Media Notes and Things that Scare Me.

Sorry about the delay. Instead of typing out a few paragraphs of hate during my lunch break, the good folks at my company have decided to spend hour upon hour turning our workspace into a winter wonderland of holiday decoration. Because I'm so chalked full of the Christmas spirit, I of course have to go along with everybody else. Sucks for me. Sucks for all of you.

This is a part of the year that really sucks for lots of us. College football is winding down in a whirlwind of shitty bowls with overhyped sponsors. College Basketball is just starting to heat up, yet prior to conference play, giants take on cupcakes and NAIA schools. Hating all things Husker is a full-time job, but at the end of a long season, during a prolonged break prior to the end, it becomes redundant, as I'm sure many of you have noticed.

Stick with me during this time. Updates get a bit more sporadic. Topics become a bit more non-Husker related. Those of you who have visited this site, know what I mean. Anyhow, let's get to work.

* My good friend Husker Mike found out the other day what a cut-throat and nasty business sports journalism is. All it takes is one off-hand opinion, and rebuttals can fly back faster than anything. With that being said, I often get asked what my opinions are of local sports journalists and the jobs that they do. Since a majority of them soak themselves in the red goo that is Husker myopia, I thought I would share my thoughts.

Let's start with radio. In Omaha, we're actually very lucky to have two all-sports radio stations to go along with the myriad of talk radio shows that dominate the airwaves. both 1490 and 1620 do an admirable job, with the exception of 1620, which carries the Cubs for some unknown reason. (Don't get me started on them.) I actually listen to both afternoon shows with semi-regularity, with the exception of 1620 when they start talking about (surprise) the Cubs or Husker recruiting with one of Jeremy Crabtree's audio trips to the Mount of Olives. Same can be said of Matt Perrault's banter about Creighton, which as of 7 years ago, nobody gave a rats ass about. However, they carry CU games. They have abundant advertisers who are CU backers. I get it. I know how it works.

Perrault, Severe and Kuglar all have upsides from a radio perspective. However, Kuglar's "awww shucks" howdy doody persona, Severe faux tough guy attitude and Perrault's ability to go into Jim Rome mode from time to time tend to hold them back. All three of them are guilty of feeding into the great Husker hype machine, but again..if that's your audience...do what you gotta do I guess. I don't even really see the difference between the two shows, other than the fact that 1620 seems to suck off Husker fan way more often, while 1490 seems to go the other direction and turn negative, just before they as well drop to the knees of Joe Husker. Both shows are listenable, yet both shows can be truly horrible. (Personally, I think they should give me a spot with Perrault, but that's besides the point.)

Travis Justice? I've met Travis Justice. I've worked with Travis Justice and he was a prick to me. I'm not about to say he sucks too, because he's actually pretty good at what he does. But his arrogance at times gets him in trouble with the Husker faithful. Meh..I'm working during his show anyway...who cares.

Newspaper? It all starts and ends with Tom Shatel. As I've stated many times, Mr. Shatel has lead the charge in blowing every available appendage of the Husker nation, it's completely ridiculous. You can even pinpoint when it happened. The backlash toward his actually taking a stand in going against the firing of Frank Solich, must have been pretty severe, because ever since the following day, he has done absolutely nothing but chugged Red Pixie Sticks day after day. Every single Husker game is a classic. Every recruit a future Hall-of-Famer. Every single situation that comes up is the possible end of the world.

Horrible horrible horrible. What could be worse? Local sportscasters of course. Merlin, Dave, Matt and the bunch make Tom Shatel look like Woody Paige. Don't get me started on him...I'll never stop.

* Would somebody please tell Michigan to shut the hell up? I'll be the first to admit that Florida has looked less than impressive in a LOT of their wins during the season. And yes, the BCS sucks and yes, the system is flawed and yes, it's nothing but a beauty contest. I'm not buying into the whole, "Michigan got their shot" adage, nor am I buying into the notion that you can't a rematch or whatever. Michigan doesn't deserve a shot because Florida played and beat better teams. Period.

The Big 10 is a joke from the middle down, and feasting on Indiana, Illinois, Purdue, Iowa and Michigan State does not equal (to me) playing in the SEC. All Michigan can do is beat a USC team playing (pretty much) at home, and stop their bitching. Hell, do what Penn State did in 1994...make up your own t-shirts and go from there. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that beating 10 bowl teams is more impressive than beating 6 bowl teams. And Notre Dame shouldn't even count, considering how incredibly overrated and shitty they really are.

* Funny to see Mike Rozier put Nebraska football in it's place. I don't necessarily agree with what he said, but it's funny to see people freak out about it.

* My kids were watching that clamation "Santa Claus is coming to town". Now I know why I'm so evil and bitter. Have you gone back and seen that show? Did you see how terrifying that snow monster was? Did you notice that the guy who ran the laws in the town was an actual Nazi? Did anybody ever check these Christmas shows back in the day to make sure they didn't scar kids for life?

* Speaking of kids, obviously a lot of you think of me as a smartass, hate-spewing bastard who does nothing but spin my own personal agenda against god's favorite university and it's fans. (My personal favorite was BHF comparing me to Bin Laden back in July). Anyhow, I found this on Tigerboard this morning, and it moved me in a way that I had to share it. Perhaps you've heard of the story of Dick Hoyt and his son, who was born with CP due to lack of oxygen at birth.

I have many single and married friends/couples who always ask me how we can keep up our schedule to support our kids. They ask about getting up in the middle of the night for feedings. They ask about why we could possibly take our kids to a restaurant when it always ends up being a messy, squealing food-fight in the making. I can't make these people understand what it's like to be a father. I can only warn them that there is no way to prepare for it.

People often like to scare soon-to-be parents with horror stories about cleaning up baby vomit, or getting up 50 times a night. But I can assure you, you must only live that life to know what it's all about. This man obviously knows what I'm talking about.

I'm not a big fan of sugary-sweet feel-good stories, but this was too amazing of a story to pass up. Sorry for shifting away from raw hate for part of one post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=040xxFO86NY (part 1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtxxmSZxfXs (part 2)