Happy 28th Anniversary

On this day in 1982 one of the best albums ever made was released, Thriller by Michael Jackson. It remains the best selling album of all time and won Jackson seven Grammys. This album changed music forever. Not to mention the music videos for this album changed the way people looked at and created videos. Thriller remains one of the top 2 music videos ever made, I would say that Billie Jean and Beat It are in the top 10 too. Pretty good return on the initial investment of $750K to make this album. This album lifted Michael to be known as the King of Pop.

Let There Be Football

Kennesaw State University students approved an increase in athletic fees that will bring a football team to campus in 2014. the fee will take effect in 2012 and will raise an estimated $5-$6 million annually. However, before football can be played the university will begin 30-month campaign to raise $8-$12 million in start up costs. If all goes well coaches will be recruited in 2012 and players in 2013. If all goes well the Owls will play in the FCS (better known as Division I-AA).

They will play in the new soccer stadium that was recently completed for the womens' soccer team and the Atlanta Beat, move over ladies, now we know why the stadium was really built. Congrats and Go Owls!!

This Day in History

On November 28, 1994 serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer died due to massive head injuries. Oddly enough he was killed by other prisoners while cleaning a toilet. Attached below is a video, for those who watch Criminal Minds or other crime shows it is not bad. For others I will say he talks about some gruesome things.

Top 10: Worst NBA Uniforms (5-1)

5.New Jersey Nets - tie-dye (1990-1991). The Nets have attempted to rid their website of these jerseys, but they can still be found. I would not want to have these as part of my team's history either.

4.Cleveland Cavaliers - microsoft word (1995-1999). The Cavs change their jerseys every game it seems, but these were by far the worse of the bunch. Looks like they were created with the graphics in microsoft word.

3.Toronto Raptors - cartoon (1997). Question which was worse...these jerseys or Jurassic Park 2 & 3? They have changed these to a better jersey, not that too many people have seen them as most people do not know there is a team in Toronto.

2.Washington Wizards - gold and black alternates (2006). I like gold.....definitely making a statement. Even Mo Williams can't help but look at how nasty these are. Do not know how gold and black came from since their normal colors are blue and gold.

1.Milwaukee Bucks - bambi (1999). There are not enough words to describe how bad this jersey is. I understand that your mascot is a buck, but really!

Top 10: Worst NBA Uniforms (10-6)

In the NBA there are a lot of teams that have a mascot that do not make sense (i.e. Utah Jazz, Los Angeles Lakers). More on that topic later, but here is my list of the Top 10 worst NBA uniforms that I have been witness to. Here is 10-6, 5-1 tomorrow. Thank goodness I do not believe that any teams still wear any of these.

10.Atlanta Hawks - Yellow alternate jerseys (2004). There are plenty of Hawks jerseys to choose from to be on this list, but this one takes the prize. It is just not a good look, I must say I like the new navy blue and red. I am also very happy that they took the hawk and its wing span off of the front as well. Side note, the only time Barry went by Wade in his career.

9.Philadephia 76ers - shooting stars (1991-1994). Another example of a team with history that changes their uniforms for no reason whatsoever. These are hideous, no excuse. Stick with the classics. Where is Rainbow Brite?

8.Detroit Pistons - teal (1111). Another example similar to #9 above, a classic team with classic uniforms trying to modernize. Nothing says a tough team from Detroit like teal! They learned their lesson and went back to the classic jersey in red, white and blue. Let's not even talk about the horse!

7.Golden State Warriors - lightning bolt (1997-2010). Unfortunately most people probably never saw these, or should I say fortunately. Golden State had a great logo and jerseys back in the day and they have come to their senses and brought them back for this season. Here's hoping these stay away forever.

6.Sacramento Kings - gold and purple (2005). First things first, these look like college uniforms. Not too much to say here, just bad.

Happy Turkey Day!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Enjoy this day to be thankful of all of your blessings. Not to mention that it is a great day to enjoy some pigskin. Go Cowboys!!

