The Season of Fantasy Leagues

Aiight, it's that time again, when NFL and PL fantasy leagues get into full swing, so here's the info:

Fantasy Premier League (soccer)
This is our salary cap style fantasy English Premier League game. it's a lot of fun, lasts until May. There's usually one game a week (like NFL) so it's not a ton of work. Join our league!

Homepage
League code: 39325-16153

NFL Pick'em Skins

This is our Pick'em Skins game, its costs $20 to play. The person with the most correct games wins the pot, week-to-week. All you do is pick a winner from each NFL game.

Homepage
Group ID#: 10352
Password: browns


NFL Survivor
This is a fun game where you basically pick just one team each week that you're sure is going to win. you can only pick each team once. Try to make it through the season without getting any wrong

Homepage
Group ID# (5657)
Password (browns)

Last Night's Dream

So last night i had a very vivid dream. I dreamt that i was near the ocean, it felt and looked like Monterrey or San Francisco and i was walking down to near the water with Addie. The area we were at was a little inlet and we had to walk over this little patch of land, maybe 10 yards long, to get to the side where we could walk along the water. Addie was running along the water and i was walking behind her, it was overcast and chilly, i was wearing shoes for some reason.

The water was starting to roll in a little higher than when we first started walking, so i concluded that the tide was coming in and looked back at our little land bridge to see that it would be covered by water soon. One of my biggest fears in life is water, more specifically murky water which ocean water always qualifies for. I began to panic a little and grabbed Addie and headed back to our land bridge to cross back to safety.

As i was starting to cross over the water was rising quickly, up to my knees now, and Addie was riding on my shoulders. I looked out towards the deeper water and noticed something swimming, sort of like when you see carp near the shoreline. This is another fear of mine, fish in the same water i'm in, freaks me out. But this wasn't a fish, it was very large, in my dream i thought it might be a hippo or something (sounds dumb now but i was freaked). All you could see was it's back as it went under water about 20 feet from us. I really panicked and started for shore in almost waist deep water when suddenly i felt something touch my foot.

I have never jumped out of bed so fast. Kassie apparently was readjusting and her foot touched mine, i must have flown 2-3' out of bed and gasped! I was breathing so hard, kassie was shocked. i told her what happened and she went back to sleep. i couldn't calm down and it took me another 15 minutes before my breathing was back to normal.

good times.

Books I Read in 2010

2010 was a year that re-discovered my love of reading thanks to an old friend of mine, Barbara, who recommended some awesome books. As you can see i enjoyed The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell so much that i read the entire series. The book are fictional-history books about the West Saxon wars in England around 900 AD, most of the characters and battles are real, only the main character is fiction. It was a fun way to read about real history and i enjoyed the books, they were easy and quick to read.

I'm really enjoying Atlas Shrugged, i can't put it down.

Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis

The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

Let Them In - Jason Riley

The Last Kingdom - Bernard Cornwell

The Pale Horseman - Bernard Cornwell

Lords of the North - Bernard Cornwell

Sword Song - Bernard Cornwell

The Burning Land - Bernard Cornwell

In Progress

Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand

Outliers - Malcom Gladwell

Next on Shelf

The Archer's Tale - Bernard Cornwell

The Last Jihad - Joel C. Rosenberg

Sacred Marriage - Gary Thomas

"You should of just asked"

I've been thinking about this lately and i've decided to throw my thoughts down on paper, er, keypad.

You know how when a friend of yours gets busted for a DUI, and you tell them "hey man, you should have just called me, i would have given you a ride." or maybe a friend of yours gets busted for stealing something small at a grocery story "hey dude, if you needed some food you should of just asked." Maybe your friend nabbed a few bucks from your ash tray, or from the offering plate, or the cash register at work and lost his job - "bro, you could of just asked me for a few bucks, i would have gladly given some to you. If you need some cash just ask me."

Yea, hindsight is always 20/20. of course now that your friend is in jail for a DUI, or lost his job for a measly $20 you would gladly have offered to change his course. Well why didn't you intervene before the problem got worse? Why did you wait until your friend asked for help?

If your friend calls you at 1225a and asks for a ride from some downtown bar would you shrug? probably. and that shrug is probably why your friend doesn't call you. If your friend never pays for lunch, you always get stuck with the bill, would you start avoiding eating out with your friend? that's probably why they don't ask you for cash. When you receive a real-life phone call on your cell (not a text, email, notification, DM...) do you avoid a real-life conversation and let the call go to voicemail? that's probably why your friend didn't call you when they needed some help or food, they never get a hold of you anyway.

Have you ever been in need? the first thing most people feel when they're in need is shame, or embarrassment. "crap, i don't have a well-paying job like my friends, i can't afford a house or a car like my friends. i don't have a nice little family and a great spouse like my friends." this friend already feels bad about their situation and now we expect them to also put aside their pride and approach us first and ask for a handout? no wonder they conclude "my house isn't that far and i'm only buzzed, it'll only take a few minutes to drive home. better than calling BMer at midnite and pissing him off."

If you're a caring friend you should welcome these situations. you should care enough about your friends to know whats going in their lives. you should be helping them out without putting them in their place, if they're in need they already know it. you should be pro-active about help, you should SHOW that you care enough to pick them up at midnight, or get them some supplies that might ease their weekly needs, instead of just SAYING that you would have done that, if only they asked.

Friendship is about loving one another, about truly caring about each other. stop wasting time poking friends on facebook, or retweeting them, and actually get involved in their life, and show that you're there for them all the time, whether they're in need or not. Next time they're in a tough spot they shouldn't hesitate to call you. Next time they're in need they should feel confident that they can rely on you without being reprimanded, judged, reminded, instructed, lectured...

in the midst of a tight-spot, the first thing a friend needs is support, you can worry about addressing the problems later.

join my Fantasy Football and Soccer leagues

Here are all of the different leagues i'm running this Fall. sign up for one of them, or all of them.

