Super Bowl XLent...not

What a horrible Superbowl. Both teams sucked. The refs sucked. The commercials sucked. Roethlisberger had a QB rating of 22. Randle El (who btw I think the Eagles should go after) had a perfect QB rating of 158.3.

But the outcome didn't suprise me one bit. I was pulling for the Seahawks, but it was clear to me that Pittsburgh was going to win. Not because they were the better team, but the Steelers winning the championship just continues to affirm the trend that is Philadelphia sports.

Now, granted I haven't been in Philly nearly enough, BUT! during the time I have been here (since 02) i've noticed a disturbing and frustrating trend.

Last year, the Philadelphia Eagles marched to the Superbowl after 3 failed attempts after coming so close. They ultimately lost to the Patriots 24-21. So, Philly is so close and loses, the other in state team comes out the next year- barely gets to be the 6th seed in the playoffs and wins.

Take another example, the Philadelphia 76ers had Larry Brown as head coach for 6 years. He led them to the finals in 2000, and lost. The year after he leaves Philadelphia and moves on to Detriot, he wins a championship with them.

The Philadephia Phillies battled the Florida Marlins up until the last series of the season, and ended up losing the playoff birth. The Marlins go on to win the World Series. Josh Beckett is WS MVP and another day of what ifs for Philadelphia sports. A similar situation happened with the Phillies in 05 with the Astros, except the Astros ended up losing in the World Series.

I'm sure there are more examples that I can't think of. But its a pattern that must be broken someday, for the sake of this city if not for anything else. If this isn't a curse, then I don't know what is.

Those are my eight cents. I feel this is worth more than the standard two cents.

Have Fun!

MARIO LEMIEUX: MY HOCKEY GOD

When we're young, we always imagine us being some athlete that we adore and wish we could be. For me- football meant Ben Coates, baseball meant Mo Vaughn, and Basketball was yep you guessed it Michael Jordan. But I never bothered to follow Hockey during those years in Boston. I heard about Cam Neely and Adam Oates but it never caught on for me. It wasn't until I was about 11 and went to a Syracuse Crunch game when I started to love the sport. I started following hockey and before too long Mario Lemieux was the guy I started to idolize.

Before this:


My Temple University Hockey Shirts, there was this:



And before playing at Lower Merion HS, there was this:



And before getting my first jerseys for my Israeli team at Efal, I had only one:



A Mario Lemieux jersey. He got me started and if I had not started playing I would've missed out on a lot of special moments over the years. Now, i don't have the front of my Lemieux jersey posted on purpose because contrary to the belief of some of my current teammates (Adam Knepp...cough...) I am NOT a Penguins fan. As I said before, I've just idolized Lemieux from the moment I started watching hockey. An unconditional affection for him if you will.

At the prime of my career in Israel, my teammates would call me Mario because I reflected his play (no joke), and it was great. When Eitan would shout Super Mario after scoring, it really was fantastic. I never was happier.

Mario Lemieux has scored many many goals and has done amazing things on the ice. For me, the goal I will forever remember the most was in the '02 all-star game, when he took a penalty shot. Faked a wrist shot top shelf and 5-holed the goalie. It was unbelievable, and until this day I have tried to immitate it, alas to no avail.

Now, why do I have the #21 instead of #66?

The reasoning behind that was because I was delusional. I didn't want to get attached to #66, because I thought to myself, one day, when I'm finally become an NHL star, I don't want to take away the thunder of Lemieux because I too wear #66.

I came up with #21 because I just wanted to piss off my sister, Noa. I'm kidding. Even though she doesn't think so.
During my time in Israel, I loved soccer. Followed it religiously, kinda like football today. I was a huge Juventus fan. Juventus had a player named Zinedine Zidane, he was #21. Thats one part of the reason. The second part is when I started playing, I was using a Peter Forsberg hockey stick. Forsberg was also one of my favorite players (and still is). So thats the story behind #21.

Super Mario...what a player... what a career. I never got the chance to see him play in person...

Be sure to check out ESPN's coverage at http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/feature/featureIndex?page=lemieux2006

Have fun!

Also, Music Power Rankings are going to make a return soon. So, visit back often to find out the latest from my music world.

Hey, Two posts in Two days!

