11 of 14 wins last week came from the home team. This week, I think it's going to be more diverse...

Jets over Bills: I think this is the week that Favre realizes that he can't force things so much, and needs to play within the system...well, mostly...
Bears over Lions: Could this be an upset, and Detroit finally wins one? Umm...no.
Jaguars over Bengals: Could this be an upset, and Cincy finally wins one? Umm...no.
Browns over Ravens: Cleveland mixed it up on offense last week and won...mixing it up with Baltimore is going to be necessary to beat their defense, but I think they'll do it.
Packers over Titans: What, a decisive win over the Colts doesn't relieve them of paper-tiger status? A win over Green Bay should help. Switched: GB is coming off a BYE, two of their key defensive players are returning, Rodgers is happier this week, and the Titans only real foe so far this season was the Colts...and the Pack beat them, too.
Bucs over Chiefs: I almost want to pick KC this time. Almost.
Rams over Cardinals: St. Louis has really turned it around the last three weeks, and they want to stay in the hunt. Besides, the last time they wanted Warner to win was when he quarterbacked them to a Super Bowl...
Texans over Vikings: Tough call. I might switch on this one.
Broncos over Dolphins: Going with the very cold, thin air advantage.
Falcons over Raiders: Just a hunch.
Giants over Cowboys: Originally, this was one of the biggest games of the year. Now the statuesque Drew Bledsoe...excuse me, Brad Johnson...is under center...for a few plays, anyway.
Eagles over Seahawks: Welcome back to reality, Seattle. God, I hate saying that about my own team...
Patriots over Colts: Originally, this was one of the biggest games of the year. Now Brady is OOF, and Manning *can* be beaten. Cassell's stats show he has been playing like a first-year Brady, which if you recall, the situation didn't turn out too shabby for the Patriots that year...
Redskins over Steelers: Originally, this was NOT one of the biggest games of the year. Now it's the game of the week. I think Washington will exploit Pittsburgh's front seven, and repeatedly put Big Ben on his back...that's the formula other teams have used to beat these guys (re: Giants last week). Yes, I'm still pissed at them...

My best week ever predicting NFL games: I got 12 of 14 correct, and also got the Titans score of 31 correct (I guessed 24 for the Colts, but they only scored 21). If the Steelers hadn't imploded for the entire 4th quarter yesterday, I quite possibly would have won a new TV, but instead it looks like the big winner this week is Brooklynnet with 13 correct (unless that person lost in the MNF tie-breaker with somebody else...no way to know for sure). Only 9 people in the top 200 on the leaderboard predicted 12 games correctly this week, and my overall score jumped a little bit more to 1835 (obviously, quite a few people picked the Colts to win).

Ahhh well...try again next week.

Up until the last seven minutes, I thought I might actually go into MNF with only one wrong game prediction! But nooOOOOooo...Pittsburgh's offense decided they didn't need to gain a SINGLE FUCKING YARD for the entire fourth quarter! Hey, pulling an intentional safety worked for the Saints today, BUT THEY HAD MORE THAN TWO POINTS ADVANTAGE ON THE BOARD, you fucking morons! All your safety did was to TIE the game and allow the Giants an opportunity to win on a single score! Oh...you say you didn't mean to pull an intentional safety? You really did suck donkey balls throughout the fourth quarter? Sorry, my bad...

Ohhhh, I'm so pissed at Pittsburgh. Even if the Titans do win tomorrow, it's unlikely I'll win the TV cuz I'll only have 12 of 14 games picked correctly.

However, 89% picked the Jags over the Browns, 80% picked the Bills over the Dolphins, and 76% picked the 49ers over the 'hawks...my overall standings skyrocketed from 4300 all the way to 2115! The weird thing is that the scoreboard doesn't reflect the Texans/Bengals game yet. However, a quick look at the leaderboard shows three different people inside the top 100 with 11 correct picks, which means everyone who already has 11 picks correct needs to have picked the Bengals to win just so I would have a shot at an MNF tie-breaker...if Pittsburgh had decided to play during the fourth quarter, at any time, I'd probably be in the running for best picks of the week!

And to think I blamed the refs at the Super Bowl...

So I'm not out of contention yet, I suppose

Just about everybody but me picked the Cowboys over the Rams last week, as well as the Colts over the Packers. However, I went a little too deep into Opposite World by picking the 49ers to beat the Giants, but I ended up with a respectable 10 out of 14. This week...

