The Raider Nation

As long as I've known what football was I've been a fan of the Raiders. Whether they were in L.A. or Oakland it didn't matter to me. I took pride in the fact that the Raiders were one of the most hated teams in the NFL but also one of the most loved. Even though they weren't always the best team around they were always a respectable team. That is until now. For those of you who don't know I was at the Raider's 2006 season opener against the Chargers on ESPN Monday Night Football. It was the first Raider game I have ever seen in real life. Sadly the Raiders suffered their first home shut out in 20+ years that night when they lost 27 - 0. I knew after that game that this season probably wouldn't be any better than last year or the year before that but I never dreamed that it would be worse. How can you not improve when you only win 4 games in the previous season? The loss to San Diego was followed by more losses. There was even talk of the Raiders being the first team to not win a game in an entire season. Then along came the hapless Cardinals who gave Oakland their first win of the year. The second win of the year was a fluke. Oakland returned two interceptions for touchdowns against the defending champion Steelers and won the game with less than 100 yards of offense. Then we come to Oakland's second Monday Night Football game of the year against the Seahawks. I think I can honestly say that I've never seen a team look as bad as the Raiders looked last night. They became the first team ever to be shutout twice on Monday Night Football in the same season.

I almost took an internship with the Raiders this season. When the opportunity was first presented I was really excited and thought that I would for sure apply for the position. After thinking about it for a while I decided that missing two semesters to take the internship was more than I wanted to give up so I ultimately didn't take it. Now after watching how the team has performed so far I am so glad I didn't take the internship. I don't think I would be able to sit back and watch what I am seeing from the team especially if I was there in Oakland and working for the Raiders.

In hopes that maybe someone who can make a difference will read what I write, here are my recommendations for the Raiders.

1. Fire Tom Walsh - The guy is obviously not running the offense in a way that can win games. They can't even score or gain yardage. Obviously the offense he is trying to run isn't working. Rather than adapt it to fit better with what the players can do he just keeps running the same schemes over and over.

2. Art Shell - I like Art; I think he has the potential to bring the Raiders back to respectability. The one thing that Art needs is to show some passion. Where is your love? The players need someone who will get in their faces and throw things when they make a mistake. Don't just stand there like a statue. At the beginning of the season the goal was to bring back the Raider mystic. That will never happen with a lifeless coach on the sideline. It is your team, light the fire!

3. Andrew Walters - Oakland passes on Matt Leinart and Jay Cutler because they believed that you were their quarterback of the future. At times you look like you could be a pretty good quarterback and then there are times when you look terrible. Your o-line has more wholes than a chain link fence so you've got to get the ball out quick. Drop back, make your first read, if its not there make the second read if its not there then get rid of that ball like it was a time bomb.

4. Player management - What was up with trading Gabriel to the Pats for a 6th round pick. He was a great receiver and you basically kicked him to the curb. That's not good for player moral. It shows with the way Porter and Moss are acting now. Why would anyone want to stay on a sinking ship? If people want out then let them out.

Here is to the hope that one day in the not to distant future Oakland will return to glory.

Oakland - Submarines & Sea Lions

Submarines

Here are a few pics I took while at Pier 39 and the Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. The first one is of me and my friend Erick with the USS Jeremiah O'Brien in the back ground. The second pic is of Alcatraz from the pier. When we got to San Fran it was really foggy but as the day got hotter the fog burned off. The fog rolling over Alcatraz Island was really cool looking. The third pic is Erick standing in the crew quarters on board the USS Pampanito. While at Pier 39 we took of tour of the Pampanito which is a WWII submarine. I had never been on a sub before so it was really cool to go inside. The sub had 36 bunks and around 75 enlisted crewmen. The officers had a little better living conditions. The crew only needed 36 bunks because one shift was always on duty. They would be at sea for months at a time. I know one thing, I could never be a submariner. The fourth pic is the outside of the Pampanito.

