Shouzer

I was just reading a quick article on ESPN that says Wade Phillips and Jason Garrett’s jobs with the Cowboys are safe, according to Jerry Jones.  Now, you could certainly argue that Phillips has done a less than stellar job with the Cowboys and that Garrett’s offense wasn’t has high-powered as it was last year.  But my question is should one bad year even warrant questions on whether their jobs are safe?

Seriously, Bill Cowher coached in Pittsburgh for 15 years before winning a Super Bowl.  Granted, he’d made it there before and had other successful teams, but shit, it’s not like his team was always dominant.  When was the last time the Titans won a Super Bowl?  Um, never?  Yet, Jeff Fisher has been their coach since ‘94.  This year they’re one of the best teams in the league.

My point is that sometimes it takes a while to get the right pieces in place for your team.  Sometimes injuries really do wreck a season (the Broncos have had 6 RBs put on IR this year).  Sometimes another team in your division is just having a great year.  None of that means you’re doing a bad job.  None of that means you should lose your job.  But nowadays, if you don’t start 4-0, you’re on the hot seat.  If you have two 8-8 years in a row, you’re probably getting fired.  If you don’t win the Super Bowl, you don’t get an extension.  WTF is wrong with people?

We are quickly approaching the end of the year and the end of an era. 2009 will see a new president, and I think everyone here at Shouzer is pretty excited about that. My question is, how excited are you? How much is Barack’s presidency worth? Let’s play a little game of what if.

What if John Kerry had defeated George Bush in the 2004 election? We would have been saved from the last four years of destruction, replacing them with a period of blandness. Now, when the 2008 election came along, Kerry, as the incumbent, would have been on the Democratic ticket. Some other Republican would have been flying the “Change we can believe in” banner, and Barack would have been a nobody.

The incumbent has a strong advantage so Kerry probably would have pulled off reelection. So let’s look now at the 2012 election. Kerry’s VP, Edwards, would hold a strong advantage in the Democratic primaries, though he probably would be fought by HR Clinton and Obama. Obama, by this point, would have been a senator for around 10 years part of the Washington establishment, no longer seen as an agent of change. Though it is obviously still plausible that he would come out on top here.

I could go on to list other scenarios, but I think you see my point. No George Bush for the last four years means no Barack Obama now. So is he worth it?

Last year, when I built my computer and got a new TV, I invested in a few surge suppressors from CyberPower for the house (namely, I got two of the 1090’s and one 895). Since I started using them, I haven’t had any real opportunities to see them in action. We’ve had plenty of power outages, but no surges … until tonight. We had two consecutive surges within about 5 seconds of each other. The surge suppressors did exactly what they were designed to do (all my of electronics kept power, while the rest of the house flickered), but it was just extremely cool to see it happen. I will never, ever go back to the generic 6-outlet power strips.

Last year we only had a single day of snow, and it was limited to about an inch, maybe two.  Personally, I really liked it.  I don’t care for either temperate extreme, and obviously snow means cold.

This year, on the other hand, we’ve already gotten probably about a foot, and even though I didn’t think I would, I’ve gotta say I’ve enjoyed it.  It just does something to add to the season, and it’s been fun seeing Athena mess around in it for the first time.

Anyway, there’s definitely a lesson to be learned from driving around in the snow here:  people who aren’t used to driving in the snow don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.  The ratio of SUVs to cars on the road has at least tripled, and I’ve seen more chains on tires than I’ve ever seen in my life.  That doesn’t stop them from driving 10mph though.  Oh no, you could almost walk faster than most of these bums drive.

Let’s not forget the morons who just slam on the gas when their tires slip.  “Well, if a little gas doesn’t work, I’m sure flooring it will!”  Wish us luck…

We here in Detroit got bombarded last night and this morning with snow. We got around 10”. It was coming down during rush hour, so I decided to work for home. Incidentally, it’s also my last day before Christmas vacation. Hurray! I’m off for the next two weeks straight. Booyakasha.

The snow day was an eventful one. First of all, Bush finally announced that he is giving an auto bailout. That’s a huge relief for me, personally. It essentially means I get to keep my job. I was honestly pretty worried about that for the last month or so.

So I’m sitting there on my couch in the afternoon, getting a little work done. I’m on my last task for the year, and feeling pretty good. And then, the power cuts out. How annoying. I take it in stride though. Nothing can ruin this most awesome of days. I’m feeling a little stir crazy anyway, and the snow has stopped. So I decide to go out and catch a movie. There were 3 trucks from the energy company there at the apartments so I figured I’d be ok.

The parking lot at my apartment was plowed, and they do a pretty good job keeping the roads clear so I figure I’m ok. The road right in front of my apartment was clear, but then I pulled out on 8 mile into massive ruts of snow. I did actually make it to the movie theater ok, though I almost got stuck trying to turn left into the theater.

