Hardball

12 Study Tips for Doing Your Best in College

2010-08-23T22:10:00.001-07:00

The general rule for every class is simply to listen to your teacher. Don't shortcut their methods and listen to the advice they give you. Do the homework and reading they recommend to you, and most importantly, do it on time. At the end of the day, they aren't trying to take you down because they hate you, as sometimes it would seem, they're trying to take you down to challenge you to achieve your full potential.

To rise up to this challenge, I modified and polished up my studying techniques. Every class I took in college taught me something different. I'm going to share with you all of what I learned. Now the advice I give primarily applies to Biology related majors, specifically something related to Molecular Biology, but try to think how this would apply to you.

I'm going to skim over the basics:

1. Always Attend Class
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is not attending class. You might be dead tired, wanting to sleep in, hung over like your head is going to explode. You should man it out and go to class. As you hear things in class for the first time, whether you understand them or not, they will register in your head as things the professor said. When you go back and study the material, these random details will pop into your head and you'll be thanking yourself for going to class. You'll find it much easier to understand material the second time around, however half-ass the first time around was.

2. Make an attempt to listen
As I said, whether you understand the material or not, keywords and phrases will register in your mind, and you'll know later on that the professor mentioned it and so you should probably know it. Random phrases the professor says will pop into your mind as you study for your midterm as well. If you can understand the entire lecture on the spot, then it will probably cut the studying time outside of class in half, and it will make it so much less stressful.

3. Take Proper Notes
Write down everything on the board, anything the teacher says, and anything you're thinking. Don't rely on others for notes. You'll find that most people don't take good notes, and even if they do, it's hard to decipher other people's notes sometimes. If you write it down yourself, you're far more likely to remember what you're writing, and you'll have an easier time understanding the material.

Its important to build a note taking strategy that you are efficient with. I have found that the best note taking strategy for me is to be organized and color coded. By organized I mean, I write the date and lecture number before every lecture, I begin a new lecture on the right side of my notebook, and I take notes neatly leaving alot of space in my notebook. Don't squeeze things. The teacher might look to make a small diagram and it might turn into a 2 page drawing, you never know. If you think you'll run out of paper in your notebook, don't worry about it, you can just get another notebook and call it Part 2. I also color code all my notes with 4 colors. I will have black, blue, red, and green pens ready to go. Usually black is what the teacher writes on the board, blue is what the teacher explains, green is notes to myself, and red is if the teacher specifically says something is important.

Ok, all that is pretty obvious stuff, now these are the things that helped me in some class:

4. Podcasting
Most teachers will podcast, I recommend going back every weekend and listening to the podcast, while taking notes in your notebook. I usually write these extra notes in pencil. I'll usually write down all the details that the teacher explains that seem to be common sense on the spot, but end up being difficult and important. Always make time to podcast, you'll find listening to it the second time around makes it stick in your mind like glue. Many of my fellow pre-med students do this as well. These are the guys that set the class curves and take all the A+'s and A's away from everyone else. I recommend speeding up the podcasts, which you can do on Windows Media Player. Depending on how fast the professor speaks, you can speed it up anywhere from 1.5x to 2x the speed. I began to do this in my upper divison classes mostly, where reading the book was less important than listening to the teacher.

5. Wikipedia
This seems like common sense too, but you'll be surprised by how little people use the internet as a resource. Sometimes common words are not always what they seem. A really simple example is lets say your professor is talking about ADH and suddenly starts calling it Vasopressin, a word you've never heard before. If you wikipedia it, you'd know that they are the same thing. In one molecular biology class, I was literally using Wikipedia to look up every protein name. So when the teacher throws out a bunch of CDCs, CDKs, Cyclins, with random numbers associated, what seems like complete gibberish and confusion, can be broken down and organized simply by wikipedia. Out of all the times I've used wiki, it's been inaccurate on my a few times, usually only because it cites certain evidence that our professor overrules with the latest research, usually because he does the research. You can't really complain about that. I use this in mostly upper division classes where some of the nomeclature gets very complicated, but I wish I had used it throughout college in all of my classes.

6. No Study Groups, Yet
I've learned that its best to study everything on your own. If you don't understand something, power through it, do research, go to office hours, and figure it out. When you feel like you are done with all of the material, then join a study group and try to help others. If you can teach the information you self, it proves you really understand it, meaning you'll probably ace the test.

7. Go to Office Hours on Off Days
I have been on both sides of the table in office hours, as a student and as a TA. I can tell you this, from a TAs perspective, we wait there every day for students to come and ask questions so we can help you. We want to be good TAs and we want the students who actually come to us to do well. This means, if a student comes in and asks me a simple question, I'll give him not only the answer, but I'll explain the reasoning behind it better than the professor. Not only that but since I have most likely taken that class before, and TA'd it before, I know what type of questions are likely to appear on the test. We usually sit there bored for most of the days, until about a week before a midterm, then students rush in for practice test answers. At this point theres so many kids that its hard to give any single student full attention, but rather I have to give quick and concise answers to keep everything moving. So go to office hours on the first week of class, go on random days, go after the midterm.

8. Do All Homework and Practice Tests
This is the best indication of what information the teacher wants you to know and in how much depth. Theres many angles you can take at certain material, some teachers simply test for memorization, others tests critical thinking, and some take critical thinking a couple steps more and ask you to do some serious problem solving where you really need to know the information. Homework and Practice Tests get you in that critical thinking mindset that is necessary to do well on test day. Getting as many of these angles down is key to developing your critical thinking.

9. Study to Learn, Not to Pass Tests
This is one of the most important pieces of advice I can give. It's all about understanding the material. If you study to pass tests, you're limiting yourself on test day. Teachers will always put curveball questions on tests to create a standard distribution. With proper understanding, you can take these questions down with ease. If you only studied to pass the test, these questions might be beyond your scope, leaving you complaining like most other students that it was unfair. At the end of the day, your complaints are probably useless. Beat the system at its own game, instead of trying to take the system down, because thats impossible. Plus this is your major, you should probably find it interesting.

10. Study Early
Start studying on day 1. There is always something to study. You can read ahead, read wiki, read extra, whatever it may be. Start as strong as you can. In the first 2 weeks of school, study every hour you can during the day. You might be the only fool in the library on the first day, but you'll be laughing once test day comes around. The average student will probably be playing video games, sleeping in, watching TV. Doing something productive during this day time will give you lee-way to free up your nights, as well as your weekend, and nights and weekends are the best social times. This way you can manage having a life and doing well in school, something thats becoming rare, especially with tougher majors.

11. Manage Your Supplements Wisely
Coffee, Soda, Energy Drinks, Adderall. All of these can help you stay awake and focus while you study. I can tell you this from personal experience, this is a slippery downhill road. Once you start coffee, you'll become dependent. Eventually you're going to need to increase your caffeine intake as your tolerance increases. This might lead you to energy drinks, and this might eventually lead you to adderall. Now most important here is your health, so I don't recommend any of these. Energy drinks are notoriously bad for you, I would stay away completely. But the day will come when you ended up slacking and become piled up in work, and need to pull an all-nighter. At this point, coffee and energy drinks are your friends. I would highly recommend going with the sugar free ones or black coffee. In my opinion, energy drinks from weakest to strongest are, Sobe Energy, Red Bull, Monster, Amp, Rockstar. My personal favorite is Rockstar Blue. Now if you're in a worst case scenario situation, and its the day before your final and you don't even know what your class is called yet, then you might want to consider Adderall. I will make another post later detailing how I would use it, and exactly how it effects you. But this is the easiest to become dependent on. Tolerance builds surprisingly fast. Most important with all of this stuff is, drink alot of water with it. For however much coffee or monster you drink, I would recommend drinking 3-4 times that much in water throughout the night. You'll be pissing every half an hour, but it will keep your body from turning into a raisin.

12. Its All About Your Mindset
College is about thinking outside the box, this is what your teachers are going to try to get you to do, its what you should do on your own if you want to reach your fullest potential. Your mindset while studying is one of the most important things. Approach the material with an open mind, map things out in your mind or on paper, and how they connect with each other. Always ask WHY, and make sense of everything you learn in a real life perspective. In Medical school, sometimes teachers will take the first lecture just to talk about this, because really, your Mindset will determine everything. So for example, A causes B, C causes D, now upon further research you realize B = D, now A causes D and C causes B, etc. And beyond that, why and how does A cause B? Etc. The connections might be different but you get my point. This is the path to truly understanding the material and having it stick with you forever, instead of it fading away after a year.

If all of this stuff seems obvious to you, at least understand why it is obvious, and understand why it is not as easy as it seems. That is the point I am going for in this article. Not doing well in school is one of the most stressful things for a college student. You will find that putting in the work to do well in school and not being lazy will pay off big.

The State of Oakland Sports

2010-08-23T00:32:00.000-07:00

Oakland Athletics

After years of false promises, trading away our top players for prospects, believing in Billy Beane that one day things will turn around, the light at the end of the tunnel is starting to become visible. Our rotation is one of the best in the league, featuring Cahill, Anderson, Gonzalez, Braden, and Mazzaro. The team ERA at 3.54 is the best in the American League, and 4th best in the Majors. Team WHIP at 1.26 is also 4th best in the majors. One option I've heard thrown out there was acquiring an experienced pitcher next year, and demote Mazzaro, not only to save his arm, but for injury insurance. This is not a bad idea, to have some experience, if we are serious about a playoff run.

The biggest question has been our offense. We are in the bottom half in nearly every batting statistic, including dead last in home runs. The foundation of our lineup needs some serious building, and not just patches from year to year as we have been doing. We need serious 3-4-5 hitters who can drive in runs. There has been talk to acquiring Carl Crawford in the off-season, but personally I don't think he is the answer. He's a fast guy who can get on base and get home, but he is more of a supplement to a primary hitter in the lineup. He won't drive in many runs or hit any out of the park. If we pair him with a power guy like Adam Dunn, then we're in business. The man has wheels though, he fits our small ball scheme perfectly.

As for now, we are 8 games back of Texas for the AL West. There are 39 games left in the season, 7 against Texas and 6 against Anaheim. Last week Texas lost 5 games, and this week they get the twins, who have been very hot this month. We get cleveland, before we start a series with Texas. This should give us momentum. This week should determine where we go from this point as a team, for the rest of the season.

