Chicago Bears - Preseason Week 3

It is with utter joy and ecstatic jubilation I bring my Rex Grossman bitching to a temporary close. As my LiveJournal readers are aware, when it comes to the Bears, I have but two complaints. One, is Rex Grossman. The second, that the coach refused to take him out of the starting position in the 2006-07 season. He blundered. And kept blundering. Tsk Tsk.

The way it looked to my unseasoned eye during the '06 season, the QB just couldn't rally the offense to his lead.

Without knowing anything about the '07 season, it's not surprising to find out that he was demoted to No. 2 last September.

And now... Lo and behold, Grossman lost out on starting QB position to Kyle Orton. Now I know nothing about Orton, but I'm not like the majority of voters out there. I'm not going to just stick with what we got just cause I know how he's going to screw the American public. I'll go with the new guy who wants to change things. I'm not much of a status quo girl unless it's friggin' working.

Plus, seeing how I predicted early in the '96 season who would go all the way to the Super Bowl to win, as well as saying, "If Coach leaves Rex as starting QB, they will lose." for the 2007 SuperBowl... Hm... Methinks I might be psychic after all.

So the Bears, Chicago, and Soldier field welcome the San Fransisco 49ers tonight (game on FOX at 8:00 pm, yes, I'm late tuning in), we'll see how Orton handles for the first 3 quarters with the rest of the first string.

~Later!

Bay Boys and More - Preseason Week 3

Football??? Yes, American Football. A small little hidden passion that people from LiveJournal and Y!360 may already know a little about.

Let's start with the Elizabeth-American Football relationship history, shall we?

In my early years, my Mom (Marguerite) tried to instill in me nothing but the "finer things" in life. Music (of the classical variety), arts (of the black dress affair type), learning (higher education a must), and the written word. A little of what she taught exists still.

My Dad (Wayne) on the other hand, was about the land, fun with responsibility, and sports. Indiana University, Chicago Bears, Chicago Cubs fan until the day he dies, I'm sure.

In 1996, my very own steer (Dairy Farmers, remember), Thomas "Tommy" Walter, was sold at auction to Packerland Packing of GreenBay (now a part of Smithfield Beef Group), a supplier of fine beef to 4 and 5 star restaurants in the upper mid-west United States. I received the most money for a steer our farm had ever seen. I was proud.

That's when I noticed the Green Bay Packers. I watched with awe the players determination and fierce desire for a win. And win they did! I told Dad and Jarrod (my younger brother) that the Packers were going to win the Super Bowl. They didn't believe me. And yes, the little girl who knew nothing about football was right.

To this day, I really know next to nothing about football: the stats, the averages, the probabilities, etc. These things mean next to nothing to me.

Watching my teams win? That is everything.

SuperBowl 2007 was impressive to me. Not the game itself since I was at work and couldn't get the day off to watch... But the fact that TWO of my teams were in it was enough to make me estatic. I didn't care who won or lost. I was still going to win.

But between 1996 and 2006, I was out of the football scene. I knew next to nothing except that Monday Night Football at Hooters got me the best service any woman could get there. (I was pregnant with Samantha and attended with my male roommates every week religiously. I even gave birth to Sami on Monday Night Football night and missed it. I missed "The Monday Night Miracle" all because I was having a little Monday Night Miracle of my own.)

And then came Niko... A Tampa Bay Buccaneer fan whose love for Tampa rivaled my Dad's love for Chicago changed everything. Niko reminded me a lot of Dad when it came to football, patiently explaining to me the ins and outs of the game. Finally a woman, with a little more math and spectatorship under my belt, I was beginning to understand. Niko played a Yahoo Fantasy football game with his coworkers and through it was slowly explaining what was what. I was hooked. (Speaking of which, Vinny "the Traitor" Testeverde, who started his career with Tampa Bay, threw 4 touchdown passes with the Jets in the fourth quarter alone on that missed game October 23, 2000. Three went to players who had never made a touchdown in their time in the NFL.)

So now you get the drift. I went from an excited little kid watching football with her dad and brother, to a teenage girl who had no use for such things, to an avid watcher and closet football geek in her adult years.

