...good karma time

I've meant to make a list of "who's who" on my blogroll for some time, but really, there isn't much to say. If I find someone's blog funny, interesting, or even just a good read, I add them. If they slip from that level, or I change my mind later, they're gone. Everyone that's there now has stuck around for awhile, so that's good for them. Maybe I'll get around to writing about each person and more specifics about why they're on my blogroll eventually, and probably individually, but today I think I'll stick to one.

Grant is the only person on my blogroll (not counting little brother in the links above my blogroll, of course) that I've actually met face to face. He's the creator/webmaster/grand poo-bah of AyZiggyZoomba.com, an outstanding starting point for fans, alums, and whoever of Bowling Green State University. I always thought I was carrying the flag for the brown and orange until I realized how nuts some of the people on that site are about BGSU.

Currently, Grant is working hard securing donations for MS Walk 2004. If anyone is feeling charitable or has been looking for a way to give, I recommend Grant. He has busted his tail giving a "family" of BG fans a place to call home, and I think this is a great way to say "Thanks", even if you're not familiar with his work or his site.

...we now return you to your regularly scheduled blogging

After a stern lecture about my less-than-regular blogging habits, I vowed to write something, anything, more often. Since Saturday, that hasn't happened. Since then, lets see what we've missed...

-Texas was already gone from my NCAA bracket picks, but the other three that I picked to go to the Final Four are there. This does me absolutely no good. At all.

-Duke still sucks. In fact, I wouldn't be all that against Armageddon finding San Antonio this week, if only to get Duke off the map. Too bad, too, because San Antonio is kind of a neat town. Which gets me thinking. If San Antonio *does* somehow implode this weekend, does that mean the NIT is for the national championship? If so, Michigan really better win tonight, just in case.

-The Yankees are in last place! Though the Devil Rays are in first, so I don't think this one's going to hold up.

-Mother Nature needs to stop messing around with the weather! I could have gone for a few more weeks of winter, if a little solid spring wasn't thrown in the middle. Sunday was 70ish and great, yesterday dropped hard into the 50's, and it doesn't feel much better today. My sinuses are about to pack up and fly south.

...an improvised 5...

So I eagerly jump to the Friday Five site, with hopes of redeeming an awfully weak debut, and find out that there's no list of questions for this week! So, I thought the only right thing to do is to pick a set from the archives, and instead of picking an arbitrary date, I'd take the questions from this week last year. Unfortunately, those were equally lame, so I went to the March 29, 2002 list. A little better, but I'm still wondering who in the hell comes up with these things. So without further adieu (after all, they ARE already 2 years overdue!), here's what I've got this week:

1. If you could eat dinner with and "get to know" one famous person (living or dead), who would you choose? For some reason, the first name that came to mind was Bill Murray. But only if we can golf first.

2. Has the death of a famous person ever had an effect on you? Who was it and how did you feel? Aside from the jaw-dropping "Whoa!" when first hearing the news, not really. Considering I've never had a famous person as a close personal friend or family member, why would it affect me?

3. If you could BE a famous person for 24 hours, who would you choose? First name to mind: John Holmes. Real answer... hmm... Not coming up with any specific names, but I'd have to think a famous athlete of some kind or another. Maybe a golfer.

4. Do people ever tell you that you look like someone famous? Who? A guy at a party once in college told me I look like Whaler turned Canuck turned Sabre turned Blue Jacket turned Canuck again Geoff Sanderson, but I never saw it. I think it's because the kid was drunk and I had a Whalers jersey on. Other than that, I don't think any.

5. Have you ever met anyone famous? Yes.


There ya have it. Fun, huh? (For the record, the one I skimped on from last year was all about helping and charity, and I really can't say that applies. At least not recently.)

...I'm just talkin 'bout tax!

They say that cat TurboTax is a baaaad mutha...
I'll admit, I was skeptical at first, instead feeling like I should rely on my own stash of chewed up pencils, 15 year old calculator, and high school level math skills to figure out my taxes, but after a couple reccomendations and 20 bucks or whatever dropped on the TurboTax software, I'm a believer! Their numbers came out identical to mine (which I was hoping to save some jack, but at least I'm not worse off), and its much more cost-efficient than the 2 bills H&R Block tried to take me for last year!

