Comatose

So stay away....stay away
While I’m in the arms of slumber
And I’m leaving it all behind
--Comatose, Eagle Eye Cherry

Waking up at 5 a.m. every day isn't such an awful thing, I promise. If I'm able to get to bed between 10 and 10:30, that's still 6-7 hours of sleep, which is enough for me to function, and it allows me to get a nice workout in, minimize the drive time from the South Bay to the West Side, and gives me an early start at the office. It's not such a wonderful thing, however, when I don't leave work until 12:45 a.m., get to sleep after 1:30, and still attempt the same schedule. That's the difficulty facing me this morning, the after-effects of a night edit session spent on boxing material. It all looks great (for our fight in Sacramento Friday night), but at what price? Missed "Prison Break" and this amazing Bob Dylan show put together by Martin Scorcese (thank goodness for TiVo), and I'll be missing "My Name is Earl" tonight (solid debut last week--maybe a little too much narration, but pretty darn good). If I don't get to sleep by 9 tonight, I'm going to be done for the rest of the week...

A day late on the b-ball update, but we collected another win Sunday night, a ten-point victory over our rival squad, Storm. We upped our career record against the league's second-best team (need you ask who's the best?) to 3-2 and maintained our unblemished record on the season, hoping to keep that going with just two (I think) regular season games left. We played as well as we've played all season, I think, because of the level of competition and the quality of finishing (not layups, but the game itself). We've had previous encounters with this squad where an 11-point lead quickly becomes an eight-point deficit, and they did come back at one point in the second half, tying the game after they had trailed by double figures. At this point, however, we decided to regroup, run some good offense (with one notable exception) and get layups the rest of the way. We won the previous week's game by 40-something, but this was a much more exhilarating encounter. We'll see how next Sunday's clash with "Joint Effort" goes--hopefully they'll be high or something...

I wish I could come up with new things to say each week about USC, but I just keep coming back to awe and amazement. They showed a few chinks in the armor Saturday, but you never really felt like they were going to lose. Even with all the bad breaks in the first half (punt bouncing off Will Buchanon's foot, Jarrett drop in the end zone turning into a pick, Reggie drop on third down), they battled back and only trailed by three at the break. From that point on, they showed their dominance in typical fashion. Leinart was Leinart, Jarrett caught two, LenDale ran for two, and Reggie--well, what can you say about Reggie. Just when you think you've seen everything there is to see from that guy, he goes and makes like six more highlight-film plays. Losing his shoe and still juking a guy on a nice run. Total reverse of field on a touchdown run, leaving the entire Ducks defense in his wake. Coming face to face with an Oregon defender in the backfield after getting a handoff, stopping on a dime and spinning away for a two-yard gain. Catching a punt with two guys literally less than a yard away from him, and managing to juke both before getting surrounded by five or six other guys and finally going down. I could seriously go on and on, but it's not nearly as cool to read about it as it is to just watch. By the way, the Bruins are still undefeated. Yeah, they haven't been unbeaten this late since 2001, when they went 6-0, rose to No. 4 in the polls (under the great Bob Toledo), and then dropped four in a row (including a 27-0 drubbing at the hands of those Trojans). The time before that was 1998, you know, the team that couldn't tackle...

How am I even writing right now? Running this morning must have given me a temporary reprieve from this imminent sleep onset (by the way, a small pet peeve has emerged with people confusing the words "imminent" and "eminent." The former refers to something that's pending, something that's going to happen--imminent danger, for example. The latter is totally different, referring to the best of something--like an eminent scholar, or when they use "pre-eminent" to make it the ultimate. Hope you enjoyed the English lesson).

One of my tasks last night was picking music for a few of these pieces that are going to air Friday, so I made a short trip to the music library and came away with not only the required tunes (Tracy Chapman, Public Enemy, Ying-Yang Twins, among others), but a pair of compact discs put out by a duo calling themselves Handsome Boy Modeling School--long a musical inspiration of mine. The first disc has two tracks that sample the TV show "Get a Life" with Chris Elliot, an episode where he signs up for the HBMS and then discovers the seedy side of the male modeling business (it was Zoolander before Stiller). The second album includes multiple tracks with Tim Meadows as the Ladies Man, discussing his experiences with the HBMS--priceless. I've just completed the process of copying all those tracks onto my computer, so Prince Paul and Automator will be keeping me company (and hopefully awake) all day...

