We Are

Tonight The Wife and I went and watched We Are Marshall and before I get to the review I need to give a little back ground. The film is about the Marshall football team that died in a plane crash and the following year as the team starts to rebuild. I grew up outside Huntington, WVa where Marshall is located. I knew the story growing up. I even when to some games in the mid-eighties and early nineties until I graduated from high school. One of my dad's account was Marshall's athletic department so that's another connection. I remember when a player from my home town of Ironton died suddenly (I can not remember or even find his name right now), Marshall was on a national championship run in 1-AA and they were playing in his memory. That's the good part of my Marshall past.

Now the bad, once it was announced that Marshall was joining the Mid American Conference (same conference as my Bowling Green Falcons) and all of Marshall's fans and media writers blasted the MAC and said it was beneath them. The fans were rude to every MAC team including one game that a high level school officials pregnant wife had to be surrounded by security to protect her from the fans. Also, how can I for get about the student section being forced to move to the home side because teams complained about racial slurs. I made a personal agreement with myself after Marshall left the MAC that I could not consider not hating them until they had been out of the MAC for five years.

It's not been five years, but the story of a tragedy that effected everyone in the area forced me to want to see this movie. In 1970 Marshall's football team was flying back from a game against East Carolina when the plane crashed outside of Huntington. Pretty much everyone died. The university had to decide if it wanted to field a team the following year and the challenge to field a team the following year.

This was a great movie, The Wife and I started to tear up withing the first 10 minutes. It is a well written and shot movie the football action was shot in double time and slowed down which gave it a very crisp feel. Also I was surprised at Mathew McConaughey, normally in every movie he is in he plays Mathew McConaughey, but i seriously believed he was Jack Lengyel. Then there was co-star Jack Sheppard, I mean Matthew Fox he played Red Dawson the surviving coach from the 1970 team that switched spots with another coach and drove back to Huntington. He was emotional and you could feel the pain he had because of fate and losing a coach and players he recruited to play.

This film mas mostly shot in Huntington so throughout the most of the movie I'd lean over to The Wife and say I know where that is! That for me made the movie even more real. It was shot on campus, places that all locals know. They did not fake locations, they even used a lot of locals as extras and bit rolls.

Overall I teared up at least four times and I don't think The Wife ever stopped. We heard sniffling throughout the theater. If you love football, movies, or movies based off of real events, or you want to see how tragedy can be turned into good then you need to see this movie. I will be in line the night this movie is released on DVD. A++

Movie Watching

Just before we signed our leese on Fried Chicken Drive I signed up for the Blockbuster Online Movies. Before I moved Gostomski told me that Netflix because they have a faster deleivery. I will admit that may be true, but here is why I signed up with Blockbuster not only do you get 1 free store rental a week, you can take the movies sent you and return them to the store and pick up another movie for free.

Let me brake it down this way. In the mail I get A Muppets Christmas Carol, The Wife and I watch it, I take it back and pick up Little Miss Sunshine at the store, then Blockbuster sends me Ray. To compound that we signed up for the three movies at once deal so those three movies become 6-7 per week if not more!

So in the first month of this deal here are the movies we watched with my little rating on each movie.

1. A Christmas Story B+
   
2. Saints and Soldiers A
3. Ferris Bueller's Day Off B+
4. Christmas With the Kranks C-
5. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation B
6. The Muppet's Christmas Carol B-
7. The Manchurian Candidate C-
8. Pirates of the Caribbean 2 B+
9. Little Miss Sunshine C
   
10. Invincible A-
11. Lady in the Water C+
12. Clerks 2 B-
    
13. Thank you for Smoking C
14. An America Haunting C
15. Hostel D-
16. Cars B

The we still have two at the house

1. Garden State
2. Four Brother

So with in a month we have watched 16 movies and the plan cost 18 dollars a month. We are averaging a dollar a movie. I don't know how much longer we can last at the torrid pace, but I think I'm getting bed sores from sitting and watching so many movies.

indoor shoes

For almost all my life anytime I walk into my house I take my shoes and socks off. I don't know what it is, but I feel better the second I do it. So like Pavlov's dog I started to do this in North Carolina. After about two weeks I started to notice my feet were always sore. It got to the point where I was thinking I needed to go to the doctor for maybe some kind of stress fracture.

After we move into our place on Fried Chicken Drive the wife comments on how hard the kitchen floor was. At first i thought she was crazy, till I needed to do some cooking and after 10 minutes my feet were killing me. Since I do a lot of the cooking this be came a constant problem.

Flash forward to Christmas Day, I open a present and what do I see a pair of slippers. I'll admit this, I have never liked slippers and never understood why people liked them. They are pretty much indoor shoes. It always felt better to walk around barefoot. Also I get the image of an 80 year old man in his bathrobe and slippers walking outside and struggling to pick up the paper. I give The Wife the "Oh thank you. They... are... ummm nice." She then tells me they are for when I am in the kitchen so my feet won't be as sore. I get up slip them on and start walking around. At first it felt weird, kind of like walking with a pillow strapped to each foot. Then I started to really like it and that's when everything hit me.

This is the first place I have lived that does not have a basement, apartment, or some kind of crawl space underneath it. In North Carolina basements are non-existent so everything is build on a concrete slab. A HARD CONCRETE SLAB! That's why my feet are so sore. So I am now getting old. I wear slippers, so

GET OFF MY LAWN YOU WHIPPER SNAPPERS!

Christmas Day Semi Live blog

This is the first time in four years I have had to work on Christmas, and with news, Christmas day is generally boring and you do the same story every year (Unless something horrible like a deadly house fire occurs). So I am attempting to live blog my day. I will admit it's already 4:30 and I'm going to start this from the time I started off to work.

2:20pm- I leave the house with the new MP3 player in hand. I get a nice mix to drive to
Bel Biv Devo- Poison
Ash- Meltdown
U2- Beautiful Day
Ash- Life Less Ordinary
Jimmy Eat World- Bleed America
Ash- Burn Baby Burn

3:00pm- Get to work and find out that I'm either going to do a story about church services or about the monsoon. I'm hoping Church service.

3:15pm- Wonder about Levy's Mom so I go and visit the site and find out James Brown has died! It's a little weird because yesterday I cut some video of him giving out some toys to some kids. A legend has died. Most people will remember the last few crazy years from him, but he was an innovator and a leader in the civil rights movement. I still remember watching a documentary about his show in Baltimore after Martin Luther King died. Many believe his show was the reason that B-more did not have a riot that night. R.I.P. Godfather.

3:30pm I pull out the laptop and start watching Wallace and Gromit's Cracking Contraption's.

4:00pm Wonder where the hell my reporter is. Oh guess what they have him coming in at six.

4:15pm Watch Wallace and Gromit in "The Wrong Trousers."

4:30pm Decide to do a live blog my work day. I should have brought a book.

4:55pm I just found out that my dead guy baseball league has a podcast. I'm currently listing and my team just got blasted! Montreal was the best team in the NL, but I got swept in the first round. Overall so far, DJL... kick ass my friend.

