Life happens

Well, let's see if I can summarize some of what has happened. Ben and I headed to PAX a few weeks ago. Wow, it was fun. I was impressed by how the Washington State Convention Center was able to handle the amount people there. Lots of stuff looked really impressive, some you expect (stuff from Blizzard) and some that was a surprise to me (Torchlight Games). We went all three days which is a first for me. We went to see Bill Amend's talk, Wil Wheaton's talk, also a talk on game design strategy and failure in games as part of design. Otherwise we spent some time in the table top area playing board and card games. Got to hang out with Eonflare as well. As for concerts, we stuck around till JoCo played on Saturday night and that was a lot of fun.

Then I spent a week sick. Very, very sick. But I was able to effectively quarantine myself as the rest of house was able to stay healthy.

This weekend finds me home with Miranda while Michelle is at a knitting retreat. We have done some coloring, reading, running around, legos, dancing, and movies. She seems to be bearing up well with mom being away.

Oh yeah. The Lions decided to end a 19 game losing streak avoiding the record. They seemed to want to give it away, but held on to find new life and new opportunity. WOOT!

Lions' bets

Still sick. Not H1Nerd1 from PAX. Just the plain old flu.


If the Lions post double digit wins, I will buy a Authentic Jersey with the team MVP.

If the Lions avoid the record consecutive losses, I will buy a Lion's hat.



This year I am trying to avoid the negative bet that I made last year, so this is my way of trying to keep it positive.

Passing on the affliction?

So far I have finished two fantasy drafts for fantasy football season. I am sure all of us feel that we could put together a team that would be successful, but that isn't really why I play. I play because for many years now, I needed something else to help Sunday be fun again while Detroit was trying to figure out that Matt Millen was not the right solution for creating a winning season. It gave me people to watch and celebrate when they did something successful, which was really in short supply with the Lions.

Now I am faced with a dilemma. I can pass on this unhealthy love of a bumbling team to my daughter or let her go down a different path. Michelle's family is generally a Green Bay family, so that is one option. Another is the Seattle Seahawks. I am not a particular fan of either. And how do you influence the team they adopt? Is it peer pressure? Is it watching a parent cry in their hands when there team suffers a crushing defeat? Maybe I really don't have a say in the matter.

That said, I do have a group of players I can cheer for. I have a couple leagues, one standard yahoo public league (Adrian Peterson, Steve Smith/Car, etc) and then my custom league. This is the first year that I have tried the individual defensive players instead of the team defenses. I ended up picking up my defensive players starting in the 6th round. I might have been able to hold off longer, but I had some defensive players that I definitely wanted on my squad. The worst part of it was 4 of the 10 teams were unable to show and Yahoo does a poor job of ranking defensive players. It should be simple to apply league scoring rules and show the number of points a player racked up last year. Rank on that and you at least have a good idea of where that player should go.

It should be fun this year. Lots of new things to try and lots of teams to keep an eye on during the season.

This years Lions prediction: 4 - 12. Also I predict that they set record for consecutive losses (even though they are really only 3 away...).

Book Reviews: Charles Stross

Recently finished a bunch of books between illness and vacation.



Halting State was a tremendously fun book. The book is about a couple of geeks. One is a computer geek, one is an accounting geek, but both enjoy games and other forms of geeky entertainment. The story starts when an online bank in MMORPG bank is robbed. A jumpy marketing executive gets the police involved and suddenly you have the risk of currency collapse in this world. It only gets worse when at the root of the problem, this type of robbery should be impossible and that the fact it has occurred has very real implications to all things networked which in the near future work is everything.

I found the characters to be fun, interesting and engaging. The world itself is a delight with its blending on online and offline elements. It is not as ground breaking as Snow Crash or Neuromancer but takes those same rough concepts and updates them with the most recent state of the art and extrapolates it. The story has a few good twists in it and carries quickly through from scene to scene, rarely feeling like it is dragging. The story is told through a couple points of view which can be a bit disjointing but is fun. For me, I had to just get through the police officer scenes which were not as interesting to me, but they were not bad either.

In terms of Charles' other books, this has more the feel of the occult-geek books but with a science fiction settings. You have a spy versus spy story with plenty of action similar to Jennifer Morgue and Atrocity Archives, but without the Elder Gods.



