Yes, I am talking about the first Thursday and Friday of the NCAA tourney. Everyone is glued to their computer screen and has an internet window with ESPN or CBS open, maybe watching on Joost, constantly checking on scores. Long lunches with a “few beers” or a strategically scheduled off-site with some of your team members. Then when you have an upset brewing, whispers creep through the office and the “resident bracketologist” start their Nostradamus-like gloating - “I had that one”. Yuh-huh. You had the foresight to choose Sienna over Vandy (the same Vandy that beat Tennessee), San Diego over UConn or even Davidson defeating Georgetown. Excuse me, what do I bill my time too?

The pool I’m in has about 300 entries. Yes, odds of winning are tougher, but the payout is better. You need to balance it out with a small pool, 10-20 people, so you at least feel like you have a chance. Anyway, I went with a new selection strategy this year and submitted 3 brackets to the big one. Some people do the mascot, some are homers, and other pick with their hearts. Now, this pool has a couple twists (including bonus pts for upsets). Bracket 1 is the dream bracket. UNC & Pitt playing in the final. Duke losing in the first round. That one is not doing so well. #295 of 319. Ouch. Bracket 2 is strictly by the book. Seeds win. No upsets. Kind of boring, but you could call it the “control group” in my March Madness experiment. #156 of 319. Good news is with all but 2 of the #1’s & #2’s alive, I still have plenty of points available. We’ll see. Bracket 3 is the “thinking man’s” bracket. I didn’t go too crazy with the upsets, but also didn’t believe that teams like Drake and Gonzaga were worth their seeds. I managed to get a couple upsets, but getting hammered in later rounds with UConn & Georgetown getting shown the door. Thanks Big East. Currently #25 of 319. I think at this moment my “entry fee” can now be classified as a donation. Next year, I might break out the D&D 16-sided dice and roll for each game. And you will never get back the 1 minute of your life it took to read this. Sorry.

Not totally off topic, but my big question to the NC-2-A, I’m confused by this years geographical regions. You call a portion of the bracket “East”, yet games are played in Denver? Or how about the “West” bracket, and the first two rounds are played in Tampa and DC. Did Magellan put together the regions? Or maybe it was Miss Teen South Carolina, Caitlin Upton. I know geography isn’t really a college course anymore, but come on. How hard is it to put Denver in the West bracket and DC in the East? I think it would have been great for her to blame the brackets.

The Madness continues.

Honestly, I’m not really surprised. Its all about making money, right? Forget corporate responsibility or community awareness. That would be too much to ask. So, as you may know, my girlfriend and I were evacuated out of our loft in Cabbagetown because of the lovely tornado that swept through. I was over at our place on monday, checking out the aftermath. FEMA is there. Construction crews. Massive cleanup is going on. We have to sign in/sign out just to get into my building, and what do we see - Comcast vans. Good thing, it reminds me I have bills that aren’t going to stop. My bill through comcast is about $170/month for all the bells, whistles, phone, internet, HD, DVR, etc… Not to mention I had to sign over my first born and agree to call he/she Comcast. Anyway, as you can imagine, chunking out that kind of change for something you can’t use is a swift kick in the pills.

So, on Tuesday, I called Comcast to see what my options were. The call starts off on a cheery note - “Thank you for calling comcast, I’m having a wonderful day. I hope you are too.” Gee, thanks ******. Call me skeptical, but I’m this call is not going to go the way I hope. Lucky me. Yeah, I live in that building that got humped by the tornado the other night. I’m slightly displaced (staying at my girlfriend’s brother’s place in Candler Park) and not sure when I’m getting back in. At this point, I’m anticipating at least another couple weeks (the place above mine had its roof ripped off). After explaining that yes, my loft complex was the one on CNN, he finally starts to get the gist that I’m not trying to finagle Comcast out their hard earned money. Option 1 - disconnect and when I move back in and pay the reconnection fee. Really? So I just got evacuated, and then I’ll have to pay you to come back in. And I have to drop off the “equipment” or schedule a pickup. That’s convenient. I’m sure it will be one of those “between 12 and 6″ appointments. Option 2 - don’t disconnect but downgrade my service to the basic package and then “upgrade” when I’m back in. Geee, thanks. Excuse me while I knock out a cartwheel. That’s still going to cost me $110/month. I’m still paying for something I’m not ABLE to use due to an OFFICIAL EVACUATION! Option 3 - A weeks credit and do nothing. This is about as close as we got to anything of value, but it still means they are charging me.

