Buckeye Sunday- They're not just Gophers, they're Golden Gophers

Ohio State 52
Minnesota 10

Scoring Summary

1st Quarter
Ohio State TD: Terrelle Pryor rushed for 1 yards
Minnesota TD: DeLeon Eskridge rushed for 7 yards
Ohio State TD: Terrelle Pryor pass to Brandon Saine for 3 yards

2nd Quarter
Ohio State FG: Devin Barclay 23 yards
Ohio State TD: Daniel Herron rushed for 10 yards
Ohio State TD: Terrelle Pryor pass to DeVier Posey for 38 yards

3rd Quarter
Minnesota FG: Eric Ellestad 33 yards
Ohio State TD: Blocked punt recovered by Zach Domicone in the endzone

4th Quarter
Ohio State TD: Jordan Hall rushed for 16 yards
Ohio State TD: John Simon returned a fumble 30 yards

Important Player Stats

Terrelle Pryor: 18-22, 222 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT, 1 rushing TD

Daniel Herron: 17 rush, 114 yards, 1 TD(all in the first half)

DeVier Posey: 6 receptions, 115 yards, TD

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The way this game started out I thought we may be headed for a shoot-out. Minnesota was able to move the ball easily on their first two drives. When Minnesota missed their Field Goal to end their second drive, Ohio State proved that it wouldn't be a shoot-out, because Ohio State has way more guns and bullets.

The defense gave up a lot of big passing plays. I don't think this was a case of poor coverage, but rather the failure of a lot of different defensive players to react properly to the ball in the air. As the game went on this became less of an issue as the Pressure on Minnesota's QB increased. It was a surprisingly aggressive defensive gameplan with loads of blitzs, which left a lot of man coverage, so with no help there were a lot of failures in coverage. That is forgiven though, well because the final score was 52-10.

The offense was able to dominate at the point of attack on most plays, which led to the effective use of Daniel Herron in the power running game. Pryor was efficient in his passing. Either that or Minnesota is terrible defensively. Ok, Minnesota's defense is terrible.

For the first time this season, the Special Teams' Units deserve credit. A huge punt return and punt block. No major lapses in kick coverage. The blocking on FGs and XPs was good. Hopefully they can keep it up for the rest of the season.

There is something, I definitely want to address. Very late in the game Ohio State was up 52-10 and for some reason decided to run the no huddle and pass the ball. I know you want to give Bauserman reps, but that just isn't right. Running the no huddle and passing the ball when you could take three knees and get the win in poor sportsmanship no matter if the backups need reps or not.

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Pasta's Player of the Year Rankings

5. Denard Robinson, QB, Michigan
4. Andrew Luck, QB, Stanford
3. Kellen Moore, QB, Boise State
2. LaMichael James, RB, Oregon
1. Cam Newton, QB, Auburn

The top two players have separated themselves clearly. They are closer to being 1a and 1b than 1 and 2. Kellen Moore is almost in that group, but it's hard because he's done at the half in virtually every game they play.
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Pasta's Top 5

5. Utah
4. TCU
3. Auburn
2. Boise State
1. Oregon

I'm almost sold on Auburn.
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Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael

*Note*
Last night I was looking at some new templates and backgrounds and accidentally clicked the wrong button and it stuck. This isn't terrible, but it's not the change I talked about yesterday. So, just don't grow to attached to this look.

State of the Blog Ramblings II

Something that annoys me is when producers make changes to their products without acknowledging that a change has been made. Maybe I'm just a stubborn old man, but I would like to at least have switches acknowledged. So, in this spirit, I'd like to inform my possibly existent readers of some of the changes I'll be making and those that I am considering.

Lately, I've found myself annoyed with the background and post template. I don't know, it just seems to be much-a-do about nothing. It seems busy for no good reason. So, for the past few days, I've have spent sometime looking at different blog templates and will switch to a new one sometime next week.

Speaking of layout issues. I also want a banner. I'm not very skilled at photo manipulation or even operating a program that would allow me to make an awesome banner. So, if you or some you know, knows how to do such a thing and are willing to help me out, please let me know. I may even hold a contest for this if enough interest is shown.

I've also decided to change who can make a comment on this blog. I have it set, so that anyone with an OpenID can make a comment. Most people do have some sort of OpenID username to make a comment, but probably don't realize it and it is mildly complicated to get it connected to this blog. I've decided to make it so anyone can comment on a post, including Anonymous persons. I do worry a bit about same. I'd think that this thing isn't popular enough to draw spam, but I wouldn't be shocked if some spam-bots show up. If it isn't too ridiculous, it will be easy enough to delete any spam and hopefully this will encourage more commenting.

Finally, A finally 'Buckeye Sunday' and 'Browns' Monday' will not necessarily be weekly things during the off-season. By brief experience with doing those in the off-season produced some of the worse posts in this blogs short history. Also as a side note, I will not be doing Browns' Monday this week. It's a bye week and for the Monday's post I'll be putting on my amateur political pundit hat and make some projections and predictions about the Midterm election. Also expect a second Tuesday post as I react to and discuss the actual results.

There are also a few projects I'm considering doing on this blog, but they will stay on the down-low for now in case they never happen.

Any thoughts, concerns, ideas, etc.? Leave them in the comments* below.

Thanks for reading.

-Michael
*There won't be any excuses for not commenting anymore. If you read this and have something to say, please share it.

Special Comment- The NFL and Concussions

It has been the topic of much discussion lately. The NFL's policy on hits to the head and neck of 'defenseless' players. The policy hasn't been changed at all though. The punishment for illegal hits in-game is absolutely identical to what it had been before. The change has been made off the field with the 'devastating' hits causing suspensions and heavier fines than before.

I don't disagree with the change in enforcement of the rules. The serious problems that concussions cause and will cause have become clear in the past decade. The NFL has been proactive in addressing the issue and this is the next step. Now, whether or not this is to protect the league image or to protect the players is a different question. I tend to think it is more of the prior.

While this may be a step to reduce the types of dangerous hits that are causing concussions, it certainly isn't going to prevent them entirely. The fact is that most DBs and WRs are roughly the same height. Most will be between about 5'10" and 6'2"*. So, head-to-head collisions will continue to occur. Also given the way that bodies can shift position so quickly, Defensive Backs who may have their hits lined up legally may end up making an illegal hit due to a Receiver bracing for impact.

Then there is the possibility of unintended consequences. If defenders are aiming lower does that mean more ankle and knee injuries for Receivers? Or could it mean more knees to the heads of defender causing concussions that way?

I don't think the NFL can legislate this problem away. I honestly believe concussions will continue to be a major issue with football given the current equipment. I don't really know what the best solution will be, but I do believe the helmet and padding needs to change.

There are lots of ideas out there. Some dumb like Joe Paterno suggesting getting rid of the face mask If you want things to get worse that's a good idea. I mean lets encourage players to lower their head and use their helmet. With no face mask that would just be reflex of players, because no body wants to break their nose on top of their concussion. There is also the idea of getting rid of padding and helmets all together like rugby. No protection for a players head means a player can't use his head as a weapon and will just naturally try to protect their own head. Therefore, the number of concussion would likely be lower. Would that actually work in American football? I don't know.

I don't really know how the padding and helmet could be changed to help alleviate this problem, but I know he current pads and helmets do virtually nothing protect players and may even exacerbate the problem. Maybe giant helmets like Dark Helmet. I just can't really say, but I know if the NFL made an effort to they could find a safer system of padding.

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael
*I know there are some wide receivers who are 6'6", but when they brace for a hit they shrink pretty damn fast.

Myths and Stuff

I've spent basically all day today studying for my Mythology midterm tomorrow. Ok, All day is a bit of an exaggeration. I mean I did have to go to Biology lab* today. I also may have played some CoD when I got home. So, since like 2 or so I have been pretty much just studying with the occasional Youtube/twitter/insert internet activity here breaks. I know about all I feel I can know about the Odyssey and still don't feel quite comfortable with them yet. Things like describing Odysseus' relationship with 4 specific women in terms of Womens place in Greek society... I can kinda start on that one, but the problem is not picking the four women to use as examples, that is pretty obvious in Penelope, Athena, Calypso, and Circe. The problem is that 3 of those women are fucking gods, so they don't really fit well into the Greek view of women very well, because you know their divine and they'll fucking smite you. All of the essay questions she gave on the review are kind of like that. Just really abstract and hard to answer well.

