Speechless

Here I sit in my home. March 22nd, 2010. An unremarkable time of the year by most standards. It wouldn't be worthy of mention had not the USA been changed yesterday.

House Resolution 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Voting yes were 219 Democrats and 0 Republicans.

Voting no were 34 Democrats and 178 Republicans.

Notice that tiny zero in front of the Republican name? That means that every Republican was against it. Every conservative was against it. And according to the polls, more than 70% of the American people were against it. Doesn't matter. They passed it anyway.

Why?

Dear God, why?!

In what country does this make sense?!

When did this country become a nation where the the elites dictate to the underlings? Yesterday, apparently.

I don't know what to say. No words can express my utter disgust at what has happened. Apparently the words of the Constitution mean nothing anymore.

Plight of the unconventional sports fan.

Its hard rooting for a team that loses. Its the antithesis of why we watch sports in the first place. Why pay money to attend a football game if you know your team is going to lose? We watch sports to make ourselves feel better, right?

Or perhaps we watch sports so we can see the human drama; the ultimate reality TV show has been in front of us the whole time. We feel the rush of victory when our team wins, and we share in their joy. Likewise, we feel the hole in our heart when our team loses. We play the game with them, vicariously, as if by sheer force of will we can help our team achieve their goal.

Then there are those who watch sports because it has handsome guys or beautiful women. I'm not a girl, so I can't really say why women watch. Having said that, I like women's tennis, and I'm not at liberty to mention why.

Perhaps its for all three reasons we watch, even participate mentally with the competitors. So why are there those who root for the underdog like me?

Because when the underdog wins, the thrill of that single victory is by far sweeter than sum total of all the favorite's wins. That's why I love cheering for the underdog.

What brought this on, you ask? Fine, I'll get the point.

Some of you know that I'm a Jamie McMurray fan, and have been since 2002 when he came onto the NASCAR scene. When he didn't win all that much, I was still loyal. He had a great season in 2003 and an even better one in 2004. He didn't win any races either of those years, yet I knew his consistency showed promise. However, he decided to move over to Roush, as it seemed a better opportunity to win races.

There were high expectations when he moved over to Roush Fenway. Even though he won two races with Roush (Pepsi 400, 2007 and the Amp Energy 500 in 2009) he was never really consistent in Roush equipment. Ultimately he was squeezed out of Roush when the 4 team limit imposed by NASCAR came into effect for the 2010 season. Nobody really knew what was in his future, and I scoured the internet consistently looking for some clue as to if he was even going to race in 2010.

Eventually the 2009 season ended and it was quietly announced that he would be joining Earnheardt Ganassi in the vacated 1 car for the 2010 season. Better than nothing, I thought. I wished him luck, and was still loyal, yet my expectations were quite low. Frankly, I'm glad they were.

Well, here it is, the beginning of the 2010 NASCAR season, and as always, they start off with the biggest race of the year, the Daytona 500. McMurray looked decent in the Budweiser shootout, but never really threatened to win. The same applied in the Gatorade duels. Everyone knew he had a decent car and the experience to win, but was overshadowed by the favorites, Harvick, Hamlin, and Biffle.

During the race, he was usually near the front, usually from 5th to 15th or so, but it was a yo-yo act pretty much until the sun started going down. Then suddenly the twilight brought his car to life.

VIDEO OF LAST 3 LAPS

You could call it a Cinderella story if you wish, a foolish fairy tale. It came true, though. McMurray defied the odds and won the Daytona 500. This is a colossal accomplishment, and one that will never be taken away.

I waited 8 years to see him win that race. It was well worth the wait.

Congratulations, Jamie!

Fiesta Bowl

Last year Boise State and TCU faced off in the Poinsettia bowl. You can go back and read it if you wish, but I said it was a great game even though Boise State lost by one point.

This year, Boise State pulled off the upset and beat TCU. This, to me, is a bittersweet victory because I adore both these teams. TCU has nothing to be ashamed of. It was an amazing defensive game and went down to the wire.

Congrats, Boise State. You deserve it.

2 month update

Its been two months since I updated. This is mostly due to the undeniable fact that I became quite busy. I make no excuses for November. Its when all the best books, movies, and video games are released. And believe me, those can--and usually do--take up the majority of my free time. So let's see what have I been doing. Warning: This will be an exceptionally large update.

