Holiday Fun

Well everyone, I've decided to steal a page from the book of my good friend Michael "Danger" Croft, and unveil my first ever Birthday/Christmas wish list. Feel free to purchase me any items on the list.

Jerseys:
Notre Dame Green Football Jersey, #10
Toronto Blue Jays, Frank Thomas, Black Jersey
Minnesota Twins, Justin Morneau, Navy Jersey
St.Louis Cardinals, Albert Pujols, White Jersey
San Jose Sharks, Joe Thornton, Home Jersey

Notre Dame "ND" fitted hat, size 7 1/4
Any Sweet Jays New Era hats (fitted)
Notre Dame Hoodie

DVD's:
Deadwood Season 1
Indiana Jones Box Set (Widescreen)
The Godfather Box Set
Seven Samurai
The Last Emperor
Infernal Affairs
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
The Last Temptation of Christ
Schindler's List
All Disney Classics
and any dvds from my list on IMDB http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=6867880

Magic: The Gathering
Booster Packs of Time Spiral

Nintendo DS Lite, with Super Mario Bros. Game

Cigars:
Sancho Panza Extra Fuerte-"Madrid"
Saint Luis Rey Reserva Especial- "Churchill", or "Rothchilde"
Onyx Reserve- "Mini Belicoso"
Bolivar- Robusto, Churchill, or Toro
Punch Rare Corojo-"Pita"
Joya De Nicaragua Celebracion- any size
Joya De Nicaragua Antano- any size
Romeo y Julieta 1875- "Exhibicion" or "Bully"
CAO Brazila- "Gol!"
Partagas Black Label- "Piramide"
Oliva "O"- "Torpedo" or "Robusto"
Partagas Spanish Rosado- "Ramon Y Ramon"
El Rey Del Mundo- Robusto
Punch Gran Puro-"Libertug"

Xikar Cigar Cutter
Leather Cigar Case
Travel Humidor

Books:
Harrington on Hold'Em vol. 1,2,3
Phil Gordon's Little Green Book, and Little Blue Book

The Heat is On

Michigan/Ohio State is less than 24 hours away. I'm pretty damned excited. I guess I'll throw out an actual scoreline. Ohio State 17, Michigan 14. Disney's "The Adventures of The Gummi Bears" volume 1, was released on Tuesday. This is fantastic news. I'll be picking this up hopefully on Sunday. With this being released it leaves the list of "TV Shows Most Wanted to be put on DVD" at 2; The Wonder Years, and Perfect Strangers (How can you not love Balki Bartokomous?). The Jays have signed Frank Thomas to a 2 year 18 million doallar contract. Thomas was one of my favourite players all through the 90's. So I guess I'm pretty happy. I'd still like to see another pitcher added. But I'm pretty sure I'll be picking up a Thomas Jay's jersey come next Spring. BTW, how sexy would a Barry Bonds Oakland A's jersey be? I really hope he stays with the Giants, but I'm gonna get a Green A's jersey, and if Bonds happened to be on the team, that would be perfect.

Boo to me :(

So as I mentioned in my last post, yesterday was my first Magic the Gathering Tournament in 3 years. At any tournament, your first goal is to make the top 8. Big tournies usually have 6-9 rounds of play, and then a cut to the top 8 players who play off in single elimination for the win. How'd I do? 9th, on tiebreakers. Boy did that suck. Top 8 would have won me atleast a box of Magic Packs, and ofcourse first place (which I felt was obtainable had I made top8) was the invite and airfare to Pro Tour Geneva in February. I was pretty happy with how I played throughout the day. I definitely made a few mistakes, but I also played really well in some games, especially when they were tight and I was under pressure. In the past these were spots where I would make more mistakes (aka "Choke"), so the fact that I performed well in those spots is a good thing for me. There's another qualifier for Geneva in a month, and I'm really looking forward to it already.

Football yesterday (and Thursday!) was crazy. Lets recap the National title picture: Auburn? Done. Louisville? Done. Cal? Done. Texas? Done. Tennessee? Done. Florida? Escaped by a blocked FG with time expiring. Wow. If you read last weeks blog you'd see I predicted a lot of this happening. So, here we go with some National Title predictions. First for next weekend-Ohio State beats Michigan. I think it'll be fairly close, and as I mentioned last time, how far Michigan (or Ohio State if they do lose) fall in the polls is gonna be huge, because it's looking even more possible that there could be a rematch. Florida will lose in the SEC Championship game to Arkansas. That's right folks Arkansas. I think West Virginia will beat Rutgers, so that's them out. Then we have Notre Dame vs. USC. If USC still only has one loss, and beats Notre Dame and finishes the season with one loss I think they'll be playing in the title game. So the Irish have to step up big. If the Irish do win they'll be 11-1. I have Arkansas finishing 12-1, Michigan 11-1, and Ohio State 12-0. So in that scenario who out of Michigan, Arkansas, or Notre Dame will play Ohio State? Michigan in the rematch. How torn I am. If USC beats the Irish I think they'll play for the title, but if ND beats USC I think that will let Michigan play for it. Either way one of my two most hated teams gets a shot in the title game. Crap.