At the end of the day, what does it really cost Comcast. We’ve got 100 or so units that are currently uninhabitable. Not to mention a building across the parking lot that is in ruins. What’s important here… couple bucks or maybe making stressful times for a handful of people a shade easier? Think how much good PR you (comcast) could get out of this - probably worth more in free press and customer loyalty than what you would make during these couple weeks of hardship. But I guess you have stock holders and bonuses tied to financial goals. But I guess you missed the newscast about the tornado.

Thanks. You just tipped the scale in DirectTV’s favor. Sayonara Comcast..

Around 9:00, I got a tornado warning. That led me to our favorite source of information, Al Gore’s Interweb to see what the hell was going on. We had a slight chance of severe weather, no sign of tornadoes. No sooner than I saw that, wind kicked up and the rain & lightning started (looking west). The light show started becoming more and more spectacular with the passing minutes. I started shutting windows to keep my place from turning into a into swimming pool. We might be in for a wild one this evening.

At the moment (about 9:30) when I moved back into my bedroom to close those windows, the power dropped (you know that moment - BAMM! What the Fu…!), I looked out my bedroom window (looking south) and I see the transformer box explode on the telephone pole. Hmmm… should I revert to my “stop, drop, and roll” training (or duck & cover) from elementary school? What happened over the next 5 minutes was strange and unlike anything else I’ve been though (couple hurricanes, blizzard, 9-11, NYC blackout, earthquake). Some people say it sounds like a freight train, I would say it sounds more like a 767 engine right at my window. This massive pitching engine - KCHHHHHHHH!!!! Getting louder and higher pitched as it gets closer - to YOU! I’m feeling the sound right against the window. Praying that a stray 2×4 didn’t take permanent residence in my loft. It looked like someone was stirring a giant mojito with too much mint in it or in an observation room in a swamp. There was so much debris, leaves, branches and trash flying around, and it all was on horizontal paths. I swear I saw a cat, or maybe a small cow. The color was this murky green and mixed with amazing white flashes of light. The building was shaking like a paint mixer at Home Depot.

Then silence. Its gone. Over. With an slight overtone of car alarms. Symphony of Destruction (sorry, couldn’t resist).

The aftermath was madness - just really not sure what to do. I checked on my other 4th floor neighbors, making sure everyone was ok. The biggest surprise was that none of my windows blew out. I did have a couple of them cracked. Looking out into the parking lot was completely covered in debris - wood beams, bricks, trash, and tons of miscellaneous forestry elements. We (my neighbors and I) ventured down to the parking lot, and the first shock was the amount of car windows blown out. Cars were just cracked and shattered. Some of them had bricks in their front seats or on their rear window shelves. The next shock was seeing the top floor of my building, precisely the unit RIGHT above mine. It was now missing its roof. It resembled something out of Ghostbusters - you could see the clear sky through the big windows. I can’t imagine what that must have been like - having your roof ripped off in a brief moment in time. The next big shock came from looking across the parking lot at building E. There was a HUGE pile of debris where the courtyard used to be and an even larger section of a missing roof. Absolutely shocking. There’s no electricity. All you see are flashlights and all you hear are voices echoing off the walls. Tomorrow morning is going to be weird. All this will be extremely visible. My night continues…

After milling about for 30 minutes, answer mobile calls from local friends, the authorities arrive (police, EMT, AFD) and warn us that another is on the way. Seriously? I head back up to my place and start to take stock in what just happened. Madness. As soon as the short rain subsides (thankfully, no second tornado), I thought my night might be over. Wrong. Heavier rain starts and I start to hear drips. Not just one, “where the hell is that” drip, but multiple drips. Basically, the unit above mine (now sans roof) was now collecting water and funneling it down into my place - it was starting to resemble something like a factory with a faulty sprinkler system. More drips than buckets. I tried moving furniture around - a new form of Feng Sui. We are now trying to save the ship from going down. Its not looking good. I’ve now hit capacity. No more buckets. Rain is coming down harder. The “faucet” is wide open.

