Fairweather Zealot

It was scary – visions of Adam Talifierro came to mind as we all watched Michael Robinson lay still on the turf. Never mind that the Penn State offense had once again been completely ineffective. Never mind that the Lions were losing the game. All that mattered was another kid laying on the ground, inert. As horrified fans watched, and as the ever-paternal coach stood over him, they put the neck brace on and loaded him onto a back board, and then into an ambulance. Players prayed on both sides – this wasn’t a partisan incident. Fans cheered as he made his way to the ambulance, cheered him on to recovery. Luckily, he will recover, and has already walked out of the hospital. Good luck, Mr. Robinson – you got lucky, so use that fortune to the fullest.

Other links »

• Shark! There’s a Shark in Cape Cod!
• A Woman and her Leaf Blower – A Strange Love Story
• Mother Nature Endorses John Kerry
• MapQuest-ing hurricanes
• SIFR 2.0b2 - The second coming of SIFR

Man, another hard week – but not nearly as bad as last. But more office politics, projects without sufficient budgets and too much work to do with too little time. But at least I have a job – so I guess I’m thankful, since the lottery hasn’t deemed me worthy yet. This weekend marks Penn State’s first Big Ten game vs. Wisconsin. I’d love to think that they could win this, but I have my doubts. I guess we’ll see Saturday. And then Monday Night is the Boys’ vs. the Deadskins – can’t wait to rub it in my wife’s face.

Of course, I’ll be watching all the games for my fantasy line-ups this week.

League 1 – JoePa’s Love Child: 67 points (winning, so far)
QB – Michael Vick – 2 points
WR – Amani Toomer, Roy Williams, Kevin Johnson – 6, 18 and ZERO points
RB – Jamal Lewis, Jerome Bettis – 17 and ZERO points
TE – D. Clark – 0 points
K – J. Wilkins – 7 points
Def – Seattle – 17 points

League 2 – Fairweather Zealot: 129.54 points – WON
QB – Aaron Brooks – 21.34 points
WR – Terrell Owens, Rod Smith, Isaac Bruce – 16.7, 13.5 and 13.4 points
RB – Jamal Lewis, Eddie George – 29.2 points, TONIGHT
TE – L.J. Smith – 7.4 points
K – J. Brown – 10 points
Def – Pittsburgh – 18 points

We’ll see how I do – JoePa is 0-2, Zealot 1-1.

And now for something completely different…

• Every day I find more reasons to hate the Bush Administration.
• The Guys from Monk’s get honored in Belgium.
• Science is going to the dogs
• Oh, please tell me that they are kidding – The Last Starfighter – The Musical

Man, this week is flying by. With the papers signed for the home equity (only small issues there), a load is off. Not that this was that big a deal in theory, but the execution was simply ridiculous. But it’s done. And we were able to have a relaxing weekend – including watching the Lions win against that football juggernaut, University of Central Florida.

The performance:
Passing: Zack Mills still struggled with his accuracy – C
Rushing: A good performance overall, but I’m not seeing the ability to make their own holes. Did well fighting against tackles – B+
Receiving: Too many dropped passes. Someone needs to start throwing them babies to teach them the value of actually catching what gets thrown to you – C
Kicking: For the most part good, although the horrid 1st punt was embarrassing – B-
Special Teams: Played well - B
Defense: Looked good again, and Dan Connor and Paul Posluszny looked like they could become the next big thing at Linebacker U. – A-

Finally got to go hiking and birding again this weekend – and took the rascal with us. He did well at Tinicum, walking a whole 2+ miles himself. He seemed to like the birds, but not the stopping part. As for the park itself, the summer floods did quite a job on the path, ripping out entire portions of it. Hopefully they can get the funding to fix it all this winter. As for the birds, got to see a Greater Yellowlegs, an osprey, a Caspian tern and a multitude of cormorants, blue herons and gulls. But it was nice to get out again.

Latest Pictures

Links for the day:

• And you think YOU had a hard day at work?
• The more I read of Dooced, the more I laugh.
• Is Google angling for its own browser? And what is THIS for?
• The truth about the Red Baron’s Death

Well, Penn State passed its first test for the season – they beat up on Akron 48-10. I have to say that they looked very good, although the defense started out a little shaky versus the run. They solidified and made a good game of it. The offense seemed to gel for the first time in over a season – a nice change of pace from what I had gotten used to (unfortunately). It gives me hope that they might do fairly well this season.

Ratings:

• Passing: B+ » Some overthrown passes but mostly very good. Mike and Zack looked MUCH better.
• Rushing: A » Tony Hunt really impressed me, although Austin Scott looks good, too.
• Receiving: B » Last year’s plague of dropped passes was nowhere to be seen. All new starters and they looked good.
• Kicking: C » A missed kick and nothing special on kick-offs, but not bad.
• Defense: B » Anwar Phillips had an impressive day with 2 interceptions. But I’d like to see him keep it up. I was not so happy about the lack of penetration into the backfield by the D-line.

If you still haven’t seen the boxscore, check it out here

Next Saturday, the season begins again, with all of the hopes and expectations one goes into with the Nittany Lions. They’ve lost some key players and they’ve gained some interesting prospects. I’m resolved that this isn’t going to be a great season, but I’m hoping for 7-4. Who knows – maybe I’ll even be right.But at least we should be able to beat Akron September 4 at 3:30p.m. Anyone up for some beers and football? If you are heading up to the game, be sure to check out True Blue PSU first.

With the Phillies a god-awful team right now (what’s the ERA for the pitching staff in August – about 9.5? That’s a richter scale not an ERA for chrissakes), I’m waiting for the real sports to begin: college football, hockey and pro football. Bring on the fantasy leagues!