WARNING: SAN DIEGO SPORTS SECTION -- SKIP IF YOU WANT TO
Two quick things, one for each squad. Throwing to L.T. on the first play of the game and handing it off to him the rest of the way--nicely done, Cam Cameron. Bolts needed that win in a big way, and they remembered how they win games (LT 192 and 3 scores plus a passing TD, Gates 92 and a touch). Tough stretch coming up (though I'm hoping the Pats miss Rodney A LOT), so we'll see how this team comes through the New England-Pittsburgh-Oakland-Philly-KC gauntlet that's spanning the next five weeks. If we come out of that at .500 overall, I'm overjoyed, because I honestly think we can go 7-1 the rest of the way (meaning 11-5 overall), the only possible loss being a visit to Indy December 18th.
Second, Jake pitched well enough to win, but Trevor blew a save last night, and our lead is down to three. I'm not nervous. Yet. But we do need to win tonight--come on Adam (Eaton).

20-1

"GET DOWN! Cause I ain't got nothing to lose
I'm having a bad day, don't make me take it out on you!"
--Get Back, Ludacris

No, these are not the odds on the Bills or the Rams to win the Super Bowl (actually, I just checked, and they really are the odds for the Bills and Rams, but that's not why I put it in the title; Chargers are 17-1, by the way), it's not Jake Peavy's strikeouts to walks ratio (that's actually 4.50, third in the NL), and it's not Drew Brees' touchdown to interception ratio (though last year it might have been close, we won't discuss the 2005 number at this particular juncture)--no, ladies and gentlemen, that is the scoreline from Tuesday night's NL West clash that had the division-leading Padres on the wrong end of an absolute shellacking by the last-place Rockies. What's so great about baseball (among a thousand other things) is that you can come back the next night, behind a guy like Jake Peavy and dominate the same team. When you play a 162-game schedule, it's much easier to put a game like that behind you than it would be in a 16-game NFL slate. The Chargers have lost two in a row and it's like the season's already over (not really, since we're going to be rebounding with a big win over Eli and the Giants on Sunday night), but the Padres, who lost eight in a row and 12 of 13 at one point this season, never even gave up the division lead (granted, this is the worst division in the history of baseball; never has a team this bad been in first place in any division ever). But my point is still made. The other part of the 162-game schedule is its marathon nature, as the White Sox can unfortunately attest. After last night's loss (and Cleveland's win), the Sox are creeping ever closer to missing out on the post-season, after maintaining baseball's best record for the majority of the season. They aren't done yet (1.5 game lead as of press time), but they're fading fast, and the Indians (Hafner? Sizemore? Peralta? Aaron F-ing Boone?) have been on absolute fire.

I think I need to set up a separate blog just for Dontrelle Willis, because it seems like I write about him in about every other entry. Granted, he's worthy of such acclaim, but it's starting to get ridiculous. I made sure to have a monitor in front of me at 4 p.m. yesterday so I could catch as much of the Dontrelle-Pedro duel as possible (and Johan Santana was facing the White Sox around the same time--good thing we have two TV's in the edit bay). His pitching exploits are well-known, and he continued to dominate last night, beating Pedro with 8 innings, 1 earned and 7 K's. It's his hitting, however, that might be even more impressive. I thought it was amazing that he batted eighth in his last start, something most pitchers definitely don't do, but McKeon batted him SEVENTH last night! That means that the Marlins have two position players who aren't better hitters than a guy who doesn't even take batting practice and isn't in the lineup four out of every five days. I don't know if it's more of a compliment to the D-Train or a slight to Joe Dillon (batted eighth last night) and Robert Andino (ninth).

I really am rooting for the Marlins to make the playoffs, not only because it would mean that the Padres (er, sorry, the NL West winner) will face the Braves instead of the Cardinals. I know we (whoever) have no shot in St. Louis, but the Braves definitely aren't the Braves of old, and they've got so many rookies that it'll be tough for them to do much. Jake and Eaton, maybe Woody and Lawrence--I like our chances. Of course, we still have to clinch, something I hope will be happening before next weekend, but just in case, I'm in touch with a PR guy with the Padres, acquiring tickets for next Saturday's tilt with the disappointing Dodgers (I don't know if that's more true or alliterative; probably equal amounts of both).