Black Friday

In recent years there has been a debate on whether calling the shopping the day after Thanksgiving, “Black Friday,” is racist. To me this is another case of people being ignorant, Black Friday has nothing to do with race. Sometimes before you speak take a minute to research the reason for the name. The things that are focused on to be politically correct are ridiculous, especially when it comes to the race card. That would be like me getting mad about White Christmas or white sales for household items!!

Top 10: Worst Baseball Uniforms (5-1)

5.Pittsburgh Pirates - 2007 red alternate uniforms. Introduced in 2007 and not brought back after one year. After reading about these jerseys, Adam LaRoche helped design them, stick to baseball. I heard that McDonald's bought these up.

4.Chicago White Sox - The bar introduced in 1982. Probably not good as an organization to be on this list twice. The sox had and today have classic uniforms, this was a swing and a miss for sure.



3.Arizona Diamondbacks - Original jerseys. They had numerous variations of the hats and uniforms, but there are only two words for why these jerseys make the list, teal and purple. Keep the red uniforms you have now, there is a push in Phoenix to bring back the old jerseys, don't do it!

2. Turn Ahead the Clock - Uniforms that were worn at times in 1999 to prepare us for the millennium, thankfully this did not take off. Keep the cheesy jerseys to the minors and independent leagues.

1.Houston Astros - The orange cream of the crop, from 1975 to 1993 they graced us with these beauties. Is that a cummerbund?  I must say again though that I love the cap.

Top 10: Worst Baseball Uniforms (10-6)

Baseball is America’s pastime and has brought a lot of memorable moments to sports’ history. With that being said part of those memories are the horrendous uniforms some teams used to wear to a handful that are still worn today. I do enjoy when the teams wear their throwback uniforms to show how hideous some of the uniforms from back in the day were. Here is my list of the 10 worse uniforms I have been witness to in the majors (10-6 today, 5-1 tomorrow). More Top Ten lists to come.

10.Atlanta Braves - Sunday red alternate uniforms. I am a Braves fan, but the jerseys they wear on Sundays are too much, they actually almost look orange. I like the new midnight blue road alternate jerseys, but 3 jerseys are more than enough.

9.Tampa Bay Devil Rays - before they were the Tampa Bay Rays. Just look at the picture below, enough said. Thank goodness they changed to the navy blue and got rid of the yellow and purple.

8.Boston Red Sox - Green jerseys. The Red Sox wear their green jerseys during spring training for St. Patrick's Day and it is a good look, but once they were worn during the regular season and all I can say is "Holy Santa  Claus." Looks like a Christmas outfit for sure. Stick to your classic jerseys, you are the Red Sox.

7.San Diego Padres - Mustard Jerseys (1972). This came onto my radar a few years ago during a throwback game against the Braves. These jerseys are really bad, looks like a big mustard ball. I will say that I love the hat, classic.

6. Chicago White Sox - Shorts (1976). The White Sox will make the list a couple of times. In 1976 they wore these shorts for only three games, but how can these not be on the list for horrible uniforms. The collar adds to the nastiness. They look like a church league softball team.

Hello World

November 21^st is the 38^th annual “World Hello Day.” The intent of this day is for everyone to say hello to 10 people and according to this group, this demonstrates the importance of personal communication for preserving peace. The event began in 1973 in response to the Yom Kippur War. I guess that depends on who you say hello to, I am guessing in some cases this could create a brawl or severe beating, so be careful in who you say hello too. Hello to all!!

Blow the Whistle

After watching a handful of NBA games since the season started something was missing and then it hit me, the players are complaining and flailing their arms after every foul or whistle. I must say I love the way arguing is being handled this year. First, the referees have been instructed to put up with nothing and give a technical foul to who makes a gesture to question a call. Second, the league is starting to fine the players double the standard fines. It is much easier to watch a game and not see the players acting like elementary league players with 8 foot goals. Thank you David Stern for taking this part out of the game, it had gotten to a point of being ridiculous.

