College Stats 'n' Stuff for the Pac-12 (Week Seven)
PAC-12 CONFERENCE [Scores] [Standings]
Best Wins:
- Oregon State kept its unlikely unbeaten season going with a 42-24 crushing of Brigham Young.
- Cal continued to rise from its early-season coma, knocking off Washington State by 31-17.
- Week 8 sneak peek: on Thursday night, Oregon roasted Arizona State, 43-21, despite not scoring in the second half.
Stats Smorgasbord:
- Jonathan Franklin of UCLA was held under 100 yards for just the second time (by Utah) but he still leads the conference with 125.4 yards per game.
- Just how is Oregon State doing it? Leading rusher is Storm Woods at 80.8 yards per game.
- QB Sean Mannion is No. 5 in the conference in passing efficiency: 7 TDs, 4 INT, 8.0 yards per attempt, 63.3% completion percentage. Decent, but not mind-blowing for college football, that's for sure.
- Total defense: No. 6 in the conference, allowing 361.8 yards per game.
- Total offense: No. 5 in the conference with 457.6 yards per game.
- Scoring offense: No. 8 in the conference with 27.2 points per game.
- Scoring defense: No. 2 in the conference and No. 25 nationally with 18.4 points per game allowed.
- So there's your answer: they are winning on the scoreboard, not the stat sheet.
Football Factoids:
- ESPN Heisman Watch: 5. Oregon all-purpose player DeAnthony Thomas; 7. Oregon RB Kenjon Barner; 8. USC QB Matt Barkley 11-T; Arizona State QB Taylor Kelly.
- Pac-12 in the AP poll: 2. Oregon; 8. Oregon State; 11. USC; 22. Stanford.
- Pac-12 in the BCS standings: 3. Oregon; 8. Oregon State; 10. USC; 20. Stanford.
- Obvioiusly, the BCS standings are one place where the difference between No. 2 and No. 3 is huge. So Oregon will be looking to make the one spot up. The No. 2 BCS team -- Florida -- still has South Carolina, Georgia and Florida State (and possibly an SEC title game) on its slate, so the Ducks will have plenty of chances to get help.
- Stanford's narrow loss at Notre Dame (controversial goal-line stand in overtime) leaves the Cardinal with two losses, and both Oregon schools left to play. Quite a drop from where they were after knocking off USC and looking like longshot national title contenders.
- The new Pac-12 alignment puts The Big Game in mid-October. I don't know if that's permanent or not. But it will be Cal-Stanford this week, and, yes, it is the 30th anniversary of The Play, in which Cal won with a crazy kickoff return through the Stanford band.
Searching for topics
Blogging isn't always easy. When you start out, you've got a hundred ideas for blogs and it takes only a few minutes to bang them out. Pretty soon, your blog is filled with great and informative posts and you're on your way to international stardom.
After a few weeks or months, the posts are getting a little harder to write. Posts that were once taking 10 minutes are now taking an hour to write and the topics aren't flowing from your mind anymore. You're going to have to bite the bullet and look for different topics.
If you can't think of anything from your life to write, then scour news websites that pertain to your niche. This works not only for topic ideas, but it's also timely so people will be searching for more information about it. It's important that if you quote directly from the website that you attribute the source.
Plagiarism isn't accepted by anyone, even if it's accidental. If the news sites aren't doing it for you, then you may have to start lurking on some of your friends sites and other blogs. You don't have to pick their topic exactly, but its perfectly OK to gain inspiration from friends and competition. Parents often have similar experience and while you may have forgotten it through the years, others haven't.
Their topics may spur a memory that you had completely forgotten about. Just remember that your blog is about your opinion and not others. So while the subject matter can be similar, everything else should be all you.
College Stats 'n' Stuff for the Big XII (Week Seven)
BIG XII CONFERENCE [Scores] [Standings]
Best Wins:
- None bigger than Texas Tech stopping West Virginia cold: 49-14. Just after the Mountaineers had made their "statement game" by beating Texas, the Red Raiders came up with a "statement game" of their own.
- Oklahoma, sort of damaged goods after already having lost to Kansas State, made Texas somewhat more damaged with a 63-21 rout.