I don't mean to rag on the class or professor at all. I actually really like the class and the professor is pretty cool.

So, sticking with Mythology, let's talk about the Greek Gods and Goddesses. More specifically, which one(s) I feel the most like/relate to the most/the ones I find most interesting.

I think the Goddess we'd all like to be like is Athena. I mean I think she's the best of the Olympians with her only real competition being Apollo. She's super butch, but the sexiest butch lady you'll ever find. She's wise. She's a tactician**. She fucking popped out of Zeus' head. Athena is pretty much the most baller god around. I wish I was more like Athena.

Poseidon seems like an Angry old man to me. He's always pissed at somebody and fucks up their life. Plus he's always opposed to Athena, which means he's pretty much always wrong. Fortunately, Athena pretty much always gets her way.

I kind of like Zeus. He is a womanizer. No way around that. He may even seem like kind of a flake or someone who delegates basically everything. To me he actually seems to be a quite reasonable god. I mean he's the greatest of them all, but still listens to the other gods and doesn't dictate. He may even say, "Calm down, grizz" when one of the other gods is going a bit overboard with their smiting. At the very least he is indifferent enough to mankind to allow the other gods to help us out.

Rapid fire time. I always picture Hermes as the Hermes from Futurama. I always felt Hades gets a bad wrap, because of the modern perception of hell. If you want a good time call Dionysus- Mt. Olympus. Hera is jealous and spiteful bitch.

The Goddess I relate to the most/feel the most like is Hestia, the Goddess of the Hearth. She's the sister of Zeus. She doesn't really ever go out. She's passive and doesn't ever really get into any fights. So much so that she gave up her place on Mt. Olympus. She was like, "Well since there can only be 12 of us up here, I'll bail."

I hope this wasn't like a boring lecture.

Question of the Day: Which Greek god or goddess do you feel you are most like/relate to the most?

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael
*Today it was arts and crafts day.
**Not like that crazy asshole Ares.

Sometimes something is so awesome that it deserves a shout-out and I totally saw something like that today. From zaxy.com: Dr. Love…er, Dr. Britt, is in the building.

It's funny on so many levels.

Random Wednesday-Shake It Out

-Michael

Gaming Tuesday

Achievements

Gamerscore Last Week: 22185
Goal: 22200
Gamerscore Now: 22235

Achievements unlocked

Red Dead Redemption

The Downward Spiral 10G
Six Years In The Making 10G
Judge A Man By The... 30G


Goal for Next Week: 22300
$ for HPA: 11.95

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Red Dead Redemption- Undead Nightmare First Impressions

*Spoiler Alert*














Ok, that should be far enough, Michael.

If you've made it this far, I'm giving you a final warning that there will be a few plot spoilers in this. Nothing major, I don't think. Ok, I'm going to say how Red Dead Redemption ended, which if you haven't beaten the actual game yet, turn back now.



It is nice to be playing as John Marston again. I get that he had to die at the end of the single player, but I much prefer playing as John as opposed to Jack. Speaking of Jack, Abigail and him are turned into zombies right off the start. You hogtie both of them and then go out looking for a cure. You would think lassoing and hogtying zombies would be fun, but it really isn't that much fun. The trains aren't running, so you can't throw them in front of one of them and they make loud annoying noises, so you don't want to carry one around on the back of your horse.

Undead Nightmare is partially what you would expect, but I was pretty surprised by how much of an actual plot there is. It really plays a lot like the single player campaign of RDR played only, you know, they're trying to eat your brains. A lot of NPCs return, like Bonnie and the Marshall in Armadillo, which you do side missions for. You end up doing story missions for good old Nigel Dickens again and Seth, that crazy Treasure hunter.

The zombies themselves are pretty much what you expect zombies to be. Kind of slow, incoherent creepy noises, and easy to drop with a headshot, but not so easy if you don't hit the head. Zombie Animals really are no different than the animals in the regular games. They go down just as easily as in the regular game. I've run into zombie bears, bores, mountain lions, and wolves and none of them are any worse in Undead Nightmare than in the regular campaign. Also as rumored there are Sasquatches in the game, but they're kind of disappointing. In a stranger mission you are supposed to hunt down and kill six of them. They don't even fight you. They just start running when you get around and go down in one or two shots. Then once you've killed five of them you go to the sixth one. It is sitting on the ground crying and it goes to a cut scene where it tells you all about its emotions. That's not what I want from a Sasquatch.

This may be the coolest thing I've found in the game so far. The four horses of the Apocalypse are in the game. That's right there is war, famine, pestilence, and death. I've only found two of them so far and War is a pretty fucking awesome horse. It's on fire and sets zombies on fire when you ram them. Also I'm pretty those horse are immortal, which is good, because if your mortal horse dies it doesn't go away, it comes back as a zombie horse. It will still come to your whistle, but while your riding it will periodically try to take you off the path. That can be very bad when your on a steep cliff.

*Spoiler Alert over*

I'd say if you loved the Red Dead Redemption single player campaign, you'll like this DLC a lot. It definitely requires a different play style, but the structure of the game play is basically the same. It is worth the 800 MS points for sure, if zombies are your thing as well. You have plenty of opportunity to kill loads of the undead in various ways.

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Black Ops Quick-scoping

A lot has been made of a comments Josh Olin, community manager of Treyarch. He called quick-scoping "cheap" and confirmed that it was made nearly impossible in Black Ops. I don't really agree with it being "cheap" or some sort of exploit. If someone only quick-scopes, they end up doing terrible nearly all of the time. I don't know about you guys, but more than one time I've been followed around by some dumb ass with an intervention trying to no scope or quick scope me and failing hard. At first I'm like, 'oh shit, a sniper has a line of sight on me, run' then I start running and keep getting shot at and then I turn around and it's any easy kill.

Quick-scoping didn't need any more fixing than the removal of Sleight of Hand Pro's application to Sniper Rifles, but it seems Treyarch took it a little too far. That seems to be the way it goes though. MW2 allowed quick scoping to be somewhat easy and it became somewhat prevalent. Add to that, the explosion of gameplay videos and montages on Youtube and it seems like a bigger problem than it actually is. So, Treyarch overreacts and probably made the Sniper a non-viable weapon in Black Ops.

I don't even find quick-scoping that annoying. I haven't seen that many killcams where I was quick scoped. In fact, knowing that an enemy is quick-scoping is a bit of a relief, because then I know that 9 times out of ten that player will be an easy kill. Also, I think it's probably 20 or 25 to 1 at least of noob tube deaths to quick-scope deaths. The only time I find myself really annoyed with quick-scopers is when they're on my team in Search and Destroy. It fucking pisses me off to see some asshole going for montage clips with a Sniper instead of effectively playing the objective.

Anyway, here's a video of the guys at Machinima Respawn talking about this issue:



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Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael

Browns' Monday- REVERSE! Edition

Week 7- Browns @ Saints

Cleveland 30
New Orleans 17

Scoring Summary

1st Quarter
Cleveland FG: Phil Dawson 23 yards
Cleveland TD: Peyton Hillis rushed for 4 yards

2nd Quarter
New Orleans FG: Garret Hartley 32 yards
Cleveland FG: Phil Dawson 21 yards
Cleveland FG: David Bowens returned an interception for 30 yards

4th Quarter
New Orleans TD: Drew Brees pass to David Thomas for 11 yards
Cleveland FG: Phil Dawson 48 yards
Cleveland TD: David Bowens returned an interception for 64 yards
New Orleans TD: Drew Brees pass to Marques Colston for 8 yards

Important Player Stats

Colt McCoy 9-16, 74 yards

Reggie Hodges 1 rush, 68 yards

David Bowens 2 INT, 2 TDs

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Well, this certainly wasn't expected. I mean c'mon how are the Browns going to beat the Saints?

