Not too Shabby Fantasy Week So Far...

So after a couple of rough weeks, this one is shaping up to be not so bad. I lost some games, but I was projected to get beaten in every single game, so that's not bad if you ask me.

In my first private league I am up 136-114 with one guy to play on my team. He's finished. So that takes me to 6-6 in that league and into third place at worst. The guy in second is losing though, and if he loses we'll have a three way tie for second.

In my second private league, my team won to go to 5-7. Oddly enough I'm STILL not mathematically eliminated from the playoffs in that league. My other team lost thanks to Cedric Benson not playing to drop to 8-4. I am still looking very good for the playoffs with that team, but probably won't clinch this week.

In my first public league I am leading by 24 points, but he's got a couple of guys left to play...one of which is Drew Brees, so that one is still up in the air. A win would take me to 7-5...a loss to 6-6. A loss will probably put me into the consolation round only...a win puts me in good position for the playoffs.

In my other public league I have lost to drop me to 9-3...the good news, it looks like the guy I was tied for first with will also lose to drop to 8-3, which will force a three way tie for first place. If one of the two 6-5 teams in that league lose then the top four teams will all clinch playoff spots. Then we'll just be battling for seeding.

My Pick'em league went pretty well. I had a 21 point lead going into the second half of games this week, but lost that quickly due to losses by Jacksonville and Arizona. However, the guy in second place can only at best gain two points on me overall, which would still lead me with an 8 point lead. However, I think we both have the same team picked for tomorrow night, which means that I should still have a 9 point lead. I also distanced myself from the guy in third even more. I believe that I'll be about 50 points ahead of him...which mainly means that I'm fighting with only the guy in second for the gold. Should be an interesting run to end the season!!

Holiday Bonus...

Penguin has a Holiday Bonus every year.

Basically, if you buy a certain dollar amount worth of magic you get free stuff. If you spend more you get more free stuff.

I've been holding off on buying a couple of effects because I was waiting for the Bonus to be announced...only problem, it still isn't up yet.

They had said that it would be announced the day after Thanksgiving, which was today, but after the end of the day there still hadn't been any announcement made. I still have no idea what the bonus is going to be, because I wasn't around the site last year.

I guess I'll just keep (im)patiently waiting and hope that they announce the stuff early next week.

More Thoughts on Laptop/Netbook...

So I had decided that I was originally going to get myself a nice little netbook right after the new year.

I started looking into some things that I could do to maybe get my laptop running a bit better, and I came across a few things.

First of all, I found a program called CCleaner. It runs a sweep of all kinds of things that a virus or spyware scanner doesn't do. It cleans out all kinds of things that are taking up space. I freed up over 1.5 gigabytes of information by using this program. I then used it to run a registry cleaner, and it found nearly 1,000 total errors in my registry on my computer. So I fixed all of those with it.

I then ran a scandisk and a disk defrag. After all of this I found some programs that were constantly running that were taking up valuable system resources. I killed those programs and then shut everything down and brought it back up.

Wow, what a difference it made. The laptop is running like new again...but I did find a pretty major flaw in my system. It only has 504 megabytes of RAM. I then checked my system performance and found that even with only one window of Firefox running I was using 498 megabytes of memory. So basically, I am maxing out the RAM that this computer has. I went over to Crucial.com to check what they had to offer, and I found that I can double my RAM to 1 gigabyte for $30...or I could go all the way to 2 gigs for $59.

I did some research and asked a few questions on a message board and found out that if I were to go to the 1 gig of RAM I would probably notice a MAJOR increase in performance on the machine. The guys said that going to 2 gigs might be a bit overkill, but it couldn't hurt. So right now I'm thinking about ordering the 1 gigabyte of RAM in the next few days and installing it to see what kind of difference it makes.



Basically, the way I'm looking at it is if I can spend $30 or $60 to get this laptop back to the performance that I would like it to have, well, that's a lot better than spending a few hundred on a netbook. I do like the idea of the netbook, but I also really like my laptop...so if I can save it I think I'd rather do that.

So I'll be ordering at least 1 gig of RAM in the next few days...and I'll be hoping that makes this thing work quite a bit better!!!

Drats...

...it's snowing.



That means it's officially time for me to go into my semi-hibernational state that is required when it officially becomes winter here in Michigan.