Texans over Bengals: Cincy can't move the ball, and now they've possibly lost Palmer for the season. Ocho Cinco's jersey still reads "Johnson".
Bucs over Cowboys: Chucky hates all of his QBs, especially the current geriatric under center. But Garcia has been very efficient, especially with an established ground game. Dallas has imploded: Romo's out, Jerry's making statements of how confident he is, T.O.'s pissed, and the head coach is taking over defensive calls...this is SO much fun to watch
Redskins over Lions: Who has the better chance of going 0-16 this year, Detroit or Cincy? My guess is Detroit...
Dolphins over Bills: Miami is better than their record indicates, and Buffalo is playing in MUCH warmer weather than what they've been practicing in.
Patriots over Rams: Welcome back to reality, St. Louis.
Saints over Chargers: Really tough call. But I have a feeling that Drew Brees wants SD to understand the little mistake they made a few years ago.
Jets over Chiefs: A couple of weeks ago, I picked against the Chiefs and said they could only win if they racked up 200 yards on the ground...LJ missed 200 by only two yards, and they won. Now LJ is out.
Eagles over Falcons: Another tough call, but Philly wants it more now that Dallas is imploding, and they're playing at home.
Panthers over Cardinals: Something tells me I should pick Arizona...another something is currently beating the shit out of the first something for suggesting it...
Ravens over Raiders: Welcome back to reality, Oakland.
Browns over Jaguars: The winning something, all battered and bruised, is suggesting I pick Cleveland. I probably should find a third something...
Steelers over Giants: Tough call. Game of the week. Going with the scarred field of Pittsburgh.
Seahawks over 49ers: Mike Singletary is getting his shot! YaY! I don't think it will be a good start for him, tho'...
Titans over Colts: Does it matter which Indy team shows up in Tennessee? Nope, the Titans want to prove their unbeaten record is not an illusion, and they want to do it on national television on their home field.

So, how many of you thought my pick of Arizona over Dallas last week was crazy? However, overall my predictions sucked...this week, you'll think I was WAY more crazy than last week, but considering how crazy-weird this season has been so far, this week's predictions probably makes sense when you think about it...

Bills over Chargers
Bears over Vikings
Steelers over Bengals
Titans over Chiefs
Rams over Cowboys
Dolphins over Ravens
49ers over Giants
Saints over Panthers
Texans over Lions
Packers over Colts
Jets over Raiders
Redskins over Browns
Bucs over Seahawks
Patriots over Broncos

I thought this was finally over. I thought the media finally pulled their heads out of their collective asses and stopped spreading Fear/Uncertainty/Doubt about the upcoming digital switch for television signals. I was wrong. In fact, the media have decided to start shoving more than one head up a single ass. Here's a great quote to serve as an example:

"About 15 percent of U.S. households use only analog TV sets..."

That's IT???? My gawd, what an incredibly low percentage! If it's only 15%, then why the hell didn't we make the digital switch two years ago as originally planned? Talk to your neighbors and friends, and you'll likely find most of them use only analog TV sets...a lot of people are waiting until after the Super Bowl to buy a shiny new digital TV, when the prices drop a little bit, to coincide with the wonderful digital transition. I'm one of those people, and I'm only going to replace one of three analog televisions...but still watch TV signals on ALL of them.

"...and could risk their screens going black as analog signals are turned off"

Which is complete bullshit if any part of that 15% are cable subscribers. My guess is that most of them are cable or satellite subscribers, so the rest will just need to get a converter box.

"Owners of analog televisions must buy a TV converter box to receive a digital signal..."

Again, complete bullshit: you will not need a converter box UNLESS you receive your TV signal over a rooftop antenna or rabbit ears. In a DIFFERENT PARAGRAPH they state the transition won't affect cable subscribers...however, their irresponsible news reporting DOES NOT specify in said paragraph that it won't affect cable subscribers still using analog televisions.

Obviously, whomever wrote this article got paid by a big-name television manufacturer to scare everybody into buying new TVs for every room...this is the worst misinformation campaign on the digital switch I've seen so far, and I thought it couldn't get any worse than it used to be.

Today I called a services center run by the WA government, and after a series of different phone menus, I finally reached the point of being put in the cue to talk to a human. Of course, I'm on hold listening to music while waiting...the song?

Pink Floyd's "Run Like Hell"

I got five games wrong last week: three of them were by 3 points, one was by five points...and don't talk to me about the Seahawks differential. I even got the tie-breaker points correct for the Saints, but all those turnovers and bad ref calls in the first half put points on the Vikings scoreboard. Oh well...

Not going into any reasons for my picks this week, I have more important things to do than document something nobody ever reads.

Bears over Falcons
Ravens over Colts
Vikings over Lions
Saints over Raiders
Jets over Bengals
Panthers over Bucs
Redskins over Rams
Texans over Dolphins
Broncos over Jaguars
Cardinals over Cowboys
Eagles over 49ers
Seahawks over Packers
Chargers over Patriots
Giants over Browns

Jeepers, a jury found Simpson guilty on all charges a few minutes ago. And here's something slightly ironic: deliberations began 13 years to the day after Simpson was acquitted of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman.

He could be looking at a sentence of 15-to-life. And you know what that means? That's right...

He's never going to find the real killers now.

OK, so the blog title is a direct opposite of the classic ideal of the "couch potatoe" (hey, I'm a Dan Quayle fan, 'k?). When it comes to TV advertising, did you know there was some research study discipline known as "neuromarketing"? Me neither. But somebody designed this thingy to measure heart rate, breathing rate, eye-tracking, motion detect and, um...emotional arousal...while watching TV. And it was applied specifically in this article to gauge alertness of viewers when fast-forwarding thru commercials using <unnamed digital video recording device>. Gee, I wonder which DVR device they used for the study...anyway, seems that some people actually remember commercials when fast-forwarding at either 3x or 6x the time of normal speed, and advertisers are going to try and craft their commercials to be more noticeable for this type of viewer (and probably annoy those who are not using a DVR even more than ever before).

