Nervous....

So I'm leaving in approximately 29 and a half hours to go to Mexico for the weekend and I'm worried about my fantasy football team.

(What did you think this was about?)

I should have a decently easy week but I'm nevertheless nervous about a couple of my choices. Here's a look at my starting lineup as of right now:

QB- Kurt Warner
RB- Frank Gore
RB- Marshawn Lynch
WR- Larry Fitzgerald
WR- Roddy White
WR- Antonio Bryant
TE- Kellen Winslow
K- Robbie Gould
D- Chris Gamble
D- Charles Tillman
DB- Josh Wilson
DB- Allen Rossum
DL- James Farrior
DL- Stewart Bradley

Looks pretty good right? The ones I'm kinda iffy on are Lynch, Bryant, and one of my defensive spots. Here's what my bench looks like:

RB- Tim Hightower, Jerious Norwood
WR- Anthony Gonzalez, T.J. Houshmandzadeh
D- Dhani Jones, D.J. Williams

I know that Williams is out for a couple more weeks so he isn't an option. I'm just not sure how good of a game Jones can have against the Eagles' offense. Bradley should have an amazing game against that terrible Bengals offense and Farrior also against a less than decent Chargers offensive line. Gamble and Tillman are locks as well on defense. Wilson and Rossum are their teams' kick returners and have had good games as of late. Wilson is facing a Cardinals special teams unit that gave up the return for a touchdown by Rossum on Monday night. Are either of them worth benching for Jones?

On the offensive side, Warner and Fitzgerald are locks for a huge game against a shoddy Seahawks defense. Roddy White should have fun with a terrible, injury-laden Broncos secondary. Gore should run all over the Rams (sorry Jackie!). Winslow is practically a lock for a big game against the Bills. Gould's just a kicker. But Marshawn Lynch has not had a 100-yard game this year; yet, he came close earlier this year against the Browns. Bryant has been hot lately and is facing a middle-ground Vikings defense. Norwood could have a good game against Denver as could Hightower against the Seahawks also terrible defense. But Norwood has to play behind Michael Turner and compete with White for catches. Hightower is now the starter for the Cardinals and has already tied their franchise record for TDs by a rookie (7). T.J. probably won't have a good outing against an amazing Philadelphia defense, though he did have a respectable game a couple weeks ago against a good Steelers defense. Gonzalez could have a good game against the Texans middle-ground defense now that Peyton is finally waking up but even that is iffy. Should I sit Bryant and Lynch, and if so, for who?

What should I do guys? Send me your thoughts....

I've had enough!!!!

I really have.

I'm tired of hearing about this election. I know it's gonna carry on for at least another day or three, but I've had it! I'm tired of hearing about how I should or shouldn't vote. I did not like the fact that Pastor Dave gave that little speech on Sunday about Prop 8. I thought it was tacky and out of place in church, which is why I walked out and paid no attention at all. I mailed in my absentee ballot 2 weeks ago and essentially tuned out to the ads. I didn't particularly like the Yes on Prop 8 ads simply because I think it's dispicable to use children in political ads. It's a low brow stratagem that takes advantage of the weak-minded. If we could pass an amendment against that, I'd be the first one on that wagon. I'm tired of politics altogether. I disagree with the policy of "calling" states. How can you declare a state "won" when only 15% of the votes have been accounted for or in the case of California when it's right after the polls close? They hadn't declared a winner on the propositions, yet 40% of precincts had reported in. It's a double standard. I haven't liked this particular election though. I don't like what it has done to me. I'm tired of the division of this country; look what it's done to The View:
Let's just get back to business as usual. I don't even care much anymore about the results.

I have my reasons for how I voted and I don't want to talk about them anymore. It was my own fault for displaying publicly what is supposed to be a private matter. If you have a problem with how I voted though, take it up with ME directly! Don't feed the Calvary Church gossip hounds! Don't go to my PARENTS with your problem with MY vote! They may have raised me but my views differ somewhat from theirs. I AM NOT MY PARENTS!!! I am a unique individual with my own ability to think and decide for myself. This is not a crack at my parents though; I have the utmost respect for them and their views. I just think a person with a 157 IQ, college level education and 22 years of life experience has the ability, and right, to choose how he views certain things about this life we live.

