grizzlypuff

Wow, I let another 2 weeks slip without a summary... bad bad bad. anyways, I must've just been so amp'd because San Diego Chargers have been playing so well, or so miserable because the Chicago Bears have been playing so poorly. I don't remember much from Week 10 other than the Chargers beating McNabb (who passed for a whopping 450 yards in the game) and the Eagles after beating the Giants in NY the week prior. Chicago lost to SF on a Thursday night game at home, and I remember hearing the fans booing their team... and the Bears probably deserved some booing, the way they've been playing, Cutler had 5 INTs in the game.

Week 10:
SF 10, Chi 6
PHI 23, SD 31

The Chargers rolled again in week 11 against the Broncos in which they got revenge for a loss earlier in the season and gained sole leadership in the AFC West division. Denver had troubles at QB, they started Simms who was ineffective and replaced him with their regular starting QB, Orton who had not fully recovered from an ankle injury. Chicago looked like they were going to snap their losing streak against the Eagles, but McNabb came from behind to continue the Bears misery.

Week 11:
SD 32 Den 3
PHI 24 Chi 20

It's the middle of Week 11 right now as I am writing this, SD has already defeated KC in a blowout and Chicago is about to lose again against the red hot Vikings. Rivers had an awesome stats day going 21 of 28, 317 yds, and 2 TDs. Cutler is continuing to struggle, he's go 2 INTs already.

Looking ahead to week 13, SD should easily take care of the Browns, although they did suffer some injuries in today's game (Merriman and Weddle)... I think the offense should win it for them though. CLE is 1 and 10. Chicago is home against the 1-10 St. Louis, so there is hope that they will finally snap their losing streak. I hope they win for their ego's sake. It's been a tough season for the Bears who lost their star LB, Urlacher at the start of the season.

Fox switched the Bears' game over to the GB/TB game, probably to salvage some ratings as the Bears were getting their butts handed to them by the Cardinals. The Bears managed to put *some* points on the board in the second half, but still ended up getting blown out 41-21, in a game where Cutler had 300+ yards passing and Warner had 5 TD passes.

In what would've been an exciting game to watch on TV, I had to settle for the online version of the Chargers/Giants game where the virtual animated field lit up in Chargers blue, "Touchdown" with about 20 seconds left in the game. Rivers pulled off a 2-min TD drive to win the game by 1 point, 21-20. But in reality, the Giants did it to themselves... they had over 100 yards in penalties, failed to score a TD off the INT late in the 4th in the red zone, and botched a FG attempt in the 1st quarter. It's no wonder they are on a 4 game losing skid. So the Chargers were lucky in that sense. I'm glad to see Merriman actually coming up with some big plays (finally) he had 2 sacks, both in the 4th qtr and the second one at a critical time. The Chargers still need to get their running game back in order though, if they want to catch up with the Broncos and have any chance for a post-season.

in Week 10:
Bears (4-4) host the 49ers (3-5) on Thurs
Niners actually look alright to me, but their record doesn't indicate that. I will go with the Bears on this one, but it'll be a close one.

Eagles (5-3) at Chargers (5-3)
Eagles coming off a loss to the Cowboys. I predict a high scoring game here with McNabb and company in town.

wow, did I really miss two weeks of NFL recaps? well I guess i've been busy with stuff.... bu anyways, let's dig in!

week 7:
Chargers 37, Chiefs 7
The Chargers embarrassed the (1-4) Chiefs with a blow out win. I think it really helped boost their confidence after losing to the Broncos the week before on Monday night
Bears lost to the Bengals 45-10. Cutler threw 3 INTs and the Bengals' Ochocinco scored 2 TD and had 100+ yards... ouch!

week 8:
Bears 30, Browns 6
the bears beat up on the 1-6 Browns... if the Bears couldn't beat this team, it would've been sad.
Chargers 24, Raiders 16
now, this game was a little closer than I had expected it to be. Oakland is a terrible team right now... their starting QB, Russell is probably the worst in the league right now and the team is 2-6. so I'm happy the Chargers won, but this should've been a blow out. On the bright side, Tomlinson had 2 rushing TDs and showing that he might be getting back into form. SD has defeated OAK in both meetings this season.

Coming up in Week 9:
Cardinals (4-3) at Bears (4-3)
The Vegas odds have the Bears as a slight underdog, but to me this is a coin flip. Bears win at home.
Chargers (4-3) at Giants (5-3)
The Vegas odds have Chargers as a slight favorite, which is surprising. Manning hasn't been playing well and that might be the difference. Chargers continue their streak and win on the road. I will be looking forward to watching this game!

Thanks to my pal, flatvurm, I'm proud to display my collection of AWESOME LJ Loot.

