Oh man what a game. Panthers rule.
I went to Ericsson Stadium today to catch the Panthers play an NFL game before my little trip overseas. Lucky for me, it was a great game, Panthers beating the Jags 24-23 on a late touchdown pass on 4th down from Jake Delhomme to Ricky "Clutch" Proehl. Chris, I told you Jake was good. The first half was some of the worst play I've seen in a long time. Panther's Offense accomplished exactly jack while running predictable and conservative plays, and the D gave up a bad touchdown on the last play of the first half.

But it was a completely different game in the second half, Stephen Davis started finding holes and Mushin Muhammad promptly cought a TD. Meanwhile, the D came up with plenty of stops, and excellent special teams play from Steve Smith and Rod "He Hate Me" Smart help to complete the comeback.

Blocks, fumbles, great runs and passing, high drama, this game had it all. And it's always more fun in person. You get involved, you yell, you sweat, it really takes a lot out of you. If you're loud enough, you can affect the other team's concentration and effectiveness, therefore it can pay off for your team to get involved. It's all a tremendous amount of fun. So in case you've never been to a live NFL game, I highly recommend it.

I know what you're thinking
I bet people are wondering, "Mike, why don't you ever talk about what goes on in your daily life, so why don't you list every minute detail like all these other blogs, because we really, really care, and by listing all of these details, we will all think that you are a really lucky and interesting person that we will all be instantly envious of?" Well, sure, of course people were thinking that, but I have so far decided against taking that course of action, instead choosing to commentate on socially important topics such as fear, loathing, and Terminator 3. But, I do think that you really want to know what is going on in old Fro's life. So here goes.

Yesterday, I woke up at around 1045, and had frosted mini wheats for breakfast because I felt that I really needed the variety in my life. Then, as is typically the case, I made a quick rundown of the ads in the paper and saw a dynamite deal on a digital camera. So after brushing my teeth, (hygiene comes first people) I skipped down to Target and bought a Canon something or other, and got a 128 meg memory stick for free!!!1!.

Then I stopped in Harris Teeter to pick up some of their great chicken burritos, and couldn't help noticing that all of the prices in the store were 10-25 cents more per item than at Food Lion, aint that something. Upon returning home, I saw a hellish storm brewing in the distance and approaching quickly, which can only mean one thing: Get the cover on the boat! Oh man, I'm so glad that I get to bother with something I hardly ever use and never wanted while an intense severe weather system bears down on me.

Well, as you can guess, the power went out. And that can mean only one thing: the intense and destructive "family time". I longed for the days when technology pushed us apart- like today, for example. Electricity soon returned, but since we were all, you know, very hungry and stuff, we decided on AppleBees (tm) for our dinner. Now, when you pay 8 dollars for food that you probably shouldn't have to pay 8 dollars for, you'd expect to have the plate they serve it on full of food- overflowing to the point of complete messiness, if possible. But I sure as hell got a piddly ass serving, and asked for some more rice pilaf, because I'd seemed to remember having a larger serving of rice pilaf last time I was at AppleBees (tm), when the manager joked about the manliness of my main salad entree, and no, I'm not kidding here. Anyways, I got more rice, but felt like a jackass all the same.

Then, after playing some Burnout 2 on the Xbox, (quite a lot of fun by the way), I sat down to write a placement test for my Japanese University that I will be studying at next year. I had to write an essay of about 200 characters without using a dictionairy. Now, I've only taken 1 year of japanese, I can't use a dictionairy, and it's been over 3 months since I was in a Japanese class of any sort. Needless to say, so far my essay is about 3 sentences long, and the best sentence I have is, "Japanese is pretty, but hard." So I need to get to work on that. If it's a quarter as long as this blog update, I should be in good shape.

PS. Get the Speed "5 Star collection" 2-DVD set, it's excellent.

Get Well Sam Mills
Panthers assistant Mills diagnosed with cancer

Long time Carolina Panthers fans may remember former high school teacher-turned USFL-turned NFL All-Pro linebacker Sam Mills, who was a real class act on and off the field (a true rarity in the realm of Charlotte professional sports). It's with great sadness that I report that Sam has been diagnosed with intestinal cancer. Coming right after the news of Marc Field's Hodgkins disease makes the news even tougher to handle. Keep both of them in your thoughts, prayers, offerings, etc.

Crisis Zone
If there's one thing that I've learned about American people, it's that often they don't take action or make a sacrifice on something unless it's absolutely necessary. It takes a crisis, like the huge blackout we just had in order for changes to be made. It's funny, becuase once the blackout happened, every politician announced the need for action, every commentator talked about the shoddy condition of this country's power grid. But where were these people a month ago? They never would have mentioned any of this before becuase it would have been too costly, and Joe Six Pack wasn't ready to foot the bill. It just wouldn't seem urgent enough to do so, to commit the vast resources and capital. But a lot of people suddenly decided it was necessary once there was a real problem.

