cool story: today, i received my first 'teacher's gift' as a broadcaster. a portland, maine, set of parents of a player brought me a portland sea dogs t-shirt. it probably won't get much use, but it was very nice. it was left for me at the ticket window - i haven't had the chance to stop by and thank them yet, but i'm looking forward to it.

okay, so i'm a weak-willed person, and the ps2's really got me. it's pathetic.

i'm without my memory card that i sent out to the guy who stocks the memory cards, so i've been 'practicing' since i returned from the road on monday. practicing until about 2 or 3 [later?] on monday, and the same until, well, now [that is, 2:15] tonight. pathetic.

what's happened:
i couldn't do a thing offensively in my first attempts last night. scoreless halves with the cats against both penn state [fantastic defense] and northern illinois [unacceptable!]. then i simulated a season, did some in-season recruiting, and guided the cats to a 2005 motor city bowl victory, then a top ten recruiting class.

that was last night.

tonight, i took on ohio university, at their place. it was a sloppy, sloppy game, i did some successful running, and i intercepted something like four or five or six passes. i managed to only beat them by two scores.

unsatisfied with my performance but satisfied that i was good enough to beat ohio, i played an exhibition with the cats against a better team. in evanston. the opponent became west virginia. i couldn't run on the mountaineers, but i had great, great success rolling out with basanez and making things happen on sprintouts and deep passes and things like that. after a crucial late game stop, i called a gutsy play-action deep ball, and hit shawn herbert deep to clinch a victory. 24-13 or something like that.

then, satisfied but confused by my inability to run, i took on the huskers. in lincoln. i guess they're not that good, really. but anyway, it was in lincoln. and i ran and ran and ran on them. and shut down their offense. [their only touchdown came on a 78 yard run or something...they were silent the rest of the way.] i earned a 13-10 victory, getting jumpy and going offsides on a potential game-tying chip shot field goal with 52 seconds left, then forcing a fumble two plays later. it was badass.

i'm a loser.

- - - - - -

negatives about the ps2:

i'm losing sleep.
i've stopped reading.
i'm losing sleep.
i'll probably forget to pay rent.
i was supposed to get directions to the ymca that i'm bringing a player to tomorrow, but i've instead played video games. i'll get the directions in the morning.
i'm one full newsweek behind, and i don't know what to do. i mean, i would like to read about karl rove and find out about that story on 'the leak.' [related, right?]
i haven't seen conan since i've had it.
i haven't seen letterman since i've had it.

positives:
i'm more likely to drink water when playing video games.
i've been listening/getting to know a lot of tunes that i haven't fully absorbed. [i like the sufjan album a lot, and find myself partially singing along.]
it's making me really, really excited for the college football season. i really do have an unhealthy love for the cats [real] and, now, the cats [virtual]. but more for the cats, real.

like me, anybody who responds to this post is a loser. i'm serious. but comments are always welcome.