Oakland Raiders

We have been the laughing stock of the NFL for most of the decade. But the atmosphere is finally changing. The biggest change has been new QB Jason Campbell. He's shown alot of intelligence on the field in making the right decisions. He moves well in the pocket to avoid the sack. He's very accurate on his short to mid range passes. My concern is his deep ball, I have yet to see a clean deep ball from Campbell, caught for a large gain. I have much confidence in Campbell though, I think he is someone we can put our faith in, someone we haven't had since Gannon. Also on the offensive side, the offense line has finally been coming into place, things aren't great, but they aren't bad either. Zach Miller has been a beast on the field. Now with a legitimate passer, he will come out onto the national scene as one of the premiere tight ends in the game. The offense will be exciting this year to watch, a bunch of guys who seem like they will play as a unit, and not just 'a bunch of guys.'

On the defensive side of the ball, we have 2 of our top draft picks Houston and McClain. McClain played under Nick Saban at Alabama, a defensive linebacker specialist. McClain is impressing the coaches at training camp, he should quickly rise as a leader on the defensive side by the end of this year, and he understands that role. The Defensive line looks exciting this year. Houston has already been making an impact in pre-season. Wimbley had a career game with 4 sacks in the first half against the bears. Tommy Kelly looks like he lost alot of weight, as he looks like he's taking his job seriously now. But in my opinion one of the biggest changes is losing defensive coordinator Ryan. This defense should have a completely new attitude of playing solid and aggressive.

Oakland was the 5th worst team in Offensive time of possession, that means the defense was always on the field. It was obvious from watching games that the defense was able to hold their own only for so long. But they couldn't hold both the defense and the offense up. It was an impossible situation. Yet under these circumstances the still kept us in games. We had 5 wins in 2009. Four of our loses were by a touchdown or less.

This year there is a change, this isn't the same patched up Raider team of the past. We have been trying for changes that give us instant success. But finally we have a young team who want to do something with this team. 2010 will be the turnaround year for the Raiders, how drastically we turn we will have to see.

Pac-10 Football - Team by Team Commentary

2008-09-21T23:36:00.000-07:00

Oregon - They were overachieving this whole year. They have a good team but their QBs are dropping like flies. You can't expect a team to compete for the conference title without a quarterback. They were eventually gonna go down, it was a matter of time. The advantage they have though is that the system really supports any young QB with limited passing skills. But thats not enough. I expect 3-4 conference losses.

Cal - One bad game, I still think we're gonna finish top 3 in the pac-10. Riley is good, the one pick was unfortunate, but he rarely throws picks anyways, its absolutely nothing to worry about. I review Cal after every game in my other topic, so I don't need to keep talking about em here. Long story short, alot of talent at many positions, a lot of veteren leadership, and hard lessons learned form the past, will all equal success. I only expect 2-4 conference losses. Our pass D is what needs to pick it up. Its not as bad as UCLA's, but its not good at all. We have enough support from everyone else though to make up for it partially.

Arizona State - Very good team with big exploitable weaknesses. They have a very experienced QB who can be effective when given time in the pocket, and a good RB in nance. But the O-line doesn't do **** for them. All teams have to do is what georgia did. Bullrush the O-line, bump the receivers, bring the saftey's up, and they are shut down. They also had some big injuries in the linebacker position. I'm not sure what their status is. They are clearly very well coached, but they can get beat. I expect 1-3 conference losses for them.

Arizona - This is an underrated team in the conference and could surprise a lot of people. Tuitama is a very good senior quarterback. The least his QB rating has been this season is 120, its at 151 right now, and he actually gets a good amount of attempts too. They put in a new offensive system starting last year, and once tuitama got used to it, they started winning. They were 3-1 in their last 4 games, and started 3-1 this year. Thomas, Turner, and Dean are all very good receivers. Grigsby has been a good runningback, but I dont know how he'll be against some better defenses. But this passing attack is one to be scared of. They'll finish at least top 5 in the conference, behind Cal, ASU, USC, and Oregon. They might even upset one of those teams. They could upset Cal, our pass defense is weak.

UCLA - They suck. They had 2 stud defensive tackles that stop the run by themselves, they have good linebackers, an experienced corner, and a 5 star freshman safety. Their run defense is decent but the pass defense is atrocious. When this team brings their A game, they might be decent, but they don't play hard, they have too many injuries, I dont follow them closely enough to predict a turnaround, but for now, they aren't gonna beat anyone with a decent QB, that means Fresno, U Dub, Cal, ASU, USC, and maybe Oregon. This is why they got torched by Max Hall and Tuitama.

Oregon State - Moevao is a decent quarterback. He makes a lot of mistakes, but he does a lot of good also. They should've beaten stanford in the opener, but **** happens. They could've easily been 2-1 Ovr and 1-0 in pac-10 before really starting conference play. I'm not gonna be quick to judgement about them yet, their biggest loss was to Penn State, I think they have a lot of hope, maybe even upset a team. I expect a middle of the pack finish, if not slightly better.

Stanford - They are definately in the lower half of the conference. I think they return more starters than any other team in the pac-10. The problem is, they are really that good. Gerhart is a solid runningback, but Pritchard at QB needs to get better for them to be succesful. I don't think he's at that level yet. They are going to get destroyed by the better teams in the conference.

Washington - In their defense, they played Oregon, BYU, and Oklahoma. Two of those teams are BCS caliber. They got screwed against BYU, so don't write them off so quickly. They are in the bottom half of the pac-10, but they might be able to compete against some of the top teams. They play against stanford, a team thats more at their level, we'll be able to better judge them after this game.

Washington State - The worst team in the pac-10 by far, at least other teams have a few guys to be positive about. They supposedly had a good defensive line, so I dunno. I dunno whats up with them, but they're not going to upset anyone any time soon, if they get a pac-10 win against a team thats not Stanford or Washington, they should be very happy.

USC - Saved the best for the last. I don't need to say anything about them, you all know. Best team in the country. The blueprint to beating USC is this: Aggressive D-line play that can run stop, confusing blitzing schemes, physical bump and run coverage, and smart safeties. In addition, you need to vary your defensive looks and play, even if its not what you usually do. A combination of all that can slow down USC. Slow em down enough to give your team a chance. Thats when your offense has to be firing on all cylinders. You need top of the line pass protection and a good passing quarterback, and you'll have a chance. No one stops the run as good as this team. Out of all the teams in the league, I'd say Bradford would do the best against USC. USC is too big for the UF O-line and too fast for Tebow. They are too good to run the option against. Georgia would have the 2nd best chance at beating USC, if not the same chance as OU. Stafford is a good QB with a really strong arm. Its hard to pick him because of that. I would say Missouri might give em a hard time, but they are too one dimensional. Its UGA, OU, or bust. And even then, those teams would probably get clobbered.

Madden 09 Brief Review and Guides

2008-09-05T10:36:00.000-07:00

I have created two guides for Madden 09 for beginners trying to advance their skills to play like pros. One is for running the ball and the other is for passing. They can be found on my main website here.
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Every year fans continue to get angry at EA for giving them basically the same Madden game with a roster update. This year EA decided to completely change things up. They advertised that there would be 80+ new features in the game. While some are very minor, the difference in the entire game is very noticeable.

The main biggest difference to all fans is the running game. EA has finally updated their broken running and tackling engine and it proves to be much better. Runningbacks can no longer make instantly change their direction at full speed, they can't stop immediately after sprinting. When the defender has engaged the runner in a tackle, the runningback can still make moves in attempts to break the tackle. Defenders can gang tackle the runningback to make sure he goes down, or when the runner is trying to get tackled forwards for an extra gain, extra defenders can come in and push him back. The main drawback is that the tackling is not entirely smooth, it looks and feels like lag, but whatever the case, it's not good. As a whole the running and tackling physics alone are reason to buy this game.

A large number of extra features were also added to the game. You can go to wikipedia for a long list of features and come back if you have any questions. The main theme though was polishing up the game. The stadiums, field, and weather look absolutely stunning. The atmosphere feels realistic. On rainy days, players' jerseys get muddy, some guys start slipping and dropping balls. The players on the field seem alive, they move around on their own, they aren't robots like in previous years.

I haven't been this excited for Madden since 05 when the hit stick was introduced. Even 2k Sports fans are admitting that this is the first decent Madden they've played and are beginning to transition over to Madden. While the game is more realistic and polished, it still captures the spirit of the old Maddens with its fast paced game and hard hits.

Overall: 9.3/10

The Pac-10 Versus the SEC - A Comprehensive Comparison

2008-09-03T02:18:00.000-07:00

Recruiting
The Pac-10 has been the number 2 conference in recruiting for the past few years. And while the SEC is number 1, the average rating of recruits of Pac-10 teams is just as good. For the 08 class, the Pac-10 has the highest average rating. They also had the most players in the top 100. The overall ranking is skewed by the fact that the Pac-10 has less teams than the SEC, Big 12, and Big 10. No doubt the SEC dominated the 06 and 07 classes, but 08 starts a downward trend for the SEC. The pac-10 is about equal to the SEC in terms of recruiting, as of now. And all this time, the Pac-10 has been superior to the Big Ten and Big 12.

Pac-10 Versus SEC Games
I've been saying all along, the best way to determine the superiority of one conference to another is simply play games between each other. With the UCLA win over Tennessee, the Pac-10 is now 10-6 against the SEC, since 2000. For those that have been saying that the Pac-10 is all about USC, if you take out USC and LSU, the two powerhouse teams, the Pac-10 is 6-2 against the SEC. The numbers speak for themselves.

Non-Conference Scheduling and Bowl Eligibility
SEC fans are quick to point out that 10 out of 12 teams were bowl eligible last year, and 9 the year before that. Only 6 pac-10 teams were Bowl eligible last year, and 8 the year before. If you look at the teams from the SEC that barely were eligible, South Carolina and Alabama, you can see that they only got in because of their easy OoC scheduling. I can go into details listing out their opponents but I'll save myself the time. Had SC lost 1 non-conference game, or Bama lost 2, they would not have been bowl eligible. Vanderbilt, the team that almost made it, also won all of its easy non conference games. You really only have to win 3 out of 9 games in the SEC to be bowl eligible. It has completely lost its meaning. The Pac-10 teams on the other hand, all had tough opponents. Of the teams that barely were eligible, UCLA and Cal, LA beat BYU and Utah, and Cal, I'm sure you know about Cal. Of the teams that were barely ineligible, Wazzu and Arizona, Wazzu played Wisconsin, and Zona also played BYU. Other teams like Washington, who were 2 wins away played Boise, Ohio State, Syracuse. At least the Orange are a BCS team. If you don't play tough out of conference games, theres no way to gauge how good the conference is. The tough OoC games that the SEC have played, they've gotten embarrassed by the Pac-10. If you want to be completely unbiased, look at the strength of schedules of the conferences. The SEC had an average strength of schedule of 20. The pac-10 had an average strength of schedule of 10.7.

