Originally published at The Definitive Dmbosstone. Please leave any comments there.

It’s week 12 of the NFL football season.

With 5 weeks left to go there’s plenty of football left to play before playoffs. However for most of my fantasy leagues there’s about 3 weeks left before playoff starts- and for many that means playing to win that last playoff spot. For those still in the race, it’s crunch time.

So let’s see where my teams stand:

TMG Sportsline League (8-3)

Pho Sho vs. Washington Generals

I barely hung on to win last week against Neal. All my running backs had great games… on my bench. I decided to put Matt Forte and Larry Johnson (I hate him so much) into the game and they both scored the lowest amount of points amongst all my RBs. That’s just my luck.

But luckily luck was on my side- going into Sunday night’s Cowboys/Redskins match up I had Tony Romo and Chris Cooley left to play. Neal had Marion Barber and Terrell Owens on his team. He quickly ran up a lead as Barber ran for the game of his life. However a Romo touchdown to Martellus Bennett (not TO) put me ahead and with all the yardage Barber put up after the Cowboys got the lead- Neal fell one point short and I won the match. I was in my room yelling at the TV telling Barber to stop running. Looks like it worked a little bit.

So here’s where my TMG league stands:

I’m playing David who’s running away with the division. His team looks like the team to beat this year and I am going to have to throw everything I got at him (maybe even Peyton Hillis?) Peter is on my tail and I gotta keep him off if I want to clinch that last playoff spot.

Yahoo! League (7-2-1)

Pho Shizzle vs. LastYearNvrHappened

I my record has looked  weird ever since I got that tie against Wendi but at least I know that you can tie in football.

Here’s how the playoff picture looks like in this league:

Things are looking good to get into the playoffs, I’m feeling good about this team the most. I think I have the right players and depth to take me pretty far. It’s good to see that Sean is still fighting for a playoff spot- he’s terrible despite being the comish and also crazy about fantasy football.

Diet Yahoo! League (8-3)

Here’s the playoff picture in the ridiculously small league:

Only 2 teams will not make it in- I am not worried at all about this league.

So now that I live only 2 blocks away from Mr. Days- I think I found a great spot to walk to every Sunday to catch the Patriots. Here’s hoping we don’t get wildcat’ed

Tags: chris cooley, cowboys, fantasy football, larry johnson, marion barber, martellus bennett, matt forte, peyton hillis, redskins, terrell owens, tony romo

Originally published at The Definitive Dmbosstone. Please leave any comments there.

My boss always asks me how many sporting events I’ve gone to in my recent years. It seems that I’ve gone to a lot thanks to access I have to tickets through work. Well I recently decided to actually find out how many games I have been to.

For a few years now I’ve kept all my ticket stubs in a box. Recently I decided to actually peer into the box and organize the many tickets I have laying in there.

After organizing and counting them here’s my current tally:

• 28 Nationals games (3 in 2006, 8 in 2007, 17 in 2008)
• 26 Wizards games (7 in 2006-2007, 19 in 2007-2008)
• 6 Wizards games (2 in 2006-2007, 4 in 2007-2008)
• 4 Redskins games (2 in 2006, 2 in 2007)
• 12 Orioles games (4 in 2006, 5 in 2007, 3 in 2008)
• 1 Red Sox game (thanks Mike!)
• 1 Patriots game (pre-season)
• 1 New England Revolution game (circa 1997)
• 2 Sea Dogs games (thanks FSC!)
• 2 Georgetown Basketball games (I also got to see the NCAA tournament this year)
• 3 Maryland Football games (thanks to my Maryland friends for that one)
• 1 UNC Baseketball game (part of that scandalous New Years)
• Various Verizon Center Events (including 2 WWE Raw shows)
• Various other concerts (I keep all my DMB stubs in a scrapbook already)

I’ve certainly been to a lot of sporting events. It appears like I need to increase my hometown sporting event experience. It’s also interesting to see the number of movies I’ve seen over the past years after I counted those ticket stubs.

