Hip-Hop du Deutscheland??

I think I've seen it all now. Here's an example of how the rest of the world is becoming Americanized.



Maybe this is why the rest of the world hates us? Could it be that Rammstein was right when they sang about "We're all living in Amerika"?



You be the judge.

Football: Fantasy and Reality

First the good news...

My Fantasy Football Team didn't do too bad in this first weekend of play. I was actually impressed. Although we lost our head-to-head match up, we posted a very respectable 108 points. The rest of the league teams posted scores only in the 60's and 70's (so far). I'm sure some will add a few more points once tonight's CHI vs GB game and then the two Monday night games are completed, but all in all I think 108 points is a pretty good showing.

Now for the bad news....

Although the WKU Hilltoppers fared much better this past Saturday against the South Florida Bulls than they did against UT last week, they still have much work to do.  A slew of penalties (13 for 124 yrds) killed several drives, and at least one touchdown. Without the penalties the Toppers very well could have won this one; USF is not a powerhouse like UT and the Bulls were a much closer match to the Topps than were the Vols.

In a lot of ways, this game seemed very similar to last year's game against Ball State. IN that one the Hilltoppers played very competitively against Ball State and had a decent chance at winning that one too, except for some unfortunate penalties and miscues.

Next week brings the University of Central Arkansas to Smith Stadium. UCA is an FCS (Div II) team, the only one Western faces this season. The Toppers really need to rise up and win this one to prove to the naysayers that they were ready to move up to FBS (Div I) Football and that the days of playing at the Div II level are behind them. As I mentioned in a previous post, it will be a few years before Western has a Bowl caliber team but it will come eventually and when it does, no one will remember these lean times.

My Fantasy Football Team

OK, I've drafted my first ever Fantasy Football Team tonight, here's the line up:

Starters
QB - Eli Manning, NYG
WR - Roddy White, Atl
WR - Antonio Bryant, TB
RB - Brian Westbrook, Phi
RB - Frank Gore, SF
TE - Visanthe Shiancoe, Min
W/R/T - Marion Barber, Dal
K - Ryan Longwell, Min
DST - Philadelphia

Bench
QB - Matt Cassel, KC
RB - Le'Ron McClain, Bal
TE - John Carlson, Sea
DST - NY Jets

Transactions
- Dropping bench K, Kris Brown (Hou) in order to pick up WR Muhsin Muhammad (Car)
- Dropping bench QB, Matt Cassel (Hou) in order to pick up QB David Garrard (Jac)

Notes
After the draft I realized I had a hole at WR on two bye weeks, so reasoned that it was better to drop my bench kicker and have only one week with no kicker than to have two weeks with only one WR, based on the scoring system. I also decided to drop Matt Cassel and pick up a different bench QB based on Cassel has an injured knee and has seen only light practice. I figured it was better to have a definite starting QB than a questionable one.

Anyway, that's my team. Let me know what you think or offer any suggestions you may have. I'll post my results here at the end of week 1.

Better Luck Next Time Toppers

Well, the score was a little one-sided (Hilltoppers 7, Volunteers 63) but they stayed in it and gave it a good effort. Hopefully they'll be watching the tapes on this one to figure out what went wrong.

On several occasions when the Hilltoppers' Senior QB Brandon Smith did have time to throw a pass, apparently no one could get open. When he did find a receiver open it was usually for only a few yards.

If it hadn't been for several Tennessee turnovers, the Vols halftime lead of 28 - 0 would have been a lot worse. One example - an early first quarter interception that gave the Hilltoppers possession of the ball with decent field position. However, their attempt at some kind of first-down-reverse-flea-flicker ended up putting them back 10 yards where they promptly went four and out.

In fact, for much of the game the Toppers were posting negative offensive yardage.

The Hilltoppers did finally find the goal line in their only real drive of the game late in the 3rd quarter, no doubt when the Vols were resting their starters. It wasn't long though before the Vols' starters were back in the game where, in the 4th quarter, they scored another 35 points!

It's going to be a few years before the Hilltoppers even have a chance of knocking-off one of these Top Tier teams, but I have faith in them and fully support the schools decision to move up to the FBS.

Hang in there Topps and better luck next week in the home opener in Bowling Green against the University of South Florida!!

