a99kitten's Musings

I love that :)

This year I am in 2 fantasy leagues – my standard work one ($25 buy-in) and then a free one with some fellow FF lovers on twitter. I am the only girl in that league so I need to do well! I also think I am the only person a) on the West Coast and b) not working in finance (and probably running spreadsheets and charts on player stats!) I do however bring awesome huskies and Star Wars to the league – “Never Tell Me Odds! :)

I am the Commish of my work league even though I said I would not do it again. My excitement for football overtook the frustration of being the Commish. I banned Michael Vick from our league so no one was allowed to draft him unless they wanted to give me $100 per week to donate to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. Last year I made the mistake of only charging $5 per week thinking people would GET THE POINT and be smart enough to not use him. Wrong. Well, most people figured it out. Just not 1. That person was not invited back to the league this year. Extreme dog lover is the Commish. Michael Vick she hates and said not to use. Michael Vick you pick-up off the bench. Simple that math is.

My work team draft went OK. I really didn’t do enough football research this year. I think I say that every year though. But I basically went after people I already knew. I didn’t look for the “hot new rookie”. My team is the “Running Huskies”:)

QB: Tom Brady (Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees were already taken…I don’t think I can buy his jersey tho…cannot root for the PATS! ARGH! But maybe if he cuts his hair…)
WRs: DeSean Jackson, Dwayne Bowe, Stevie Johnson, Malcolm Floyd and Plaxico Burress. Yes, I can totally give Plax another chance since he only shot himself and hasn’t yet displayed sociopathic tendencies.
RBs: Arian Foster, Matt Forte, Pierre Thomas and Jonathan Stewart. Arian Foster was my 1st round draft pick. And he’s injured. Awesome. GAH!
TE: Dallas Clark (this is the jersey I should buy since I try and get him every year!)
K: Adam Vinatieri
DEF: Baltimore

My twitter team was an auction-style draft which I had never done before. That was a bit crazy and I am definitely not so sure about my team – yikes. Team name “Let the Wookiee Win”:

QBs (you use 2 each game! Wha??): Matt Schaub and Alex Smith (yeah…that’s what was left in my budget)
WRs: Larry Fitzgerald, Wes Welker, Danny Amendola, Johnny Knox and Robert Meachem. So 1 super star anyway.
RBs: Maurice Jones-Drew, Frank Gore, Beanie Wells and Pierre Thomas
TE: Dallas Clark (yes again!) and Brandon Pettigrew
K: David Akers
DEF: PIT and STL.

I need a back-up QB to play during the BYE weeks but I have a few weeks. I need to monitor the BYE weeks on that league for sure. Plus the scoring on that team is totally different than my league that I am used to so I hope I do OK there!!

Stressed about Arian Foster being injured, Matt Forte is grumpy about his contract and Dallas Clark will not have Peyton Manning throwing to him. Great. Sonof^%$&@^%#$@#$

I also have a 3rd team to manage. We needed a 10th in our work league and I had to fill the spot. So I am in for double I guess. I seriously need more football lovin’ friends. Maybe I’ll play that team like a “take lots of crazy chances” team. I named it Shadowtrooper. I had to create another email address and login for yahoo which is a PITA since I will now have to log out of Yahoo with my normal login to check and change that team.

PLUS, I took over the Survivor commish job since last year’s commish apparently forgot? But we have 6 people in that – winner take all. I took CLE for the 1st week. I hope that wasn’t stupid. First week is always supposed to be the safe “sure thing” pick which would have probably been NE (2 people took them) although I think SD had the biggest point spread. But SD never seems to be a sure thing. And NE playing MIA is a big rivalry so got crazy and picked CLE (playing CIN so…)

And this year I did not create a weekly picks pool. Being the commish of that sucks frankly. Too much work collecting and paying out and reminding people. A friend of mine in Florida invited me to join his and you pay the full amount for the year up front and then each week there is a pay out along with a final payout at the end of the year. So all I have to do is pay once and make my picks weekly. Done! Yay! Although this pool is a spread pool which I have never done so that is way, way harder!

