Snake Handlers

I recorded the History Channels special called Hillbilly: The Real Story, it's a special about "mountain folk" of the Appalachian mountains. These people are generally called slow, stupid, and out of touch and this special tries to show the positive side of these people. The reason I wanted to watch is because I grew up on the out skits of Appalachian Mountains and I at times consider myself Appalachian. I grew up in a town with coal piles, a town where the past was iron. Hard working town that sets in Ohio valley. A couple of the places they shot, I had been too, I also did not need the subtitles to understand everyone.

The one part of the special I was hoping they did not go into was the Church of Science or as they more commonly known, snake handlers. Back in the early 1900s George Went Hensley was reading the bible and came across Mark 16:18

they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it
will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they
will get well."

He then saw a snake and picked it up and that was that. I know it probably was a little more complicated than that, but that's a rough idea of how it began. They feel they can pick up poisonous snakes and God will protect them from the snake and it's deadly venom. It doesn't stop there, they will also drink strychnine and arsenic to prove they have God in them. To top it off they will also take fire and run their hands through it.

I've always know about snake handlers, I remember stories that my mom would tell of a church in Ironton that was a snake handling church. In Ohio it is illegal to use snakes for religious services and the church had the police show up multiple times. In a college sociology class at Ohio University Southern I had a professor who did research on snake handlers, he told of story of one church that was told not to bring out the snakes. They had uniform officers in side waiting to arrest the minister if they pulled out any snakes. Well the service started, no snakes, then things started to get hopping and the snakes crate was brought out and dumped on the floor. The officers bolted out the door.

I do not agree with the snake handler's thought on Christianity, but it is interesting that even though there have been deaths, even children have died from snake bites, that the guy featured in the story has been bitten almost 170 times! I guessing he has started to build an immunity towards certain venom, but there has to be some mind over matter there. That same sociology professor told a story where a woman was in a "trance" and he thought "I wish that lady would pick up the fire and use it." She looked at him, went over to the fire brought it over towards him and started to wave her hand through it.

Maybe there is something there, but I'm on the side that they are not looking at the greater picture. They picked one small thing out and based everything on that one aspect, not the whole. I know many people do not know of snake handlers, but those who do usually refer to them as stupid inbred mountain people and for this I don't like the snake handlers. Snake handling has been banned in ever state but one... West Virginia, once I heard that today I just shook my head, it had to be West Virginia, that's all they need is to still have that stigma still alive.

Maybe I am part of the greater problem and look at them as foolish, maybe I need to be more tolerant. I don't know, I just don't want to be in a church and hear, "Bring out the snakes." I will be like the uniformed officers and bolt out the door.

Old Memories That Cause Night Terrors

I was thinking about doing a post about the North Carolina Central/North Carolina A&T game and brawl and the press conference in Greensboro I had to go to. Then while driving back Sports Gal and I started to talk about college. She finally told of a story where a historic journalist turned professor told her "I will pass you, if I never see your face in one of my classes again." From her story, she got behind in the class and the professor was intimidating and stopped going because she was frustrated and couldn't face him. That got me thinking about my worst college moment.

It was my last semester and during finals week I had three hard tests, one 25 page paper, two video projects, a couple other papers and a resume tape. Oh yeah all of this within three days, I know I could have done the papers earlier, but I was... well am a procrastinator so I waited till the last possible minute. It was Wednesday and I was down to my last ever in class college moment, a test in my Telecommunication research class. Oddly enough this was the second time I had to take this class. The first time I just didn't try and got a D, but I needed a C to graduate. I was doing well and thought I might have an outside chance at getting an A, even though I had missed a couple of the last classes to finish other projects I thought I could get a good grade.

I get to the class, sit down and start the test. I don't recognize anything on the papers in front of me. I have not clue what I am suppose to be taking a test on. I struggle through and finally give up and answer as many questions as I could. I walk up to turn the test in and I still remember what the professor said to me. "Do you want me to grade it now so you know what you got?" Even though I can not remember anything of the test I still remember what I said "No, I failed it, I don't want to know that I got a zero."

I didn't get a zero I got a 14.

Yes a 14, that takes great skill to get a score like that, it's so close to zero but it's not and yet I pulled it off. I seriously thought I was not going to graduate, my parents were planning to come up. All my friends were still in college, how could I come back next year and have to take this class for a third time! My sister, who works for Bowling Green, knew I was worried and called the professor and found out that I did not fail the class, I came close. I went from a high B to a low C.

