big on rules?

****Updated******

Thanks Tony for the info. After further investigation, here is the original. I guess he wasn't trying to be funny-

I am not sure what this exactly means, but referee Ron Cherry is pretty funny. I have definitely never heard of that infraction on the football field. I do wonder if he modified the name of the penalty because of the jersey number of the player who committed the foul. Maybe not, and possibly football rulebook junkies around the county know exactly what foul he was referring to. I do not. It would also be pretty entertaining if he had been waiting years for a player with the number 69 to commit that exact infraction, just so he would be able to say what he did. If that is the case, i give him props for not cracking a smile. There is no way I would have been able to say that without laughing.

oh Brad

I can't say I was that surprised last night by the decision made by Brad on the finale of The Bachelor. And from the looks of the poll [results shown below] it appears a few of you readers are also not surprised. including Morgan, who correctly predicted this days ago...

give Jenni a rose (14%)
propose to Jenni (14%)
give Deanna a rose (28%)
propose to Deanna (0%)
select neither (42%)

My opinion of Brad changed somewhat last night. I have thought, and still think, that he is a good guy. He doesn't seem to be shady, creepy, gross or annoying. He also gave the impression that he was very motivated to find a wife and was taking the show very seriously. But I didn't enjoy the way he handled his final decision to not keep Jenni or Deanna. Why can he not pick just one of them? He didn't need to propose, couldn't he just give the girl a rose and they could keep dating? Were things with both girls going so badly? He clearly said many times how serious he was taking things and how much he really cared for the women.

It seemed to me that he probably didn't change his mind at the very last second as it appeared. I just have a hard time believing that he honestly did. If he is as genuine and honest as he says, I can't believe he would do that. He always says how much he is struggling over his decisions, but I don't think that he would switch his decision at the last minute. If he did change his mind at the very last second, I would expect him to be more apologetic towards Deanna for leading her on the way he did at the ceremony. And that is what I didn't like about his actions. Assuming he knew before hand that he wasn't going to pick either one of them (although I am sure he would probably say he changed his mind at the last minute) then what he did is pretty messed up. He teased Deanna, even going so far as to mention that he just sent Jenni home. And also his presentation looked weak. His collar wasn't even tight yet he was like fake adjusting it as if it were too tight. It appeared that he was trying to make it look like he was under enormous pressure and freaking out when he really wasn't. Including his walkoff to catch his breath, and returning to say something that seemed rehearsed. It was inconsistent with his demeanor during all other rejections. I don't believe that he actually called an audible at the very last minute.

It doesn't really bother me if he (or any contestant) doesn't fall in love. If anything maybe he is just normal. I have always thought that its strange that these people fall so madly in love in such a short time and under crazy circumstances. So maybe his decision isn't all that surprising, being that he has always seemed like a pretty normal guy. The thing is, what I remember most about this season is how he always treated all the girls. He was always a gentleman, and always very careful with his words. He hated hurting any of the girls along the way. It seemed like more than anything he always wanted to do the right thing and say the right thing. He loved that these ladies were falling for him and he always talked about how serious he was about finding a wife. But I don't think he was as serious as he thought. If he were really being true to himself, then he would have opened up more, and been willing to take risks and fall in love. His decision shows me that he wasn't really ready or willing to fall for a girl. He had two beautiful women that he got along with great, falling for him and chose not to lock it up. The funny part of it is that all he ever tried to do is look like a good guy and do the right thing. And the way he went about revealing his final decision made him look like anything but that.

Honestly, until he makes some changes, I don't know how he is ever going to find a wife. He was in a good situation, but decided not to take a chance. Its like he enjoys the thought of marriage and the chase more than the relationship itself.

tonight's finale of The Bachelor

Tonight is the finale of the The Bachelor. Like the previous 11 seasons, you can search the web all you want, but you will have a hard time finding out who will win. They seem to do a pretty good job about not leaking any information and preventing a spoiler. All I was able to find was a bunch of predictions. They are advertising it as the most shocking finale. I know they probably always do this, but this also sort of makes me think something out of the ordinary may occur. That would mean he either choses neither of them or the one he chooses says no. Or maybe, he chooses both and they go right to the hot tub... I am rooting for Deanna although I think both girls have a chance to win. All along I have felt that they were the two leading ladies. Clearly there has always been a physical chemistry between Brad and Jenni (the Phoenix Suns dancer.) They have always gotten along very well and have a lot of fun together. I am just not convinced that is enough. Unlike most previous Bachelors, Brad seems to value more than just the physical things. And I think that is where Deanna has the edge. She appears to be more independant and perhaps Brad sees traits more consistent with that of his ideal wife. Or maybe that is just abc misleading the audience... In any event I was a bit surprised last week when the women told all. At the end of the show, the host asked all the other girls who they expected to be selected and the votes were split nearly 50-50. I understand a few of the girls probably voted based on personal experience (Jenni and Deanna weren't the two most popular girls in the house) but I also expected them to come to more of a consensus. Feel free to cast your vote on the newly added Bachelor Poll on this page; then watch tonight to see if your prediction is correct.

