Remember last week? Spider punching himself in the nads? This time, he lays the beatdown on someone else!


Sure, it was an old homeless woman. But he did a really good job! Bahlactus should be pleased.

“It’s all over, and I’m standing pretty in the dust that was a city. I could find a souvenir just to prove the world was here.”

Tonight begins a new path for me. The University of Cincinnati vs. Southeast Missouri State match-up doesn’t just kick off the football season, it starts my life as a season ticket holder. I’ve never been one before, never even so much as bought a ticket plan. If I was at a sporting event, it was either because of an individual game ticket or taking advantage of media passes. So now I’m officially a fan. To top it off, I believe I got a front row seat (thanks to David) behind one of the end zones. That means I have to represent! For the televised games, I’m sure to get some facetime. So, how do I go about living up to this level of responsibility. I’m going to have to upgrade my wardrobe with more UC apparel and David and I area already talking about making signs. But what else should we do? Any suggestions?

“You wanna blend in a new city; you’d better be up on local sports.”

We’re still a little over a week from the NFL kickoff but I do have to get these guesses out there now because I will be out of town next week. As a result, I will not be putting the time and thought into it as was seen in the the Goat’s recent prediction post. He actually predicted the game-by-game results with an Excel spreadsheet. I’m mostly throwing out random hunches.

NFC North
Chicago Bears
These guys are not gonna be as good as last year, but still good enough to win this division of teams that can only hope for 8-8.
NFC South
New Orleans Saints
They should probably come back to Earth, but this is a really weak division.
NFC East
Philadelphia Eagles
Speaking of weak divisions, I feel like most of the teams here are overrated. Especially the Giants. If they get more than half a season with a healthy McNabb, that should be enough for Philadelphia to clinch this division.
NFC West
Seattle Seahawks
They’ve been consistent winners over this decade. I don’t see that changing this year.
NFC Wild Cards
Dallas Cowboys
San Francisco 49ers
Honestly, I’m not really impressed with most of the NFC. So, I just took a half-assed stab since the wild card winners here wouldn’t have a winning record in the AFC.
NFC Championship Game
Saints over Seahawks
Honestly, no one’s really wowing me over here. I don’t feel like anyone in the conference is going to dominate the regular season. I feel like these two will do well enough to dictate the road to the Super Bowl.
AFC North
Cincinnati Bengals
Yeah, the defense has been pretty crappy at times. (i.e. when they’re on the field) But there’s a very good chance that teams could be relying on Kyle Boller or a brain-damaged Ben Roethlisberger to win the division and I’ll take the home team in that scenario.
AFC South
Indianapolis Colts
Um… duh.
AFC East
New England Patriots
I made the mistake of choosing against them last year. I’ll never make that mistake again.
AFC West
San Diego Chargers
They won’t win 14 games again, but they’re still good enough to slap around a lot of teams on their schedule.
Wild Cards
Denver Broncos
Baltimore Ravens
The Broncos seem really good at making the playoffs, but not much else. The Ravens should be able to get enough games out of Air McNair to get to the post-season before he inevitably goes down hurt and having to turn to the Bad Draft Choice Who Walks Like A Man.
AFC Chamionships
Patriots over Chargers
Add the Colts, and you have the three best teams in the league. I just think the Super Bowl hangover will keep them from getting this far.
Super Bowl
Patriots over Saints!
On paper, the answer is easily Patriots over (fill in the blank.) We’ll see if that holds up in the real world.
Again, these picks have been thrown together with practically no research, so don’t be the house on them.

An easy Sock Point to those who want to pick apart my predictions, post their own, or maybe even agree with them!

A few weeks ago, I openly wondered if the San Diego Comic Con had jumped the shark. Not that I’ve ever been there, mind you. But this was an event I followed from afar. I’d follow the breaking headlines announced by the comic industry’s biggest newsmakers and check out the pictures of attractive ladies dressed in various skimpy outfits. We didn’t see much of either come from the SDCC this year. I openly wondered if the actual comic book content was preserved for some of the next-tier Wizard World Conventions. Less than a week later, I was proved right.

Wizard World Chicago seemed to bring the news that didn’t come from San Diego. It looked like there was better representation of the ladies from the Flickr photos I saw. And that’s not all. Comic Book Resources even produced a fine article about “Girls In Costumes.” It does answer some of those burning questions I had about women who dared to not only walk into the lion’s den, but dress provocatively around those raging beasts.