I was relieved, but still to this day I will occasionally wake up from a dream thinking that I never passed that class and that I have been fired because I never graduated. This happened almost 9 years ago and I still get this dream. Will this ever stop? Do I need professional help about this?

I Don't Think That's What They Meant By Drive-Thru

I was in a good mood going into work, I was working 11-8 and then get to shoot football afterwards. I had the MP3 player going and rocking out, then I heard a panicked noise on the two way. "The Chief get back to the station now!" That's not a good thing to hear. Then the chatter picks up on the two-way and it sounds like something really bad happened. Then I hear two key words that made me understand what was going on; restaurant and airplane. Those are two words that never really go together, think about it can you think of any situation where those two words would ever go together and that be a good thing? I still had hope, it sounded like three photographers and at least one reporter were on their way, I must not be going. I get a quarter mile from the station and I get a panicked call and all I could make out from the fast talking desk was Baggins and shire, no wait that's Lord of the Rings I heard reporter and Clayton, I'm going to the story.

Here's what happened, a single engine airplane was having problems and trying to make it to the Johnston County Airport/tire care/video store when it started to sputter, it may have flipped over then when straight into the McCalls BBQ and seafood. Fortunately the restaurant was not open and the staff was fine.

Well, I get the new girl and we work our way to Clayton and after three tries we find a spot for our live truck, I raise the mast and try to tune in, but we can only hit one tower and the other truck is already tuning in and is the live web cam. As with news we ran around for about an hour then had nothing to do. The two reporters on scene called into a conference called and figure out what everyone was doing. That was at 1, I then stood around until 4 and edited our package. I finish and that's when I find out I am not shooting any football tonight. I have to baby sit the plane and building, "just in case the FAA shows up." Due to the fact the closest FAA person was Miami I don't think they will make it by 8.

The only good thing was I got off early enough to see The Wife for a little bit. The bad is my feet are swore and red, my knees won't stop popping. I need to not work on Fridays, this is starting to get ridiculous.

Burnt to a Crisp

Yesterday started out OK, but then I got to work. We did a simple story nothing too hard, but I was not "feeling it" and I shot like ass. Even when we get back to the station I couldn't get into the story. It didn't look bad it was just, a story. I figured out why, I am in the mist of a burn out. Prior to Monday I had worked 11 days in a row, which is tough, but when you add in tornadoes and running the field of a college football game, that makes me a little worn out. I had only Sunday to rest and I did a little, but I needed two to feel human again. I know I'm going to struggle today and there is no real end in sight. I'm being asked to do another 8 or 10 in a row starting in a week. I don't know how to handle that kind of news. I don't get over time because they will "fix my schedule" to make it overtime free. I need a few days off that don't require me to work more than 5 days in a row afterwards. I wish I had enough sick hours to call off.

So, Where's the Burger?

While running errands The Wife thought it would be nice to go to a little 50's style diner. She mentioned they had really good burgers and hot dogs. I'm now hungry for a good old burger so I'm game. We go in and it has everything you think of when you hear 500's style diner: checker board floor, counter, red seat... you know the deal. We look over the menu and I see something interesting, shrimp hamburger. Hmmm shrimp on a hamburger, for some reason that sounds good, but just in case I ask the waitress what a shrimp hamburger is. She mentions shrimp and a bun and that's all I could understand, she was talking kind of fast, but she mentioned it's great.

Well I order one and I was shocked by what I received. It was a bun with some fried shrimp... Where's the burger part? I want a burger! When you put the word burger in a title of something that generally means a beef patty or at least something in patty form (ie veggie burgers). There was nothing of the sorts, look at the picture, it's shrimp on a bun. I call that a shrimp sandwich or a po' boy. I would have asked the waitress about this, but we never saw her until we were done and ready to go.

The sandwich was good, but the non burger aspect made not enjoy the meal. Seriously it's not a chicken burger sandwich, it's a chicken sandwich. I'm still wanting burger, stupid 50's diner.