• 4 movies so far in 2008 (plus one advanced screening)
• 8 movies in 2007
• 12 movies in 2006
• 5 movies in 2005
• 8 movies in 2004
• 11 movies in 2003
• 9 movies in 2002
• 11 movies in 2001
• 3 movies in 2000
• 3 movies in 1999
• 4 movies in 1998

I’m not much of a movie theatre person- I’m not surprised that most of the time I’ll average around 7 movies per year. Netflix and watching movies at home has been a big factor in keeping those numbers low.

So what to do now that I organized all these stubs? Well That’s My Ticket sells ticket stub albums as well as lanyards, frames, and other display items. Sounds like I got some scrapbooking to do.

Tags: ben folds, blog, capitals, favorites, georgetown, guster, maryland, nationals, patriots, red sox, redskins, revolution, sea dogs, sports, unc, verizon center, wizards, wwe

Originally published at The Definitive Dmbosstone. Please leave any comments there.

You would think I was playing the game for years, but this fall will only be my third.

I first started Fantasy Football when I was offered a spot on my office league in 2006. After joining some failed leagues in college, I was still interested enough to actually see what Fantasy Football was all about. I have to say that in that magical year I was hooked. I didn’t know anyone in the NFL and it showed in my first ever Fantasy Football draft. Many mistakes were made, whether it was drafting Clinton Portis the day he was injured in training camp or drafting Mark Brunell as my #1 QB (I must of tried to get all the Redskins) who later got benched after nine games of sucking. I ended up close to last place that year but I already caught the bug- I was going to come back next year and not embarrass myself.

Well last year I certainly prepared for the draft- I read everything I could on players and mock drafted until I knew who were the top picks to get. I started off strong last year but then ran until a tough mid-season where I ended up missing the playoffs by a win. I blame last year on first pick Shaun Alexander. I stayed with him too long while keeping an unknown rookie named Adrian Peterson on the bench. My opinions on Alexander are now rather low- I’m not touch him again, I’d rather play LaMont Jordan (which I often did last season- wow no wonder I did bad, I played LaMont Jordnan!?!)

This year is going to be different. With a couple of years of experience under my belt I’m ready to breakout like a third year wide receiver who’s finally mastered the offensive scheme.

The first step is preparation for the draft. I read a lot last year but this year I now have a good idea of how to efficiently and effectively prepare myself for the upcoming season here’s an outline of my draft preparation roadmap:

1. Player Projections - There’s two books I want to review before I rank a single player. The Pro Football Prospectus is an annual preview of the upcoming football season. It includes stats and projections of players and teams using formulas and math similar to Sabermetrics in baseball. I figured I’ll browse through and get myself familiar to different player situations and exceptions. I’ll also use a lot of the knowledge I’ve read from David Dorey’s Fantasy Football The Next Level: How to Build a Championship Team Every Season. Diana bought it for me last year for Christmas and it’s been really helpful in learning how to study and project a player’s future performance. I’ll prolly read up and then find some time to lock myself away for a day and form some opinions.
2. The Fantasy Experts - After forming my own ideas then I’ll be ready to compare them to what the so called “experts” have to say. A lot of sites have tons of draft kits and articles including ESPN, CBS Sportsline, Yahoo! Sports, Fox Sports, Sporting News, The Huddle, FFToolbox, and KFFL- a long list I know but at least it’s comprehensive!
3. The Draft Strategy - One of the things I learned from reading Dorey’s book was the emphasis on drafting based on your league’s scoring system. What types of players excel in your league’s scoring format? I’ll be sure to take a minute before drafting to figure that out using some cool charts and graphs- it wouldn’t be geeky if I didn’t try some math!
4. Mock Draft - It’s nerve wracking when you have 90 seconds or less to make pick a player. Like last year I’ll be participating in a few mock drafts to get a feel for where players are getting taken and to get used to being, “on the clock”. This year a lot of sites are offering free mock drafts including, CBS Sportsline, ESPN, and The Sporting News.