5:15pm Started to watch Dallas vs Philly and I have made a personal revelation. I hate Tony Romo. It's not because I hate the Cowboys(which I do) I just hate the hype. From preseason till now it felt like the media machine wanted him to play. Everyone was calling him the second coming of Troy Aikmen, even though he had never really played in an NFL game. I'll admit he did well when he first came in, but no one had seen him and did not have any real tape of him to break down his weakness. So he picked teams apart, now the rest of the NFL has seen him and his numbers are not as good. 16TDs 10 INTs. Wow that's slightly above average, lets crown him MVP of the league and Pro Bowl starter. If he does well go for him, but shut up with the hype of Romo.

5:35pm Just found out one of the reporters graduated from New York University, which immediately makes me laugh. I use to work with another reporter who graduated from NYU and told me their nickname is "The Violets." Wow I am scared of a violet so a couple of the photographs changed the nickname to "The Fighting Violets."

5:45pm- Just found out that NYU are the violets, but their mascot is a bobcat named violet. Come on NYU be the Bobcats or be the violets, but not both. I personally think they need a mascot that is something that represents the city and university. What about The Cabbies, what you don't fear NYC cab drivers. I heard those guys are surly, mean and drive like it's Grand Theft Auto. Hell if Norwalk can be the Truckers why can't NYU be the Cabbies.

6:05pm- well this maybe the last addition for a while. Looks like I have to head to a place called Pittsboro for a story about a house fire.

6:00pm-11:30pm- Went to Pittsboro and did an OK job on a sad story. This lady and her three year old son were next door at her dad's house cooking Christmas dinner and decided it was late and spent the night there. At 1am her trailer caught fire and was pretty much lost. Then later in the morning after the fire crews left, it rekindled and burnt what ever was left. On what is normally a day of joy, her life was turned upside down. These kind of stories always make me feel appreciated for what I have, because at any time we could loose it all.

The true meaning of Christmas

Baby Jesus was born with his golden diaper. He was sent here by his father on planet Krypton to save the world. The virgin Mary gave birth to baby Jesus in a manger and baby Jesus was surrounded by the animals and nearby Shepard. But then out of no where came the sinister Santa Claus mortal enemy of baby Jesus, you see Santa wanted the golden diaper so that he could rule the world. So Santa came down with his reindeer of death!

"HO HO HO! Someone has been naughty!"

With fast as lightning skills Santa strikes but the local Sheppard try to stop him. Santa seeing this adjust and throws his highly accurate Ninja stars made of coal and cuts down the Shepard.

Mary shrikes and fears for baby Jesus' life. "Don't you harm him!"

"Shut up woman!" As Santa shoves her aside. But what Santa did not know was that Baby Jesus was trained by Chuck Norris! Baby Jesus jumps up and scissor kicks Santa in the face!

"Take that fat man." Baby Jesus declares!

"I see you have learned from Chuck Norris, I alone can not take you, but what about my reindeer of death! On Danser, On Dancer, On Prancer, On Vixen, On Comet, On Cupid, On Donner, Oh Blitzen, On Laser, On Taser."

The Reindeer burst in and take action. Danser lands a vicious round house kick, and Baby Jesus staggers. Looks at the blood trickling down from the corner of his cheek, whips it off and exclaims. "Is that all you got."

Baby Jesus unleashes a series of blinding fast moves and starts taking out the reindeer. Comet gets a knee to the groin, Vixen takes a head butt. Laser charges in with a series of moves and Baby Jesus stops him with a single punch and then rips into his chest and pulls out his heart. Taser sees this and wants to avenge his brother death, but Baby Jesus hits him with a Fatality Move from Mortal Kombat.

The other reindeer see these Donner yells "FORM Rudolph GO REINDEER FORCE!"

The other reindeer join together to create the greatest reindeer of them all Rudolph the Death Nosed Reindeer.

Baby Jesus backs up and Rudolph starts ripping laser beams all around him. A few hit baby Jesus and he is stunned and looks like he might be finished.

"Ha Ha Ha your golden diaper is mine!" Santa evil laughs as baby Jesus hits the floor.

But then came the three wise men, Chuck Norris, Jack Bauer and Charles Bronson. The three wise men go into action, Chuck Norris round house kicks Rudolph, while Charles Bronson shots him with his .45 and Jack Bauer yells at Rudolph "DO AS I SAY!" And stabs Rudolph in the leg with his PDA of death.

Baby Jesus stands up and charges Santa and punches him in the face!

You win baby Jesus you win! I will do what ever you say.

Fine, you no longer will do evil and you shall live in the North Pole and once a year bring toys to good little boys and girls so that they will know of your shame. Also your reindeer may never take the form of Rudolph again."

"But what if it is foggy and I can not see my way to deliver the toys?" Wonders Santa.

"Fine if it is foggy then you can use the power of Rudolph." states baby Jesus.

"Yes master I will never forget this night and thank you for sparing my life."

There you have it the true meaning of Christmas.

Booger mountain

Where you always pick a good one.

What? I won Time Magazine's Person of the Year?

Thank you, thank you I mean this was completely shocking to me that I just won Time Magazine's Person of the Year award.

I didn't even know I was nominated.

Umm WHOOO! Well let me thank my wife, my entire family, all five people who read my blog YOU GUYS ROCK!

To the people that I beat out, James Baker your committee may have changed the course of the war in Iraq and all, but you ain't the best Baker out there so IN DA FACE!

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad well he may just have a conference about how you Time never existed so he'll get over it

Finally, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, you may have a nuclear bomb, but you just got the bomb dropped on you bitch! Suck this warhead!

What?

What do you mean I wasn't the only one to win the award?

You mean I have to share it with that crazy Lonely Girl, A Ninja, OK GO (Well that was a kick as video, Mentos guys and every other blogger?

Well you know what I have to say about that Time You can take your award and cram it up your cram hole! I don't need this! I thought we had something special Time and then you go whorin' around with everyone one else!

Get out Time! Get out! Don't come back EVER EVER EVER!

Unless you want to come back in for break up sex?

Lack of post = lack of sleep

I've had about six different post I've wanted to do since I moved to Raleigh: the new pad and Christmas tree place called Booger Mountain. I'm serious Booger Mountain, you can't make that up. Why haven't I posted anything? Well I blame my new schedule or the lack of a schedule. Since I've started working at JDOG-17 (The new station name) I have worked 9am-6pm, 2am-11am, 11am-8pm and 3am-noon. I've been all over the map and this will not end until after the holidays. I'm the new guy and everyone is taking time off so I'm the filler guy.

I get home every day and pretty much it in my recliner and watch movies or should I say watch half and fall asleep and wake up to the credits. I'm hoping that when I get off at work tomorrow at 11am I can at least get a picture of Booger Mountain.

My Saturday at Cameron Indoor

This past Tuesday my chief photographer asked me if I wanted to shoot a Duke basketball game on Saturday. My first thought was HELL YEAH! Second thought of was this. I was stupid and decided torture myself and work yet another long Saturday.

I get a late jump to the game. The press passes were nowhere to be found and had to wake up the sports girl to find them. I drive all the way to Durham. I have no idea what to expect. I'm thinking I will have to jump through hoops just to park and will have problems getting into Cameron Indoor, then finally getting a spot to shoot.

I can tell I'm getting close. I wonder where the arena is? Wait a second I thought I was in Durham.