You'd Get a Butt Minus

For the last week JDOG-17 has been getting phone calls over a commercial that has been airing. It's for Hardee's Carl's Jr new flat buns patty melt. Because of the calls we have now made it an anthem in part of of the news room. I think it's an ingenious commercial and is very creative. Flashy like a music video and is a parade of rap music and the use of a woman's "posterior" in said music. Who ever wrote the lyrics is a genius here is a few lines

I like them flat like a pancake stack

In Anatomy class you'd have a butt minus

stand sideways girl you disappear

Then the choirs of: Flat Buns, I like flat buns, I like the flat ones!

Here is the real comedy of the situation. We have found out that Hardee's/Carl's Jr is not one of out clients! We don't even air the thing, yet some idiots started getting people to call every station and tell them to pull the commercial. Hello idiots, you might want to see which stations are airing it first. Because of your calls, I actually saw the commercial for the first time and now I'm posting it because of you.

I guess people don't like flat buns. They would rather have some junk in the trunk.

Yeah Rain! Wait... Is That a Funnel Cloud?

Finally we got some much needed rain and I knew I would have to be out shooting it. I;m teamed up with Boston Stevie (He wanted it changed from just Boston) and we head out. We get some nasty looking clouds a little rain and head down to Ashboro. Never heard of Ashboro, neither did I till around 4PM. It's 70 miles from Raleigh and I felt like I was back at The Network chasing storms. We get half way there, Siler City, when I see some of the darkest and lowest clouds I had ever seen. We get more video and continue on our way. We listen to the Local number 1 station's radio broadcast and get some important info and Boston Stevie's weather radio keeps mentioning Asboro, we even stop for some food and people keep telling us that a tornado was seen in Ashboro. Well, there was dark clouds and no actual tornado, but we get a weather warning from the Nation Weather Service and a Tornado touched down in Fuquay Varina... and hour and a half back towards Raleigh.

I'd love to just rip the station, but my cover has partially been blown so I won't get into that right now, I will just say it was a long and difficult night that could have been easier, but people thought it would be more fun having us in the dark. I will say this the best line of the night was this "Well Ashboro and Fuqauy are only and inch apart on the map." You can't make that up.

We get to Fuquay just after 8pm and we get lucky, we find four people to talk and have one guy drive us to a tree down over some power lines. Before we left we found a woman who gave us a great interview and mentioned she has never seen wind like the ones we had tonight.

I know we have not had rain in 18 days and the whole area has not had a good rain in over a month, but do we really need tornado's? Just let us have some rain so we get out of this drought.

You Named Your Base What?

Yesterday Boston had to go and do a troop deployment, normally that kind of thing happens at Ft Bragg, but this time it was at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. Wait, what was the base name again? Are you kidding me? Seymour Johnson? I know I'm being juvenile but that is just funny. I'd love to have been at the meeting where they named the base.






"Lt. Hammonds, what do you think we should name the base?"

(Snickers) What about (snicker) Seymour Johnson?

Good man, Seymour Johnson it is!

Of course, I couldn't let it go with just the name. "So Boston, you going down to Seymour Johnson." Of course that's when it is revealed that it's near Morehead, NC. Are you kidding? Is this one giant dick joke after another? The best part of the fun is when the two local photographers made this statement, "Until you Yankees can down we never thought of that." That makes it even better for me, for years no one thought anything about the name. It was just Seymour Johnson, not SEYMOUR JOHNSON. I need to grow up and stop laughing at things like this, but I can't.

Album Review: Ash's Twilight of the Innocent

Online Videos by Veoh.com
I've been a fan of Ash ever since I saw them live at the CD101 fest a few years ago. They are a great Pop/Rock from Northern Ireland who has had a few hits everywhere but here in America. This is one of those mysteries that only Robert Stack will be able to figure out. Even though the new album, Twilight of the Innocents, came out in June I was unable to get my hands on a copy, come to find out there aer multiple iTunes based on what country you are in. So I could not buy it there because it's only on the UK iTunes. A few weeks ago I finally find a semi cheap ($16) price for an import and I ordered it.

Twilight is a slight departure from the traditional Ash sound, but in this case it is not a bad thing. The album has a lot of hard guitar riffs, but has what I call a more mature sound. Twilight has a very tight sound and a good beat all the way through. The last album, Meltdown, was a balls to the wall rock album which is how Ash plays live, but Twilight is a little more mellow and doesn't have as many tempo swings.

