Hodgepodge

What a fun word: hodgepodge.

1. OSU takes on Minnesota this Saturday. The game is going to be a late game and will be televised. Our neighbors are having a party and the game on a big screen, and the invite said that the local news channel will be broadcasting live from the party. We may go, but I don't know for sure. OSU is favored big against a struggling Golden Gophers squad.

2. Bionic Woman was good. You can definately tell that the Battlestar Galactica creators are behind the Bionic Woman. Not only the writing, but the cameos from BSG actors. Cheif Tyrol and Starbuck are in guest spots, and the lawyer from Baltar's trial is a permanent fixture on the show. It stinks though, because Bionic Woman is on at the same time as Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares and Criminal Minds. I am in DVR HELL!! I actually had to dig up a VHS tape and record BW the old scool way.

3. Bowling last night was OK. I was a little below average, but considering I set a losty average of 199 the first week, I was bound to slip a little. I think I ended up with a 540 series (about a 180 average) so I will drop down overall to a much more managable 190 average. I guess my dreams of joining the PBA are going to shit. Still it is always a fun night out.

4. I am going to try again to diet. It is SO hard considering my love of food and drink. Protein, salad, and water doesn't make for an exciting dining experience. Still, when I eat junk food, like I have this week, I feel like crap. Mostly worn down and I always have terrible heartburn. When I eat healthy, no heartburn.

I hope everyone has a good weekend. GO BUCKS!!

Halo 3 Overview

Woody is leary about it, but Lefty loves it. Halo 3 was released at 12:01 am Monday night (Tuesday am, technically). I posted about H3 already, but that was back when all I had to write about was the Beta test they had on Xbox Live. Now, I have the full version and have been playing alot of it. Not as much as Lefty, who said that he finished the campaign already. I am getting there, but I am trying to pace myself. My complaint about H2 was that the campaign seemed short, but that was probably because I played it non stop. I decided that I am going to complete the campaign, maybe twice, before I start gettingmy ass handed to me by 12 year olds on Xbox Live in the Slayer Pit.

So far, H3 has been alot of fun. There haven't been any big suprises like in Halo or H2. At least not yet. From reading Lefty's post, it seems as though there may be. There are a few changes to game play, but mostly more weapons and more vehicles. For example, if you find a gun turret, you can rip it off it's mount and run around with it. The only down side is that it is heavy and slows you down and it will run out of ammo and can't be reloaded. There are new gadgets too, which is a complete change for the Halo games. There is a bubble shield, deployable cover, power drainer, portable lift, trip mines, flares, and something that regenerates you. I won't go into all of their different uses, because I forget I carry them most of the time. Still, they add a nice new element to the game. I'm not going to spoil any secrets or suprises. However, if you have ab Xbox 360 and end up getting Halo 3, my XBox Live ID is EZE2112.

Another Spectacular Dr Who Episode

I was wondering, after the great 'Weaping Angels' show last week, how are the Dr Who writers going to keep the momentum going in this best season of Dr Who to date? They have used Daleks. They have used Cybermen. They have used Daleks vs Cybermen. What other nemisis from the classic Dr Who series could be trown at the new Doctor? The answer? The Master. If you never watched the old series, the Master is to the Doctor as Moriartyis to Holmes. Both are Time Lords and both are polar opposites. The doctor tries to make things good happen with his Time Lord power and the Master works from a place of anarchy and greed. I won't get into the episode too much, but if you saw the previews from last week, you know Captain Jack is in the show and an 'ancient enemy' is back. Still another home run by the Dr Who writers. I can't wait for part two this week.

