iggymcfly

Actually, I was thinking about the Others. Obviously, they've been on the island for quite a while. It seems to me like there is definitely a group of "leaders" who control what's going on. Ethan and Goodwin would definitely be in this group, although maybe not at the top level. Meanwhile, the skinny Others that walk around with no shoes are just people who have been captured and brainwashed by the Others and now do as their told. This fits in with the fact that they were given a list of people to grab, rather than just observing the group and picking off whoever they felt was appropriate.

That's ridiculous. The kid was the one drinking. If he didn't handle it right that's his own fault. If you asked somebody to give you a ride in a blizzard, and they crashed their car on the way over and died, would you charge them with manslaughter? Of course not. Manslaughter's for when you accidentally kill someone; not for when you pressure someone to do something, and they're dumb enough to kill themselves. Oh, and as for the keg cups, I've got a bunch of them and I use them for everything, because: 1) I'm lazy as fuck and I hate doing dishes. 2) I don't really have any large glasses. Sometimes 8 oz. just isn't enough.

There's no question that the article's referencing Angle. He does everything but actually spell it out. Anyway, maybe it's just because I haven't watched Smackdown in a long time, or maybe it's because I wasn't all that into Eddie to begin with, but I really couldn't get myself too worked up about his death. It was kinda like if you told me that Jason Biggs died. I mean it would be too bad, but nothing that affects me personally. I watched the Raw memorial show for five minutes or so, and then turned it off when Cena started talking. Anyway, I remember thinking how the only death that could really affect me at this point would be Kurt Angle. He's just been so meaningful to the company for such a long period of time, that it would really hit home more than anyone else on the roster. There's so many great memories from back when he was he was retaining his WWF Title in the 6-way HIAC to the Alliance feud against Austin to his great matches in the fall of 2002 against the likes of Benoit and Edge to headlining WM with Brock to being the only watchable main eventer on Raw today. Honestly, I think Kurt Angle is the only wrestler significant enough to really touch me in a meaningful way at this point if something happened. Eddie Guerrero was occasionally an interesting diversion, but Angle is like a vibrant reminder of my entire adolescence.

Yeah, the fact that someone's making a big deal about this just shows how desperate these "journalists" are to stir up any sort of controversy. Ooh, football players made a rap song and referenced a gangbang! Oh my god! Let's put them in the stocks for lewd contact unbecoming of the colonies!

As a gift to the board, I'd like to present my lines of the week. They might be a point or two off by now, as I did them earlier in the week, but most of them should be able to withstand that much fluctuation. Anyway, I'm 33-14 over the last 4 weeks, so I think that if you just followed them, you'd probably do pretty well. Furthermore, I like the lines pretty well this week, and I'm feeling pretty confident. I'd say at least 8 out of 12 should come through. Without further ado, here they are (in order of confidence). Oregon State +13 LSU -16.5 Penn State -7.5 Nevada -9.5 Purdue -12.5 Stanford +3.5 South Florida -18.5 South Carolina +1.5 Michigan +3 Vanderbilt +11 Kansas State +1 Maryland +2.5 EDIT: I didn't realize that Matt Moore wasn't playing for Oregon State on Saturday. Considering how bad he's been playing, (11 TDs and 19 INT), I doubt he'll be a big loss for the Beavers, but it does bring down the confidence a little. I'd still say OSU's a good pick, but probably not best of the week with a new QB starting.

SATURDAY Missouri at Kansas State Boston College at Maryland Virginia Tech at Virginia Central Michigan at Ball State Minnesota at Iowa Oklahoma at Texas Tech Purdue at Indiana Ohio State at Michigan Oklahoma State at Baylor Utah at BYU Washington State at Washington Alabama at Auburn East Carolina at Marshall California at Stanford Clemson at South Carolina Tiebreak #1: How many total points will be scored in the Ohio State/Michigan game? 48 Tiebreak #2: How many rushing yards will Washington State's Jerome Harrison have against Washington? 268

Here's a funny note. I was looking at Pinnacle Sports, (I check the lines there, because they get them early even though I don't actually have an account there), and you can already bet on the Rose Bowl. They've got USC listed as a 6.5 point favorite over Texas. If Fresno State or UCLA wanted bulletin board material, this could be it.

Actually, there's thought out there that the Orange Bowl might just take West Virginia because of the close regional tie-in, and the fact that the Mountaineers would bring plenty of fans. However, if there's a one-loss Penn State team on the table, I don't see how they could possibly pass them up.

Good, I was going to be pissed if Ortiz won it for looking tough in the batters box the six minutes a game he actually plays. I hate the Yankees, and I don't like A-Rod, but he's a much more deserving MVP than Ortiz is.