That Padre game (and the post-game fireworks) will be the meat portion of a sports weekend sandwich that begins with Glen Johnson vs. George Khalid Jones, live from Cache Creek Casino outside of Sacramento. It's our latest Best Damn Fight Night, and should be a good time--we fly up Friday morning, do the fight thing all day, goof around at the casino and fly back the next day around noon. Upon returning to Los Angeles, I'll continue the southward journey to S.D. and come back late-night after those fireworks. Sunday, as usual, will be all about football, and then another basketball game at night (if the fight and the football are the bread, maybe our b-ball game is the toothpick?). Fortunately, the following week is dark, so the fatigue generated by such a whirlwind schedule will theoretically be short-lived. It also remains a possibility that I'll be traveling that week, either to San Diego or to the Padres' road destination for the first round, if Fox should decide to carry a game or two of that series. I'm not holding my breath, but it would be pretty awesome to get to a playoff game.

'Literally' Mis-Use of the Week:
It's been a while since I've heard a good one of these--either my ear for it has been deafened, or the world is finally picking up on one of my pet peeves and limiting its exposure. Anyways, this morning, L.A. Times writer Gary Klein was on with Colin Cowherd, discussing his new book, "Conquest," and the Pete Carroll era at USC (incidentally, it sounds like a real good book; some inside stuff that a lot of people wouldn't be aware of). Cowherd talked about how Dennis Erickson and Mike Riley were considered for the job before Pete, but once the now-king of L.A. came in to speak with Associate A.D. Daryl Gross (then in charge of the hiring process, but has since become the A.D. at Syracuse), it was over. And I quote: "Pete Carroll literally knocked the socks off USC officials in his interview." Wow. It would have been fun to have a camera at the proceedings, huh? You don't have to say literally to drive your point home. We understand that he was impressive, but to destroy a metaphor by adding that word just sucks. I'm tired of hearing it in general, but it really peeves me when it's people who are paid to talk.

Good start to the fall session of bible study last night--I've really missed it the last two weeks, and it'll be real cool to get into the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18 - "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit"), what that looks like, and how we're doing that (or trying to, at least) every day. Two big things I like about this passage, our starting point: 1) "unveiled faces" - that we come to church, to bible study--pretty much anywhere--without pretense, without having to hide who we are or what we're doing; and 2)"ever-increasing glory" - that as great as God's glory is in our lives today, it's going to continue getting better, all the time.

Looking forward to another Saturday off, and even a short day today (hopefully consisting of a noon departure and a relacing afternoon at the beach), followed by a typically-packed Sunday. Glad to be back in the blogging world, at least temporarily. Peace.

I Got a Fever...

Cleveland, Toronto, and all the other teams
Lie broken on the Yankees' field of dreams
Their arch-foes, the Red Sox, are their big treat
They torture them into glorious defeat
--Baseball's Mortal Sin, Joe Pickering Jr.

As if baseball needed to get better, the end of September is starting to shape up with some ridiculousness all over the place. Last night alone we saw (or read about, or don't care about) the on-fire Indians getting a few late runs to beat the White Sox and cut a once-insurmountable lead in the AL Central to just 2.5 games, a dude named Bubba hit a walk-off homer at Yankee Stadium to bring the pinstripes within a half-game of the BoSox in the AL East, Khalil Greene (yes, that scrawny, surfer-looking shortstop Khalil Greene) hitting two home runs, the second of which came in the ninth inning and propelled the Padres to an 8-7 win over the Rockies, giving said ballclub a record above .500 and a six-game lead in the division, the A's get a great start from Barry Zito and hold off the Twins to pull within 1.5 games of the idle Angels, Roger Clemens get beat by a Pirates rookie, dropping the Astros to just a one-game lead in the NL Wildcard race--and we only had eight games the whole day. Monday Night Football had two games, the second of which provided a tremendous finish, but they've got nothing on baseball right now. I'll readily admit that Sunday needs to be about football (despite the 0-2 record of a certain Southern California squad), but in two weeks, the final day of the regular season falls on a Sunday, and there can (and will) be all kinds of playoff implications: among others, the suddenly vulnerable White Sox visit the Indians and the Yankees head to Fenway, both of which should be epic encounters. The Angels and A's are both on the road, playing division foes, and the Marlins and Astros get home games while the Phillies have to play at Washington. Who knows how the 11 or 12 games between now and then are going to play out, but it's going to be quite exciting down to the finish. Who would have guessed that the Padres would be far more comfortable about their post-season status than the Yankees, Red Sox or even the White Sox? By the way, that's pennant fever I've got, in case it took you this long to figure that out...

