Sunday, January 31, 2010

For the record: Rap names

Well, like the title says, I am here to set the record strait, in terms of my rap names. So there are some old ones, G-dizzle, G-fizzle and so forth, but those have been long since fazed out. More recently when I rap I usually am referred to as one of the following, Wireless G, Fresh Squeeezed, Napoleon Bonerparty, Young GIZ (George Ian Ziegler), and (the most reknown name) Sharptooth. You might expect some sort of proof I'm an actual rapper now, but I will not concede; stop frontin'.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Vikings lose; Free at last

Yes that's right, I am finally free from the ever encompassing fear that Brett (sith lord) Favre might actually lead my arch nemesis, the Minnesota Vikings, to the Superbowl or worse yet a Superbowl victory. If you happened to be lost in the wilderness or trapped in some sort of avalanche, then you may have missed the Vikings losing in epic viking-fashion to the New Orleans Saints in the NFC title game, and therefore--regardless of what any denying Vikings fan might tell you--rendering their season a failure and accordingly setting the stage for an undoubtedly tumultuous off-season to come, sure to be ripe with unanswered questions for an aging team that may have blown its best shot at a title for years to come.
If you did miss the game, then you should know that the vikings out-gained the Saints by a whopping 200 plus yards, only to loose in overtime in heart-breaking fashion on a 40 yard Garret Hartley field goal. What stings even worse than the close defeat in such an important setting, was that the vikings star players were largely responsible for the loss. While Adrian (fumble mcgoo) Peterson fumbled the ball thrice himself (however only once recovered by the opposing team), the blindly revered Favre was the true goat of the evening--and accomplished this in true Favre-fashion. With the game tied at 28, the vikings had the ball in field goal range on the saints 33 yard line and faced a third down and ten with approximately :18 seconds remaining. Because of an extremely stupid illegal substitution penalty, the vikings were pushed back five yards, and now presumably had to throw the ball, resulting in one of the all-time dumbest decisions that will forever haunt vikings fans and redeem those of the packers. Rolling out to his right, Brett Favre had an easily enough room to run safely into field goal range, but instead inexplicably heaved an ill-advised through across his body to the middle of the field and ultimately into the hands of a saints defender, sufficiently pushing the game into overtime, and finally defeat.
Now, those delirious supporters and defenders of Favre will fervently point out that the vikings lost the game after the errand interception and because of it, but anyone who has watched Favre play for the last 17 years (so mostly packers fan) are more than accustomed to these horrendous mistakes in crucial points of playoff games, and well know the resulting momentum of such passes almost all ways leads to defeat. In fact it's difficult to remember the last close playoff game Brett Favre played that wasn't decided in large part to one of his late mistakes. Favre threw away the NFC championship against the Giants in overtime in 2007, and made a similar mistake just years before in the divisional round against the Eagles. Well they did defeat the Seattle Seahawks in overtime, but that was due to a defensive touchdown, and not Favre's heroics. While many continue to mistakenly tout Favre as a clutch game-winning quarterback, his playoff record more than disproves this notion, and now Favre has left yet another team in the limbo of his incessant off-season flip-flopping and diva-dom.
After 17 weeks of over-rated hype, the vikings yet again enter the off-season with a sour taste in their mouth, and this was evident in their post-game comments, lamenting the refs and discrediting their opponents. Although their was one admittedly, likely wrong, pass-interference call against the vikings in overtime (this was also on first down, so the significance of this penalty was surely not to grave), for the most of the game the refs called it pretty evenly, even giving Favre the benefit of the doubt on a couple of roughing penalties and missing an obvious offensive pass interference on Sidney Rice that effectively halted the defensive back from an interception. Vikings outside linebacker even went as far as question Reggie Bush's conclusive touchdown run (one of the more obvious calls in the game) saying, "I'll have to see that replay again," Leber said. "That's another one I don't really agree with. I thought TJ did a good job getting the guy out of bounds, but we'll deal with it."
Although I had my doubts I am assuredly relieved and happy to be a packers fan in light of the Vikings devastating loss and congruent whinny-ness. While the vikings have questions to answer at the quarterback and running back positions, as both Favre and Peterson remain relative enigmas in their own right, the Packers have a young pro-bowl quarterback to anchor their young and talented nucleus for years (and undoubtedly division titles) to come. Whew, that was a close one.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/1001/brett.favre.worst.moments/content.1.html

Monday, January 18, 2010

Martin Luther King Day.. Thoughts

Well today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a day celebrated by most adolescent Americans as a valued and rare three-day weekend. I cannot lie, for I have mostly celebrated in similar circumstances for the majority of my life, but today the ignorant and self-serving celebrating comes to a halt and I, subsequently, share my thoughts on this day--dedicated specifically to a man, and more generally to a civil rights movement paramount to the society of America since its inception, and with grave importance still today. When I think about MLK, I think about the paper I had to write about his "I have a dream" speech three years ago, I think about his "I have a dream" speech, I think about civil rights, and I guess pretty much anything that most people come up with when thinking about MLK. But as I try to reflect deeper within myself, more thoughts arise: Isn't it interesting we have come so far in terms of civil rights over the past 50, 100 even 150 years, yet still live in prejudice-dominated society strongly fearing of diversity and change? Whats going to happen in the next 50 years? Are we going to become a free-loving equality-preaching utopia led by the next MLK, or will some toned-down-pseudo-Hitler bring us right back to were we started, after there's a nuclear holocaust? Or are we most likely going to travel along the same inefficient road we've been on since the revolution, more laws passed and more insecurity growing among those fearful of change and needy of power? Well certainly MLK was quite the guy, perhaps not more deserving of his own national holiday as many other qualified individuals, but symbolism of what he fought for cannot be denied, and I think that this symbolism is important upon acknowledging the holiday, as perhaps there is not so much celebrating to really be done.

Friday, January 15, 2010

More Posts to come.

Well I know I haven't really kept up my postings too well since that second post, but let this post serve as an indication that more posts are actually to come, about actual subjects in fact. Well i realize that by posting about only future posts and not anything real in this post, it might seem improbable that I actually follow up on my word of promised posts revolving around actual subject matter, but I hope you can take my word for it, because, truly, I do plan on posting quite regularly on a vast array of subjects. Well until then.

George