Stats Smorgasbord:
- Texas Tech means defense! It does? Yes, it does! The Red Raiders are No.4 nationally in total defense, and No. 17 nationally in scoring defense. And they shut down West Virginia, which had threatened to dance unscathed through its first Big XII tour. No one would have expected the dance to end in Lubbock. But Coach Tommy Tuberville has a real defense going.
- Geno Smith couldn't do it all himself for the first time this year, completing 29-of-55 for just 1 TD, but he did go without an interception. Keeping the no-interception streak alive probably helps him keep his Heisman chances going as well. Everyone has an off day.
- But Smith was outdone by Tech's Seth Doege, who completed 32-of-42 for 499 yards and 6 TDs with 1 INT. Doege is No. 7 in the nation in passing efficiency. So, of course, that puts him at only fourth in the Big XII (behind Smith, Baylor's Nick Florence and Oklahoma State's J.W. Walsh).
- There is some rushing in the Big XII too: Oklahoma State's Joseph Randle is the guy there: 122.8 yards per game.
Football Factoids:
- ESPN Heisman Watch: 1. Smith, but no longer in a landslide; 3. Kansas State QB Collin Klein.
- Big XII in the AP poll: 4. Kansas State; 10. Oklahoma; 17. West Virginia;18. Texas Tech. A bigger drop for the Mountaineers than one might have expected.
- Big XII in the BCS standings: 4. Kansas State; 9. Oklahoma; 13. West Virginia; 17. Texas Tech; 23. TCU; 24. Iowa State; 25. Texas. Looks like the formula likes the Big XII better than the voters. And No. 13 for West Virginia makes way more sense.
- So the big showdown in Morgantown took a BIG hit when the Mountaineers got pounded in Lubbock, but they'll still play the game: Kansas State will come in as the only unbeaten team in the conference, and West Virginia and Smith will try to shake off last week and get back on the national map.
- Still kind of funny that Texas-Oklahoma is pretty much an afterthought and Kansas State-West Virginia gets the prime-time spotlight.
- You gotta say this: if Klein outplays Smith on Smith's home field, then he's going to jump right onto that Heisman stage. (Although Braxton Miller will still lurk.)
What happened to real action movies?
Do you remember the '80s and '90s? Arnold, Sly, Chuck, Van Damme and Lundgren were the big action heroes of the day. They blew stuff up, had big body counts and we all watched and loved it. These movies were testosterone filled romps with larger-than-life villains and heroes.
Rambo, Commando, Delta Force, etc. are classics, but you just don't see them anymore. The most recent movies like Crank, Transporter, etc. are pale in comparison to the grandiosity of their predecessors and why? The cold hard reality is that most movies are marketing to teens and a blood and bomb fest is too graphic for PG-13 unless it's animated or non-human.
Everyone loved Transformers, but you didn't see any human ripped in half, only robots. That makes it less real and this acceptable. Soon, movies like Alex Cross and Reacher will be coming out and they seem to harken back to the classic days, but I'll see it when I believe it.
The action movies of today are watered down version of the classics and I don't see that changing. Teens go to the movies to get away from their parents. Parents can stay home and watch movies on DVR, Cable, Netflix, etc. and avoid the pubescent air of local malls and theaters.
Let's face it, parents need time away from their teens just as much as they need time away from the parents. Expendables was the last movie that really offered the grandiosity of the past, but that was only because it featured the old guard and was meant to be an homage to the classics. It's not easy being an action fan in a Twilight world.
Japanese vs. American gaming
There is no doubt that while America is often considered a major world power, when it comes to video games, we're are far behind Japan. In Japan, you can't walk down the street without hitting a bank of pachinko machines or other type of game.
Video games in this country aren't just a pastime, it's a way of life. Professional gamers have just as many fans and admirers as America's biggest movie stars. While the U.S. has its fair share of video games premiering every month, Japan has many many more. It's kind of sad for us who love certain games like Hack, Wild Arms and other Japanese imports that have flourished in Japan, but pretty much died out here in the U.S.
The types of videogames themselves are different in Japan. U.S. game developers have a different set of rules when it comes to gaming than those in Japan. Japanese games aren't necessarily better, but they are different. It's just about the change in cultures.
Take a look at the games from Japan that have come to America and compare them to U.S. based games. They tend to be more character-oriented and visually fantastic. They have a tendency to mimic the popular Manga styles of the time. The plots also focus on the cultural and mythological aspects of Japan and not the U.S., which makes sense.
