1. They focus on controversy and call it entertainment. I’m mean seriously, if I wanted all this drama, I would watch a soap opera. Whiny, annoying players would go away if the media stopped talking about them, but instead, the media focuses all of their attention on those particular players. Then the have the audacity to complain about how annoying those players are. I’m not going to name names here, but you know who I’m talking about.

2. Game selection is biased towards large market teams. Living in Detroit, I obviously get the Lions when they are on and not blacked out, read: Lions road games. We often get the Browns or the Bengals as well do to their proximity. Usually, the third game is one they consider to be of national interest. For example, we got Giants vs. Redskins for the late afternoon NFC game on Fox. Why not the Cardinals vs. 49ers? The Cardinals are the defending NFC champs and were crazy entertaining last year. Where is the love? I assume this is carryover from last year when the NFC East was considered to be the best division in football, though I would argue that point. It felt like they aired every inner-division NFC East game last year. I’d like a little variety please. I shouldn’t have to buy a satellite dish to get a decent variety of games.

3. Commercials. There are too many of them. After the score, after the kickoff, every timeout, every injury, 2 minute warning, in between quarters, etc. This was ok when I was in college because I was usually working on homework during the less interesting games, especially the first few quarters. Now though, I’m just there on the couch watching football, and lots and lots of beer commercials.

4. Vested interest. This is probably the crux of the issue, if I’m honest. I think that sports are often provide a sense of hometown pride. I love to cheer for the local team because I associate with them. If they are winners, then so am I. Isn’t that why people refer to their favorite team in the first person plural? (Our defense stopped the run well in the first half, but we got worn down in the 4th quarter.) Well, my current hometown team is the Lions, current worst team in the league. My former hometown and current favorite team is the Rams, soon to be worst team in the league. I hardly want to associate myself with either of these groups. If the Rams lost because they were no good, I could live with it, but losing because of 10 penalties is excruciating. Not to mention the fact that the only game I’ll get to see this year is when the Rams come to Detroit. However, I’m not a fair weather fan so I’ll stick with them, but if they leave St. Louis as they are discussing, I’m not sure if my heart will go with them.

I can understand why people prefer college football. The places it is really popular often don’t have a pro team or at least not a perennially successful one. Plus, it is easier to associate with a University, especially if you or your friends went there. I’m not going over to the dark side completely, but it’s starting to look very tempting.

Guess I could be nice and post a video instead of just making a comment.

EDIT: I didn’t have my speakers on the first time I watched that. WOW. Nice use of the ’80s.

I’ve tried to take them in an order that should hopefully let you get a feel for the layout.  I plan to take some pics of the outside tomorrow.  Without further ado, here’s the album.  Feel free to ignore any messiness. 

This story has me feeling a bit differently.  Seriously, people panicked when Twitter went down?  I could definitely understand a reaction like that to Hotmail or Gmail–any big email provider.  After all, you get bills and other important things there.  What Ashton Kutcher is doing at this exact moment is not important.

Here’s an obligatory Penny Arcade on the topic.

They bought 3 luxury jets

After seeing this story, I finally got angry enough to write my congressman for the first time. They pushed my off the edge of indifference. They have unleashed my wrath in the form of a polite letter to an authority figure. God help them.

First off was the Paddle to the Symphony event. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra played a concert in the park one evening, and a charity group held a dinner and canoe event as a corresponding fundraiser. It was really cool. We had dinner, and then paddled the canoe across a lake. Then, we sat in the canoe while the orchestra played a collection of marches. It was fun to see a symphony in such a relaxed environment.

The day after that concert, I took off for a two week trip to Thailand. I hung out mostly in Bangkok visiting old friends and returning to all my favorite places. Got a nice massage, saw a few movies at the fancy theater with recliners, and ate tons of good food. Walking around Bangkok felt odd because it is so drastically different from America, but at the same time, it felt like home.

I also went to the beach for 4-5 days. I stayed on a small, remote island called Koh Mak. (Koh = island in Thai). The resort was very secluded; it was basically in the middle of the jungle. The beach had the jungle on one side and the ocean on the other. The water was crystal clear as well. I saw quite a few sea urchins when I got in the water though so I didn’t swim much as my previous encounter with that animal was rather painful. I don’t think the island I was on had a hospital either. I would have sucked to take an emergency boat ride with needles sticking out of your body.