I get to a door and ask where is the media gate.
"Come on in."
How do I get to the floor? It's my first time here.
"You go up these stairs (7 of them) and turn right and you'll see it.

I walked maybe 15 feet and I was on the court. I find a spot with the stations name and I get ready to shoot. I will be honest and I was expecting something a little larger than what it was. For those of you who know Bowling Green, it's not that much larger than Anderson Arena. It's one million times nicer than Anderson, but I was expecting a large stadium that could seat at least 20,000. Instead they say it seats just over 9,000, I don't believe that, but it's what they say.


Then I felt like Brick Tamland LOUD NOISES! I heard the Cameron Crazies. their student section wraps around half of the lower "bowl." Plus they are organized. I noticed a couple of the kids giving signals in between sections. For a random game against George Mason it was the second loudest game (loudest was when BG played Toledo and my audio was either pegging or was off. Remember the key statement there. Cameron Indoor on an off night almost beat BG on our best.



Then I saw a strange sight. It looked like Duke had at least 10 assistant coaches. Then during a time out five of the guys jumped up and started to towel off the floor. These were college kids in suits on their knees using a towel to wipe up sweat. Duke has the best dressed towel boys EVER!



Overall it was a really good experience. Duke won the game and I got some really good highlights and I learned a few things:

• Cameron Indoor is very small
• Best towel boys ever
• I really need to stop working doubles on Saturdays
• Duke students are smart and have WAY too much time on there hands.

Sleeping Beauty

When I first started working in television my back was constantly sore. I know a 26 pound camera on my shoulder, a 10 pound hip pack on my waist and a 15 pound tripod in my left hand may cause some of the problems, but I found out later most of this pain was caused by something else. After four years in television I had enough money to buy a new bed. I went to Big Sandy Superstore in Hurricane, West Virginia and found a very nice mid priced mattress and box springs. Three days later I felt like a new man. My old bed, which I used since high school, was awful and causing all the pain, well most of it, the camera still hurts a little.

So why am I tell you this? Well, even though our temporary place is nice, the bed is the worst bed ever, well maybe not as bad as this. Since The wife is now here it is even worse. You fall into the middle of this queen bed so we are always on top of each other, plus we are both stomach sleepers so it becomes awkward with you feet on the edge and your back sliding into the middle. It all came to ahead today when I wake up and I feel like someone has taken a large hammer to my back. All day I have not been able to sit comfortable all day today. I can not wait till Wednesday when my bed come in.

New Place

As I mentioned in passing in the previous post The Wife and I found a place to stay. It's a three bedroom duplex just across the county line outside Wake Forest. We are so happy with our new place, it's not that much more expensive than what we were paying in Columbus and the complex is paying for water, sewage and trash.

Everything is great, except for one thing, the name. We now live on Apple Berry Court. Did you get that? Apple Berry Court! I mean that is one of the weakest names for a street ever! I know they are taking in to account females like apples and berries and court makes it sound small, but come on! Why does it have to be that feminine? I understand that all the "normal" street names like Elm, Pine and Washington are all taken and you don't want streets running up to the 1000s but give us some other name than Apple Berry Court. I want more manly names like Fried Chicken Drive, Football Court and Ham Sandwich Street. That is why I will no longer refer to our new place as The Duplex or any other names like that. It will only be called Fried Chicken Drive, a name anyone would love to have (except those people who don't like eating meat... I'm looking at you Gostomski!) it just sound delicious!

The Other Shoe Dropped

In my life any time something good happens I will always expect something bad to follow. A sort of ying yang thing; karmic justice even. You may think that I am lying but trust me it is true. I might find a great deal on something and find out it was stolen or it breaks two weeks later. Over the last few months I have had an unbridled good luck streak, so here is what has happened over the last few months.

1. Found a new job.
2. Was given a great moving bonus.
3. The Wife has just started her new job here.
4. We just found a new (and I mean new as in we are the first tenets three bedroom apartment.
5. We only have to pay a security deposit for the first month.
   
6. I get paid this Friday
7. With in two weeks I get a check that will help with any unusual moving experiences.

So with all this great things happening I was thinking everything was going to be fine. As you hear the ominous music start I get a call from the wife that my car's check engine light is on and it is sputtering every time she accelerates. Oh yeah, and I find out that her car's check engine light is on and is making a grinding noise.

I start to freak out and actually missed a turn and got lost for the first time since I've been here. I regain composure and start to get a plan. We are going to take my car in first for repairs, I think it's just the spark plugs, but it could be the fuel injectors. We fine a car shop and about two hours later I get the news, luckily it is just a broken spark plug. Here is the twist of this story, my brakes were starting to go bad, but now they have to be replaced. So the news went from pretty good to bad again. Luckily the cost is only $550 dollars for 4 new breaks and new spark plugs.

Hopefully I get my moving check soon so we can take her car in a get it running. Stupid karma.

3 Long Days

My new schedule has official begun, and since I am the "newbie" I get a bad schedule. Monday-Wednesday 9am-6pm, which is not too bad but I then work Saturday and Sunday 2am till 11am. I have not had to work regular weekends since I lived in Toledo back in 2002. So here is a tape delayed live blog of the past three days

FRIDAY

6:00AM The alarm goes The Wife wants to go shopping for a GPS system for her car. With the deals at Best Buy it was a good time to buy it and it can be used as a tax right off WOO HOO!

7:00AM We get to Best Buy and the place is PACKED! We weave our way through the masses and NOBODY were near the GPS units. We find a clerk and he tells us the best ones. We end up picking a Garmin. The unit was fairly cheap and was very user friendly. We attempt to look around the story, but after a while I was tired of wading through humanity.

7:45AM We get in line.

8:20AM We finally it the register and get to leave. I've had rides at Cedar Point that didn't take that long.

8:30AM - 10:00AM We drive around Raleigh then Wake Forest and back towards downtown Raleigh looking for apartments. We found three we liked and a bunch we did not. This was lasting longer than I thought.

10:30AM We are hungry and stop at Biscuitville. In the south they love biscuits and have stores that make sandwiches out of biscuits. Growing up near West Virginia we had Tudor's Biscuit World. I enjoyed the Bacon, egg and cheese biscuit and The Wife had the same but sausage instead of bacon. The sandwiches were awesome, but definitely not something that I should eat a lot. I don't want a coronary by 35.

11:00AM 12:30AM We look at more apartments. I never want to do this again, also no one was open. I guess most people are not shopping for new houses. Only things that will buy them love from family.

12:30PM- 2:30PM I'm starting to get tired, but I can't go to sleep. I need to get up at 1:00am so a nap will not allow me to sleep at night. We get home and unload The Wife's car and start to put everything away. The Apartment is packed and over stuffed.

2:30PM-4:00PM I go play disc golf while The Wife finishes putting her clothes away and take a nap.

4:00PM-6:00PM We use our new GPS to find a Blockbuster to get a couple of movies and go to Qdoba for dinner.

6:00PM - 7:00PM We start to watch X-Men 3, but I can't stay awake, which is a good thing so I go to be.

SATURDAY

1:00AM This comes way too soon and I struggle to get ready for work.

