Cowboys travel to Philly to try to win rivalry game
Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia will host a very interesting rivalry game this week at 4:25 PM ET. There, the Eagles will play host to the Dallas Cowboys. These two NFC East rivals have met several times in some very good matchups. This game should be a good one, but not because both teams have been having stellar years. It will honestly be more interesting as both teams have coaches that are a bit on the hot seat. Both teams have identical 3-5 records and are performing under their expectations. It will truly be anyone’s game.
The Cowboys come into the game after a hard-fought 19-13 loss to the Falcons last Sunday night. The team showed some poise and has really been a tough match all year. In the end they have just made a mistake here or there, which has cost them many games. Their defense has been one of the better ones in the league, but the offense has been anything but consistent. They do have the edge on both sides of the ball as they are ranked better in most statistical categories other than rush yards per game.
The Eagles come into the game after a terrible offensive day in New Orleans against the Saints. They lost the game 28-13 on Monday night and looked awful in the process. There have been rumors that the team may go another route instead of continuing with Andy Reid. Losing this divisional game would certainly not help his cause especially at home. Dallas will plan to play spoiler and try to stay afloat for possible wild card aspirations.
Chicago hosts Texans on SNF
Chicago will host what is easily the best matchup in the NFL this week, and possibly the year. Soldier Field will see the 7-1 Houston Texans come to town against the 7-1 Chicago Bears. The teams share much more in common then just their records. Both have very productive offenses and tough defense. Statistically they are close in many categories, and the game could really come down to the last play. You can see it in primetime on Sunday Night Football at 8:20 PM ET on NBC.
Offensively both teams have very good running and passing games. They are separated by just a few yards on average rushing yards a game this Season. To this point, the Texans rush for an average of 138 yards while the Bears average 128.5. This is due to the team’s great backs, which may be the difference Sunday. Houston will have the elusive and slippery Arian Foster while a more powerful downward runner in Matt Forte will run the rock for Chicago.
The running games will have to be more productive against some very good defenses however. Both teams give up less then 100 yards a game rushing. Houston has given up an average of 81.9 yards on the ground to this point. Chicago, on the other hand, has given up an average of 88 yards. Both teams also give up little in the scoring department. Houston has averaged 17.1 points allowed a game and Chicago has given up 15 per game. This game is clearly a must see and will come down to the wire.
Giants travel to Cincinnati to take on the Bengals
The 6-3 New York Giants will travel to Cincinnati to take on the Bengals this Sunday. The Bengals come into the game with a 3-5 overall record this season. Their last game was a 31-23 loss to the Broncos at their own Paul Brown stadium last week. The Giants are also coming off a home loss after a 24-20 loss against the Steelers last Sunday. Both teams were playoff teams last season, but a loss for the Bengals would all but eliminate any chance of the postseason this week.
The Giants, on the other hand, are still in good position to make a playoff run. They are sitting alone at the top of their division in first place. No other team in the division is really giving them a race at this point, and a NY win could give them some serious wiggle room in the NFC East. They have been on a bit of a downward slide lately though and must regain themselves in a league that can quickly chew you up and spit you out.
The Bengals will give them a formidable opponent and the fact that they are at home should help. The Bengals are still the same team they were last season with the exception of Cedric Benson in the backfield. Quarterback Andy Dalton has been in a bit of a sophomore slump, but he has still been able to keep his strong relationship with receiver AJ Green. They have a capable defense as well, and could easily upset the Giants if they do not come ready.
McSorley's Old Ale House
I had a few days to spend in Manhattan and wanted to make the most of it. Also I knew that I would be alone on my last day, after my brother left. My flight was crazy early the next day, so I checked out of our hostel, left my bag in the locker and hit the town. I planned to come back in the evening to get my stuff, bus it to the airport and then sleep there.
I hadn’t researched much for tourist sites before leaving for my trip. Obviously I knew to go to Wall Street and the Statue of Liberty, but other than that I wanted to just walk around. However, there was one destination I was sure to visit, recommended to me by a friend and my brother and I hadn’t had time to go. So this was my first destination on what turned out to be a long day of bar-hopping.
McSorley's Old Ale House is the oldest Irish bar on Manhattan. Presidents like Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt drank there, along with artistic luminaries like Woody Guthrie and E.E. Cummings.
Sitting down one of its worn benches transports you back in time. Everything is made of wood and warped. Old photographs fade on the walls. And, best of all, the floors are covered with sawdust. If my memory serves me, they only served two kinds of beers – one dark and one light. They came two at a time in little pub glasses. Both were good and specially brewed for the bar.
I was there in the early afternoon on a weekday, but the place was packed. It seemed like a local crowd, a mix of university types and business people in suits on their lunch break. They served bar food, but I only drank. It was a unique bar and a good start for a long day in Manhattan.