FINALLY, it looks like the weather is going to stick at least above 55 for the next week and a half, which is nice. Hopefully that means more regular additions to the golf blog, and hopefully they're HAPPY entries!

I swear there was more to add here, but my brain is numb and its lunchtime.

...sweeeet!

The NCAA Tourney is down to 16 teams, one of which is still the best team in the tournament, the Texas Longhorns!! Everyone repeat with me now, "WE LOVE TEXAS!". And while a couple of the losses in the second round provided a bit of a blow to the midsection of my bracket drive, none were more than mere flesh wounds. My final four are still plugging away, most of my final 8 are even still alive, and thanks to Stanford and Kentucky bowing out, we're a UCONN and a Duke loss away from eliminating a great portion of the field. Like 85%, I'd say. Of course, before I get too confident, my Longhorns have to get by a redhot Xavier team, and if they make it through the Musketeers, its either the ever-hated Dukies or an Illinois team that is facing sodomy charges after what they did to Cincinnati yesterday. Ouch.

In case anyone forgot, baseball season starts two weeks from today, with the home opener at the venerable Cooper Stadium set for two weeks from Thursday. Thursdays + Cooper Stadium = MMMM...beer!

...so close, yet...

So I thought I found a way to make my new template work. Not so much. I mean, I think it will work, but its going to take some effort and learning and tweaking, and quite honestly, as energized as I am to get that done, I think its going to have to wait until this potential cold is exorcised. However, I *did* find a great site for template help/ideas. Maystardesigns.com is AWESOME! Its a chick that knows what she's doing with templates, and threw a bunch together and out there for public use. I'm big on giving credit in the script (which is only right, I guess I'm not all that special for doing so), but if anyone uses one of this girl's scripts, there should be a daily reminder that you're using one of hers. They're pretty damn solid. But more on that in the future.

Two things I've been reminded about the NCAA Tournament:

1) Duke sucks.
2) Upsets are so much funnier when they happen to someone else. I've got one bracket with cash riding on it, and lets just say if Texas wins it all, I think there's going to be a party. A big party. A party of St. Patrick's Day proportions. Napkin games for everyone! But anyway, it's going to take some work for the Longhorns to make it there, so I'll just keep rooting quietly for my adopted team. The next big step is tonight vs. N. Carolina. They've had somewhat of a down year, but they're still UNC.

So with the snow (hopefully) behind us, I've launched a new page here, a round by round recap of my golf season. Only one round in the books, but hopefully there will be alot more where that came from.

...friends don't let friends play with napkins

So I think I'm finally back to post-St. Patrick's Day posting shape. I'd hate to think what kind of condition I'd have been in if I really were Irish, or believed even for a second that there were snakes that needed to be run out of Ireland. I'd run through the hour-by-hour of Wednesday night, but it all ended up being one big 8 hour lump of time. A good time, though, with good people. Or at least one good person (non-angry Pete), and a whole bunch of strangers that didn't look all that Irish either. Oh, and the snow is gone. Almost completely, even. Who woulda believed that after looking at that picture from Tuesday?

Do you realize how hard it is to find 64 decent, not-incredibly-popular blogs to fit into a "tournament" system? It ain't easy. Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough, maybe I'm picky and jaded, but here it is.... the 2004 World Blog Championship!

Who knows if this idea will get off the ground at all, but I'll give this week for Round One (actually Round Two on the bracket), then next Thursday or Friday, I'll post the winners. Actually, lets say Friday. In each matchup, pick the blog you think is better, based on appearance, content, whatever, and leave your picks in my email, or in comments, or whatever is easiest. The blog in each matchup that gets the most votes wins. If you think this is a good idea, let me know. If you think it sucks and I should focus more attention on homelessness in Micronesia, let me know. I don't think anything will go to the winner, except maybe a victory speech post to call their very own.

Now, onto more pressing issues. I promised to get in on the Friday Five craze, so here goes this week:

If you...