Bowl Victories
I tried googling for bowl victories but all I found was BCS bowl records and 07-08 bowl records. In both, the Pac-10 and SEC have the same amount of losses, but the SEC had slightly more wins. However, these numbers are not substantive enough to make for a valid basis of judgment. SEC fans like to point out national championships, but the fact is the sample space is too small to work with. BCS bowl records would be better, but still not adequate. The best would be bowl records since 2002, but as I said, I couldn't find those stats and I dont want to compile them myself.

Coaches
The SEC has some great coaches, but all I can say on this one is that the Pac-10 is catching up. The Neuheisel-Chow combo is as good of an offensive coaching staff as your going to get in the league. Pete Carroll, the best coach in the league. Dennis Erickson is completely legitimate, that is a team to watch out for, he went 10-3 in his first year. Jim Harbaugh is starting to turn stanford around. Mike Riley has oregon state turned around, they've had the second best record in the pac-10 over the span of the last 2 years. Tedford has been insanely close to a BCS bid a few times. Mike Bellotti has a couple of conference titles as well as a BCS bowl victory. The SEC is much better in terms of coaching, but the Pac-10 has made some significant changes in the past few years. Eventually they will be close. If Saban and Spurrier didn't come in, I'd say the Pac-10 coaches would be about even if not better than the SEC's.

Players
This is too much to go into, but it parallels the stuff I said about recruiting.

Overall
The SEC is not some sort of champions league, its not far and away the best conference. It is the best, but not by much. You cant just look at the positives of the SEC and ignore the positives of the other conferences, which is the what nearly all SEC fans are guilty of. My personal critique is, that the SEC championship game throws the rankings completely off, and that's how so many SEC teams get ranked so high. Its essentially a semi-final game where the winner goes to the championship. This way SEC teams get far more leeway in losses and the quality of those losses. It is the thing that pushes SEC teams over the top. They have the most title wins, but they also have the most opportunities. The purpose of this post was to bring respect to the Pac-10.

Redskins Defense

2007-09-04T23:36:00.000-07:00

Defensive Line: On the defensive line they have Andre Carter, Phillip Daniels, Cornelius Griffin, and Kedric Golston. Each one of these players is solid and has experience, except Golston. But at 6'4, 320 pounds, he should take up a lot of space.

Linebackers: Here, they have Marcus Washington, London Fletcher, and Rocky McIntosh. Washington is a great linebacker, he can stuff the run as well as anybody. McIntosh is their second round pick from last year, he should be good. Their new acquasition, London Fletcher is a complete beast. He consistantly puts up monster numbers. He should be special.

Defensive Backs: This is probably the biggest strength of the defense. With Sean Taylor, LaRon Landry, Carlos Rogers, and Shawn Springs. Springs is a proven quality corner, Taylor can run with anyone in coverage, and is a missle running down field to tackle someone. Landry is the newest addition, he's one of the best safties ever coming out of college, he should be special. And then theres Rogers, a top pick a few years ago, he's now getting a chance to show what he can do, and so far its looked great.

This defense is better than the defense from 05 that took them to the playoffs and past round one. Last year most of the starters were injured and playing hurt. It was a disaster everywhere on defense. This year so far they've played extremely well together.

This year with Jason Campbell, they should be at least average on offense. They went 10-6 in the 05 season, look for the same, if not better, in my opinion. Right now, they are being highly underrated.

My Fantasy Baseball Team

2007-04-09T21:17:00.000-07:00

Unlike last year, I did research before I drafted. Last year I relief purely on my baseball knowledge and not fantasy baseball knowledge. I went more with big names than with the better fantasy player. This year my researched helped alot. I drafted every single player with something positive that I can look forward to. I acted as if my 21st pick was just as important as my 1st. In reality, its not, but I was researching and comparing stats like it was. This was a traditional head to head, 5x5, 10 man league. I made a few changes after I drafted, I dropped Jacque Jones for Danial Cabrera almost immediately after the draft, and I dropped Chipper Jones for Weathers.

I've never been so confident in a fantasy team before, in any sport. Once Howard and Atkins get it going (Looks like today), my offense will be completely dominating. The one thing I lack is steals. Byrnes had 4 steals this past week, but I don't expect that to continue, I'm projecting 30 steals tops. Upton is also running this year, I'm expecting around 30 steals from him as well. Delmon Young could also give me a solid number of steals, around 20.

My pitching is strong as well. Sheets could be great, he looks to be completely healthy. Just about all my pitchers have high potentials. 5 of them have 200k potential. My closers aren't great but they're sufficient. Jenks and Isringhausen will be consistant, hopefully so will Weathers. Dempster has been very good so far. But if he blows more than one save, his time will be extremely short.

I'm trying to pick up Kenny Lofton, but I can't figure out who to cut.

C: Jorge Posada
1B: Ryan Howard
2B: Josh Barfield
3B: Garrett Atkins
SS: Miguel Tejada
OF: Vladimir Guerrero
OF: Delmon Young
OF: Eric Byrnes
Util: Todd Helton
BN: B.J. Upton

SP: Ben Sheets
SP: John Smoltz
RP: Bobby Jenks
RP: Jason Isringhausen
P: Ryan Dempster
P: David Weathers
P: C.C. Sabathia
BN: Bronson Arroyo
BN: Justin Verlander
BN: Aaron Harang
BN: Daniel Cabrera

Don't Let Lofton's Low Avg Fool You

2007-04-08T20:30:00.001-07:00

Before this season, he was a career .300 hitter. Now he hits at the top of a powerful Rangers lineup. Behind him is Hairston, Young, Teixeira, Sosa. Right now his average is very low, .133, but don't let that fool you, he is a very good hitter in fact.

He has a contact rate of 93% with only 1 strikeout. He's putting the bat on the ball, its just not landing in the right spot, and thats unlucky. Because of that, he's not getting on base, which means his runs are down. He's gotten 2 hits and 1 walk, so he's reached base 3 times. He also has 2 steals. Clearly he wants to run and clearly he can. Such a high contact rate tells us his average will definitely go up, and for such a high rate, an average of .300 or well beyond is reasonable. Once he starts getting on base more, we'll see plenty of runs and steals. Its all a matter of time.

High Strikeout Pitchers

2007-04-01T07:20:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Doug's MLB Stats, I can rank players and compile stats in any way imaginable. The first thing that I wanted to know was who the best strikeout pitchers are in the league. Pure strikeouts can't tell you much because the innings pitched are all different. I compiled Strikeouts per Innings pitched, here are the ranks that I got:

From that list, Kazmir and Hamels are availible in the mid-rounds. Cabrera is availible way in the late rounds, if he doesn't go undrafted. We all know they are high strikeout guys, but just how high, might be overlooked. (Note: This only applies to pitchers with over 100 innings pitched, this is to exclude the relievers)

Next, I did K per Walk. Sheets was by far the best with a ratio of 10.54. The next closest was Schilling with a ratio of 6.53. Then Johan with a ratio of 5.2. This can be a good indicator of control that the pitcher has. It can tell you whether that player's ERA and Whip are inflated or deflated by other factors. Clearly Schilling is overlooked in this aspect. Sheets still has an injury risk. Another Note, Wickman was the only pitcher better than Sheets with a ratio of 12.5, but thats only with his tenure with the Braves. With the Braves he was a complete beast. Infact, he also has the best Save per Blown save ratio.

This stat sheet is very fun to play around with. If anyone has any numbers/ranks they want to compile, just leave a comment and I'll have it done by the next day. I can do hitters and pitchers.

GTA 4 - First Look

2007-03-29T17:33:00.000-07:00

The long awaited first trailer came out for Grand Theft Auto 4. Its availible on the GTA 4 site, on YouTube, GameTrailers, and theres even a torrent. Its a short trailer, about a minute. Theres not much action, but we do get to know the basics of the game. It revolves around an immigrant who was involved in Human Trafficking apparently (This could get Ugly for Rockstar). It takes place in Liberty City once again. A lot of people don't like this, but personally I don't mind. Liberty City is a great city for a setting. They can always refurbish parts, add more things, change things, etc., I think by now we should learn to trust Rockstar. Thats enough of me rambling about the Trailer, you can check it out for yourself.

This first glimpse however gave me enough material to create me first mock cover. I used various screens from the trailer on the cover, the traditional GTA font, and the "IV" font that was on the GTA website. I applied very simple photoshop filters to make the pictures look more cartoonish. I didn't spend more than an hour on this. I do plan on making it better, with better screens, and better vectors, and eventually I'll make a back cover. But for now, this is what I have.

GTA 4 Cover - Version 1.0

(Click to Enlarge)

Final Four: Georgetown

2007-03-25T18:10:00.000-07:00

Up to now I have 93 points, and all my 4 final four teams are still in. I have OSU beating UCLA in the finals. That Georgetown game was a classic. I was praying the whole way that Gtown would come back. It was a complete effort by everyone. It was amazing how they came through in the clutch. Whenever it seemed like UNC was dominating, they would score key shots to keep it close. The worst they were down by was 11, but for most of the game they were down by 5-7 points. Finally at the end they went on a spree and were unstopped.

Georgetown was the better team in my opinion, by far. Hibbert was the key, on defense he would block shots and keep them in check, and on offense he would be a solid scorer. He was in foul trouble the whole game, and the way John Thompson managed him was excellent. He left him in when everyone else questioned him, and it payed off bigtime. What else amazed me was the passing of Georgetown. They made crisp passes inside. This is the best passing team I've ever seen in college. Hansborough had a very good first half, but was completely invisible in the second half. Georgetown deserved that win. Hibbert vs. Oden will be the game of the year in my opinion. I missed the other three games though, that sucks.

'300' A Short Non-Spoiler Review

2007-03-10T08:35:00.000-08:00

I only watch a few movies every year at the theaters, only special movies that I know will be worth the money. 300 was one of these movies. The movie is adapted from the comic written by Frank Miller based on an old battle between 300 Spartan warriors and the Persian army of thousands. As expected the visuals were breathtaking. Someone described the movie as "a mix of Gladiator and Lord of the Rings" which I believe to be very true. The battle scenes are similar to those of Lord of the Rings. At times the LotR fight scenes seemed to be dry and repetitive, this is not the case in 300. The entire movie was very entertaining and left the viewer wanting more.

