11am at Neil's House this Sunday, 9/5.

Please bring your money, cash or check. Thanks.

With all the blown calls and drama queens in sports, at least 1 thing makes sense and feels right in the world of sports...Harry Doyle is back and doing great!

College Football is right around the Corner. Maybe Regs can give us his Pre-Season Report.............and with College Football comes Pro-Football.....and Fantasy....You have to love Fall!

My fave is the "FUK LBJ." Second fave is the "Ditka" shirt.

So it is finally here. Honestly, I was hoping to admit that I was wrong. I was hoping that there would be Change I could believe in. Sadly, though, I could not have been more right. Now that Obama is just about at the mid-point of his term, I feel it is time to give him a progress report. Now, things could change and I know some people will think it is too soon to judge, but I will be going off of not only performance, but also, in some areas, the trending that experts have given for the next 2 years.

Economy- F

This is the big one. With 500,000 new people filing for unemployment in the month of July alone, I think it is safe to say that the President's "plan" is failing miserably. Small businesses are worse off than ever and face added costs and taxes from this government. Unempoyment is at 10% and banks are tighter than ever with their lending. I said almost 2 years ago that if banks didn't change the metrics they use for lending, this disaster would only get worse. Did it change? No, in fact it got tighter. So to recap, the banks received money from the government to stay afloat and only padded their own pockets with the billion of dollars they were given. I just read that home sales are at a 15 year low.

I also read a report that people are investing at an all time low and choosing to just "sit on their money". This tells me not only that things are bad, but consumer and investing confidence is extremely low. If people with money do not invest or spend, everything comes to a standstill. I could go on and on about this, but I think you get the idea. More people are losing their jobs, the ones that have them are scared they are going to lose them, small businesses are failing at an alarming rate, and businesses can't get money from banks to grow. Horrific so far.

Middle Class- F
This group makes up by far the most Americans (even though lower class and poverty stricken is closing fast), but yet when you look at the actions of this government, nothing has been done to help this group out. I'm talking about people with jobs and insurance and for the most part live in a house/condo that they own. Once again, I predicted this. All I heard from Obama is "help is on the way". That's funny because almost all of my friends and associates and people I talk to belong to this group and not a single one thinks that they are better off now than they were when Obama was elected. The classic rebuttal is that Bush left the country in such bad shape that it will take time to fix. That is not a valid arguement because things should at least be getting better. Even if it is not a lot. I'm talking trends here. The trend is that the middle class has fallen the most out of any other demographic since Obama took over. Sure, if you don't have insurance or don't have a job, Obama has helped you with some of his programs, but percentage wise, those people don't make up a large portion of Americans, but they will if things don;t change fast.

Military- D
So, now that we have concluded the bloodiest month in Afganistan that we have seen in years, what are the anti-war Obama lovers saying now? We are finally out of Iraq (questionable decision), but are puting many of our Military personele in a much more dangerous situation in a country who clearly doesn't welcome us. By most expert accounts, any member of Al queda who is still alive has left Afganistan for other countries in the middle east. Most likely Pakistan. So the question becomes, why are we still here? I'll admit that I haven't followed this as closely as some other issues, but find it interesting that Obama went on and on and on while trying to get elected that he was going to get the troops out and he hasn't. And please don't use semantics and say "We are out of Iraq" because Afganistan is more dangerous. Who knows how this will turn out, but I don't like the way it is heading.

Eye on the Ball- F
It seems like the President has an opinion on everything. From whether or not a Mosque should be allowed at ground zero to whether police have a right to check citizenship in Arizona. To me, these are very minor issues compared to the big picture. Now Obama is taking an 11 day vacation in Marthas Vineyard to "recharge his batteries" before midterm elections. Are you kidding me? How about about recharging your batteries so you can fix the country. Not go on the fucking campaign trail. From studying college basketball brackets ( men and women) to sending his wife on lavish, overseas vacations, it sure seems like a guy who runs a country with this many problems has a lot of outside distractions.

Summary
You can argue any point that I have made and I know some of you will. The only questions that I would want you to consider are : Do you feel that you are better off financially right now than you were when Obama was elected and Do you feel things are moving in the right direction under his leadership? That is really all that matters. Mosque or no Mosque. ID or no ID. Vacation or no Vacation. Those are all minor. I have applied for many jobs in my life and I can tell you that for any upper managment job, you needed a minimum of 10 years of relevant experience, along with many other qualifications. I said all along that Obama lacked the neccessary qualifications to be President and we should never have elected a first term Senator with no experience dealing with the issues that faced him. Now we are finding out the reasons why.