I start to play that game - “If your place was on fire, what would you grab?”. When I say play, I mean live. This is now real. The place above me is “gone”. I’m not sure what is next. Is my roof going to cave in? What is the water saturation capacity of the ceiling above. I see the wood start to change color from the drenching water. All I have is a small flashlight and it’s pitch black out. The Chinese water torture sounds are echoing off the walls. People swinging by knocked and stuck their head in - only to hear the new found “cabbagetown reservoir” establishing residence in my place. So, what do you grab? I break it down to the simplest thing - what do you need the most right now, and what is irreplaceable? The winners - computer, camera, insurance info and cell phone charger. Oh, and an umbrella. I think that will work.

So, unharmed, running on adrenaline, and having about a 5% idea of what just happened, I look back and consider myself very lucky. The only injury that I have heard of is Jim, my upstair’s neighbor. His roof decided to fly off. I think he got knocked by a couple bricks. Last I heard, he was on his way to the hospital.

All I need to do is do a bit of clean up to do and organize with the insurance co’s, and we’ll be fine. Its just stuff.

Here’s some pictures

edit: Good news! Jim, who lives above me, is good. His roof is the one that is missing. He took a nasty shot to the head (staples and stitches required) but was all smiles when I saw him on today (Sunday). His place is destroyed and he’ll be out for some time. My story pales in comparison to him. I haven’t heard of any fatalities or major injuries from the other buildings. But again, its just stuff.

It’s the usual course of business – teams that can’t or might not make the playoffs have superstars for sale. This is the one part I don’t like about free agency. Take a team like Atlanta. They have a player – Marian Hossa. He’s good. He’s making a nice pile of change ($7 mil) and is a free agent at the end of the year. Wells, rather than play out the rest of the year with him and try to win the sucky Southeast division, they realize that he won’t re-sign with them and thus begins the process of trading him away. GM’s logic, rather get something for him in return. Understandable, but couldn’t you take whatever money you were going to give him and spend that on some other quality free-agents when the season is over? Every GM is looking for the magic bullet to propel them into serious cup contention. I also don’t like the whole “rent-a-player” aspect that comes with someone like Hossa. You essentially have him on your team for a couple months and he could bolt to the highest bidder come summertime. You end up trading away players and picks for maybe nothing more than a Stanley Cup run. Atlanta traded for Tkachuk last year and got swept in the first round. Big payoff (sarcasm alert).

So, back to it – there’s some serious rumors that he’s going to Ottawa or Montreal. I’m not a big fan of that because that will catapult those guys to the top of the heap in the eastern conference (same place my Pens reside). The other big player in the trade winds is Brad Richards. He’s a big player from Tampa and will fit in nicely on someone’s roster. Tampa Bay is probably going to have a yard sale today.

Now, I believe my Pens are going to either stay put with their team or make a minor splash with a defensemen. They need someone who can knock the shit out of someone and not play the puck like Helen Keller. Rob Blake comes to mind. I also like this kid in Colorado, John-Michael Liles. We’ll see. The Pens GM, Shero, is preaching this whole leverage the future; we got a strong nucleus mantra, which I like. But maybe the time is now to make a bold move. Who knows. I don’t get paid to do this (shocker, I know) and probably never will.

Updates:
11 AM. Very Slow. Glacial almost. New Jersey and St Louis swap bouncers.
12 PM. Finally. Campbell (D, Buffalo) heads off to San Jose. I would have like to see the Pens pick him up, but that’s over now. Richards (C, Tampa) is going to Dallas to play with Mike Madano. Dallas is looking a lot better all of a sudden. And Montreal traded Cristobal Huet (G) to DC? WTF? This bewilders me. Montreal has a super young goalie in Carey Price, who is good, but unless he channels the spirit of Ken Dryden, this squad might be one and done.
1:30 PM. We’re getting the band back together! Seriously, what’s going on in Colorado? First, they sign Peter Forsberg, who’s been in Sweden making Volvos or whatever Swedish people do, and now they trade for Adam Foote (D, Columbus). These guys were part of the glory years in Avalanche-land winning the Cup like 10 years ago. All they need now is to talk Ray Borque and Patrick Roy out of retirement. Maybe they can get a group AARP discount. Speaking of geriatrics, the Capitals traded for Sergei Federov (C, Columbus). He’s like 90, and probably still trying to sleep with 15 year old Russian girls – he was like 30 and dating a teen-aged Anna Kournakova. Pens still haven’t done anything. Might be a silent day.
2:30 PM. Pretty silent out there. A couple calzones got traded for some turkey legs, but nothing crazy. Maybe Shero is going to pull a kamikaze attack.
3 PM. What do you know. Pens picked up Hal Gill at the deadline. This guy was playing in Boston when I lived there. He’s a big dude. He also used to do these commercials for some sports bar and was shoving buffalo wings in his mouth. Maybe they’ll get him to do a spot for Primanti Bros sandwiches – YUMMY! I’m sure a bunch of other trades that happened at the dealine will trickle in, but doesn’t look like that heavy of an action day.
3:15 PM. HMFS! (fill in your own expletives) Pens just traded for Hossa! Instant reaction says I like. Two breathes and a class of water later, wonders if we gave away too much future if we can’t sign him to an extension. Yikes – Armstong, Christensen, Espisito and a #1 pick in 2008. That is a lot. Part of me says I like those guys, hate to see them go, but in essence, we traded for an all-star and a 3rd line winger and gave 2 grinders, a potentially never-gonna-make it prospect and a draft pick. You know what, I like it.