God Bless America and God Bless President Obama! I look forward to an interesting 4 years.

Kobe sings

Check out this awesome video. Kobe's new talent:

Senator sues God

A friend of mine posted this on his blog and it made me laugh. This guy makes a great point, but what can we do about it? Check out the article and let me know what you think:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/15/suing.god.ap/index.html

the waiting game begins.....

Steve Jobs did as his name implies. The keynote was awesome! I am so freakin' excited! I was on the Apple Store page as soon as it went back online. I have been planning this for months and the time is finally here. I had enough loan money set aside just for this purpose. I purchased my brand new Macbook Pro with these specs:

15.4" LED-backlit glossy widescreen display (1440 x 900 resolution)
2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo processor w/6MB shared L2 cache
4 GB DDR3 1066MHz SDRAM
250 GB HDD @7200rpm
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M & NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT w/512MB GDDR3 memory
New Mini DisplayPort for video output & aluminum unibody design
Plus all the Apple standards: Superdrive, 802.11n, Bluetooth, iSight, Gigabit Ethernet, Firewire 800, & 2 USB ports

I'm a little disappointed in not having an option for a matte display or HDMI or Blu-ray but oh well. A couple disappointments among many amazing new things. The graphics will be so much better with NVIDIA chipsets, plus with the ability to switch between the integrated and discrete graphics it will really help with battery life (rated 4hrs w/discrete and 5hrs w/integrated). I can't wait for this thing to arrive. It will definitely carry me a long time. I decided to future proof myself and get the upgraded processor. I also got AppleCare plus my warranty is already extended for an extra year (thank you American Express) so I'm covered for 4 years on this thing. I hope this gets here faster than the estimated delivery date. I'm ecstatic beyond belief!

Haha I'm a nerd.

so excited!!!

In less than 5 minutes, Steve Jobs will go on a stage and finally tell the world how he has made the new Macbooks better. Which means a new laptop is not far off for me. Yay for the new Macbook Pro! Don't disappoint me Steve.

The best day ever!

Boy, I love surprises! Nobody has ever been able to truly surprise me (when I say surprise, I mean something I REALLY didn't expect to happen).

That is, until yesterday. After church, I got to hang out and talk with my awesome friend Kelly for awhile. After some good conversation, I went and had lunch with David. After talking for awhile and downing some Del Taco goodness, we headed to Brent's house to play some ultimate frisbee. Following an exhausting game of ultimate (and throwing around a football too), we headed inside the house for some water. After a brief distraction, aka sweaty man hug with David and Ryan, Teresa walks into the room with this amazing cake and the birthday song commences. I was totally taken aback. I tried with all I could not to cry cause I seriously wanted to. But I decided to be a manly man and fought them back. I really had no idea they were gonna do that and the thought never even crossed my mind. The day didn't end there. Once we finally left, I went home and got to talk with my best friend Sarah for awhile. We had some really good conversation but before long, it was time for me to head out again. I picked up David and headed over to meet Mike and Ryan for bowling at Concourse ($2 games! a college student's dream!). While in the process of bowling a 141, 145 and 200 (162 avg., below my average but still not bad), we got to see the Angels' amazing extra inning win (though it doesn't seem to matter now). Afterwards, David and I hung out some more before I finally headed back to Biola.

I do feel so blessed to have these friends that do care about me. I know I went all emo on you guys in my previous blog but I am very grateful for each and every one of you. I'm glad there is a group of awesome people at Calvary that aren't bound to their own click or group. It was the greatest feeling in the world when Teresa walked out with that cake. I appreciate everyone that wished me "happy birthday" and everyone that came to Brent's house, whether you were aware of the surprise or not. You guys are all amazing and I love each and every one of you!

