You’ve just gotta believe

backinphillyLeave a comment

As I’m sure many NFL fans and my readers are aware of, the Eagles have fallen far short of their expectations. They have dropped to the very unimpressive record of 4-7. The Eagles lost a lot of games they should not have.

Now I agree. The Eagles don’t deserve a spot in the playoffs this season. They have not played nearly well enough. But, the league is full of surprises.

I looked through the standings and at first look, with the division leading Cowboys at 7-4 and the second place Giants at 6-5, the lowly 4-7 Eagles appeared, to me, out of the running.

Then I started digging and realized…We aren’t finished yet.

While the Eagles have lost 7 games, only one was a division game. They have won 3 division games. And so the scenarios begin.

If the Eagles win all of their remaining games, the Cowboys (who the Eagles play one more time) lose 3 games and the Giants lose 2 games, the Eagles win the NFC East. It’s that simple.

“But wait, Backinphilly! If the Cowboys only lose 3 games, that means they win the other 2 that they have and would only tie the Eagles at 9-7.”

You are right, obnoxious quotation. Enter the tiebreaker.

The Eagles’ division record would stand at 5-1 while the Cowboys would stand at 4-2 or 3-3 depending on if they lose to the Giants twice. Either way, the Eagles win the tiebreaker and the Cowboys get to hit the rodeo early this year.

The easiest way the Eagles make it to the playoffs is by winning out. But that alone does not assure them a spot in the postseason. Yes, it is still possible for the Eagles to lose one more game and still make the postseason. However, that involves the Cowboys losing 4 out of 5 and Giants losing 3 out of 5, which are odds that are highly unlikely.

This lies on the success of the Eagles and the failure of the Cowboys and Giants.

IT CAN BE DONE!!!! THE PLAYOFFS ARE IN SIGHT!!!!

FMX In BCS??!!

r3t5nomLeave a comment

I had the opportunity to go and take photos for Monster Energy of an FMX (Freestyle motocross) show in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico which is located in BCS (Baja California Sur)last Saturday Night. Because I was taking photos for Monster I was allowed to hang out set up my camera gear up close to the big air jump and the Monster tent. The pictures that are shown were all taken by me.
monster
The FMX team that was partaking in this show was AMAZING. The riders were such talented athletes and young as well. riders
There were some insane tricks done at this show such as; The tsunami, Superman Seat Grab, and the Hart Attack.

The Tsunami: tsunami

The Superman Seat Grab: Superman seat grab

The Hart Attack: hart attack To top off the night, one of the most incredible aspects of that night was the fact that the FMX riders stuck every landing and managed to not fall once. At one point I overheard the riders talking about how bad the ramps were and how “sketchy” they were, but regardless of the condition of the ramps they went out and gave the fan filled crowd a hell of a show.

Hello OVS!

yourgingerkid4 Comments

As you may know or recognize, this is Emma from last years graduating class and I’ve stopped by to say hello! It feels like it’s been ages since I’ve read this blog so I’ve spent the last half hour or so catching up on you journalists. I must say that half of you write better than I did before taking the course and there’s still half a year left for you all to improve! But seriously, enjoy that class while you can. It was definitely one of my favorite classes of all time while at OVS. Maddie and I have been working on a video, which we actually started months ago but never seem to find time for, that should be uploaded and posted sometime before Christmas. You’ll hear from us soon enough.

P.s. Give my regards to Mrs. Whipple and Terry Wilson. I miss them dearly!

P.s. 2 I miss your parking Mr. A

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Waiting Game

rangerthecatLeave a comment

I finally did it. I submitted my college applications to the Cal State schools and the UCs. It was totally stressful, considering how much I procrastinated – I literally met the deadline by one day.

I am so thankful that I have finished the application process. But I am just SO ANXIOUS to know if I will be accepted to one of the schools that I want to attend the most.

So now that I have finished my applications, all I can do is wait to hear back, and in the mean time, stress out. A lot. And wait.

And wait some more.

And as much as I can try to predict it and hope everything turns out well, I have no idea what the future holds.

All I can do now – besides MORE waiting – is cross my fingers and hope for the best.

52 hours later…

venturatrekerLeave a comment


Skyrim…Skyrim…SKYRIM!  To much dismay from my girlfriend and my family I am still playing Skyrim. In fact I just passed fifty two hours of active gameplay.  Yes that’s right. In the last 19 days, two of those have been utterly devoted to killing dragons, backstabbing elves, and committing paltry genocide ( that then involves a village of angry peasants chasing you).

From that I would like to segway into talking about just how great this game is and some of the things one can do in the world of Skyrim.

When in doubt: Incineration.  With the ability to throw exploding fireballs from your hands and also use your body as a human flame thrower, what could be better than setting a wide assortment of things on fire.  This will really work with most anything, from a villager to his chicken to a dragon.

If you are one for a more relaxing game experience, working the saw mill is always satisfying, especially when you culminate your day sitting in a tavern listening to a bard sing the tale of Ragnar the Red.  Quite satisfying.

However you may choose to play Skyrim will win your heart and soul for many…many… hours.

So sorry to all who know me but they claim there is around 200 hours of gameplay. I intend to find out.

Super Failure

therightliberalLeave a comment

The Super Committee was bound to fail from the start. But let me say this, it is not all bad that the committee did fail.