1. ...owned a restaurant, what kind of food would you serve? bar food

2. ...owned a small store, what kind of merchandise would you sell? sporting goods

3. ...wrote a book, what genre would it be? something funny, but I don't think that's a "genre", actually

4. ...ran a school, what would you teach? coloring inside the lines

5. ...recorded an album, what kind of music would be on it? trust me, you don't want to hear me sing


Okay, so that was a really shitty Five to open up with. It can only get better from here, right?

...lousy Smarch weather

This, boys and girls, is why Mother Nature sucks. That's right, sucks.



That was about 2pm this afternoon. 10 hours, 3 or 4 inches of snow, and golf season is kicked in the jimmy for another few weeks.

On the bright side, I'm finishing up hooking the stereo up, and aside from a speaker wire across a doorway, it will be sweeeeet.

...ooh, it looks like she's presenting!

I really don't have much to say, but I would be horribly, horribly remiss if the Simpsons episode that was responsible for me rocketting to the top of the Google search results for "simpsons panda love" was on and I didn't come through with a catchy headline.

Though while I'm here, I will share that the bracketing is coming along slowly but surely (no thanks to anyone else, really), but its shaping up fairly nicely. Nothing really to go on other than the top 4 "seeds" were the blogs I read all the time, and went down from there. I think I've got about 25-30 of the 64 needed. Still some work to be done, but I imagine there will be down time tomorrow.

Does anyone else find it odd that I've worked in some form of TV and/or radio for the past 11 years, yet when I opened my new stereo up today, I had the same blank stare as if someone threw me 4 eggs and a jar of mayonnaise and told me to make thanksgiving dinner? (As for the stereo, talk about a great deal! Patience really paid off to the tune of $50 for this hombre!) So now I have components laid out, the image of receiver meeting DVD, meeting VCR, meeting cable box, meeting TV, meeting speaker wires, meeting speakers and filling my 85 square feet of space with bass-thumping something-or-other... and no clue what to do with it. The goal is to have it together before the all day hoops on Thursday, but its gonna take some help.

Where's Schneider when you need him?

...what in the wide wide world of sports is goin' on out here?

Its going to snow tomorrow. A LOT.

Well, not A LOT in terms of a winter storm that halts traffic and puts snow plow drivers on high alert, but we're supposed to get anywhere from 2 to 6 inches, after reaching the 50's today. If you could give me fair warning before the locusts come, too, I'd appreciate it. I've already been grumbling enough about having to wear my winter coat this deep into March, and now I'm going to have to wade through multiple inches of snow, too? Fortunately, by the time most of it hits, I'll be home and in bed starting my weekend. Then, if its still around on Wednesday, I guess I'll have to find a way to get out to my car to celebrate my lack of an Irish heritage that night.

Then Thursday, its me, my couch, and 15 hours of college basketball. Not that I really care that much about the tournament (again!), but its fun to watch games unfold and the close ones come down to a last second shot, while some worthless 16th seed gets shelled by a number one. Hopefully this will be the year that I finally break through and win some money off the deal, too. The work pool gets pretty sizeable, with a $10 down payment, and I think 75-80 people getting in, if I remember correctly from last year. I'd like to do one just in my inner circle of friends, but I hate being the guy that has to collect money and add totals and whatever else.

Not that its anything scientific or official, and shouldn't be used for your own gambling purposes (if you've followed my picks since I started this thing, you know that its safest for you to ignore what I think), but off the top, with my first look at the brackets this morning, here's the Final Four as I see it:

Kentucky
UCONN
Wisconsin
Texas

Texas beats Kentucky for the title, lets say 85-78.

Speaking of March Madness, I'm devising some fun. Since my blogroll is quite lacking, I might need help picking 64 quality blogs, but every week will be a different round, blog vs. blog in a fight to the death. Details later, if anyone knows of some blogs that must be included, please pass them along, seeding is going as I type. Hopefully this has a greater response than my "Around the World with haveyoumettony.com" idea did, though that idea will be resurrected soon, believe it! Oh, and I've been seeing this "Friday Five" around everyone's blogs, and never realized it was an actual website. So, no matter how "high school chick-like" it is to do, I figured I'll give it a shot. I wasn't too big on this week's questions, though, so I think I'll start with this Friday.