NFL Pick'em w/Skins

This is just basic Pick'em, pick all of the winners every week. We've added a Skins element where for $20 you can be eligible to win weekly cash. Each week is worth an amount of money, like $10, the person who picks the most games right wins the $10. If two or more people tie for the most right picks the money from that week rolls into the next week, making it worth $20. It keeps rolling over until there is an outright winner. Last year Kassie won $65 over 2 weekends! it's a lot of fun. You don't have to join the Skins part, you can just play the Pick'em in this league but you won't be eligible for the cash unless you choose to pay up-front!

Join Here

Group ID#: 862
Password: browns

Last years winner: Noah with 176 correct games

NFL SURVIVAL

This is a game where you basically pick one team to win every week. Once you pick a team you can't pick them again. No one ever makes it through the season perfect so you get three strikes. super easy and challenging.

Join Here

Group ID# (442)

Password (browns)

English Premier League Fantasy (salary cap style)

Basically you have a set amount of money to fill your roster, you can make changes every week, players value go and down based on performance. good way to learn about the EPL and which players are good, trial by fire!

Join Here - click "Leagues" then enter our league code: "300825-78876"

World Cup Game with Friends

okay, so a friend of mine just introduced me to this cool game you can play while watching the World Cup. If we can get 16 people together this will be a blast, with a pretty good payout.

Basically you throw all 64 teams into a hat, each player gets 2 teams by a random draw. If one of your teams wins the World Cup you win the Pot! i think we'll have smaller payouts too for the following:

$25 for most goals scored combined
$20 for the least amount of goals scored combined
$10 for second place in the Final

We'll say everyone pays in $10 and that way we'll aim for 16 people, $160. the winner of the World Cup will get $100 and the other $60 will be split above.

Player Teams (Total Goals)
DaveM - spain / italy: (0)
NoahV - south korea / chile: (2)
DerekM - nigeria / france: (0)
ScottW - germany / serbia: (4)
GregM - argentina / usa: (2)
BrianL - paraguay / netherlands: (2)
BMer - mexico / brazil: (1)
TravisM - japan / slovakia: (1)
AaronB - algeria / new zealand: ( 0)
Tahoe - ivory coast / portugal: (0)
ChrisC - uruguay / england: (1)
SeanN - greece / honduras: (0)
ScottH - ghana / cameroon: (1)
JeffS - australia / slovenia: (1)
JordanH - south africa / korea dpr: (1)
JoshO - denmark / switzerland: (0)

Josh Cribbs is like Birdman!

So in case you haven't been following the headlines surrounding the Cleveland Browns, our best player Josh Cribbs is asking for a new offer. This started last year after Cribbs established himself as the best kick returner in the league. This season he not only continued that, but he inserted himself into the offense as a WR, and the QB of the Wildcat Offense, showing that he could throw and run the ball in for points. No doubt that Cribbs was the best player on the Browns this season, but i think that is more telling of the lack of quality skill players, not so much Cribbs.

Cribbs is not a good WR, just like Devin Hester of the Bears is not a good WR. Cribbs was the default #2 WR after Braylon was traded because we don't have anyone else, you can't even name the Browns the WR's. Now Cribbs wants a new contract after he signed a relatively cheap one 2 years ago, that goes through 2013. Yes he has outplayed his contract, but what is he worth to the Browns?

I compare this situation to Chris "Birdman" Anderson of the Denver Nuggets. A great story no doubt, recovering from drug addiction (being kicked out of the NBA) and working his way back into shape and returning to his first team, the Nuggets. The Nuggets scored Birdman really cheap from the Hornets and last year he established himself as the fan favorite. He was playing out-of-his-mind for the 2nd half of the season, blocking shots and bringing the energy. After the Nuggets failed to reach the Championship, Anderson was a free agent. Everyone in Denver said to pay the man, but honestly, he doesn't do that much for the team. He doesn't score often, he is an average rebounder, he's slow in defense, and he blocks shots out-of-bounds instead of grabbing the ball for a turnover. But Kroenke and Denver caved and paid him good money. Now this season he's been hurt (he has a history of injuries) and hasn't played at nearly the level of last season.

This is why Cribbs is the new Birdman. Cribbs doesn't have much value. Do you remember want Dante "the X factor" Hall did after being dominate at kick returning for 2 seasons? nothing! What has Hester done in Chicago the last 2 years? nothing. consider this:

Recent history suggests that explosive kick returners (see Dante Hall and Devin Hester) don't maintain their productivity for much longer than three seasons, and Devin Hester's $5.45 million-per-year contract with the Bears has become something of a laughingstock. Hester hasn't returned a kick for a touchdown in two full seasons since signing his new deal. -Cleveland Frowns

Cribbs is "offended" by the Browns offer of $1.4 million, a raise from the $700K he's making now. Consider this from Cleveland radio host Will Burge on Twitter:

Players who made appx $1.4M in 2009:Dwayne Bowe $1.4M, Miles Austin $1.5M, DeSean Jackson $1.1M, Vincent Jackson $900K, Santnio Holmes $1.8M

Now tell me Josh Cribbs worth so much more than ANY of those WR's that the offer is insulting. You just cant do it...

I love Cribbs, but i don't think the Browns will break the bank for him, and they shouldn't. Just like how everyone now like coach Eric Mangini after he ended a terrible season winning 4 games in a row (against OAK, KC, JAC, and PIT), but i believe that new team president, Mike Holmgren, is going to still fire him, and he should.

Sentiment doesn't win games, it just costs a lot of money.