Singularity Sky is set in the far future world where humanity has been spread through the universe but not as you would expect. The universe is policed by the Eschaton to keep causality events from occurring. And some of those far flung pockets of humanity are pretty dumb.

Enter into this an engineer for hire who specializes in singularity drives (mini black holes that are spun for energy and propulsion) and a special operative who specializes in diffusing situations where governments are tempted to use those banned causality violating events. A minor backwater world is "invaded" by The Festival, a group of AIs that rain down factories and gifts in exchange for information. This backwater world is controlled by a regional galaxy government that is focused on restricting information and controlling the population. The government decides to take their world back by sending a armada far into the future and then back again in an effort to sneak past the Eschaton's monitoring.

The books set in this universe are a bit harder to read. They are set in a far different world and a lot of time is spent describing it. The story feels choppy and will burst forward with lots of stuff happen and then halt to describe an aspect of the world. The story when it is moving is interesting but that when it stops it just is painful. The characters are fun and interesting as well as some of the science aspects.



Iron Sunrise is the sequel to Singularity Sky. You have our two intrepid policing agents again but are introduced in more detail to Herman (a non-present character in the first book) and Wednesday, a teenage girl who has lost her home planet and feels the outcast in her surroundings.

Another of the pockets of humanity is suddenly destroyed setting off a set of events involving 40 year bombs and terrorism of populations. Rachel, Martin, and Wednesday must stop the new Aryans (ReMastered Race) from destroying the many lives and worlds protected by the Eschaton.

Yup that is pretty much it. The story is as engaging as the previous book while going a little deeper. The major pain is the beginning of the book which is terribly disjointed but this soon fades away as the story picks up and we engage with the characters and find out more to the mystery of who the ReMastered are as well as more about Herman as well. If you could get through Singularity Sky, then you will probably enjoy this one more, just fight through the slow beginning.

Snippet

Went to michigan. Saw friends and family. It was fun. Came home. Got sick. Not fun. Otherwise terribly busy.

Movie Review: Dorkness Rising

Recently watched a "Nerd" movie called, The Gamers: Dorkness Rising. Basically it follows the work of a DM/Writer trying to put together a test campaign with a group of guys at the local game shop. Needless to say that it picks up at the most recent attempt at the campaign and it ends in the death of the party. There is a suggestion to add more people than just the 3 guys currently playing so they grab one of the guy's ex and end up with a NPC as well since they could not find a fifth.

The story takes place both in the real world as well as in the game world. The special effects work is kept fairly light. The acting is a bit over done at times but really works in poking fun at some of the weird moments that happen when people game together. The characters are generally likable and you get conflict at multiple levels. It's hokey but altogether fun as well.

If you like card or board games (new style) or read books of a fantasy slant, this you will probably enjoy this movie. It is a niche movie that fills the role nicely.

Book Review: The Difference Engine

The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling was an interesting alternative history book. After reading Pattern Recognition, I was not sure if I would like this book, but it was shown to be one of the highly recommended science fiction works. I believe this falls under the steam punk genre, but really I am not an expert in genre definition. There is steam, but not so many punks.

The world of The Difference Engine is set in and around 1850 Britain after Charles Babbage and the mental elite have setup a meritocracy in England around the enterprise of their steam powered computation machines. The United States do not exist other than in a pocket of the Northeast, except for the Manhattan Commune. The South is it's own country along with Texas. Germany is a scattered set of nation states and Britain and France are deep allies.

The story is centered around 3 main characters that have come into contact with a set of punch cards, but the story is not really about those cards (or if it is, I start worrying about the depth of story). The story starts with that of a fallen woman, whose father lead an anti-technology movement but was executed for those beliefs. Next you follow a paleontologist who is attempting to navigate the world of Britain's savant aristocracy. Finally you follow a British spy who is primarily interested in keeping the world that Britain has created and cultivated in existence.

The most interesting thing for me was the section around Thomas Mallory, but I really liked the special policeman that is assigned to help keep him safe and protected. The story is meandering and seems to just hint at these menaces hovering at the periphery. His portion of the story takes place during the most overt of the conflict, the rising up of the communist ideals against the meritocracy.

Overall this has been under consideration by some of my friends as must read science fiction. I don't think I would do that, but it is something that I can recommend as fun reading.