But I digress. I ended up watching the new Will Smith movie, Seven Pounds. I can’t tell you whether it’s any good or not though. In the middle of the movie, they had to evacuate the theater. Apparently, a snow plow hit a gas line. I can tell you that I was very engrossed in the movie. I definitely want to see the end of it to find out what happens.

I got home, and the power was still out. There was a sign saying that it would be back on by midnight. I’m a little worried at this point because it’s cold. The heat obviously doesn’t work without electricity. I started trying to find a place to stay for the night because I didn’t want to freeze. Plus, it was like 6 o’clock and I had nothing to do until bedtime. Talk about boredom. As soon as I got a friend on the phone, though, the electricity kicked back on. I finished up my work, and now I’m on Christmas break until January 4th. Can’t beat that.

Apparently, the RIAA is going to stop suing individual consumers for illegally downloading/uploading music from their computers, and instead go solely after the service providers. Would this be considered a sign of the apocalypse?

Engadget via WSJ

I tend to stay up late with the TV on, but much of the time I’m actually on the computer and not paying attention to it.  That means after something finishes playing, the TiVo will change to some random channel.  It’ll usually take a while, but eventually I realize somebody’s trying to sell me some sex pill (ExtenZe), some porn (Girls Gone Wild), or some get rich quick scheme.

After watching this shit in the background, I’ve decided I should write up some book with a bunch of weak “how to make money fast” ideas, and sell it to a bunch of bums with an infomercial.  I mean, come on, who falls for this stuff?  I saw one recently for something called “Jeff’s Shortcuts” and how it could make me a millionaire.  Seriously, you know Jeff is the only one making money here…

And I don’t really have a problem with that.  Good for him, I guess.  I’m just saying I need to get in on it.

For about a year starting last summer, I was a Blockbuster Total Access subscriber.  However, when I heard that the 360 was going to be integrating support for streaming Netflix movies, I decided it was time to jump ship.  I haven’t once regretted the decision.  It’s cheaper, the selection is better, and now I can stream movies through my 360, my TiVo, or any of my PCs, often at HD quality.  Testing

The only thing that Blockbuster had going for it (at all) was the fact that you could exchange your videos in-store for free.  It started out great, but then of course those greedy fuckers decided to start limiting it to 5 times a month.  Anyway, go Netflix. 

The subject says it all.  Play Auditorium.  It’s just a demo, but it’s totally worth the 30 minutes you’ll sink into it.  Do it.  Do it.

It’s weird here.  In the summer it doesn’t start getting dark until sometime around 9pm.  But now it starts getting dark around 4pm.  Now, certainly I understand that the days are shorter in winter and that daylight savings plays a role, but still…  I don’t ever remember living somewhere else that hard such a huge range in its days’ lengths.

You’d think it would be fairly obvious when it’s the only major sport without a playoff that something is wrong.  Clue #1.  Every single year there seems to be at least some controversy about who should be playing in the national championship.  Clue #2.  Damn near everybody and their mother–including the next President–thinks there should be a playoff system put in place.  Now of course being president doesn’t make you a sports expert, but still…  Clue #3.

Honestly, the argument that a lack of a playoff makes the regular season more exciting is fuckin’ stupid.  Are you telling me that it somehow made Texas/Oklahoma or Texas/Texas Tech better games?  Of course not.  In fact, they were such good games, I’d love to see rematches in the playoffs…  I really can see the argument.  If you lose one game, you’re liable to not be the national champion, even if it was a fluke.  That makes sense, but more often than not that’s not how it plays out.  This year is a perfect example of that.

Beyond that, though, the ranking system is pretty ridiculous, too.  How is Oklahoma above Texas now?  Because Oklahoma blew out a team that beat Texas?  Who really gives a shit?  Texas beat Oklahoma, and at a neutral location, no less.  Honestly, it’s not that impressive that Oklahoma beat Texas Tech at home.  Every team in the country has an advantage at home.  The only team of the three that had an impressive win in that sense was Texas.

Honestly I’m all for Texas not playing in a national championship–they won it all a few years ago, so I’m happy for somebody else to have a chance.  But frankly, they deserve it more than Oklahoma this year.  They beat them, and they didn’t have to play at home to do it.

You know you’ve missed these……

Last weekend, I went camping again with the outdoors meetup group. We went down to Hocking Hills Ohio to do a zip line tour and some hiking, and we stayed in a pretty sweet cabin. Once again, I didn’t know any of the 5 girls or 1 guy that were going. (Nice ratio btw).

The trip started out really well. I carpooled down to Ohio after work on Friday with two girls, and we had a pleasant conversation as well as a nice dinner at Chipotle. As a side note, I am loving the prevalence of higher class fast food places like Chipotle, Panera, Noodles and co., Zoup, etc. that they have around here. Those places dominate McDonalds in every way imaginable for like $2 more.

Saturday morning, the goodness continued. We went out to the zip line tour, which was sweet. It was basically just a series of zip lines through the trees. Zip lines are fun. We chatted as a group on the platforms between the zip lines, met a fun-loving couple who was also doing the zip lining that day, and I hit on the tour guide a little bit. Overall, a really nice morning.