One question still remains: Who was the mastermind behind all this? (and I don't mean God)

it's late

Well, it's 4am as I type this and I have a test in 4 hours, which I haven't studied for. I wanted to type this last night when I felt led to but I was very tired and decided sleep was better for me. Problem is now I don't remember exactly what I wanted to blog about. Then again, no one follows/reads my blog anyway so who the hell cares?! Seems the people that do care about me just get farther and farther away (3,000 miles is far, right?). I sit here, 5 days til my birthday and no plans. Each of my past 2 birthday parties I planned myself; no one planned one for me, suggested one or surprised me with one. I hate when my birthday comes around because it shows just how much people really care about me. To think I love people so easily and then turn around and be treated like this. Most everyone gives me lip service but very few seem to truly care. Guess I'm getting a small taste of how Yahweh must feel about us humans (Note: I am in no way equalizing or comparing myself with God. Just trying to make a point). Not that I do things for others just so that I get something in return; I always think of others before myself.

I just wish that just once someone would do something for me. Every time I start to think about this my heart breaks and I just want to burst into tears. I'm gonna cry myself to sleep hoping that someday someone (read: "female") will care about me more than anyone else. I pray it'd be soon but I don't expect anything anymore. I want things to happen; they don't happen the way I hope. I make things happen; they still don't go how I planned for them to go. I plan things to happen; changing minds change those plans. I hate this feeling of loneliness that pervades my every thought. Someone please make it go away!!!

My Dream Band

I was talking with a friend in the cafe today and we got to talking about musical instruments. I had told him that I had just bid on a melodica on eBay. I really want to play an instrument and this seems like something that I can do. This is one of my favorite videos that showcases the awesomeness of the melodica and the ukulele:



It got me to thinking about something. If I put together a band, these would be the different instruments that would be used in all or some of the songs:

12-string guitar
bass
drums
trumpet
piano
ukulele
soprano melodica
bag pipes


So what do you guys think? Anybody wanna be in my band?

MY fantasy football team

So we had our fantasy football draft like last week and I'm excited because the season starts tonight with Giants vs. Redskins. That's like.....awesome timing. So, our league uses 1 QB and mine is a pretty strong veteran player. Here's how it looks:

QB- Kurt Warner
RB- Frank Gore
RB- Marshawn Lynch
WR- Larry Fitzgerald
WR- T.J. Houshmandzadeh
W/T- Isaac Bruce
TE- Kellen Winslow
K- Nick Folk
D- Mike Vrabel
D- Oshiomogho Atogwe
DB- Terrence McGee
DB- Bob Sanders
DL- Thomas Howard
DL- D.J. Williams
Bench- Derek Anderson QB
Bench- Julius Jones RB
Bench- Justin Fargas RB
Bench- L.J. Smith TE
Bench- Roddy White WR
Bench- Kevin Curtis WR

In Week 1, I play a pretty strong team that has both Randy Moss and Terrell Owens so I'm looking forward to a good challenge. And a surprising upset.

So y'all even care about this? Anybody else play fantasy sports? Any thoughts on my team?

New PS3 model

So the countdown begins! On August 15th, Sony will be releasing the new PS3 model which will replace the 40 GB system, not the 80GB. The new model will in fact be a "core" version of the current 80GB system, no backwards compatibility. It will debut at $399 with the current 80GB offering holding steady at $499 and no official announcement yet on the upcoming 120/160GB model. The 40GB system is no longer being manufactured! I work at Walmart and noticed the note on the availability of the 40GB system (that someone seems to have leaked a photo of http://www.joystiq.com/photos/best-buy-ps3-40gb-inventory/907910/full/) the day the note was posted. I already have the 40GB so my only issue will be if something goes wrong with it. Good thing I bought the product care plan so I'll get the new 80GB if that happens.

Jealousy is not good.....

unless you're jealous of the fact that I finally got my PS3! Well, actually I've had it for about a week and a half now and I still don't have any games for it. I haven't made it around to going to Gamestop to trade in my PS2 stuff. My sister rented the "Lost" game for it and it didn't look very good, especially since I dislike the show, with a passion! I'm getting Rock Band of course, but beyond that I don't know what other game(s) to get. Possibly Guitar Hero, but I don't know if I want to deal with the incompatibility issues with the Rock Band guitars and have to buy 2 MORE guitars! Anybody have any suggestions?