I got back to Detroit on Sunday, and then I went to Green Day’s 21st Century Breakdown concert on Tuesday night. Considering my jet lag, it probably wasn’t the wisest decision to go to that concert. I almost fell asleep at the end of it. It was a really great concert though. Billy Joe is a really energetic guy. They played a 3 hour set, and he was going full out for the duration. I was really impressed.

Following my trip to Thailand, I accumulated enough frequent flier miles to achieve Silver Elite status with Northwest. The main perk of this is I don’t have to wait in line any more. I now have access to the first class check in counter and the priority boarding lane. I can get on the plane first when they call for Skyteam Elite passengers, though I have no idea why anyone would want to get on the plane first. I have always felt the last one on first one off is the best policy as I don’t want to be on the plane longer than necessary. I also get complimentary upgrades to first class on domestic flights if that section is empty. I doubt I will see that happen very often, but it’s still cool that it could happen.

The problem, as I quickly discovered, was that American cars aren’t appealing–they just don’t look good, imo.  I have no idea how their build quality or reliability compares, and I probably never will.  If there’s not a single car that can make me say, “I’d like to be driving around in that,” there’s not a single car I’ll look into in detail.

I even figured maybe they’d have a some competitive hybrids or something, since that seems to be the way the world is going.  Well, you know what?  From what I saw, they don’t.  Unless I want to start paying $30k or something, but why would I bother with that?  I can get a brand new Honda Insight for under $20k.

Like I said, maybe American cars are all built better and are more reliable, but frankly I doubt it.  That’s exactly one of the reasons Honda and Toyota became so popular.  Even if that is true, though, they’ve gotta have some street appeal too.  Hopefully Fiat can change that for us…

Seriously, they’re crazy, but until the team plays a game under new head coach Josh McDaniels, I was generally willing to just wait it out.  He’s certainly crazy, but maybe he’s just crazy enough to be a genius.  However, I happened to read this article in the Denver Post, and I couldn’t agree with it more.

Essentially, Brandon Marshall has asked for a new contract (and subsequently for a trade), and Dave Krieger is arguing that he deserves it.  Well, you know what?  He’s right.  Typically I don’t like players sitting out OTAs or camp for new contracts.  If you signed the first one, be a man and stick with it.  That’s what I said when T.O. got a whiny in Philly.

But to me, a rookie contract is different.  Depending on where you’re drafted, you generally don’t have much choice in the matter.  Generally the thought is to go out and prove yourself and you’ll get paid.  Well, in three years in the league, Marshall has already established himself as a legitimate #1 and arguably one of the best in the league at that (he went to the pro bowl last year, too).

Pay him what he deserves.  Life’s short in the NFL, and in this case, he really is doing what’s right for his family.  I love Eddie Royal and Brandon Stokley, but neither of them are #1s.

With that in mind, Megan and I picked up a pair of Pres when they were released.  So far (and this is coming from somebody who stood in line for the iPhone the day it was released and has talked it up previously), I’ve got to say the Pre is better.

• The keyboard on the iPhone is better than a lot of people would have you believe, but a physical keyboard is just better.  And a slider is just slick. 
• The browser is much faster.
• The plan is better.  I was paying $60/month for 450 minutes, 5000 night & weekend, 250 txt msgs (NOT picture messages–the iPhone will but still doesn’t support them), and unlimited data.  Now we’re paying a combined $103 for 1500 minutes, unlimited nights & weekends starting at 7pm, unlimited txt (including pics and video…), and unlimited data.  Inflation’s got nothing on Sprint.
• Multitasking, anyone?
• A crisper, brighter screen.

You could probably make the argument that some of my iPhone complaints would be placated if I were to wait for the 3G S, but frankly I don’t want to.  Apple’s exclusion of picture messaging has irked me from day one, and their dumbass decision to not support it on the original phone doesn’t do much to inspire confidence…

Oh yeah, Palm stock is up nearly 1200% percent since December.  Coincidence?  Not a chance.