Gaming Tuesday

Achievements

Gamerscore Last Week: 21919
Goal: 21950
Gamerscore Now: 21949

Achievements Unlocked

Modern Warfare 2

Professional 30G

Goal for Next Week: 22000
$ for HPA: 6.15(+0.05 this week)

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Reality

So, something that's been annoying me of late is people using 'In real life' when referring to video games. Particularly Call of Duty. I'm mean come on. It's not real life, so you can't find fault with things in a game being unrealistic.

Let''s talk about what Call of Duty would be like 'in real life.' First off there wouldn't be any respawning. So, you'd have to wait 18 years for another soldier to come of age to play again. There would be injuries too. Getting shot in the leg isn't -20 health points, it's you can't walk anymore and hurts like hell. I could keep going, but I'll stop. No need to patronize.

So, if you find something annoying with a shooter please refrain from calling it unrealistic.

Thanks for reading an please comment.

-Michael

Browns' Monday- The I Heard Edition

Week 1- Browns @ Buccaneers

Cleveland 14
Tampa Bay 17

Scoring Summary

First Quarter
Cleveland TD: Jake Delhomme pass to Mohamed Massaquoi for 41 yards
Tampa Bay FG: Connor Barth 49 yards

Second Quarter
Cleveland TD: Peyton Hillis rushed for 10 yards
Tampa Bay TD: Josh Freeman pass to Mike Williams for 3 yards

Forth Quarter
Tampa Bay TD: Josh Freeman pass to Michael Spurlock for 33 yards.

Important Stats
Jake Delhomme 20-37, 227 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT

Evan Moore 3 receptions, 87 yards

T.J. Ward 8 Tackles, 1 Forced Fumble

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I didn't get to see yesterday's game, because it wasn't on TV in the Columbus market. So, basically all observations I have about the game start with 'I heard.' I had to listen to the game on the radio and as much as I like Jim Donovan's play by play, it sucked. Unfortunately, it is pretty commonplace around here. I mean Columbus is pretty much equal distance from Cleveland and Cincinnati, but the Bengals generally get the preference from the local affiliates in Columbus. I'm actually very curious as to whether or not there are rules in the Columbus Market when it comes to the NFL. So, if anyone has any insider information please let me know.

So, the turning point in the game was late in the 1st half. Jake Delhomme did what got him booted out of Carolina. He threw an interception deep in Tampa Bay territory that was returned by Ronde Barber to set up a late touchdown by Tampa Bay. It was a very bad pass and it cost the Browns dearly. It was at the very least a ten point swing. So, instead of going into the half up 17-3 or 21-3, it was 14-10.

The first half of the second half for the Browns ended in the Red Zone with another turnover. Peyton Hillis fumbled and the Buccaneers recovered and that was it for the Browns' offense. The Browns' offense. After that drive, the Browns gained 45 yards*. The defense played well, but were on the field for the majority of the second half and eventually gave up a score in the 4th quarter.

Three times the Browns had a chance to drive for the tie or to take the lead with TD all of which were very unsuccessful.

The simple fact is that Tampa Bay is a very bad team. If the Browns' cannot beat Tampa Bay, this will be another very long season. Next week brings another bad team. This time they are coming to Cleveland. It's the Kansas City Chiefs. I'd really like to think the Browns can win this one. It is yet another game that won't be on TV here. Maybe I'll be able to go out somewhere to see it. If not, it'll be another 'I heard' edition next week.

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Checking my preseason prediction

Week 1- @Tampa Bay W Actual Result: L
Week 2- Kansas City W
Week 3- @Baltimore L
Week 4- Cincinnati L
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: 0-1

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

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Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael

*31 of those yards were on the final desperation drive on plays were the Browns were kept inbounds.

Buckeye Sunday- Miami Recap and Ohio

Ohio State 36
Miami 24

Scoring Summary

First Quarter
Ohio State FG: Devin Barclay 24 yards
Miami TD: Lamar Miller returned kickoff for 88 yards

Second Quarter
Miami FG: Matt Bosher 51 yards
Ohio State TD: Terrelle Pryor Pass to Brandon Saine for 18 yards
Ohio State FG: Devin Barclay 41 yards
Ohio State TD: Daniel Herron rushed for 4 yards
Miami TD: Travis Benjamin returned punt for 79 yards
Ohio State FG: Devin Barclay 21 yards
Ohio State FG: Devin Barclay 24 yards

Third Quarter
Ohio State TD: Terrelle Pryor rushed for 13 yards
Ohio State FG: Devin Barclay 24 yards

Fourth Quarter
Miami TD: Jacory Harris pass to Chase Ford for 9 yards.