Procrastinating already... don't ya love it?

...crib sheet on my week

-phone is in and works. (and is pretty fun, too! at least compared to the old Nokia I had)
-taxes, still not done, but are a Sunday project
-Michigan hoops holds on, they play sometime today and might now be looking at a tourney bid (a definite bid if they win today, I'd say)
-while BG's mens hoops team got kicked in the second half by Kent State to finish out their disappointing season, the BG women are one win away from the Women's Dance, and might be in even if they don't beat E. Michigan today.
-meanwhile, the BG hockey team is against the ropes in their best of 3 series with Ohio State. I'm heading out to Game 2 tonight, hopefully the Falcons can take this one the distance (and I *think* host game 3 Sunday night)
-I need major template help, mostly in the form of my own patience, but I've got a fun background that I want to use as a full screen background, but its just not agreeing with me. More tweaking to come, hopefully I'll be showing it off soon. (though I'll really really hate to part with the milk look)
-right when I thought I was through the holiday/birthday celebration period and ready to chill until summertime, I'm reminded that St. Patrick's Day is Wednesday, right in the middle of my weekend. Anyone know where I can rent a midget in a leprechaun suit?

okay, time to sleep.

...ya can't tell the players without a program

So the unconfirmed reports about Jeff Garcia to the Browns are now confirmed, and ESPN even dared mention that Tim Couch might go to Pittsburgh. That sounds familiar. Thing is, as I said yesterday, going to a division rival is the quickest way to make Tim Couch a great QB. Hopefully, Pittsburgh blew their bankroll on Duce Staley, and will be stuck with a bad quarterback for another few years.

On the ice, for the second time in 12 years, the Hartford/Carolina franchise has traded its greatest player, Ron Francis. This time its to Toronto (who I used to actually like, now they're nothing more than a collection of whiny, underachieving thugs), last time, Ronnie Franchise was traded to Pittsburgh (who I never used to like, still don't, really) and they won two Cups with him in town. If only he could have brought that one to Carolina two years ago. And this time we don't even get a "Zarley Zalapski" out of the deal. Just a draft pick.

He wasn't the only former Whaler to be dealt by one of my favorite teams, though. The Blue Jackets also traded Geoff Sanderson to Vancouver. Rumors have both of these players ending up back with their respective teams after the season, but I'll believe it when I see it, and for now, I can only wish them the best of luck with their new teams. At least the Whalers got some props on SportsCenter this morning!

Now I'm off to play FedEx Roulette with my new cell phone. How nice!

...a new plan for Couch

obviously, my salary restructuring idea for Tim Couch was so well received, the Browns ownership went out and signed Jeff Garcia. I'm not totally sure what I think of the move, though it does bring in a proven competitor, who should be able to utilize all the offensive weapons the team has. It also should allow the Browns to either draft or bring on a young QB to learn what its all about without having the baptism by fire that Tim Couch had. Of course, this will end up being a blessing for Couch, as he'll likely end up straightening himself out and becoming a winning quarterback somewhere, probably in Pittsburgh, just to get back at the Browns even more. It's not a done deal yet that he's gone, of course, but if he didn't want to renegotiate enough of a pay cut to stay around as the starter, I don't think he's going to settle for backup duty.

Whatever they do with Couch, they better get something in return. Kevin Johnson and Jamel White should NEVER have been let go without at least picking up a draft pick in exchange. At the very least, the Garcia signing shows that there is a pulse in Cleveland, even if they let some prime free agent shopping time pass them by.

If there is a hockey fan out there that doesn't want to see Philly vs. Ottawa and Colorado vs. Vancouver in any round of the playoffs, you're not a real hockey fan. Granted there was alot of cheap shots in the recent incidents between these pairs of teams, but when you clean up cheap shots, and throw in the playoffs, you get good, hard hitting hockey. Should be fun.

...martha, martha, martha!

I wonder if they make knitting yarn in "County Blue"? Either way, I hope Martha Stewart gets a nice, "friendly" cellmate.

