Why the Chargers are the Most Frustrating Team to Watch in the NFL

Okay.  So, I was pretty excited when the Chargers picked up Chris Chambers a few weeks back.  Wide Receiver has been a weakness for the Chargers as of late... and I thought to myself, "Finally.  Now we're gonna start seeing some great things happen."  Unfortunately, nothing of the sort came to be.  After watching the Chargers lose to the Jaguars today, I can easily explain why they are the most frustrating team to watch in the NFL:

1) The Special Teams Unit is one of the best in the league -- Between Darren Sproles, Kassim Osgood, Nate Kaeding and Mike Scifres, there's a pretty solid core.

2) The Defense Unit is strong enough to be respectable -- Antonio Comrartie alone has had amazing games by picking off quarterbacks left and right.  And there's always pressure coming from Phillips and Merriman.

While points 1 and 2 are great things, here comes the kicker:

3) The Offense is Horrific!  If you look at the starting offense on paper: LaDanian Tomlinson,  Michael Turner, Antonio Gates, Chris Chambers, Vincent Jackson and Phillip Rivers (before this season started), you would think that if there were any weaknesses in the Chargers, it would most certainly not be in the offense.  That my friend, is where both you and I would be wrong.

Of course, you can always get on the bandwagon to blame Norv Turner for all of the Chargers' problems... but even though has done things deserving scorn, it comes down to whether or not the Chargers can execute.  Watching an All-Star offense struggle to get a first down, let alone a touch down is just sickening.

All right... that's my rant.  I'll move on now.

With Cookies?

There was a headline in the news today that starts with "Illinois College Bans 2 Students Accused of Torturing Man With..." and I assumed something horrible would follow. Some kind of brutal attack that I would just skip over... since I can only take so much gloomy news before I need to bask in the sun for 13 hours. In any case, what would follow was beyond anything I had ever expected: "...With Freshly Baked Cookies." And no, this is not a joke. You can see the story here. So, I thought to myself--attacked with COOKIES?? What does that even look like? The cookies are fresh out of the oven, and they just put it on the guy's face or something? Or is it more like "I don't care if you're full, eat the cookie. And there's an Oatmeal Raisin batch about to be done as well! (As he readies the oven mit)" In any case... I thought it was a good laugh.

Leopard a Reality

So, now that Leopard has been set free, I ordered myself up a new Macbook. Now, I've never owned a Mac before, so I figure this will be a great learning experience -- trying to unlearn all of the habits (for better or for worse) that Microsoft has engraved in my brain to become comfortable with a new operating system paradigm. I may have jumped in just a little too soon since there are a few bugs that need to be patched in Leopard to increase the stability, but so far, I cannot say that I've been disappointed. The only thing that bugs me is that four days after I ordered my Macbook, Apple goes and updates the hardware specs... so I got the older specs on mine. Of course, the upgrade didn't make a HUGE difference according to reviews, so oh well. Anyway, I'm stoked to try this out and learn something new. Front Row alone is pretty sweet!

How Much?

Just a quick story that I thought was pretty funny: I recently told someone that I work with that I just turned a quarter of a century old. She stopped and had one of those looks on her face like you knew she was putting in some serious number crunching time. About 5-10 seconds later she replied, "So, you're like 20?" True story my friends. True Story.

We've got Chris Chambers

Well, for those of you who didn't know already, I am quite the Chargers fan. I would say that it's definitely the sports team that I follow the most closely--based on the number of players I can name for any given team. I can trace the beginning of my football following to when I first started playing fantasy football. What a great gift to humanity that is. I started learning the starting players (on both offense and defense) on a lot of teams around the league... but the Chargers are always my number one. In any case, just before the trading deadline, the Chargers decided to acquire WR Chris Chambers from the Miami Dolphins in exchange for a 2nd round draft pick next year. I'd say it's a pretty good deal since the Chargers have struggled to have a REAL #1 Wide Receiver for a number of years now... at least we now have someone I've heard of... ha. I'm excited to see where this one goes...

Unleash the Leopard

Apple made an official announcement this week that their next OS, Leopard, will be released next Friday, October 26th. I'm really excited about this for a couple of reasons -- 1) I've been waiting to buy a Mac until Leopard came out so I wouldn't buy one and then have to shell out another $130 sometime soon afterward to pay for the upgrade and 2) I've never owned a Mac before, so I'm really looking forward to using it-- figuring out the new benefits and differences from the world I have become so accustomed to. I'm not one to say that Macs are better than PCs running Windows or Linux or anything else, because they all have their advantages and disadvantages... but I am really, really excited about giving Leopard a try!

Selling a home is overrated

Dear Friends and Family--It has been quite some time since I have written anything, and I can pin point my excuse to two different things. First, we were trying to sell our home. But, after little response, watching the market continue to fall in an endless downward spiral and remembering that we don't really need to move, we've decided to give up--for now. However, the benefits of this process include: learning something... we always do, having a painted garage, picking up the place and a variety of other little things. So, all in all it was a good experience, but definitely something to put off for the time being.

My second excuse is that I'm working on a new project at work that is consuming every minute of my time. I'll usually catch myself working during my lunch break, and it's on my mind a lot even outside of work (as proof, I accidentally mistyped the word "myself" as "mysql" first in this sentence). In any case, it's what I call a good problem. As I become more comfortable with my new job, I am getting more responsibility and more to do... it's definitely better than the alternative.

Anyway, just wanted to at least put something up!