Awesome Autumn

Well, it's finally October, and Fall is officially here... unless you live in Arizona, where every day looks exactly the same.

4 quick points to touch on today:

1. The most wonderful weeks of the year : College and Pro Football in full swing, Baseball playoffs (Surprise! No Phillies!), and foliage (for most of the country anyway- this is about all we get out in AZ).

After playing 6 weeks with the #1 ranked Schedule in the country, ND sits at 5-1 and #8 or #9 in the polls. The coming week gives the Irish some rest as they have a bye, so they don't play again until they host UCLA on Sept. 21. I'm sure the 2 week break will create a lot of insightful, fact-based commentary on the team. Can't wait.

If you're looking for some of that commentary, try some or all of the following (The first 3 are Irish friendly, the 4th an independent site for all of college fb):

NDNation, The Blue Gray Sky, Markmaybewrong, and EDSBS.

Enjoy!



2. A random thought I've been meaning to post on here for a while. Look at this corporate apparel catalog. Many different female models... and just one guy. Play on, playa.

Must be that million dollar smile.












3. From the world of gambling - Congress, in their infinite wisdom, just passed a bill that will make it illegal for credit card companies to process payments from US citizens to online gamling sites. Translation - if you live here, you cant do this or this on here anymore.

This law will be great news... if you're a casino. If you listen to those who voted for the bill, it was meant to stop the spread of gambling and morality Children and blah blah. Guess how many states have casinos? 31. Now instead of playing poker from my own pad, I've got to drive and sit in a smoke filled casino. That's progress for ya.

If Congress really thinks this will stop kids from gamling, then they clearly haven't been to a racetrack lately. There are plenty of reputable online age verification services out there that the porn industry has been using for a decade now. And if Cogress is really all about protecting the Children, why not pass a national anti-tobacco law making it illegal for kids to posess the product? 15 states still have no such laws on the books.

Hey - I made it all the way through that Children bit without a single Mark Foley joke!

The only upside is the rise in free poker tournaments being held at local bars and restaurants all over the place, with the winners usally getting gift certificates. Here in AZ (and 4 other states), All In Entertainment actually runs a league where you accumulate points over a 12 week period, then play in a championship tourney, with the winner there getting a free entry to a WSOP event. Not as conveinent as playing from home, but much cheaper than going to a casino - plus, the food's better.

4. Finally, we've got ourselves an election year on our hands! The balance of both houses of Congress is potentially up for grabs, even moreso with the latest scandal that I barely alluded to above.

When tracking the '04 elections, I came across a site, electoral-vote.com, and was blown away with how thoroughly it tracked every poll in existence. It did a darn good job of predicting the presidential and senate races that year, and is back in full force for this year as well. Click on either of the icons below (which update automatically) to give the site a visit for yourself.