Music To Your Rears

With the holidays just around the corner I thought I would share a great gift idea for those who are really into music, Jammin’ Johns. Jammin’ Johns are handcrafted guitar and keyboard toilet seats. They come in three styles, acoustic, electric and grand piano. There website says it all, “Almost everyone has a toilet seat. And everyone else has a guitar or a keyboard. But only Jammin’ Johns has them combined.” Just when I thought I have seen it all, I was wrong. The guy who created these came up with the idea when he created a guitar from a toilet lid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdEK73Ghhmc

Happy Belated Birthday to The Marines!!

On November 10th the United States Marine Corp turned 235! 6% of the U.S. Military budget is spent on the U.S. Marine Corps, with the cost of training a Marine around $20,000 less than any other service man. For those humble numbers you get 15% of the maneuverable battalions and attack aircraft of the United States military output. Math up those numbers, and you get 100% badass!

You want me to pee where....

Urine-powered cars, homes and personal electronic devices could be available soon with new technology developed by scientists at Ohio University*. Supposedly one cow can provide enough energy to supply hot water to 19 houses and a car could travel approximately 90 miles per gallon. This could mean crappy news for the port-a-potty business, as this means more people just filling up the tanks. I am sure this is not good news either for the fuel companies either, but they do not need the money that’s for sure. I honestly believe that this has no chance in the real world (see electric cars).

I was able to find a chemist and professor at UGA who shared his insight as well, “The waste products from say a chicken farm could be used to produce the energy needed to run the farm,” said John Stickney. GO DAWGS!!!

I know we could be seeing a lot more of this and screaming “no need for a bathroom, that’s perfectly good fuel.”

Some other uses of urine:

-reduces the pain of a jellyfish sting

-a flavor additive for cigarettes

-browning agent for factory made pretzels

-urophagia

*This will be the one and only time I will be talking about Ohio University.

…and there was much rejoicing

Dr. Lewis has created one of the most innovative and greatest creations in our generation, the Beer Machine. The Beer Machine is a tool for home-beer making for dummies. It is an all-in-one single step fermenter, conditioning vessel and dispenser. All you have to do is add water. So basically home-beer making for dummies. American, Canadian, Australian, British, Dutch, Irish, German and Danish mixes are available. You can have homemade brew in as a little as seven days!!

The Beer Machine is here and it’s ready to pour some more joy into your life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enSYlCEz5VI

Why Change It?

After September 11^th the threat level chart below was created. My question is simple…why not have the threat level at the highest alert at all times? Is it not wise to have everyone on their toes to keep another catastrophic event from happening again? We owe it to ourselves and to our country to always be on alert and do what is necessary to protect us and our travels. Not only that who knows which color means what, we don’t carry around the chart in our wallets.

Say It Ain't So

Sesame Street premiered in 1969 on this day, here’s to 41 years! I came across this story today and in doing some more research the debate has been on-going for years, Bert might be gay! Who does not love Bert and Ernie or at least who didn’t love them? Do not get me wrong, I am a much bigger Ernie fan than Bert, but still this could shake up lives across the world. I guess I am out of the loop, mainly due to the fact that I am 31 and Sesame Street has not been on my radar for a long time. I guess the better question is wondering if there is not better and more important news out there for FoxNews than whether Bert is gay or not.

Here is the story. What do you think is Bert gay???

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2010/10/26/sesame-street-tweet-sparks-rumors-bert-closet/

Mid-Terms

I am not a political expert or insider to say the least, but after the mid-term elections were over one thing was clear, Americans were tired of how it has been the past two years. I was at the gym Wednesday and happened to arrive in time to listen to Obama’s speech. He called the election night “humbling” and “some election nights are more fun than others.”  He was quick to talk about how the incoming Congress needs to unify their efforts in a changing world. Obama used the word “shellacking” to describe the defeat of the Democrats, hopefully he also realizes that a large reason for the so-called “shellacking” was him and his first 1 ¾ years in office. He requested change back in his 2008 campaign, well you got change, do something with it! The Liberals are coming from all over now blaming the media and churches for the Republicans winning these elections.

