Fantasy Football (Week One)

So my week one results in fantasy football, while not exactly what i wanted, was respectable. I currently have three teams; one salary cap football and two draft leagues. Most important to me is the salary cap football (on sportingnews.com) because i must battle with my family (and geology teacher) for supremacy of the league; and trash talk from this league carries on all year long. This past year my dad one by two points, an almost unspeakably close margin. My mom won the year before (that was an embarrassing year), but i have yet to be victorious. This year i aim to change that (or at least be in the hunt, unlike the past few years) so i did my homework. I took Jay Cutler (due for a breakout year) and the always reliable Tony Romo as my quarterbacks, my running backs were equally reliable as i chose Frank Gore and the punishing Marion Barber, for wide receivers i was short on money so went out on a limb and grabbed second year Ohio State alum and punt returning Ted Ginn, Jr. as well as grabbing a steal in a second option panthers wide out D.J. Hackett for only half a million; for defense, even shorter on money, i settled for Kansas City. Romo, Gore, and Barber performed amazingly; getting more than half my points by themselves. Ginn and Hackett, however, were less-than-stellar and both got less than one hundred points. Kansas City (helped by the Tom Brady injury) held their own and gained a respectable one-fifty. Jay Cutler has still to play tonight on ESPN Monday Night Football. As for my league, i am currently in seventh place, although the only one with a quarterback tonight and if Jay Cutler gains more than 200 points (a most probable outcome) i will be in the top three. Starting off the year well!

John McCain's Acceptence Speech

John McCain just won the presidential election, at least in my book. Last night his speech was not the old party line speech, like Barack Obama's a week ago. He didn't just rail on his opponent and opposing party's; he didn't look to the past in hope of gaining a certain future; he didn't say what he was suppose to say, he said what needed to be said. There were even parts of the speech where the hall (filled with hard-righters) stood silent in shock as McCain criticized the GOP. He said they lost their way in the Bush years in areas like social spending and pork barrel spending. Although he pointed out that since 9/11 there has not been another domestic attack against America, praising the President (not by name) on keeping on the offensive.
In other areas of the speech McCain did an amazing job of showing comparisons between himself and Obama, without seeming to be a mudslinger. He simply stated the facts; he is for off-shore drilling now, Obama is not; he is for lower taxes (all of them), Obama is not (although in his speech he said he would lower taxes for 80& of Americans, don't be fooled, he is going to raise taxes on companies, which trickles down to all the companies employees); he is for staying on the offensive against terrorists, Obama was not even for the serge in Iraq (he said to Bill O'Rielly that it succeeded beyond our "wildest dreams"). Another amazing statement from McCain is saying that education was the "civil right issue" of the twenty-first century. He argues schools should be accountable to parents, not to politicians. As usual he also talked about developing energy Independence (both Obama and McCain are for developing new technology, but only McCain is for off-shore drilling, which is the fastest way to lower gas prices).
The end of McCain's speech was perhaps the best part. He told the much-told story of his capture and maturity during his POW experience in Vietnam. However this time was much more personal. McCain cited how he was a prideful navy pilot, bending rules and engaged in fights just for his own pride. He then said how he had been broken in his torture and explained to a captivated audience how he returned not as his own man, but as Americans man. He explained that before the experience he loved America for its privileges, but afterwards he loved it because of the time he didn't have those privileges, and realized what was needed to keep them.

Rob Bell

A few short, cool lessons from one of my favorite speakers, Rob Bell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Poi3imQkQsQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZFFxDcSfeA

Summer 08

Just a few things have happened since I last blogged. First of all my Junior year finished without a hitch and my summer had begun. First order of business, to get my sister Ashley married. Her wedding was on June 20th and I was one of her groomsmen. It was a great day with family and friends and she married a great guy. The next day our family (our whole extended family on both sides) went to Sedona, Arizona. It is a beautiful place full of vibrant red rocks and dull brown desert. It really seemed like a national park that Hotels made it to before the government. Anyway, we went on a lot of awesome hikes (my favorite being Cathedral Rock; from which we could see the whole valley, oh and by the way, we saw it at sunset) and had good family times. The next few weeks were cool down weeks after the hustle and bustle of the previous weeks. We went to my other sister's house in San Clemente for July 4th, but no big trips. I also went to my last high school camp the last week in July. Then August came, and it got pleasantly crazy again. First we went on a seven day road trip up to Seattle to help my aunt and uncle move. That trip consisted of sleeping the whole night in a car, twice. We also visited beautiful Victoria, Canada, and Olympic National Park. The next week my mum, dad, sister, brother-in-law, and I went up to Santa Cruz for a week of camping. The most notable things about this trip is my domination in Settlers of Catan (I won 50% of the time) and learning to make jiffy-lubes (basically biscuits made over an open fire filled with jam). It was fun. After that we spent the last few blissful weeks of summer relaxing and gearing up for a new school year.