It was bout as lack lust a performance as you'll ever see an offense have that puts up 30 points. I mean the starting running back only had one more yard rushing than the punter. McCoy's stats were unimpressive, but compared to the QB play of the end of last season it was tremendous.

The defense played well. They forced many turnovers and for the most part were able to shut down the Saints, which is surprising considering how porous the secondary has been. It just shows what effective pressure can do to even one of the best Quarterbacks in the game.

Trick plays too. You gotta have trick plays.

I'd like to think this will be the turning point, but the more I think about it, yesterday was probably a fluke.
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Projections

This is a new part to my Browns' Monday post. I'm calling it projections. The idea here is to project what the playoff teams will be given the current data.

With 6 of 17 precincts reporting

AFC North: Too Close to Call(Steelers/Baltimore)
AFC East: Too Close to Call(NYJ/N.E.)
AFC South: Too Close to Call(Indy, Tennessee, Houston)
AFC West: Kansas City Chiefs
Wildcard : AFC North 2nd place and AFC East 2nd place

NFC North: Green Bay Packers(based on exit polling)
NFC East: Too Close to Call(Washington, Philadelphia, NYG)
NFC South: Too Close to Call(Atlanta, New Orleans)
NFC West: Seattle Seahawks
Wildcard: NFC East 2nd place and 3rd place

No Longer in the Race: San Francisco, Carolina, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo

On the Brink of Dropping Out: Dallas, San Diego, Denver, Oakland, Jacksonville, Cincinnati, Minnesota

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Checking my preseason prediction

Week 1- @Tampa Bay W Actual Result: L
Week 2- Kansas City W Actual Result: L
Week 3- @Baltimore L Actual Result: L
Week 4- Cincinnati L Actual Result: W
Week 5- Atlanta L Actual Result: L
Week 6- @ Pittsburgh W* Actual Result: L
Week 7- @New Orleans L Actual Result: W
Week 8- Bye
Week 9- New England L
Week 10- NY Jets L
Week 11- @Jacksonville W
Week 12- Carolina W
Week 13- @Miami W
Week 14- @Buffalo W
Week 15- @Cincinnati L
Week 16- Baltimore L
Week 17- Pittsburgh L

Overall Record: 7-9*(1-5)* Current Record: 1-3

*Under the assumption that Roethlisberger will actually have serve his entire suspension

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael

Buckeye Sunday

Ohio State 49
Purdue 0

Scoring Summary

1st Quarter
Ohio State TD: Daniel Herron rushed for 11 yards
Ohio State TD: Daniel Herron rushed for 3 yards

2nd Quarter
Ohio State TD: Jordan Hall rushed for 1 yard
Ohio State TD: Terrelle Pryor pass to DeVier Posey for 22 yards
Ohio State TD: Terrelle Pryor pass to Dane Sanzenbacher for 7 yards
Ohio State TD: Terrelle Pryor pass to Corey Brown for 15 yards

4th Quarter
Ohio State TD: Joe Bauserman pass to Spencer Smith for 23 yards

Important Player Stats

Terrelle Pryor 16-22, 270 yards, 3 TDs, 2 INTs

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Yea, I'm gonna skimp on the discussion again this week. I don't really feel like there was that much to be learned from yesterday's game and I've got a lot of school work to get done tonight.

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Pasta's Player of the Year Rankings

5. Ryan Mallet, QB, Arkansas
4. Andrew Luck, QB, Stanford
3. Kellen Moore, QB, Boise State
2. LaMichael James, RB, Oregon
1. Cam Newton, QB, Auburn

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Pasta's Top 5

5. Michigan State
4. TCU
3. Auburn
2. Boise State
1. Oregon

Thanks for reading and please comment

-Michael

Spring and Fall Bitchiness

I have a theory that there are two times of the year were people become exceptionally bitchy. When winter turns to spring and when summer turns to fall. I'm not sure why, but I do have my theories that I'll get to a little later in this post.

I would say this has been the first week that really has been fall here. It has been down into the low 40's at night and never really rising above 70. This week I have also noticed a increase in bitchiness. Also there is a full moon this week, so eek!

It has been especially noticeable to me around the interwebz*. Not only does trolling seem to be worse, but those(not naming names) are actually responding to the trolls**.

So, here are a few of my theories(not necessarily in order:)

Allergies-Loads of people have allergies and of course during the transition from winter to spring and summer to fall, they are at their worst. The bad thing about seasonal allergies is that they don't really allow you to stop. You can't take off work or skip school just because of your allergies normally. So, while you feel like shit, you still have to go about your business and that can get annoying pretty damn quick.

Stuck Inside- This one is more specific to the winter to spring, but can also be applied to the summer to fall transition. Once the weather starts to turn following the winter, you don't want to be stuck inside at work or school when. It hasn't been nice for months and now that it is I have to stay inside. WTF? Not only am I stuck inside, I'm stuck inside with these assholes and thus bitchiness is born.

Weather- Not only does the weather of Spring and Fall make it so you are either stuck inside when it's actually nice out or trapped inside because it's cold, but it is also wildly inconsistent. In the spring and fall high temperatures can greatly vary from day to day. It can be 80 one day and in the 50s the next. That can get annoying quick. Never knowing when you have to wear a jacket. Ending up to hot when you decide to wear long sleeves.

I always get sick whenever there is a dramatic shift in the temperature. Does anyone else?

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael
*It's not a dump truck. It's a series of tubes.
**I'm just like, "Don't feed the trolls." PSA to everyone on Youtube: Don't reply to trolls at all. Just flag the douchy comments as spam and move on.

My Favorite Person in the World

My big sister's birthday is today! She's awesome.

Happy Birthday Sarah!

-Michael

The Levels of TIred of the Michael

This has been inspired by my Extralife experience. Also, on days where I've had to get up way early for school the past few weeks, I've been waking up way earlier than way early and not being able to get back to sleep*.

1. I don't want to be up yet

This happens to me pretty much everyday. It doesn't matter how much I slept or when I wake up. I always feel tired for at least a few hours after I get up.

Characteristics: Lots of yawning

2. Hyper Tired

Try to follow me on this one. Often times I don't get enough sleep. Sometimes I don't even get near enough sleep. This level of tired is about the later days. When I'm going on <4 href="http://pastafarian07.blogspot.com/2010/10/gaming-tuesday_19.html">Gaming Tuesday this week, I spent several hours making immature and inappropriate jokes and laughing at virtually everything.

Characteristics: Attempts at making jokes that turn out nonsensical, lots of laughing.

4. Irritable tired

This level of tired is brought on by a crash or naturally out of slap-happy tired. You could call it the transition from happy drunk to mean drunk. I was definitely this level of tired on my drive home on Monday. I don't think the other drivers were worse than normal, but I was definitely pissed off at them. Yea, I always try to be aware when I get tired enough for me to enter this state though, because if I'm aware that I'm in this state, I will normally be able to prevent myself from being mean.

Characteristics: patience is gone, easily made upset

5. Delusional Mind Tired

This is the barely can hold my head up any longer tired. My mind starts working kind of funny. Like if the TV is on, I'll hear whats on, but my mind might take it on a nonsensical tangent, or somehow apply the words to something different or weird. I don't know if that made any sense. Towards the end of extralife I was there. My mind went off on a weird tangent at something Wesker said while I played the game mindlessly.

Characteristics: head bobbing, you think I'm asleep, weird shit going on in my head

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael
*It hasn't always been my minds fault though.
**Add caffeine or energy drinks to that. eek.

Random Wednesday

This turns me in to a roflcopter every time.



-Michael

Gaming Tuesday

Achievements

Gamerscore Last Week: 22085
Goal: 22200
Gamerscore Now: 22185

Achievements unlocked can be found here.

Goal for Next Week: 22200
$ for HPA: 11.95(+.75 this week)

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Red Dead Redemption Zombies? Yes please.



Only one week until I can take on Zombies as John Marston. It is going to be awesome.

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Black Ops Gameplay

This weekend, gameplay footage from Call of Duty: Black Ops starting turning up on Youtube and other sites of the like. It was quickly taken down by copyright claims by Activision. The videos are still popping up and on sites other than Youtube Activision will have a harder time with copyright claims.