Whomever thought that putting 6 Democrats and 6 Republicans together to cut $3 Trillion from the US budget should not be in a position of power. I mean, let’s be honest; conservatives and liberals do not see eye to eye on many issues, but the one above all is how to go about cutting debt.

So from that it may seem as though no one is really to blame except for the system, but sadly, that is incorrect. The Republican party is to blame (I would highly recommend going to that link if you disagree, or agree for that matter) for the Super Committee not working.

With the above statement, I obviously have some defending to do, so here it is. Let me say this: I do not blame the Republicans for the failure because I am a Democrat (although usually I do love to blame them). The blame comes from the cold, hard facts.

Democrats were ready to make compromises on some key issues. They offered to lower the cuts on defense spending as well as put some more programs on the table that could be cut or have funding taken away from. Although they were not completely open (as is to be expected in negotiations) they were open to compromise.

That much could not be said for the Republicans. They refused to even look at a 30% decrease in defense spending, denied any attempt to raise tax figures for the ultra wealthy, and demanded that more programs be axed completely.

Now for the happy side. Luckily for the country, the Budget Control Act that was passed by Congress stipulates that if the “Super” Committee failed to come up with cuts, $1.28 trillion cuts would automatically go in to effect, half of which come from defense spending. Although a small amount compared to our $15 trillion of debt, it is a start, and everything has to start somewhere.

In an ideal world (which is probably just ideal to me) most of the cuts would happen in the defense department. But instead, unemployment payments will start being cut in July in many states and many government-funded programs will struggle for funding.

I think we as a country need to look deep inside ourselves and ask what we need and what we can do without. Do we need trillions upon trillions in defense spending? Or would it be easier to just have fewer enemies? These are stilted and bias questions but ones that we still need to ask ourselves.

Worst person #7-Jerome Simpson

backinphillyLeave a comment

If any of you are familiar with soccer, you would know that very frequently, players take a dive and fake injuries. This almost never happens in football. Apparently, Bengals tight end Jerome Simpson thought he was playing soccer.

During a scramble for a fumble by Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton, Simpson pulled Browns linebacker Scott Fujita from the pile. Fujita then gave Simpson a little shove, but Simpson SLIGHTLY overreacted. Take a look at this ridiculousness.

Crazy right? That’s not even good acting. Last time I saw acting that bad, Jerry Sandusky was saying that he was innocent.

What? Too soon?

Gimme some suggestions for my worst people in sports. If you think of something I would love to hear from ya.

FOUR MORE DAYS !!

yrreskrapLeave a comment

OKAY.

I KNOW I SAID I WOULDN’T THINK ABOUT IT UNTIL AFTER I FIND OUT THE RESULTS BUT…

i just cant.

ALKEJFIOSDJFLSEMNFOALDKCM!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY!?
I feel like these four days are killing me.

On December 1st, I will receive two emails from Williams and Amherst, letting me know whether or not I have been accepted. I don’t know what time the emails will come which makes things worse for me! I will be checking every five minutes on that day! Will it come at noon like the last email? If so will it come at noon Eastern Time? Would that make it arrive in my inbox at nine?

I am scared because Williams and Amherst are one of the nations top colleges. Williams is rated #1 in Forbes Best College List and #1 liberal arts schools in U.S. News and World Report Best College List. Amherst is #4 on Forbes and #2 in U.S. News and World.

Williams College is a small school of just over 2,000 students with an acceptance rate of 20 percent. SDLKFJSDLJF. So 20 out of 100 students that apply get in. 80 get a rejection.

Amherst is even worse. It has an acceptance rate of 16. So in this case, 84 would get the boot.

What I am scared the most about is, like I said in my previous blog, whether or not I will hate the isolation. I am scared that I will hate being in the middle of nowhere (being three and a half hours away from Boston) and find myself hating the weather too!

I think too much.

I am both dreading and waiting for Thursday to come.

God, please choose the right school for me.

Alcatraz

thehungryrunnergirlLeave a comment

Alcatraz is a prison where the worst criminals were sent and lived during 1934 to 1963 which is an island located 1.5 miles offshore from San Francisco, California.

5 days ago, me and the family of (kirbyfullyloaded) toured Alcatraz island.

It only took less than 15 minutes to get there from San Francisco bay which was astonishing, because I thought it was too easy to escape! When we get to the island and looked back, it looked very close from the land.

However, most of the prisoners failed to escape when they tried to swim. The reason why was the strength of the water current and cold icy water of San Francisco bay.

When we walked inside of the building, the first thing I saw was the shower room, with the wall painted in white and green, which was very eccentric and realistic to me. It reminded me of the prison from the TV show Prison Break.

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Randoseru

thehungryrunnergirlLeave a comment

In Japan, all the kids in grade 1 to 6 have to have the same back-pack, or “ransel” in Dutch (but later it was called “Randoseru” by Japanese), to go to school. It’s our tradition. Some schools provide them for free, but most of them don’t, so parents have to get their child one. It costs about $100-150. It is made of leather, girls have red and boys have black ones.

Ransel has an interesting history. Back in the Edo period (1603-1868), trading between Japan and the Netherlands was prosperous. At that time, the bakufu (the Japanese government) provided the backpacks imported from Netherlands to the Japanese armed forces, so they called it in Dutch, “ransel,” And today, we still have this tradition.

For me, the school supplied me one, and 6 years later it all worn out; leather was peeled off and cotton inside was visible. I remember when I was in kindergarten I wanted the ransel very bad and couldn’t wait to get it!