Sleep Stomach

Week did not go quite as I would have liked. I ended up with the stomach flu during the week which when coupled with the amount of work I am trying to get done, does not make it any less stressful. Miranda has decided that sleep is also optional making it optional for me as well. Well that was only last night. The night before she slept 12 hours. So overall I guess I can't complain other than I stayed up late the night she slept and then she stayed up the night I wanted to sleep. 7 hours sleep total for the weekend.

Finished reading The Difference Engine by Stirling and Gibson. It was good and I will likely put up a full review soon.

Um, that is it...

EA... NCAAF 10

Ok... I just got a note that basically says you can unlock anything or start with an advantage by bribing EA. Seriously.

Want to start Road to Glory mode with a 5 star DT or DE? 100 points (or 50 cents) will get you what you want. The same can be said for DB, WR, RB, LB, and QB.

Ok, so you can spend a little dough and get a head start on your first person football mode. No big deal, it's only 50 cents. At least Dynasty mode is pure... right?

Nope.

Adding new pipeline states is crucial for adding good players and it is normally hard to get, but now can be easily had for 150 points. Unlock new promises will also make it easier to recruit and set you back 180 points. For another 150 points, you can get bumps to your pitches which also boosts your ability to sell on recruits. How about a recruiting advisor to help with your decsisions for 120 points (I do find this to be the least offensive). Or maybe you want to know what your rival teams are focusing on recruiting for 120 points.

Want to download team rosters? 800 points ($10) will unlock all the team building and downloading slots.

Between seasons, you want to keep the best and train them up. Spend a little bit of points (180) to always max out your training. Or maybe you want a boost for retaining them for their senior year for 180 points.

Your stadium can give you an edge. Why not give that a boost too for 120 points.

But why go ala carte? Grab the whole set for 1000 points (or roughly $12).

Someone paying to cheat at games is not really new. Some folks just want to win more than to experience the challenges. That isn't what is really frustrating about this. What is a joke is that if you want to compete online, you will need to buy these packs as the folks you will play dynasty against online will have these.

Happy Anniversary

8 years. Doesn't seem that long ago really. But we have been out here just shy of 4 years. Miranda is over 3 years old. I guess there are years and events the fill the time, but it all really doesn't feel that long ago.

Michelle, when I married you, I had no doubt that you would be able to make me happy. I only hoped that I could do the same for you. Today I know that you have made me happy and that the reason the years have seemed short is because I have enjoyed them so much.

I am glad you are back from Michigan. I am glad we could have some thai food with friends. I wish the chocolate cake thing had been better, but experimenting with baked goods is always asking for trouble. I hope you like the coffee grinder, cause I think the copper sculpture is pretty.

Happy Fourth of July

Also happy First of July for Canadians. July has come in with a little bit of heat. The warm weather is right up some people's alley, but not so much for me. I like things to be on the cooler side. Spent this year's Fourth playing some Munchkin Booty with some friends on ours. I couldn't scrape together a win but it was still fun. Made some lunch of grilled chicken wings which turned out good as well as throwing some walla walla onions in with asparagus in tin foil for the grill. Messy but good.

Lately I have been pretty busy with work but have managed to squeeze in some time to game. Finished Saints Row 2 recently with Ish. A ridiculously fun game. It is completely over the top criminal behavior that just runs to the crazy side. Add a dash of co-op and you have a really great time. Graphics are good and the game play is straight forward. Plenty of side missions/activities to go with the main mission so there is always something to do. Pretty much all I have left is some races, the DLC and some online...

Also finished Heinlein's "Have Spacesuit - Will Travel". Very typical R.A.H. juvenile. I enjoyed it. Next looking at the Difference Engine by Sterling and Gibson.

Also recently got to try some new card games. First up was Anima. This is a card game that attmepts to mimic a JRPG. You control a party of characters that are out to save the world from a great evil, but you are racing other parties trying to save the world as well. One wonders if you should be competing to save the world? But the game is fun and the mechanics are pretty simple and neat. You have an initial mission that has you exploring the world and having random encounters in order to build your party and also complete that mission. Once that is done, you uncover the final mission and attempt to complete that. Ben and I have been working on some slight variations and found some pretty neat ideas for extending the game (base play is about 40 minutes) and also making it a bit more dynamic. It does has some balance flaws around party size and how quickly you can get to full party, but overall I can recommend it.

