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Today I had to put down my best friend and companion since 2001. Sophie was a great dog, a bit energetic wanting to play catch all the time, but still a great dog. She has been sick for a couple of weeks, and wasn't eating or drinking. The vet said Pancreatits. She didn't show any signs of discomfort except for moving every once in a while when she was laying down. She was not nearly as active as she usually was this past weekend.
God love her, she was willing to play catch right up until the end, even though it was obvious she had alot of discomfort.
I'm going to miss you Sophie, but I'm sure you are up in doggie heaven pestering those around you to throw the ball.

Good lord. Is this world just full of idiots who have the common sense of a peanut? Seriously. Our government last year passed a law banning truck drivers from texting while driving. To me, this is just common sense. Why would you take your eyes off the road for up to 5 seconds or more at a time just to send a message to someone else. Is it really that important that you would risk your life?

Now I read in PC World about a women who is sueing Google and Verizon because the walking directions she got on her mobile phone had her walking down a highway. Seriously, GPS is a wonderful, but definitely flawed tool. People still need to use that grey matter that is in their skulls once in a while. Of course, incidents like this should thin out the herd so we don't have idiots like this having stupid kids.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/1976
18/woman_sues_google_for_bad_direct
ions.html

At what point do people actually start taking responsibility for their own actions. If someone tells me that it is a good idea to jump off of a cliff and I do, and by some miracle actually survive, do I have the right to sue the guy that told me to jump, or should someone just shoot me for being a complete and utter moron?

I was over on CNN.com and saw an article with the headline "Haiti was warned about quake risk", so of course that piqued my interest and I clicked on it. The headline at the top of the page read "Experts warned of earthquake risk on Haiti" which againe piqued my interest. I was expecting to read how seismologists had warned Hatian officals that the city should be evacuated or something.

Read some lines in the article and came across these quotes from someone who wrote a paper in March of 2008, yea, almost two years ago.

"We were concerned about it," said one of the paper's authors, Paul Mann, a senior research scientist at the University of Texas' Institute for Geophysics.

"The problem with these kinds of strikes is that they can remain quiescent -- dormant -- for hundreds of years," he said Tuesday evening. "So it's hard to predict when they'll occur."

 Now, I can sit here and say that California is at risk of a major earthquake. So if a big one hits in the next 100 YEARS, can I write an article saying I told you so?

I am going to go out on a limb here and predict that one of the Hawaiin Islands will be hit by a 10 foot wave in the next 100 Years.

I also predict that at some point in the next 100 years, snow will fall in Antarctica.

I predict that it is going to be hot and muggy in Florida at some point this summer.

I think this year that the Super Bowl will be won by one of these teams.
Dallas Cowboys, Arizona Cardinals, New Orleans Saints, Minnesota Vikings, San Diego Chargers, Indianapolis Colts, New York Jets, or the Balitimore Ravens. Even further, one of the first four will get to the Super Bowl, along with one of the last four teams.

I gotta send this stuff to CNN, I'm sure they would be impressed.

 

 

The last round only had 14 people voting, with nobody posting on that one since August. I guess cbs changes have chased off most of the people who participated in this thing. Anyway, here are the results of the last round. So I

#1 Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back 10 vs.#2 The Terminator 4

#1 Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope 11 vs.#2 2001: A Space Odyssey 3

#3 Terminator 2: Judgment Day 8 vs.#4 Planet of the Apes 6

#1 Alien 6 vs.#3 The Day the Earth Stood Still 8

Due to the lack of participation in this thing, I am going to forgo the Final Four round, and have this be free for all style round. You can only vote for one of the movies below. Will the Star Wars fans split the votes allowing one of the #3 seeds to win the whole thing?

#1 Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Vs.
#1 Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Vs.
#3 Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Vs.
#3 The Day the Earth Stood Still

It's been alot of fun running these things, but without participation, it kind of loses it's steam. Maybe I will just use this space to spout off on the stupid things that are happening in the world. All I have to do for that is pay attention to CNN so I can see exciting news such as "I wanna be Jen Aniston, Kathy Griffin Says", or "Women's Pet Peeves about their guy" Reall hard hitting news. Or hey, what about the President who is so interested in getting his health care reform passed, he jets off to Europe to try to get the Olympics in Chicago.

Previous round results.

Alpha Quadrant
#1 Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back 13 vs.#5 The Thing 3 No surprise here
#2 The Terminator 8 vs.#3 Back To The Future 8

Beta Quadrant
#1 Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope 12 vs.#10 Night of the Living Dead  4 Again not a surprise
#2 2001: A Space Odyssey 11 vs.#4 Close Encounters of the Third Kind 5 Tough matchup, but I can't argue against the results

Gamma Quadrant
#1 The Matrix  8 vs.#4 Planet of the Apes 8 
#2 Aliens 6 vs.#3 Terminator 2: Judgment Day 9 This one surprised me a bit, I would go with Aliens over Terminator 2.