Big Boobs Do Not A Hooters Girl Make

Jessica and the kids went to King's Island with my mom and cousin Carrie yesterday. Honestly, it was nice having the house all to my self. I had to work, but it was a nice, quiet setting for a change. Anyway, since they were gone, I had to fend for myself for dinner. I decided to go to the new Hooters down the road for some chicken wings. Now, before you call me a perv or a womanizer for going to Hooters, just know that I genuinely LOVE the wings there. They are meatier than BW3's and I like the hot sauce alot. So, I went, got a beer, and snacked on some yummy grub. Now, if you don't know, all of the servers there are women and they all dress in short-shorts and tight tops with their boobies popping out. I had never been to the new Hooters just down the road from me, but I had been to the other two in Columbus. The girls are all pretty, but there are some that just should not try to squeeze themselves into those Hooters outfits. Now, I know that I am not attractive or in shape and if I were to try to wear one of those Hooters outfits, people would run. That's my point though. I would NOT subject people to the site of me in a Hooters outfit. The women at the Hooters weren't run away bad, but some of the girls should reconsider the Hooters Girl look. They may think, "But I have Big Boobs." Yes, but you weigh 185. All in all, my meal was very yummy and the girls were all nice and attractive. There were just one or two that made me wonder if they had a mirror at home.

Ladies, I am sorry if the previous post offends you. I love all women: short, tall, skinny, chubby, white, black, Asian, Latina, Arabic, red heads, blondes, brunettes, young (not TOO young), old (not TOO old), you name it. I am in no way advocating that all women should be skinny with big boobs. You are all beautiful. To explain my point in a different way: would you like to see me at a Chippindales male review? No, you wouldn't. That's why I would never work as a male stripper.

As a side note, OSU won BIG and Cleveland Browns lost by 2. The Indians won their division though. Go Tribe!

I Hate The Big Ten Network

I have mentioned that I hate the Big Ten Network. I just wanted to say it again. Instead of watching Big Ten games on the networks all day, I have to watch games that I don't really care about. Like, some Florida team against Kentucky. SNORE!! Oh, there is also Kent St vs Akron. SNORE!!!

I also hate Time Warner Cable for not picking up the Big Ten Network. They don't want to pay the extra money it would take to carry the channel. It would only be a buck or two per customer if they were to pick up the Big Ten Network. I would pay it.

On a side note, OSU just scored against Northwestern, two minutes into the game. GO BUCKS

Big Ten Kicks Off

Ohio state has it's Big Ten opener tomorrow. They take on the Northwestern Mildcats. It should be a W for the Buckeyes, since Northwestern is having an off year. You never know though. Once the Big Ten season kicks off, all bets are off. Depending on which OSU offense shows up, it can always be a close game. If the Buckeyes stay on track with their balanced offense, they should win them all, up until the first big test of the year against Penn State followed by another big test against Wisconsin. An 8-0 start sounds great to me. A perfect season sounds even better, but I don't know that I would want to be in the title game against LSU or USC after last year's beat down by Florida. One thing at a time though.

In other games, Penn State is getting their crack against M*ch*g*n this weekend. This is usually a game I try to watch, since both teams are traditionally Big Ten power houses. However, with the Wolverweenies bad start, this game has lost some of its luster. I may switch my picture in picture from the UM v Penn St. game and the LSU v South Carolina game. I have to admit that I like LSU. They are my favorite team (after OSU) to use on NCAA 08. Still, I'd rather see LSU lose this one so that OSU can move up in the rankings. One thing at a time though, eh?

GO BUCKS!!

A Few More Things

1. My Bowling League starts tonight. Thursday is now the greatest day of the week again. I get to go out of the house, hang with the boys, and blow off some steam. There is also a Thursday night poker game right across the street from the bowling alley. Total guys night out package. There are strip clubs all over the place in the area if I want to try for the trifecta (kidding). I love the family, but a night out is exactly what I need sometimes. Hopfully, I can keep my average around 190's this year. I think it would be too much to ask for a 200 average.

2. I think I mentioned this before, but Dark Angel (season 2) was a farm for Battlestar Galactica. Gaeda, Duala, and Chief Tyrol all had bit parts. Dark Angel isn't the best show in the world, but it is a fun watch.

3. Smallville season 6 is out on DVD now. I went out and bought it on Tuesday. Smallville is a show that just keeps getting better and better. I won't go into it too much, in case you haven't seen the show, but I will say it is worth the watch. They are making Lana Lang Smallville's rollercoaster. Everyone gets a ride. Also, they introduce the beginnings of the Lustice League of America. The Green Arrow, Cyborg, Aquaman, and Flash team up with Clark to foil one of Lex Luthor's schemes. It was a pretty good episode.