I don't get all the time in the world to watch my football and trust me, trying to find the time to watch my games let alone wrest the TV away from someone else's control long enough to watch my games is near to impossible. But I shall do my best this year to follow my teams, my guys, my second favorite sport.

Next up: Break-down expectations of Chicago Bears, Indianapolis Colts, Green Bay Packers, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

STAY TUNED!

Creative Strikes Again!

Creative Zen Mozaic

A couple weeks ago I mentioned the Creative Zen and it's latest version, the X-Fi.

Today, I'm not impressed with the next Zen creation.

The Mosaic is a glorified palm computer without the ability to download or edit. Perhaps I'm not all about having photos to carry around with me. I have three children and I don't carry a single foto of them with me out and about. I love my pets and my family. They aren't carried with me every day either. I have them in my head and my heart. I don't need digital fotos to carry with me 24/7.

I don't have a need for photo and video storage that can play music and the radio too. Please, I work for a living. The only times I have need of my music player is if I'm working out, driving around town (using an old tape-cd adapter to use my car speakers), or doing any kind of housework when I want to block out the world and focus.

Pics and vids I do not need.

The Creative Zen Mosaic (and consequently, the video/photo parts of the X-Fi for that matter) are geared towards the student and the traveller, so they may take a little bit of home with them every where. Also for the commuters who do not drive themselves. How else could you block out and while away the time on the "L" or the subway? Reading a book would take too much attention and thought!

What the X-Fi has over the Mosaic: Quality. The focus of this product is on the music, the higher quality, bringing your mp3's back up to the quality the artist intended on CDs. While I cannot condone the massive downloading of mp3's for distribution or simply because you're a cheap skate, occasionally it is hard to find a specific song. Or you want to know if you're going to like the album, so download the music and take a listen, buying the cd later. What's the harm, right?

That's another blog for another day, since I myself have downloaded mp3's and ripped from my cds and shared them on P2P programs. But I digress...

Once you've got the cd, it seems rather ridiculous to carry this book of cds around with you. That's the point of the mp3 player after all. But we all know cd-ripping technology is not designed for the consumer. The X-Fi reportedly fixes the scratchy and deadened sound of your legitimately ripped mp3's.

Did I mention it also has Wireless LAN built it???

But what does the Mosaic have over the X-Fi? How about the pics and vids? A lot of people want all of it. Not every one is so focused on the quality of the music they are listening to (and I'm not referring to talent or genre, simply sound quality.)

The Mosaic is CHEAP! Starting at $59.99 compared to the X-Fi $199.99, it's quite possibly a steal. My current MP3 player, the original Creative Zen, was just over $70 (included tax) and was exactly what I needed for work.

Parents could really get behind this latest player. For after school-to after work delays, for quiet rides with little to no fighting... $60 bucks a kid makes it worth it.

There's my electronic thought of the week.
Later,
~E.

This is Why I love Creative

The company, Creative, who has been making my computer sound cards for years (if a computer I pick up doesn't have a Creative sound card, it gets one and the other one gets tossed.) has come out with their next generation of MP3 player...

And damn, it's a beaut.

Here's why I love Creative products. They last. They have quality. And if something goes wrong right the fuck away? They, they take care of you.

I learned this a long long time ago, before I left "home" in fact. That's neither here nor there. I know what I want Santa to bring me for Christmas/Yule!

I have a 1GB mp3 player/portable radio/personal music player. It's great. Until vacation this year, I never realized I could actually fill it. Of course... The battery dies before I get through all 1 gig, but heh, sometimes you are in the mood for a certain kind of music. Other times you want something else...

Finally having 1 gig of music that I like listening to on a regular basis, I have found the need for more.

I have a Creative Zen. I bought it when I was a hotel housekeeper. I needed something in my ears rather than changing stations on the alarm clocks and trying to remember to turn them off again before I left. Screw that. In my ears baby. The Zen was perfect. Came with an armband, perfect for jogging, biking, whatever...

The NEW Zen X-Fi... now this baby is the suweetest lookin' thing. I want one. And ya'll know I've never been one to want the next greatest thing. Hell, I only upgraded to Windows XP 1 year ago! HA!

The Creative Zen X-Fi. People! Seriously. This thing would give me a hard-on if I were a dude.

Creative Zen X-Fi Product Page (*New Window Link)

Check ya later!