Island of Sordor

Ever watch Thomas The Tank Engine and wonder exactly what is this Island of Sordor anyway? It looks very small from the aerial map, but when you watch the show, it is huge. Something is up. Let's just say, the realism is limited. Maybe Sordor is the size of Rhode Island, that would make sense, but the aerial map makes it the size of Mackinaw Island instead. And if Thomas the Tank Engine was given a yearly performance review, I am pretty sure he would be on the next ferry off Sordor and working else where, as he is always ruining something. Just saying.

Week 2 NFL Pick em'!

Who do I like? I need to be better than last weeks picks...

6. I like the Chiefs to beat Dallas 28-20,  the town has been a buzz for this opener all week. Charles 135yds, 2TDs

5. Green Bay to make Washington 0-2, as the Pack wins 21-14. I can't see Washington winning this one.

4. Chicago to win at home vs. Minnesota, 17-10.

3. Eagles to win at home vs. San Diego, 34-20, big rout.

2. Seattle wins at home 24-21 vs. 49ers

1. The Lions to finally win at Arizona! 34-20, Calvin will actually score a td this weekend, and look for Fauria leading the tightends, Pettigrew will find less time as he is very unreliable, can't catch, can't hold on the ball, will find him on bench.

Monday Night: Bengals beat the Steelers 24-17!

Week 1 NFL Pick 'em Review

How to read the following:

 

Game, Predicted Score, and Predicted Total

Final Score, Final Total

The "Spread", determined by the betting wizards of Las Vegas, and their total points

And what my prediction would of been regarding the Las Vegas spread values

The last line, a cumulative Win-Loss tally of my spread picks, and my over-under picks.

 

How it turned out....

 

 

Atlanta at New Orleans

Predicted 38-31 New Orleans, total: 69 points

Final: 23-17, New Orleans, total: 40 points

Saints -3, 54 Points

Win Spread, Loss Over/Under

1-0, 0-1, overall: 1-1

Tampa Bay at Jets

Predicted 19-14 Tampa Bay, total: 33 points

Final: 18-17 Jets total: 35 points

Jets +2.5, 41 Points

Loss Spread, Win Over/Under

1-1, 1-1, overall 2-2

 

Tennessee at Pittsburgh

Predicted 24-21 Tennessee, total: 45 points

Final: 16-9 Tennessee, total: 25

Pittsburgh -6.5, 40.5 Points

Win Spread, Loss Over/Under

2-1, 1-2, Overall 3-3

 

Cincinnati at Chicago

Predicted: Cincinnati 21-17, total: 38 points

Final: Chicago 24-21, total: 45 points

Chicago -3.5, 45.5 Points

Loss Spread, Loss Over/Under

2-2, 1-3, Overall 4-4

 

Green Bay at SF 49ers

Predicted GB 24-18, total: 42 points

Final: 34-28 SF, total: 62 points

SF -4.5, 50.5 points

Loss: Spread, Win Over/Under

2-3, 2-3, Overall 4-6

 

Vikings at Lions

Predicted DET 31-17, total: 48 points

Final: DET 34-24, total: 58 points

DET -4.5, 47 points

Win: Spread, Win: Over/Under

3-3, 3-3, Overall 6-6

 

Eagles at Redskins

Predicted Washington 28-24, total: 52

Final: Philadelphia 33-27, 60

Washington -4.5, 51 points

Loss: Spread, Win: Over/Under

3-4, 4-3, Overall 7-7

 

I was Under 500 (3-4 with the spread betting) and 4-3 with the over under betting. So I was even, 7-7 overall...interesting? I thought it was. Maybe week 2 will be better. Look for my picks later.

 

 

NFL Week 1: (6-Pack)

Outside of the Lions hosting the Vikings this Sunday, the following are my top other 6 things to look for this weekend.

6. Tampa vs. Jets, Just how bad will Josh Freeman be this year? Will it be a rebound year, or will it burn fast and lead to his benching. The return of Revis to NYJ should be an interesting reunion. This game should allow Tampa to win, by 6, Prediction: Tampa Bay 20, NYJ 14

5. Tennessee vs. Pittsburgh, Will this be the year that Pittsburgh comes back to earth regarding mediocre teams. Tennessee will show off a powerful running game with Johnson and Greene behind a healthy offensive line. Prediction: Tennessee 24, Pittsburgh 21

4. Philadelphia vs. Washington, RG3 returns vs. a potential high flying offensive show in Philly. This game should be a fun one to watch, really looking forward to it. I suspect all the news of in-fighting in Philadelphia will help Washington, with the Redskins winning 28, 24.

