Snack-tastic snack of the week:

Dark chocolate M&M's. Or Peanut Butter M&M's. Or Almond M&M's. I guess just about any M&M will do. Ma likes to buy a pound bag or two (Well, my money says they're no longer pounders. Fucking recession scale-backs..) every now and again and leave them in a candy dish in our kitchen. Needless to say my inner fat kid needs no excuse to come out and I spend the next 24 hours popping a handful every time I mosey into the kitchen. It makes every day a celebration, and I'm never mad about that. And they taste just like they smell: DELICIOUS.

--

So I finally convinced Ma to call our "internet" service provider to discuss our recent "internet" issues, and sure enough they're at fault. Bastards. And of course they need to send someone out, and of course they cannot arrive on the scene for 2-3 days. And once on the premises if anything actually has to be done then we'll need to schedule another appointment? Is it just me or is this ridiculous? Shouldn't whoever is going to investigate a problem BE PREPARED TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM?! This isn't a black ops mission that requires scouting, just figure you why I can't check my email whenever my little heart desires. So hopefully by next week I won't still feel like I have 56k dial up anymore. That would be a nice change.

--

Basically sums up my summer:

I've been working in Turner for damn near seven weeks now. Needless to say I have grown tired of driving to Turner every morning. So it is with a smiling face that I declare Wednesday will be thee last day I'll be on the roof of a school in Turner, Maine. Yippy-f-ing-skippy. This picture is supposed to make me look cool and reckless. I'm not lying when I say that yellow harness I'm wearing is attached to absolutely nothing. But I look safe, don't I?

This picture doesn't really do the location justice. We were up about 60 feet at this time, which is a pretty interesting feeling. I guess, except for the fact I don't really like heights. Back in my youth I wouldn't even jump off of five foot tall slides into swimming pools. Though I suppose nothing's really changed. I wouldn't jump off of here into a swimming pool, either. But, this has pretty much been my summer. Tons of fun, right?


--

Idol throw back

Just received word that Allsion brought the house down on that "American Idol Live" tour that goes on after the season ends. Am I surprised? What do you think? America got it wrong. Par for the course, I suppose. Allison will be a star. O, yes. She will be a star. And that's all I have to say about that.

--

One last football-related comment before I go to bed:

Enough with this "Wildcat Formation" bullshit. Every sports-talk person and commentator and SportsCenter host loves to say "wildcat." Call it what it is: Single wing football that has been around for, well, 90 years. This is Pop Warner shit right here. No, not the youth league...THE GUY, Pop Warner. He revolutionized football with the single wing in the early 1900's before Delaware modernized the single wing with what came to be known as the T and wing-T in the 1940's.

The shit the Dolphins run isn't anything new. It hasn't revolutionized the game. It just goes to show that option football is effective. NFL minds can't even stop the option because it's based on players carrying out assignments and trusting the other 10 guys on defense to do their job, too. The defense needs to play their assignment rather than just be athletes. It slows a defense down. I doubt anyone reading this actually cares, but this shit bugs me. It's series football in that you only have six or eight different plays that can be run out of multiple formations and the plays all look about the same, just different people get the ball. It's based around timing and play fakes. This is middle school football here. Which is exactly the genius of it.

From here it's just zone read, with the "tailback" reading the playside end and either handing off to the other back or taking it himself based on what the end does. Kansas State ran this a ton in the late 90's with Michael Bishop. Or they fake the handoff and the "tailback" drops back to pass. Or one of the two outside receivers, generally the slot will run a reverse action. Last, but not least, would be student body right or left if the slot motions into the backfield and acts as a blocking back.

Simple enough, right? Formations don't matter; you can motion into any formation or out of any formation and still run the same plays with the same action every time so everything looks similar at the snap. Same with the wing-T beginning with trap/buck sweep action, which lead to waggle pass and some other passing plays. It's not rocket surgery. Any team can run this; it just works best with a big, fast back that can also throw, so run/pass options are balanced. This is why some well-versed minds consider Tim Tebow a single wing tailback and not a "quarterback," because so much of what Florida runs out of their spread-option offense is almost entirely single wing principles in the backfield (They zone block up front which never would have been done in the 1910's...and a story for another day, I suppose).

There's your football history lesson/chalk talk for the day. And sorry for the poor artwork, I don't have Playmaker on my desktop. Cheers.