How many of us have played a Japanese import and were thoroughly confused by things like talking fruit? I don't think our two styles will ever truly merge and will continue to be divisive in their very nature.
The importance of anthologies
When I first thought of becoming a professional writer, my first thought was writing a book. Everyone wants to be the next J.K. Rowling or Stephen King, but I discovered that writing a book isn't as easy as simply sitting at the computer and typing.
Writing is an art form and it takes time to perfect your craft. It was here that I discovered anthologies. There are two primary ways of getting short stories published: magazines/ websites and anthologies. It's usually a good idea to cut your teeth with short stories and get them published, so you can get a name for yourself and start a fan base.
Often, magazines pay per word, but anthologies can give you an upfront payment as well as residual payments from sales. It's not much, but it's better than nothing. Some anthologies are one-shot deals, but others are long standing series that come out every year. These are the ones where you're likely to get the best royalties.
In an anthology, you're one of several writers with stories. They are usually a mix of known and little known authors. The goal is that they well-known authors bring with them a good fan base and thus they buy the book. This gets them interested in the little known authors and then you're off.
It's much easier having a story published in an anthology than having a book published by a reputable publishing house. Once you have a good fan base from short stories, then you have a better chance of getting your book published or finding an agent. It all comes down to money and established readers, which are the people who will buy the book.
Monster of The Week
After many, many and many more story arc episodes, it's nice to get back to the Monster of the Week even it was a little lame. The episode did touch on the subject of Sam going back to a normal life after ridding the world of demons.
It's an odd relationship with the brothers this year. They are both looking for normalcy, but it two completely different ways. Sam wants the white picket fence, dog and adoring wife that he had while Dean was in Purgatory. Dean's been in survival mode for a year and wants to get back to the only thing he really knows how to do: hunt.
In this episode, the brothers defeat an Mayan warrior that has stayed young for centuries by making a deal with one of their gods. The only caveat was that people had to die to keep him young. He eventually tired of living and killed himself, but when his organs were harvested and given to sick people, they discovered they could become almost superhuman by doing the same ritual.
When it was all said and done, Dean enjoyed the normalcy of defeating the bad guy and saving people. For Sam, it just reinforced his departure from normalcy. I don't know where the writers are going with this, but Sam can't expect to quit cold turkey. Even if he gave it up, Sam's got enough enemies out there that eventually someone is going to find him.
He's nearly ended and saved the world. He's killed hundreds of creatures and left a wake of bodies behind him. For the Winchester brothers, what we think of as normal isn't an options.
College Stats 'n' Stuff for the Big Ten (Week Seven)
BIG TEN CONFERENCE [Scores] [Standings]
Best Wins:
- After a weak start, including a loss at home to Central Michigan, Iowa suddenly asserted itself in the Legends Division with a 19-16 overtime defeat of Michigan State.
- Meanwhile, in the Leaders Division, Wisconsin asserted itself as the (eligible) team to beat by knocking off Purdue, 38-14.
Stats Smorgasbord:
- All year, it's been a battle of the all-purpose quarterbacks in the Big Ten, and it is Ohio State's Braxton Miller who has taken the driver's seat. Miller is third in the conference in rushing with 130.3 yards per game (good for No. 7 nationally), and is also third in passing efficiency with 11 TDs, just 4 INT and 8.0 yards per attempt (good for No. 34 nationally).
- And MIller's team is also the only one unscathed on the scoreboard as well.
- Denard Robinson of Michigan leads the conference in rushing with 134.0 yards per game, with Le'Veon Bell of Michigan State and Miller right behind. Wisconsin's Montee Ball is no surprise in fourth place.
- But fifth and sixth are the ones upending expectations. Northwestern's Venric Mark has emerged as a key player with 113.9 yards per game. Mark had only 15 carries all of last season as a rarely used reserve.
- But Iowa's Mark Weisman didn't even enter a game last year, despite being on the roster, and was only expected to be a backup fullback this year. Injuries gave him his chance, and now he's averaging 105.2 yards per game.
Football Factoids:
- ESPN Heisman Watch: 2. Miller. He's closing the gap on Geno Smith of West Virginia, who was shut down by Texas Tech.