The other game is Arkham Horror. I went searching around for a board or card game that you can play in a co-op fashion. The adversarial games are just rough on me as they generally make Michelle pretty upset which means I lose arm hair. This one is pretty dark in that you and a group of friends trying to stop and ancient unspeakable horror from destroying the land. So far, Ben and I have only given it a single pass which took about 5 - 6 hours. And we lost. But still had fun in the process. I am definitely looking forward to trying it again and hopefully with more people so that we actually have a chance at clearing out the baddies.

Also, please can it rain? Although with Ish coming out to visit, I think we are guaranteed some rain. :)

Ahh Father's Day

First going to start off with a thank you to my Dad. More than just supplying me with about 50% of my genetic material, you have instilled in me a set of values and priorites along with a strong sense of respect and responsibility that I appreciate.

I tried to get Miranda to draw with me and make a Father's day card for grandpa, but no luck. For the first time ever, she totally didn't want to draw. So bizarre. My Father's day has been uneventful. I like it that way honestly. Michelle and Miranda were kind enough to pick up a Lego video game for me as well as picking up Munchkin Booty, the Pirate Munchkin game. Woot! Now just have to set aside some time to try both out. It is a little hard to play card games with Miranda but we'll get there someday. Michelle and Miranda were playing "Go Fish" the other days with some adjusted rules. Basically creating a matching game out of it with the cards face up.

Miranda is getting better with her letters. She can recognize a bunch of them when she sees them. She loves her Thomas the Tank Engine flash cards with one side containing the letters and the other side containing one of the trains or some train related item. School is out for her so she can enjoy more time with Mom.

Recently finished Singularity Sky by Charles Stross. Will have to do a write up on that one. Game wise, I have been playing Last Remnant and Saints Row 2. Mostly just doing some cleaning in my free time though.

Book Review: Team of Rivals

This book took quite a bit of time to get through. It tells the story of the Lincoln administration during his terms as president. It goes through the political and personal histories of those involved and then plots how they worked together during those years. The book is well written. I enjoyed how the chapters were put together. The first few chapters talked about the individual people at the same times in their lives (as the members of the cabinet were of different ages, you could not have the same time period). As we got closer to the time of the presidency though you saw the timeline grow together. Each chapter would contain multiple 2-5 page sections that generally focused on a single issue or individual. This shortness lead to it being relatively easy to read, but at the same point, it didn't really give you a ton of depth.

The story of the Civil War and the time of Lincoln are known by all Americans, but it is well told in this volume. I recommend it just for one of the main points of the book, which is through differences of opinions and open discussions can we achieve the best possible results. Lincoln's cabinet was made up of individuals from both sides of the issues and it was through discussion and disagreement that some of the best policies and execution of those policy existed.

Visited Michigan, picked up the flu

Ug.

So two weeks ago was my friend, Jim's, wedding. I was part of the wedding party show I flew in a couple of days early and helped Jim and Heather put together the wedding, keep everyone sane, and just hang out with my best friends from high school. As usual, sleep was not a huge priority.

I arrived and AY picked me up from the airport in Lansing. We grabbed some pizza and beer while at the Crystal. Talked video games (Fallout 3), Red Wing's hockey, and just caught up. Aaron was my best man in my wedding, but we just haven't kept in contact like we should. I am going to endeavor to do a better job of that going forward. Finishing the night we played some hockey when Jim got home.

The next day was the bachelor party. Jim's favorite activities are golf and poker so that was the plan for the day. Five of us heading about 40 minutes out of time to golf. Two of us had never been golfing before so it was bound to be an interesting day. Poor AY got stuck with the two of us who had never golfed while Jim and the best man, Rob, headed out ahead of us. Jim and Rob were able to make it through all 18 holes while the 3 some were only able to get through 9 holes. Wow do I suck. After that, we hit Legends where Jim and I each bought a box of football cards hoping to score the latest rookie sensation as an autograph or piece of Jersey. Either way, we both drew blanks on this one. Ouch. Which left us with perfect time to head over to a charity poker tournament. Jim did best of any of thus ranking 7th, but was not able to get his draws. I was first out, but again this was a first for me and I got a little bit anxious when I had a couple of decent hands and then those. We finished the evening with a little two on two hockey. It was a lot of fun.