In reading the most recent Gallup approval ratings, he reached an all-time low in his 7^th quarter in office of 41%, this is one of those things that drives me crazy, because all I heard about when Bush was in office was his approval rating and how bad it was. I have searched for it on the internet and watch enough news to be dangerous and cannot remember a time that I have heard a word about Obama’s approval rating. Well here is a little scorecard for you with the last two Presidents, through 635 days in office Bush’s rating was 62% and Obama’s rating was 44%. I have his campaign slogan in 2012, Yes We Can’t!!

Miami Heat...what's the big deal?

The Miami Heat, especially Lebron James, have taken a lot of grief over the summer leading into the season. The only issue to me was “The Decision,” where Lebron had an hour special to announce where he would play basketball, that was a bad decision. However, I do not blame any of the players who sign somewhere and play a game and make millions of dollars, who would not love to be in that situation. It was good to hear a player be up front and say the reason for their decision, Lebron said I want to win championships and this was for sure his best opportunity to get a few. A lot of people have made comments towards Lebron and you can tell he is coming into this season with a chip on his shoulder for sure. Nike just released a new commercial which I thought was hilarious, of course once again people were outraged over it. The video below has a few of the comments by Jordan and Barkley and then the commercial. My preference would be for the Hawks to come out of the Eastern Conference, but I am realistic and know that probably won’t happen, so here’s to Miami coming out of the East. They will be a hard team to keep from winning it all.

When did umpires become part of the story???

One more baseball rant until spring training. In recent years it seems that umpires have become a big part of the story in baseball. Every year I get more and more frustrated when I see an umpire instigate arguments and fights, seems like not too many years ago they would walk away and not push it further. I remember specifically this year during a Braves game on tv when an umpire made a ball call on a pitch and Tim Hudson shrugged his shoulders and before the next pitch the umpire walked out in front of the plate and clearly asked Huddy what you said and started yelling back at him. The umpire needs to realize that his calls are going to generate reactions and just move on to the next play. More and more umpires walk towards dugouts to continue arguments with players and managers alike. Umpires are supposedly graded by MLB for their performance, I just hope they teach umps to stay out of the play and make calls.

No wonder this AA manager freaked out, he is tired of umpires too!!

Chris Rainey....Time to Play

There has been a lot of outrage by the media and other persons associated with the Florida Gators football program over Georgia’s Defensive Coordinator, Todd Grantham, giving the choke sign numerous times to Florida’s kicker Chas Henry at the end of the October 30^th game. The part that is not being talked about a lot is that the kicker made the kick and Florida won the game. I found it to be very funny that these same people with their moral outcry had nothing to say about Urban Meyer reinstating Chris Rainey, especially after Florida had lost three games in a row and their offense was struggling. For those that do not know, Chris Rainey was arrested back in September for stalking. He sent the following text message to his girlfriend, “Time to die, bitch.”

If this was not Florida, choke-gate would not have made national news. For the record, Grantham’s act was bush league and it has since been addressed, get over it. The Gators have had 30 arrests for felonies or misdemeanors since Urban has become the coach. I am a Georgia Bulldog fan and I am not pleased with the amount of arrests in Athens, but I have no doubt that Chris Rainey would have been kicked off the team no questions asked at Georgia (see Zach Mettenberger). Urban has always talked about his moral values, by reinstating Rainey he is saying his actions were okay versus the right message of this is unacceptable behavior and I won’t tolerate it on my team. The worst part was the week leading up to the game Urban could not quit saying how great of a kid Rainey is. Maybe he is a good guy who threatens women with death.

Here We Go Replay...Here We Go!!

With the baseball season coming to an end it is time that Bud Selig take the lead and do something right for a change, baseball needs some form of a replay system. Today the umpires, if they choose, are allowed to review home runs or potential home runs. While it is good that a home run call is right, what about the rest of the game that seems to be screwed up? Just like in every other sport the athletes are bigger, faster and stronger. The picture below is a prime example of a blown call that can change a game.

