A week in the life...

Some noteworthy things happened this week...

• I started my new position at work as Project Coordinator. It's nice to be involved with processes and being able to help make things within the department run smoother.
• I registered for Spring classes at Texas State. An interesting byproduct of this process was that as I went through my degree audit I came to the conclusion that I have significantly fewer classes left than I thought. I may even be able to graduate next Fall instead of Spring '08. Stay tuned for more details...
  

Every time I try to get out...

So I told myself I was going to stop writing about the Penguins as much and more about myself, which was the point of doing this in the first place. And then the Penguins went and beat Philly 8-2 last night. Man I am in love with this team! Sidney had his first career hat trick and Evgeni scored to put him at a goal in each of his first 5 career games. Marc-Andre Fleury is playing out of his mind right now too. Of course it helps that the Flyers suck, which naturally delights me to no end.

The good times don't end there... Liverpool have gotten their act back together as well. After beating Reading 4-3 in the Carling Cup on Wednesday, they followed up with a 3-1 win over previously unbeaten Aston Villa in what was universally described as their best effort of the season. Let's hope the Reds can keep it rollin'!

Jar Barf

For your viewing pleasure!

How can you not love this guy?

Apparently Evgeni Malkin is an even better person than he is a hockey player (if that's possible). He paid for a 6 year-old girl's surgery so that she could get a prosthetic arm. Read the whole story here.

Midterm report:

• Discrete Math - 93/100
• Probability and Stats - 94/100
• Intro to Database - 81/100

I did pretty much how I figured on the two math tests. On the database one, I nailed all the "hard" stuff but slipped up on the multiple choice. Just need to take a little more time next time.

Malkin's Amazing Goal against Martin Brodeur

Watching this will never get old...

Words can't do this goal justice. Just sit back and enjoy... let's go Pens!

They're at it again!

The Penguins rolled the Devils 4-2 at home tonight on the way to their third straight win. The Pens got goals from Ekman, Staal, Crosby, and (who else) Evgeni Malkin. Malkin's goal was the best goal I have seen in years. He took a beautiful long range pass from Sid, cut on a dime to split the D, and then turned Martin Brodeur inside-out with a gorgeous backhand move. I can't wait until that goal is up on YouTube so I can watch it about 50 times in a row. If the boys keep this up I may have to accelerate my Stanley Cup prediction by a season or two. It's good times for Pens fans!

***UPDATE*** I've watched the Malkin goal 4 or 5 more times already and it just gets more amazing each time. 4 goals in 4 games... the future is now!

Gameday!!!

So very few things in life seem to soothe Landon the way watching college football does. What can I say... he's a native Texan! Here's the bottom line from yesterday:

- The Longhorns beat Nebraska. This was no doubt due to the positive mojo Landon was sending them. If he could kick field goals we could probably get him a scholarship right now.

- The Penguins won again! They took care of Columbus 5-3. Malkin had the game-winner (that's 3 goals in 3 games if yer counting), and 18 year-old sensation Jordan Staal chipped in a pair of shorthanded goals (all 3 of his goals have been a man down) including a penalty shot that hit the post and then went in off the goalie.

Now if Liverpool can just pull out a huge win against Manchester United today the weekend will have been a success. I wouldn't mind my fantasy football team(s) winning too, but at this point I'd rather have the 3 points for the Reds.

New game alert!!

I came into a little money (you know who you are) so I decided to pick up a new game. Winning Eleven was starting to wear on me so I decided to take on last chance on EA and bought FIFA '07. So far I am very pleased with it. It is definitely the best FIFA game I have played in a very long time. I'm just at the point though where giving EA money just leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I'll get over it though.

Midterm week has come and gone.

I had both of my math midterms this evening. They were both pretty easy. I was a little worried about the Probability and Stats one, but it ended up being pretty managable. Now I get to put my focus back on my two term projects. Yipee...

That's what I'm talking about!

The Penguins just beat the Islanders in OT compliments of a Sergei Gonchar one timer. How do I know you ask? Well, I actually got to watch most of the game. Yahoo is showing the games the Vs. (formerly OLN) is broadcasting so I get to watch a little hockey every now and again now. The Penguin power play was the big story as it contributed 3 goals including the OT winner.