Sea Lions

We hadn't been at the pier for very long and we started to hear this terrible racket. We soon found out that it was a group of the world's dumbest animal, sea lions. They have some docks floating in the bay for the sea lions. There were quite a few of them on the docks making that stupid sea lion sound. I was so unimpressed by them I didn't even bother to take a picture. If you are some granola loving hippy and you think that we should do all we can to save our friends of the sea I want you to stop reading my blog. I don't want you here. I mean it get lost. OK now if you are still reading then take your right hand off the mouse, make as tight a fist as you can, and now punch yourself as hard as you can right in the eye and pretend it was from me. Back to sea lions. What are they good for? I've seen a lot of dumb animals but they all have some useful purpose except for sea lions. Cows are pretty dumb but they give us milk and hamburger and leather. Some dogs are pretty dumb but they bark at intruders and give us companionship. Again I ask what are sea lions good for? Making obnoxious noises.

410 & Oakland - Nevada

OK so if you have never been to Nevada and wonder what it is like see the above picture and then picture that for 410 miles. Nevada is full of absolutely nothing. As we were driving through on the way to Oakland I was surprised at how desolate and barren Nevada is but it didn't really bother me to bad because I was excited to get down to Cali and see the game. On the way back the vastness of Nevada's nothingness couldn't be ignored. Ever little podunk town we came to made us wonder what in the world was wrong with those people to make them want to live in hell. To be fair to any of you Nevadans that might be reading this your state probably has something cool to see besides casinos but it sure as heck isn't close to I-80. The only reason we even stopped in Nevada was to get fuel. On the way to Oakland we stopped in a place called Puckerbrush.

Ah Puckerbursh, for those of you who have made the trip across Nevada via I-80 and you don't recall Puckerbrush don't be alarmed. If you happened to blink or were doing more then 80 mph when you went through chances are you totally missed Puckerbrush. The tow supposedly has a population of 28 but I don't see how that is possible as the only thing in Puckerbrush is a truck stop. There isn't even a westbound on ramp in Puckerbrush you have to drive down a frontage road for a few miles to get back onto the interstate. As I was writing this blog I decided to Google Puckerbrush and see what comes up. I couldn't find it on a map or find a zip code for it but there were a couple mentions of the town on a few websites. This is from rockymountainroads.com

"Exits 149-151 (Mill City/Dun Glen/Unionville) provide access to the pseudo-town of Puckerbrush. Cruising by at 70+ mph, all you'd see is a large Burns Brothers truck stop. The frontage road (old U.S. 40) between Exits 149 and 151 has a sign indicating that this is a real town with 28 people. However, the State of Nevada does not recognize this "town" at all … it is just a ploy by Burns Brothers. But it is a nice place to stop and gamble! And with that, we are in Winnemucca."

For more Puckerbrush fun check out this link.

http://janestrip.blogspot.com/2005/10/how-i-got-lost-in-puckerbrush-nevada.html

Moving past Puckerbrush. I can see why people want to dump nuclear waste in Nevada. There is nothing there that would be harmed by tons and tons of nuclear waste. The drive across Nevada was so boring that my friends and I started to come up with new state motto's for Nevada. Here are a few of the better ones.
Nevada - we suck and we know it
Nevada - America's landfill
Nevada - Three feet from hell

410 & Oakland

Oakland

Ok so for those of you who don't know some friends and I recently made a road trip to the Bay Area. The purpose of the trip was to go to the Monday Night Football opener between the Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers. We are cheap and decided that driving would save us a lot of money. So Sunday morning we left SLC headed for Pleasonton. It was a pretty long drive but it really didn't seem that bad. We kicked it in Pleasonton Sunday night. Monday we drove to San Fran and went to Pier 39 and the Fisherman's Warf. It was really pretty cool. We took a tour on a submarine, went on a few ships and stuff like that. Then Monday afternoon we headed back to the hotel so we could ride the BART to the stadium. It was really cool to see all the people wearing their Raider gear. Our seats were awesome. We were on the third row behind the A's dugout. To bad the game totally sucked. Oakland got worked 27 - 0. It was the Raiders first home shutout since 1981 overall though it was well worth it and now I can say I've been there. Tuesday morning we cut out pretty early because I had already skipped class on Monday and Tuesday and had to be back in Rexburg by Wednesday. We finally rolled back into SLC at 8 Tuesday night and then after a very brief pitstop I got back in the car and drove back to Blackfoot. I finally got to my parents place at around midnight and stayed the night there then drove back to Rexburg the next morning. The drive down there wasn't to bad but the drive back seemed really really long. For more details on the road trip see my Nevada post (unless you are from Nevada or you like Nevada)

