Friday Five 10-28-2005
Part Deux
The Question Strikes Back
Next Generation
(again)

Another Friday Five because last week was popular. Post them to your site. Post them in the comments. Just show me some love.

1. What is the greatest video game you have ever played, and why? If you aren’t a video gamer, give me some other type of game and keep it clean.

The greatest game that I have ever spent (way too much) time playing would have to be Diablo 2. That game has the perfect combination of action and dorky adventure/quest type elements. Combine that with massive online worlds of people playing at the same time, and you have a game that I might have played for over 6 months including expansion packs and online games.

2. If you could force Google, Microsoft or any other software company to build a custom application to fit a specific need, what would you have them do?

My choice would be tabbed email consolidation. I have too many email addresses. I have an old one at FilteringCraig.com (that some of you still use) but is almost all advertisements, junk mail and spam. I have what I consider to be my good email address which I change sometimes to keep the baddies away. I have a GMail account because I can. I have one at TheCompanyLineRocks.com so that I can receive band emails at a separate address. If I could have an actively responding web page like the Google maps that I could tab between my multiple email addresses on a web page and just keep them all in check, deleting, organizing etc, that would be awesome.

3. What is the greatest sporting event you have ever been to and why?

This is a tough choice because the 1995 ALCS when my brother and I were in right field at Jacob’s field heckling Jay Buhner until we went hoarse is way up there. That being said, the greatest sporting event that I have ever been to was the Ohio State vs. Michigan game from the National Championship year. I had only been to one other OSU game in my life against Indiana, and it just didn’t compare.

We were in a loge provided by Grange Insurance. I was high-fiving the CEO of the company all game long. Ohio State won the game. There were riot police and pepper spray on the field after the game and yet the fans still were able to pull the goal posts down. We walked a mile from our car and it didn’t matter. It was the most fun and excitement that I have ever had at a sporting event.

4. Please send a shout-out to the most menacing bully in your lifetime. Change the names to protect the not-so-innocent so as to avoid prosecution.

The worst bully in my lifetime was a pretty troubled kid all the way around, named Josh Gressed (I changed the last name.) I felt bad for him sometimes, but he was a total deek. He picked on me starting at a very young age and then in High School did his best to make my life hell. In fact he was a contributing factor, albeit a small one, as to why I decided to apply to a private school after my freshman year. (I ended up not going, by the way.)

I remember one time when he was about to rough me up big time during that freshman year and I used my connections to my advantage. Josh had been a total jerk all throughout lunch time one day and was throwing food at everyone at our entire table, and we were just lowly freshman and none of us all that big. (Deezo must not have been in my lunch freshman year.) Finally, my temper went crazy and I didn’t care if I got my ass kicked, so I stood up told him to “stop being an asshole.” I said it just loud enough that I possibly could have gotten a suspension point from one of the teachers.

It was a gamble. I could afford to get a suspension point for swearing and having a teacher hear me would have saved the situation from escalating to the point where he kicked my ass. Unfortunately for me, no teacher heard. So, Josh looked shocked and slightly embarrassed for 30 seconds and I sat down. Then he started giving me that menacing look like, “watch yourself as you walk back from lunch.”

So, lunch ends and I am walking back to my classroom with some friends and all of a sudden I feel a huge pain in the back of my neck. Josh is about 4 inches taller than I am and he has a vice-like grip on the back of my neck with his huge ham hands. I figure I am just about screwed, but I can’t possibly beg for mercy or anything like that, so I throw out another lifeline. This is how I used my connections.

I was a very good soccer player back in the day. As a freshman, I was able to make the varsity team, so I knew lots and lots of seniors, most of which were pretty powerful socially, if not physically. It just so happened that a senior friend who happened to be on the team and who also happened to be 6 foot 2 and over 200 pounds was walking behind me that day. Josh was a sophomore, so even the bully had to cower in some scenarios.

Back to the story. Josh had his hand on the back of my neck squeezing and figuring out what he was going to do next. With every bit of my strength, I exploded out of the hold, pushed him in the chest (he only went back about a couple feet) and I faced him and yelled “What the fuck!!?!?!” Again, I was hoping maybe a teacher would hear me well enough to pull me aside to give me a suspension point or something, but at the same time that was better than the guaranteed ass-kicking I was going to receive.

Luckily, no teacher heard me, but my friend from the soccer team did and walked right up to Josh, put an oppressive arm around him and said, “Hey, do you have a problem?” And that was it.

I stood up to the bully (probably stupidly), and with a little help from my friends, everything worked out. That’s not to say he didn’t pick on me other days, but I never did get my butt kicked by the bully.

5. What is your NFL lock of the week? Meaning, which game do you think you can guarantee a winner? Give me that winner. Tell me why.

While it is tempting to pick Arizona at Dallas, I am going to have to take the hated Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night with the Baltimore Ravens coming to town. The Steelers will win this game and it will also be the last game where Jamal Lewis gets to start. It will be Chester Taylor’s backfield after Monday night, for the rest of the season.

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