Here is my idea for a simple solution. The home run review stays how it is now; the umpires have the ability to review all aspects of home run calls. Each manager has the ability to challenge one time with the ability to earn a second challenge. The only plays that cannot be reviewed would be balls and strikes, which is the one part of the game that cannot be altered; if you allowed balls and strikes to be reviewed the game would take an hour longer at least. So from the beginning of the game each manager would have one challenge, the challenge must be made by the manager before the next pitch is thrown. Once challenged the crew chief would have no more than 5 minutes to watch a replay of the game and make a call. If the manager who challenged wins the challenge he would be awarded one more challenge to be used at anytime. If the manager loses the challenge, he does not have any more for the game. A manager can only have two challenges max per game. This would make the challenge an important tool in the game and the manager must use it wisely. Seems simple enough. Come on now Bud, do something good for the game and make the right choice and implement replay for the 2011 season. More on umpires in a future posting.

Also, I wanted to wish my dad and step-mother Happy Anniversary, love you guys!!

Boise State.....Stop Whining

I am tired of hearing about Boise State and how they might get screwed over. The system is what it is and you are not going to be awarded a National Championship when you play in a horrible conference (WAC) and do not play more than one or two decent games on your schedule. Not only that, when is the last time you saw a big name team (i.e. Alabama, Texas, etc) play on a Tuesday night on ESPN?? Also, get rid of the blue field, its a gimmick and you should not need gimmicks. As far the non-conference schools go, TCU and maybe even Utah are better in my opinion. Boise State always steps up when they play a good school at the beginning of the season or in a bowl game, but it is not that hard to get up for one or two big games a year. The other argument is that no big school will play them....that is because Boise wants them to come to play there. Two schools from what I heard offered to play Boise, one of them Nebraska and Boise turned it down. Nebraska agreed to play two games at home and one at Boise. Sounds like a good deal to me, you have not earned a home and home, there has to be some advantage to the big schools when it comes to playing Boise.  Boise has travelled to the South for a game and if I remember correctly Georgia put a pretty good beating on you to kick off the season, maybe that is why you stay in the West now. Boise has to have a mentality like a USC or Tennessee, you will play anyone, anywhere, anytime. That will start to get you even more respect. So enjoy the BCS second or third tier game, you are not getting to the big show!!

“It’s okay to be fat. So you’re fat. Just be fat and shut up about it.” - RB

Happy Birthday Roseanne Barr, today she turns 58 years old. Roseanne was definitely a pioneer in her time. Roseanne was one of the best shows on back in the day, too bad she has gone off the deep end. Check out her website, she is running for President (and the Prime Minister of Israel).

http://www.roseanneworld.com/blog/home.php.

I always have said I wish Ross Perot would have been voted into office, but do not know if I can go that far here, even though it can’t get much worse. I have posted her performance of the National Anthem in 1990 below, a video below of how I wish to remember Roseanne.

Controlling Destiny!?!?!?!?

A familiar phrase in sports is that a team or player “controls their own destiny.” This really is thrown out a lot towards the end of the season or heading into the playoffs. Well I was under the impression that destiny could not be controlled, the sheer definition alone makes me further believe it. Destiny is defined as a predetermined course of events. It is another saying that has taken off and it does not make any sense. Every time I hear an announcer or sports radio host say that I get heated up. Destiny was never intended to be changed, altered or controlled. We are just along for the ride. How about just state the facts, if this team wins out they can play for the championship, seems simple enough!

Here is a quiz related to controlling your own destiny, if it was possible: http://www.chatterbean.com/fun-quizzes/destiny/.

Fight For Your Right!!!

The beauty of being an American, you have the right to vote and the right not to vote. If you choose to vote, then November 2, 2010 is a big day for the future of our country. 37 of the 100 seats in the Senate are up for grabs, these are important as Senators serve a six-year term and will not get out of office until 2017, unless they become President and someone tries to sell off their seat. Please try not to vote for too many candidates that will vote “present,” please! There are also some Governor races and other state or county specific things on there as well depending on your state.

AARP has a great link I have put down below, all you do is type in your address and it lets you know everything that will be on your ballot.

http://vote4.aarp.org/?cmp=BAC-VOTE&sfr=1288197216790