Net Book...

My laptop has been acting up a bit over the last few months. It is starting to do those little things that "old" computers start to do when they are on their last legs. Hanging up when doing simple operations, not loading programs correctly, locking up to the point where it needs to be manually powered down. You know, things like that.

So I'm thinking right now that I might end up getting myself one of those little netbook laptops to replace it. Pretty much the ONLY things I do with my laptop are browse the web, type notes to myself with Notepad, and store my photos and videos that I take. I don't play games, I don't do anything major, and the MAIN use it gets is for browsing the web.

I believe that a netbook would be perfect for what I'm looking for, so I think I'm going to use some my bonus from work to get myself one. I'm looking right now at the Dell Mini 10. It gets really good reviews and I like the way it looks. Unfortunately, the price on it ranges quite a bit...so I'll have to do some research to see what exactly I want so I don't spend money that I don't need to spend...and also so that I don't end up with a computer that doesn't do the things I want it to.

Got My Phone...

My new phone came today just like it was supposed to.

I got it out of it's package and got it turned on. Verizon has really streamlined the activation process when you are upgraded to a new phone. As soon as the phone was turned on it told me to press "1 then send" to activate. I did that and within about 45 seconds I was good to go with the new phone.

I like it quite a bit. It's a good size, looks nice, and has quite a few nice features. The only downside that I've found so far is that my old Centro did text messaging almost like instant messaging...it looked like an AIM conversation when you viewed it, which I thought was really cool. This new Samsung phone doesn't do that...it's texts are just straight text messages.

It takes good pictures, and it came with a USB cord to manage photos and such on the phone with a PC, which is a really nice feature.

I went looking for a case for it tonight, but couldn't find one that I liked...so I ended up cutting up a baby sock and sewing an end of it shut to make a small pouch for the phone. It works like a charm, and best of all instead of $20-30 for an actual case, this one cost me $1.50 and about 10 minutes.

Overall I'm satisfied so far...but I'll have to update in a few months if that changes. I was happy with my Centro for the first 100 days or so...then it all fell apart. But all of the other just regular phones I've had I have been very happy with, so I don't think this one will be any different!!!

ANOTHER Rough Fantasy Week...

I would really like it if I could put together two solid weeks in FFL, but I'm just not having any luck doing that.

In my first private league I lost. That drops me to 5-6. Oddly enough, however, I think I actually moved UP one position into third place. That league is all out of whack because the leader is 11-0 and there's only 8 teams, so second place is a 6-5 team and then the rest of us are all below .500.

In my second private league, with my first team I won to climb to 4-7 and into 15th place. I'm out of the playoffs in that league, however, so it doesn't really matter. With my second team I also won, to go to 8-3 and stay solidly in second place. With a win or a tie next weekend I should be able to clinch a playoff spot. I may actually even be able to clinch with a loss if some other teams lose, but let's not have that...let's just win and get it over with.

In my first public league I lost my third straight game to drop to 6-5 and into 5th place. I have a game next week against a guy that I'm pretty sure has stopped playing, so hopefully my slide will end then and I'll get into good position to make the playoffs.

In my second public league I also lost, dropping me to 9-2 and into second place again because the other guy at 9-2 has six more points than me. I'm fairly certain that I've got a lock on a playoff spot in the league, but I haven't officially clinched yet.

So that makes me 2-3 on the week...which seems to be about what I've been doing for the last 6 weeks. It also brings my season record to: 32-23, which isn't really very good. That's a .581 winning percentage...luckily I'm looking pretty good for the playoffs in at least two of the leagues, and probably one more. I'm only really completely out of it in one league, so I could end up making the playoffs in four different leagues.


In my Pick'em League I held my lead...however, what was a 20-something point lead just a few weeks ago is now only 10 points. The guy that is currently in second has picked up 17 points on me in the last three weeks, so it's time to get back on point with that. This week three of us tied with 98 points...and I'm now 40 points ahead of the third place guy so he's falling farther and farther behind.

Cathy's Dad Called...

...last night and told us that Thanksgiving would have to be put on hold for a week or so because everyone in his house is pretty sick.

We were originally going to reschedule it for next Tuesday, but Cathy remembered that she had plans that she had postponed from this week so that we could go to her dad's, so it looks like we'll be doing it in two weeks. That's alright by me, because that means we'll get some turkey this Thursday and then some more about 10 days later.

