first few minutes hooked me and I couldn't stop watching.

The documentary was suprisingly well detailed and actually has researched evidence to back up a lot of its claims. I don't want to give too much away but here are the major points of the film:

• What if the Twin Towers were not hit by commercial airliners?
• What if the Twin Towers were brought down in a controlled demolition?
• What if the Pentagon was not hit by a plane?
• What if Plane 93 was shot down?

I don't want to spoil the film for anybody who wants to watch it so I'll stop giving away any more details. If I can say anything, check out the film. Even if you don't believe it, its entertaining.

The link to documentary can be found here.

Overtime

Last night's Orange Bowl was crazy. Penn State beat Forida State, 26-23. It was definitely an instant classic, even without the media blitz talking about the Paterno - Bowden matchup. I was on the edge of my seat, clutching a pillow, and biting my nails since Florida State returned a punt for their first touchdown.

I might have to return to Christianity, because I was definitely praying during each one of the three overtimes. Thankfully, Kevin Kelly redeemed himself in the third overtime after Cismesia blew his kick when the ball struck the right upright. Kelly made a 29 yard field goal after missing two prior and became the game's hero.

But the real topic that I want to get at here is my love for College Football and primarily their superior overtime system. For those who aren't familiar, in College Football each team gets a chance to score from the 25-yard line. In Pro Football, its a sudden death system where the first team to score wins. Pro Football's system is horrible. Sudden death works in soccer, hockey, and many other sports, its horrible for Football. Football doesn't have the constant turnover between offense and defense like the other sports I mentioned.

Sudden Death in football basically all comes down to the coin flip. Is it truly fair to not allow the team that lost the coin flip to not have a rebuttal? No, of course not. It would be unheard of in Beer Pong, so why is it allowed in Professional Football? Pro Football needs to wise up and reform its overtime policy.

Fiesta

So I now longer have two brothers. They're dead to me, I no longer recognize them as family. Why, you ask? Well, lets just say that one invited me over to his place to watch the Fiesta Bowl between Ohio State and Notre Dame where everyone present had gone out and bought Florida State shirts and Notre Dame hats specifically to piss me off. They succeeded.

But at the same time, I pissed them off. Two of them attend Michigan State and hate Ohio State as a result, the other two like Michigan and therefore hate Ohio State. As an a student at Penn State, they couldn't understand why I was rooting for Ohio State. But the thing is, I don't like Ohio State either. I just hate Notre Dame more than I hate Ohio State. Its a simple concept. Its the same reason why I rooted for Ohio State when they beat Miami in the national championship a few years ago. Besides, with the exception of Michigan, I like to see Big Ten teams do well. If you frequently read my blog you know that there is only one team I hate more than Notre Dame: the evil incarnate team of Michigan. I'm so sick and tired of hearing about how its such a storied program and how fatass Charlie Weiss is already a god yet its so tough beating BYU, Navy, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Stanford and losing to Michigan State.

So all of this combined, my hatred for Notre Dame and now fuming hatred for my brothers, no ex-siblings and his friends, you can understand the terrific joy I felt when Notre Dame got stomped by Ohio State (OSU 34 - ND 20). It was quite a sight to be seen. By halftime with a score of 21-7, everyone but me pretty much gave up watching the game and even friends of mine in Baltimore gave up and drove to Philadelphia where they were planning to meet up with a group of people to watch Penn State shit stomp Florida State in the Orange Bowl. Ah, I really can't explain the happiness that has been flowing through my body. Its an unexplainable satisfaction to know that Notre Dame has lost their eighth consecutive bowl game. I feel like Bruce Dickinson after a four hour solo of cowbell. Its that good.

But not to worry though. I hear that Charlie Weiss hasn't taken the loss too hard. From insider reports I've read, Ohio State coach Jim Tressel wanted to ease Weiss' pain and so he hand delivered the fatass ten Burger King Whoppers and Weiss' pain was immediately gone.