Children watch fantasy movies like Harry Potter, Narnia, Bridge to Terebithia, movies that ignite their imagination and absorb them completely in the movie. 300 is a movie like that for adults. It would seem that the plot is weak looking at the type of film that it is, but that is not the case. Its a simple story, but a very good one.

In the end, we have to look at this movie for what it is, a story told on film, which the movie does perfectly. This is one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. If you liked Gladiator and Lord of the Rings, you will love this movie. Everything about this movie is high quality.

Overall: 9/10

(I'm not trying to project what the rating would be overall, that is just my personal rating)

Suggestions for Digg.com

2007-02-25T09:02:00.000-08:00

I'll cut to the chase with the suggestions. Digg this if you like it.

1. Make comments appear in real-time - When you Digg an article, you can see the Digg number increment in real-time. Do the same for new comments. Why? Because of stories have a large number of comments, and refreshing the page every time to post a new comment or check for newly posted comments by others takes some time. Refreshing it over and over can get annoying for these more largely commented articles.

2. Comment Pagination - This branches off the same idea as the previous suggestion, refreshing pages with many comments takes a while, so why not have pages of comments? The number of comments displayed can be set in the user profile, like 10, 20, 50, etc.

That is all.

My 2006 Miami Dolphins Madden Video

2007-02-15T18:05:00.000-08:00

I've officially begun working on my new video, 2006 Miami Dolphins Season Review NFL Films Style with Madden. Here is the 2005 version. There are several mistakes in the old video. The video skips, the Audio is scratchy, the entire video has margins, the text is hard to read and goes by fast, some of the video is slow, some is fast, etc. Honestly, I rushed the old video, I was so excited with what I had, I couldn't wait to put it out. I'm taking my time with this to make it perfect.

Ever since I made the 2005 Video, I've been thinking of ideas. Now I have officially begun. I'm going to choreograph it all first with a script, then follow the script. If you have any ideas, please leave comments. If you ever wanna chat or anything, just leave you're AIM sn in the comments.

O and last thing, if you would have to put a title to the Dolphins' 06 season, what would that title be? Thanks.

Superbowl Prediction

2007-02-03T23:35:00.000-08:00

Just like last year, I'm here to predict the superbowl.

In my opinion it comes down to this: Which matchup do you prefer, Colts Offense vs Bears Defense or Bears Offense vs Colts Defense? This brings up a issue that most forget about, how well the Colts defense is playing. Their defensive philosophy is to not allow the big play, which is all Grossman is, a big play. So they can shut down Grossman, but the Bears running game is still here. Thus I come to the conclusion that the Bears running game must win this game all by itsself. Which is unlikely considering how the Colts D has been playing against the run this post-season. Next, looking at how Manning played the second half of the pats game, I give the advantage to the Colts offense. Manning looked unstoppable.

I can see Thomas Jones and Benson combining for two touchdowns, and Hester getting another 1-2 touchdowns. The colts special teams defense looked very weak against the patriots. But I think Colts will still come out on top, simply because of Manning and Viniteri.

Final Score: 27-20 Colts

Fantasy Basketball Forumla

2006-11-23T07:42:00.000-08:00

Many people have attempted a fanatasy basketball forumla, but most have failed. A successfull formula can lead you to fantasy victory. I have seen it first hand, a guy who knew nothing about basketball used a formula sheet with rankings, drafted, traded and picked up free agents accordingly, and won the league in a blowout. As it is every fantasy players dream to have an accurate ranking sheet, I am attempting one of my own.

So I sat down thinking, how can I develope a ranking system based on each statistic. I would have to weight each category, develope a point system for each category, then accumulate those points for an overall ranking system.

When you think of a good fantasy team, you think, Balance. You must account for the forgotten stats, turnovers, steals, fg%, ft%, and even 3pts. Each of the categories is worth one point, so blowing someone out in points is essentially the same as blowing him out in turnovers.

I wanted to make my player rating out of 100, for obvious reasons. Since there are 9 categories, each category must account for 100/9 points, or 11 1/9 or 11.111... So a perfect player would get a rating of 100.

Now, how to assign 0 to 11.11 points for each category? Well, what would make someone deserve a 11.11, if they are the best in the league. So, I take leader of that statistic, and use his number as a standard of measuring. At this moment in time, Redd leads the league in scoring with 356 points. Thus he would get the full 11.11 points.

But how to measure this, and how to assign lower points? So I use 11.11 as a multiplier, and I divide the Players pts by the maximum pts, and multiply that number by 11.11. So for Redd, 356/356 * 100/9 would give 11.11, the maximum points availible at that category. Now alittle lower on the list, Paul Pierce has 307 points. So 307(his pits)/356(pts leader) * 100/7, and this equals the points Pierce would get from the points category.

I did that for every category, except turnovers, in which the least number is the best. What I did to save myself the work is, I used the same formula with maximum turnovers being the standard, and I subtracted that number from the players overall rating.

I made a spreadsheet to calculate all of this, and use http://www.dougstats.com/ for the latest NBA statistics.

Here are the rankings that my ranking sheet generated as of today. And just for comparison, I listed Yahoo's Current Ranks:

My Formula Yahoo Rank

1. james,lebron		1. james,lebron
2. arenas,gilbert		2. arenas,gilbert
3. lewis,rashard		3. lewis,rashard
4. allen,ray		4. allen,ray
5. marion,shawn		5. marion,shawn
6. okafor,emeka		6. okafur,emeka
7. garnett,kevin		7. billups,chauncey
8. billups,chauncey		8. garnett,kevin
9. davis,baron		9. davis,baron
10.nowitzki,dirk		10.redd,michael
11.redd,michael		11.nowitzki,dirk
12.artest,ron		12.pierce,paul
13.pierce,paul		13.artest,ron
14.barbosa,leandro		14.barbosa,leandro
15.kidd,jason		15.wallace,rasheed
16.carter,vince		16.kidd,jason
17.martin,kevin		17.carter,vince
18.mcgrady,tracy		18.williams,deron
19.boozer,carlos		19.mcgrady,tracy
20.stojakovic,peja		20.martin,kevin
21.ginobili,manu		21.miller,mike
22.jamison,antawn		22.boozer,calos
23.terry,jason		23.ginobli,manu
24.o'neal,jermaine		24.stojakovic,peja
25.ridnour,luke		25.wade,dwayne

My overall rating generated is accurate to the hundred-millionths decimal place. Now I know that is not perfect, its FAR from it. I need ways to improve the formula, and I would love your suggestions.

The flaws I see are, it doesn't take into account the margin of the lead. If Okafur dominates blocks, and leads by a large margin, then how would I take that into account? I'm not even sure what standard deviation does, haha. I might be able to use Calculus. Too bad I never too Statistics in school.

Matt Bryant Kick Video

2006-10-22T16:15:00.000-07:00

This was an amazing kick, 62 yards as time expired. It was win or lose, as they were down by 1. And he nailed it. Amazing.

Edited on 10/26/06

So the NFL saw the video that I posted and they made YouTube take it down for copyright infringment. I was very pissed off, the video was extremely popular. It got over 10,000 views in 2 days, and almost 30 comments, favorited many times, and 8 honors.

Because of that, I made a new video. But this time, its Madden style...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svYnQmKVbKU

Fantasy Baseball Recap

2006-10-02T21:47:00.000-07:00

Back in April I posted my baseball team. My draft was very bad, I got ARod in round one, who failed to live up to expectations. Randy Johnson in round two, we all know how that went. Well I said with proper managing I could win it all. Well I managed in the beginning and at the end. Like most people, I completely forgot about my team in July and August. In late June I figured I'd make the playoffs, so why waste my time with this team until then. I ended up 2nd place in the regular season with a total of 56 moves, and ended the playoffs in 3rd place.

In the 2nd round of the playoffs, I ended up tied with my opponent and he got the victory because he had a lower ERA. This is complete bullshit. Its basically saying that ERA is the most important stat and more important than others. Techincally speaking, the point value of ERA becomes 1.1, the 0.1 addition coming from the fact that era is a tiebreaker. If thats how it is in the playoffs, why not give it that point value in the regular season? Because its not the most important. Infact its one of the worst stats to judge by. Pitchers can have bad games very easily. If a reliever gives up 2 runs and loses the game, his Era will be through the roof. Does that 1 game accurately measure the quality of the player? Hell no. Era is one of the most inconsistant stats because of that. The tiebreaker should be regular season record. That way the most deserving team goes on.

Next, heres my 3rd place team:
C: I. Rodriguez
1B: A. Dunn
2B: T. Iguchi
3B: A. Rodriguez
SS: J. Lugo
OF: M. Holliday
OF: Del. Young
OF: B. Bonds
Util: H. Matsui

SP: R. Hill
SP: C. James
RP: Jo. Nelson
RP: S. Torress
P: J. Suppan
P: M. Timlin
P: Jo Johnson
BN: C. Hamels
BN: B. Myers
BN: Ra. Johnson
BN: Roy Halladay

That might look like crap, but it got me the win. After 1 week I realized I had Strikeouts locked up and needed Saves, so I picked up some hot closers. The guys I had to end the season whom I dropped later were: Billingsley, Beak, Hillenbrand, Liriano, Juan Rivera, Todd Jones, Brad Penny, Carmona, Griffey, and Mathews Jr.

Well my lesson has been learned. Get at most two baseball teams, because no matter how excited you are in the beginning, it will wear down on you by July and you will get bored of baseball fast.

Screw Oklahoma

2006-09-23T07:42:00.000-07:00

Oklahoma has the right to complain about the officials the call is one of the worst calls ever, but they're taking it too far. Its near the end of the week and they're still complaining. Its the coach's job to get his team to forget the previous game and focus on the game ahead, and it seems as if he's failing to do that.

Oklahoma had plenty of chances to win the game. Their defense had 2 chances to stop the Oregon. But they just stopped playing with 3 minutes to go. After the kickoff, they gave up a 3 play touchdown drive. Still they had a chance to win it at the end with a field goal, which they had blocked. From the way they played at the end they didn't deserve to win.

Now they're talking about not playing Washington next year. If stoops has the power to boycott Pac-10 games, then college football is on a slipery slope. Whats next, coaches picking whoever they want to play, No interconfrence play...