Playstation 3

So I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I'm gonna get a PS3. Rock Band is so amazing but I need more songs!!! Err go, the PS3 version, which allows you to download new songs. The peripherals are the same for the PS2 and PS3 so I'll just need to buy the game and get another guitar. My issue now is being able to purchase one when the time comes. I feel I still need backwards compatibility so I'm not getting the 40GB model and the 80GB isn't being distributed right now (and possibly gone completely). I don't even care much for all that hard drive space. I'm selling my old laptop and when the time comes I'll sell my PS2 as well so that's my funding for purchasing it. Anybody wanna buy an old laptop with XP Pro in excellent condition? Any thoughts?

Even better than Rock Band!?

So, we completely forgot about our mail today until about 5:30pm when my dad walked outside and finally got it. Yesterday, the best piece of mail I got was this stupid get rich seminar from Donald Trump. Today was much better. I got my acceptance letter from Biola!!!!!!! I leaped about 5 feet in the air and nearly wet myself. I'm gonna be going to Biola next year!!!!!!! I haven't been this excited in a long time! Now I just gotta come up with deposit money......

My Life's Soundtrack

So a couple Thursdays ago I was talking in one of the small groups Laura had us split up into. This placed me with Brent, Tom and Rocco. I had mentioned to them that if my life were a movie, my theme song would be Testify To Love by Avalon. Well this got me thinking: if my life WERE a movie, what would my soundtrack look like? So after a lot of scouring through my music collection and trying to account for my LARGE palette of musical taste, I found that my soundtrack would have to be a 3-CD set consisting of these songs (listed in alphabetical order by artist):

After Today- from "A Goofy Movie"
Stand Out- from "A Goofy Movie"
All Out Of Love- Air Supply
Dirty Little Secret- The All-American Rejects
Drive Away- The All-American Rejects
I Swear- All-4-One
Pieces Of Me- Ashlee Simpson
Testify To Love- Avalon (Theme)
Complicated- Avril Lavigne
Inconsolable- Backstreet Boys
Alcohol- Brad Paisley
The World- Brad Paisley
When We All Get To Heaven- Brad Paisley
I'm Not Who I Was- Brandon Heath
(You Drive Me) Crazy- Britney Spears
Lifesong- Casting Crowns
Reflection- Christina Aguilera
Invisible- Clay Aiken
I Surrender All- Clay Crosse
Sugar, We're Goin' Down- Fall Out Boy
Georgia- Hanson
MMMBop- Hanson (Title Track/Opening Song for movie)
Why Not- Hilary Duff
From The inside Out- Hillsong United
Beautiful Soul- Jesse McCartney
You Raise Me Up- Josh Groban
Circle Of Life- from "The Lion King"
Mr. Mom- Lonestar
Only Hope- Mandy Moore
We Belong Together- Mariah Carey
Anyway- Martina McBride
Everything- Michael Buble
Place In This World- Michael W. Smith
Goodbye To You- Michelle Branch
Inside Out- Nate Sallie
If Everyone Cared- Nickelback
Tearin' Up My Heart- *NSYNC
Hey There Delilah- Plain White T's
True- Ryan Cabrera
Up!- Shania Twain
I'm A Believer- Smash Mouth
Road Man- Smash Mouth
Words That You Say- Something Like Silas
Space Jam- from "Space Jam"
Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours- Stevie Wonder
High School- Superchick
Teardrops On My Guitar- Taylor Swift
Burn For You- Tobymac
Gone- Tobymac
Calling All Angels- Train
A Thousand Miles- Vanessa Carlton
Smile- Vitamin C
It's Raining Men- The Weather Girls
Amish Paradise- Weird Al Yankovic
Virus Alert- Weird Al Yankovic


Comment and feel free to suggest any other songs or those which you don't think belong. If you don't understand why I included a song or songs then feel free to ask. TTFN ta ta for now!