How about bowl season? Seems a good a place as any.
- Championship game - Texas vs. Alabama. I would have rather seen TCU in the championship game because I think they have the potential to beat both teams, but there's nothing I can do about it at this point. Alabama did beat Florida, so they made a believer out of me. I think they will beat Texas with their defense.
- Fiesta Bowl - Boise St vs. TCU. Why did it have to be two of my three favorite teams? Ugh. I still want Boise St to win, but I also want TCU to win. Either way it will be a bittersweet victory. I think TCU will be the victor.
- Rose Bowl - Oregon vs. Ohio St. Good luck, Buckeyes. You're gonna need it cause you don't stand a chance.
- Orange Bowl - Iowa vs Georgia Tech. Iowa squeaked by too many games for me to have faith in them. Georgia Tech will this one.
- Sugar Bowl - Florida vs. Cincinnati. Both are great teams, but Florida lost their momentum at the end of the year. Still, I will go with the flow and pick Florida, but I fully believe Cincy is capable of winning.

Okay, now onto the book I was looking forward to for three years. The Gathering Storm. Ever since the passing away of James Oliver Rigney on Sept. 16th, 2007, Wheel of Time fans have been in limbo about the beloved fantasy series. Even though Harriet, Rigney's widow, chose Brandon Sanderson to pen the final volumes of the series, many had doubts as to whether the series would remain true to the world Jordan had established.

On October 27th, 2009 I became a part of history and went to the the release party in Provo, Utah. I originally intended to provide photos of the event, but I inadvertently forgot to bring my phone. (I don't have a digital camera for reasons I shall explain at a later date.) So unfortunately, I cannot provide any pictures. Still, it was quite chilly outside the BYU Bookstore, but the ushers did provide some fun material to keep our minds occupied while we waited for the stroke of midnight.

But is the book any good? If you enjoy reading the Wheel of Time series, the book is nothing less than awesome. So many side plots are being resolved, and you can see how all the lines are slowly merging together. But that's not what makes it awesome. It how they are coming together. Its done in a personality-driven fashion that is so realistic, I feel like the characters are my friends I know them so well. The epic story is finally picking up speed and its amazing how its all coming together so well.

Thank you, Brandon Sanderson on a job well done. You have preserved the look and feel of the Wheel of Time without making it artificial. Its not often I go back and read a book a second or third time just because I want to relive the intensity.

Brandon Sanderson's Eulogy of Jordan.

Moving on, its time for some video game reviews.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Its probably one of the most anticipated games in recent memory. I had many complaints about the first one. Amongst other things, the maps were too small and too unrealistic, the martyrdom and multi-frag perks were annoying, sniping was absolutely broken, knifing was ridiculously overpowered, there wasn't enough ammo without the bandolier perk, there was too much sway on the ACOG scope, and the camera always jumped when you were being hit. I think the sniping complain warrants further explanation. First of all, the Barret .50 caliber M82 rifle was NOT A ONE-HIT KILL. Seriously, even if a .50 cal bullet hits a non-vital part of the body like an arm or leg, it would BLOW IT OFF THE BODY thus leading to swift death. The sway on sniper scopes, though realistic, was sadly busted by the fact that it takes about 2-3 seconds for the sway to stop once you took a breath. That doesn't seem like a lot of time, but in the game its forever. By the time your sway stops, your target is halfway across the map, no longer in a line of sight. Even if you were able to pull the trigger and hit the target, they would know exactly where you're sniping from because of the killcam. This alone negates any advantage the sniper had in the first place, and his position will be compromised after one shot. Its stupid. Often, the sniper will shoot at targets quite a distance away, and even though they are running, as long as the sniper puts the crosshairs on their head and pulls the trigger, its a hit regardless of distance. That's dumb. Bullets are fast, but they are never instantaneous.

Okay, so did they fix the issues in the new game?
- Maps too small - Same.
- Maps too restrictive - Same.
- Martyrdom - Not gone completely, but reduced enough for it to not be so annoying.
- Multi-frag - Blessedly fixed. Thank God.
- Knife overpowered - WORSE. They added Commando perk, essentially making the knife an instant kill gun.
- Limited ammo - Same. You'll run out fast.
- Sway on ACOG sight - Same. Its as hard as hell to use. In fact, the ACOG barely zooms at all and takes up too much of your vision to be useful.
- Camera jump while being hit - Sadly, not fixed. This is death for snipers. If you get hit first, its over.
- Unrealistic Barrett - Same crap. If you don't want an instant kill sniper rifle in the game, take this gun out. Seriously.
- Killcam for snipers - Same crap. They always know where you're sniping from.
- No leading shots - Not fixed.

Do I like the game? Nope. They fixed 2 of 11 issues I had.
Do I play the game? Yes. Because its challenging and I like the rewards, titles, and leveling system.

Overall, thumbs down. The game was already run&gun, but now its run&knife. Its not realistic or fun, its inane and tedious. I want my money back.

Left 4 Dead 2
It was also highly anticipated because of the success of the first game, which was great, I might add. So was the second one better? You better believe it. They tripled the amount of guns available to use, added 11 melee weapons, 3 new special infected, 2 new game modes, 5 new campaign levels (which coincidentally form one long storyline), and new items to carry such as adrenaline, boomer bile, and a defibrillator. That's enough new content to satisfy any fan of the series.

