A few issues

Well, I just got back from watching the criticly acclaimed football film "Friday Night Lights," and I think somebody needs to shine some light on the football knowledge of the people who gave this film rave reviews. Anyone with a shred of highschool football competency will easily point out the numerous errors that make the movie hard for a person such as myself to buy. I won't go far into detail, but let's just say that the movie never really finds its identity, trying to run multiple story lines without ever really finding one that the audience can become involved in, all while confusing you with rules and far-fetched activities on the football field that have never had any place in the ral sport. I personally fully support the manner in which movies have to condense information from a book or true story to make things fit, but this movie does so poorly, and strikes the wrong chords (often racial) at exactly the wrong times. One of the bigger dissappoints I've seen all year, after having expected more.

Now secondly, and much more importantly, something much much larger has been plaguing me all day and I figure what the hell, why not just write it where all 3 people who ever read this can find out. I am a healthy 22 year old male who has never had any serious ailment, who has been denied health insurance today. Yes, I was turned down, and my prospects of ever having cheap reliable insurance the rest of my life may be in jeopardy. My only savior in the future would be to get a full-time job as an engineer, something I have been putting off, where I will be guaranteed insurance by whatever corporation blesses me with employment. In the event I am ever laid off or quit however, the problem will surface once again I've been told, as such loss of employment results in a premium to keep your former employer's insurance of as much as $500 a month for someone my age and condition, and that only lasts a maximum of 18 months. My emergency alternative is Blue Cross Clue Shield Insurance, which is guaranteed in the events of surgery and the like, but will never cover a doctor's appointment and at best half the cost of prescription medication.

Well, as of right now I suppose I do actually still have insurance - sorta. Under my Dad's plan I am still fully covered, but this coverage is for full-time college students only, something I no longer can claim to be. I guess the way it works is that until they ask and we have to answer otherwise, I can keep going to the doctor pretending this isn't the case, and none of this coverage can be taken back (well, probably sued back) until they ask that ever important question of my status as a student. Almost makes me want to grad school after all...

Well, you're probably all wondering how this could possibly have happened, if I'm so healthy and all as I say. Well, about 3 years back I went and got checked for what ended up being a completely harmless and benign cyst, something that can never have a negative effect on my health, thus I chose to not have it removed as it was seemingly unnecessary. Well, I'm beginning to think maybe I should see if there is any way to do that and reverse my fortunes with the old insurance company. Obviously, going for unneccesary surgery is always fun, but that may be what I have to do.

My Dad says not to worry, I have insurance, or will be guaranteed insurance if I apply to some of these other plans (but for almost twice the cost), and if all else fails, he says he has money. Well, that isnt right I say. And that isnt even the point, the point is how would you feel if you were turned down for your first ever insurance policy, straight out of college? It's not reassuring.

The question on your mind now may be "Why does it matter so much anyway, do you really need the great insurance policy right now, if you're so healthy?" Well, the answer is, I wish I knew that answer, cause I don't know, and I should...

Michigan Football

I guess now I’ll talk briefly about Michigan football. I will make this blog strictly sports, so if you’re not at all interested, skip to the next new entry below.

Basically, after coming that close to writing off this season as the first 6-5 type season in the past 20 years, I now realize that we can almost become what I had envisioned we could be. We’re still too rough around the edges to claim national title hopes, but I think in time we could be one of the top 5-7 teams in the land.

Let me say a few things about Henne. Maybe all the kid really needed was to have the offense opened up for him, because he’s shown the past two games that he can progress through his reads and make the right throw when given the chance. What I mean is that any knowledgeable football could see that our passing game in earlier games consisted of “Chad, this play is designed for player X, if he isn’t open, then we’re fucked, eat the ball.” The past two games it’s been more like “Look to Braylon, progress to Ecker, look to Hart in the flats…” and Henne’s gotten it done (not to mention the O-line’s been much better). Seriously, this kid is amazing for his age, maybe better than Henson would have been in the same situation. I now feel that with the coaches’ confidence and continued luck (mostly, that he never fucks up bad in an important game) this offense is good enough to win the Big Ten.

Don’t let me forget Mike Hart either. Where would we be without him? He’s amazing, how for his build he can run in short yardage situations and bounce off piles and break arms tackles. It’s crazy to me that he averages 4.4 ypc even with a long run of 17 yards. He’ll be in our backfield for years to come.

