YouTube Video of the Day...Plus Picks!

If you haven't seen this video yet, its pretty damn funny.

Also wanted to get my picks up so I could at least keep that going for now. Did better last week, going 3-3. Maybe I won't be completely embarrassed by doing this after all...then again...

Miami (-2) over Virginia Tech (Alright, I'm on the UM bandwagon, they will abruptly implode)

Houston (-1) over Texas Tech (If this doesn't happen, Okla. St. was highly overrated)

California (-5.5) over Oregon (Jahvid Best is an absolute beast)

Atlanta (+4.5) over New England (Been riding the Falcons for a few weeks now)

Indianapolis (+2.5) over Arizona (Colts continue to find ways to win)

Detroit (+6) over Washington (Upset special! Lions break 19 game losing streak!)

NFL Thoughts and a Very Special Bonus Item

Ok, so if you are one of my readers who really hates football, you have my permission to skip right to the bottom for a can't-miss unveiling. Otherwise, please enjoy this post in its entirety.

So I’m actually “borrowing” this idea from ESPN the Mag. They occasionally run a item called “If Larry King wrote for us…”. Well, this is my interpretation and version of “If Larry King wrote about football…”. Hope you enjoy my/his thoughts and analysis on the season so far.

College

If the national championship rests on one ACL, it’s the one sitting inside USC RB Joe McKnight’s right knee….Whenever anybody asks me who my favorite ginger QB is, I always answer Georgia’s Joe Cox…If Ohio State never played Top 10 teams, they would win the BCS title every year!...I’ve been saying it for years, the major conferences need to watch out for that pesky Sun Belt…I’m not prone to hyperbole, but Tate Forcier is the best freshman QB to play for any team, ever…On a related note, Golden Tate is the greatest name that has ever graced the pages of a media guide…For my money, nothing is better than listening to Baylor’s “Old Fite” after a big touchdown.

NFL

If Derrick Brooks can’t find his way onto an NFL roster, then I really have no chance…Say what you will about his past failures, A.J. Feeley can’t possibly turn the ball over as much as Jake Delhomme…The most impressive thing I saw in week 1 was Brandon Stokley’s incredible route running ability!...Adrian Peterson could have had a very successful career modeling underwear or bending steel beams, we should all feel grateful he chose football…Forget the quarterbacks, what is the NFL going to do to protect the linebackers in this league!...If I had to pick one team to win more games than last year, I’m taking the Detroit Lions...I wish, just once, Tom Brady would come through on a game winning drive!

Picks

This is what I get for deciding to publish my picks on the Internet. A fabulous 1-5 week to start! To save some face. I did go 3-7 overall, but I put those 6 picks up because they were my “most confident.” Here we go for take two, hopefully I will do better or this part of the column might die an early death.

Nebraska (+5) over Virginia Tech (Time for the Huskers to re-establish dominance)

Utah (+5) over Oregon (Mid majors continue to haunt the Ducks)

Texas (-17.5) over Texas Tech (Revenge blowout special!)

Atlanta (-6) over Carolina (I again lean on my only winning team from last week)

Pittsburgh (-3) over Chicago (Yes, I’ve sold my soul to get a win this week!)

Oakland (+3) over Kansas City (Upset special!)

Ok, on to the Special Bonus promised. This guy I know, Jim, has some bands, and we decided to put a whole act together of two bands and a comedian (me), now called the Time Theft Phenomenon. We are pitching to some bars, and while we don't have anything confirmed yet, we definitely have some interest. To do this, Jim put together a CD of his bands playing and recorded a couple of tracks of me doing some of the first jokes I've put together. Now that I have some stuff recorded, I can finally share it with all of you. The track was only audio (and the laugh track was added by Jim), but I put it to some pictures and it is up on YouTube. Let me know what you think! I have more audios, but I'm not just giving these away, you got to earn it!

Breaking Up, Moving (On), & Starting a New Semester (Pt. 2)

Ok, welcome back to my life! I’ll get back to the sports and quirky posts soon, but as promised, here is part two of what has been going on with me lately.