Oakland - Raider Nation & Pirates

Here are some pics from my recent trip to Oakland/San Francisco to watch the Raiders play the Chargers on the Monday Night Football opener. The first pic is of my friends JDee, Erick and me in our hotel room all decked out in Raider gear getting ready to leave for the big game. The second pic of JDee and me at the stadium before the game. The third pic is of me and my new friend Smithy. He doesn't say much. That is one thing I really liked about San Fran, there was pirate stuff every where. I should have gotten a few pirate shirts while I was there. The fourth pic is of me standing on the bridge of an old ship. I can't remember the name of it but is was really cool to walk around on the deck and in the holds and stuff.

Freedom

Ah yeah! I figured I should take this moment before I pass out from bleach fumes to enjoy this feeling of being essentially done with IBC. Granted I have my marketing final still and a huge paper to finish but the final should be cake and the paper is basically done. All that is left now is to finish cleaning the bathroom and then enjoy some time off. It is hard to believe that the summer is over. There were days when I thought that it would never end. Now it is over and I am only two semesters away from graduation. So now I sit here blogging away, trying to get some oxygen to my head and totally enjoying the moment.

Chopper

One thing I really look forward to is buying a motorcycle next summer. I'll be done with classes in early April and then will start working shortly after that. Hopefully by Memorial Day next summer I'll be riding around.

The summer of Hell

I just glanced at the calendar and realized that there are only just over two weeks left in the summer semester. I can't even tell you how glad I am that we are nearly done. My whole time of going to BYU-Idaho I've always heard how great the summers are here. Well let me tell you they suck. I'm glad this is my last summer in school because I doubt I would want to stay for another one. Maybe this is part of making the transition back into the real world. As I grow to hate being in Rexburg I look more and more forward to graduating, finding a job and starting work again. I just hope I can find something that will utilize my degree and allow me to continue to learn and grow.

Man . . .er Computer Down

I guess this a lesson that I needed to learn the hard way. Last Thursday as I was surfing the net and rocking out to some mp3's my computer flashed the fatal blue screen error. At first I wasn't to worried but when windows didn't reload because files were missing I thought I might be in trouble. I'm not a computer genius but I did build this computer so I know a little bit. After trying a few basic things like repairing windows and stuff and still not being able to load windows I decided I should take it to someone who knew more than I did. To make a long story short my main hard drive partition which held windows and my docs got wiped out. Luckily I had my music and dvds in seperate partitions so those files remained intact. Anyway, I lost all my papers and projects that I have written over the past few years and I lost all my pictures from my digital camera and cool pics that I had found and saved while surfing the net over the years. So currently I am in the process of trying to reinstall all my programs and at least get everything working again. Hopefully I'll get it all done soon.

So my advice to any of you who may be reading this is be sure to backup any files that you think are important so that if you find yourself in a similar situation you will at least have most of your stuff.

Snowmobile Drag Races

This past Saturday I was able to watch my brother compete in the annual Blackfoot Snowmobile Water Drag Races. It's an event that is held each summer at a local lake in conjunction with Blackfoot Pride Days. This year my brother Travis decided he would race his sled in the event. He was pretty nervous heading into the first run of the day because he'd never tried it before and one little mistake and your snowmobile will be at the bottom of the lake. To make things even worse the class he thought he'd be competing in (600 Modified) wasn't a class option that day. So the race organizers bumped him up to the 700 Modified class which meant he'd be racing sleds with bigger engines and possibly more power. His first race of the day was pretty close. The racers start on the beach on one side of the lake. They have about 3 feet to build up enough speed to float the sled on the water. If you don't get right on the throttle you don't build up enough speed and you are swimming. Travis' snowmobile wasn't quite warmed up enough so when he hit the gas it kind of cut out. Luckily he got enough momentum to get his sled floating but it gave the other guy he was racing a chance to pull ahead. After traveling about 10 feet across the lake you could see Travis' sled come alive and he started closing the gap between him and the other guy. By the half way mark Travis was way out in front and ended up winning the race. In the second round Travis had a perfect start and was able to grab enough of a lead that his opponent couldn't catch him. He ended up taking first place in the 700 Mod class which was pretty exciting.