2:00AM-10:00AM I train with T-Dog and he gets me started and editing is not that hard, but it is repetitive and since I've only been editing on this system for a week and a half so I'm still slow. Not a lot new things happen since the last show at 11pm so it's mostly what was on during the 11 and stories that would not work in the 11 (national stories, anything about health and Jay-Z and Beyonce breaking up, that kind of story).

10:00PM - 12:00PM For some stupid reason I thought it would be a good idea to go shoot a football game. The game started at 1, but I had to leave at noon so I got paid to wait for a reporter.

Caffeine count since 2:00AM

2 20oz Mountain Dews

1 20oz Monster energy drinks

1 34oz Mountain Dew Code Red.

12:00PM- 5:00pm The game was the second round of the Division II playoffs between North Carolina Central and Delta State. NCCU was the #1 seed and looked like the #5. They came out flat and could not get anything going. I started to crash in the third quarter and I had problems standing and holding the camera up. I kid you not this was one of my worst shot games. I was slow to react and could not feel the game. For me that's what makes it great, being able to predict what is going to happen. We get post and start back to the station.

6:00PM I finally get off work and I feel like this. I get home eat a little dinner and finally go to bed at 7:00PM.

SUNDAY

1:00AM The Alarm goes off and I wanted to throw it through a wall. I struggle into the shower and finally get going.

2:00AM-9:00AM Sunday was a lot harder than Saturday. I am struggling plus I have an extra half an hour to cut. To keep the simple, for some strange reason our server kept pulling up the wrong video after I send it. So I had to keep resending video that was already cut. I finally get the shows done, but I am not finished editing. Sports has a half hour show at 11:00.

9:00AM-11:00AM I struggle through another half and hour and it was harder than news. Everything seemed to be somewhat abstract. I'm use to editing sports, but there were not any scripts, but lots of video.

The rest of the day was a little bit of a blur. I think we ate at a China Buffet and bought tennis rackets and played a little.

So what have I learned. Caffeine can save your life, I need more than 6 hours sleep, I hate show editing, I should not shoot sports on a day that involves me getting up at 1:00AM.

Turkey Day

Now that I am fully of turkey instead of what I'm normally full of I thought I'd sit down and write a little entry before the tripdiphan kicks in. The Wife has finally arrived and she can not grasp that we now live in North Carolina. So with her here I am thankfully that she made it safe and is happy to be with me, so now here is a list of things I am thankful for today:

• The Simpsons DVDs, without you I would have been horribly bored the past two weeks


• The Internet, Oh how have I missed you!


• Family, they may annoy me... a lot, but with the passing of Mr Uncle Kenny it makes me wish I could be with them this day.


• The new job, Hoozah! I am no longer stuck at The Network.


• The Wife, she loves me for the "delayed" guy that I am


• Pumpkin Pie, I can't get enough of it.


• Friends, you guys remind me that I am a dork and I am thankful for that.

For now that's all I have. Starting tomorrow I'll be looking back at what I've been through the past two weeks and maybe my shopping experience during BLACK FRIDAY!

Mr Uncle Kenny

I didn't want to do a third post tonight, but my heart is telling me I need to do this.



This past Sunday I was driving around town when I get a call from The Wife and she sounded distraught, "Uncle Kenny committed suicide." My heart sank and I pulled over and sat there and talked with The Wife. I really like Kenny, he was one of my favorite people form her adopted side. He was a big burly bearded man that made you think either he will crush me or he's a big old teddy bear. The first time I met him was almost three years ago at church The Wife and I had been dating for a few weeks. I felt a tap on my shoulder and a loud authoritative voice boost "Are you the guy dating my favorite niece?" I thought, "Oh crap, I'm dead." Then with a smile and a jolly tone "Hey welcome to the family I heard you where a good guy, take care of my niece." From that point on I always called Kenny Mr Uncle Kenny.



Up until our wedding he always had a smile and seemed like a pretty happy guy. He had many demons in his past that included drugs, alcohol abuse and personal neglect. He let a promising NFL career pass him by and from what I have been told he cleaned up his act about five years ago and seemed to be right with the Lord. For some of you you might remember him from the wedding. He helped Megan the fainting bridesmaid off stage with my father.



Now looking back the wedding was the first signs of trouble. He was suppose to introduce the wedding party at the reception, but as we were about to walk in he got cold feet. Then two months ago he was placed in the hospital because his meds where not working and he seemed to be struggling. Then this past Sunday everything I guess came to a head.



There's part of me that thinks I could have helped more. I knew he was struggling and maybe one phone call would have be what he needed. There were Sundays that I wanted to go over to him and just sit with him. Were those opportunities that I didn't take that might have made the difference. I will probably always have to live with that as probably many other family members.



So in closing I will miss you Kenny I hope you are now at piece and your demons have left you. You will be missed but not forgotten.

Personal addiction

I will admit a personal insight that many may not know. I have an addictive personallity. This is why I will never do any mind altering drugs and try not too drink that often (I do work in TV so not that often is still probably more than the average person).

This time of year however my biggest problem arises and I will announce my problem loud and with shame. I am addicted to pumpkin pie. Stop laughing, no seriously stop it! For some strange reason starting in late October and ending around middle of December. This year the Baker family went north to visit my brother and his fiance and the fiance's mother brought a pumpkin pie and it was GOOOOOOOOD. I had one piece then half an hour later i had another and ten I snuck a third.

For the most part I curbed my addiction for the next week or so. Then I went to a store called Deals and they had small pies for two dollars. I bought one and it was gone on the next day. So from that point on any chance for pie I was there.

Then there was this past week. I move into the temporary apartment and go grocery shopping and I do not know how I got there, but I ended up in the frozen pie section with a whole pumpkin pie in my hand. I take it home, bake it, let it cool and started eating it. I called the wife told her I had a pie and she says. "That better last till I get down there." Well it didn't. It last 4 days. Then I bought a second, it wasn't as good so half of it is still there.

Now here is the biggest problem, The Wife is driving down and will be in Raleigh tomorrow for Thanksgiving and she has three pies. Two of them are pumpkin! What the hell am I going to do? I can't eat that much pie! Well I can and probably will, but come on I shouldn't. Are there twelve steps for pie addiction or are they slices.

If you are wondering, no I am not eating one right now as I type. I'm waiting till 9:00. Who am I kidding 5 minutes from now.

Southern Comfort

As you may have been able to decipher from the lack of post I have officially moved into the south (North Carolina representing!). I've been in my temporary apartment for a week and a half and I've been enjoying my new city and state. Over the next few days I'll give a more detailed analysis of what I think of Raleigh and the new station (Plus there maybe a contest to decide what I shall call the new station).

Plus I will do a retrospective on The Network, what I will miss, why I am glad to be away from that place and maybe a funny story. So this post and the one that will appear tonight just above this one.