So the new semester has started, and I am finally back to teaching my own class. It’s hard to believe its been 2 years since I’ve done so, but I find I’ve stepped back into it without much trouble at all. The material (research methods and design) is a little dry, but I spice it up as much as I can, add in some of my humor where possible, and the students seem to be engaged for the most part. Since I’ve never taught this full class before, it has taken me a fair amount of time to prep the classes and assignments, and the supervision portion of prepping the lab materials for TAs is more work than I anticipate (got a great group though, much love for any of my TAs reading this!). Bottom line, its great to be teaching again, and as much work and time as it takes, it feels like home to be in front of a classroom again. Can’t wait to do it for a real salary next year!

On that note, it is time for job applications again. Thus, on top of all this teaching, I am trying to finish up a couple of research projects and papers (so much fun!) to improve the resume and will soon be sending out a new batch of job applications. The market seems a little more open than last year (fingers crossed), and with another projects and service under my belt, I am hopefully an even more attractive applicant. I already sent out 2 apps to business schools with early deadlines (Cleveland St. & Illinois St.), and another group will be going out in the next 2-3 weeks. I will not bore you with every detail of what happens during this process, but I promise to keep everyone up-to-date on the big happenings. For those of you curious/worried about where I might be living next year, here are some of the upcoming openings I am most excited for, in no particular order: Univ. of Auburn (AL), Middle Tennessee State Univ. (tenure-track this time), University of Houston-Clear Lake, Texas State Univ.-San Marcos, Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis, Butler University (IN), and Towson University (MD). I also recently heard that Bowling Green is hiring a junior faculty this year, but I have not seen the official advertisement yet. Keep your fingers crossed for me. USF and grad school have been amazing, but I think its about time I graduate and get a J.O.B.

As an addendum to the last post, I realized something the other day. I've always said I'm very laidback person, and I really don't let things bother me. Part of me has always thought it is because I have been very fortunate in life, and part of why I am usually happy and upbeat is because my life is pretty darn good and always has been. And that is most certainly true. But maybe its time to finally stop looking at my life as lucky. A good friend recently reminded me that you make your own luck in life (and I truly believe he is starting to find his luck and am super happy for him). The recent events of my life haven't been perfect. I had to make possibly the toughest decision of my life in deciding against taking a pretty good job, went through a tough break-up, had to move into 2 apts in the span of 5 weeks, and have been extremely bogged down with a very large amount of work, just to name the big stuff. At one point, I stepped back and actually had the thought that all of this would have floored some people, and caused major distress for many others. But I never let it get me down because I know good stuff is just around the corner, and I just need to make it happen. It's just the way I've always been. As one of my favorite quotes says (from one Mr. Van Wilder): "Don't take life too seriously, you'll never make it out alive." And I don't say all this to make myself look good or gloat or anything like that. I just felt I needed to say it outloud because someone recently tried to tell me that part of being an adult is not being able to just "go with the flow."But I don't think that's true...I think being an adult is planning what you can, dealing with things when they come up, and living with the decisions you make. "Isn't that what makes a man, Mr. Lebowski?" "Sure, that a pair of testicles."

I think that will do for now. Enough of the boring, dry stuff, I am going to post some more football picks/analysis on Friday if I have the time (which I won’t, but I’ll need a study break anyway). And if I can get the website I’m working on going the way I want, that post should include something fun as well.

2009 NFL Preview Extravagance

It’s that time again! In just a few hours, the new NFL season will begin, and it can’t come soon enough. I could probably write pages upon pages about the NFL or football in general, and I hopefully will throughout the fall/winter, but for the sake of brevity. I will give a quick preview of each division, predict a winner, give my wild card teams, pick the champions, and leave with some weekly picks against the spread (direct from one of my football pools). Special thanks to Jacob, thanks to his comments on the last post, I realized I could afford to get a DVR and HD signal to watch all these games in the glory they deserve. Why can't the rest of you be more helpful!?!