Merida, Yucatan
I can’t warn travelers enough about a common mistake when visiting Mexico. This has nothing to do with safety, or drinking the water, or any of the other usual warnings you will hear when you tell family and friends about your plans to travel there.
My warning is to dissuade you from spending your whole vacation in an all-inclusive resort in Cancun. OK, so if you work 80 hours a week and get one vacation per year, then by all means hit the beach, drink margaritas and punish the buffet.
But if you want to actually see the country and find yourself in Cancun, then one of Mexico’s most interesting, attractive and culturally important cities is just down the road.
Well, it’s not exactly next door, but you can get to Merida in half a day by bus. And right around the midway point on the highway is Chichen Itza, which you will probably want to visit anyway and is much more interesting without a tour. If you don’t have time for Merida, then the little town of Valladolid near the pyramids will give you a taste of Yucatan culture.
And what is Yucatan culture? Merida, the capital of Yucatan state, is the place to find out. Cathedrals built from stones of Mayan ruins. Markets packed with jungle fruit, huge chaya juices and spicy cochinita pibil tacos.
Merida is at once a well restored colonial town, with beautiful architecture and wide avenues, and a busy everyday Mexican city, with packed sidewalks, storefronts blasting music and a maze-like market. It’s a whole world away from the overpriced bland food and tequila guzzling clubs of Cancun, but just a pleasant bus ride away.
Which country to choose when visiting the Amazon
The massive Amazon rainforest takes up a good portion of north-central Brazil and extends past its borders with Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Columbia, Venezuela and the Guianas. You can visit the jungle in any of these places, though if you want to be on the Amazon River itself then you will have to go to Brazil, where the city of Manaus is their gateway to the Amazon.
But if you are like I was, backpacking through South America, then price matters. Brazil is your most expensive option. I heard that trips into the rain forest start at about 100 dollars per day. I didn’t visit that part of Brazil, but I know from my month traveling in other parts that basics like hotels and transportation are much more expensive than in the other countries I visited, like Argentina, Bolivia, Peru or Ecuador.
As I traveled through Ecuador and Peru I saw many jungle trips advertised in travel agencies. The spine of the Andes meanders down the west coast of South America; on the Pacific side are deserts, and after the steep descent east to the Amazon basin, it’s all green and wild. So you can get there from places like Cuzco in Peru, but it is bound to be more expensive than in Bolivia.
I waited until I reached Bolivia and then flew from La Paz to the jungle town of Rurrenabaque. There I found a trip into the jungle for 20 dollars a day. We traveled up the Beni River, a large tributary of the Amazon, for a day and then stayed in a campsite for three days.
We hiked in the jungle all day, fished for piranha in the afternoons, saw monkeys, parrots, huge packs of wild boars, and a tapir. And all this for only 20 dollars a day! We were a very small group and our guide was friendly and full of jungle-knowledge. Keep Bolivia in mind if you are planning a jungle trip on your South America journey.
Prometheus in 15 minutes
Oh yes. I did in fact see this movie. In fact, due to my SO being a diehard alien fan, we saw it again on Blu-ray. This was after I found so many plot holes with it that the suspicion of belief I was supposed to have was destroyed and I promptly found it meh. But he’s a die-hard fan so he got it. He also buys me the Resident Evil movies every year for Xmas as a cruel joke knowing I hate them oh so much. I didn’t say he was a benevolent SO.
‘[The Engineer was of the first generation, and lo, did he or someone equally bald beget humanity in the second, because he could. Humanity made the third-generation android because they could, and the android created a fourth generation of life because he had daddy issues, and then the fourth generation created a fifth generation born of the fourth generation made by the third generation using the womb of the second generation created by the first generation, and thus did it crawl out from under that starfish pancake of a facesnuggler.]
Making a song yours
I tend to avoid TV. I tend to dodge ‘reality’ shows. Aside from a show here or there that I can watch online or procure in an underhanded way *coughdownloadorborrowcough,* I really avoid TV. I also tend to dodge talent shows as they tend to pick palatable image sellable singers that bring nothing to the table, show off the loony contestants early for public ridicule, and have that one frumpy (read: traditionally not ‘attractive’) singer that blows everyone out of the water with their genuine talent. Or a child prodigy. All tend to somehow involve Simon Cowell (or a similar judge) who as much as I guiltily enjoy his rude criticisms, isn’t enough to keep me watching said shows.
Games redone in different engines
You must know by now that I love me some video games. Especially some retro games that at the time were cutting edge in both looks, mechanics and story. So when you try and replay those games years later, you have your nostalgia goggles on. Sometimes they work (like when I replay Final Fantasy VI) and some age badly (like when I play Final Fantasy VII – that updated one doesn’t count and it doesn’t really look any better).
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This game is simple yet not. Strange yet not. The name made no sense to me like some computer cracking code generated the title and named said file. At first I thought this was simply a 3D version of that Centipede game that came on older PCS with minesweeper. I mean the whole changing things on a screen while avoiding colliding into your body is there.