I say force him to play, if he doesn't, they forfeit the game, and it would count as a loss. He gets to show his disliking of the Pac-10 as well as get his point across, but has to take the hit for it. OU signed the contract to play those games, they have to live up to it.

Nothing is going to change, no records are going to be cleaned, the game counts as a loss for them. If anything they should use the loss as motivation and whup Washington next year as a revenge game. Because of Oklahomas constant complaining and threats to not play Pac-10 teams, I'm officially putting Oklahoma on my wall of shame.

Are You Ready For Some Football?

2006-09-06T17:31:00.000-07:00

I would watch every game if I could and still be left wanting more. But I don't have the NFL network, all I have is cable and internet. If you're like me, heres some sites that you'll love:

http://www.gribblenation.net/nflmaps/ - This site shows which games are televised in which areas.
http://www.thegamelive.com/ - This site has links to online radio stations that broadcast the games. I'm a Dolphin fan in California, and that is the only way I can be updated on the game live. The gametrackers on Yahoo and NFL.com just aren't that exciting.

Here are my predictions for the season. I realized that they are probably impossible, and I did not look at their schedules. I went by pure instinct. 11-13 wins is elite, 10 wins is playoff caliber but no more, 9 wins is not quite good enough for the playoffs, 8-7 wins is still have work to do, some big pieces of missing, or the team is disrupted by injuries. Under 6 means the team flat out isn't going anywhere.
East
Miami 10-6
New England 10-6
Buffalo 7-9
NY Jets 4-12

North
Cincinnati 11-5
Baltimore 10-6
Pittsburgh 10-6
Cleveland 8-8

South
Indianapolis 12-4
Jacksonville 10-6
Houston 5-11
Tennessee 2-14

West
Denver 11-5
Kansas City 9-7
San Diego 9-7
Oakland 5-11

East
Philadelphia 10-6
NY Giants 10-6
Dallas 10-6
Washington 8-8

North
Chicago 12-4
Detroit 8-8
Green Bay 7-9
Minnesota 7-9

South
Carolina 11-5
Atlanta 10-6
New Orleans 9-7
Tampa Bay 9-7

West
Seattle 13-3
Arizona 9-7
St. Louis 8-8
San Francisco 5-11

Championship Games
AFC
Indianapolis vs Cincinnati
NFC
Carolina over Seattle

Superbowl
Carolina over Indianapolis

Stephen A. Smith a Bit Rusty

2006-09-05T21:31:00.000-07:00

I've always liked listening to Stephen A. Smith especially on his show Quite Frankly. I may not always agree with him, but I respect the fact that he speaks his mind no matter how sensitive the issue is, he asks the questions that everyone wants answered in interviews, and most of all, he's never on the fense on any issue. He always puts up good arguements, but in todays show you could see he was very rusty from his long vacation.

First he started the show talking about golf. To summarize it, he basically said he knew almost nothing about golf and he stinks at playing golf. Then based on that, he said Tiger Woods is the greatest golfer ever. Very nice Stephen A., very nice.

Later in his show he talked about fantasy football. This is where he really killed it. As I was reading the list of players in his league, I noticed a bunch of random people like John Rocker, along with Mariotti and Michael Smith who were the only guys that knew what they were doing. It seemed like a below average league. Then I saw another name that made me lose any tiny confidence I had in the league. In my eyes the league went from mediocre to complete garbage when I read the name...Sean Salisberry.

To compliment the list of people who knew nothing about football was Stephen A himself. He had a team of advisors tell him who to pick. In the first round, he said he was thinking about Quarterback. The advisors were quick to tell him otherwise. When they were talking about tight ends, he brought up Shockey. He even picked Domanick Davis in round 8. Any normal football fan would know about that injury in a day, two days at most. Why he didnt know, and why his advisors didn't tell him anything is a mystery to me.

Some more evidence of the league being a joke, Rocker picked Chad Johnson with the 3rd pick. The 2nd pick chose Manning. Edge dropped to round 2 while Harrison dropped to late round 3. I wish I was in that league.

Stephen A. should stick to what made the show so good, talking about controversial issues in sports, and not trying to analyze the sports he knows nothing about.

Madden 07 Review (PC)

2006-08-29T15:32:00.000-07:00

Two Strong Gamemodes Make the Game As Good As Ever

It is time once again for Madden to take its spot in the sports gaming limelight. As always there are new features that add new dimensions to the game, some that the fans will love, and some that fans won't. Every year, the PC version is one of the worst versions of Madden. This year is no exception, the PC version is missing a few features, which will cause more and more fans to turn away. But overall Madden 07 is an upgrade from Madden 06, and in fact has better gameplay than the 360 version.

Audio: 6/10

The sound track is compiled of Rock and Pop songs along with some classic NFL Films music. The NFL films music was featured last year as well, and it is great that EA brought it back. But the Rock and Pop songs simply are bad. You'll find yourself trying to get the game started, or even listening to the Tony Bruno Radio show more often, instead of listening to the music. The sound quality is fine, however in superstar mode, the commentary seems to lag about five seconds behind on some occasions. The in-game announcer in the superstar mode is a pain to listen to, regardless of the significance of the play, the announcer’s voice is flat. But the on-field sounds that you will hear are great. They really make you feel like you are in game.

Video: 7.5/10

Although many gaming computers can handle next-gen graphics, Madden PC gamers are stuck with current generation graphics once again. The graphics are about the same as Madden 06. Graphics should not be a reason to buy this game, nor should it be a reason to reject this game. They are good enough. As for player visuals, the rookies in the game do not look anything like themselves in real life. All of the rookies have the same hair style and color, and the faces are not at all accurate. This is not a huge problem, as the faces are never even seen in the helmet, but it would be nice to see A.J. Hawks' hair coming out under his helmet, or Vernon Davis' dreadlocks just to add to the realism.

Gameplay: 9.5/10

One of the big new features in the gameplay is Lead Blocking in which you can control a blocker and lead the runner. Whether you try to turn the corner or run between the tackles, this feature can help you run for huge gains. This is a very fun new feature, but gets old fairly quickly. You'll find yourself forgetting that it ever existed. There are not many flaws with the blocking system, you either like it or you don't. Another big addition is the highlight stick, which gives smaller elusive runningbacks moves to get by defenders, while big power runningbacks can continue to run people over. This feature really advances the running game. It gives users a strong running option if needed, unlike the past Madden games where passing was the easiest and most efficient option. A strong running game makes gameplay more complete. The highlight stick is a much bigger feature than Lead Blocking. However EA left the new kicking meter out of the PC games, PC gamers get the traditional kicking meter. Just like Madden 06, PC gamers still cannot make their own plays.

The franchise mode is the same as the past maddens. The training camp is the same, regardless of what you may have heard, however scouting is different. For scouting players you must put them through certain combine mini-camps, some of which are new, to get information. This basically makes the scouting more personal. It's nothing special, but it's certainly an upgrade. In addition to this new scouting, you can play the college all-star game and really get a feel for the prospects. This is a great feature, 40-times, bench reps, and Mel Kiper can only tell you tell you so much, but there is nothing like actually playing with the players. You can really get personal with the prospects. The franchise mode is still strong.

Superstar mode has been significantly upgraded from last year. Anyone who has ever had a dream of playing in the NFL will love this mode. Like in franchise mode when you put the prospects through training camp tests, in superstar mode, you are put through those tests and eventually drafted. The in-game play of superstar mode has been greatly improved. You only have control of your player only, but you control the whole team on the other side of the ball. The camera angle changes, and is in the player's point of view. The whole point of a football game is to give you the player experience, and nothing does it better than this. Superstar mode is as good as franchise mode this year, if not better.

The actual football gameplay has been improved also. Many players move and seem just like their real life counterparts. The animations of juking are great. Playing with Reggie Bush is almost as exciting as watching him in real life. This is where alot of criticism comes in. Some say that the highlight stick is too powerful, that users can easily get by three or four defenders which makes the game unrealistic. However it is not powerful enough to be considered a cheap move. It was just like the truck stick last year when weaker guys could run over big linebackers. It was like Madden 05 when small defensive backs could take out power runningbacks. The same flaws come with the highlightstick. Maybee they'll perfect it next year. There are some noticable glitches here and there, but nothing that will significantly take away from the game.

Overall: 8/10
The only reason for buying this game on PC should be for the gameplay. The gameplay is improved over last year's Madden, and the two strong gamemodes make the game great. I recommend this game for one of two conditions, one, if you haven't had a Madden in a while, and two, if you've loved the past two Maddens you'll love 07. If you thought Madden 06 was mediocre, you probably won't like 07.

Madden Curse Preview

2006-08-27T21:38:00.000-07:00

So as I was playing superstar mode, I started browsing my website, and I noticed the list of injuries. I checked to see who was injured the worst, and it was none other than coverboy Shaun Alexander. He was out for career with a complete PCL tear. Is this a preview of what is to come?

In all seriousness, Alexander is a great guy, I really hope nothing happens to him.

Baseball: Who's Hot

2006-08-14T10:47:00.000-07:00

Here are some unknown guys who've been hot recently. They're worth checking out and maybee picking up, as most of these guys are probably still free agents.

Shin-See Choo, OF - In his last 10 games he's had 14 RBIs, 6 runs, and is hitting .395. He's really young and still learning, but this is a very nice hot streak.

Mark DeRosa, 2B, OF - In his last 10 games, he's hitting .385, 20 RBIs, 11 runs, and 5 homeruns.

Joe Saunders, SP - He's 4-0 with a 1.67 ERA, with 18 Ks and a whip of 1.04. Hes on the Angels who are making a run at the division, so he'll be a good pickup.

John Maine, SP - In his last 4 games, he's had 3 shutouts and 21 strikeouts.

Chad Billingsley, SP - He had a slow start but has been hot recently. Its not certain if he'll continue to be in the rotation, but as long as he is, he's a good pitcher.

Madden NFL Films Miami Dolphins 2005

2006-08-01T22:42:00.000-07:00

Took me about 10 hours total to script, film, and edit. Its an NFL films type movie about the Dolphins last year. Almost all of the plays in the movie are real plays. If not exactly real, similar to real. It was pretty fun making it. I'm definately going to do one for this upcoming season. What you guys think? What did you guys like/dislike? This is my first ever movie, I'd appreciate some feedback.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1lu9DJUG9s

Steve Nash Shaves His Head

2006-07-20T01:22:00.000-07:00

"I don't really have a rhyme or reason. I felt like taking it off." Not much to say about that. Now he looks like a old man who just came out of the hospital. Personally, I liked the hair better.