Division I Football Comes to WKU

This Saturday September 5, 2009 marks the official entry into the Football Bowl Subdivision of my alma mater, Western Kentucky University. The Hilltoppers will be taking on the Volunteers of the University of Tennessee at 12 Noon E.T. on the Vols home turf. This is the first ever meeting of these two programs and will be broadcast live on the SEC Network.

The 120th FBS school, WKU is the latest member of the Sun Belt Conference to make the move up to Div I Football. WKU has been in transition to the FBS for the past two years, this year being the first year of Bowl eligibility for the Hilltoppers. Although they may not make it to a bowl game this year or even next, it won't be long before we see Hilltopper Football in the national spotlight.

Trials and Tribulations

We Christians face many trials and attacks from the enemy every day. Our society places individualism as the top priority and it is easy to loose sight of our purpose here on earth, to worship and glorify God.

In this Lenten season, let us always remember why we are here and focus our attention on God. It's fitting that one of the songs we will be singing this Sunday is "We Need To Fix Our Eyes On Jesus". If we keep this in mind in all our endeavors, He will lead us to righteousness.

Religion or Relationship?

I read a devotional today by one of the members of a new Christian Rock band, Jonah 33, about having a personal relationship with God. It really hit home with me today.

How often I settle for the "Religion" of Christ and ignore, or more accurately, try to hide from a "Relationship" with Jesus. I put myself or the "other gods" of my selfish desires first and then I feel so much shame because of my sin I try to ignore Him in hopes that the pain will go away.

But Jesus wants to sit down with us where we live and share His love and mercy. He wants us to know that we are not alone, that He has been there with us and we have only to trust in Him for redemption from our sin.

Lord Jesus, thank you for being a God who will sit down with us sinners and share your love. Grant me the strength to resist the temptations around me and to put you first, before all other "gods" that rule my life. in your name I pray. Amen.

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Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

Very Strange Observation

Ok, this is very weird. Tell me what you think about this…

I checked the quote on the Dow Jones Industrial Averages this morning at around 11 a.m. and noted it was 11,013.82 which was -7.77 from the close on Friday. I checked again around 11:10 and it was 11,021.59 +6.66 from Friday's close.

What's weird about this?

Well, I have always heard that 777 was God's perfect number. I thought I had seen this in the Bible, but I'm having trouble finding it. As for 666, everyone knows that is the number of the beast from the Book of Revelation.

I don't know what this means, if anything or what we could read into it. I just thought it very odd.

You can draw your own conclusions. Comments are welcome!

Final Thoughts on the Olympics

So, how about those Olympics?

There has been a lot of talk about how the US atheletes let us down and were an embarassment because of their behavior. I agree that the personal tifs between the Speed Skaters, and Bode Miller's revelation that it's more about him having a good time than winning medals, reflect poorly on the US.

But then again, I guess the rest of the world probably expects that behavior from Americans.

Curling and Women's Hockey

Ok, so I've been a little hard on Curling. I don't know what it is but I can't help but watch. It's like when you drive by an accident on the highway, you just have to slow down to see what happened! The US men are in the medal round so I'll continue to watch and hope for a GOLD.

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What happened to the US Women's Hockey team against Sweden? I'm guess there was some kind of strategy going on when they were in the Power Play toward the end of regulation with the score tied, and...What's this....standing around playing pass-the-puck? What was up with that? When you have an extra skater you should be attacking the goal.

There was like 30 seconds left in the game and they're playing "last shot"? I say swarm the net and take advantage of your extra skater. More shots on goal are gonna win in that scenario.

Oh well, they're in the Bronze game against Finland and it's a blow-out, so count another Bronze for Team USA.

Olympic Observations, Part 2

Did you catch that action packed Curling match between the United States and Switzerland? Boy, that was a nail biter!

I mean the Swiss had their own pep band and everything! They were beating on drums, ringing cow bells, chanting...whew!

I was inspired to start shoving big round stones down my own icey driveway, don'tcha know!

All this for a sport, and I use the term lightly, that goes at the speed of drying paint .

By the way, has it ever been determined if Bowling is a sport?

How about NASCAR?

Fishing?

Ah, lawn-darts. Now there was a sport! "Impale your opponent before he can do the same to you"! But wait...I digress.