Favorite Season: Post Season End of an Era Part 2

Marion Pleasant 43 Reading 7 These two games are my last games shooting high school football. I may do some in Raleigh, but it will not be the same. I've been doing high school football for six years and I will dearly miss it. In order of things I will miss the most it is number 2 behind friends and family. So how do I go out tonight in style baby! I'm in the chopper! The Network obviously does not have a helicopter but our sister station does and it is a treat for our photographers to go up. I get to the first game and I soak in the atmosphere, well it was a Division V game, so there wasn't a huge amount there, but still enough to get me by. Reading came out firing and scored on the third play by a 76 year screen pass. I'm thinking this might be a good game. Well Pleasant average play drive was this 3 yard run, 4 yard run, 4 yard run, 3 yard pass, 5 yard run, 4 yard run, 1 yard run, 5 yard run, 4 yard run... 3 yard run up the middle for a touchdown. WOW that was numbing and it happened for the entire first half. If it wasn't for the fact that the helicopter can't leave while the game is in progress I would have left 20 minutes earlier, but was forced to stay.

Johnstown 30 Stewart Federal Hocking 0 Because the first game took so long to get to the half we fly in and there is only 3 minutes left in the half. I'm not too discoursed because Johnstown has one of my favorite nicknames the "Johnnies." Two other schools do this in Ohio Smithville Smithies and the Fredricksville Freddies. It's truthfully not very creative, but at the same time ingenious! I get to the field and my third play is a touchdown to make it 23-0. Not much happened after that, I did pick up a good defensive stop and then there was a weird pass that turned out to be a lateral and was returned for a touchdown. It was hard to shoot, most of the team jumped in front of me so I had to go onto the field just to shoot it.

Am I liked?

Ok this is a post I'm trying to burry a little bit. I want to write about it for carthartic reasons. I am leaving for Raliegh and generally in the TV buisness if you are liked by your co-workers you are given a party. I had one in Toledo and a halloween party in West Virginia was inpart a going a way party. So with that said I'm down to my last two days and nothing is planned. Their is a gathering this week for another co-worker. He is leaving the station to move to Cleveland, he has been at The Network since the beginning and everyone loves him.

This got me thinking. "Do people really like me?" I've always had a mental problem with people. I always feel like I'm a bother and that people don't want me around. I never call people any more because I'm afraid to bother them and they might be busy. I just don't know if what I am thinking is true or is it my neurosis gone a muck. I have been very unhappy with work and regretfully I have a tendency to have my emotions on my sleeve.

I know right after I got married a production guy got married and there was a collection for a gift for he and his bride. I truthfully was a little hurt by that, and that started this little thought. "why is that guy getting a station gift. I don't want a gift, but it would have been nice though." I'm hoping I'm just over thinking this, and it's just because another great guy is leaving so I kind of got left on that back burner. I'd rather have that than for people to be happy I am gone.

I hope that if people at work happen to read this that I am not asking for a party now, it's just questioning how I will be remembered. I hope this does not make me sound petty and with a case of Sour Grapes.

Favorite Season: Playoffs End of an Era Part 1

Pickerington Central 42 Canfield 37 This is my final week shooting high school football. I am a little sad and as my final Marquee Match up boy did I get a doozie. During the first half Pickerington Central just dominated the game. They had a huge run then Chazz Anderson (pictured) threw some nice passes and his receivers ran all over the place. Also Canfield had WAY too many penalties, I think at the end of the game it was about 12. The second half started and it was pretty much the same thing till there was six minutes left in the 3rd quarter. It was 21-7 at that point and then at the start of the 4th it was 42-22. This slowed the tempo of the game down to a crawl. It was very cold and it only got worse.

We shot our intros thinking the game was pretty much over. We thought wrong, Canfield would not die. They converted three out of four on-side kicks and kept the tiger offense off the field. The big side note to this game was Pickerington Central was number 1 in our state power poll and anytime our Marquee guy was at a game where the number 1 team was playing, they lost. So the "Curse of the Chud" looked to be rearing it's ugly head.

I started to shoot the game again and the next thing we know it's 42-30 and Canfield converts another onside kick. I look at a still photog and say "Holy shit, Canfield might win." They score to make it 42-37. By this time the game is nearing the three hour mark. I'm not wearing gloves and my hands are bright red.

Canfield scores again to make it 42-37. Pick C looks to kill the clock and guess what happens. FUMBLE! The curse is alive and looks hungry. Canfield drives and is within striking range of the endzone, but can't convert on a 4th down and the tigers win. The game lasted over three hours and we had to haul tail back to get our highlights on.

So my first Marquee of the year was in the mid-eighties and lasted over three hours, my last Marquee was in the 20s and lasted over three hours. Everything came back full circle

New Man Law

You know you have seen these commercials. A bunch of guys in a plexiglass cube at a square table decieding what men are allowed to do. Like you can't date a friends ex, unless she is hot then it's six months or no hiding beer.

Well I have an addition to the man law that needs passed. Lift the seat up to go to the bathroom. Here is why I want this a law. I finished last weeks football game and wanted to get dinner at the local McDonald's and use the bathroom and I mean that as a urinal is not enough. A guy is in there so I wait till he is done. I hear the flush, he walks out and I go in. He only had to go #1 and left the seat down and lets just say he needs to work on his accuracy. I he's talking to a friend as I yell, "What a jerk, at least raise the seat! JERK!" He may not have heard me, but still I don't want to sit down now. No matter how much you wipe the seat off it still takes time to dry.

Just be a little more courteous to your fellow man. Just raise the seat. If you don't want to use your hand at least use your shoe and lift it up that way.

So man law court, do I hear a second on my motion?

You Killed Mr. Ecko! You Bastards!

Why is it this year every single show I enjoy either has my favorite character leave for a portion of the season or they kill them off. Tonight's example of this evil trend is Mr. Ecko from lost. Ever since they started to show him last season I can't get enough of the religious lovable bad ass. So what did they go and do? Have a giant black cloud come and kill him. I thought it was a very interesting flash back with Ecko. You learned what happened to him after his brother was shot and how he got out of Nigeria.

I've made comments about how I have learned nothing this season and I've started to loose interest. Damn it Lost has done it again with one more new episode till June of 2015 or something like that. The others are about to go into a civil war and Jack is in the middle, and death maybe coming for all so without further adu here is what I learned, figured out, and thought about tonight's episode:

-You see dead people inside tents on the island

-Ben is not liked by the people on flight 815 nor anyone else on the island

-Ben needs to work on his brainwashing skills, kind of hard to brain wash someone with the look of fear on your face.

-Do not get on the bad side of Juliet, she'll kill you

-OK they are using industrial grade Beta machines, so that means her little INXS moment was shot on Beta SP. Did they hire a freelance photographer for that? "OK so let me get this straight I'm sailing to some island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean to shoot you flipping some cue cards?" "Alright, but you have to pay for lodging and protection from any weird black fog creatures."

-What the hell was with the guy with the patch! That gave me a chill... it's giving me a chill now! Will there be pirates?

-They finally brought back the creepy music when something happens. I was wondering where it went.

-If I was Bernard I'd be watching my back. He's the only person left from the tail section.

-Who the hell are the new people from the beach camp? You can't just have some woman and guy just come out of nowhere! If this was Star Trek I believe they would be wearing red.

-Finally what happened to the segment out graphic and sound effect. You know the one with the out of focus then in focus lost logo or the BONG! to black. This episode needed a few BONG hits going into a commercial break... ummm seriously that was not a drug reference.

Black Saturday

As I quote John Cusack from High Fidelity

"Some people never got over Nam or when their band open for Nirvana..."