- Big Ten in the AP poll: 7. Ohio State; 23. Michigan.
- Big Ten in the BSC standings: Oops! With the Buckeyes ineligible, there are no Big Ten teams in the BCS standings. Fail!
- Michigan State has been a major disappointment, and has two conference losses, but it can upend the Legends Division with a win over in-state rival Michigan.
- And, yes, there sits Iowa at 2-0 in the league, with a chance to get the inside track if the Wolverines trip up. But the Hawkeyes will need to get past surprising Penn State.
- With both the Buckeyes and Nittany Lions out of the conference title game, the road was open for Purdue, but the Boilermakers wilted against Wisconsin. They'll have to rebound against Ohio State. Good luck with that.
College Stats 'n' Stuff for the ACC + Notre Dame (Week Seven)
ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE [Scores] [Standings]
Given that Notre Dame will be joining the ACC in all sports other than football, we'll start including Notre Dame in our ACC recaps.
Best Wins:
- Since we're including the Domers, we gotta go with Notre Dame 20, Stanford 13 in OT. The Irish made a famous and controversial goal-line stand to keep the Cardinal from tying the game in overtime.
- Among current ACC schools, North Carolina went to 5-2 with an 18-14 win over reeling Miami.
- And, one week after getting bounced from the National Championship picture by N.C. State, Florida State rebounded with a 51-7 beatdown of Boston College.
Stats Smorgasbord:
- The Seminoles E.J. Manuel probably lost any faint Heisman hopes in that loss to the Wolfpack as well, but he also rallied with a huge game against the Eagles, throwing for 439 yards and 4 TDs on 27-of-34 completions.
- Manuel is No. 4 in the nation in passing efficiency.
- The Seminoles continue to lead the conference in total offense and total defense.
- Everett Golson is the only member of the Irish to show up on major statistical charts, and he is only No. 82 in passing efficiency and No. 91 in total offense. Notre Dame is succeeding with a team effort.
Football Factoids:
- ESPN Heisman Watch: [4. Notre Dame LB Manti Te'o]; 9-T. Manuel; 11-T. Clemson WR DeAndre Hopkins.
- ACC in the AP poll: [5. Notre Dame]; 12. Florida State; 14. Clemson.
- ACC in the BCS rankings: [5. Notre Dame]; 14. Florida State; 19. Clemson.
- Duke and North Carolina bring their heated rivalry to the gridiron this week, and both are 5-2. The Blue Devils came back down to Earth a bit last week when Virginia Tech smoked them 41-20.
- Speaking of the Hokies, they'll be seeking to get their uncharacteristically mediocre season on track against Clemson. The Tigers are 5-1 and the Hokies are 4-3. It will be a key game for jockeying for bowl position.
- Notre Dame plays host to 4-3 Brigham Young.
Successful men with severe money problems
The Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme rocked the world. But there have been quite a few people who have lost massive fortunes that they made during their lifetimes. I will be focusing on the more famous ones in this post.
Thomas Jefferson
The third president of the United States and one of our Founding Fathers died deeply in debt. Jefferson owed $107,000 at the time of his death and this was a massive amount in 1826. All of Jefferson's possessions including his Monticello estate were put on auction to pay his debt.
Ulysses S. Grant
It seems like presidential pensions were introduced for a reason as we have another president who died with nothing to his name. Ulysses S. Grant left office in 1877 and failed at his business ventures which included a New York investment firm and a railroad business.
Mark Twain
Mark Twain's writing and quotes will live forever, but it is a little-known fact that he had a ton of financial troubles during his lifetime. Creditors would chase him for years and he had to file for bankruptcy and prudently transfer his copyrights to his wife's name. Twain went on a speaking tour in 1895 and eventually paid of all his debts.
Henry Ford
I thought it should be only appropriate to include a couple of people who used their failures to go on to greater successes. Detroit Automobile was started by a young engineer and went bust after two years. The same entrepreneur - Henry Ford - became a household name when he went on to start Ford Motor and incorporated the assembly line.
H.J. Heinz
Never give up is the moral of the story. H.J. Heinz tried his hand in business with horseradish sauce and this went nowhere and left him with loans to repay. He duly repaid these loans and founded a ketchup company that is worth nearly $18 billion today.