The first Track I Started a Fire is an up tempo song about losing someone and wanting them back. Tim Wheeler pours his soul out and his vocals off the top keep the song moving till everyone kicks in. The thing about is is that a lot of the songs are what most consider love songs, but for some reason they don't have that feel. It's the way Tim crafts the lyrics:

I want to know, I want to hold

the girl that can't be owned

let into your soul

deep inside your mystery

a vow of secrecy, never let you go

she can't be owned

Considering most love songs today that's pretty Shakespearean compared to the Pussy Cat Dolls.

Next is You Can't Have it All (the video up top), so what do you do after a love song about someone you can't have? How about a rejection, I would say this is the closest to any song off their last album, but has a more modern feel, I want to say a more Emo feel without all the bangs and suck. There's a very heavy bass line and a very precis matching drum beat that keeps the song moving. This is by far my favorite song on the album, I've hit the back button may a times.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

The second single off the album was Polaris a song about a relationship that is on the rocks and someone is afraid of dragging the other down and destroying them. For the first time on the album you hear piano and at first I looked around wondering where that came from. It works and as the chorus starts you get a string section. A very pretty song made more poignant by the video. It actually changes the song for me. It's no long about dragging someone down, but about loosing someone because of the world climate we are in.

Track number six, End of the World, is the midpoint of the album and the slowest tempo, but its a very pretty song. I am about the same age the three guys in Ash and End of the World rings very true with me. It's about felling felt behind by society, I am no long, IT and everything is geared towards the younger generations. Also talks about how we are destroying nature for advancement and how we need to keep something as is.

The 12th and final track is an epic song and title track. It uses a lot of piano, stings and electronic sound and for some reason I can not get the chorus out of my head

I'm still breathing, my heart still beating

I'm still breathing, my heart still beating

I'm still breathing, my heart still beating

It's almost like they wanted a rock opera feel and pulled it off. Very beautiful and a great way to end the album. A lot of times the last song on an album always seems tacked on and is just there. Ash actually used this song to close the album.

Even though I did not give a review on everyone the album is from front to back a great work of art. I've listened to it at least 15 times now and I am not sick of it yet. I the one thing I've struggled with it is the beginning of every song seems not to dictate how the song is going song 30 seconds later. I every once in a while I will want to hit skip on the CD player, but then I have to remind myself that I really like the song.

I could see about half of these songs getting air play here in the States, but I don't think it will happen. after five other albums and multiple movie tie-ins (Angus, Shaun of the Dead, and a Star Wars video game to a name a few) and still not a blip on the scene, then I don't think it will ever happen. It's a shame though, but at least I have a little something that most here do not know about.

Free Golf

This year I really wanted to start playing golf, I've played in the past, but I want to be more serious and play as much as I can. I'm not that good but I have played three times this year and my dad gave me a few hints on improving my game like moving closer to the ball. With the thumb/wrist injury (I know I need to stop talking about it) and the extreme heat I had to take some time off. Well, the time off official ended Monday with a free round of golf at Prestonwood Country Club. How did I get to play at a swanky place like Prestonwood... MEDIA DAY!!! The Champions Tour is coming to the course next week and there is ALWAYS a media golf outing when any tours come to down.

I played with with weather guy"Pete Nice" and the producer known as Justice. I've played with Justice before and he's in the same boat I am... sucks, and I mean that in a good way. His theory is he knows he can't hit it straight so lets have fun and joke around for 5 hours. Pete Nice though, he's a baller and can hit the ball. We start out and I'm doing OK for the fact that I have not picked up a club for over two months. Then something happened on the third hole, I crush the drive down the middle of the fairway and since this was a scramble (you use the best drive from the group and you all go from that spot) we used my shot. I then hit a second shot 15 feet from the hole. I have my first chance at a birdie (one under par), mind you the best I have ever had prior today was a boggie (one over par). I line up hit the ball, it's on line, OH NO IT'S TOO FAST, it hits the back of the cup, bounces up and drops into the hole. I throw my putter up in the air.

I am in a happy place as we get to the next tee, so what do I do for an encore on the next hole... lose three balls, then the next hole I put two more in the water. I ended up loosing 18 balls on the day, which is a personal record, I did end up with a par later on.