So yay!! Football season is now here and I have a lot of games to play! I would really love having enough football friends where we do the draft together, order pizza, yell at our picks getting taken by each other – like they show on the ESPN commercials! I think that would be way more fun. But oh well.

My Sundays are officially booked! And no, I do not have a gambling problem… ;)

I receive a lot of HR newsletters. Super fun reading (no, not really.) And most of them just annoy me due to the ridiculous one-sided nature of court cases, decisions and public opinion about the evil bosses and owners of the world out to screw over the little guy. Pfft. Anyway, I just read this story:

http://www.hrmorning.com/big-sticking-point-in-nfl-lockout-workers-comp-benefits/

So NFL players can file Workers Comp claims in the beyond-bankrupt State of California if they’ve played ONE game here and been injured. WTH? Our Workers Comp system is already bogged down by corruption and “oversight”. But now players, who in some cases already exhausted WC benefits in other states, can make a claim here. Just because they hurt their widdle knee when they were playing in a game, that they picked as their chosen career even knowing it can be dangerous, and already fought to receive numerous other guaranteed benefits from their teams/owners.

Look, someone gets seriously injured and gets cut from their team and salary or can’t play for a year (although pretty sure players still get paid by the team in injury cases) – I understand the desperation of wanting to make sure your family is cared for. But there are other things you need to do and put in place for your own protection. Like SAVINGS and not buying a Rolex for you and 10- closest pals. You chose a career where one bad play and it could end. So you need to be responsible for putting protections in place for yourself and family. Not game the system which is exactly and absolutely what this is.

No. No. No. But of course, our bloated no-longer Golden State of California says Yes. Yes. Yes. And apparently Michigan too (big surprise…)

That’s it. I’m totally on Team Owner now. I need a t-shirt.

ARGH!

P.S. And a big FU to the illegal immigrants who come here ILLEGALLY, then LIE on their applications and then claim WC too. Double-ARGH!

http://www.hrmorning.com/illegal-immigrants-can-get-workers-comp-benefits-too-court-rules/

Reading about the chaos at this weekend’s preseason “Battle of the Bay” game between the 49ers and Raiders makes me angry. I think a start to a solution is to ban alcohol at the games. Except for maybe the private boxes where any stupidity can be contained. Does that sound wrong? Maybe to someone. And probably classist. But I am a 100% acknowledged classist so no big surprise. But my sense of classism is more geared towards ghetto, tacky, rude, etc. It’s not how much money you have. It’s how you act. How you treat others.

Most of these fights (and stabbings, shootings, etc) are caused by drunk jerks (probably a few that aren’t even drunk but I guess more are.) You take a person who is already a jerk and then let him drink non-stop from 8am when tail-gating begins and wonder why they become belligerent? Can most people have a beer and watch the game and have fun? Of course. But guess what – all you need is 1 (or 15) drunk jackasses to seriously hurt people.

Going to a sporting event should NOT be dangerous. You should be able to go to a game wearing whatever the heck team jersey you want and not have to worry about someone punching you. Or worse. That is ridiculous.

And you don’t need alcohol to have fun at the game. You can tailgate or watch from the stands and be sober and still have it be fun. If you can’t, then you have bigger problems to address. If you want to get stupid drunk while watching the game, then stay home and watch it on TV.

I always hate when you have to make rules to conform to the lowest common denominator because these are usually the people that I think don’t even deserve to breathe. But I’m fairly harsh that way. The world is over-populated anyway so let’s lose the a-holes first. And then the world is a better place anyway. Win-Win. Makes sense to me. But my rant is digressing to a different rant.