ARGHHH! the frustration

both the Bears and Charger lost this week and they were really sucky ones too. first the bears. they lost 14-21 against the Falcons. i think th turning point in that game was when Forte fumbled the ball twice near the goaline, losing it the second time and stopping a potential TD drive. there was just no excuse for that and also for the 2 interceptions that Cutler threw. he was really not on target this week and those 2 interceptions hurt. next, the Chargers hosted the division rivals (and undefeated leader) Broncos. I knew that this was gonna be a tough one for the Chargers even though many analysts favored the Chargers. but I knew that the Charger defense was just not getting it done and no matter how awesome Rivers and the offense were, they were not gonna win if the defense didn't step up. well, it was kinda what happened on Monday night. the broncos scored 34 points, 14 of which were from special teams. The Chargers were also shut down in the second half where they only managed a field goal in the 3rd. sucks sucks sucks. The Chargers defense is really getting on my nerves and I blame Merriman. that's right Merriman, the captain of the defense. first off, he has 13 total tackles in 5 games and not even one sack. that's a poor report card for anyone let alone the leader of your defensive unit. Chargers defense is 26th out of 32 in the NFL and the teams below them are a sorry bunch. so it seems the bye week didn't help either of my teams and now I am wondering where the rest of the season will go. chargers may still be better the rest of the teams in their division, but will they do well enough to get into the playoffs now that they are 2-3? The bears are still "ok" with a 3-2 record but have the Packers and the seemingly unstoppable Vikings in their division.

both teams are on the road next week:
Chargers @ Chiefs
Bears @ Bengals

chargers *better* win against the 1-4 chiefs and bears have to prove themselves against the 4-2 bengals.

The Chicago Bear's game was not televised in my area, but I saw the highlight clip where Cutler dives for the end zone on a QB scramble, gets hit mid-air and does a helicopter spin before landing and scoring a TD. Great win for the Bears who have now won 3 in a row heading into their bye week. I can't really tell from his profile picture, but if you didn't know Cutler was an NFL QB, you'd think he was a some loser dude you see who hangs out in bars all day and needs a serious haircut...

As for the SD/Steelers game, I did get to watch this game as it was the SNF matchup for the week... and I was pumped!!! When the country-western singer lady started singing that song, I was gyrating my hips and doing my air-lasso... But when the Steelers literally marched down the field and scored a TD on the opening drive I was totally deflated... even more deflated when they made it 28-0 at the end of the first half... The SD defense was just not able to do anything or stop the Steelers from moving the ball. The Steelers O-line was overpowering the Chargers and pushing back them at-will. The DBs looked slow and unable to cover anyone... I was one sad little doggie... then as if the Chargers suddenly realized they were 4 TDs behind they started what could've been the comeback of the century... Rivers threw for 2 TDs late in the 4th and the special teams unit recovered a fumbled punt return for a TD and the blowout game suddenly was a close game... but that's all it would be, because there just wasn't enough time on the clock... the Steelers almost gave away the game in the final seconds, but this time the sealed it with a FG and a monster, fumble-inducing sack to put away the Chargers. This was the most exciting game I've seen by far this season, even though my team lost, it was great to see Rivers really going all out, Gates breaking tackles and scoring TDs... good times! great stuff!

next week is a bye for both Bears and Chargers... guess I'll do something else to fill in the gap...

just out of curiousity, I decided to check out the San Diego Chargers' cheerleaders... I caught a glimpse of them on Sunday's televised game and it piqued my interest. So after a little internet searching I came across a photoset on Flickr.com ()... boy, was I, ahem, *impressed*... but to make it a little fun, here are my Top 3 Charger Girls:

#1: Casie
Beautiful face, like a model... knockout body.



#2 Andrea
Sexy. Smokin' hot body fo sho



#3 Lauren
Pretty face, very girl-next-door...




I also really like their cute uniforms... yum! looking forward to seeing more of them this Sunday Night's game!

Forgot to add this:
Photo Credit: San Diego Chargers
http://www.chargers.com

Complete Photoset:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandiegochargers/sets/72157622275715409/

It was a good sunday and yes there is still the mnf game to go but i just have to this time because both the Chargers and Bears won today and I even got to watch the entire Charger game on TV! It wasn't what you would call a "clean" or "decisive" game, the chargers did not have any running game whatsoever and they're run defense was mediocre at best (especially weak up the middle). But The secondary came up with a big pick for a TD, and although Rivers did not throw for a Td, he did run one in. They still showed that they need some work in their redzone offense... It's so frustrating! Kinda like if you were taking a crap and you push and push only to get a few rabbit droppings... Something like that. I didn't watch the bears game but saw that Cutler led the comeback drive at the end of the game to win it. It must have been a great one.

Since I was at home watching the game I did see highlights of other games... Notably the SF/Vikings game where Farve threw an impossible TD pass to win the game with 4 secs to go... Amazing!