Did they break the story? Nope, its still good.
Did they break the difficulty? Nope, if anything its actually harder, which in my opinion was a good move.

Despite it being more difficult, the game is as fun as hell and never really gets old. Thumbs up here, great game, worth the wait, and well worth the money.

I think I'll leave off with a review of the movie I saw tonight, The Princess and the Frog. I have four words that sum it up. Thank you, John Lasseter. The quality of EVERYTHING in the movie has increased exponentially over previous Disney debacles, and you can tell its because Lasseter had a finger in it the whole way. Worth the price of a ticket? Definitely. And that's saying a lot coming from me.

BCS whining again.

Last Monday evening I went to The Gathering Storm release party in Provo, Utah. Well, I haven't posted about it because I've been too busy reading the book --which is awesome, by the way. I'll post a blog about it with pictures as soon as I get the pictures from the person who took them. (My phone conveniently ran out of battery as we approached Provo.)

So for now, I'm going to give my opinion of the BCS's top 10.

1- Florida: I think Florida is right where they belong. They're better than Alabama and Texas.
2- Alabama: They're probably too high. Texas is better.
3- Texas: Probably should be #2. Their balance of offense and defense is amazing.
4- Iowa: You're kidding me, right? Iowa is so overrated. Since when have they blown out opponents weaker than themselves? They have squeaked by so many games with barely a win. Sure, they're top 10, but not #4.
5- USC: Overrated. Barkley is good, but not that good. And their defense is atrocious.
6- TCU: Underrated. TCU is doing everything right. They could go against Texas or Alabama and it would be a great game.
7- Boise St: Also underrated. Boise St has proven time and time again that they can play as good as those overrated SEC and Pac-10 teams.
8- Cincinati: Okay, top 10 is where they belong. They're great this year.
9- LSU: Ugh overrated again. They struggled against Washington and barely survived Miss St. They're top 15 though.
10- Oregon: Underrated. Oregon is on fire. After a shaky start to the season, they've decimated every opponent in front of them, regardless of rank.

So my top 10 would be:
1- Florida
2- Texas
3- TCU
4- Boise St
5- Oregon
6- Alabama
7- Cincinati
8- Iowa
9- USC
10- Penn St.

Eulogy to a friend.

For several months I had been aware that a friend of mine had been quite ill. However, he lived in another city, and I've had very little contact with him over the past 5+ years. Last Tuesday I was informed that he had passed away. I attended the viewing on Friday evening and his funeral on Saturday morning.

Shawn Sorenson had to be one of the most unique people I have ever met. If you saw him next to me, you would have never thought of us as friends. Truth be told, in high school I didn't want to have anything to do with him.

But people change. And I've never met anyone who changed as much as he did.

Sometime after high school he quit drugs, alcohol, and smoking. He did all this without losing his personality; without losing who he was. He was still a coarse, fun-loving person. Coarse because his style of humor would be offensive to most people I know. He was just offensive enough to be funny without being annoying. It took a certain style of humor to appreciate his antics, and it was always more fun to play along with him than it was to ask him to stop.

Fun loving because there was never a dull moment. I know that phrase is used often, but with Shawn it was true. You never knew if you were going to wake up in the morning by being doused with barbecue sauce or being poked with the blunt end of his dull sword. Yes, the same sword he dueled with when my other friend challenged him to sword fights. He loved making you squirm, but only just enough. If he got bored, the gears would start turning and he would always come up with something to do. Like dousing a soccer ball in gasoline and wrapping it with a discarded bedsheet, then lighting it on fire and playing flaming soccer. Oh, the memories. Sometimes I wonder how he survived as long as he did.

Despite the coarseness, he was an irrevocable nerd. You'd never be able to tell this just by looking at him. He didn't have greasy hair, glasses, a pale complexion, or a thin build. (Wow, I totally just described myself. That's kinda scary.) Yet he sat around the table with us and played Star Wars RPG on many occasions. Usually he played a wookie and took advantage of the freedom of gameplay by injuring as many people as possible just for kicks to see how long it would take for authorities to detain him. It was hard to roll the dice when you're laughing so hard you can't see through the tears.

Another word that describes him is generous. If you had issues, he'd be the first one to offer you a ride, or an extra coat, or to join him in partaking of his amazing barbecue ribs. He never complained to me, even when his health had deteriorated to the point where he was in excruciating pain. He never talked about his ailments. He was more interested in inviting you to go fishing or something else fun.

It was because of his generosity and love that he won the hearts of all who knew him. It was a simple Christlike attribute, yet it stood out. It was hard to not like him. I can almost hear him whispering in my ear, "Hey sonofabitch, how the hell are you?"