New Mobile Phone On The Way...

So I have been using...well, more like trying to use...a Palm Centro as my cell phone for the last 15 months or so. I initially got it because I wanted a smart phone with the ability to browse the internet and get sports scores and such. I was also interested in the touch screen and the full QWERTY keyboard that it offered.

For the first few months, I really liked it. It worked well and was just all around a solid device. However, after that first few months the thing just started to really go downhill. Things on it stopped working or taking forever to work. For instance, in the process of sending a 50 character text message I would have to stop every few characters and wait 10-15 seconds for the device to catch up with what I was doing. Or changing screens to get to the internet would sometimes take several MINUTES. These things were all things that I found incredibly frustrating and really were making me regret my choice of device.

So I decided that it was time to start looking for a new phone. I didn't really want to have to pay for one, so in browsing Verizon's site I found out that I was actually eligible for an upgrade of my current phone to a new phone for the current promotion price of the new phone. So basically, if they were currently offering a phone for $50 with a new contract I could get it for that. I started looking and found one that I liked quite a bit.

I ended up going with a phone by Samsung. I've never had a Samsung phone, I typically really like LG phones, but this one had 4 stars on Verizon's site...which is incredibly high considering most of their phones have like two stars. It also had 4 stars on CNET's web site, so I figured it had to be a pretty good phone.

I was able to get the phone in a pretty cool looking Flamingo Red color for absolutely nothing. The phone was free, and it included free overnight shipping, so it should be here on Tuesday. I'm not sure how much activation will be, but there was something on their website about Free Activation for the few days before Thanksgiving.

The new phone will be cool, and the best part is that I shouldn't use any of the functionality that I had before. I ended up keeping the text plan that I had, keeping the insurance, and going with the 25 megabyte data plan. So the phone should do everything that my Centro did, but the best part is it will cost $20 less per month than the Centro did. The Centro's text plan and insurance were the same price, but it's data plan was $30...the data plan for the Samsung is only $9.99. That should translate into even more savings because I'm sure all the random fees that Verizon charges will probably be a bit less, too.

This is what the phone looks like...the Samsung Intensity...

Did You See That???

The end of the Lions game today was epic.

Down 24-3 in the FIRST QUARTER, Matt Stafford brought the Lions back. They had the lead at the end of the 3rd quarter, 31-29. But these are the Lions, so you knew that it wouldn't be enough. And sure enough it wasn't.

Cleveland scored with about 6 minutes left and got the 2 point conversion to take a 37-31 lead. Stafford threw an interception with 3:40 seconds remaining, and the Lions defense went back on the field. After one first down the Lions stopped the Browns and forced a punt.

They took over at their own 12 yard line with 1:46 left to play and no timeouts. Enter the rookie, Stafford.

Stafford connected on three straight passes to get the Lions to their own 46 and then spiked the ball. He then completed another 11 yard pass to the Cleveland 43 and spiked it again. One more 11 yard completion led to what would be an amazing end to the game.

Stafford stopped the clock with about 8 seconds to play on the Cleveland 32 yard line, setting up one last ditch effort for the Lions.

Stafford took the snap from the shotgun and runs to his left. Nothing. He eludes a sack like a guy that's been in the league for years and crosses back to his right. At the right hash mark he slows up just enough to elude another sack. The eight seconds that were on the clock are now gone. He then backed up, and KNEW that C.J. Mosley was going to bury him...so he delivered a pass deep into the end zone. Stafford got absolutely planted by Mosley. He lay motionless on the field as the rest of the play unfolded.

Brodney Pool picked off the pass in the end zone that was intended for Calvin Johnson. But it was all for nothing, because Hank Poteat had pushed Bryant Johnson out of the back of the end zone while the ball was in the air...the flags flew, pass interference. No time on the clock. That's one free play from the one yard line.

Stafford got up and hobbled to the sideline clutching his shoulder. He was in obvious pain. Cleveland took a timeout and Daunte Culpepper trotted out onto the field. At this point in time Stafford is trying to convince the team doctor that he can go in for one last play. Culpepper lines up and then Cleveland calls their last timeout, I'm sure because they needed to get play information in for dealing with Culpepper. But as this timeout is called, Stafford is successful in talking the doctor into letting him go in for the final play.