A Few Things....

1. Cleveland defeated Cincinnati in the NFL yesterday. It was one of the first times in a long while that I watched a Cleveland Browns game and I watched from start to finish without turning it off in disgust. The offense look GREAT. Woody isn't too happy about this, being a Bengals fan. I, however am THRILLED. It was a HUGE change from last weeks ass-kicking they took from Pittsburgh.

2. Torchwood works for me. It is a Dr. Who spin off that has started running on BBC America. It is similar in plot to The Men In Black movies, in that, there is a covert group of special agents that track and capture aliens that land on Earth. It is a Dr Who spin off in that, Torchwood was created by the queen back in the 1800's after an encounter with the Doctor. Also, it has a character named Captain Jack Harkness, who was in several Doctor Who episodes. He is from the future, so I'm not really sure how he came back to the 21st century. He is also invincible after being resurrected by Rose when she was infected by the Time Vortex. If you watch Dr. Who, you understand.

3. Best Doctor Who ever this past Friday. If you haven't seen it yet, you are in for a treat. Usually, the really good episodes are two or three parters, like when there are Daleks or Cybermen, but this was a stand alone episode and it was spactacular. I made Jessica watch it and she really enjoyed it too. It was a very creepy episode. The strange thing about the episode is that the Doctor and Martha were barely in it. The episode revolved around Sally Sparrow, who has to solve a mystery in order to save the Doctor. I won't go into it, but WATCH THE SHOW!!! I think that Doctor Who may be becoming my favorite show to watch. It is still a close second to BSG, but if they keep going down this 'Cylons can hear Jimmy Hendrix' path, I may need to make a change. I mean, come on! Cylons could listen to Jimmy, but they could never HEAR Jimmy.

4. Is anyone else looking forward to the debut of the Bionic Woman? I have some doubts, but I believe this show is from the creators of BSG, so I am on board. At least for a few episodes. Also, coming up soon is the season premire of Heroes. Yeah! I love when new shows start and I can stop watching crappy television.

5. So far, Bioshock is pretty good. It is very creepy and a little scary to play. Basically, you are in a plane crash near the entrance of Rapture, and under water city where scientists are give free reign to do any kind of experiment they want. It basically drives the entire population insane and you have to figure out why. Lots of killin' of crazies. I won't get into it much, but so far it is fun.

6. OSU went up a spot in the polls. You'll get that when you play a good game and beat your opponent convincingly. They are now #9. GO Bucks!

Finally looking Top ten

Ohio State looked pretty good yesterday against Washington. The final score was 33-14. It should have ended 27-7, but Washington's offense scored in the final minutes agains the Buckeyes' second string defense. The first half was a little slow, with Washington taking a 7-3 lead on a last mintue TD pass, but Ohio State was running the ball and moving pretty well. It wasn't until the second half that the Offense took over, scoring 24 points. The last OSU touchdown was a simple run play that broke open into a touchdown. I don't think they were trying to score, it just happened. It was one of those things that, the player still wants to make a play, even if the game is basically over. Still, this has been the first game where OSU appears to deserve their top ten status.

Side note #1 - Notre Dame is terrible this year. Being my second favorite team, I must say I get a chuckle out of this. All of the ass kissing thrown at ND's direction irritates me and now they suck. I think it is hilarious. M*ch*g*n killed them 38-0.

Side note #2 - Cleveland is leading Cincinnati 13-7. I need to rub this in on Woody now because I doubt it will last the whole game.

Bioshock

I have been a little bored with my Xbox games lately, so I went out and bought Bioshock. Actually, I traded some games for it. I got rid of Oblivion, NCAA 07, and Crackdown. I would keep playing Dead Rising, but my disk got scratched somehow. Anyway, I needed something other than NCAA 08 and my poker game to occupy my Xboxing hours. At least until Halo 3 comes out. The guy as Game Stop said that Boishock was fun. I haven't had the time to play it yet, but it looks pretty cool. It seems like it will play like Prey, where you need to use things in your environment to get through the game. From what I've read, you get taken down to an underwater city full of genius scientists who have run amuck. Or, their experiments have gone amuck. My guess is that you need to go around and stop thes scientists and their experiments. After I start playing, I will update you and let you know how things pan out. I may get held up once Halo 3 comes out. I just needed something to get my FPS groove on.