A week ago, I was ready to curse Tim Couch's name if he didn't restructure his contract and take a pay cut to stick in Cleveland. Now, looking at what the Browns offered him, he'd need to be checked for brain cell activity if he took it. Of course, maybe its not such a bad plan, since he was grossly overpaid to be an injured (and part time backup) QB for most of his first 4 years. In fact, if Carmen Policy is reading this, here's my idea:

Give Couch a base salary of say, $500,000.
Add $500,000 every game in which he throws for more yards than his weight. (That would have been ONCE last year.)
Add $10,000 for every completion. (120 last year)
Add $25,000 for every completion on 3rd and more than 5.
Take away $25,000 for every pass that is more than 5 feet on either side of the receiver's chest. (Tim could stand to lose substantial cash on this one.)
Give him a million dollars for every come from behind win in the fourth quarter.
Give him and the entire defense $10 million if they stay within 4 scores of the Ravens in either game this year.

See? It's simple.

Speaking of the Ravens, add this one as "people's exhibit 2,386" about what's wrong with pro sports. One of the elite receivers in pro football, and he gets swapped for a second round draft pick!?!? Unbelievable. Somehow the Ravens will come up with the cash to pay him what he wants (in addition to Jamal Lewis' bail, of course), and will dominate the AFC North (if not the entire AFC) next fall. Its bad enough the rest of the division is mediocre at best, but now a lack of control on NFL trades is turning it into a runaway. Then again, there IS still a reason they play the games... and that's so I can drink beers and watch football on a REALLY big TV.

I've half-heartedly started the promised revamped inventory of links on my blogroll. Welcome to the new entries, and sorry "Chuck Sez It All", you're out the door. Even though I don't get half of what he says, BuffaloWingsandVodka is damn funny stuff!

My brain is either on empty (which sucks, because it currently costs $1.75 a gallon to fill it up), or my work day is over and I need to get a few rounds of Golden Tee in then bail. We'll stick with the former, though I hope I can straighten out that putting problem!

...more on the war

Man, I'm really feeling political today, I don't know what it is. Actually, I know exactly what it is. I realized right after I posted last that G-Dub has no prayer in the upcoming election. I like the guy, personally, but I don't know if its a good thing or a bad thing to have John Kerry as President, either. Kerry has grown on me some, but he's also turned me off a little. I think that's the nature of politics, though. Politics are not about issues anymore at all, they're a popularity contest, a giant propaganda machine that would make mid-20th century Russia blush. Everytime you see Kerry campaigning, there is a flock of "Firefighters for Kerry" signs. Now I'm seeing "Cops for Kerry" shirts everywhere behind him. Subconsciously, that has to set in the mind of a firefighter or a cop, regardless of how they plan (or planned?) on voting.

But the one that pushed me over the edge today was some snot-nosed little actor, in a soundbite on MTV News (the same MTV News that won Clinton the Presidency) talking about how "I have alot of friends who are getting out of school and leaving their parent's homes and can't afford health insurance, and that frightens me." Well guess what? I had a hell of a health insurance bill after I got out of college, and G-Dub wasn't even sniffing the Oval Office at that time. But it couldn't have been Clinton's fault, could it? Actually, it wasn't. Its just the nature of the beast, since we don't live in Canada. If you don't like finding, then paying for health insurance, get your hippie ass a job! I answered phones for a year, and it sucked, but it paid the bills and gave me insurance until something better came along. Pretty mindless work, they take 30 bucks a check out and you're set. (And I almost started the next sentence with "Kids today...". God, I think I'll stop before I start to age right here and now!)

Speaking of customer service jobs. I'm really hating that I have that job experience now. It makes me be way too nice to the people I talk to at customer service jobs. Between a call to my bank, one to a credit card company, and two to try to get information about a cell phone plan, I was about ready to let someone know what I thought about their company and their company's mother. But I didn't. If I'm calling to activate a credit card, I can understand mentioning the options and offers designed to get me to spend more on the card than I already am. But when does "no thanks" mean anything more than "no thanks"? And do you really think the line "But sir, do you realize..." is going to make me suddenly change my mind the fourth time you ask? Validate my card, and let me get off the phone.

