The Jay Cutler Debacle

I will admit that it's pathetic that many of us care about this so much. It's just football, after all. But those of us raised to be Broncomaniacs have a hard time getting it completely of our blood. I don't live and breathe Broncos football. I don't bleed orange and blue, but I am a fan and I care about what happens to the team, which is why I'm dumbfounded and saddened by the developing Cutler fiasco.

Someone needs to explain to Coach McDaniels that Denver is not Boston, and Bronco fans are most decidedly not the same as Patriots fans. You'd think he might have noticed from his flight out here, but he's not on the east coast any more. We in this dusty old cow town take a different approach to things, and to some people the Broncos players are like family. We get attached to them. A rather large hole appeared in Denver when Elway retired and it seemed as if it would never be filled. We lasted through the Brister/Griese drama, followed by years of mediocre play from Griese. Then we chanted "We want Jake!" but got nothing more than slightly above mediocre play from The Snake.

Then along comes Jay Cutler. He's allegedly very intelligent, fast on his feet, and has a rocket arm. He makes throws few people can make. He thinks on his feet and makes plays no one has any business making. And like a famed predecessor, he seems to have an affinity for fourth quarter comebacks (when the defense doesn't give the game away, that is.) Could it be that we've found our new franchise quarterback?

"Yes, yes!" we cried in unison. With a good defense, surely we would make the playoffs. And someday soon Cutler would lead us to another Lombardi trophy. Probably true except for one teensy-weensy speed bump: Shanahan gets fired. While Cutler is still reeling from that, Jeremy Bates is fired. Cutler was understandably upset, but he gave things a chance. He came to town and started to work with Coach McDaniels. Reportedly, they worked for two weeks. Unknown to Cutler at the time, McDaniels was realizing that Cutler just wasn't a good fit for his offense and began to try to work out a trade for Matt Cassel, McDaniel's guy from New England.

I'm sure you've heard the rest, so I won't rehash it. But here's the thing...McDaniels is messing with family. Sure, Cutler isn't as loved as Elway, but he's only been here three years. Denver didn't love Elway the first three years, either. But Jay was definitely beginning to feel like family, a comfortable fit for the Bronco faithful, a guy we could put our football faith in on Sundays for years to come.

McDaniels had a duty to blow up and rebuild the Denver defense. It was bottom of the barrel with only one or two true standout players. But why mess with the offense? Further, why mess with Cutler, the new face of the Broncos? I think he went too far. Denver is not Boston. The Broncos are not New England. And this east coast mentality that McDaniels is bringing to Denver just isn't going to cut it out west.

Take Digg back!

I used to be one of those guys who just read the stories on Digg as they hit the front page and never noticed who submitted them. Then I started paying more attention to the Upcoming section and noticed a disturbing trend. When I went back to the front page, that trend was confirmed. I finally noticed what others have known for a long time: Digg has been overrun by a handful of elite users who have gamed the system in order to get their stories to the front page. To make matters worse, they deliberately post duplicate stories knowing that their story will get more Diggs thanks to their large circle of sycophantic friends who blindly Digg them up.

Well, I say, "No more!" We, the general populace of Digg, the common proletariat, must take back what has been corrupted. If those users can game the system to their advantage, we can band together to game it back to the advantage of the average Digg user who strives in vain to get a story to the front page.

Join me in my quest to ungame Digg. We need to do this diligently and systematically. We need a team of people who will visit the Upcoming section of Digg and bury (as a duplicate) any story by the following major offenders:

* MrBabyMan
* MakiMaki
* SirPopper
* KevinFederline
* Optimusprime01
* msaleem
* Burento
* MediaSight
* upick
* Diggboss

That's a start, but there are more to come. If you know of any other major abusers, then let us know so we can start burying them, as well. Let's do this, people! I know there are a lot of us who are quite tired of their crap.

In addition to burying those stories as duplicates, start digging up other people who haven't had as much of a chance to get stories to the front page. Let's get a little more variety on Digg. Take it back from these asshats who think it's their own personal playground and, in some cases, money machine.

So, who's with me?