My Cheatsheet

2006-07-16T23:02:00.000-07:00

Rankings first, then explanation, then some other stuff. I play in Yahoo leagues with default settings. 6 points for any touchdown, 50 yards passing is 1 point, 20 yards rushing or receiving is 1 point.

1. Larry Johnson, RB
2. LaDainian Tomlinson, RB
3. Shaun Alexander, RB
4. Clinton Portis, RB
5. Tiki Barber, RB
6. Peyton Manning, QB
7. Steven Jackson, RB
8. Edgerrin James, RB
9. Rudi Johnson, RB
10. Steve Smith, WR
11. LaMont Jordan, RB
12. Ronnie Brown, RB
13. Terrell Owens, WR
14. Carnell Williams, RB
15. Chad Johnson, WR
16. Brian Westbrook, RB
17. Marvin Harrison, WR
18. Torry Holt, WR
19. Randy Moss, WR
20. Larry Fitzgerald, WR
21. Anquan Boldin, WR
22. Julius Jones, RB
23. Chris Chambers, WR
24. Hines Ward, WR
25. Willis McGahee, RB
26. Tom Brady, QB
28. Antonio Gates, TE
29. Domanick Davis, RB
30. Reggie Wayne, WR
31. Carson Palmer, QB
32. Eli Manning, QB
33. Tony Gonzalez, TE
34. Plaxico Burress, WR
35. Reuben Droughns, RB
36. Corey Dillon, WR
37. Darrell Jackson, WR
38. Roy Williams, WR
39. Jeromey Shockey, TE
40. Willie Parker, RB
41.Warrick Dunn, RB
42. Matt Hasselbeck, QB
43. Jamal Lewis, RB
44. Joey Galloway, WR
45. Santana Moss, RB
46. T.J. Houshmandzadeh, WR
47. Reggie Bush, WR
48. Donald Driver, WR
49. Nate Burleson, WR
50. Thomas Jones, RB

The Chargers lost Drew Brees last season and Philip Rivers is new starting QB. LT will get alot more carries, he'll also be a nice target for Rivers. With Yahoo's messed up default scoring settings, Manning will be money. With a much weaker running game, Manning will need to pass to score and win games. Rhodes and Addai are both small guys, they won't be pounding it in the trenched very often. Alot of people have Barber as the number 4 guy. But he's getting older now, and the Giants will be using powerback Brandon Jacobs more and more in goalline situations. Theres not really much else to explain.

Guys to Avoid
Willis McGahee-The offense has no passing game and a bad offensive line. McGahee is a playmaker, but in the situation he's in, no playmaker can shine. Defenses will stack the line, he'll be mediocre.
Antonio Gates-He's been one of the most productive TEs for the past two years. But he had Brees throwing to him. With Rivers now in the drivers seat, Gates won't be as good as past years.
Domanick Davis-In 2004 he had 13 TDs, but only 1100 yards and less than 80 yards per game. In the next year, he had 2 touchdowns. Although his yards per game increased to 88, the Texans won't be seeing the redzone very often. You'll need to pray every gameday for him to get 10 TDs. However, if he falls past the 4th round, he'll be a steal. If you really have no one to pick, you should get him in the 4th.
Kevin Jones-Just like McGahee, theres no QB, and the line isnt very good. They both had down years last year for this reason.
Denver Wide Runningbacks-First, they all split carries. Although Bell will probably get around 15-20 carries a game. Second, the denver o-line isn't built for the goaline runs. Most of their TDs will come on long runs. Bell will probably go somewhere in the 6, 7, or 8th round. He'll be a good pick in the 7th, 6th if you need a RB.

Sleepers
Jamal Lewis-He spent last years training camp in jail. He's back 100% this year. With an actual threat at QB, lewis will have alot better runs. We all know what he is capable of, he's only 26 years old. He'll probably go in the 5th to 6th round.
Chester Taylor-The Tony Richardson from the Chiefs to block, Hutchingson, one of the best run-blocking lineman. They have an average offense, and he will be carrying it.
Fred Taylor-When he was healthy, he produced. He's had a yards per carry in the high 4s all his life. He'll be healthy this year. He's 30 years old, and the way he runs, he's got plenty of seasons left in him.
Steve McNair-Everyone thinks he's done. He knows this is his last chance in the NFL. He's fragile, but hes healthy. Plus he'll be reunited with his old widereciever. And now, unlike the last few years, he'll have a running game to take off pressure. He'll be an excellent backup QB.
Aaron Brooks-He didn't play badly when he had Deuce. Now he has a chance to ressurrect his career. He's only 30 years old, and has 4 good receivers to throw to, 2 of which are great. If Kerry Collins can get 3700+ yards, and 20 TDs, anyone can. Plus Moss is completely healthy this year. And what Moss said was true, Brooks can run around and that gives time for Moss to get open deep and make plays.
Braylon Edwards-This will be his 2nd year, and he will be Fryes 2nd favorite target. He's a decent backup WR for the late late rounds or even free agent.
Deuce McAllister-He's been injured every year for the past 3 years so people really have low expectations now. Bush and Deuce on the field at the same time will give defensive coordinators headaches. They can split in the backfield, or Bush can lineup as WR. Either way, it'll open up lanes for Deuce, he'll be better than previous years.

Best Dunks Ever

2006-07-16T19:29:00.000-07:00

On the And 1 Tour, a guy named "Air Up There" made one of the best dunks ever, a 720. It was really more of a 540, but he eventually landed having done 2 full spins. This is a MUST see. Is it the best dunk ever? You can decide that for yourself.

Butthead Headbutt by Zinedine Zidane

2006-07-09T23:59:00.000-07:00

In sundays World Cup final match with France against Italy, superstar Zinedine Zidane was red-carded for headbutting an Italian player. Supposedly the Italian player said racial slurs to Zidane.

*Updated* First defender Marco Materazzi spoke in Italian - a language understood by Zidane who once played for Italian side Juventus - grabbed his opponent and told him 'hold on, wait, that one's not for a n***** like you.'

But she saw that as the players walked forward Materazzi said: 'We all know you are the son of a terrorist whore.'

Then, just before the headbutt, he was seen saying,: 'So just f*** off.' Full Article.

Materazzi has a long history of playing dirty. Heres a highlight reel of his dirty moves. What he said was very low. Its completely understandable what Zidance did. It definately wasnt smart, but it was reasonable. Hopefully in a few years, or decades, people will forget about the headbutt and remember Zidane for the great soccer player he is.

Miner League Manager Goes Berserk

2006-06-29T00:31:00.000-07:00

The Asheville Tourists(minor league team) manager Joe Mikulik went absolutely crazy when the runner stole second base and was called safe. There've been some pretty crazy meltdowns in baseball, but this tops it all. Some pull out the base, some spread dirt onto the plate, and some just scream at the umpire one centimeter from his face. But he did it all, while inventing some new antics.

While refering to pouring water on home plate he says,"This ain't my first rodeo. ... I didn't touch anybody. I never bumped anybody. ... I actually cleaned home plate for them, so they should give me a tip for that."

Lou Pinella would be proud.

Players to Pick Up

2006-05-16T22:05:00.000-07:00

Francisco Liriano, SP - He's been a reliever up to now this season, but is finally ready to be a starter. He gets his first start on friday. He is going to be one of the elite pitchers in the league. Jim Thome said of him, "That is as good a stuff from a left-hander as I've ever faced. The only comparable stuff I can think of is Randy [Johnson] when he was young. That kid is unbelievable."

Kerry Wood, SP - He makes his first start of the season this thursday. He pitched perfectly in the minors to get back into pitching mode. His fastball was clocked at 97 MPH. He's probably taken in most leagues, but theres always a few where you can find him in the free agents.

Brett Tomko, SP - He's been pitching great so far. He's not worth picking up and replacing a good pitcher, but if you have someone to get rid of on your team, then get this guy.

Wily Mo Pena, OF - He had that long 9 game hitting drought that messes up his total stats. But he's been hitting well ever since. Learning from Manny and Ortiz makes him a much better hitter.

Cole Hamels, SP - If he's still availible, get him. His first start was great. He doesn't have amazing speed like some of the other young pitchers, but he has amazing command and control. His stuff is great and his numbers have always been amazing, they say he can turn out to be the next Johan Santana.

Reggie Evans Has His Hands Full

2006-05-01T18:55:00.000-07:00

"He went behind my back, went through my legs and grabbed my nuts and tried to pull them backwards,’’ Kaman said. "In my mind at first I? wanted to punch him. I wanted to hit him. I thought to myself, ‘Don’t be stupid.’’’ Well if I was him, I would've socked him right on the face multiple times. This was just uncalled for and one of the dirties moves I've ever seen. Reggie Evans, welcome to my Hall-Of-Shame.

My NFL Mock Draft

2006-04-19T15:24:00.000-07:00

The NFL Draft is next saturday, a chance for teams to gamble for their future. They might pick a 6th round QB who leads they're team to 3 superbowls, or a 1st pick player who ruins the franchise. Everyone has predictions on who will be taken by who, but thats all mostly bullshit stolen from ESPN. I can gaurantee two things about my mock draft, Reggie Bush will be first, and my draft will be twice as good as Sean Salisberry's.

1. Houston - Reggie Bush, RB USC - Its basically either Bush or Young. Bush is perhaps the greatest college runningback ever. With Bush, pressure will be taken off Carr. With a second round offensive lineman, they're offense will be set.

2. New Orleans - D'Brickashaw Ferguson, T Virginia - Ferguson is one of the highest rated lineman in the draft in a while, they can't go wrong here. Ferguson can play on the right, while Brown can switch to the right, where he played in college. With those two elite lineman, they will have the foundation of the team set for the next decade.

3. Tennessee - Matt Leinart, QB USC- The Titans are disrespecting McNair and McNair deserves better. He'll most likely end up in Baltimore. Titans have to pick between Young and Leinart. Neither would start in the first week and both need work. Leinart already knows the offense of Norm Chow, his former offensive coordinater at USC, so the transition will be much easier for Leinart.

4. N.Y. Jets - Mario Williams, DE North Carolina State - He's been compared to Peppers by many, and already stole the nickname 'freak' from Kearse. He's a playmaker on defense, and with the loss of Abraham, Williams will be a perfect pick.