“We’ve got a blind date with Destiny - and it looks like she’s ordered the lobster.”

The lovely Lisa and I had the chance to check out a Cincinnati Rollergirls Derby Bout again. During breaks in the doubleheader, one of the announcers went around with a microphone asking fans trivia questions for the chance to win fabulous prizes. Lisa volunteered, despite some of the difficult technical questions that were flying. But she lucked out. The answer to the trivia question was the title of a previous post from the last time we went to see them skate. That’s right, this blog helped someone at some point out in the real world. Yeah, I didn’t think it would ever happen either, but there you go.

As nice as it was for Lisa to answer correctly in front of a thousand of her closest friends, she did fail to realize the person who sang the national anthem and the answer to the trivia question was, in fact, the person asking her said question.

The first (other than Lisa, obviously) to tell me who it was gets today’s Sock Point.

As you can tell, this was supposed to be updated last month. This has been a long time coming. It’s been over two months since we last checked in with the big race. And what’s changed? Not much at the top as the first four are the same. Drewes moved past Nagel to crack the Top 5. We do see some first-timers and the return of a comrade that disappeared from this site and this area quite a while ago. Adam, Natalie, Gretchen and Jeff… welcome to the 2007 Sock Point Standings. Let’s take a look at them.

Quote Standings

Eric 79
The Goat 65
MOe 51
Maderer 47
Drewes 41
Nagel 34
Kerry 23
Amy 21
Amy Louise 16
Rinnert 14
Herb 13
Cat 13
Lisa 13
Zandra 12
Tom The Dog 8
Z-man 8
Greg Burgas 6
Lefty Brown 5
Kyle 4
Stephanie 4
Beanhead 4
Molly 3
Seth 2
Mona 1
Plok 1
Logan 1
KT 1
Teri 1
Amanda 1
KB 1
Natalie 1
Adam 1
Gretchen 1
Jeff 1

And here’s the standard explanation of the contest for those who just got here and have no idea what is going on: At the end of every blog entry, I leave you with a quote. Be the first one to make a comment stating where the quote from and you get a point. Anyone can guess. Even if new entries are put up, all previous unclaimed quotes from 2007 are still fair game. Whoever has the most points at the end of the year is the winner.

I’m gonna put a link on your name, unless you tell me otherwise. For those of you who are not linked right now, I don’t know where to send people. Let me know if there’s a link location to point to. Otherwise, I might come up with a link for ya.

“I create feelings in others that they themselves don’t understand.”

Here’s another Ryan Parker instant classic. Sure, he sings about my favorite team so I may be a little biased. But a lot of it can translate to tailgating for whomever you are a fan of, as well. Judge for yourself.

You can send me a YouTube link and if I like it (or need it) enough to put it up here, Sock Point to you.

Feel free to send your suggestions to my gmail account. It’s woodmania. I’d type it out but I don’t need more junk mail. Just your YouTube suggestions.

In some fights, there are no winners.

Just ask Spider Jerusalem. But he fights on for the sake of Bahlactus!

“My mind has always been my Achilles’ heel!”

God Bless The Internet. Instead of coming up with original content, I can just point out this neat site: An Atari Label Maker! Yep, you can create your own game from the golden age of the early 1980s. Just make it better than this one.
Obviously, I ripped this off from other people. Dave did this. Mike made a Progressive Ruin one. And he used it to promote his website. Good idea. I’m sure more did but I can’t find them right now. (Let me know in the comment section if you did it, too!) Neat little site. This is also a nice touch.

Just like the top of those old timey games! I’m sure I’ll use this device more to its fullest in the future.

“There goes 287 American dollars we’ll never see again.”

Remember when I was griping about summer? I didn’t mean for it to sound as much crabby as it did, just that the season has definitely lost a few points with me the older I get. At least I’m not someone wants to get rid of August altogether. As much as I knocked summer, August is alright for me. After all, football’s here. Sure, it’s only preseason. But it’s football!

And while it’s still hot most of the time, you’re more likely to see temperatures dip overnight so I can give my air conditioning the occassional break.

I will agree with the article that it seems real long with no day off. But Labor Day’s around the corner and if it’s that rough on you, I guess that’s what vacation days are for.

Overall, I think August has a bum rap. Or maybe I should wait to say that until after Friday when we’re supposed to go over 100 degrees. Yikes.

“Do they give a Nobel Prize for throwing your own feces?”