Stafford lines up under center, obviously still in pain, and takes the snap. With no time left and no chances after this he delivers a perfect pass to the Lions OTHER first round pick, Brandon Pettigrew, for a touchdown. Hanson adds the extra point. Game over. The Lions have now won two games.

You learned a few things about Matt Stafford today. First off, the guy doesn't quit. Down by 21 with about 3 minutes to go in the first quarter he went to work. All he did today was complete 26 of 43 passes for a Lion rookie record of 422 yards. He also threw FIVE touchdown passes this afternoon, and only two picks. That, in my opinion, is a good day for ANY quarterback in the league...let alone a rookie. Did I mention that today he became the youngest player in the history of the NFL to throw five TD passes?

Second of all, you learned exactly how tough this kid is and how much he wants to win. It would have been easy for him to just sit on the sideline for that final play, but he begged and pleaded to get back in. He WANTED to win. He KNEW he could win. This is an attitude that has been absent from the Lions for a LONG time. He was fired up, and the fact that he went back in there in a condition that many players in the league would just sit on the bench shows how tough this kid is and how much heart he has.

There will be good days and bad days in this young quarterback's career...but today was a good day...and a day that Lions fans should be proud of. Matt Stafford played an excellent game and delivered when the game was on the line. Amazing.

6-6...

So the Spartans got trounced today by Penn State.

That means that they have ended their up and down season with a fitting record of 6-6. I had really high hopes going into the season...maybe 8-4 or possibly even 9-3. But I didn't really think that 6-6 would be the end result.

I didn't expect a 1-3 start, with losses to Central Michigan and Notre Dame. I didn't expect the late season loss to Minnesota.

They lost three games by 3 points or less...so that would have easily been the difference between 9-3 and what they ended up with.

Their defense wasn't good enough. They simply gave up too many points. They averaged nearly 30 points per game, but they gave up nearly as many.

After all that's been said and done, I'm kind of hoping for a bowl berth here:
If they end up going there, I may just go see them play. It will give me a reason to go to Ford Field, which I've wanted to do for a while, and it will get me to my first Spartan game in a few years. Also, hopefully it will be a bowl game that they actually have a chance of winning!!!

Yearly Bonus...

This year at work I really put my mind to getting a good bonus. I did some things that I normally don't do (as far as volunteering for things and such) and it ended up paying off.

I ended up getting the Level 5 bonus on our PASS system at work. PASS means "Performance, Accountability, and Standards System." It's what we're rated on for how good we did at work. Level 5 is the highest level that you can get, and it comes with some pretty good bonuses.

First off is a 4% raise for the next year on top of any other cost of living and across the board raises. That equals out to about $1,500 per year, which isn't bad. That, of course, doesn't include any of the shift premiums and such that I get on top of my yearly pay. To illustrate this, I have already made my yearly salary for this year, and we still have three pay periods left in the year. That just kind of illustrates how much the shift premiums help out with my pay.

Second, is a $2500 cash bonus. I could have gotten nearly $1,000 more than this...but I missed ONE more bag than is allowed on my image test. I missed three and you are only allowed to miss two in order to get the maximum score. So basically I missed out on about $1,000 by one bag. I was a bit upset with myself because of that, but I am looking at the bright side. $2500 is a pretty nice chunk of change!!!

I have already decided what I'm going to do with it. I'm going to take Cathy and I on another trip. I have determined that traveling makes me more happy than buying things. I had originally thought about selling my motorcycle and using the money from this bonus with the money from that to get a bigger motorcycle, but I don't ride the bike enough to actually warrant doing that. I will end up getting us a trip somewhere and that will be a ton of fun. With what I have left from the bonus I may look to buy a new laptop computer because mine simply hasn't been working all that great lately, or possibly just paying down some debt.

I figure that I worked pretty hard for the bonus this year, so I'm going to use it for something fun instead of just to pay off bills. It's not like I'm having trouble paying the bills anyways, so I might as well use the money for something cool!!!

Hopefully I can keep it up and get this high bonus again next year. I don't think I should have too much of a problem getting it done!!!

Got Thanksgiving Off...

Cathy and I ended up getting Thanksgiving off this year. We didn't end up taking any holidays off last year, but this year we got both Thanksgiving and Christmas. We're not that big on partying on New Year's Eve, so we didn't worry about that.