I am using the Dojo as a platform to test something and see if we can get a response from Glaceau Executives and to just rant. First off I want to say I thoroughly enjoy Vitamin Water Energy Flavor. I sometimes drink 2-3 a day....and I know Capt. Tucci is on board with me on this.

However, I have found that more often than not the gas station, grocery store, or Drug store I am shopping is simply out of this flavor in both the small and large version. It is not abnormal for me to visit 2-3 different locations in search of this flavor and they are all out. Has anyone else experienced this with any other soft drink they like to purchase? I can completely understand one place being out....but an entire area?????

Is this flavor really that popular that big company like Coca-Cola simply can't keep it in stock???? Or is the area sales reps in my town just not doing their job?

I have a task for Dojo members. Please take note the next time you visit your favorite gas stations, grocery store, and/or Drug store. Please check the Glaceau Vitamin water section and see if they have the Yellow Energy flavor in stock. I need to know if it is just me and the planet is playing a big joke on me or if there is a nationwide crisis on hand with a lack of Vitamin Water Energy flavor????


On another note......Can anyone please explain to me the premise behind the DirecTV commercials where the Old Man in a wheelchair and the Southern Bell next to him is talking about being a Cowboy fan but their neighbor is a Skins fan. Then, the dog goes and pees on the Skins fan rug.

Is the old man in the wheelchair her Sugar Daddy...or is that the neighbor??? If it is her Sugar Daddy....then how does the dog get into the neighbors house? But...if the old man is the Skins fan neighbor don't you think that is a little cruel to do to an old man in a wheelchair that looks like he is recovering from a stroke since he cant even talk??????? I simply don't understand the premise of the whole commercial???

That's all I got Dojo fans.......thanks for letting me rant and I look forward to the answers to your weekend assignments.

After watching one of my new favorite shows "Hard Knocks" last night I found this little interview segment pretty interesting. I wonder if Rob has to think this hard when naming his kids. I can name the players on every one of our championship teams faster than Antonio Cromartie can name his kids...............great job!!!!

A new "Champions," edition of "Big Fish Recap with Dinger," has been posted for your reading pleasure.

What up Kai guys? I'm off to Chicago tomorrow. Going to the Braves @ Cubs game on Friday afternoon to do some scouting. My sources tell me that all the Cubs are available. Who should I attempt to bring to the Cobra Kai. I was thinking of offering a couple pitchers of beer and Lisa's flirty ways.

Not sure when our next game is, but I won't be available the following Friday as I will be acting as an NFL GM and (hopefully) drafting a team of studs.

See ya'll Kai guys at some point soon. Have a great weekend mofos.

A Special Edition of "Reel Reviews with Koko" has been posted for your reading pleasure.

The 10 Greatest Apocalyptic Movies of All Time.

My friend Burnsy is up to old tricks again. Some of you may have read Ashley Burns' work years ago in the UCF Future newspaper. He currently blogs for a couple websites. Here is his take on Favre's career.

http://www.uproxx.com/feature/2010/08/brett-favre-the-unauthorized-unapologetic-uproxx-biography/

We ALL know about coffee time and I have to admit it is my personal favorite part of the day. I have to thank “Big Fish” Greiveldinger for that one. As a matter of fact, due to discipline and frequent training by Greiveldinger under the Allen Edmonds affiliates, I can drink coffee black. You heard me DD no cream or sugar. Ugh!


However, an essential part of my day is my oatmeal time. I have a bowl everyday and is the first thought out concern, after coffee time, on my list to start me off right. Some can remember at Mike’s bachelor party how I berated the Hardrock’s oatmeal. Well I wasn’t kidding, it sucked.


So……here is my recipe for a great bowl of oatmeal for you to enjoy.


½ cup of milk
¾ cup of regular oatmeal/ instant
1 banana
3 strawberries
A hand full of blueberries
1 Tbs of butter
1 packet of splenda/sweet n low/ sugar
Cinnamon


First, add milk and oatmeal in stovetop bowl, mix, and turn on medium. Don’t leave the kitchen for too long because you don’t want the oatmeal to stick to the pot. Keep stirring and let the mixture get thick or to your liking.


Next, lower heat, cut up banana, and adds so it becomes part of the oatmeal mixture.


When oatmeal looks not to soggy but not too thick, remove from heat and add blueberries, splenda, cinnamon, butter.