Important Player Stats

Terrelle Pryor 12-27, 233 yards, 1TD, 20 rush, 113 yards, 1 TD

Daniel Herron 14 rush, 66 yards, 1 TD

DeVier Posey: 4 receptions, 105 yards

Devin Barclay 5-6 FG

Chimdi Chekwa 2 INTs

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After this game, I was surprised by how disappointed I felt in Ohio State's performance. I mean they did beat the team that was ranked 12th* in the Nation. A win is a win and I'll certainly take it, but this game proved that things that had been questions marks may be this team's undoing. So, I'm going to apologize for bitching so much after a victory.

I'm going to start off with the Special teams. Yesterday's performance on covering kickoffs and punts was pathetic. Whether or not Miami has good return men, they shouldn't have been allowed to return anything for a touchdown. Kickoff and punt coverage is all about discipline and fundamentals and allowing long returns is almost always due to a mistake or lack of discipline by the coverage team. Ohio State was even lining up in a spread out Punt formation to make lanes easier to keep and still blew it.

It wasn't all bad with the special teams though. The kickoff return team looked very good with two long returns that were nearly touchdowns. Also, the field goal team seemed to be much improved over last week. The line held well and Barclay went 5-6 on Field Goals. Also a Miami filed goal was blocked, which is a nice performance for that unit.

The defense performed very well in the first half. They only allowed 3 points and totally shut down the Miami offense; particularly against their running game. In the second half, they didn't really stop Miami at all. They did do a nice job of creating turnovers.

I think I was most disappointed in the offense's performance in the redzone. Five times Ohio State got into the redzone and had to attempt Field Goals. That's very poor. Scoring a touchdowns inside the redzone is important and failing to do so will lose games. Ohio State left so many points and there and it's fortunate it didn't matter in the end.

Finally, Terrelle Pryor didn't look great yesterday. His stats were pretty damn impressive, but his performance was not. He didn't complete 50 percent of his passes. He reverted back to bad Terrelle Pryor frequently. He didn't throw any interceptions, but that wasn't for lack of trying. Miami had numerous chances at picking off his passes. He did look good while running the football though.

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Ohio University

Where: Athens, Ohio

Mascot: Bobcat

Enrollment: 22,000 approx.

Conference: MAC

Record Last Year: 9-5

Head Coach: Frank Solich

Last Game: 13-20 L Toledo

Ohio won the MAC East last season. They did give Ohio State a scare in the 2008 season. In that game Theo Scott was Ohio's starting quarterback, but had to be replaced by Boo Jackson due to injury. Now, Boo Jackson is sharing the starting role with Phil Bates at Ohio. Bates was injured in Ohio's opening game against Wofford and it is unclear whether he will play this weekend. Either way the Ohio passing game is not a strong suit for Ohio this season. Well, neither is their rushing game. Ohio's offense isn't very good is what I'm trying to say.

Ohio's defense forced a lot of turnovers last season. They have started off fast with five forced turnovers in their first two games. The defense did lose several starters particularly in the secondary. The Ohio defensive line is still largely intact from a year ago. If they are able to pressure Pryor, the ball-hawking secondary of OU may be able to pick off some of Pryor's ill-advised passes.

Prediction

Ohio State 41
Ohio 0

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Thanks for reading and please comment. Let me know what you think will happen on Saturday.

-Michael

*I personally thought they were overrated.

9/11 and Patriotism

I'll start this off with a 'Where were you when?'

I was 12 years old and in the seventh grade when the attacks occurred on September 11, 2001. The school year was still very new; I think it was the 3rd week. It was a very nice late summer day in Columbus, Ohio and in New York City as we would all find out. It was a normal school day. It was art class, when the principal announced that there had been attacks on the World Trade Center and Washington D.C. Nobody really knew what the hell was going and we were a bunch of twelve year olds, so there was a lot of chatter. The following period was Science class with Mr. Tucker. He was the only teacher that day who didn't try to pretend nothing had happened. He wanted to show us what was on TV, but found out that wasn't allowed. He showed us the picture on the front page of MSNBC.com. It was two burning sky scrappers. I mean it was fucking crazy. These people crashed planes into buildings!?!?!

As I said the rest of the day was teachers trying to go on with their lesson plans as if this really fucking big event hadn't just happened. At lunch, by best friend at the time, Tyler, and I speculated about the attacks even though as students we were kept pretty ignorant of the facts on that day.

I got home and watched the TV. It didn't matter what station. You couldn't avoid it. I didn't really want to; at least initially. I wanted to know what happened and who had done it. I was home in time to see WTC 7 fall. The TV was filled with images of planes crashing into the south tower and the buildings collapsing. Then they finally got video of the plane crashing into the North Tower.

There were a lot of rumors that day. There were rumors of fires on Capitol Hill. Rumors of other hijacked planes. There was a rumor that Air Force One had crashed in Dayton. There were rumors of Air Strikes in Afghanistan that night. There were rumors of gas becoming super expensive.

I stayed home from school the next day. It wasn't because I was scared. I wanted to keep watching the news. I wanted to learn more about what had happened or if something else was going to happen. Looking back, that was a kind of morbid thing to do.

