Super Bowl

I typically don't care about the Super Bowl. I mean, I'll usually drop in to parts of it, likely sometime near the end to see who's winning, or for the sake of watching a potential good ending to a game (if it's close). But this year I think I might actually watch most of it, or at least more than usual. The Patriots have the chance to become only the second team in the Super Bowl era to go undefeated. The only other time this happened was 36 years ago in 1972 when the Miami Dolphins ran the table and finished 17-0. So I figure why not see a part of sports history? I might not see this again until I'm in my 60's...if ever. With the whole free agency set up, I think it's harder than ever for teams to consistently be good, let alone be good enough to go undefeated. In the old days, once you were on a team, that was your team. Your team was either good or bad. No jumping ship the next year to the highest bidder, and no ability to buy other free agents. Anyways...
Another drawing point is Tom Brady. He's a likable guy for the most part, and more so, he's a Michigan alum. What's not to like about that? Right before our eyes he's becoming one of the greatest QB's the NFL has ever seen. Way to represent Tom.

Scooter

I want a new scooter. Actually, just a faster one. Now that I live in a city that has practical access to interstates and freeways, it drives me nuts some days how my current scoot tops out just under the necessary speed to keep up with traffic. Notice I said traffic, and not speed limit. Technically I max out at the speed limit, probably slightly over by a couple mph. But seeing how 99.9% of traffic drives 5 - 10 mph over the speed limit, it's not exactly the smartest idea for me to be out there slowing people down.

As I gain more riding experience, unfortunately, I've come to realize rather quickly with each new scooter, that I would like more speed. And after much thought lately, I think I would be totally satisfied with a 250cc scooter which equates to about 80 mph. That way I can realistically hop on the interstate if I need to get across town quickly, but yet still obtain maximum fuel efficiency. Problem is, more cc's equal more money. I've looked around at quite a few models, and even the best deals start at about $4500. But the one I would really like to get, the Vespa GTS 250, starts at $6000. That's half of a Smart Car.

So alas, logic takes over and says I need to wait till I can get rid of/pay off the two scooters that I have. And really, when it comes down to it, my Kymco does great for what I use it for...mainly commuting to work. I just have to take the side streets which are usually about five minutes slower.

Sounds like a perfect opportunity for another ING savings account :)

Starbucks & No Money

Remember when I worked at Starbucks and I used to say I had no money? Well, turns out I didn't.

I just got my W-2 from them today, and from 2.7.07 - 10.2.07 I earned a grand total of $5,723.44.

Divide that by 8 months and you get $715.43 per month.  That doesn't even factor in that I didn't even have a job the first month I lived in Tucson.  So divide it by 9 months and you get about $635 per month.

Granted, I did pick up some odd jobs every now and then.  But at most I made $200 or $300 total from those. Oh, and I definitely made the most of my tax return this year. I think that was about $1,000 bucks now that I think about it.  That helped a lot.

So to be fair, add on about $1300 and I really brought home roughly $6,723.44.  Do the math and you get $747.05 per month for 9 months.  That's a little more resonable I suppose, but not really.

I don't think I'll ever have a good excuse to complain about being broke again.  I'll just think back to the Starbucks days when I truely had no money to spare.  So thank you to everyone who gave me a free dinner every now and then...apparently I needed it.

BCS

The BCS is ridiculous.

For those of you that don't know, BCS stands for Bowl Championship Series. It is the current system that college football uses to determine a national champion. Two-thirds of this system uses the old age tradition of voting, and one-third is a computer formula. For the most part I have no problem with this. However, instead of using the system to determine seeding in a playoff, (like how they vote for the 65 teams to play in March Madness) they use the system to only give the "top two" teams a chance for the title. Some years the "top two" can be fairly clear, or at least the #1 spot can be. But usually, and especially this year, many teams have the argument to be in the "top two". I'm sure by now you can see how many people are upset when their team is left out either because some formula doesn't favor them, or more likely, people voting don't like them.

The only legitimate way to fix this controversy is to have a playoff. College football is the ONLY sport (college, pro, or otherwise) that doesn't have a playoff system. I mean think about it...it is ridiculous to vote on who is the best team. There is absolutely zero integrity with voting on a champion. Just let the teams settle it on the field.

Or maybe we should do away with playoffs altogether. We should just vote at the end of every season on who is the best NFL, NBA, college basketball, MLB, etc. team out there. Yeah right. It's obvious that sounds ridiculous! So logically, not having a playoff for college football is ridiculous as well. If I were LSU, I could not honestly say to myself, "We are the best team in college football because we just won the 'National Championship' game that we got voted into." All LSU has proven is that they are better than OSU. What about USC or WV? They both dominated their bowl games against Big Ten and Big 12 schools. Especially WV, they creamed an Oklahoma team that people were trying to argue should have been in the N.C. game. Or what about Mizzou, Georgia, or Kansas? Sure, people are gonna argue that Kansas hasn't played enough good teams. But they finished 1-1 against two top ten teams. And people will say that Mizzou lost to OU twice, but they trounced Arkansas, who by they way, beat LSU. Sure, Georgia didn't win their conference, or even their division, but that's never stopped a team in March Madness from winning it all before has it? I could go on and on...

Almost no matter who you argue for or against...with no playoff we'll never know for sure.

FYI - There was a 17% decline in ratings for this years N.C. game. Looks like I may not be the only one losing interest in the bowl system.

Givin' it a go

I finally decided to check out what this whole "blogging" world was all about. I've heard of lots of people doing it, so why not give it a shot? I mean, it's not like I'm sitting in a D.A.R.E. class. If I was, then my logic would be ill-advised.

So with that, I hope for the best with my blog...for myself and any visitors. Bare minimum, I hope it can be somewhat entertaining at least!