Gotta flash back to Friday real quick to wrap up a great USC-centric show we did, on location in front of Tommy Trojan. Coach Pete Carroll was the big draw, in addition to a piece with Rodney Peete hanging out with Matt Leinart (and running into Reggie Bush on campus--funny stuff). Old school Frank Gifford brought at least a hint of respectability to the show, and the band and song girls (yes, Kristen was definitely in the house) brought a little flair. Didn't have the pleasure of heading down there for the day, because bigger responsibilities existed in-house, and while it would have definitely been fun to be out there, being here was a very good thing--a sign of things to come, if you will. Got to go to the actual game on Saturday (our show was basically a promotion for the FSN college football opener, USC-Arkansas), and I'm firmly convinced that I've never seen a better offense in college football. Ever. I wrote about this not long ago, and now I have no doubt. They aren't great defensively, but they cannot be stopped. People say this Oregon game is going to be a test, but I can't see Oregon coming close to slowing down this attack. The Ducks gave up 24 points to Houston and 34 to Fresno State, so I'm imagining a little trouble keeping up with Leinart and Bush and all the nineteen other weapons they have on offense. Awesome performance earlier in the day by the Bruins, earning easily the biggest win in Karl Dorrell's three-year tenure. I had to go into that one a little hesitant, so as to avoid the disappointment that has plagued the Dorrell era thus far, but it's hard to hold back the excitement at this point. Drew Olson is having his Drew Brees '04 season, Maurice Drew and Chris Markey aren't quite Reggie Bush and LenDale White (okay, they're nowhere near it), but they've been outstanding, Marcedes Lewis is the best tight end in the country (one of three positions at which we actually have an advantage over those Trojans), and Spencer Havner came up with a HUGE fumble return for a touchdown (he's advantage number two; Justin Medlock is number three). I know Oklahoma is down and I know SDSU and Rice are SDSU and Rice, but we're 3-0 for the first time in quite awhile (lost the opener last year, two out of the first three in '03 and the third game in '02) and I'm excited about it. We're still going to be undefeated next week (bye on Saturday), heading into a match-up at home with the University of Dub, likely coming off a rough loss to the Fighting Brady Quinns. We then get Cal at home (beatable--their quarterbacks are AWFUL), and then don't play another real tough game until the last two: hosting ASU November 12 and then at the Coliseum (hopefully in a showdown for the Pac-10 title) December 3. We need this to be a good year...

Sports Guy's links came in handy the other day, with an advisory about turning one of the buttons on the TiVo remote into a 30-second skip button, meaning that watching anything with commercials becomes a much quicker deal. Watched "Prison Break" as such last night, which meant I could start it at like 9:20 and finish it on time. That Earl show is on tonight, if I have enough energy after church, which doesn't seem likely, given the normal weeknight energy level these days. Looking forward to a dark day Friday, and hoping that this whole less-than-one-entry-a-week thing doesn't last too much longer. Peace...

Why Should the Fire Die?

"I can't see my reflection in the waters
I can't speak the sounds that show no pain
I can't hear the echo of my footsteps
Or remember the sound of my own name"
--Tomorrow Is a Long Time, Bob Dylan

It just feels that way when I don't blog like ever, so it's become almost unfamiliar territory now, which sucks. The blog title is the name of Nickel Creek's new album, something I mentioned briefly last time, and a disc which has received constant play at home, in the car and at the office. The song here is covered by the bluegrass trio, and done quite well. Best song is "Doubting Thomas," a track I had not yet reached at last week's press time, and a song that I now skip to upon each listening. Pretty much three discs I've listened to all year (with very occasional exceptions): Jimmy Eat World - Futures, Coldplay - X&Y and now this one. It's like my food strategy: why branch out when you're happy with what you have every day? I used to feel that way about TV shows as well, but when "24" finally broke into my rotation and jumped immediately to the top, my world was shaken and I had to start considering other possibilities. Unfortunately, time has not permitted many new entries, but "Prison Break," despite its ridiculously unrealistic plot, continues to keep me in after three weeks.

