Friday, September 13, 2013

FOOTBALLOCALYPSE!!

This is, if I’m not mistaken, the most I’ve posted in a very long time. Twice in one week? Honestly, blogging has become a much smaller part of my life over the past year, and I’ve scaled it back to what I feel is something I can accommodate into my life.  In other words, I REALLY appreciate every single one of you that has continued to stop by and visit over the course of the past year. I’m not always the best at reciprocating, but it’s not because I’m a jerk. It’s because I’m self-absorbed and thoughtless… Jerks are intentionally that way, for me, that just isn’t the case.

Three things today to discuss rather quickly.

I'M PLAYING IN A BLOGGERS FANTASY FOOTBALL TEAM this year, brilliantly conceived by Briane Pagel (whose newest kindle book that just came out, and contains a tale from yours truly way back in the back… just sayin, more on that below).

In said league, my ‘funsies’ league, where I risk things, gamble on risky players, and all round seem to have forgotten that I need running backs to compete, I have managed to take Calvin Johnson as my superstar… and he gave me a whopping 3 points. For comparison’s sake, that’s like purchasing a brand new Ferrari and putting a second mortgage on your house to pay for it… only to find out later in maxes out at 30 mph.

Also, I didn’t understand the scoring rules, as it is different than the league that I’ve played in for the last several years, so I took Peyton Manning and his historic performance last week as an indicator that I’m a genius, only to realize later that while still impressive, my QB’s passing stats are handicapped just a bit. In other words: I’m in big trouble.

Also, I'm saying that Fantasy Football is Dungeons and Dragons, except it's for people who don't realize they're nerds. I've come to grips with my nerdidity years ago, and since it's got some ironic coolness factor now it's not that big a deal. But still, I find the whole thing funny.

And another thing I'm saying, my son plays High School football (the real kind, not the fantasy kind) and his game was moved to Thursday for TV. It kicked off at 7 p.m. and ended at 12:08 a.m. He didn't get home from it until after 2 in the morning. Needless to say, it was a little ridiculous. Two weather delays and overtime. It was like it would never end.

But they won. So, yay?

SECONDLY, OVER LABOR DAY Weekend, there was a Hitchcock marathon on TCM. My wife loves that channel, and really loves old movies. She coerced me away from other things (i.e., the internet) in order to watch.  After the Birds, which I found a bit silly but with fx that holds up much better than I would have guessed, we ended up watching one of his earlier movies (early 40’s, I think) that I’d never heard of previously. And it blew me away.


It was called, Shadow of a Doubt, and was the story of a young woman, still living at home with her mother, father and younger siblings. Her beloved Uncle Charlie, who rolls into town early on as the jet setting businessman that’s finally returned home to the adoration of the whole town, immediately shows why he’s so beloved. Frankly, he’s the most awesome person ever.

Except, the young woman (also called Charlie (short for Charlotte), it was confusing, but it was explained that she was named after her Uncle, who is awesome) begins to suspect that her perfect uncle is a serial killer that’s come home to hide from authorities that are on a nationwide manhunt for him.

It was a movie of its time, but it was also really dark. The accidents that start happening around our young heroine and her suspicion that her Uncle is trying to kill her AND her realization that this horrible monster has everyone convinced he is a saint it brilliantly done.

Also, the nerdy coworker of her father who is obsessed with the idea of committing the perfect murder (as a thought experiment only) is awesome. I highly recommend this one.

AND FINALLY, BRIANE BAGEL's Temporary Anne is out today... and it's FREE! (today only) Click here to download. Also, his blog tour begins today. Check him out over at Tina Downey's blog for a chance at prizes and to create a true 'Choose Your Own Adventure' type of tale. It's going to be amazing!

12 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I've never seen that Hitchcock film.
Skipped the fantasy football this year, even at work. This month is nuts enough for me right now.

Matthew MacNish said...

I'm in that league with you, and I hate to say it, but NFL.com Fantasy sucks. I couldn't get the draft app to load, so my team was auto-drafted. I play in two other leagues on Yahoo, and their interface is so much better.

Anyway, it'll still be fun. Best of luck, Rusty!

Andrew Leon said...

That D&D comment made me LOL. And, then, it made my wife LOL.
Good stuff.

What's this book you're talking about? I don't know anything about that.

(Oh, and I'm gonna go paraphrase you on facebook, right now.)

PT Dilloway said...

I agree that fantasy football is just role playing for wanna-be jocks. Of course last week I started Jacoby Jones as my flex guy and he gets hurt in the second quarter so I got a whopping 2.40 points from him. Meanwhile Joique Bell on the Lions vultures 2 touchdowns for 21 points. How does anyone win at this?

I saw Shadow of a Doubt a few years ago when AMC still showed movies and was doing a Hitchcock marathon. Even if some elements are old-fashioned compared to today most of his movies are a lot better than "suspense" movies of today, most of which are simply having something jump out at someone.

M.J. Fifield said...

"Also, I'm saying that Fantasy Football is Dungeons and Dragons, except it's for people who don't realize they're nerds" <---Hey, I now understand Fantasy Football.

And I watched Shadow of a Doubt for a film class in college. Great movie. One of the few I actually remember from that semester.

Tina said...

Fantasy football is D&D. That's brilliant. I'm a huge football fan, but have never played fantasy...too much real life going on to do it justice.
Thanks for the shout-out! I really like your story suggestion.
Tina @ Life is Good

Briane said...

I, too, like the D&D analogy. You are so right about that. Kudos to PT for using actual Fantasy Football terminology.

As for the book, your insert is EXCELLENT. I am going to go next to Amazon to fix up the description of the book to mention you and PT and Nigel and Andrew and the stories you contributed to the book. I keep saying: WE NEED A DEAD GOD SEQUEL, and the portion you provided only made my jonesing for that all the worse.

S. L. Hennessy said...

"don't realize they're nerds"...awesome. I'm telling my friends that one.

And that's one of my favorite Hitchcock films.

Danette said...

I love Hitchcock and Shadow of a Doubt is a great one. I liked it better than The Birds and found it more suspenseful.

I'm having difficulty with the blogging thing myself and waver between giving up and keeping on. But I enjoy the folk I've "met" here. Although considering Charlotte didn't know her uncle, can we really know who we've met in the blogosphere? Is there a serial killer amongst them...

A Beer for the Shower said...

Fantasy football is kinda like D&D, except D&D is more fun. Imagine if D&D was actually like fantasy football.

"Oh, no, you don't get to control your wizard and make him do cool things. You just get to watch a pool of wizards doing cool things and see which one scores you the most points."

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

I completely suck at Fantasy football, but at least I'm trying.

Gina Gao said...

I never liked Fantasy Football much. It's just a bit too confusing.

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