AFC East: New England Patriots

Too good, too talented, and too well-coached. Not to mention, who in this division can beat them. Miami is likely to regress after overachieving last year (ask the Browns how that works out), and Buffalo and the Jets have too many question marks.

AFC North: Pittsburgh Steelers

The Super Bowl champs (damn that hurts to say) bring back pretty much everyone from last year. The Ravens will be tough on defense and make the playoffs, but won’t have enough to knock off the new Steel Curtain. The Browns avoid the cellar by one game over the hapless Bengals.

Bonus Browns Section: How do I think the Browns will do this year? I am going with an optimistic 7-9. I think Brady Quinn is going to be a very good quarterback in this league. I think there are some playmakers: hopefully Braylon, two young, fast RBs that Mangini will find a way to get on the field (James Davis, Jerome Harrison), and one of the rookie WRs (likely Mohamed Massaquoi, much love to my Bulldog fans out there!). The defense will be slightly improved. They will struggle early on against a brutal early schedule, but they find their stride late and win 4 of their last 6.

AFC South: Indianapolis Colts

I wouldn’t be surprised to see any of the teams in this division win it (even the Jags or the Texans). They all have playmakers, but they all have flaws. Colts are replacing a coach and a Hall of Fame receiver. Titans are counting on a 36-year-old QB to repeat a career year. Jaguars are a Maurice Jones-Drew injury from disaster, and the Texans are still quarterbacked by Matt Schaub last time I checked.

AFC West: San Diego Chargers

Another case of the best versus the rest. Denver is in shambles, Kansas City is in rebuilding mode and Cassell is already hurt, and the Raiders…well, they're the Raiders. Chargers get a bounce back year from LT, good production from backup Darren Sproles, and Philip Rivers becomes even more ungodly. Oh, and did I mention the physical freaks of nature they have defense? Some of them (Merriman, I’m looking at you) get so bored with football violence that they need to smack around bi-sexual MTV reality “stars.” Just kidding though, I’m siding with the Chargers LB over Tila on this one.

NFC East: Philadelphia Eagles

Michael Vick isn’t going to make the difference, but he will be an added playmaker. More importantly, McNabb finally has fast receivers and a backup RB for when Westbrook inevitably breaks down. Giants make the playoffs off their solid D and strong running game. Dallas and Washington overpay for 7-9/8-8 seasons as usual.

NFC North: Minnesota Vikings

I hate to even type that after the Favre situation. But I think their defense and the demi-god that is Adrian Peterson carry them to enough wins in what might be the toughest division in football. I would not surprised if the Vickings, Packers, or Bears won this division, or the even the NFC.

NFC South: New Orleans Saints

No team from the NFC South has ever repeated as NFC South champ, so that knocks out the Panthers. The Falcons are good team, but I see them making a slight regression like the Dolphins. The Saints offense is otherwordly. If their defense is even decent, they should be able to win this division. Sorry Bucs fans, that defense was finally deconstructed, and its time to start over.

NFC West: Seattle Seahawks

This division sucks. I’m sorry. It just does. I know the Cardinals made the Super Bowl last year, but only because they got hot at the right time. This year, I predict the Seahawks to stumble in based on good defense and relatively mistake-free offense…with a ripe record of 8-8.

AFC Wild Cards: Tennessee Titans, Baltimore Ravens

NFC Wild Cards: Green Bay Packers, New York Giants

AFC Championship: Chargers over Steelers

Come on, I couldn’t pick the Steelers to get back to the Super Bowl. I hate them too much.

NFC Championship: Eagles over Packers

No clear favorite in the NFC, so I go with the Iggles, who are due.

Super Bowl: Eagles over Chargers

Both these teams are due for a Super Bowl win. If this game actually happens, I will feel really bad for whoever loses. Here’s to assuming that these predictions will be completely off base. We’ll check back later in the season to be sure.

Picks of the Week: Assuming I post every week, I will try to include these at the bottom to see how poorly I can do. I give you a guarantee* that if you pick these games, you will win money 100% of the time.