We're going to end up going up to Lansing on Thanksgiving for dinner with my parents and probably my grandparents. On Tuesday we are going over to Cathy's dad's house for a Thanksgiving dinner there, as well.

Basically, in a span of three days we're going to have more turkey than I think we know what to do with!!!

It's also a good way to get a nice little three day weekend!!!

Didn't Make It to Work Today...

Last night when I was taking Gordon out, I somehow managed to slip and fall on the wet driveway. I landed pretty hard on my side, mainly because I didn't have the use of my hands to break my fall.

I didn't want to let go of the leash because I was worried that Gordon would run off, so even when I knew I was going to fall there wasn't much that I could do to stop it.

When I woke up this morning I was really sore. It doesn't look like it got bruised or anything, so I'm wondering if in the process of trying to catch my balance or something I strained a muscle. Either way, it was really uncomfortable so I ended up calling in sick to work.

I spent most of the day just sitting around watching TV and playing some video games. Oh yah, and browsing around on the internet.

I'm feeling a bit better, but it still feels a bit sore. I'm guessing in a day or so I'll be fine. I hope so at least.

New Addition to the Zoo...

So Cathy's hamster, Ash, died a little while back.

She thought that maybe she would want to replace him, so I started suggesting that maybe we think about getting some rats.

Well, the other night we headed to Pet Supplies Plus to look at them. We had been to several other stores and they either didn't have any or they wanted quite a bit more for them than we thought they should cost.

So at PSP, they had what appeared to be one little baby boy rat. He was climbing up on the wall of the cage when we came to look at him. We didn't get him then, because we thought that they were supposed to be kept in pairs or more, and they only had one. So we went home and looked up some information and it said that you can introduce young rats from different litters at a young age without many problems. So we decided to go back to PSP and get the one, then we'd get another young one from one of the other stores that we had found them at.

Well, when we got back to the PSP, there were two in the cage!!! The other one must have been hiding when we were there before. So we found a cage and got all the supplies. We then asked one of the workers if we could get some help with the rats so she came and unlocked the cage. She then moved this little hut thing and...

...HOLY COW!!! There were about 20 of them hidden underneath the hut!!! They were all huddled together and when the thing got moved they scattered!!!!

We ended up getting two of them...one of them was the one that we initially saw climbing on the wall of the cage. His name is Archibald. He's just a gray colored rat with GIANT ears!!! That is the one that Cathy picked out. The other one was really active inside the cage. His name is Roswell. He's gray and white, with a little white spot right on the top of his head. He's the one that I picked out.

We got them home and got them set up. They are pretty skittish. They seem to be scared whenever it's really bright in the room. The first night we kept them mostly in the bathroom because we THOUGHT that would be the best place to get them out of their cage and not lose them. Well, after Cathy went to bed I got Roswell out in there and quickly learned that it's NOT the best place to not lose them. He promptly went underneath the vanity in the bathroom and up inside it. I had to take some drawers out to get him out.

They are pretty cool. Even after just a few afternoons they are starting to get a bit more willing to be picked up and held and such. They are still a bit skittish, but they are getting better.

Cathy really likes them. I do too. I hope that they get over being the little bit skittish that they are soon, because I'd like to be able to get them out and actually play with them!!!

WHAT A GAME!!!!

So the Colts came back...from down 17 points...to beat the Patriots tonight in an absolutely epic game between the two best teams of the past decade.

They went into the game tonight with the Colts having 109 regular season wins and the Patriots sitting at 108 regular season wins.

The Colts trailed early in the 4th quarter by 17 points. The Colts then proceeded to outscore the Patriots 21-3 in the next 14 minutes to come out with a last second TD catch (and an AMAZING one at that) by Reggie Wayne to secure a 35-34 win.

The key moment?? Coach Belicheat deciding that his defense wasn't going to be able to stop the Colts and going for it on fourth and two. A good call by the official put the ball short of the first down marker and gave Peyton Manning the ball on the Patriots 29 yard line with two minutes left and down by six. I'll tell you what. Peyton Manning will take that chance EVERY TIME...and 99% of the time he will assassinate you and make you pay. And it happened again tonight.

