Brett Farrey

My wife and I watch Biggest Loser, and I just can’t get passed the fact that Jillian Michaels is such a mean bitch. It’s one thing to push these people hard, but it’s another to be just flat out cruel.

Also, why does she keep trying to get these to “open up” and “forget their fears”. It’s utterly ridiculous. The ONLY reason she’s doing it because the producers told her to do it, not because she supposedly cares about them.

I think she crossed a line tonight when she asked Abby about her deceased family while she’s working out. Are you kidding me? Totally classless. The next scene she asks Shay about her mom being a drug addict. And of course, she does it while Shay is struggling to working out. She played with their emotions to for the sake of ratings. Good job Jillian, you officially suck.

http://www.jillianmichaels.com/

http://www.nbc.com/the-biggest-loser/

My wife and I are season ticket holders, and I’ve been wanting to blog about the team, but I wanted get a better feel for the team.

There is a lot of new players this year, but I was surprised to see them missing Dykstra and Kingsporn. Nikki Klingsporn, for whatever reason, is now playing for Marquette. I don’t buy she transferred to a new school simply because she likes Marquette’s new coach. My guess is she transferred because she more or less lost her job to last year’s freshman, Janelle Gabrielson.

They have some really good young talent, and a lot of them are playing now. Kirby Toon and Alexis Mitchell have been getting a lot of starts, but they’re both very green. Kirby looks like she’s going to be a really good hitter, but she’s a little short and looks a little lost on the court. Alexis looks like more of a blocker, but at 6’1″, she’s also a little short.

One of the problems I see with this team is they don’t have any dominating blockers. Ohlander is the only one that has some significant height at 6’6″. She’s an excellent blocker and a decent enough hitter.

Brittney Dolgner has been the face of this team the last few years, and I guess I don’t quite understand why. There’s no doubt, she is an incredible hitter, but she is a major liability in the back row, and I don’t understand why they don’t rotate her out. Teams are serving right at her, and for the most part, it’s working. It’s not that she can’t receive, it’s that she can’t move her feet. It’s like she’s standing in mud.

My favorite player is easily Allison Wack. She’s arguably the best hitter on the the team, and most importantly, she rarely makes mistakes. She should be the face of this team. My only complaint is that Allison has an absolute killer jump serve, which she no longer does. Actually, nobody on the team jump serves anymore, which I’m guessing is a coaching decision.

Janelle Gabrielson is another one of my favorite players. She’s just a great all-around player. She’s a really good setter, a solid blocker, tough at the net, and is probably one of the better hitters on the team. If it were up to me, they’d be running more of a 6-2 so they could take advantage of Janelle’s hitting ability, and Jessa Benson’s setting ability. Jessa, at 6’2″, would also bring some height to the lineup. Waite played her a lot Friday night against Illinois, and only good things happened when she was in the lineup.

One player I like is Kelsey Maloney. She held a clipboard last season, so it’s been exciting to see her slowly getting into the lineup this year. She brings some height to the front row, and so far, she seems pretty mistake-free. I want to see more from this girl!

One last player I want to mention is Kelli Kasha. Kim Kuzma has been a great back-row defender, but she’s a senior, so who’s going to take over for her? As of right, my best guess would be Kelli Kasha. She had an incredible save in the back row last night against Northwestern.

Go Badgers!

UW Badgers Volleyball on Facebook

The Packers beat the Lions 26-0, but they didn’t look sharp AT ALL! In fact, I thought they looked pretty awful.

Thumbs Up

Clay Matthews is looking really good. It appears he was worth trading up to get.

Aaron Kampman finally was allowed to put his hand in the dirt and go after the QB. If they’re going to stay with the 3-4 they need to trade him.

Fox studio analyst Howie Long said Kampman would be better off on another team.

Congratulations Donald Driver for surpassing Sterling Sharpe’s receptions mark. If only the Packers could have a few more Donald Drivers on the team.

Thumbs Down

The Lions were down to about five defensive lineman and they still ended up sacking Rodgers five times. At this rate, Rodgers will not last. The Allen Barbre experiment is over. TT will have a lot of work to do in the offseason.

Red zone offense was pathetic. This game should have been a blowout.

The penalties aren’t going away. In fact, I think they’re getting worse. I put the blame on the coaching staff for lack of discipline.

The running game is non-existent. The awful offensive line isn’t giving Ryan Grant much of a chance, he only ran for 90 yards on 24 carries. This needs to improve before the cold weather games.

Trade Deadline

The trade deadline is tomorrow, and I highly suggest the Packers trade both Aaron Kampman and AJ Hawk. I don’t think either of them are a very good fit for a 3-4 defense. Kampman’s contract is up after this season, so trade him now while he’s still worth something, or plan on putting the franchise tag after the season is over, and then trading him.

See Also:

Analysts see warts on Win

I’ve eaten at the Bayou twice now, and I absolutely love this place. They have great atmosphere, an excellent staff, and most importantly, terrific food! They easily have the best raw oysters I’ve had in Madison area, but they also have a nice selection of other authentic New Orleans style food. Saturday I had two different types of oysters with their homemade hot sauce, a Hurricane, and a crawfish po’boy(pictured below), which came with sweet potato fries. I also had an Abita strawberry wheat, which was excellent.

Anyway, don’t take my word for it, get out and try The Bayou…

Visit thebayoumadison.com for more information.

Come and experience New Orleans right here in Madison. Relax in our New Orleans courtyard and enjoy the great tastes of Louisiana. The Bayou offers fabulous food, service, drinks, and entertainment the Cajun way!! Check out our menu, which includes a Raw Bar, one of the only true raw bars in the city. Enjoy Fat Tuesday, every Tuesday, with drink specials and beads! Visit our calendar of events, and photos. Stop in anytime for a taste of Madison’s “Little New Orleans”!