We all spent the next day getting things for the wedding finished up. Heather's sisters were running the decorating of the reception hall with Rob and AY. Jim and I went to pick up the tuxes and also pick up a bunch of other random things we needed from party stores and the like. Afterwords was the rehearsal and dinner, which was some phenomenal food. And then back to the hall for some final touches to the reception hall.

The wedding itself was very pretty. The bride looked stunning. The groomsmen looked bored. The maid of honor looked ready to get the show on the road. There were lots of folks at the wedding and reception and it all went well. Only one minor glitch which was the loss of the ringbearer pillow, which in the tradition of something going awry at a wedding is a pretty light one. Photographs before and after the wedding which I am still waiting to see. Reception started a bit later than we wanted with the amount of photos and travel time. Jim was a little disappointed with the reception. I am sure he pictured it being the big party of weddings past. I thought it was a good reception, but it was not a huge extravaganza. Memorable moments for me was when Jim sang a song for Heather, as Jim did such an excellent job on it, and also as all the groomsmen ditched their shoes for something more comfortable.

When it was was all over, basically we had the wedding party and Jim's parents cleaning up the hall. It took till pretty late. Jim, Heather, and Rob headed off for Detroit as their flight to Aruba was the next day, while AY and I headed to Stevie's hotel to crash before my flight out the next morning. 1 hour of sleep and sitting next to someone coughing probably led me to my last two weeks of sickness, but it was a trip well worth it.

Book Review: Line War by Neal Asher

To follow up on my previous post on the Ian Cormac series. I recently received the final book in the series. I was a little miffed that it took so long to move across the Atlantic ocean to arrive here in the States, but it did finally arrive.

I am currently in the middle of reading Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln and was about to take a trip to Michigan for a wedding. I really didn't feel like lugging around this huge volume and decided it was the perfect opportunity to read a little pulp.



Line War is set in the same universe where AI's control humanity. Rather than seem like evil controlling dictators, they come across benevolent gods working to help humanity and themselves along. The Polity (the AI/human government) is threatened over the series of books by Jain technology which is from a 5 million year dead society. This technology has the ability to aid, corrupt and control any organic intelligence it touches. The final chapter in the saga has Ian running around the universe trying to solve the mystery of why a Jain/Rogue AI combination has been seemingly random attacked multiple Polity worlds while his lover Mika is working with an alien organic construct known as Dragon to hunt down the source of Jain technology and perhaps find what happened to the Jain themselves.

It is tempting to ruin the end of the story. I didn't find this book to live up the expectations set by the series. Ian Cormac, the unflappable super agent, is seen just hopping around on a wild goose chase through the entire book. You are introduced to a character in Randle Fiddler who you don't know if you should trust or not, but then the author gives it away a couple of chapters later. I know by the end that he did it for other interesting dialogues he wanted to told, but overall it degraded the stories possibilities. Mika who you originally see as a pure human who is cold and analytical, slowly becomes this scared creature that is not completely likable. In the end, the book degrades down to a common conspiracy theory and collapses to an endless struggle against power and corruption.

That all said, if you have invested time in the first four books which were all quite excellent, you will likely go in for this one, but realize that it is the weakest of the series.

Visitors

It was nice to have some visitors this week to play with Miranda and give us some adult conversation. My parents came into town for a week and they were able to help us get straighten out and entertain Miranda too. It was quite nice. Weather in Seattle was decent. We had a couple sunny days but mostly it drizzled. Temperatures were generally pretty nice for this time of the year. Unfortunately things have been a bit busy for me at work so I didn't get to spend to much time with them. Maybe the next time I see them in August will work out better.

Miranda seemed to have fun. She has mentioned them a few more times today but most of it Michelle and Miranda were down in Kent wandering around. I stayed home and did some more work. I haven't really talked about my reading of late. I picked up a couple of books that I wanted to try.

1) Rendezvous with Rama. Great book from a master author. The story is a bit dry but the concepts and characters speak volumes outside of the written work.

2) Jennifer Morgue. Another fun Charles Stross book dealing with computer technician/demonologist/super spy. This is the second book using this universe and main character. I liked the first one and the second one was fun as well.

