Man, I love Madden 2003--if you don't care, stop reading--Andrea, feel free to pass this on to Scott. :) I've got the settings figured out just so, so that all the games I actually play vs. the CPU are close, nail-biters--making it fun whether I win or lose. I don't romp like I did with the default settings.

Anyway, I've been running a Bears franchise. But I've just been pulling the strings--I do the personnel moves and then simulate the seasons. I've been quite successful. I benched Jim Miller in Year Two in favor of Patrick Ramsey, whom I traded for (as the Bears almost did this year). He started slowly, but by Year Five, he's a Pro Bowl player. In Year Two I drafted a DT named Fernando Vanelli. He teamed up with Ted Washington for the next three years, until Washington finally retired. In Year Three, Vanelli registered 19 sacks! And this is simulation, so it's not like I figured out how to get sacks every time. He's obviously a Pro Bowl player also.

Anyway, I went to the Super Bowl in Year Five vs. the Chargers. Now, I HAD to actually play the Super Bowl, because, well, it's the Super Bowl. I went in, fell behind 6-0 on two field goals because Ramsey (I) threw a pick on my very first offensive play. But then I marched down the field mostly with Anthony Thomas (Pro Bowler) and scored, going up 7-6. It stayed that way, and I was running down the clock at the end of the game when A-Train ripped off a 27-yard TD run to lock up the Super Bowl win 14-6. Woohoo!

I worried after that because I had three players holdout in the offseason. I was able to keep most of my guys on the squad and put together a solid 11-5 NFC North title in Year Six, despite losing Ramsey for the season early on. That left me with Kliff Kingsbury, who I drafted (after importing the draft class) in Year Three (technically one year later than reality, I know). Kingsbury did just fine, spelled by Chris Redman, who I signed just in case. The playoffs though, would prove to be tougher. In the divisional playoff (simulated), I lost MLB Brian Urlacher and SS Mike Brown for the rest of the playoffs to injury. Vanelli (that DT up there) was already questionable. I was headed to St. Louis to take on the 15-1 Rams. I didn't expect to win. But my Bears pulled out a victory. I was headed to the Super Bowl again...vs. the 15-1 Colts this time, still without Urlacher and Brown, but Vanelli came back. I took a 10-7 lead into the half, and went up 17-7. But the Colts stormed back to tie it with 2:00 remaining in the game. That's when I marched the Bears with Thomas and Kingsbury (who had two interceptions on stupid passes by me already) down to about the 20 yard line. I kicked what ended up being the game-winner (after a failed Hail Mary by the Colts) to give the Bears back-to-back Super Bowl championships with a 20-17 win.

I guess only in Bears' fans dreams, eh? But I am really happy that I've been able to be a great general manager and player when it came down to it in the Super Bowls. Now we'll see if I can three-peat...I won't hold my breath though... :)

Thanks for listening...hope it psyches you all up to take your team all the way... :)

Hmmm...it would be nice if a certain cousin of mine who reads this blog and wanted to go out tonight would answer one of her phones... ;)

I know the minute I turn my PS2 on to play Madden, the phone will ring...I know it.

Heh, heh...using blogs for the powers of evil...yeah...

I got tired of staring at that long-ass blog below this one that I posted last night...

So I needed to put something up here, short as possible.

How's everyone out there?

So, here's a question:
Am I cruel, uncaring and self-centered, or just wise to not meddle in other people's business, friend or foe?

A good friend of mine (Friend A) always "worries" about this other, "lesser" friend (Friend B)...He always bitches about friend b (yes, these are freakin' MEN I'm talking about here) and talks about how friend b's life is just sad and unfortunate, and what will it take for friend b to change and so on and so forth. He does this to me...which, I do care deeply about what friend A says and thinks, and I care about friend b as well. However, my mantra has always been, "It's his life, he can do what he wants, and if there's a serious problem with it, he'll figure it out somehow, or he'll ask me for help."

I thought Friend A would figure this out years ago with another friend of ours who did not attend college and (though never really proven--there was another guy at the time too) a girl pregnant at age 20 or so. Friend A was floored and said this guy was throwing his life away by not going to college and by moving in with her to take care of the kid. He was taking, in my opinion, a very valiant stand by raising the baby girl with the mother as his own, regardless of lineage. I was proud of him for that--showed guts and maturity, and it was something I know I'd have to struggle to figure out at that age. I believe more in supporting what people want to do, so long as it isn't life-threatening, as opposed to telling them they'll fail and they're stupid and whatnot. But Friend A didn't necessarily see that. Now, the friend with the kid is apparently doing just fine for himself, his kid and a second kid that he and his wife(?--don't know if they ever officially married) had recently. I told Friend A, see, I told you he would work things out for himself, and look what he did--and you wanted to crucify him for supposedly throwing his life away. Friend A never could understand why I wouldn't stand up to this guy and tell him what he was doing was not a good idea...even though I didn't think it was not a good idea, it's what he wanted (almost had) to do--so what if he didn't go to college even though he could have gotten a free-ride based on smarts and his home situation. But he's doing just fine.