Shawn lived 30 years. He was 3 months younger than myself. It was his time to go; his time to be released from his pain. There's a lot of work to do in the next life, and his experiences in this life more than qualifies him.

I won't see him for another 30 years or more. Its okay, though. Seeing Shawn again will be well worth the wait.

Why I love Steve Wynn

On the Fox News Sunday Economic Roundtable show, Steve Wynn, the billionaire Las Vegas mogul shared some simple truths about the economy and role of Government. (Partial video segments can be found here and here.)

WARNING: This post is very long. It may take 15-20 minutes to read the words. You have been warned.

Okay, on to Steve Wynn.

"I think that the priorities of the administration should have been more directly focused on job creation. From the day of the inauguration forward, the priority should have been job creation. And the most powerful weapon and the tool that the government has for that is its tax policy. If the government had used its power to restrain its tax collection they would have given everybody who runs small businesses, large businesses, a chance to hire more people and that could have been done an entirely different way. With eight or $900 billion we could have created four or five million jobs, which would have made a big difference."

It gets better, though. Chris Wallace later asked, "Where do you draw the line between the proper role of government in all this and the proper role of the private sector?"

Steve Awesome replied, oops, I mean Steve Wynn replied,

"Government has never increased the standard of living of one single human being in civilization's history. For some reason that simple truth has evaded everybody. The only thing that creates an increased standard of living is giving someone a job, the demand for their labor -- whether it's you and I, Chris, or anybody else. The people that are paying the price for this juggernaut of federal spending are the middle class and the working class of America. And soaring rhetoric and great speeches with or without a teleprompter aren't going to change the truth, and the truth is: The biggest enemy, the biggest obstacle that working middle-class America has is government spending."

YES!

But Governor Granholm, D-Michigan, had some words for Wynn.

"It's just so simplistic to say that! With all due respect, I mean, to say that government has never created a job or increased the standard of living. You know, I mean there -- there are a lot of people who are grateful that in this country we have a minimum wage. There are a lot of people who are grateful that they have access to Medicare and Medicaid. And I hope that we get access further to additional health care for those who are un- -- right now uninsured. I mean, there is a balance here. To say that government is all evil... This is a democracy. It's the greatest country in the world."

Steve Wynn then responds,

"I didn't say that at all. I'm saying that the source of government revenue, the source of well-being in this country is employment. That allows companies to pay taxes, employees to pay taxes. That's the source here and it's gotten out of focus. That's my point, Governor. I'm not making any other point. And, believe me, ma'am, I've got 20,000 employees. I've had as many as 150,000 families that I've been self-insuring. There's nothing "simplistic" about my approach to this problem."

BINGO.

"Health Care, something I know about, is a complicated, technical issue for which practically everybody in this administration has absolutely zero experience. It was not a priority. Job creation was the priority from the day this President was inaugurated. It has been eclipsed by a technical, confusing conversation in which hardly anybody has read the small print on a thing called Health Care. That's a proper subject, along with infrastructure, for a healthy economy. But health care and infrastructure are things that come later. Right now our concentration should be on job creation."

"I've never laid off anybody in 40 years. But if this president, and this administration, and Nancy Pelosi get their way, I, and all other employers like myself, will be hit, with my employees, with a barrage of taxes that will result in more layoffs, that will not be helpful, and will be counter-productive to the very goal we should have as a nation."

"The economists have had their moment, really everyone who has had absolutely no experience in insuring people, creating jobs, have had their moment. The housing market will improve when pepole have a job so the can buy a home that they can afford or a car that they can afford. The stimulus package which is antithetical and counter-intuitive to Washington is to restrain government power. The most powerful tool is tax policy. Had the president stood up the day after he was inaugurated and said we're going to pass a bill that say if you can prove to the IRS that you've increased your permanent employees with health insurance we will subsidize $30 thousand or $40 thousand dollars of that in the form of a tax credit, there would have been jobs created in this economy within 60 days in every corner of the economy, not just in civil construction, no not at all; there would have been jobs created everywhere because businesses, as you have pointed out, have cut back out of fear, they're suffering from a lack of consumer confidence. The day that the unemployment figure goes from 9.6 and climbing to 8.9 is the day that consumer confidence will return, and this country will be on its way out of the recession."

"I think these are complicated subjects. Job creation. The chance to build more cars comes from people having a job. Focus on that simple truth. Simple truths hold institutions together. We've lost our focus. And that's my opinion."

Hehe, he said "antithetical." My new word of the day.

an⋅ti⋅thet⋅ic

 –adjective

1.	of the nature of or involving antithesis.

2.	directly opposed or contrasted; opposite.

Okay, I think this post is far too large. If you read the whole thing, I think you deserve a cookie.