Well, I will never fully get over this past Saturday. As a fan of any sports teams and you will that there will be ups and downs, but as a fan and Alumni of Bowling Green State University I have seen rock bottom and I have just bounced off of it. This week Bowling Green lost to Temple. You may wonder "J-Dog, why is that such a big deal?"

TEMPLE HAD NOT BEATEN A DIVISION I-A TEAM SINCE 2004!

How in the hell does this happen? I know we are not good, but Buffalo beat Temple and Buffalo sucks. Hell we beat Buffalo. I seriously think that we need to let the band play the rest of the year. Hell let the Popular Culture Department play, they can do any worse than what the real team has done.

October, 28th 2006 the worst day to be a fan of the not so mighty Bowling Green Falcons.

Favorite Season Week 10

Bellaire 23 Martins Ferry 0 This is one of the oldest and probably one of the most historic rivalries in the state of Ohio. I've wanted to shoot this game for a couple of years, but it never seemed to work out. So when the drive from hell was created I was happy this game was mine. I arrive at two and a half hours before the game because I'm bored and had nothing else better to do than sit outside the stadium in my car watch it rain and play Suduko.

When I arrive I found to my surprise that there is a line around the stadium to get in. This game has to be big for this too happen. I go into the stadium about and hour before game time even though it was raining. I had to do something or I was going to go insane. This is when I realize that I hate Bellaire. I've always heard that their fans can be jerks, but this trip solidified in my mind that it's all true. I'm walking around the stadium to make my presence know and find a bathroom. I'm stopped by some guy. "Oh look, The Network finally left Columbus." I shrug the comment off and tell him I'm all over the state and this was a big game and if it wasn't for Satellite truck problems we'd have it at this game. He gives me a look as if I'm lying and makes comments about how we only show Columbus games and he will remember this day because we have a crew out of the outer belt.

ASS! I traveled my ass off for this game and all I get is grief. We have three cameras that shoot football on Friday night. One is at the marquee, one is doing a story on the big game and can only hit one school and the other is a floater that most weeks has to stay in Columbus. So guy from Bellaire who was mocking me better hope that the station does not send me to your game this week, because it's my last game and I will rip you a new one. What are they going to do fire me?

Now to the game, it was a sloppy rainy field. Which seemed to favor Martins Ferry, but Bellaire came out throwing and Martins Ferry came out dropping the ball. The QB for the Big Red threw three long bombs for touchdowns. They look good, but I don't want them to win in the playoffs. The Purple Riders looked bad for a team without a loss. The QB kept dropping the snap and fell down a few times.

A big game that feel flat. I must be cursed this year with average and bad games. I'm hoping my last week will produce a game that is exciting

If Life is a Highway

I do NOT want to ride it all night long. In previous post I have conversed about how much I drive for The Network. Since I am leaving I believe they are trying to remind me daily how much I hate the driving here.

The hell drive started Friday with a short little jaunt to Belpre at 9:30am. I'm not looking forward to this because even though I have a reporter with me we are in separate cars and I'll explain why later. I get on the road and continue to drive. We hit Athens and we still have 45 minutes to go. We finally arrive to the high school, shoot a little video do a stand up by the river and that takes less than a half an hour. So 2 hours driving and 30 minutes of shooting.

Next stop on the happy fun day is Bridgeport. You know your drive will be long when if involves you GOING INTO WEST VIRGINIA. Yeah, it was faster to drive through another state. We take I-77 back into Ohio and continue to drive till we get to I-70 then drive 45 more minutes for a grand total of drive time being over 4 hours. We get to the location and the reporter says "Boy that was farther than I thought." You think? I hate to be so harsh, but what did he think it was going to be a quick drive? Either we drive out of the way via two interstates or take back roads along the river. We shoot within an hour and then we head to an the Applebee's in St. Clairsville for some lunch and an attempt to edit the story.

Here is why we needed two cars. My weekly football game was in Martins Ferry only 15 miles from St. Clairsville. The original plan was for me to drive back to Columbus (2hours) then drive back for the game. It's 3:30 when we finish so I would have missed most of the first quarter and had to have left at halftime to get the highlights on the air. Hmmm I don't think that's going to work. So we drove separate so I would not have to drive over 700 miles in a day.

I wander the St. Clairsville Mall and Feed Center before heading to the game. It was a blow out so I left at the half and drove back to Columbus. It was after 11:00pm when I got back. I drove over three hundred and fifty miles on Friday and I am dead tired and stagger home for some much needed sleep.

Well, I did not get a lot of sleep. Saturday was the only day that The Wife and I can go see my parents so we drive down to Ironton for the day. The Wife drives most of the way down and let me sleep. At this point I am wanting to become Amish so I never have to be in a car again.

Now it is today Monday and in the morning meeting it is decided that I'm with the new reporter who just came from a station in Marietta, Oh. She is given the assignment about meth labs and she wants to go to Marietta because she has contacts there. I shoot a look of death and she can't figure out why. She have never done a drive like this and have to turn the story in the same day. On the return trip figured out that maybe going to a town over two hours away just because she has contacts is a little counter productive.

Since Friday I have travelled over 900 miles and almost all of it within the state of Ohio. I seriously want to move to North Carolina for some new scenery.

The disclaimer here is I know I will have to do a lot of driving at the new job, but hell not that much. I need a couple of in town days to get the stink of fast food, road kill and car air freshener off me.

Silly Rabbit

Last week I did not do a Lost blog because honestly I did not enjoy that episode all that much. I liked some of the flash backs, but I'm not getting any answers as to what is going on this season so I've started to loose a little interest. This week's episode was at least a little better. You learned a little bit more about Sawyer and was shocked to find out that he has a daughter. The Wife is really hating this season, she has no idea what is going on. I'm trying to explain things that I think is happening, but have no idea if what I am saying is actually happening. Finally here is what I learned from last last week and this week.

Last week
-Polar Bears do not like fire.
-I learned what an active kill is.
-Peyote flashbacks causes you to see dead people.
-Locke is a hunter... we sort of.
-Locke likes the weed.
-Don't mess with entrepreneurial hippies.

This week
-Benjamin is mean to rabbits
-The others are not use to people dying.
-Some time ago something caused the sky to go purple and it wasn't Locke's peyote.
-Who the hell names their kid Clementine? Really, is this 1856 New Mexico?
-Benny has a tumor on is spin, will Jack save him or let him die?
-Freckles is small enough to escape but loves Sawyer.
-Sawyer was once a snitch in prison.
-There are two islands.
-Desmond is trying out for the show Heroes.
-Question of the night. Why is ABC (owned by Disney) using a Warner Bros. cartoon that was their way of combating Fantasia? I think it was an odd choice to us one of my favorite cartoons. If you are wondering it was the cartoon of the vulture trying to eat all the little swans set to swan lake. Hmmm as I typed that I wonder if it is some kind of clue about the island. Still it is a good cartoon.

I hope they start giving us some answers soon. There are only two more weeks till the show goes away till January or February.

Personal Best!

On October 2nd I mentioned that I wanted to write more post this month and noticed my previous months the best was just 10 posts! With the last post (Not including the post about writing more post and this post about writing more post) I now have published 14 post this month. With 9 more days to go I'm wondering can I get my total up into the 20s (excluding posts about posting... confused yet?). It will take a lot of work, hopefully I do not get sores from sitting down or carpal tunnel from typing, but it is the price I pay for the three people who actually read this thing.