They're 4-0 with Stevie Hicks including wins over Iowa and Colorado. I don't think it's fair to penalize them too much for what happened while he was injured. As for Fresno State, I think the Seminoles might be undefeated with their schedule. The Noles were playing well early in the year, and probably would have beaten Oregon. It was only the grind of playing good ACC teams week in and week out that finally wore them down. Fresno basically lost to a good team, beat a mediocre team, and then got a month and a half off before beating another mediocre team. I mean they seem to be talented, but there so untested, that it's hard to make a case that they deserve to be ranked ahead of Florida State.

What, you mean Miami vs. Troy didn't qualify as Game of the Week!?! Balderdash, I say!

OK, just defeat (3-8) Rutgers and I'm in. I like that. Of course, I have to make sure that my picks are good, as my ultimate goal, (winning the Bored Bowl), is a little more precarious.

I was going to say that it would be better to start this on a Saturday, but that's just because I forgot that other people love to bet the NFL. Personally, I can't do it; the games just seem random to me and I know my win rate on them is under 50%. I still throw a bet or two out there occasionally on a recreational basis, but I know I can't make money on them. College football's another matter, however. Over the last five weeks of college football, I'm 33-14 on my picks, and up a little over $2000.

I think Florida State's still fairly legitimate. They only let up after they knew they'd clinched the ACC Atlantic division title. The thing about the Clemson game is that they really didn't have much to play for as it didn't affect their ultimate bowl destiny at all. Even with the recent losses, I'm still pretty sure that they're more talented than teams like Wisconsin and South Carolina. The head to head road win in a hyped matchup against Boston College works in their favor as well. The thing about Bama is that they've gotten almost all their big games at home, and they still picked up the loss against LSU. In fact, at this point, the only ranked teams that Bama has beaten are South Carolina and Florida, (#24 and #25 respectively). When I look at the SEC pecking order, I can't honestly say that they're ahead of Auburn right now, especially with the Tigers coming off the huge road victory against Georgia. Oregon's got a similar (somewhat weak) resume, but when you're only loss is to USC, you're more likely to get the benefit of the doubt. As for TCU, they have ben really impressive lately. They've won 9 in a row, despite playing in the highest rated mid-major conference against quite a quality slate, winning by blowouts whenever the stakes are high. With a chance to clinch the conference title last week, (not this week), they beat Colorado State 33-6. Even though they are somewhat unproven, I just honestly believe the Horned Frogs are that talented. Also, as has been stated previously, Oklahoma's "bad losses" have all come against teams currently ranked in the Top 16, so there's really no reason to illegitimize that as a quality win.

Wow, this certainly is a shocker. It seems like no professional wrestlers live past the age of about 45 or so. I mean, honestly, there's always some kind of surprising death cropping up out of nowhere. Now I'm not saying steroids or pain pills were directly involved here since we don't have any information to that effect, but the WWE should really try to do something about this problem. Even if Vince just talked to the talent, and personly discouraged them all from getting on the roids, it would be a good start. I guess the brand extension has to help somewhat, in that the wrestlers aren't out there taking bumps quite as much, so relying on pain medicine won't be quite as imminently necessary.

All right, here are the new rankings (Previous week's ranking in parenthesis) 1. USC 10-0 (1) 2. Texas 10-0 (2) 3. Miami 8-1 (4) 4. Penn State 9-1 (5) 5. Ohio State 8-2 (6) 6. LSU 8-1 (8) 7. Virginia Tech 8-1 (7) 8. Notre Dame 7-2 (9) 9. Auburn 8-2 (18) 10. Oregon 9-1 (10) 11. Alabama 9-1 (3) 12. West Virginia 8-1 (13) 13. Michigan 7-3 (15) 14. Georgia 7-2 (12) 15. UCLA 9-1 (17) 16. TCU 10-1 (21) 17. Minnesota 7-3 (22) 18. Florida State 7-3 (14) 19. Louisville 7-2 (23) 20. Iowa State 7-3 (NR) 21. Fresno State 8-1 (NR) 22. Boston College 7-3 (NR) 23. Wisconsin 8-3 (16) 24. South Carolina 7-3 (NR) 25. Florida 7-3 (11)

I guess I'm the only one that actually made any money today. I didn't hit anything big though. To be honest, I really didn't like the lines that well this week. I put $225 on Iowa State, and I didn't put more than $60 on any other individual game. I think I ended up ahead something like $175, but this wasn't the right weekend to make a big score. Oh, and as for the Cougars, I'm just desensitized at this point. I didn't even bother to go the game because I knew we were going to lose. Even when we were up 11, I only gave us a 10% chance of winning the game.