For public safety – yeah – I would support banning alcohol in the parking lots/tailgating, sold at the stadiums, etc. Will that ever happen? After hell has its own sea of glaciers. But maybe someone should try it as a test. How much could the stadium lose? Who knows. But how much does it cost to have in-stadium police stations (Philadelphia and Tampa Bay do that I know of – probably more.) And all of the extra police needed to control thuggish crowds.

Ghetto fans, gang-bangers and just plain drunk jerks are always going to be around. Certain teams do seem to attract more of a thug crowd (looking right at you Oakland) but all cities/teams have them. For all sports. Look at all of the stupidity that occurs when teams win OR lose championship games. “F Yeah – our team won/lost – now let’s loot and set fire to stuff!!” Now, all of those people probably aren’t drunk (just insanely stupid or plain criminal) but my guess is a good chunk are somewhat inebriated. So you can either have an entire police force at a silly game to attempt to keep peace or you can try taking away something that is contributing to the mayhem. Do I blame alcohol? *Absolutely not.* Fact: people are responsible for their own condition. Plenty of people can have a drink or 2 or even tons and still be perfectly sane (and probably just vomit or fall asleep.) I blame stupidity, jerkishness and a Lord of the Flies mentality.

Some people argue that these people aren’t real fans of the teams so why penalize the fans. Well, they are fans. Are they fans of the team for the “right” reasons? Probably not. Oakland has had a thug, gangster reputation for a long time. LA gangs LOVE their merchandise so then display their devotion to the team. They are liked because they were seen as the thug team. Great reason. Of course now they are just the crap team. But with the same “Black Hole” Orc fans.

I have been to probably 7-10 49ers games. And about 15 or so Giants games. The thing I always liked about them was that the SF crowd definitely seemed to be nicer. I went to the SF/Oakland World Series games and the difference in crowds and atmosphere between seeing them in Oakland and seeing them in SF (including the “earthquake game”) was vast. Now, I am definitely not saying SF doesn’t have thug fans. I know they do. But you couldn’t pay me to see another game or concert in Oakland. Not worth it. I don’t ever want feel so unsafe for simply being in attendance at a game or anything else.

Stories came out after the game that the 49ers will be cutting tail-gating hours. That might help a little but it’s still going to be 4 hours or so. So 4 hours of drinking and then game time drinking is more than enough for mayhem. And some of the players (49ers) came out and said how the violence worries them since their families are also in the stands. Frank Gore came out and said “it’s just game.” So if the people getting paid to play this game want you losers to knock it off, pretty sure by being thugs you are showing the rest of us just how big of ghetto losers you are. Sadly, it never seems to be you who gets beat up, shot, stabbed, etc.

The owner of the 49ers also said he has requested that the Battle of the Bay game be discontinued. This is a very good idea. It’s a dumb preseason game anyway. I hope the NFL agrees. If not, then they can pony up for the National Guard unit to come in and keep the peace at the next one.

Went through my recipes and I am thinking…

Buffalo Chicken dip (Hungry Girl version) w/pita chips
Sour cream onion dip and Ruffles (my annual allowance)
Cheesy pigs in bacon blankets (they were big hits last year)
Bayless Mac and Cheese

and….I’m not sure….maybe Shepherd’s Pie? Turkey chili….Hmm…

Someone is bringing stuffed mushrooms and someone else cheeses and chips and salsas. Not sure what else is coming or from whom. I will have bubbly for me. Various beers for others of course. Will be a smaller crowd this year. But of closer friends so that’s better :) I need to get all the shopping done after work tomorrow as Saturday is a Napa wine day.

I don’t really care about either team this year but I have a bet on the Packers! And Aaron Rodgers is a good story/kid. Plus it’s kind of hard to root for a team with Ben R. on it. I find it rather funny (in that funny like a clown way) that the NFL welcomes a sociopath, dog-murdering felon back with open arms and celebrates him. Let’s a twice-accused rapist off with a 5 game suspension and yet Eddie DeBartolo still can’t own/actively manage an NFL team. Stupid.