The best, yet not so best part of the day was at the end of the day. As I mentioned before I played with Justice earlier this year, while playing I some how hit two house with one ball. That takes skill, you have to slice the ball and then have it hit the roof and bounce to the other house, which it ripped through a screened in porch. The over/under on houses for the day was 4. Pete Nice may have it one earlier, but no damage yet. On the next to last hole, I am tired and I'm starting to play bad and go back to my bad habits. I take a swing and the ball goes way left... straight towards a home worth well over a million dollars.The ball looks like it's locked onto a half circle window, but at the last second curves and hits the roof, bounces and hits the roof again. That shot is probably the most memorable shot of the round. The next hole, more houses and this time I knock over someone's deck chair.

Over all it was a good day, I hit a house (but didn't break anything), got a birdie and a par, lost 18 balls, drank my own body weight in water and Powerade and had a lot of laughs. I'm ready for another round... well when my body stops hurting.

Favorite Season: BBQ Style

As I have mentioned in the past I really love shooting football, but when I moved to Raleigh I knew that I would have a limited chances to shoot and with the injury I've already missed the first three weeks of high school football. Now that I am back to nights this past Friday I finally got my chance to shoot.

Hobbton 19 North Johnston 7
OK I'm confused, did I some how come across a secret Ohio State Michigan game? No, it's just both schools wanted to confuse me. The game was at North Johnston, which is a haul from the station and I felt like I was working for The Network again. For the most part highs school football is the same anywhere you go. The only exception is the large schools that take the game serious. I don't think I'll get to see teams as good as Elder, St. X, Colrane, St Iggy or Glenville. But these kids played hard and it felt good to be on the sideline.

I got to shoot most of the first half and I got a couple of good highlights, but nothing spectacular. North had a decent touchdown run and Hobbton's tail back dove into the end zone which made the three yard run look better. Regretfully Michigan, I mean Hobbton won...stupid confusing uniforms.

Smithfield-Salem 41 South Johnston 21

So this game was Notre Dame versus Michigan? I know it's high school, but come on North Carolina be original! Well I guess the Smithfield-Salem Spartan (known as SSS) are the class of Johnston County and one of the better teams in the triangle. South was undefeated and looking to get their first win at SSS. I get there at the half and it's 34-8... ouch! In the second half South made it interesting scoring to make it 34-14, but could not grasp the idea of moving forward. They kept throwing screens and throwing passes no more than 3 or 4 yards. They were just out manned. For me the best part were the three touchdowns I got. I had one where the kid nearly fell down, puts a hand down, spins and runs 30 yards for a touchdown. The next was a touch pass thrown to the corner of the end zone and the wide receiver got a foot in and the touchdown counts. The last was a 86 yard run for a score. The big thing was my placement on the field. When shooting football you always want the play running towards you. You don't want to shoot from the behind the line of scrimmage. Another photographer from the dominate station did not believe in my rules. He shot from the line of scrimmage and had the play going away from him. His shot may have been pretty good, but no matter what more people probably saw his, so I guess it's a push.

A "LITTLE" BONUS GAME

Wake Forest Titans 16 Apex Cougars 0

We started a new segment called Pint Size Pigskin, where we go shoot a pee wee football games and make it look like NFL Films, but having fun with it because it's 5 year old's playing football.

In all honesty if you don't have a reason to be at one of these games... don't go. If you want to watch little kids trying to play football or little girls trying to be cheerleaders. My favorite part was the intro of the home team Apex. They had a giant inflatable cougar tunnel and had fire extinguishers blowing as the kids ran out of the tunnel and ran throw a banner. I missed this part but The Wife said after they ran past me made it to the sideline and three of the kids trip on each other and fell down. I enjoyed this shoot, the kids were trying to focus on the game, but my giant camera was a distraction and the coaches were trying to keep their attention, but it wasn't going to happen.

Fried Chicken Drive Tragedy Is Finally Over

While watching the BG Minnesota game my cell phone started singing. I looked down and it was a picture of The Wife. I'm guessing she is wondering how the game is going, but I was wrong she had received another phone call from Best Buy (Yet again they don't call me). Our new external hard drive is done and we can pick it up. If it wasn't Best Buy the story should have ended right there. Reggie the manager then proceeds to tell The Wife that they waived the pairs fees, but he would have to charge us for parts and labor. If it wasn't for the fact she told me I could not talk until she had finished the story I would have hung up and called my "Good Friend" Reggie and made him cry or give us a flat screen TV.

They wanted us to pay $90 for labor, of course The Wife argues that he had never mentioned us paying for this. Hell, I could have bought an external case and done it myself, I'm not paying that much for something I could have done. Well, Reggie remembered that during previous conversations that I was looking to buy an external hard drive and thought we would graciously pay $90 for the drive. The only problem is The Wife didn't want to pay for something that was suppose to be free, you know because Best Buy royally screwed up.