3. Atlanta vs. New Orleans, Two in-conference, in -division super bowl potential teams face off, this should be a high powered game on offense, neither team has a defense worth talking about, should be plenty of fantasy points to be had. New Orleans: 38, Atlanta 31

2. Cincinnati vs. Chicago, Everyone is talking about the Bengals as a division winner in the AFC North, if this is true they need to win this game in Chicago, where a new coaching staff takes over after the Lovie era. I believe the Bears will lose, but their running game will keep it close, Bengals 21, Bears 17

1. Green Bay vs. San Francisco, This 4 PM EST kickoff should be a prime time game, too bad. GB signed 2 former QBs from SF recently, this sounds like some gamesmanship. Look forward to more shots of SF head coach Harbaugh throwing a fit as the Packers beat the 49ers 24, 18.


Lions Prediction, Lions 31, Vikings 17, should be a runaway game for the Lions. I really think the Vikings will be walking into a hornets nest/lions den. Look for 140 all purpose yards from Reggie Bush, and over 300 yards from Stafford.

Ben Affleck The New Batman

Many are calling this a idiot casting. But in reality, it is a genius play.

1. Affleck's career is in a huge upswing recently. (Argo)

2. His star power will bring people back for more comic book heroics on big screen.

3. He has a very chiseled jaw, a must when wearing a mask that only shows the bottom of your face.

4. The whole idea of Batman v. Superman does sound gimmicky, but with the reality is sizzle sells and this gives what the people want for good and for bad. 

5. The last Batman movie ended a great chapter, now the money is being made by the Hybrid Comic Movies and this will fit and make the billing.

Fox Sports 1 Minor Review

Well the new kid on the block showed up over the weekend, Fox Sports 1's version of ESPN's Sportscenter. The format was interesting, talk at the desk for awhile than swing the camera to the right and speak to a panel of former professional athletes. It was awkward , not the notion going to a panel, but the athletes they had were a bit of a let down. It is baseball season, and I did not see one former baseball player on the panel.  Really, Andy Roddick? Who in the heck follows tennis? I would rather see a former golfer on the panel over Roddick. Two former football players? (Donovan McNabb and Ephraim Salaam) . The only thing I can think of is when the casting call went out, Salaam was remarkable, otherwise his name is not an attention grabber for viewers. 

The Anchors: Dan O'Tool and Jay Onrait, two Canadian anchors who bring their side-cracking acts to SO-CAL. Their delivery is slap-happy but at the end of the day they do their job. Will their work be remembered for their comedic delivery or for giving a solid newscast?


Then there was this gem:

http://msn.foxsports.com/video?videoid=3f348bc7-7cc6-485d-b260-1dc565921f55&src=v5:share:sharepermalink:&from=sharepermalink

Which reminded me of Brick... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pdWAcK6Eh8

Then they had a dog reacting to the promo: http://msn.foxsports.com/watch/fox-sports-live/video?vid=23d6175a-76f3-42b3-8d0d-349b2fe0da9b



The panel should be seasonal and rotate....

Summer: Baseball, Baseball, NBA, Football

Fall, Baseball, NBA, Football, NHL

Winter, NBA, Football, NHL, NBA

Spring, Baseball, NBA, NHL, Golf

Or if you can have 5, have the fifth be a rotation of Tennis, Golf, Motorsports, Olympics


Certainly, I prefer to have competition regarding sports channels. But with each league running their own sports recap show, FoxSports1 needs to really hit a home run to eat into their ESPN habit. 

Lighting

I have been thinking our basement needs updating lighting for awhile. Currently the large dim-able flood lights exist, but are expensive to operate. But alas, I came across a highlighted product article in todays WSJ! www.meethue.com  This would be a fun and cool way to get the type of light no matter the occasion. Movie night, turn the lights to a light red. Game time, turn the lights to soft green. Card night, turn the lights to a choice that will bode you better hands. Also, as it is programmable, it could be used as security lights while on vacation. Brilliant! 

Homemade Dog Biscuits

Today I decided to make the woofers some homemade dog biscuits. Sounded pretty easy, as I did follow the recipe in the past. I used the Martha Stewart recipe , the only issue I found with them is that the dough is really sticky and doesn't really roll flat easily. I might try a different recipe online some day, or attempt to make other dog treats. But in the meantime, the dogs will have to deal with my treats.

Seedlings 2013

This spring we decided to jump into the gardening aspect of things. Over a few weeks we collected some seeds and planted them, after 7 days or so, some of the seedlings have decided to rise. Certainly I am surprised that we have made it to this stage already. I need to purchase a few things to create a poorman's greenhouse outside, something to protect from the cold and the heat. From some research online, rollaway shades can help protect from suns heat, but the use of plastic will increase heat.