Did Belicheat not have any confidence in his defense?? Did he think that his offense was so unstoppable that it was a given that they'd get the two yards?? We might not ever know, but the bottom line is the Colts have now won 18 straight regular season games, and come out of week ten with a 9-0 record.

Amazing.

Go Colts!!!

Looking Like Another Mediocre Fantasy Week...

In my first public league I have won 111-92. Neither of us have any players left so the game is done. That will take me to 5-5 in that league which will put me solidly in third place. I'm in good position in that league to make a run at the playoffs.

In my other public league, I actually lost both games. Neither of the games were even really close. That will drop me to 3-7 with one of the teams and probably in 18th place. The other team will drop to 7-3 and will remain in second place. I'm still in good position to make a playoff run with that team, as well.

In my first public league I got absolutely hammered. I lost by nearly 40 points. That drops me to 6-4 in that league and in a tie for fourth place. That league is up in the air. I'm not sure if I'll be able to make a playoff run or not. I still have some time left to put some wins together, though.

In my last public league, I dominated my opponent by 60 points. He still has Ray Rice to play tomorrow, but there is no way that Rice gets 60 points so that game is done. That puts me at 9-1...and best of all, the other guy that had one lost got smashed this week, so I'm now all alone in first place in that league!!!

So, all in all it was another mediocre week. I can't seem to put together two really good weeks in a row at all. I went 2-3 this week.

After this week, I am now 30-20 through 10 weeks of the season. Not too bad, but it could be better.

I also made a SNAFU in my Pick'Em league. I forgot the game on Thursday night started at 8, and I didn't get my pick for that game in on time. There were also quite a few upsets this week, so I was 7-6 today. Luckily most of the guys in the league all had VERY similar picks, so I didn't really lose much as far as points go.

After today, in the Pick'Em league I will have a 10 point lead over the second place guy. I think he can gain two points on me tomorrow, but we both probably have Baltimore picked, so he'll get no closer than 8 points. The third place guy is down by 32. The fourth place guy is down by 87.

Magic...

It's getting near the holidays, and that means that Penguin is starting to have some deals. They are really good deals, too.

For instance, today for one day only they had a deal where if you bought ANY physical item for ANY price, you got a free trick valued at $15, a free book valued at a few bucks, and a free deck of cards valued at $10. So basically, if you bought one $2.00 item you got about $30 worth of stuff for free.

Needless to say I ordered a trick. It was one that I just found by chance this afternoon, and I really liked it. I showed it to Cathy and she said it was really cool. So I bought it. I'll gladly take free stuff if Penguin wants to give it to me!!!

Alpha Coney Island...

I know I've made a post about food already this week, but this one needs to be mentioned as well.

In the Jackson Crossing mall is a little place called Alpha Coney Island. I have lived down here for over two years now and never went in there...even though I like hot dogs and Coney Dogs. I guess I just figured that Cathy didn't like them.

Well, I heard on the radio yesterday that they had moved to a new location in the mall, so I wanted to try it out. Cathy and I went there today, and to my surprise it was much different than I thought.

I had originally figured it would be a fast food place...but it's not, it's a sit down restaurant.

The new location is awesome. It's stylish, the atmosphere is nice, the menu is large, and the overall place seems really cool.

Then there's the food. Cathy had some chicken kabobs and I had two hot dogs and a Supreme Coney Dog. Amazing. We got a ton of food for not a ton of money, and all of it was really, REALLY good.

I can't believe I hadn't tried this place before. It will now be added to our rotation of restaurants that we go to...and it's price and location probably will make it be one that we go to often.

I'm glad they moved...because I might not ever have gone in had they not.

Not Much Going On Lately...

So...you may have noticed that I'm not posting to my blog as much as I used to.

It's not because I've forgotten about it...it's simply because there hasn't been that much going on. The weather has started to change and that means I've been spending much more time inside just doing a whole lot of nothing. No new games have come out recently so I haven't been playing any games.

Really about the only thing I've been doing is studying up on magic. I've found more and more tricks that I like, and my collection has grown to nearly 40 effects already.

So really, other than that there hasn't been much to post about. Add to that the fact that the Red Wings didn't start out the season so well, the Lions are still just the Lions, and nobody cares about the NBA and you've got a recipe for not many posts. College hoops will start REALLY soon, so that might give me something to post about.

