are you ready to rock? [or rawk]?

many of you are aware that i am the proud owner of a nintendo wii (thanks a&j!). For the past week i have been playing guitar hero III and I cannot get it out of my head!

I purchased the game about a month ago when it was first released. I was planning on getting it as a Christmas gift for myself with my Christmas money, but we were in Target and I saw it and i knew that it was going to be hard to find later in the season. I walked up and picked up the last one just as another couple came after me trying to get their greedy hands all over it. Since it was purchased as a Christmas present, Becky and I agreed that wii would wait until thanksgiving to open it with our Teal family Christmas (held now since mom and dad are moving).

I've had tons of fun with it and i must admit that Jared is better than I am (at least until i can practice more). One of the songs that we unlocked is DragonForce's "through the fire and flames". this song is unbelievable. i literally cannot believe it. watch it for yourself.

then shred some metal. and pick your face up off the floor.

it took alot of hard work and dedication

Detroit has finally reclaimed it's title as "America's Most Dangerous City". Hooray!!

We're number one! we're number one!...



read the details here

Teal on Bonds on Bonds

Let me state for the record that I am not an authority on the details of Barry Bonds career. I have not read "Game of Shadows". I only watched the highlights of the congressional hearings last year concerning steroid use in baseball. I don't know Barry Bonds personally, but i think we can learn alot from him. and (full disclosure) i believe that he knowingly took steroids and other performance enhancing drugs.



We should all be paying attention to the struggle that he is going through right now (following the federal indictment). Mr. Bonds, or Barry if i may be so bold, chose worldly treasures over spiritual treasures and he is paying the price for that decision. Even if he never faces jail time, even if he wins his case, he will never be viewed the same again. The court of popular opinion [which was already swaying against him] will view him as a cheater, and even worse... a liar.

Barry had an opportunity to value spiritual wealth above worldly wealth during the congressional hearings last year. He had the chance to tell the truth (with total imminuty i might add); but instead, he chose to hide his misdeeds and value his single-minded pursuit of a written record and fame. His constant grasp for athletic glory and honour came at the cost of his integrity. I think we can see that his choice was of benefit to him temporarily, but now that the truth is being exposed, he's in a whole lotta trouble.

I think there are few things worse in this world than lying. Afterall, it was a lie that got us in this situation in the first place [and by situation i mean separation from God, selfishness, death, ... you know the rest]. But lying sometimes seems the easiest way, the simpliest way, sometimes even the better way. However, God not only values truth, but He is the Truth... and He calls us to no less.

What's your take on Barry? What's you take on truth?

fantasy letter

Dear Philip,

Why do you hate me? What did I ever do to cause you so much pain that you would seek revenge upon me at this crucial moment?

I just needed you to play half-way decent. I didn't need a record breaking game, or even a good game; even average would have been good enough. But no, you had to play a horrible game; a ridiculously embarrassing game. I mean, 104 yards passing, 2 interceptions, and a lost fumble? You tease me by playing great when I bench you and then as soon as I start you, you play a game like this one.

We'll no more. I've found someone else, and his name is Jason, Jason Campbell. He's not much, but he's much more reliable.


[for those of you reading this letter who are not Philip Rivers, this message is in response to the fact that I had a really big match-up this week in fantasy football and all i needed was for him to score 2 points. 2 measly points. but what did he get?... -3. MINUS THREE. i'm moving on.]

are you ready for some football?

are you?

I am. I'm all about the pigskin.

We'll maybe that's a bit of an overstatement. But i'm getting in to it more and more every year. For me the big drive behind following the nfl is fantasy football. it's the ultimate combination of geeky strategery and macho athletic compulsion. I have alot of fun making my picks, setting my active list, trying to find the "diamond in the rough" free agents. I've even tried to make a few killer traders, but haven't had any takers so far.

and i've been winning for the past few weeks, which makes it a whole lot more fun. my current record is 4-4-1. I know that's not great, but i'm making up for a couple really bad weeks in the beginning of the year.

I'm also pumped that the Lions are 6-2. I'm not a huge Lions fan, but living just outside of Detroit and 1 mile from their practice facility i feel a certain connection with them. they are the team that i root for the most. I'm not going to jinx the Lions by proclaiming their greatness this year, but it's good to see them win for a change.

Be sure to check out the new poll in the next column.

Where for art thou Heroes?

One of my favourite shows last year was Heroes on NBC. I enjoyed it alot, no show is perfect, but they did a fair amount of things right (owing much to shows like 24 and lost).

This second season has been a bit of a disappointment; there are so many stories lines they try to fit into each episode that there is little time to advance any single story. the show struggled with this last season (especially the nikki/dl/micah storyline) and i really thought that they would learn from their mistakes. I'll still watch the show this season, but I hope they can turn things around. here is a list of the things i would have done differently this season (in no particular order):

- not bring back sylar. i know he was a great villain, but it took so much of the strength out of the season finale to find out he survived. at least they could have saved him until midway through the second season and brought him back as a surprise. this would allow the writers to...

- drop the maya/alejandro story and characters. they are not compelling characters and they have the same thing happen to them every week. i understand the need to create new characters to keep things fresh, but they are taking valuable time away from the stories we actually care about.

- stop the "ando reads the story of the past from a note left from hiro" storytelling device. it just slows hiro's story down and it's not believable that hiro would have all this time to write these notes, but not use his ability to travel to the time when he left. if they really need to keep ando, they should figure out another way to keep him around [he gets a job at "the company", but doesn't realize who he's working for... eh?]

- kill some more people. i'm not trying to promote violence, but there seems to be nothing at stake this season. we felt that new york city was on the brink of imminent disaster last year; we need to get that feeling back. it looks like the latest episode might be providing this type of tension, i just hope they don't recycle the same story.

what would you change about one of the shows you follow?