Certainly the entire enterprise is a crap-shoot, it would be pretty cool to actually grow something this year and not have the dogs trample over. 

We will keep you posted...

Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter, spring is here!

Pendulum Movie Series

It is pretty funny, the pendulum swings from left to right.

For years, Women have made fun of Guys with their interest in such SciFi movie series like Star Trek and Star Wars. It may of taken 35 years for the pendulum to swing in the full opposite direction but I believe it has. I am speaking of the Twilight Franchise and Hunger Games to an extent.

At this point, from my view, not many guys are into the Twilight series. First of all, it is what it appears to me as a Love story with some random fight sequences, and much drama. I admit, I have seen the first two movies, and have not seen the rest. Do I care to see the rest,...No. I've seen enough.

Granted Star Wars episode 4 and Twilight Movie 1 are similar, initial movie, slow story, cheap looking sets/effects. They did improve as time went. The first Hunger Games movie follows this result as well, where in the second movie will get a new director, and perhaps more investment from their filmhouse.

Fast forward to the best scene in Episode 6, I don't want to give the ending away, but things progress and get better.

Just like the stock market is based on a cycle, I think movies are similar, or at least copy-cat tendencies. It doesn't take a genius to realize that you can make more money by stretching a series out to 3 or 4 movies, when it could it could of been hammered out in 2 or 3.

Life without Cable continues...

Life without Cable...

Certainly one thing has kept me going pretty strong regarding the lack of a DirecTV bill each month, and it is free. Podcasts! Yes, podcasts. They can be downloaded on your computer, or in my case to my cell phone. I then have something to listen to  and sometimes watch while on the treadmill.

My weekly downloaded shows are, in no particular order.

-Car Talk from NPR (Comedy/Knowledge)
-The BS Report (Bill Simmons, ESPN/Sports)
-The Adam Carolla Podcast (Comedy)
-Freakeconomics Radio Podcast (Knowledge)
-Mad Money with Jim Cramer (CNBC, Comedy/Knowledge)

The Mad Money podcast is a video podcast, so a cable show for free, how awesome is that. Certainly, it is about investing stocks, but I actually learn a thing or two about industry from this show.

Michelle Obama Jumps the Shark

Jumping the Shark, is actually quite difficult to do when you are famous when you think about it. You really need to do something that is jolting to accomplish this.

What is 'Jumping the Shark', you ask. It is a term that has been issued to an episode of Happy Days, where the Fonz, or Fonzie is water-skiing on a lake when he hits a ramp and jumps over 'tank' that holds a shark. Granted, it probably contained no shark, or was even a tank, rather a string of buoys in a circle. In any event, at this point the most popular character on the most popular show, did something to get more attention, hence 'Jump the Shark'.

Fast Forward 35 years to 2013, to the Oscars. A show that ranges over 3 plus hours holds the world's attention to the end for the Best Picture award. Jack Nicholson walks on stage alone (press was told ahead of time that Jack would announce winner with Dustin Hoffman), he then mentions that he is presenting with a special guest.

Enter America's First Lady Michelle Obama on Sunday, one who is not shy to the camera.

"Main Screen Turn On"

On the large display screen above the audience of Hollywood's elite, shows a Mrs. Obama standing in a room with several youthful uniformed armed servicemen and women.

My thought was..

First: if you are going to do this, then hold off on the armed servicemen and women, don't use them as decorations-they deserve better than that.

Secondly: if Mrs. Obama was to announce the winner, then why can't she appear at the event live in person.

My internal thought was, 'this is awful', no real reason other than ram political points during an entertainment awards show. The country can't settle on a budget, can't settle on cuts to spending, can't come to an agreement on taxation, and are 4 more days until another economic emergency with sequestration...but yet politics has infiltrated the Oscars.

Hell, even Democrat Donnie Deutsche says she was an 'uninvited guest'. "you have to give the consumer the ultimate respect...all of a sudden, politics is thrown at them...it is not what you signed up for." It was an intrusion, as Donnie says, he wanted more Jack Nicholson.

Michelle Obama who just chatted up the likes of Big Bird, Rachel Ray, and only God knows what else in the last 2 weeks, just over exposed herself has Madam of Entertainment LLC of the USA.

This reminded me of the 1984 Apple Computer TV ad, where Big Brother is telling the drones that they will prevail, until a heroine arrive....

with a sledgehammer and destroys the screen.

At this point I envisioned a movie hero taking this role from the audience..maybe Russell Crowe saying that this will not stand...

or maybe someone with a little more age, who has seen history go by and will not allow this to be repeated...

Clint Eastwood, o.k. too political...

the perfect scene would of been Pacino and DeNiro standing out of their chairs and stopping the 'Jumping the Shark' madness. Although old age might stop these two from accomplishing the mission.