Call it procrastination, or laziness, or whatever. And I think that 9/11 is an extension of this symptom. Look, let's be honest. International terrorism was always a threat to the country, but people in America thought they were invincible from it- terrorism was always something that had to do with countries "over there", never here in the States. They never would have agreed to all the extra time at airports, strip searches, etc.- although maybe they should have. And now, with an official crisis (the biggest ever? Depends on who you ask), it's fairly easy to argue many in government and the real world have gone overboard in the zealousness of their response.

I think that's why a lot of very important long term issues- such as the environment, budget deficits, and close working diplomatic relationships with other countries- often get overlooked by John Q. Public. They're all important, but might not seem so urgent at the present time. Although, with a lot of these issues, by the time you realize how bad it is, it might very well be too late to repair. But that's for another discussion.

A Couple of more links for your viewing pleasure
Fans of The Boondock Saints click here

Following up- Video Bo strikes again

File under
Well, I think that Mooresville/Davidson has finally made it. Thanks to drunken stupidity, we're on Fark! This is mean absolutely nothing to you unless you're an internet nerd, BTW. This happened, like, 2 miles from my house at most. So that makes it pretty interesting right there. Well, you probably already heard about this but click the link anyway will you.

"You're driving across a bridge. What's the last thing you expect to hit your car?"

Tecmo Bowl is the Greatest
Funny anecdote I stole from espn.com:

Q: A buddy of mine goes to Dickinson University in Central PA, and Bo Jackson was there as a guest speaker. First comment he receives from someone in the audience: "Are you aware that you are the greatest Tecmo Bowl character ever? You cannot be stopped. It's astounding." To which Jackson replied: "Ha ha. You have no idea how much I hear that. No matter where I go, there is always one person who mentions that. It seems to be what I'm known for." After the presentation, Jackson signed the guy's copy of the Tecmo Bowl.

Seriously. Foget Madden, Tecmo Bowl and Tecmo Super Bowl are the best. Now if we could just get yearly updates...

What kind of Fantasy is this?
You know, I'm sure, back in the Stone Ages waay back when, fantasy sports were in fact a great idea. Get together, wage a little bit of cash with your friends, talk some trash, and get involved with your favorite spectator sport on another level.
But somewhere along the line, it transformed into a soul-devouring, brain-cell-killing exercise that eats your time away like bile and your esopshagus. It really, and truly does, become a dangerous all-consuming addiction. One team becomes three, four, then five. You try your hand at practically every professional sport under the sun, including golf, nascar, and even pro wrestling.You spend your free time contemplating trades, and deciding whether or not otherwise obscure who gives a f-ck players like Stacey Mack and Stacy Roest are worth picking up on the waiver wire.
All this begins with a carpal tunnel inducing "pre-ranking" system, where you have to click and rank every single player that may or may not have the possibility of significant playing time. In the NFL, that's hundreds of potential screwups and saviors. A bad trade can ruin your life for a week, easily. One misplaced click on the drop/add action, even worse. And the whole time, you're up against competition spending even more time and resources on it then you are.
And somehow out of this, football, with its 11 players to a side and complex scoring system, is the most popular fantasy sport. Instead of say, hockey, with it's fairly simple goals, assists, pims, and gaa, we get scored for extra points, return yardage, touchdowns (penalties for interceptions though!) 2 pt conversions, and so forth! And thanks to the "free" services, they make you wait and bite your nails all day til Monday to get your final score in! Good Luck calculating it yourself on Any Given Sunday.
And despite the fact that I know this, despite the fact that I will still be in a completely different country for almost all of the season... I still started up a team, and still talk smack with the
other team owners that I'll never meet, befriend and then alienate, and still stress over the draft. However... it's only one team though, and that's it. I'm on my way to recovery.

Okay, this is getting ridiculous
After raining every day for the past week, and pretty much every other day for the past 3 months, no exaggeration, my backyard is starting to look like Lake Frohman back there. I mean, what a mess. And this is July, August, prime drying out months. I don't even want to mention the possibility of tropical storms or hurricanes, we're screwed because there is no more room for this water at all. And this might not bother a lot of yall, but I live right next to this big ass lake, which could overpower your house like so many Biblical floods at any moment. Regardless, there's nothing that I can do to change it anyway, just like my bitter, twisted past. So get over it already.

Candidate Schwarzenegger
I was watching Tonight Show, with Jay Leno, and Ah-nold announced that he was going to run for the governor of California. At first, I thought this was something really exciting and fresh in politics, something that we need in America. But almost immediately, I thought that there was a noticable shift.
He was already beginning to talk a poltician on the stump, with promises to balance budget, etc. which is a little dissapointing. I want something different from this guy. And I mean, he sounded good for the most part, there was a couple of stretches were he wasn't looking at Jay or the camera, and was just going through his memorized talking points. However I think that I can say he's been well advised and handled Jay's softball questions with ease. He's going on a populist platform, promising to return the government to the people and drive out special interests, and he used the example of unions, which of course a Republican will but time will tell how he treats big business.
Didn't appear to be too partisan, which is pretty remarkable for anyone in politics these days. He will need moderate voters, in a race with so many other candidates. He said he's got enough money that he won't be bought off, but the US Senate is the Millionaire's Club, and that never seemed to stop special interests from getting to them did it? But really though, this guy is going to steamroll the competition I predict. Prepare for Governor Schwarzenegger.