I am starting to hate ESPN

Ok, I don't normally watch ESPN too much, but I have been watching quite a bit this week. I'm not sure why. Probably because my mom is visiting and, instead of playing my Xbox, I have the TV on something that everyone likes a bit: sports. My parents both like Indians baseball and football (pro and college). I also like watching poker, which has been on ESPN all week. Anyway, I am getting sick of shows like Sports center and the other 'news' shows on ESPN this week. Why? Because they are taking stories and beating them to death and also wasting time with non stories (in my opinion).

The story they are beating to death is about that Bills player that had a spinal cord injury. I feel really bad for the guy, honestly. It is terrible that something like that would happen to anyone. What bothers me is the constant replay of of the hit that caused the injury. Over and over, different angles, in slow motion, close-ups, and then showing him twitching: basically, they are using the most terrible moment in this man's life to improve their ratings. I think it is sick. I know it is a story, but they should show the guy a little bit of respect and allow him to have some privacy and dignity, instead of using the worst moment of his life to gain ratings. Tell the story, then let it go.

The non-story is the insane amount of coverage that the Notre Dame vs UM game is getting. ESPN.com has UM as their main cover story. Two 0 and 2 teams playing each other isn't news, it is a joke. Sure, It is news that these teams, who are usually top in the country, are both 0-2, but now that they proved they suck, why should anyone care that these two disappointments are playing each other? I don't. I guess one team's fans will be happy about a W, but there are plenty of 0-2 teams out there and none of them are getting near the same attention. What about the 2-0 Buckeyes going to 2-0 Washington? Both teams are 2-0, OSU is #10 in the country, and Washington has two big wins over quality teams, but the game is barely scoring a blip on the radar. Oh well. I am over it already. If they big college football news is that both M*ch*g*n and Notre Dame suck, I am ok with it. It could be worse. They could be covering OSU being terrible if they had lost their first two games....... Good thing they are 2-0 and ranked 10 in the nation. I just hope that the offense blows the 3 point spread out of the water.

GO BUCKS!

Same Old Browns

I had my head in the ground a while ago when I thought that the Cleveland Browns were going to turn things around this season and be pretty good. Why wouldn't think that? they had a pretty good pre-season and won three of four games. They looked pretty good. My eyes have been opened though. After a solid 34-7 ass kicking by the Steelers, I no longer have any illusions of grandeur. unless things change drastically, they will have another terrible season. I have to scratch my head and think, 'why?' Is it the coach? Lack of players? Why is it that some teams are bad for a while and then end up becoming one of the NFL's power houses? Maybe when Brady Quinn learns enough of the offense to start playing, things might improve. However, with the way the O-line was letting Frye get killed all day, I doubt Quinn will want to start. In Frye's defense, there were alot of dropped passes and fumbles that weren't his fault. It was a pretty bad display over all. A poor team effort. I'll give them a few more games before I swith over to the Colts bandwagon.

What a Weird Game

I went to the OSU game yesterday. It was pretty fun, but the first half was pretty painful to watch. The OSU defense was stellar, allowing Akron to gain only 71 yards of total offense. 30 of those yards were allowed in the fourth quarter after the first string defense was taken out. The only points allowed were from a safety and the final score was 20-2. One thing that Akron has going for them is one hell of a punter. He pinned OSU deep on several occasions and could really kick the shit out of the ball. OSU's offense looked terrible in the first half and only managed a field goal. Yup, at the half, the score was OSU 3, Akron 2. Boeckman threw two interceptions and OSU gave up two fumbles. Even with those mistakes, Akron's defense really came to play. I think they just wore down in the second half and OSU's running game finally took over the game. The band looked and sounded great. I was really impressed. Sure they always look and sound good, but you know how it is: "The band was always better when I was a member...."