Maybe we needed Jennifer Lawrence from Hunger Games to save the day, Oscar award in hand.

In the end, Mrs. Obama said her goodbyes to all her friends in the audience, Argo won Best Picture, and Seth McFarland put a ribbon on this years fun. Leave it to Hollywood to surprise us with the plot at the very end.

State Park Websites

Just a small word of advice to those that run websites regarding state parks and their cabin/lodge/tent reservation systems. Could you make sure your hyperlinks actually work from your pages. What is more demoralizing of scheduling a stay at your park if the whole trip gets wrecked by the reservation hyperlink button.

We are interested in making a couple small trips this year.

1. A 2 night trip down to Arkansas, there are several nice areas that may be worth staying at.
2. A 4 night trip out to Colorado, certainly seeing the Mountainous Peaks of Estes Park would be nice, but even other portions of the state are being considered. This trip would have many hours on the road, 8 each way, certainly no small feat with a little fella.

When Steak Restaurants Go Bad

That is really the question. It has me thinking more and more about the quality of steaks that restaurants sell. I am talking about those chain sit down places that sells steak plates from 10-18 dollars. Recently, we had dinner out and ordered 2 different steaks, same cut, but different oz. size. It turned out that neither cut reminded us of that particular cut, while the meat was just leveled with fat and grizzle (grissle, grizstle?). Turns out, after complaining about how awful those meats were, their replacements were just as terrible. So that got me thinking, is it possible for a restaurant to sell you a Sirloin but not sell you a Sirloin? At what point is it the restaurants fault, is it their upper management, is it the franchise responsibility? We have had dinner twice at this particular restaurant and have had mixed feelings. 1. Ordering non-steak food, no problems. 2. Order steak foods, major problems. But reading their name of their restaurant makes you think steak, and in a big way. So how is this possible? In any event, the restaurant gave the larger steak for free, but it still ruined dinner. Enjoy eating your sides without any eatable meat, only to get a replacement 12 minutes later, which is equally as awful?

I understand it is troubling economic signs, but certainly cutting corners regarding steak cuts at restaurants is not the solution. If you need to charge a couple of dollars more, then I will pay it so that the cut of steak is eatable!

Listen up America!

Cut the TV Bill Act 2

As noted on a previous blog: http://www.hybridwoofers.com/2009/07/directtv-comes-to-end.html , we ended our relationship with DirecTV. Today was our last day with DirecTV Act II. We decided to roll with Netflix, Hulu+, and Amazon Prime. Certainly, we will miss certain new shows immediately. But if there is a show that we must see, we can purchase that episode on Amazon Prime for 2 to 3 dollars per episode. That does sound like a bit of cash, but consider the number of Must Watch shows vs. the cost of a monthly cable bill, then it seems reasonable.

If, the cost of the monthly cable bill(divided) by the number of must see shows, plus (+) the cost of Hulu+ (8 per month) and Netflix (8 per month) is less than the total monthly cable bill, then this option may be for you!

Certainly, there are other reasons outside of financial reasons for this. 1. We'd like to spend more time doing our crafts and home improvements, 2. We'd like to spend more time getting our home more organized, let alone cleaning and other things. 3. It omits one large bill per month from our bottom line that in itself gets our bills organized, 1 less payee, 1 less check to cut. 4. With Hulu and Netflix the total cost is 16 bucks per month, but it is more acceptable than paying for High Definition Fees, Cable Taxes, Cable Box Insurance, and ever slightly rising costs.

Weird but True Reasons for Quitting DirecTV.

1. Rumors that certain reality shows are totally fixed, most notably 'Storage Wars'. One of the main characters is suing, basically that the show is 'allegedly fixed' and he wants cash for looking like a fool many times over in storage locker purchasing.
2. Ever increasing costs, it is reported by the Wall Street Journal, that DirecTV will be raising their rates 5 percent and more in the future, based upon rising TV channel costs. This will be passed upon the consumer and you pay the bill (not any longer).
3. We went back to DirecTV to watch the Detroit Lions play, and they have been good and bad. Good, last year they made the playoffs and lost to the Saints. Bad, this year they stunk and were not fun to watch. Also, the NFL games can be bought and viewed on the Play Station 3, and this is a cheaper option vs. paying the yearly costs of DirecTV.
4. Their customer service at times is lacking. There is no bonus for a out of contract payee, no discounts (unless asked a few times), and no free upgrade to hardware. My opinion is, if you paid for your contract and you want to re-sign up, then they should give you the new customer deal or discount. Currently, they will not do this as policy.


That is the nuts and bolts of why we are done again, with DirecTV.

-M & H