Take this job and shove it

Well the above title is a little harsh, but that's pretty much what I said to work this week. I am leaving The Network for a local station in Raleigh, NC. From previous posts you can tell that I have not been happy lately, there were other post about how much I hated work, but those got deleted in fear of someone at work getting upset over them. This decision was a tough one to make. We are going to be up rooting our entire lives just to make a little more money. I believe I need to get back into regular news and I do not believe the Columbus market is the answer for me. The only station I can go to here and get some decent money is the sister station for my current job. From other peoples experience The Network has a tendency to block their employees from doing this, so why do I want to go into a situation involves me fighting tooth and nail just to move for a little more money?

That's why The Wife and I took this Raleigh position. Now our big concern in getting down there; how do we move and how will we pay for it. The station may pay for the move, but I have not gotten that call. Also in the first two years at The Network the pay was dreadful and caused a lot of financial problem involving my credit raiding to drop faster than Flight 815. The Wife's credit is better, but she is going to be looking for a job and that will hurt for they will not want to give us an apartment until she finds a job. Oy Vey the circle of bad credit is never fun.

Even though I am spewing doom and gloom and I looking forward to the new job. I've been tired of doing our version of politics and nothing, I just want to go chase a story no matter how crappy. Hopefully I will not have to drive as much, but Raleigh seems to be a more spread out area. I can't thing that any drive they throw at me is better than most I have done here.

Oh yeah warmer weather... BONUS!

Favorite Season 9

Kettering Alter 40 Dayton Carol 14 Looking at the score you would thing bad game. Well, that's only half true. The first half Carol was actually winning 14-13. Both teams ran the ball all night, neither had quarterbacks that could throw well and for Carol that was a bad thing. Alter started the second half fast and scored at will and Carol could not run and definitely could not pass. For a rivalry game I was expecting it to be a little closer, but Alder now can go 10-0 if they win next week and that would be the first in school history.

Oh one final note, I've been shooting high school football for six years and have taken my fair share of hits by players, but this week I had a first. The play was coming towards me, but I could tell that I was not going to get hit by a player. The play starts to pass me and the whistle blows and then I get spun around. All I thought was great a trailing player went way too wide, nope. It was one of the line judges! He had to cross the out of bounds line and try to hit me. I'll be honest it hurt and today I have a light bruise. Then before the start of the next play I hear "Back up or you could get hit." Well allow me to retort "Just like when you hit me on the last play?" He was young and trying to show some muscles. Hey I respect the game and I stay on my side of the line I know when I need to move, you are a line judge.. chill and let me work I can stay out of the way with out you hitting me.

This past weekend: SICSIC Edition

This past weekend was homecoming at the ole college Bowling Green State University. For the past seven years I have either had to work or be somewhere else. So when this year I found out I did not have to work on Saturdays I wanted to go see my old stomping grounds. So you might be wondering what's with the weird college kid in the overalls and a mask posing on a car? That my friend is SICSIC! This is the secret spirit organization that has now be going for 60 years. It's the only organization that has been around that entire time. (Side Note: The Theater group on campus found a piece of paper saying that they have been around longer, but they took off, oh I don't 20 years, so they are the oldest, but SICSIC has never stopped.. take that theater bitches!).

So when I heard that this was in fact the 60th anniversary we had to go! I was at BG as a current member during the 50th and I remember they had almost all of the original members and it was interesting to hear all the stories everyone had. A lot of them involved alcohol, but it's BG bonging a beer is almost a requirement for graduation. One of my favorites include one of the members being chased around campus for a couple of miles. He was finally cornered and forced to remove his mask. The guys didn't want him kicked out of the group, because they could tell everyone that he was a member, so they said we won't tell and let him go. Another was when they thought the SICSIC car could make it up the ramp or the library to the second floor. Well, it couldn't make it and got stuck.

I will always remember my time in SICSIC with much fondness. It was something that I and less than 200 people are a part of. It's not only an honorary group, but it's a family. The members that were in the group with me are thought of as family to me. I saw one of the members Bethanee for the first time in almost six years, I was near giddy to see her. I saw Micheal and a flood of memories came back and just made me. Like the time it was Mike, Joe and myself, we went out to the bars dressed up, or naked SICSIC. Someone had the idea we needed to be naked under our suits... Oh to be in college.

The biggest thing about SICSIC it was a release from your daily grind. When we would meet at 11:00 on Tuesdays or Wednesdays we would talk make signs and just hang out. Then we would suit up and become different people. You had no constraints, the mask turned you into a crazy wild person where the normal rules are thrown out the window. You could go up to a stranger and talk to them in a strange voice and make them laugh. Throw candy at someone in the student union, or one of our favorites Student Union hedge dive. Yes we would hurl our selves into the hedges for no other reason to scare people and then make them laugh. Seeing the current members run around made me want to put on a suit and find my mask and join in the SICSIC tidal wave of spirit. If the current members ever find this post... Cherish what you are in. I wish I could have done more and enjoyed it for what it was, the best moments in my college life.

Favorite Season 8

Pickerington Central 50 Olentangy 7 Going into this game Olentangy just beat undefeated Westerville South to remain undefeated. It looked like the Braves where going to be the best team in Division I from the Columbus area. Well, Pick Central wasn't having it. The Tigers come out throwing and I get two NFL Films style highlights, you know the type where the quarterback throws the ball deep and they camera zooms into the ball and pulls out right as the receiver catches it. I'll admit it wasn't as clean as NFL Films, but for my skill level, the two passes were the best of the year and in the top 10 in my career. Olentangy looked flat and got beaten that way. As usual Division I Central Ohio football, can't beat it... unless you are in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Canton, and sometimes Dayton and Toledo.

Marion Franklin 33 Independence 0 That was the score when I left and really who needs to know any more than that. I get there at halftime and it was 27-0. We get a one touchdown and the obligatory turnovers. I'm serious can someone teach kids to hold onto the ball? Keep it tight and you won't loose it. In the past two weeks

Totally Random

Today at work was just a mish mash of different assignments: shooting an enviromental justice presser, a debate intro segment, and Baja Fresh (a Mexican chain that is owned by Wendy's). Non of these assignments had anything to do with one or another so I'd thought I'd do a blog reflecting my work day. A few random tidbits and info that could not really fill one blog.

Mileage: It will be three years in December since I bought my Mazda and I'm just over 45,000 miles. My work Explorer is just over a year old and has 38,000 miles on it. I'm wondering which car will reach 50,000 first. I'm betting on the Explorer.

Columbus Marathon: This weekend is the Columbus Half Marathon and I think every single person I know will be running in it. If you think I'm kidding Wilson will be driving up from Ironton to "run" in this race. So with so many people I know running in this race you would think I'd be at the finish line watching every one struggle to finish. NAY I'm going to Bowling Green for homecoming.

Ohio Renisanse Festival: Due to financial un-peace I will not be attending this years Ren Fest. We just don't have the money to go to homecoming and drive to the Ren Fest. I did shoot a story, but this will be the first time in five years neither I nor Wilson/Radcliff/Joe will not be attending. I was really looking forward to a turkey leg and seeing some wenches, but alas I can not go. I think this is some kind of sign for an end of an era. I hope not, but if it did I got a lot of great stories and wasted many house in a trailer out in a Holler.