Well, this all doesn't bode well for TV advertisers who are trying to reach DVR people who use MCE...when I hit the skip button on my remote control, I instantaneously jump 30 seconds: there is no 3x or 6x fast-forwarding scan for my TV viewing pleasure, I move directly to the next commercial or right back into the show. And I'm proud to say that I don't recall a single advertiser of any show I watch on my DVR machine, simply cuz I don't see their commercials at all (except for those times I over-skip, back up, etc).

So, how about that Sarah Palin on TV earlier, huh? Wow, she's a looker, she is. Great smile. Nice hair. Sharp talk. Oooozes confidence. Great personality and projection...she should run for public office or something...

Darth Vader is finally getting a SAG Award. It's a lifetime achievement award. As I understand it, the award didn't come sooner because previous judges for the award were found mysteriously asphyxiated to death...

I finally saw The Dark Knight two weeks ago. My gawd, all the positive chatter about Heath Ledger's performance didn't do him justice. He was truly amazing. In fact, I had to keep reminding myself that I was watching Heath Fraking Ledger, cuz every time I saw him on the screen I thought of this woman...

Most of my great deals have come from garage sailing. I check out the "hot deals" forums around the web every couple of days looking for cool stuff to buy at bargain prices, and occasionally find one I can take advantage of. This deal transpired a little differently than the others...

Somebody posted an up-to 80%-off sale on tonneau covers at Amazon. One of those things would have come in REALLY handy for my truck last week on my trip to Mt. Rainier, so I figured I would get use out of having one in the future. Alas, no deals for my specific truck (an '06 Tacoma).

However, I decided to see what other items were available at Amazon that would specifically fit my truck, so I started flipping through pages and noticed one item with an unbelievably low price: a pair of Westin "Signature Series" chrome step bars, for just $63.65 with free shipping, and $5.73 in sales tax. Other e-commerce sites charge almost that much just for shipping. First thought: major price mistake, they will never honor the purchase. Second thought: what have I got to lose by trying? Third thought: buy both pairs, and resell one pair thru Craig's List or whatever for the low, low price of just $200. Fourth thought: order one pair now, reduce the risk of cancelation, and buy the other pair if the price doesn't change after the first pair has shipped.

Result: the first pair shipped. I checked Amazon as soon as that happened, and sure enough, the price was adjusted to a far more believable $383...but my invoice still shows $63.65 + tax. They lost $320 on this sale, but I'm pretty certain they would not tolerate losing $640, and would have canceled the entire order if I tried buying both pairs. The fourth thought WINS (followed closely by the second thought...).

I don't even want to talk about last week's predictions. The only good thing from last weekend is that the Seahawks didn't lose (of course, they had a BYE week, but that's beside the point...). So let's talk about T.O., shall we?

The (current) head coach of the Cowboys blamed their loss against Zorn's Redskins on the fact that NFL glamour-boy Tony Romo called too many pass plays...way too many. In fact, on their ground game, Barbar touched the ball only eight times, and Felix didn't get the ball at all. So what does T.O. say about this? He decides to piss and moan at Romo that he doesn't get enough touches...only a dismal EIGHTEEN balls were thrown his way on Sunday...and that he doesn't like the types of throws he's been getting from his QB as far back as Week 1.

Mr. Romo, meet Mr. Bus. Owens never leaves home without it. On his radio show the other night, T.O. claimed there was no bus that he was throwing his QB under, and turned his insightful, mature wit toward a former Cowboy by referring to Keyshawn Johnson as "Sheshawn" three times.

While we're on the subject of Cowboys players, it turns out Pacman has been told by the team to be less visible off the field. Considering that Pacman is in eighth place on the team for tackles, management obviously wants his overall visibility to be more balanced.

Closely related to the subject of the Cowboys is Jesus Christ (well, the two subjects are closely related in Dallas, anyway...). Archaeologists found a 2000-year-old bowl engraved with a phrase that could be the first known reference to Jesus. Translated it sez, "World's Greatest Son".

The Rams haven't won a single game this season, and their coach was fired...plus, he still gets paid for the entire year per his contract. The Raiders have won a game this year, and their coach was fired...but, he's not going to get another dime of his contract. Yup, that sounds fair.

Of course, the reason the fired Raiders coach isn't getting paid is because he's a "flat-out liar". Asked to elaborate, Al Davis said,

I wanted to make it work, to be real honest. It’s my belief that I would work and it could work. I wanted to make it work.

When Davis asked why all the reporters were chuckling, unabashed laughter filled the room.

Shocking news of the week: Ricky Williams felt the urge to smoke some bud last week. On a related note, I looked at my fishbowl and wondered if my goldfish would feel the urge to swim today.