Okay, so speaking of TV, I got on a random train of thought the other night on my way home from work about my priorities when it comes to sports on television. On Saturdays and Sundays, I have every baseball or football game in front of me (as well as relevant soccer, basketball, tennis or whatever), so there's no need to put one game in front of the other, but there are plenty of other times (at my desk at the end of the day, at home weeknights or some weekend days) where priorities are necessary. Thankfully, there isn't an unbelievable amount of overlap of the major sports, allowing for limited conflict between desirable events, but what if everything ever was on at the same time and I had to choose? It's a tough process, but I'm attempting to answer the question the same way the Sports Guy does his NBA player rankings. He asks if you would trade a guy for everyone above him (and not for anyone below him), and I'm asking if I would change the channel to games above a particular one, but not to games below it. A very limited example of what I'm talking about, though this is not by any means official:
1. Padres playoff game
2. Padres regular season game
3. old Padres game on Classic sports
4. other MLB regular season game
And so on...If I was watching a game from the '98 NLCS on ESPN Classic and I found out that the Padres-Mets regular season game was on ESPN2, I would immediately change the channel. However, if I heard that the Phillies-Marlins was on ESPN, I would not change it (unless Dontrelle was pitching--things like this make the whole process very complicated). So yeah, I'm going to be spending free time on this. Rather lame, but I'm okay, I swear.

Other important things occupying my rather limited free time:
- Reading: finished "Life of Pi," which was outstanding. I didn't think I would ever appreciate so many details about animals and the cannibalistic nature of castaways. It's a very inspiring story, full of religious questions (and some answers) on all fronts (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism). Started "The World According to Garp," by John Irving, who wrote the Owen Meany book I really enjoyed. Need to finish this one quick, 'cause there's a big line forming of stuff I've recently acquired (and a David Halberstam book on Bill Belichik coming out soon).
- Video games: had a nice four-player Madden session the other night, losing once and winning once with a quasi-Bills team that featured safeties Ed Reed and Sean Taylor (the brothers) and linebackers Kendrell Bell and Julian Peterson (the Scotts). My hometown team, however, has been the Karl Dorrell-led UCLA Bruins, playing amazingly well (at least offensively) in real life, and playing even better on my X-Box. After an undefeated 2005 season saw Maurice Drew win the Heisman and Marcedes Lewis join him on the All-America first team, we took care of Florida in the Rose Bowl and captured the national title. Drew Olson had a great senior season and Spencer Havner was my defensive go-to-guy, but all four of the above departed for the next season (Drew left early, the others were seniors), so an untested squad (and the nation's top recruiting class) started the '06 season ranked #6. Ben Olson has definitely stepped up, and Chris Markey makes me not miss Mo Drew at all. Freshmen starting everywhere means it's a bright future in Westwood. Unfortunately (and fortunately), I only have time to play on the weekends (kind of like the real team), so we'll see how long it takes to complete this run for a second straight national championship.
- TV: I already mentioned the "Prison Break" experiment, which looks like keeping me locked in for the whole season (though I'm trying to figure out how they're going to come up with season two once the guys get out--I'm assuming they get out; the show will suck if they don't and the guy gets the chair). Don't really have time for anything else now that Entourage is done (I feel like I don't have to use quotes for that show, not sure why), but "My Name is Earl" starts next week and Curb (no quotes here either) starts on Sunday the 25th, so something's going to have to give.

I do need to get to work, at which I think I'll be moving up again rather soon. I'm learning that moving up doesn't necessarily mean more fun stuff, but the best of the fun stuff comes with more hard work, so I'm definitely okay with that. Example number one: I was supposed to be going to our show on campus at USC on Friday, but now I'll be managing people back here in the studio, being of much more value here (to make sure there's the highest possible level of quality in what actually airs that night) than I would be there, probably just hanging out with the talent and the audience. A good wake-up call, actually, because I often do find myself valuing what's important to outside people (wow, you got to go to Connecticut--how cool) instead of what's really most important to the show. The powers that be recognize the latter, and now I'm starting to do so as well.

Bible study tonight, looking forward to it for sure. Blessings...

No Labor Pains

"On the stereo, listen as we go
Nothing's gonna stop me now
California here we come
Right back where we started from"
--California, Phantom Planet

And what a lovely Labor Day weekend in the O.C. it was (though my recap comes a day late), including plenty of time with family and friends, a little soccer and relaxation galore. The important points:

Friday - Left work early in order to enjoy a two-hour drive across town to Fullerton (curse you, Labor Day traffic) for Eric's game against UCLA. Santa Clara went up 2-0 on two first-half PK's and then grabbed a late winner after the Bruins had managed to tie it up in the second stanza. Chatted with Eric for a bit and then drove down to San Clemente, where the family awaited. Got to the hotel and headed out for dinner at Cassano's, down by the pier. Lovely food, lovely company and to bed at a decent hour sometime thereafter...