the joys of coaching

i never really had much of an opinion on phil jackson; i didnt really like or dislike him. that is, until now... after surrendering a loss to the spurs on tuesday night where his team gave up 13 three pointers, jackson said "we call this a 'brokeback mountain' game, because there's so much penetration and kickouts." for once i dont know exactly what to say back to that, other than its pretty funny and i can see how it was an inappropriate thing to say. he redeemed himself the following night before the teams next game, saying " if i've offended any horses, Texans, cowboys or gays, i appologize." i did find this picture of phil instructing MJ how to accept a pass...

in other news the wyoming football coach flipped the bird to his opponent on saturday. joe glenn was unhappy with utah's coach kyle whittinghams decision to kick an onside kick with a 43-0 lead over his team. and on the surface i can see why joe was pissed, but glenn had no one to blame for the poor sportmanship but himself. it was he who publicly guaranteed a victory over utah- with the utes and their coaching staff obviously taking offense. to see more, including the incident itself, check out this video.

something i dont think is cool

i typically read cnn.com during the day sometime, just to check out what is happening. well today i feel i was mislead. on the main page, there was a link in the latest news section to a story that said "9-year-old shoots, kills playmate"

and so i clicked on it. it turns out that two young kids were playing in an attic and one accidentally shot the other. it is a very sad story, but it angered me. i wasnt mad at the story itself, but a the news station who provided the article to cnn.com. I understand that if two 10 year old kids are playing, they are playmates. but i also feel that the title of their article is misleading. they used the word playmate because people think Playboy Playmate.

on one hand i appreciate the savvy used by the writer to attract interest to the article. after all, isnt that the purpose of a headline? (and yes, it worked in this case, i probably wouldnt have clicked on a story about a kid shooting another kid. but this is news, and their job is to report it not to trick people) i think that as a news reporter, one should be respectful. in this case there is a kid who was accidentally killed, and a mourning family and community, and it seems to me that all someone cares about is getting page views (or links, referrals, shout outs, whatever...) i am basing that soley on the word choice in the headline. and dont get me wrong, i love good puns and love to make jokes and laugh. i just dont think this type of story is an appropriate one to be sneaky.

i am also purposely not providing the link or the name of that station. however, if you are interested here is the story as reported by a competitor: AltoonaMirror.com

i wonder if there are any professional news reporters or journalists out there reading this that have an opinion...

what month is it?

I am thrilled the red sox won the world series again. even better is that i was lucky enough to attend game 1 of the WS in boston (read more about it here.) but if there is one good thing about baseball season ending, it is the end of those horrible commercials. yes fox, we know each month occurs only once per year. although i am curious how fox would fit multiple octobers into a single calendar year- would they shorten other months or lose a month all together... and where would they put it? the other issue i had with those commercials is i think the address was http://www.actober.com/. and they never really addressed this. i always assumed it had something to do with acting but i wouldnt know because they never mentioned anything about it. they clearly said (many times) there is only one october but the address was a different word.

in any event the end of october signifies the beginning of national beard month. so happy Noshavemeber!

also if you are looking for fun ideas for this month check out this page. pay special attention to the november extras listed on the right side of the page.

good times with referrals

while on blogcation for 6 months, i gave up blogs all together. it wasn't just my blog that i neglected, i didn't read any blogs other than those on espn, which don't really count as blogs. in my book, those are columns- that is you are an expert in the field paid to write regularly about that specific topic.

well it was the baseball playoffs that brought me back to blogville. i had been discussing the playoffs with the writer of mlbbaseblogg and he encouraged me to check out one of his recent posts. i agreed and not surprisingly began casually perusing other blogs. my original reason for the cold turkey approach to all things blogs was that i felt like if i had time to read other blogs then i had time to write my own. after i found myself reading blogs again, i decided to get back on the horse.

anyways, during my blogbbatical i also stopped checking the sitemeter stats on this blog. during my peak traffic times (such as mustache day) it was fun to check out how various people had found my blog. i saw a post on erics blog about a search that led someone to his blog. naturally i checked my stats and was shocked to see that someone was lead to my blog through this search. thats right, if you google "mack looks like" you get this webpage. while part of me feels like that is pretty cool, the other part of my cant help but wonder what the searcher was looking for.

for those of you who watch the bachelor, who do you want to win? i have liked the two finalists the most the entire season, so i am happy that they have made it this far. i also think its worth noting that they were the only two ladies who openly said they wanted the other girls to go home. i was sort of glad they said that when they did. while they were being kind of competitive and a case could be made they seemed like they wanted to win more than they wanted to fall in love, i can't hold their honesty against them. after all, they aren't there to make friends.

new music

i love when two things you like come together to form another thing you like. like for example, enrique iglesias and ping pong. everyone knows i have liked EI and his music for a long time. i also enjoy playing table tennis, although i havent played much recently. anyways, for those who havent heard it, i suggest you listen to Do You Know? by Enrique.

you know you missed me

hi friends, if you are still out there. i want to appologize for not posting in half a year, i have just been busy with things more important than this blog. and there is no one to blame except my blog itself. it got jealous of all my activities and told me to chose between it and other stuff. so i sat it down, looked it right in the monitor, and asked it if it saw the redskins game last weekend.

after 6 lonely months with a story about falling, it emailed me last week and told me it was sorry and asked if i would come back to it. i agreed, explaining that it would only be a part time thing. i asked the blog if it had a problem with me writing less often than in the past. it responded with an email that was only three words. the email said: It's Not Wrong