This game was also a huge boost for my fantasy hockey team as I picked up a win, 3 goals (2 on the PP), and 6 assists (5 on the PP). Those 7 power play points are going to come in real handy methinks. Hopefully that will be enough to get my team out of last place. Oh, and for those of you who are counting... Malkin has 3 points in his first 2 games. Sidney chipped in 3 more assists tonight as well.

Evgeni Malkin's First NHL Goal

It wasn't pretty, but it still counts.

And so it begins...

Evgeni Malkin finally played his first real game for the Penguins tonight. He scored his first ever goal on a Mark Recchi rebound, but sadly the Pens lost to the Devils 2-1. Everything I have read so far says that Evgeni played great. There was even an article on the web yesterday with Sidney and Recchi comparing him to Mario. Sergei Gonchar resisted the urge to come out and say that he is better than Alexander Ovechkin (we all know it) and instead said Ovechkin is a Pavel Bure type while Malkin is more along the lines of a Sergei Fedorov. Works for me, Sergei managed to pick up a few rings for his trouble.

***Update***
Apparently Evgeni also broke the glass with a slapshot last night. Like I said, this guy does it all!

It's not me, it's you...

So I had my Intro to Databases midterm last night. It was a lot easier than I expected based on what I had heard about my professor from other people. He also gave us back our second term project papers. He wrote that I needed to see him "ASAP" to go over serious problems with my project. I met with him after finishing the test and we determined the following:

- He knows nothing about golf. This is a problem since my project (a project that he wrote himself) is for a fictional golf course. So since he knows next to nothing about the subject he came to the conclusion that someof my naming was wrong when in fact I was using very common golf terms.

- If you don't do something the way he did it then it is wrong. After some explanation on my part he finally came to realize that what I had done not only worked, but actually worked better. I guess the end result is the important thing but c'mon...

- If you are going to sound the alarms on somebody's huge project, you should probably look at the entire thing. My diagram was broken up into 2 pages and he only bothered to look at the first page. Three cheers for thoroughness!!

Veto that suckas!!!

My 48th post could not be a happier one. So after much kicking and screaming I finally forced my big fantasy football trade through last week. So with new QB Carson Palmer in tow I "took the field" against Mike Ferguson and his team that is basically my team from last season (champs woot woot!) eager to erase memories of my poor performance from last week. And thanks in large part to huge games from Tory Holt and Roy Williams I blew Fergie away 152-102 (give or take the decimals). That pushes my record to 4-2 and I should be back in 2nd place tomorrow.

Other notes:
- I pulled off the RB for WR trade I had been hinting at since I got Carson. I traded Joseph Addai for Reggie Williams. Another big win for me. I love how you can take advantage of crappy teams if you draft well.
- By starting Carson Palmer this week I have now played 5 different QB's in 6 weeks. That will increase again next week when I play Matt Leinart.
- I finally get my shot at the first place team next week. I have been the highest scorer in 3 of the last 4 weeks and my confidence is high. It should be fun, it's just too bad I have to play him the week I'm without Holt and Jackson. I can still take him though.

Look what I can do!

So I got a gadget a few weeks ago to allow me to capture video on our PC. It also lets me hook a console up to the PC. So I can now play my X-Box on my PC and record it, as you have just seen.

I forgot to update...

I got an 83 on my GEOL test. Geology savant indeed!

It's good to be the King!

It must be nice to be 19 and one of the best in the world at what you do. Sidney Crosby capped off a 4 point night by scoring the game winner against the Rangers with 3.3 seconds left. Sid's goal and three assists helped propel the Pens to their second win in three games on the young season. The new Pen dynasty may still be a couple years away, but that doesn't mean we can't win a few games in the meantime. I've said it before and I'll say it again... I haven't been this excited about the Pens in a loooooong time.

Also, fellow teen sensations Jordan Staal and Kristopher Letang both scored their first career NHL goals. Staal scored on an awesome shorthanded breakaway and Letang scored a power play goal with a wicked wrister to the top right corner.