I don't really want to talk about the gameplay itself, but rather how it came to be. Once these videos started popping up it caused a near panic amongst certain gameplay commentators. Lots of people didn't understand how these videos came to be. Activision and Treyarch have both kind of pretended that this weekend didn't happen, so there isn't really an 'official' reason.

It's pretty clear though, that certain people capped Beta testing footage and uploaded. Black Ops doesn't have public Beta, but that doesn't mean there isn't Beta testing going on. This private Beta still has to be somewhat sizable though to effectively test the game. A game cannot be tested well enough in-house either. I'm sure those that were chosen for the Beta testing were made to sign strict agreements to not share anything about the game. So, at the very best those who uploaded gameplay are looking at the ban hammer if not legal action.

Add to that, Machinima Respawn went down temporarily on Saturday night due to some sort of rumored copyright claim. So, this was an interesting weekend for that community.
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Extra Life

I would say overall my Extralife experience was a blast. Spamming twitter all day, watching the Zaxy livestream, and of course gaming for a ridiculous amount of time. I'll start off with a list of the games I played:

Madden 11
Dead Space
Geometry Wars
Modern Warfare 2
Saints Row 2
NCAA Football 11
Minecraft
Sonic 4
Resident Evil 5

I tried to keep a variety. That helped on so many levels. I think it prevented me from getting to frustrated with anything in particular. I also think it helped me to avoid getting headaches. I only got one headache about 15 hours in. Two Ibuprofen took care of that, which was nice.

There was period from about midnight until about 3am where I was so slap happy. My buddy Pat and I were playing some NCAA 11 and we* were making ridiculously inappropriate jokes. I spent a lot of time laughing.

With about four hours left, I made my final game switch to Resident Evil 5. At that point, I was just super tired and didn't really feel much like focusing. I know RE5 backwards and foward, so it was easy with enough excitement to keep from accidentally dozing off. It was perfect too, because I almost made it through an entire play through by 8am.

It's a tie between two moments for my favorite moment of this event.

The first moment. I played MW2 for about an hour. I played mostly Free for All and in one game I managed to get a triple kill with a Predator Missile for the game winning killcam in one of those games. Best of all, I was tied with some camping asshole at the time at 27 kills. 360, no scope, fakie, ladder shot, 1600 MS points :)

The second moment would be the Dancing Penguin on the Zaxy livestream. That was just awesome to watch out of the corner of my eye.

You would think that after something like this, I might swear off Video Games forever, but really all it made me want to do is swear off sleep deprivation... until next year.

Alright guys, that's my brief recap of my Extralife experience. You can sill donate until November 15th as other gamers do their makeups. It's really simple; just click the green button on the left side of the page and you'll be taken to the donation page. It is totally secure and for a great cause.

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael
*Mostly I

Browns' Monday- I Take It Back Edition

I'm going to start this one off with an apology to Colt McCoy. I totally dissed him last week and have compared him to Brady Quinn twice in the brief history of this blog*. Yesterday, McCoy proved that he is much better than my expectations. His performance was by no means brilliant, but he definitely showed that he is much better than Brady Quinn.

I don't know yet if he is going to be a franchise QB, but he will be better in the NFL that I could have expected.

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Scoring Summary

1st Quarter
Cleveland FG: Phil Dawson 39 yards

2nd Quarter
Pittsburgh TD: Ben Roethlisberger passed to Mike Wallace for 29 yards

3rd Quarter
Pittsburgh TD: Ben Roethlisberger passed to Hines Ward for 8 yards

4th Quarter
Pittsburgh TD: Rashard Mendenhall rushed for 2 yards
Cleveland TD: Colt McCoy passed to Benjamin Watson for 12 yards
Pittsburgh TD: Ben Roethlisberger passed to Heath Miller for 14 yards

Important Player Stats

Colt McCoy: 23-33, 281 yards, 1 TD, 2 INTs

Benjamin Watson: 6 receptions, 88 yards, 1 TD

Evan Moore: 4 receptions, 84 yards

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To say I was impressed with Colt McCoy would be an overstatement. To say I was unimpressed by his performance would be an equal overstatement. He did some good things yesterday. He made some mistakes. He showed some signs of inexperience.

Most of the time he stood tall against the Pittsburgh pass rush. He took lots of hits. I mean they blitzed him virtually every play. He kept getting up and showed no signs of fear. There were sometimes that he tucked the ball and ran when the pocket held. Now to be fair to him, There were virtually no receiving threats left to him following the injuries to Cribbs and Massaquoi.

He'll get the start next week. Maybe we'll find out more about his NFL chops against another tough opponent.

The running game has been ineffective the past two weeks. That's a big problem for this team.

The defense has played well for the most part this season and yesterday they continued to play well for the most part. The problem has been lapses in the secondary**. Same thing happened yesterday.

Good punting performance by Reggie Hodges. He looks to be the next in a long line of good punters for the Browns since their return***.

Hopefully Cribbs and Massaquoi will be healthy enough next to play, so we can see McCoy with the closest thing the Browns have to playmakers around him.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

James Harrison

I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, but I just wanted to say something about the hits Harrison gave to the Browns' two top receivers.

It's really annoying to me that T.J. Ward got so much shit for hit he gave Shipley, but Harrison is receiving kudos for his two helmet-to-helmet hits that knocked Cribbs and Massaquoi out with likely concussions. Ward's hit was not helmet-to-helmet and it was in an important situation were he needed to make sure the receiver didn't catch the ball. I'm not defending it as a clean hit, but it was a football incident. James Harrison was head hunting yesterday.

That's all I have to say about that.
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Projections

This is a new part to my Browns' Monday post. I'm calling it projections. The idea here is to project what the playoff teams will be given the current data.

With 6 of 17 precincts reporting

AFC North: Too Close to Call(Steelers/Baltimore)
AFC East: Too Close to Call(NYJ/N.E.)
AFC South: Too Close to Call(All 4 teams)
AFC West: Kansas City Chiefs
Wildcard : AFC North 2nd place and AFC East 2nd place

NFC North: Green Bay Packers(based on exit polling)
NFC East: Too Close to Call(Washington, Philadelphia, NYG)
NFC South: Too Close to Call(Atlanta, New Orleans)
NFC West: Too Close to Call(3 teams in a giant crap fest)
Wildcard: NFC East 2nd place and NFC South 2nd place

No Longer in the Race: San Francisco, Carolina, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo

On the Brink of Dropping Out: Dallas, San Diego, Denver, Oakland

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael
*I know to some that may not seem like a huge insult, but trust me, if I compare a quarterback to Brady Quinn, that is a serious insult.
**By 'secondary,' I mean Eric Wright. I can has Joe Haden?
***Excluding Frost. That guy was a terrible punter. He's the Brady Quinn of punting

Buckeye Sunday- You Tell Me

This is my 100th post. Here's to 100 more

Ohio State 18
Wisconsin 31

Scoring Summary

1st Quarter
Wisconsin TD: David Gilreath returned kick-off 97 yards
Wisconsin TD: John Clay rushed for 14 yards

2nd Quarter
Wisconsin TD: John Clay rushed for 1 yard
Ohio State FG: Devin Barclay 21 yards

3rd Quarter
Ohio State TD: Daniel Herron rushed for 13 yards

4th Quarter
Ohio State TD: Daniel Herron rushed for 1 yard
Wisconsin TD: James White rushed for 12 yards
Wisconsin FG: Philip Welch 41 yards

Important Player Stats
Terrelle Pryor 14-28, 156, 1 INT

Daniel Herron 19 rushes, 91 yards, 2 TDs

Dane Sanzenbacher 6 receptions, 94 yards

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I'm not even going to try to sound reasonably informed about yesterday's game. I watched it out of the corner of my eye. So, You tell me what happened?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Purdue isn't very good. That's all I have to say about that.