I would say its just as easy to handle it in person, but the four geniuses at the bank today make me question that. Actually, to be fair, one girl was on the phone and another woman was sorting something, but four sets of blank stares really made me feel welcome. Then when I finally get to the counter, they act like I'm bothering them, and since they've never personally had to deal with the issue I had, it must not exist. Then they told me to call the toll free number. My life is an awful circle.

And in my last rant for today. (Okay, at least for this post.) I'm all about up and coming artists getting a shot to show their stuff on Conan or Letterman or whatever, but if I ever sit through another second of the band "Thursday" (or any other of a list of really bad, sound-just-like-everyone-else bands out today), please lift up my eyelids and pull my brain out with a soup spoon.

And what's with R Kelly and the Zorro mask in that new video he has out?

...fighting the war on idiots

I've mentioned before how much I don't like using blogs/sites for political use, not that mentioning something political is a bad thing, as it affects everyone's life in one way or another. But maybe its just the election year going on, or coming out of a war, but the avalanche of personal political "experts" on the web makes me nauseous. Though now I've found a new #1 for my list of "why the hell are you bashing the President?". I was skimming a certain site (to remain nameless, since naming them only gives a link, and that would defeat my purpose), and I realized the "British spelling" of a number of words. You know, putting the letter "u" where it doesn't belong? Now this tells me a few things. Either A) you're not even from this country anyway, so bug off, B) you're from this country now, but not originally, and likely aren't a registered voter, so bug off, and C) you're so enamored with thinking that spelling with u's thrown around makes you seem cultured and smart that I don't need to hear what you're saying anyway. So bug off.
Wow, looking back, I guess that was a little harsh. But its something that just gets to me. I probably shouldn't get to me so much, I'm about as anti-political as they come (not that I believe in some sort of anarchy, I just don't feel the need to learn the ins and outs of politics more than I have to.), but it just does.

...its officially "golf week"

I didn't mean for it to turn out like this, but between the rounds of Golden Tee golf on Sunday morning, the wishes for golf wiped out by rain on Monday afternoon, and then an unexpected round of indoor golf yesterday, with the promise of happy hour Golden Tee this afternoon, I'll officially dub this week "golf week." Though I think that fun may run out by tomorrow.

A word or 12 about indoor golf. I've learned that while it was alot of fun, it should ONLY be utilized on that one day in late December when you realize you haven't golfed in 3 months, and the hope for more golf is likely 3 more months away. I don't know how it was happening, but I couldn't hit the ball at all. And the more I couldn't hit the ball, the worse I hit the ball.

The way its set up is you get in a tiny room, with about 3" to spare on either side from you hitting your club into the walls and ceiling, and you hit a regular golf ball, with a full swing, into a projection screen. From there, the computer judges direction, spin, speed, and whatever else to see where your ball goes. Now I'm not the longest hitter going, but I can usually hit a 3 wood about 250 or so off the tee, usually even a little longer if I really catch one good. I couldn't for the life of me hit my 3 wood farther than about 140 yards yesterday. The driver? About 110. It was silly. FINALLY, I realized that I could hit my 5 wood about 250, and a 2 iron about 230 off the tee. Direction was a different animal. The short game and putting was totally different as well.

Don't get me wrong, it was good to get out and swing some clubs and drink a few beers, but I never thought I'd miss chasing my own ball into the rough as much as I did yesterday. Not so much for the experience of indoor golf, but for the frustration that ensued. And that was with 16 mulligans!
****
Quick, name one stand-up comedy duo that is actually funny. (Keep your answers within the last 25 years, please.)
****
If last night was any indication, next Monday's Blue Jackets-Hurricanes game will be horrendous.

I'm a fan of both teams, though my allegiances to the Hartford/Carolina franchise were around 14 years before the Blue Jackets were even a glint in their daddy's eye. So last night, I sat down to watch the game, pulling slightly more for Carolina, since I don't get to watch them nearly as often. Less than 2 minutes in, the Canes are down 1-0, and end up losing 3-0. If I'm finally going to get a chance to see my favorite team play live, they better at least score.

On the other hand, the way Columbus has played the last 3 games, both games I'm going to this weekend have the potential to be good ones for the CBJ. Then again, before they won their last 3, they had lost 5 or so in a row. This team defines "hot and cold" as well as any other.