Ok, so a question was posed to me by the geek quiz on the Beauty and the Geek website.

My Dream Date includes:

a) a romantic dinner
b) watching the sunset
c) talking smack over Xbox live
d) two words: Weezer Karaoke

My answer to this question is pretty clear and most of you who barely even know me should be able to figure it out. If you don't know what I would've answered, you should probably IM me at some point cause clearly we need to get to know each other better.

God is still talking to me! Today, I found out that Ozma reunited, after I thought to myself that life sucks because i'd never be able to hear them perform live. Maybe Dispatch will reunite too! That would be unequivocal proof that a God does truly exist.

Actually no, God would totally prove its existence to me if the Eagles win a superbowl sometime in the next....say....2 years. Pressure is on, God! Lets see you figure this one out. Maybe God is the best GM\coach ever.

Random Musing and Rants

I haven't updated in a while. I suppose its because i'm not creative enough to come up with things to talk about. But here is a vain attempt nevertheless.

Is God talking to me?
I've had a couple of weird occurances over the past week. Where I would talk about something with a friend. And then that something would happen. What I mean is, for example, I was talking with HCG the other day about watching the crepe truck come in and set up for a busy day of serving crepes. I figure that would never happen since i'm not on campus early enough to witness such an event. WRONG!

As I arrive for my first day of classes on Tuesday, there it is! the crepe truck! and its turning the corner in order to arrive at its parking spot! Coincidence? Maybe. But it didn't end there.

HBH and I went out for his goodbye lunch Sat. morning. I mentioned how we, as a species, are so dependent on electricity, that we should set aside one....mmmm...two, two days a year where we would shut off all the electricity grids in the world. This would show us what kind of despicable species we have become. This morning I wake up, and the power is out at the house. Now, to those of you who haven't visited my sweet apt in my basement, it is really dark here all day and all night. I couldn't see a thing. It was impossible to do anything. If you really want some entertainment, try brushing your teeth in the dark, specifically putting toothpaste on the brush. Thats a lot of fun and will probably supply you with some good laughs.

So the point is, these things have been happening right after i mention them to somebody. Its weird, maybe God is trying to tell me something. Maybe i'm just going insane.

The End is definitely positively excellent
Today, I made an astonishing discovery. The ends of those pepperidge farm breads are actually really good. Well then again, they had better be since it takes so much god damn time to open them. Like the great Mitch Hedberg says, you open it and its still not open.

Also, make sure to visit http://itrainuk.blogspot.com for ICS latest escapades in England.

Make sure to check back often for a big entry about my week in Cancun.

Have Fun!

-Holtzmania

UPDATE: Its pretty scary when you check ESPN.com around 11:50 right before you go to bed. Then, after taking a shower you check it one more time at around 12:10 and the site is completely redone. Its so obnoxious. They want to give me a heart attack. I need GRADUAL change. They can't just drop that on me like that. Its so obnoxious. Good Night.

UPDATE #2: And shame on ESPN for having NFL MLB NBA NHL and then NASCAR. What have we come to? Unbelievable.

I Feel Like Someone is Watching Me

During my senior year of high school at Lower Merion, many people signed up to participate in a nation state website, and run a country. It was actually quite stupid for a number of reasons: They repeated issues, there was not much activity etc... One issue that came up many times was a Big Brother proposal to install surveillance equipment to watch your citizens. That was for a fictitious country. Apparently, it is now happening for real and in the United States of America. This eavesdropping story is another huge blow for the current administration. Bush has so far not commented on the story, however it is no suprise that he used 9/11 again as a lame excuse for his policy decisions. But it doesn't stop there. And this one may affect me and my fellow college students more personally.

Shady Facebook

It is no doubt that The Facebook is now the most popular websites for college students. We check it 10 times a day at least, stalk people you would like to know, and start poking wars with other friends. Over the past year Facebook has grown to over 2500 schools in the U.S. and even now abroad. According to this article, it is no coincidence that the facebook community has grown so large. The article claims that Pentagon and CIA associated venture capitalist firms have been pouring large amounts of money in to the website. Clearly, if this is the case then the government is also using the Facebook to spy on us college students.