Finally, why do our fans still insist on hating Braylon? It’s fascinating. They don’t seem to mind him being in the top three in the country in nearly every important receiving category, but he drops a pass he has to dive for off his finger-tips and he gets booed. News flash – we may be 4-2 or 3-3 without him at this point in the season. He won us the SDSU game, and he may have been the difference in the Iowa game. It’s gotten to the point where a drop a game (pretty typical for a guy being thrown at 10-15 times, many high, some behind, often in double coverage), is worth more criticism than the 10 catches, 130 yards, and 2 TDs he puts up in the same game. Again, Avant is a great wideout, but he can’t do what Braylon does…hell, only 2-3 guys in the NFL can. Don’t think that’s hyperbole either, physically speaking Edwards is in the Lebron James range of freakishness (4.4 forty, 7 foot high jumper, dunks from the free throw line, benches 225 lbs 32 times). At least he has the Belitnokof wrapped up already…

Technically speaking...

So, for any of you wondering what happened to the blog (all zero of you), it turns out that our internet was down for about a week and I was unavailable to post any new information. Then I wrote much of this blog and the site was down that day and I waited till now to post anything. The saddest thing is that I seriously doubt that I would have had much of anything to say, but once I got writing I realized there were several topics to touch on, so I broke things up into a few blogs as I commonly do. Sorry the blogs haven’t been what they once were, I’ll eventually try harder to make them better, but lately I just don’t care. You know you’re having a bad run of blogs when Adam Cole tells you to your face that your blogs have lost their previous appeal, and that they’re beginning to sound like something he’d write. Makes me think that I need to have more about drinking in here…

Hmmmm…so what’s new? Well, maybe some other recent Comcast subscribers know what I’m talking about when I report that we have received our free web cam in the mail this week. Mike and I have a history with web cams, and things haven’t changed in the past few days. Basically, the web cam scene is kinda like this: 95 dudes running around saying “hey, any ladies out there wanna chat with a hot dude with a huge cock?” with 5 actual girls using cams, and all of these girls are sexual deviants who are not available to talk because they’re watching one of the 95 dudes stroke their cock on the cam. You sit there and get IMs from about 10 dudes asking asl? asl?, then they run when they realize you’re a dude. The weirdest part is that we often use a name like say… scottie2hottie, which to me infers male (I know no woman named Scott), but these guys must be desperate or incredibly stupid because they just keep on asking. To summarize, in spite of all the inequalities in terms of sexual representation on web cam chat rooms, it turns out that you can still have fun if you decide to pretend to be a woman among the 95% dudes out there. Mike and I have laughed long long hours at the expense of these pour pathetic (and probably naked from the waste down) dudes online. I guess some could argue we’re just as pathetic for pranking the people (and if you knew exactly what we did…maybe even worse), but really, it’s funny to us, so who cares?

Actually, I can kinda make this blog into a tech report, because now that I think about it I have made 3 technological breakthroughs in the past week alone. In addition to receiving the web cam, I have also purchased a new phone recently. One day my friend Kenny called me and my phone died after about 20 seconds of talk, and this after a full charge. That led me to the Cingular place where that afternoon I left with one of those new $50 camera phones, as well as a plan for $29.99 where I get 1000 minutes to use anytime (call me day or night, it makes no difference, and I talk on the phone little {about 500 minutes, and yes, I parenthesized within parenthesis}, so don’t restrict me to after 9 PM). Anyway, I like my new phone, and it stays charged for days at a time, so hurray beer! Also, as is the standard, same phone number and all.

Finally, and this may be the biggest of all, Mike, Rabbs, and I invested in a TiVo this past weekend. Surprisingly, many people are not aware what it is, so let me explain briefly. TiVo is a ditigal recording device, so it can tape 40 hours of TV onto a hard-drive with no need for VHS tapes or anything. Also, it always tapes whatever you watch live, so you can rewind, pause, slow motion, or instant replay as you view. The features are really too many to actually list, so come over and see it for yourself. It has changed the way we watch television – no exaggeration. We just watch whatever whenever, rewind for funny parts, good plays, to hear a line we didn’t catch, TV is just plain better with TiVo.

So there’s a pretty long tech report for all of you. I’m also kinda interested in writing a tiny blurp about Michigan football and maybe a few funny things that happened to me the past couple weeks, so those will be included in separate blogs…possibly to be written right now. Hell, I just remembered that we also now have a PS2 around the apartment, meaning that I can once again hook up Dance Dance Revolution for some good exercise. To try any of our new toys, just call me or come over…the door is always open. Bye for now.