Bah.

I'll post something later.

Football and me

My problem with football has always been this: It's boring. It's the same thing over and over again (kind of like baseball, basketball, soccer, tennis, golf..... etc). It's always 20 people running into each other and someone trying to catch a ball. This is exciting... why? I understand the concept of the sport and I even understand a lot of the rules, but in the end, it's repetetive and boring. This can be said about most sports, though; even hockey at times. My other problem with football is that there are only 16 games played in a regular season... and there is a week off (or more) in between every game! Now explain to me why the team who wins the Super Bowl at the end of the whole ordeal is deserving of such an honor? They play 19 games (?) in total. Whoopdy-frick. They get all the time in the world to rest and relax in between every single game. This is not a battle for supremacy, this is a holiday resort in Tahiti.

Sports like hockey, however, is a battle. That's what makes it fun to watch and follow. They play 82 games throughout their regular season, play games in back to back days, rarely get more than a few days off, let alone a week or even two. They work so much harder than football players, too. In football, players much focus their energy and give their all in a short, 30-second burst. Big whoop. Every time a hockey players steps onto the ice, it's an entire shift of pure 110% effort. It's giving your all the entire time you're on the ice. It's hard. It's fast. People are checked through sheets of plexiglass. Football players can hit hard, but wouldn't last a minute in the NHL after getting slammed into the boards by a 6'4, 220lb defensemen while traveling at 10mph on skates.

I suppose all that was just to say... it's rare... VERY rare that I ever even let my TV land on a channel showing another sport.

I watched a football game last night... almost in its entirety. This is a first for me. The only reason I watched it was because it was in hi def and looked quite pretty on my TV, but the point remains, I watched it. It wasn't entirely unentertaining either. I'm not a football fan in the least, but it was not unpleasant to watch a bunch of fat and angry men run around in -2 degree (F) weather. I'm only entertained if someone gets their head taken off by a bone crunching check (hm... no, that's not right. That's hockey. This is football... what do you call those things?.. ah, right. Tackles.) or if someone runs the length of the football field for a touchdown and proceeds to do an endzone dance. While I did the see the former, I did see the latter (to an extent) and was adequately entertained for a few moments. After the effect wore off, I went back to watching the yellow piece of trash that was tumbling across the field (a yellow piece of paper that I thought was a flag at one point). It looked pretty in hi def.

While I may not have directly paid attention to the game itself, I was on the channel and looking at the TV. That's a plus in my book, I think.

So now there's this thing called the Super Bowl. Have I ever watched one? No. I watched the commercials, though. Funny stuff. Do I have any real desire to watch the Super Bowl? No, not really. In light, however, of my recent and not terrible experience with the National Football League, (and provided nothing better is showing on the Discovery Channel, G4 Network, or the Cartoon Network) I might watch a minute or two (but only if it's in hi def). If that time is not awful, I might watch more of it. I give you no promises I'll be paying attention, though. Should a bird fly into view of the camera, I assure you my focus will change to that quite quickly. Birds amuse me. Field goals don't. Still, though, there's that chance I might watch it. This is an exciting and new chapter to my life. The beginning of toleration. That doesn't happen often either. Exciting time, my friends.

I guess the whole point of what I'm trying to say is... hockey's better.

Cyber Nations

You should all sign up and play Cyber Nations. It's fun and free.

www.cybernations.net

You make a country, build it up, trade with other nations, join alliances, and war with people. It's quite a lot of fun.

Here is my nation: http://cybernations.net/nation_drill_display.asp?Nation_ID=170094

Don't...

Don't pick your nose in the car. We can all see you.

As I drove home from work the other day, the girl in the car behind me proceeded to pick her nose, look at it, then grin. Fortunately, I didn't see what she did with it.

If you're sitting at a stop light, just look ahead. Don't make yourself look foolish.

A great day for the Capitals

Ovechkin, Capitals Agree To Deal

Alexander Ovechkin agreed to a 13-year, $124 million contract extension with the Capitals on Thursday. The former Calder Trophy winner was in the final year of a three-year, entry-level deal.

(Thanks to espn.com/nhl for this.)

Washington Capital fans, rejoice. Alex Ovechkin isn't going anywhere for a long, long time.

This spells disaster for the Southeast Division who, under the current scheduling system (which should change next season), sees the mighty AO 32 times in an 82 game season. Ovechkin has torched every single team in the Southeast and will continue to do so for years to come. This is a great deal for Washington and its fans...

...in the short term. What happens when in 4 or 5 years Ovechkin gets injured and sits for half a season? What happens when, as some stars do, AO cools down and he becomes just another name in a long list of scoring stats?

The problem with these super long term deals, as I see it anyway, is that there are so many variables that can happen at any point down the road. Rick DiPietro's 15-year contract with the New York Islanders, Mike Richards 12-year deal with the Philadelphia Flyers, and now Ovechkin's 13-year deal with the Capitals. (I'm not sure that when people sign these contracts that they truly acknowledge just how long they are. DiPietro will be in his 40's when his contract runs out and Richards and Ovechkin will be in their mid to late 30's.) While all three players are truly wonderful athletes and (currently) assets to their teams, it cannot be healthy to anyone to sign players to such long contracts. If Ovechkin gets hurt or simply doesn't play as well, the Capitals will be stuck paying him an outrageous amount of money for a long, long time. In fact, because of that, these superstar players suddenly have no more motivation to give their game their all. Why bother when in the end, you're still getting paid insane amounts of money?