Time to push for the cup. I guess I won’t be buying playoff tickets this year in Atlanta.

But oh man… the writer’s strike continues. I’ve got the weapon to combat that – TiVO or DVR. How simple does this make your television viewing life? I mean seriously…and you can get it with an upgraded box from your cable company for a couple bucks a month. Simple. Set up that season pass to record “Two and a Half Men” and wallah!, you won’t miss an episode. You don’t need to make sure you are in front of the tube on Monday’s at 9 pm or else you missed out. Especially with all the season long dramas – 24, Lost, Life, Heroes…you miss one, and you are out of the loop. This way, you can jump on some marathon session if you want. I especially like it for the obscure shows, like Three Sheets (a show about a globetrotting booze-a-rama comedian – its on Mojo). I literally can knock out a couple episodes on a crappy Saturday afternoon or a dull Wednesday night.

Also, miss something? Janet’s boob flash on Super Bowl? Funny Commercial? Mumbling actor? Gotta run to the bathroom? Burning dinner? Amazing play? Pause, rewind, or flashback. If you could only do this with real life. PS, the movie “Click” sucked. It was based on this premise but I would officially state that this is 90 minutes of my life I’ll never get back.

It does have some kinks that need to be worked out. I’m waiting for the removable hard drive so you can take your collection over to your friend’s house. Your DVD library on a flash drive (patented by Geoff). My buddy Brad was telling me about his TiVO this one night while out for drinks, looking a little glum. “My TiVO thinks I’m gay”. He proceeds to tell us how it has a brain of its own (note to TiVO users, turn off the “suggestions”). He watched or recorded some travel show or American Idol for his wife (so he says) and it ended up recording “Queer Eye”, “Oprah” “The View” and Mens Figure Skating. Nice.

Think about all the goodness you can have. Your life shouldn’t revolve around TV, and now it really, really doesn’t have too.  I’ll hear people around the office - “hey, we’re going out for drinks, wanna come”, and someone will say - “Nah, Grey’s Anatomy is on”.  WHAT?!!  Think about all those shows you ‘might” want to check out but not sure you want to invest? Not to mention all the bonus points you can rack up with the significant other – “Sex in the City” or “Penguins vs. Rangers”. Well, that’s a no-brainer, but lets say the Pens were playing the Panthers or the Islanders. “Baby, by all means, watch your show”. At the end of it all, she’s happy; I’ll catch the game without commercials and skip all the crappy parts. Win-win if you ask me.

My vote for useful product in the new milenium - TiVO!

Is advertising during the Super Bowl worth it? When you think about it, you kind of had this “spray and pray” mentality with the message and the audience. I mean your demographic is between 9-90 years old, slightly skewed male, with a median income somewhere in the $15k-900K range. Targeted. For any of you that work in advertising, try passing off a creative brief with that information on it. Lets not forget that 50% of the true watchers (fans of the two combatants) are going to be drunk or pissed and the other half are doing to be drunk and going to want to run off immediately after the game and have post-victory super bowl sex (with the jersey on). That leaves the rest of us are just hanging out, eating for finger food, and maybe catching a glimpse of greatness (nice catch David Tyree!) or history made (ouch…18-1) and just maybe winning a box on the score grid pool.

What did you remember? Hank? The Screaming Critters? How about Go Daddy sexing it up? Maybe Shaq on a horse? Here’s the full list and the “ratings” as judged by USA Today. Take a look and see what you recall. And while you are doing that, try to think which ones you’ve seen since then. A couple of these spots only ran once.