Delta Quadrant
#1 Alien 9 vs.#11 Independence Day 7 Two great movies, but Alien is a 1 seed for a reason.
#3 The Day the Earth Stood Still 9 vs.#5 Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi 7 Guess I can't have an all Star Wars final, but that's ok, glad I didn't have to break a tie on this one, if the last vote had been for SW, I would have had a third tie.

I have done, Best ever Nascar Driver, Best Nascar tracks, Best Movie, Best Comedian, an now in the 3rd round of Best Sci-Fi movies I get the first ever tie, not in one matchup but in 2.
I have done, Best ever Nascar Driver, Best Nascar tracks, Best Movie, Best Comedian, an now in the 3rd round of Best Sci-Fi movies I get the first ever tie, not in one matchup but in 2.

Who Wins?
#2 The Terminator 9 vs.#3 Back To The Future 8
My reasoning, two movies based on time travel, but one has a kick-butt robot.

#1 The Matrix  8 vs.#4 Planet of the Apes 9
I went back and forth on this matchup. Both movies deserve to move on, but only one can. The Matrix had incredible special effects, and a unique story to tell. Planet of the Apes wins in my opinion because back in the day it was the stuff, and the ending was a surprise, I won't spoil it for the 3 or 4 people who haven't seen the movie.

Quick rules recap:
A few rules that I would ask everyone to follow so that I am not pulling my hair out while running this thing.
1. Vote for all of the matchups. If you don't like either, or can't decide who you like better, flip a coin. When counting votes for 32 matchups, it is easier to know I tallied everything correctly if all matchups have the same number of votes.
2. You can bold your selection, or cross out the one you don't like, but keep your response in a list form, including the areas (east, west, etc.) Again, this just makes it easier for me to count up the votes
3. Not really a rule, but feel free to make comments on the matchups if you like. It makes for interesting reading

And the new matchups:

Alpha Quadrant
#1 Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back vs.#2 The Terminator

Beta Quadrant
#1 Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope vs.#2 2001: A Space Odyssey

Gamma Quadrant
#3 Terminator 2: Judgment Day vs.#4 Planet of the Apes

Delta Quadrant
#1 Alien vs.#3 The Day the Earth Stood Still


Be sure to tell your friends all about this contest, hopefully we can get this thing going again.

Long overdue again. I tried to leave it open since I only had 16 votes, got the 17th on the 30th, and decided I should call it. Thanks nine5seven for breaking a couple of ties. Be sure to point this out to others, the more participants the better the contest.

Here is a link to the last round
http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/
entry/5827413/15249541

Recap of the rules.
A few rules that I would ask everyone to follow so that I am not pulling my hair out while running this thing.
1. Vote for all of the matchups. If you don't like either, or can't decide who you like better, flip a coin. When counting votes for 32 matchups, it is easier to know I tallied everything correctly if all matchups have the same number of votes.
2. You can bold your selection, or cross out the one you don't like, but keep your response in a list form, including the areas (east, west, etc.) Again, this just makes it easier for me to count up the votes
3. Not really a rule, but feel free to make comments on the matchups if you like. It makes for interesting reading

Onto the Sweet 16 matchups.

Alpha Quadrant
#1 Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back vs.#5 The Thing
#2 The Terminator vs.#3 Back To The Future

Beta Quadrant
#1 Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope vs.#10 Night of the Living Dead
#2 2001: A Space Odyssey vs.#4 Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Gamma Quadrant
#1 The Matrix  vs.#4 Planet of the Apes
#2 Aliens vs.#3 Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Delta Quadrant
#1 Alien vs.#11 Independence Day
#3 The Day the Earth Stood Still vs.#5 Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Long overdue on tallying the results and getting round 2 up. A couple of surprises, at least in my opinion, in the last round with Back to the Future somehow beating War of the Worlds, and Jedi beating Sith. I added some comments to the round 1 results entry. Here is a link to the first round for anyone who missed it.
http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/
entry/5827413/14541338/4

Not surprisingly, there were a few questions about movies that missed out, as well as which version of a particular movie made the list. If there are multiple versions of a movie, it is most likely the original, but feel free to use the version you liked better to make your decision.

A few rules that I would ask everyone to follow so that I am not pulling my hair out while running this thing.
1. Vote for all of the matchups. If you don't like either, or can't decide who you like better, flip a coin. When counting votes for 32 matchups, it is easier to know I tallied everything correctly if all matchups have the same number of votes.
2. You can bold your selection, or cross out the one you don't like, but keep your response in a list form, including the areas (east, west, etc.) Again, this just makes it easier for me to count up the votes
3. Not really a rule, but feel free to make comments on the matchups if you like. It makes for interesting reading

Here are the round two matchups. Hope you enjoy. Some interesting matchup, How does a Terminator fair against T-Rex, Apes vs. Monkeys, Star Wars vs. Star Trek.