*This is not a real guarantee and will not be honored in any way.

USC (-6.5) over Ohio St. (sorry fellow Buckeye fans, I just don’t see it)

Notre Dame (-3.5) over Michigan (in the Battle of the We-Used-To-Be-Relevant)

East Carolina (+6.5) over West Virginia (upset special!)

Atl (-4) over Mia (Matt Ryan & Michael Turner pick up where they left off)

NE (-10.5) over Buf (see above gushing paragraph about Patriots, oh I hate them)

StL (+8.5) over Sea (upset special!)

Breaking up, Moving (On), and Starting a New Semester (Pt. 1)

As promised, here is the first part of the mega-post of what is going on in my life. A lot has happened since the last time I actually had enough time to write a post (and to be real honest, I still don’t have the time, but I need a study break). I will split it into 2 (or maybe 3) separate entries to keep it manageable. The next part will be put up after I get back from a wedding in BG this weekend (of course, including details of that awesome event). I hope you give it a read though, as I know many people have been curious to how exactly I came to be sitting in my own apartment in Camden Live Oaks. And if you didn’t know that Abby and I broke up (or worse yet, didn’t know we were dating), then we don’t hang out nearly enough, and we should get together soon.

So yes, Abby and I broke up. I won’t get into too much detail because as much as I probably say more on this blog than I should, our personal business is our personal business. The basic premise is that living together shined a light on the fact that we just didn’t have the ability to live together. I thought I was doing everything I could to be the best co-habitator I could, since it was my first time living with a girlfriend. She, I assume, was trying to make it a comfortable experience for me as well. Nonetheless, we both felt out of place in our own home, which led to almost bi-nightly discussions. I am all about communication in a relationship for sure, but that is more often than one should be having state-of-the-relationship conversations. So in the end, she wanted to break up, and by then, I agreed with her that it was the right move. To answer the question that everyone either asks or is too tactful to ask, no, I don’t regret us moving in so soon. It was learning experience for me in a lot of ways, and we were confronted with issues that might have taken months or years to confront. Instead, we were able to get out with the least amount of pain and complications as possible.

That left me looking for a place on one week notice. I spent a full day going to several different places looking for affordable one bedrooms. Let me go ahead and tell you, unless you are willing to compromise the type of area you want to live in, “affordable one bedrooms” is an oxymoron. But I found a place at Camden Live Oaks (my 2^nd stint in that particular complex), that wasn’t too bad, and has free cable, which helps me save a few dollars. So I lived in our old apartment for a week (a week during which, despite having recently broken up with someone, I was actually quite happy, a fact that I think speaks volumes about this being the right move), and then moved all my stuff to this place during a surprisingly quick afternoon (special thanks to Jon, Alvin, & Jeff on that). I was actually able to pretty much get unpacked and settled in a day and a half (special thanks to Shyam & Lucky for donating their old futon which really helps “tie the room together”). And other than the large rent and full utility checks I write every month, I am absolutely loving living on my own! No offense to any of my former roommates out there, but at the ripe age of 27, it is nice to finally have my own place, and I don’t think I’m going to give it up until its time to move in with a fiancée (notice I didn’t say girlfriend for the next move-in experiment). As I get ready to head to the airport, let me leave with some of my favorite and least favorite things about living alone so far.

Things I Love About My New Apt

1. Leaving stuff where I want to for as long as I want

2. Doing whatever I want whenever I want

3. Related to #2, only wearing pants when I want

4. My own fridge, my own kitchen, no confusion about if something is mine, where a pan currently is, or bumping into people while cooking

Things I Less Than Love About My New Apt

1. My direct neighbor who has two small, very high-pitched dogs that bark at everything…all the time.

2. I’m not suppose to have a grill, I do anyway, but I hate having to hide it.

3. The free cable is great, but I miss my DVR. I’m not willing to pay for a full cable service just to have a DVR.

4. My own kitchen mentioned above happens to be pretty low on counter space, but I get by through being creative, and I may use the kitchen table in the other room if I have to.