I’m sure I’ll eat hamburger again, especially since I love a thick and juicy medium rare cheeseburger, but this is scary. I find it even more disturbing that some of this meat came from Butler, Wisconsin!

Then her diarrhea turned bloody. Her kidneys shut down. Seizures knocked her unconscious. The convulsions grew so relentless that doctors had to put her in a coma for nine weeks. When she emerged, she could no longer walk. The affliction had ravaged her nervous system and left her paralyzed.

Ms. Smith, 22, was found to have a severe form of food-borne illness caused by E. coli, which Minnesota officials traced to the hamburger that her mother had grilled for their Sunday dinner in early fall 2007.

E. Coli Path Shows Flaws in Beef Inspection – New York Times

That was easily the most stressful game I’ve ever watched. Unfortunately, it was pretty clear the better team won. I said “team”, not “quarterback”. Favre is clearly playing a high level right now, but I think the Packers made the right decision to go with Aaron Rodgers. I’m sure Favre feels like he got his revenge, but the fact remains, the Packers didn’t want him and Rodgers looks to have a very promising career.

I think the Packers definitely have some talent, but they have some MAJOR issues. First and foremost, the offensive line is pathetically awful. Daryn Colledge and Allen Barbre are embarrassing, and not good enough to start on most teams. They have some depth, but it’s very mediocre. They are being dominated by every defense they face. The Packers either need a new offensive line coach, or the players they’ve drafted just aren’t any good…or both! Either way, the organization might want to consider protecting their franchise quarterback.

The other major issue is the defense. They did a great job of stopping Adrian Peterson, but only after he got hurt on the play where Clay Matthews stripped the ball. The have great depth at linebacker, but they don’t really fit the part. If you look at the Steelers’ 3-4 linebackers, they are much bigger, and MUCH more aggressive. The Packers have a bunch of talented linebackers, but they’re all undersized, and probably better suited as 4-3 linebackers. I love Aaron Kampman as a defensive end, but he looks completely out of place as a linebacker. I’m pretty sure Kampman will jump ship once his contract is up, and will probably tell the Packers to “stick it” for making him playing LB during a contract year. The secondary got burned, play after play after play. Tramon Williams no longer looks like a future replacement for Woodson or Harris.

They have so many holes on this team, I’m starting to wonder if Ted Thompson is now on the hot seat. How many years should the Packers be the youngest team in the NFL? I’d think one or two, but no more than that. At some point, the Packers need to invest some money into the offensive line, and rethink the players they have on defense. They showed Ted Thompson on TV last, and he looked very scared, and that was before the game started.

Let’s hope Clifton is back sooner than later, and that the rest of the team gets better….real quick! It’s all we can hope for this season.

Just a few random thoughts….

I can already forsee a few coaching changes after this season. Wade Phillips, Norv Turner, and Jim Zorn are definitely on the hot seat. Other possibilities might include Tom “I break jaws” Cable and Dick Jauron. I’d imagine Packers offensive line coach James Campen is probably on the hot seat as well.

NFL has been turning soft for quite some time, and the Ravens/Patriots game proved it. I understand trying to protect players from injuries, but football is a contact sport, and people will get hurt. The Ravens had two awful penalties called on them. The NFL should bow their heads in shame.

I don’t think there’s any question, the Lions are getting better. The Rams, Chiefs, Buccaneers, and Raiders are just flat out embarrassing. Jamarcus Russell is a bust. It’s time to sit his butt on the bench. I would just cut Chiefs RB Larry Johnson now; he’ll have more fun watching the games at home.

The Cowboys are pretenders. I think Tony Romo is a talented QB, but he’s not an elite QB. The Cowboy receivers are average at best, and that includes Roy Williams. Cowboys Release Jerry Jones! Good news! The Cowboys at least have a great stadium to show off their mediocre football team.

Speaking of the Cowboys, Brandon Marshall completely embarrasses the Cowboys’ secondary….

I ordered a piece of jewelry from Silverspeck.com and it was a total piece of crap. I emailed sales@silverspeck.com and custserv@silverspeck.com about four times, and they never returned my emails. The have a contact us page, so you’d think that would be a way to get a hold of someone, I guess not.

Anyway, I’m blogging about this as a warning to others that the jewelry you order may or may not be of very good quality. In fact, it may end of being a piece of junk. The customer service is non-existent, so don’t plan on ever getting a hole of anyone from that company.

I used to think many moons ago that Rolling Stone was a read-worthy magazine that had a true and honest love for music. Now, they’re nothing more than a rag that wouldn’t know good music if it slapped them in the face. For example, the new Muse review. I listened to this album, and it was one of the better albums I’ve heard in quite some time, and they get snubbed by RS for three stars? Really? I’ve heard nothing but positive reviews from anyone that has listened to this album, and I find it amusing that their average user rating for this album is 4.5 stars.

So, I thought I’d see how Muse held up against their other recent reviews, and it’s shocking some of the artists who have albums with more than three start. Mariah Carey? Yoko Ono? Whitney Houston? Madonna? Britney Spears??? Are you kidding me? I’m sorry, but these artists have very little to no talent in comparison to Muse. RS should bow their heads in shame.

A friend of mine:

I think R.S. may have been relevant like back in the 70′s and 80′s before electronic media, but I don’t know a single person who gives two shits about what they think or say. It’s just become a pseudo-politico piece of shit nowadays anyhow.

Rolling Stone Sucks
Brittle Bones at Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone Magazine is Sucking Ass & Taking Names
40 Albums That Rolling Stone Got Wrong
Global Superstars Muse Explode in America