Deals like this hurt the team. Selfish players can break the team and your wallet. So can injuries. The same situation applies to injuries. DiPietro has been hurt quite a bit this season already and has missed a number of games. The team's owners are still paying him countless millions anyway. This hurts the team because whether or not he plays, he counts against the salary cap. These long term deals, which most often include no-trade clauses for the players, make it impossible to keep core players around long enough to make a legitimate run for the playoffs or for Lord Stanley's Cup. Players demand millions more than they currently make after having good seasons. If they don't get that from their native team, they go elsewhere.

These players aren't worth this much money either. DiPietro with a 15yr/$67 million deal, Richards with a 12yr/$62 million (?) deal, and Ovechkin with a 13yr/$124 million deal. Are athletes... or really anyone... really worth this much money? No. It's obscene. It does nothing but hurt you in the long run.

Not wasting any time!

Boy, event planners of 2008 aren't wasting any time getting things moving, are they? Right off the bat, we have state caucuses for the US Presidential race, then we have Iranian speedboats foolishly (nay, idiotically) harassing US warships, and then here in Florida we have a 70 car pileup due to a combination of fog and smoke (the smoke coming from a "controlled" burn that suddenly went out of control).

Now, only one of these items isn't bad. Well, I suppose that depends on how you look at it, lol, but only two of them could have (or in the case of #3, DID) taken lives. Still, though, despite the bleak outlook at the start of a fresh new year, this year looks to be quite eventful. Eventful = Great! Life gets boring. World news is fun. I know it could be better world news, but it's still news and it's new. New is exciting. Good or bad.

Honestly, I've never voted, but I'm an unnofficial republican. Why? I like the name better than democrat... and I'd rather be an elephant than a jacka... er... Well, a donkey. I don't know who I'd vote for, though. I suppose if I had to pick right now, I'd vote for either John McCain or Rudy Guiliani (though the latter will probably not make it to the final race). If neither one winds up on the final ballot, I hope it's Mike Huckabee. Despite his tax issues, I have no real issue with him.

Despite who wins, though, I hope it's not Hillary. I have no problem whatsoever about a female being president. Men and women are equal. I just don't want that woman to be Hillary. I don't want her running the country for another 8 years (do you really think it was Bill for 8 years before? If so, pass the weed, bro.). I'm not sure how I feel about Obama. My biggest issue with him is that he's a Muslim. I'm sorry, but I don't want a Muslim running this nation. The fact that he's black has no bearing on my feelings. Like with women, black people are equal to everyone else and have just as much right to be a president as anyone else, but the fact that Mr. Obama is a Muslim deep down worries me. The United States was founded on Christian principles... I don't want to start seeing Qurans being sold at the local book store.

Before I get myself into more trouble for that entire paragraph, I'll move on the idiots that run Iran. I'm sorry, but do you really think harassing US warships is a good idea? I italicize the word warships for emphasis. They are WARships. These destroyers could have obliterated those Iranian speed boats at the dock before anyone had a chance to throw on a life jacket. They chose not to. In fact, Iran is only still around because we don't feel like taking the time to blast them into oblivion. The Iranian president, whose name I can't be bothered to remember or even spell for that matter, once said that he would wipe Israel from the face of the planet. Well, paco, we can wipe YOU from the face of the planet. It would be much less stressful for the rest of the world, too. It's one less scumbag wreaking havoc for everyone else unfortunate enough to be in the neighborhood of the Middle East.

Iran is obviously a terrorist country. It always has been. It just doesn't have the balls to step up and challenge the United States outright. So it resorts to petty little threats and speedboats. Come on, you pansies. If you have a problem with the US, come out and say it, step up, and do something about it, or sit down and shut yer yaps before we decide you're annoying enough to remove you from power. It can and would be done.

Iran is not a big enough threat to the world that we couldn't simply squeeze them to death with no more effort than it takes to pop a zit. They should realize that.

Anyway, that's enough about world events. It did give me something to write about, though, so that's a good thing. I've been rather quiet lately as a result of nothing interesting going on.

There was a 70 (though reports currently say 50) car pileup here in Florida this morning. Nasty stuff. 8 people confirmed dead and I'm sure there are still people trapped in their vehicles. Yuck. I'm glad I didn't have to take that road to work. I'd still be trying to get to work!

That's all for now.

It's a new year!

It's 2008! Time flies when you're having fun. I like new years. It's a fresh new year. It's a fresh new start. Time to make things different and better than years past.

Well, let's see. I bought myself a PlayStation 3. Pricey, yes, but well worth the money I spent. I got three games to go along with it: Resistance: Fall of Man, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and Assassin's Creed. All three simply blow my mind. Graphics-wise, gameplay, everything. They are simply amazing. They all run in Hi-Def on my 50" plasma. It's so beautiful. I weep tears of happyness whenever I fire up a game and play.

Assassin's Creed, my brother told me, was very irritating and boring because you have to do the same thing for every mission you get, but he was sadly mistaken (and so are those who wrote the review on it). AC is an amazing game. The graphics are top notch, the fighting system is second to none, and just the gamplay in general is fantastic. The only qualm I have about it is the storyline and the rather religious (or rather anti-Christian) aspect of the game. That's just my personal feeing, though. I still enjoy the game immensely.

CoD4 is very short, but still very fun. Once again, the graphics blew my mind and it was a ton of fun. The online play, which I've dabbled in a few times (though my internet likes to cut out in the middle of playing...), takes a lot of getting used to, but that's because you start out with cruddy weapons and have to earn your ranks to get better things.

Resistance was amazing, graphics-wise, and it was a great game for me to play first and test out the capabilities of the PS3. It set the standard for all the other games (which, wonderfully, met the bar and sometimes exceeded). I always love a good FPS, and Resistance delivered.

Anyway, that's all for now. Happy New Year!