In closing, I haven't forgotten you blog...I just haven't had much to say!!

Left 4 Dead 2...

If you've been reading my blog for a good long while, you'll remember that I LOVED the original "Left 4 Dead" by Valve for the Xbox 360.

Well, next Tuesday the sequel to it comes out. I finally took the time to download the demo, and the demo plays just like the first game, with some tweaks that make it just a bit better.

I think this is going to be the game that keeps me on my Xbox over the next several months. It's going to be great.

I haven't been looking forward to any game more than this...and hopefully this one will give me a good solid six months of online play...just like the first one.

I can't wait!!

Another Bad Fantasy Week...

So...every time I have a good fantasy week, like last week's 5-0 record, I follow it up with a bad week.

This week I went 2-3. I lost one game by .4 points.

Luckily, the two wins were in leagues that I'm still hanging out near the top. So I'm still tied for first ine one of them and in the other I'm not .5 games back.

I also lost some of my lead in my Pick'em league. I now lead by about 20 points. Still pretty solid.

Worst of all...I got my last strike in my Survival league...thanks to a horrible game by the Packers. So I'm out of that league now.

Oh well, hopefully next week will be better!!!

What a Breakfast...

So Cathy and I had today off. Her brother, Nick, was going to be in Ann Arbor for the weekend to watch the Michigan Wolverine game, and he wanted us to come to Ann Arbor with Cathy's dad for brunch.

So we took the day off and headed to Ann Arbor to go to this place called Angelo's.

When we first pulled onto the street that the restaurant was located on, we noticed what appeared to be a mob of people just standing down on the corner. It turns out that was the group waiting to get inside.

We made our way to Nick and he already had his name in...the wait was supposed to be an hour. We waited for right about that long and got inside. We were seated at a tiny little booth that seemed like it didn't really even have room for the four of us and plates. We made our orders and waited a little while for the food to come.

Cathy, Nick, and I all had homemade French toast. Cathy's dad had some corned beef hash. The French toast was great. It was the thickest bread I think I've ever seen, and there was literally a ton of it. I had tried to order sausage to go with mine, but they were all out so I had bacon instead. It was really good, too.

Nick ended up treating us all, which was really nice of him. I thought the food was great. It might not really have been worth an hour long wait, but it was gorgeous outside so it didn't really feel like it was that long.

I'd like to try and go back there one day during the week, to see if the wait is as much and to try some of their other things. Their menu had lots of stuff that sounded good on it.

Lazy Days...

So, for whatever reason I've been DEAD tired for the last few days.

I had been thinking about it a bit the last couple of days, and it seems like ever since the time change my internal clock has been all messed up. I've been tired and not had any energy at all. I'm sleeping okay, but I just feel lazy and tired.

Hopefully as the days go on, I'll get a bit more used to it and start feeling a bit better and less tired. But then of course winter will get here, and I won't want to do anything anyways!!!

First Magic Show...

So tonight Cathy and I went up to my parents house for her birthday, my dad's birthday, and our anniversary. Kind of just a general get together.

I knew that my grandparents on my mom's side were going to be there, and I figured my grandma would like some of my magic tricks so I took the entire lot of them...except for my iPod trick, I accidentally left that at home.

When I got there, my mom let me know that my grandparents would be there a little later, and that my other grandfather was going to be there, and my aunt was going to be there.

I didn't really know if I wanted to perform any of my tricks for that many people. I get nervous when I'm the center of attention for more than just one or two people.

Well, when my aunt got there we started all talking about Las Vegas and how my mom wants to go there for Christmas next year. My aunt started talking about the magic show that she watched while she was there last, and how she doesn't believe in magic but the things they were doing at the show really made her wonder, and how to this day she still doesn't know how any of the tricks were done.

I figured that was a good time to get started. My mom asked me if I would start, anyways, so it worked out perfectly.

I started out with a pen through dollar routine. That left my grandpa literally speechless. I then followed it up with a couple of coin tricks. For each coin trick I used a different spectator, and those worked out pretty well. I then did a few more card tricks. I finished the cards up with a transposition that went over really well.
After that I did a dollar bill routine, and that was pretty much my finisher. I ended up doing one more card trick quite a while later. Then, as everyone was getting ready to go home I did a coin vanish and followed up with some work with the D'Lites. My grandpa and aunt really were in awe of the D'Lites. They had literally no idea what was going on.