Saturday - Up for complimentary continental breakfast at the hotel (unlike the continental breakfast at my hotel in San Jose, which I assumed was complimentary and then came with a nice little $13 price tag) and then back to the room for a fantasy draft with Michael (Tim's league - he's been very excited about this thing). I know I'll only care about it for about two weeks, so I might as well share my thoughts on the team while I'm still interested.

QB - Daunte Culpepper, Drew Bledsoe, Kyle Boller
Daunte's better than Peyton, in my estimation, and Bledsoe will be better than people think. I'm really not sure why I took Boller, to be honest.
RB - Fred Taylor, DeShaun Foster, Michael Bennett, Chester Taylor, LaBrandon Toefield
A little bit of injury potential with those first two, so I'm covering Taylor with Toefield, and the second Taylor could be okay if Jamal Lewis is rusty coming back from that whole jail thing. Bennett misses week one, but should be the main back in Minnesota.
WR - Torry Holt, Nate Burleson, Muhsin Muhammad, Eddie Kennison, Keenan McCardell
Torry's a lock, Burleson will let me double up with Daunte, Muhsin is great (but Kyle Orton?), Kennison was an accidental pick but is still KC's number one, and I needed a Charger, so Keenan's the man.
TE - Dallas Clark
Can't go wrong with a Peyton Manning target, right?
K - David Akers
Killed for me last year, he's solid.
DEF - Chargers
Who else would I pick, come on?

Other Saturday activities included a little trip to a used bookstore, some good lunch at a Berge's-esque sandwich place, watching USC be USC against Hawaii (more to come on that ridiculous offense) and then heading up to Angel Stadium for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim against the Seattle Mariners of Washington. Got hooked up with some amazing seats through Fox (fourth row behind home plate, the first seats outside the net area) and thoroughly enjoyed the game, despite the Angels' losing effort. Ichiro was raking, going 3-for-5 and coming up with the game-winning RBI. Too much fun watching that guy hit (and Suss got some great photos as well; his whole Ansel Adams act at family holidays over the years is starting to pay off, I think).

Sunday - Breakfast again (free again), a lot of reading ("Life of Pi," a Side recommendation and a very enjoyable read), and then church at San Clemente Pres, where Mike B played guitar in the big service and a dude spoke about marinated steak. Mmmmm, marinated steak. Got to have a wonderful post-church lunch at the Bautistas' beach house, sandwiches and burritos and hot dogs (and of course, steak) with Bob and Cathie, Mike and Suzy and Joel and Kristi. Good times. Suss and I then headed up to soccer game number two (Santa Clara vs. Cal State Fullerton) and Michael and Mom headed home. The Broncos came through again, scoring in the last five minutes to eke out a 1-0 victory. They're No. 6 in the country this week, according to Soccer America, so that doesn't suck. Back up to LC and then off to Bel Air with Darren, where I took communion for the second time that day (in two different counties) and saw my second Stryker sister (Kimmy or Kimmie, how is that spelled, I wonder?), which was also a treat. Enjoyed a Baja Fresh dinner, which had me breaking tradition to order fajitas, something I definitely enjoyed. I think it's been years since I ordered anything but a baja burrito with chicken, so it took a little bit for me to break the mold and do something different. After dinner, we went over to LCPC (my first time in Harris Hall Congdon room in forever) to see Mike, Billy and Ross, who were recording music with all the fun equipment down there. Hung out with John and Mike a bit later before heading back to the beach.

Monday - Absolutely nothing. How nice is that. Watched parts of the UCLA-SDSU and USA-Mexico games, the season finale of Entourage and a few other random Tivo selections, got more reading done and enjoyed that sunshine, but pretty much took it as easy as I've been able to at any point in a very long time. Wonderful.