Next week:
lions @ bears - bears win at home
chargers @ steelers - televised and game, chargers wins on road

Couldn't watch any of the games live, so only saw highlights and recaps... I wish I had cable or had friends with cable that would invite me to their homes to watch...

Steelers 14 @ Bears 17
Ravens 31 @ Chargers 26

Both games were home games for my teams and both games came down to the wire. In the Bear's case, they came through with the win. In the Charger's case, a big-time play made by all-star, Lewis, stopped the Chargers from victory. Not to say that the Chargers had their chances, because they did. Big stats day though for Rivers, who's starting to become my favorite QB this season.

Next week:
Bears @ Seahawks: Bears should win this game, Seahawks coming off a beating in SF
Dolphins @ Chargers: I expect the Chargers to clean up their act and destroy the Dolphins

For those of you keeping score at home, the two teams I am rooting for this season are the Chicago Bears and the San Diego Chargers. The Bears, or more correctly, Da' Bears, played on Sunday against the Packers. They played ok I thought even though they lost in the final minutes of the game, but Urlacher got injured and is now out for the season. My other team, the Chargers, played last night and I had the pleasure of watching the first half on the big screen at Jillian's in SF. It was quite an exciting game, but it was more exciting in the second half (which I missed) when they marched down the field in the last minute to win the game. Watching football with a crowd of other football fans is just so much more fun (even though I was just there by my lonesome self)... too bad for my home team, the Raiders, I think they are still bitter about the overturned touchdown coach's challenge right before the end of the first half... too bad for them.

So I do comics once in a while and I just completed a new mini comic, written by my good friend Justin Giampaoli. He writes about it here on his comics review blog, 13 Minutes. This is a special milestone/accomplishment for me even though it's a short 8-pager. It's the first I've ever printed out and polished up for distribution, cover and all. It's also the first that's been reviewed by people other than my friends and will also be submitted to the Isotope award for mini-comics. It's an added bonus that I was able to collaborate with Justin, who's such a talented writer and an expert on comics. The comic was a lot of work... I think I spent about 2 weeks on it, about maybe 30 or so hours including the printing/production. That's a lot for something that takes less than 2 minutes to read. But I am very happy with how it came out... it's maybe some of the best work I've done. It was not easy by any stretch... I really had to dig deep to make every frame visually interesting. It was also very challenging to draw the characters, especially when I am used to drawing simplified, "manga" style characters. I really had to pack a lot of information into each panel, not like the action-oriented comics that I like doing that have many panels per page. There were just so many little challenging things like that that made this feel like I was doing a real professional-grade book... all said, it was a very fun project to work on and I'm glad that I took it on. I hope it does well in the Isotope, but I'm just glad that I now have something to bring to APE in October... who knows what this comic may lead to!

it's only $258k... *drool*








http://www.flylyf.com/leaked-mercedes-benz-sls-amg-revealed/

to try and get myself back into mainstream sports (and more specifically, the NFL), I have decided to pick a couple of teams to "follow" and play the role of a die-hard fan... the first team I picked is the San Diego Chargers... reason for picking this team is that they are in San Diego where ComicCon is. So if I ever go to ComicCon, I would at least have the potential of also going a San Diego Chargers game... yeah I know that sounds a little more complicated than it should be. Anyways, moving right along... the second team I am following is in the NFC... the Chicago Bears. Never been a Bears fan, but always felt like I should have. They also have a player I kinda know, Brian Urlacher... I like big tough defensive players like him... not flashy, not show-offy, just plain tough and solid. Plus there's the whole "bears", "grizzlypuff" thing too. so that's that... the season starts Sept 10... the first 2 games are:

Sept. 13 Chicago at Green Bay NBC 8:30 p.m. (ET)
Sept. 14 San Diego at Oakland ESPN 10:15 p.m. (ET)

which teams are *you* following?

the isotope lounge is holding a mini comic contest:
http://www.isotopecomics.com/2009/08/submissions-are-open.html

if anyone is interested in doing a collaboration let me know! I am already working with another writer on one... hopefully it will be completed before the deadline Oct 1.

confirmed via ultrasound yesterday, we are going to have another daughter coming to us Dec 2nd! the mama of course, was a little disappointed, as she was expecting a boy (and so was much of the family), but I'm just happy she healthy and that my little family has just gotten a bit bigger.

also, i made my first purchase off the US Bape site a few days back, but the order has still not arrived... The tracking number they gave me doesn't work either... I'm beginning to feel like I've been duped!

lastly, can't wait for G.I. Joe.... GO JOE!

that is all.

so i was cruising through some of my favorite sites and this came up:
http://us.bape.com/

this is both exciting and scary to me. Excited because I can now finally buy Bape stuff online and not have to drive6 hours to LA to get it! Scared because I might spend a butt-load of money. Birthday's coming up though, so that might be the perfect excuse...