5. Green Bay - A.J. Hawk, OLB Ohio State - This is the most obvious pick in the draft. Packers need defensive support. They need an outside linebacker. It looks as if Arrington is going to sign with the Giants. They're pass defense was the best in the league infact, but thats probably because they couldn't stop the run.

6. San Francisco - Vernon Davis, TE Maryland - Alex Smith showed some potential in the last few games of the season. He needs support around him to develop. Davis has great speed and hands. He will Smith's best friend by the time the season ends.

7. Oakland - Vince Young, QB Texas - Al Davis could care less about already having signed a QB. Still, Young will be perfect for Oakland. He has the big arm, and oakland has the stretch receivers. Plus, Young is the kind of explosive guy that fans can get excited about, and trust me, if Oakland gets young, there will be parties all over the bay area. Young jersies will sell faster than you can say Marquis Tuiasosopo.

8. Buffalo - Winston Justice, OT USC - The Bills pass protection has been horrible, one of the worst in the league. Lossman and Holcomb got sacked a total of 43 times. Justice is a big powerful guy who can block for both the run and pass. He's the best tackle that the Bills can get.

9. Detroit - Michael Huff, CB Texas - The Lions need some help in the secondary. Huff is a hardhitting, fast playmaker. He flys all over the field, and will improve the secondary dramatically.

10. Arizona - Jay Cutler, QB Vanderbilt - The only think lacking in the cardinals' offense is a QB. Warner obviously isn't they're future. Cutler can learn under warner and take over the year after. He is a carson palmer type of QB, and has all the tools around him to succeed. He had basically nothing around him at vanderbilt and still put up great numbers. This will be a perfect fit.

11. St. Louis - Jimmy Williams, CB Virginia Tech - The Rams need defensive help. Williams is the best man-to-man corner availible. They could also be looking at Jason Allen in round two.

12. Cleveland - Chad Greenway, OLB Iowa - The Browns need a good linebacker next to McGinist. Greenway is a fast linebacker with great tackling skills. He's all over the field, and fill be a good fit in the 3-4 defense.

13 . Baltimore - Haloti Ngata, DT Oregon - Ngata is a huge defensive tackle. He is exactly what Ray Lewis is asking for. Lewis wants a big guy up front to occupy the gaurds so he can rome free. They need either a defensive lineman or offensive lineman, and because of Lewis' recent comments, they will go for D.

14. Philadelphia - Santonio Holmes, WR Ohio State - The Eagles need a replacement for Owens. Holmes is a Santana Moss or Steve Smith type of player. He's small, quick, fast, and has great hands. He would be a good fit in that west coast offense.

15. Denver (from Atlanta) - Chad Jackson, WR Florida - The Broncos need another target for Plummer. Jackson is an ideal wide receiver for the Broncos.

16. Miami - Ernie Sims, OLB Florida State - The Dolphins need an outside linebacker with the departure of Seau. Sims is an explosive hardhitting linebacker. He is somewhat undersized, but when has size ever held a dolphin linebacker back

17. Minnesota - Bobby Carpenter, OLB Ohio State - The Vikings have a good secondary, but need linebacker help. Carpenter is the best linebacker availible, better than any other inside linebacker. This will be a good pick for the vikings.

18. Dallas - Donte Whitner, S, Ohio State - Next to Roy Williams, the Cowboys need a saftey. Whitner can cover extremely well. He's alot like Ed Reed. This will be the ideal pick for the Cowboys.

19. San Diego - Antonio Cromartie, CB Florida State - Cromartie is an excellent cover corner. The Chargers need help at corner and Cromartie will be perfect. They struck gold last year with defense, this year they will too.

20. Kansas City - Tye Hill, CB Clemson - The Chiefs need a good corner opposite of Surtain. He's one of the fast players in the draft, and will be a good cover corner. He is somewhat undersized, but his effort more than makes up for it.

21. New England - DeMarco Ryans, OLB Alabama - He is a really smart player, one who belichick will ike. They need outside linebacker with the departure of McGinist. Ryans will be a good fit.

22. San Francisco (from Washington through Denver) - Mathias Kiwanuka, DE Boston College - He is an overall excellent defensive end. He has all the physical tools to be great, and the instincts. He will be a good pick for the niners.

23. Tampa Bay - Marcus McNeil, OT Auburn - McNeil is a huge offensive tackle, and exactly what the bucs need. Be blocked for Cadillac two years ago, and will do it again. He is raw, but has the tools

24. Cincinnati - Marcedes Lewis, TE UCLA - The Bengals don't have a star tight end as most winning teams do. Lewis has great hands, alot like heath miller of last years draft, and we all know how that turned out. Lewis will definately be on the board by this pick.

25 . N.Y. Giants - Tamba Hali, DE Penn State - The Giants need another defensive end. Hali is a good replacement for Strahan in a few years. The giants already improved they're pass defense with Sam Madison, and are probably going to get Arrington. With Hali, that defense will surprise alot of people.

26. Chicago - Sinorice Moss, WR Miami - The Bears need a widereciever opposite of Muhammad. They've been extremely inconsistant. Moss is a playmaker that the bears desperately need.

27. Carolina - DeAngelo Williams, RB Memphis - The forgotton runningback of the draft. Carolina has had too many injuries at runningback, infact its the only reason they didn't go to the superbowl. Williams will probably be behind Foster, but even then he'll definatly see at least 5 starts.

28. Jacksonville - Eric Winston, OT Miami - The Jaguars need an offensive lineman like Winston. He'll improve their offense overall. This will be a good pick is Winston falls this far.

29. N.Y. Jets (from Denver) - Ashton Youboty, CB Ohio State - With the departure of Law, the Jets need a corner. Youboty is a good corner who can get the job done. Hes a smart player who can make plays.

30. Indianapolis - Lawrence Maroney, RB Minnesota - With James gone, this will be a perfect opportunity to snag a great RB in the draft. Maroney is 1st round material. Hes a balanced runningback who will be perfect for the colts.

31. Seattle - Jonathan Joseph, CB South Carolina - Other than Trufant, the Seahawks don't have a reliable corner. Joseph is ideal size and has everything you look for in a cornerback. He will be a starter from week 1.

32. Pittsburgh - Lendale White, RB USC - Big smash mouth runningback on a smash mouth football team. This is probably the draftee-team fit in the entire draft.

I Actually Used to Like the Titans

2006-04-15T21:28:00.000-07:00

The other day Steve McNair was told to go home by the Titans. He is no longer allowed to workout in the team facilities. McNair has 28.46 million dollars on the salary cap, 9 million this year. If he gets hurt this season, the Titans have to pay him the whole 9 million. The Titans tried to restructure his contract, but McNair and the team aren't coming to any agreements.

This is a classless move by the Titans. I've lost almost all respect for the team. McNair is a guy who gave 120% every game. He's played through injuries, all for the team. He led them to the super bowl, coming one yard shy of leading one of the greatest comebacks ever. He was MVP of the league just 3 years ago, and he's been the face of that organization for so many years.

McNair has all the rights to refuse giving up more money. He had repeatedly restructured his contract in the past just to get the Titans under the cap. He's been playing for less than he's worth for all these years, less salary, less bonuses, all because he was promised his money in the future. McNair has earned his money, so why would he restructure his contract again, only to get screwed next year?

I actually used to like the Titans, all because of one guy, McNair. The Titans front office just can't manage the team, and McNairs getting screwed because of it. The Titans are officially the first members of my Wall of Shame.

My Elite Fantasy Baseball Team

2006-04-14T18:17:00.000-07:00

C: Ivan Rodriguez
1B: Adam Dunn
2B: Ricki Weeks
3B: Alex Rodriguez
SS: Omar Vizquel
OF: Ken Griffey Jr.
OF: Hideki Matsui
OF: Jeromy Burnitz
Ut: Sean Casey
BN: Julio Lugo

SP: Roy Halladay
SP: Randy Johnson
RP: David Weathers
RP: Dan Miceli
P: Brad Penny
P: Esteban Loaiza
P: Justin Verlander
BN: Orlando Hernandez
BN: Jarrod Washburn
BN: Aaron Harang
BN: Todd Jones
DL: Eric Gagne

My team is not great, but its pretty good. With good managing, I can win it all. I have inconsistant batters with Casey and Burnitz. Vizquel is my expendable player, hes only had 2 games with RBIs. He hits second in the lineup, so he'll mostly be getting runs and steals. But those are stats that Lugo or other free agents can give me. He won't be on my team much longer. Weeks is also interesting, hes the same as Vizquel, he gets steals and runs, but not RBIs. Weeks is supposedly an emerging star, which is the only reason I'm keeping him, hoping he gets hot. However, if I drop him no one will pick him up, so I might just do that. I'll probably pick up Jose Lopez and Khalil Green. One Burnitz gets cold, I'm going to drop him too.

Obviously my weaknesses are steals and saves. One Todd Jones is back I'll start generating more saves. Jones is only going to stay on my team if he's the starting closer when he comes back. He's old, but if he starts, he'll get many save opportunities. Gagne has a while to go, but I need to keep him for the second half of the season and playoffs. The two pitchers I'm seriously questioning are Washburn and Loaiza. What really made me keep both those players are Mariner and A's biases, Mariners, my favorite team, and A's, my home team and second favorite team.

Detroit Tigers

2006-04-13T22:24:00.000-07:00

As I was reading a blog entry on the debate over a salaray cap in baseball, I thought to myself, every bad team becomes good eventually. I thought of the Brewers, a young and confident team that can surprise many people, then I thought of the Tigers, and that got me thinking, the Tigers really aren't that bad any longer.

What really amazes me is the Tigers' pitching. Their rotation includes Kenny Rogers, Bonderman, Robertson, Maroth, and the young superstud Justin Verlander. This is the type of rotation a team that an elite team has. Plus they're all under 30, except Rogers. This team has sucked for so long, now they are finally ready to make their run for the playoffs. All of these pitchers can win 10 games and get 150+K this year. Whats more impressive is their bullpen. Rodney has pitched perfectly thus far. The young Zumaya is a great setupman. Not to mention they have three relievers injured, two of which are able to be closers, Jones and Percival. The bullpen's average WHIP is 1.03, with a 3.17 ERA. Just to show how impressive those numbers really are, the whitesox average 4.75, the redsox average 4.31, and the brewers average 4.11.