Four steps to the start of another action packed season. It seems simple but I’m curious to see how my new revised preparation schedule will do. I plan on preparing for the draft in August so we’ll see how it goes.

Tags: clinton portis, fantasy football, fantasy sports, mark brunell, redskins

Originally published at The Definitive Dmbosstone. Please leave any comments there.

More football updates:

The Bears/Redskins was a blast. There was a lot of traffic on the way to FedEx Field, but Falkor, Sarah, Emily, and I had a great time at the game. The Club level is not as luxurious as the Loge but the seats were closer, albeit outside. The club level has a really cool indoor concourse where you can lounge around and warm up- we used that to our advantage a lot.

Wrapping up another busy weekend- Friday Adam and I went to the Suns/Wizards game and see why Steve Nash is sung about in Nelly Furtado songs.

Saturday the boys and I hit up a holiday party in DC. It was an ok night- we had a lot of fun on the metro ride back. All I’ll say is that freshmen from Georgetown are ridiculous.

After a quick nap I got back up to do some charitable shopping at Toys R Us. After another nap I got up in time just to see the Patriots go 13-0. Take that Anthony Smith. Who is that guy anywho? Never heard of him.

Well a week from now I’ll be 24. I can feel the quarter life crisis creeping up.

Tags: blog, charity, fedex field, football, fun times with friends, georgetown, metro, patriots, redskins, steve nash, suns, toys r us, wizards

Originally published at The Definitive Dmbosstone. Please leave any comments there.

Let’s get some football thoughts out of the way:

NC State knows how to give Maryland the business! If you look closely at the first block for the NC State running back, the NC State guard starts to punch the Maryland linebacker in the head- thus the penalty. If you don’t know, the referee’s description of the penalty is an homage to a call made on this play back in the day:

Monday Night Football was down to the wire last night. The Patriots had lady luck on their side and managed to win the game against the Ravens in the last minute. Just check out the highlights for all the drama. I was yelling at my TV late into the night. It’s going to be a tough week coming up next week against Pittsburgh. Also a tough week for me coming into the final weeks of fantasy football. I’ve clinched a playoff spot in my Yahoo! league but despite a six game winning streak in my Sportsline league might leave me out of the playoff picture- I need to beat the undefeated league leader this week and one of the two teams need to lose. Even if I don’t make the playoffs- beating the undefeated leader makes this week my Super Bowl. Man now I know how the Ravens felt playing the Pats.

More football is expected this week- I just got some choice seats for the Bears/Redskins game on Thursday. Falkor and I are going to have a great time.

It’s not all about Football however- I’ve been to a lot of Wizards games too. Raptors/Wizards Saturday with Burak, and Cavaliers/Wizards tomorrow, prolly more to follow- I just get lots of tickets.

Besides sports I also enjoyed the musical stylings of The Dan Band at the 9:30 club on Sunday with my favorites. They played pretty much the same set as last year but hey tickets were cheap. Also it’s been awhile since I’ve walked the sticky floors of the of a nightclub in the middle of shady DC. I love how Dan picks on people on the front row- he knows how to keep it real!

Tags: 9:30 club, bears, blog, cavaliers, dan band, fantasy football, football, giving him the business, maryland, monday night football, nc state, patriots, raptors, ravens, redskins, wizards

Originally published at The Definitive Dmbosstone. Please leave any comments there.

While I’m watching the Colts/Chargers game on Sunday Night Football, I’m going to take a minute to reflect on all the football I got to see this weekend.

Last night I went to College Park, MD to see the BC/Maryland game at UMD with Sarah and Falkor. As always Sarah’s Dad throws an excellent tailgate- complete with a Goldschlager before kickoff. I was excited to sit in the cold upper levels of Byrd Stadium to see the BC Eagles take care of the Maryland Terrapins. I was wrong to assume. I was cold and I was excited to see a close game- however BC failed to take care of the Terps. After starting out with a strong record and position on the BCS charts, Boston College is now off the radar. Forget BCS worthy, let’s try Roady’s Truck Stop Bowl worthy (yes that’s a real bowl, and I love the fact that it’s sponsored by a truck stop.)