After a 10 minute conversation Reggie admitted that he talks to so many people that he could remember everything that was said, yet he remembered a small detail like I was wanting a new hard drive... every convenient. So he gave up and we got the drive for the original price of us not calling his manager. Most of the information is there, we are missing a few small documents, but nothing that's life threatening. I hope I never have to take the computer back to the Geek Square.

Random Labor Day: Everything Else

I had a limited time yesterday and I only got through two of the items I wanted to I'm going to try and bang the rest of the weekend before I go to work in 30 minutes.

DISC GOLF FUN
Since it has been so hot and I well, had a thumb and wrist injury I could not disc golf. I don't know what got into be, but I wanted to disc golf the weekend away. As usual I had high hopes and wanted to get 4 courses in. Well, I only got two in, but I had a lot of fun.

The first course was out n Zebulon, I've played there before, but it's kind of a haul (35 minutes), it's a pretty drive in the country and I get to see a lot of the tobacco fields in the area. The course if fair at best. The holes are not well marked and you have to play around some ball fields and a gravel road. It didn't help that I couldn't throw a disc straight and more than 5 feet off the ground.

On Sunday I left church and went out to Durham because I heard of a great course. Luckily, the course was really good and worth the 50 minute drive. It reminded me a lot like a mixture of the three courses I played in Columbus, lots of trees, fairly straight shots on a lot of the holes and pretty well laid out. The biggest problem I had, besides throwing a disc, was the hills, it was all up and down. For the last 6 weeks all I have done is sit at a computer at work and that dropped my stamina a little, so it was more tiring than I had hoped, so I struggled the last few holes. I'd defiantly come back to this course when I have a lot of free time and extra money for gas.

GAME NIGHT
Shawn, Melissa, The Wife and I have tried to have a game night for a few months ago, but things like vacations, work schedules and general bad luck have forced us to cancel every time. Well luck turned and we actually had game night. I cooked up some burgers and chicken, they brought some drinks and some games and we had a good time. We only got one game in, because it took forever! We played 90s Trivial Pursuit and I forgot how tedious the game can be. You have to land on a specific square to get a game piece and it took forever. While playing we did learn one thing. I know way too much about absolutely nothing. If you dropped me off in the middle of nowhere, I'd probably die within the first 10 minutes, but ask me who was the first person to climb to the top of the Murderhorn and then leave his wallet, I'd tell you it was Homer. Maybe I need to rethink my life..... Nah!

There was more that happened during my time off, but I can't get the words to flow to describe them. All I will say it was a great near five days off and I have no desire to go back to work.

Random Labor Day: Football edition

Because of the now healed thumb and a scheduling SNAFU I got of work Friday at 8AM and do not have to be back at work till Wednesday at 1PM. In return for not working, Wednesday starts my 10 days in a row and Friday was kind of a particle wasted day because, well I got off work at 8AM and was tired all day. Truthfully the almost 5 days off have been wonderful so far and I thought I'd just do one big random post:

GREATEST GAME EVER!

The biggest problem living in North Carolina is that normal cable and local stations do not carry Big Ten nor MAC football, I get the crappy ACC and the annoy fans of the SEC. For the most part football is football and if the game is exiting I'll watch. Honestly The Wife is the most upset about this predicament. She can't stand not watching Ohio State on Saturdays, but Shawn has Direct TV and has picked up the BigTen Network and the OSU opener can only be seen there. I'm invited over (The Wife had to work) I start watching with Melissa, but she has to go to work, and they were nice enough to let me stay and watch the game even though they were both at work. Ohio State played like Ohio State always does, boring yet dominating. In all honestly they are at times hard to watch when they play "smaller" teams.

I'm getting bored of this game when I get a call "Is that App State Michigan score correct?" Shawn asked with great shock in his voice. I text him earlier with a score of 14 all, but that's not the score he gives me "Turn over to at game App State is up 28-14!" WHAT?!?! That can't be the score, it has to be a typo on his phone. I flip over and I see 28-14 and I have a new game to watch.