I thought for a first ever real performance, it worked out pretty well. I need to work on delivery still, and I need to find some way to string the effects together in a logical way. It seemed like a lot of "Hey, look at this!!! Now, look at this!!!" The tricks went off without a hitch, though, so that was nice. I think everyone had a pretty good time.

I'll keep working on the tricks and maybe do some more around Christmas when everyone gets together.

WHOA!!! What a Finish!!!

So, in my first private league I ended up holding onto my lead and winning 121-100. That brings my record in that league to 4-4. That should move me into fourth place in that league, which puts me into prime position for midway through the season.

In my second private league, MY team came back to win by a final score of 68-58. That brings me to 3-5 and breaks a three game losing streak. That should move me into 16th place...but hey, a win is a win!!!

My OTHER team in that league led 50-47 going into the game tonight, and somehow held on for a 57-54 win. That brings me to a 6-2 record with that team and keeps me holding on strong to second place.

In my first public league, I won by over 55 points to climb to 6-2 and stay in a three way tie for first place.

In my second public league, I won by 35 points to climb to 7-1. The big news in that league, however, is that the guy in first place FINALLY lost today, so him and I are now tied for first place in the league.

So, after a down week last week, I ended up going a good strong 5-0 this week. That takes my overall record to 26-14 through 8 weeks. That's not too bad.

I also hold strong at 23 points ahead in the Pick'em league after this weeks games. So that's looking pretty good right now, too.

So, all in all it was a GREAT week for FFL for me!!!

So It's Been a Few Weeks...

...since I last updated about Fantasy Football.

To be quite honest, that's because last week was a really bad week for me as far as the leagues went.

I lost in my first private league to drop to 3-4, and fall into sixth place.

In my second private league, MY team lost it's third in a row to fall to 2-5 and 18th place. My OTHER team won to climb to 5-2 and second place.

In my first public league I lost to fall to 5-2 and I'm in a four way tie for first place.

In my second public league I won to climb to 6-1 and I'm still in second place.

That means that last week I was 2-3...not really a very good week.

So after seven weeks, I am a combined total of:
21-14, not really that great, but not really that bad either.

Also last week in my Pick'em league I pushed my lead to 21 points. I didn't get the most points of the week, but the guy that did missed making picks a few weeks ago so he's so far behind it doesn't really even matter.


This week has been a bit of a different story. So far it's been a pretty good week, overall. Of course there is a game tomorrow, but I don't think it should hurt me TOO much overall.

In my first private league I lead by 41 points. He still has Drew Brees and Michael Turner to play, who can put up a ton of points, but I have Pierre Thomas who can also put up some good numbers. I'm thinking I've got about a 60% chance of winning this one, which would push me to 4-4 in that league.

In my second private league, MY team is getting beat 43-21. However, I still have Drew Brees, Roddy White, and Jason Elam to play. They are projected to get 43 points. He still has New Orleans' defense, which is projected to get 10 points. If the players all get close to their projections, I'll win by a few points and climb to 3-5. My OTHER team is in a good game...I lead by three with Jeremy Shockey left to play. He's got Mike Bell and John Carney to play. If they get their projections, I'll lose...which will drop me to 5-3.

In my first public league I have won 96-40. That will pull me up to 6-2, and I will remain in a tie for first place, but one of the four teams will end up falling out of the tie because two of them are playing each other. So it will probably be a three way tie at 6-2.

In my other public league I lead 110-91. I still have Marques Colston to play and he is done...so that is another win that will push me up to 7-1 and at worst in second place. The guy that is in first is losing, so I could be tied for first after the game tomorrow night.

So, I'm guaranteed two wins. I'm ahead by a large amount in one leauge, which should be my third win this week. I'm within striking distance in another league, which should give me four...and then one I should lose which should make me 4-1 this week. Of course, I COULD lose all three of those games that are still up in the air...but I could win them, too.

Also, in the Pick'em league I have padded my lead even more. I have pushed my lead to 24 points. The guys in second and third place keep flip-flopping back and forth every week, but they haven't seemed to be able to close on me very much. They both have a better win-loss pick record, but they aren't doing as well placing those confidence points.

Looks all around like it's going to be a better week...I guess we'll see after that game tomorrow night!!