Now Friend A is all over Friend B and vice-versa. They debated at the bar tonight, and I just sat there and listened and enjoyed their idiocy. They were both making perfectly wonderful points about each other's faults, but neither was listening. When I said, You know, you guys are never going to end this argument, because you're both right and making good points, each one had to get the last word in. Friend A even tried dragging me into it, and I scolded him for it right in front of Friend B, and I told them not to even think about it, because this was between them and had nothing to do with me. Finally they shut up.

Friend B is a little wild (mostly mischievous), but he does nothing really wrong that I've ever seen. In fact, most of the times I've been out with him around, I've had a great time. However, he likes attention and likes to dominate the scene. He also is a playa, if you will...he's got to hit on any waitress or woman that isn't with someone in our group. Sometimes, he can be a total jerk, but that's rare--Friend A doesn't believe so, which is a hypocritical story for another day. Mostly Friend B's just really a friendly guy with a low alcohol tolerance--you couldn't sit there without him coming over to make sure you were having fun. I can adjust (maybe astrology? Gemini) and back off, giving him the scene. But Friend A (strangely enough, also a Gemini) completely clashes with him. He can't seem to get off Friend B's back about this, that or the other thing. I don't know if it's general differences in beliefs on social interaction or what, but I always have to listen to Friend A saying, did you see what Friend B did? What an idiot. Disparaging much of what he does, says or the women he hits on or the people he hangs out with, other than us, of course. That sort of thing. I've told Friend A, who, again is one of my best friends ever, that I don't give a crap and I don't have a problem with friend b. Still, he finds the need to crap on this guy all the time, but it's in this pitiful, charitable, I-feel-the-need-to-change-him kind of way. And I've said, look, let the guy just do what he does and somewhere along the line he'll get it, or he won't and things will be the way they are. If he's not hurting anyone, and really not hurting himself, then who gives a crap?

Now, maybe I'm too easy on Friend B. Friend B has called me drunk at 4 am just to chitchat--annoyance, but is that the worst thing ever? I'll talk to him briefly and then say I need to go to bed and send him on his way--not a big deal, plus he's drunk and not thinking straight--he usually goes away pretty quickly. Friend A would like to string him up for such things, as though everything Friend A does is mightier than thou, an attitude Friend A has had for as long as I've known him--and I've learned to deal with. But maybe that's the case too...the mightier-than-thou attitude and the change-the-world attitude are combined in Friend A, but who am I to say what Friend B (or Friend A) should and shouldn't do? But maybe Friend A's change-the-world attitude is a good one to have as well. I just don't think Friend B is a great place to start, and Friend A doesn't realize that.

Now, you might think that this post means I'm worried about it. I'm not...it's just on my mind because it just happened...plus, I think it's generally interesting.

So yeah...sorry for the long post...hopefully you found it interesting...

Sorry Laz, if you're reading this still...
I really hate the Giants. I really do. As much as I like the Jets this year and hope they make the Super Bowl, I don't want a freakin' New York Super Bowl. I'd rather go to San Diego and meet people from other towns than all from New York. Ya know? But, there's a lot of football to be played, in this game and in the playoffs.

Again, I'm sitting at work doing nothing...it drives me nuts sometimes...because I could surf the Web and stuff, but really, I've read everything I wanted to already...

Last night me and Donna went to John Barleycorn on Clark near Addison for a birthday gathering, if you will. It was all right, except that some jackasses who my brother doesn't even like but were invited, showed up and kind of separated me, Donna and my brother from the only people we knew in the group--the guys and gals from our softball team. But, hey, so be it...we had a pretty good time anyway.

I really need to buy a new computer and a really nice color printer. I had to go to Kinko's to get this project I'm working on printed out, and of course, the one by my house, the Mac wasn't working. That's nice. So I go to the next-nearest one, and they say, OK, we'll have a proof for you after noon tomorrow if you want to stop in. It was kind of out of my way, but I stopped anyway. The guy says, sorry I didn't call, but when I was trying to print yours, our Mac went down, so I sent it to the Ogden store--it will be ready tomorrow for your approval.

If this project works well for me, it opens up a possibility, though very limited, in my job-search-for-the-future scope. This will be the second solid book-type layout I will have done (at least in my opinion :) ) in the last four years or so, and it makes me wonder if I can freelance out my abilities...and if anyone would pay me to do flyers, pamphlets, personal items, etc. Oh well, it would be just supplemental money type stuff anyway--freelance.

Other than that, not much else is new right now...in that short time I wrote this, the Giants cut the deficit to eight...like I said, lots of football to be played.