We just aren’t seeing anything memorable these days. Where is Terry Tate, office linebacker? How about Wazzzzup!?? Maybe we should just take all the good ads since 1995 and play them during next year’s superbowl. That’s what Doritos did this year – remember the UGC contest they had last year, well, one of the spots that didn’t win, they ran it during the 2nd quarter – the big rat.

There is a positive side-effect to crappy commercials, at least I have time to go to the bathroom and not worry about missing anything.

The Atlanta Thrashers are slowly coming along. They benefit from a weak division that currently only has 1 team is at or above .500, and its not them. Regardless of that fact, they still could make the playoffs. Our neighborhood icebirds finally made the playoffs last year, but got swept out to no avail (quite rudely too) in the first round by the NY Rangers. The always-entertaining post-coital love fest in the hallways of Philips had my buddy Darrell with a couple Thrasher fans (who were more than a couple Budweisers deep sporting a NASCAR hats no less) discussing the finer points of Atlanta hockey. Same thing happened recently at a recent Penguins game. Its great to have enthusiasm for your team, but winning in the regular season means nothing if, and I’ll say it here and then drop this subject – you don’t win a playoff game. Cross that threshold, then come talk to me.

So what does all this mean? Well, we had a string of 3 games (including the All-star game) in one week, and I made a couple observations. Here are a couple things I’d like to mention to further add credibility to the Thrasher’s hockey atmosphere:

1. Wearing a jersey of a team that is not playing on that particular night in that arena does not label you as a hockey fan; it labels you as a moron (as a couple Islander fans did the other night, well Islander fans are behind the moron 8-ball anyway). Leave it on the shelf at home. Got the itch to sport it, either dress as a hockey player for Halloween or buy tickets when your team comes to town.
2. Yelling “shoot the puck” during the power play will not “Will” the puck into the goal. Are you bored? Restless? FYI - Its not quite like that Xbox game that you’ve mastered where you can shoot of your back foot while eating a hotdog and go “top shelf” past Martin Brodeur.
3. Screaming out “Show us your _____” when the Ice Girls come out will not get you a date or endear you to any surrounding ladies. Just make sure to go all the way and hi-five your buddies after you get a glaring look from any that are within earshot.
4. Booing players at the All-star game…Really? I’m just not sure what to say about this. I know this is a favorite pastime during player introductions of the regular season, but come on… This is an exhibition. I know, I know, enthusiasm. Cool, show it. Just don’t forget to wipe the mustard stain of your Islander “#1 Fan” jersey.

We’ve got about 4 weeks until the trading flurry (I mean deadline) begins. Atlanta will be indoctrinated into the art of dumping soon-to-be free agents All-Star players. Hossa = tradebait. I’m curious as to where he ends up and whether or not Waddell actually gets something in return – probably end up with a couple thirds liners, a draft pick and a ham sandwich. This is the beginning of the second season.

We’ve had 32 bowl games this year. Thirty-two!! 64 teams playing that extra game. And some of these teams go 1 1/2 months between their final game and their bowl game and show up razor sharp (sarcasm alert). On top of that, AD’s and coaches are scheduling an extra game (12, instead of 11) on their fall tilt just to hope to be bowl eligible - 6 wins, at least 5 of them against the conference formally known at D-1. This year, you had 6 teams play in bowl games that were 6-6 (Cal, ‘Bama, Maryland, Colorado, Nevada & UCLA). Is that considered a successful season? Sure, you end up playing in the Petrosun Independence Bowl in Shreveport, LA (they should have just called it the Tidyflush Toilet Bowl), but when is enough, enough? Is it more money? Television dollars? Ticket sales?  Alumni support?

Getting back to my original thought… What’s wrong with a playoff? I heard the UGA President suggested an 8-game playoff. With the four major bowls serving as the 1st round. I think its a fantastic idea. Schools still get their money for appearing the bowl, and at most 2 teams will play one extra game and two teams will pay two extra games. I don’t understand why any college team, especially one that wants to call and claim themselves as national champion, wouldn’t want to do that. Competitors, right? Athletes, right? I say erase the doubt and settle it on the field. Don’t leave it up to writers and pre-season polls to determine who’s in and who’s out. The sad part about this suggestion, is that it barely caused a ripple. The “N-C-two-A” didn’t even give it enough credence to create a committee to discuss the possibility. Or at least reject it with come type of common sense. They just said no. The same way I did when I was 6 and I didn’t want to eat my green beans. I’d love to sit in on a meeting with the NCAA and just hear the reasons behind not having a playoff. We have to remember that these are the same people that thought to bring in the 64/65 game for the basketball tourney. I wonder how many man-hours went into that decision process. Is that one extra game, extra team really necessary? Did they think this was going to be innovative and shake up the world of basketball? Ok, ok, so you give one more team hope, a shot, you’re in the dance. Want to be labeled as the last team in? As if 64 teams aren’t enough. The 64/65 game kind of reminds me two male black widow spiders. They fight and fight to win. The winner then gets to mate with the female. There’s a little joy, hopefully some satisfaction, then he gets his head ripped off. End of story. Lamb to the slaughter.