Mix it all up and transfer the oatmeal to a bowl. Once the oatmeal has been transferred, cut up the strawberries and put on top.


Perfecto!


*Diehards can add a pinch of salt to mix and maple syrup to add on top

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=5467794

Congrats to the whole team for a hard fought season and an amazing playoff run.

I just watched a new must see. At first I was hesitant on if I should watch or not but it was on Showtime and well the movie is free. If I don’t like the movie, I thought I could just shut it off but I didn’t and watched it twice. The movie is called “Never Back Down”. I vaguely remember the trailer for it last year and how I would avoid it at all costs. But I did remember the movie had something to do with fighting and was willing to waste a few minutes on a bad fighting movie.


While I was watching this movie, I realized it was very similar to Ralph Macchio’s “Karate Kid”. It had a similar plot. Boy moves to new town, gets beat up, finds a master to train him, and no more fighting till the main match called the “Beat Down” at the end. Oh yeah, boy meets girl but does not dress like shower curtain at a Halloween party.


Right from the beginning, the movie caught my eye. The boy (Jake Tyler) moves to …….ORLANDO of all places. It actually looks like he moved somewhere near the Mall at Millenium. Jake attends a new school and gets invited to a party, by this hot girl. He goes to the party but was actually set up to fight the “main bad guy” Ryan McCarthy, who is a mixed martial arts semi pro. Jake does not want to fight at first but he has a past and due to the internet (ie, youtube, facebook) everybody knows his past. Ryan edges Jake to fight and Jake takes the bait. Jake is now ready to fight but gets his ass kicked and well, I’ll leave it up to you to watch the rest of the movie.


The movie can be corny at times; the exaggeration of the technology generation, organized fighting in ORLANDO. All in all, the movie is first quality. It has a good cast, all new actors and actresses, and Djimon Hounsou, from Blood Diamond is in it too. Djimon is Jake’s trainer and actually carries the whole movie. The soundtrack is awesome!! There are good tunes and will pump you up! I would put it up there with Rocky IV. Speaking of Rocky, there is a similar Apollo Creed/ Rocky race scene in this movie. It belongs in the movie but it appears that they are racing near a harbor and unless its Disney’s Boardwalk, I don’t know where else Orlando would have a beach or harbor. Just some thoughts.


In the end, “Never Back Down” is a great movie that will grab your attention. It has the likes of “the Karate Kid” and “Rocky” put together so go out and watch it. All so, if the Kais need a new motto, this movie provides a new one for you. "Win or lose... Everyone has their fight"


Story: 7.5

Acting: 7.0

Writing: 7.5

Captivation: 10

Replay Value: 9.0

Total: 8.0

Johnny Blaze once told me a story that I never forgot when we encountered a cocoon at a Cobra Kai training camp. He said:

"You see this little Cocoon? This month’s just about to emerge. It's in there
right now, struggling. It's digging its way through the thick hide of the
cocoon. Now, I could help it - take my glove, gently widen the opening, and
the moth would be free - but it would be too weak to survive. Struggle is
nature's way of strengthening it".

Well, to say the Kai have struggled this season would be an understatement. But we have battled injuries, travel obligations, and other obstacles in our path to a championship. However, after all that the Kai are a better team for it and entered Friday nights tournament clearly as the team to beat.

The Cobra Kai entered into Friday Nights playoffs with a deceiving 1-3 record but were without doubt still the team to beat in Red Bug Lakes Tournament. In our first matchup the Kai’s were pitted against the vaunted Silver Streak Pitcher and the Goonies. To say the Cobra Kai have the Silver Streak’s number is an understatement.

The Goonies have never beaten the Kai and we were going to make sure of this and leave no doubt who is the Red Bug Lake Champs by making quick work of the Goonies.
The Team was missing Roundhouse Reger but Capt. Tucci recruited two power hitting hitmen in his place as we welcomed “WorldWide” Will and Mr. Miyagi’s nephew China to the roster. Well, the Kai jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first inning promptly batting through the order to start the game and setting the pace for the night. The Swami lead the way in the first half swatting a missile to Right Field to clear the bases and to get us on the board in the first.

“Oil Can” Spragues was looking for his first back to back victory of his career and would do everything in his power to make sure he didn’t let this one slip away. Oil Can had in impressive outing but the infield behind was equally impressive as Koko wore his Donny Baseball underoos on this night and nothing got past the infield and Capt. Koko’s squad. Johnny Blaze was patrolling the hot corner and Wild Man Wilson ate everything up at short as the Goonies were stifled offensively.