The estimates of the dead were astronomical in the days following the attacks. They started at upwards of twenty thousand, but slowly started dwindling down. Eventually, it was figured out that lots of people had managed to escape the World Trade Center and the death toll would be much less than feared.

There was a tremendous sense of National unity in the aftermath of the attacks. People lined up to give blood for the potential survivors of the attacks. Unfortunately, virtually no survivors were pulled out the rubble. It was still a wonderful sentiment and there was a feeling that all citizens in the United States were in this together.

Disappointingly, this sentiment did go overboard. Dissent quickly become 'unpatriotic' and the President briefly was allowed to be a de facto king. Questioning the President became like joining the Islamic Extremists who attacked us. Very soon after the attacks, the PATRIOT Act had been passed with very little debate and even less dissent. The act was a tremendous expansion of Executive power and cut deeply into our civil liberties. Trading Safety for liberty can quickly lead to tyranny.

Also, with the nation still reeling from the attacks, the President led the country into a foolish war with Iraq with virtually no questions asked. The media was afraid to ask any question, even if they knew there were giant holes in the administration's case for war, because at the time any questioning of the President was 'unpatriotic.' So, a blindly patriotic nation was led into an offensive war without any real reason other than that's what the President wants.

It took major loss of blood and treasure in Iraq to break the Patriotic fervor following the attacks of September 11, 2001. The President was still able to win reelection though. Even after clearly lying the country into a war, he was reelected in 2004 to the tune of 9/11.

Patriotism is a dangerous idea, because while it can be harmless pride, it can also lead to horrible outcomes. Belief that the state is right and is always right no matter what is what patriotic fervor can produce. Basically, I feel Patriotism to it's extreme extent is Fascism.

I also feel the need to make a distinction. I'm not a Patriot, but to a certain extent I am a Nationalist. It may sound like splitting hairs, but I think the distinction between Patriotism and Nationalism is very significant.

I think Nationalism is a love or pride in one's country. Not in the government, but the people and places. I love the ideals of the United States. I love the culture in the United States*. I don't think the United States is superior to any other country, I just really appreciate the way the United States is*.

That is not to say Nationalism isn't a dangerous idea as well. To it's extreme extent, it is as dangerous as Patriotism. It can lead to feelings of superiority or one's land or one's culture or one's blood.

In the Aftermath of 9/11, both Nationalism and Patriotism were evident in the national feeling. An example of Nationalism was the giving of blood in the immediate aftermath of the attack. An example of Patriotism was the passage of the PATRIOT Act with virtually no dissent.

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I think I kind of got on my soap box there for a bit. Sorry if it was like that and I hope I made some sense.

Anyway this post was inspired by Liane's tweet this afternoon.

My elbow seriously hurts now.

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael

*For the most part

You Never Know

Do you ever wonder how much the other people in your life know about you? Not like facts and statistics. It's great if someone know my birthday is May 1st or that I'm 21 years old or my favorite band is Okkervil River. It amazes me that people even bother to remember these things about other people, but that's not what this is about.

I've been thinking about what other people know about you. Even if you keep somethings secret, do those who are close to eventually figure it out? If this is the case, is it just polite to ignore it?

It's just something I've been thinking about lately.*

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You never how much you use your elbow. Like using your arm to push yourself up or to close doors. I don't mean to keep bitching about it, but it is kind of the most important thing in my life right now and it's making doing this blog kind of hard.

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael

*I know the first bit of this post sounds like I'm talking about coming out of the closet. It's not that.

More Bitching About My Elbow.

The pain in my right elbow is much worse today. More importantly it hurts really bad when I put it into position to type. So, this will be another short post.

I took two finals yesterday. They were easy and more importantly I didn't even need to do that well on them to get an A in those classes. I'm surprised that I actually convinced myself to study for them at all. But I felt like, "why should I go for the homerun when all I need is a single." I knew going into my Political Science final that all I needed was to get a D. I needed to get 2/3rds of the points! That is so easy. Yet I still spent time studying. It wasn't really in-depth quality studying , but still. The other final was in Economics and it was basically the same situation, but in this case the professor grades so easy an A is basically guaranteed. That final only took me 15 minutes.

Ok, I'm done now. No more typing. It hurts too much.

Thanks for reading and please comment

-Michael

Random Wednesday- My Elbow Hurts

My right Elbow has been hurting the past few days. It annoying and I can't figure out why it is doing it. I ran the symptoms on WebMD and one of the possibilities they gave me was Gout. lol.

It's probably just a repetitive motion injury. What is that repetitive motion*? My guess is that it is the way I hold my elbow when I'm holding the controller while playing XBox. Or maybe how I move it while playing guitar. I don't know.

That's all. I'm pulling out the finals excuse again.

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael

*Yea, I know what some of you are thinking and I can assure that it is not that.