MJD - better than all the rest?

In spite of the awful performance of the Jacksonville Jaguars this past Sunday, I’ve been wanting to do the following comparison for some time now and finally got around to doing it tonight. A little while back I heard a sports radio guy talk about Maurice Jones Drew and how he had interviewed MJD a few days before the draft. He asked MJD where he thought he would go in the draft to which MJD replied, “First.” The radio guy clarified by saying, “First round, right. But where?” So MJD clarified by saying, “No, not in the first round. First overall. I believe I’m the best player in the draft.” (Mind you I’m sure this is paraphrased)

So, I thought I would compare MJD’s first three seasons (he was eventually drafted 60^th overall, 28^th in the second round), to the running backs taken in the draft before MJD. They are as follows (and I did not include Laurence Maroney of the New England Patriots as he missed almost all of last season with an injury):

Reggie Bush (drafted #2 overall)

DeAngelo Williams (drafted #27)

Joseph Addai (drafted #30)

LenDale White (drafted #45)

These stats actually include stats through this past weekend.

Rush Attempts

Bush – 454

Williams – 597

Addai – 704

White – 597

MJD – 605

Yards Rushing

Bush – 1698

Williams – 2953

Addai – 2907

White – 2260

MJD – 2863

Rushing TD’s

Bush – 13

Williams – 25

Addai – 27

White – 23

MJD – 39

Receptions

Bush – 227

Williams – 89

Addai – 132

White – 41

MJD – 169

Receiving Yards

Bush – 1720

Williams – 712

Addai – 1048

White – 202

MJD – 1528

Receiving TD’s

Bush – 8

Williams – 4

Addai – 7

White – 0

MJD – 4

Fumbles/Fumbles Lost

Bush – 16/9

Williams – 4/3

Addai – 4/4

White – 6/6

MJD – 9/5

Total Yards/Touchdowns

Bush – 3418/21

Williams – 3665/29

Addai – 3955/34

White – 2462/23

MJD – 4391/43

Looks like MJD has 450 more total yards than the next nearest guy and 9 more touchdowns. Not bad at all MJD. Not bad at all.

summer movie review...so far

Well, summer is almost over and it has been a decent one on the movie end of things. While there are several films I did not get to see, here's what I thought of the ones I did, all of which would fall in the summer blockbuster category. These would be in the order in which I saw them.

1. Wolverine: X-Men Origins - I didn't really care to see this at first. Liked the first X-Men, loved part 2, thought part 3 was a giant excuse to have indecipherable battles; so my expectations were low for this. But it wasn't bad at all. Hugh Jackman is fun in most films and this one let his Wolverine character loose. There was a little bit of a nice back story involving his desire to live a normal life with the woman he loves and then, of course, the conflict begins. It was fun exploring some of his back story and seeing where the anger and rage comes from. Nothing to well developed, this wasn't high art or anything, but it was fun. Grade: B-

2. Star Trek - I was looking forward to seeing this from last summer's teaser trailers. It really didn't disappoint. Again, not exactly high art but tons of fun and everything that makes Star Trek fun for the masses. I'm sure some Trekkies were disappointed for a variety of reasons, but I thought JJ Abrams did a good job of paying homage to the original while taking it in a new direction. The opening 45 minutes were filled with more laughs than special effects and that was welcome too. Sometimes Star Trek takes itself too seriously and a little levity was appreciated. If the series continues along these lines, I think it will have legs for years to come.
Grade: B

3. Up - While I will admit that I am prone to enjoy almost any Pixar film, this one really blew me away. I thought they wouldn't be able to top Wall-E in terms of plot, storyline, and execution. I was wrong. This story was so simple yet absolutely perfectly told. There was so much for kids to enjoy (both of mine were just completely take with it) while deeper issues of loneliness, loss, love, and letting go of the past were examined at the same time. Watching the old man drag his house around with him as he searched for the lost city was just so sad and beautiful. His heartache at losing his wife after so many years and his willingness to try to let someone into his life were very real. I loved watching this story unfold and it did so delicately, slowly, and beautifully. With the Oscar fields expanding to 10 films, I wouldn't be surprised to see this one get serious consideration for a nomination for Best Picture. Grade: A+

4. Transformers 2 - There are two angles on this. The first comes from knowing what I was getting into having watched the first Transformers movie. From that angle, this didn't disappoint nor did it alter very much. It was fun, exciting, action packed, humorous, and had lots of pretty dazzling special effects. The second angle comes from a story angle and it's there that this movie just loses everything. The plot is about 1cm deep. There's approximately 2 minutes of back story/narrative exposition. There are giant leaps in the story that don't make sense and some of the characters are so ridiculously stereotyped it makes you wonder if Michael Bay has met real live human beings (check out "michael bay storyboards the great gatsby, just google it, hilarious, that's where I draw that last comment). I think part of what drives me crazy about this is this movie was basically considered family fare and had some rather gratuitous sexual scenes, language, and just misogynistic overtones. Beyond that, I wanted to throttle the parents sitting in the rows in front of me who brought their 8 year old children who basically were hiding under their seats during some of the Decepticon scenes. It's PG-13 for a reason people. Anyway, it bugs me that this has now surpassed Lord of the Rings: Return of the King on the all time money list and that there are articles calling Transformers 2 "this year's Dark Knight". No it's not. It's eye candy for sure, but it is not a good movie. Grade: C

5. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - This may be my second favorite of the series after Prisoner of Azkaban. I really enjoyed the slow pacing and humor involved in much of the film. It's refreshing to see that this film isn't just being taken in a "let's blow people away with effects" direction that guys like Michael Bay do things. Anyone who's read the books knows what's coming up in the next two films and this movie served to set those films up well. Yes, there's decidedly less action than the previous film, but the characters are just so well rounded now. And being a Christian, I love that this series wrestles so deeply with issues of love, hate, sacrifice, friendship, loyalty, determination, and good vs. evil. It doesn't take an easy way out but shows the difficulty even the best people have with living the higher virtues out. And beyond that, could we ask for a more wonderful, chaste exploration of romance than the Harry Potter series? A brief kiss between Harry and Ginny, a desperate longing look of "don't you notice me" from Hermoine to Ron, Harry comforting Hermione after she has her heart broken again by Ron, Hermione's unwillingness to settle for a jerky guy who wants to use her - these are the kinds of things we should be celebrating. What a great presentation of real love and romance, something that goes beyond who's hooking up with whom. And while some can get caught up in the magic issue (namely how the Bible views magic/sorcery), and I don't want to disparage that, I personally find so much more here, the magic is just a surface thing, it's not what this is really about. This is an epic presentation of good vs. evil and the love and sacrifice necessary for good to overcome. Grade: A

6. G.I. Joe - You could pretty much toss this into the same review as Transformers 2. It's a lot of eye candy, very little plot, and lots of blowing stuff up. I guess since I collected these things like crazy and watched the TV show every day, I wished for something that was a little less oriented to bashing me over the head with special effects, and simplified things a bit. However, they at least made an attempt at some kind of background on the character, giving short glimpses into their pasts that were supposed to give them the motivations they had for joining Joe or Cobra. And the action sequences were fun even though by the end it was almost incomprehensible who was shooting at whom. I always think it's funny when movies automatically set themselves up for a sequel as if assuming that they are good enough to warrant one, and Joe's ending does just that. But, casting aside good storytelling, plot development, overwrought special effects, and not so snappy dialogue, this was pretty fun and I enjoyed seeing my action figure/animated childhood toys come to life. Grade: C+

Up next, hopefully District 9. Looks really good and initial reviews are exceptional. Hopefully will be able to see it this week.

things they forget to tell you (or tips for connecting a wireless router to another router)

The subject line may seem a bit confusing here, but I just purchased my second Netgear WR514 wireless router. The first sits in my home where it has been providing consistent wireless connectivity for 6 months now. This second one now sits in my office providing me and anyone on the second floor with high speed internet access.

Now, the Internet signal I get has already been run through a router and a variety of other mechanisms to stretch it from the building where the signal originates to my building (includes fiber optic cable). When I put in the "easy installation" CD, I immediately got an error message indicating that the software was not compatible with a 64 bit driver (I run 64 bit Vista). So after scouring the web for 30 minutes, I figured out that Netgear, though not mentioning any 64 bit compatibility issues with their set up program, has no real solution. I was essentially stuck with trying to set things up manually or try to track down someone else's computer that ran XP or 32 bit Vista. A back up program I found said that due to multiple routers being used, I could not set this router up anyway.

Then I remembered something a friend had been told by another friend, one of those "hey did you know that..." deals that you tuck away but don't pay a lot of attention to. It goes like this; most wireless routers will basically act as an access point or a splitter if you run the incoming routed signal (the ethernet cable) into one of the hubs labeled 1, 2, 3, or 4 on the back instead of running that ethernet cable into the "internet" port on the back of the router. This way, the router does not have IP issues and just splits the signal. Having never tried it, I was curious.

Trial #1 - Is there internet access?
After plugging the ethernet cable coming out of my wall into port 1, I ran another ethernet cable from port 2 to my computer's network card. Lo and behold, internet access. So hardwiring works great and I can now run up to three computers hardwired off this router.

Trial #2 - This is the more important one, is this already functioning wirelessly without logging into the device?
I detached the ethernet cable from my network card, waited for the little earth icon to go away and the dreaded red "x" to appear in the bottom right corner, and then switched my wireless adapter on. I immediately picked up a "netgear" signal, connected, and am currently writing this over a wireless connection.