3) Pattern Recognition. William Gibson explores a book of brand identity and recognition surrounding a obscure piece of film that is slowly leaked via the internet. I didn't particularly like it. It's pacing felt off and it felt like a very odd blend of low tech, spy-thriller (without the thrills), mystic, adventure. Just didn't really dig it.

4) Blindside. This book about left tackles in football is pretty darn interesting. It tells the story of Michael Oher, a poor boy in a bad neighborhood that through a series of events brought him into a family that loves him and the opportunity to play this vital position. He just happened to the 23rd overall pick in this year's NFL draft. The writing style in the book was enjoyable for me.

5) Freakonomics. Pretty interesting book. Causality and coincidence really call into question certain events and statistics through history. This book takes a view at those events and the data behind it to attempt to find the connections.

6) Team of Rivals. I am currently in progress for this look at Abraham Lincoln and his cabinet. So far, so good.

Lions 2009 Rookie Mini-camp

Well I spend some time looking for a list of undrafted free agents and also players trying out for the Lions. I happened to find that "canusaylions" on the comments for Killer's article has posted a list.

2009 Undrafted Rookie Free Agents No. Name Pos Ht Wt Age Birthdate Exp College Hometown
14 Boldin, Demir WR 5-11 205 22 6/20/86 R Wake Forest Pahokee, Fla.
47 Downey, Andrew LB 6-1 231 22 3/9/87 R Maine Kingston, N.Y.
64 Gerberry, Dan C 6-3 302 23 11/10/85 R Ball State Austintown, Ohio
68 Gill, John DT 6-3 302 22 10/28/86 R Northwestern Los Altos Hills, Calif.
1 Waters, Swayze K 5-11 178 21 5/18/87 R Alabama-Birmingham Jackson, Miss.

2009 Rookie Orientation Tryout Players No. Name Pos Ht Wt Exp College
6 Justin Goltz QB 6-5 220 R Occidental
21 Gerald Riggs, Jr. RB 5-11 229 1 Tennessee
23 Antone Smith RB 5-8 191 R Florida State
28 Bradley Pruitt CB 6-1 195 R Northern Illinois
29 Leslie Majors CB 5-9 168 1 Indiana
36 Marcus Demps S 6-0 198 1 San Diego State
44 Marcus Parson CB 5-9 186 R Ohio
45 Johnell Neal CB 5-10 183 R Central Florida
46 Bret White LS 5-11 240 R Georgia Tech
50 Chris Kemme T 6-6 306 R Akron
52 Ben Person G 6-4 302 R Ohio State
53 Cliff Ramsey G 6-6 299 R Boston College
57 Jovan Olafioye T 6-4 321 R N. Carolina Central
58 Steve Jonas G 6-4 307 R Colgate
59 Dylan Thiry T 6-7 328 1 Northwestern
61 Ryan Kees DE 6-5 277 R St. Cloud State
67 Ricky Hope DE 6-1 250 R Texas A&M-Commerce
69 Chris Murphy DE 6-2 284 R Gannon
73 Chris Gaddis C 6-1 300 1 Villanova
78 Marcus Smith DT 6-2 260 1 Texas A&M-Commerce
80 Ernest Jackson WR 6-2 215 R Buffalo
83 Sean Bailey WR 6-0 184 1 Georgia
89 Will Judson WR 5-7 162 R Illinois
90 Daniel Holtzclaw LB 6-1 242 R Eastern Michigan
98 Spenser Smith LB 6-1 237 R Eastern Michigan

Draft 2009 Lions grade

I have to say this is a failure of drafting. I am pretty sure the Lions will grade out as one of the worst 5 in terms of their picks. At least the Raiders seemed to have been a bit more boneheaded.