Right now on Sunday Night Football, Peyton Manning is totally bombing- he’s thrown four interceptions! He’s on the team I’m playing against this week in my fantasy football league; right now I’m trying to hold on to a 20 point lead- you would think that would be enough but I’m also playing against the Charger’s Defense, which has already scored two touchdowns. Crazy week in the NFL.

Also I love the Verizon V-Cast commercial with Madden and the guy cooking hot dogs. I think it’s funny.

I got to see some NFL action live today in Landover. I brought Laura to see the Eagles/Redskins game in my company’s luxury box. Like the Maryland game, another close game but it seems that the good McNabb came to play.

If this weekend was football weekend- next week will be Verizon Center week. I’ll be there three nights next week- two Wizard’s games and a Dane Cook show. Oh Dane Cook, what a silly bitch.

Tags: bcs, blog, boston college, chargers, college park, colts, dane cook, donovan mcnabb, eagles, football, goldschlager, maryland, peyton manning, redskins, tailgating, verizon center, wizards

Originally published at The Definitive Dmbosstone. Please leave any comments there.

Before I go on, all fans of Kelly need to watch her latest video: Let Me Borrow That Top. Totally awesome and has tons of cameos.

Not a whole lot going on last week. Went to the Phillies/Nationals with Wendi Thursday. It was my last game at RFK before the new stadium opens. We enjoyed the view one last time as well as all the excellent concessions the Diamond Club brings.

Friday Ian and I went out to see Resident Evil: Extinction. Overall an ok sequel to the first two, but at least Milla Jovovich is still hot. Ian has a new place near AU and it’s not that bad- has the looks of a place in Little Havana however.

Last night Adam had a friend from Atlanta in town so we all went out to Adams Morgan. We all hit up The Reef, which was amazingly not too full. I did run up a pretty big tab however. Afterwards we all had Empanadas at some place next door. Unlike most other people that go out in Adam’s Morgan, I still have not experienced a big slice.

Well I’m all tired out from watching football with Sarah, Laura, and Doug. Disappointed the Redskins lost. Happy the Patriots won. Crushed that I’m losing my office fantasy game. Relieved that I think I’m winning my other league. At least tonight’s Family Guy was so awesome.

Tags: adams morgan, blog, family guy, football, girls i think are hot, kelly, milla jovovich, nationals, patriots, redskins, resident evil, rfk stadium, tenleytown

Originally published at The Definitive Dmbosstone. Please leave any comments there.

My love for football has grown steadily since college. From watching Patriots games freshman year to fantasy football last year. Now I’m in two fantasy football leagues and I’m even enjoying watching college football games. My how love flourishes. I think I may have reached the point where Sundays are just going to be useless.

This past week I drafted my team in my office league, I’m satisfied with my choices. I grabbed Shaun Alexander and Tony Romo and even drafted two players that caused me grief last year, LaMont Jordan and Joey Galloway; however with all the preparation I did this year I made sure I grabbed them later in the draft so I wasn’t wasting my picks. Man I feel like a football dork.
But back to Earth for a minute, I enjoyed Labor Day by watching Superbad with Doug. It is by far one of the best movies I’ve seen since Anchorman. It’s the American Pie for a new generation… which really doesn’t make sense since we are the American Pie generation… oh well.

Wednesday’s kickball match was an utterly disappointing loss but we made it up in flipcup afterwards. Ya I woke up the next day without my contacts, car, and sharpie on my left arm. It was one of those nights.

Friday we all celebrated Emily and Laura’s birthday at, where else, Union Jacks. It was an ok night- I wasn’t feeling the tunes the DJ was pumping out.