...golf and hotties

First things first. While waiting for Law & Order to come on TNT last night at 7pm, I came across an episode of "Charmed". I am in no way condoning any one of the rash of "chick dramas" to make their way down the FOX/UPN/WB pipeline, and I certainly don't make a habit of even thinking twice about watching one of these, but this is different.

Alyssa Milano as a mermaid. Lucky for you, it was part one of two, the second part is on tonight at 6pm. Trust me, its worth putting the testosterone aside for a moment.

The 3 point Western Michigan lead I left you with last night? Quickly turned into 8 by the half, then 12 when it was all said and done. Not pretty. I think even any hopes of a miracle run in the MAC Tourney might have just flown out the window. On the bright side, football season starts no more than 6 months from Thursday!

Now about the golf. Normally I'm not all that big on people who use their blogs to talk about the news. While its probably the truest, most natural way to share your views on current events, but it just never floated my boat to say "here's this link, I think its wrong." First of all, I'm much more creative than that, secondly, who cares about my opinion anyway?

Today's exception:

Tough Love? No, just frustrated bully undoing strides golf made

The more I read of this article, the more I got the impression that the writer simply overheard one former PGA pro grumbling about how wrong Davis Love III was, realized he had an article due in 25 minutes, and hammered something out. I'm not pro-DLove, I'm not anti-DLove, though I was pulling for him against Tiger Woods this weekend in the World Match Play (especially once super-pick Mike Weir got knocked out). But to go to the lengths this O'Connor guy went to insult and belittle what Love did is assnine.

While the quiet, respectful nature of the game of golf may be out of date in today's world, pro golfers have every right to expect quiet and respectful conditions while they're at work. Sure, the kid in the gallery wasn't yelling during Love's backswing, and paying the sick prices that are paid for tournament passes should give you the right to cheer who you want to cheer for, there's something to be said for being courteous. If a guy misses a putt, he KNOWS he missed the putt, and the nature of the game lends itself to the fan respecting that and letting it go, unlike other sports.

In fact, I don't even have all that much of a problem with people cheering for who they want to, but it runs both ways. Or at least it should. I don't think anyone can deny that if the roles were reversed, and Woods missed a putt and had a fan comment aloud, not only would Tiger have made a scene, but his dad likely would have dragged the kid out himself and taken care of business. Each and every week on tour, we have to hear another story about how a fan did this, or a fan did that and it affected Tiger's game. And its not always noises in the backswing. Off the top of my head, I can't think of specific examples, but the next time a fan dares to jeer at the great Tiger Woods on the golf course, everyone better remember this weekend before calling for that spectator's head.

And don't forget Alyssa Milano with a fishtail tonight at 6.

...all rain and no golf

...makes Tony something something.

I was all psyched to get some more golf in this week, with forecasts in the mid 50's and higher for most of the week, I figured it would be a great chance to build on the round I had a couple weeks ago, and get some pre-spring golf in before the rates go up at the course. Then Mother Nature opens up on me. Normally one rainy day with nice weather in the forecast wouldn't be too much of an issue, but with the ground still thawing, the rain on top of it can't make for fun conditions. We'll see about later in the week, but it doesn't look good.

Ever since my brother talked about going to Long John Silvers for his birthday dinner, I've craved me some chicken from there. Some of the best fast food chicken going, if ya ask me (and others that I've conferred on this topic with). Then today I saw a commercial for LJS "giant shrimp". They're advertised as "over a half foot long". I don't like shrimp anyway, and I DEFINITELY don't want to come across a half-foot shrimp in a dark alley, thank you very much.

I also saw that there's a new "Agent Cody Banks" movie coming out soon. I was so relieved, I thought we were going to have to go another 12 minutes without another crappy movie being released. I'm not a huge fan of movies. I have my staples, and enjoy a few others that I might come across, mostly on cable, so if *I* can pick out the crappy ones, you know they're crappy. And for the record, "Ocean's Twelve" has "Caddyshack II" written all over it.

BG is currently down one to Western Michigan. Oops, make that 3. I really should have made the trip north last week to catch the BG-UT game, cause right now I'm really, really missing Anderson Arena.