On a side note, M*ch*g*n got their asses handed to them by Oregon. It was really embarrasing for The Blue and their fans. There were anti-Carr posters in the crowd at the game and cheers from the crowd when Henne (the QB) got hurt and was replaced by his backup. Wow. They went from #5 in the nation to an unranked joke. All of their offensive starters, that would have been drafted, returned for one more chance at the National and Big Ten Titles and a chance to beat OSU. Now it is doubtful that they will end up with a winning record. An 0-2 start is unheard of up in Ann Arbor. I almost feel a little bad for them. Almost. Still, if they can get their defense in order, they could be a threat down the road.

Weekend Fun

I have a busy Saturday planned. I am getting up at 7:00 so that I can meet up with my marching band buddy, James, for a trip to campus for the OSU vs Akron football game. I wasn't going to go to a game this season, with the ticket prices to high, but when the words 'free ticket' came into the conversation, I couldn't resist. James and his wife get season tickets (they are grad students) and she is preggers and doesn't want to wear herself out at the not-so-exciting games. Good news for me! Sure, I would rather have tickets to a Big Ten game, but I am not going to be pickey. Not only is James hooking me up with a free ticket, he has some friends that are having a tailgate party before the game. Free eats and drinks too! I guess the tailgaters are from the percussion section after I left the band. James also has contacts in the band still, so we are going to be sitting on the floor for Skull Session. That is the band's warm up session over at St John's arena. Usually, the arena is packed and you have to get there super early for a seat or sit up in the nose bleed section. Since we have floor seats, we can mosey in late and enjoy good seats. James also wants to hit Rally at Riverwatch or Hineygate (or both). Then the game, of course, followed by a party at our house for Jessica's birthday. Nothing big, but I will need to get the food ready and clean up some. It should be pretty fun. I just wish that fun activities like this would spread out a bit. I would rather have the game one weekend and then the party another weekend, but this is how things worked out. I will just need to recover for a while Sunday.

Go Bucks!

I suck

I have been trying to improve my NCAA 08 football skills. I haven't had so much luck in the matter. I don't think that I am coordinated enough. I can run some plays really well and I can beat the crap out of the AI opponent in the Dynasty mode, but when it comes to playing live opponents, I keep getting beat. Not always badly, but my record is something like, 7 and 16 or worse. The problem is, I play anyone that challenges me, no matter what their ranking may be. Some of the people I play obviously play alot and have put in the time it takes to know all of their teams plays, strengths and weaknesses. I don't have that time. I know a few playes that work well most of the time, but I have a hard time adjusting my game when necessary. One of the things I am starting to play with more are the audibles on offense and putting men into motion. I think that once I get used to calling motion and checking to hot routes, I will starting seeing more results. I tried playing around with these options in a game last night and got my asshanded to me. I am not fast enough on the uptake to make adjustments. Another problem I have is that I am not really quick with checking down to additional reveivers. I tend to focus on one receiver instead of being able to see all of them and then hitting the right button to pass to the open guy. I would see the A receiver open and hit X. Interception. I think I just need to play around with the game some more and get better at my reads and progressions. I hope to someday get my record to .500.

Bad Beat Weekend

In two ways:

First, I had a card game Friday. I came in third, but the bad beat came down to the last two players in the last hand. Mike had Q-2 and josh had 10-2. the flop came up Q-2-6, so Mike had two pair and Josh was crushed with only having bottom pair (QQ-22 vs 22). The only way for Josh to win the hand and the game, was for the turn and river cards to both be 10's. Basically, a 1% chance of winning. The turn came up a 10. Now he had a 4% chance to win. Low and behold, the river was another 10. Wow. I have never seen anything like that happen before.