I don’t know why but last week was all about not sleeping. After three hours of sleep on Wednesday I got just about the same amount after Union Jacks. Why? Because I was smart enough to schedule to bring my car in for an oil change at 8 AM on a Saturday. Ugh- never again. The state inspector was out so that means I gotta bring my car back- and I have to fix my turn signal light before I can get it inspected… great…

At least last night was fun… kinda. Sarah, LJ and his sister Leigh, and I went to the Red Sox/Oriole’s game. LJ and Leigh are Sox fans and I was excited to get a chance to see Dice-K pitch. However Dice-K kinda blew the game and I had to put up with mocking from Sarah instead.

The times after the baseball game were much better. We all went to Fells Point and met out with Cliff and Eliza at Max’s. It was a pretty cool bar with all kinds of different beer but more importantly, multiple TV’s showing all kinds of NCAA games. LJ and I were engrossed with the SFU/Auburn game. It was an intense game that came down to overtime. If you arn’t familiar with NCAA rules for overtime in football, then you should check them out, it lends for lots of suspense.

Ok enough writing I gotta get back to watching the Redskins game- Portis isn’t doing that bad so far… maybe I should of drafted him again too.

Tags: american pie, anchorman, baltimore, bethesda, blog, camden yards, clinton portis, daisuke matsuzaka, fantasy football, fantasy sports, football, joey galloway, kickball, lamont jordan, orioles, patriots, red sox, redskins, shaun alexander, superbad, tony romo

Originally published at The Definitive Dmbosstone. Please leave any comments there.

First off I need to say that Heidi Klum just has a Xmas song and it rawks. And when i say it rawks I mean it suks. This week I started to dust off old projects. I want to try and finish Fitchburg State, and start my new series of home movies.

This week I had a pleasant surprise. Carolyn dropped by my house on Tuesday night unannouced and unexpected. She doesn’t have class on Wednesday so I guess Tuesday is like her rawk out night. So Carolyn, her friend Caroline (yes isn’t that awesome?), and I went out to Bailey’s and we watched Carolyn spend dollar bills on those bar arcade games. We then crashed my house for some episodes of The Office. I love it when I can find people that share my quirky interests. When I like something I like it all out.

Thursday I went out with Sarah and Emily to the 9:30 Club to see The Dan Band the club was a typical cement open space. It was really chill. For a small act like that I was surprised to see a lot of people come out. The Dan Band does mostly covers but they had this awesome holiday song that I really like. I’m going to download it right now. There was this 40ish woman next to us who was enjoying the night. A man was passing through behind her and some guy yelled, “Hey! If you’re going to touch my wife- do it right!” Interesting.

I just got back from some charity shopping in Fairfax. My co-workers went to Toys R Us, bought like $20,000 worth of toys, piled it into a truck and delivered it to deserving kids in low income housing. It was a really cool morning. Walking around with my camera and also with a cart is quite the balancing act, but it was really cool to just take whatever I wanted to pile it into a cart for those in need. It’ll be a special episode if I ever get around to producing home movies of DC.

Someone told me to stop overanalyzing things and just be yourself. Life is hard enough- the last you thing you need is drama.

Tomorrow is Redskins with Carolyn, and then it’s only one more week til my birthday- two more weeks til Xmas, and three days until the TMG Holiday Party- I better get shopping!

Tags: 9:30 club, ballston, blog, charity, dan band, fsc, heidi klum, redskins, toys r us, u-street, work

Originally published at The Definitive Dmbosstone. Please leave any comments there.

I’m really tired.

Sometime work stresses me out. That’s when I need the Margaret night.

Got tickets for the Redskins next week- I’m excited.

Xmas Party + Birthday = crazy weekend in two weeks.

I don’t want to work on my side videos but I really have to now a days.

I watched ATL this past week and it was very ghetto fabulous.

Hung out with Carolyn Tuesday night- it was a really good time.

I’m still really tired.

I’m really angry at someone. I guess that’s how it’s going to be now.