Actually, the way I saw it, before they switched champs, Smackdown was the "kid's show" with 80's type gimmicks, and old school baby-kissing faces that defeated caricature heels. Meanwhile, Raw was the 90's wrestling show aimed at the 18-45 demographic with characters that had some depth, especially Batista's as the original turn on HHH was quite clever. So what do they do? They move Batista to Smackdown, put him in a feud with the goofiest character on either roster (JBL), and basically make him into a caricature of his previous character. Meanwhile, Cena, the perfect merchandise seller for the kiddies, is taken away to Raw where he is continually put into corny 80's match types (handicap, lumberjack, etc.) against people who can't wrestle to save their lives, on the smark-happy serious wrestling show. The result is that neither show is watchable to people over the age of 15, and the kiddies don't know where to tune in for their favorites so the merchandising aspect probably gets cut down as well.

Oh my god. It's like crack when it's all there in front of you. I did it with Sopranos, I did it with the first season of the OC, I did it with the first season of Lost, and now I'm doing it with the third season of 24. It's just amazing. Every episode leads into the other so well, there's no downtime, there's no commercials, and it's just damn near impossible to tear yourself away from the screen. I got through four episodes tonight, and I just barely managed to pull myself away because I've got homework due at 10 AM. Otherwise, there's not a doubt in my mind that I would have finished the entire season in one sitting. Even now, my brain's buzzing to see what will happen next, and it's almost impossible to get started on my work. I figure I'll give my brain a half an hour to settle by doing something boring (reading forums), and then I'll get to work. Honestly, watching a good TV series all at once like that, it might be better than sex.

Well, I live on the West Coast so it wasn't that late that night. Anyway, I wasn't drinking at all tonight, but I went through an even bigger swing going from down $1000 to up $800. In the process, I won both my biggest bluff ever (an $800 pot, about $300 of which was profit), and my biggest pot overall ever, (a $1700 pot, which me and another guy both put over $800 into). Anyway, overall, I'm up about $3000 the last week, and at this point, I really can't imagine ever getting another real job. It's the American dream to get something for nothing, and gambling just seems like the best possible way to do it. Granted, if I'm going to make a living off of this, I've got to stop playing over my head and having "swings" that amount to about 1/3 of the money I own, but it seems like winning just gets a little bit easier every month. I mean really, what's more worthwhile? Working hard for another two years of school so I can get some shit astrophysics job where I make $25 an hour, or playing poker and doing a little bit of reading so I can make over $100 an hour playing a fucking card game. I'd have to go with option B.

OR they could stop trying to force him into being a face, let him play the goofy poser, and find someone the 20 something males can get behind to go up against him. Is it really unreasonable for Angle to play a tweener, do "heelish" things that makes the girls and the kiddies boo, and still act cool enough for the guys to cheer him? This black and white cookie cutter bullshit is what makes me embarrassed to watch Raw the 20 minutes or so a month when I do, and makes me not watch it the rest of the time.

Actually, it's not like that at all. Kane hasn't been half as over as Jericho was ever since the Katie Vick angle. Trust me, putting Kane in the main event wouldn't draw jack shit. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Funny because, Ratings shot up a full point after the mask removal and was going strong for another 2 months until the Shane program aborted his overness. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> OK, sorry I had the timeline wrong in my head, and I forgot that the unmasking angle was after the Katie Vick angle. I agree that he was very over than and probably should have gotten a clean victory over Stone Cold leading into a title feud. However, ever since he was kicked into the flaming dumpster by Shane and the angle went to hell, the crowd's stopped giving a shit about him altogether. Combined with the goofy bad character, the lighting JR on fire, the awful Lita angles, and the 18 different face to heel to face to heel to face turns based on nothing, there is no way that he could draw whatsoever right now. In fact, given the way that Triple H has been treated, (three clean jobs to Batista followed by a job to RIC FLAIR), I would contend that outside of possibly Angle, there are no legitimate main eventers on Raw right now. And Angle's only got about enough mileage for one more title shot, and if he loses there, or wins by DQ, or does anything but win the title, his viability as a main eventer will be shot as well.

Hasn't it been posted in this thread without spoiler tags who dies? I know I read it somewhere and I was pretty sure it was here. I do hope it's wrong though.

I try to stay away from ESPN on Sunday on Monday, as I certainly do hate that fucking song. Basically, I flip by, and stay if they're talking about college football or showing college football. Otherwise, I just keep on going.

Actually, it's not like that at all. Kane hasn't been half as over as Jericho was ever since the Katie Vick angle. Trust me, putting Kane in the main event wouldn't draw jack shit.