Alpha Quadrant
#1 Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back vs.#10 Soylent Green
#2 The Terminator vs.#8 Jurassic Park
#3 Back To The Future vs.#6 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
#4 Brazil vs.#5 The Thing

Beta Quadrant
#1 Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope vs.#12 Ghostbusters
#2 2001: A Space Odyssey vs.#11 Robocop
#3 Metropolis  vs.#10 Night of the Living Dead
#4 Close Encounters of the Third Kind vs.#8 V for Vendetta

Gamma Quadrant
#1 The Matrix  vs.#8 Young Frankenstein
#2 Aliens vs.#7 A Clockwork Orange
#3 Terminator 2: Judgment Day vs.#6 E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
#4 Planet of the Apes vs.#5 12 Monkeys

Delta Quadrant
#1 Alien vs.#13 The Time Machine
#2 Blade Runner vs.#11 Independence Day
#3 The Day the Earth Stood Still vs.#8 The Fifth Element
#5 Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi vs.#7 Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan

 Another competition has come to a close, and Bill Cosby apparently is the best comedian. At least according to cbs posters. Time for a new round to start.

Now, I am sure I will get some complaints about leaving off a certain movie, or about the matchups, or even the seeding. I try to be as fair as possible when creating these lists. I search the internet for top 100 lists of a certain topic. I try to find at least 5 different lists. I will then calculate an average position for each item on the list so I can get a more accurate seeding. I then take the first 64 in the list and assign them seeds. The top 4 are 1 seeds, 5-8 are 2 seeds etc. I then set the areas by listing 1,2,3,4,4,3,2,1 over and over until I reach the end. I will then sort the list by group, then seed, and matchup 16 against 1, 15 against 2, and so on and so forth. To prove my honesty, many people who know me, know I am a huge Star Wars fan. If you look at the seedings, you will see that Episode III Revenge of the Sith is a 14 seed, while the vastly inferior Episode VI Return of the Jedi garnered a 7 seed.

A few rules that I would ask everyone to follow so that I am not pulling my hair out while running this thing.
1. Vote for all of the matchups. If you don't like either, or can't decide who you like better, flip a coin. When counting votes for 32 matchups, it is easier to know I tallied everything correctly if all matchups have the same number of votes.
2. You can bold your selection, or cross out the one you don't like, but keep your response in a list form, including the areas (east, west, etc.) Again, this just makes it easier for me to count up the votes
3. Not really a rule, but feel free to make comments on the matchups if you like. It makes for interesting reading

So without further ado, here are the matchups. original matchups have been changed to remove some duplicates.

Alpha Quadrent
#1 Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back vs.#16 Altered States
#2 The Terminator vs.#15 Gattaca
#3 Back To The Future vs.#14 The War of The Worlds
#4 Brazil vs.#13 Grindhouse
#5 The Thing vs.#12 Children of Men
#6 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) vs.#11 Galaxy Quest
#7 Donnie Darko vs.#10 Soylent Green
#8 Jurassic Park vs.#9 The Abyss

Beta Quadrant
#1 Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope vs.#16 The Holy Mountain
#2 2001: A Space Odyssey vs.#15 Tron
#3 Metropolis  vs.#14 A.I. - Artificial Intelligence
#4 Close Encounters of the Third Kind vs.#13 Solaris
#5 The Incredibles  vs.#12 Ghostbusters
#6 The Prestige  vs.#11 Robocop
#7 Forbidden Planet vs.#10 Night of the Living Dead
#8 V for Vendetta  vs.#9 The Man from Earth

Gamma Quadrent
#1 The Matrix  vs.#16 Mad Max
#2 Aliens vs.#15 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
#3 Terminator 2: Judgment Day vs.#14 Star Trek: First Contact
#4 Planet of the Apes vs.#13 The Iron Giant
#5 12 Monkeys vs.#12 Serenity
#6 E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial  vs.#11 The Invisible Man
#7 A Clockwork Orange vs.#10 Contact
#8 Young Frankenstein  vs.#9 Dr. Strangelove or : How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Delta Quadrent
#1 Alien vs.#16 The Fly
#2 Blade Runner vs.#15 Starship Troopers
#3 The Day the Earth Stood Still vs.#14 Dark City
#4 Bride of Frankenstein vs.#13 The Time Machine
#5 Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi vs.#12 Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
#6 Stalker  vs.#11 Independence Day
#7 Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan vs.#10 Iron Man
#8 The Fifth Element vs.#9 Frankenstein