Ohio State 41
Purdue 3
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Pasta's Player of the Year Rankings

5. Ryan Mallet, QB, Arkansas
4. Andrew Luck, QB, Stanford
3. Kellen Moore, QB, Boise State
2. Cam Newton, QB, Auburn
1. LaMichael James, RB, Oregon


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Pasta's Top 5

5. Auburn
4. Oklahoma
3. TCU
2. Boise State
1. Oregon

Thanks for reading and please comment

-Michael

Extra Life- Achievements

Dead Space

Lab Rat 20G
All Systems Go 20G
Brute Force 15G
Ragdoll Check 5G
Autofire 10 G
Cannon Fodder 20G

Sonic 4 Episode 1

The Story Begins 5G
Crush Dr. Eggman 5G

My Goal Is To Be Asleep by Midnight

Hello Poland!

Seriously, These new blogger stats have led me to believe that I have some sort of new found following in Poland. I've had almost 50 views from Poland in the past week and with that Poland is far and away, the Country that has given me the most views that isn't the United States or Canada.

So, what's up all my Polish followers? :)

Tomorrow, I am attempting to do something that I haven't done since I was little*. I'm going to try to stay up for 24 consecutive hours. I'm going to be doing this for Extra Life to raise money for Children's Hospitals all across the U.S. I will be updating my Twitter frequently, which you can find a feed on the right side of this blog. I still need donations, so if you can please donate to help me meet my goal and the Zaxy team goal. It's all about helping sick little kids.

So, tomorrow my Buckeyes are playing a big game and I'm trying to figure out the best way to watch the game somewhat attentively while still gaming. My plan right now is to switch to Minecraft for the duration of the game, so I can have OSU/Wisconsin on the TV and then get back to the console for the remaining hours. I've also thought about doing something like solitaire or chess on the PC during the game, but kind of feel like that is cheating. Anyone have any thoughts on that? If so, leave me a comment and tell me what I should do.

I have a rough plan for what I'm going to play and in what order for tomorrow, but nothing is set in stone. I think I'm probably going to open with some Madden 11, because that is what I've been playing lately and my goal will be to finish my current season in Franchise Mode. I want to play a lot of Dead Space as well. Of course, I'm going to be playing some CoD as well. I'll probably play CoD 4, World at War and Modern Warfare 2. There are tons of other games I'll probably end up playing to spice things up a bit, but need to go through an entire laundry list.

My biggest fear for this thing tomorrow is headaches. I usually don't get headaches while gaming, but sometimes I do and the only way to get them to stop is to stop playing games for a while. If I got one it would suck pretty hard, but I'm dedicated, so I'll tough it out.

Another thing is that I have a big test at 8am on Monday morning. I'm trying to figure out the best way I can adjust my sleep schedule for that. So, I'll be done with Extra Life at 8am Sunday and I'm sure I'll just want to pass out at that point. I want to be up by 1pm to watch the Browns/Steelers game and I need to spend at least a few hours studying. I don't know, but I'll figure something out.

Tomorrow, the post on this blog will be entirely about achievements I unlock during my gaming marathon. Random thoughts and updates will be posted on my Twitter. I'm not sure how much, but I will be donating some amount for how many achievement point I unlock on top of whatever I already have. Right now I'm think $.10 per point, but that may change depending on how few or how many points I unlock.

I look forward to tomorrow's adventure and hope to interact with you guys throughout.

Thanks for reading and please donate to help sick little kids.

-Michael.
*At least intentionally

Lacking Inspiration I Turn to...

Politics. Not that it is all that inspiring, but it is something I know pretty well. So, I'm going to talk a little bit about the race for Governor here in Ohio.

The polls seem to tightening again with the latest poll having Strickland only trailing 48-45. That is a statistical tie and most all the polls over the month have fallen into that category. Kasich was leading pretty consistently by double digits going into September.

I still don't feel that Strickland has much of a chance come election day though. I'd like to see him polling with a lead and preferably over 50%. The undecided vote will break Republican come election day, so unless Strickland can get himself a margin he is in trouble. I don't see him getting that margin though.

The only reason this race is even close is John Kasich. He's basically a giant D-bag and his campaign has been run reflecting that. His mistakes along with Strickland having a decent sized war chest has kept this race tight, when honestly, if the Republicans had a decent candidate, this race would be a runaway just like the Senate race.

The funny thing is that it doesn't really matter who wins. It doesn't matter what they are saying now, once one of them gets into office they will be forced to do essentially the same things due to the states budget deficit. They will both have to make big cuts and raise taxes. The only slight difference will be in the cuts. Strickland would avoid cutting too deeply into things that would upset Democrats and Kasich would avoid cutting to deeply into things that would make Republicans unhappy.

That's all I have to say about that.

Thanks for reading and please donate to help sick little kids.

-Michael

Random Wednesday- Colt McCoy is no Charlie Frye.

I mean that as sleight to Colt McCoy. Also kind of a sleight to Charlie Frye. Just more so as a sleight to Colt McCoy. You know what? I mean it as sleight to both of them. I'll put it this way:

Charlie Frye was almost decent. I don't see near the promise in Colt McCoy that I saw in Charlie Frye. I mean McCoy could shock me and prove to be good, but as I've stated earlier he reminds me too much of Brady Quinn.

I'm kind of ragging on him and he hasn't even played a game yet, but man he's going to be thrown into the fire quickly. I personally would start Ratliff and let him be the one who gets killed. Leave McCoy on the sideline and see if he develops into something better than the QB at Texas who never threw the ball much further than 5 yards down field.

The Browns also did something today that sincerely pissed me off. The traded Jerome Harrison for Mike Bell. It was basically a gift for the Eagles. I'm not entirely opposed to the idea of trading Harrison. He is probably disgruntled due to Hillis getting virtually all the carries. It's just, why for Mike Bell? I'll take any draft pick over another Denver-system Runningback. Not to mention Mike Bell is probably the worst of the bunch. I seriously think Heckert wanted to give a present to his former team. If you want to get rid of a player... just get me a fucking draft pick ok.

There you go. Basically a special edition Browns' Monday, only I think it is more disjointed and rambling, so I think it qualifies as random.

Thanks for reading and please donate to help sick kids(only two more days!)

-Michael

P.S. Someone remind me to switch back to the old editor.

Gaming Tuesday

Achievements

Gamerscore Last Week: 22055
Goal: 22150
Gamerscore Now: 22085

Achievements Unlocked

Dead Space



Dead on Arrival 20G
Tool Time 10G


Goal for Next Week: 22200
$ for HPA: 11.20(+3.25 this week)
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That's all I got for this week. Don't forget to donate to Extra Life. I will be gaming all day on Saturday to help raise money for Extra Life.

Thanks for reading.

-Michael

*Note*
I seriously hate Blogger's new editor. It doesn't work very well. It makes random formatting decisions that I don't want, so if you see a giant space that shouldn't be there, it wasn't me.

Browns' Monday- Forth QB on the Roster Edition

Week 5- Falcons @ Browns

Cleveland 10
Atlanta 20

Scoring Summary

Second Quarter
Atlanta FG: Matt Bryant 24 yards
Cleveland TD: Seneca Wallace pass to Peyton Hillis for 19 yards
Atlanta FG: Matt Bryant 30 yards

Thrid Quarter
Cleveland FG: Phil Dawson 19 yards
Atlanta TD: Matt Ryan Pass to Roddy White for 45 yards

Forth Quarter
Atlanta TD: Kroy Biermann returned an interception for 41 yards

Important Player Stats
Seneca Wallace 11-15, 139 yards, 1 TD
Jake Delhomme 13-23, 97 yards, 2 INTs
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I think I may be the only one who doesn't feel Delhomme deserves to have book thrown at him. His performance wasn't stellar by any means, but I don't think it was horrendous or even a return to what had been Delhomme's form the previous few seasons. I mean he was obviously still injured. He was only slightly less gimpy that Wallace. The Interception weren't really his fault. Here's a break down:

INT 1- On this play, the Falcons sent 5 pass rushers. The two linebacker lined up over the Center. One dropped back and one came on the Blitz. The Offensive line adjusted its protection as if both linebackers were coming, which left the Right End unblocked. When one of the linebackers dropped, Joe Thomas failed to adjust, so Delhomme had to throw it quickly. It got deflected by an unblocked man who managed to Intercept it and take it back for six.