1. Matthew StafFORD: Didn't want it to begin with even though we all saw it coming at least 2 to 3 weeks ago. This is drafting to put butts in the seats. Could he be Chuck Long, Andre Ware, or Joey Harrington?
2. Brandon Pettigrew: A TE? TE? Oh no. With so many other glaring needs and good players you can't do thing. I know there are teams that love to draft purely on their board. Highest rated no matter what. But what if he is graded at a 87 while there is a 85 linebacker and you need linebacker? Or a 83 OT and you could use some help on oline?
3. Louis Delmar: Love the fact he is from Western. Doesn't mean that this is something that we need. How many safeties have we drafted the last few years? Aren't any good enough to start? Again, there were a lot of great players still sitting on the board in places of needs.
4. DeAndre Levy: Finally a need . . . wait a second, we need middle linebacker as will and sam are well covered. Ok, maybe a depth pick? Maybe can slide him in at middle? This one isn't so bad. First pick I am not angry about.
5. Derrick Williams: A WR/KR/PR. Probably won't be high in the receiver core that could use a solid second, or a slot receiver that could be second with some growth. But this could work out. Ok, not angry here, but still not happy.
6. Sammie Lee Hill: Big, beefy, strong, raw D-lineman. I am happy here. Don't know if it will pan out but we are starting to add some folks that are a better bet.
7. Aaron Brown: RB/WR/KR/PR? Seems to be a special teams pick in the 6th round. Not sold at all on this pick. Not sure what the need is or what they are trying to do with this.
8. Lydon Murtha: Happy day. I think this is a great place to pick up this offensive lineman. I think he has a lot of the tools to be productive in the rotation right away and maybe earn a spot over time in the starting of a position. Big and strong.
9. Zack Follett: Again, happy with this pick. Was productive in college and will be able to contribute to the Lions. Starter? Not so sure, but I am sure he will provide a boost to special teams.
10. Dan Gronkowski: I don't get this at all. But this is the second to last pick.

So there we have it. I would give this a D+ grade. Addressed needs late. Picked questionable talent early. Feel worse about this draft than the last 5, so maybe it is a good one, or just exceptionally bad. I do look forward to seeing if they can get their hands on some good undrafted free agents or maybe grab Leroy Hill but who really wants to play for the Lions if they can help it. I wish this team would win, cause each year hurts. My current wish is for them to win a game early so we don't have to hear about the increasing number of consecutive losses they are piling on the record. Great free agency, poor draft. Let's see how this pans out.

Go Lions.

Draft bomb

Probably my worst set of picks ever. The more I try to research the worse I do. Either way it is for fun, but what wasn't fun was watching the Lions pick. Fine, I can accept the fact that they picked Stafford first. I am not thrilled about it, but whatever. However the tightend pick of Pettigrew leaves me scratching my head. I am sure that he is going to be a good TE but a good TE isn't going to help us that much. Why didn't we get a OT or LB? What about DT or DE? Shoot, why not move back? As for Delmas at 33, fine. You need safety, I like Western Mich, so this is probably a good fit. Not sure if there was a better safety or position player. That said, I thought they would have went with Rey Maualuga or Laurinaitis, or Ebon Britton or William Beatty.

So that I can look back and see if I can pick talent, I will record who I would have picked at these spots.

1) Eugene Monroe

20) Rey Maualauga

33) Jarron Gilbert

There you go. Let's check back in 2 years.

Draft 2009 revised

Watching the analysis for the draft this morning is painful with everyone laughing at the Lions.

1. Detroit Lions: Matt Stafford. It's a done deal. I don't think this is going to work out for the Lions. If we are patient, this may eventually work up, but I don't have a good feeling about it. Maybe they will trade him...
   
2. St. Louis Rams: Eugene Monroe. While they need WR and OT and could use Curry over at SLB, I think they will address some core QB protection with someone that can come in day one and start. Jason Smith is likely to need some more technique work before he can start.
3. Kansas City Chiefs: Brian Orakpo. I thought the Broncos would make a move for this position, but the more I thought about it, the more this didn't feel like something that team would do. I see the Chiefs picking a guy that will fill a role and is a strong talent for the position.
   