Of course, this could be one of those insane conspiracy theories that people seem to come up with for free press, however being the investigative journalist that I am, I decided to take a look at the the Facebook's privacy policy.

In the Facebook.com's help page one of the FAQs is about privacy:

I don't want Facebook to distribute my user information.

Facebook respects your privacy. We don't distribute your user information to third parties. If you would like to read more about our Privacy Policy.

Fair enough, they claim they don't distribute user information to third parties which would include government organizations such as the CIA.

However, When going to the Privacy Policy page, the following is said:

We may share your information with third parties, including responsible companies with which we have a relationship. For example:

• We may provide information to service providers to help us bring you the services we offer. Specifically, we may use third parties to facilitate our business, such as to send email solicitations. In connection with these offerings and business operations, our service providers may have access to your personal information for use in connection with these business activities.
• We may be required to disclose customer information pursuant to lawful requests, such as subpoenas or court orders, or in compliance with applicable laws. Additionally, we may share account or other information when we believe it is necessary to comply with law or to protect our interests or property. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, agents or government agencies.
• If the ownership of all or substantially all of the Facebook business were to change, your user information would likely be transferred to the new owner.

I fully understand that it is the company's prerogative to change their privacy policy at any time for whatever reason. However, it sure is sketchy how their policy suddenly changes from one page to another and how their policy is worded so that it seems that they go out of their way to let outside parties in and find personal info.

Take this seriously or take this with a grain of salt, but always assume the stuff you put on your facebook profile, myspace account or whatever other online communities you participate in is open to the public. Maybe we should all just open profiles with terrorists names and sign each others walls with planned terrorist meetings and other types of "suspicious activities" so some circuits will blow down at CIA. That would be fun.

Of course it wouldn't be cool if they happened to find this blog. I'd probably be in trouble....

Oh well.

Always remember, Have Fun!

People like to Complain

Yea so, people have been complaining I haven't been updating at all...

So heres a really quick update: (because I must get back to having fun...i mean studying for finals.)

We got really neat hockey jerseys. I am #21 per usual.



Also, as a follow up to my jersey post a couple of weeks ago. I was reading ESPN.com last week, and found this article: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=hruby/051205

In it, Partrick Hruby unleashes a completely bitter tirade on wearing jerseys, but thats besides the point. My good friend Brad, in his comment on my jersey list, states the following:

You guys missed the best jersey ever...Buffalo - O.J. SimpsonThe rest of the picks were good, although a Ryan Leaf Chargers jersey would also be pretty sweet...

Mr. Hruby, as if to spite Brad because of a lost game of Madden or Halo, puts both of the jerseys that Brad suggested into his "Can't be worn at Anytime" category. To this Brad responded: "Patrick Hruby is a douche." I think we should all buy Leaf and Simpson jerseys and send them to Patrick.

Finally, I'm sure we've all encountered the bedtime story Goodnight, Moon at some point during our great childhoods, and maybe some of you still have your roomate read it to you before bed after a night of crazy parties. Whichever the case, I want to refer you to this article in the NY Times: Goodbye, Moon .

I've wasted enough time not studying, but keeping the critics happy is far more important.

Till next time, Have Fun! (and goodluck to all on their various tests and papers)

One Day, I'll be A Star!

Here is a song that Katy and I wrote in about half an hour. It needs a lot of work!

Your Associate was run over by an Iron Chariot and the Rotating Blades of Death lifted your associate and with that him being lifted my right ventricle was excised from my soul

[Piano + Guitar Riff]
[When over, Low Trumpet]

The white coats with circled gagdets electrocuted his weary cranium
They said he had a probability of 3 out of 5 or 60% chance of breaking through his emergency situation

[Banjo Riff]
[Harmonica Plays one not]

I waited in the room of excruciating pain
That was exactly what i felt as well
But as life goes on so did the pain

[Cue Harp]

I covered my face
I didn't want to believe
Because they have always said
It will never happen to me

[Piano + Guitar Riff]

Hours pass, Days Pass, Weeks pass, years pass
but in this case- it was only a few minutes
I get up but the only thing that was really getting up was my body

[Classical Dramatic Music Plays]

Sliding doors open and close like the blinking of my eyes
but then I realize....

.....to be continued

I expect ALOT of comments on this one!

Have Fun!