So come on, NCAA, lets get this one right. Bring on the playoff. Satisfy the masses. Who loses in this scenario? No one. Who wins in the current scenario? The players, schools and alumni. Could you imagine if basketball had “bowl games”, and the top two teams were selected to play in the national championship? If you use the basketball model, how many times has the number 1 or number 2 won the whole thing? That’s right. Its not a given. Settle it on the field. Just like every other sport, game and event is done. Welcome to the 21st century.

We don’t have the music scene here in Atlanta, but there are some good shows that come through the city. The Roxy, Tabernacle, The Earl, Star Bar and Masquerade are great places to catch a show.Friday, we got out to The Roxy (perks - not too big, easy access to the bar, and good sound system) and I gotta throw my hat in the ring for this one. Go see these guys live if you are at all interested in their music- The Editors. They still have a couple dates on their US tour so check them out. The full line up starts Louis XIV, Hot Hot Heat, and the Editors. Personally, I’d rather see Louis XIV than HHH, but we got there too late (who starts at 7:30 on friday?!). Heat is a little to poppy (like you would find them on an OC soundtrack) and in my opinion, sounded like shit live. Almost like their feedback was off, but I’m not going to make excuses for them. They had a barrage of ten 3-minute songs that thankfully was over fast.

Editors part of the show was very strong. They interacted with the crowd, sounded great, and came back out for a couple extra tracks. Tom Smith is a great frontman. But he’s (for lack of a better descriptor) a scrawny brit, talks like one too. Here’s the confusing part, he has this singing voice that is deep, distinctive and very smooth. You start looking around for a ventriloquist act or someone behind the curtain. Doesn’t match. Anyway, most of the stuff they played was from “An End Has a Start”, with a couple tracks from their first album, “Back Room” including Munich (You’ll speak when you are spoken too).

We had the usual good time, people watching, and our entertainment was definitely maxed out courtesy of one girl, yes, one. She came and joined the group in front of us, definitely looking for that release of a long week working as an administrative assistant, pounding her vodka and cranberry (that’s what it looked like, I’m sure it was something like Zima and grenadine). My girlfriend was almost knocked out by the olfactory overdose of Aussie hair products on our beauty of the night. She had a little trouble coordinating her body to the beat, kind of like the kid who ate too much glue, while her boyfriend held on to her hips in a pseudo prom-pose coupling move (you know what I am talking about!). The best part out the hip-holding, is that he wouldn’t let go even when she was hugging someone else. Hmmm… get out much?

So, get out there and support the music scene. At least it will keep you away from those wanna-be’s on Amercian Idol. For those of you outside of Atlanta, keep on the lookout for Snowden. They should have some new material coming out soon.

Yes, its 2008 and ready for another 365 days of joy, chaos, and devolution (that’s reversed evolution for those of you who don’t subscribe to my dictionary). I was so busy doing Xmas shopping, traveling back and forth to New York for interviews, xmas in Michigan (yes, snow on the ground!), sneaking in a hockey game or two, spending a week in Steamboat, CO on my snowboard with my girlfriend and a couple friends (Mucho powder!) and of course, cranking over the birth year one more digit - older and wiser (more like slower, fatter and balder). So, I have ZERO complaints. Would you?

Anyway, so yes, a slight hiatus. Getting the motivation to sit down and hammer away on the keys has been lacking these day, especially since the College Bowls have been occupying most of my time. Pitt didn’t make it in, but at least they stopped WVa from playing in the national championship. I have about 30 “draft” posts, but nothing that I would call a complete thought - but is any of them really? But yes, my prophets. I’m looking toward a entertaining 2008, and who wouldn’t? I mean, we got the year kicked off in a proper way partying at the Spear’s household.

Happy New Year, and wishing you many good adventures in ‘08.
-geoff