I've watched a few movies this week. Hero, House of Flying Daggers, and The Last Samurai (see a theme?). They are all excellent. I love Hero, and was slightly surprised how much I liked the Last Samurai. I knew it would be good, but I actually think it's really good, so that was awesome. Today I'm going to see Borat. Should be fun.

Bizzle Out

Catch Up

So again, I've been doing a great job keeping the blog updated. Here's what's new. I was in Northern Ireland last weekend for the World Solo Drumming Championships. Once again I made it to the semi-finals but not through to the 12 man final. I was disappointed as I thought I played better than last year, and had a good shot at qualifying. As for the final, I was very disappointed. There was a lot of "uninspired" playing, and a lot of judges results I do not agree with. As far as I'm concerned 3 players were WAY in front. They were, my brother Blair, Steven McWhirter and Jim Kilpatrick. Congrats again to Steven. He's one of my good friends in Pipe Bands and it was amazing to see him win. For the record, the rest of my top six would have included Barry Wilson, J.Reid Maxwell, and Phillip Bell. Another Congrats must go out to the under 19 World Champion (and my host for the weekend) Chris McNichol. I have a few months relatively pipe band free until January which is Winter Storm. I intend to write a lot of music in the next few months, and keep getting things ready for my book that I'd love to have published by next summer.

In other news, I've started playing Magic: The Gathering again. "Magic" is a card game that's always been described as a mix between Chess and Dungeons and Dragons. The Dungeons and Dragons thing is really just to say it's fantasy based. You could also compare it's world to Lord of the Rings. As far as I'm concerned it is the best game in the world, ever. Magic is extremely difficult to master. When a lot of the top Magic Pro's were leaving to become top Poker pro's, people were debating what game was tougher. I originally said Poker, but the more that I've thought about it I think it's Magic. Next Saturday will be my first Magic tournament in 3 years. The event is a Pro Tour Qualifier for Pro Tour Geneva. I'm hoping I can drag some of my friends along, but if they bail I'll still be heading out with "Hayseed" Jamie Archdekin, who for the past 3 years we thought had died in a horrible Tractor accident. My friend Boyd and Archdekin once drove the tractor all the way down to Florida for a tournament...

In movie news, I saw "The Departed" a few weeks back, and it is simply awesome. I'm trying to think what else I've seen this year, but I'm pretty sure "The Departed" is the best movie I've seen. The cast is fantastic, and for me Mark Whalberg stole all the scenes he was in. Brilliant!

Well isn't college football interesting? Last week my second most hated team (Southern California) lost, and last night West Virginia fell. So, as of now there are only 3 undefeated teams with a shot at playing in the National Title game (sorry Boise State and Rutgers, you don't count). Those teams are Louisville, Ohio State, and Michigan. Barring any huge upset, Michigan and Ohio State will meet November 18th, ranked as the Numbers 1 and 2 teams in the country, with a spot in the title game on the line. Then there's Louisville, who I don't think is safe just yet. They still have to play Rutgers in New Jersey, and Pittsburgh, in Pitt. Neither of those games should be easy. So if Louisville loses, what one loss team is gonna play against the Ohio State/Michigan winner in the final? Right now the two leading 1 loss teams would be Florida and Auburn. But both of them might lose another game in the regular season, plus there's the SEC title game. Texas is next in the rankings. They've still got to play Texas A&M (who are currently 8-1) and most likely the Big 12 Championship game. Believe it or not, my Fighting Irish still have a chance. If some teams currently ahead of them lose, and ND beats USC, the Irish could probably get as high as 3-4 in the Harris and Coaches polls, and right now they're ranked 5th by the BCS computer average which would most likely also improve. Whether that would be enough for the BCS computers to have them finish the season at number 2 I don't know. Lost in this is the Michigan/Ohio State loser. I hate the fact that losing your one game at the end of the year as opposed to the start affects things so much. After a late season loss if the pollsters drop a team too far down the rankings then they have no more games to play to make it up, and they end up missing out on a big game because they lost late in the season instead of early. If say Michigan loses to Ohio State in a close game, and the voters don't drop them farther than 3-4 in the polls, they could still finish number 2 in the final BCS standing. Needless to say, the next few weeks are going to be great.

Well I think that's enough for one post.

Bizzle Out