But on the other side of the ball, the hitting is mediocre. However it is good enough to take them to the playoffs. Shelton is the hottest player in the league right now. Old players cool down, guys who are 26 and lead the league in homeruns, BA, and RBIs, do not. They also have the future star Granderson. He's only 25 years old and producing average to good numbers. Later in the season when analysts begin realizing that the Tigers are a force to be reckoned with, he will heat up. Plus they have my man Pudge. You can't go wrong with Pudge. The Tigers will be a world series caliber team in 3 years tops. They have the pitching. A few big name signings are all they need. They're a confident team and they believe they can win, and they will.

Milwaukee Brewers

2006-04-08T22:42:00.000-07:00

The first thing I think of when I hear of the Brewers is failure. They've only won the division once in their history. They've been just another small market team who can't get it straight. But over the course of spring training and preparing for my fantasy drafts, I realized that the Brewers can no longer be ignored. This is a young team that will probably make the playoffs in the next few years.

They're pitching is as deep as any team in the league. Ben Sheets, Doug Davis, and Chris Capuano are all great pitchers who can win 15+ games a season. Davis is in a contract year, which means he'll have a great season. Then theres Dave Bush and Tomo Ohka who are good too. The Brewers' old closer, Dan Kolb, who got traded to the Braves last year, is back as a setup man for Derrick Turnbow who hasn't allowed a run all season. With starting pitchers who'll take the lead deep in the ballgame, and a setup man like Kolb, Turnbow will be best closer this year, fantasy-wise. Vice-versa, with a setup man like Kolb and a closer like Turnbow, the starting pitchers will be getting alot more wins than people expect. Under pitching coach Mike Maddox, the Brewer pitchers will carry this team far.

As for batting, the team is not as great. But like the whitesox last year, they have enough to win games. They have guys that can get the job done, but no outstanding players. Carlos Lee and Overbay are good cleanup hitters, and Weeks, the future star, is a guy who can get on base and score. The Brewers are doing it all with their great farm system. They have one of the best farm systems in the league, and now after years of sucking, they are seeing it payoff, and are proving that it doesn't just take money to build a winning team.

Automotive Wallpaper

2006-03-12T23:56:00.000-08:00

Have you ever searched for high quality automotive wallpaper but couldn't find any good pictures? This site is the answer to your problems. It has wallpaper above 1280 x 1024, and they're good angles too. Check it out:

http://www.dieselstation.com/archives.html

The Da Vinci Code

2006-02-28T00:21:00.000-08:00

One of the most controversial novels today is the Da Vinci Code. People criticize it for being "fiction based on fiction", that it is very decieving to the layman reader who doesn't know much about christian history. It is also being sued for breaking copywrite laws. However I am with the majority when I say, this was a book.

The book starts off with the murder of Jacques Sauniere and three other gatekeepers of the holy grail. His granddaughter, teamed with harvard professor Robert Langdon, is on a quest of biblical proportions to find the holy grail. We find out that the grail is not a chalice as everyone suspects, but rather the tomb of Mary Magdelene, the alleged wife of Jesus Christ who gave birth to Jesus' child, continuing the bloodline of Christ. This is one of the places where the critics get upset.

For evidence of the marriage of Mary Magdelene and Jesus, Brown uses the Gospel of Philip and the Gospel of Mary Magdelene, where it says Mary Magdelene was a "companion" to Jesus. Brown suggests that the word companion meant spouse in those days. But the Gospel of Philip was written in Coptic, where the word companion doesn't mean spouse but just companion. The only arguement I can make is, maybee the word in the actual scrolls was a word in coptic that could mean companion or spouse. Companion is a broader term, so whoever translated it could have just used that word.

Another claim that upsets people is prior to AD 300 something, Jesus was a normal man. He was a great man, but just a man. Some argue that he was called theos (meaning God), and in several texts he was called Lord. But people say "lord" to high status people all the time. How many times have you seen a servent refer to his master or king as "my lord"? Many times.

A simple mistake in the Da Vinci code is that he says the dead sea scrols were found in the 1950s. The real date is 1947. But using this arguement for anything is Staw Man, a logical fallacy.

Others say it is poorly written. I don't know about that, I'm not an english major, and quite frankly, I don't like literature class. But if the book had my heart was pounding faster after every chapter, was on the NY Times best seller list for 37 straight weeks, and inspired a movie, I would say otherwise.

The book however did falsely portray the Opus Dei. It showed them as power hungry sect. I would like to clear the fact that there are no Monks in Opus Dei. (No I'm not catholic) But look on the bright side, it put them on the map. Honestly, had you ever heard of Opus Dei before you read the book? I for one hadn't.

Now the Dan Brown is being sued by the authors of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail on the grounds that Brown made "extensive use of their research", rearranged the letters in the authors name for one of the characters, and made on of the descriptions of the characters similar to one of the authors. This is one of the stupidest court cases I've ever heard. If anything the Da Vinci Code will increase interest in the subject and more people will read The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. I've talked to a copywrite lawyer about this issue, and he told me that there is a universal rule in copywriting, ideas can't be copywrited. So techincally someone write a book exactly like the Da Vinci Code in their own words and it would not violate copywrite laws. Star Trek tried to sue Star Wars for similar reasons and that case went no where.

There are many other errors in the Da Vinci Code, which you can read about on wikipedia. But after all, this book is just a fiction thriller. Its meant to give the reader an "edge of the seat" experience, and leave the reader thinking "hey, can this really happen?", and that is exactly what it did. I loved this book. It was alittle slow in the beginning, but half way through it picked up and I literally couldn't put the book down, I finished the last 200 pages in one sitting. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galexy

2006-02-22T15:46:00.000-08:00

Every book has a climax where the hero brilliantly prevails. In Hitchikers Guide to the Galexy by Douglas Adams, everything is flipped upsidedown. The most random twists happen, most of the time generating a small smirk on your face and a few times making you laugh.

However this book reaches cult status with many readers, as evident by all of its nicknames, HHG, HGG, HHGG, HHGTTG, H2G2, HG2G, The Hitchhikers Guide, Hitchikers', and just Guide.

The story begins with the main character, Arthur Dent, whos house is about to be demolished. Apparently he had time to protest, but no one told him about it. Ironically the same thing happens with the whole planet. The earth is about to be demolished and he manages to escape. The whole story goes on with his adventure.

In one part of the story, it talks about how scientists created a computer program just to answer the golden question: What is the meaning of life? *Spoiler* The computer gave the answer: 42. As all of our science teachers have said, a number without a unit is meaningless.

It definitely didn't live up to my comedic standards. I've seen far funnier TV shows and movies. However there was a joke or witty comment in almost every other sentence. It was an easy read because of that. It was good, not great. I recommend it to anyone who is looking for a quick enjoyable read.

Superbowl XL

2006-01-30T16:15:00.000-08:00

There seems to by alot less hype over Superbowl 40. When I ask people who will win, I get the "ehh I don't really care" answer. You can thank Pittsburgh for that, they knocked off Indy, the most exciting team to watch and superbowl favorite all throughout the season. Whether it was Indy or Pittsburgh, the seahawks will be defeated. BOOK IT.

The Seattle Seahawks had one of the easiest schedules in the league. They played Arizona twice, San Francisco twice, St Louis twice, Tennessee, Green Bay, Houston, Philadelphia in the second half of the season, and a careless Indy team. No wonder they only lost 2 games. But its a new season in the playoffs where they had a first round bye to get rested, and then again played the worst offense in the playoffs, and then played another beat up team with a 4th string running back. Which is why their defense looks so good.

Pittsburgh on the other hand had a tougher schedule. They had went through the number 3, 2, and 1 seeds in the AFC, on the road. Which is easily the most difficult road possible in the playoffs, and they dominated those games (Although the score doesn't show it).

However, I have to give the seahawks credit. They did everything they were expected to do, you can't ask for more. We all know defense wins championships, and the caliber of offenses that Pittsburgh has played and shut down are much greater than those that Seattle played. Pittsburgh has stars on defense. Mr Amazing Troy Polamalu, Joey Porter the Thug, but the weakness has always been the cornerbacks. So far they have been playing great, which makes that defense always unpenetrable. Seattle on the other hand has a softer defense, like Indy. Seattles really doesn't have any stars on defense, just some players who have been playing pretty good.

In the end Pittsburgh is a smashmouth team who have beaten every type of opponent, Seattle is a team that had an easy road to the superbowl and really are facing their first elite opponent now. I think the genious playcalling of the Steelers will win them the game. Final Score: Pittsburgh 30, Seattle 20.

The Jungle

2005-12-25T22:26:00.000-08:00

One common misconception of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is that it's main purpose is expose the meat packing industry. Although it did accomplish that, it was not the main purpose. Sinclair was a socialist and the purpose of the book was to get people to adopt socialism. He said, "I aimed at the nations hearts, instead I hit their stomachs" and believe me, he does hit the stomach, but there are other, more important ideas discussed which should also be acknowledged.

The Jungle tells a some-what realistic story of an immigrant family from Lithuania who come to Chicago with hopes of a better life. When they get there, things are not as great as they seem. One thing of the first things they notice is, the train whisles sound sad. This foreshadows the family's fate.

The novel includes many problems that were relevent back in the turn of the 20th century including child labor, poverty, poor working conditions, low wages, government corruption, unfair buisiness practices, consumer fraud, and even organized crime.

The overarching theme of the novel is social darwinism. The strongest survive while the weak die away. This idea directly effects the family, and in the end, the only survivors are the strong ones in the family. Darwin presented the idea of natural selection and the survival of the fitest. One of the playgrounds of Darwins ideas is the jungle. Hence the connection between natures jungle and the jungle of America.

The author then presented socialism as a solution to all of these problems, and the books ends abruptly, in a way to excite the reader to go out and campaign for socialism. To bad it didn't work on me. It seems somewhat unrealistic that one man could be exposed to every vice and every problem in america at the time, and the twists and turns that this novel takes are too unbelievable. At one point the mayor's son is drunk and actually brings in the main character to his house, gives him a feast and a $100 bill. Another time a random rich lady sees a child digging through the trash and follows him home. She then sees the main character and finds him a job after he had been fired from his old job. What would a rich woman be doing in a company-meatpacking-town? I have no idea, but I guess he really needed that job.

If you are at all interested in American History circa 1900s, this is a good book to visualize the problems and how they effected the low class working man. If you are like me, and is not about to convert to socialism, then I recommend skipping the last 40 pages, it gets painfully boreing. But the first 200 are quick. Don't be discouraged by the first chapter either, just chug through it and you're set.