But then, something bad happened. The other guy on the trip left. He had tickets to a show in Detroit and had to head home. I think it’s fair to say that anyone who knows me or reads this blog even a little bit knows that I did not handle this situation well. I kinda turned into the shy, quiet guy. I just didn’t know what to say for pretty much the rest of the trip.

A few of the girls joked that I was living the dream. I think that dream involves pajamas, pillow fights, a steamy trip to the hot tub, or some practice kissing. Instead, I got a conversation about menopause. I took that opportunity to take a long trip to the bathroom. Ladies, just for your reference, talking about woman’s issues is your version of sexual harassment. We just don’t want to hear that.

Honestly, I’ve played it up a little bit for comedic value. It wasn’t really that bad. I was pretty shy and quiet, but I didn’t feel that uncomfortable most of the time. We had a few really nice hikes, and I cooked a chicken pot pie for dinner on Saturday that was word-taking. It was so good that the chatter of 5 women was silenced for a few minutes while they savored the goodness. It wasn’t as fun as my first camping trip with this group, but I had a pretty good time.

Anybody who’s read Shouzer with even the slightest consistency certainly knows that I have very liberal political views.  It should come as no surprise, then, that I was ecstatic when MSNBC (gotta support MS, right?) announced Barack Obama would be our next president.  On a large scale, it showed me the amazing level of growth our country has seen in the last 50 years–much less the last 200.  Looking to the future, I felt the election signaled a very much needed change in direction for our country.

What really sucks, though, is that I’m not sure how much any president could do right now.  Obama will likely be taking office with the worst economy since FDR, and our world image has probably not ever been worse than it is now.  The fact that Bush will be leaving the presidency with the lowest approval ratings since those numbers have been recorded (lower even than Nixon’s when he resigned) only exemplifies the mess Obama will be taking over.

I guess my worry is that Obama’s presidency won’t live up to its potential, simply because he’ll spend his time cleaning up that mess.  Here’s to hoping that won’t be the case.  Personally, I would be happy even if Obama only got us back to where we were eight years ago–no wars, a budget surplus, and the respect of the world.  I don’t need national healthcare and a lot of that stuff (though it would certainly be nice).  I just want the country fixed.

So, without going into details, my car battery was dead after I got back from running PuzzleCrack this year.  I took it out, got it charged, and put it back in.  Everything worked fine (some of my car’s settings were reset, but that’s to be expected), except for my power windows.

For some reason, I could control the driver window and both back windows from the driver’s side, but not the front passenger side window.  Similarly, the controls for my front windows both have two steps when you push them.  Pushing them to the second step causes teh windows to keep going until they’re all the way open/closed.  That wasn’t working either.

It’s obviously not a huge deal or anything, I’ve got a full warranty on my car for 100,000 miles, so I decided I’d just take it in and get it fixed.  I got to the dealership, explained the issue, and the guy told me to follow him out to my car.  He turns it on, rolls the driver window down all the way and holds the button for a few seconds, then rolls it back up and holds it again.  He then did the same with the passenger side.  Somehow that fixed it.

I’m not really complaining, but wtf is that?  I guess it’s a good thing to know for the future, but really…should you even have to do that?

I took great satisfaction in watching the bottom-feeding Rams destroy the vaunted Cowboys. It was like poetic justice to watch that team fall apart. Jerry Jones has collect a team full of “big personalities”, but personalities don’t win championships. That’s what I always say.

I actually didn’t start watching the game until the second quarter, which is a shame considering all the best stuff happened in the first. I was streaming in on my computer as I watched the Bills vs. Chargers on the TV. I meant to add super-fast internet as another modern convenience that was rocking my apartment in my last post, but it slipped my mind.

Anyway, I think the big key to the game was the 42 yd TD catch by Donnie Avery as well as his near miss on the much longer pass play later in the game. That deep threat kept the Cowboys defense from focusing on the run throughout the game, freeing Jackson to run over them for 160yds.

The success of the offense kept the defense off the field and fresh, as well as motivated. This allowed them to get consistent pressure on the QB and force some big turnovers.

It is hard to judge if the Rams are better or if the Cowboys have just imploded that much, but I would say it’s a combination of the two. The victory was impressive in my mind, but I’m not expecting a playoff run at this point. I’m not even hoping for a hiring of Haslett full time yet, as many writers are. I do have renewed hope in their abilities though, and I am starting to really enjoy the NFL again. I was starting to prefer *gasp* NCAA football, but loyalty is no longer wavering.

I think the Rams will be hard-pressed to beat the Patriots next week. The keys to that game are stopping the run and establishing some passing threat. Once again, if they can stop the run, they can force Cassle to make mistakes under pressure, and a credible passing threat will open things up for Jackson against a pretty good defense.

Realistically, the Patriots are just too good at this point, especially at home, but the game in 2 weeks versus the Cardinals is an obvious must-win for the Rams to have a snow ball’s chance at the playoffs.