Chad Johnson'ed

There is no better showmanship/sportsmanship move than Barry Greenstein autographing a copy of his book for each busted opponent.

NFL = NCAA

Eli Manning - Matthew Stafford - Georgia
JP Losman - Anthony Morelli - Penn State
Tom Brady - Matt Ryan - BC
Brett Favre - Andre' Woodson - Kentucky
Jason Campbell - Tyler Donovan - Wisonsin
Donovan McNabb - Kyle Wright - Miami
Duane Huard - Casey Dick - Arkansas
Matt Schaub - Colt McCoy - Texas
Phillip Rivers - Sam Bradford - Oklahoma
Derek Anderson - Colt McCoy - Hawaii
Peyton Manning - John David Booty - USC
Matt Leinart - Jimmy Clausen - Notre Dame
Ben Rothelisberger - Blake Wilson - USC-E
Tony Romo - John Parker Wilson - Alabama

Despise / Like

I've been meaning to write this post for a while. Below are companies that I absolutely despise, and a few that are great.

Despicable:
1A) Geico - Rates are exorbitantly high, they rely on outdated metrics, which result in charges which other insurance companies include gratis (additional drivers), and they screwed me in 2003 by doubling my insurance premium with no notice.
1B) USAirways - Miserable staff, many delays, lost luggage, keep employees (and in turn, passengers) in the dark. How can you have self-centered employees in a service industry? I have no idea how their stock continues to rise.
1C) Comcast - For $160/month, I get the NFL network taken away (now premium), and must pay $5 if I want to interact with an employee to pay a bill. Increasing profits by adding fees (not improving/adding services) is bad business. Leave customers in the dark when the system is out, and offer no discount. Attached at the hip of Comcast is Scientific American (who make the Comcast boxes), which is a terrible company, one which my client refuses to do business with.

Excellent:
1) Continental / Lufthansa - Timely, good food, knowledgeable service staffs.
2) Progressive - Cheaper rates than counterparts, friendly staff, prompt service
3) Pandora - Great time waster, has introduced me to a bunch of tunes in genres I like

Friday Night Lights

Bill Simmons professes his love for Friday Night Lights. I am a huge fan of FNL, and am in complete agreement with his assessment.

FNL is consistently excellent, which can be said for so few TV shows. Sadly, it may result in its demise. Weird they haven't spliced in more cheerleader shots in an attempt to improve the viewership.

The Sunshine State

Attended a wedding of a good friend from college this past weekend. The wedding took me two hours outside of Denver, to Devil's Thumb Ranch in Winter Park, Colorado.

The flight from BWI - DEN was miserable. You wouldn't think a kid (who was @ 4, and still sharing a seat with his Mother) would be able to kick the back of my seat for four hours. You'd be wrong.

While Denver is only 5000+ feet above sea level, Winter Park is 9000+, which turns out to be a huge difference. In addition to alcohol packing a greater potency, the altitude makes people (how to put this...) more flatulent. At the wedding, we sat behind two brothers @ 10-12 years old who were dueling fiddles. We were in tears. A few gems from the ceremony:

1.) When shaking hands, one friend asked if he should just pull the boys finger.
2.) After the ceremony, the Mother was asked what she fed her boys for lunch.

Fantastic reception, with great food. The only downside to the whole experience (aside from the travel) was our friend (the bride) ran around with a miserable crew in college, who were (unfortunately) still miserable. Conversation (smalltalk) was painful. Painful conversations aside, it was a great event, and great to catch up with the bride and her family.

On Sunday, had a late flight, and time to kill, so at the suggestion of the hotel concierge, we walked around Red Rocks, and the adjacent town of Morrison, CO. RR is awesome (pictures to follow). I made the mistake of checking the calendar, and The Black Crowes had played on the 9th. It later came to my attention the wedding was moved from the 8th to 15th to accommodate a particularly stainful bridesmaid, who had booked a cruise (over a year in advance?). Unbelievable. Definitely plan on getting back to RR for a show in the next year. Would have loved to have come out for the 2006 Labor Day shows, which were Allmans, Gov't Mule, and Willie Nelson over three consecutive nights.

Ha Ha

It's been a very disjointed week at the office. Monday - Wednesday our building received multiple bomb threats, which quickly lose their novelty. Information leaked that the caller was acting in revenge of being dumped. Repeatedly? I am shocked. Having been in the building for nearly five years, most of the women in the building should be guarding bridges.

The one offshoot of the incident(s) is coining of the term 'bomb threat hot', when a woman is so smoking you'd call in bomb threats if you were to be dumped.

In case you were wondering...

...my latest iPod Shuffle rota (September 10 2007).

(I know I need work on cropping, etc. It's best to enlarge.)

Eff...

...just got back from an extended and relaxing weekend, a few things swirling around my mind:

1.) Eff anyone who reclines their seat on a plane
2.) Eff resorts that have add-on fees in excess of 25% (goes for car rental companies, too)
3.) Eff anyone who inspects bags at TSA and returns clothes to a suitcase by crumpling them, rather than folding

Mostly:
4.) Eff Al Groh and his head-up-his-ass approach to coaching football. Eff your miserable excuse of an offensive coordinator son. Groh makes $1.7M annually, Groh^2 probably makes $500K, so Virginia is doling out over $2M to imbeciles. Sadly once they are finally fired, we'll lose Mike London, our great offensive coordinator. The team deserves better than the (lack of) preparation and execution resultant from the Groh regime. Not that I am fully player-favorable, as Groh has dropped student-athlete standards, with no gain in wins.