Now, the bigger beat: M*ch*g*n getting beat at home by Div 1-AA Appalachian State. WHAT!!!???!!! On one hand, it is always good to see M*ch*g*n lose and even better to see them humiliated by a team they should have dominated, but this is really a bad blow to the Big Ten conference. One of its power house teams was beat by a team that isn't even programmed into the NCAA 08 football game. Granted, App State is the two time defending champion of the Div 1 AA conference, but they shouldn't be able to beat any Div 1 school, right? I can imagine all of the tears and cries for Lloyd Carr's head on a pike up in Ann Arbor. What does this mean for the rest of the Big Ten? Well, it is possible for the Wolverweenies to regroup and come back strong, but if their defense doesn't gel, the Big Ten race could come down to OSU and Wisconsin. Fine by me. Still, I always like to see UM do well so that The Big Game at the end of the season has more meaning.

As a side note, OSU won their opener against Youngstown State by alot. they didn't look too fancy, but there were few mistakes on either side of the ball and the new QB, Boeckman didn't make any bad mistakes and looked good on several plays. The running game could have been better, considering they were going aginst a Div 1 AA team themselves. Still, it was a starting point for the season and the next few games should be smooth sailing. Hopfully, the Buckeyes will take away a lesson from UM's bad beat: just because you should win a game, doesn't mean you will.

So Much To Post

I have a few things I want to post about today, but will try to keep things simple. I will get into this past weekend of football later in the week.

Last night, Jessica and I went to see Rush, my all time favorite band. It was great! I was a little concerned with getting there on time since Jessica had to work and then I-71 was backed up pretty badly, but we got there in time for me to use the little boys' room and get to our seats. We had pretty good seats, but were farther back than I would have liked. We were in section F, row EE, which was center stage at least. I could see the guys really well and had a full view of the stage, so I was happy. Here is what they played:

Limelight
Digital Man
Entre Nous
Mission
Freewill
The Main Monkey Business
The Larger Bowl
Secret Touch
Circumstances
Between The Wheels
Dreamline

INTERMISSION

Far Cry
Workin Them Angels
Armor and Sword
Spindrift
The Way The Wind Blows
Subdivisions
Natural Science
Witch Hunt
MalNar
Drum Solo
Hope
Summertime Blues
The Spirit of Radio
Tom Sawyer

ENCORE

One Little Victory
A Passage to Bangkok
YYZ

I enjoyed all of it except for the cover song, Summertime Blues. I think that a group with such a huge library of great songs shouldn't play covers, even if it is one of their favorite songs. they could have slipped in 2112 Overature in its place and I would have been WAY happier. They also played a few of their "B side" songs, like Digital Man and Witch Hunt. I also thought the encore could have been stronger than One Little Victory and A Passage to Bangkok. YYZ was great though. I was suprised that they skipped Closer to the Heart and Working Man, which are always crowd favorites. Still, they hit Spirit of Radio, Tom Sawyer, and played most of the songs off of the new album. I tried to call Rinnert during the drum solo, he answered, but I don't think that he could understand anything I said over the sound. He hung up. My guess is that the live concer doesn't translate well over the phone. Still I hope I made him jealous. The solo was GREAT by the way. Over five minutes easy. My highpoints were when they played Natural Science (my favorite song by Rush), Dreamline (which had a spectacular laser show to the music), and Far Cry (which had pyrotechnics). I hooted and hollared almost the entire show. I think I may be getting old since this mellow, new sound of Snakes and Arrows is growing on me. I listen to the album more than anything else on my Ipod at the moment.

The boys are showing that they are still having fun with an intro of animated snakes and arrows. Alex Lifeson wakes up acting scared and says, "Wake up honey. I just had the strangest dream... there were snakes everywhere, and arrows." Neil Peart gets up next to Alex, they look at each other and scream. Then, Geddy Lee is dreaming of a Scottish man, played by Geddy Lee, yelling and belittling him (Geddy). It was funny. Then, the South Park boys are dressed up as "Lil' Rush" (Cartmen was Geddy) and start playing Tom Sawyer. Cartman sings the lyrics something lite, "The real Tom Saywer built a boat and went down the river with a black guy..." Stan tells him to, "Shut up fat ass, thise aren't the right words. That's huck Finn you dumb ass. Let's try it again, but do it right this time. One, Two, three...." and, of course real Rush kicks into tom Sawyer. It was pretty funny. Holy cow what a great show!