So, last night I caught the last couple of Snowboardcross (is that all one word?) races. Now that was fun to watch. The US got the GOLD in the men's; I'm looking forward to watching the women's Snowboardcross and Combined tonight.

More to come...

Testing Remote Post

This is a test of the remote email posting capability.

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Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

Another Day in Paradise

Why is it that kids just will not listen? I'm not talking about the little ones who just don't know any better, I'm talking about the teenage ones. Well, that's probably the reason right there, they're teenagers.

My daughter gets up this morning and says she is sick (probably that time of the month) and she does look just awful. So I let her stay home. She'd just call someone to come pick her up after 2nd period anyway, so why bother. Gas ain't cheap 'ya know!

So she stays home and eventually starts to feel better, if she ever was sick, and then proceeds to basically act like she's the queen of the roost, get into a fight with her older brother (that's another story) and storms out of the house!

I have no doubt she'll be back after blowing off steam, I'm just so tired of chasing after her and everyone having to walk on eggshells whenever she's around.

Please feel free to share your own HORROR stories if you'd like. Those of you who are preveledged to have a teenager will know what I'm talking about, but if you're one of the few that have those perfect little Angels, I don't even want to hear from you!

Good Night and God Bless!

Olympic Observations

So I'm watching the Olympic coverage tonight and I guess I never noticed it before but I think some of the male figure skaters are gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that!

Now before you go thinking I'm a "Homophobe", I have to say that I like the gays that I've met. I can't condone the lifestyle but at a personal level those I've met are easy to get along with.

My point is, I really never watched the men's portion of the Figure Skating competitions and my initial observation is that they generally appear rather effeminite. Plus the one American was being interviewed and he compared himself to the women greats rather than the other men. I just found that odd.

Except when it's the doubles competition (I have to admit I like the women in those skimpy outfits) I just haven't been interested enough to watch the men skate solo.

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I really like the Skiing events. I've never been skiing myself, but it is by far the most enjoyable of the events to watch. I mean these guys are going down two miles of a wide open course at over 80 mph on what is essentially ice. You fall and there's a very good chance you don't stop till you get to the bottom, hopefully in one piece.

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I'm looking forward to the Snowboardcross on Thursday. This is a head-to-head race downhill with four racers per heat. On snowboards. I can't wait! Sure, I'm just waiting for a crash but so is everyone who watches NASCAR (the dumbest sport in the world).

I watched the Men's Halfpipe on Sunday - how do they do that?!

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This just in - Bode Miller was disqualified on the first of the two slalom heats of the Men's Combined for straddling one of the gates. I peaked at the official Olympics website and another American, Ted Ligety, ended up winning the gold medal. The US leads in Gold medals with 5 and tied for third in the overall count with 7 total. It's still early.

USA, USA, USA, USA!!!

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Good night and God bless!

The Dick Cheney Incident

Has the media lost all touch with reality or what? They are making this whole thing out to be way more than this incident deserves. It's like they are just latching on to anything they think they can turn negative against the president and this administration.

Anyone else out there thinking the same thing?

What the...?

Don't let this happen to you! OK, I was writing about a stupid driver that cut me off tonight but I lost it. It seems that spellcheck doesn't work with pop-up blocker on (Important safety tip Egon!) and when I hit the allow pop-ups button, I was taken back to the create post page and lost my whole story. Well, don't feel like trying to re-create the whole thing now. It just wouldn't be the same.


Good night and God bless!

So This is It?

Ok, this is my first post to my new blog. I'm not really sure what I'm going to be writing about, but we'll just see how it goes. My guess is there will be plenty of rants and raves about nothing of any particular importance.

I like to listen to the Rush Limbaugh Show and Coast to Coast AM with George Noory and Art Bell, so we'll have plenty of that sort of thing to discuss. I also like all types of music (within reason) so that's fair game as well. Basically anything you want to talk about, I'm open.

I suppose I'll have to post the obligatory Bio and some pictures of the kids, etc. Give the latest family updates and the like. All the usual stuff. Maybe I'll even try writing some fiction or just general commentary about current events or unusual topics.

So, there you have it for now. No need to rush into these things you know. I'll have plenty of more to say in the coming weeks.

Good night and God bless!