That was the most exciting game I have ever watched. It seemed like the Mountaineers were going to dominate, then they would fumble, throw an interception or drop at touchdown pass. At the same time, "the state up north" did want to win. They would score and miss a two point conversion, fumble and just look bad. Finally Michigan started to play like a Big Ten school and took the lead late in the game I thought that was it Goliath would win... again. I miss judged the scrappy 1-AA school. They stormed back and took a two point lead 34-32. I was jumping up and down. Titus, Shawn and Melissa's dog, looked at me like I was an idiot. I was jumping up and down. Also during this time I got a call from The Wife and I told her about the game and I had to give her play-by-play of the game, then Shawn called and I was doing the same for him. I had to look like and idiot with a phone on each ear giving the call of the game two feet from the TV jumping up and down.

Michigan did not want to live in infamy. They threw a bomb to Mario Manningham and he makes the diving catch at the 20. I thought it was over. How can the Michigan kicker miss a gimmie like that. Shawn calls back and I tell him that the Wolverines are about to win the game with a kick. Then it happened, Appalachian State BLOCKS THE KICK! APP STATE JUST BEAT MICHIGAN! I was screaming into the phone, while shawn was laughing at me and cheering the fall of the mighty Wolverines.

I don't care what some of the football writers are saying, this was the greatest upset off all time in college football. A powerhouse Big Ten school LOSES TO A 1-AA SCHOOL! To put it in perspective it's like the Indianapolis Colts losing to Florida, LSU or USC. It's not going to happen. This should never have happened and probably will not happen again. I was lucky to get to see this game.

SECOND GREATEST GAME OF THE DAY

To open the season Bowling Green is playing Minnesota and guess what? It's on the BigTen Network so I am invited back to watch, I brought the beer Shawn ordered the pizza. Prior to the game I was unsure what to expect from BG, we are starting a young quarterback, our wide receivers are unproven and last year we forgot to play this thing called defense.

I settle in and the next thing I know BG is reeling of a drive of all drives and scores. I am shocked, I didn't even jump up and down or anything I just sat there. Minnesota came out and looked, well bad, they are installing a new offense and it looks like it has not sunk in yet so they have to punt. I think coach Greg Brandon thought he was playing Playstation and sliced the gopher D for the second time and even through in a trick play that scored a 58 yard TD. BG is dominating and I am stunned, is this the time that I have cheered for? What happened to my Falcons, don't get me wrong I'm loving it's just hard to handle is team that is dominating a "bigger" program.

Well BG came back down to Earth and only scored one more time before the half to make it 21-0. I think the Tim Brewster lit a fire under his team, because they started playing better and I think he found Glen Mason's old play book and started running a "Minnesota" type offense. By the 4th quarter it is all tied at 21. I am worried now, I start pacing and realize that I am watching Bowling Green and we are going to chock. Minnesota kicks a field goal and looks like they have the game locked up.

BG finally wakes up and Tyler Sheehan dismantles the gopher D and get BG with in field goal range. I'm nervous as hell. If you don't know anything about BG football let me fill you in on a little problem we have had for a couple of years. WE CAN'T KICK THE BALL! Shawn is laughing at me pacing around his house I know the new junior college transfer is going to blow it. HE MADE IT, HE MADE IT! WE MAY ACTUALLY HAVE A KICKER! I'm happy for overtime, but Minnesota wants to run a play. I can't give this play as much justice as the Futonreport did:

Weber hurls it down field at the 35, for the Hail Mary, and … nope, it’s tipped
and — wait — BG catches it. They’re going downfield. JESUS CHRIST THEY’RE GOING VERY FAR DOWN FIELD. THEY’RE PAST MIDFIELD. THEY’RE AT THE 40 YARD LINE. THEY’RE LATERALING THE BALL! THEY’RE FUCKING LATERALING THE BALL! I DON’T SEE A MOTHERFUCKING BAND ON THE FIELD! KEEP LATERALING! GO, YOU STUPID FUCKING FALCONS!!! KEEP RUNNING, KEEP LATERALING… oh, they ran out of space at the 30
yard line. Welp, how’s about overtime?

In overtime Minnesota scores first and then BG gets a fast touchdown, OK send in the kicker... what the hell is Brandon doing! He keeps the offense out there. BG goes for it, FREDDIE BARNES CAUGHT THE BALL! HE CAUGHT THE BALL! WE WIN WE WIN!

I was jumping up and down screaming in a voice only Titus could hear. What a way to end a Saturday.... just perfect!