4. Oakland Raiders: Michael Crabtree. Hoping to make a splash and add an offensive weapon for the QB Russell, they step up and grab to top rated WR in the draft before the Browns or Bengals can grab him.
5. Cleveland Browns: Aaron Curry. Cleveland will try and shop this pick around with Crabtree off the boards, but there will be too much desparation and they likely won't get a bite on this one.
6. Cincinnati Bengals: Jason Smith. Shocked that he has dropped to here and in need of more protection for Carson Palmer, they grab some raw talent and plug him in right away.
7. Seattle Seahawks: Malcolm Jenkins. Looking for a combination SS/CB, the Seahawks will grab one of the larger presences in the draft for this position.
8. Jacksonville Jaguars: B. J. Raji. Looking to regain their status as one of the top defenses, they bulk up on the D-line to give them more power and run stopping ability.
9. Green Bay Packers: Tyson Jackson. With the move to 3-4 defense, the Pack will need to brack a tall, athletic DE that will help move the running lanes and press the line.
10. San Francisco 49ers: Mark Sanchez. I said before that the 49ers wouldn't pick a QB here, but I think they might go with Sanchez if he falls to here, they might just take a shot on him.
11. Buffalo Bills: Andre Smith. With Peters on his way to the Eagles, the Bills need to bolster their offensive line and will grab the best OT available on their draft board.
12. Denver Broncos: Everette Brown. The Broncos will go with the developmental QB late in draft ala Tom Brady and Cassel. Instead they wll go with a defensive lineman.
    
13. Washington Redskins: Michael Oher. Not so sure on this one. Doesn't seem like the thing Snyder would do, but this is definitely a need for their team.
    
14. New York Jets: Robert Ayers. A large powerful DE for Ryan's 3-4 will entice the Jets to move up a few slots to make sure they get him.
15. Houston Texans: Peria Jerry. Saw them trading down as the Lions would want a big name OT, but at this point I see them sitting tight while the Texans use their pick to bollster that line.
16. San Diego Chargers: Jarron Gilbert. Losing Igor will hurt a bit less by grabbing this potential 3-4 end.
17. New England Patriots: Brian Cushing. The Saints will trade back a second time to pick up even more picks. New England will move up to bolster their LB crew that they have lost in trades or are aging.
    
18. Denver Broncos: Rey Maualuga. Filling in some defensive holes in
19. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Jeremy Maclin. They need a WR. Pretty good bargain at this point.
20. Detroit Lions: Clay Matthews. I thought about writing in Josh Freeman here, but that would just be silly. Although I would have preferred them picking up Pat White in the second or third round. I would also like to see them grab Alex Mack here. Instead I see them grabbing Clay Matthews here to bolster the D. I question if they put in in the MLB position or not. Instead I could see them moving him to the Dline.
    
21. Philidelphia Eagles: Knowshon Moreno. With Brian Westbrook getting older, look for someone they can bring in to be that speed rusher they like to use. Also fits the Westbrook mold of a multipurpose back.
22. Minnesota Vikings: William Moore (SS). Looking for a ballhawk to sit out in the middle to help their defense out.
23. New Orlean Saints: Sean Smith. Bolster that secondary that is seeing some age. Don't make Brees win a shoot out every game.
24. Atlanta Falcons: Sherrod Martin. Look for them to pick up a CB after losing their best one in free agency. Has played FS more often than not but could make the transition.
25. Miami Dolphins: Connor Barwin. Adding a rushing OLB to help Joey Porter out and give some rest to the aging LB.
26. Baltimore Ravens: Vontae Davis. While the Ravens need help with the Linebackers, I see them picking up Jasper Brinkley later on to fill that role. So they will grab up Davis to help with their CB line earlier. They could grab a big DE but those will be available later on as well.
    
27. Indianapolis Colts: Brian Robiskie. With Marvin gone, there is still a need for a big possession type receiver.
28. Buffalo Bills: Aaron Maybin. Look for Buffalo to bolster their d-line. There has been some injuries in the past season and surprisingly Maybin will still be available. Or maybe not surprisingly.
    
29. Arizona Cardinals: Alex Mack. Technically you could say the Giants pick Anquan Boldin, but either way it will be the Cardinals pick here. My guess is that they are going to use this bonus pick to bolster that front line to help protect their QB dinosaur.
30. Tennessee Titans: Ziggy Hood. Haynesworth? Do we need him? Maybe, but this should be a good pick here.
    
31. Arizona Cardinals: Chris Wells. Look who slides to the end of the first round. Maybe I am just picking on Ohio State... maybe I think injuries and recovery has been an issue for him. But the Cards are looking for a tandem running back team with Hightower.
32. Pittsburgh Steelers: Ebon Britton. They will try to pick up someone to stop their QB from continuing his trek to achieve permanent brain injury. Likely to move Ebon inside to G to bolster the run game as well.