But anyway – GO PACK! I do love cheese….

Oh look…going into the Colts/Cardinal game I seem to have already won :) I will revel in this relaxed win as a fluke. My opponent has no more players to play (plus left Westbrook in when he was out to due to injury!!!) and I have Dallas Clark and Tim Hightower in tonight’s game and I am 12 points ahead already. Whew…

This makes me 3-0 in our fantasy league. And #2 in our 10 person/team league. And so far (fingers AND toes crossed) the #1 is losing this week – darn…

BUT – I am praying for an ARI win so that I am tie for our pool picks going into MNF. I have 48 points. So it is a looooong shot that I win but I don’t give up :)

Won my Survivor pick. I chose BAL. And so did everyone else but 1 person (husband) who chose them last week. So we all survived. Darn. Only 1 person out in this league (the admin – hehe) since it started.

So a good NFL week for me…

If he’s allowed his “second chance”, then I’m allowed my opinion..

The NFL Commissioner decided to “partially reinstate” Michael Vick today. This means he can practice and play in pre-season games, assuming he can find a team who wants him. He might be eligible to play in regular season games as early as October.

Thankfully the Atlanta Falcons dropped him so they won’t want him back.  They found themselves a good QB in rookie Matt Ryan plus were probably so angry at Vick for all the bad PR, they want nothing to do with him.

And I’m sure there are plenty of teams that want nothing to do with the bad PR he will, at least initially, bring.  My guess is those are the teams who already have great QBs in their line-up.

But you know there will be teams who want him (OAK comes to mind….) And this is what angers me.  Hey – who cares about his character. He can throw a ball and scramble out of a collapsing pocket to score – awesome.  Pfft.

Sports figures have been idols to kids for years and years now. With more and more of them becoming so. They get paid ridiculous amounts of money coming straight out of the draft (school). They walk around like kings and get treated as such by legions of screaming fans. Because they are good at a sport.  But the sad thing is more and more of them are completely unworthy of it.

He didn’t commit a crime against himself (take drugs) or get caught cheating on his wife in some personal scandal.  He not only broke both state and federal laws – he did it in an extremely savage and heinous way. Have you read the details about what he did to those dogs that HE killed (after he lied to prosecutors and said he didn’t)? I did. And I cried. He did not “just” bankroll this operation. He fully and completely participated in the violence. Multiple studies have shown the correlation between violent and sadistic cruelty to animals and to people. Well – he plays a violent sport as a job so I guess not so far off. And look – I love football.  But I don’t want the teams I am rooting for  to have violent psychos as team leaders. No thanks.

Forget the savagery of dog-fighting in itself – but what he did to those dogs that lost or under-performed? The person who does something like this by choice (no  “I was trying to support my family” BS or anything in his corner) for sport – you are a broken human. Plain and simple. You should not be allowed to own animals ever again. And you are going to raise children in your image? Nice.

Sure you’re sorry. You’re sorry you were caught. You’re sorry that you lost your huge NFL contract and advertising sponsors. You’re sorry that you lost your houses and cars and everything else. That’s why your sorry.

And to those supporters who spout “he paid his dues”, “he deserves a second chance”. He got one already – he’s not dead. He is now out of jail. Go on and live your life. But no – you shouldn’t play in the NFL again where you can, in any way, be held up as a role model or on some kid’s t-shirt ever again.

The NFL is at fault too. They shouldn’t “hire” convicted felons – period. I realize half of the Bengals would be out of work but that’s too damn bad. Maybe if they actually couldn’t just go back to earning their huge paychecks, they wouldn’t be so fracking stupid and commit these crimes? Or is that too much to ask?

And if Vick does get to play in games, I am sincerely hoping he goes up against a linbacker who loves dogs. And had to explain to his kids what Vick did after they heard it on the radio and watch them cry.  And hopefully he gets a painful & karmic taste of what his poor dogs did.