Merry Columbus Day... here's your test!

So I had a Geology test this morning. I thought it was going to be unbearably hard based on the way my Prof. is, but it turned out to be not all that bad. I'm predicting a low to mid B for my grade. Not too bad considering I studied for maybe 2 hours total (thank you very much Intro to Databases). I dunno, maybe I'm just a Geology savant. Either way, I'm still not convinced it's a science.

Well I'll be...

So it turns out that the think tank that is my fantasy league decided that my trade was unfair and vetoed it. I'm split on whether or not to even sitck it out for the rest of the season. More than likely I'll drop all the players on my team that I possibly can and then laugh as the league descends even further into chaos. Part of me wants to stick it out just to beat them all, but I don't know that it is worth the trouble.

Now that's more like it!

I managed to get in on the lopsided trade fad last night. It took some little haggling and a couple late night phone calls but I now have a legit QB and it really didn't cost me much. I gave up Mark Brunell (who I grabbed as a free agent earlier this week) and Braylon Edwards (who I didn't want to trade, but you can't make an omlette without cracking a few eggs). In return I got Carson Palmer (stud QB and one of the keys to last year's championship) and Willie Parker. Getting Palmer gives me a must-start QB who won't be facing a bye in the future, so that allowed me to drop Matt Leinart to grab Doug Gabriel. This was key since moving Braylon left me with only 3 WR's. At some point I'll probably try to move one of my RB's to get another quality WR. I also grabbed the Atlanta DEF off of waivers (I was saving my high waiver priority for a QB if one came along, but I've got Carson now). I have to say though, I am very happy with my roster right now. This trade really got me back in the game. Barring injuries my team is going to be pretty tough to beat.

Not a bad way to start the season...

Here's a breakdown of how the day went for the Penguins:

- The team was sold to some rich Canadian who may or may not ultimately try to move the team to Hamilton (that's in Ontario kiddies).

- Mario's number 66 was raised to the rafters for what seems like the fifth or sixth time.

- The kids on the ice spanked the Flyers 4-0 in front of the home crowd. Sidney had a goal and an assist and Marc-Andre had 40 saves for the shutout. If they can get goaltending like that from Fleury on a semi-consistent basis this may be a very good year for the Pens.

Work it Crouchy!!!

Why yes, now that you mention it I did just buy a Peter Crouch jersey on ebay.

Fantasy Update: Finally no more baseball!

- Fantasy Baseball: Kevin and I tied in the two week championship. Yahoo gave him the title based on what I consider a very shady tiebreaker based on what I've experienced in other leagues. As far as I'm concerned I finished in 1st and 3rd with my two teams.

- Fantasy Football: e = B2L pulled out a nice win thanks to my running backs starting to produce. Brett Favre and the Seahawks D almost blew it for me, but a win is a win. I am now in 2nd place overall and lead the league in total points scored so far. This is pretty much where I was at the same point last year. The only difference is that everyone is gunning for me this year.

I also pulled off my first (and most likely last) trade today. I shipped out DeShaun Foster (something I had been trying to do for a couple weeks) and picked up Terry Glenn. This trade brings me another weapon at WR in exchange for a guy I was never going to play barring injuries. The trade also fixes a big bye week fiasco I had looming. I also dropped Derrick Mason and picked up Mark Brunell. Brunell isn't a guy I would normally target, but he goes against the Titans on Favre's bye week so that will be a nice boost there.

Also, the rest of my league continues to pull of stupid trades at an alarming rate. There are a couple guys who just keep loading up on studs because a couple morons do the most inexplicably stupid things. I don't want to rant on this any more, but at this rate it may be hard to defend my title. There are a couple very stacked teams out there now. At least I'm smarter than the rest of them at this stuff, so I've got that going for me...

I know it's really just a piece of paper, but...

Just consider this one hurdle (of several) cleared. I know an AS isn't the grandest accomplishment in the world, but after all I went through to get mine I think I should be allowed to strut about it for a second or two. Okay, back to work...