So the few sports-related thoughts I carry out of the weekend, non-fantasy related:
- Has there ever been a better offense in the history of college football than this year's USC version? I know it was just one game and I know it was just Hawaii, but still, WOW. There have been better rushing teams: the mid-80's Oklahoma option squads, the mid-90's Nebraska Tommie Frazier teams, probably the old Army teams with Glenn Davis and Doc Blanchard, and probably a few others. There may have been better passing teams, like Houston's run-and-shoot squads featuring Andre Ware and David Klingler, some of the many BYU teams (Steve Young, Robbie Bosco, Ty Detmer?), Florida's fun-and-gun with Danny Wuerffel, the vaunted Cade McNown-Freddie Mitchell-Brian Poli-Dixon offenses of the late 90's, and probably some other really cool ones I don't know anything about. But has there ever been a unit with so many weapons? So brilliantly able to combine the run and the pass? They've got lottery picks (I know the NFL Draft doesn't have a lottery, but you know what I mean) at quarterback, first- and second-string tailback, wide receiver and all over the offensive line. When your backup tailback ran for 1105 yards and 15 touchdowns a year ago, your fifth (sixth?) receiver is the top freshman at his position in the country, your backup quarterback is capable of starting anywhere else in the country, your offensive line brings back everybody plus an All-American who missed last season--well, you get the picture: this team is ridiculously talented, unbelievably deep, and boasts more weapons than any offense I can recall. I'm looking forward to doing our show out there next Friday, but I'm seriously dreading December 3--the final game of the regular season, and UCLA's death knell.

The Bruins actually looked pretty good themselves, at least offensively, where Drew Olson, Maurice Drew, Chris Markey and Marcedes Lewis all were stellar. The problem is that we still can't tackle (Justin London, I'm looking at you) and we still get run over. But hey, a win is a win, even if it's just San Diego State. Rice at the Rose Bowl this weekend, look out.

I love the USA-Mexico rivalry, not only because we've dominated it lately (at least here on our soil), but because the two teams genuinely hate each other, from the coaches on down. A sample of the comments following Saturday's 2-0 US victory:
Rcardo LaVolpe, Head Coach, Mexico: "The U.S. is a small team. They play like my sister, my aunt and my grandmother." Dude, your team just got beat, 2-0. That's like 55-0 in football. How can you talk like that? A lot of confidence in your guys, saying that a team consisting of the female members of your family would be capable of a 2-0 defeat of your squad. Can't imagine why there's so much controversy surrounding this idiot.
Bruce Arena, the American coach, was far more tactful in his post-match assessment, asserting only that it was "nice to qualify against our rivals."
Landon Donovan, however, held nothing back: "They suck. I'm so happy. After we got that first goal they were never in the game. Hopefully that will shut them up for the next three or four years."
I love it.

Also got to watch a selection from the F.A. Archive on Fox Soccer Channel, the 1999 F.A. Cup Semi-Final replay between rivals Manchester United and Arsenal. It was Man U's best squad (the one that eventually won the treble: Premier League, FA Cup and European Cup) and a very formidable Arsenal side, making for some tremendous football. David Beckham scored on a dipping shot from well outside the box to open the scoring in the 17th minute and the Red Devils never looked like surrendering a goal in the first half. Arsenal picked it up a bit after the break, however, and equalized on a Dennis Bergkamp deflected shot in minute 69. Great chances both ways, but after Roy Keane got sent off, it looked like United would just have to hope for a draw and penalty kicks. In injury time, Philip Neville took down Ray Parlour in the box and Bergkamp stepped up to take the resulting penalty. The Great Dane, Peter Schmeichel, came up huge and stopped what would certainly have been the match-winner, forcing two periods of added time (30 total minutes). After a scoreless first 15, Ryan Giggs--a second-half substitute--scored one of the greatest goals in the history of the competition on a ridiculous run that started within his own half, proceeded through five Arsenal defenders, and ended with a rocket that went over David Seaman's head (yes, the Arsenal keeper's name was David Seaman) and into the net. Great stuff, even though it happened six years ago. And yes, it makes me feel old to think that I was finishing up my senior year of college when that happened.

New Nickel Creek is tremendous, especially tracks 3 ("Jealous of the Moon") and 5 ("Tomorrow is a Long Time," Bob Dylan cover). Just got it last night, so I haven't gotten all the way through, but I'm a big fan already.

Ahh, it feels nice to have been able to write again this morning, even though it was menial details of a weekend that nobody but me cares anything about. I'm hoping for some time Friday, because we've got a short day (which also hopefully means some beach in the afternoon), so until then, at least...