Jackass 2: I went and watched this "movie" with Jeff and Dave from work. All I have to say it that I almost threw up during the "movie." It's everything you expected to see in the TV show, but in a film. I was shocked though that they did sensor some scenes by either blurs or the black bar. I'm happy they used the black bar sometimes, but it was odd so see them. It must have been to keep the film rated R not NC-17.

Best of times worst of times: I'm in a Strat-o-matic baseball league (it's a game that allows you to field a team comprised of any player from any era). I currently have two teams, the Cleveland Indians and the Montreal Expos, and both teams have been the total opposite of each other. Montreal is 81-55 and 8 games up on the second place team, while Cleveland is 59-77 and 9 games back of the team with the worst record to be leading in a division. I acquired Montreal and have not done a lot to them, just added a couple of players to boost some of the week spots, while Cleveland is now on it's third make over, I went for power hitting and then was convinced to move to a larger park to help my pitchers. Well, that hurt the power guys so I had to trade a couple of them off and now I'm back where I started. With Le Expos I'm gearing up for the play-offs and trying to get guys healthy, Cleveland is now looking at back-up guys that may not make the team next year and at the same time tank some games to get a better draft position. Is it a bad idea to drink champagne and Mylanta?

You taste like strawberries.

I'll be honest, I am not that happy with this season of Lost. The first two episodes have me more confused than when I started. At least with last year you got a few answers by this point and this year I've really learned not that much. I'm going to continue to watch because I have a feeling that there will be that one episode that will explain enough to get me hooked, and then pull the rug out from under me and make me want to watch the next four episodes.

Now for the fun quick things I learned watching this episode:

• Sun is a tramp (that was stolen from King Tom)
• Jin is a bad ass with a heart of gold.
• I don't like subtitled episodes on nights that I'm fixing my computer.
• Kate is made of sugar and spice with a touch of strawberries.
• Sawyer looked like he had figured out a way to beat the others till then end with the reveal.
• I think Jin killed her former lover guy... hence the pearls in his hand.
• Even though the others have a connection with the outside world they are still using industry grade Beta.
• You can kill someone really quick with a gun shot to the abdomen.

I'm just hoping for an episode with Mr. Ecko, he is the greatest character on TV.

Stupid Computer

For the last week The Wife and I noticed that the computer was working at half the speed of standing still. It locks up, if you have more than two windows open you might as well take a nap because its going to take for ever to load. I found out that The Wife downloaded a bunch of games from Yahoo! and then on top of that I renewed our Firewall/Spyware/Anti virus program and had to "download the new version." So between those two things and then finding out that the firewall was down for oh 4 days has got me worried. Tonight it's working a little better, but still not as fast as I'd like. I'm afraid I'm going to have to take the computer to someone and have them fix it. I'd rather not spend the $100 plus for someone to push three buttons and look at me like I'm an idiot. Oh Kip why do you love technology.

Sorry Dave for the fact I kind of stole part of your post on technology.

My day at Ohio Stadium

As a Bowling Green State University graduate I am very proud of my university and I want them to look and do well. So when I saw that BGSU was going to play Ohio State I though, crap why this year! If you do not know Ohio State is ranked #1 in the nation and BG is ranked... well we are not ranked. I'm hoping to avoid ESPN's Bottom 10.

So at the game BG gets the ball first and SCORES A TOUCHDOWN. OSU looks stunned and Troy Smith can't do anything, BG's defense is playing lights out and causing problems. Oh what a game! Nobaody expected BG to come out swinging and take a lead and then score again! Oh what a day to be a Falcon! Hoozah to the Falcons Hoozah!

Then I wake up and realize I was dreaming. I noticed a sense of dread for I realized that we were going to loose and loose bad. There is always that hope, it's college football anything can happen, but when you have 15 Freshman playing against the number one team in the entire nation, it's going to be bad.

We get to our seats and I am the only one in orange, wow I'm going to be hated for the entire game. It's time for the coin toss and we win the toss (YEAH! We won something) so we elect to defer to the second half and OSU get the ball first. Alright this is... WHAT THE? Little note for everyone BG's defense is non-existent. I'm serious at times it's like they are using the Tontogany Otsego Hish School defense. "Hey high school kids, wanna play football against Ohio State? Sure!" So OSU drives down the field and score. OSU 7 BG 0

We start our drive and do well. We are throwing the ball well and we have some form of a running game. The drive stalls at 4th and 3 from the 33. We send in the field goal unit. NOOOOO!!! "But J-Dog isn't getting points against Ohio State realy good?" Yes it is unless you suck at kicking field goals. Against Buffalo we had a couple of kicks blocked. So Buffalo one of the worst teams in the country, OSU the best. BLOCK! No points and OSU goes on to score. OSU 14 BG 0

We do nothing on the next drive. We punt the ball away in ugly fashion. They are avoiding Ted Ginn who can run the ball back any time he touches it. So it was a shank, but at least no points were scored. OSU is just picking the Otsego defense apart. We get a break a penalty that makes it 1st and 20 then 2nd and 20 and yet again 3rd and 20. It looks like we are going to stop them and hope they only get a field goal. Troy Smith drops back, looks around it flushed out of the pocket. He runs and continues to run and then runs some more for 32 yards. So OSU then later scores. OSU 21 BG 0

Well it was still the same score at the half we get the ball to start and we start driving the ball. A few yards here and nice pass there. We get down to around the 20. After a penalty it's 4th and 6 and we are going for it. I'm praying "please make it please make it." Anthony Turn fires a pass and we have a first down. YES! Two plays later we score I jump up and yell and I am ecstatic we are not going to be shut out and we are only down 14. OSU 21 BG 7

We get a big stop and look like we can do some damage. 3rd and long, Anthony Turner is back, looks for a receiver can't find one and runs. "GO! GO! GO! GET THE FIRST! He slides down and misses the 1st down by a freaking foot a FREAKING FOOT! TAKE THE DAMN HIT AND GET THE FIRST. OK it's short and I know we can get the first down come on falcons! You can... what the hell is the punter doing? BG punts the ball! You are down to OSU 21-7 you have to go for it on 4th and a millimeter. OSU's first play of the drive a long pass to Ted Ginn. OSU 28 BG 7

Add another touchdown and BG decides to put in Freshman QB Tyler Sheehan and he look s pretty good. On 3rd and 1 Sheehan hands it to Dan Macon he finds a hole and it gone up field I jump up with the rest of the OSU fans and I'm screaming GO GO GO I think he's going to get into the end zone but is brought down at the 26. OSU fans cheer because they stopped Macon and I am cheering for a great BG play. 4th and 1 and it is our last chance to score Sheehan drops back and over throws his man and it nearly picked off, but it was 4th down so we loose the ball and a chance to score.

Over all we played pretty crappy, yet held our own. We could have done better, but could have been crushed even worse. So it was the best and worst of times, but I still love my Falcons and OSU did not cover the spread so SUCK ON THAT OSU FANS!!!!

AY ZIGGY ZOOMBA BITCHES!