Well, Oil Can Sprague would not be denied of his first post season victory as he took matters into his own hands at the plate as well going 4-4 in the first game as the Kai took care of the Goonies handidly 19-5 en route to their first win of the tournament. After the game a disgruntled Silver Surfer complained in a post game interview when he said:

“It's unfair, it was like pitching to a healthy Lou Gehrig all night”.

Bring on the Beat Downs!
Then in the most highly anticipated rematch in Red Bug Lake history the Kai squared off against the Beat Downs whom were undefeated lead by former Kai Troxx and T-185 Rocket Arm.

The Beat Downs jumped on the board first tallying 3 runs and looking like they were in a groove. However, the Kai’s defense settled down after that and Capt. Tucci and his band of roving bandits in the outfield took over from there.

“In the first game we didn’t get many reps as the infield took care of business for us, The Cobra Kai are a team, so I told my guys let’s take over this game and not let another hit in” And that’s exactly what the vaunted Kai OF did from there on. The infield could only watch in amazement as the Swami ran down bullets off the Beat Downs bats and Capt. Tucci was up to usual antics with sliding catches with his new Italiano Mit.

At the plate the Kai’s came together once again as everyone contributed to this one. Spragues kept his hit streak alive, Swami kept abusing the Right Fielder and the New Guy “China” saved the fireworks for the bottom of the 4th when he belted a 2-3 fastball over the Left Field wall for the Cobra Kai’s first grand slam of the season. Koko was also on fire from the plate attacking with vengeance the Left field line blasting three shots down the line and even turning two of them into doubles with his blazing fast speed.

DonJuan continued to climb back atop the league leaders in OB percentage and Sully kept the emotional support high for the team in the dugout and with his gritty gutty hitting style never being denied an opportunity to get to first base.

After the Game DonJuan gave the team a pep talk and said:
“So to recap, throughout it all, there's been a lot of laughter, and a few tears. But in the end the clouds parted, and the good Lord himself decided it was meant to be. And that's how I finished the regular season batting .978.”

Overall, it was a great total team effort as the Cobra Kai destroyed the Beat downs en route to our Sweep Friday night preparing us for our championship Game this Friday.

The Kai take on G-Force in a rematch for the all the Marbles under the Friday Night Lights at 7:00 PM.

Will he or retire or won't he.......oh wait thats not the point of this post. A little Lionel Richie remake just Rich.

What up Knight fans? Catch yesterday's 6pm SportsCenter? Here's the story. Coach O'Leary agreed to let local magazine Axis do a photoshoot in the football locker room after only asking a couple questions about the publication. "Is the magazine distributed on campus?" Apparantely Axis didn't tell Coach the photoshoot was of '07 UCF Grad & Playboy's July Playmate of the Month Shanna McLaughlin. Oh well, it is all more pub for UCF! Go Knights!!








http://www.facebook.com/shanna.mclaughlin?ref=ts

If any of you like "Curb Your Enthusiasm," you would love "Louie," it's much different from Louis CK's last show on HBO which was a sitcom. This is more of a dark Seinfeld, where he plays himself.

The time has come for the 2010 Lombardi's Party Draft.

Please go to the League Home Page:

http://games.espn.go.com/ffl/leagueoffice?leagueId=152861

And vote for what date you would prefer the draft to be on.
EVERYONE PLEASE VOTE!

Here is the 2010 Draft Order:

1. Whaling City Clippers
2. Jack Knows Thai
3. Disco Inverno
4. Team Snarf
5. The G.O.A.T.
6. Mr. Papageorgio
7. Juan Jose's Pendehos
8. 40oz To Freedom
9. The Fighting Turtles
10. Team Stubbert
11. Johnny Blaze
12. Clark Koko
13. The Chedderhead Revival
14. The Orlando Drinkers.

Please go to the Lombardi's Party Fantasy Football homepage for descriptions and to vote on the Payout System.


Trade Deadline, Wednesday November 10 - (After Week 9)


Rule Changes from ‘09

- A Defensive forced fumble is now worth 1 point regardless of whether the defense recovers the fumble. A recovered fumble is still worth 2 points. So if your defense forces and recovers a fumble you can get a total of 3 points.


- Negative Defensive Points have been lowered

22-27 points allowed = -1

28-34 points allowed = -3

35-45 points allowed = -4

46+ points allowed = -6