Delhomme knew the Right End would be unblocked and tried to get the ball out quickly to the hot route, which was the back into the left. That was the right thing to try to do in that circumstance, because in most instances the ball will whiz by the defenders helmet for a positive play.

INT 2- Delhomme got pressured quickly on this play from pretty much all angles. He probably should have eaten the ball and taken the sack, but it was late in the game and a sack would have cost precious time. So, he did tried to get the ball out and it deflected off an offensive lineman's helmet since he was being pushed into Delhomme's grill. The ball bounced up into the air and was picked off effectively ending the game.

Back to the general discussion, Delhomme completed passes that were a significant improvement from anything the Browns had last season*. This is not to say the loss of Wallace didn't hurt the Browns. Wallace was playing very well. Add to that, Wallace's maneuverability would have helped against the pass rush of the Falcons. Delhomme was basically a statue back there due to his injury.

Overall, I wasn't incrediably displeased with the offense's performance yesterday; even in the second half. In the first half, the Brown's had some effective passing on first down, which will become a necessity if the Browns are going to continue to be competitive. There wasn't much luck running the football, though, which will need change. There were no sustained drives, but for the most part 3 and outs were avoided. This unit needs to improve, but I can't completely bemoan them either, because I remember the dark ages of last season, before the light of Jerome Harrison. Hopefully, Hillis will heal quickly though.

It was another good effort by the defense. It was just another case of the defense tiring out after being asked to make so many stops following another ineffective offense series. If this team can get to scoring 21 points per game, this defense should be able to win the Browns a lot of game.

Something I am very pleased with is the Field Goal block team. They have gotten two important blocks in the past two games and deserve major kudos for that. The key has been the fear opposing team's special teams have for Shaun Rogers. He has been a blocking machine in the past and is drawing so much attention that the outside rushers have been able to get through to block Field Goals.

That's it for this game. The injury report this week should be interesting.
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Browns resign Ratliff

The injuries to both Wallace and Delhomme have made it necessary for the Browns to add a forth quarterback onto the roster.Knowing this move was coming, I was sort of hoping, they would pick up someone like Jeff Garcia, but figured they would just go snag Ratliff off the New England practice squad.

Does this mean McCoy is going to start against the Steelers? I think yes. There is no way the Browns make this move if they think Wallace or Delhomme could play. I mean Wallace has a fresh ankle sprain and Delhomme proved yesterday that he isn't healed yet.

So, it looks like McCoy is going to be thrown into the fire. There is a chance Ratliff could start, though; especially if the company line is to keep McCoy from playing in year one unless the situation becomes desperate. Either way my feeling is that the offensive gameplan is going to be super conservative**.

It may be a long game next week filled with a lot of three runs and a punt series.


Thanks for reading and please donate to help sick little kids.

And Fuck the Steelers.

-Michael
*Brady Quinn wouldn't throw it more the 5 yards down field.
**Shades of the Bruce Gradkowski start at the end of the '08 season.

Buckeye Sunday- The Exposed

Ohio State 38
Indiana 10

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

Ohio State TD: Daniel Herron rushed for 39 yards
Ohio State TD: Terrelle Pryor pass to Dane Sanzenbacher for 22 yards

Second Quarter
Ohio State TD: Terrelle Pryor pass to Brandon Saine for 60 yards
Ohio State TD: Terrelle Pryor pass to DeVier Posey for 18 yards
Ohio State FG: Devin Barclay 36 yards

Third Quarter
Ohio State TD: Daniel Herron rushed for 8 yards
Indiana FG: Mitch Ewald 36 yards

Forth Quarter
Indiana TD: Antonio Banks rushed for 1 yard

Important Player Stats
Terrelle Pryor: 24-30, 334 yards, 3 TDs

Daniel Herron: 12 rush, 68 yards, 2 TDs

DeVier Posey: 8 reception, 103 yards, 1 TD
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*Disclaimer* I didn't really pay much attention to the game for most of the second half.
Yesterday's performance was pretty much the opposite of what happened last week.

The offense played well. The defense shutdown Indiana. The special teams still iffy.

Starting with the offense, The Buckeyes were able to exploit a very weak Indiana defense. Loads of big plays allowed Ohio State to drive down the field with ease on most first half possessions. Pryor didn't run at all. He didn't need to, because protection, with the exception of a few lapses, was solid. We'll have to wait till next week to find out if this was due to injury, because Wisconsin actually has a defense.

Brandon Saine was basically moved to Wide Receiver for this game and I presume for the rest of the season. He has been largely ineffective in the running game, but has been an effective receiver so far this season, so the move seems natural. He's like Michael Wiley in reverse.

There has been and still is being made about Ohio State's lack of a power running game. I don't really find much of an issue with it. Let's start with an obvious issue. The offensive line is struggling to hold their blocks and getting a shove on power running plays. I can't really explain this away. The line *cough* Browning *cough* just needs to be more physical to maintain the hole. Also I beginning to think that the "starting" running backs aren't the best on the roster. The number twos are coming in and producing behind an inferior offensive line, but still against the opponents number one offense. But perhaps the most glaring issue is how obvious it is that a power running play is coming. I mean, an I-formation means run to the opponents defense, because for all intents and purposes that is what it is used for.

I seem to be the only one who isn't terribly upset by all that though. Honestly, I don't think Ohio State needs a power running game this year. The most effective running back the Buckeyes have is the quarterback. He provides a running game that keeps defenses honest with his threat to run even on pass plays and passing downs.

On to the defense. It was a dominating performance against Indiana. Indiana had no success passing the ball, which is basically all they have.

Another Field Goal was blocked. I disagreed with the decision to kick that field goal, because I was pretty sure that would be the result and the best I thought Ohio State could hope for was a miss. It was a kicker that hasn't shown the leg* to make a 54-yard field goal and a protection unit, which has been exposed repeatedly this season. It was recipe for disaster, but fortunately there wasn't a return and the defense held strong.

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I'm not going to do a long spiel about Wisconsin. They are a very solid football team and visiting Wisconsin is always a scary trip.

Prediction
Ohio State 21
Wisconsin 16
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Pasta's Player of the Year Rankings

5. Cam Newton, QB, Auburn
4. Ryan Mallet, QB, Arkansas
3. Kellen Moore, QB, Boise State
2. Denard Robinson, QB, Michigan
1. LaMichael James, RB, Oregon



A whole lot of players barely missed the cut this week. Andrew Luck, Terrelle Pryor, and Colin Kaepernick and the most notables. Martinez of Nebraska is also rising fast, but I'd like to see him do it against some more impressive opponents. Mark Ingram has fallen completely off the radar.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pasta's Top 5 teams(expanded to 10 for this week)

10. South Carolina
9. Utah
8. Oklahoma
7. Alabama
6. Auburn
5. Nebraska
4. TCU
3. Boise State
2. Oregon
1. Ohio State


I expanded it to 10 teams this week, because yesterday's results created an interesting question about the ranking. How far should Alabama fall? Should Anyone jump TCU and Boise State? and on and on.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Forth Down


I'm starting another new segment this week that I'm going to call, "Forth Down." This will be just a few blurbs about some of the games and people involved in them, done in a satirical style like The Onion.

Brett Bielema's Head Explodes at Post-game Press Conference

While being questioned by reporters following a blowout win against Minnesota, Wisconsin Coach Brett Bielema's head suddenly exploded.


Reporters were questioning his decision to go for two when already having the game in hand. Coach Bielema explained that his coaching sheet said to go for two in the situation.

"What if the sheet told you not to use the sheet?" a reporter asked.

Bielema's rambled for a moment and then his head suddenly exploded revealing him to be a robot.

Fans Wish For Basketball in Louisville

Louisville defeated Memphis 56-0 yesterday on the grid iron, but it was pretty obvious the fans would have preferred the game to be on the hard court.

Late in the game the some contingent of Memphis fans in attendance started chanting, "Let's play basketball." The Louisville fans tried to think of a clever comeback, but then realized that they to would rather be at a basketball game.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Thanks for reading and please donate to help sick little kids.


-Michael
*I'm sick of hearing about how strong Basil's leg is. He can't get touchbacks and that's all I want from a kick off specialist.