I've started digging about Bape. First Digg is on the Grand Opening of Bapeland in Zozotown. yay me :)

Cali weather has gotten really warm, it feels like summer's already here. yesterday I went for my usual run, it was my second attempt at 7 miles. the first time I failed due to a miscalculation. this time I failed again, but because of the heat. i've never gone running under the scorching sun, in fact, I think I've only gone running when it's been cool, like in the 40's or 50's. wind never really had an effect on my running, but the sun really killed me. I was tightening up after 2 miles and sweating like crazy. I was on my 4th mile when I decided to cut my run short at 5 miles... and I barely made it. so the 7 mile mark still eludes me and I will need to make up for it at some point... may is coming up fast. Thankfully, the weather is supposed to get cooler again with chances of rain too. if it heats up again, I'll be in trouble.

side note: sunday was also the first time I stopped mid-run to go pee. thank goodness there were toilets along Shoreline!

On Saturday I drove down to LA to visit Shave and Karen and their little baby, Trenton. it was so good to see them again! we hung out at their new place in UCLA's housing complex. the place is really nice and quiet with lots of amenities for families and children. after hanging out we had dinner at a fru-fru burger joint called, "the counter". the main gimmick of this place was that you could "build-your-own" burger and it was almost scary how all of had about the same tastes. while I was there, I also got to hang out in Koreatown and did a little shopping on Melrose. My "mission" was to hit up the Bape store and get my hands on some Bape gear. I've been a little obsessed with this brand ever since I've discovered Teriyaki Boyz and the whole Bape "Mania" thing. While I was in Japan, I also went to the Harajuku store but didn't actually buy anything because they had nothing my size and very little selection left. But at the LA store they actually had more stuff to choose. I left there with a couple new t-shirts, which I will wear the crap out of because they were sooooo expensive. but I can see how people can get addicted to this brand. the way they make everything "exclusive" is freakin' genius. so, it was good times, good eats in LA... I drove back home the same night and didn't get home till about 3am! the drive back was way harder than the way down... I actually had to stop at a rest stop and took a 1hr nap! who knew... people actually rest at rest stops!

so it was quite a busy weekend for me, I also watched the Lakers game (first time i've watched an entire basketball game in a looong time), hung out at dad's place, and ate dinner with the Gochman's... so I feel good that I was able to cram so much stuff into just 2 days... *flex*

I see a lot of marathon runners wearing these... arm warmers, or arm socks, seem to be all the rage... it seems like a good idea, but what about just good old-fashioned long-sleeve shirts??? I guess with these there's nothing around the shoulder/arm pits so you *do* stay cooler and more ventilated. I just like 'em cause they look cool. If I ever get good at running, I will definitely need to get some.

after my run today, my left calf muscle started cramping. not a serious cramp where it's all knotted up and you fall to the ground writhing in pain, but it's painful enough that I know it's there and can't put much weight on it. not sure what caused it... maybe i've been training too hard with too little recovery time? maybe I was trying to run too fast? maybe since I ran later in the day, my body did not adjust? in any case, I have 3 days of rest coming up (2 if I decide to go to Kung fu tomorrow), so hopefully my leg will be back to normal by then. so far the weather has been good enough to allow me to stick to my training schedule. I bought a new pair of running tights and a running hoodie that I tried out for the first time today. wearing tights makes me feel a little self-conscious about myself, I look sort of dorky. plus my legs are not on the muscular side and my bum is not budonkadonk by any means. but I got them partly because I need something to keep my legs warm, but more because whenever I set myself to doing something, I always feel the need to invest in the proper gear for the job. that's why I got new shoes, a hoodie with a pocket for the ipod, and the tights that keep me warm. I could have made do with the stuff I have; I've got plenty of shorts and t-shirts that would serve me adequately. i guess its all psychological... I just *must* have the gear specifically for this purpose.

so most of you must have heard of this thing called twitter, it's becoming quite a big thing these days. i've been able to avoid signing up for an account, but lately I've been considering taking the plunge. it's just one more thing to keep me busy on the computer... another thing on top of the email, facebook, blogging, etc... I don't know how others do it. the guys at work seem to have an endless capacity for all of these crazy things on the web. I just can't. I need to keep to the bare minimum. I upgrade computers every, what, 10 years? the last gadget I bought was an ipod, and before that I didn't even have a gadget. i've had my cell phone for, i don't know, forever? my DVD player is from the 90's. my sound system is like 20 years old. I just don't do new stuff... but look at what industry I'm in!!! it's kind of mind-blowing. anyways, getting back to twitter... i still don't know if i'd do it, but if they start doing it as part of work, i might have to. for personal stuff, I mean c'mon, my friends don't even follow my blog! would they follow me on twitter? it feels like i'm trying to convince myself not to do it. and maybe that's the right choice.

hope my leg is better by morning...