So, 2 for 2 on that one. The only major drawbacks are that I can't set up a security code (which I wasn't going to do anyway) and I can't communicate with the router using this laptop in any simple manner, again I don't really need to do that. What I needed was hardwired access and wireless access and I got both in less than five minutes.

things dumb people say

I know that times are a bit trying for people, and certainly watching executives at AIG take bailout money and give it to themselves is cause for some frustration and anger, but this is ridiculous and honestly dumb to even suggest...especially coming from a politician, a people group not exactly known for their honesty and upholding of the law. Seems like maybe we all need to calm down and take a deep breath.

taking the hard road

This is a good story. A little empathy and sacrifice can go a long way.

Some random stuff

Haven't stopped listening to that U2 album. It's growing rapidly on me and I think that some of the reviews might be telling the truth that this is their strongest stuff since the Joshua Tree/Achtung Baby era. Great combination of depth and some interesting musical experimentation.

In other news, I was encouraged by the announcement by the Obama administration that he was backing a merit pay system for teachers. While there are some definite obstacles to implementing such a program (namely the issues with good teachers in really bad schools possibly getting the raw end of the deal), this is a definite step forward. Plus, honestly, anytime a union opposes something, I tend to think it's a good idea. Unions seemed to serve their purposes for a long time but mostly seem to be more about their own power and influence rather than actually helping anyone (definitely not helping the situation with the Big 3 automakers and the UAW).

Anyway, with my mom having taught for 30 years and my wife being a former public school teacher, I have often been shocked and the number of sub par, unqualified teachers that are allowed to educate the majority of children in this country. Little is done to deal with the problems and often when principals do try to deal with it, local teacher's unions make it nearly impossible for any disciplinary action to take place. On top of that, you have bureaucracy that deals with ridiculous issues (like "tolerance") and leaves good teachers in jeopardy. Check out the This American Life podcast from this week for more on that. The segment "Rubber Room" is almost unbelievable. Anyway, I'm glad to see something that I believe is positive happening in the public school system.

Finally, I'm often surprised by the choices my children make and this particular event from yesterday has interesting psychological questions. For breakfast I asked my children which of two cereals they would like to eat. The decision making goes like this:

1. My son, the youngest, answers first because he knows what he wants, "Honey Nut Cheerios".
2. My daughter, as soon as she hears his answer immediately asks for the other one, in this case "Corn Chex" (it's weird but my kids will eat basically any cereal with no sugar needed).
3. My son second guesses himself primarily because he almost worships his older sister and begins to express great conflict about what he now wants. Usually this manifests itself as," I want Corn Chex......no I want Cheerios....no I want Corn Chex" and so on and so forth (often resulting in me just leaving the room shaking my head).
4. If my son's final wish is the same as his sister's she will promptly change her vote to the other choice, apparently because eating what you like is less important than getting that darn baby brother to leave you alone.
5. The cycle could continue for days, I'm sure, unless I intervene and then tell them what they are going to have. Sometimes, if the cereals are similar, I'll just tell them that it is whatever they ask for even if it's not...I guess that makes me a liar, but it gets the job done more quickly at times.

So it got me thinking about the thought processes that go into such a decision and how few of them actually go into "what do I want to eat" and how many of them go into "what does the other person want to eat". I swear, with all the goofy stories and amazing insights, I need to write a book sometime about these kids. I'm sure at least four people (the grandparents) would buy a copy.

U2 - No Line on the Horizon

Picked up U2's latest album a few days ago for a whopping $3.99 at www.amazon.com/mp3. Can't beat that price. Anyway, this is a really interesting album and I think it's going to take some time for me to digest it, compared to the last couple of albums which, to me, have been more accessible right out of the gate. Overall, my first impressions of it are quite good; it's got a lot of interesting sonic and instrumental arrangements and you can really tell that they sample the various locations where they recorded the songs. First song I'm struck by, and maybe it's because I love the Biblical knowledge these guys have, was Magnificent.

Magnificent
Magnificent

I was born
I was born to be with you
In this space and time
After that and ever after I haven't had a clue
Only to break rhyme
This foolishness can leave a heart black and blue

Only love, only love can leave such a mark
But only love, only love can heal such a scar

I was born
I was born to sing for you
I didn’t have a choice but to lift you up
And sing whatever song you wanted me to
I give you back my voice
From the womb my first cry, it was a joyful noise…

Only love, only love can leave such a mark
But only love, only love can heal such a scar

Justified till we die, you and I will magnify
The Magnificent
Magnificent

Only love, only love can leave such a mark
But only love, only love unites our hearts

Justified till we die, you and I will magnify
The Magnificent
Magnificent
Magnificent

I know some church going people who still keep away from U2 and Bono because they can be a bit weird and vocal at times, but album after album reveals the depth of their faith and the spiritual struggles with which they grapple. This song is so simple yet it's fresh at the same time. Saw them perform it on Letterman on Tuesday night (they are on every night this week) and it was just beautiful.