Four Day Weekend

I don't have class on Monday due to Columbus Day, which mean I have a four day weekend. That's pretty awesome. I means I won't have to do all my work on Sunday night, but can put it off to Tuesday night.I do have a test on Wednesday, a lab due, and four more books to read in the Odyssey, but you know I won't be doing any of that until approximately 7pm on Tuesday night.


I actually don't feel that Christopher Columbus* deserves a day and most schools in my state don't either. I just happen to go to a School that has Columbus in it's name, so we observe it. I mean c'mon it is so obvious now that he wasn't even the first European here. Add that, he was a giant d-bag and well he doesn't deserve a holiday in my book.

Then again, it is nice to have four days off.


Question of the day: Does your school/work observe Columbus Day?

Thanks for reading and please donate to help sick little kids.

-Michael
*What an asshole

Stats

I just discovered that there are stats on Blogger?!?!?

Have these been around for a while now? I don't remember seeing them before, but i noticed the link on the right side of the dashboard that gives me detailed stats on views. I like that I no longer just have profile view counts to judge what's going on.

Interesting things I discovered so far:
Between 1am and 2am on October 7th this blog got 50 views.

The most common link to this website is my twitter, which is odd, because I have only two followers and I don't get @replies from people, who you know actually have followers that often.

I seem to average around 15 page views a day.

This post is more popular than it should be. It's almost two months old and still gets views.

I can't figure out what any of it means though. I had make it so it wouldn't count my own page views anymore when I discovered this on Wednesday. So, I know that a significant portion of the clicks prior to that are my own*. Then I had 50 views in an hour, when I wasn't awake, then it went right back down to the normal 1 or 2 views an hour.

I'll stop talking about this/stroking my own ego.

Thanks for reading and donate to help the sick little kids.

-Michael
*I mean more than 1800 of my 2000 views are Firefox. I use Firefox and I don't it's so popular that it should dominate views like that without me pushing it in that direction significantly. But if I do have a sizable Firefox using following please let me know:)

Extra Life

This year I will be doing Extra Life. It is a 24-hour gaming marathon to raise money to help the Children's Miracle Network. It will start at 8am Saturday October 16th and end at 8am Sunday October 17th.

Donate

In this, I need your help. Just follow any of the links in this message and donate whatever you can to support me in this effort. The goal is to raise $96, which is 4 dollars for every hour I will be playing.

Donate

So, my plan for the day is to frequently provide updates on twitter @Pastafarian07. I'll let you know what I'm playing, how I'm doing in that game, how I'm doing in real life*, and I'll post some pics. I'll post achievement updates here as well.

Help sick kids Damnit.

-Michael
*I'll get fussy.

Random Wednesday- (Political Ads) With Avengene

Geez, I don't know about where you live, but it's barely into October and political ads dominate my TV. I know my market has two competitive* House races, a competitive* Senate, every State-level statewide position is being held, various competitive races for the state legislature and some local races. It just seems like every commercial is a political ad.

The Republicans in my area of using their little children in their ads. I find that ridiculous. The there is this one where Mike DeWine's** grown daughter is talking about how great her dad is like she is some how impartial.

Another big thing they're doing this year is talking about how they voted to cut their own pay or will cut their pay once elected. That's totally ridiculous. Congress always raises its own pay. Only those in competitive races say 'they voted to cut pay,' which doesn't matter because virtually no congressional seats are competitive, so the vote is always overwhelmingly for pay raises.

There also has been some passively racist ads in the race for Treasurer.

Loads of other super negative ads too.

Here's my summary of the different party's angles.

Republicans: Big government, incumbents, wasteful spending, stimulus bad/didn't create jobs***, private sector good

Democrats: Republicans like free trade, free trade bad/job killing, George W. Bush.

Thanks for reading. I can't wait for it to come to an end.

-Michael
*Competitive is being generous. The Democrats are going to get murked this election. I think the Republicans may run the table here.
**What an asshole
***That is so amazingly bullshit though. The stimulus has created tons of jobs. Things would be much worse without it.

Gaming Tuesday

Achievements

Gamerscore Last Week: 22009
Goal: 22050
Gamerscore Now: 22055

Achievements Unlocked

Civilization Revolution

Good Afternoon, Doctor Jones 9G
80% of Success is Showing Up 5G
Culture is Worth a Little Risk 9G
The Fruit of Labor 5G
Home is Where One Starts From 3G
Once More Unto the Breach 5G
Before All Else, Be Armed 5G

Dead Space

Marksman 5G

Goal for Next Week: 22150
$ for HPA: 7.95
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A Note

You know how my gamer score has been not ending in a five or zero as it normally should. Well that's was due to Civilization Revolution. I bought the game and started playing it and wasn't really enjoying it that much so I stopped. The thing is when I stopped I had stopped I had unlocked three achievements worth three points each, so I ended up adding nine to my gamerscore, which made it funky.

I was getting rather annoyed with my gamerscore being weird, so I re-purchased Civilization Revolution and unlocked the other odd achievements to make my score normal again. I like the game better this time around, but still don't know if I'll get heavy into it. At least I'm done with the fours and nines that were at the end of my gamerscore.

I also got Dead Space. I've just started into it and it seems like it will be a pretty good game. It will definitely be something to fill the space between now and when Black Ops comes out.

Minecraft

It has been a very long time since I've spent so little time gaming on a console. I mean I barely play XBox at all this week. That is entirely due to Minecraft. I have been spending hours and hours in this game. It is so fun and it's really hard to explain why it is so much fun.

I just love it.

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Thanks for reading and please comment.

Only five more weeks to Black Ops!

-Michael
Song of the Day: This Is A Rebel Song- No Use For A Name

Browns' Monday- The Browns Win Edition

Week 4- Bengals @ Browns

Cleveland 23
Cincinnati 20

Scoring Summary

First Quarter
Cleveland FG: Phil Dawson 30 yards

Second Quarter
Cleveland TD: Seneca Wallace pass to Evan Moore for 24 yards
Cincinnati FG: Mike Nugent 24 yards
Cincinnati TD: Carson Palmer pass to Terrell Owens for 78 yards
Cleveland FG: Phil Dawson 31 yards

Third Quarter
Cleveland TD: Peyton Hillis rushed for 1 yard
Cleveland FG: Phil Dawson 22 yards
Cincinnati FG: Mike Nugent 25 yards

Forth Quarter
Cincinnati TD: Carson Palmer passed to Brian Leonard for 3 yards.

Important Stats
Seneca Wallace 18-30, 184, 1 TD, 1 INT

Peyton Hillis 27 rushes, 102 yards, 1 TD

Matt Roth 5 tackles, 2 sacks

Joe Haden and TJ Ward 6 tackles each

Decisive Play: Matt Roth sacked Carson Palmer on 3rd down with about 5 minutes remaining in the game forcing a Cincinnati punt.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The most important thing is that the Browns beat the Bengals. That's what the NFL is all about. Just win the damn game.

The offense played well yesterday and the play calling wasn't bad either. It certainly wasn't an offensive juggernaut, but the offense was effective and largely avoided three and outs.

Seneca Wallace has been solid as a starting quarterback and yesterday was no exception. He didn't put up amazing numbers*. He didn't even complete a pass following the first drive of the second half. What he did do was not lose the game and provided enough of a passing threat to make the offense effective. That is something Brady Quinn never did. Derek Anderson couldn't do that either**.

Peyton Hillis continues to beast. Can you believe we got this guy for Brady Quinn?

Suck on that, Broncos.

The Browns lack any threat from the receiver position. Massaquoi has been a non-factor since week one. As much as everyone wishes it wasn't true, Josh Cribbs is not that great of a receiver. He is a vertical threat, but still has a lot of development to go if he wants to be considered a true number one receiving option. A bright spot was Stuckey. He caught balls and gained yards after the catch. I'd like to say this position is offseason priority numero uno, but man... the front seven still needs some help.

The defense looked alright yesterday. They did manage to get a lot of stops and came up big late. The corners***(mostly Eric Wright****) didn't look great and got torched by T.O. The biggest thing yesterday was the ability to pressure Palmer. I have said and will continue to say that is the most important thing in the NFL. Pressuring the QB is probably the single best way to make your defense look good.

