Category: Culture

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Fantasy football leaves me unfulfilled

Sorry the first entry of 2007 is so late in coming. Part of it is I started a new work schedule and January is our busiest month and I was working a lot of overtime. I was also stumped in what to write about, having thought of several good issues to post. Then I watched the weekend NFL divisional playoffs and thought I would write about my experience with Fantasy Football.

For those who don’t know what Fantasy Football is, that is where you pick current players and base scoring on their stats each week.The team with the most points wins your game.

I have been playing for several years through Yahoo Sports and NFL.com My general strategy has been to pick a team that I think will make it to the end and get me in the playoffs and maybe winning the league. While some of my league mates base their weekly lineups on matchups they also sign free agents or trade players.

Unfortunately, five years of playing has shown I am the unluckiest player in the world. I have never finished higher than 4th in any of the leagues I have been in and this past season I finished last or near the bottom of the three leagues I joined. My records were 3-11, 5-9, and 4-10 and each team finished the season by losing 5 games in a row.

Being on my fantasy team is like the kiss of death for a good player. QB Byron Leftwich had a season ending injury, WR Chris Chambers sucked this season, WR Doug Gabriel was cut from the Patriots after getting into a fight with the staff there, WR Braylon Edwards suffered from a sucky Browns team, and QB David Carr faded at the end. The only player that performed consistently for me this season was RB Larry Johnson and WR Reggie Brown. Even the defenses I picked, Indy and the Steelers, had bad years.

In previous years I let the computer pick my teams but this year I bought a Fantasy Football preseason magazine with all the stats from 2005 and predictions for 2006 and I used that info to rank my first 50 players. In my NFL.com league, one of the teams that finished in the top 2 at the end was for an owner who didn’t even show up for the live draft we had.

I thought at first I just stunk at the game but I really think that luck plays a major role in how players and teams do in a given year. For example, in 2004, I picked up QB Ben Rothlisberger when I found out he was going to start for Pittsburgh after the starter, Tommy Maddox, got hurt. I knew Big Ben would do well as I had watched him in his college days and Pittsburgh that year had a good team. He led them to a 14 game win streak to end the season.

At the start of this year one of my league mates wanted to trade TE Tony Gonzalez to me for Kellen Winslow Jr. Looking at points alone I said no and wouldn’t you know, Tony had the better year as Winslow suffered from a poor offensive team performance. It was pure luck. Had I made the trade I might have won more games that I lost by only a few points.

As the old saying goes: Wait till next year….

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Holiday Homily from Le Buche de Humanist

A Holiday Homily from Le Buche de Humanist

Book 2 Chapter 7

Lo, go unto Grandma’s house and be merry. Or if thou hate your family, hold thy tongue past dinner.

Eat game bird or tofu which that you are. Sleep during daylight with hand in pants. Watch the Lions get pasted on the grid iron.

If thy pass gas blame the person next to you – loudly.

Book 2 Chapter 8

Give uneaten casserole to dog you don’t like. Send as much leftovers as possible with relative who is not married. The youngest of you shall take the rubbish to the holy can. The oldest of you shall speak ill, even untruths, of those not there, the neighbors, various ethnic and religious groups, and particular political parties. The rest shall pretend not to hear and hope the person speaking falls asleep.

Thirty minutes, and no more or no less, after final spoonful is served, leave the house you have gathered. Tell an untruth if need be. Let thy tongue roll, that had been held, in the comfort of your own keep. Make a promise never to go again that you know you will never keep.

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Yes, I will gloat in the Democrat victory

I have not hidden the fact, even though I am politically independent, I dislike the GOP so much that I will not vote for a Republican. However, I did vote for one on Tuesday and that was Joe Testa who is Franklin County Auditor.

I am pleased as punch that the GOP lost BIG Tuesday. They lost most of the offices here in Ohio including Governor. They lost the majority in the US House and are on the brink of gaining control of the US Senate.

The national victory for the Democrats is a HUGE rebuke to President Bush, the GOP, and their neo-con cronies. They were the ones who squandered the budget surplus, got us into a protracted war in Iraq on fabricated evidence, and ruined our reputation in the world community.

The wingnuts can try and spin it anyway that will help them feel better but the GOP LOST and they lost big.

The Democratic victory was also a rebuke to the cable TV and radio talking flacks who had no clue what was going on, so much so that until today kept attacking Democrats on behalf of their GOP masters.

You can stick it up your asses Karl Rove and Fox News…..

After 2004, I really thought my fellow citizens were mentally challenged but after tonight they are just slow on the uptake. It took them 6 years but they finally arrived at my conclusions and turned the bums out.

The other small satisfaction I got is in two different races related to my fight to keep church and state separate.

Deborah Owens Fink, the state school board member who was leader of the movement to force Intelligent Design into Ohio public schools, lost her election to another term. She had only 28% of the vote as of 11 PM

In Indiana, Rep. James Hostettler (R-IN) who introduced the “Public Expression of Religion Act” that was passed as the “Veterans’ Memorials, Boy Scouts, Public Seals, and Other Public Expressions of Religion Protection Act of 2006”, lost his House seat tonight.

See also:
A Voter Rebuke For Bush, the War And the Right

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I voted today

I voted today, for the first time in my new district.

It was in the vestibule of my local grocery store, so while pondering all the judges running for election, I got see all the morning shoppers getting their coffee and groceries. I am use to going behind a curtain so it was a bit of getting use to.

Ohio has an ID requirement. My driver’s licence has my previous address and some news reports were saying that others had issues casting a regular ballot with a DL with an old address. Despite the fact that the law says it doesn’t matter if the address is old as long as you are in fact registered at the current address.

Did I mention there were a lot of judges on the ballot?

Those were votes I wished I made more effort to research before today.

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