The Pointlessness of Smack Talk

Football season is upon us and the smack is flowing. It's always entertaining to read the comments section after articles in the local news rags. They're bursting at the seams with smack from Broncos fans as well as the occasional Raider, Charger or Chief fan. Perhaps it's just me, but I find this very annoying. What's the point of smack talk between fans? Some of these guys act as if a win by their local team represents some grand personal accomplishment. If you're not out on the field contributing to the victory, keep your mouth shut. For the large majority of the fan base, the only relationship you have with the team is an accident of geography.

Now, I'm not against sticking up for your team by defending them against naysayers. But that's not the same as wearing blinders and completely ignoring their faults. Every teams has pros and cons (and some teams have more cons than others, if ya know what I mean.) Rationally discussing how each team's strengths match up against their opponents is enjoyable. Smack for smack's sake is pointless and boring as hell.

On Being Offended

I just ran across a quote that I think is absolutely true:

"You cannot be enlightened until you cannot be offended."

I've been reading a book called The Intimate Enemy. I'm simultaneously reading another book by the same author called The Essential Laws of Fearless Living. One of the golden nuggets of wisdom I'm getting from this author is that events in our lives are generally neutral. Any pain caused by those events is in our own minds. We control how we react to situations. The events themselves have no power over us except that which we give to them.

As new situations arise in our lives that are potential causes of stress, we should strive to take the perspective of the enlightened observer. Step back from ourselves and view it neutrally. Reach inside yourself to your true, unblemished and whole self, and see how it would react to that situation. The true you is perfectly strong, whole and healthy. If you allow it to be in control of your life you cannot be offended. You cannot be hurt by the actions or words of others. You realize that the way others think about you or treat you has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on you or your true identity. You can interact with those people neutrally. They lose the ability to "push your buttons" because you'll have no buttons to push.

Once you learn this, and I mean *really* learn it, freedom and enlightenment follow.

Stormtrooper at the World Series!

If you watched the World Series games in Denver, you may have noticed a guy in the stands wearing a Stormtrooper helmet. That was my boss. You probably didn't notice me next to him, mostly because you were probably busy thinking, "Whoa. A dude in a Stormtrooper helmet!"

I was lucky enough to go to both home games and I had a blast even though the Rockies lost both games. I had to watch Boston sweep the series and win on our turf. It was tough, but kudos to the Rockies for making it in the first place. They were on a historic run to the Series. I think the layoff really hurt them, though. Baseball is a game of momentum and timing. The Red Sox were regaining their momentum after coming back to beat the Indians. Meanwhile, the Rox were trying to find ways to keep the rust off. It didn't work, as you might have noticed as they got blown out 13-1 in Game One.

Also, I've got to mention this guy:



Rockies left fielder Matt Holliday caught a flyball to end an inning and he trotted over to our section to throw the ball to a kid who looked to be about seven years old. Everybody around started diving for the ball, knocking this poor kid to the ground in the process. The guy in the picture ended up with the ball and refused to give it to the kid even though about twenty of us were chanting, "Give the kid the ball!" He finally turned around and used some rather profane words to tell us what we could do with ourselves. Really classy guy.

You, sir, are an ass. I hope the lady you were with dumps you. But since she didn't stand up to you when you took the ball from the kid, I doubt she'll leave you even though you're now a proven ass. Some women like that, I guess.

Anyway, if you'd like to see the rest of my pictures, go here:

World Series Game Three

World Series Game Four

Cutest kids ever

I know, another boring post about someone's kids, right? Right. But they are freaking cute. Jack was picking up Kate, so Kate decided it would be fun to kiss him in an apparent attempt to get him to put her down.


Unfortunately for her, Jack thought it was pretty funny, too, so he kept picking her up! I know it will bore all of you who don't know me, but I'm definitely going to put up some more pictures later.

I'm going to the NLCS Game Three!

So, I bit the bullet and bought a ticket. It's a single-seat ticket, so I hope I have some cool people around me. I've been wanting to catch a game and I know that tickets are going to be insanely expensive if the Rockies make it to the World Series, so the NLCS is probably the best I could do. I found a single-seat, club-level ticket right behind home plate! It's going to be freaking awesome...as long as the Rocks are winning, anyway. If they get into the World Series, this very same seat is going to go for over $5,000. It's safe to say I won't be spending that much money on a baseball game.