I want to address the hit TJ Ward gave Jordan Shipley in the Endzone. A lot of people are making it seem like TJ Ward is cheap player for that hit. I disagree. It was a penalty and I don't dispute that. He probably deserves to fined too. The thing is, that was a critical play and he wanted to make sure the receiver won't catch it, so he made sure to rock Shipley. He wasn't aiming for the head and frankly Shipley lowered his head prior to the hit. Another thing I think people miss is that in the NFL, the players are similar in height, so on occasion there will be helmet to helmet or shoulder pad to helmet contact and the defensive player isn't trying to do anything malicious; it is just a product of the game.

Browns Win! Browns Win! Browns Win!

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Checking my preseason prediction

Week 1- @Tampa Bay W Actual Result: L
Week 2- Kansas City W Actual Result: L
Week 3- @Baltimore L Actual Result: L
Week 4- Cincinnati L Actual Result: W
Week 5- Atlanta L
Week 6- @ Pittsburgh W*
Week 7- @New Orleans L
Week 8- Bye
Week 9- New England L
Week 10- NY Jets L
Week 11- @Jacksonville W
Week 12- Carolina W
Week 13- @Miami W
Week 14- @Buffalo W
Week 15- @Cincinnati L
Week 16- Baltimore L
Week 17- Pittsburgh L

Overall Record: 7-9*(1-5)* Current Record: 1-3

*Under the assumption that Roethlisberger will actually have serve his entire suspension.
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I know I promised new parts to this post last week, but well I'm backing off of that. I don't know what to think of a lot of what is going on in the NFL this season, so I'm going to wait a few more weeks and hopefully I'll have some clarity.

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael
*They may seem amazing compared to some of the number Quinn put up last year.
**Most of the time
***I'm not counting Joe Haden. I hope he gets the start next week over Wright
****By mostly, I mean almost entirely. Sheldon Brown got beat on the big play, but Eric Wright had a ton of Fails again this week.

Buckeye Sunday- What the Hell Was That?

Ohio State 24
Illinois 13

Scoring Summary

First Quarter
Illinois TD: Nathan Scheelhaase rushed for 3 yards
Ohio State TD: Terrelle Pryor Pass to Brandon Saine for 8 yards

Second Quarter
Illinois FG: Derek Dimke 27 yards
Ohio State TD: Terrelle Pryor pass to Dane Sanzenbacher for 11 yards

Forth Quarter
Ohio State FG: Devin Barclay 32 yards
Illinois FG: Derek Dimke 30 yards
Ohio State TD: Daniel Herron rushed for 7 yards

Important Player Stats
Terrelle Pryor: 9-16, 77 yards, 2 TDs, 11 rushes, 105 yards
Daniel Herron: 23 rushes, 95 yards
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The Buckeyes didn't look great yesterday. The offense was largely ineffective. Pryor didn't play very well. He only had 77 passing yards. He had 105 rushing yards, but they came almost entirely on 2 runs. He was sacked 3 times.

The offensive line really struggled in the first half with run blocking. The pass protection was actually pretty good, but in downhill run blocking they got virtually no push. Late in the 3rd quarter the running did start to get going and it had to, because that was all that was being called.

Pryor was injured and missed parts of three series, but when he returned late in the 3rd the offensive play calling became dramatically different than it had been all season. It was basically I-Formation and had the ball to Herron on every play. I feel that if Pryor wasn't well enough to run the offense as it is supposed to be run, he shouldn't have been in the game. He's not a good enough passer to just be a drop back threat and the play calling made it apparent he lacked mobility.

Following Illinois first offensive series*, the Defense was very strong. Illinois had no effective passing game and the run was easily shutdown. They only allowed one series that led to Field Goal in the 4th. The other field goal was off a Pyror Interception.

I really don't know what to think about yesterday's game. It's not unusual for Ohio State to have a hard time with Illinois. Terrelle Pryor didn't look good, but he wasn't allowed to show much in the 2nd half. The defense looked good, but Illinois' Offense is bad.

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Indiana

Indiana throws the ball like crazy. They threw it 64 times yesterday. Ben Chapel is a good quarter, he's not great. He has some accuracy issues at times. He put up impressive numbers yesterday, but that just isn't that impressive against Michigan. Pass protection isn't that great for Indiana either. Michigan was able to get pressure with just three rushers often. The running game for Indiana is rarely used. Willis, their Runningback looks like a decent back. He just isn't used much.

Ohio State will pretty much play Nickel all game against IU and this will be a test for the secondary especially since Chekwa hasn't played much the past two weeks with a back injury.

Indian's defense is not very good, but the way Ohio State's offense looked against Illinois who knows?

Prediction
Ohio State 31
Indiana 20

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As promised here comes some new parts.

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Pasta's Player of the Year Rankings
This is in sorts a Heisman Watch, but not exactly, because in some ways the Heisman is awarded in a poor manner. So, this is the rankings for my own personal player of the year. This 'award' will not be given until following the bowl season


5. Colin Kaepernick, QB, Nevada
4. Cam Newton, QB, Auburn
3. LaMichael James, RB, Oregon
2. Kellen Moore, QB, Boise State
1. Denard Robinson, QB, Michigan

Robinson has just been ridiculous this year. I think he will soon have people forgetting their hyperbole about Tim Tebow.

Terrelle Pryor isn't on the list due to his poor performance yesterday. He is probably number six.

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Pasta's Top 5 teams
5. TCU
4. Boise State
3. Oregon
2. Ohio State
1. Alabama

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Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael

October

Things October means
The sun won't be out until May with the exception of Indian which shouldn't be too far off.
I will pretty much be sick for the next to months.
College Football is out of the powerhouse vs. cupcake phase of the season, so it'll start being even more awesome.
Someone has a birthday, and is going to be soooooooooooooo super old*.
This going to be a really tough month for the Browns. The schedule is bloody brutal.
October is really supposed to be the 8th month, but Julius Caesar and Augustus had huge egos and put in two months named after themselves making it the tenth.
Airwaves will be super saturated with campaign ads. This year they are basically all going to be negative here, because Ohio is really fucked up and no one can actually fix it, but they can call the other candidate a fagot.
Grownups are allowed to play dress up(publicly.)
The trees are stripped bare of all they wear. Kingdoms rise and Kingdoms fall.

Ok, Oregon/Stanford is about to start up again, so that's the end of that.

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael

*Seriously :o)

Stranded

I was stranded for two hours this evening at a junkyard. That wasn't any fun. Hooray! I had to wait for a mechanic to put a new gas tank in the truck that I'm driving. He had finished putting in a new tank when I was dropped off there, but that ended up leaking way worse that the original one did. So, he had to pull another tank, remove the fucked up one and then put another one in, which thankfully didn't work.

Other than that today has been uneventful. I had one class, Classical Mythology. We discussed the Odyssey books 5-8 and then I took a quiz, which was pretty damn easy. I though there might be some crazy new policy implemented, because there was an alleged rape on campus in the girls restroom in one of the halls on Thursday Morning. It seems like one of those awful things that no reasonable amount of security could have prevented, but people tend to overreact. I hope no knee jerk changes are made due to this. If after reviewing the incident some reasonable changes can be made to improve safety that's a good thing, but I don't want to see something crazy like gender segregated bathroom breaks or something like that.

All the rest of my day was spent playing Minecraft. I've been working on redecorating the outside and clearing things out from around my house. I also explored into a cavern I haven't been into yet and it's loaded with resources and keeps taking me deeper. I hope I'll find a monster spawner.

I usually feel like I'm the only person who is happy when the days start getting short and it gets colder. Winter is my favorite. I like it to be chilly. Everyone else seems to bitch about it though. I actually find people bitching about the weather pretty damn annoying. Well, if someone is bitching about it raining one a certain day that's one thing. I don't really have a problem with that. It's when people bitch about things like the seasons changing. It happens every fucking year. It's cold and gray during the winter and hot and humid during the summer every year. Please stop telling me how horrible it is like you've never experienced it before.

Ok, I feel I've bitched enough about things.

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael
Song of the Day: Let it Slide- No Use For A Name