Diana spellz wordz with the lettle z

When I wake up in the morning I piss excellence.

Chanelle is apparently so smokin’ all I can say is, “Aw girl!”

You have to nod first in silence, then say, “nice.”

Sarah showed me the house we’re getting next spring- I already know that’ll be the best week ever.

I want to go on a cruise.

I have a stack of CDs on my floor that I have to organize.

I don’t know what to get my secret santa for work, my group of friends, and I don’t know what to get for anyone else in my life.

My hair is almost at stage 2 Phro. I should get it cut this weekend.

I really don’t want to work this weekend.

Some people notice I have that poster on my wall- yea it’s kinda college but what else am I going to look at?

Rachel Ray is still hot- look at post below.

I’m angry at someone and I’m resigned at another.

I haven’t been to the gym in a week and I feel gross.

I got a new video game- it’s called Quicken. So far I have the high score, which resembles my net worth.

Tags: atl, birthday, blog, feelings/reflections, obx, quicken, redskins, stress, travel, work

Originally published at The Definitive Dmbosstone. Please leave any comments there.

Well September definitely ended with a bang, more like sparks- work this week was full of more late nights and deadlines. The final one on Thursday came complete with work drama that I did not really want to deal with. Well all I can say is that it is over and I have learned and coped and hopefully I will never go through a month like that again.

Big news for my car- it is really mine. Last week I gave up my Massachusetts license, plates, and title, in exchange for all Virginia credentials. To get all of these things involved long lines at the DMV, state inspections, car insurance, and expensive repairs to my car. Of course my window is still broken- it is going to cost another $300 to fix it. I will get it done later- I have spent enough money this month. Between entertaining Kim and Brenna, fixing up my car, and paying for car insurance- I am in the hole $800 + this month. That really really sucks. I guess in October I will be not spending any money.

For more pleasant news- I had a great weekend. Saturday I went out with Tobi to the National Zoo. I had a really great time- we saw Pandas, brown flamingos, and elephants. Today I went to the Redskins game with Chanelle. Dan was nice enough to offer me some tickets with him in a very luxurious suite. We had food served to us and it was an amazing view of the game. The Redskins won in overtime- with both Clinton Portis and Byron Leftwich scoring me major points for my fantasy football team. Chanelle was really intense with her cheering- she even knew the fight song.

Well I have a lot to look forward to in October, company retreat and Halloween at the end of the month, a trip home for Mai’s engagement party next weekend, and a lot of wild times in between. I look forward to it- I know I deserve it after last month.

Tags: blog, byron leftwich, carolla, clinton portis, fantasy sports, girls, massachusetts, national zoo, redskins

Originally published at The Definitive Dmbosstone. Please leave any comments there.

A week from now I’ll be in lovely Virginia. The break has definitely gone by. Monday Kim, Sean, and I took Lindsay out to celebrate her 21st birthday. We went to Hooligan’s for her Birthday Blowjob- we met Junior, a Fitchburg Police Officer who is the uncle of one of the local campus officers. Then went to partners to experience the joys of drunken singing. The next day we did brunch at this pretty cool diner. I like diners. I had an eye appointment on Wednesday, it’s been a year now since I’ve switched to contacts and I love every minute of it. Last night Caitlin came up to hang out with me, we had lunch at Longhorns then went to Chelmsford to Patrick’s graduation party, the entire theatre guild crew were there, it was great to seem them all, even Mrs. Cochran was there. Also Michael Flemming made a rare appearance. Caitlin and I went back to Fitchburg to try and do a power hour- it didn’t work well since it was like 2 AM. Oh well. Now my room is half empty now. I gotta work on getting all this shit back to Chelmsford. A lot going on this week, Winter Orientation and a lot of time with friends before I embark to Washington. As Rebecca says, maybe it’ll be a Redskins/Patriots Superbowl- so we can be right in the middle of it.

Tags: blog, chelmsford, debauchery, fun times with friends, girls, patriots, redskins, theatre, virginia